Enneagram and Encaustic – Page 15 – Screenwriting, Lyrics, Art, and Investigation

Adar (Part One)

Episode 3 of The Rings of Power . . .

LEFTOVER NINE

Arondir, woozy, is dragged by orcs in skull helmets. It’s nightmarish. We hear orcs arguing about who has to stay in the sun — “sun duty” — and the mention of Adar, who’s their leader.

Chained in a pit, Arondir digs with other elves. Whipped prisoners scream in the shade.

ONE

Cut to Galadriel waking. She’s on a bed in a ship’s hold. Halbrand brings her food. The ship is crewed by men in uniform.

TWO

The captain, who recognizes her as “one of the Eldar”, wears her dagger.

THREE

They approach a magnificent port reminiscent of the Argonath with its gargantuan rock statues carved from the hillsides. Galadriel recognizes the Kingdom of Númenor. (It’s an astonishing location that is given a number of expansive establishing shots.)

Doomchar Aquarium 3

Here’s the last in the series I began as part of my gaming guild’s art contest. The winners have been declared, and I tied for third place. First place went to someone who created a fabulous, fully functional siege ballista (not to scale, lol). My piece was Elder Scroll-adjacent, at best, and I feel the judging was completely fair. And I really enjoyed creating the Aquariums.

Bubbly water tap pull

On the left is the encaustic I made as a tap pull for the carbonated water line. On the right is the piece coated in epoxy and mounted on the spigot. It was a great first experiment, but I’m already working on an improved version.

Adrift (Part Two)

Episode Two of The Rings of Power continues at the Harfoot encampment.

FOUR (CONT.)

The Harfoots notice that Nori is missing.

Cut back to her and The Giant. When she asks about “his kind” he takes a stick and draws in the dirt.

SWITCH

(Here it is! I just needed a little patience.)

Back to the Harfoots straining to raise a tent. Nori’s father (Largo) pushes on a beam held by a rope that finally snaps, as does Largo’s ankle. Poppy runs up to get Nori. The Giant screams in frustration that they can’t understand his meaning.

Adrift (Part One)

Episode Two of The Rings of Power . . .

ONE

Galadriel, abandoned in the sea, still treads water. With nothing in sight on the horizon, she starts to swim.

Nori stands at the edge of the fiery crater. A man with grizzled hair and beard, naked but for a loincloth, lies in the blaze. Poppy, rushing up to chastise Nori, accidentally pushes her over the slope. The flames are not hot, and Nori approaches “the giant”. She boops his cheek. With a horror-startle, he quickly grabs her hand and rises from the ash. Magical winds and a soul-long look between Nori and The Giant stop when he collapses. She insists that Poppy help her carry the stranger somewhere safe.

TWO

Sadoc, holding a lantern, comes to see what fell to earth. He anticipates a bad omen. He misses Nori and Poppy pushing The Giant over the hill behind him in a wheelbarrow. As the girls argue over what this man is — not human, not elf — they let go of the cart and it starts to roll backward. (The image of an oversized man in a rustic wagon rolling down a hill is played for humor.) Cut to him settled, asleep, under a tree. Nori explains that The Giant, who could’ve fallen to earth anywhere, seems like her responsibility. She was meant to find him. Poppy agrees to keep him a secret.

THREE

Dissolve to Bronwyn and Arondir in the burnt village. They find no bodies. Under a ruined house is a dug passage. Arondir will follow it. Bronwyn will go home to warn her people. Before parting, they share a longing glance.

Doomchar Aquarium 2

This is the version I entered into my gaming guild’s contest. I can’t say it’s my favorite of the series, but the original screenshot was the clearest and most representative of ESO. We can sort of see the Medusa-like monster outside the glass, which is what I wanted.

A Shadow of the Past (Part Three)

Finishing Episode One of The Rings of Power . . .

SWITCH

While looking at a statue of her brother, Galadriel sheathes her dagger. Elrond approaches her with gentle congratulations of the honor to return home.

(The grove has heroic statues carved in the trunk of every living tree.)

Galadriel expected to become one of these statues, but instead she’s to be sent away. She decides she will refuse this “reward”.

(“You have not seen what I have seen,” Galadriel says to Elrond as explanation why she can’t stop hunting Sauron. Well, we haven’t seen it, either. We desperately need more show and less tell.)

FIVE

Putting up a convincing argument, Elrond asks if another dead orc will bring her peace? Will she lead more elves to die and become statues? Turning down the call to Valinor means it will never come again and she’ll be an outcast, left behind.

A Shadow of the Past (Part Two)

A continuing look at episode one of The Rings of Power . . .

ONE

Credits and a map. We’ve shifted to a new storyline.

Two hunters, laden with carcasses, walk through a field. Hearing something, one warns the other of a Harfoot. They continue on, and a small smiling person with a hay-covered hat rises from the grass and watches them leave. An entire community of Harfoots (Harfeet?) comes out of hiding. They have bare, hairy feet; these, presumably are our proto-Hobbits.

TWO

They unveil their encampment, bringing out baskets of food and uncovering their wagons. The leader consults a tome and determines these hunters are a bad omen. A mother and father worry about their wandering daughter, Nori.

THREE

Cut to Nori and Poppy (an instant reminder of Frodo and Sam). They lead the younger children on an adventure.

A Shadow of the Past (Part One)

Shall we look at The Rings of Power? Season One impressed me as a flawed, ambitious project. I want the show to succeed, and I’m willing to give it latitude to develop its themes.

However, the reviews were brutal. I’m curious. Is the show a structural boondoggle? Do the characters ignore their motivations? Is tRoP actually terrible?

The episodes are long, so I’ll partition them. Let’s begin.

LEFTOVER NINE

A child Galadriel folds a parchment boat. Other children (dressed like creepy Logan’s Run extras) demean her efforts. When the floating boat magically unfolds into a paper swan, the children sink it with rocks. Galadriel jumps on the loudest offender, but is stopped by her grown brother. He gives her a wise elvish pep talk.