Finale Thoughts ... Nothing To See Here, Just Thinking About Celebrimbor's Brilliance And Heroism In

Finale thoughts ... Nothing to see here, just thinking about Celebrimbor's brilliance and heroism in his last moments, his prophecy, and the absolute crying rage-fueled tantrum Sauron is likely to have when he has a moment to sit and think about how and when, exactly, Galadriel got her hands on the Nine.

Because in that last scene Celebrimbor wasn't just playing their game of "whose will is mightier," he was stalling to buy time for Galadriel. (Which he said he would do and somehow delivered on. Honestly what a stellar badass.)

He wasn't thinking only of Sauron during his last moments, his thoughts were on Galadriel and the safety of his people too; Celebrimbor's last words were meant for Sauron, yes, but those words also goaded Sauron into killing him and bought a few extra seconds for Galadriel.

So during their last (precioussss) moments together, Celebrimbor was supposed to be focused on Sauron alone, but he wasn't; instead Celebrimbor deceived him, and in Sauron's mind that is not acceptable.

When he puts that together and really sits down to digest that timeline he's going to be even more difficult to be around. I pity the Uruk even more now.

The way I see it, Sauron wanted three things during those last few episodes: Celebrimbor's compliance (following the pattern, the abuser trying to win over the abused again), the Nine, and the Uruk army. He got two out of three, but at a huge cost that he's hardly aware of yet, even though Celebrimbor's last words are probably forming shadows and doubts in what passes for his mind.

Then there was the bonus fourth thing that he wasn't aware he wanted until close to the end: Galadriel's ring, Nenya. But that slipped through his fingers literally, in much the same way Celebrimbor's soul slipped from his grasp metaphorically. (I really like that symmetry too, even if it was absurdly painful to watch.)

And Galadriel was fantastic because she played him too! I didn't see that coming, thought she was just going to throw herself backwards off the cliff, but instead she taunted the bastard and, in a move that mirrored Celebrimbor's goading of Sauron, took a fall that could have killed her rather than cede a millimeter of her will to the Enemy.

So Sauron has his army, and he has the Nine, but he's not quite winning. Not at all.

And that look at Fëanor's hammer? Well. I just responded to another post about this where we were talking about how a theme this season is that Celebrimbor is (the original) preciousss to Sauron (for all the wrong reasons) but I do hope that future seasons give us a call back to the hammer, and to Celebrimbor's dying words as Sauron's inspiration for the forging of the One.

Because I think Sauron is going to be compelled by equal parts fear and grief to forge that ring, and I hope they show that the forging of it is not quite a consensual act.

I really love this version of Sauron so far, and I want to see him suffer through that forging, I want to see him try and fail to break out of the pattern of maladaptive attachment he fell into with Melkor, and to have many flashbacks and references to our beloved Tyelpë throughout that process.

Ten days later and I'm still not recovered from "Hear me — hear me! Shadow of Morgoth! Hear the dying words of Celebrimbor!"

the fact that we DIDNT GET A REUNION in the finale i’m-

wait elrond and durin are going to see each other again right??? RIGHT?!?

i’ve dipped casually into bagginshield recently (10 years late 💀) and i am absolutely fascinated by how popular that ship seems to have been in fandom spaces. like it’s a great ship of course but i genuinely didn’t know people were that into the hobbit trilogy? i was deep into marvel and superwholock at the time and completely missed it. could just be a case of being in the right place at the right time (what i affectionaly refer to as the golden age of tumblr).

put your clothes back on i need to explain how rop!numenor could be a great arc about the creation of a fascist state if they gave it time to breath

Our Two Charlies <3