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.

I guess I need to give this show another chance. I liked the first season, but it quickly lost me when he was in Egypt trying to date his cousin in season 2. It made me cringe enough to turn off the show and forget to turn it back on.

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…

So, the “Heroic Origins” episode?

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.

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…

PS Anyone else see the browser title of this page being for the Walter Hill Western article?

And I really liked that Adar claims that Sauron had, in his own mind, benevolent intentions for Middle-earth.

Oh, I disagree. I thought Season 5 had some great episodes.

Most of the stuff at the ranch fell flat for me. Unless he’s gonna be Abomination, I don’t want to see Emil anymore. His revamp is just the “Trevor” joke all over again, and it wasn’t funny the first time. I’d just like more conflict. The plot of this episode amounted to ‘sad a boy won’t call.’ As the MCU tries to…

I would like to remind everyone that Jennifer Walters is an adult woman. An attorney. She’s not a 25 year old first year associate that shuffles papers or even second chairs, she was a lead attorney on a partner track when we first meet her. Tatiana Maslany just turned 37 one week ago today (happy birthday, queen). So…

Not sure a sword expert was really needed for that call. I’d imagine there’s a case to be made for using dull metal swords if they better match the weight and balance than wooden ones.

Even Greek fire wasn’t highly explosive, and was usually assigned to dedicated ships/crews rather than the general navy. And even then, who are we supposed to think are Numenor’s naval rivals? The orcs won’t fuck with water, and it’s hard not to think Halbrand’s ramshackle raft has nothing to say about the Southrons’…

Sure, possibly? FWIW I’d have thought it much less ridiculous had the ships simply burned—a ship that needs significant repairs isn’t any more fit for deployment as a ship that’s been sunk, after all. And it makes so little sense to carry something so risky in a small fleet with the monarch abord.

Not only isn’t there any hint of an investigation, but everyone just buys that Isildur and Kemen happen to be out fishing in the middle of the night?

Well, fwiw, I wish the show had more time to delve into Numenor. Even if they’re putting off any political focus until season 2 or 3, give some characters Adunaic names and have them lean into the narcissism/elitism. What if a Southron 10 is really just a Numenorean 6? Make Halbrand conspicuously shorter than Elendil.…

Galadriel assumes it was sabotage by a “partisan” and says as much. What is silly is that everyone else is basically like, “meh, happens,” in regards to two ships getting destroyed. As though this a common thing that doesn’t require deeper investigation.

What’s weird is that you could see them setting up a certain kind of narrative: since Miriel’s apparently unwed/childless, Pharazon’s already next in the line of succession, with an arguably valid claim to the sceptre on the basis of the King’s Men’s greater wealth and numbers.

Sure, but in that case they both hang. My bigger point is that unless the show’s trying to establish a running joke about Numenorean ships being death traps, there’s no obvious reason for Miriel, Pharazon or anybody else in power not to entertain the idea that it was sabotage and treat it as such.

Well, it’s not an invasion force; the idea is that the Numenoreans are going to try to organize the Southlanders under Halbrand.