This week on the blog! Who needs siege camps? We continue our look at the hot mess that is Rings of Power's Siege of Eregion. Adar's siege works are a jumbled, useless mess that makes his army more vulnerable, not less: but what would useful siege works look like? acoup.blog/2025/02/28/c... - ThreadSky

bretdevereaux.bsky.social • 8 days ago

This week on the blog! Who needs siege camps?

We continue our look at the hot mess that is Rings of Power's Siege of Eregion. Adar's siege works are a jumbled, useless mess that makes his army more vulnerable, not less: but what would useful siege works look like?

https://acoup.blog/2025/02/28/collections-the-siege-of-eregion-part-ii-what-siege-camp/

Comments

ranamar.bsky.social•7 days ago

It's completely aside from the rest of the content, but I'm deeply amused by the idea of laying siege to any job market, but especially the one that hasn't offered you the permanent position that you deserve.

wingsrising.bsky.social•8 days ago

I actually really liked the storyline with Sauron and Celebrimbor because I thought it was fantastic as a depiction of evil. It drove home how evil Sauron is in a way I think "Scary armor! Large flaming eye!" just didn't.

(1/2)

wingsrising.bsky.social•7 days ago

And I disagree that it completely absolved Celebrimbor -- I thought it was pretty clear that Celebrimbor's hubris was why he fell so easily under Sauron's influence, not to mention the reason for the entire ring-making enterprise.

But I do agree it de-emphasized that aspect relative to the books.

mjaum.bsky.social•8 days ago

Oh, there you are! Excellent.

billypilgrim65.bsky.social•8 days ago

This is *content*

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•8 days ago

One of those brilliant sentences that could be taken very positively or very negatively.

billypilgrim65.bsky.social•8 days ago

Take the W

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•8 days ago

Always.

billypilgrim65.bsky.social•8 days ago

It’s a great blog. Pedantic, but great

wonderfulstarfish.bsky.social•8 days ago

Really interesting as usual. I think the discussion on hubris deserves its own post soon.

One of the biggest missed opportunities with this show is how they decided to take Celebrimbor's character. I thought Charles Edward did a compelling performance but he was mis-cast.

wonderfulstarfish.bsky.social•8 days ago

Nice guy who genuinely wants to save the world and gets screwed is a sad story (but not tragic in the true sense) but a better and more faithful to Tolkien version would be a Byronic hero who screws up because he thinks he's smarter than everyone else. His downfall is of his own making.

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•8 days ago

In Unfinished Tales, Celebrimbor and the smiths literally coup Galadriel and Celeborn out of power so they can cooperate with Annatar more, so it's just a ton of hubris-before-the-fall happening.

wonderfulstarfish.bsky.social•8 days ago

Ug, that would have been so much more interesting. It would have paralleled/contrasted Ar Pharazon's usurpation. It also would be a satisfying anchor to Galadriel's arc. If it ends with her rejecting the worldly power of the Ring in Fellowship, starting with worldly power completes the arc.

benhosp.bsky.social•8 days ago

Orcs should not be saying the word “trebuchet”. I can’t explain why “menu” was and is fine with me but not this. Maybe just one syllable too many.

wonderfulstarfish.bsky.social•7 days ago

Ah, common misconception. As a species created and raised by a polyglot wizard, Uruk-Hai speak a pidgin blend of Westron, Sindarin, and Dwarvish. He actually says "looks like meat's back ai-mênu!" from the dwarvish for "upon you." (As in Gimli's battle cry). Turn on the subtitles and you'll see.

benhosp.bsky.social•7 days ago

No, the “menu” line is just a straight up weird anachronism, but somehow it’s more in line with the weird anachronisms Tolkien actually wrote orcs saying (one of them talks about orcs having ID numbers!) than “trebuchet”. I think it’s just the syllables.

ranamar.bsky.social•7 days ago

I'd forgotten about orcs having ID numbers... Does this imply that "Name, rank, and serial number" is a concept on Middle Earth?

benhosp.bsky.social•6 days ago

It implies that Tolkien has orcs say weird things occasionally that don’t make a ton of sense if you follow them to their implied conclusions. So the “menu” line is fine, it’s supported by the source material in that sense.

kikikayak.bsky.social•8 days ago

OMG, this is brilliant. I actually liked s2 overall, but the siege made no sense even to my less trained eye. I'm currently sitting at dinner reading snippets of part I out loud to my husband and cackling.

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