The Rings of Power - An Unmitigated DISASTER 

50 years from now, Tokien's works will still be beloved, while this series will languish in obscurity.

When Galadriel looked through Halbrands lineage, my girlfriend said, “omg, she’s like that psycho girlfriend who searches your phone when you’re not looking. First Karen Galadriel, now psycho gf Galadriel!” 😂

"The first season is like Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight is the next movie." That part had me howling with laughter. It's allmost as stupid as the entirety of the rings of power season one.

That moment when Galadriel introduced herself:"My name is Galadriel, daughter of Karen (he/him) and I would like to speak to the Manager!" Was the most powerful in cinema history!

What suprises me, is that nobody talks about those weird leaves and sticks in the harfoots hair ... If the purpose would be style, they would put beautiful or rare things in there and if the purpose would be stealth, that little leaf on the side of the hair doesn't do anything to cover you up. It feels like they hired a bunch of teenagers, dressing for a halloween party, being like: “Oh look! That little leaf there looks kind a cute! Ghihihi"

Such a disrespect to Tolkien

I would have thought Sauron's involvement in making the rings was going to be more than just a short chat.

when obi-wan says to anakin chancelor sauron is evil... literal chills

That Harfoot goodbye scene ran for 10 minutes. I timed it because it completely did my head in.

You know a story about a former Dark Lord seeking redemption only to be dragged back into evil by someone he cared about could have been a interesting setup for a fantasy series, as long as it didn’t have anything to do with TOLKIEN and the world he created!

I don't get it. Why is there more weight given to representation, instead of good story? Why is no one high up noticing its not working and they are just haemorrhaging money instead of making it?

Why doesn't anyone ever mention the fact that Tolkien was an etymologist? The Etymology definition of Elf is WHITE BEING. That's the original true meaning. And he used Etymology in all his descriptions to prevent this bastardization.

Jesus this was brutal, but 100% accurate. Oh and the ending to this video with those guys tweets? Perfection.

As someone who was obsessed growing up with all things Tolkien, and read everything he wrote, including "The History of Middle-Earth" books (Morgoth's Ring is fascinating), I want to thank you Gary, for convincing me from the beginning not to watch a single minute of this hot garbage dumpster fire show.

The use of The Beatles "A day in the life" was beautifully implemented. Well done

I love this series because it pushes THE MESSAGE, and reflects the world that we live in today.

Nerdrotic, I salute you and your rare kind for having the stomach to watch this whole abortion to the bittterest of ends and then still have the constitution to rehash it for those of us who quit watching in utter disgust after 2 or 3 episodes, but are still paying occasional attention to rehashes because we have a morbid fascination with disasters. You're a better man than I.

Making Galadriel the bad guy was a bold move ngl

When Galadriel said “you have not seen what I have seen” was she talking about the show itself. An overlooked warning I guess.

This review was put together better than a billion dollar tv show. Jesus.

The Three Rings in PJ's films were beautiful and substantial. These three look like cheap arcade prizes that you win in exchange for 50 tickets. Thanks for helping us get thru this travesty, Gary!!

This show is the embodiment of the words "My expectations were low, but holy shit..."

Cate Blanchett made Gladrial more imposing and intimidating with just words than Bradadriel did with a sword.

As an Englishman and someone who lives 2 miles away from where JRR Tolkien grew up, I want Hollywood & Amazon to apologise for taking English mythology and folklore, bending it over and blowing its back out

How Galadriel treats her library books moved her rating from boring to enemy status

I remember being at the cinema when the Fellowship of the Ring was premiering in my city, in Brazil. I remember the movie ending and a guy, with a Tolkien's book in hand, shouting "death to Peter Jackson!", mainly for exchanging Glorfindel for Arwen. Boy, how small a problem that seems today... I wish I could find that guy and ask him about this new series. It would be fun...

Imagine what Peter Jackson could have made with that much budget.

Turning your main character into the epitome of evil and demanding your fans adore her, a true masterclass in writing.

That season finale was awesome! When Sauron said: "Galadriel, I am you're father." I got chills!

When Galadriel tells the Persian Emissary "Madness? This is SPARTA!", I stood up and clapped.

It's been quite the ride. Thanks Gary, and thanks to the chad who gave you and Az what turned out to be 100% reliable forewarning.

It’s honestly a shame, to think that we could’ve got an incredible Lotr series with such a budget and instead they delivered a hot pile of steaming crap. I’m currently reading the two towers and I love it. In each sentence Tolkien wrote I am amazed by the fact that there’s more creativity and writing skill than in what the ROP writers could muster in a century worth of writing. Nevertheless, despite their wretched efforts, Tolkiens legacy will forever be incorruptible for it will always remain in the minds and hearts of those admire his work. Last week I bought tickets to go watch a concert of the lotr soundtrack performed by a live orchestra alongside the screening of the PJ trilogy and it made me wonder, those movies came out 20 years ago, and are still rewatched and loved by millions. In 10 years time not even the ROP creators will remember their miserable and disgraceful creation and it will be forever lost to time.

So many problems with Sauron's reveal. you mentioned a lot. Here's a few more: 1. Sauron in in the heartland of the elves. Surely Guyladriel could have told Gil-Galad and they would have sent out a thousand elves on horseback and run him down and finished it right there. How did he plan to escape? The elves should have finished this show right here but the writers were too stupid to even bother explaining why this didn't happen. 2. Why the hell did Guyladriel just let him go????????? Wasn't her whole "Tempest in me" shtick all about her hatred for Sauron and her quest to hunt him down? Guyladriel should have finished this show right here but the writers were too stupid to even bother explaining why she acted so out of character. I mean, come on, they made her a one-dimensional mindless robot bent on revenge for 7.5 episodes then suddenly she's not even that anymore, with no explanation. 3. Guyladriel asks Elrond to prove he's really Elrond. She asks him to tell her something private. This is right after Sauron recreates her privite conversation with her brother Finrod. So she KNOWS that Sauron can use her memories to create fake dialog in her brain so why does she think that Elrond's answer proves that Sauron isn't just doing it again?

I was actually rooting for that pyroclastic flow, but it just didn't measure up in the end.

When Guyladriel tells Daredevil “you have not seen what I’ve seen” & he was like “riggghhht” it brought tears to my eyes

Oh it was so so so so easy for you Amazon. You had thousands of pages of pure gold written by probably the most imaginative and creative writer of all time in Tolkien. It was right there!! You had the rights to it! You didn’t have the impossible task of creating a new world with new characters and plots and backgrounds and motivations and hope this new world you created attracted people to watch the show. It was already there!!! Millions of Tolkien lovers, young and old across the world. He created this huge and never ending world with so many different races and languages and conflicts and hero’s and villains. He did all the work for you and established one of the biggest fanbases ever. All you had to do was copy and paste from the book and put it on the screen. And millions of people would’ve loved it! An adaptation of some of the best books ever,would’ve brought you so much money and viewers. You didn’t even have to develop a plot or story there are so many plots within Tolkien’s work, that you basically could’ve just randomly picked one and fans would’ve loved it. It was so easy just take everything word for word from the books and put it on the screen. But you couldn’t do that could you, you just couldn’t make it that easy. You just had to have the nerve and ego to think you could improve Tolkiens works. You actually thought people would prefer and wanted to see your version of Tolkiens works instead of Tolkiens original works. You actually believed your tiny little brains could create something that people would enjoy more and be better than the books, which will still be popular hundreds of years from now. The people behind this show are the most worthless and useless people on this planet and should never be allowed to touch a piece of art again. Fuck you amazon, I truly hope this financial disaster ruins you.

We have to acknowledge Amazon for creating a masterpiece of comedy😂😂😂

This review was unironically better made than anything modern Hollywood could produce. Great work, Mr. Nerdrotic. You should be proud of this one.

I was shocked when Galadriel let Sauron rub one out while looking at her feet in exchange for secrets.

they couldn't have gotten Galadriel more wrong if they tried.

The most surreal part of this show is that in all of these plot summaries Galadriel sounds like an anti-hero, if not a full-blown villain protagonist. Meanwhile, the showrunners themselves talk about her like she's a paragon of virtue.

Rings of Power is a story about Annatar White, a highschool blacksmithing teacher who turns to a life of crime in order to fund treatment for his broken heart after Galadriel brutally rejects his love. Adopting the moniker Sauronberg, he distributes blue crystal rings among the population, gradually enslaving them to his will. With the help of his sidekick, the Black Cap'n Cook, he attempts to assume control of all Middle-Earth. Will he succeed? Tune in to Season 2 to find out!

I thought the three elven rings were crafted in secret and sauron didn't know about them. Wasn't that the only reason the 3 elves still had them by LOTR?

I know we love this videos so we can vent with fellow fans, but let's give Gary some love for how much time and effort goes in to accumulating all of the clips and editing these up

I love how she taught them how to kill something. Just stab and twist.. I WAS thinking you're supposed to just bop them over the with your sword, but she straightened me out.

The contrast to House of the Dragon couldn't be more perfectly timed, my god lol

I'm not a fan of LOTR. But I've listened to each review of yours. That's proof enough you've done what they couldn't. Entertained.

I refuse to believe Tolkien allows himself to be perturbed by this folly.. he’s sitting in heaven with Edith taking tea and merrily arguing with Jack and Jou

One thing I noticed from these honest reviews and the associated film clips is that Galadriel was never wrong, humble, patience, introspective, compassionate or loving. Also, she never appeared to show a shred of personal doubt until she went glossy eyed and disappointed over confronting the possibility of a moral standard of right and wrong outside of herself.

I’m so glad I never wasted a minute on this series. Thank you for taking the bullet and watching it for us sir.

There was like a minute long flashback in a game Shadow of Mordor (or its sequel) with Celebrimbor meeting Sauron and forging the rings and it was better than a billion dollar series

I hate what they did to Clebrimbor. Never in my life I will imagine him as an "old man" with short hair. How would he fight Sauron if he almost fall in love with Halbrand as Galadriel did.

Hold shit. That Sauron rundown at the end was beautifully said. Galadriel is to blame for everything

When Guyladriel is revealed as the Franchise Killer and Morpheus says "She is the one" it caught me right in the chest.

When Annatar the Lord of Gifts is brought in to Eregion after being denied entrance to the other Elven Kingdoms (because Lore/book accurate Gilgalad is not an idiot), we are made to believe that Ringcraft is a secret mystical skill. A skill that requires YEARS and a lot of dedication to master, even with the guidance of Annatar. This show just treated Ringcraft like a high school freshman group project. Celebrimbor WAS a complex character, who inherited some of the faults of his deeply flawed master craftsman grandfather. Little by littler he either realized there is something wrong with Annatar, or he wishes to surpass Annatar in his own hubris, and makes the Elven Rings in secret. Amazon LOL watevs it's season finale make some rings of POWER now please.

So let me get this right? One of the few interesting characters in this show is Halbrand. A character that compared to Galadriel shows himself to be intelligent, empathetic, have good people skills. Who actually seems to be trying to do the right thing and leave his evil ways behind. Who calls out Galadriel for her obsessive bloodlust. And this guy is the dark lord Saroun! One of literature's greatest villain. What in the hell is going on?

"There are no elves of color" There, I said it.

God, it made me laugh too hard where Guyladriel asks a elf to find information and he comes back with some huge scrolls. Apparently that elf was a Wiki Elf! :D

Your coverage through this whole process was so good and in detail, I didn't have to waste any of my life actually watching the show.

Let me get this straight: So when frodo offered the ring to Galadriel and she claimed to "pass the test" it was a really a farce because had already "passed the test" a long time ago, so she was lying to Frodo in order to make up an excuse in order to "diminish out west".

Every time I look at Celebrimbor's robe ( drapery) , which I will call curtains, I feel like crying. Surely even outside of the forge he could manage something better. Even a tunic and some brown trouses will look better than that blue thing.

Whenever I rewatch a LOTR trilogy, I find some new details that strike me again and again. The last time I noticed one such detail during the Ride of Rohirrim scene, which is probably the most epic scene in the history of anything ever. There is a mere second where the camera focuses on a single rider, right after Eomer prepares to throw his spear, this one man rides so fiercely, screams, and pushes his horse to the limit ready to smash into the wall of orcs and kill as many of them as he can before he dies. You can see his anger and you know he does not care anymore as long as he kills at least one orc, maybe to avenge someone he lost in previous battles, his brother or his family. It's just one second and this ONE SECOND tells more fucking story than the entire season of amazon show. Luckily, we still have the trilogy and can go back to it to whenever we want to see a great movie.

When Hallbrand confronted Guyladriel and told her "Say my name" that was sick.

It makes sense why they ghosted Peter Jackson. The appendices to the films showed how committed he was to detail, always striving for perfection, rewriting dialogue and even whole scenes the night before a shoot. Amazon just didn't want that amount of hassle, didn't want to put that level of work in. Just write a script, "yeah that's fine, go make it by this deadline". Done. Doesn't matter if there are contradictions, or non-sensical events, or unintelligent characters constantly acting out of character.

I figured out who sauron was in the first 3 episodes..and immediately after " meteor man" put on a gray blanket, I knew who he was too..I hope Tolkien s grand kids are happy..they got their money! Yeeeaaahh...

This video has an insane like to dislike ratio. 63K to 559! Way to go, Gary.

No way in a million years would an elf ever use the phrase "Come at me"

"He needs Elvis healing. That means they have to go see Arwen's dad who is Steven Tyler" A quote from the writer's room.

“They’ve gone too far to admit they’re wrong”- Thomas Sowell. He didn’t say it about film, but it definitely applies

The part where Sauron became a Tier 3 sub to Galadriel and her mods banned him for toxic masculinity left tears in my eyes

Wait, hasn't Galadriel's thing the whole season been to kill Sauron and then she finds Sauron, has him at knife point and doesn't immediately run him through right there. Are they trying to say she developped such feelings for him as Halbrand that she's abandoned her mission and the Justice for her brother or am I reading this all wrong?

The biggest disappointment of all time. Absolutely, positively, unbelievably horrendous. Unwatchable. Jesus Christ how did they f$&k this up so horribly?

I watched the documentary of Tolkien you recommended and it was fascinating. The insights into how methodical, thoughtful and intelligent he was makes the Rings of Power so much more insulting to his work. He really disliked heavy handed allegory like this and avoided writing this lazy sort of story telling where you just wait for the reveal or mystery to play out events dramatically. Makes me appreciate Middle Earth and Lord of the Rings SO much more

The "writers" who worked on this show should be reassigned to writing dialogue for cartoon characters on the backs of cereal boxes. And even then I'm not confident they wouldn't screw it up.

Thank you Gary and the rest of the gang that sat through this drivel on our behalf. RoP inadvertently brought me great joy in the form of your own reviews as well as howling with laughter during recent FNT discussions. (Elrond and Durin will never be the same for me again!) Hail to the fandom, never back down! LotR is our line in the sand, they may have taken Star Wars, Marvel and so much more but they cannot have Tolkien!

250 million for the rights and 55 million per episode for 8 hours of Try to Guess who Sauron is...absolutely pathetic and hard to watch

The only way season two would work is if Galadriel wakes up and looks out the window and see Celborne bathing in a waterfall and is like "Celborne I had the strangest dream". 😂

I'm so thrilled about next season, hopefully, we'll have a crossover with She-Hulk. The reviews will be so epic, the roasts will become a genre on its own.

I didn't bother to give my viewership to this heap of warg dung of a show, but it has been fun watching your videos on the matter. Keep fighting the good fight. Thanks for the laughs, Gary. Hail. 🤘🏻

The fucking Nazgul don't make sense... They literally came years after the ring was made. At least the 9 men-kings' lifetimes... cuz they were 9 men, before ghouls. LOL I was an apologist for this show until that moment. & the rings scene just made me really angry. They looked like they bought them off Etsy.

During the council of elrond gandalf describes how everyone realized they had been betrayed by Sauron. I wished they had adapted that to film. Basically Sauron was believed to be an ally. He was instrumental in the creation of the nine rings (I can't remember if he was instrumental in the creation of The seven Rings for the dwarves). He never laid a hand on the 3. When the one ring was created. Sauron's voice could be heard from far off chanting the black speech and Celebrimbor knew he had been betrayed. That would have been so cool to see.

When I saw Galadriel in the first LOTR it was very amazing, and that scene where she lost her shit was actually frightening.

I’ve been waiting whole day for this upload!! Could wait to hear your thoughts as always! You, Critical Drinker, Mauler you are my unholy trinity on RU-vid! Love you guys 🖤 thanks for making my every Sunday fanatic 🖤

The part where Sauron and Galadriel are screaming at each other was one of the most cringe inducing scenes of the show, no small task mind you.

Instead of watching this I let y'all rage watch it for me and I started the Lord of the rings trilogy with my seven-year-old daughter, Corah. 😁😘 Thanks again y'all! She loves it by the way!

Half of the season she spent relentlessly searching for any hint of Sauron... But once he is standing right in front of her mere minutes earlier, they don`t chase after him? Even though he is alone, out in the open, in their kingdom, surrounded by elves... Wtf !???

I feel that the disaster of this show will be so impactfull, I even think there will be documentaries made it about it in years to come, I mean Netflix will do it lol

The one good thing that came out of this RoP disaster are your videos! Keep up the good work man!

Second time watching this. This is better edited and narrated than the show. Gary, truly your best work. I hope it gets a million views because it deserves it.

Thanks for calling out Nerd of the Rings. I know it hurts him deep inside that he had to defend this dumpster fire because Amazon paid him to but he should be held accountable.

I couldn't believe Frodo just kept swimming when Gandalf handed tony stark the light saber

I'm so happy your channel is growing so big, totally deserved!!! Cheers from Uruguay!

This is so tragically accurate. :( PS: I did feel the "repurposed" dialogue was blasphemy. How dare they!

Now the season is over, will we actually get the reviews from that one of four"superfans"? She announced she first wanted to binge the show, when season 1 is fully released. These four specialists have been so far pretty quiet although they were SO EXCITED in the infamous video.

That thrust, twist move Guardrail used in her sword tutorial looks like the finishing move the suicide booth had in the Futurama pilot episode.

I haven't watched it and even I can smell the dumpster fire just from those intro clips

It's AMAZING they managed to put out a billion dollar show that you will never even have the slightest desire to rewatch :D

It's only the teaser trailer, you can't judge it yet It's only the full trailer, you can't judge it yet It's only the first 2 episodes, you can't judge it yet It's only the season half-way point, you can't judge it yet It's only the first season, you can't judge it yet < - - we are here

Sad seeing Nerd Of The Rings sell his soul for access the way he has.

I saw it best in a comment on slashdot "It follows the familiar pattern of wearing an existing, often beloved property as a skin suit. There is no attempt to be true to the source/original. Instead the show runner comes in with a story they want to tell, for which the property must be 're-imagined' to fit that story. It's like slapping Pepsi branding on a can of surstromming, then berating the customers when long-time Pepsi drinkers vomit on opening the can."