S01 Season 1 Episode 3: Adar

As for me, I do believe I've already said all I care to of a "discontented or negative" nature regarding the series at large.
I will refocus my attentions to what I came here for to begin with... that is, the works of JRRT.
And I'll leave the rest to all of you. (Though some day at some point I may still speak to 'meteor man' briefly.)

There is not a lot of value to me in speaking to the same territory over and over again - but rather looking for what is new and laudable and good wherever it can be found.

So I will 'observe RoP' from afar.
I trust that will be acceptable to most, if not all.

Well-aged Enting said:

I trust that will be acceptable to most, if not all.

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I'm afraid I have to accept it, although I think it's a shame as I found your input very inspiring.
But I can also understand that you would rather deal with the positive sides of Middle-earth.
For me, it tends to be that I quietly enjoy these positive aspects (of the books), while I am very happy to argue about the negative or disputable things.

By the way, you seem to be another account of a very well-known user, am I right? 😄

Annatar said:

There is also apparently no difference between elves and humans beyond their pointed ears. Makes no sense. I hope that in future episodes at least immortality will still be an issue, as this is ultimately the most important factor in all of Numenor's conflicts.

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The hostilitity of the Edain to the Eldar should at least have been explained, as this is so important to the events that follow.

But now back to the less philosophical details of episode 3:
What do you think of the Numenor design?



From my point of view it looks fantastic, but how true to the book is it actually?

It reminds me stylistically of ancient Greece, the Minoans and Babylon or their Sumerian predecessors. At the same time, of course, there are borrowings from the later (PJ- and book-) Gondor.

It's a bit of a shame, though, that they seem to have merged Romenna and Armenelos into one city.

Well-aged Enting said:

As for me, I do believe I've already said all I care to of a "discontented or negative" nature regarding the series at large.
I will refocus my attentions to what I came here for to begin with... that is, the works of JRRT.
And I'll leave the rest to all of you. (Though some day at some point I may still speak to 'meteor man' briefly.)

There is not a lot of value to me in speaking to the same territory over and over again - but rather looking for what is new and laudable and good wherever it can be found.

So I will 'observe RoP' from afar.
I trust that will be acceptable to most, if not all.

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Obviously you are free not to view the threads that specifically relate to RoP. I wonder why you're still here if you don't find any value in it?

Annatar said:

It's a bit of a shame, though, that they seem to have merged Romenna and Armenelos into one city.

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You're assuming that they know the difference

Ealdwyn said:

You're assuming that they know the difference

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Here I would actually and for once not be quite so strict 😉
For cinematic reasons it might make sense to combine a few locations on Numenor?

By the way, I associate that Numenor style a bit with the Ishtar Gate of Babylon:



And this is what a typical Greek port looked like back then:



I personally like this Mediterranean-antique design of Numenor, even if it was perhaps a bit exaggerated in certain aspects...



The ancient Greeks and Babylonians, or their successors, the Persians, were of course enemies and opposing cultures at the time. In the series, however, I see stylistic components from both sides. (But I state this without any valuation concerning the series).

According to Tolkien, Numenor has certain parallels to Atlantis. Atlantis was a Greek-Egyptian myth. Tolkien also mentioned that the early, colossal buildings of the Dunedain were reminiscent of the monumental architecture of the Egyptians. In this respect, I think the design of the buildings in Numenor is quite legitimate, even if one rather guesses the neighbors of the Ancient Egyptians here....
In detail, it could perhaps look even more grandiose, depending on which aspect of the extremely long Second Age is to be reflected, which, unfortunately, can never be said exactly with that debatable time compression of the series.

Annatar said:

By the way, you seem to be another account of a very well-known user, am I right?

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No sir - I only have this account. It is quite enough for me to manage.

Ealdwyn said:

I wonder why you're still here if you don't find any value in it?

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Hi @Ealdwyn.
Maybe what I said wasn't quite clear enough so I'll give it a go this way.

"There is not a lot of value to me in speaking to the same territory over and over again - but rather looking for what is new and laudable and good wherever it can be found."

Perhaps it would have been better if I'd phrased it: "...not a lot of value for me to be typing out and sharing stuff on the same territory over and over..."

Why am I here?
1. There is great value in Tolkien.
2. There is great value in the Wiki, history, threads, etc. that are here.
3. There is great value in being able to ask questions, offer thoughts, and receive knowledgeable answers regarding Tolkien.
4. There are kernels of value in the RoP threads where they refer to ways the show differs from Tolkien, and have added stuff to my research list accordingly.
5. I'm all about increasing my familiarity with and grasp of the Lore and there's a lot of knowledge among the members.
6. I'm also about having some fun in the process.
7. I've already met two authors here, have proofread and provided critique on one's book, and added a few thoughts into the other's work.
8. I have been introduced to what I currently term 'extreme role playing' - and that to such a degree that I have concern individual personalities may be completely lost in character identity. I've seen too it's much more difficult to get a sense of who a person really is behind the character, which presents an interesting sideline challenge for me.
9. The people here are far and away more enjoyable to learn from than other places I've been. Almost zero 'personal attack', recrimination and condemnation for differences of opinion on hazy matters, or even on 'dumb questions.'
10. Not a day goes by that I don't learn something. (I don't speak of 'remembering'... that's a whole different issue. 🥴)

The whole post was about where I invest my time 'speaking to' (typing out and sharing) stuff here... because that takes time to do.
And what I have to say on RoP in a 'negative' sense is pretty repetitive. (In fact, what I have to say in a positive sense would be pretty repetitive as well.)
SO... that's not where I want to spend my time - 'covering the same territory over and over again' with the members.

Oh, there are specific things I could choose to bark at...but I'd prefer, if I say anything, to deal with something I could speak well of.

The reason I will "leave the rest to all of you" is because a perfectly satisfactory job of highlighting the many aspects of the series that are askew is already being done, by far more knowledgeable people, and there's just no reason for me to think I am competent to add anything to it.

So perhaps this helps answer why am I still here.

Well-aged Enting said:

Maybe what I said wasn't quite clear enough so I'll give it a go this way.

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I think maybe it is I who didn't express myself clearly enough.
I was asking why you were still on this RoP thread, commenting on the same things over and over again. I wasn't asking about the forum in general.

Ealdwyn said:

I was asking why you were still on this RoP thread

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Ah. That's a good question..!
Why was I still commenting on the thread ?! And why did I feel a need to post that last part at all ?!

I don't know. Perhaps because I had said a bunch elsewhere previously, in various small 'snippets', though nothing so revealing about my discontent - but had not necessarily drawn it all together and "put it out there". (Something I was trying hard not to do, but I ultimately failed.)

So it wasn't that I was already repeating things I'd said before. I'd withheld my views for the most part prior to my loss of control.

I just wanted to post "I do believe I've already said all I care to of a "discontented or negative" nature regarding the series at large" - as it would have become repetitive going forward, and I wanted folks to know. Especially I think for Annatar, with whom I was having an interchange at the time.

If there's 'good news' about my loss of control, it would be this:
Members of the Forum can look on all I said, and extending it beyond just Amazon, determine what I think of the current state of Capitalist America as it has evolved into, rather than it should be, having lost its way, Amazon is, by and large, just a microcosm of the larger problem.

But anyway, perhaps this helps clarify, if I now rightly understand your thrust - lousy reason for the post though it is.

None of these actors looks like an elf:

Berzelmayr said:

None of these actors looks like an elf:

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I'm not sure what you mean. What should an elf look like?

I was under the impression it was up to interpretation since elves are fictional

Ealdwyn said:

I'm not sure what you mean. What should an elf look like?

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Berzelmayr said:

None of these actors looks like an elf:

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😆 Head-Canon speaks! Or are they supposed to only look like how Jenny Dolfen see them?

Erestor Arcamen said:

I was under the impression it was up to interpretation since elves are fictional

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I'd say that the Lingerers (Elves who have bodily faded) are usually unseen, nowadays.

Halasían said:

😆 Head-Canon speaks! Or are they supposed to only look like how Jenny Dolfen see them?

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I think Tolkien would have been a fan of Jenny Dolfen's work.