Hey guys, and welcome to my review for the Rings of Power season one, Episode 8, Alloyed.
Well here we are at the end of the first season, and to be honest it kinda felt like the finale
was tailor made for me to dislike, as everything I didn’t want to happen came true and the
one thing I did want, more Adar, was entirely ignored.
So naturally I was quite disappointed, but realistically I never really got into this
show to begin with, so a lacklustre finally was pretty much expected.
But thankfully there were quite a few references to the books I very much enjoyed, even when
they were placed in scenes I didn’t care for,
which is the case with the fifth best moment of the episode, as I chose Halbrand revealing
himself as Sauron and his attempt to win over Galadriel.
If you’ve been watching my reviews you know that I was dreading the reveal that Halbrand
was Sauron, and thought it was ridiculous they were hinting at a relationship between
him and Galadriel.
So obviously this entire scene was a big disappointment, but I knew going in this was the most likely
scenario so I had already resigned myself so I was able to get passed it enough to enjoy
the cool visual effects like the shot of them as the Dark Lord and Lady of Middle-earth
and the way Halbrand’s face changed as they started to yell at each other.
I also have to say I found Halbrand’s character far more interesting this episode as he started
to act more like Sauron, his performance still doesn’t come anywhere near Adar, but at
least I noticed he was on screen this time, which is a big improvement from past episodes.
On top of that there were some cool references here to explore, starting with Halbrand mentioning
the breaking of the first silence, which is a reference to the beginning of creation,
when Eru created the Ainur in the timeless, the first beings in existence, which included
such figures as Morgoth, Sauron, Gandalf and all the wizards, who then sang the Ainulindale,
the music of creation which inspired the world of Arda and lands of middle-earth.
So indeed Sauron is an incredibly old being, and while his powers do not rival one of the
valar, he is certainly among most gifted and powerful maiar.
As a result of his long life, he had many names as Halbrand said, including his first
name Mairon meaning the admirable, as he was originally loyal to the Valar and was greatly
respected for his talents as a smith and craftsman.
After his betrayal he was named Sauron meaning the Abhorred, but also had other names and
titles, such as Annatar, Artano, Aulendil, Gorthaur, Zigur, the Necromancer, the Dark
Lord, the Shadow, the Eye, the Lord of Earth, the King of Kings and many others.
In this scene they also spoke about Sauron after Morgoth’s defeat and his attempt to
heal middle earth.
Obviously this is very different then how it happened in the books but Sauron did in
fact have a crisis of faith when his master was defeated at the end of the first age.
Having always been a fairly selfish being, the reason Sauron started following Morgoth
in the first place was because he became obsessed with order, and ultimately sought to reorganize
the world, under his own leadership.
For this reason he saw Morgoth as a beacon of freedom, a being of immense power who could
sponsor his work while placing few restrictions upon him, unlike the Valar who follow divine
law and impose moral standards on their servants.
However once Morgoth was defeated, Sauron genuinely had a moment of self-reflection,
where he realized maybe Morgoth was wrong, and his goals impossible to achieve, going
so far as to actually surrender himself to Eonwe, a leader of the maiar.
However Eonwe, as a fellow Maia, felt he did not have the authority to punish Sauron, and
so told him to return west where he would be judged by the Valar.
Yet despite Sauron’s repentance, he remained prideful and loathed the idea of debasing
himself or suffering humiliation, especially when he remembered the power and authority
he held under Morgoth.
And so ultimately he did not leave for Valinor and fled into the east where he fell back
into evil and made new plans for conquest.
Moving onto the number four spot, I chose Halbrand’s gift to Celebrimbor.
To many I think this was the moment he revealed himself, as this was a reference to Annatar,
the Lord of Gifts, the identity Sauron used when he tricked the elves of Eregion into
forge the rings of power.
In the books, Sauron, appearing as the Elf Annatar, claimed to be an emissary from Valinor,
but there was something about him that made Gil galad and Elrond wary, so Annatar was
not allowed into Lindon and instead went east where he found welcome in Eregion, where everyone,
including Celebrimbor embraced the gift of knowledge he bestowed upon them, and accepted
his aid in crafting objects of incredible power.
All save for Galadriel, who was living in Eregion at the time, as she did not believe
his story.
Unlike in the show, Galadriel didn’t know for sure he was Sauron just that she did not
believe his story about being from valinor.
Sauron wanted to stop her accusations and so tried being extra nice to her, but it didn’t
work and so instead he slowly turned the people against her, eventually causing her to leave
for the realm of Lorien.
In time Celebrimbor also grew suspicious of Annatar but by then it was too late.
For the third best moment of the episode, I chose the Cult of Melkor naming the man
from the sky Istar, which coupled with a quote from later on all but confirmed he was Gandalf
the Grey.
The word Istar is a reference to the Heren Istarion or Istari, the name given to an order
of 5 Maiar sent as advisors to the peoples of middle-earth, meant to aid in their fight
against Sauron.
Known more commonly as the Order of Wizards, they included their leader Saruman the white,
gandalf the grey, radagast the brown, as well as blue wizards alatar and Pallando.
Although in the books they arrived a thousand years into the third age, one version of events
does have the blue wizards arriving in the second age, who then make their way into the
east.
In the case they seem to have changed the blues for Gandalf, who is now also heading
into the east.
Which brings me to the second best reference of the episode, and that was when the Cultists
spoke about the lands of Rhun.
Near and around the Sea of Rhun to the east of Middle-earth, were fascinating lands home
to various tribes of men as well as both elven and dwarven clans.
As all three races awoke in the east, the dwarven ironfist, stiffbeard, blacklock and
stonefoot clans likely settled in the nearby Red Mountains, while the Avari Elves of the
east spread into Rhun from their homeland of Cuivienen.
Men came to populate this region after spreading from Hildorien, and they became the primary
target of Sauron in second and third ages, who built a strong base of support among the
Easterlings of Rhun which came to view Sauron and Morgoth as gods and kings.
I think taking the show into the east and showing the lands of Rhun is a great idea,
and gives them a lot of freedom to play around with as details about these lands are scarce
in the books, and could be expanded upon in really cool ways.
Now finally, for the best moment of the night, I chose the forging of the three rings.
Although I disliked certain parts of these scenes, I did really enjoyed seeing the process
of making the rings, with all of them in the workshop together, and the final shot of three
rings looked really cool.
But what I liked most was that we finally got to see at least some of the rings of power,
though again all these events went about very differently in the books.
Where these three rings were actually crafted last, and in secret by Celebrimbor, after
they already made 16 others.
In the show, it appears as though these three rings are meant to harness light from the
two trees, through mithril ore, to halt the rapid decay of all Elves in middle earth,
in the same way the two trees covered all of valinor in light.
In the books however, the three rings were crafted by Celebrimbor not for a grander purpose
but instead as the culmination of his life’s work, taking all his knowledge, including
what he learned from Annatar, and making three magical objects of incredible power, with
various abilities like bringing about prosperity to surrounding lands and influencing the minds
of others.
However his work was sullied when he learned Annatar was really Sauron, and all 19 were
connected to the One ring, causing the elves to take the rings off and send the three most
powerful into hiding, under the protection of Gil-galad, Galadriel and Cirdan the shipwright.
In time, Gil galad’s ring went to Elrond, and Cirdan ring was given to Gandalf.
Although Sauron captured the other 16 rings of power, he never got his hands on the final
three.
So those were my top five moments for the night, and like I said earlier, this episode
and show in general is just not for me.
I know people in the real world who no nothing about the books and they actually like this
show, so clearly this appeals to some people, but I just don’t think I’m the kind of
viewer they wanted to capture with this production.
There really wasn’t much in this episode I enjoyed aside from some of the crafting
scenes and references, but I’m going to skip over the more minor complaints like being
bored during the numenor scenes to just stick with my biggest criticisms, of which the first
two revolve around the things I specifically did not want to happen, namely Halbrand revealing
himself as Sauron and the confirmation that he and Galadriel shared a romantic connection.
I find it remarkable how they’ve given Galadriel so many powers and abilities, but seems to
have put no effort whatsoever in to making her a likeable or even interesting character.
Then to make it worse, even after she discovers Halbrand is Sauron, she seems to consider
accepting his offer, and even after saying no she keeps it hidden from the other elves.
This for me is a complete betrayal of her people, all for the sake of her reputation
and vanity.
The other major criticism I had was around the forging of the rings of power.
The reason behind what the were doing were pretty silly, but I actually did enjoy the
planning and forging scenes a fair bit.
The problem was it was all over in a few minutes.
Why wasn’t this the primary feature all season long, I definitely would have preferred
more episode about the rings and all the effort that went into forging them.
To have it all done so quickly felt ridiculous.
I’m also unsure why they only made three.
I guess they will make the other 16 later, since they need 7 for the dwarves and 9 for
men, but I don’t get why they felt the need to do it all backwards by making the three
most powerful first instead of last, and with Sauron knowing about them instead of them
being hidden.
It was all just so meagre and disappointing.
Which honestly could be said about this entire season.
So overall I’m going to give this episode a 4 out of ten.
Which is also the score I’m giving the season as a whole.
To me it was boring, badly written, poorly acted and in no way worthy of the Lord of
the Rings name.
As it stands, unless I hear that season two is drastically different, there is little
chance I will watch or review anymore episodes of this show, and I’m not sure about making
a season recap.
I kinda feel like I should for people who might be interested but I really don’t want
too, so we’ll see.
But that’s it for my review of the Rings of Power, Episodes 8, Alloyed.What did you
all think of the finale?
Am I justified in my negative take on this episode and season, or am I being too harsh?
Let me know in the comments and for the last time I’ll remind you all to check out my
free Prelude to the Rings of Power video, as well as my spoiler filled videos about
the Rings of Power, Kingdom of Numenor and Second Age, which go over all the events of
this period in detail.
Then there’s a Beginner’s guide to LOTR, exploring the entire history of this universe
in 30 minutes.
Links found below.
So that’s it for now guys, thank you very much for watching and I’ll see you all later.