violetaeons reblogged
Part: 70/?
violetaeons reblogged
There is not another man on this isle that knows this craft better than I.
The Rings of Power | 1.05
violetaeons reblogged
Morfydd Clark (as Galadriel) COLORING PORTRAITS: ‘GALADRIEL’ (Set 38) Scene from the sixth episode, “Udun” THE RINGS OF POWER (2022)
violetaeons reblogged
But sometimes the lights shine just as brightly reflected in the water as they do in the sky. It's hard to say which way is up and which way is down. How am I to know which lights to follow? But that seems so simple. The most important truths often are. But you must learn to discern them for yourself. (requested by anonymous)
violetaeons reblogged
It's interesting (if often frustrating) to see the renewed Orc Discourse after the last few episodes of ROP. I've seen arguments that orcs have to be personifications of evil rather than people as such or else the ethics of our heroes' approach to them becomes much more fraught. Tolkien's work, as written, seems an odd choice to me for not wrangling with difficult questions, and of course, more diehard fans are going to immediately bring up Shagrat and Gorbag.
If you haven't read LOTR recently, Shagrat and Gorbag are two orcs who briefly have a conversation about how they're being screwed over by Sauron but have no other real options, about their opinions of mistakes that have been made, that they think Sauron himself has made one, but it's not safe to discuss because Sauron has spies in their own ranks. They reminisce about better times when they had more freedom and fantasize about a future when they can go elsewhere and set up a small-scale banditry operation rather than being involved in this huge-scale war. Eventually, however, they end up turning on each other.
Basically any time that someone brings up the "humanity" of this conversation, someone else will point out that they're still bad people. They're not at all guilty about what they're part of. They just resent the dangers to themselves, the pressure from above, failures of competence, the surveillance they're under, and their lack of realistic alternative options. The dream of another life mentioned in the conversation is still one of preying on innocent people, just on a much smaller and more immediate scale, etc.
I think this misses the reason it keeps getting brought up, though. The point is not that Shagrat and Gorbag are good people. The point is that they are people.
Additional thought: it's not that this makes our heroes terrible for opposing them. The orcs are part of an imperialist war machine that their enemies are defending themselves against. OTOH the fact that orcs definitionally do not have a way out despite being ordinary people, and know this, and resent it, and want another kind of life, does feel tragic on some level.
violetaeons reblogged
✦ GALADRIEL & HALBRAND ✦ THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER S1E2 "Adrift"
violetaeons reblogged
Morfydd Clark as Galadriel | The Rings of Power Season 2.
violetaeons reblogged
Again, still cannot believe I am so compelled by Sauron in Rings of Power-- but I wonder about this shifting of his form and what it does to his sense of his own identity. He shed Halbrand like a coat and has now cloaked himself in the Annatar persona where he is much more cold and aloof and guarded. Of course we know he's wearing a mask and has clear goals with this form, it's utilitarian and maybe also serves to hide whatever hurt (and rage) he has from Galadriel's rejection of his proposal (lmao), but I don't know. I wonder if he mourns the forms he's had, if certain roles were more comfortable than others. Or what his original form was like, as Mairon? I DON'T think Jack Lowden's Sauron was close to what he might have had in Almaren or Aman before his Fall, though maybe there were parts that he brought back once he felt Morgoth's presence disappear? I'm really just thinking aloud a bit, but I do love the idea of Mairon as a shapeshifter and a survivor, changing parts of himself and drowning himself in different roles, depending on what keeps him alive or in power. Losing himself. Mairon, you've gone so far from where you first started, do you recognize any of your old self or selves when you look in a mirror? Was there a freedom in s1 Halbrand that has been lost now in Annatar? I have questions and no possible answers, but the thoughts remain...
violetaeons reblogged
haladriel moments: 26/∞
violetaeons reblogged
I found this on a dead man. Thought the pattern suited me.
The Rings of Power (2022-)
violetaeons reblogged
SPEAK, FRIEND, AND ENTER.
Celebrimbor had 'an almost “dwarvish” obsession with crafts'; and he soon became the chief artificer of Eregion, entering into a close relationship with the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm, among whom his greatest friend was Narvi. — UNFINISHED TALES: THE HISTORY OF GALADRIEL AND CELEBORN Eregion was nigh to the great mansions of the Dwarves that were named Khazad-dûm [...] From Ost-in-Edhil, the city of the Elves, the highroad ran to the west gate of Khazad-dûm, for a friendship arose between Dwarves and Elves, such as has never elsewhere been, to the enrichment of both those peoples. — THE SILMARILLION: OF THE RINGS OF POWER AND THE THIRD AGE
violetaeons reblogged
Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Tar-Míriel in The Rings of Power
violetaeons reblogged
man maiden
violetaeons reblogged
The Rings of Power | 1.03
violetaeons reblogged
haladriel moments: 25/∞
