The Rings of Power Season 1 Episode 8 "Alloyed"

[Kane52630]

​

 

[Kaleb]

 

[SomeOldGuy]

Well, that was…an episode, I guess? Not sure I’ve watched an hour-plus of tv where less happened. I find myself losing interest, not because of any deviations from canon or anything like that, but just because I don’t care about any of the characters. A few are interesting, and a couple I do like, but if any of the main characters had died this episode, I would have been like, oh, that’s sad. And that would have been it. I hope they have something special for the final episode, but I’m not counting on it.

 

[Iceman]

Episode 6 was good and it feels like they needed to keep up the momentum in 7 given 5 episodes of super slow buildup before that. Feels like too much left to do in the finale now but I’m expecting it to be a good sendoff nonetheless. This whole season needed to be edited and paced a lot better.

 

[DKDetective]

Episode 6 was good and it feels like they needed to keep up the momentum in 7 given 5 episodes of super slow buildup before that. Feels like too much left to do in the finale now but I’m expecting it to be a good sendoff nonetheless. This whole season needed to be edited and paced a lot better.

Episode 6 was good??? I dunno, man, I think that was just a case of **** tastes good when you are starving. The episode can be summed up in two memes...


If you want some good fantasy TV, check out the new adaptation of Interview with the Vampire on AMC. It is seriously excellent.

 

[Iceman]

Episode 6 was good??? I dunno, man, I think that was just a case of **** tastes good when you are starving. The episode can be summed up in two memes...
View attachment 59198
View attachment 59199
If you want some good fantasy TV, check out the new adaptation of Interview with the Vampire on AMC. It is seriously excellent.

Haha, will do.

 

[Albright]

Episode 6 was good??? I dunno, man, I think that was just a case of **** tastes good when you are starving. The episode can be summed up in two memes...
View attachment 59198
View attachment 59199
If you want some good fantasy TV, check out the new adaptation of Interview with the Vampire on AMC. It is seriously excellent.

yup, Episode 6 was good. Not everyone wants to hate this.
The lands are not so civilised as much as thousands of years later. Like in ancient times in the real world - there weren’t much big cities

 

[DKDetective]

yup, Episode 6 was good. Not everyone wants to hate this.
The lands are not so civilised as much as thousands of years later. Like in ancient times in the real world - there weren’t much big cities

Actually, you are dead wrong there. The early Second Age is supposed to be a time of peace and prosperity with Numenor at this time being like Rome at the height of its powers. Numenor is so powerful that Sauron actually fear them and founds Mordor to give him a base to contest them.

As such, under the Pax Romanum, bigger cities flourished and Rome fielded armies of tens of thousands. The Third Age is like the Dark Ages after the Fall of Rome. It is a time of regression. You have Byzantium/Gondor as the fading bastion of "civilization" under constant threat. Arnor/The Western Roman Empire is broken and fragmented and its great cities turned to ruin.

 

[Albright]

Numenor is kinda out of this world..they’re not really normal human

 

[DKDetective]

Numenor is kinda out of this world..they’re not really normal human

But that is the point. The show has made the big act of Numenor coming out of exile to be a small expedition to save some random tiny village, but has portrayed it as some fate of the world matter.

The show generally feels small and isolated, with the exception of Numenor. Both Lindon and Moria look and feel empty. Tolkien's legendarium is strongly based on the classic fantasy trope of a more brilliant, magical past that was lost and diminished by the corruption of fallible mortal beings.

The Time of the Trees was the golden age of the Eldar as they lived in peace in Valinor. The First Age was the tale of those elves at the height of their powers making war against Morgoth, a literal god, with armies of Balrogs, dragons, and other supernatural beings. The war resulted in them being diminished and Morgoth banished.

The Second is the tale of the diminished Eldar and the Numenoreans at the height of their powers at war against Morgoth's lesser servant, Sauron, a fallen angel only rather than a god. Sauron having more mundane armies of orcs. The might of the Eldar and Numenoreans being sufficient to defeat Sauron and his forces by might of arms and cut the ring from his hand.

The Third Age is about the last of the Eldar and the diminished Numenoreans faithful barely holding on against a diminished Sauron and doomed to defeat unless Frodo destroys the One Ring.

The narrative is very clearly one of lesser and lesser power, splendor, and might as time goes on and the mundane takes over the world. In classical mythological fashion, the tale Tolkien tells in The Lord of the Rings is about the last hurrah of those magical, fantastical elements in the mortal realm before it became the mundane world we know. The fact that the best that the most expensive television series in history with a budget of $1 billion can manage is a lame battle between a small band of orcs against some villagers and a small company of Numenoreans over a nameless village and tavern is plain sad. It is an immense failing.

 

[squeekness]

Episode 6 was good??? I dunno, man, I think that was just a case of **** tastes good when you are starving. The episode can be summed up in two memes...
View attachment 59198
View attachment 59199
If you want some good fantasy TV, check out the new adaptation of Interview with the Vampire on AMC. It is seriously excellent.

 

[Persona]

Episode 6 was good??? I dunno, man, I think that was just a case of **** tastes good when you are starving. The episode can be summed up in two memes...
View attachment 59198
View attachment 59199
If you want some good fantasy TV, check out the new adaptation of Interview with the Vampire on AMC. It is seriously excellent.

Lots of people and critics thought episode 6 was good. I loved the Kurosawa influence in the smaller scale fantasy battles, it was very Hidden Fortress and Seven Samurai but with a bad-ass Elf in Arondir and some cool orcs, plus a great main bad in Adar. Nice incorporation of traps and reversals, plenty of thriller and horror elements, too. Incredibly epic conclusion.

Pretty easily my favorite fantasy thing I have seen in a long time. But also a good bit better than the other RoP episodes (which I still like overall, but was hoping the show had found better narrative rhythm and focus... unfortunately that did not carry over into episode 7).

 

[Persona]

But that is the point. The show has made the big act of Numenor coming out of exile to be a small expedition to save some random tiny village, but has portrayed it as some fate of the world matter.

The show generally feels small and isolated, with the exception of Numenor. Both Lindon and Moria look and feel empty. Tolkien's legendarium is strongly based on the classic fantasy trope of a more brilliant, magical past that was lost and diminished by the corruption of fallible mortal beings.

The Time of the Trees was the golden age of the Eldar as they lived in peace in Valinor. The First Age was the tale of those elves at the height of their powers making war against Morgoth, a literal god, with armies of Balrogs, dragons, and other supernatural beings. The war resulted in them being diminished and Morgoth banished.

The Second is the tale of the diminished Eldar and the Numenoreans at the height of their powers at war against Morgoth's lesser servant, Sauron, a fallen angel only rather than a god. Sauron having more mundane armies of orcs. The might of the Eldar and Numenoreans being sufficient to defeat Sauron and his forces by might of arms and cut the ring from his hand.

The Third Age is about the last of the Eldar and the diminished Numenoreans faithful barely holding on against a diminished Sauron and doomed to defeat unless Frodo destroys the One Ring.

The narrative is very clearly one of lesser and lesser power, splendor, and might as time goes on and the mundane takes over the world. In classical mythological fashion, the tale Tolkien tells in The Lord of the Rings is about the last hurrah of those magical, fantastical elements in the mortal realm before it became the mundane world we know. The fact that the best that the most expensive television series in history with a budget of $1 billion can manage is a lame battle between a small band of orcs against some villagers and a small company of Numenoreans over a nameless village and tavern is plain sad. It is an immense failing.

It's not an immense failing. The show very clearly established why it was a lesser Numenorean expedition plus the remaining Southlanders in that region vs. A beleaguered band of Orcs. The stakes still ended up being huge, bigger than any of the characters realized outside of Adar. The sequences were still very effective and cool. Not everything has to be some some massive CGI battle (though we got one in the prologue). Important things can happen out of small skirmishes.

Lindon and Khazad-dum don't feel small or empty, at all, I am not sure why you feel that. I give you that we haven't seen a ton of Lindon or Eregion and usually the characters are in more private scenes.

 

[henzINNIT]

There has been some issue effectively conveying scale. The show has beautiful wide shots that don't always cut perfectly into the more confined sets.

That said, I question what sort of expectations are placed on RoP. Amazon spent a pretty penny, but it's still a TV show. Over 8 hours of scripted content with crazy ambitious locations, costumes, effects and a large cast. There have been some beautiful visuals throughout, and episode 6 is absolutely nuts compared to 99% of other television in terms of action. That it falls short of the set-piece battles of LOTR is not surprising. That is literally the highest bar to put it up against. For the first skirmish in the show's first season I think it did very well.

 

[Iceman]

So what do we get today?

Balrog and old fool plotline resolved hopefully. At least he should have graduated up to rubik's cubes by this episode.

 

[DKDetective]

So what do we get today?

Balrog and old fool plotline resolved hopefully. At least he should have graduated up to rubik's cubes by this episode.

My prediction:

 

[Sithborg]

Well, with the name Rings of Power, the final scene was pretty much always about the forging of the first rings.

Well, I was wrong on Halbrand. The moment Celebrimbor told Halbrand his idea was a gift, due to all the lore talk about it, kind of cemented. I do find it fascinating what they are doing with him, just based on some of the conversations I've observed about Tolkien and the nature of evil.

Did laugh at them almost showing Dark Galadriel.

And the Stranger is Gandalf. Can't really deny that any more. Still, glad Nori is sticking around. I did love the magic fight. Pity about the old leader.

 

[TheFuture]

Well that was a marked step up, some of the choices I'm not sure on but I was honestly floored how good this episode was. The show seemed to flirt with being reminiscent of true LOTR at certain times but this was the first episode I felt I was in the universe from beginning to end. Even the Harfoots were good and the guy playing Halbrand showed his acting chops here.

Unfortunately I found Morrfyd Clark to still be weak though and it was noticeable again when she had some key moments in this episode. Outacted painfully.

Interesting that run of the showrunners held his hands up earlier in the week to admit that there were definitely some learning curves to take in during the first season. He must have known he had a winner in the finale.

 

[Boom]

So they basically side-stepped the entire Annatar plotline, and the two most popular (and predictable) theories about Sauron's and the Stranger's identities turned out to be correct.

I'll give this another season, but yeah. Kinda feeling like this one just isn't for me. :/

 

[Persona]

On paper, I was prepared to dislike this episode because of some leaks I stumbled across. But I actually really liked it. It did a good job of paying homage to a lot of Tolkien's ideas (if differing greatly from his most accepted accounts of some of these events) while bringing those ideas together into a framework and setting of the stage that can work for this show going forward. And some things I wasn't sure about in the season (like the mithril thing), I could finally kind of see the purpose and why behind some of those things.

I hope they keep Gennifer Hutchinson (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) involved with the writing. I have found the episodes she helped write (this one and episode 2) some of the most effective structurally and in how the content of the episode works from scene to scene. She pulled off a lot with this finale, giving us scenes very pointed in effect and kind of resolving some S1 elements while smoothly shifting those elements into place for some very big developments in future seasons.

This was also very easily the best direction from Wayne Yip all series. Very creative and sharp in his approach to many of the scenes.

Despite being predictable, I loved the Harfoots/Stranger storyline in this episode. It was done so well and for a storyline that I doubted the sustainability of, I am actually fully onboard for what they seem to be setting up with it.

Yeah, man, I kind of loved this finale, despite the Tolkien nerd part of me being a little dismayed, haha.

 

[Iceman]

Thought they were about to do something unexpected with The Stranger as Sauron but looks like he’s Gandalf as expected. The balrog will have to wait too. At least we saw the Elven rings forged. Many decent ingredients in this show but it didn't quite work overall in season 1.

 

[henzINNIT]

So they basically side-stepped the entire Annatar plotline, and the two most popular (and predictable) theories about Sauron's and the Stranger's identities turned out to be correct.

I'll give this another season, but yeah. Kinda feeling like this one just isn't for me. :/

Pretty much where I'm at now too. I was pretty positive about the show through the run, but also said a few times that the resolutions to the mysteries would have a big impact on how I felt about it. As the answers came in, I became more and more deflated.

 

[Weather Witch]

Thought they were about to do something unexpected with The Stranger as Sauron but looks like he’s Gandalf as expected. The balrog will have to wait too. At least we saw the Elven rings forged. Many decent ingredients in this show but it didn't quite work overall in season 1.

I think that's my main complaint honestly. It still feels like we're waiting for the good stuff. Overall, I really liked the episode and I do think the show kinda found it's footing.

 

[Iceman]

I think that's my main complaint honestly. It still feels like we're waiting for the good stuff. Overall, I really liked the episode and I do think the show kinda found it's footing.

Stuff started happening in Ep 6 and then took a breather again in 7! They needed to keep up the pace of 6 once they started IMO. Could have done with a couple more episodes here. Feels like way more was built up than delivered on this season. I hope there isn’t a long delay till season 2 as I want this show to get people back onside who are wavering. I know a fair few outright hate it so no getting them back lol.

 

[Gothamsknight]

Solid ending to the first season. Fix some pacing issues in season 2, and it'll be golden.