This episode should have been called “Farewell Good Kings”
Oh ya spoiler, the king passes on. I will not spoil or get to much in the plotting of this episode. It is something people should watch and really it was only ok to watch.
This episode was hard to watch as someone who has lost and sat by them as they went from a Mountain of a Man to a feeble cancer ridden shell of what he was. Entertainment today is so lacking in things that tear at you heart. This episode wow it hurt. But hurt is a good way, a way where a person you were invested in and cared about passed on. I would say this, Have tissue, it will rip at your heart if you ever had a love one taken by a horrible disease. FUCK OFF CANCER!
The episode started with the legitimacy of the succession of “The Lord of Tides” which was also the true title of the show. The Lord of tides has been injured (later we know killed) and the Bastards of Rhaenyra and their legitimacy is called to question and all parties are on the way to Kings Landing to have it Settled by “The Hand <Otto> of the king” as the King is on his death bed.
We get some politicking once everyone is there. Leading up to the petition in the throne room with Otto sitting the Iron Throne. Vaemond Velaryon is the one wanting to be named in place of the Bastards. We certainly get the dialogue. It seems Otto will certainly side with him until the doors open and the bed ridden disease ridden King comes in.
It was a long walk, one most time I would have said, to long to boring to stupid, why not just bring him in. But you understand in this He is still king and was still powerful. When he finally stumbled and his crown fell off it was Daemon there to pick it up and help him.
As truly fucked up as Daemon can and has been, the love and respect was still there, the scene worked in spades. I appreciated it and understood it and felt the pain.
The king sets the throne and ask why there is a question to the succession. Rhaenys is called to settle it at which point she brings up a compromise Rhaenyra and Rhaenys had talked about earlier. To which the King seemed pleases with until Vaemond goes full retard. And when I say full retard, this dude went full on!
Vaemond Velaryon in front of the King calls his grandchildren BASTARDS and his daughter a WHORE. The king says he will have his tongue, but Daemon says he can keep his tongue. Granted he said it after cutting his head in half. YES, yes, I smiled with pleasure.
We get a Dinner scene which is very nice, knowing the books I was concerned how it would go, but I enjoyed it. Love Paddy I really did, he is a father, Husband and Grandsire and just wants his family to be at peace. Before he leaves the Banquette, it appears he gets that. I am glad he gets to see them together he can rest in peace.
The final scene is just that, Rest in Peace good king.
Paddy better get a damn Emmy for this show or there is not justice left for great acting in Hollywood. Alicent I still cannot like her acting, the lines were great, she just is not believable for me. Otto was not bad in this, but he was more minimal in it. Daemon was great as always and Rhaenyra I have liked her and she is still likable.
The kids were aged up again and actually worked well, I hate time jumps and getting around to fast as a rule, but this is done really well and they remember to show things that will make it believable. Someone sat down clearly after GOT and said ((Find all the things we fucked up in GOT and make sure it cannot and does not happen again))
There was some things I have to take away from this episode. Alicent and her son’s conversation after his raping a servant girl was just so cringe to me. Also, some of the politicking in the Throne room before the king arrived.
I will give it an 8 out of 10. I did a second watch this morning, so the onions were not so potent, and emotions did not cloud my judgement because I wanted to drop a 9.5 last night. But on second watch those scenes still bothered me enough to ding it.
All in all an outstanding performance by Paddy Constantine. Matt Smith says more in actions and his looks than he does words. I find myself wanting to see them as kids together.
I will again compare this show to the abortion amazon is conduction on Tolkien. I could have taken every act of this episode, even the ones I did not like, and had more information and progression with plot and character growth, than all of a BILLION DOLLAR ABORTION from Rings of Amazon.
Narsil the Sword of Kings.
Many only know the story of Narsil / Andúril, from the Lord of the Rings by Peter Jackson. However, there is much more to the story than it was just the sword of Isildur.
The sword was forged in the First Age of Middle Earth by the Dwarven Blacksmith Telchar, considered to be one of the greatest blacksmiths of the age with only Fëanor and Celebrimbor being the greatest of the time.
The sword is a long-sword, with a two-handed grip, “the sword of Elendil filled Orcs and Men with fear, for it shone with the light of the sun and of the moon, and it was named Narsil.” <J.R.R Tolkien from the Silmarillion>
`I was the herald of Gil-galad and marched with his host. I was at the Battle of Dagorlad before the Black Gate of Mordor, where we had the mastery: for the Spear of Gil-galad and the Sword of Elendil, Aiglos and Narsil, none could withstand. I beheld the last combat on the slopes of Orodruin, where Gil-galad died, and Elendil fell, and Narsil broke beneath
him; but Sauron himself was overthrown, and Isildur cut the Ring from his hand with the hilt-shard of his father’s sword, and took it for his own.’ <Lord Elrond, Lord of the Rings></blockquote>
He also created with Narsil its companion knife Angrist, Angrist means “Iron-cutter”, from ang (“iron”) and ris (“to cut”) as well as the Dragon Helm of Dor-Lomin. We know little about him except he lived in the first age near year 265 of the First Age ad that is when the Dragon Glaurung appeared and Dor-lomin was created shortly after that.Despite many people associating Aragorns knife from Lord of the Rings to Angrist, we have no proof of that in Tolkien’s Writings.
Narsil was taken to Númenor where it was the property of the Lords of the Andúnië. Eventually it was passed on the Elendil Andúnië. Elendil was killed alongside Gil-galad fighting Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance. The sword was broken in two pieces (not the many we saw in Lord of the rings) This is when Isildur picked up the sword and cut the Ring of Sauron’s hand defeating him.
After the Battle the sword was taken to Rivendell by Isidor’s squire “Ohtar” who commanded him to escape if he could from the disaster at the Gladden Fields. Ohtar did make it to Rivendell where he the Elves passed it to the next king “Valandil”
Little is known of Narsil during the third age other than it was passed down the line of Isildur in the Dúnedain of the North, until it came in to Aragorn’s possession at which time, he left it in Rivendell with Lord Elron.
This my friends is when Peter Jackson diverged from the books on the sword, many know the movie and see the sword being reforged by Lord Elrond before The Battle of Pelennor Fields. But in the books we have it being reforged before the fellowship leaves Rivendell.
<blockquote>`For the rest, they shall represent the other Free Peoples of the
World: Elves, Dwarves, and Men. Legolas shall be for the Elves; and Gimli son of Gluin for the Dwarves. They are willing to go at least to the passes of the Mountains, and maybe beyond. For men you shall have Aragorn son of Arathorn, for the Ring of Isildur concerns him closely.’Strider!' said Frodo. 'Yes,' he said with a smile.
I ask leave once again to be your companion, Frodo.’
`I would have begged you to come,’ said Frodo, ‘only I thought you were going to Minas Tirith with Boromir.’
I am,' said Aragorn.
And the Sword-that-was-Broken shall be reforged ere I set out to war.The Sword of Elendil was forged anew by Elvish smiths, and on its blade was traced a device of seven stars set between the crescent Moon and the rayed Sun, and about them was written many runes; for Aragorn son of Arathorn was going to war upon the marches of Mordor. Very bright was that sword when it was made whole again; the light of the sun shone redly in it, and the light of the moon shone cold, and its edge was hard and keen. And Aragorn gave it a new name and called it Andúril, Flame of the West. <Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring>
The rest the story you know, Aragorn did indeed wield the sword to victory and as king, when he perished it was past down through his lines.
If you will now, bear with me as I give you some fan-fiction as someone whom loves Tolkien and understands what he was doing with his writings. That is to say giving England a history.
Please no Meme’s, no linking to outside Content Creators etc. Put your Opinion and your words to this topic.
This is NOT Tolkien in any way shape or form.
The Lady Galadriel was NEVER “Xena Warrior Princess” Never Happened. Unrecognizable from anything from the works of Tolkien. The have written her and portraying her as “Angry, Young, Naive, Rough and Ready but more earthly and less godly” Oh yes, I saw that article. By this time she was thousands of years old and had already stood-up to her Uncle, one of the most powerful beings to ever live and tell him no, NOT ONCE but 3 times. Because she could look in the hears of people and see what kind of person they were.
The portrayal of all the Elves was so wrong, they looked like they could been plucked strait out of the Salons of Hollywood with the fresh hair cuts and make-up. Not once did any of them look like elves as described by Professor Tolkien.
The Dwarves were the bright point, well unless you want to stop and understand DWARF WOMEN HAVE BEARDS! And these did not. They sure did not look like Dwarfs as described, and Disa’s fake accent was just cringe worthy. The men did and the set looked OK and for a Billion-dollar show, set pieces should not just look ok.
Sauron, I mean Halbrand and Galadriel on the raft, I literally asked people with me where the child with the map on her back was! It looked so much like Water World; I asked that question.
The Meteor man, I mean Gandalf, was horrible. Did y’all notice the ground was red hot and yet we have Discount hobbits that are standing and sitting on it and no burns, no cloths catching fire from the extreme heat. And OMG the sign language from Discount Hobbit to Gandalf what! By the way, that is NOT how the wizards came to Middle Earth. That was a deliberate call back to the Comet from Game of Thrones.
I will not even get in to the Diversity and Inclusion, policy of Amazon’s that put character in this show that were and could not have ever been in Tolkien’s world. But I will point out in his own words why they cannon or should not be in this show.
From Letter 131 to Milton Waldmen
“I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story-the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the vast backcloths – which I could dedicate simply to: to England; to my country. It should possess the tone and quality that I desired, somewhat cool and clear, be redolent of our ‘air’ (the clime and soil of the North West, meaning Britain and the hither parts of Europe: not Italy or the Aegean, still less the East), and, while possessing (if I could achieve it) the fair elusive beauty that some call Celtic (though it is rarely found in genuine ancient Celtic things), it should be ‘high’, purged of the gross, and fit for the more adult mind of a land long now steeped in poetry.” J. R. R. TOLKIEN.
Ladies and Gentlemen, what you watched from Amazon was NOT the works of Professor Tolkien, it was them using a name of a well known Movie, Author and Books to get you to tune and view a product that was inferior in every way. It was a Bait and Switch, as this had nothing to do with Tolkien except for the names of some of the characters. In fact id added many characters never in his books and certainly never described by him.