Thoughts on Rings of Power (full spoilers)

Episode six has raised a lo of questions and a storm of thoughts, not unlike the cataclysm unleashed at the end of it. I will try to put them across one by one.

- What was Sauron's design? What was his intention with that hilt?

The hilt is obviously not just a hilt, it has magic woven into it, otherwise any other hilt would have sufficed to insert into the sword and drive into the well. Also, it is obviously Sauron's, because Galadriel has identified the sigil. In that case, why did he create it? What was he objective of launching the flood, leading to a volcano, and destroying the continent? Don't orcs need food to eat?

- Halbrand grows more interesting and more mysterious. What is his backstory? Why doesn't Galadriel ask? She has uptil now, simply assumed that he is the king of the Southlands. She has got no confirmation from him, apart from him saying that he is not the hero she seeks. and from confessing that she doesn't know what he did before he landed on that boat. I'm trying to remember, did he ditch the other people on that raft so that he could survive? Very, very, stupid of Galadriel to not ask, to not confirm, before she bestows such a great responsibility on him. At least ask his name and enquire with learned people about his family? But then Galadriel has been acting generally stupid in the series, and particularly in this episode. Why didn't she check the item that Adar carried? Why give it to Arondir? Wasn't it more worthy of her time and investigation? It's another story that Arondir, equally stupid, gives it to Theo. I was so afraid that Theo would just run amok with it and refuse to give it back, just like Isildur.

- Also, I totally ship Galadriel and Halbrand, that moment when they both confessed that fighting beside each other was a feeling they wished they could bind to each other... now that's a line I wish I could bind to myself.

- The show had other such binding dialogues too. The "shadow" dialogue from Bronwyn to Theo was one such, I loved it. Despite Bronwyn's glamorous, royal blue sleeveless dress which I find annoying and misfitting amidst all the drab earth colored rags. But then, the scene of styming Bronwyn's wound, quite graphic and nail biting to watch.

- But then, the entire episode was nail biting, from the orcs coming in and Arondir ambushing them, to the second ambush, the semblance of victory, then the real attack, and the rescue by Galadriel and company. Although, how did the company know exactly where to go? That's the flaw that the show does not answer. Maybe Halbrand told them? We don't know yet though. And it seems stupid, like every other stupid brainless action movie where the hero performs a miraculous rescue.

- Adar is hot. Quit hot. Beyond hot. Ugly in a very attractive way. Especially his voice. But let's go back to his ugliness, and to the point which has always rankled for me, in Lord of the Rings. Why are orcs ugly? Why this stereotyping? And why cast an entire race as evil and deserving of no more than death? Isn't that racist?

- I thank Adar for raising those points which someone should have raised a long time ago. About how LOTR portrays people as black and white, but life is lived in the middle, and all of us are gray. The point where he calls Galadriel out, pointing out that she is as evil as the villain she seeks to destroy, is a powerful one. But even more so is the one where he points out that they too, are the creations of the one maker, and as deserving of a home as any other life. If, like Galadriel says, the orcs were made in mockery, twisted and tortured, then don't they deserve love and rehabilitation instead of extermination?

Baby is up. More later

Until then, a few random observations.

Notice how the R's are more fully pronounced here than in contemporary English speech. SauRon. SilmaRil. NomenoR. Is that the way English was pronounced in the middle ages?

Also, the Isildur storyline grows more interesting, and Isil as a character, despite that trying-too-hard father-son moment in this episode.