#this is about book!celebrimbor i have not watched trop so i have no idea if it fits the series version

[abomination-unto-nuggan]

I have an autistic Celebrimbor headcanon.

His craft is his special interest. He is ready to compromise his relationships for his principles but also easier to manipulate than many other elves. He doesn't only grieve the world diminishing, he is shaken by how different everything gets.

Sauron uses all of that.

[sunnyshinesunshine]

Okay so I’ve finally solidified my opinion on The Rings of Power and given that it is my opinion it is therefore very important and I’m sure everyone is dying to hear it (this is sarcasm)

I’ll start by saying I’m not a critical person when it comes to things. I consume media to enjoy myself, not to pick apart its literary or thematic flaws. It’s fine if you do, but that’s just not me.

I will also say I’ve never read the Fall of Númenor as its own story, so any Tolkien primary sources I’m vaguely alluding to (this isn’t a research paper been there done that got the high school diploma I bake cookies for a living I ain’t citing shit thanks <3) are the Silmarillion, LoTR, and The Hobbit.

I didn’t like TROP for the first season, but after catching up on S2, I’ve come to enjoy it.

S1 is the full of world building, setting up the political stage and the relationships between the characters that lead to the creation of the rings and all the other bad hullabaloo that ends in the Last Alliance.

Safe to say, I spent the whole time going ‘what? why is he/she/them saying/believing/acting like this? why is it/this portrayed like this???’ and felt very irked by the whole thing.

S2, the rings are being created, familiar events start happening, the puzzle pieces from S1 that were so unfamiliar and bothersome to me then come together to create a picture that I knew.

Once I got to thinking I realized I actually know a whole lot less about the fall of numenor and the creation of the rings than I thought I did.

When Tolkien writes about those events, he gives the broad strokes in a very history-book way. Celebrimbor creates the rings because he is deceived by Sauron. Tar-Míriel is overthrown by Ar-Pharazôn and marries him against his will. Elrond is with Gil-Galad as his herald.

These are the things, amongst others, that we know. Unlike in the Hobbit or LoTR, we aren’t given any glimpses into the heads or relationships of the characters in anything other than what amounts to almost a timeline of events.

This, of course, leaves a lot of room for Tolkien fans to ask questions. Questions that can be answered through imagination. Imagination becomes ideas, ideas become discussions, discussions become a collective understanding of what happened (fanon*. I’m talking fanon. please read the note at the end because I think fanon is awesome and deserves to be defended)

For example. We know Celebrimbor and Narvi built the Doors of Durin together and added possibly the most ridiculous riddle password possible.

When the Doors are first introduced in LoTR, it is also in the middle of Gimli and Legolas’ semi feuding, and before both of them have some serious moments regarding their histories and cultures (Khazad-Dûm and Lothlórien respectively).

All of this to conclude that at some point between Gigolas’s inter-species feuding and the password to the damn doors being ‘mellon’, as Tolkien fans, we came to the conclusion that Celebrimbor and Narvi were close friends.

Celebrimbor and Narvi are not really much more than acquaintances in TROP. And that isn’t inaccurate. The source material doesn’t have an opinion on it really.

Fanon says Celebrimbor and Narvi were pals. TROP says they weren’t. Canon doesn’t care either way.

I mention this example to explain why TROP felt so wrong especially at the beginning. Essentially we, or at least I, had this idea of how things should be, and when TROP diverged from that I felt lost and annoyed.

Now, I find watching TROP to be honestly kind of fascinating, like watching someone else painting using a model and comparing it to the painting I had already created of that same model.

It’s kind of fun. And every Elrond deserves all of us cheering him on.

*about Fanon:

I love fanon it’s awesome and great and it’s fucking collective story telling in a way that hasn’t really existed in modern times. Thousands of people from all over the world create and agree and discuss and add on to stories. The marauders fandom is almost completely fanon and that’s wonderful. Every single one of you who share your ideas about characters or settings or clothes or even (especially) who create the elleths who exist in the Silmarillion but don’t at the same time, you are awesome.

You’ve created a story and world together. Without being paid. You’ve agreed and created simply for the love of creation. And that’s so amazing.

Fanon is awesome and I don’t care for anyone who calls it cringe.

[fandomsandfairytales]

So tonight I watched my first ever Rings of Power episode.

Some brief background on my thoughts on/experiences with TROP: I haven't actually watched any of it, though I have read occasional articles on it and I've been in online spaces that are pro-TROP and anti-TROP. I'm kinda....neutral-TROP, leaning a little more negative, but I'm interested enough to read up on what's going on in the current season.

I've kept going back and forth on wanting to watch the show at all, mainly because I don't feel like dedicating the time to it. But tonight I was like "I kinda wanna watch something while eating dinner. Maybe TROP?" I didn't really want to watch the very first episode in season 1, because I'd been semi-keeping up with season 2 stuff, so I decided, why not watch the newest episode that literally came out today? So that's what I did. Here's my thoughts on 2x07—non-spoiler-y above the cut, and spoiler-y below.

Non-spoiler-y things:

My reactions were mainly lots and lots of tearing up and yelling at my TV screen. Not even in a "I dislike this" way, but a "I get easily emotional about media sometimes" way, lol.

Celebrimbor and Annatar's interactions were fantastically done. I kept yelling at Annatar XD it definitely gave me ideas for & validated stuff I was already thinking about for "but for the look in his eyes". Mwahahaha.

I enjoyed getting to see Elrond—he feels very young and it was cool to see him before the time of LOTR, when he is not yet seen as the wise lord of Rivendell.

General feelings about the episode: I liked it and was annoyed by it in turns. I think it was the best first episode I could've watched, because I already knew a fair amount of what was happening and it wasn't hard to pick up on.

Spoiler-y things (these are all over the place and really not in chronological order, lol):

Celebrimbor cutting off his thumb to get out of the chains!!! For a moment I really thought he was going to pull a Maedhros (really, a Fingon) and cut off his whole wrist. But then he only put his thumb under the metal cutter thingy and I also noticed it was his left hand

The soldiers and Mirdania had major "sure Grandpa, let's get you back to the nursing home" vibes when interacting with him

I really enjoyed watching Annatar and Celebrimbor's interactions. I'm sure some people read their relationship as Silvergifting, and I don't, but I still enjoyed it. Annatar's condescension to Celebrimbor! Annatar telling the people that Celebrimbor had gone insane when in actuality Celebrimbor didn't know anything was happening bc Annatar was hiding it from him! Annatar pulling the victim-blaming move of "you made me do this to you" and Celebrimbor going "no. nope. you're the Great Deceiver"! Celebrimbor breaking down over his city in flames and realizing he's been betrayed!!! So so good. I had fun yelling at Annatar (things like "SHUSH," "HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT," "STOP IT" etc.)

Celebrimbor and Galadriel finding solace and understanding in each other getting manipulated by Sauron was sweet. Even though of course all of Galadriel's interactions with Halbrand in season 1 didn't happen in canon, I liked that it gave Galadriel and Celebrimbor something in common.

I hated/was genuinely upset at Annatar making those guys kill each other. Not on a basis of whether he could actually do that or not, but because there was a book I read with an evil villain who did mind control and that specific thing really reminded me of that.

The parallels to Helm's Deep, like with all the archers on the wall and the orcs breaching the wall and then the light coming over the hill, were kinda cheesy. I wanted to be more awe-inspired, but I just really....wasn't.

THE. KISS. I yelled at my TV for that. I was literally screaming "NO!!! THAT IS SO WRONG!!!!! THAT SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING NO NO NO NOOOOOOOO UGH THAT IS SO WRONG"

And I was pretty sure it was for a specific reason, so Elrond could give Galadriel something to escape, and it was, but STILL. HE COULD HAVE JUST HUGGED HER AND SLIPPED HER THE PIN. SERIOUSLY. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE, SHOW WRITERS

Celebrimbor said something along the lines of "I knew he would bring trouble" and I immediately started singing "I knew you were trouble when you walked in..." XD

And then when he said "I built this city," I sang, "We built this city on rock and roll"

It was cool getting to see the footage of Elrond fighting, because I remembered those clips from the trailer and being kinda excited over them

Durin's speech to the dwarves was pretty great. I enjoyed it

I also enjoyed his and Elrond's interactions!!! The way Durin called Elrond a flagpole made me laugh but also made me think of Celebrimbor's fate, being strung up on a pole like a banner

I liked the sort-of parallel to the Nirnaeth with the dwarves not coming (or not appearing to anyway) to help

All of The Silm name-drops and mentions!!!! I got excited over those. Melian as Elrond's ancestress (I squealed), Fëanor's hammer (loved that honestly), Morgoth, the Valar, Rúmil. Like, these names are being spoken on TV in the year of our Lord 2024 and yes this show is not canon-compliant but there's references to The Silm and I am eating them up

Galadriel looked younger than Elrond, which I thought could be a possibility because Morfydd Clark and Robert Aramayo appear roughly the same age, though it kinda irked me because she's his (future) mother-in-law. But somehow, when Galadriel was with Celebrimbor, even though he definitely looked older than her, she managed to convey a sense of wisdom and care that made sense as an aunt to his character.

I decided at the start of the episode that I'm not going to be upset about how old Celebrimbor looked compared to Elrond and Galadriel, because that ship has sailed, we are firmly in season 2, complaining about how anyone looks now is completely pointless. And also if I kind of...separate him from the younger cast, the comparison doesn't distract me. Charles Edwards is a good actor and he plays Celebrimbor well, so yeah.

Gil-Galad's voice was deeper than I expected. However, the good thing was that I didn't really have a picture in my head of him before TROP season 1 came out, so he kinda got established as "that's how he looked," and his voice was the only somewhat surprising thing about him to me.

I liked Gil-Galad and Elrond's armor.

I was rooting for Arondir.

Elrond: "You should not be here!" Me: "Yeah, why are you only showing up now? Lol"

Gil-Galad's following line about how a king should not stay back in a fight or whatever totally made me think of "A king is he who can hold his own" (Maedhros)

Adar's character still drives me crazy because who the heck is he??? this man (elf, orc, whatever) is not in canon unless he has a different name but UGH

The battles and CGI and stuff all felt....not fake exactly. But it felt very modern-day and somewhat cheap in the making, whereas the LOTR movies and even The Hobbit feel like there's so much more poured into it all. The design, the pacing/story beats, the depth. Even though there was a battle, and characters' lives were on the line, I didn't...feel a whole lot about that. (To be fair, I am jumping in after not seeing any of the rest of this show, and also I know Galadriel and Elrond are going to live. So there's that. But I've read reviews that have a similar perspective, so idk.)

I loved that Elrond got so upset about his horse being killed and fought harder bc of it. I thought there might actually be backstory about him and his horse that I'm not aware of, but even if it's just that he simply cares about animals and his horse was killed, I'm all for it.

The "put your backs into it, maggots!" or whatever the orc commander guys were yelling was VERY Lord of the Rings-movie esque. Also I kinda liked the parallel to the orcs expressing concerns to Saruman about the trees and stuff (with the orc guy questioning Adar about sacrificing orc lives to reach Sauron)

I don't remember who said this, but it was probably Adar: "Leave Sauron to me" made me remark "yeah, we've heard that before. From Saruman" (in The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies)

I didn't think about this until later, but the episode didn't have any advancements in the Harfoots or Numenoreans plotlines, and I'm perfectly fine with that

All in all: I'd say the episode was a 7/10. Maybe a 6.5/10 because of the kiss. As I mentioned at the start, I think it was the best first episode I could watch—yes, because I already had some context for most things, but also because there were pivotal points in this episode for plotlines that I liked. Annatar's corruption of Celebrimbor was realized, the war for Eregion fully under way, Elrond and Gil-Galad fought in the battle, Elrond and Durin talked, Celebrimbor and Galadriel talked. I got to see the characters and plotlines I was most interested in, and I genuinely enjoyed that. I might actually watch the next episode when it comes out, we'll see!