The Rings Of Power delivers answers, surprises, and jewelry in a satisfying finale
Prime Video's Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power ends its first season with tricky plotting, quick reversals, and a visit from our old friend Sauron
TV Reviews Rings of Power
The Rings Of Power’s finale is almost as knotted and twisted as the lore’s titular jewelry that finally makes an appearance in the episode. Titled “Alloyed,” season one’s last outing brings together many threads for a mostly satisfying conclusion. It stays one step ahead of the viewer while providing a payoff for its month of mysteries, even if it gets a little too bogged down in the plot at times. Sincerity is painfully out of vogue these days, and having Amazon foot the bill on a billion-dollar TV show doubtlessly puts people on their heels. Yet at every turn, showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKaye’s vision for Middle-earth has erred on the side of compassion and love. It has an overwhelming faith in goodness, and across these eight episodes, strived to forge connections not between metals but between characters.
Tolkien is always about the journey, and The Rings Of Power was smart to focus on the characters’ enjoyment of Middle-earth rather than simply rattling off plot points. The show has more than justified its place within the Tolkien mythos, creating a Middle-earth that feels tactile, lived in, and inhabited by characters that are willing to fight for it. “Alloyed,” however, is in a bit of a rush to wrap those things up. Suddenly the show that took its time felt a little under the gun.
The episode opens with an instant reveal: The weird sisters, credited as The Ascetic (Kali Kopae), The Nomad (Edith Poor), and The Dweller (Bridie Sisson), catch up to the Stranger in the dripping forests of The Greenwood. Thinking he’s chasing after Nori, The Stranger is ambushed by The Dweller, who does one of many shape-shifts this episode, and The Ascetic declares him Lord Sauron. It was surprising, but it makes sense. Paired with the season’s opening lines, “Nothing is born evil,” The Stranger being Sauron would make a poignant connection for the character. But the twists aren’t over.
We jump over to Galadriel, who carries Halbrand on horseback to the Elvish healers at Eregion, where Elrond tells Celebrimbor that the Elves are screwed on the mithril front and need to leave Middle-earth. When Galadriel comes rushing in, Elrond can barely process it. Both are harboring shame over past mistakes; Elrond for sending Galadriel away, while Galadriel over whether it was a good idea to rescue Halbrand (Spoiler: It wasn’t). But things end on a nice note, choosing to allow bygones to be bygones. The war within doesn’t need to come home, too.
Meanwhile, Halbrand takes quite an interest in Celebrimbor’s forge. He sweet-talks the compliment-thirsty Elf and finds his way to becoming his apprentice. He even gives Celebrimbor a great idea: They can alloy the mithril with another ore, giving the Elves enough of that unseen world power to keep them alive. “Call it a gift,” says Halbrand of the suggestion. And why shouldn’t Celebrinbor? After all, we already know that he’s not Sauron. Back in Eregion, Celebrimbor tries his best to convince Gil-galad that he should wear a mithril crown, and that would be enough to power the Elves’ life force. Gil-galad refuses, rightly asserting that there should be no one ruler of Middle-earth and that their time is up. They must leave before the final leaf of the Great Tree falls.
Still, Celebrimbor is obsessed with crafting the power “not of the flesh, but over flesh,” something Adar said a few weeks back, and Galadriel noticed. She asks an archivist to scour the catacombs for any information on the lineage in the Southlands. Halbrand and Celebrimbor get back to forging when they realize that what they need to do is not force the ring into existence but allow the metals to come together. The show’s Stranger fakeout works until Halbrand enters the forge. He’s positively beaming with excitement. When he talks to Galadriel, his power becomes clear.
Morfydd Clark has done heroic work this season, complicating Galadriel while maintaining her arch demeanor, allowing subtlety to break in through her eyes, posture, or a crack in her voice. When Halbrand thanks her, Clark looks almost weightless, like she was floating. It’s when he touches her that things feel off. Director Wayne Che Yip taps the brakes on the earlier Sauron-related revelation, sharpening Halbrand and softening the Stranger.
When we return to The Greenwood, the weird sisters catch “Lord Sauron” up to speed, teaching him to talk and putting him to sleep when he shows off his power. That’s when the Harfoots arrive and pull a little Ewok Adventure to rescue their friend. Nori comes to the Stranger’s side and hands him a staff fit for a wizard, bringing their arc to a beautiful close. “You’re here to help,” Nori reminds him. He picks up the staff and unloads on the weird sisters, who realize that he’s not Sauron, he’s “the other, the Istari” (or wise one or wizard, as The Stranger will later translate). “I’m good,” The Stranger says as he sends them back to the shadow. You are good, The Stranger.
Towards the end of the episode, The Stranger and Nori are off on an adventure of their own to find his strange stars, choosing their direction based on scent, which feels like confirmation that this is Gandalf (but I refuse to keep making predictions about his show). Nori’s goodbyes to the Harfoots, particularly Largo and Poppy, were right in the pocket of what this show does best: Having friends and family express their love and admiration for each other. Lord Of The Rings is about people working together. The first season of Rings Of Power was an earnest and passionate attempt at returning that optimistic light to fantasy television. So if the Stranger isn’t Sauron, that must mean…
Yes, if you guessed that Halbrand was Sauron, please come to the front desk to collect your prize. While this may have been obvious to some, the last-minute reversal with the Stranger took the pressure off the episode and made the final twist a little more exciting. When Galadriel inspects the lineage, she learns that the line was broken. Galadriel spent the whole season bringing Sauron to Eregion, where he could teach Celebrimbor how to forge the rings of power. The scenes where Galadriel and Halbrand face-off were exceptional. Sauron takes Galadriel back to Valinor so she can speak with her brother again, bringing the season back around itself. (Dare I say, it made a ring of the narrative.) It was especially nice to spend a little more time with Finrod (Will Fletcher). Fletcher seems to have so much fun letting the heavenly Finrod get a little devilish.
Galadriel’s resolve is too strong. She denies this offer from Sauron, so he moves their confrontation to the seas where they met. As he did with Finrod, Sauron tries convincing Galadriel that, actually, he wants to heal Middle-earth and that he’d love to make Galadriel his queen—complete with a painterly shot of Dark Lord and Queen in the reflection of the water. He sees no difference between saving Middle-earth and ruling it. That is why Galadriel can never be on his side, and the true reason she’s still fighting. In a nice callback to the first episode, we get another shot of Galadriel staring right down at the camera; this time, not following the sounds of her calling but confronting her anger. Galadriel does not take the offer, stabbing Sauron with her brother’s dagger and touching the darkness with the end of her blade.
Now, here’s the part of the episode where it really feels like Payne and McKay are playing with fire. Galadriel rushes to Celebrimbor and commissions the three rings of power in what has to be one of the most expensive episodes of Forged In Fire ever made. She offers her brother’s dagger as the gold and silver from Valinor is the only thing that can bond with mithril. But Galadriel requesting the forging of the rings feels risky. The shots of Galadriel at the end of the episode seemingly tease another twist. Something shady is going on, and Elrond knows it—he’s seen the scrolls and knows his friend is keeping something from him. From one dark note to another, we return to The Southlands, where Sauron checks out his new digs. The shadow has returned.
Stray observations:
- When the Dweller turns to ash, a moth flies from her face. To my mind, this is a reference to Peter Jackson’s moth in The Lord Of The Rings trilogy. I remember
- Both Sadoc’s death and Eärien’s discovery of the Palantir felt entirely too rushed. These were both supposedly big moments, but they didn’t really get the type of focus or care the show normally gives.
- Charles Edwards’ Celebrimbor is such a delight. I really hope we get much more of him next season and he gets more to do.
- The Greenwood is the future Mirkwood, so it appears as though we have a lot more geographical changes on the horizon.
- Bear McCreary’s character themes were worked into this episode so smartly, often intertwining with others, a lot like a ring forged.
- Those rings needed to be beautiful, and the props department didn’t disappoint.
- The MVP this season has to be Clark, but Robert Aramayo is a close second. He brings such a warm presence to the screen. Those scenes last week between him and Durin were utterly beautiful. It’s hard to imagine another show where two friends can just forgive each other, even when the stakes are high.
- The Sauron/Stranger mystery was never my favorite part of the show. I’m not even so sure that the show was as interested in it as some segments of the viewership. Generally, that kind of thing distracts from what I really like: Harfoots being friends. But overall, this episode did a fine job wrapping it up.
- That’s all for the first season of The Rings Of Power. It’s been such a joy writing about this show every week. It’s been just as fun reading your theories and thoughts in the comments. I’ve had a great time returning to Middle-earth and cannot wait for season two.
66 Comments
I won’t lie, I would actually be kind of into the show saying “Nope, Isildur really is dead and Sauron’s canon defeat has been butterflied out of existence. We’re totally doing our own thing now.” The screams from the people already upset about the black dwarfs would be beautiful.
If there’s one thing we need more of, it’s multiverses.
Eh. You’ve seen one multiverse, you’ve seen em all.
Underrated comment. Take my star!
Why not? It’s already blatant that this show was just more “content”. I mean people talk about scenes with a lot of shoe leather, but in this case it was literal. So much walking down paths and stairs. What a yawner. I’m sure it will earn its return, and then nobody will remember it.
Does anyone think Miriel and Elendil have some strange chemistry in this episode? How does Elendil become king? Is this how? And could there be an Isildur the second?
I suspect Berek the horse returned to Isildur to bring him back.
I thought he just declared himself king of a new country (aren’t they descended from Numenorean kings way back in the family tree?) But my memory is rusty.
Elendil becomes King in ME because he leads the Faithful and is of the royal house. And it’s his planning and his 9 ships that make it to ME when Numeanor sinks.It has jack to do with his chemistry with Miriel.No, there isn’t an Isdur II.Jesus Christ.
Yes, but what about the screams of us that have no issue with characters of color (or even the invented female characters)? Are those of us that have been fans of the written work just expected to sit by quietly as the stories we have known and loved get absolutely gutted?
Yes, sit by quietly please.
Nope.
Gutted is a bit much. Stop being such a drama queen. The written work was never that consistent to begin with.
You’re allowed some nervous crying
Thank the One lol
No one is screaming, bezos paid avclub to tell you that but the truth is that barely anyone is watching this show, much less are they upset by it.
And for that reason, I am now also hoping for this.
Correction, there’s precisely one black dwarf (that has a name)C
Nobody’s upset about the black dwarves. Stop trying to make that a thing to whip up fake outrage and score PC points.It’s the black elves we’re upset about. /s
Halbrand’s reveal as Sauron didn’t work for me for one reason: where we first find him. He was adrift on flotsam in the middle of the ocean.
Why was he on the ocean in the first place? That’s never answered.Did he just happen to end up wrecked or was that planned?Was he trying to get to Valinor? One would think that he could have just abandoned his body and moved there spiritually.Was he trying to get to Numenor? If so, hoping that a Numenorian ship would just happen by to “rescue” him would have been a really Byzantine way to go about it.That initial starting point just doesn’t make any sense to me.
Two thoughts, neither of which are fully satisfying: the first is that it was all part of his plan, namely meeting Galadriel at sea to win her trust to gain access to Lindon. But also that this where the seams of the writing show, and this was only way to cram developing Galadriel as well as introducing Numenor and ProtoSauron into the mix.It may well be that he’s appearing as a man here either because he previously tried to befriend the Noldor as a Maia or because he thought doing so would be too suspicious. Is a little weird that nobody in Numenor bothered to vet his claims, though?
It seems as though they did. The oldest documents that Galadriel could find on her own in the library that Numenor has essentially sworn off only helped his claim. It took going to an elven stronghold that had thousand year old records to find one single scroll that held the truth. I don’t think it was some extremely knowable information anyone had access to. It was nearly a perfect cover.
I might be wrong here, but wasn’t Mordor meant to be created in the event of Morgoth’s defeat? I assume Adar “killed” Sauron, but continued with the plan to create a safe haven for Orcs. Perhaps Sauron also wanted to continue with plan and took on the guise of a lost Southlander king to assume control of the region. However, he could not take on Adar and his legions alone, and fled the region. Either way, Halbrand’s actions in Numenor make little sense. Why cheat your way into a guild, and then beat up its members? This doesn’t make sense if he is repentant or scheming. Surely, he could have just impressed the guild into letting him join? His charm and skill quickly won Celebrimbor over. While I like the show, some of the plotting in Numenor was odd.
If I had to spin a background narrative out of what we’ve seen, my guess is that Halbrand knew he needed Celebrimbor for the rings, identified Galadriel as his way in, and posed as a Southlander when meeting her because that would raise the least scrutiny in Numenor.I feel like a big missed opportunity in Numenor is not simply making the King’s Men racist against other humans–even if Halbrand (as appearing) had the inherent skill to reach a Numenorean level of master craftsmanship, he’d die far too young to ever attain it, etc. But while a lot of the overall choices characters make in Numenor don’t make a ton of sense, I think Halbrand’s were mostly meant as a form of dramatic irony signaling ‘maybe don’t trust this guy.’
I think the rub is the Halbrand/Sauron scenes on Numenor really only worked as misdirection on the audience, and not as a coherent part of a plot of misdirection on others by Halbrand/Sauron as a character. They’ll get away with it now since Sauron is revealed and he’ll just start acting like the big-bad we know from Tolkien, but that’s not the real foundation they were building up in those scenes prior to the final episode. There was a rather sudden and clear shift from Halbrand being repentant to being purely manipulative, and I don’t think a fair reading of the earlier scenes suggests the repentant part wasn’t real. So… what’s a “repentant” for a time Sauron mean for this story, as that’s not the story Tolkien told on him.
None of the Numenorean stuff has been especially cogent, I don’t think, starting with Palantir being alive and mad (IIRC in Tolkien’s writing this is only ever mentioned as something that befell the King’s Men who would not simply die peacefully).But I don’t think Halbrand’s shift is even that sudden. It’s fairly apparent that he wanted to get to Numenor, and once he arrived, he didn’t want to leave. He’s trying to curry favor with Galadriel and Pharazon at the same time—presumably, telling Pharazon that Galadriel’s going to see Palantir is how Halbrand’s allowed to forge a sword the next episode. The main dissonance is that Galadriel trusts him.
That’s my main problem with the Numenor plots: certain scenes are played for “maximum drama” in the short term, even if they don’t make sense in the grand scheme of things. In episode three, there is a scene with Miriel and Elendil where Miriel effectively says: “Perform this one service for me involving Galadriel, or I’ll accuse you of treason”. The scene ends with Elendil being given a sword. Initially, I read this as “Go kill Galadriel, or else.” However, it turns out, Miriel just wants Elendiel to watch over Galadriel. Later, we learn Miriel has visions of Numenor’s doom, and they begin with Galadriel’s arrival. In hindsight, we know this actually caused by the arrival of Halbrand/Sauron. I would have preferred it if Miriel told Elendil: “Befriend Galadriel and find out her true intentions”. Ultimately, Galadriel wants to leave Numenor, and the Numenoreans don’t want her there. Miriel should have told Galadriel: “I’ll give you a boat, if you answer some questions”.
Also, regarding the colony of Pelargir: Was it abandoned by the Numenoreans? Did they have a falling out with Numenor? Pharazon makes it seem like Numenor currently has no presence in Middle-Earth.
Typing this out, I’ve realised I lead a sad and pointless life.
Initially, I read this as “Go kill Galadriel, or else.”
I’m not sure how else we were supposed to perceive that. It’s weird! Aside from the strangeness of having Galadriel go to Numenor at all, the entire tension of her being present there is Pharazon’s implication that giving Galadriel a ride back to ME is surrendering sovereignty.Agreed though that Miriel’s especially ill-served in the show. She’s stuck between all of Galadriel, Elendil and Halbrand as protagonists, so she’s almost entirely reactive. Which is a shame because it’s not like giving Elendil a daughter: Miriel’s a character that had a pivotal place in this world without even layering the last days of Tar-Palantir on top of it. This season was overstuffed as it is, but not giving Miriel intelligible motives felt like a real gap in the narrative to me.
That’s been the rub for the Sauron reveal for me. It’ll be interesting to go back and watch, but I suspect the scenes with Halbrand on Numenor still only work knowing the reveal if you accept Sauron was really repentant, broken as a “man,” and trying to change. That means there’s a lot of truth to what he said to Galadriel that she basically drove him back to this path.
There were just too many scenes where Halbrand was acting repentant and unsure of himself with no one around to further his plans if it was all pure manipulation, and Tolkien had framed it all as pure manipulation by Sauron. That’s a very strange thematic change from how Tolkien dealt with Sauron’s actions, and not for the better really. I mean, right now, there’s a decent argument that Middle-Earth would have been much better off if Galadriel hadn’t jumped overboard, right?
“It’ll be interesting to go back and watch, but I suspect the scenes with Halbrand on Numenor still only work knowing the reveal if you accept Sauron was really repentant, broken as a “man,” and trying to change. That means there’s a lot of truth to what he said to Galadriel that she basically drove him back to this path.”
YES. And yet, they seemed to VERY quickly want to make it clear that he genuinely wasn’t repentant despite what he said. But that’s not what we’ve seen up to now. I’m not saying that they should have had scenes of Halbrand being sneaky, giving evil smiles to the camera, etc, while on Numenor but… Well maybe they should have? 😛 That would have been corny and obvious, but at least wouldn’t feel like a cheat purely for the “surprise” of this reveal.
“Why cheat your way into a guild, and then beat up its members? This
doesn’t make sense if he is repentant or scheming. Surely, he could have
just impressed the guild into letting him join? His charm and skill
quickly won Celebrimbor over. While I like the show, some of the
plotting in Numenor was odd.”
Yes! I already have had some friends of mine defend the Sauron reveal when I’ve raised these same points—but they all are pretty big Tolkien experts who HAVE read the appendices, etc, so maybe I’m missing something. But it just feels like if this was always Sauron’s plan, man does it depend SOOO much on chance, luck and coincidence (over and over and over)
As adie78 said, I think it only makes sense if Sauron initially had no plan, and when Galadriel first meets him he genuinely is destitute and repentant. By chance, Galadriel provides him with a new manner of attaining power, and this sets him down a new path. I’m fine with this. The alternative is that Sauron is playing 14-dimensional chess, seeing 1000 moves ahead, and manipulating every event we’ve seen so far. I think this is stupid, as it essentially makes him Palpatine from the prequels.
Meeting Galadriel after she jumped off a ship with no plan whatsoever other than to swim a thousand miles or more.
See results for “Cliffhanger”
In fact, the more I pull at this thread, the more I realize that the time compression that the show is doing results in so many plot contrivances.Galadriel and Sauron just happen to meet up on the wreckage of a ship in the middle of the ocean.Where the Numenoreans just happen to find them.Galadriel just happens to take Halbrand to Eregion. (In fact, Halbrand is “wounded” in a way that seems to indicate that this is his plan. But for what purpose?)
Where he just happens to arrive in time to give Celebrimbor the idea that eventually results in the rings.Also: What are the showrunners going to do for the Seven and the Nine? There’s no reason for the elves to create those now. Is Sauron going to make those himself?
Also: What are the showrunners going to do for the Seven and the Nine?
There’s no reason for the elves to create those now. Is Sauron going to
make those himself?
We’ll see. One quirk of the rush through the Elven rings being made is that Celebrimbor doesn’t seem to have given Halbrand any ideas.But my recollection is that Sauron makes at least the nine rings himself which is why they’re scattered among the different populations, with the backhanded implication that men couldn’t have done anything of the sort on their own.
Mithril appears to be the key now obviously, as Halbrand/Sauron seemed generally questioning as to what the strange ore was, so this exchnage did give him that idea. I’d suspect that gives him a hook into making the 7 rings for the Dwarfs—-using Mithril to build up their powers rather than save the Elves. Or the Elves, through Elrond, share the creation of the rings in exchange for more access to Mithril, or just through Elrond’s love of Durin. The 9 rings for men can easily flow from those scenarios, though I suspect there from Sauron alone.
But…. what’s the hook into why the one ring can rule them all if Sauron didn’t forge them all? I assume it could be the dagger now for the 3 rings, and somehow a taint on it from the Galadriel/Sauron exchange, which fine I guess. But it made much more since in Tolkien’s story when Sauron played an actual role in their forging. Either that, or it’ll just be the nature of rings period, and someone as powerful as Sauron can take advantage of their nature through a single ring with his full power placed into it.
This isn’t inconsistent with how the elven-rings were forged in the writing. The implication I took from Celebrimbor forging them separately is that it explains why they were able to be used/worn while Sauron was dispossessed of the one through the Third Age, as opposed to the Ringwraiths. Sauron being present at the conception of the elven-rings means on some technical level he knows enough about them to control them (he’s also, as the confrontation with Galadriel shows, more powerful than any elf or man). I have no idea whether he’ll help the Dwarves make theirs or simply give them, but given that they only make the Dwarves dwarvier, it’s not that interesting IMO.As for mithril, a fun thing to look forward to is it being MCU vibranium in reverse, because at some point it’s going to become common enough that it gets used for weapons and armor. I hope we don’t dwell on its being inherently magical long.
The elves created all of the rings (including the lesser rings) but the One, but Sauron has his hand in all of them except for the Three, which were created last. All of the rings were intended for the elves. It’s only later that Sauron decides to give them to men and dwarves.
This is correct.
They began laying the groundwork that Halbrand was Sauron early on. He even went so far as to literally state his plan with the rings in Episode 3 (if memory serves). It was all part of his plan, he needed the elvensmiths to do his dirty work for him, so he needed to gain enough trust to gain access and influence.
They leaned into the repentance arc which was only post-WoW until he had to actually face judgement, and stretched it out to make him only after a new start away from the past. If the time compression has screwed up any part it’s this character, the rest they can get away with.
As per a recent interview with the actor we will apparently find out in S2. So I suppose it’s interlinked with another plot point that’s going to be revealed then, maybe he meets up with Adar again and he’s like “It can’t be – I killed you!!” so there’s a recap on how Sauron got from being split open by Adar to ending up on the open sea on a raft. Or something like this, Idk.
We could just as easily make a list of all of the things in the Silmarillion that make no sense or are unexplained.
Oh cmon, this was silly drivel by people who didn’t understand how to do serialized storytelling. Satisfying?!?! All the stuff I called on episode one came to pass. BORING. Some actual surprises would’ve been interested.
Yup. Sad but True.The ‘ol “mystery box” storytelling…it’s so tedious and hackneyed now. It was cool and interesting 10-15 years ago, maybe. Now though? Lazy and boring, with a hint of nonsensical. A solid recipe for mediocrity, most assuredly.
any complaint that doesn’t come out of the mouth of a 4 year old?
I honestly don’t buy into the Stranger-is-Gandalf theory that most people seem to be taking as dogma at this point, and still strongly believe that he’s mostly likely one of the Blue Wizards.
The Blue Wizards arrived in the Second Age, and had a direct link to the East. The fact that the Dweller et al specifically talk about coming from Rhun, and that the constellation the Stranger is looking for is visible from there seems like way too specific of a link. Plus, when they discovered he’s not in fact Sauron and referred to him as “the other,” what that immediately made me think was that one Blue Wizard had landed in the East and been encountered already, while the Stranger landed in the South; the Dweller et al assumed he was Sauron, but in fact he was “the other” Blue Wizard. Plus the fact that the first staff he uses to channel magic is literally an aesthetically Rhunian staff, taken from the Dweller. I feel like the one-off comments that feel Gandalf-y are meant to be red herrings/winks.In all likelihood though, and based on some comments from the showrunners that came out today, I think they’re being coy because they just haven’t decided which way they’ll go with the Stranger as far as which of the Istari he’ll actually end up being.
I loved when lenny henry did the “welp my contribution to the plot is over now, guess I’ll just die!” move
The show has more than justified its place within the Tolkien mythos No, Matthew, it really hasn’t. It is paint by numbers, lazy and hackneyed.Again, just because you name drop Tolkien and say it has justified its place, does not make it so. But, hey, keep banging that drum. The more you repeat a lie the easier it is for the weak minded to accept.
Its easy to see why some critics, in particular for CNN and Forbes, are finally being honest about this disaster. After such a silly finale, you have to either be willfully ignorant or just simply appreciate elementary level writing to have enjoyed this mess. Every reveal was telegraphed in episode 1. The dialogue being nearly pure exposition treats viewers like children. “He’s not Sauron! He’s the other!”… seriously.. only a fool would’ve been tricked by your last minute obvious misdirection that you only allowed to simmer for less the 2 minutes on screen. Then the cringe sets in with “I’m good!”. Did they really think anyone didn’t know “the southlands” was Mordor from the first minute that boring storyline was introduced? Why was Sauron in the ocean? Why did Galadriel try to swim an entire ocean? How did the southlanders deconstruct their fort’s tower to the point it could fall and then rig it with wires? Why did the abandon their fort to defend a few houses? How did untrained farmers fight battle hardened orcs that had been shown to be many times stronger than other races in previous episodes? How did Galadriel behave like a spoiled teenager with no growth when she’s thousands of years old? I felt embarrassed for the writers. This show is destined for eternal mockery and will never make it for 5 seasons if they don’t replace the amateur writers with someone that can at least hold a pale candle to Tolkien
Surprises?
I am not deep in Tolkien lore. I’ve never read any of his works. I love the Lord of the Rings films on their own merits.And I mostly like this show. Since I have zero working knowledge of the source material, I can agree with others that the main issues are a series of contrivances driving the plot, goofy character choices, and what feels like compressed pacing, considering we’re supposed to have five seasons of this stuff.My brother sent me a Critical Drinker video explaining why Rings of Power was bad, but he himself refuses to watch the show because of what “it’s done” to the source material, and it’s cracking me up that my brother, along with so many others, hates a show they won’t even consume and assess on its own merits. And to use the Critical Drinker, of all channels, to confirm one’s existing bias…. Eek. This is far from a perfect show. I welcome criticism of it. But take it on its own merits as visualized entertainment. As a longtime Harry Potter fan, I’m certainly empathetic to gripes of, “the books are better,” but we also have to accept adaptations for what they are, and they are not typically meant to be a direct retelling of the page on screen.
There are so many different ways you could see this show that almost all points of view are as relevant as any other. Mine is simple. I do not mind shows based on successful works any more than work “based on actual events.”Is it entertaining? So far it is.
I have to say this show, much like the Jackson LotR trilogy, and it’s actors, dives into that same level of emotional earnestness that Tolkien espoused, and I think they’ve been pulling it off. It’s not an easy line to tow for the actors and directors. My eyes got a little cloudy during the scene where Nori leaves.
This. If there’s one word I’d use to describe the show, it’s sincere. There’s humour, jokes even, but no winking at the audience. And that’s absolutely the right way to play it. I’d say it’s rather more sincere than Jackson’s films, and in that more in keeping with the books.
Still have mixed feelings on this show. The whole season is probably ranks a B- for me.
The MVP this season has to be Clark, but Robert Aramayo is a close second. You spelled Owain Arthur wrong.