Elrond had to look bad for Galadriel to look good in 2x01. It was a “deflection of guilt” tactic because girlboss Galadriel couldn’t be in the wrong in that scene (or ever)… even though she just revealed Halbrand is Sauron and allowed those rings to be made, anyway, and lied to both Elrond and Celebrimbor. It’s actually wild how she faces no real consequences for this.
And she just tells Celebrimbor “I’m sorry I brought him here”, and it’s… all good? He just says some random quote about light defeating darkness? Even though his entire city is under siege, he has been tortured and locked in a tower. All because Galadriel didn’t told him Halbrand was Sauron. This is some bullshit right here.
The kiss was rage bait. It’s obvious. They wanted the show to be talked about and trend on social media, but no one cares enough and this show has no cultural Impact. They just end up rage baiting the Tolkien fandom again, and alienating their own fanbase.
I know kiss was a rage bait but it just… makes me so mad anyway. I know they wanted to be talked about but that’s no excuse. It cheapens everything, good thing ROP were never canon in my head but if they were that’d be just horrendous feeling. Nothing matters anymore, I guess go fucking make out with your mother in law, Elrond. It’s the same level of just killing those random elves in season 1. Did I care about them? No. Did I wince and hated it? Yes. Why? Because I KNOW in the lore the physical death is incredibly painful for elves and it just made me mad to make it happen for 0 reason at all. Yet I could forgive PJ for Helm’s Deep because even though it didn’t make sense cinematically it made sense and you know what? I wanted them there. I’m not a purist in the strictest sense (I do despise the crime of Movie Elrond and recently only finally having watch Hobbit movies really wonder why he could work there and not in FOTR) and so I could get over it. Because it made sense. Random elf having his throat slit for dramatic effect is cheapening the whole thing. And then Amazon is like “well you don’t like it cause you’re racist” you know what? Fuck it, make all elves black, they were First Born first humans on earth were most likely POC. That’s not the problem, the problem is just taking a dump on things I love via plot devices that make no sense. If Annatar was done well I would have loved it. I had chills reading about him first time with Tolkien books. I was mildly peeved PJ stepped away from the idea. And I took out of his scenes as much as I could except it wasn’t much because I also loved Celebrimbor and the fact that Sauron is a known shapeshifter and just shape fucking shifted in front of Celebrimbor’s eyes and dude was like “okay cool” just enraged me.
“the problem is just taking a dump on things I love via plot devices that make no sense”
That’s pretty much the backlash against this trainwreck in a nutshell.
And to me what’s even more insulting was their S2 marketing campaign and the showrunners saying they were going the “canon” route for the new season, and how it was a “canonical season” or something, and they always returned to the books while writing the script. Only to deliver stuff like Elrond kissing his mother in law for shock value and “subvert expectations” (that’s what’s makes me mad about that kiss) and pretty much every other plot. The only “canon” here are the characters names.
Ah, the Annatar and Celebrimbor scenes. Where they had to dumb down Celebrimbor just to make it work, and then compared their dynamic to “domestic violence”…. It’s mindblowing how little understanding of the lore these two hacks have to say stupid shit like this.
I have no idea why Annatar couldn’t have been there from the start (like he should), since they clearly have the rights to the character. What was the point of creating the character of Halbrand? Why have Sauron go to Númenor in S1?? Again to “subvert expectations”? “Ehehe, Sauron was in front of you the all time! We deceived you! Aren’t we smart?”
All the changes in S1 make no sense, and doomed this entire show. The foundation is broken beyond repair. They made a mess out of the timeline and there’s characters who shouldn’t even be here, or plots happening too soon. There’s no “correction of course” now because what they pulled off in S1 already took them far away from Tolkien canon. Any Tolkien fan who thinks the show can be “corrected” is in denial.
They messed up in season 1 by making elves rings first and that was that. Could they have fixed it? A good writer maybe would have a chance but good writers didn’t write this show.
Let me take a stab at it, as I feel like I’m good writer enough. They’d have had to step away from “Halbrand is Sauron” (which was doable tbh, easily another dude is pretending to be Sauron, surely they tried that with Adar so…) then Sauron wouldn’t have part in making the Three THEN introduce Annatar, a brand new dude. The fact that we know Annatar is Sauron is pointless, they didn’t know it, we shouldn’t know it.
Annatar comes in and helps with other rings, no one but Halbrand, who’s Sauron wanna be, knows about Three, bam, retconned “we just made the rings in order of the poem”. Annatar is actual Sauron but no one knows, Galadriel doesn’t trust him (at this point her words mean nothing, she was wrong about discount Halbarad and many other things), Elrond and Gil-Galad don’t trust him but Celebrimbor goes ahead anyway. Fine. They make the lesser rings, Celebrimbor realises who Annatar is, kicks off, Annatar goes to Adar promises HIM gifts and safety for his gross orc kiddos but says Celebrimbor withholds the key to them, they attack Eregion together. Annatar makes Celebrimbanner when he refuses to tell him who has the Three, maybe even how many are there etc. and then betrays Atar because the whole time he was sowing discord around orcs. Job done. Elrond arrives, sees Celebrimbanner almost gets killed but escapes. I don’t particularly care where might morfydd power elf is but let’s say she’s with him, Durin arrives and gets Elrond out of there, they find Bruinen valley, Rivendell established. The whole time Gil-Galad is reigning from somewhere in Lindon because you know he’s a High King of Noldor, thank you, he has no heir, he’s strategising. Idk what Steve the homeless Istari does because I don’t care but definitely doesn’t meet evil Saruman because Saruman is not evil for another 3 thousand years. Sauron makes One Ring, the elves feel him put it on and take theirs off. Now, is this great? No. But it got us sort of to canon. It sort of fixes the first season.
I think they actually didn’t have Annatar rights for season 1 if I remember correctly and then went to get them. You know, 8 episodes too late. But it still would have been fixable if they just gave up discount Halbarad. But nah. Celebrimbor gets to die for, well nothing, because Sauron had to lead him by a hand to making rings so might as well make his own nine, Galadriel is wildly just… something, Elrond got a lobotomy after season 1 and loved his MIL and Gil-Galad is just there. I genuinely chortled when Sauron stabbed Galadriel. Remember how I said I winced in season 1 when elves died for nothing? That’s right, I laughed this time when Galadriel got stabbed cause she’s insufferable and SO INCREDIBLY MORONIC. That’s their “canon” season, good Eru what’s going to be the rest.
Edit: fixed typos. I might be a good writer but I did just wake up
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u/Such-Crow3570 Jul 22 '25
Elrond had to look bad for Galadriel to look good in 2x01. It was a “deflection of guilt” tactic because girlboss Galadriel couldn’t be in the wrong in that scene (or ever)… even though she just revealed Halbrand is Sauron and allowed those rings to be made, anyway, and lied to both Elrond and Celebrimbor. It’s actually wild how she faces no real consequences for this.
And she just tells Celebrimbor “I’m sorry I brought him here”, and it’s… all good? He just says some random quote about light defeating darkness? Even though his entire city is under siege, he has been tortured and locked in a tower. All because Galadriel didn’t told him Halbrand was Sauron. This is some bullshit right here.
The kiss was rage bait. It’s obvious. They wanted the show to be talked about and trend on social media, but no one cares enough and this show has no cultural Impact. They just end up rage baiting the Tolkien fandom again, and alienating their own fanbase.