nono, legolas and gimli are not part of this abominable universe, it does make galadriel kind of a sociopath for killing all the orcs, but then again, thats nothing new
Yeah. Playing the open-world Zelda games, you can see bokoblins and moblins in their camps just hanging out. I even saw a moblin sitting on a ledge admiring the sun. Still doesn't stop me from killing them.
The only thing I miss is Tom Broombadil bringing most iconic Gandalf's line from LOTR. That one line delivery alone was so incerdibly terrible and wrong I paused the show and went out for a walk. "Many living deserve to die and many dying deserve to live. Who are you to decide their faith?" In LOTR Gandalf said that when Frodo made deathwish for Gollum. It. Makes. Sense. In this show however first Gandalf complained to Tom "Where are u dragging me? My friends need me. They will die without me" and Tom Baobabdil makes this stupid random reference. And it sounds like "If ther're gonna die they're gonna be die. Why do you care? You have your own shit to do". Aside from that... Great job!
I agree 100% with this. I actually original did have this scripted but cut it because I didn’t want to spend too much time on the hobbit/wizard arc and wanted to focus in more on the other storylines. Thanks for watching!
you forgot the dumbest part. when galadriel is sneaking out and arondir saves her. Arondir offers to sacrifice himself to kill Adar. This would effectively end the siege as the orcs wouldn’t have a leader. Allowing Galadriel and Elrond to get to the city safer to stop Sauron. This action would complete all of galadriels immediate goals and she fucking tells Arondir not to do it because “we don’t need another dead elf today.” Holy shit Galadriel every second the siege goes on elves are dying. Plus this entire siege is already her fault and now she’s actively participating in keeping it going. It’s so damn stupid in so many ways.
It's like they saw Aragorn have pity on Grima, so they just did the same with their MC. Most sensible interpretation: she didn't think he could do it and was talking about Arondir as the "dead elf".
I like to think it's because Galadriel feared that orcs without Addar would go and side with Sauron making bad situation worse. Orcs follow the strongest after all. But this season is devoided of logic and Galadriel is so far the main villain of the story not The Big S.
Arondir does go to fight Adar and gets killed almost immediately. I don't know why anyone thinks Galadriel and Arondir can take on Adar's entire army by themselves, lol.
@@nm2358 they don’t have to take on the entire army. Galadriel sneaks away and arondir kills adar, sacrificing himself in the process. Would’ve been a great way to wrap up his story but instead he just waits and gets stabbed in the stomach (only to be totally fine lol)
@CodyKenny777 Arondir literally died when he tried fight Adar one on one, lol. The only reason Arondir pops back up is a deleted scene when Ring-Deux-Machina is used to restore him to life like shown with Galadriel. And they're in the middle orc encampment; yeah, that's cunning strategy, but outright insane stupidity. In in Tolkien's run of the conflict here, it takes the combined forced the Dwarfs, Elves and Numenor to defeat the orcs here. I have no idea why you think Adar is sitting duck here that isn't defended or can't defend himself - despite being one of oldest beings on this planet - a fullblown survivor of the previous war as one of Morgoth's first orcs.
it's frankly more revolting because it's so painfully obvious that it's only there to bait either rage from actual fans, or shipping fantasies from internet weirdos. Plot wise i know it was supposedly a distraction..... one the most obvious hand off ever seen on film... but the way it was shot was specifically so it could be clipped entirely out of context The fact that this is how low the show will sink just to get attention is kind of nauseating.
I _genuinely_ cant look at it. Its gross for reasons I can't even fully explain. It cant even just be because shes his future mother in law, because I watch House Of the Dragon just fine and they're all straight up blood relatives. Its just....its _Elrond_ and _Galadriel,_ you know?
For me it's not even that they break the lore in every episode, it's that they do it badly, and the writing is dumb. Also, the Numenorians all look like potatoes. Ar-Pharazon in particular reminds me more of Jack Black rather than what is supposed to be an absolute Chad; peak human society.
With all the callbacks to Jackson's movies, Rings of Power reminds us that it's never a good idea for a showmaker to remind their audience of a better product.
@@fred20097 in no way Rings of Powers is close to the masterpiece quality of Peter Jackson's movies...ye Peter Jackson added some things that weren't in the books but still the product came out good while Rings of Power are straight up taking names from Tolkien's books and slapping them on random characters to supposedly be the said character while being either never in the books, in the wrong time line or total opposites of the originals
If the dark wizard IS Saruman then nothing makes sense cuz he’s so clearly bad in this show. How would he deceive Gandalf (like he does in lotr) if Gandalf already knows he’s evil 😭. I kind of feel like the slow descent of Saruman was supposed to be symbolic of how good people could become corrupted by power. But my guy seems evil from the get go (at least according to the show).
It's not terrible that the Eagles of Manwë do not speak. Jackson did not give them dialogue (nor the raven in The Hobbit) and it is probably the correct decision for visual drama. There may be no way to portray speech without it looking at least a little silly and distracting. But the Númenoreans are inexplicable. Do they honor the Valar, and the Eagles? (never mind the sea monster) What, then, is the basis of the divide between the Faithful and the King's Men? Seemingly, it is just a power struggle, merely politics. There is only one moment in which envy of the immortality of the Elves is expressed, but it is made to seem a personal quirk of Pharazon, not an important motivation of the people's actions.
I lowkey kinda wish he'd made them talk, only because of Gwahirs line after saving Gandalf "I came to bear messages, not burdens". Like buddy, you were flying that way _anyways_ and your friend was imprisoned by an evil wizard, why are you being such a bitch about this? I love it. He definitely _acts_ like a creature that only answers to the king of the Valar
i'd also point out that Pharazon is king because....uhh, Eagle... which means his legitimacy is entirely depends on the religious beliefs of the Numenoreans the show conveniently never actually explains But then the next season these same religious Numenoreans, the only ones who'd defend his right to rule, are now being persecuted for reasons the shows also never bothers to explain. You're just supposed to assume it's because that's what cartoon villains do. The Numenoreans aren't merely confusing, they are, to a man, complete idiots.
Life-long Tolkien fan here: I think the writers that were hired for this show did not have any prior knowledge of LOTR, and so chaos ensues. They are learning the lore on-the-fly.
Morgoth's crown was taken from him by the Valar when they defeated him, and it was beaten into a collar when he was chained in the Void. Its still around his neck, if it wasn't, it would be the literal apocalypse. I hate that this writing team is incapable of doing a google search.
"Amazon doesn't understand fantasy". Yeah I think that's a good way of summarizing it. Or they don't understand High Fantasy. Tolkien and even Wheel Of Time are VERY different beasts from Game of Thrones, where the "meat of the matter" is politics and character-driven drama. And the whole of RoP is driven by "dream logic", some of the most egregious of which you point out. At times you wonder if they're even trying to make any sense.
Having black ppl on a TV show is def not “politics-driven.” It’s a result of the pilgrims bringing black ppl to this land. U ppl expect TV shows to be a worship fest focused on donOLD w/ MAGAt flags everywhere.
23 дні тому+1
I think they are trying not to make sense. Randomly generated content would be way more realistic.
One thing I hated about 2nd season was how small they made Eregion seem, it felt like the smallest place ever and everything happened around the tower.
This show is a/the perfect example of the validity of the saying _"the characters in a story can only be as smart as the person(s) writing the story"._ Which proves why this channel is good, while RoP is anything but.
@@NicoleStevensHays11x nobody ever said anythng about 'moral arbiters'.... just morally consistent. That's kind of the thing you expect from every other functional adult, to have some sort of consistent morality This show is all over the place in the weirdest of ways. Sometimes it's trying to make some point (the orcs aren't bad, it's just a matter of perspective) but other times will do literally anything for shock value (you 'member Glug, right? well Sauron just killed him to look evil, ain't Sauron cool?)
@@NicoleStevensHays11x the best myths and legends tell a moral story, or have a lesson to teach. we are talking about thousands of years of heroic stories here. talk about profoundly ignorant statements about literature. yours takes the prize.
Apparently Amazon doesnt kno good actors either. Its like they offered jobs to people that were rejected by soap operas. And why did they have to build rivendell instead of just returning to their own kingdom where they came from?
23:15 I'm so glad you brought up the fact that he has no reason to manipulate Celebrimbor where he can make them himself or just go to Kazad Dum and Numenor if he insists on making them with people. It's possibly the biggest logical hole in this season's plot that hardly anyone has brought up. You've given some of the best breakdown's of this show's nonsense, which is saying a lot, because there are a lot! You give just the right balance of covering all the major points while keeping it concise, and not giving it more charity than it deserves while also not getting so carried away mocking everything that you overlook where it actually holds up.
Sauron creates ring magic in this universe, using Celebrimbor as his mortal instrument to create them in Tolkien's work; but that's because Sauron trying to corrupt the Elves and because Celebrimbor has literal god given talent for crafting magical items outright. Dwarves and Humans are Sauron's side projects as far as corruption - so while Sauron can get the Mithral over to mount Doom and start forging rings (and to be honest, I think that does actually happen if I remember right, where there are more rings made than the main ones Sauron uses to attempt the subjugation of Middle Earth) but these main rings were created using the god-given talent Celebrimbor had for Sauron's purposes intentionally. Its not just Sauron needs more rings, he ultimately wants Middle Earth, starting with the Elves who defeated him.
@nm2358 But he's already made the elven rings, so he's already accomplished his goal with them, and if you mean he was corrupting the elves by working with them, then why was he preparing to destroy the ones he was working with before he even showed up? And what God-given gifts? Sauron's literally the one who tells Celebrimbor how to make alloys, this guy's totally incompetent and Sauron could totally do this himself.
@@justthinkingoutloud2538he hasn’t because he wasn’t able to taint the Elven rings. Did you read the book or learn any lore before watching rings of power?
@yulien568 Have you? You do know that in the lore, the elven rings were made by Celebrimbor without Sauron's influence after he learned how to make them from Sauron's help making the 16, hence the 3 being uncorrupted, but still tied to the One Ring, right? They screwed up the whole timeline by switching everything up for no good reason, and now nothing makes sense. Get out of your Dunning-Kreuger Effect before assuming we must be the idiots for not liking this this crap.
@justthinkingoutloud2538 the problem is, when the elven rings are made doesn't matter to the story, so getting mad at a dramatic story telling change is pointless.
I REALLY needed them to show where different places are on the map. Where’s Eregion? How far away is it from Lindon? Where’s Isildur? Is he closer to Lindon or Eregion? How far away is Mordor from both Lindon and Eregion? Why does it look like Sauron just walked from Eregion to Mordor and then back to Eregion in the same time that it took Galadriel and Elrond to ride from Eregion to Lindon? Do the orcs start in Mordor and then walk to Eregion? Please show me the map 😭😭
Can’t be that bad. After all, you’re still here after 3 years and 2 entire seasons. Heck, you’re here talking about the show in the off-season. It’s obviously quite important to you!
The problem remains Amazon's insistence ono cramming 4000 years of history into a year. The subtlety to seduce Ar Pharazon should have taken seasons. For Celebrimbor, likewise.
Agreed. My opinion is they always should have made this series an anthology where each season covers a different time period and story in the second age.
Small quibble though, in Middle-Earth oaths tend to be magically binding. Not in the sense that you can't break them, in the sense that breaking them makes the reality punish you for it. See the dead men of Dunharrow, Gollum's oath to Frodo (and Frodo's subsequent cursing of Gollum).
Ar-Pharazon had some ENORMOUS shoes to fill. 1 - The army he leads to middle earth is so large, Sauron and all his forces don't even bother trying to fight them. 2 - The army he leads to Valinor is so powerful and so large, Tolkien says that even the Valar are in "real peril" from these human forces. 3 - A king that could inspire and lead such armies would have to be powerful in his own right, as well as highly charismatic.
I kind of always thought the power of the rings was fairly subtle, especially to those not wearing them. The elves maybe had a bit more perception toward it because they're more innately in tune with magic. Having it act like an active stat item from a video game granting abilities seems.. misguided at best.
Right? Like, I _understand_ why stuff was changed or cut from LOTRs. I get that they couldnt have the hobbits come back to a war torn Shire and _not_ add another hour to it. Instead, them coming back to everything being exactly the same, except they're not, ties into Sams "how can the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened" speech ("coming home, finding things all right, but not quite the same" in the book) And its a good depiction of soldiers with PTSD coming back home from the war, something Tolkien himself would have identified with. So while yeah, they changed what happened there and yeeted Saruman off a tower, but they put in _so_ much effort to make sure the changes _felt_ like Tolkien.
@@moon-moth1 Apparently, Amazon was trying to be cheap and only buying the necessary rights, they meant to get the Silmarillion, but got something else instead. As a result, they weren't allowed to use the plot of the Silmarillion and just decided to wing it rather than correcting the mistake.
Thank you for putting into words the reason I can't be bothered to watch the second season, even though I downloaded it, weeks ago. 'Lord of the Rings' was the first epic fantasy book I ever read, but that was some forty years ago, so I don't remember all that much of it. My impression that 'Rings of Power' is not true to the original story is very vague, and I am not prepared to put in the effort it would take to better define it. Glad you did the work for me, so I can invest my energy into more worthwhile endeavours.
My theory for why Sauron will forge the One Ring is because of fear. As he was dying, Celebrimbor makes some kind of prophecy that the Rings will be the reason for Sauron's downfall. I believe that Sauron will get scared and create the One Ring to "rule them all", as in "control them so that they can't get used against me". Does this make it good? No, this show is already too deep into the pit to be able to crawl out of it, but I believe that that's what they're going for.
I took it more as Celebrimbor speaking absolute truth to Sauron and effectively cursing Sauron here; its right up there with Bilbo having Gollum swear on the one ring to not harm him or Sam, or be consumed by fire (or something to that effect) - resulting in Gollum breaking his oath and falling into lava, lol. Part of the reality these characters exist in is the potency of the spoken word, like Gandalf by saying "You Shall Not Pass" was him altering reality to stop the Balrog there and then, while Balrog attempted to over power that statement of reality. Magic is fucking weird in Tolkien's world.
@@nm2358 All true, and in normal circumstances I would agree with you. But this show is not Tolkien. It's made by two mediocre showrunners who operate according to the rule of cool.
@@Merione there's more to this series than show runners; they locked teams of writers in a room to write this stuff, with locked doors and sealed scripts, and those writers are obvious Tolkien fans. Just because the Eagles don't talk, or Sauron isn't using Werewolves, or Morgoth's vampires aren't running around, doesn't mean there isn't Tolkien in Tolkien inspired work. Otherwise, why is everyone singing all the time, lol?
Nothing Isildur can do makes me angrier than him eating half an apple and throwing the rest of it away. You are the lowest ranking guy on the ship, you are only here because of nepotism and you take an apple you don't deserve and throw most of it away! This is worse than Denethor eating that tomato because at least Denethor ate the whole thing.
This was a great analysis- I almost didn't tune in due to the thumbnail, I usually assume images altered to make faces look stupid means the content will be, too. Just saying - but, good stuff.
The only think you need when building on an established lore: 1. Does the changes break or radically change the lore? 2. If yes, is the change a better story? They should tattoo that on the fore head of every person associated with Dune, Got, LotR, Star Trek or Star Wars (and other beloved franchises...)
I just have to ask: when Celebrimbor escapes after making sure he can never again give 2 thumbs up, he nearly gets hit by stones from an Orc ballista, and falls to the ground. There some/the guards find him, and one of them says: "Look! he's cut of his own thumb, the maniac!", or something like it. Why would he or they or anyone think he did it to himself? Only Sauron knew he was chained to the bench, and there's no reason to think Celebrimbor were *_that_* far gone and would do something like that to himself because "he's now crazy, don'cha know?".
Wheel of Time is truly bad. Take a known and successful book series and contort it in such a way to break its one premise for the sake of catering to only 1% of the earth's population. No. When you adapt a book to film change ONLY the format. Do NOT change the story in any way. Do not make it your own. It wasn't your story that people read and liked, it was the original author's story that got such acclaim. So keep the original. LotR and GoT in the first seasons were so good because they kept to the original. The Hobbit and later GoT seasons failed badly because the original was not followed. WoT starts out in the first 43 seconds by undermining its basic premise: that the Power is in SEPARATE halves based on the gender of the user. Instead of offend any trans folk they merged the two halves together. This will have severely DRASTIC consequences later in the story and will not be the story from the books at all. Don't get me wrong. I'm not against a trans story (FTR I really don't care) but WoT is not it. If Amazon wants to make a show about trans people, go for it. WoT is not that so don't try to make it into that. Stick with the original story.
The problem with the show is that all of these events are happening at the same time when they are supposed to happen in consecutive order. Sauron is at the center of each event, but he can't be in two places at once, so someone else has to lead the Orc army to Oregion, the Dwarf King has to drive himself insane, and Al-Pharazon has to decide he hates the Valar on his own. The format Amazon chose for the show is what's destroying it. In Season 2, it's very clear that the showrunners got an order from the Powers That Be at Amazon to re-align the show with Tolkien's lore. They probably got the rights to the Silmarillion too. Unfortunately, they screwed up the lore, and specifically the sequence of events, so much in Season 1 that there is no logical and natural way to get back to the lore. All they can do is make THEIR fan fiction more and more convoluted and confusing.
8:40 Sadly that theory doesn't work. Other works like Shadow of Mordor/War and Lord of the Rings Online also didn't have the rights to the name "Annatar", yet they were still able to have Sauron go to Eregion in his Annatar form and convince Celebrimbor to make the Rings. The only issue was the name so Lotro simply renamed him to "Antheron" and SoM/W ignored the issue simply not stating what he called himself.
Dude i discovered your channel about a week ago and i was verry happy to see another video,your reviews are solid and your style is pleasant.About RoP,it is just another boring stupid unimaginative show plain and simple,what is different about this,is all the sweet sweet backlash,so many hours of content
Who TF watches stupid, unimaginative and boring TV shows? And “HOURS” of so-called “content” about them? Dude, how embarrassing. Some ppl have WAY too much time on their hands. Sheiiitt, I worked since age 14, double-majored in Bio & Econ in college, went to medical school & got into 4, almost always had a BF, almost died 4x (lot of time in ICU’s, hospital, and even a nursing home for after care), have been married for a decade, and have 2 young daughters. Meanwhile, there’s brain-dead ppl zoning out on “content” (lmao, as if it could be called that) about shows they claim to hate. Not even ones they LIKE. Ppl w/ that kind of time HAVE no life to speak of. Parents must be so disappointed
And um btw, commas are followed by a space. Independent clauses are joined by a semicolon (;), NOT a comma, otherwise you have a “comma splice” error. Periods are followed by 1 (or 2) spaces. I’ll leave it at that for now. Too many hours on YT when u should be in school.
is it bad i actually excited for a season 3/4/5, i already accepted this is not LOTR, this is some evil fanfiction. But the reviews and analysis are just so hilarious to watch
10:34 That's a cool power. But alas, elves are not immune to fall damage. Rest In Peace, Glorfindel ... for a time. And then come back and become a subspace ghost hunter, because that IS within their realm of possibility. lol
Although, if they discarded the current 3 rings and had Celebrimbor forge new ones, it would still be with the techniques they learned from (such as they are) Saurbrand and would thus still contain that innate corruption. Like you said, in the books, Celebrimbor forged the rings last *without* Sauron's participation but were still influenced by the One Ring. Also: mithril and Valinor gold and silver. 🤷♂️
Does the book actually _say_ the elves would have been dominated if they used the three? I know it says they were angry and toon away their rings to not be dominated, but that could also refer to the other rings whose forging Sauron did participate in
@exantiuse497 I'm not quite sure if I get your question, but in the Silmarillion, it does say, "As soon as Sauron set the One Ring upon his finger, they were aware of him; and they knew him, and perceived that he would be the master of them, and of all that they wrought. Then in anger and fear they took of their rings x x x Now these were the Three that had last been made x x x Nanya, Nenya, and Vilya, they were named x x x"
They sent a messenger to Eregion, he got waylaid in the dark forest. Why was the messenger going through there and not a safer route? Don't know. Why didn't they send multiple messengers by different routes? Don't know. Also, I think the story is that the elven rings are so corrupt that even looking at them warps the mind into wanting to protect them.
In an interview with a LotR UA-camr, the screenwriters said they hadn’t decided to make Not-Gandalf to be Gandalf until _after_ finishing season 1. Think about that for a moment. Amazon has a 5 season contract for this show, and the writers are apparently just winging it. It’s just like when Disney bought Star Wars. No long term plans.🙈
y'know one of the things that always angered me about the end of season one was the missed opportunity. There's no reason for Galadriel to suggest they make the rings after what she's learned, but she goes ahead with it anyway without saying anything. What I think would've been a seemingly smarter thing to 'sort of' stay within Tolkien Canon was to have had Sauron vanish Galadriel - maybe have her trapped in Mordor who knows - and have the Galadriel that's there actually 'be' Sauron as that then still keeps things linked to him helping forge the Rings. It would've then made sense when things start going badly as he's the manipulator and turning people against each other while then handing out the rings to others as gifts or something while being Anatar and leaning into it by never having the fake Galadriel and Anatar in the same place at the same time, Superman that thing to hell and back.. Could've even led to the end of s2 where we're shown the real Galadriel returned as the wiser one who isn't insane and violent opposing Sauron, diving him out after the fall - even if Eregeon isn't right at this time - which then could've led to him being captured by - who was in the Mordor area all this time, Isildur?! - and have him take Sauron captive so that it then can lead to season 3's fall of Numenor. But no. We got the same trite rubbish we had last season.
My god...she could have found Celeborn imprisoned as well and gotten _somewhat_ closer to cannon. They could have pulled from Beren and Luthien and have her break him out. And it turns out she's completely changed from the person he remembers, they can say his apparent death was the final straw that pushed her over the edge, and in saving him she remembers what its like to fight for love instead of vengeance and she can get on track to being actual Galadriel. We can pretend this was just a weird, midlife crisis nobody ever talked about.
@@bloodyneptune See I didn't even think of Celeborn but you're right, doing that could fix so much in returning Galadriel into the image she is in the books. But no...let's stick with the cheesy daytime romance crap we got.
Thank you for the video. I've been frustrated with this Amazon series and I'm glad that I am not alone in my confusion. I suspect it was not created with Tolkien fans in mind and is instead for a cash-grab. I frankly find the series insulting towards the "source" Tolkien material.
Dude I just noticed, are you filming from Jon Trons old apartment? It looks so similar to the starwars konect review. Like same furniture and almost the same distance for this aperture.
2:13 I will say that Tolkien had two different versions of what the blue wizards did, in the People's of Middle Earth they kept Sauron's influence over the East reduced but in Unfinished Tales only Gandalf remained faithful to the mission and in Letter 211 Tolkien said they may have started evil magic cults...so maybe that's what this dark wizard is supposed to be...not the best explanation but maybe.
Why are they trying to make Lord of the Rings into Game of Thrones? Of all the fantasy stories out there, LOTR is just not the one to try and debate moral relativism
Just dropped in real quick to ask about your title. So, you’re telling the world that you watch “idiot fantasies?” For 3 yrs … 2 entire seasons .. and counting? Man. That’s ROUGH! Can’t wait for season 3! And, clearly, neither can you 🤣
Even if Tolkien was still questioning how orcs were born but it can't be through child and pregnancy because how do you explain that the wives and children supposed to stay behind at the end of LotR are found no where. Even if he would have opted for that view the facts of his books shows otherwise (and for people arguing about the son of Azog, there are many ways to be considered the child of someone not just because he impregnated your mother)
12:36 I think this is actually wrong. It's about differentiating the work and the creator. He doesn't say the rings are inherently evil, rather the opposite. This is similar to the actual position of the elves about them (Galadriel does use hers in LotR to maintain her realm*). And it's even pretty smart dialogue, I would say. It's a wider topic. *Gandalf uses his to seem like a nicer guy.. Jk (It might even be low-key their way of dealing with Tolkien's possible modern ideological shortcomings or questionable aspects from their point of view... But that might be a far fetch.
Yes, sure, it's basically a standard TV show. That's kind of what they set out to do, and that's pathetic. And it's probably all because they listened to JarJar's nepotism, who was instrumental in sinking Star Wars... (And his own hit show Lost.)
Only for everyone who wants to go never to the ocean swimming again, the Penisworm is actually a real animal that look exactly like in this video, only he is much, much smaller. When he bites you, its kind of impossible to rip him of again, without hurting yourself, bc, like in the video, his bite works like a stapler. Its fking discusting.
Is it just me, or is Season 2 just particularly... gross? No, not because of the betrayal of the original lore while still having the pendulous adamantium balls to call itself _Lord of the RIngs._ No, this is on a different level. I mean just... gooey... squicky... gory... messy... dirty... and just... literally nauseating. Amoeba Sauron. The repeated weaponization of that spiky crown that makes me wonder if it's spreading orc hepatitis. The blood rings. Celebrimbor lopping off his own thumb like he's trying to escape a _Saw_ trap. Celebrimbor's doe-eyed too-precious-for-this-Middle-Earth forge worker getting her skull caved in. Those elven guards whom Sauron hypnotized into gutting each other _without reacting._ Even Elrond making out with his mother-in-law. Just all kinds of things that seem tailor-made to put you off your lunch. That's... that's not just me, is it? It's not anything I ate? Yeah, I know Sauron was involved in a lot of those, and Sauron is very, very, very evil, but... back in the day, it's as if Sauron's evil was a lot more efficient. He acted with a ruthless purpose. In fact, from everything I've heard, indulgent dawdling was one of Sauron's major accusations _against_ the peoples of Middle Earth and why he sought to bring them to heel in the first place. All these irrationalities like freedom, courage, love... yeeeuch! What was Illuvitar thinking? That kind of sentiment. But RoP S2 in particular features a more indulgent Sauron, like he's sadistically playing with his food. If that was, in fact, the point, that's a _horrible_ misread. Sauron isn't some 40k chaos god (what with 40k being like LotR's spiritual nephew), but it seems as if that's what he's being reduced to.
I’m sorry, but even the tear that Annatar sheds, when he kills Celebrimbor, means nothing. You don’t care for someone that you’ve spent the entire relationship manipulating into doing something against their will. You only do that to someone you despise. There is no real comradeship between these two, it’s just manufactured for dramatic effect.
I mean you can poke holes in most fantasy or just movies/shows in general if you really go looking but this is just ridiculous. Also never watched the show this is all I need. It's funny hearing that they didn't have the rights to the silmarillion. The fact that they're re-writing the story and somehow think they can do better than the original is hilarious. Also I like how when there was something you actually enjoyed a bit you'll mention it, It's no all just shitting on the show
arondir still alive after all that stabs is just, why, for what. i want to ask the seriosity of this show, but then i remember every elf all this time somehow have an unimaginable amount of plot armor unless the writer says so.
If this show was an old school Role playing game, the gamemaster would be publicly flogged, hung drawn and quatered, for a shocking clusterfuck, scenario, campaign. The dialogue is so dull and broken. The simple, irish, travelling harfwits/harfoot psychopaths, are like a twisted version of an old Beneton advert. Sad excuse for entertainment and just not Tolkien........
I'm your sub-8k subbie now^^ I view Rings of Power as part and parcel of American cinema - first they started putting bipocs in, now they're losing all touch with reality; all a slippery slope. And it makes sense because fundamentalist American Christianity detests reaaon and beauty, literally Melkor. - Adûnâi
I watched your whole analysis and enjoyed it very much, i like it when you beside the very understandable criticism point out moments where the performance of the actors ist functioning or what would have been necessary to make a scene working. Its bizarre to me when you see those truly honest and sencere scenes of the lord of the rings, the grace of galadriel and the honest friendship of sam and frodo; why ecactly it feels so differently. I mean its hard to make a movie with characters who are a few thousand years old, how could they make foolish mistakes or naive impulsive descisions, i get that, but its a mystery to me, why so much money cant buy true tolkin nerds who forbid these amateurish mistakes like Galdriel swimming the distance of an ocean or the greatest of all elven smiths after feanor Celembrimbor as an old mumbling fool, why would you do this to your epic storyline?
Cuz Galadriel popped out of the womb with “the grace of Galadriel.” Lmao. How can you not be able to spell “exactly,” “sincere,” “Tolkien,” etc, especially in the age of spell check?!? But…ofc u can spell “Galadriel.” Or know when to use “it’s” vs “its?” And writing a paragraph-long sentence. Break up ur thoughts with periods, (proper) commas, and semicolons. It’ll make it possible to understand you. “Actors ist functioning” … nvm. It’s hopeless. Why even try to understand this lol.
Britons were largely “lost history” for a good stretch after Romans left the region which is why a lot of it faded into myth which was perpetuated when the Angles and Saxons arrived and ultimately took over southern Britain. A lot of northern German and Celtic myth got mixed, creating classic Arthurian legend of today. I’m American though so maybe that’s my novice take. Feel free to correct me.
@ Thank you for answering this, first of all. Secondly, great video! Now to the point: I would consider Arthurian legend as unequivocally Celtic and within Celtic civilisational framework. Yes there is obvious Angli Saxon influence, however the root legend itself is 100% “Celtic” just as Beowulf or Nibelungenlied are Germanic.
You know, this whole "orcs have loving families and dont want war" thing _really_ makes Legolas and Gimli seem like sociopaths.
Haha I’m dying
hahaha good point!
Gimli to Legolas: "Hmph... Killing a pregnant orc still counts as one."
nono, legolas and gimli are not part of this abominable universe, it does make galadriel kind of a sociopath for killing all the orcs, but then again, thats nothing new
Yeah. Playing the open-world Zelda games, you can see bokoblins and moblins in their camps just hanging out. I even saw a moblin sitting on a ledge admiring the sun. Still doesn't stop me from killing them.
The only thing I miss is Tom Broombadil bringing most iconic Gandalf's line from LOTR. That one line delivery alone was so incerdibly terrible and wrong I paused the show and went out for a walk. "Many living deserve to die and many dying deserve to live. Who are you to decide their faith?" In LOTR Gandalf said that when Frodo made deathwish for Gollum. It. Makes. Sense. In this show however first Gandalf complained to Tom "Where are u dragging me? My friends need me. They will die without me" and Tom Baobabdil makes this stupid random reference. And it sounds like "If ther're gonna die they're gonna be die. Why do you care? You have your own shit to do".
Aside from that... Great job!
I agree 100% with this. I actually original did have this scripted but cut it because I didn’t want to spend too much time on the hobbit/wizard arc and wanted to focus in more on the other storylines. Thanks for watching!
you forgot the dumbest part. when galadriel is sneaking out and arondir saves her. Arondir offers to sacrifice himself to kill Adar. This would effectively end the siege as the orcs wouldn’t have a leader. Allowing Galadriel and Elrond to get to the city safer to stop Sauron. This action would complete all of galadriels immediate goals and she fucking tells Arondir not to do it because “we don’t need another dead elf today.”
Holy shit Galadriel every second the siege goes on elves are dying. Plus this entire siege is already her fault and now she’s actively participating in keeping it going. It’s so damn stupid in so many ways.
It's like they saw Aragorn have pity on Grima, so they just did the same with their MC.
Most sensible interpretation: she didn't think he could do it and was talking about Arondir as the "dead elf".
I like to think it's because Galadriel feared that orcs without Addar would go and side with Sauron making bad situation worse. Orcs follow the strongest after all. But this season is devoided of logic and Galadriel is so far the main villain of the story not The Big S.
Arondir does go to fight Adar and gets killed almost immediately. I don't know why anyone thinks Galadriel and Arondir can take on Adar's entire army by themselves, lol.
@@nm2358 they don’t have to take on the entire army. Galadriel sneaks away and arondir kills adar, sacrificing himself in the process. Would’ve been a great way to wrap up his story but instead he just waits and gets stabbed in the stomach (only to be totally fine lol)
@CodyKenny777 Arondir literally died when he tried fight Adar one on one, lol. The only reason Arondir pops back up is a deleted scene when Ring-Deux-Machina is used to restore him to life like shown with Galadriel.
And they're in the middle orc encampment; yeah, that's cunning strategy, but outright insane stupidity.
In in Tolkien's run of the conflict here, it takes the combined forced the Dwarfs, Elves and Numenor to defeat the orcs here. I have no idea why you think Adar is sitting duck here that isn't defended or can't defend himself - despite being one of oldest beings on this planet - a fullblown survivor of the previous war as one of Morgoth's first orcs.
Elrond kissing his future mom in law is honestly revolting idc for what reason
It was the most forced and random romance possible. 🤦
it's frankly more revolting because it's so painfully obvious that it's only there to bait either rage from actual fans, or shipping fantasies from internet weirdos. Plot wise i know it was supposedly a distraction..... one the most obvious hand off ever seen on film... but the way it was shot was specifically so it could be clipped entirely out of context
The fact that this is how low the show will sink just to get attention is kind of nauseating.
I _genuinely_ cant look at it. Its gross for reasons I can't even fully explain. It cant even just be because shes his future mother in law, because I watch House Of the Dragon just fine and they're all straight up blood relatives.
Its just....its _Elrond_ and _Galadriel,_ you know?
Not only are these show runners talentless hacks, but they interjected their own unresolved kinks into the show.
@
More forced than Bruce Banner and Black Widow in Marvel?
For me it's not even that they break the lore in every episode, it's that they do it badly, and the writing is dumb. Also, the Numenorians all look like potatoes. Ar-Pharazon in particular reminds me more of Jack Black rather than what is supposed to be an absolute Chad; peak human society.
Pharazon. Please tell me you didn't put the traitor in a position of power.
Time to stop watching then I guess.
With all the callbacks to Jackson's movies, Rings of Power reminds us that it's never a good idea for a showmaker to remind their audience of a better product.
much less an infinitely better product
and that's an understatement
Rings of power is infinitely better than peter jackson. Are you deliberately trying to provoke rings of p fans?
So say peter jackson staff members
@@fred20097 in no way Rings of Powers is close to the masterpiece quality of Peter Jackson's movies...ye Peter Jackson added some things that weren't in the books but still the product came out good while Rings of Power are straight up taking names from Tolkien's books and slapping them on random characters to supposedly be the said character while being either never in the books, in the wrong time line or total opposites of the originals
If the dark wizard IS Saruman then nothing makes sense cuz he’s so clearly bad in this show. How would he deceive Gandalf (like he does in lotr) if Gandalf already knows he’s evil 😭. I kind of feel like the slow descent of Saruman was supposed to be symbolic of how good people could become corrupted by power. But my guy seems evil from the get go (at least according to the show).
It's not terrible that the Eagles of Manwë do not speak. Jackson did not give them dialogue (nor the raven in The Hobbit) and it is probably the correct decision for visual drama. There may be no way to portray speech without it looking at least a little silly and distracting.
But the Númenoreans are inexplicable. Do they honor the Valar, and the Eagles? (never mind the sea monster) What, then, is the basis of the divide between the Faithful and the King's Men? Seemingly, it is just a power struggle, merely politics. There is only one moment in which envy of the immortality of the Elves is expressed, but it is made to seem a personal quirk of Pharazon, not an important motivation of the people's actions.
I lowkey kinda wish he'd made them talk, only because of Gwahirs line after saving Gandalf "I came to bear messages, not burdens". Like buddy, you were flying that way _anyways_ and your friend was imprisoned by an evil wizard, why are you being such a bitch about this? I love it. He definitely _acts_ like a creature that only answers to the king of the Valar
Bro they could make them communicate with Telepathie and all the "silly and distracting" thing vanishes
i'd also point out that Pharazon is king because....uhh, Eagle... which means his legitimacy is entirely depends on the religious beliefs of the Numenoreans the show conveniently never actually explains
But then the next season these same religious Numenoreans, the only ones who'd defend his right to rule, are now being persecuted for reasons the shows also never bothers to explain. You're just supposed to assume it's because that's what cartoon villains do.
The Numenoreans aren't merely confusing, they are, to a man, complete idiots.
Life-long Tolkien fan here: I think the writers that were hired for this show did not have any prior knowledge of LOTR, and so chaos ensues. They are learning the lore on-the-fly.
So they just turn everything into it's polar opposite 10 out of 10 times is just a concidence then?
They know. THey do this on purpose.
U think they learn the lore? XD my sweet summerchild
@@DeanStorm28 Hey, he didn't say they were learning it well. Or using it, for that matter.
Woke writers are not only expected to ignore the lore, they are expected to actively despise it.
I heard they allegedly got the job because they learned some lines of sindarin for the interview.
Even though Nori is l i t e r a l l y wearing food In HeR hAiR 😂😂😂
I roll my eyes every time I see the food in the hair characters. it looks so dumb. lol
Morgoth's crown was taken from him by the Valar when they defeated him, and it was beaten into a collar when he was chained in the Void. Its still around his neck, if it wasn't, it would be the literal apocalypse. I hate that this writing team is incapable of doing a google search.
Remember, not allowed to use real lore! (And boy does it show.)
"Amazon doesn't understand fantasy". Yeah I think that's a good way of summarizing it. Or they don't understand High Fantasy. Tolkien and even Wheel Of Time are VERY different beasts from Game of Thrones, where the "meat of the matter" is politics and character-driven drama.
And the whole of RoP is driven by "dream logic", some of the most egregious of which you point out. At times you wonder if they're even trying to make any sense.
Having black ppl on a TV show is def not “politics-driven.” It’s a result of the pilgrims bringing black ppl to this land. U ppl expect TV shows to be a worship fest focused on donOLD w/ MAGAt flags everywhere.
I think they are trying not to make sense. Randomly generated content would be way more realistic.
One thing I hated about 2nd season was how small they made Eregion seem, it felt like the smallest place ever and everything happened around the tower.
plus it was all an illusion created by sauron
Yeah but Eregion still felt bigger than Lindon, which was literally one tree with the king standing under that tree seemingly all day long.
@@missAlice1990 I'd complain about Lindon as well if they were there as much as they were in Eregion.
This show is a/the perfect example of the validity of the saying _"the characters in a story can only be as smart as the person(s) writing the story"._
Which proves why this channel is good, while RoP is anything but.
This entire series is such an unbelievable self report. It blows my mind that there are people who are so confused about basic morality.
Lmao you can’t even make this up. Ppl expecting TV shows & fantasy writings to be moral arbiters.
@@NicoleStevensHays11x nobody ever said anythng about 'moral arbiters'.... just morally consistent. That's kind of the thing you expect from every other functional adult, to have some sort of consistent morality
This show is all over the place in the weirdest of ways. Sometimes it's trying to make some point (the orcs aren't bad, it's just a matter of perspective) but other times will do literally anything for shock value (you 'member Glug, right? well Sauron just killed him to look evil, ain't Sauron cool?)
@@NicoleStevensHays11x the best myths and legends tell a moral story, or have a lesson to teach. we are talking about thousands of years of heroic stories here. talk about profoundly ignorant statements about literature. yours takes the prize.
Apparently Amazon doesnt kno good actors either. Its like they offered jobs to people that were rejected by soap operas. And why did they have to build rivendell instead of just returning to their own kingdom where they came from?
I think celebrimbor is the only decent one, or at least he had the best scenes
Because building Rivendell is an outcome of the defeat at Eregion
@@TurinStark5 that's not a reason
It is as per the lore, so it is a reason
@@moon-moth1 great??? lol
23:15 I'm so glad you brought up the fact that he has no reason to manipulate Celebrimbor where he can make them himself or just go to Kazad Dum and Numenor if he insists on making them with people. It's possibly the biggest logical hole in this season's plot that hardly anyone has brought up.
You've given some of the best breakdown's of this show's nonsense, which is saying a lot, because there are a lot! You give just the right balance of covering all the major points while keeping it concise, and not giving it more charity than it deserves while also not getting so carried away mocking everything that you overlook where it actually holds up.
Sauron creates ring magic in this universe, using Celebrimbor as his mortal instrument to create them in Tolkien's work; but that's because Sauron trying to corrupt the Elves and because Celebrimbor has literal god given talent for crafting magical items outright.
Dwarves and Humans are Sauron's side projects as far as corruption - so while Sauron can get the Mithral over to mount Doom and start forging rings (and to be honest, I think that does actually happen if I remember right, where there are more rings made than the main ones Sauron uses to attempt the subjugation of Middle Earth) but these main rings were created using the god-given talent Celebrimbor had for Sauron's purposes intentionally.
Its not just Sauron needs more rings, he ultimately wants Middle Earth, starting with the Elves who defeated him.
@nm2358 But he's already made the elven rings, so he's already accomplished his goal with them, and if you mean he was corrupting the elves by working with them, then why was he preparing to destroy the ones he was working with before he even showed up? And what God-given gifts? Sauron's literally the one who tells Celebrimbor how to make alloys, this guy's totally incompetent and Sauron could totally do this himself.
@@justthinkingoutloud2538he hasn’t because he wasn’t able to taint the Elven rings. Did you read the book or learn any lore before watching rings of power?
@yulien568 Have you? You do know that in the lore, the elven rings were made by Celebrimbor without Sauron's influence after he learned how to make them from Sauron's help making the 16, hence the 3 being uncorrupted, but still tied to the One Ring, right? They screwed up the whole timeline by switching everything up for no good reason, and now nothing makes sense. Get out of your Dunning-Kreuger Effect before assuming we must be the idiots for not liking this this crap.
@justthinkingoutloud2538 the problem is, when the elven rings are made doesn't matter to the story, so getting mad at a dramatic story telling change is pointless.
I REALLY needed them to show where different places are on the map. Where’s Eregion? How far away is it from Lindon? Where’s Isildur? Is he closer to Lindon or Eregion? How far away is Mordor from both Lindon and Eregion? Why does it look like Sauron just walked from Eregion to Mordor and then back to Eregion in the same time that it took Galadriel and Elrond to ride from Eregion to Lindon? Do the orcs start in Mordor and then walk to Eregion? Please show me the map 😭😭
They should have let an AI write the Rings of Power, it would have definitely been an improvement over what we got.
How do you know they didn't?
They did
Can’t be that bad. After all, you’re still here after 3 years and 2 entire seasons. Heck, you’re here talking about the show in the off-season. It’s obviously quite important to you!
@@exantiuse497 we know they don't because this show is only artificial, there is no intelligence to be found.
@@NicoleStevensHays11x lol by that logic the holocaust wasn't "that bad" because people still talk about it. You must be a ROP fan.
The problem remains Amazon's insistence ono cramming 4000 years of history into a year. The subtlety to seduce Ar Pharazon should have taken seasons. For Celebrimbor, likewise.
Agreed. My opinion is they always should have made this series an anthology where each season covers a different time period and story in the second age.
THANK YOU!!! I was completely baffled at this show being anything but that!@@ajourneythroughcinema1271
Best breakdown of Rings of Power I've seen yet! Would love to see a similar style of video for the Wheel of Time.
Small quibble though, in Middle-Earth oaths tend to be magically binding. Not in the sense that you can't break them, in the sense that breaking them makes the reality punish you for it. See the dead men of Dunharrow, Gollum's oath to Frodo (and Frodo's subsequent cursing of Gollum).
Ar-Pharazon had some ENORMOUS shoes to fill.
1 - The army he leads to middle earth is so large, Sauron and all his forces don't even bother trying to fight them.
2 - The army he leads to Valinor is so powerful and so large, Tolkien says that even the Valar are in "real peril" from these human forces.
3 - A king that could inspire and lead such armies would have to be powerful in his own right, as well as highly charismatic.
I kind of always thought the power of the rings was fairly subtle, especially to those not wearing them. The elves maybe had a bit more perception toward it because they're more innately in tune with magic.
Having it act like an active stat item from a video game granting abilities seems.. misguided at best.
I had this argument over the Hobbit movies. It's not THAT they changed it, it's that every time they did, it made it worse than the original.
Right? Like, I _understand_ why stuff was changed or cut from LOTRs. I get that they couldnt have the hobbits come back to a war torn Shire and _not_ add another hour to it. Instead, them coming back to everything being exactly the same, except they're not, ties into Sams "how can the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened" speech ("coming home, finding things all right, but not quite the same" in the book)
And its a good depiction of soldiers with PTSD coming back home from the war, something Tolkien himself would have identified with. So while yeah, they changed what happened there and yeeted Saruman off a tower, but they put in _so_ much effort to make sure the changes _felt_ like Tolkien.
@@moon-moth1 Apparently, Amazon was trying to be cheap and only buying the necessary rights, they meant to get the Silmarillion, but got something else instead. As a result, they weren't allowed to use the plot of the Silmarillion and just decided to wing it rather than correcting the mistake.
I really enjoyed you video.
And I subscribed, and glad I did! Now, time to see your other content.
Keep it up.
Thank you for putting into words the reason I can't be bothered to watch the second season, even though I downloaded it, weeks ago. 'Lord of the Rings' was the first epic fantasy book I ever read, but that was some forty years ago, so I don't remember all that much of it. My impression that 'Rings of Power' is not true to the original story is very vague, and I am not prepared to put in the effort it would take to better define it. Glad you did the work for me, so I can invest my energy into more worthwhile endeavours.
Turns out the Eagles saw the events of “Rings of Power.” That’s why they wouldn’t help Frodo carry the Ring to Mordor. 🦅
Could you please stop making plotholes? FOR FIVE MINUTES!!!! also, great review!
My theory for why Sauron will forge the One Ring is because of fear. As he was dying, Celebrimbor makes some kind of prophecy that the Rings will be the reason for Sauron's downfall. I believe that Sauron will get scared and create the One Ring to "rule them all", as in "control them so that they can't get used against me". Does this make it good? No, this show is already too deep into the pit to be able to crawl out of it, but I believe that that's what they're going for.
As Master Oogway once said, "A man often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it."
I can see that happening: They seem to be gutting and inverting the lore of the Rings on every point.
I took it more as Celebrimbor speaking absolute truth to Sauron and effectively cursing Sauron here; its right up there with Bilbo having Gollum swear on the one ring to not harm him or Sam, or be consumed by fire (or something to that effect) - resulting in Gollum breaking his oath and falling into lava, lol.
Part of the reality these characters exist in is the potency of the spoken word, like Gandalf by saying "You Shall Not Pass" was him altering reality to stop the Balrog there and then, while Balrog attempted to over power that statement of reality.
Magic is fucking weird in Tolkien's world.
@@nm2358 All true, and in normal circumstances I would agree with you. But this show is not Tolkien. It's made by two mediocre showrunners who operate according to the rule of cool.
@@Merione there's more to this series than show runners; they locked teams of writers in a room to write this stuff, with locked doors and sealed scripts, and those writers are obvious Tolkien fans.
Just because the Eagles don't talk, or Sauron isn't using Werewolves, or Morgoth's vampires aren't running around, doesn't mean there isn't Tolkien in Tolkien inspired work. Otherwise, why is everyone singing all the time, lol?
Making Isildur an adulterer really gets my goat
Atleast it fitts his character xad
Isildur should have become Theo's mother.
Nothing Isildur can do makes me angrier than him eating half an apple and throwing the rest of it away. You are the lowest ranking guy on the ship, you are only here because of nepotism and you take an apple you don't deserve and throw most of it away! This is worse than Denethor eating that tomato because at least Denethor ate the whole thing.
This was a great analysis- I almost didn't tune in due to the thumbnail, I usually assume images altered to make faces look stupid means the content will be, too. Just saying - but, good stuff.
The crown (I mean the sea, the field, the mountain or something else) is always right. And the winter is coming.
What the Eagle should have said is "You are all weirdos! Ugh!"
Secret tunnel....man avatar was sooo good.
The only think you need when building on an established lore:
1. Does the changes break or radically change the lore?
2. If yes, is the change a better story?
They should tattoo that on the fore head of every person associated with Dune, Got, LotR, Star Trek or Star Wars (and other beloved franchises...)
And more than any of those, Wheel of Time writers need it.
I just have to ask: when Celebrimbor escapes after making sure he can never again give 2 thumbs up, he nearly gets hit by stones from an Orc ballista, and falls to the ground. There some/the guards find him, and one of them says: "Look! he's cut of his own thumb, the maniac!", or something like it.
Why would he or they or anyone think he did it to himself? Only Sauron knew he was chained to the bench, and there's no reason to think Celebrimbor were *_that_* far gone and would do something like that to himself because "he's now crazy, don'cha know?".
that cut from lotr "Isildurr" had me cracking for 5 mins ahahahah great work and amazing review.
Wheel of Time is truly bad. Take a known and successful book series and contort it in such a way to break its one premise for the sake of catering to only 1% of the earth's population.
No. When you adapt a book to film change ONLY the format. Do NOT change the story in any way. Do not make it your own. It wasn't your story that people read and liked, it was the original author's story that got such acclaim. So keep the original.
LotR and GoT in the first seasons were so good because they kept to the original. The Hobbit and later GoT seasons failed badly because the original was not followed.
WoT starts out in the first 43 seconds by undermining its basic premise: that the Power is in SEPARATE halves based on the gender of the user. Instead of offend any trans folk they merged the two halves together. This will have severely DRASTIC consequences later in the story and will not be the story from the books at all.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not against a trans story (FTR I really don't care) but WoT is not it. If Amazon wants to make a show about trans people, go for it. WoT is not that so don't try to make it into that. Stick with the original story.
The problem with the show is that all of these events are happening at the same time when they are supposed to happen in consecutive order. Sauron is at the center of each event, but he can't be in two places at once, so someone else has to lead the Orc army to Oregion, the Dwarf King has to drive himself insane, and Al-Pharazon has to decide he hates the Valar on his own. The format Amazon chose for the show is what's destroying it.
In Season 2, it's very clear that the showrunners got an order from the Powers That Be at Amazon to re-align the show with Tolkien's lore. They probably got the rights to the Silmarillion too. Unfortunately, they screwed up the lore, and specifically the sequence of events, so much in Season 1 that there is no logical and natural way to get back to the lore. All they can do is make THEIR fan fiction more and more convoluted and confusing.
8:40 Sadly that theory doesn't work. Other works like Shadow of Mordor/War and Lord of the Rings Online also didn't have the rights to the name "Annatar", yet they were still able to have Sauron go to Eregion in his Annatar form and convince Celebrimbor to make the Rings. The only issue was the name so Lotro simply renamed him to "Antheron" and SoM/W ignored the issue simply not stating what he called himself.
Dude i discovered your channel about a week ago and i was verry happy to see another video,your reviews are solid and your style is pleasant.About RoP,it is just another boring stupid unimaginative show plain and simple,what is different about this,is all the sweet sweet backlash,so many hours of content
Who TF watches stupid, unimaginative and boring TV shows? And “HOURS” of so-called “content” about them?
Dude, how embarrassing. Some ppl have WAY too much time on their hands. Sheiiitt, I worked since age 14, double-majored in Bio & Econ in college, went to medical school & got into 4, almost always had a BF, almost died 4x (lot of time in ICU’s, hospital, and even a nursing home for after care), have been married for a decade, and have 2 young daughters. Meanwhile, there’s brain-dead ppl zoning out on “content” (lmao, as if it could be called that) about shows they claim to hate. Not even ones they LIKE. Ppl w/ that kind of time HAVE no life to speak of. Parents must be so disappointed
And um btw, commas are followed by a space. Independent clauses are joined by a semicolon (;), NOT a comma, otherwise you have a “comma splice” error. Periods are followed by 1 (or 2) spaces. I’ll leave it at that for now. Too many hours on YT when u should be in school.
is it bad i actually excited for a season 3/4/5, i already accepted this is not LOTR, this is some evil fanfiction. But the reviews and analysis are just so hilarious to watch
32:56 😂😂😂😂
Great review and recap of season 2! 👏
Love the Planet of the Apes clip. RIP Charlton Heston.
Tarhiel from Morrowind also believed elves are immune to fall damage.
Tolkien hated fantasy
Just call him young Ned Stark..
10:34 That's a cool power. But alas, elves are not immune to fall damage. Rest In Peace, Glorfindel ... for a time. And then come back and become a subspace ghost hunter, because that IS within their realm of possibility. lol
Fantastic review. It’s a shame the writers for this show are terrible and that they didn’t spend the money to get the correct rights. Wtf
As i mentioned in the other video, this is one of the best analysos videos of RoP and one of the few written in good faith
Although, if they discarded the current 3 rings and had Celebrimbor forge new ones, it would still be with the techniques they learned from (such as they are) Saurbrand and would thus still contain that innate corruption. Like you said, in the books, Celebrimbor forged the rings last *without* Sauron's participation but were still influenced by the One Ring.
Also: mithril and Valinor gold and silver. 🤷♂️
@@BardicDesperation who says Celebrimbor has to use the same techniques? He could just... you know... not
@@gorcrow [Celebrimbor alloy face]
You're right! 😄
Does the book actually _say_ the elves would have been dominated if they used the three? I know it says they were angry and toon away their rings to not be dominated, but that could also refer to the other rings whose forging Sauron did participate in
@exantiuse497 I'm not quite sure if I get your question, but in the Silmarillion, it does say, "As soon as Sauron set the One Ring upon his finger, they were aware of him; and they knew him, and perceived that he would be the master of them, and of all that they wrought. Then in anger and fear they took of their rings x x x Now these were the Three that had last been made x x x Nanya, Nenya, and Vilya, they were named x x x"
Unsubscrrribed. You didn't rrroll the rrr for Errregion, Saurrron or Annatarrrr
They sent a messenger to Eregion, he got waylaid in the dark forest. Why was the messenger going through there and not a safer route? Don't know. Why didn't they send multiple messengers by different routes? Don't know. Also, I think the story is that the elven rings are so corrupt that even looking at them warps the mind into wanting to protect them.
Who would've thought that people who think it's important to have a fantasy world resemble modern day California, would write bad fantasy.
In an interview with a LotR UA-camr, the screenwriters said they hadn’t decided to make Not-Gandalf to be Gandalf until _after_ finishing season 1. Think about that for a moment.
Amazon has a 5 season contract for this show, and the writers are apparently just winging it. It’s just like when Disney bought Star Wars. No long term plans.🙈
y'know
one of the things that always angered me about the end of season one was the missed opportunity.
There's no reason for Galadriel to suggest they make the rings after what she's learned, but she goes ahead with it anyway without saying anything.
What I think would've been a seemingly smarter thing to 'sort of' stay within Tolkien Canon was to have had Sauron vanish Galadriel - maybe have her trapped in Mordor who knows - and have the Galadriel that's there actually 'be' Sauron as that then still keeps things linked to him helping forge the Rings.
It would've then made sense when things start going badly as he's the manipulator and turning people against each other while then handing out the rings to others as gifts or something while being Anatar and leaning into it by never having the fake Galadriel and Anatar in the same place at the same time, Superman that thing to hell and back..
Could've even led to the end of s2 where we're shown the real Galadriel returned as the wiser one who isn't insane and violent opposing Sauron, diving him out after the fall - even if Eregeon isn't right at this time - which then could've led to him being captured by - who was in the Mordor area all this time, Isildur?! - and have him take Sauron captive so that it then can lead to season 3's fall of Numenor.
But no. We got the same trite rubbish we had last season.
My god...she could have found Celeborn imprisoned as well and gotten _somewhat_ closer to cannon. They could have pulled from Beren and Luthien and have her break him out.
And it turns out she's completely changed from the person he remembers, they can say his apparent death was the final straw that pushed her over the edge, and in saving him she remembers what its like to fight for love instead of vengeance and she can get on track to being actual Galadriel. We can pretend this was just a weird, midlife crisis nobody ever talked about.
@@bloodyneptune See I didn't even think of Celeborn but you're right, doing that could fix so much in returning Galadriel into the image she is in the books.
But no...let's stick with the cheesy daytime romance crap we got.
The rings look terrible... They look like children's toys LOL
If Rings of Power had been directed by Jackson: "OMG THOSE RINGS LOOK SO GOOD OMGGGG."
Try harder.
Thank you for the video. I've been frustrated with this Amazon series and I'm glad that I am not alone in my confusion. I suspect it was not created with Tolkien fans in mind and is instead for a cash-grab. I frankly find the series insulting towards the "source" Tolkien material.
18:08 The most terrible thing about this guy is how one gets the suspicion they set him up to the Witch King...
Dude I just noticed, are you filming from Jon Trons old apartment? It looks so similar to the starwars konect review. Like same furniture and almost the same distance for this aperture.
Funny enough you are not the first person to say that. I don’t watch Jon Tron, but he must be a man of impeccable taste.
@@ajourneythroughcinema1271 Haha, I was having an uncanny moment where I started to make the connections! It was a great watch btw! Ty!
Elrond speaks highly of you. Durin: No he doesn't. He forgot I existed for 20 years until he wanted something from the dwarves.
‘And a ring of power each for Shemp, Curly and Moe…”
nice summary/breakdown!
Correction, it's barrow wights.
A barrow is an old burial site. Britain's got a lot of them.
2:13 I will say that Tolkien had two different versions of what the blue wizards did, in the People's of Middle Earth they kept Sauron's influence over the East reduced but in Unfinished Tales only Gandalf remained faithful to the mission and in Letter 211 Tolkien said they may have started evil magic cults...so maybe that's what this dark wizard is supposed to be...not the best explanation but maybe.
Elves look like shit tho
Why are they trying to make Lord of the Rings into Game of Thrones? Of all the fantasy stories out there, LOTR is just not the one to try and debate moral relativism
‘Dad, please don’t f*ck this up.’ ~ Bezos' son.
Yes, please cover the wheel of time
I admire people that had strength and courage in them to watch this abomination and live to tell others about it.
Great video
Well, the show is remarkable.. at assembling people, who have not seen the Peter Jackson movies nor read the books.
Just like for the sepuels of star wars I´ll just pretend, that the rings of power never existed.
Just dropped in real quick to ask about your title. So, you’re telling the world that you watch “idiot fantasies?” For 3 yrs … 2 entire seasons .. and counting?
Man. That’s ROUGH!
Can’t wait for season 3! And, clearly, neither can you 🤣
Rings of Power is to The Lord of the Rings what Yoko Ono is to the Beatles.
Even if Tolkien was still questioning how orcs were born but it can't be through child and pregnancy because how do you explain that the wives and children supposed to stay behind at the end of LotR are found no where. Even if he would have opted for that view the facts of his books shows otherwise (and for people arguing about the son of Azog, there are many ways to be considered the child of someone not just because he impregnated your mother)
Missing that Howard Shore soundtrack...
12:36 I think this is actually wrong. It's about differentiating the work and the creator. He doesn't say the rings are inherently evil, rather the opposite. This is similar to the actual position of the elves about them (Galadriel does use hers in LotR to maintain her realm*). And it's even pretty smart dialogue, I would say. It's a wider topic.
*Gandalf uses his to seem like a nicer guy.. Jk
(It might even be low-key their way of dealing with Tolkien's possible modern ideological shortcomings or questionable aspects from their point of view... But that might be a far fetch.
I would really like to know where that quote frome George rr martin was taken from, since I can't find any interview 31:30
If I remember right, it was from a Rolling Stone interview
Yes, sure, it's basically a standard TV show. That's kind of what they set out to do, and that's pathetic.
And it's probably all because they listened to JarJar's nepotism, who was instrumental in sinking Star Wars... (And his own hit show Lost.)
Only for everyone who wants to go never to the ocean swimming again, the Penisworm is actually a real animal that look exactly like in this video, only he is much, much smaller. When he bites you, its kind of impossible to rip him of again, without hurting yourself, bc, like in the video, his bite works like a stapler. Its fking discusting.
Is it just me, or is Season 2 just particularly... gross? No, not because of the betrayal of the original lore while still having the pendulous adamantium balls to call itself _Lord of the RIngs._ No, this is on a different level. I mean just... gooey... squicky... gory... messy... dirty... and just... literally nauseating. Amoeba Sauron. The repeated weaponization of that spiky crown that makes me wonder if it's spreading orc hepatitis. The blood rings. Celebrimbor lopping off his own thumb like he's trying to escape a _Saw_ trap. Celebrimbor's doe-eyed too-precious-for-this-Middle-Earth forge worker getting her skull caved in. Those elven guards whom Sauron hypnotized into gutting each other _without reacting._ Even Elrond making out with his mother-in-law. Just all kinds of things that seem tailor-made to put you off your lunch.
That's... that's not just me, is it? It's not anything I ate?
Yeah, I know Sauron was involved in a lot of those, and Sauron is very, very, very evil, but... back in the day, it's as if Sauron's evil was a lot more efficient. He acted with a ruthless purpose. In fact, from everything I've heard, indulgent dawdling was one of Sauron's major accusations _against_ the peoples of Middle Earth and why he sought to bring them to heel in the first place. All these irrationalities like freedom, courage, love... yeeeuch! What was Illuvitar thinking? That kind of sentiment. But RoP S2 in particular features a more indulgent Sauron, like he's sadistically playing with his food. If that was, in fact, the point, that's a _horrible_ misread. Sauron isn't some 40k chaos god (what with 40k being like LotR's spiritual nephew), but it seems as if that's what he's being reduced to.
I’m sorry, but even the tear that Annatar sheds, when he kills Celebrimbor, means nothing. You don’t care for someone that you’ve spent the entire relationship manipulating into doing something against their will. You only do that to someone you despise. There is no real comradeship between these two, it’s just manufactured for dramatic effect.
There are only two reasons to watch this series. Isildur's sister.
"Making every character a MORON!" So true for this trash pile of crap series
„Elrond“
No that’s Grobnar Gnomehands.
lol my stop point even at hate watching the show was the wights. At that exact point it became just stupid enough to become completely intolerable
I mean you can poke holes in most fantasy or just movies/shows in general if you really go looking but this is just ridiculous. Also never watched the show this is all I need. It's funny hearing that they didn't have the rights to the silmarillion. The fact that they're re-writing the story and somehow think they can do better than the original is hilarious. Also I like how when there was something you actually enjoyed a bit you'll mention it, It's no all just shitting on the show
arondir still alive after all that stabs is just, why, for what. i want to ask the seriosity of this show, but then i remember every elf all this time somehow have an unimaginable amount of plot armor unless the writer says so.
Who could that Sour Rhûn Man be? Hmmmmm 🤔
If this show was an old school Role playing game, the gamemaster would be publicly flogged, hung drawn and quatered, for a shocking clusterfuck, scenario, campaign.
The dialogue is so dull and broken. The simple, irish, travelling harfwits/harfoot psychopaths, are like a twisted version of an old Beneton advert.
Sad excuse for entertainment and just not Tolkien........
I'm your sub-8k subbie now^^ I view Rings of Power as part and parcel of American cinema - first they started putting bipocs in, now they're losing all touch with reality; all a slippery slope. And it makes sense because fundamentalist American Christianity detests reaaon and beauty, literally Melkor.
- Adûnâi
8:57 Maybe they just went by linguistics or even write it differently in the scripts. It could even be there is a loophole for a mere name.
Sorry man = Saruman
I watched your whole analysis and enjoyed it very much, i like it when you beside the very understandable criticism point out moments where the performance of the actors ist functioning or what would have been necessary to make a scene working. Its bizarre to me when you see those truly honest and sencere scenes of the lord of the rings, the grace of galadriel and the honest friendship of sam and frodo; why ecactly it feels so differently. I mean its hard to make a movie with characters who are a few thousand years old, how could they make foolish mistakes or naive impulsive descisions, i get that, but its a mystery to me, why so much money cant buy true tolkin nerds who forbid these amateurish mistakes like Galdriel swimming the distance of an ocean or the greatest of all elven smiths after feanor Celembrimbor as an old mumbling fool, why would you do this to your epic storyline?
Cuz Galadriel popped out of the womb with “the grace of Galadriel.” Lmao.
How can you not be able to spell “exactly,” “sincere,” “Tolkien,” etc, especially in the age of spell check?!? But…ofc u can spell “Galadriel.” Or know when to use “it’s” vs “its?” And writing a paragraph-long sentence. Break up ur thoughts with periods, (proper) commas, and semicolons. It’ll make it possible to understand you.
“Actors ist functioning” … nvm. It’s hopeless. Why even try to understand this lol.
@@NicoleStevensHays11x Oh wow what a lovely experience, because its not my mother tongue you fascinating keyboard warrior. Get a life please!
@@NicoleStevensHays11x How about you shut the hell up, woman, and go cook a nice meal for your man?*
@@NicoleStevensHays11x Wait, are you trying to tell us all that you DIDN'T understand the above comment? I think that might be an IQ problem
40:04 wait a minute. Is Sauron the bad guy?
0:15 😂
13:23 Because they are evil under LOTR morality. Not even joking.
"Anglo Saxon Arthurian myth" why did you have to do this...
Britons were largely “lost history” for a good stretch after Romans left the region which is why a lot of it faded into myth which was perpetuated when the Angles and Saxons arrived and ultimately took over southern Britain. A lot of northern German and Celtic myth got mixed, creating classic Arthurian legend of today. I’m American though so maybe that’s my novice take. Feel free to correct me.
@ Thank you for answering this, first of all. Secondly, great video!
Now to the point: I would consider Arthurian legend as unequivocally Celtic and within Celtic civilisational framework. Yes there is obvious Angli Saxon influence, however the root legend itself is 100% “Celtic” just as Beowulf or Nibelungenlied are Germanic.