What are two not hobbits to do without their not grand elf on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power? The Mary Sue‘s Rachel Leishman talked to actors Megan Smith and Markella Kavenaugh about Nori and Poppy’s friendship and journey in The Rings of Power season 2.
At the end of season 1, Nori left Poppy and her fellow Harfoots behind to share in an adventure with the Stranger a.k.a. Gandalf. But it was obvious, wasn’t it, that Poppy was going to follow them? We don’t see her make that decision on screen. So Richards consulted Dylan Smith and Sara Zwangobani, who played Nori’s parents Largo and Marygold in season 1. They helped fill in those gaps. (Because Poppy tragically lost her family in a landslide, the Brandyfoots more or less look after her.) “[Zwangobani] was like, ‘I think for Marigold and the Brandyfoot family, the door has always been open. It’s never been I am now your parental figure. It’s always just been, like, you are welcome to come by anytime and we are here for anything that you need.'”
However, Richards continued, in season 2 “the absence of Nori in the Harfoot community allowed [Poppy] to realize just how much love there is there, and the feeling of home that she holds within Nori. She never strays too far from home, and for her Nori is that.” They’re more than friends, or even sisters. They’re each other’s home.
The concept of home actually became quite bittersweet for the two adventuring Harfoots in season 2. They met a new group of halflings called the Stoors who live in caves. Their area was once lush, but is now so dry they have to steal water from a nearby well. Poppy and Nori discover that Harfoots descended from Stoors who left to find a new home. They never did. They kept wandering, and thus the “nobody goes off trail, and nobody walks alone” credo was born. Nori especially seemed shook by the realization. The community who raised her don’t really have a place to call their own. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Home for the Harfoots–to paraphrase Thor: Ragnarok–is a people instead of a place. Until, of course, these disparate tripes of halflings settle down in the Shire… but that still seems a ways off.
Poppy is less bothered by this discovery. No existential crisis for her! That may have something to do with a new connection she made on the journey. I wish we’d seen more of Nori’s feelings about Poppy’s blossoming romance with Merimac in season 2. Did you catch a hint of jealousy –or at least that gnawing lonely feeling you get when a friend moves on without you? Hopefully that will be a season 3 thing.
Their domiciliary friendship has a new element in Merimac. They have a new purpose in leading the Stoors to safety. And they’ve said goodbye to Gandalf for the time being as well. It’s an important time for Nori, according to Kavenaugh. “[Nori] has grown up in a community that is built so much on a sense of belonging and connection to each other,” she says. “But she has always felt like a bit of an outsider, because she’s always had a curiosity that is not really celebrated [with the Harfoots] in the way that it is with the Stranger. Both of them met at a time when they were really not feeling understood.”
She’s so good at helping and putting her trust in others. We saw that with the Stranger. “She’s not thinking too much about what might happen if she trusts too much here or trusts too much there,” says Kavenaugh. “She’s just going, ‘this is the present, this is what I’m gonna do with the present, because who knows what is to come?’ She doesn’t wanna lose sleep over worrying or being too concerned about that.” She believes that the Stranger is “worthy of friendship and connection even if they don’t believe it themselves.” I’m really interested to see where Nori’s own journey of self-discovery leads.
Nori and Poppy may be small, but they were the perfect traveling companions for Gandalf. Between Poppy’s navigational prowess and Nori’s foraging skills, this little trio is not going to get lost. If they had been in the Fellowship, they would have made it to Mount Doom in half the time. But that’s what storytelling is all about, isn’t it? Two halflings that would be better suited to Frodo and Sam’s adventure have their own challenges and obstacles to surmount.
At least they have each other, and Poppy’s singing to keep them company. Hopefully there will be more Harfoot songs as the show progresses. “She’s not a singing character,” Richards insists. She’s untrained. It isn’t her trade or anything. “For example, Disa is that for this show. I think Sophia [Nomvete] is brilliant. I just quite enjoyed that, you know, there was a lovely little sort of insight into the Harfoot community.” That made sense to her, she says. “I think they all sing. So much of their sort of vibrance of life is storytelling and singing […] and finding those joys and the meanings of it all.”
Published: Oct 9, 2024 08:12 am