But good on the writers if they’re setting up a direct connection to motivate why Celebrimbor and his smiths would be taken in by Annatar and create the Rings Of Power in the first place.

The jarring thing to me about the Harfoots is that it feels like we’ve spent so much time on them almost exclusively for setup, but aside from the Stranger, potential conflict for the Harfoots is that they’ll all die. Not to say that everything needs tension or stakes, but for what it says about the Harfoots…

I’m with you halfway—tbh I was trying to think of what would be a suitable Nienor parallel if it ends up being dragon-related, and I’m now rooting for Celeborn to be living as Elrond’s spouse when Galadriel sees them again.

To be clear, though, the need for the digging is urgent because these Elves are afraid of death!

My other weird little niggle is changing Isildur’s brother to a sister

Elendil isn’t concerned about revealing his allegiances for no reason.

The way she mentioned Celeborn certainly sounded like she didn’t think it was a separation, but who knows. My hunch is mostly that Celeborn won’t have been imprisoned, and everything else I can imagine would be goofier. But of those, ‘stared at Glaurung’ requires the least work to reconcile.

I would assume Berek has run off to find Isildur and that Celeborn will turn up in some future season having been bewitched by a dragon or something along those lines.

And for the time being she actually trusts Pharazôn,

That’s the Apple Pucker. You’re not missing out.

A thing you could imagine is that Adar sees Mt. Doom as what Sauron was missing in his attempts to create mastery over flesh, forges the men’s rings himself, and is betrayed like everybody else when Sauron makes the One. It’s not really textual, but then neither is Adar at all, and I’d imagine the basic fallout for…

First of all, Míriel is a Queen-Regent

The whole reason why Halbrand is considered the new king is because he descends from a past king, long ago.

It’s already been established that there are many, many villages.

It’s a sword that’s powered by blood which doubles as the key to some magic mechanism that blows dams, but also the aqueducts to channel the water to Orodruin hadn’t been dug yet. I think it’s easiest to accept that the writers simply decided that Mt. Doom needed to go boom in this episode, and that Adar should still…

the “Do you remember me?” line, that didn’t mean much until Adar revealed that he (thinks he) killed Sauron to free the Uruk.

Presumably Waldreg snuck out as the Numenoreans came in and was well gone by the time Halbrand brought down Adar. It’s difficult to imagine anybody who had stayed with Bronwyn/Arondir not noticing him otherwise.

Basic physics? Snapping the arrow like that’s going to move the shaft in the process.

It is straight from J.R.R. Tolkien’s letters that after Morgoth’s defeat Sauron repented his evil ways and wanted to help the people of Middle-earth. But his pride kept him from surrendering to the Valar, and the same pride made him believe that only he could bring the world into the order that it’s supposed to…

Part of the problem is that Elves are supposed to seem aloof/haughty to hobbits and people.