S01.E01: Shadow of the Past

[JTMacc99]

Episode Synopsis:

Series premier: Galadriel is disturbed by signs of an ancient evil’s return; Elrond is presented with an intriguing new venture; Nori breaks the Harfoot community’s most deeply held rule.

Reminder: 

This is for discussion of the TV show only, no book talk allowed - including saying "but it's different in the books". Any spoiler from outside the books and stories (including previews or the movies) should be in spoiler tags.

[Constantinople]

Orcism; the belief in collective, heredity bloodguilt; hitting on human women who are probably centuries younger; smashing Galadriel's origami crane.

Are we sure the Elves are the good guys?

I'm disappointed Finrod didn't understand the concept of buoyancy.

On the whole I found this episode dragged, and I found the proto-hobbits dull so far.

[peridot]

It was interesting to see the homeland where elves came from.  I didn't read the books - I only saw the trilogies,  so I'm enjoying seeing all of this play out.  Galadriel was a very determined elf - she was hunting for hundreds of years?  It was crappy of Elrond and the King to send her on her way just to shut her up and hope the evil wouldn't return.

It's odd to see that some of the elves have short hair.  I think they didn't have the strange eyes either. 

I didn't realize that the show would premiere with two episodes, so I was glad to see another one after that interesting ending.

[thuganomics85]

Time to see what all the fuss/controversy is about!

So, I know that this is its own thing and isn't a part of any of the films, but it still took a while getting use to seeing a young Galadriel and young Elrond who neither one will be growing up to look like Cate Blanchett or Hugo Weaving any time soon!  Hopefully I can move pass all of that.  Thought Morfydd Clark did a good job at least.  The actor playing Elrond was decent, but I found it amusing that he also played a young Ned Stark on Game of Thrones, so that is apparently his thing!

As usual, it was fun seeing a few other familiar faces like Simon Merrells, Charles Edwards, and Benjamin Walker pop up here as well.

A lot of separate plots going on here; the Elves, the proto-Hobbits (?), the Romeo & Juliet type thing between Hot Solider Elf and Hot Human Medicine Lady; that I'm guessing will be connected at some point.

Don't you just hate it whenever a meteor crashes into your backyard and, of course, a naked man is in the middle of it?!

Best part was definitely seeing good old New Zealand again!  Had I not visited it years ago, I would legitimately think that Middle Earth exist and the idea of New Zealand is just a massive cover-up!

A bit of a slow start, but I'm going to see how the second episode goes before I make a real determination.   

[Raachel2008]

21 minutes ago, thuganomics85 said:

the proto-Hobbits (?)

Harfoots.

Spoiler

Hobbits come from three or four lineages of Harfoots, thousands of years in the future.

[WritinMan]

Well, that was really quite dull.

Dialogue was frequently clunky. It sounded like someone trying to imitate Tolkien without fully understanding how it should be.

The scenery looked very good (obvious where the money went), but it was almost too much at times. Too elaborate.

Many of the Elves looked terrible, particularly Elrond, Celebrimbor, and Gil-galad. They look like middle-aged dudes cosplaying at ComicCon.

It was also the first episode...I'll keep on going for now.

[Camera One]

The episode had a bit of a slow start.  That prologue with Galadriel (including the ice expedition) dragged a bit.  I didn't feel like I saw enough of the brother in the flashback to truly care about his fate or feel his bond with his sister.  I didn't realize elf children bullied each other.  Was Elrond in the flashback?  Later, he said Galadriel was his friend, but I wasn't sure if we were supposed to know that.  Again, that bond should have been established.

Visually, the show was nice to look at.  Before watching, I was curious how they would connect the various characters who were far from each other, but I think they did fine with that.   Having the Elf King's order transmit to the Watcher Elves was a good link.  The Harfoots could have connected a bit more.   Maybe with the random wolf (?) in the abandoned farm, or with the travellers crossing the Harfoot village vicinity.  At least everyone seeing the rock in the sky at the end was a nice connector.  

I liked seeing the map transitions, but it was hard to understand the bigger picture since the map was so zoomed in that it was not easy to tell the relative locations of the various characters.

I don't like the implication the High Elf King made that Galadriel going after Sauron would cause its spread.  What did he base that on?  Hopefully, they're not blaming the rise of Sauron on Galadriel in this series.

Unfortunately, I can't say I connected with any of the characters enough after an hour.  Galadriel was too humorless and didn't really show enough charisma.  None of the other elves even helped with the defeat of the snow troll.  The Watcher Elf guy was so somber with an unchanging expression that it was hard to buy he was in love with the healer.  So the healer's son is a secret Morgoth worshipper?   I didn't mind the Harfoots per se.  Hopefully, the characters will grow on me with time. 

I agree with the above point that the dialogue could be more natural and effective.  I expected Galadriel's brother said something more profound than he did, for it to be revealed at the end. 

I am sort of interested by the ending and the sickness of the cow, so I will keep going.  I do think the premise they laid out has potential, though this first episode didn't quite hit it out of the park.  I guess I'll wait to watch the second episode tomorrow.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Camera One

[paulvdb]

5 minutes ago, Camera One said:

Was Elrond in the flashback?  Later, he said Galadriel was his friend, but I wasn't sure if we were supposed to know that.  Again, that bond should have been established.

I think Elrond mentioned that he wan't born yet back then. Or was that an other elf? New show with lots of characters so it will take me some time to figure out who everybody is.

6 minutes ago, Camera One said:

So the healer's son is a secret Morgoth worshipper?   

Seemed more to me like that object had some sort of dark influence on him when he touched it. But I could be wrong about that.

[Raachel2008]

53 minutes ago, WritinMan said:

Many of the Elves looked terrible, particularly Elrond, Celebrimbor, and Gil-galad. They look like middle-aged dudes cosplaying at ComicCon.

To be fair movie Elrond is exactly like that. 

[WritinMan]

25 minutes ago, Raachel2008 said:

To be fair movie Elrond is exactly like that. 

No, he isn't.

[Raachel2008]

12 minutes ago, WritinMan said:

No, he isn't.

Ok, so what exactly is the problem with  series Elrond? The short hair?  Celebrimbor - his age? And Gil-galad?

[Constantinople]

5 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

The actor playing Elrond was decent, but I found it amusing that he also played a young Ned Stark on Game of Thrones

And older Ned Stark was Boromir in the films.

[Haleth]

Posting in the book thread instead.  

Carry on.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Haleth

[WritinMan]

8 hours ago, Raachel2008 said:

Ok, so what exactly is the problem with  series Elrond? The short hair?  Celebrimbor - his age? And Gil-galad?

I already summed it up:

They look like middle-aged dudes cosplaying at ComicCon.

Elrond shouldn't look like your high school science teacher hoping to pick up "elf chicks" at the local convention.

Nothing elf-like about that trio.

Edited September 2, 2022 by WritinMan

[Rushmoras]

Well, after watching the first episode, I've got to say... alright, I guess? If they keep it up it might be a 8-9 out of 10 show. Sure, I may have remembered something drastically different from the books, but then again I've read them as a kid (teen), so long ago, so... but, yeah, pretty entertaining so far.

[Rickster]

There are visual choices made in this series that help to disconnect me from the story. Some of these cropped up in the later Jackson movies as well.

Everything is bathed in a golden glow. Every blade of grass and hair is perfect. Everything is CGI processed to within an inch of its life. Couple this with somewhat stilted acting and dialogue, mostly on the part of the elves.

When I watched Game of Thrones, It felt real to me, at least as real as a TV show with dragons could be. It viscerally sucked me into the story. With Rings of Power (based on one episode), I feel like I’m watching a slowly moving pretty painting unfold on the screen. I’m not drawn into the story at all.

I did think the actress playing Galadriel did a good job. I’ll keep watching to see if it improves.

[tennisgurl]

I guess its time to see what the big fuss is about. Honestly, I found this to be mostly style over substance so far, although I am certainly going to watch more to see where it goes. It looks lovely, New Zealand is truly the gift that keeps on giving, the soft lighting makes things seem so pastorally pleasant, and the effects are great, you can really see all of that money that Amazon threw at this show. Everything else? Its fine, mostly pretty boring. The dialogue is dull, the only character that seemed to really have life was the Harfoot girl who wants adventure in the great wide somewhere, the rest are boring. Everything is pretty but nothing else is grabbing me. Its only the first episode though, I am curious to see where it goes. 

The dialogue especially feels stilted, like its trying too hard to be flowery. Tolkien could certainly be flowery, but when people talked they still sounded like actual conversations that people might have, here they sound like they're trying to sound too flowery and also too modern, and it feels weird. The actors are fine, they're doing their best, but it sounds very awkward.

I thought it was hilarious when all of the elves heading off on their boat to Elf Valhalla and they all started to sing, Galadriel started looking around looking baffled. Like she just realized that she was in a musical and had never noticed, or like she's the kid in choir who totally forgot they had a concert and forgot to learn the songs. 

I know that the Elves have never been as perfect as they like to say they are, for one thing, they have often been rather disdainful towards other races, as seen here. However, the mean Elf kids throwing rocks at little Galadriel's boat seemed rather petty and below them, even for kids. Also, I know that the show adding black elves has been a source of controversy, but I don't care about that. What I care about is how many elves have such short hair, its really weird, it just feels so off for Tolkien elves. It removes some of their elegant mystique if half of them have the same haircuts as the guy in front of you in line at Costco. 

[DearEvette]

I haven't read any of the books except The Hobbit in the 5th grade and my only knowledge outside of the Hobbit is the Peter Jackson movies.

This episode was pretty but felt ploddy.  I found Galadriel a little intense and annoying, tbh.   I couldn't help but giggle because the Elf dialogue made me go 'So that is why Legolas talked like that all the time."

I didn't think anything about the short hair on some of the elves.  I just assumed that hair length was an indicator of age (among the men).  And Elrond was still relatively young so he hadn't reach prime hair growing age.  Or maybe a regional Elf thing.  But that could just be me just imposing other fantasy book/world norms onto this series.  It could be a win.  This series could dodge the bad wig bullet that plague so many genre/fantasy shows.

Hot, broody elf was my favorite.  So very hot. So very broody.

[Haleth]

I would think the hair thing would also be indicative of class and occupation. Long flowing locks are a nuisance if you are tromping around the country.* Maybe Elrond was too busy as the king’s assistant to deal with long hair.

* Galadriel excepted. 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Haleth

[maggiegil]

When I watched the trailer, I was like the CGI and sets look a bit cheap and terrible, I was completely wrong, it was beautiful, amazing sets and you could see why it had cost so much, I thought the CGI was great too.

This is such a nitpick but the elves looked so ordinary, they didn't have the ethereal quality that they did in the films like the only thing that distinguished them in this adaptation were the ears. The makeup and the super extreme closeups they kept doing really emphasised that they have normal skin rather than the glass like quality their skin had in the film. I think as well the makeup they used really emphasised the lines on certain actors faces.  In the film they looked otherwordly and completely barefaced but glowing.

I think I found the plot a bit dull thats why I was focusing on how much blush they had on Galadriel in certain scenes rather than being transported to middle earth

Comparison of the difference in makeup between the film and the tv adaptation

[Tachi Rocinante]

Not a Tolkien fan - I always found his world-building to be a chore to digest. (I just watched the cartoon movies and then the Jackson ones.)

So did the rest of the elves on the boat die?

Edited September 3, 2022 by Tachi Rocinante

[magdalene]

Of course the scenery was beautiful to look at. I watched it like one of those ASMR youtube videos. It did help me relax.

Compelled by the narrative however I was not.

[Jack Shaftoe]

I gotta admit that I laughed when Galadriel jumped onto the sword of that guy and then onto the troll (?). It was like a freaking video game. I love video games, don't get me wrong, and women kicking ass, but I never pictured Galadriel as Lara Croft. And of course, apart from helping out with this oddly trampoline-like sword, the other elves did nothing to help Lara... I mean Galadriel.

Then I laughed even harder at the end when I realized she was going to swim back through (if we are to trust the map) half the ocean.

Seriously, the episode was way too melodramatic and the dialogue mostly bad. It looks nice but that will probably the last episode I see.

[RedElf]

The High King is Benjamin Walker, from Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.

Considering that Elrond married Galadriel's daughter, their relationship is kind of creepy.

That elf who was saying that pairings between elves and humans always ended in tragedy isn't true.  Elrond's great grandparents, Beren and Luthien, were a Man and and an elf, and they lived together in harmony.

[sharifa70]

54 minutes ago, RedElf said:

Elrond's great grandparents, Beren and Luthien, were a Man and and an elf, and they lived together in harmony.

Their story is actually tragic.

I have to say I agree with most of the comments about the beautiful overall look. I like Galadriel and Arindor, who actually look like elves, but yeah, Gil-galad, Celebrimbor, and Elrond do totally look like three dudes in costumes. 

I’m not sure yet how I feel about Galadriel as this warrior maiden. I mean, I’m sure she had to have had some kind of past beyond dispensing gifts and wisdom, but it’s taking some adjustment. 

Also: how does Galadriel think she’s going to survive her swim?

[KarenX]

1 hour ago, sharifa70 said:

Also: how does Galadriel think she’s going to survive her swim?

I believe in her ability to swim back! But holding that weapon the whole way? Uh…

[Constantinople]

I'm not saying Gil-galad is a bad guy, but I think he just pioneered the management technique of promoting the trouble making subordinate to the foreign office.

[iMonrey]

As someone who has never watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I can safely say I'm clearly not the audience for this. Obviously it is meant for people who have at least seen those movies or read those books. I read The Hobbit when I was a kid, but I could never get into the Lord of the Rings trilogy and didn't make it past the first 100 pages of Fellowship. 

I wanted to check this out, cuz, FOMO, but I was bored out of my mind. 

[Rushmoras]

52 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

As someone who has never watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I can safely say I'm clearly not the audience for this. Obviously it is meant for people who have at least seen those movies or read those books. I read The Hobbit when I was a kid, but I could never get into the Lord of the Rings trilogy and didn't make it past the first 100 pages of Fellowship. 

I wanted to check this out, cuz, FOMO, but I was bored out of my mind. 

Spoiler

That's okey, because from Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books I only remember that there were loads of pages with songs and/or descriptions of environment. Not to mention that either (can't remember which one) Children of Hurin or Simlarilion book was a poem like Homer's Illiad and Odyssey :D So, slow pacing is a thing, I mean, LOTR movies are, what 4+ hours long (extended editions)? Mind boggling, if you ask me :D

[Camera One]

1 hour ago, iMonrey said:

As someone who has never watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy, I can safely say I'm clearly not the audience for this. Obviously it is meant for people who have at least seen those movies or read those books. 

I think that shows the pilot might not have done its job properly.  This is a prequel and the characters should be able to stand on their own without prior knowledge about their futures.  This episode presented a rather generic scenario that was relatively simple... there was a long war, a woman is avenging the death of her brother and there are mysterious signs of evil everywhere.  The screenwriters presented this "world", and should have been able to engage a viewer without relying on their nostalgia.  

I did like the Lord of the Rings, but even for me, this first episode didn't really engage me right away and I couldn't get myself to care about the characters.  I had to remind myself that is supposed to be the rich world of Tolkien to convince myself it's worthwhile to keep going.  I mean, it wasn't bad, but it also seemed like nothing special.

Edited September 3, 2022 by Camera One

[susannot]

On 9/2/2022 at 5:02 PM, tennisgurl said:

I guess its time to see what the big fuss is about. Honestly, I found this to be mostly style over substance so far, although I am certainly going to watch more to see where it goes. It looks lovely, New Zealand is truly the gift that keeps on giving, the soft lighting makes things seem so pastorally pleasant, and the effects are great, you can really see all of that money that Amazon threw at this show. Everything else? Its fine, mostly pretty boring. The dialogue is dull, the only character that seemed to really have life was the Harfoot girl who wants adventure in the great wide somewhere, the rest are boring. Everything is pretty but nothing else is grabbing me. Its only the first episode though, I am curious to see where it goes. 

The dialogue especially feels stilted, like its trying too hard to be flowery. Tolkien could certainly be flowery, but when people talked they still sounded like actual conversations that people might have, here they sound like they're trying to sound too flowery and also too modern, and it feels weird. The actors are fine, they're doing their best, but it sounds very awkward.

I thought it was hilarious when all of the elves heading off on their boat to Elf Valhalla and they all started to sing, Galadriel started looking around looking baffled. Like she just realized that she was in a musical and had never noticed, or like she's the kid in choir who totally forgot they had a concert and forgot to learn the songs. 

I know that the Elves have never been as perfect as they like to say they are, for one thing, they have often been rather disdainful towards other races, as seen here. However, the mean Elf kids throwing rocks at little Galadriel's boat seemed rather petty and below them, even for kids. Also, I know that the show adding black elves has been a source of controversy, but I don't care about that. What I care about is how many elves have such short hair, its really weird, it just feels so off for Tolkien elves. It removes some of their elegant mystique if half of them have the same haircuts as the guy in front of you in line at Costco. 

Agree with every word Tennisgurl.  My husband asked what it was like and I said it was gorgeous and you can see every penny onscreen but the dialogue is stilted.  I will keep watching.  I want to see what they do with Numenor.

[Glade]

This show is so beautiful and wholesome. I could literally taste those blackberries the harfoots were picking!  And I like the aesthetic differences, the male elves look good; hair styles would shift every few thousand years, Gil Galad is clearly ahead of those trends.  I didn't want them to stop disrobing those elve boys as they entered Valinor.   I'm so glad this doesn't feature the endless graphic violence of GOT.  The white supremacist backlash to this show is disgusting, but I think it will succeed despite them.

Edited September 4, 2022 by Glade

[shrewd.buddha]

It was a bit dull.  Like a very cinematic history lesson .. so much history to digest ..
It probably doesn't help that our main characters will be elves, who are known for being emotionally reserved and  dismissive of others.

Our household decided that LOR was the PG-13 rated dragon age story and Game of Thrones was the R rated one (gotta have that incest). 
But this hour-long intro never pulled us into the story -- almost everything and everyone  from the beginning was just prologue. 
Did we really need to see young elf bullying? (I guess Galadriel has to be constantly mistreated.)

Galadriel came off as a humorless, driven and non-sympathetic leader -- some leaders could have created a fiercely loyal following.  In the interest of fairness, I wondered why none of her troupe were women.  

This seemed like a typical Hollywood production: even the proto-Hobbit main character has to be attractive.  I prefer the BBC type casting (and GoT) where characters look more like real, everyday people.  Hollywood-pretty works for elves, tho -- although they looked like humans who could be models - just with pointy ears - not very 'other-worldly'. 

I suppose diehard LotR fans may have been entertained with all the name dropping and easter-egging and that sort of thing. 
But as only a semi-fan of LotR, who found the most recent Peter Jackson Hobbit trilogy very boring, I was a bit let down. 
It worries me that this series will not be very engaging to non-super-fans.

It doesn't help matters that this show will be compared to  HBO's House of the Dragon on a weekly basis since they are being released at the same time (mostly).

Edited September 4, 2022 by shrewd.buddha
grammar

[johntfs]

On 9/2/2022 at 1:43 AM, Camera One said:

I don't like the implication the High Elf King made that Galadriel going after Sauron would cause its spread.  What did he base that on?  Hopefully, they're not blaming the rise of Sauron on Galadriel in this series.

While eventual events show that the High King was ultimately wrong, there's a couple things to consider.  First Galadrial's search for Sauron was difficult, dangerous and had lasted for centuries.  That's centuries of frozen wastes, snow trolls and fuck knows what else.  Figure at least some elves (who are otherwise immortal) died doing it.  And in the end she found some frozen orcs and a weird sigil in a fort abandoned centuries before.  The HK didn't want to waste any more time, energy, and most important, elven lives on a fruitless goal.

Second, it's not much of a leap for someone to decide that a fanatical search for an external evil might well lead to a fanatical search for an internal "evil" and the HK didn't want Galadrial to eventually kick off the Elven Inquisition.

[JustHereForFood]

On 9/3/2022 at 2:11 AM, maggiegil said:

This is such a nitpick but the elves looked so ordinary, they didn't have the ethereal quality that they did in the films like the only thing that distinguished them in this adaptation were the ears. The makeup and the super extreme closeups they kept doing really emphasised that they have normal skin rather than the glass like quality their skin had in the film. I think as well the makeup they used really emphasised the lines on certain actors faces.  In the film they looked otherwordly and completely barefaced but glowing.

I think I found the plot a bit dull thats why I was focusing on how much blush they had on Galadriel in certain scenes rather than being transported to middle earth

Comparison of the difference in makeup between the film and the tv adaptation

Can you maybe point to what you mean? I don't see any difference in makeup in the two, only that the movies are maybe blurred a bit, which is understandable for 20 year old movies.

19 hours ago, Glade said:

This show is so beautiful and wholesome. I could literally taste those blackberries the harfoots were picking!  And I like the aesthetic differences, the male elves look good; hair styles would shift every few thousand years, Gil Galad is clearly ahead of those trends.  I didn't want them to stop disrobing those elve boys as they entered Valinor.   I'm so glad this doesn't feature the endless graphic violence of GOT.  The white supremacist backlash to this show is disgusting, but I think it will succeed despite them.

Also, it's unnecessary. I counted 3 white male, presumably straight Elves of significant status in this episode alone. Hardly an attack on white men, LOL.

[call me ishmael]

9 hours ago, johntfs said:

HK didn't want Galadrial to eventually kick off the Elven Inquisition.

Nobody expects the Elven Inquisition!

[tkc]

Today I learned that Elrond’s full name is Harold Elrond. Cool!  😄

[Rushmoras]

2 hours ago, tkc said:

Today I learned that Elrond’s full name is Harold Elrond. Cool!  😄

*Herald 😁

[Wonderlad71]

I'm going to agree with alot of you and say that it was fine but kind of dull. The budget seemed to have been unevenly spent - with some bits spectacular and some looking like under-budgeted amdram cosplay. 

But mainly the acting/direction/dialogue all need work. The actors are fine but what the GoT series have in their arsenal are some outstanding actors that raise the material up several notches. IMO the Galadriel actress and several of the other leads lack the charisma (uniqueness, nerve and talent ;P)  to pull this off.

I'm going to pay closer attention to the soundtrack because I don't remember it at all and that contributes hugely to this type of movie/show.

Edited September 5, 2022 by Wonderlad71

[wanderingstar]

The experience of watching this episode was like sitting near a fire with a familiar, warm blanket. Being in this world again felt wonderful. And I'm intrigued by some of the new characters that were introduced (particularly Arondir). Premiere episodes are always tough because the need for exposition sometimes crowds out the character building, but I think the writers struck a solid balance here.

Edited September 7, 2022 by Gillian Rosh

[DearEvette]

On 9/3/2022 at 2:43 PM, Camera One said:

I think that shows the pilot might not have done its job properly.  This is a prequel and the characters should be able to stand on their own without prior knowledge about their futures.  This episode presented a rather generic scenario that was relatively simple... there was a long war, a woman is avenging the death of her brother and there are mysterious signs of evil everywhere.  The screenwriters presented this "world", and should have been able to engage a viewer without relying on their nostalgia. 

I agree, the pilot did not work 100%.  But not because it relied on knowledge of the characters from the viewers.  I think it was easy to follow the characters and plots if you had no pre-knowledge.  It was just rather dull.  That is the problem. It is hard to follow any show if you are not actively engaged, especially one that requires demonstrating a world-build.  And yeah, it probably did assume that people know what elves are in fantasy, even if not especially these particular elves. But then again, if you are pre-disposed to watch a High fantasy epic tv show, then you probably do know what elves are.

I do contrast this pilot it to House of Dragon pilot which is in sort of the same boat -- introducing a prequel with new characters and a different story that happened 200 years before the main story. I think they did a much better job of creating an intro episode that introduced the central conflict and gave the viewers a hook to catch onto.  From my own watching of this show, I just don't think Galadriel's endless quest  and the portent of a long ago evil coming back was that sharp of a hook.

And I think that even if the episode had been a rip roaring excitement fest it would still be subject to viewer nostalgia.  It is almost instinct, imo.  People are always going to compare the new thing to the thing it adapted from or is related to.  We can't help ourselves.

[Cherpumple]

On 9/5/2022 at 3:08 AM, tkc said:

Today I learned that Elrond’s full name is Harold Elrond. Cool!

I'm pretty sure that Herald is his title, as it seems that he is not yet Lord Elrond.

I like this so far and am looking forward to the upcoming episodes. I love revisiting Middle Earth, but it will take some to get used to this aesthetic.

[Raachel2008]

On 9/2/2022 at 1:13 PM, WritinMan said:

I already summed it up:

They look like middle-aged dudes cosplaying at ComicCon.

Elrond shouldn't look like your high school science teacher hoping to pick up "elf chicks" at the local convention.

Nothing elf-like about that trio.

Well, each own its own. They look okay for me. They look like elves. I don't like Robert Aramayo but he sure doesn't look like a perv picking someone at a con.

[GreyBunny]

At least the cinematography is good. 

[SharonH58]

I enjoyed this episode.  They have a lot of world building to do so of course some was slow.  Was that bratty boy who sunk Galadriel's boat also in her group of fighters?  Lots of questions from the first episode but that is fine.  I don't want everything spilled in the first episode.

[Dev F]

On 9/2/2022 at 7:11 PM, maggiegil said:

This is such a nitpick but the elves looked so ordinary, they didn't have the ethereal quality that they did in the films like the only thing that distinguished them in this adaptation were the ears. The makeup and the super extreme closeups they kept doing really emphasised that they have normal skin rather than the glass like quality their skin had in the film. I think as well the makeup they used really emphasised the lines on certain actors faces.  In the film they looked otherwordly and completely barefaced but glowing.

Yeah, I thought the casting, too, made the elves seem too ordinary. For instance, it's not like Hugo Weaving fit the stereotype of an effete elven lord, but he had a detached haughtiness that young Elrond here almost totally lacks.

But now that I think about it, part of the problem may be that we're seeing elves interacting almost exclusively with other elves, so there are no supposedly lesser races for them to be haughty toward. And the question of how elven imperiousness interacts with itself could be an interesting one, but this first episode, at least, doesn't seem to do much with it.

On 9/2/2022 at 4:02 PM, tennisgurl said:

Also, I know that the show adding black elves has been a source of controversy, but I don't care about that. What I care about is how many elves have such short hair, its really weird, it just feels so off for Tolkien elves. It removes some of their elegant mystique if half of them have the same haircuts as the guy in front of you in line at Costco. 

Hee. I don't have any patience for the "How dare there be nonwhite people in Middle Earth!" whining either, but thus far I am a little disappointed with the way the show is incorporating characters of color. It seems to be taking sort of a color-blind approach, seeding random characters of different races here and there, when what I was hoping for is that it would incorporate diversity a bit more meaningfully—that is, use actors of different races to represent different cultural groups within Middle Earth. It's one thing I really appreciated about, for instance, the Battlestar Galactica prequel Caprica back in the day: how it cast actors of color as interplanetary immigrants from the colony of Tauron on the apparently majority-white colony of Caprica, and used their fictional travails to echo many of the experiences of real-world minority groups.

Edited September 14, 2022 by Dev F