Half As Well Podcast

Our Rings of Power Episode 4 reaction is up! Discussing Isildur and the Wild Men, hobbits, and of course the merry fellow himself! (Warning: a lot of Stranger grumbling in this one!) open.spotify.com/episode/4EN…

"Fierce hunger-haunted packs he had that in wolvish form and flesh were clad, but demon spirits dire did hold ; and ever wild their voices rolled in cave and mountain where they housed and endless snarling echoes roused." -The Lay of Leithian

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." A little late for Tolkien's birthday, but looking back on my life I marvel to realize how much that one quote has impacted me as both a farmer and musician. Thank you professor.

Saw Nosferatu last night. I've always felt that Bram Stoker's Dracula shared many similarities with the Lord of the Rings and that Tolkien was probably inspired by it. Anyway, Count Orlok was almost exactly how I wish Sauron to be portrayed. A truly horrifying presence.

A bottle episode of just Sauron stuck with Tom Bombadil sometimes during the War of Sauron and the Elves.

Keep Charlie Vickers. Even with some questionable writing, he's absolutely killing it as the Lord of the Rings.

The Dwarves of Moria, especially how they showed the Rings of Power working on King Durin.

Forget the fandom, I just want the show runners, writers, and actors to all be on the same page about it. One ship in particular!

GLORFINDEL. Or at least show Goldberry. Having Tom without her just feels wrong....

I think Elendil and Miriel has potential. Didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I have.

Well not to be too dramatic but revealing the Stranger is a Gandalf-origin story already happened, so... Hoping they downplay that in future seasons and just really focus on Numenor.

Depends. There's so much bad faith criticism rooted in misogyny and racism that any actual critique is often received with too much defensiveness and being lumped in with awful people. Like, I get the impulse, but it can be frustrating.

The origin of the Ringwraiths.

I really loved Charlie Vickers as Sauron, but I don't like how cold and alien he was written as Annatar, and the fact that Celebrimbor was the one with the knowledge to make Rings of Power, not the other way around.

Adar. He's a perfect example of being able to take a few lines from Tolkien here and there and craft a believable character that easily could've existed in his world. And in the absence of Morgoth, he's such a great foil for Sauron.

Elendil or Celebrimbor

I was nervously excited from the beginning. Soured on it over time.

3 things: -Too much time spent on plotlines that shouldn't be in a Second Age show (like Gandalf and hobbits) and not enough time spent fleshing out the actual Rings of Power plotline. -Time compression -Too much adherence to Jackson's LotR rather than Tolkien's

"Yes, I think orcs as real a creation as anything in 'realistic ' fiction....only in real life they are on both sides, of course." -Letter 71

I still haven't seen the War of the Rohirrim 😬

"We were born in a dark age out of due time (for us). But there is this comfort: otherwise we should not know, or so much love, what we do love. I imagine the fish out of water is the only fish to have an inkling of water." -J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 52