How did you people like Season 2 of Rings of Power? Liek I said: it' better than season 1, but still has quite a bit of room for improvement still. The writings and structure needs work and I'm not sure if that could be fixed without severe changes.
To be totaly honest, hated the show, actually screamed at the screen one time (catapults bring down a mountain side a mile away to accidently create a perfect dam, lots of continuity errors, characters easily survibing deadly situations without a scratch, distances have no meaning). But I agree with you, some of the actors were aswome!! Watches only because of Durin the 4th, Celebrimbor and Sauron.
I agree with you. Season Two is far better than season One, but it is still not a good show IMHO. Besides the aspects you examined, such as the plot holes, the teleporting of characters , things happening just for convenience sake, the two main flaws were the massive use of quotes taken from The Lord of the Rings extrapolated from their original context with the result of changing their meaning. The other big flaw is the soap opera structure - for lack of a better word - that requires multiple storylines to include as many aspects as possible: mistery, adventure, romance and a bit of comic relief
I will agree that there were more good scenes in season 2. But there were more things that were awful. The plot holes just kept getting bigger. The so-called Gandalf reveal was pathetic and then the showrunners tried to claim they didn't decide to do that until season 2 was well underway. And to top that off they also claimed they were caught off guard by the backlash to the Elrond and Galadriel kissing scene. What utter BS! I completely agree on the matter of canon; at this point the show is so far off track that it would be impossible for them to follow what Tolkien wrote short of starting over. But I remain completely unwilling to give them a pass on that.
I stopped after season 1, but eventually gave in and watched the first three episodes of season 2. However, I had to stop again because it just didn’t seem worth it, especially with the Stranger so obviously being Gandalf-it felt like some of the weakest writing I’ve ever seen put to screen. The only decent part was the final confrontation between Sauron and Celebrimbor. I’ve been critical of this show a lot lately, not out of hate, but from genuine frustration at the lack of authentic Tolkien storytelling. The showrunners seemed more focused on writing their own version of Middle-earth, only trying to course-correct somewhat toward the Annatar storyline in season 2-which is what they should’ve done from the start instead of all that Southlands filler. I don’t want to sound overly confident, but I truly believe I could’ve written something more faithful to the source material without making up unnecessary lore, like the connection between mithril and saving the elves. The visuality is 9/10 tolkien, i loved numenor but the writing is what holds up movies and shows, not cool visuals. its still mind boggling to be that they can visually create a world so accurate only for the writing to be a nearly polar opposite. Im really looking forward to seeing the hunt for gollum film because i know with andy serkis and peter jackson that they will do there homework on the source material.
Yes I agree. The writing is the most important part and it is so weak in this show. Has its moments, but that's it. You notice how many talented people must work in the background and add details, etc. Some times even cool little book references. But the writing and structure just pulls down the show so much. Really sad to see.
@@ThePhilosophersGames in season 1 there’s an awesome mosaic painting reference of beren and luthien on the inner walls of the tower miriel climbs when seeing her father in Numenor. I think a lot of people intially missed it but I got pretty gitty when I saw it. One of the best references of the show i think.
Like your channel, on the series. I watched the first season, what a pain that was. I did not watch season 2, not planning to. I hope the "creators" (like calling Morgoth a "creator") will pay for what they did and they are not hired for any important project ever.
I'm kind of glad that I can now slowly return to book content 😅 Though I have to admit analysing and discussing the episodes with chat was a lot of fun. I also don't see how it can get much better without severe changes to the show, which might include replacing the leaders and reducing the number of plot lines drastically.
@@ThePhilosophersGames I really like your videos following the movies vs the books. Looks like a huge amount of work, so I get you take your time with those.
Agreed on Númenor. I was fully expecting the forced marriage plot to start there. Miriel did wonder if Pharazon in power had changed the vision. I was curious to see how she would balance this out and eventually try and save Elendil...instead we get "Not-so-Evil Earrin" lending her father a hand. Ugh.
This show was genuinely good in places this season. It's so cluttered, so inconsistent, and sometimes so bizarre in its choices. But it does have moments. I'm mostly still interested as an editing hobbyist. There's a solid 'Lord of Gifts' movie in there. Perhaps a 2nd age trilogy if the show delivers in later seasons. It's not the adaptation anyone wants but I'm not mad at it. The world is fun to explore for an hour a week.
The main problem with the show isn't even the inconsistency with Tolkien's lore, it is its own internal inconsistency. For example, the Dwarf lieutenant who says that the army needs to be recalled because Durin's father is attempting to dig alone into the Mithril. This character, at this point, cites concern about "unleashing the beast". However, this same character came with a host of dwarves to dig at the Mithril at the end of the previous episodes, and were scared off by some bats, obviously not perturbed by any such idea. All of a sudden, he IS worried, despite previously not being worried; the only new event is the king relenting to send dwarves to war and insisting that they DO dig, none of which has relevance to the state of existence of some purported creature. It's not the only example of a character seeming to forget their stated motivations. Adar in the previous episode expresses no shock whatsoever when Galadriel reveals that Halbrand is Sauron. Instead, he says "as I suspected..." If he suspected as such, why would he send the very person he suspected to be Sauron to go and find Sauron? Likewise, Galadriel shows almost no reaction to the revelation that Halbrand (whom she specifically told Celebrimbor NOT to allow admittance to Eregion), has somehow managed to go back to Eregion. The narrative is so confusing that not even the actors can make sense of it. That timeline is also at issue. It’s like Achilles, Alexander the Great, and Jesus teaming up with George Washington to fight Osama Bin Laden.
For me personally, the perfect version of this show would've been this: 1. Numenor-90% of Peter Jackson's LotR fans would have no idea Middle-Earth had its own version of Atlantis, with basically the height of human civilization lording it over the rest of the world for a couple thousand years. It's fresh and unique and the drama inherent in their downfall alone would make a hugely compelling series. 2. The Stranger and the Harfoots-I like this stuff when they pay attention to it. The 'lighter' tone as you mentioned is lacking in every other part of the series and yet is fundamental to Tolkien's writing. Tom Bombadil's inclusion helps here to lend it that storybook vibe. This contrasts the grandeur of Numenor with the small folk of Middle-Earth and gives the audience something familiar. A deeper exploration of Rhun is still welcome and a journey through strange lands interwoven through the various consequences of the series (think, the volcano boulders wrecking the Harfoot's grove) should be a fun and interesting adventure. Link them up at the very end to give Gandalf his ring. 3. Keep the Elves mysterious and ethereal. Talk them up, the Valar and Sauron through the Numenorean lore perspective (and to a lesser degree the Harfoot's POV) but don't reveal them until later (Babylon 5 style, treat then as heightened beings like the Vorlons or Shadow). 100% make it Elrond who journeys to his brother's ancient kingdom to warn them of the threat of Sauron (which has been hinted at via portents, the palantir etc.)-total dramatic misfire, what they went with and a massive waste of literary potential. Ultimately, things start with just two main storylines: the Numenoreans and the Harfoots. Sauron's menace is shown mainly through the Stranger and the Harfoots story, while the political drama builds in Numenor and is not a main character until his appearance in Eregion. Eventually the Elves get involved at the climax of season 1. The Eregion plot joins the series for the creation of the rings in season 2 with Elrond as our POV character and the Harfoots take a back seat. Galadriel's sparring with the strange new visitor to the city starts here. The Dwarves appear as part of the Elven storyline, using Elrond's friendship with Durin (who's actually King here) facilitating Celebrimbor's connection with Narvi. Unfortunately (and this stings because they're terrific), I don't see an extended role for the them and the show's efforts to make one has been pretty contrived so far. They're introduced via visits to Khazad-dum and appearances in Eregion (Dwarf characters could even live there), with some optional development in later seasons once Durin receives a ring. There is NO Balrog or Mithril magic hoohah in my version! Gandalf has to absolutely be occupied saving the world in Rhun rather than being directly involved in events in the West-sorry my lore brain just can't reconcile anything else. His plot would be an on-going slow burn that takes its time, allowing focus to remain on the denser arenas of the Numenoreans and the Elves.
The Southlands plot, despite the positives, has been rendered completely irrelevant by the existing series itself, let alone my rough edit. The exploration of Middle-Earth and its cultures should've been done through the adventures of the Harfoots and not-Gandalf as audience surrogates, as with the original stories. No clue how the showrunners got that fundamentally obvious story hook wrong.
Not really, I just think it's fair to also list positive aspects, while I also discuss the negative ones. I still liked it more than season 1 and for that it must have done something right. Still I would not give season 2 more than a 5/10. That's imo not very positive 😅
I've enjoyed all the music well enough (massive fan of Bear McCreary's work on Battlestar Galactica) but that piece at the end when Gil-Galad does his He-Man impression was spectacular! Best musical track of the series for me.
I felt that Celebrimbor did a lot to keep this season going, and wonder who or what could possibly do the same for the third season. The Witch King perhaps? I don't see the Gandalf character growing sufficiently. And certainly none of the other existing ones. But at least I am expecting to watch it, which is an improvement.
Yes good point. Though I think the actor of Gandalf is quite good so now that he can actually work with this his roles full potential, he could grow quite a bit 🤞 A pre Nazgûl Witch King could also become very interesting. Though it sounds like Rhûn might continue in some way (the Dark Wizard is still there) and Gandalf separates from the Hobbits.
To the points of the normal dwarf folk of khazad, exploring Middle Earth, stranger and nori, elrond fast traveling, too many plot lines: this would all be solved if streaming shows didn't break the delicious development of 20+ episodes a season. Where you could tell a full complete robust story with characters and plots you will care about with the time to explore it. Even 16 episodes a season would be great. And yeah I get how expensive it is, I don't care, if you make quality and tell the story the fans have been wanting, and a story to get new fans, and you're owned by one of the richest companies of our time... No excuses.
Yes 8 episodes is just too little for what they are doing. They would need to be laser focused to make this work and even here it would would be a close call time wise I think.
Hey Chris, maybe you noticed that I was always a bit negative in the streams 🙃, but that was mostly because I wanted this to be something like the trilogy of LOTR, something to rewatch every year, to do a marathon.. I waited for this even before the hobbit, something like 18 years ago when I discovered the internet.. but it isn't, it's laughable and frustrating. Sadly for me, none of the good parts save its reputation, nothing could make me rewatch it. Discussing it during your streams, during the analisys, I felt like 95% of the time we were discussing the bad, and when something good happened it lasted a few minutes; this for me is a sign that it's really a terrible show, and not only in my opinion. I am waiting for season 3 only to have this period of the year, when we discuss it, make it better, so to say, and bash it for not trying at all to be something the fans of Tolkien would watch and watch and rewatch. Anyways, thank you for your work, always here to support it 🙂
The more I research and listen to other arguments the more I hate this show! Don't Be Hasty's video "how not to write a master manipulator" goes through the dialogue between Avatar and Celebrimbor. It's not convincing. It's contrived. It's plot driven not character driven. We have to get clues that Sauron is a bad person in order for there to be dramatic conflict, but they are not so obvious that Celebrimbor cannot see them as well. And so either he's an idiot or he doesn't make the rings. Every once in a while Celebrimbor would get puzzled and he would say "I'm not making the rings". Then Sauron would say I'm making them in your forge. Ok then. Why did Celebrimbor choose to make the nine rings after finally he knew he was working with Sauron? The Tolkien story of Annatar corrupting Celebrimbor is an interesting idea, but just not a interesting dramatic story. It's given in the past tense, in exposition and without dialogue. A dramatic story needs to have character development and equally matched powers. And the resolution of the conflict should be based on the character's development, not arbitrary powers. It should also have irony, subtext and do show not tell. The writers don't do any of this. Most of the first seven episodes are just characters talking about rings around the table. And this is the best part of Rings of Power. The corruption of Celebrimbor is in Lore. There's action. But the story is absurd. The Matrix mouse is just one famous example as is the military strategy, which you spent 5 hours explaining to us how the maps don't work.
The setup/beginning of the Eregion situation is stupid and you have to ignore it. The later scenes of manipulation make more sense sense in my opinion.
The only good part was the actor playing Celebrimbor. He was great with what he had to work with. Everything else was really bad or, even worse, just plain "skip it" boring (especially hobbit/Gandalf and Isildur plotlines). And Theo needs to go.
I still hated the show but I also loved the long Chris Analysis streams. It is still far tooo many people and not real characters. I did like Sauron and Celebrimbor. Visuals are for me very secondary. The story and the characters in it bind me to a story. I will rather rewatch the PJ trilogy .I rarely note the music directly , when it is not carrying too much weight. Like in the kiss scene. Will you bet with me that the dark wizzard will after some time of mysteryboxing ,Saruman. I think theDarkuman will have his story next episode. The problem is, they cannot give time to any character because just canonically there are many characters in the original. And then they put so many original characters in it that there is no place to explore the characters. For me it still does not feel like middle earth.
First, having graduated with a major in music, I disagree with every insertion that the music is good. I find it boring and dull. Certainly not to the standards of Howard Shore. It is generic game music that is dull and easily forgettable. Second, the "look" of the show ... sigh... The CGI is so oversaturated that it strains the senses. PJ worked to make things a bit grittier in the LotR trilogy, and in the scenes where elves are present, the backgrounds are still muddy while the elves themselves have a higher light marker, further highlighting their ethereal presence. Rings of Power does nothing special for the elves because Payne and McKay don't think they are special. I know that they canned a large number of the season 1 & 2 writers after season 2 ... I hope P&M are also on the chopping block. But I truly don't see this show as being redeemable at all. Amazon has a product and that is all they care about.
The problem is I absolutely hate Galadriel, not the actress, but the character they created. And what really pulled me out of the immersion the constant references almost plagiarisms. References to the books, the PJ movies, the Matrix, starwars and even effing Harry Potter : Olivander: the wand chooses the wizzard Mr.Potter not the wizzard the wand. And this is so massive that for me it lost all connection to the Original message of the story and it made a kind of Phnatasy pop culture Gulasch.Iz feels like Schnitzeljagd. And totally unneccesary people where: Mirdania,Estrid, her future husband, Theo, the Asian Archer who was boromiert and invents Napalm and I was sorry that I did not feel anything when they died. Not even the death of Adar who was in season one my favourite character. I fellt Joseph Mawle so much more in this role. This is 100% fanfic. Nobody forced them to do the whole second age. It wastheir choice. But even as fanfic I hated it. I prefer your lore videos.
I was wrong suggesting Rhûn theme is in Bulgarian. Recently Bear McCreary published the lyrics on his site. It's in Rhûnic. Lyricstranslate credits it as Qenya, also they put a title Caras Gaer
How did you people like Season 2 of Rings of Power? Liek I said: it' better than season 1, but still has quite a bit of room for improvement still. The writings and structure needs work and I'm not sure if that could be fixed without severe changes.
Unfortunately, for anything wishing to be a part of Tolkiens universe, there shouldn’t have to be room for error
I can’t watch a show that has Elrond randomly kissing Galadriel. Nah. Tolkien is not Twilight.
To be totaly honest, hated the show, actually screamed at the screen one time (catapults bring down a mountain side a mile away to accidently create a perfect dam, lots of continuity errors, characters easily survibing deadly situations without a scratch, distances have no meaning). But I agree with you, some of the actors were aswome!! Watches only because of Durin the 4th, Celebrimbor and Sauron.
If the show continues it's improvement at the current rate, it'll be on the level of the lotr trillogy around season 19
haha 😂 But yes I could imagine that if they keep this rate, that Season 5 might actually be in the realm of good. Who knows.
I see you are quite the optimist.
aint that a fact.
I agree with you. Season Two is far better than season One, but it is still not a good show IMHO. Besides the aspects you examined, such as the plot holes, the teleporting of characters , things happening just for convenience sake, the two main flaws were the massive use of quotes taken from The Lord of the Rings extrapolated from their original context with the result of changing their meaning. The other big flaw is the soap opera structure - for lack of a better word - that requires multiple storylines to include as many aspects as possible: mistery, adventure, romance and a bit of comic relief
I have a hard time coming to terms with what they did to Galadriel, a far cry from Blanchett's elegance and grace in the trilogy.
Yes I don't get it as well 😅
I will agree that there were more good scenes in season 2. But there were more things that were awful. The plot holes just kept getting bigger. The so-called Gandalf reveal was pathetic and then the showrunners tried to claim they didn't decide to do that until season 2 was well underway. And to top that off they also claimed they were caught off guard by the backlash to the Elrond and Galadriel kissing scene. What utter BS!
I completely agree on the matter of canon; at this point the show is so far off track that it would be impossible for them to follow what Tolkien wrote short of starting over. But I remain completely unwilling to give them a pass on that.
I stopped after season 1, but eventually gave in and watched the first three episodes of season 2. However, I had to stop again because it just didn’t seem worth it, especially with the Stranger so obviously being Gandalf-it felt like some of the weakest writing I’ve ever seen put to screen. The only decent part was the final confrontation between Sauron and Celebrimbor.
I’ve been critical of this show a lot lately, not out of hate, but from genuine frustration at the lack of authentic Tolkien storytelling. The showrunners seemed more focused on writing their own version of Middle-earth, only trying to course-correct somewhat toward the Annatar storyline in season 2-which is what they should’ve done from the start instead of all that Southlands filler.
I don’t want to sound overly confident, but I truly believe I could’ve written something more faithful to the source material without making up unnecessary lore, like the connection between mithril and saving the elves. The visuality is 9/10 tolkien, i loved numenor but the writing is what holds up movies and shows, not cool visuals. its still mind boggling to be that they can visually create a world so accurate only for the writing to be a nearly polar opposite. Im really looking forward to seeing the hunt for gollum film because i know with andy serkis and peter jackson that they will do there homework on the source material.
Yes I agree. The writing is the most important part and it is so weak in this show. Has its moments, but that's it. You notice how many talented people must work in the background and add details, etc. Some times even cool little book references. But the writing and structure just pulls down the show so much. Really sad to see.
@@ThePhilosophersGames in season 1 there’s an awesome mosaic painting reference of beren and luthien on the inner walls of the tower miriel climbs when seeing her father in Numenor. I think a lot of people intially missed it but I got pretty gitty when I saw it. One of the best references of the show i think.
Like your channel, on the series. I watched the first season, what a pain that was. I did not watch season 2, not planning to. I hope the "creators" (like calling Morgoth a "creator") will pay for what they did and they are not hired for any important project ever.
I'm kind of glad that I can now slowly return to book content 😅 Though I have to admit analysing and discussing the episodes with chat was a lot of fun.
I also don't see how it can get much better without severe changes to the show, which might include replacing the leaders and reducing the number of plot lines drastically.
@@ThePhilosophersGames I really like your videos following the movies vs the books. Looks like a huge amount of work, so I get you take your time with those.
Agreed on Númenor. I was fully expecting the forced marriage plot to start there. Miriel did wonder if Pharazon in power had changed the vision. I was curious to see how she would balance this out and eventually try and save Elendil...instead we get "Not-so-Evil Earrin" lending her father a hand. Ugh.
This show was genuinely good in places this season. It's so cluttered, so inconsistent, and sometimes so bizarre in its choices. But it does have moments. I'm mostly still interested as an editing hobbyist. There's a solid 'Lord of Gifts' movie in there. Perhaps a 2nd age trilogy if the show delivers in later seasons.
It's not the adaptation anyone wants but I'm not mad at it. The world is fun to explore for an hour a week.
The show was so bad, I would have liked it if Adar revealed himself to be Celeborn
That was literally the only investment I had for the final episode. Not that I personally watched it.
I was so glad that this was not the case 😅 I think I just had turned of the show and would have went for a walk
@@ThePhilosophersGames If the show is a fanfiction, embrace the fanfiction
😅
The main problem with the show isn't even the inconsistency with Tolkien's lore, it is its own internal inconsistency.
For example, the Dwarf lieutenant who says that the army needs to be recalled because Durin's father is attempting to dig alone into the Mithril. This character, at this point, cites concern about "unleashing the beast". However, this same character came with a host of dwarves to dig at the Mithril at the end of the previous episodes, and were scared off by some bats, obviously not perturbed by any such idea. All of a sudden, he IS worried, despite previously not being worried; the only new event is the king relenting to send dwarves to war and insisting that they DO dig, none of which has relevance to the state of existence of some purported creature.
It's not the only example of a character seeming to forget their stated motivations. Adar in the previous episode expresses no shock whatsoever when Galadriel reveals that Halbrand is Sauron. Instead, he says "as I suspected..." If he suspected as such, why would he send the very person he suspected to be Sauron to go and find Sauron?
Likewise, Galadriel shows almost no reaction to the revelation that Halbrand (whom she specifically told Celebrimbor NOT to allow admittance to Eregion), has somehow managed to go back to Eregion.
The narrative is so confusing that not even the actors can make sense of it.
That timeline is also at issue. It’s like Achilles, Alexander the Great, and Jesus teaming up with George Washington to fight Osama Bin Laden.
For me personally, the perfect version of this show would've been this: 1. Numenor-90% of Peter Jackson's LotR fans would have no idea Middle-Earth had its own version of Atlantis, with basically the height of human civilization lording it over the rest of the world for a couple thousand years. It's fresh and unique and the drama inherent in their downfall alone would make a hugely compelling series.
2. The Stranger and the Harfoots-I like this stuff when they pay attention to it. The 'lighter' tone as you mentioned is lacking in every other part of the series and yet is fundamental to Tolkien's writing. Tom Bombadil's inclusion helps here to lend it that storybook vibe. This contrasts the grandeur of Numenor with the small folk of Middle-Earth and gives the audience something familiar. A deeper exploration of Rhun is still welcome and a journey through strange lands interwoven through the various consequences of the series (think, the volcano boulders wrecking the Harfoot's grove) should be a fun and interesting adventure. Link them up at the very end to give Gandalf his ring.
3. Keep the Elves mysterious and ethereal. Talk them up, the Valar and Sauron through the Numenorean lore perspective (and to a lesser degree the Harfoot's POV) but don't reveal them until later (Babylon 5 style, treat then as heightened beings like the Vorlons or Shadow). 100% make it Elrond who journeys to his brother's ancient kingdom to warn them of the threat of Sauron (which has been hinted at via portents, the palantir etc.)-total dramatic misfire, what they went with and a massive waste of literary potential.
Ultimately, things start with just two main storylines: the Numenoreans and the Harfoots. Sauron's menace is shown mainly through the Stranger and the Harfoots story, while the political drama builds in Numenor and is not a main character until his appearance in Eregion. Eventually the Elves get involved at the climax of season 1. The Eregion plot joins the series for the creation of the rings in season 2 with Elrond as our POV character and the Harfoots take a back seat. Galadriel's sparring with the strange new visitor to the city starts here. The Dwarves appear as part of the Elven storyline, using Elrond's friendship with Durin (who's actually King here) facilitating Celebrimbor's connection with Narvi. Unfortunately (and this stings because they're terrific), I don't see an extended role for the them and the show's efforts to make one has been pretty contrived so far. They're introduced via visits to Khazad-dum and appearances in Eregion (Dwarf characters could even live there), with some optional development in later seasons once Durin receives a ring. There is NO Balrog or Mithril magic hoohah in my version!
Gandalf has to absolutely be occupied saving the world in Rhun rather than being directly involved in events in the West-sorry my lore brain just can't reconcile anything else. His plot would be an on-going slow burn that takes its time, allowing focus to remain on the denser arenas of the Numenoreans and the Elves.
The Southlands plot, despite the positives, has been rendered completely irrelevant by the existing series itself, let alone my rough edit. The exploration of Middle-Earth and its cultures should've been done through the adventures of the Harfoots and not-Gandalf as audience surrogates, as with the original stories. No clue how the showrunners got that fundamentally obvious story hook wrong.
Feels like you're hurting yourself trying to stay positive about this show.
Not really, I just think it's fair to also list positive aspects, while I also discuss the negative ones. I still liked it more than season 1 and for that it must have done something right. Still I would not give season 2 more than a 5/10. That's imo not very positive 😅
@@ThePhilosophersGames Fair. I would struggle to get near 5/10 as I see that as average and it is well below average.
I can watch it for free... and still did not manage to get past venom in Episode 1. Thanks for summing everything up :)
haha no problem 😅
I've enjoyed all the music well enough (massive fan of Bear McCreary's work on Battlestar Galactica) but that piece at the end when Gil-Galad does his He-Man impression was spectacular! Best musical track of the series for me.
haha yes felt that track as well 😄
I was pretty much convinced that Adars Elf name was going to be Celeborn! Because of the inconsistency of the show with some characters.
I was hoping that this was not true and I was right - luckily. Would have annoyed me greatly if it was Celeborn.
1:03 I think they really didn’t know were the show is going. They hinted that in the NerdoftheRings interview.
yes woluld not surprise me 😅
I felt that Celebrimbor did a lot to keep this season going, and wonder who or what could possibly do the same for the third season. The Witch King perhaps?
I don't see the Gandalf character growing sufficiently. And certainly none of the other existing ones.
But at least I am expecting to watch it, which is an improvement.
Yes good point. Though I think the actor of Gandalf is quite good so now that he can actually work with this his roles full potential, he could grow quite a bit 🤞 A pre Nazgûl Witch King could also become very interesting. Though it sounds like Rhûn might continue in some way (the Dark Wizard is still there) and Gandalf separates from the Hobbits.
To the points of the normal dwarf folk of khazad, exploring Middle Earth, stranger and nori, elrond fast traveling, too many plot lines: this would all be solved if streaming shows didn't break the delicious development of 20+ episodes a season. Where you could tell a full complete robust story with characters and plots you will care about with the time to explore it. Even 16 episodes a season would be great. And yeah I get how expensive it is, I don't care, if you make quality and tell the story the fans have been wanting, and a story to get new fans, and you're owned by one of the richest companies of our time... No excuses.
Yes 8 episodes is just too little for what they are doing. They would need to be laser focused to make this work and even here it would would be a close call time wise I think.
Hey Chris, maybe you noticed that I was always a bit negative in the streams 🙃, but that was mostly because I wanted this to be something like the trilogy of LOTR, something to rewatch every year, to do a marathon.. I waited for this even before the hobbit, something like 18 years ago when I discovered the internet.. but it isn't, it's laughable and frustrating.
Sadly for me, none of the good parts save its reputation, nothing could make me rewatch it.
Discussing it during your streams, during the analisys, I felt like 95% of the time we were discussing the bad, and when something good happened it lasted a few minutes; this for me is a sign that it's really a terrible show, and not only in my opinion.
I am waiting for season 3 only to have this period of the year, when we discuss it, make it better, so to say, and bash it for not trying at all to be something the fans of Tolkien would watch and watch and rewatch.
Anyways, thank you for your work, always here to support it 🙂
The more I research and listen to other arguments the more I hate this show!
Don't Be Hasty's video "how not to write a master manipulator" goes through the dialogue between Avatar and Celebrimbor.
It's not convincing. It's contrived. It's plot driven not character driven.
We have to get clues that Sauron is a bad person in order for there to be dramatic conflict, but they are not so obvious that Celebrimbor cannot see them as well. And so either he's an idiot or he doesn't make the rings.
Every once in a while Celebrimbor would get puzzled and he would say "I'm not making the rings". Then Sauron would say I'm making them in your forge. Ok then. Why did Celebrimbor choose to make the nine rings after finally he knew he was working with Sauron?
The Tolkien story of Annatar corrupting Celebrimbor is an interesting idea, but just not a interesting dramatic story. It's given in the past tense, in exposition and without dialogue.
A dramatic story needs to have character development and equally matched powers. And the resolution of the conflict should be based on the character's development, not arbitrary powers. It should also have irony, subtext and do show not tell. The writers don't do any of this. Most of the first seven episodes are just characters talking about rings around the table.
And this is the best part of Rings of Power. The corruption of Celebrimbor is in Lore. There's action. But the story is absurd. The Matrix mouse is just one famous example as is the military strategy, which you spent 5 hours explaining to us how the maps don't work.
The setup/beginning of the Eregion situation is stupid and you have to ignore it. The later scenes of manipulation make more sense sense in my opinion.
Balrog for President TA 1980!
😂
The only good part was the actor playing Celebrimbor. He was great with what he had to work with.
Everything else was really bad or, even worse, just plain "skip it" boring (especially hobbit/Gandalf and Isildur plotlines). And Theo needs to go.
I really hated the angled camera. It served no purpose and really just made me nauseous.
I still hated the show but I also loved the long Chris Analysis streams. It is still far tooo many people and not real characters. I did like Sauron and Celebrimbor. Visuals are for me very secondary. The story and the characters in it bind me to a story. I will rather rewatch the PJ trilogy .I rarely note the music directly , when it is not carrying too much weight. Like in the kiss scene. Will you bet with me that the dark wizzard will after some time of mysteryboxing ,Saruman. I think theDarkuman will have his story next episode. The problem is, they cannot give time to any character because just canonically there are many characters in the original. And then they put so many original characters in it that there is no place to explore the characters. For me it still does not feel like middle earth.
First, having graduated with a major in music, I disagree with every insertion that the music is good. I find it boring and dull. Certainly not to the standards of Howard Shore. It is generic game music that is dull and easily forgettable.
Second, the "look" of the show ... sigh... The CGI is so oversaturated that it strains the senses. PJ worked to make things a bit grittier in the LotR trilogy, and in the scenes where elves are present, the backgrounds are still muddy while the elves themselves have a higher light marker, further highlighting their ethereal presence.
Rings of Power does nothing special for the elves because Payne and McKay don't think they are special. I know that they canned a large number of the season 1 & 2 writers after season 2 ... I hope P&M are also on the chopping block. But I truly don't see this show as being redeemable at all. Amazon has a product and that is all they care about.
The problem is I absolutely hate Galadriel, not the actress, but the character they created. And what really pulled me out of the immersion the constant references almost plagiarisms. References to the books, the PJ movies, the Matrix, starwars and even effing Harry Potter : Olivander: the wand chooses the wizzard Mr.Potter not the wizzard the wand. And this is so massive that for me it lost all connection to the Original message of the story and it made a kind of Phnatasy pop culture Gulasch.Iz feels like Schnitzeljagd. And totally unneccesary people where: Mirdania,Estrid, her future husband, Theo, the Asian Archer who was boromiert and invents Napalm and I was sorry that I did not feel anything when they died. Not even the death of Adar who was in season one my favourite character. I fellt Joseph Mawle so much more in this role. This is 100% fanfic. Nobody forced them to do the whole second age. It wastheir choice. But even as fanfic I hated it. I prefer your lore videos.
Amazon rings of power is 100% garbage
I was wrong suggesting Rhûn theme is in Bulgarian. Recently Bear McCreary published the lyrics on his site. It's in Rhûnic. Lyricstranslate credits it as Qenya, also they put a title Caras Gaer
ah OK Thanks for the hint.