Today’s thoughts on Episode 7 draw heavily from my genre fiction professor at the UW, Nancy Pearl. This will be me trying to think through both what I’m enjoying and what I would criticize about the series at this point, and if you get anything useful out of this, credit Nancy (and if any of it seems confused or contradictory, that’s all me). So, Nancy uses the “four doorways” approach to talking about how readers connect with books – the essential idea being that every book has four doorways, consisting of Plot (what things are happening and why?), Characters (who’s doing the things?), Setting (where are the things happening?), and Language (how are all of these things being described to you, the reader?). Some of those doorways are a lot larger than others, though, and some readers prefer different doors. Let’s take The Great Gatsby as an example – most folks would agree that the Language door is a pretty wide one, given how great an authorial voice Fitzgerald has, and so if you’re someone who really connects to a story via its language, Gatsby’s at least got a good chance at working for you. Whereas most people do NOT gush about the “plot” of Gatsby – the Plot door is certainly a lot smaller than a much plottier book like Jurassic Park or Murder On The Orient Express. Maybe you’ll come to love the plot of Gatsby, but folks who connect with books most naturally through a Plot door are probably going to struggle with the book more than a lot of other titles they might pick up.
Big hitters, then, in the book world, are going to be books that just famously have four very big doors. The Lord of the Rings, arguably, owes a lot of its success to having four at least reasonably big doors – there are people who come to love it through its plot (adventure! danger! tension!), and others who enter via characters they love (the aforementioned Sam Gamgee is one great example), and others who enter via the stunning settings (they just want to imagine living in Lothlorien or Gondor or the Shire, and would be excited by almost any characters or plot there). Tolkien’s language is probably his most criticized doorway, but even there, there’s no denying that hundreds of imitators in high fantasy novels and movies and role-playing games suggest that something about his language really is a means of connection for people. A true four doorway novel – and again, we’re not just talking about a book where all four things are good, we’re talking about a book where each of the four things is bewitching enough that it might hook a reader by its skill alone – is the sort of book that you can get almost anybody at least a little interested in. They linger as classics on our shelves, or emerge as cult hits when people start to realize that there’s almost no kind of reader who can’t get into them.
I don’t know that Nancy ever applied her theory to movies or television, but to me there’s plenty of wisdom in it still. And I think it’s a good assessment of where I’m at with The Rings of Power, so I’m going to advance a theory of where I’m at – based on what happened in Episode 7 for me, but again, low spoilers for that episode. What I realized, especially on rewatch, is that my relationship to The Rings of Power is really about connection through two very big doorways, and I bet this is true for a lot of folks. One big door is Character – almost anybody who’s taken any time with the show has some characters that are really dragging them in. We may disagree on who’s most charming, but it’s hard to argue (I think) that the series is failing in giving us really compelling and interesting people we care about and want to see more of. The other big door is Setting – again, it seems to me that we all consistently praise the incredible production design and costumes and effects that are giving us visions of incredible places, some of which I never really imagined I would see on screen. People who love shows with compelling characters or really amazing settings to immerse in, I think are going to have a great time.
Language is a trickier thing to evaluate here – the written language, I think, that’s spoken by actors, and I think probably also the cinematic language of editing and pacing, etc. I think this is a smaller door – there are some well edited sequences in most episodes, but I think a number of us who enjoy the show still express some impatience. And while I’m enjoying the dialogue (and I think they’re getting increasingly good at writing it), I’ll admit, there have been some wobbles, and certainly some other folks report they find it a real stumbling block. I think if you’re someone who falls for a show due to its language (spoken or cinematic), this may not be as easy a door to get through – again, whether or not you find yourself liking it in the end.
And I think the Plot door is real, real small. Again, that’s not to say that you have to dislike the plot – I think you can really enjoy a lot of what’s unfolding here, especially if you got in via one of the other doorways. But I feel like that’s where most of us who have objections at all are finding it hardest – sometimes cause-effect chains just feel like they lack rationale or purpose (why finish the forge by spring? How could a fairy tale just “be true” for no apparent reason?), and sometimes there are just sequences that feel poorly thought out (how is it in Episode 7 that two characters leave a place and take seemingly days to get to a nearby camp, while everybody else goes there in a matter of hours, leaving at almost the same time? How is it that an injured person’s best chance at a cure is a journey on horseback that’s going to take weeks, which we know since there’s three whole movies devoted to that journey in reverse?). But here’s the thing – I feel like every time there’s a weird Plot thing, I can trace why it’s happening to the other three elements. Like, there’s a weird mithril legend and I hate it for Plot reasons (it just feels so convenient and forced) but I love the Character moments it gave me in Elrond and Gil-galad’s conversation, and I honestly can’t say I hate the imagery it gave me of the Setting, and it even gave rise to some really lovely Language (both spoken and cinematic). And that happens pretty consistently – there’s a thing I would be irritated by if I was trying to get into this series via its Plot (and some viewers are going to be stuck at that door, because that’s the door they get into series by most often, and that’s not either a bad thing or anybody’s fault). But I’m lucky – that’s not often my entry point to a series. So I’m having a pretty good time – often a great time.
And that’s my low spoiler take on Episode 7, honestly – I liked it a lot. Some people thought it was “slow” or “uneventful” and I’m baffled, because we learn SO much about these characters, and we see some AMAZING settings, and there are some lines that are just piercingly good. But yeah, there’s not a lot of big plot-advancing action, and the stuff that does advance is honestly kind of weird to me, much of the time. So depending on what you’re looking for, Episode 7 might be one of your favorites (it’s feeling like that to me) or it might be a bit of a letdown. I feel like a lot now depends on Episode 8, and I’m a bit nervous honestly (which I’ll address down in the comments, in high spoiler territory). But I feel like this show has me hooked enough that it’s not going to lose me – I got in through Character and Setting doors that are clearly going to remain wide open, and I’m hopeful it’ll carry me all the way to the series finale with delight. For now, I can just say I liked Episode 7. And now, to the comments!
Comments:
Okay, spoilers ahead, let’s start with my first honest-to-goodness gasp of this series, when Galadriel opens up about her lost husband, Celeborn. I bet Patrick H. was somewhere beaming, since back on September 6th he wrote THIS in a comment on my Episodes 1 & 2 post: “Maybe in this version of the story Galadriel and Celeborn were separated some time in the fall of Nargothrond and she thought him killed.” Man, Patrick, you’ve got a palantir shoved in a junk drawer somewhere, admit it. Okay, so, I love this – I love love it. Their relationship always seemed a little antiseptic in Tolkien’s takes on them – he never really figured out where they both fit into history, and he sometimes separates them for long stretches of time without it being clear why, leaving open the question of what they mean to each other and how their relationship actually works. So I’m all in on the writers creating a separation of their own that’s going to carry real weight when he comes back – and he is DEFINITELY coming back, the man has a speaking part in Fellowship, they’re not retconning him as dead. I love, too, that the loss is painful enough that she hasn’t been able to admit it, or speak of it, to anybody until her guard is down after she feels like a failure in the wake of Orodruin sparking up like a Zippo, and after she takes Theo under her wing in really motherly fashion (could Celebrian be out there too? I think so – I have a theory, anyway). I have some ideas about where Celeborn’s been, and I think her choice of words has been careful here – sure, he might be a POW or even dead but on his way to resurrected, but the likeliest theory here to me is that “she never saw him again” because he came back from war a man who refused to fight again, and she couldn’t stop fighting. Whether they physically never saw each other (because of letters exchanged or something), or whether she’s being metaphorical about how her own rage so blinded her that she lost sight of him, of them, of their love, I think she understands that he’s still out there. That he’s someone she lost but that she could find him again. And man, I want to see that for her – WAY more than yet another scene where there’s a weird crackle in the air as she and Halbrand trade quips (I’m old, guys, too old to ‘ship characters I know would be bad news for each other). A kind of Odyssey for Galadriel – coming back to the home fires and finding a faithful Celeborn ready for her, but only if there’s peace in her heart – that could, I think, really work. But we’ll see.
Okay, man I hope this isn’t a thing that happens, but it does seem increasingly like Halbrand is going to be revealed to us as Sauron – why else drag a man 2,000 miles on horseback with an open wound? “Elvish medicine” is a TERRIBLE cover story there. On the other hand, how on earth does this all unfold? I still prefer (even if I’m less convinced they’ll do this) a story in which Sauron in disguise is pulling the strings in Eregion. And I wonder if Halbrand is being brought along because he’ll be the one guy who recognizes Annatar (or whatever name Sauron’s using) in the flesh – if he and Galadriel are the first people who realize something’s up, the setup in Eregion is entirely on the side of them being ignored, since her credibility is shot and he’s got no social capital at all. But she could persuade Elrond, and he might get Gil-galad’s ear – all the dominos line up, anyway. But again, everybody online seems to have coalesced behind an H=S scenario, and I’ll admit, I see the lines of dialogue and the camera shots we’re getting that send that message. I just have a hard time seeing how that lands as a successful story – they’re going to have to convince me, and the task will be a hard one. So I hope basically everybody is wrong, and that whatever they DO do with Sauron is a real winner. Give me a strange looking elf who knows Celebrimbor just a little too well, and is in charge of the mithril foundry.
I think we’re all a lot less sure than ever about the Stranger, and I have to say – this has dragged on too long. Like, how is it plausible that whoever this guy is has this much power but absolutely no idea who he is? How is it that every single nice magic thing he does is accompanied by screaming and terror and violence? I guess there’s still room for him to be Sauron but I do not understand how on Middle-earth that would work in the terms of this whole story – he’s nowhere near either Mordor or Eregion to either bewitch Celebrimbor into making a bunch of rings, or forge one important one for himself. And all the other options just feel increasingly weird to me – if he’s an Istari how is he this clueless about his own mission? If he’s some fell spirit like a Balrog, why is he a Big Friendly Giant who pushes carts and eats snails and heals the forest? I don’t know. Anyway, I really liked how the Harfoot story advanced here, once the Stranger left – Largo’s big speech about “who Harfoots are” is obviously untrue, but it’s untrue in the way that a politician saying “Kids shouldn’t go hungry here, this is AMERICA” is not exactly right that there’s something “un-American” about child hunger, but the politician generally knows that and is trying to make a rhetorical point. I think Largo’s trying to persuade the community that the one binding quality has is its heart and its willingness to look out for each other, and that they ought to commit themselves to that going forward – and I think in doing so he’s laid the ground work for the decisions the older Harfoots make to support Nori and Poppy’s mission to help the Stranger. (I also think Sadoc’s probably more than a little depressed – when he says “It doesn’t really matter anyway, we’re all going to die” I laugh, but I also get that from his perspective, he’s got a lot less to lose than he did the previous day. Anyway, Lenny Henry is amazing and anything that keeps his character on screen is a writing decision I support.)
There’s more to say here, but I don’t know how much I want to delve into. I’m curious about what Durin and Disa will do now, but I don’t have any guesses yet (other than that I think one or both may go to Eregion to try and shore up the Elven alliance, since that’s Durin’s argument for what he thinks it’ll mean if he gets to be king), and I’m curious about what Miriel will do now but her injury and renewed resolve surprised me (I suspect Pharazon will use it to gain an advantage, but I’m not sure how). I roll my eyes a little at Barak clearly going to rescue Isildur the way Brego rescues Aragorn, but at least in TROP’s case, they’ve actually laid the groundwork for why there’s such a connection between horse and rider, and Barak running pell-mell across that field is way more dynamic than anything Brego did (sorry Brego). And okay, the weird Southlands -> Mordor visual effect was weird, I don’t know why they did that. Are they keeping the word out of Adar’s mouth? Or did they genuinely think that casual fans hadn’t been able to add two plus two? Anyway, Adar is a fantastic villain and I want more – I’m really curious what they do with him now, and I wouldn’t rest easy at Pelargir if I were Arondir, Bronwyn, and Theo, who do make a cute family but dang, I bet at least one of them won’t live to the end of the series, and maybe all three. I hope folks will add their own comments and theories in here, if you haven’t already!