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i love that rings of power had celebrimbor call sauron "shadow of morgoth", tell him that the one ring will be his destruction and that he will be a prisoner of the rings forever before giving him the title of "lord of the rings" and that every single one of those moments, despite what was occurring in those scenes, was presented as a victory for celebrimbor and a defeat for sauron.
"the rings of power is trying to make us empathise with sauron."
no, the rings of power wants you to understand sauron. if they wanted you to empathise with him, they would have presented the scene in question and that moment delving into his backstory in an entirely different way.
re: sauron crying after he killed celebrimbor.
charlie revealed in an interview with nerdist that sauron crying in that moment wasn't actually scripted. it was something that just happened while they were filming and they decided to leave it in.
sam talking about how adar truly is the only one who understands how much of a threat sauron is to the uruks because he was the only one around back then so he was the only one who saw how bad it actually was and how dangerous sauron is and that is why he is willing to do whatever it takes to stop him and there's no cost too high including killing half of all his children because there's a chance it might mean the other half are free.
it really highlights the fact that the uruks just don't understand how bad it was or how bad it's going to be for them. that doesn't make them stupid or bad or deserving of the fate that awaits them it's just the unfortunate truth of the situation. adar understands it and it's why he's behaving this way but the uruks don't. they know sauron is a threat but beyond that, all they see is their father who they believed loved and cared for them willingly throwing their lives away, crying over their corpses and then continuing to send them to their deaths and that lack of understanding leaves them completely vulnerable.
it really does make this whole thing so much more tragic but it's also why it works so well narratively.
i really liked patrick mckay's answer regarding how arondir survived getting stabbed. it was obviously a reference to arondir's comment in the first episode of the series about how elves heal themselves but it's good to have that actual confirmation and the answer really makes sense within the context of the scene and how it was clearly presented.
like, i get that people have this perception that being stabbed = mortally wounded and that 1v1 = fight to the death but it really doesn't and beyond the stab itself, the scene showcases that arondir was simply hurt. he's injured, that's all. he wasn't dying. hell, the scene quite literally ends with adar kicking arondir directly in the face in order to keep him down before walking off as arondir is shown crawling on the ground so, to me it was pretty clear that adar wasn't actually trying to kill him and that arondir would be alright.
also, i really like that both patrick and ismael (in a previous interview) put an emphasis on this arondir vs adar moment being primarily about arondir losing the fight. that's what this is about, that's what makes this momentous, it's not that he might have died, it's the fact that he actually lost the fight. that arondir, who is shown repeatedly to be an unstopped and unbeatable warrior lost. that adar beat him and that he was able to beat him because arondir became reckless, he wasn't fighting with a level head. for the first time, his emotions literally got the better of him and he lost and could've been killed because of it.
the amount of people who are still being pedantic about galadriel surviving falling such a long distance when mirdania didn't like...
mirdania SURVIVED the fall. she was bloody and hurt, yes but that was because she fell to the ground head first but she was still alive. the fall itself didn't kill her. she died because she was murdered by an orc. if the orc wasn't there, she probably would have healed and recovered.
same with galadriel.
she was pretty badly injured from falling off the cliff, falling from a great height yes but they literally specify it was the injury from being stabbed with morgoth's crown and her spirit being pulled towards the darkness that they were trying to save her from. gil-galad even describe the wounds to her body from the fall as mere which suggests they weren't as bad as the injury from the crown.
someone on instagram asked ismael how arondir was up and about after being stabbed and he said elves can heal themselves if the wound isn't fatal which makes me think, despite how badly adar appeared to stab arondir, he actually wasn't trying to kill him. he probably just wanted to incapacitate him long enough to keep him out of the fight and stop him from going after him.
i love that sauron creates annatar specifically for celebrimbor but there's also just something kinda funny about the lengths he goes to as well especially since we saw that celebrimbor was already smitten with him when sauron was masquerading as a human and looked like a drowned rat.
