LotR: The Rings of Power – Enneagram and Encaustic

Story Enneagram of Season One, The Rings of Power

Here’s the challenge with this series: it’s a prequel. Not everything in Tolkien’s lore is familiar to everyone, but the basic plot of his main trilogy is extremely well known. Elendil and Isildur will strike down Sauron. Therefore, neither of them can die in this series. Mt. Doom and Mordor will never again be the green Southlands. Therefore, Númenor will fail to take it back. Durin will delve too deep and his entire kingdom will perish. Therefore, the disagreement with his father has nothing at stake. Every plotline, with the possible exception of Nori, deals with failure. It’s a pretty depressing tale! I need to really love these characters to follow them on this tragic journey. How do these characters build the world of Frodo’s time? Their connection to the Tolkien I know engages me, even if this era is dark.

How does the map of this story become the Middle-Earth we know so well?

Alloyed (Part Two)

The Season One finale of The Rings of Power continues . . .

SWITCH

Sadoc goes “a-wandering off-trail”. (He dies.)

FIVE

A galley at sea in full sail. Valandil walks the deck. Elendil is down below, helping the Queen count steps in her blindness.

(He says, “I have you.” She replies, “Who has you?” Aaaagh! Immediately when I hear that line I think of Lois Lane when Superman takes her flying. Maybe everyone doesn’t think of that moment, although Margot Kidder’s delivery is iconic. It is a terrible choice to include it in anything ever again.)

Alloyed (Part One)

The Season One finale of The Rings of Power begins . . .

ONE

Rain. Eryn Galen, the Greenwood. (Another map title, yay!) We’re with The Stranger. He holds Nori’s apple gift while, in voiceover, she proclaims that he’s not a peril.

A cloaked figure follows him. He gives chase, dropping his apple. The figure picks it up and reveals herself to be Nori. Her eyes change, though. It’s not Nori; it’s the Severe Witch.

The Stranger seems confused.

TWO

Severe Witch offers the apple while the other two Witches close on him like velociraptors.

THREE

One of them, in elvish, says they’ve come to serve him, Lord Sauron. They kneel to him while he looks baffled.

Roll credits.

The Eye (Part Two)

Continuing Episode Seven of The Rings of Power . . .

SWITCH

Nori doubts her trust in The Stranger. Clouds cover the moon.

FIVE

Galadriel and Theo, still alone in the forest, speak of loss. Galadriel’s brother died, but also her husband Celeborn. (What?! We know he’s alive later when Frodo visits. I mean . . . right?!) He went to war and she never saw him again. Theo feels blame for what happened to his village, and Galadriel tries to reassure him that his heart was good. Let the burden go.

Their talking stops when orcs with torches search the woods. After a moment of suspense, the orcs move on.

(Theo’s pessimistic attitude and his sense of self-blame remind me of Nori’s previous scene. They are similar in their depression and doubt, and their beats should be grouped together. Therefore, we need to move the Switch back a bit.)

The Eye (Part One)

Episode Seven of The Rings of Power begins . . .

ONE

An ash-coated eye opens. It’s Galadriel, pulling herself up in slowmo from the village ground. Through the orange air and embers, she calls out for Halbrand and Elendil. Theo finds her.

TWO

Isildur and the Queen strain to lift a beam off of Valandil. Ontamo, next to him, is dead. Hearing cries, the Queen directs the soldiers to help her rescue people trapped in a burning building.

THREE

They escape, but the roof falls on Isildur.

Udûn (Part Two)

Episode Six of The Rings of Power continues . . .

SWITCH

Arondir realizes that the villagers have killed their own people, the ones who left to join Adar.

FIVE

The real attack begins.

Udûn (Part One)

Episode Six of The Rings of Power . . .

ONE

Adar plants seeds in the forest mulch while his orc legion awaits his orders. He gives them a rousing speech. (Haha, there’s Waldreg standing among the horde, looking uncomfortable.)

Leading them to the watchtower, Adar opens the fort’s door to find the compound empty.

As they search, we see Arondir hiding behind a door. Adar finds the sacrificial altar.

TWO

Standing with him, Waldreg asks what happened to Sauron? The question is interrupted by Arondir shooting arrows. He’s booby-trapped the compound, bringing down the tower and closing the orcs inside. Stones fall toward Adar.

At the base of the waterfall, Bronwyn and her people see the tower collapse and cheer the success of their plan. They return to the village to prepare for the orc survivors.

Partings (Part Two)

Episode Five of The Rings of Power continues . . .

SWITCH

Kemen speaks to the Chancellor and tries to convince him that the people would follow his lead. The war is a return to the old, elf-friendly ways. Kemen wants to stop it.

The Chancellor, playing the long game, schools him on waiting.

The Queen meets with her father in the tower. Thinking he’ll be pleased, she tells him she’s traveling to Middle-Earth. He prophesies “darkness” for her.

FIVE

Nori reports to The Stranger that everyone’s happy about what he did with the wargs. His hand in a puddle, he whispers weird words, freezing the water around his fingers. The ice travels up his forearm. Worried, Nori tries to interrupt by grabbing him but her hand becomes trapped. In some kind of trance, he doesn’t notice as the ice branches onto her arm. His voice increases in intensity, the corona of Starfall flashes, and Nori is tossed free. When The Stranger checks on her, she dashes away. Threatening music intensifies.

Partings (Part One)

Episode Five of The Rings of Power . . .

LEFTOVER NINE

Nori and The Stranger sit at the shore while she teaches him about “migration”. When she describes the dangers of the road, he realizes he is a “peril”. He seems upset by it, and she reiterates that he’s good.

(This scene, which is fairly isolated storywise, is exactly what I meant last episode when I said the Three should be a beat involving these characters. It’s perfect, especially since The Stranger struggles with understanding his ethics. Juxtaposed with Waldreg calling him Sauron in last episode’s Six, this would’ve been genius.)

ONE

And then we continue with the Harfoots (which would’ve made a solid opening to the current episode). The Brandyfoots and Poppy load their wagons and set out. She sings a walking song while the beautiful scenery dissolves to a map of the route. They muscle their way through the Grey Marshes and onward, with no sign of the caravan. At night The Stranger steps out to look up at the stars.

The Great Wave (Part Two)

Continuing Episode Four of The Rings of Power . . .

SWITCH

From a window Elrond views a construction site.

FIVE

He is in Celebrimbor’s apartment. Over refreshments, Celebrimbor mentions Elrond’s father, and then gently complains about Durin.

Elrond visits Durin’s wife, Disa. He suspects her of deception; Durin has been avoiding him.

Dissolve to Disa and Durin walking together. She indeed lied to Elrond. He whispers that they’re making good progress in the “old mine”. Pull out across the chasm to show Elrond with elf eyes reading their lips.

Cut to Elrond in the mine’s entrance. At a stone blockage he recites the rhyme Disa’s children were chanting when he visited her. It works; the stone opens. Pulling aside a cloth, Elrond sees a vein of silvery metal. Durin catches him spying and accuses him of wanting this all along. However, Elrond doesn’t know what Durin means and only wants to preserve their friendship. Demanding an oath of secrecy, Durin shows Elrond the mysterious contents of the chest: mithril (although, because it’s a “new ore” it isn’t named yet). It’s dangerous to mine, so the King has kept the discovery quiet.

(Here all of us whisper to ourselves, “The dwarves delved too deep.”)