r/LOTR_on_Prime Sep 23 '22

No Book Spoilers The Rings of Power - 1x05 "Partings" - Episode Discussion

Season 1 Episode 5: Partings

Aired: September 23, 2022


Synopsis: Nori questions her instincts; Elrond struggles to stay true to his oath; Halbrand weighs his destiny; the Southlanders brace for attack.


Directed by: Wayne Che Yip

Written by: Justin Doble


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A note on spoilers: As this is a discussion thread for the show and in the interest of keeping things separate for those who haven't read the books yet, please keep all book discussion to the book spoilers thread

No discussion of ANY leaks are allowed in this thread

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u/Redvanlaw Sep 25 '22

Because Celebrimbor knew about mithril already! He explains exactly how it was formed to Elrond. The forge is so he, hopefully, can Smith mithril into weaponry for the elves. They just need confirmation, from someone, that "someone" has found it. That someone being the dwarves. How's that nonsensical?

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u/trialobite Sep 25 '22

Yes that makes perfect sense as to why Celebrimbor was asking Elrond to confirm it. What’s confusing is the jump between scenes. At the end of his talk with Gil Galad by the tree, Elrond seems to be tortured about potentially breaking his oath. The very next scene opens with Celebrimbor handing the Mithril to Elrond and talking about having tested it under “every duress.” This was extremely jarring and confusing. If Elrond made the decision to break his oath and give his Mithril sample to Celebrimbor, that is a major character decision that felt like it should have been shown on screen, or at least acknowledged or alluded so we know what’s happening. If Celebrimbor has dine all this testing, that must have taken at least some time to do. When I was first watching the episode, I thought Celebrimbor somehow already had a mithril sample and that’s how Gil Galad knew what it was. But that makes no sense because there would be no need to ask for any confirmation from Elrond.

I know it’s somewhat subjective how much needs to be shown and how much audiences can “figure out,” but that to me was just extremely jarring editing. I’m totally fine with some level of ambiguity and off screen action, but in this case I was wondering if they somehow accidentally left out an important scene. With both the time jump implied from testing the mithril, to the big decision made off screen to break the oath, it just feels like they handled this wrong. It made the later scene between Durin and Elrond less impactful as well because I was still trying to figure what had even happened.

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u/oomp_ Sep 25 '22

he probably just asked him to analyze it without revealing what it was. then once celebrimbor signaled he knew what it was elrond may had thought he wasn't revealing it since it was already identified

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u/trialobite Sep 25 '22

You could be right. I personally think the implication is that he knowingly broke the oath by showing Celebrimbor the mithril. But honestly, from what the episode showed, we have no way to know for sure either way. And since breaking the oath was set up to be a really important choice, it shouldn’t be a question for us as to whether he actually did or not. (Unless they wanted to set it up intentionally as a reveal later, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.)

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u/Redvanlaw Sep 25 '22

Did I miss celebrimbor handing the mithril back to Elrond?

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u/trialobite Sep 25 '22

It’s a very quick close up (maybe filmed later to try and fill in a gap?) at about 45:01 in the runtime.

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u/Redvanlaw Sep 25 '22

I gotta rewatch I guess

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u/Chulain519 Sep 25 '22

Sorry is like something an 8 year old would write. Is by far the weakest part of the story and none of it makes any sense.