Rings of Power S1E2 Recap: "Adrift"

Welcome to the podcast of Power Show, where we discussed the Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power. I'm your host. Mike White joined me of course is mister Chris Stashew. You know what you forgot my wedding, You forgot my children. It's been twenty years.

For me, I lived a lifetime, and for you, it was in the blink of an eye. This episode, we were talking about a Drift, which premiered the same night as a Shadow of the Past. But we wanted to break this up a little bit better than they broke up the season premiere. Yeah yeah, this definitely should have should have been one episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so.

Right, it feels like one episode. It definitely does, especially because it picks up exactly where the last one left off. Right, So at the end of the last episode, Gladriel jumps off the boat to the Great Havens and says, I'm not going, and then she's in the water all episode all episode. Yeah, yeah, well she's she's on a boat a little bit, but I mean she's she's on the water like, she never makes land. Like the end of the episode has a introduction of a character.

I guess introduces a character that's going to be a pretty big deal with for the show moving forward. But Gladriel is a drift all episode, hence the title. So it's a weird episode because our main character is just hanging out in the water, so everything kind of shifts away from her, which I appreciate, which is also why this feels so weird. It should have just been one whole episode, because this two episodes really tell one whole story. I feel well, and this one ends on a little bit of a cliffhanger as well, So I guess we're gonna end every episode like that.

Perhaps, I guess. I don't know. Again, you know what's weird about this show is because this show was purchased five seasons. That's what they're doing, no questions. They laid out a billion dollars for this show.

They know how the show ends, they know where the show is going. So I don't I guess I understand doing these cliffhangers, but there's no need I mean to hype us up for next week. But again, that was like a terrestrial television model thing, right, I don't know. I mean, I feel like if you're invested in the show after the second episode, you're going to watch the third episode, Like why wouldn't you. It doesn't cost anything.

It's just on Amazon and essentially everybody has Amazon, so I don't mind giving us a little bit of a cliff. It's kind of that little bump that you get at their chapter you know, it's like that's fair and he would never know what would happen that fateful day and then boo chapter two, right, and I mean you know, again, I get it works from a storytelling standpoint of like, this is the way it's always been done, so why would we do anything different? And yeah, it does, like you said, kind of give you a little bit of like, oh, there's a little teaser of something. But yeah, I mean again, the episode, the next episode comes out at the end of this week. We're going to be watching it.

So it's like again, it's just giving us more of something to chew on for like a week, less like really anything else, which is what normal TV did obviously back in the day. But again, this is just a little different because they don't really have to worry about being canceled or not making it to the end of the run of the show, or not knowing where the show is going. This is a unique scenario to be in if you're the show runners, because you know, you've got five seasons, which is very weird. Like, I mean, that might not sound weird to you, dear listener, but that's not the way TV works for the most part. They spent a billion dollars five years.

This show is being made, like that's that's it. Like even Game of Thrones. The pilot for that show was recast and reshot completely. Like, you know, even the biggest shows, the biggest shows, contemporary shows, even they weren't sure things. This is a sure thing.

This is happening, Like, this is happening. That's Amazon paid a billion dollars. It's happening. It's It's kind of a weird thing in a way. I kind of like it, though, because I've said before that I think most of the best shows really should end after five seasons, and that the ones that stick around longer tend to run out of steam.

I mean, I don't remember how many seasons The Wire had, but that was kind of like a perfect TV show. The first five years of Supernatural were fucking fantastic, and then it shit the bet after that. My first four years of Dexter were pretty great. Yeah, yeah, so I think, you know, I think five is about the right number. And let you get other of course, there's people yelling at me on the radio saying like, oh well, don't forget about I don't know, Seinfeld or Mash or some of these other shows.

It's like, okay, great, yeah, that's fine. But I would say for the most part, shows really run out of steam after about five years. I agree. I mean, as someone who's a fan of some shows that have stuck around way too long, X Files and Supernatural, I mean I was watching that show until season seven or eight, and yeah, you're right. I mean those later seasons of that show are are for fans of the show only, which is fun, which is perfectly fine.

But again, that show is a example that I would pit this against. That show almost got canceled, like at the end of every season. This show will never have to worry about that, And there are few shows in the history of contemporary TV like this. And again it's because of the budget of this fucking show, some billion dollars show. And you know what it looks it it like this episode, man, it really when they go into Kaza Doom, I was I was beyond impressed.

I don't know about you. That's really good. Yeah, right, it's like it was like watching the movie. It was like watching The Hobbit. Yeah, it was interesting though some of the things that they had going which are probably you know, true to the story, the whole idea of like elevators and things like, well, that's kind of cool.

We don't really get to ever see those because by the time we get to the Lord of the Rings, most of that stuff is kind of shut down. Right. Well, I mean they go to Maria in Fellows, right, and they go in there and it's just barren, you know, a complete tomb, a tomb under the mountain. So yeah, you know, you, I guess the only thing you really see in Lord of the Rings at least the films are the Cities of Man in the Cities of the Elves, and then in the Hobbit we see Arabor in the flashbacks in the first Hobbit movie, and then I mean we're in Arabor in the second and third movie. But we, like you've said, we never get to see the dwarf cities like this, right, which is really exciting.

Again, Like I was, again, it's it's interesting to see them completely destroyed, but it's hard to imagine what they looked like without it. But now we're getting to see that again and it's it's interesting. Yeah. And you know, last week I talked about how we didn't really see any familiar faces and this episode makes a liar out of me because we could see Peter Mullen and here as the Duran the Third basically Prince Duran's dad, King Duran at this point. Yeah, he's um, you know, I remember him from Westworld where he plays the father that like the who created Delos and he I mean, you know, I don't want to spoil that if nobody's if you haven't seen it, and I know you and I have differing opinions on that show, so I won't give my opinion.

But he's a really good actor. We only get to see him a little bit here. I hope we get to see him a lot more, but talk about just like immediate gravitas when he's on screen, you can just tell like he just I don't know, there's something about him that he's just a really charismatic act. Yeah. I mean I've talked about him a few times because we did an episode and I did a commentary for Session nine.

And he's fucking fantastic in that. There's one movie of his called Torontosaur that I really want to see. Pat. Yeah, he's barely in Children of Men, but my goodness, does he make an impression. Yeah.

I was really good and it took me. Really he's almost unrecognizable in Rings the Power. It's really the voice that include me in and I was just like, oh, I know that voice from you know, from my dreams. Right. No, he's fantastic.

And again, you know, we get a little bit more of Lenny Henry in this episode as well, speaking of actors who bring gravitas immediately by being in this, we get him a little bit more too, which is nice. We get to see more of the horror foots and Markela Kavanaughs Nori, which I mean, again, I don't know where it's going. I think they've more or less now with the way they interacted with the stranger. I think it's more or less confirmed as to who that's going to be. Right, I think last week we're talking about, Oh, we think it's who it is.

I think now it's like who else would it be? Yeah, I mean it's got to be Tom Bomba Delt there's no damn it again again he says it it's reddi Gast, clearly because he's wearing a gray cloak. Obviously. Yeah, it's interesting because I believe Gandolf coming into the story this early is not what Tolkien wrote. But again, I would preface any of that by saying, this is technically a prequel to the movies?

Is it not? Is it not? Yeah? Basically, But I've been on those ls are you know, like the Reddick group? Oh my god, they are just they're so full of themselves.

They're they're worse than Elon Musk with just the way that they're tearing this show apart. And I'm like, guys, just relax, enjoy it. It's a TV show. What's the big deal. I don't know.

They're they're may again, Like, I interpret this show as a prequel to the films. So if people had problems with the films, I'm not sure this show is going to fix those issues. But it's also not going to take away from the movies, because you know, this is five thousand years before, Like, what what do you care? This story has not been told? And yes, I know Amazon didn't get the rights to the Silmarillion, but they're using all the appendices stuff.

That's fine, but like getting pissed off about this show, especially the things that they're getting pissed off about, which some of it it's just like the usual internet troll racism shit, but like, you know, because I don't want to give them a platform or any of their bullshit an ability to get into our show because has no place here. You would agree, I'm sure, but like, yeah, I had. I was on that subreddit too, and it's just like, guys, fucking shits Episode two, Like what has this show done to offend you already? Like really like, like what has it done so far where it's like I have a problem with this show completely at its core, at a molecular level. I hate this show.

And it's like I don't know what show you're watching where you are like this offended this early. But even the second episode still I think is holding that magic and feeling of the original movies. It's still kind of has it, and it's building on it too, which I also appreciate because again, like my really biggest concern with this show has been capturing the tone of the original movies, and I think it's still I think it's still kind of nailing it, even in this second episode, especially when we're seeing like the stuff with the horror foots, Like, I don't know, it's very evocative. It evokes Peter Jackson's movies kind of the Hobbits almost more than more of the Rings. Yeah, but I still like that.

Right, Well, there is that so far. I mean, you know, we're two episodes in. I'm enjoying this and I'm cutting in a lot of slack, so right, whyn't you? Yeah, I don't. I again, like I don't, I don't know want anyone is seen at this point.

That's like such an affront. You know, the back and forth between Duran and el Rond, that scene is fantastic. That's a great establishing scene for Duran, for the Prince Duran character, and to give you more of like, you know, because El Rond, I think, up until that point it has kind of been a little stodgy, and now you're getting to see that, Yeah, he is not just this emotionless elf. He you know, he can be sympathetic and empathetic with you know, because again like to you know Duran's point like that, you know, twenty years is a long time, like oh sorry, Like ELF's are immortal, right, I mean I know Dwarf's age at a slower rate, but yeah, to miss the wedding, to miss the birth of his two kids, all that stuff, I mean, I can really empathize with them, right, And so I thought that was really I thought that was a great moment.

And I thought the stuff going on with with Duran's wife and everything, I was just like, yeah, this is really nice. I like this. It really does a lot to humanize those characters quickly. I mean again, like you're you're with el Ron going through these kind of feelings of like why is the Prince not you know, recognizing him or pretending he's pretending like he doesn't know him. He keeps referring to him as the elf, and you know, el Ron is telling kill a brimbor.

Oh, they're gonna they're gonna have you know, welcome us, like friends, good friends are gonna be you know, pork pies to the ceiling or whatever, and then that that's not what happens. So it's a really interesting scene because again, like you go all the way through that scene and then they tell you the kind of punchline to the joke when the scene has already ended, and I appreciate that they not tension, but they really build that back and forth between those characters and then they let it off right at the perfect moment. It's it's really well done TV writing. I'm kind of surprised in a way, like it's it was. It was a really humanizing moment in a show that, again, these aren't human characters, so you know, you don't expect them to be saying like I am mad about my wedding, Like no, there wasn't any of that in the original Lord of the Rings.

There was none of these like weird, like humanistic moments, like they're kind of are, but like this, this is a different kind. I don't know how to how else to explain it right, right, Well, a lot of the characters, especially the elves, they were I mean, I've watched Amadeis recently and they're talking about, oh, you should make operas about you know, these gods and all these you know, mythological creatures, and it's like, you know, I don't want to deal with people that look like they would shit morble. It's like, I want to deal with the real people. And I want to have real conversations, and that's what this feels like. It doesn't feel like you know.

I my complaint in the last episode was it doesn't feel that kind of weighty in the language. And I think I'm getting used to it with this, and I think I'm getting okay with this being more of a natural language. At least they're not peppering like weird colloquialisms or just even like modern day phrasing. I mean, thank god for that, right, Like in this it isn't just like, oh you got canceled gandal for any of that kind of stuff. So and by the way, I should say, real quick, it's not Durhan's wife, it's Disa.

I should actually like give the woman a name. So who I really thought that she was delightful in that role. I was about to say, I think she walked away with the episode. Yeah, right, like fantastic. And again I don't I really don't know most of the actors in this show.

We talked about it last time. I mean, again, we both consider ourselves rather knowledgeable in film and knowing who actors are, but you know, sometimes they're able to really cast outside of our realms. Of knowledge. I mean a lot of these actors are like stage actors or have worked on like small television shows, kids shows. Even with Sophia nom Vede who plays Disa, but she steals every scene that she's in.

I mean, she's fantastic. I can't wait to see her character again. Like it. You know, the Dwarfs are one percent the best part of this show so far for me, edged out the hard Foots because again, like those, the Dwarf characters are almost the least explored characters of all the Lord of the Rings characters. Yeah, like at least the races.

I mean, yes, they're in the Hobbit, but like we mentioned in our last episode, yeah they're in the Hobbit, but so what. They're barely they barely do anything with them right, and they're so interchangeable that it's like, you know, oh it's the fat one, it's the skinny one, it's the one, this one with the weird shitness beard and the one with the axe in his hands are Yeah, it's like who gives a shit? Like they were so interchangeable, I mean they were. They were good when I read the Hobbit, and they were I mean they were great, when I read The Hobbit when I was, you know, in seventh grade or whatever. They're great if you're telling your kid a story, and they kind of fit in with like the Seven Dwarves those kind of things, but as movie characters, they needed more or they needed they needed more character, or they needed fewer Dwarves, which I know is anethema to people to be like, oh my god, how could there you change the number of dwarves.

I'm a huge Kiley stand you know, it's okay. You know, they needed something more to their characters rather than just being like the walking stereotypes that they were. And I think that the show so far is doing a lot to rectify that, at least with these Dwarf scenes, because again we've seen a lot. I mean, we've seen the l cities, we've seen a reggae on, but they haven't lingered on stuff like they did in the Dwarf City. And again it feels like a calculated effort to give the Dwarfs the attention that they kind of haven't gotten in the last six anything.

I mean, again, we're in Maria, but Maria is destroyed. We go to Arabar, but arab War is destroyed. That's that for me, is a lot more works like again, like I'm on board with everything else for the show, but really, for me, the dwarfs are the reason I'm going to keep sticking around every week, because they're just an underrepresented species in this universe as it's been presented in the film, and some of the best characters have been dwarves. Gimle I mean again, John Rys Davies. Don't have to say anything about him other than he's one of the best parts of those movies.

But again, there are so many good parts of those movies it's almost unfair. But the actors who are playing the dwarves are already taking what little the show is giving them because it is a packed show and really running away with it, right, And they to your point from earlier, these dwarves feel like they're taking their look from the Hobbit, I mean during with that crazy beard, which is almost like a like one Dreadlock type of thing, right, that feels very much like Bilbo's party. You know, I'm glad that they're keeping some of the look and feel these characters, so they look very different than you know, Gimlei, which is okay, you know, Gimle walking around with one of those big ass beards or you know, an act in his head or some shit like that would have just been completely wrong for that character.

So it's not a retrofit. It basically is it's fitting in with the more that they've al kind of started to create well in the I mean in the Fellowship. Yeah, obviously all the races at the time are present in the Fellowship, but they're not like they're so not indicative of those races that they're representing. They're almost at least in Legoleis's case and somewhat in Gimley's case, but not so much. But definitely you're like you're you are going against the expectation of those characters, like the Elves, like they don't act that way.

They're not like they're they're they're not jokey, and you kind of see that in everything else, like no other Elves are as jokey as Legolus is with Gimley ever, like ever, that's I mean, like el Rond and Dorian in this kind of get close that is that is the closest I think we've seen since is like that back and forth in this episode where it's like these two. I believe these two are friends, and I can see why even if they've kind of come to a head. You know, I can't believe we've talked to all this time and we haven't talked about shihlud. Oh right, what was good? So is that a ce dragon?

Then? Well I wasn't even talking about the dragon, the seed dragon. I was talking about whatever is burrowing underneath all of those cottages. Oh yeah. As soon as they they saw that tunnel, I was just like, Oh, it was a sand worm, must have made that tunnel.

And when they found like a little it was either a tooth or a nail, I was just like, oh, it's a Chris knife. I mean, wasn't there something in the Hobbit like that, like some sort of like sand thing? Yeah, right, towards the end of the that awful third movie. Yes, right, So that's that's what I thought. Like, I was like, they've introduced that already, And I know in the Shadow of War, the Middle Earth video game that I mentioned that had Calibrimbor's story being introduced to a different audience before this one, Like they're in that too, I think.

So it'll be interesting to see if they show them on screen for the first time. I kind of assumed that they will. I mean again, they've got the budget. They have the budget, right, If anything they've got, it's the budget. So I don't know.

I will tell you though, they made Orc scary for the first time in like ever, because Orcs have not really ever been scary. That was very much a scene out of a horror film Alien. It was like Alien, but with an Orc. Yeah. Yeah, I wasn't saying cute little things, They're just like a maggoty bread again and any of that kind of stuff.

I was just like, wow, this is really scary. And it was kind of funny in the Shadow of Prey, the way that he had that kind of helmet on and stuff so reminded me of the like Proto Predator type of thing. I was thinking the same thing. It's kind of like Whendigo esque. I mean, that's also the design of a Whendigo is to have that like elongated cow helmet or helmet skull obviously, but wearing it as a helmet.

Yeah, holy cow. I mean again, you know, I don't know where the nazzanin Boniatti character and her interaction with Ronde or the elf is going, it's clear that it's going to be running into these horrifying orcs. And I'm really excited because that scene is fucking scary, Like I was not expecting it at all, And it's like a pretty good little microcosm of a horror scene in like four or five minutes. But not surprising because Ja Baiona cut his teeth in horror movies. I mean, that's it's his bread and butter.

I mean he brought the horror movie kind of thing. He brought a little bit of it to Fall in Kingdom. I would point out the whole thing with the velociraptor chasing them around that museum. It's kind of horror adjacent, not as much as this is. This is just straight up horror.

Yeah, And making orcs a threat, I think is a really great thing because they have been too easy to dispatch in the past. Because we're dealing with badasses through almost so many of the stories that we're dealing with, right these people in this show feel like real people in this world dealing with a threat that's going to need to be dealt with by all of them. And like again, we talked about this on the last episode does the show bring everybody into the same net towards the end, probably, I mean that's the Game of Thrones thing, you know, kind of expand the net and then bring it in very close at the end in the final season. But it doesn't need to. It can be these pockets of resistance having their own stories, but they're all fighting, Saaron, I mean, that's that's there's no question of that.

But yeah, to make the Orcs a threat is really interesting because I didn't know what to expect with the Orcs on this show because they hadn't really shown them. They'd shown them, but they hadn't shown them. And this is a hell of an introduction for the Orcs. I mean that orchive scene in the Fellowship is pretty good. It's not scary, but this is for sure, like the first time I could say, like there's a horror element in Lord of the Rings, which is welcome for sure.

Well, I'm curious if they're going to do a little bit of a better job differentiating between goblins and orcs, because they've tried to do little bit of that in the movies, but they didn't do that great of a job. Yeah, I think in Hobbit they run into all those goblins under the misty mountains, right, So yeah, I guess they're like shortened squat and then the Orcs and yeah, and the Orcs and the orcai I think are a problem too. But again, like that was a symptom of the way those movies were made. Like you can't make like a million you can't make like three different suits a thousand times. It's easier to make like one suit three thousand times type of thing.

Right, So I don't I don't know what they're gonna do because I don't know what that thing is. Like is it an Orc? I assume, but they haven't even seen orcs they talk about, like, we haven't seen orcs in a very long time, right, So what is this because this seems a lot more vicious than an orc. Maybe it's an Orc that can't communicate with English, because yeah, by the time of the Lord of the Rings, we know that the Orcs can speak English to one another, you know, like you said, maggotty bread man fleshes back on the meats, back on the menu, boys, I mean, all that's spoken in English. So maybe that's what it is, because you would assume if this orc pops out of the basement of his house.

He's going to talk to them, right, given that he's an orc and we've seen orcs talk. So maybe it's like this feral nature of the orc that's been introduced that makes them more of a threat because they're less controllable. I don't, right, I don't know. It's again, this is all like a very interesting because it's a very much a different world than we're used to, which is like, I understand now why the people who don't like the show don't like it, Like, I get why they don't like it. If that's what you don't like is that it doesn't feel like Lord of the Rings.

It feels like something else but good, Yeah, yeah, that's okay, right, Like it doesn't like if you want it to just be Peter Jackson's stuff again, that's fine, and it's there. It is the source bible from which the show is written, clearly, at least from a tone and a visual standpoint. But like the show is allowed to make work scary, and it's allowed to introduce actors of color, like, these are not things that people should be fighting. We should be saying, who cares? If this is a thing that they're doing.

Yes, they should be doing it. It doesn't matter like we should be casting actors for anything because it sort of the rings Jesus Christ, it's five thousand years ahead, Like it doesn't matter, Like focus on the good stuff, the really good things about this show, Like they're actually doing a good job at exposition dumping in a way that doesn't feel hand fisted. Like the scene between l Run and Kela Brimbor did a good job at kind of giving the audience an idea of where that story is going without being like bonk, Rings of Power, Bonk bonk, bonk, Rings of Power. That's what I was expecting. Really, Like, I'm surprised that the second interaction with Kela Brimbor wasn't just launching it to talking about the rings.

Right, Yeah, he's just like I have this plan in mind. He unravels a scroll and holds it up for l Ron and for the audience to see the whole thing, and it's seven for element for right, like a lesser show would go there, And that's and that's the that's kind of again. My biggest takeaway with this second episode is like, even though I would contend the first and second episode deserve to be put together. H Yeah, No, Like, these are really good episodes of a show that is setting some interesting groundwork for again, I don't know what, because yeah, they're using the appendices as inspiration, but they can't use the film realion, so I don't know. Yeah, I am kind of happy about the way that they have a little cliffhanger going in that bron Winst well actually a little bit of two cliffhangers really, So you've got we see that disappearance of arunder and the way that he's kind of snatched back by all those hands.

That's pretty cool. And then we also have what's going on with THEO, which I just cannot ever hear his name without thinking of Bill Cosby. So the old with it, I think with this big old sword, you know his his again we we that's they They don't go any further with that this episode. It's not it's blood gets sucked into the sword and see the thing light up. Yeah, so mate, I don't know if like the Orcs were drawn to it, because again, like it's not true.

Again, it's not made clear. I like that the kid takes to beating the ship out of the floorboards, the moment he here's a rat? Yeah, what the fuck have Yeah? I watched that scene two or three times. I was like, is there something I'm missing here.

It's like, nope, he's just like you rat. It's like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, You're tearing your house up. Yeah. I think he's got some issues. I think he's being possessed by stuff.

I mean the way that I mean, because that wasn't I'm trying to remember whose uh, like Barnett was that they found all that stuff in, which was weird that they had all that stuff there, and now it just yeah, it feels like he's being captivated by that sword the same way like Gallo would be captivated by the ring. Yeah. And hey, you know what, like if if they feel like they need to tell that story, that's fine. I'm not sure I care. Yeah, But if they make me care, that's a different story.

I mean, there is Theo going to become a vessel for Sauron? Maybe? Probably not. I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen with this guy.

And I kind of like that that I can't see, you know, I can't see into the future, not even the next episode, right, I do like speaking of again like subtle winks to the audience, disa mentioning that in Kaza Doom, it's best to know when to stop mining. Oh yeah, that was nice. Yeah, they took too deep. I mean again, that's what happened in Kaza Doom. I mean they don't too deep, but they again it's it's weird to me, like when you watch The Lord of the Rings the original three movies, to like Hobbits interacting with a bow rog that would be like us interacting with like space aliens.

Yeah, like bow rocks are in in the time of The Lord of the Rings the movies. Those aren't just myth. Those are like beyond myth into like legend, like even like like some people probably don't even know about them, like Gandolf knows because Gandal's been around for a long time, but like Borimir and none of them are, like what in the holy hell is this thing? Because again, like it's just I like those subtle nods to the audience because again, like that is a big thing that does end up happening and they don't have to mention it, and I'm glad that they did, but it does it is it could get a little much right, It could could. It's that it's the thing we're talking about last time.

It's like, how did they know? How did a hand solo get the scar? Right? Yeah? Just skirt that skirt that edge.

It's a very fine line to walk, but so far I'm happy with the way they're walking at Yeah, and they're introducing character and future plot lines I think in an interesting way because the episode ends with a teaser for the person that saves Galadriel, who I'm pretty sure is a sealder, which would make sense. I know he's in the show and he's a he's a mariner, which would track with his character. And again, like that's why the question that I had last time we recorded, which is like how far before Saaron dying? Is this because it sealed? Or is a douna dyne?

But he's not immortal, so it'll be it'll be interesting. It's the same thing like I don't know who the guy on the raft is, but it feels like with his little thing that he had as necklace and he was just like, well what was that? We have no king or something? He says like that, so reminds me of like you know that there is no King of Gondor right now type of thing. I think.

I think that's what's going on at that time. It would seem that Kela Brimbore wants and he's mentions it. He wants to start working on the Rings within like eight months, is what it seems like like this, you know, in the Ring and it's like, dude, dude, slow down. You're an elf. You can take like thirty five years before you even start this, right, which is in And it's interesting his reasoning is, you know, because they mentioned this whole idea of the Elves came from Valenor and like you know, wrecked Havoc on Middle Earth because that's where they fought Saron.

Well that's actually that's where they fought more God and in all of that happening, it's interesting that his like motivation is, I want to make something beautiful where we had done so much damage. Yeah, boy, kill of brim boer. Yeah, I mean you only knew pal I know, but I mean it's you know, you you look at you know the way that invading forces go in and just knock things to ship and then you know, oh, we're quote unquote rebuilding. See by right, we're making it better by making rings of power that then can be corrupted by wondering, which then rules the you know it rules and looms large over the kingdom for oh until the Fourth Age begins. So yeah, it's it's interesting because, yeah, the Elves are trying to make it better, and in trying to make it better with good intentions, they are going to make it worse than they could have ever imagine.

I mean it's Calibrimbor. His name should be cursed, you know. I mean we always talk about el Sielder's Bane, but it's like, Calibrimbor, you did a lot more damage, I think. Well, and again, I mean he attempts to right the wrongs. I mean he's there fighting at the end with a Selder and he dies.

You know, a Sielder doesn't die, but Calibrimbor dies. So he ends up making good on that. But they don't show him in the movie. They don't show him in Fellowship. He's there in that fight, so you know, it's Elron and Kelibrimbor.

So again it's I mean, I know why they didn't show it, but they could have. They showed everything else. They showed them getting the rings they just never showed the rings being created. It's almost it's almost implied that Sawn made all the rings in Fellowshah, Yeah, it totally is right. It's kind of weirds, the one who in darkness made the one bring to bring them all together and bind them, right, Okay, sure, yeah, so it's it's weird, but at the same time, like you're totally right, Like calibrim Bor should be like cursed, he's gonna, he's going to he's going to in the process of doing what he's doing reek havoc for like two thousand years or something to that effect.

So yo, calibrim Bor, you're canceled home. Yeah, you're out of here, canceled. That's what nor He's going to say. In the finale, Musk is gonna say, actually, cancel this guy with their woke Lord of the Reefs. I like them.

That's what this is. Like. Can't just watch a show like you man, so so pathetic. Yeah, we can put white people into every role imaginable, but cast a person color in anything. Suddenly it's woke culture.

Yeah. How dare those wokesters? Yeah yeah yeah, speaking of wokesters. At the end of this episode, there is another cliffhanger, do you know what's in that box? And no, it's not Marcella's Wallas's soul, because I wanted to say it.

I mean, it looked like the Arkanstone from the way that it was glowing. But I don't think that this is the right timeline. Is that. No, it so it should be I believe it should be mythro which is like no, which is not discovered at the time until like this is around the time, because Mythroll's like a big deal. I mean in Kazan Doom, like that's what drives them to go into the bal Rogs domain essentially by accident, is by mining more Mythril, because I mean, again, like Gimli says in Fellowship, if Frodo only knew or I guess it's Gandolf, He says, if Rodo only knew how much that Mythral vests, which worth more than the Shire, which is always a really weird line because like what does that mean?

So maybe we'll kind of get that answered a little bit more in the span of this show, because clearly the introduction of Mythrill is going to be important to everything that happens from here on out. Yeah, what they should do is they should melt the Mythral down and injected into somebody's bones and they can have like claws made out of mythral like weapon weapon X type of thing. Wow, they should do that, Yeah, yeah, I mean why not? Yeah, right, yeah, It's it's interesting though, because again, like that that's something that we kind of just don't think about, right, Like mythroll it's just part of Lord of the Rings. But at this point in the story, it's only it's it's in Kazaduman.

That's the only place that it's found. That's why it's so hard to find. That's why photos vest is, you know, like two little rings of it is equivalent to god knows how much money in that universe. So like that's that's what's interesting about this is Like again, like I I thought when I saw at first that it was a silmarill, because like that was you know, that's kind of the way they're showing it. But I think I think it's supposed to be Mythril because I think they're like astounded by the fact that they find it.

And again, like it's the it sets into motion the downfall of Kaza Doom. So I like I said last episode, haven't read the Samarillion for a long darn time. So when they're talking about the Simarrells and the beauty of them and that more Goth was just enchanted by them, what's the Samarilla? The Silmarillas's it was created by the elves and it's like a It's like a stone that all of the light in the world comes from. And I think there's like three of them, and wow, more Goth steals them, like he covets them and steals them.

And then I believe again I'm just people who listen to this can tem me apart. The Baron and Luthian story has to do with I think Baron go and retrieving the silmar Rills from Margoth so and like that's it's the whole doomed love thing and there's there's that component to it. But I believe that's part of the story. But the silmar Rill, like there's always been the question, is the Arkinstone a Silmarill? I don't think Tolkien ever said that, but again, like it's it's so important to the story of the Hobbit, and it seems like it could be because it's described very similar to the Silmar Rills, and I believe in one of the books they mentioned the simmer Roll.

One of them is in the mountain. There's like one in the earth, one in the air, and then one in the water. So they're just I don't know how to explain it other than like it's it's a mcguffin in a lot of ways, like but they're just like in the world, but they like represent the light of the world, and if you were to control all three, you could pervert the world and in the way you believe, which I think is why more Goth was going after them in this time that they talk about before the show, so kind of a natural ring of power kind of yeah, and so like to create the rings of power. That's why Sauron was interested in them because again, like it would give him power over more than even more Goth had, because he has direct control and he forces them to keep the ring on and never take it off, which is a nascool So right, yeah, No, it's it's weird because there's a lot of stuff going on here that they don't explain, and if you like read into it, you can figure out more information about it than you would ever want.

But I think it's doing a good I think it's doing a good job of giving like casual fans of The Lord of the Rings enough to get by on. Yeah, I'm enjoying it. I don't know a lot of this stuff. I mean, the way that you're talking about the dude that's on the raft, I'm like, Okay, you know, maybe he's a student and dying. I don't know, but you probably know like his whole backstory.

And I'm just more of a casual dude on this one. I think. I think the guy on the boat with Gladriel is a creative character for the show. Okay, so a Selder's not obviously, but like the that was the other thing, like the hard Foots, like some of them are created for the show, and people were getting all up in arms about that too, So you know, again like they're they're doing a good job of like metering out the stuff that we know with a lot of stuff that's like just been left wide open up until this point. So I'm really I'm enjoying the world building that the show is doing on top of the world building that the original movies did and again trying also to take into account but not Hugh on like immediately right into the books, because again, this show is allowed to do whatever it wants.

It doesn't have to be the books specifically. So the only thing we really haven't talked about is the Nori storyline, and that's mostly because not a whole lot of stuff happens there. We get to see her father snaps leg or that really turned my stomach a little bit when his foot twisted around like that. Yeah. Yeah, and yeah the Stranger so yeah, Tom Bombadell.

They're drawing all these little things and then like the whole thing with the the lightning bugs and all that and him creating I mean, she was talking about a constellation. I'm not as sure if it's a constellation or if it's just a run or something. It's probably a constellation. So just like, okay, good, Yeah, we're keeping the fires burning here, okay, right. The weirdest part for me was that all the lightning bugs died after he used them.

Well, and that's the question because like there is also that moment when he's talking to her, when she sees him for that kind of first time after she saves him where he's where it's black speech, and like Gandolf speaks in Black Speech in Fellowship and in Hobbit when Bilbo pisses him off. So again I don't. I again, I know a fair amount having read what I've read this year, but I haven't gone and delved into everything, so I don't know what the connection to the black Speech is with Gandolf and how that factors into his character. But yeah, I think at this point he's talking to the fireflies, which is a Gandolf thing that we've seen him do on not one but two separate occasions in Hobbit and in Fellowship he talks to the moth on top of or thank and he talks to the moth on the tree whether they're hanging off of in the first Hobbit movie.

And then we have the Stranger talking to a moth and or a firefly and creating. Yeah, that once again a constellation. So I think it's Gandolf at this point obviously, And yeah, it's There's they don't do much because again I feel like they're more trying to meet out the information to those who maybe don't know who this character is yet. And then probably I would wager I don't know how you feel about this, but like the next episode like either the next episode or the four. I don't think they can make a past episode four without giving him one of the names that Gandolf is called.

If if if not Gandolf, myth Rander at least yeah or Stormcrow or something like that, right, I mean, again, we don't know who how the hard Foots would refer to him. Myth Rander is what the elves call him, so you know, and yeah, we've seen Gandolf, Stormcrow and all those all the other so maybe the hard Foots have a name for him that we've never heard of before, which is maybe probably where they're going. Again, I hope to God, and I feel like I'm putting this out into the universe and they're going to do it. I hope it's not like, Oh, Nori Brandyfoot is like Frodo's great great, great great great great Greg you know what. And I was thinking about it when I watched the episode the third time, I was like, is that why?

Because she's like, because there's this weird thing where she's like, I feel like he's coming here for me. I need to be the one to save him, and she feels this weird connection to him, and we know in Lord of the Rings eru Iluvatar does work in mysterious ways and does influence the world in minor ways, and sending Gandolf to Frodos slash Bilbos ancestors would be a little on the nose. But if you believe that there is, if there is a god in this Lord of the Rings universe, which there is, maybe that's him working in quote mysterious unquote ways. That's a little lazy, But like that was kind of that was my only concern with that story is like are they doing that? Yeah?

Yeah, and I hope it's not like you know, oh, you always causing trouble around here, you know, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Again, like that's what I don't know is the reason gandalfs with the hard Foots Because they're there are the proto Hobbits obviously, but is it because one of them is Frotos? I mean again, one of them is probably Frooto's ancestor just by sheer fact alone, Like we haven't seen any other hard foots. So is this it?

Are they it? Like if they are it, then one of them has to be right, So yeah, And I mean I kind of like this whole thing of them being nomadic and they're just like, oh, we gotta get out of here, the falls come under whatever, and it's like okay, cool, nice, yeah, yeah, yeah no again, like they take things that we know and they kind of change them just a little bit to make them a little bit more interesting, and it kind of work more in this world where things are a little less set in stone, at least for some of the people that were seeing, Like not everybody is like city bound and sitting in you know, Rivendell, like gil Ron's moving around and go in places like Galadriel's go in places, and these are places we've never even seen before.

We've heard the Gray Haven's mentioned, never really seen even close to it. We've heard we've heard a reggae yod mentioned at least once, I think in the original movies. Finally seeing it, so like they're showing us things that like I never even thought we would see in in a adaptation form either. What was another neat thing was when the we didn't mention this last time, when the comment or whatever that Tom Bombadole arrives in that we get to see the ins as well. That was kind of nice.

Yeah, shot, yeah, yeah, the other thing we haven't mentioned because we didn't get to see it in the first episode. What did you think of the show's opening credits? Oh? I thought it was pretty good. Yeah, and I don't know if I'm going to be whistling any of these themes anytime soon, but you know, I was like, Okay, yeah, this works, and yeah it was.

It was interesting they didn't have opening credits in the first episode and that they saved them for the second another reason why I'm just like, you should have just thrown these two things together right well, and I'm with you again, like that was why. That was the other thing I want to say, Like the opening credits, like felt weird that they didn't put it in the first episode. It kind of had a cold open two, so they could have done it like right after that the lad Real introduction. So, but the intro music's by Howard shot nothing else is, nothing else is but it is. So there's that and it definitely sounds like it's It's kind of a shame that they couldn't get Howard Short to do everything for the show, because I think and I don't think we talked about this.

We talked about thew did we talk about. Recently, we talked about something and we brought up Lord of the Rings leap motifs, but like, there is no better score really for movies. I think that might have been our first episode because we definitely talked about that, and I remember using that phrase, which I was very happy about. But like, there's not there isn't any of that yet in this show. Not yet, not yet, Maybe there won't be even like I don't know.

I hope there is, because again, it was such a big part of those original movies, So I don't know. But the intro music is great. I like the intro. The credit sequence I think is kind of interesting, you know, using I get they're using vibrating plates with sand at least that's the ide. Yeah, it's cool, it looks it looks cool.

I don't know if they're doing it practically, probably practical and digital. It's at some point it stops being able to be done practically, but it looks cool and the music's good, and yeah, like you know, it doesn't most people are going to skip it after seeing it the first time, so well, it reminds me they did. Um. There's a show on YouTube that I watched called VFX artists react and they were talking about the teaser for Rings of Power, where it was the metal being poured in the kind of channels and seeing the metal moving around and stuff, and they're just like, a lot of that was actually practical, so interestingly surprised by that. I mean, it was definitely enrichened with some digital effects, but a lot of that stuff is real, real deal, So it's kind of smart the way that they're using like, like you said, sand and probably digitally enhancing that as well.

Well. I mean that orc costume was real. Yeah, they found a guy that looks exactly like that. No, I mean, you know what I mean, That orc costume was not a digital effect, Like that was a practical effect that. Yeah.

I don't know if they'll keep with that the rest of the series, but like, I also appreciate that the show is working in the practical world a lot more than The Hobbit feels like it was. Can you believe that they let a woman character kill that orc and then cut off its head right, oh my god, throw its head down and be like these fucking orcs, man, they're here. I kind of like when she's just like, now, do you believe me. Yeah, the fucking ORCS man. Yeah, no, I'm I think all the storylines right now, that's the one I'm probably the most interested in, because again, the Dwarf one is just it's it's taken my attention completely, like anytime it shows up, it's fantastic.

But that one is the one that I think has the most kind of intrigued to it because like, I don't know what what's going on with any of that and where that story goes, but if there's more practical or effects, I'm all for it. Yeah please, yeah, yeah, no, that's I mean again, like this show could have really fallen into some like nasty CGI traps already and it really hasn't. So and again, like with a billion dollar budget for five seasons of a show, like I would hope not. But all's still good. It still looks really good.

It doesn't look overly CGI. Yeah. So, Chris, do you know what we're talking about next episode? No, they haven't released the titles of these episodes. Man, we're talking about episode one point three.

I don't understand what Amazon is doing. Like, it's so weird how they released these two on a Thursday night and then the next one isn't until Friday. It's like, what why are you doing it? Set the date with the very first episode, Set the dates, set the tone, you know, right, Yeah, yeah, I agree, I'm right there with you. I it's very strange because we initially assumed it was Thursdays and then we had to we kind of had to reconvene and figure out a better time because no, the show's coming out on Friday.

So even though it came out on third, like you said, Thursday, the first two times it came out on the same day, So I mean, this isn't going to be Thursday or sorry, Friday at twelve o one am or another like, no, it comes out at nine o'clock on Eastern time and six o'clock Pacific. Yeah, I hope it's just twelve oh one Pacific, like because again I don't know. That was the one thing about this that I feel like they bungled. And then they also they also deactivated their reviews. Oh yeah, yeah, or you Amazon bombed by these a holes.

I don't get it. Like even like when I pulled it up on Google, it's like three stars, I'm like, what's what is happening here? Yeah? Well, and yeah, it's it's totally review bombing dickheads. So that's fine.

I mean, I get why Amazon did it, but like you're just giving him more credence by doing that, like just weather the storm. They'll like, they'll go away. Eventually, they'll run off to something else to get angry about. The same dickheads that were mad about Star Wars, same dickheads that were mad about x y as Spider Man being African American, Like, go away, there's no place for you here anymore. Nobody cares.

And the fact that like CNN and anybody else is giving them a platform I think is just wrong. Like Wokesters, Yeah, okay, Elon Musk, nobody cares about your opinion on Lord of the Rings, Like I don't. Nobody cares. You didn't make the show, nobody cares. No, we need to get away from giving news covers every a hole out there.

Yeah, every opinion doesn't need to be covered. And I'm not saying we need to like edit people, but I don't think everything anybody says needs to be given a spotlight. But again, the twenty four hours news cycle will do that to you. So yeah, they get real bored. Yeah, right, when they're covering Lord of the Rings on CNN and how woke it is they you run out of things to cover for the day, guys, Yeah, maybe hanging up.

Yeah, I'm sure there might actually be things happening in other countries, like Europe or any place on the entire continent end of Africa, or you know, the Ukraine. You know there's still a war happening in the Ukraine, Chris, but there's a war happening in Middle Earth right now with oh yeah, so, and we better cover that instead, we say, as we cover this show and not other important things. It's okay. Our medium is podcast, our medium is entertainment. This is not We're not pretending to be news.

That's fair, that's fair. But I feel like we could pretend to be news more successfully than some of those folks. Definitely. Yeah, so yeah, no title for the next episode, sorry, everybody. You're just gonna have to wait and see what if the title is just Gandolf.

Yeah, that's all we should do. Since they haven't given us a title, we should just prognosticate what's the title of the third episode of the show. Oh, I mean that is where they're starting to give very flowery with this. Well, I have to say a drift was pretty lame, but a shadow of the past. You know, they might be like a bell rings in the distance or something like that, I don't know, drumming in the deep.

Oh there you go. Yeah. I think it's gonna be something mythro related, if not just titled mythrill, so you know, or like, I don't know, like something mythro related is kind of what I'm prognosticate. It's either be mythro related or Gandolf related, like some sly like maybe Gandolf's name the myth ran dear. I'm sure me I don't know what it means off the top of my head, but I'm sure it means something.

So maybe that'll be his name or something. I don't know that again, you're right, like that's and that's a that's a TV contemporary TV thing where it's like these like very subtle nods and like sly like winks to maybe what the episode's about or like a thing. And I mean Westworld does that, Game of Thrones did it? Any contemporary TV show worth its salt is going to name an episode something other than episode one. The guys find myth role the Dwarves find myth role.

Um, yeah, that would be great. Yeah yeah yeah, green Man will be there. Yeah sure, So yeah, we will be back as soon as we possibly can with our next episode. Until then, please go on over to iTunes or wherever you get this podcast rate and review of the show. It would help people know that we actually talk about things that are current and newish, rather than us talking about things from the nineteen seventies, which is where I like to spend the most of my time.

Yeah, I was about to say this is this show is pretty outside of our normal content wheelhouse, especially with the like scheduling around of our schedules, pre existing schedules to make this happen. So yeah, if you're liking what we're doing, please rate and review on iTunes because we're gonna be probably doing this throughout five years of the show. God knows how many years of real life that will be will be ending this show in like ten years. I bet, I bet that's why. I bet, I bet twenty thirty two is when this show ends.

Give them two years in between each season. Yeah, so I'll be doing We'll be doing this for a while, so yeah, rate and review it on iTunes. Because we might not be doing it every week, but we'll be doing it through the run of the show until then. Chris, what are you working on these days? Watching movies and working on other various podcasting endeavors over at Cstashue dot com cstacchiw dot com.

That's my link tree. Go there for all the things that I work on, which are by myself. Well, fend a lot of other things with you, Mike. So, speaking of that, where can people find You? Can find me over at the Projection Booth, which is available by a projection Booth podcast dot com, where I've got links to I'll cool graphic for this courtesy of you.

I'm gonna put that up on the website and have people on over there and they can check out me talking about something current and rather than like I said, on nineteen seventies cop show or a field nineteen eighties sci fi show or a okay, middling, let's say, horror show from also the early seventies. What do you know? Nothing new, That's what I know. Apparently this is the newest thing we've talked about together in a long time. Yeah, yeah, you used to have me on the Culture Cast when you're covering new movies.

That was kind of wild. I'd go out and see something on a Saturday and talk about on a Sunday. I know, we haven't done that in a long time. This is what this feels like that in a lot of ways. So this is like when we covered Jack Jack Snyder, Jack Snyder, you know Jack Snyder, Jack Snyder.

Yeah. Justice League, Yeah, Zustus League, Doustus League, Yeah, Zack Snyder's failed attempt at filmmaking, yeah. Yeah. Brought to you by the trolls please, brought to you by Warner Brothers, who also brought you this. The same people that are out there reviewing Rings of Power.

All the troll army, yeah, all the bots. Good stuff.