jbpriolo

Why is Tom Bombadil at all interested in being Totally Not Gandalf's life coach? Tom Bombadil in LOTR is so ancient that he remains entirely aloof and disinterested in the goings-on of Middle Earth. Why has he here picked a side? And why does he parrot so many of the well-known lines from LOTR? Can the writers of this show not invent any original wisdom for Tom to impart, rather than lazily shoehorning in word-for-word quotes from LOTR Galdalf? Do the writers realize that their appropriation of quotes from Tolkien's LOTR makes it seem as if third-age Gandalf is just baldly mimicking Tom's arcane aphorisms, and possesses no wisdom of his own?

In Eregion: why is the elven forge not shown as a real, dirty workplace, seasoned with soot and creosote, filled with real, practical, well-used tools? Why are elven smiths shown with a little charcoal smudge on their faces, but otherwise wearing ornate, flowing robes that are immaculately clean, and with their hair well-coiffed in perfect plaits? Why do they only ever stand around talking about being smiths, but are never seen actually doing any labor that resembles smithing or jewelry-making? It's as though the writers don't understand the craft, and couldn't be bothered to do their homework.

Why would Sauron draw an invading army to Eregion and risk the destruction of Celebrimbor and his forge before the Nine have been successfully crafted and are securely in his possession? Why are the wise, measured, stoic, equanimous elves shown running like spooked chickens? Why, when they have a wall, watchtowers, and fortifications, do they have no perimeter guards and scouts? Why has no one noticed or investigated the obvious plumes of smoke from the approaching orc encampment?

Sadly, I have no faith that these questions will ever be satisfactorily answered.

My one bit of praise is that the Sauron illusion scene was at least interesting in concept and execution. It would have been nice if his powers of deception had been shown more frequently (and more subtly) in previous episodes.

Firstly, I would very much like to see the inclusion of more Sith sorcery in the Star Wars TV & film properties. In the Darth Bane book series, Darth Zannah was a uniquely powerful Sith due to her mastry of Sith sorcery - it made her an interesting foil to the brute strength of Bane - but this aspect of dark side powers is rarely illustrated in the Star Wars video media.

What I didn't care for:

• Child actors. The original trilogy didn't need them to captivate the imaginations of generations of children. The franchise truly doesn't need child actors for young viewers to relate to the story. It drags the quality of the end product down, bores and alienates adult viewers.

• The couching of the Jedi within a metaconstruct of abuse of power as a stand in for traditional power structures in modern society. "But", you argue, "modern civilization is complex, and it's important to reexamine institutional power dynamics and relitigate the legacy of our so-called heroes". Not here. Star Wars has always been a bit of a simplistic, unsubtle "good vs bad" story. Like so many recently-tacked-on addenda to classic IPs, it's clear the writers want us to reevaluate the goodness of the Jedi, and perhaps even sympathize with the complicated, misunderstood Sith. It's tiresome to be sermonized every time you try to consume escapist space fantasy. Sometimes you do just want a good guy you can root for, and a bad guy you can despise.

This isn't terrible, but it's writing on the level of a CW superhero teen soap. Production quality is pretty good; sets and visuals are high quality. But, as has become a pattern with new Disney Star Wars properties (S1 Mandalorian & Andor excepted), the writing is insipid and formulaic; heroes - and especially villains - are cartoonish. They don't feel like nor behave like authentic persons. The leads don't possess charisma or chemistry. Expository dialogue is clunky and stale. Characters behave unintelligently, with implausible lack of the barest foresight, just because the script demands the plot keep moving. I'm hoping it improves, but sadly I'm not particularly hopeful.

I've seen 2x4s less wooden than these actors. The visuals and design are fine, but the dialogue is very YA/teen soap, jarringly unnatural in its attempt to be Very Serious. Conversations are anything but conversational. The elves are supposed to be hundreds of years old, yet they speak and behave with the impetuousness of teenagers, their judgment hasty and lacking in patient wisdom - very "unelven". Segues in the plot and storyline are shoehorned and clumsy.

The actress playing Galadriel is quite good, but again, she is limited by the writing, where her character is immature, petualant, and impolitic. Her bratty bearing in a certain regal scene in ep 3 was especially cringey. Scenes with the dwarves are pretty good, though dwarves are pretty long-lived, so a couple of decades might not be as long to them as it's suggested.