Rings of Power First Impression

 I saw the first two episodes of the first season of the Rings of Power, a series on Amazon Prime.  I enjoyed, overall, those episodes, and I look forward to watching more.  But, I cannot say that I am excited or impressed with the quality of the program. There were a few things I did not like. 

First, Galadriel.  She was of such a high status that she would not have needed anyone to help her get an audience with Gil-Galad, and the episode portrays her as just a high-ranking elf whose brother happened to die “while searching for Sauron”.  The rule for the creators should have been to only change things in the original stories that needed to be changed to make for a better story. These changes diminish, rather than enhance, the quality of the story. Galadriel’s brother Finrod was killed in barehanded combat with a werewolf as he protected Beren, during a mission against Morgoth. Finrod engaged in a battle of song with Sauron shortly before this.  That is a better story than the one in Rings of Power where Finrod is merely some guy (he was in fact a king) killed while hunting for Sauron, and it was stupid to change that story.  On the other hand, the creators of this show do not have rights to portray anything outside the appendices in the Lord of the Rings, so maybe they were not legally able to explain events that took place in the Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-Earth or The Book of Lost Tales and so forth.

And more about Galadriel.  She established the realm of Eregion, which she ruled under Gil-Gilad.  So, she would be one of the most important lords of his realm.  And, she is the younger sister of Gil-Gilad’s grandfather Angrod, aunt to his father Orodreth.  Why would she need Elrond to help her get an audience with Gil-Gilad?  I have no objections to making Galadriel obsessed with killing orcs and finding Sauron, or portraying her as a younger elf (she is already thousands of years old, but she could still look young, I am sure).  All that is fine.  But, by diminishing her status I do not see what the story creators for Rings of Power are adding to the story. It was unnecessary to demote her, and doing so makes the film more cliched than if they had presented us with a more unusual situation of the highest ranking female elf in the world going off on dangerous missions. On the other hand, I think the series may be able to show character development and growth for Galadriel, and so I am objecting to the context of her personality and its significance, rather than her personality in general.  

Gil-Galad should not be the one determining who can go to Valinor.  The Elves decide for themselves when they go across the sea.  The show creators have given the elves a far less interesting culture and civilization by portraying them as having an intrusive absolute monarchy where the High King can make such deeply personal decisions for his subjects. Tolkien was suspicious of power, and the High King of the Elves should not be exercising such power.  The show creators have missed an opportunity to show something great and significant, and instead followed a boring trope about powerful kings.  Sigh.

Most of the portrayals of elves in the several film and television adaptations of Tolkien’s world miss the sense that elves are not entirely like humans (they are like the better aspects of who we should aspire to be). They are capable of flaws (some were corrupted, and there have been instances of kin-slaying), but in many ways, they have motivations and behaviors that are unlike those of mortal humans. For example, they don’t get old, so whether an elf is 500 years old or 1000 years old or 5000 years old, they might exhibit psychological dynamics humans could associate with younger adults or middle-aged adults or senior adults.  Had the show creators considered this, they might have seen that portraying Galadriel as being obsessed with finding and destroying the last traces of Morgoth’s damage to Middle Earth and eliminating his captains (Sauron in particular, since it was Sauron who was responsible for the death of her brother Finrod) could have been consistent with portraying Galadriel as one of the greatest and most heroic of all the elves in Middle Earth (in the same class of lords as Gil-Gilad, Cirdan, and Elrond). She should not be portrayed as a junior up-and-coming officer in Gil-Galad’s kingdom.

 During the time of the story (later Second Age) Elrond should meet and fall in love with Galadriel’s daughter, Celebrían. I wonder if we will meet Celebrían in a later season. Elrond and Celebrían do not get married until early in the Third Age, so Galadriel won’t become Elrond’s mother-in-law during the Rings of Power series, but their friendship should be portrayed in such a way that this eventual fate should be plausible. In the first two episodes of Rings of Power there is no indication that Galadriel is married or that she has a daughter.

I do not mind it that the show creators have female dwarves without beards.  That is a trivial detail, and the idea that female dwarves had beards and were nearly indistinguishable from male dwarves seems like exactly the sort of story element that can be changed to make a better television show.  Do we want all the dwarf women to be portrayed by male actors or female actors with false beards?  Maybe that would be more interesting, but I think the use of dwarf females without beards is fine. It doesn’t matter to the story.

The races of actors and actresses is unimportant, and I am entirely indifferent to that, and do not see any reason for controversy on that point.   

Elves should be both extremely wise and good and powerful, but also merry and full of laughter and light-hearted humor. So far, we are only seeing the serious side of elves, and that is too bad. Showing their laughter and light-hearted aspect could give them greater complexity.  The show creators seem to think that Elves are merely a special race of humans.  They are not human; they are closer to angels than humans, or at least something in-between, and should be shown as masters of speech and song.  If the show-creators and screenwriters are not masters of language, perhaps they will fail to adequately portray the nobility of elves through their speech. I am not impressed with the dialog in the series so far. The screenwriters ought to improve their writing.  I suggest that they read Tolkien, and draw inspiration from his writing.

As to all the non-canon characters, I’m fine with those stories.  There is so little written about the Second Age, and what is written is mostly not part of the story that Amazon has rights to portray, so I expected the show creators to mainly use non-canon characters doing things that fit in with the broad framework of the Second Age. In fact, given how I dislike some of the things they have done with characters that Tolkien wrote about, I am hoping we will see more of the characters that Amazon created. Telling stories about such new people will reduce opportunities for show-creators to contradict the points that Tolkien did make about the Second Age.  I used to play Iron Crown's Middle-Earth Role-Playing (like D&D, but set early in the Third Age of Tolkien's world).  In playing campaigns in that setting, I saw that given the Tolkien framework, one could create new characters and stories, and do so without trying to change significant aspects of Middle Earth history or the characters who are named or described in Tolkien’s books. I wish that the show creators had taken an approach like that, with Tolkien's heroes being present but distant. 

Were I designing a massive Rings of Power television series to span seven seasons, I would do it like this:

Season one. In the first two episodes, show events around 950-1000, including the rise of Sauron in Mordor and the beginning of the construction of Barad-dur. Episodes 3 & 4 skip ahead, set in 1200, we see Sauron (disguised and appearing fair and helpful) meet Gil-Gilad and Elrond, and they reject him, but he goes to Eregion, and cultivates the trust of the elves there. The skills of the elves increase. These episodes would show Numenor becoming more imperialistic and the strong friendships between the elves of Eregion and the dwarves of Kazad-dum. Episodes 5-8 would show Sauron forging the One Ring, and season 1 would conclude in 1693 with the beginning of the war between the elves and Sauron. In episode 6 we would meet the Blue Wizards, and in episode 7 or 8 we would be introduced to Glorfindel, returned from the Halls of Mandos and Valinor.  I can imagine the scene where he meets Galadriel and brings her news of her dead brother Finrod, given a new body and reincarnated so that he could enjoy life in Valinor with his wife Amarië and their father Finarfin. I wonder if this Amazon series will portray that.

Season two would be the war between elves and Sauron. We would see the years 1693 to 1701. Harfoot and human characters introduced in the second half of the first season could have their stories continue in the eight years covered in this season. 

Season three would be from 2220 to 2280.  We would see the last year of the reign of Tar-Atanamir The Great in Numenor (440 years old and dying in episode one), who would exhibit pride and greed, and we would see the last of the messengers sent by the Valar to him, and witness his complaints about the doom of men and mortality. Then the rest of the season would take place during the early reign of Tar-Ancalimon. We would see the construction of the new city of Pelargir and the fortress of Umbar as Numenorian outposts on Middle Earth. We would see the transformation of Sauron’s captains (introduced late in Season 1, developed in Season 2) into the Nazgul. The rings would have magnified their power and extended their lives.  Presumably there would be dwarf lords who would use their rings of power and have amassed tremendous treasures and founded powerful centers of mining, culture, and trade (and we might see one of these dwarf lords betrayed by Sauron and consumed by a dragon). We would see the corruption and strife within Numenor contrasted with the nobility and virtue of its people. The season would have some of the deepest philosophical critiques of modernity, because the Kings’ Men (Numenorians who despise the Ban of the Valar and share Tar-Atanamir’s distrust of the elves and the Valar) would be very recognizable in their pursuit of wealth and diversion and their desperate desire to extend their life-spans. There would be interesting and speculative conversations about death in this season. The Kings’ Men should be “good” in their sense of fairness, their courtesy and kindness, and their generosity, but their flaws should be shown to spring from their pride, their fear of death, and their greed. 

Season four would skip ahead 900 years and show us the years from 3175 to 3262. We would see civil war in Numenor. We would see Tar Palantir take the throne after the death of his father, and his attempts to get the Numenoreans back on track, devoted to the Valar and the old customs, but opposed by his brother Gimilkhad and his nephew, Gimilkhad’s son Pharazon. Pharazon should be extremely likeable, and heroic, and the opening episode should introduce him fighting bravely against Sauron.  The final episode would show Pharazon returning to Numenor where his military victories over Sauron in Middle Earth and his generosity and charisma would enable him to force a marriage upon his unwilling cousin Miriel, and usurp the Numenorean throne. Elendil would be a central character.

Season five would be from 3262 to 3319. We would see Numenor destroyed at the end of this season. Al-Pharazon would bring a massive army from Numenor and capture Sauron, and we would see Sauron corrupting the Numenoreans. Elendil, Isildur, and Anárion would be main figures of the story

Season six would be from 3319 to 3429, and would depict the establishment of Gondor and Arnor, and the return of Sauron to Mordor. There could be interesting stories about the establishment of the Kingdoms in Exile (Arnor and Gondor).  

Season seven would be from 3429 to 3441, and would conclude with the Last Alliance of Elves and Men in a great war against Sauron, and the end of the Second Age.

In a seven season series like this, the Elves (and any wizards or ents) would be consistent through all seven seasons.    Some Numenorians and dwarves could be found in multiple seasons, as Numenorians could live perhaps as long as four centuries, and dwarves could live nearly three centuries. Elendil, for example, would be introduced in the first episode of season four as a young 56-year-old Numenorean prince (his father was the Lord of Andúnië in Numenor), and he would perish in the final or penultimate episode of the seventh season as the 322-year-old heroic king of Numenoreans in exile.    Normal human and harfoot characters would have to have their stories contained within one season in general. Some could be in the final half of season one and all of season two, or late in season six and all through season seven. No problem there. 

The stories so far, in the first couple episodes of the Rings of Power, are interesting, and entertaining, and I am certainly interested in what will happen next. I care about the characters, and I intend to watch the whole series. However, it seems to me that the characters are just being established, and so far, things are happening to the characters, but they are not driving the plot.  That is, in good story-telling, I think characters make decisions and have goals and aims and purposes, and they try to do these things, and make decisions and plans, and their actions bring them into situations with which they must cope, but so far, the series mainly has things happening, and characters responding to these events, which is not really so interesting.  I trust that this will change as the new episodes come out, and we will come to know and care about these characters more than we do now. 

All-in-all, from these first two episodes, it seems to me Amazon has made a good effort and produced something worth watching. It is mostly enjoyable.  It is not great on the level I had hoped, and where it falls short, I fear it falls short because the show creators have lacked the vision and creativity to get past some story-telling tropes and cliches. But, the series succeeds sufficiently to have caught my interest, and I look forward to future episodes with more anticipation than dread, although both those feelings are certainly present.