danex

one thing that I think this show is doing really well is taking very very classic tropes and twisting them

for example, we have the classic "yearning" type plotline
your classic "farmboy" type, right
"what if there's more beyond our little slice of civilazation" etc etc etc
so naturally the next step is a Call to Action

and lemme tell you, having a meteor crash, only to find a naked man inside, is one HECK of a call

it's not even really twisting the format exactly
it's just doing it in a very original way
and i love it

also i have no idea who that guy is
i feel like they're setting it up for a reveal
so we must know who he is already
i'm probably just not well versed enough in tolkien lore to figure it out

my first guess was tom bombadil, simply because he's fitting the "very weird old man" vibes
but iirc, tom was all about nature n stuff, so that whole "killing fireflies" thing wouldn't be his vibe really
also i think i remember him being like
some sort of higher eternal being
like he has always existed and always will
so the suddenly appearing from a meteor and not remembering anything doesn't seem to fit either

my next guess would be...some sort of wizard?
falling from the sky in a meteor does seem like the way a wizard would be born
i know that there's supposed to only be 5 wizards or something
and they're like maiar or whatever
maybe this is showing one of them being created by the tolkien god or smthn

he's just credited as "the stranger" so that doesn't help much

yeah idk
i feel like this is definitely something that could be figured out rn
i just don't have the knowledge of tolkien lore to do it

aaaaaaaaanyway this was supposed to be a review, not theorizing and speculation

uh yeah
i thought it was great
i am enjoying all 4 of the plotlines at about equal levels at the moment. they each have enough mystery or action that i don't really prefer one over another.

i am loving the lost at sea bit though
i love sea monsters
like, look at all the crazy megafauna tolkien has on land. dragons, ents, trolls, etc etc
imagine what crazy things would be in the ocean depths.
imagine if it was analagous to our own world, where we have pretty normal looking surface creatures and absolute nightmare fuel down in the depths.
Tolkien already has crazy nightmare fuel on the surface.
i want to know what's down there. 

that plotline is another good example of them taking classic tropes and being very original with it. Galadriel is building a party. And the first member was met, not in a tavern, but by accidentally stumbling into each other in the middle of the ocean

very original, and very enjoyable