▲ 71 r/LOTR_on_Prime
Celeborn crumbs from a new interview
"Guilt will be something I will be dealing with".
u/DesSantorinaiou — 9 hours ago
▲ 756 r/LOTR_on_Prime
FINALLY: JCB is...
For the past few years, Jamie Campbell Bower has been in all-out villain mode – as Stranger Things’ monstrous Vecna, he flayed minds, bodies and souls alike. But as he enters another mammoth streaming series, Bower is switching things up. He’s one of the new cast additions to Season 3 of The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, entering the Tolkien-verse in a role that has, until now, been kept tightly under wraps (and much rumoured-over by fans). Empire can finally confirm Bower’s role: meet Celeborn, Elf lord and warrior.
And, notably, the husband of Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel. The character – briefly portrayed in Peter Jackson’s films by Marton Csokas – is something of a “lover-boy”, says Bower. The anti-Vecna, then. How they introduce Celeborn – who canonically married Galadriel in the First Age, and in TROP has been apart from her for centuries – remains to be seen. But their dynamic is partly inspired by Tolkien and his wife, Edith. “This idea of longing and yearning is so pervasive in Tolkien’s relationship with Edith for the time that they were apart,” says Bower. “I really feasted on that idea. Celeborn has had to find a way to survive whilst longing for something that he so dearly loved and so dearly missed as well.” And Clark was more than game to contribute to the pair’s sparkling interplay. “She’s kind of rude to him in the books,” she chuckles. “She’s the queen! But Jamie looks exactly like how I would imagine Celeborn. He’s such an Elf.”
Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay saw hundreds of tapes for Celeborn – but even without Elf ears and the rest, it was clear that Bower had the stuff. “He has this voice that is rich and hypnotic and sonorous that feels it has the wisdom of the ages buried inside of it,” says Payne. “And then we did a chemistry read [with Clark], and instantly it just felt like he loved her so much. It felt so natural, and so organic, and so right.” In the age of Sauron, Middle-earth could use a few more lover-boys."
u/DesSantorinaiou — 3 days ago
▲ 44 r/HouseOfTheDragon
Criston Cole
It's been some years sine I last read F&B, but I recall Criston Cole being an interesting character. Not a good person, but someone nuanced. And based on what GRRM wrote back in 2021 (when the character was cast) this was what he intended. I remeber reading the emphasized and repeated "or is he?" in this blogpost, and thinking that he gives an interesting direction to his readers' interpretations.
Cole's best scene in the show was in s02, when he talks to Gwayne in episode 8, which was quiet, theatrical and well-acted. But in the context of the whole show the way he has been written is messy and quite poor.
I know most viewers hate him and these feelings are strong enough that they colour how people see even the character GRRM wrote, but I just think the writers did him dirty, and this was a choice they had made already in 1x01, when they had him simply win because Daemon was distracted, instead of framing it as a victory he earned in his own right. It was reaffirmed by the way they framed his dynamic with Rhaenyra, the killing of Joffrey, the responsibility he carries in the show for Blood and Cheese. And of course they've made him a hypocrite... and they didn't make him the Kingmaker.
The show's approach is such a waste of a character that could have been absolutely fascinating and it's a pity, because Frankel is actually good when given appropriately good material.
u/DesSantorinaiou — 2 months ago