Raving Sanity

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Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #12: “How Fares Your Progress?” (Season 2, Episode 6: “Where Is He?”)

“A dream that some other mind is weaving” The flat-share sitcom I didn’t know I needed. I remain pleasantly surprised by the extent to which the Eregion storyline has consistently been the strongest in the second season. The only real rival is Khazad-dûm, but there the writers are building on a strength of season 1. With Eregion, they not only had to establish the Annatar/Celebrimbor dynamic…

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Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #11: “Matters of Spirit as Much as Craft” (Season 2, Episode 5: “Halls of Stone”)

Seven for the Dwarf Lords The consensus seems to be that Episode 5 is the strongest of the second season so far, if not the series as a whole. I think there may be a couple of reasons for this. Certainly the plot is kicking into a higher gear: Annatar’s manipulations are ramping up and taking their toll on Celebrimbor; the Rings are starting to be distributed and having their effects; a battle…

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Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #10: “The First Raindrop and the First Acorn” (Season 2, Episode 4: “Eldest”)

Iarwain Ben-adar The best thing about episode four is its thematic cohesion. This was a feature of many of the best episodes of the previous season: With separate story threads happening in different locations that often don’t interconnect in any plot sense, the best way to achieve a sense of narrative unity is to tie things together thematically, using ideas and motifs to allow the different…

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Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #9: “An Auspicious Omen” (Season 2, Episodes 3: "The Eagle and the Sceptre")

Isildur’s Adventures in Spacetime The delay of the check-in with Isildur until episode three is odd given that it’s his story, more than any other, that picks up almost immediately where we left off. It’s unclear exactly how much time has passed, or how Isildur ended up cobwebbed in Baby Shelob’s cave, but it can’t have been too long or he’d have been eaten or died of dehydration. Rings of…

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Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #8: "Judge the Work" (Season 2, Episodes 1-2)

A practical note up front: I began outlining and drafting this post while packing for a trip to the Jersey shore for the long holiday weekend; I am now finishing the first post having returned to my apartment. I have only just finished my rewatch of the first two episodes. A separate entry will come later this week after I rewatch episode 3. For many reasons, I think this is appropriate. As…

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Thoughts on "Old Tom Bombadil"

I published a version of this post on various social media platforms, so I figured I should put those notes together into a longer form where I can expand a bit. Bear McCreary’s single “Old Tom Bombadil,” featuring Rufus Wainwright (a personal favorite), is a fascinating object. My initial reaction when watching the little behind the scenes vignette of the recording was “what a time to be…

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Rings of Power Season Two: A Revised (Possible) Outline

Back in February 2022 when the first teaser trailer for The Rings of Power dropped, I put out a potential outline for the five-season structure of the series. I stuck to the textually-based plot lines and didn’t touch on things like the Stranger, the Harfoots, etc. that would have required pure speculation. But I have to say, I didn’t do half bad. As we gear up for season 2 I thought I would…

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"A Sort of Melancholy": Some Notes on The Witch in the Wood

Kat’s T.H. White shelf, including: The Witch in the Wood, The Once and Future King, The Book of Merlyn, The Book of Beasts, England Have My Bones, Letters to a Friend, and Mistress Masham’s Repose. “The land of Lothian and Orkney lies in the northern latitudes. It is a country of bog and mountain, where the wind whistles all day, and at night the turf fires glow with small flames in a kind of…

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"Okay, kid. I love you. Get out!": Doctor Who 60th Anniversary Specials

I probably should have separated these into separate posts but I didn’t have time, so instead you get one long, rambling post about how much I love Russell T. Davies “Once upon a time…” With those immortal words, Russell T. Davies introduces us to his second era as head writer of Doctor Who. As someone who wrote her master’s thesis on the relationship between Doctor Who and fairy tales, of…

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Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #7: “Simply Let the Work Proceed” (Episode 8 “Alloyed”)

Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #7: “Simply Let the Work Proceed” (Episode 8 “Alloyed”)

Eregion So I won’t spend this entire post saying “I told you so” (okay, just the once). Though my Halbrand = Sauron argument wasn’t necessarily the most articulate or persuasive, I do feel validated to have perceived which way the wind was blowing. It’s interesting to learn that Charlie Vickers found out who he was really playing around the third or fourth episode, because I think that’s around…

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Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #6: “Too Dim to See” (Episode 7 “The Eye”)

Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #6: “Too Dim to See” (Episode 7 “The Eye”)

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Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #5: “Transformed by Evil” (Episode 6 “Udûn”)

Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #5: “Transformed by Evil” (Episode 6 “Udûn”)

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Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #4: “The Light in the Tower No Longer My Home” (Episode 5 “Partings”)

Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #4: “The Light in the Tower No Longer My Home” (Episode 5 “Partings”)

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Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #3: "The Creation of a New World" (Episode 4 "The Great Wave")

Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #3: “The Creation of a New World” (Episode 4 “The Great Wave”)

Halfway through the season and The Rings of Power (RoP) is still finding itself, which is only to be expected. The quality of the dialogue varies wildly from scene to scene (with the ritualized chanting from Episode 3 being perhaps the most banal to the truly striking and evocative speech from Adar in this episode at the opposite end of the spectrum). The story writing, however, is continually…

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Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #2: "Your Father's Cloud" (Episode 3 "Adar")

Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #2: “Your Father’s Cloud” (Episode 3 “Adar”)

I have noticed what might turn out to be a pattern with my viewing of The Rings of Power: on first watch I find myself concentrating so hard on details, references, adaptational changes, etc. that I come away unsure of how to feel. Entire lines of dialogue get missed; I don’t know what to make of certain choices; I have an emotional resistance to what I initially (in an admittedly knee-jerk…

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Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #1: "Varieties of Good" and the Problem of Gil-galad (Episodes 1 & 2)

Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #1: “Varieties of Good” and the Problem of Gil-galad (Episodes 1 & 2)

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Of The Rings of Power and the Second Age #0: Thoughts on the Premiere (Spoiler-free)

My mostly spoiler-free thoughts on the two-episode Premiere of The Rings of Power.

Consider this the first in what I hope will be a series of blog posts responding to The Rings of Power episodes as they come out. I don’t know quite what form those posts will take, whether they be traditional reviews, deep dives into points of lore and themes, musings on particular aspects of the show or adaptational choices. I’m interested to hear in the comments if you have any requests for…

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