Rings Of Power Spoilers - Tumblr Posts

ROP 7 spoiler, Celebrimbor

I sincerely love, in Charles portrayal, that we got the Celebrimbor who goes "hello, little mouse" in the beginning and then "I built this city", while marching towards a certain and painful torment willingly in sacrifice, and in neither of those instances he seems weak.

Too often TV shows present kindness as weakness; I am glad a show based on Tolkien does not follow this path. What I got from Charlie is a character that is, first and foremost, a reliable person. Deceived, maybe a little prideful, but actually dedicated and - in the end - just kind. Celebrimbor is not Elrond - not kind like summer; but kind in a way that actually reminds me of a stone or rock, of metal forged in a forge. I was surprised, but more than a little happy, to see him fall with a certain grace. He is not a passive figure in a background, although Sauron tries to make him just that. He fights back. A battle of wills indeed.

(Although after all of that I think he really earned a few CENTURIES in Halls of Mandos, healing. They can talk with Maedhros for example. About well. Losing limbs?)

SCREAMING. CRYING. THROWING UP. YAAASSS, THAT'S MY MAN.

Charles Edwards via instagram

his story in regards to his relationship with melkor, shed a different perspective on their dynamic. sauron, who was once in the same position as celebrimbor, now inflict the same pain unto him just as melkor once did. sauron, who learn to bear the pain and face years of torment under melkor, now stands in the same position as his lord. a frightening mantra cast by abuser that mirrors to real life, "i hit you because i love you. i want you to be best version of yourself. if only you just listen to me."

and the worse part about this entire interaction is how sauron truly believes in his own words. in his mind, he could have done worse. what even is a shackle to a noldo such as he, right? celebrimbor could bear the pain, right? he is truly lost, and all was said on celebrimbor's face.

Durin will come

The Rings of Power 2.07. Doomed to Die.

sauron narcissism analysis

1. lovebombs celebrimbor -> emotional dependence/ offering bouts of serotonin, gets him addicted to the praise and promise of creating something bigger than life/feanor

2. makes himself seem like the only person who can help him complete his work -> makes himself seem like he can offer something no one else can

3. expects celebrimbor to lie for him to others -> demanding proof of loyalty

4. lowkey secretly locks celebrimbor in the tower -> serves to isolate him from others and make him focus on doing sauron‘s bidding

5. he creates magic illusions and deliberately lies to celebrimbor to make him question his own reality/perception -> gaslighting

6. when celebrimbor confronts sauron with his lies sauron claims that celebrimbor WANTED all this done to him -> shifts the blame and responsibility for his own behaviour away from him and unto others

Armies may rise, hearts may fail, yet still, light endures, and is mightier than strength.

THE RINGS OF POWER 2.07 "Doomed to Die"

A few more observations from ep. 7:

!!!spoilers!!!

Angbang folks we're living well. I'll be chanting for a flashback to the days of "pain became a game" at some point next season.

Celebrimbor's horror when he realized the "mithril ore" was Sauron's pitch black blood. "What is this?" What is this stuff, Annatar, that's all over every surface, on my hands, and in my hair? I put mithril ore in my coffee this morning, did I drink your blood? (This is great insight into the wraith phenomena and the rings' effects on Men but fuuuccck.)

The pattern, the cycle. Sauron's illusion can only mimic life, and he's trapped in the cycle of abuser and abused. Does he get it? He's choking on it but doesn't quite understand what's caught in his throat, so to speak.

Mirdania's horrifying, tragic end. Another thing I didn't see coming! I love it when shows surprise me. Once disembodied she'll be back in Mandos' Halls, and she'll eventually be reunited with Celebrimbor in Aman.

Gil-galad looks fabulous in armor. Now he needs a floppy asymmetrical haircut like Elrond's. Benjamin Walker is such a good-looking man, let's style him up! (Yes I'm shallow.)

Galadriel is drawing strength from three people in this ep: Elrond, Celebrimbor(!!!), and Adar. She's beginning to see Adar as a reflection of what could be if she ever gives in to what I'm calling the Sauron-effect: Adar is ruined and corrupted, so obsessed it might kill him and enslave the Uruk again; Celebrimbor is the other side to that, someone who broke free but is still broken, he turned back toward the light and now he has turned around to face the consequences.

Or maybe four people: that scene with Arondir got me good.

I wrote this post about Adar and the possible implications of using Nenya yesterday, @baddybaddyadardaddy wrote this amazing post about the idea that final confrontation this season might be a three-person fight, and when I watched the ep again the way they frame Adar as being caught between darkness and light was so apparent. Crossing my fingers for this because damn, that would be some fine storytelling.

Poor Durin. And Elrond waiting for him on the battlefield was just so awful. I really hope Durin can resist the call of the rings but this confrontation with this father will make him emotionally vulnerable. BUT if he is tempted to put on his father's ring I firmly believe that Disa will chop off his hand. They better not do ANYTHING to Disa; I'm really enjoying Rings but if they use Disa's life to make Durin susceptible to Sauron's influence I might drop it like a hot rock, just saying.

i have been turning this scene over and over in my mind, there is so much rich complexity here in their interactions and characterization. celebrimbor is genuinely drawn in to the vision sauron is painting, and you see the flicker of understanding and empathy on his face when confronted with sauron’s past. you see this even clearer, though, in the third gif. celebrimbor is not just shocked and angered by sauron’s attempt at victim blaming, but hurt and betrayed. this is a perfect crystallization of how emotional abuse plays out. the abuser creates this moment of connection and emotional intimacy and then uses that setting to shift blame, gaslight, and wound. it’s a play at regaining control, and in sauron’s case, as with many abusers, it is so engrained it becomes a subconscious pattern and he deceives himself into truly believing that he is the victim.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER (2022 - ) Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor & Charlie Vickers as Sauron 2.07 - Doomed to Die

You must know it pains me, treating you like… Like you've treated countless others? Like Morgoth treated me. Do you know what it is to be tortured at the hands of a god? I cannot imagine. I see the end, Celebrimbor. So clearly. I have seen it from the moment I awoke. But his end, it was different from mine. For what he wished to destroy, I wished… to perfect. Sometimes, the pain almost became a reward. Became a game. A contest, to see whose will was the mightier.

i'm sorry but i can't get over this scene from ep7. i absolutely can't. immovable even. simply too seated in the theatre that the employees are begging me to leave. the desperation in sauron's eyes. the hesitation, horrors and curiosity from celebrimbor—willing himself into allowing the smothering closeness that was initiated by sauron. celebrimbor wanted to understand him. he really do. he sympathized with sauron. until sauron blames him for his own doing. even when celebrimbor no longer allow himself the connection they had, sauron still lingers by that thread. trapped in his own world. the need to be understood, admired, and seen overpowers the truth that he deceived himself.

Initial thoughts on the rings of power finale (spoilers):

- the dynamic between sauron and celebrimbor is by and large the best part of the season. I’m gonna miss charlie edwards so much 😭

- the balrog slayed (literally)

- WHERE IS MY ELROND/DURIN REUNION FUCK

- fuck kemen seriously don’t you dare threaten berek king of the horses i will fuck you up myself

- i love narrative symmetry/parallels and apparently so do the writers cause oh boy there were a bunch but adar’s death? perfect

more to come

sauron dragged celebrimbor’s broken and bleeding body to prop him against that pillar and then gently stroked his cheek.

Celebrimbor’s final words deal a death blow to Sauron’s self image. he names him “Sauron, Lord of the Rings”, in direct contrast to episode two where Sauron names himself “Annatar” and Celebrimbor provides the translation “Lord of Gifts”. Charlie Vickers has stated in interviews that Sauron fully immerses himself in his own deceptions and everything he does is 100% genuine. throughout season two he really leaned into his persona as “Lord of Gifts”. he believes he is going to heal Middle Earth, he is the one “holding the storm at bay”. Celebrimbor’s role in episode seven and eight becomes one of confronting Sauron with truths that he is not willing to acknowledge, leading up to the culmination of calling him Lord of the Rings instead of Lord of Gifts, Sauron, not Annatar. the fact that he immediately then dies by Sauron’s hand (which was never part of Annatar’s plan) puts Sauron in a place to actually start to reflect and see how his actions are not aligning with “Annatar’s” purported goals. I think he just starts to realize how he has deceived himself but then his response is to lean into “Sauron”, abandoning “Annatar” altogether. losing Celebrimbor and then facing a second rejection from Galadriel is going to push him further into Sauron out of spite. but he still mourns the loss of Annatar, I think because Annatar had friends, and trust.

charlie vickers #1 sauron understander

so I really wasn’t sure how graphic they were going to get with the torture and I was alternating convincing myself it would be horrific and then tame all week. when the shot opens on the two trails of blood I said out loud “oh no”. then immediately thought “nah…. that’s leftover from one of the soldiers”. then we see poor beautiful celebrimbor and my stomach dropped. what a gorgeous intense scene. I haven’t felt so viscerally engaged in television in a long long time.

Look what you have done to yourself

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER (2022 - ) Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor & Charlie Vickers as Sauron 2.07 - Doomed to Die | 2.08 - Shadow and Flame

sauron threatening celebrimbor with the implied atrocities of being violated by orcs for weeks on end, casting himself as a better alternative, and then claiming possession of celebrimbor via not allowing him to die…

I found this scene really weird and forced. If she knew Elros and apparently is Elrond's best friend, shouldn't she be nicer to their descendants. Also if she had mentioned it earlier, then maybe she would have had an easier time in Nùmenor. But what bother me the most about this scene is this painting. It looks like someone painted everything else except for Elronds head, and then someone different came in later and did his head in a completely different style. His head looks so realistic compared to the rest of the painting. Like someone photo-shopped his head on an old picture and used a filter or something.

Also aren't they suppose to be identical twins. I can't find anything similar about them. Their eyes, their headshape, their nose, their eyebrows, even their ears are different. I mean Elros looks more like Thorin's long lost twin. Maybe if you squint really hard, but something is just really weird about this painting.

The only great thing about this painting is that the elves have long hair, :)

Great battle of tiny village

why does the rings of power feel like they have just been building up to this "battle" and nothing happened. Why did Galadriel even recruit the numenorians? I mean, they didn't even make a difference. Apparently the few villagers managed to hold back the orcs and fight them off totally fine. Why where the numenorians even there? they knew where they where going since the calculated how long it would take them to arrive but no one is suppose to know what's going on in the Southlands. All the elves who were there died and Arondir didn't send a messege or anything. Galadriel only have a hunch that Sauron maybe is there. Not any conformation, just a really old piece of paper with instruction she don't even know if Sauron is following. And she doesn't know of any army, just suspecting he is bulding up his forces. And since Galadriel didn't know of these orcs attacking people, what was the numenorian army even suppose to fight? Galadriel didn't even know Adar existed. she could have seen it in the palatir but they only used it to show the flood vision, nothing more. Also shouldn't someone sent a message to the elves who where managing the area and have them meet up with Galadriel and the numenorian army and then have her lead their forces insted of the numenorians? Why does it feel like Galadriel rekruited the numenorians just to free a small village she didn't even know existed or needed help. Why is this such a great victory? they just saved a few people and an already destroyed village. most of the orcs were also already dead or gone.

And I guess the biggest question I currently have is, why is there so few poeple in this world? the village; maybe 30 peolpe total and half left, and they all seem to randomly appear or disappear. Numenorians; lookls like maybe 100 horses, but the army seems to disappear later and maybe 30 people going around the village and that is generous. it's like only the main characters exist and others just show up to deliver some lines and then disappear again. And don't get me started on the orcs; the Great army of what? 50 orcs or something. What great battle they all fought. It was good that the numenorians all trained to fight on foot since it's not like they where all fighting on horseback or something. I mean, It sure was worth going trough all the trouble to get the numenorian army there, right?

travel distance in rings of power is weird

I think it is very strange that Galadriel and Halbrand travelled from Mordor to Eregion in only 6 days. In lotr Boromir travelled almost the same distance in 110 days. (I looked this up on a wiki). Even if he lost his horse in Tharbad, it should still take Galadriel more than 6 days. She is travelling with a mortally wounded person, therefore she should be more careful and probably take longer than if she was alone. The speed they apparently travelled with should have killed Halbrand long before they even made it to Eregion.