Carter Jayy

Just got done watching the first two released episodes of The Rings of Power. I'm carefully optimistic that this show is going to be amazing. **Spoilers** First off, visuals. To no one's surprise with this being the highest budget small screen production in history, they are absolutely stunning. Being able to see some of the sights we were given in the original movies as dilapidated ruins, we see in their former glory, the way we always dreamed of in our minds. Bringing to life Khazad-Dûm for me was the ultimate precipice of what this show can provide for us in terms of setting. It was immaculate and beyond anything I had imagined. Elven cities both sophisticated in structure and masterfully crafted by thousands of years of hard work by their master architects, carefully depicted for us to stare in awe at. Casting. This where I have one of my few small gripes about this show. I believe for the majority of the cast, the actors portraying these characters are perfect fits. Morfydd Clark the actress for a younger Galadriel really hits the same notes and strides that the character is really meant to be and is also reminiscent of Cate Blanchett's performance as we see her in the films. Smart and sophisticated, but also compassionate and willing to view things from an alternative perspective. The casting for Elrond; however, is where I feel this direction falls a bit short. Robert Aramayo is nothing short of a brilliant actor and has given a great performance so far on screen, however I think he just doesn't hit the same strides that Hugo Weaving did. Which to be fair is a herculean task in and of itself coming from an absolute icon such as himself. Story. This is where a lot of people might disagree with me but so far I am loving the story they are telling and the pacing. Before you ask, I am quite versed in the Tolkien-verse so I know what bells they need to hit to religiously follow the story. Which while I admit they have taken certain liberties, this is almost a requirement when adapting something from a novelization format to the screen. Let us not forget that Peter Jackson, who we all love for the amazing job he did with the movies, took MASSIVE liberties in the overall story for the sake of pacing and making compelling movies to watch. Nobody would want to see the scouring of the shire after the battle at the black gate because it detracts from the entire narrative that had been pushed up until that point. Aragorn was never insecure about being a king or being good enough for Arwyn, nor did they wait until Return of The King to give him Anduril (his sword which was forged by the shards of Narsil). However they made those adjustments to make a much smoother flowing story, at least for motion picture sake. I feel the need to defend this as while they have made adjustments, there's nothing necessarily Canon breaking as of now. The reviews I see online of people from the view on top of their nostalgic high horse is sad to me that they're not taking this into account. That aside, I feel the pacing thus far has been great. They're really giving these characters a chance to breath and introduce themselves at an appropriate pace while developing their stories, something that has been overlooked in a lot of recent media. The acting, settings, pacing and overall storytelling has been far above and beyond my grim expectations and I'm for it, I can't wait to continue to see this story unfold. tl;dr I enjoyed it and can't wait to see what comes next despite all the Negative Nancy's on the internet.