THE RINGS OF POWER Season 2, Episode 6 Review: The Sea Is Always Right 

They just cannot resist the crutch of cheaply repurposing dialog and visual beats from the LotR films. It's the height of laziness and this episode had several egregious examples. And you're right, Bombadil as Gandalf's Yoda figure is beyond dumb.

It's not that they just should have stuck closer to the lore, they simply should have hired MUCH better writers. It could never have been a good show with writers so incompetent they require an elf city not noticing an orc army camping on their doorstep, or who write a 'manipulative' character like Sauron not by devising smart plans for him to follow, but by having other characters say "this is all Sauron's plan!" in response to every random event happening in the plot.

Amazon waited until Christopher Tolkien died early in the production of its DumpsterFire, his "demand" was that Amazon could use the Appendices to make the show, but they couldn't change the lore. As soon as Christopher died, Amazon delayed the show for reshoots, fired Tom Shippey who was the lead Tolkien scholar & friend of Tolkien himself; they wanted Jackson on the team. PeterJackson asked for the scripts then they ghosted him. Then later when asked about it he basically told them good luck.. You can blame this garbage show on Simon Tolkien (who Amazon used to get around all the laws and protections set around the estate and JRR Tolkien’s legacy), its stink doesn't reach Christopher. Firstly: they merge events (from thousands of years of history & build up towards several events but puts them all into one moment as if it’s happening in the same few years without time jumps or anything.) Guyladriel the murderous one dimensional girlboss heroine version of Galadriel never met Miriel(one of Aragorn’s ancestors) because, as an elf, she would have been sacrificed to Morgoth by the King's Men. The hobbits and Gandalf never met in the 2nd Age because Gandalf was in Valinor till the 3rd Age. Miriel wasn’t even born yet. She was born 2000 years before the rings of power era. A precursor to other events to come in later ages. Also Elendil would never say “forget the past and toss it aside.” That’s the whole thing about the Faithful Númenoreans!!! Faithfulness to what’s good. To their elf friends. To the Valar, to Eru Îlluvatar(The One AllFather), The way Galadriel acts like Fëanor when he isn’t seeing straight such as how she threatened bloodshed in the highest court of Númenor! The way she isn’t tall, the way she fights rookies doesn’t make her look strong. Should have had her spar with Elendil who was greater than Miriel in many ways even as far as lineage goes too! (Canon has her as a grandson or son so…) Have her spar with those greater Numenoreans and let the rookies laugh at their masters being vested by an elf woman holding back from actually hurting them! Now that’d be cool. (Remember. Their whole mantra was to write the book Tolkien never wrote”. Also watch them fake super fans. And then watch their social media that had nothing Tolkien on it ever. Like…. It’s painfully obvious what’s going on here. Same formula towards other titles. They’re just trying to bank on the brand of which that’s the only reason they did this. Just watch Peter Jackson’s new movie coming out and the War of the Rohirim. You’ll see that Brian Cox is involved In it along with Philipa Boyens as well as Actor for Èowyn named Miranda Otto. Fran Walsh I also believe is Involved as well! Watch George The Giant Slayer’s first video regarding the war of the rohirrim. It was beautiful. And he has a wonderful soul too. When I say first video. I don’t mean very first uploaded video though lol. ) There was also no Adar. No poppy. No Nori. No fake Gandalf who literally didn’t come the way he was supposed to which introduces Círdan. And since they screwed up the themes and lore so badly they have to dig in their heels. & they are also being sued by multiple people and groups and companies actually. The rings were forged last and not first. They were not in his sights or touch nor did he even know about them. And also guyladriel wasn’t a murderous Fëanorean either. But the note of the elven rings. They were made last and without the knowledge of Sauron. His touch never got to them. Made in secret so that whole story is thrown out the window as well. And making them first and having the obvious Sauron figure who wasn’t an elf to just be there when they’re making them and have his eye show up in the forge which wasn’t even the worst of it. The greatest of elven smiths still around which is Celebrimbor doesn’t even know what alloying is. Not to mention all their environmental scandals on top of bad CGI stuff. Full of copy past crowds and plagerisms up the wazoo. It’s also getting sued by several people and groups. I’ll also remind you that they just ran an old sick horse til it died of cardiac arrest and then only had a ten min coffee break to loosely honour this horse. Not to mention Tolkien loved animals in a deep way. They also have been causing environmental damage one of which being King Charles ancient forest to make a set. It’s scandal after scandal. And the fire in studio that took four hours to put out with firemen for yet another example. PS they don’t have the rights to the Silmarillion nor anything much of the second age let alone the first. Only the trilogy books and their appendices…. Remember that they also plagiarized tonnes of films in nontasteful instead of true a homage way… “tempest in me” but when threatening Fëanorean level bloodshed in the court of Numenor was from Cate Blanchett’s Elizabeth role which was done with grace and poise of a veteran actress(which doesn’t even sound like anything those of the great chill house of Finarfin would even act like. Again it’d be best to put Elrond there due to Elros. But ooook let’s make girlboss do everything. Even if it continues to make zero sense. )😍 ​​⁠ fact they downplayed Elendil who’d never say to “forget the past”, Gil-Galad and Finrod is beyond infuriating and not explaining Elwing, Elronds mother beyond just showing her as a swan was pure LOLism. Like. What’s worse is Grandpabimbor…. Let’s not forget good ol’ Guyladriel either. The LOTR version of Star Wars’ Rey! Guyladriel the Female Fëanor without any of his charms and subtleties and wit… just the bloody violent rages… ​​⁠They lost alot of viewers after their bait and switch behaviour. Hundreds reported shenanigans on their app where it’d force you to watch and episode twice in variously described circumstances. Bribed people left and right with things like that screening. Even the official critics fell asleep. Many longtime film analysts along with actors and film students/professionals give basic criticism and in depth look at the editing and so forth which causes it to fall flat on its face. Abandons plot left and right. Full of member berries. Just because we got fake Tom Bombadil doesn’t mean we’ll flip onto our backs to play with the jingling keys. Balrog wasn’t awoken until thousands of years later. They’re horridly depicted scenarios which often aren’t canon: were separated by hundreds of years. Some of them by thousands. Not cool. Amazon is known to be corrupt.

This somehow defines this whole Show: what could have been

Rings of power pisses me off the same way acolyte pissed me off: They had the budget, they had some interesting ideas, and they utterly botched the execution turning the whole thing into a brain dead mess

With how egregious the callbacks and nostalgia bait from the books and the films in this show has been, I was really surprised Durin IV didn’t tell his father, Durin III, not to “delve too greedily and too deep, lest we awaken something in the darkness.” I’m like 90% certain that line will rear its ugly head here soon, I just wonder how cringe-inducing it will be.

It’d have been way cooler if they didn’t ghost Peter Jackson & chase out Tom Shippey as the whole weta team could have designed Dol-Amroth together with us as well as other places.

The callbacks had been there from Galadriel’s introduction in S1 E1. When Galadriel is talking about how her brother went searching from Sauron (insert Gandalf voice) “but the enemy found him first” was too much for me

"As always, the music is something I made with AI" - damn! I asked Shazam about that intro part and it couldn't find anything :D LOVED IT!

Galadriel telling Adar about HER ring that’s on the way was blasphemy. The Three ARE SECRET!!!

If my grandma had wheels and a handlebar, she would have been a bicycle.

It's the Grand-Elf show now

Dol Amroth was also originally the home of Galadriel & Celeborn, Built with the the Assistance of the Others who lived there with them after the Destruction of Eregion in the "War of the Elves and Sauron" in the Late Second Age. Galadriel had previously lived in (& founded) Eregion herself with her daughter and Celebrimbor, and Elrond's future Wife= Celebrian. Galadriel's Talent as an Artisan was said to be Second only to the Direct Line of Fëanor, who was her Uncle. It is also Ironic that the Silmarils were based on Galadriel's Hair, which was Golden with a Golden and Silver Glow to it, the glow of the Two Trees of Valinor when they were in the Transitional Phase of their Twelve-hour "Cycle" of Day and Night. Remember that Galadriel wrought Aragorn a Sheath for Anduri (Narsil Reforged) that ensured it was Permanently Unbreakable, even in Defeat. This probably Infuriated Saurin when Aragorn showed him the Reforged Aduril, and he Almost Certainly told the Dark Lord of the Sheath and its Effects. On another note, Galadriel was Rated to All Three of the Elves mentioned in this Short: Idril Celebrindal was the daughter of her First Cousin, King Turgon of Gondolin, whose Father was Fingolfin, brother of her own Father, Firarfin, (Fingolfin came closer to defeating Morgoth than Anyone else, besieging Sngband for 395 Years, and Maimed Moroth as he was felled by him). Luthien Tinuviel was the Daughter of Thingol, King of Doriath, whose kinsman was Celeborn, Galadriel's Husband. Arwen was of course Galadriel's Granddaughter.

In RoP middle Earth are only 1000 people in total. It’s so empty like their dialogues

Celebimbo is too much of a frumpy beta male for me to ever believe he could be the greatest craftsman at the time. It takes me out of it too much to enjoy his storyline

GirlNextGondor did an awesome video to do with Annatar & Sauron recently and many of the images should’ve been brought to life in this show! React to her recent Sauron videos. ❤️ it fits well with what you’re been saying in this video.

The amount of shill articles over the last week for rings of power makes me hate it even more. The Amazon marketing department has been on a mission to turn this around.

Ok, the initial scene with Arondir confused me too. But I think it's just a setup for him showing up at Eregion in an episode or two for him to do his stupid, BS, Legolas-wanna-be acrobatics.

I will never be able to not imagine Hispanic Yoda now while watching star wars, thanks Erik.

I still think they could have made this show with time jumps, with each season leaping forward hundreds of years and told the proper story. That’s the beauty of having immortal characters. They stay. The mortals die as seasons change and you cycle out the mortal actors. You could have seen Numenor before the fall, get progressively worse. This could have been done largely in the wardrobe department. Each season with new fashions, could have been shown on the architecture. The creation of the rings would be meaningful and the story told correctly.

How hard would it have been to have Adar simply be the great captain of Sauron’s growing army (but having an empathy for orcs having gone through similar tortures by Morgoth yet shown kindness by Sauron) who betrays Sauron & smuggles the elven rings away when shown forgiveness at the hands of Galadriel for a fellow elf. But tragedy befalls him upon Arondirs vengeful sword?

The first time Sauron did anything resembling what one would expect from a villain with an unmatched ability to make his lessers do his bidding without physical force. And some other stuff that also happened.

I'm not familiar with the original lore, so I love learning about it from reviews like these. But even for someone like me, this series suffers from poor writing, poor pacing (it seems to move too slowly and too quickly at the same time), and callbacks galore. Much like season 1, season 2 will be relegated to a single viewing and never again.

Ar-Pharazon didn’t have far to fall from grace in the book. He was the leader of the Kings Men during his Uncles reign. He usurped the throne by forcing his first cousin to marry him. He was never a good guy.

I posted this to the Angry Joe Show: A couple of things about the Sauron Vision scene that bugged me... 1.) It was night when the orcs attacked, but the vision was full daytime with sunshine. Sure, it made for a nice visual contrast, but it also implies that Celebrimbor was so wrapped up in his work and his forge not having any openings to the outside world at all that he would miss that. Mind control handwavey, still, bothered me. 2.) Celebrimbor is standing there, out in the open, talking to Annatar, without a care in the world. Not one of the elves running around thought to maybe seek some help or solace from the two leaders of the city?

They have too many storylines, they cannot progress a single one of them properly and with the attention it would need. Take Pharazôn for example. They just tell you that he is envious about the eternal life and bliss of the Elves in the West. But do they show it? Do they show humans die of old age and sickness while the Elves don't visibly age and never suffer any sickness? Do they show Pharazôn's fear of his own death? No, they just start a coup on Númenor without ever clarifying the two factions on the island and why the believe what they believe. So. much. wasted. potential... And what was the point in having the eagle lead to Pharazôn being named king when now a sea monster causes the people to call Miriel queen again? Why is kingship on Númenor dependant on random animals showing up? Nothing about this gets established anywhere, it's just ridiculous. There's more to criticise, but I'll focus only on one other thing: what they did to Celebrimbor is just really really bad. That character stopped making any sense in that episode, and it's a shame that they reduced him to being a fool who's now just tricked by magic. If Sauron can change the reality for people 8as Gil-galad said), there shouldn't be any limit to this ability, but if also makes the characters hollow and pointless because they lose their agency.

Tommy B spitting hot Gandalf lines hurt my soul. The context is so wildly different. I suspect Gandalf’s lesson will really be to help a friend in need but holy moly if it really is to put his ‘destiny’ ahead of them than that will be so wildly untolkien

I guarantee you that Bronwyn’s stupid son gets one of the rings meant for mortal men! Just to keep him relevant. So relevant that I have forgotten his name apparently 😂😂😂

I also found myself pleasantly surprised by the interaction between sauron and celebrimbor at the end. I actually felt immersed a bit and enjoying it. After 45 minutes of pure slog

Loved Mexican Yoda!! More please!!

Would be interesting to see once this show is over (or preferrably cancelled) what was actually going on behind the scenes. As some people have pointed out I think it has to do with Christopher Tolkien's passing. There needs to be an investigation on this and it would make for a great youtube documentary lol.

Your recommendations are good but what hurts the show is the screenplay, not just the fact that it violates lore. If you want to tell a story about Anatar corrupting Celebrimbor, then you have to make these characters three-dimensional characters. You have to introduce them, show what they do in the normal part of their lives. Make them do interesting things on their own. And then you can set up both characters. You will have to show one that has the power to corrupt and the other to be corruptible. And you have to do it in a way that we all can relate to somehow. That both corruption and the ability corrupt have to be explained in terms that we can understand and relate to and have experiences in.

It could have been amazing you are absolutely right. I can’t bear that it exists it’s terrible.

Amazon tried to turn Tolkien into a CW show and it just doesn't work.

The key to Charlie Vickers doing well in this series is that since the first season he's been the only one in the whole series I'd fuck. And it's because he's a liar and a snake charmer, which fits the character.

Waiting for the 2 hour fan edit of this season

It’s just weird how much they could’ve accomplished (DEI and all) with understanding of time and space. I don’t mean that corny: time and space. They could have created exciting narrative around that time and around that space

And why on Arda did they make the statue of Fëanor bald??!? 😑

Excellent article and video. I saw what happened on twitter, but you’re still right. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Thank you for acknowledging the actors - with the exception of the Stranger/Harfoot storyline I think they’re doing a bang up job with what they’re given. The mostly great portrayals of the characters actually highlights just how bad the script is. They really should have had the seasons of the show take place hundreds of years apart so each is a self contained short story with some of the long-lived / immortal characters tying the seasons into a grand arc. They sort of did this with the opening of season 2 which I thought was weird but what it tried to do was give that sense of the timescale.

Loved the guac and coffee lead-in 😆

The main problem of the show is that it is boring af. I'm not sure I can make it to the end of the season...

Everyone has a personal hair stylist (the hairidrim as someone called them), except for Sauron.

Tom Bumbledore's wizard school is one of the worst ideas ever.

Not sure what people are smoking, but this season has been a dramatic improvement over season 1. (And I hated last season) Way more entertaining than whatever the second season of house of the dragon was

They could have made separate shows that intertwine together occasionally. And also had better writers with less annoying actors with a splash of grace and testosterone

You mention a sequence of events -and even more so- specific events that happened in Tolkiens notes which brings up an interesting question for me….how much of these specifics are in the content they bought the rights to? How much do they have to write differently then the stuff they don’t have the rights to? Do They have their hands tied behind their backs? Sauron invades Eregion, takes the nine, tortures Celebrinbor and finds out where the 7 are, then tortures him for the three. Fails to find out. Kills Celebrinbor and puts his body on his banner to scare his enemies…..they can’t use that. They don’t have the rights. Is it possible this was all doomed from the start and they really should have gotten the rights they needed to tell the best story…

React to council of the rings professionally remade episodes of ROP with fully illustrated images that’s fully voiced by him as well.

You have a great voice.

I think this episode had some really good moments but what really annoys me is that whenever a storyline gets interesting they switch to another storyline. How can you have 5 or 6 different storylines in one episode? Worst shit ever. I Don't care so much about the show being true to the lore. I mean it's worse than the movies from Peter Jackson for sure, but I was also pissed at the changes in the movies compared to the books.

they fucked up with Celebrimbor by making him so visibly old.... and not just because elves don't get old, but because visually it disconnects you from what they want the character to be. For the arc they want for him they needed someone young, ambitious, too eager to make a name for himself and living in the shadow of older and more famous elves. This is not a complaint that they need to slavishly follow Tolkien, this is just basic writing in a visual medium. People have certain assumptions about characters based on visual cues. That's not a prejudice thing, that's just the way human brains work. You show us an older gentleman who's supposedly at the height of his power and already a master of his craft, the audience is simply NOT going to believe he's also a complete dumbass who's easily manipulated by some overtly sinister dude he already knows has an evil plan involving magical rings. You're fighting against ingrained expectations for absolutely no reason. The show does this constantly. The visuals and the storylines do not match up, and it undermines the believability of the narrative to a damning degree

Love your Forbes articles...keep on being the voice of fairness and reason Edit - Erik they ARE forging the Rings in order, in Poem order 🤣 They are forging the Rings and bestowing them in the order of the Lore poem From Tolkien... 3 Rings for Elven Kings under the sky 7 for the Dwarf Lords in their halls of stone 9 for Mortal Men doomed to die 1 for the Dark Lord on his Dark Throne I wonder do they think this Poem represents the actual forging order? 🤔🤣

I think a really simple change would be that the first 3 rings made ARE NOT the great rings. They're just lesser rings that do the job, but they're not celebrimbor's best work. For the 7 and the 9, I'm okay with them being given by the elves, but there should be a political reason for doing so. Numenor is supposed to hate the elves, but maybe celebrimbor thinks giving them rings of power will stop a war, maybe when that fails, the elves need to arm themselves, so they buy weapons from the dwarves with rings. Sauron could later persuade the numenoreans that the 9 rings make it possible to invade Valinor, causing numenor to fall.

At least I learned one positive thing in this video; tortilla chips & guacamole paired with hot coffee! ☕ I actually want to try that out now.

Though this episode, love was in the air! All the romances! First Galadriel gets all the boys, what with Adar buying her dinner, producing jewellery (well, Morgoth's crown) and sweet-talking her into an alliance. Then we have Poppy and Lizard-Boy. And now Miriel and Elendil! As well as the ongoing Disa and Prince Durin, Annatar and Mirdania (he's just using you girl, you're nothing but a rebound romance!) and of course Annatar and Celebrimbor. I'm beating my head off the walls due to all this (that isn't what happened to Morgoth's crown, the Faithful did not have Trial by Seamonster), but it's very romantic, isn't it? Poor Celebrimbor, he has a choice of "crazy or senile?" as he wrestles with those DEFIANT RINGS. I have to say, Charlie Vickers is impressing me; I didn't think much of him as Halbrand but he's really improved a lot as Annatar (except, as you say, for that ridiculous wig). If only the actors had been given decent lines and more than "we have to cram everything into two episodes", the Annatar storyline could have been excellent.

Part of me thinks "it is what it is, get over it", and the other part of me thinks that this is what happens when you have showrunners who haven't a clue what they are doing. This could have been outstanding, should have been outstanding, but there are entire passages where I find myself switching off. I don't care at all about the Harfoots, or Numenor really. Dull dull dull. But still, for all of its issues, I love the show. This series is much better than the first.

Largely agree. I'm not certain, how much chronology would have mattered to Tolkien as long as the Rings of Power come across as a potentially corrupting influence underneath their powerful magical abilities (e.g. delaying the influence of Mordor unto Elvish and Dwarven lands in an artificial/corrupt idyll) - arguably the spirit of the literary source. Some say, the given decisions boil down to falling back simply unto an iconic, yet mere formal illustration of the 'folklore poem' on the Rings (when it should be a motif of corruption starting from the top as in Plato's 'Republic')... In my view the role of Melkor/Morgoth and his persistent influence in all creation - his continuity until the end of 'Ardar marred' - could have been emphasized as in my mind this is also the plausible source of the Rings' abilities and the reason why Sauron seeks to form a cult of Melkor across Ardar throughout the Second Age, legitimizing his own rule. It was a bold move - reminiscent of the Games of Thrones finale - to portrait Sauron as 'do-gooder' who won't rest until a total order is restored - his development from forcing matters on an anvil - which gets him killed by the weary Orcs - to subtly manipulate and instrumentalize natural inclinations could have been shown more often than 'told' in exposition dialogue - this would justify the introduction of Orcs as an independent faction as another gear in the drive of events, Sauron had to account for in centuries. The rushing of events almost looks as it may forebode cancellation with Season Two... and indeed, the filling of remaining content time with dank TV and movie tropes is telling of poor writing (an aspect, 100 million USD investment would have been well spent). As with the intersectionalist Disney shows, The Rings of Power will require energetic re-editing to invite a stimulating re-watch...

I'm just waiting for Tom Bombadil to give the Stranger his blue hat, which looks suspiciously like Gandalf's from the Peter Jackson films. 🙄

I keep watching your reviews and theyre great, but the greatest thing about them is how theyve reignited the need for me to revisit a long form piece of fantasy material and how ive started watching Game Of Thrones again. I loved the series the first time around but damn im enjoying it so much more now after having had the chance to forget large portions of it and get to rediscover them all over again. Im so glad youre taking the bullet on this one so I dont have to haha! Id forgotten how good GOT is, thanks for showing me the way back to it as I avoid all this current year trash I might have otherwise wasted countless hours on :D

Great song!!!

I agree with you on everything. Sometimes I’m like: oh yeah finally it’s going somewhere, we are going to get the show that we deserve and then no, back to a below average generic fantasy serie because of the bad decisions made in the writing of season one.

I think the glimpses of a potentially good show are just glimpses of the battered remnants of Tolkien's story really. And as much as I'd have liked them to stick to Tolkien's story, they could still have altered everything and created something worth watching. Look at Guy Ritchie's action-adventure steampunk Sherlock Holmes films, or the BBC TV series 'Sherlock', or even the 'Elementary TV series, not to mention the much earlier Basil Rathbone films. All are completely different to anything Conan Doyle ever wrote, but all work as entertainment and are at least fun to watch, plus you can watch the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Homes TV series if you want a proper representation of the Great Detective and his stories (highly recommended). That's why I think complaining about the lack of fidelity to Tolkien's lore is a bit of a red herring. Whilst it's annoying that the showrunners basically trashed what could have been a great lore-accurate show, even with the limited amount of stuff they were allowed to use, (and I'm sure Simon Tolkien would have given them more access to Tolkien's world if Amazon had flashed a bit more cash his way), they could have created something good of their own. But they didn't have a fraction of the talent needed to pull that off. As I keep saying, Rings of Power fails even on its own terms, or even as just a generic fantasy show entirely divorced from Tolkien - and fails at every level. What connection does the not-Gandalf and proto-Hobbit storyline have to anything else? Why should we care what happens in Numenor? Why does the show say Galadriel is a heroic figure when the show shows her to be anything but? Why did the show proudly show its version of a map of Middle Earth, but have its characters teleporting across thousands of miles in an instant? Does Gil Galad ever move away from that tree, and why is he the leader of the elves? Why the CONSTANT repurposing of lines from the Jackson movies if the writers can't even get the context of those lines correct? Why keep pretending there's some connection between this cr*p and either Jackson's films or Tolkien's books.

No,its great show❤,i love it beautiful to watch,very negative reactions here,the people are spoiled

Even if it’ looks even this sucks. It’s good to be in that world with the characters which is pleasant to read. Read the books and then have some characterization of what blues characters might’ve looked like to be there with any errors or just join or whatever.sorry for the audio errors 9:16

What was that Yoda impression? 😁😁

That Robert Downy junior AI pic 😂😂😂

One could even break the lore and do it in a more interesting way than this junk. The video games Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War had a better story than what we're getting for a $Billion.

Interesting that the episode was titled "Where is he?" Not that any of the jobs needed to be a man, but were they looking for a competent writer? A better showrunner? I wonder if someone on the inside was sending a cry for help to the outside world.

with Amazon rewriting Tolkien it could never in hell be great.

lmaoooo that intro, the guac + hot coffee (I agree) and then RoP is NOT good hahhaa RoP is The Room (2003) without a cult following

This episode makes me want to kill Tom Bombadil. The Dwarf storyline is still the best (though Disa as Batwoman I could do without). Celebrimbor and Annatar are *finally* getting to what they should have been all along, and which we should have got in the first season. They've even showing, not telling: Sauron cutting his hand and then later handing over "oh look, I got you some powdered mithril" to Celebrimbor, which we can now go "Ahhhh - this is how he influences the rings for Men and gets the rings forged, by adding his own blood!" It's not canon but it works. The rest of it? They put Gandalf's speech word-for-word into Bombadil's mouth, but twisted it around instead of being "mercy, even to the wicked, is good" to "choose between *certain death* for your friend or your destiny!"

Kinda hilarious they gave Numenor a Cthulhu…

Hi Erik. This is off topic but I want to strongly recommend that you look into the carnivore diet. Please, for your health, do it. I apologize for being direct but this is important for your health. You have to reduce the inflammation and lose some of the weight. That means getting rid of the corn chips, the processed carbohydrates, the pro-inflammatory grain and seed oils. You don't necessarily have to adhere to a pure carnivore diet permanently but it's a good way to determine which foods you are uniquely sensitive to. It's also the best way to detoxify from a poor diet. Please take the time to look into this. I would be happy to provide resources but this is something I think you have to do and soon.

Love your breakdowns! Although I didn’t realise yoda was Mexican

(Off topic, sorry -- but what is the song you use in the first twenty seconds or so? Thx!)

Listening to your comments makes me think of season 1- have only watched that- it appears they're trying to overlay the grand dramatic narrative onto melodrama. Could be done if the grand architecture of the structural story was kept intact. Could possibly raise their melodrama to high-mediocre level

Every now and then, Foundation - per David S Goyer - gave me the same vibe. Almost. So close. Squint hard and tilt your head. And you can JUST see and hear what the show wanted to achieve and almost got there. It's still complete tosh.

Yes! Actually I have a very similar perspective as you do, on all these matters. I almost liked the deception scenes with Sauran and Celebrimbor for once, I don't mind Adar and Sauon too ... etc etc! So I will subscribe! Ha

PS there is still so little star-power in this show. Those who can act aren't permitted to, those who can't just rush through their contrived encounters and it all feels vaguely degraded and fraudulent. They even screwed up Ben Daniels as Cirdan. Beard, no beard. Chuck the rings, advocate for the rings. Jesus H. More flipflops than Bondi in January.

It could have, had it been made by an entirely different team and for an entirely different public, it could have been different

It says a lot that every established character is dogshit, and that the only character I've liked in the whole run of this show is the blonde elf smith whose name is uh... mem...orable. Also 6:57 had me laughing.

Spot on. This could have been great… but sadly they had to write the story Tolkien never (ever) wrote.

Everything is so rushed and yet they tell us almost nothing. Season one and two are both longer than the peter Jackson trilogy

I stopped halfway during Episode 2 when I saw black and Asian elves. I am done.

We could have still condensed the timeline while remaining true the story. We could have 2 main plotlines in season 1, southlands with Galadriel and Pharazon as a great general in the Númernórean colony. And Annatar in Eregion. I can condense the timeline and still come out with something good.

out of 100 scenes 2 are good. not enough. directors and actors are untalented except the bad wizard which we know its an amazing actor. they just had one-two good random ideas thats it

Remember when the writers of south park gave writing advice about the dangers of "and then" storytelling, aka episodic/contrived storytelling? The "But, because, therefore" rule? This show is reminding me of that. "And then....and then...and then..." 😴 And for the love of God Almighty, stop repurposing dialogues and scenes from the 3rd age! You're removing the context of those scenes! Look to real world eurasian mythology and history for inspiration. Ya know, what Tolkien did? Smh

Sure with different cast different writers different directors 😂

Honestly I’ve disagreed with your opinion of the show since mid season 1, when in your opinion it fell off a cliff, but it’s nice to valid see compliments for Charlie Vickers and Charles Edwards. I’ve really enjoyed season 2, especially that dynamic between the two and feel like it’s been executed really well. Hopefully the last two episodes deliver on the promise of a full sacking of eregion. 👍

Amazon's Rings of Prime is awful

All new shows borrow from other shows

In the past I have been too harsh when it came to American soap operas, their storylines, dialogue and acting. There was more thought, effort and talent in these shows than in Rings of Power. What a waste of money.

You could have been great too 😢

I would need something stronger than coffee if I was watching this rubbish. Cheers

3:01 Mordor pronuciation really fits with spanish! "one does not simple pronounce Morrrrdorrr if you're not a Spanish guy"