TCTTS said:

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I will say, one of the cheesiest things I've seen in an episode of TV in a long time was the "SOUTHLANDS" text changing to "MORDOR" at the end. Loved the episode itself, but man that was bad. Why not just have Adar literally say "Mordor"? It was set up perfectly. Or just not show it/say it at all, and let that final shot speak for itself, since 90% of the audience already knows.

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I bet, along your line of discussion of not remembering Isildur, the average viewer does not realize this is Mordor.
We all do, of course, because we are superior.

TCTTS said:

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Ha, then I'm super lost. When is there another flashback, save for Gollum's backstory?

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I just mean specifically for not remembering this bit

For cheesiest moment, I nominate the scene where the Queen vows to come back and avenge this moment
Then they show Elendil turn away and kind...cry I guess?
Which obviously it makes sense for him to be torn up, he thinks his son just died..I just thought that was a strange scene.

It was out of place similar to the queen sending in Isildur into the battle like he is some regiment of solders to turn the tide...when he is just a dude who cleans out horse stalls.

Very small in the grand scheme of the show, just makes me wonder why they didnt rewrite that scene or reshoot it.

TCTTS said:

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Brian Earl Spilner said:

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Are you familiar with Aegon the Conqueror, by chance? Or Rhaegar Targaryen?

He's never been seen on screen, Rhaegar I think once, but they're constantly talked about in HotD and GoT. I think that's the best comparison I've got at the moment.

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I vaguely remember those names, but I couldn't tell you who either one was. Names of fantasy characters just never stick in my brain.

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Brian Earl Spilner said:

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The thing I always took from that scene is that capes are badass. They need to be a thing in fantasy more.

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cochrum said:

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Sorry I have not read this thread, but the first 2 episodes suck and I was so excited about this series. Does it get any better? Thanks

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Better, yes. Great, no. I'd stick with it through episode 6. If you're not feeling it by then, probably safe to call it.

TCTTS said:

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I will say, one of the cheesiest things I've seen in an episode of TV in a long time was the "SOUTHLANDS" text changing to "MORDOR" at the end. Loved the episode itself, but man that was bad. Why not just have Adar literally say "Mordor"? It was set up perfectly. Or just not show it/say it at all, and let that final shot speak for itself, since 90% of the audience already knows.

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Totally agree. I was expecting a strike-through on SOUTHLANDS. So odd that they didn't just have Adar say it.

So I just read through 5 pages of posts to see what's been discussed, and all we're doing is tying back to the common theme that TC is illiterate and will never read Lord of the Rings nor Dune nor Game of Thrones, thus keeping him pretty limited to understanding the mythos of any of those properties.

While there were some fun points of this episode, and it always helps to watch it with my favorite big action loving 10 year old, a lot of this episode were the things that I rather feared might happen with a LOTR TV series.

1) Someone I know is going to survive presumed dead and a bunch of emotion with no depth pushed into mourning said person.

2) A long CGI shot to reveal something from the original movies - the Balrog

3) A few too many callbacks in the movies - the horse going off on its own to save Aragorn, I mean Belle's father, I mean, Isildur. The Harfoots deciding hey, a journey off to help the big folk sounds fun, let's agree to go on it in individual callouts, the Orcs having to stop and all smell the air, but failing miserably to figure out the heroes are 6 feet away.

None of that compares to Adar changing his Facebook status from "It's complicated" to "In a relationship with Mordor" at the end though. WTF was that for?

And I know it's been mentioned, but Nori was directly responsible for Eminem burning down their wagons. They should have strung her ass up and left her to the wolves.

Also why would the hobbits make jokes about the size of their own feet? They stay away from everyone else all the time, they should have zero frame of reference on how big their feet are to any other species.

I'm hoping for a 90-minute episode and some sort of realization of who Halbrand or Beanpole Dumbledore or the Real Slim Shady are. One mystery character is great, but 2 months in, I could do with some knowledge.

I mean, it's Lord of the Rings. Having it is better than not having it, and it isn't terrible like some of us expected. Good fantasy, and I think this is good, is hard to come by.

Each of the LOR movies was like 3 hours long. A few years back, I watched all 3, one after the other, on a 10 hour flight from London to Houston. The last movie just finished right before landing.

Cool story.

If only you were this critical when watching multiple adults struggle to capture an eight year old kid in Obi-Wan.

I was pretty high on the show last week, but this episode felt kinda low.

That Mordor transition to finish the episode was terrible. Why didn't Adar just say it? Or anything else. That text conversion just felt so out of place and cheap…

There were way too many death fake outs this episode. Including Celeborn being dead apparently? Clearly he's not as evidenced by The Lord of The Rings but we'll see what they do there.

I get the Southlanders have been waiting for their king, but their all-in total loyalty and passion for this new king seems unearned. Speaking of, that journey is going to suck for Halbrand. Riding a horse all the way to Eregion with a bad side wound? Not sure the logic there, but gotta get him to Celebrimbor somehow.

The Harfoots are not the best. You would think they might tell their kids to back up a few feet after asking the big man to try and heal the dead tree. Also, the encouraging speech about Harfoots are the best at sticking together (except they constantly talk about all the Harfoots they leave behind?)

However, the Durin scenes continue to be highlights. Great acting and story there.

I was hoping for a few more answers and for the plot to move a little more this week going into the finale next episode.

Meh...

The show is still a solid 6/10 for me. They just love putting things in there that are highly plot convenient or just don't make sense. There must be someone in the writers room rolling their eyes about some of this.

Apparently I'm not the only one who finds it goofy that they're about to take a multiple month long ride on horseback with Halbrand dealing with a septic wound. What?!

Also, with all the money they are putting into this, the scope of the show always seems so small. Show some large settlements. Give us some idea that the world you are building actually has inhabitants. There's just a constant group of 50 humans and 50 orcs.

Oh, and now there is a Numenorean settlement no one has mentioned? Technically, there should be several, but the writers have decided to just ignore that.

I'm trying to understand how we are going to go from 50 Southlanders and less than 500 Numenoreans, to the Last Alliance's battles of hundreds of thousands. I guess they're all going to start reproducing like rabbits.

I think instead of the text on the screen, they should have done the transition on the map they have shown many times already.

That reveal was on par with "somehow, Palpatine returned."

The reveal was actually done at the end of the last episode in a fairly incredible way. The fact that they thought they needed to spell it out like that shows how dumb they think everyone watching the show is.

If they had just started calling it Mordor, that would have been 10 times better than how they chose to.