Return of the Rings: Rings of Power S1 Recap

[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to the Rings of Power podcast where the Lorehounds, your guides to the wonderful

[00:00:24] [SPEAKER_04]: world of Middle Earth. I'm David. And I'm Marilyn. And for this podcast we are going to be doing

[00:00:28] [SPEAKER_04]: a recap of season one of Lord of the Rings, Rings of Power in preparation for the start

[00:00:33] [SPEAKER_01]: of season two. For the recap rather than doing an episode by episode review, we're going

[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_01]: to cover the season based on the major story arcs. So that way our hope is that you're going

[00:00:44] [SPEAKER_01]: to feel all caught up and ready to watch season two starting August 29th on Amazon Prime.

[00:00:51] [SPEAKER_04]: John, David, and I will be recapping the season week to week and we will have more information

[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_04]: about our specific plans after we finish the recap.

[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_01]: If you want to get in touch with us, you can send emails to lotr at thelorehounds.com

[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_01]: And if you want to join our community discord or support the community by subscribing with

[00:01:11] [SPEAKER_01]: either Supercast or Patreon, check out the link tree link in the show notes below. And

[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_01]: we'll talk a little bit more about affiliates and all kinds of other stuff at the end of

[00:01:21] [SPEAKER_01]: the podcast. But we want to make this podcast really high utility value so you can feel

[00:01:26] [SPEAKER_01]: like you can just jump in here and get what's going on. Marilyn, good to see you.

[00:01:30] [SPEAKER_01]: How are you?

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_04]: Yes, it's lovely to see you too, David. Yeah, I'm great. I'm very excited

[00:01:35] [SPEAKER_04]: with all the bits and pieces they've been showing us and have all kinds of fun theories,

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_04]: which I obviously won't unpack now, but we'll see how many of them actually happen.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_01]: Sounds good. And thanks for... It was a clear choice to make sure that you were covering

[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_01]: this weekly with us. We wouldn't have wanted it any other way. And I think we're going

[00:01:53] [SPEAKER_01]: to have some more fun Tolkien stuff later in the year, more words on that later later.

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_01]: But certainly, we have War of the Roja Rim coming up.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes.

[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_01]: You know, so we'll be making sure that all of that gets covered. Anyway,

[00:02:03] [SPEAKER_01]: we're here to talk about Season 1 of Rings of Power. Before we get into the episode

[00:02:08] [SPEAKER_01]: recap, but I'm not going to spend too much time on it, I just want to make sure folks know

[00:02:11] [SPEAKER_01]: that we have a product called a Season Pass. And what a Season Pass does, it allows for

[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_01]: people who come around to the podcast for just a particular show to be able to

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_01]: support the community and then get access to some of the bonus features and the ad-free stuff.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_01]: Basically, it is a $10 single purchase. And then you get assigned the podcast and we can send you

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_01]: some links and all of that kind of stuff. And so, yeah, like I said, it gets ad-free and

[00:02:44] [SPEAKER_01]: early access. You'll get the bonus weekly lore cast where Marilyn, John, and I will

[00:02:51] [SPEAKER_01]: pluck a piece of lore out of the episodes and then we'll sort of go deep into that.

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_01]: You also get the show guide, the one guide to rule them all. It's really amazing.

[00:03:01] [SPEAKER_01]: There's a platform called Notion and it allows us to compile information, click a button,

[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_01]: publish it on the web. And we've had a lot of success for this in some other shows,

[00:03:12] [SPEAKER_01]: most notably House of the Dragon. John has poured a lot of his froa and freya into

[00:03:18] [SPEAKER_01]: the building of... But no cruelty. No cruelty.

[00:03:21] [SPEAKER_01]: No cruelty. And Marilyn, you've been right there as well helping and build it. So it's a

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_01]: visual guide so you can click through, you can see characters, there's stuff about

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_01]: locations, there's stuff about artifacts. And it works really well on mobile. So if

[00:03:38] [SPEAKER_01]: you're watching an episode, you can easily second screen it to figure out, wait,

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_01]: who is this character? Or I love this actor and you can follow any sort of rabbit holes

[00:03:47] [SPEAKER_01]: out to other resources like IMDB and such. So you get that included in the season pass and I believe

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_01]: we're throwing in Second Age and Rings and Rituals as well, our two original podcasts.

[00:04:00] [SPEAKER_01]: So there's a lot of material in there to support you on our journey in season two.

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Marilyn, just briefly, how did your Rings and Rituals season one go? You and Dr. Sarah Brown

[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_01]: examined season one through the lens of Ritual. How was that for you? This is your first

[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_01]: professional podcast, like all on your own for instance? Yes. It was delightful. Of course,

[00:04:22] [SPEAKER_04]: I had massive amounts of support from you, John and Alicia and all of the more experienced folks.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_04]: We had a great time. We really had a wonderful time and the thing that pleased me most was

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_04]: how many people wrote in to say that they really hadn't liked the first season all that

[00:04:41] [SPEAKER_04]: much but by doing what we had suggested, by following along and just looking at Ritual,

[00:04:46] [SPEAKER_04]: they suddenly found themselves getting engaged. That's great. And we're really excited about

[00:04:51] [SPEAKER_04]: season two. So if nothing else, I feel really good about that and if Peyton McKay wants to

[00:04:57] [SPEAKER_04]: invite me to some kind of open some night, sure. Let me know. Well, we've got some

[00:05:03] [SPEAKER_01]: moots coming up. Yes. It has been mooted about.

[00:05:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Been potential there and I assume that there will be a season two in your future?

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, absolutely. Both Sarah and I are definitely committed to it. We can't tell you anything at

[00:05:16] [SPEAKER_01]: this point about. Yeah, sure. Right. We got away for the season to come out.

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_04]: Well, Sarah is insanely busy and I'm not exactly sitting back on my hind legs either.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_01]: We all dream for the day when we can retire so we can be even more busier than when we were

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_04]: working. Well, that's exactly been my experience for the past five years.

[00:05:34] [SPEAKER_01]: That's right. Because then you stumbled across a little podcast and suddenly got roped into a bunch

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_01]: of stuff you never planned for. Nonetheless, let's talk a little bit about season one,

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_01]: how we're going to recap the season here. So this podcast is being recorded under the assumption

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_01]: that anybody listening to it has seen season one and whether you liked it, didn't like it,

[00:05:56] [SPEAKER_01]: whatever. None of that matters. We're not worried about that. But at least you saw it so that

[00:06:02] [SPEAKER_01]: as we're talking about characters and places and things like that, this is going to serve as a reminder

[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_01]: as a refresh for you. We're not going to go... And so that also means that we're not going to go deep

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_01]: into explainers. Well, the stranger is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We're just going to refer

[00:06:16] [SPEAKER_01]: to them, add some context and go from there because it's really trying to get the outlines

[00:06:22] [SPEAKER_01]: of the story. John wrote a season one recap for the show guide and we are using the words

[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_01]: as he wrote them to cover each of the major story arcs. So thank you, John, for that. And you can

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_01]: get a taste of... You can get an auditorial sampling of what are some of the things that are in the

[00:06:44] [SPEAKER_01]: show guides. Not only these words, but then there's a lot of pictures that go along with this as well.

[00:06:50] [SPEAKER_01]: So it makes it a really rich experience. I'm going to read the entries for the different

[00:06:55] [SPEAKER_01]: story elements. And then Marilyn, you'll provide some additional context and expand it a little bit

[00:07:02] [SPEAKER_01]: more and maybe highlight a few things that we should really be paying attention to when we get

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_01]: around to season two. Yes. And so our goal is to be not to opine so much about our personal

[00:07:12] [SPEAKER_01]: feelings and thoughts about season one as more as it's really to inform you, the listener,

[00:07:19] [SPEAKER_01]: so that you're prepped for season two. Just a reminder of what happened.

[00:07:24] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes, exactly. Okay. So let's start getting into it. The first story arc that we're going to cover

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_01]: is Galadriel, Halbrand and the Numenorians. Galadriel is an elf from the house of Finarfin who

[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_01]: left Amon with the Noldor to recover the Silmarils, three jewels with the holy light of Valinor

[00:07:45] [SPEAKER_01]: within them created by Feanor. During the first age, Galadriel's brother Finrod was killed by Sauron.

[00:07:53] [SPEAKER_01]: Since then she has been hunting the elusive Sauron. When her forces abandon the cause,

[00:07:59] [SPEAKER_01]: Galadriel is sent by Gil-galad to sail into the west and live out her life in peace in Amon,

[00:08:06] [SPEAKER_01]: where all the elves will eventually return. She refuses, ending up shipwrecked with a

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_01]: man named Halbrand. The two are found by Elendil and brought to Numenor, where Galadriel determines

[00:08:20] [SPEAKER_01]: that Halbrand is the heir to the lost line of kings to the Southlands. She and Elendil also

[00:08:27] [SPEAKER_01]: determine that the symbol used by Sauron is a map of the Southlands. With this information,

[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Galadriel convinces Miriel to lead Numenorian forces to Middle-Earth. Miriel's advisor Farazon

[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_01]: is not pleased by this plan. You could say so. First conceptual point I wanted to bring up

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_04]: is Feanor is actually Galadriel's uncle. Her creepy uncle. He asked her three times for

[00:09:01] [SPEAKER_04]: one of the hairs on her head. She refused every time because she never really felt

[00:09:07] [SPEAKER_04]: trust in him. Some people say that was what inspired Feanor to make the Silmarils in the first place

[00:09:15] [SPEAKER_04]: because it was said that her hair appeared to have the light of both of the trees caught in

[00:09:21] [SPEAKER_04]: its tresses. There are all these sub-connections like roots underground that are kind of fun

[00:09:29] [SPEAKER_01]: if you know them. It is kind of creepy because why not just get the light from the trees

[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_01]: which you end up doing but you want to get it from the hair? So yeah, kind of weird.

[00:09:40] [SPEAKER_04]: And why not take no for an answer the first time? I think it's important also to point out

[00:09:48] [SPEAKER_04]: that from the beginning Galadriel really resisted returning to Valinor for a variety of

[00:09:54] [SPEAKER_04]: reasons. But the main reason that she tells us later on in the season is that she didn't feel worthy

[00:10:01] [SPEAKER_04]: of returning to Valinor so much so that she actually dove off the boat

[00:10:04] [SPEAKER_04]: and into the ocean. And that was how she wound up colliding with Halbren and some

[00:10:13] [SPEAKER_04]: some Southerners who are also attacked by a worm which I think is going to make an appearance

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER_01]: in season two. Okay and then they end up on the island of Numenor and start

[00:10:29] [SPEAKER_01]: and then there's that whole sort of tension between elves and men. Yes, Galadriel is not

[00:10:35] [SPEAKER_04]: welcomed nor does she feel welcome. It's been a long time since an elf has showed up on the

[00:10:40] [SPEAKER_04]: island of Numenor and if you want to know more why you're going to have to dig into

[00:10:45] [SPEAKER_04]: the war yourself because they don't really make that terribly clear. Right well or you could

[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_01]: go back and listen to the second age podcast where John and I discuss a bunch of things. You could

[00:10:52] [SPEAKER_01]: do that. You could absolutely do that. And you could jump on our discord and ask all kinds

[00:10:56] [SPEAKER_01]: of questions on our channel so we've got even better plenty of folks who will be happy to

[00:11:00] [SPEAKER_01]: walk you through the lore. All right, the next story arc is Elrond's quest. After engaging

[00:11:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Galadriel to abandon her hunt for Sauron, Elrond is sent to Eregion to work with

[00:11:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Celebrimborr to find a solution to the rapid fading of the elves of Middle Earth. Elrond visits

[00:11:23] [SPEAKER_01]: his old friend Durin IV who has not seen him in decades and has married Dyssa and they have

[00:11:29] [SPEAKER_01]: a family together. After the pair makes up, Elrond convinces Durin IV to help him and the

[00:11:35] [SPEAKER_01]: other elves to obtain Mithril, a mysterious ore that is rumored to come from one of the lost

[00:11:41] [SPEAKER_04]: Silmarils. Yes, now this one is one you could definitely do some background research on

[00:11:50] [SPEAKER_04]: the lore because there are a couple of rather controversial things in here but I will just

[00:11:56] [SPEAKER_04]: point out Elrond is the son of Elrendil who is, you could say, the mortal savior of Middle

[00:12:04] [SPEAKER_04]: Earth. Elrendil was a mortal man married to Elwing who was one of the elves and so he was given a

[00:12:12] [SPEAKER_04]: choice, he and his twin brother Elros were given a choice to either become Elvish or to become human

[00:12:21] [SPEAKER_04]: and his brother Elros chose to become human and became the first king of Númenor. Elrond

[00:12:27] [SPEAKER_04]: chose to be Elvish and considers himself to be Elvish but he is often reminded by various

[00:12:35] [SPEAKER_04]: people, particularly elves of his dual nature. Okay. And what I like so much in his arc

[00:12:44] [SPEAKER_01]: is the way he turns this into a strength. Right. Now how are Elrod and Galadriel related

[00:12:55] [SPEAKER_01]: because they're really good friends but don't they have some familial connections at some level

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_04]: or are they just friends? If you go way, way pretty far back no connections on his father's side of

[00:13:08] [SPEAKER_04]: course. His mother is descended from Gondolin, Turgon and I honestly can't remember the connection

[00:13:18] [SPEAKER_04]: at this point between Turgon and Galadriel but there's probably some, you know, some

[00:13:24] [SPEAKER_01]: in my mind it was there was a closer connection but I think that's mistaken. I must have made

[00:13:28] [SPEAKER_01]: that up. It's not, it's not a close connection. Okay. Definitely not Uncle Níes for sure. Right.

[00:13:33] [SPEAKER_01]: But they're very good friends. There's a lot of affection and depth in their relationship.

[00:13:38] [SPEAKER_04]: That yes, that's how the story is presenting this to us but it's clear

[00:13:43] [SPEAKER_04]: that even in the lore they do come to know one another and close ties are formed and I

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_01]: one of the things I think if I'm correct on this there is a lot of, I want to say missing,

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_01]: there's just not a lot of information about how elves and dwarves kind of connect and how are Elrond

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_01]: and Durin friends like that. They just sort of wave their hands in the show and just say they're

[00:14:12] [SPEAKER_04]: together right? Yes and it's a very unusual friendship because most of the stories that

[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_04]: we hear about elves and dwarves are their conflicts. In fact Euregion which was mentioned is possibly

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_04]: unique in the Legendarium as being a place where elves and dwarves worked together harmoniously.

[00:14:35] [SPEAKER_04]: Now the Noldor were very keen on smithing and jewel crafting and making. Right. They were

[00:14:43] [SPEAKER_04]: particularly precious to Aole the Valar, the angel who was a smith person. Right. And so many

[00:14:54] [SPEAKER_04]: dwarves studied under him and so some people say that the reason why the Noldor and the dwarves

[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_04]: get along together so well is because they're both crafters and they both have these connections

[00:15:07] [SPEAKER_04]: with Aole. Okay got it. So that's what we're seeing here I think. And Aole being the creator

[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_01]: of the dwarves but that's a whole other part of that. By Aole's beard. Yes and again we cover

[00:15:19] [SPEAKER_01]: some of that in the second age podcast. Right well let's talk a little bit more about the dwarves.

[00:15:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Meanwhile Durin the third who is Durin the Forced father and is the current king of the dwarves

[00:15:30] [SPEAKER_01]: is suspicious of Elrond and is furious about Durin the Forced's secret mining of

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Mithril for the elves. This comes to a head when some dwarves become trapped. Though all survive

[00:15:41] [SPEAKER_01]: the mining stops Durin gifts Elrond a small portion of Mithril underground a Balrog awakens.

[00:15:51] [SPEAKER_04]: Yes and I wanted to include in here that Disa is very much a skilled miner

[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_04]: as well as Durin her husband Prince Durin which she particularly is skilled at is

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_04]: singing to the stone singing to the mountain. And we hear about this in a couple of different

[00:16:10] [SPEAKER_04]: episodes we see it in action as we learn that yes the miners are eventually rescued but it's just

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_04]: it's powerful and in Novete the actor has an incredible voice and the way they use it

[00:16:26] [SPEAKER_04]: I think if people are traveling trouble remembering things this is one thing that

[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_04]: will be seared into their memories from season one is that powerful powerful voice and her off-legged

[00:16:36] [SPEAKER_04]: tans right singing to the stone. Good stuff we're gonna buy really powerful we're gonna bypass

[00:16:43] [SPEAKER_04]: the Balrog for right now yeah he you know he was asleep and somebody dropped a leaf in his very

[00:16:50] [SPEAKER_01]: clean yes entryway and he was very grumpy about it and there's some debate about Balrogs and

[00:16:56] [SPEAKER_01]: wouldn't they make their parents and how and all that kind of stuff and I think maybe that

[00:16:59] [SPEAKER_04]: might be an interesting lower caste conversation. Yes yes that would be yeah and you can learn more

[00:17:06] [SPEAKER_04]: about it obviously from the the lower castes that you and John did. I don't think we covered that much

[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_04]: on Balrogs. On Balrogs? Oh maybe you didn't maybe. Yeah so we talk about it a little bit in rings

[00:17:18] [SPEAKER_04]: and rituals but not a whole lot because we didn't see any evidence of Balrog ritual so. Right yeah

[00:17:22] [SPEAKER_01]: well fair enough good a good topic for for the lower caste let's talk about the Harfoots and

[00:17:28] [SPEAKER_01]: the stranger. Eleanor Noori Brandyfoot is a harfoot a proto hobbit who yearns to be free of

[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_01]: the rigid waves of her traveling harfoot camp. She finds the stranger after he lands with a meteor

[00:17:42] [SPEAKER_01]: she and Poppy Proud fellow help hide the stranger and then integrate him into Harfoot society.

[00:17:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Meanwhile a group of cultists, uh cultists mystics known as the nomad the dweller and

[00:17:57] [SPEAKER_01]: the ascetic try to follow the stranger wrongly believing him to be Sauron. When they realize

[00:18:04] [SPEAKER_01]: that he is an Ishtar a wizard the stranger forces them to disappear in a flutter of moths.

[00:18:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Noori and the stranger leave the harfoot camp to seek answers in rune. Yes there's a lot of

[00:18:17] [SPEAKER_04]: stuff in here I love the imaginings of the origins of hobbits. This is they have a lot

[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_04]: of things here that are really very special so those of you who enjoyed the visualization of the Shire

[00:18:32] [SPEAKER_04]: and the Hobbit and so forth will find a lot to love here or remember a lot to love.

[00:18:37] [SPEAKER_04]: And this is also one of the things that a lot of people had the most trepidation about.

[00:18:42] [SPEAKER_04]: They just weren't certain why these were appearing as well we don't see hobbits until

[00:18:46] [SPEAKER_04]: to which my response is well you know evolution takes thousands of years

[00:18:50] [SPEAKER_04]: mm-hmm just because we didn't quote unquote see the hobbits until the third age does I mean

[00:18:56] [SPEAKER_04]: they suddenly sprung up from the ground at the age so I like this imagining of

[00:19:02] [SPEAKER_04]: how they might have originated. Can I just ask you a quick question about the hobbits too and

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_01]: with the harfoots how much primary text material do we have from Tolkien about

[00:19:18] [SPEAKER_01]: the origin and the movements of hobbits and and hobbits before they were hobbits?

[00:19:24] [SPEAKER_04]: Very very little. The Lord of the Rings tells us that the Gollum's group, Gollum's family extended

[00:19:34] [SPEAKER_04]: tribe whatever, were the fathers of the fathers of the stores. Okay. And they were located

[00:19:41] [SPEAKER_04]: near the Glenduin River sort of between the river and the Misty Mountains

[00:19:47] [SPEAKER_04]: on the one side and Merquid Forest on the other. That's about the earliest back we go now Gandalf

[00:19:56] [SPEAKER_04]: in his wisdom and you know years and years and years and years of experience says that he knows

[00:20:03] [SPEAKER_04]: a lot more about the origins of hobbits than the hobbits do themselves. But he doesn't share

[00:20:08] [SPEAKER_04]: any of that with us. So we're really kind of stuck with the pieces that Tolkien gave us that would

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_04]: you know be the framework for the story that he was building in the third age.

[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_01]: So the showrunners here have a pretty wide open field to envision what they want to envision.

[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_04]: They do, they do, they do and I'll say that it was the Harfoot Ritual

[00:20:35] [SPEAKER_04]: of right before their harvest ritual right before they started up the immigration again

[00:20:40] [SPEAKER_04]: where they had a remembrance of their beloved dead and people had up to this point many people

[00:20:47] [SPEAKER_04]: had said oh well you know they're Darwinians because somebody breaks a leg and they let

[00:20:50] [SPEAKER_04]: them believe him to die whatever. I had a completely different take on them as a migratory

[00:20:56] [SPEAKER_04]: people and when I saw this Sauen ritual I thought I've got to explain this to people.

[00:21:02] [SPEAKER_04]: And thus a podcast was born. Thus a podcast was born you I thought I don't want to write a paper

[00:21:07] [SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to write a book or whatever but although we do have a blog now on our website so you

[00:21:11] [SPEAKER_01]: know if you do want to write some papers you can submit them. You are any of our fine listeners

[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_04]: it's open to everyone so yes yes and there's some good stuff there already. The other thing I

[00:21:20] [SPEAKER_04]: liked about the Ark of the Stranger which of course is pretty much the Ark of the Harfoot

[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_04]: Stuart at least of Noreen if you have her family and friends. It's an excellent way to see the

[00:21:32] [SPEAKER_04]: difference between Goetia and Magia which are two forms of magic that Tolkien talks about,

[00:21:42] [SPEAKER_04]: writes about and shows they actually come from medieval concepts so we invent this out of

[00:21:51] [SPEAKER_04]: see Goetia which is a form of magic dealing in domination and deceptive imagery and even necromancy

[00:21:59] [SPEAKER_04]: in the form of the cultists and their behaviors. And this contrasts with the Stranger's Magia

[00:22:09] [SPEAKER_04]: which is a form of magic that uses and enhances natural forces.

[00:22:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Interesting.

[00:22:14] [SPEAKER_04]: So when the Stranger tries to heal the tree that is Magia and I think it could be somewhat

[00:22:21] [SPEAKER_04]: confusing because he's still confused. He has these strong desires and emotions and urges and

[00:22:28] [SPEAKER_04]: knows that he's got this power but he really has yet to learn what it is and how to use it

[00:22:33] [SPEAKER_04]: but just from watching the two different groups of magic users who I think are pretty much

[00:22:39] [SPEAKER_01]: nearly magic users we see in this first season. Well other than general Sauron-y and stuff.

[00:22:49] [SPEAKER_04]: They hide Sauron's magic really well. You could talk about the Sword Hilt which we talked about

[00:22:56] [SPEAKER_04]: which was the key to unlocking the floods but we'll get to that in another episode here.

[00:23:02] [SPEAKER_04]: That clearly is Goetia because it involves blood and anything that involves bloodletting

[00:23:08] [SPEAKER_04]: is almost inevitably going to be Goetia. Yeah, Goetia. It's interesting because

[00:23:14] [SPEAKER_04]: both the groups that we think of as good and the groups we think of as evil in Middle Earth

[00:23:18] [SPEAKER_04]: can sometimes use both forms of magic. So intention is really important in this.

[00:23:25] [SPEAKER_01]: Interesting.

[00:23:25] [SPEAKER_04]: But I thought that they made a really good distinction in the ways that the characters

[00:23:31] [SPEAKER_01]: were enacting their powers. I think this goes to Peyton McKay's love of the source material and

[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_01]: their close study of something. So something like that would never occur to me as somebody who's not

[00:23:44] [SPEAKER_01]: done the deeper readings but it feels, well on screen that makes itself its presence known

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_01]: very pretty simply but to do it to make it look simple and good like that you have to start

[00:23:59] [SPEAKER_01]: with a deeper understanding. So that gives me heart that the showrunners even though they may stumble,

[00:24:06] [SPEAKER_01]: they really do care about this material and are trying their best to...

[00:24:11] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's something I've never doubted from all the things that I've read and heard and from

[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_04]: things I've heard other people say including other podcasters who have heard them speak,

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_04]: have had interviews with them and so forth. There just is no doubt in my mind that

[00:24:25] [SPEAKER_04]: they know their lore. It's how they choose to use it and that is open to interpretation.

[00:24:33] [SPEAKER_01]: It's a giant shippie test.

[00:24:34] [SPEAKER_04]: It is absolutely a giant shippie test.

[00:24:37] [SPEAKER_01]: Right, so let's leave the stranger as a stranger for right now and not debate his

[00:24:43] [SPEAKER_01]: identity because there's plenty of... There's a whole season for us to do that. However,

[00:24:48] [SPEAKER_01]: I am a little bit curious about the mystics and the land of rune because again like the

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_01]: harphats and hobbits, how much do we really have in terms of primary source material?

[00:25:03] [SPEAKER_04]: Well, it's when you say primary source material, you have to be sure to be extending

[00:25:07] [SPEAKER_04]: to the letters and to things like unfinished tales.

[00:25:11] [SPEAKER_01]: Anything that Tolkien himself wrote as a fragment of a note all the way to a

[00:25:15] [SPEAKER_01]: completed volume would be considered primary source.

[00:25:18] [SPEAKER_04]: So we know that rune is in the east so it's not the southlanders per se that we hear,

[00:25:25] [SPEAKER_04]: you know, the howler them but it is in the east and there are people who come from the east at

[00:25:30] [SPEAKER_04]: various times and engage in different battles and warfare and so forth.

[00:25:36] [SPEAKER_04]: And the implication is given that they're pretty much easily inclined to Sauron.

[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_04]: The second age information we have says that Sauron was out there and starting to gather support in

[00:25:54] [SPEAKER_04]: some form or another sometime during the second age. And according to some of the earlier material,

[00:26:02] [SPEAKER_04]: two blue wizards were sent out into the east to try and counteract whatever influence Sauron

[00:26:11] [SPEAKER_04]: was having. And Tolkien himself had two different versions of what happened. One version says

[00:26:17] [SPEAKER_04]: that they were successful even though they died in the attempt and that if they hadn't gone out,

[00:26:22] [SPEAKER_04]: Sauron would have had a lot more armies at his beck and call during the third age.

[00:26:27] [SPEAKER_04]: The other version says that the two blues were actually corrupted and became themselves

[00:26:34] [SPEAKER_04]: the centers of cults of Sauron and by extension Mordoth. And so I'm seeing some echoes of that

[00:26:43] [SPEAKER_04]: in the cultists, you know, and that Mothi bit and their disappearance of whatever those of you

[00:26:50] [SPEAKER_04]: who have seen scenes from trailers and whatnot will know what I'm talking about. So I'm very

[00:26:55] [SPEAKER_04]: interested in seeing how they're going to develop this and it still in my mind leaves the

[00:26:58] [SPEAKER_04]: door pretty wide open for who the stranger is and what he's going to do.

[00:27:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Perfect. And maybe Astari is another good lore topic for us to consider. Anyway,

[00:27:07] [SPEAKER_04]: that would be very good. Yes. I hope you're running these down.

[00:27:10] [SPEAKER_01]: I do. I just got my little man. Good man.

[00:27:13] [SPEAKER_01]: All right. Well, let's go from the east down to the south, the southlanders and Mordor.

[00:27:19] [SPEAKER_01]: The Mordor southlands, I'm not going to roll my Rs because Mike, I'll practice at home in

[00:27:24] [SPEAKER_01]: the mirror. It takes practice in Mordor, the southlands, Arandir and other Sylvan elves are

[00:27:32] [SPEAKER_01]: tasked with watching over the men of the region to ensure that they don't fall back into their

[00:27:36] [SPEAKER_01]: dark ways. Arandir falls in love with a manish woman named Bronwyn who is a son named Theo

[00:27:43] [SPEAKER_01]: that struggles with his inner darkness. And I'll just comment here because it may not be

[00:27:48] [SPEAKER_01]: clear, Theo is not Arandir's son. It's a correct. Right. Orcs arrive in Bronwyn's village and drive

[00:27:54] [SPEAKER_01]: them in from their homes. Arandir and the other elves are captured and enslaved. While enslaved,

[00:28:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Arandir meets Adar, the elf turned orc and one of Morgoth's first orcish creations.

[00:28:10] [SPEAKER_01]: Muriel and the Numerian host arrive to liberate the southlands. I'm here to liberate you.

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_01]: There, I'm thinking of a Monty Python Star Wars mashup. Right. Anyway, they are victorious and

[00:28:23] [SPEAKER_01]: capture Adar. Galadriel interrogates Adar who claims he killed Sauron. Halbrand is accepted as

[00:28:32] [SPEAKER_01]: king of the southlands. As the team tastes victory, Adar executes his plan to send a body of water

[00:28:39] [SPEAKER_01]: towards Mount Doom to cause it to erupt. The resulting eruption darkens the southlands

[00:28:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and begins the era of Mordor. In the aftermath, Isildur is lost and thought dead. Muriel is blinded

[00:28:55] [SPEAKER_04]: and Halbrand appears to be gravely injured. Yes. This really excited me when we first met Adar.

[00:29:03] [SPEAKER_04]: Tolkien wrestled with the origins of orcs long after Lord of the Rings was published.

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_04]: Okay. He was really uncomfortable with it because he had people writing in saying so

[00:29:15] [SPEAKER_04]: does that mean that the orcs are irredeemable? And he had a couple of linchpins, if you will,

[00:29:23] [SPEAKER_04]: concerning his cosmology around his created world. One was that nothing was irredeemable.

[00:29:31] [SPEAKER_04]: The other was evil, particularly in the form of Morgoth, could not create new beings.

[00:29:39] [SPEAKER_04]: It could only corrupt pre-existing, pre-created beings. And so he was left with this dilemma.

[00:29:49] [SPEAKER_04]: He had followed a tradition which was gleefully picked up by most writers of fantasy fiction

[00:29:56] [SPEAKER_04]: and other forms that you could create a whole race of whom it could be said that the only

[00:30:02] [SPEAKER_04]: good thing about them was they could be killed. The whole intention of them in the plot was

[00:30:06] [SPEAKER_04]: to be killed in those. That was something that he really was not comfortable with and he realized

[00:30:14] [SPEAKER_04]: how much he had done that. In Lord of the Rings, we do see, if you want to call it humanizing

[00:30:19] [SPEAKER_04]: aspects of orcs, having conversations about wanting to get together with their buddies

[00:30:23] [SPEAKER_04]: and run away from the big bosses and loot and steal and rob and live the good life without

[00:30:29] [SPEAKER_04]: anybody telling them what to do. But it was still clear that it was really hard to imagine orcs

[00:30:39] [SPEAKER_04]: being redeemable. Initially, in the Silmarillion, the orcs were said to be corrupted elves.

[00:30:51] [SPEAKER_04]: And so Adar is definitely fitting in with that reading of the story.

[00:30:55] [SPEAKER_04]: And it's really fascinating to see that. I'm really delighted they did that. He is, of course,

[00:31:02] [SPEAKER_04]: one of the most complicated characters in the series and his presence and his challenged Galadriel

[00:31:11] [SPEAKER_04]: was one of the best scenes of the whole series to my mind. Getting her to see her own darkness

[00:31:19] [SPEAKER_04]: through the way she was treating him. Stunning, absolutely stunning. Definitely a multifaceted

[00:31:27] [SPEAKER_04]: character. And I'm hoping that we're going to see some development of that in season two. I'm also

[00:31:33] [SPEAKER_04]: wondering if we may see a new development of orcs from Manish stock. Because in his letters,

[00:31:43] [SPEAKER_04]: Tolkien would say to his son Christopher, well, there's orcs on either side of this war,

[00:31:47] [SPEAKER_04]: this war being World War II. And he would refer to humans as behaving in orc-like ways

[00:31:53] [SPEAKER_04]: or even just outright call them orcs. Towards the very end of his life, he had some writings

[00:31:58] [SPEAKER_04]: of which he was pondering some of these deeper, thornier problems. And he began to think that

[00:32:05] [SPEAKER_04]: maybe actually orcs were originally humans. Now that has some problems with chronology.

[00:32:11] [SPEAKER_04]: Because the orcs appeared long before the humans did. So you'd have to do

[00:32:16] [SPEAKER_01]: some pretty crafty retconning to make that work. And isn't Tolkien famous for having to spend a lot

[00:32:25] [SPEAKER_01]: of time and effort trying to re-sort things out because the moon phase was off in a previous

[00:32:31] [SPEAKER_01]: chapter and the publishers tearing their hair out saying, we need the manuscript. And he's like,

[00:32:35] [SPEAKER_03]: no, no, no, I've got to finish this thing. Absolutely. You got it exactly right.

[00:32:41] [SPEAKER_01]: And I want to slide too far off into this, but the whole orc debate and bio-essentialism has...

[00:32:47] [SPEAKER_01]: That's a big conversation in role-playing games right now in Dungeons & Dragons.

[00:32:51] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, interesting.

[00:32:52] [SPEAKER_01]: And we're coming out the other side of a big conversation about that,

[00:32:58] [SPEAKER_01]: to having orcs be player-playable race, meaning that they're not just baddies for

[00:33:08] [SPEAKER_01]: the players to kill, but you could actually play an orc and they have a rich society and

[00:33:15] [SPEAKER_01]: fail all kinds of stuff. And so it's been interesting to watch that debate. Anyway,

[00:33:19] [SPEAKER_01]: let's not slide too far off onto that. But that's where we get D&D is from Tolkien.

[00:33:24] [SPEAKER_01]: That's a direct line.

[00:33:26] [SPEAKER_04]: By and large. By and large. I'll also say in Rings and Rituals,

[00:33:29] [SPEAKER_04]: Sarah and I were both startled to realize that we have orc rituals.

[00:33:34] [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, go listen to that episode. What episode is that?

[00:33:39] [SPEAKER_04]: Episode three called Adar.

[00:33:42] [SPEAKER_04]: And we talked about that a lot and we had one piece of reader feedback saying,

[00:33:48] [SPEAKER_04]: well now I'm wondering if I can imagine orc home life.

[00:33:53] [SPEAKER_04]: And coming of age for orcs and what does that look like and so on.

[00:33:57] [SPEAKER_04]: And my first reaction was, I don't know. But again, there could be some hints.

[00:34:03] [SPEAKER_04]: I may be misreading them, but from some of the material that's been shared.

[00:34:07] [SPEAKER_04]: Watch this space.

[00:34:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay, very cool. Let's talk quickly about elf human pairings.

[00:34:12] [SPEAKER_04]: Yes, they are exceedingly rare in the tales and a lot of people get offended when anybody

[00:34:17] [SPEAKER_04]: tries to introduce another one because it was the big three, Luthien and Baron,

[00:34:25] [SPEAKER_04]: Tuor and Yidriel and Auroon and Aragorn.

[00:34:28] [SPEAKER_04]: But you also have to take into account that Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth.

[00:34:33] [SPEAKER_04]: Was said to have elvish blood in his family and it was confirmed.

[00:34:37] [SPEAKER_04]: So at some point at some time in that same region that we're talking about,

[00:34:42] [SPEAKER_04]: Dol Amroth being geographically very close to Pelagia,

[00:34:47] [SPEAKER_04]: there had to have been some kind of a pairing for that rumor to not only for the rumor to

[00:34:52] [SPEAKER_04]: start but also for the fact of Imrahil exhibiting elvish traits primarily the fact

[00:34:59] [SPEAKER_04]: that he had no beard. Got it.

[00:35:02] [SPEAKER_04]: So we'll see if they pick up on that or not. I really thought they were going to but

[00:35:07] [SPEAKER_04]: unfortunately I think we'll see fairly early on in season two that that's not going to be possible,

[00:35:11] [SPEAKER_04]: at least with the pair that we know.

[00:35:14] [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah and we're not sure where the Arundir and Bronwyn stories are going to be going.

[00:35:19] [SPEAKER_01]: We're there's some absence of information in the trailer so far as to what their storyline

[00:35:24] [SPEAKER_04]: is. Yeah, but some pretty strong hints too.

[00:35:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Okay well let's talk a little bit about Sauron and Galadriel. To save Halbrunn from his mortal wounds,

[00:35:36] [SPEAKER_01]: Galadriel takes him to Auregion to receive elvish medicine. He recovers swiftly in

[00:35:41] [SPEAKER_01]: learns of Kellebrimbor's plans to use Mithril to create an object to slow the fading of the elves.

[00:35:49] [SPEAKER_01]: Halbrunn suggests using Mithril to create an alloy allowing the metal to be stretched

[00:35:53] [SPEAKER_01]: to three objects. Before this can be done, Galadriel checks the histories of the men of Mordor,

[00:36:01] [SPEAKER_01]: the Southlands and discovers that the line of kings of the Southlands failed making Halbrunn's

[00:36:07] [SPEAKER_01]: existence impossible. She confronts him leading him to reveal himself as Sauron. He tries to

[00:36:14] [SPEAKER_01]: convince her to be his guiding light. When she rejects him he leaves her laying unconscious

[00:36:19] [SPEAKER_04]: in the water to be found by Elrond. Yes, let me just insert here that initially Sauron had planned

[00:36:29] [SPEAKER_04]: to only make have them make one ring and then when he decided to bring in Galadriel he said well

[00:36:34] [SPEAKER_04]: let's make two rings. It was Galadriel who said let's make three because you know one is sheer

[00:36:43] [SPEAKER_04]: domination, two will be constantly tug of war but three will have balance. Now the number three

[00:36:53] [SPEAKER_04]: is a number of balance is an interesting concept I think it's more common for Celtic traditions

[00:36:58] [SPEAKER_04]: I think for Anglo-Saxon and other types four is considered the number of balance you know

[00:37:03] [SPEAKER_04]: four directions four square etc but there's plenty people who see balance in three so.

[00:37:08] [SPEAKER_01]: Right well we're finding it with our triarchy between John Elisha and I so it's working for us.

[00:37:16] [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's a flowing balance. It has to keep moving which is appropriate because balance

[00:37:21] [SPEAKER_04]: comes from the same root word as ballet which means movement. We usually think of balance

[00:37:27] [SPEAKER_01]: as a stasis but it doesn't have to be. Right yeah there's a static balance and a dynamic

[00:37:33] [SPEAKER_01]: balance right there's sometimes you have to apply work to create balance so apply energy and input.

[00:37:42] [SPEAKER_04]: Right so Sauron our big bad. Our big bad he is known as the deceiver and we certainly see that

[00:37:50] [SPEAKER_04]: throughout this episode although of course as he says in that incredible scene Charlie Vickers

[00:37:57] [SPEAKER_04]: just knocked that out of the park. He has had many names over the thousands of years that he

[00:38:03] [SPEAKER_04]: has existed. He is Amaya one of the lesser angelic beings and so has many powers even when

[00:38:11] [SPEAKER_04]: he is in what appears to be a human form. Okay and all of this may be a good canon head

[00:38:17] [SPEAKER_04]: canon for folks to figure out how he was able to do all the superhuman things that he appears

[00:38:22] [SPEAKER_04]: to be doing in this season. How did he survive you know a whole week with a superating gut wound

[00:38:29] [SPEAKER_04]: on horseback without any causes for rest? Why was he floating along in the ocean given the

[00:38:39] [SPEAKER_04]: extent of the imagery that he was able to plunge Galathriel into

[00:38:46] [SPEAKER_04]: was that whole thing with the raft in the ocean just a very strong imagery that he created

[00:38:53] [SPEAKER_04]: when he realized that she was also floating in the ocean there.

[00:38:57] [SPEAKER_04]: I'll be very interested to see what they do with all of this in season two.

[00:39:01] [SPEAKER_04]: I hope they don't do a sort of a sweep it under the rugs you know pay no attention to them

[00:39:07] [SPEAKER_04]: and in the corner kind of thing. There's an awful lot of people want to know

[00:39:12] [SPEAKER_04]: how did Saldron wind up on a raft in the ocean? Right right and I have seen one picture that

[00:39:17] [SPEAKER_04]: doesn't play. I think I know the answer to this actually because of the things that I've read and

[00:39:21] [SPEAKER_04]: seen so I won't say anymore but they have said over and over that season two really is all about

[00:39:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Saldron. Okay cool that's a good sign. A lot more Charlie Vickers on our screen. Oh shucks darn.

[00:39:35] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm sure there will be all kinds of people who will be very upset about this. Maybe we'll

[00:39:39] [SPEAKER_01]: throw Maya and Ishtari into a combined one or I don't know if we can deal with that.

[00:39:46] [SPEAKER_01]: That could be interesting. Yeah because they are there's yeah power levels here and

[00:39:52] [SPEAKER_04]: hierarchicals and we've already talked about two of them so right.

[00:39:56] [SPEAKER_04]: And so on who were connected so I mean you could maybe just roll it on the one level.

[00:40:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Right right and bell rogues are in there as well. Yes they are. Oh and spiders.

[00:40:06] [SPEAKER_01]: Yes we do see a spider. Go check out our podcast it's back up the feed a little bit where we do

[00:40:14] [SPEAKER_01]: talk what it's like a four minute trailer three minute trailer and we spend two hours

[00:40:20] [SPEAKER_01]: breaking it down. So anyway here we are at the end the Elven rings Galadriel refuses to tell

[00:40:27] [SPEAKER_01]: Elron the truth of the matter but makes clear Halbron is not welcome in Heuregion,

[00:40:32] [SPEAKER_01]: Keller Brimbor, Galadriel and Elron go forward with a forging of mythril artifacts.

[00:40:40] [SPEAKER_01]: This results in three rings of power Nenya, Narya and Vilya. Did I do that right?

[00:40:48] [SPEAKER_01]: Excellent. I got a thumbs up. Very nervous.

[00:40:52] [SPEAKER_04]: You really are putting yourself through the ringer doing all the reading of this aren't you?

[00:40:56] [SPEAKER_01]: Trawa you know I got a podcast to produce this season so I got a step up. I got a ring

[00:41:03] [SPEAKER_04]: made up. You are brave and bold my friend. Thank you. So this whole concept that formed the rings

[00:41:14] [SPEAKER_04]: power not of the flesh but over flesh was first introduced by Adod when he was talking about

[00:41:21] [SPEAKER_04]: his interaction with Sauron and it's a show construction. It's not a phrase that I remember

[00:41:29] [SPEAKER_04]: Tolkien using now listeners right in incorrect me if you remember where but it really doesn't sound

[00:41:35] [SPEAKER_04]: like the sort of thing that Tolkien would do but the show runners seem to be making it

[00:41:41] [SPEAKER_04]: a central part of the forging of the rings and therefore since it's the rings of power

[00:41:48] [SPEAKER_04]: are a central part of the show and I'll be very interested to see how they use it,

[00:41:55] [SPEAKER_04]: how they conceive of it and how it works. And we're going to see more rings as well.

[00:42:03] [SPEAKER_01]: We get reference to dwarf rings and human rings in the trailer. And a lot of people are saying

[00:42:09] [SPEAKER_04]: well when did they make these and how come and it was 16 it wasn't seven and nine and you know

[00:42:15] [SPEAKER_04]: if you go to a certain level of detail yes they're definitely chopping and changing and rearranging

[00:42:21] [SPEAKER_01]: shall we say. Well again the shippy test rears its head so yeah and I want to know why they did the

[00:42:28] [SPEAKER_04]: changes within the context of the story what are they trying to tell us? Right right right right.

[00:42:35] [SPEAKER_01]: Cool okay well hopefully that will have caught you up for season one and you'll be ready for

[00:42:41] [SPEAKER_01]: season two. Again second age podcast and the rings and rituals podcast if you're really hungry for more

[00:42:50] [SPEAKER_01]: Tolkien lore and want to really immerse yourself you've got a lot of sources there again we have

[00:42:57] [SPEAKER_01]: the show guide and the season pass as well as our regular monthly subscriptions as well as an

[00:43:05] [SPEAKER_01]: annual you can go annual or monthly all of that being said what hour are coverage plans? Well

[00:43:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Jon's not on this podcast with us because he's getting some rest he's got to rest his fray and

[00:43:17] [SPEAKER_01]: fraw he poured so much of himself into the show guide that he needs a little vacation spend a

[00:43:23] [SPEAKER_01]: little time with the family and recharge we've had a very hot floor summer and now we're coming

[00:43:27] [SPEAKER_01]: into fellowship fall but all three of us will be doing things and of course we've got a

[00:43:33] [SPEAKER_01]: they'll be a little here and there because you have some personal stuff as well and we'll be working

[00:43:38] [SPEAKER_01]: out our schedule but we're going to do weekly recaps we are going for the purposes of this

[00:43:44] [SPEAKER_01]: podcast we're going to assume that we don't have screeners we've asked for them we don't know if

[00:43:49] [SPEAKER_01]: we'll get them if we do that just means that we can catch up quicker on our production

[00:43:55] [SPEAKER_01]: but otherwise we're probably going to do a single podcast for it because they're dropping

[00:43:59] [SPEAKER_01]: three which is frustrating so much content that's a lot to prep for so we're probably not going to

[00:44:09] [SPEAKER_01]: be able to get a podcast out until the following week because we've got to watch the episodes

[00:44:14] [SPEAKER_01]: multiple times take our notes we have to talk behind the scenes you know and then record

[00:44:21] [SPEAKER_01]: find a recording day and to get it out but we will have a podcast for you thereafter it's

[00:44:26] [SPEAKER_01]: going to be weekly with the three of us and then like I said before we're going to do a weekly

[00:44:30] [SPEAKER_01]: lore cast or we will pluck out a piece of lore and that you know maybe presents itself in the

[00:44:37] [SPEAKER_01]: episodes and then we'll just do a very quick conversation and get that out for folks

[00:44:46] [SPEAKER_01]: and then if feedback coming into us is at such a level that we need to we'll spin off a

[00:44:52] [SPEAKER_01]: feedback podcast for the weekly episodes very similar to what we did with House of the Dragon

[00:44:57] [SPEAKER_04]: for season two here yeah I think that was very successful and I also think that it encouraged

[00:45:02] [SPEAKER_01]: more people to write in so and Hand of the Pod Nancy is coming along with us a show she is going

[00:45:08] [SPEAKER_01]: to be there receiving and organizing the feedback if you whether you watch House of the Dragon or

[00:45:16] [SPEAKER_01]: not if you're curious who this Nancy person is go check out the feedback episode which I

[00:45:21] [SPEAKER_01]: just dropped and we get to talk to her for about 10 minutes at the beginning of the podcast and so

[00:45:26] [SPEAKER_01]: you can hear from Nancy's point of view and just how grateful we are for her help and just

[00:45:33] [SPEAKER_01]: you know our community we're very proud and glad of our community so there's so many people

[00:45:39] [SPEAKER_04]: doing so much work yes behind the scenes and for just for the love of doing it I think

[00:45:46] [SPEAKER_04]: the joy of being part of this community so fabulous I won't even try to mention all of them

[00:45:51] [SPEAKER_04]: because I'll forget some but you know who you are thank you very very much so remember to check

[00:45:57] [SPEAKER_01]: the show notes for the links for the discord for the season pass for regular subscriptions

[00:46:03] [SPEAKER_01]: it's got everything there and I think with that I'm just going to quickly

[00:46:11] [SPEAKER_01]: give a quick I don't have the fancy music to read the shoutouts for our subscribers but we

[00:46:16] [SPEAKER_01]: always like to give our top tier subscribers and our discord server boosters a quick shout out

[00:46:20] [SPEAKER_01]: Charles Aaron Kay Taylor the thriller dork of the ninjas dupe 71 captain g506 Athena

[00:46:26] [SPEAKER_01]: Adjalea Adrienne and Tina they boost our server which makes it we get more emojis and

[00:46:32] [SPEAKER_01]: all kinds of other fun stuff so thanks y'all for for throwing us your boosts to our

[00:46:39] [SPEAKER_01]: top tier subscribers who really are our our firmament our terra firma

[00:46:43] [SPEAKER_01]: samar shen michael g michelle e david w brian p sc peter oh h patina w adam s nancy m dupe 71

[00:46:52] [SPEAKER_01]: brian 8063 who is also our blog lore lore brarian if I can say that Frederick h sara l garras c

[00:47:01] [SPEAKER_01]: Eric f matthew m sara m dj miwa andra b qual new dead i dead i bob nathan t alex v erin t sub zero

[00:47:11] [SPEAKER_01]: erin k dally v mothership 61 gnarls kathy w steward b jeffrey b elisa u I got to pronounce that right

[00:47:20] [SPEAKER_01]: I got to I was instructed the other day on the discord and of course adrian thank you all so

[00:47:26] [SPEAKER_01]: very much we couldn't do this without you Marilyn pleasure to see you pleasure to podcast

[00:47:30] [SPEAKER_01]: I'm really looking forward to the season I know you're absolutely wonderful to be

[00:47:34] [SPEAKER_01]: back behind the mics with you both great uh until the next time what's a good elvish farewell

[00:47:41] [SPEAKER_01]: namarie

[00:47:43] [SPEAKER_00]: the lore hounds podcast is produced and published by the lore hounds you can send

[00:47:47] [SPEAKER_00]: questions and feedback and voicemails at the lorehounds.com slash contact get early and ad

[00:47:54] [SPEAKER_00]: free access to all lore hounds podcasts at patreon.com slash the lore hounds any opinions

[00:47:59] [SPEAKER_00]: stated are ours personally and do not reflect the opinion of or belong to any employers or other

[00:48:03] [SPEAKER_00]: entities thanks for listening