Sauron appearing in increasingly absurd Count Olaf disguises would make the show attain instant-classic status.

I kind of want Sauron to go back into Eregion in yet another form so Celebrimbor just keeps getting tricked by Saurons in disguise.

Well, to be fair, I don’t think the fall of Numenor is “imminent”. Presumably it’s happening in a later season, since a lot has to happen before it does.

I mean, I think made pretty clear why I thought there was a difference. Celebrimbor atoning for his foolish hubris by refusing to give up his friends (some of whom he foolishly spurned in favor of Annatar) is a lot more meaningful than him getting killed by a random guy he talked to for a few weeks.

Yeah, I think what I’m pointing to is that Celebrimbor’s error with Sauron is long and complex. It’s not an “I was tricked for two weeks because I was desperate” mistake. It was a, “I was collaborating with this guy for years because of my own ambition, turned on my friends, and led my people astray, and it turned out…

Yeah, the take on Numenor baffles me. Why not start right out with them being this immensely powerful force?

I didn’t really mean to say that the time compression was “the” problem. I certainly have issues with other elements of the storytelling (not a fan at all of the we-need-mithril-to-live plotline at all - as dumb as the Arwen-will-die one they added to the movies). But, for me, the time compression is really draining a…

That or telling a more focused story? Like, devote a season to the build up to the rings. That includes a political coup against Galadriel (and Celeborn), Celebrimbor being cozened etc. I think that they attempted to tell too much in too little space. 

Thanks! A lot is working for me in this show. I’m liking the characters and story in a general sense. But I really do think it’s missing something and it’s the squished timeline that’s the problem. 

I have mixed feelings. Honestly, I think what is really not working for me is the compression of time and how it sort of makes everything less weighty? Celebrimbor doesn’t have a years’ long relationship with an evil Maia who tricks him … it happens over a few days. Numenor doesn’t rise to immense imperial power over…

I think Tolkien said different things (which makes it confusing). He did say at one point that it’s not recorded when Celeborn left, but he was the last elf who remembered the First Age on Middle Earth to leave.

I don’t think Midnight Mass was aiming for scary honestly. I think it was more “horror” in the sense of moral/ethical revulsion. 

Them not leaving together is one of those things that I find intriguing about Celeborn’s character. We’re told that he twice refuses to go to Valinor (his refusal to leave is one of the reasons Galadriel does not go in the beginning of the Second Age). He’s also completely uninterested in going at the end of LotR. So…

Celeborn did not go to Valinor with Galadriel. He even laments the fact that she is leaving him. Tolkien stated that no one knows when Celeborn finally chose to go West.

Not sure what you mean. In some versions at least, Celeborn and Galadriel were apart for quite a long time. Galadriel left Eregion and Celeborn stayed. They didn’t meet again until a long time after Eregion fell.

I’m enjoying this. Though I admit when I saw them getting that water from that mountain stream all I could think was that it was a good way to get giardia. 

I loved Midnight Mass. It was incredible. I’m rewatching for Halloween. 

Yeah… Which is why I called it weasely. There’s an obvious interpretation but they can have practically anything happen without contradicting her.

No, she said she lost her husband. Which is weasely enough to cover anything.

He wasn’t changed to a sister. They mentioned Anarion in an earlier episode. They just added a sister.