I kind of hate watched season one and tried the second one but literally couldn't do it. Because I had to pause every 5 seconds to pic it a part. So I better watch a other guy do exactly that so I don't have to press the pause button so much.....
I have watched infinitly more content about how bad this show is, then watching the show. I figured this show was going to be garbage after Amazon failed at the wheel of time. That show had me depressed for a while.
For those who don't know: The Shire was never a f--kin' prophecy. The King of the region at the time gifted the Hobbits that land out of pity and as a reward for their help in a war. Their first settlement was actually Bree before most of them traveled further West. And then that kingdom of Men died and aged out of memory and all of the buried kings became the Barrow-Wights.
@silverscorpio24 Your knowledge of lore is not welcome sir and or madam and or they/them. Please take your logics and knowledge to another deep hole on the interwebs and let Amazon mutilate this franchise in peace!
@@Jeremy-83 As a fellow lore nerd, I disagree. Amazon is writing a topically conceived fanfiction, nothing more, and sunlight is the best disinfectant. Sure, they can say, "Oh, the king gifted them the land fulfilling the Harfoot prophecy hyuk hyuk!" but those of us who know how things play out from Tolkien's vision can smell weasel writing and bad correlation, and those of you who care about Middle-Earth deserve to know it's truth (not it's bastardization). Edited because autocorrect doesn't know that amd is not a word...
Whenever I feel upset about how my life is going, I take some time to consider Glug, the Glug-wife and the Glugling and how unfortunate their circumstances are. When compared, I don’t have it that bad after all. :)
@@easternwesterner Um actually, Frodo offered it willingly, cos he figured someone as strong and wise as her could handle it better than him.... There was no threat of throttling, or even an implication of such, might wanna rewatch the movies if you somehow got that impression...
@@Jeartozer Galadriel literally refers to younger self as someone who would have taken the ring to use it and speaks of what it would've been like. She is not like that any more (older and wiser) so she refuses. Check out the scene yourself, she literally says it out loud. Young Galadriel was pretty vain and craved power, and her character had an arc in the books. She passes the test of facing the Ring in her older years. That doesn't excuse ridiculous RoP version, of course.
@@easternwesterner Wrong. If you bothered to watch the scene again, which I did to make sure I wasnt mistaken and will post below, she is NOT talking of her younger self, but of what she would do if she took the One Ring from Frodo; ie taking Sauron's place as a Dark Queen. Please actually do the research next time, make yourself actually look smart. m.th-cam.com/video/K3VOf3CBGvw/w-d-xo.html
I don't think McDaggerman and his companions were chosen because of their skills. They were the only elves not inteligent enough to know, that when Galadriel approaches you about some sort of an expedition, it's in your best interest to suddenly remember that you urgently need to water your dog and take your cactus to the vet.
Adar: bow before me or be gutted by Glug’s family doctor Literal slaves: bows and gets branded in order to avoid needlessly getting killed The writers: this is now a person of evil and a person of wild, even though they were very recently just a guy from the Southlands that was captured against their will, they are now different and bad? I can believe someone viewing a group like that as bandits, or dangerous, but they were just regular farmers 1 month ago and their actions are out of pragmatism. The obvious equivalent would be the depiction of Wildlings in GOT, which most of the characters are prejudice against because they pillage southern towns and live barbaric or pagan-like lives. This is a view that formed likely after hundreds of years of isolation between each other, as well as the cultural and moral differences. In RoP, the wildmen are displaced refugees that were further displaced by a giant volcano, who were subsequently enslaved by evilmen and Glug, branded against their will, then released. They are desperate and hungry people released into a forrest, that the characters of the show view as “wild” and “evil”. I’m gonna pull out the WWII card because this is malicious writing, this is the equivalent of wanting to ki** holoc**** survivors because got forcefully tattooed. That is, without a doubt, something you do not want your main characters doing unless they are morally bankrupt and drank brake fluid.
Small nitpick, but the Free Folk also live beyond the Wall, where it is colder, foraging and farming (if at all possible) are harder. It doesn't completely justify the pillaging they do south of the Wall, but it explains making a cultural norm aggressively taking resources otherwise they'll starve to death. That makes the Free Folk rather grey and easy to caricature either as "misunderstood" or "evil pillagers of evil".
You don't need horses when you have Elrond who probably has, from all the groveling and bowing to Galadriel, glutes of steel and is capable of running with 5-6 people on his shoulders faster than any horse ever could Why do you think Celebrimborg did not have any horse during his travel to Khazad-dûm? If Sauron can ride Galadriel to victory then Celebrimborg and Galadriel can ride Elrond to at least the nearest elven town
Given that a horse died during the filming of season 1, they were probably pushing it with Berek. It does raise a valid point though: with all this traveling (and this also applies to season 1), why hasn't there been way more horse travel?
Nori and Poppi aimed for the bushes. They missed, and landed safely on a very stretched suspension of disbelief, but aiming for the bushes is the how of the thing. Also: Non-Tombadil. Before anyone else tries to trademark it.
Now I'm not a Tolkien scholar, (and I realise that Random Film Talk is only working from what is on screen in the show) but, they have absolutely screwed up the Barrow-wights too... It is my understanding that Barrow-wights are the raised corpses of Northern Dunedain warriors from the kingdom of Cardolan. A kingdom which had been involved in a protracted war with the Witch-king of Angmar during the Third Age. The Witch-king raised these warriors as wights in an effort to prevent their kingdom ever being re-established. It was during this war that the Dunedain created Westernesse weaponry specifically to combat and pierce through the magical protections the Witch-king had placed upon his forces... It's for this reason alone that the weapons found within the barrows are able to kill Barrow-wights, they are Westernesse, belonged to the Dunedain who were buried there and subsequently raised, and they undo the magic of the Witch-king returning the wights to being lifeless corpses. This is why Merry's dagger did so much damage to the Witch-king leading to Éowyn being able to finally kill him. It was from a barrow and therefore of Westernesse origin! So, there ARE no Barrow-wights without the Witch-king nor would there be any Westernesse weapons to kill them with, there is also no Witch-king without the nine rings for mortal men, and according to Rings of Power Sauron hasn't even bloody forged those yet... They have it ALL arse about face. What is the point of forking out millions for an IP rich with lore if you're just going to damn well ignore it all!!
I mean... they have bungled so many things, this barely even registers on the scale anymore. They turned Galadriel, one of the wisest and eldest elven leaders in Middle Earth, pretty much a duchess on her own right, into a young, impulsive army captain. The Ishtari are only supposed to arrive to Middle Earth in the Third Age, yet they already have Gandalf here for name recognition. They messed up Annatar, they messed up the orcs, they compressed in-universe historical events that took place over centuries into a few months... Honestly, the barrow wights are such a small detail, it's like talking about how a "historical" story where Winston Churchill helps Caesar to fight Napoleon before he could join hands with the evil George Washington and enslaves the Japanese in the hundred years war, the tommy-guns used by the Hungarian cavalry had scopes on them and were used as sniper rifles. Yes, it's technically a valid complaint, but it's but a stray wayward thread of a tapestry of WRONGNESS, so what's even the point?
@@ikmor I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but just to reiterate: with how absurdly non-canon this whole thing is, I find pointing out inconsistencies in world-building-minutia that even most LotR fans wouldn't know or care much about to be pointless. I'm not attacking the OP, and he obviously knows his Tolkien lore, I just think trying to discuss this show in that context is an abject waste of time.
This is soap opera writing. Things happen just because to maximize drama, and conflicts and main plot points get resolved without rhyme or reason or off screen
The funny thing is, the Barrow Wights were awoken by the Witchking of Angmar, famously, the chief of the Nazgûl. And the nine rings of men have not yet been created 😅
@g3rman1a501 i stand corrected. It had been a while since I last read the books and was trying to go off memory. I did look it back up to refresh my memory. Thank you for keeping me in check I should have confirmed this before posting. I will leave my original post unedited so my blunder may live on. Though I shall make it a point that the barrow wights did not exist till the fall of Arnor well into the 3rd age.
@@ostatnifajek128 glad you mentioned that. Cuz I would've said the same thing but alas I feel like the two of us are more likely to have actually read the source material to understand this.
Fun fact, the elves go to a place named "burial mound of wraiths" in their own language and are surprised to find wraiths. Suza-t is the Westron word for the Shire. Westron doesn't exist yet, and the closest language to that now is Numenorian. It is entirely possible the Harfoots could have reached the Shire and not realized they made it where they are going since no one calls it that yet. They are teasing the Shire in the same episode they reveal there are already undead horrors on the eastern border of it. Entwives as written by Tolkien didn't really care about forests and actually abandoned the Ents to make fields and orchards instead of tending to the wild woodlands.
"He probably read this in a book somewhere." Yeah, Lord of the Rings. Except he got all the details wrong and somehow the Barrow Downs moved hundreds of miles east.
YES! Am I the only one kinda confused that barely anyone talking about this show mentions how they are changing the maps, BarrowDown are in the north east of Arnor near to Angmar, Season one did it too, adding a River and Dam in Mordor for their retarded Volcano nonsense.
24:44 I never thought Tom Bombadil would sound so dispassionate. He sounds like a sheep farmer herding sheep rather than a jolly whimsical supernatural figure.
Well if you asked Emil pagliarulo you'd hear "you just answered your question, why, obviously it was the trailblazers!" God i hate slopfield so fucking much it's unbelievable
@@zak7an2 exploding orcs ! It is a common orc tactic to douse themselves in kerosine before any battle or engagement with the enemy. It's on page 57 of the orc manual, right next to instructions about loving your orc wife and educational games to play with your orc baby.
I personally believe they purposely had Galadriel get captured for the very reason so these two can 'chat' and the current orc leader can find out that Helbrand was Sauron. Infact, after he finds that out, dipshit might even 'let her go'. That's my prediction, anyway.
Yeah. They were men from what used to be Arnor. And they died due to the Witchking killings them. And they rose again because the Witchking put evil spirits in their bodies to attack Frodo.
The specific barrow wights that Frodo and the gang encountered, yeah, but there has been mention that those were not the only ones. The houseless souls of elves that refused afterlife are likely the source of these, corrupted in time by their unnatural state, and grabbing any body they could, even a dead human's
I hate that the barrow downs exist this early in the timeline when they're supposed to be a burial ground established by the kingdom of Arnor that only becomes haunted after the WItch King sends evil spirits to them.
The oldest barrows date from the first age, later additions by the Dunedain after the fall of Numenor, and later corrupted by the Witchking. So they would have existed at this point as ancient burial mounds.
@@tubag313 True. I was thinking it could pass the "RoP test" by it helping imply that Isildur had somehow survived with no food captured by a spider for a longer period of time than should be possible. But you're right, not having motivations and consequences is the show's goal.
@@tubag313 and worldbuilding, because then they may have had to explain how Mordor already has 'wildmen' 3 fucking weeks into it's history Seriously, this show is progressing as if 'mordor' already has this rich back story with cursed forests and wild tribes when it's been less than a month since that damned volcano went off
I know why they say the sea is always right. It's because after Numenor sinks someone will say the opposite "No land was ever left". Or something crap like that.
If the Sauron in RoP was as competent as the Sauron in the books/movies…he would have conquered middle earth looooong before this! Not hard to conquer imbeciles.
@RandomFilmTalk I really enjoy your videos and I am now halfway through this, but I need to comment this before I forget it, as it would probably be a nice inclusion for your final autopsy. You did nicely map out the travel route from Mithlond to Ost-in-Edhil, but you made a small geographical mistake in assuming that the writers are close to competent. Since I cannot attach images myself, I will try to explain based on your drawing at 37:41: The path you drew in red is actually the fastest path to Eregion (Ost-in-Edhil). However, the crossing over the river Baranduin (Brandywein) there is the Sarnford. The Axa-Bridge (which is completely made up, by the way), is shown in the map of the show to be north of the Sarnford, approximately where the river has a more west-east orientation in between the two woodlands. The barrow downs are the hills right to the east of the supposed bridge (which is west of there the road crossing is). In summary, that means: 1) Elrond, Galadriel and all the messengers did not take the fastest road (via the Sarnford) to Eregion, so as to be confronted with the destroyed bridge. 2) Going south from the destroyed bridge and taking the Sarnford would not only be faster, but also circumvent the barrow downs, as they are to the east of the destroyed bridge. 3) How going north would delay a journey of a few days (It takes much longer in real time, but alas, let it be for this show) by two weeks is out my understanding. With a bit of middle-earth geography on the side-note: The landscape shots are gorgeous, but do not necessarily fit into this part of middle earth. The regions on the way from Mithlond to Eregion are what will later become the Shire and are, with a possible short exception of the Emyn Beraid (which are not particularly high either), rather gentle hills and not particularly mountainous. And neither should there be a deep canyon where the destroyed bridge is located. Since I know you do not care about the lore for this analysis, but it is discussed in the comments, I want to mention this last: The earliest version of the barrow downs was created by the Edain (Humans) on their way to Beleriand in the first age, so, technically, it is not entirely incorrect that they already existed. However, the regions was later inhabited by the people of Cardolan (one of the three Kingdoms of Arnor, established by the survivors of Numenor in the 3rd ! age). They expanded upon the graves and also literally lived in that area, until the barrow wights were awakened by the Witch King during the Angmar wars (again, 3rd age). Is it entirely impossible that barrow wights were awakened by Sauron even this early? No. But is it very unlikely given that people would consciously decide to live in the spooky forrest aftwerwards? Hell yeah. So lore wise, they took the two chapters that Jackson cut (rightfully so, in my opinion) from the Fellowship of the Ring (i.e. Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Downs), inserted both together in one episode (so for us to make the connection), only to include presumed "fan-favorites" that Jackson didn't. And they bend the whole geography of middle-earth in order to contrive the scene with the barrow downs. Two times, actually, as it was neither the fastest path nor are the barrow downs located in the south of the invented locataion for the "Axa" bridge. I am sorry for the wall of text, but I needed to rant about this blatant geographical mistake of the show so that it doesn't go unnoticed. I hope it will help you for the final autopsy. Have a good day and continue your nice work.
2:06:00 the line Galadriel won't cross is understanding the consequences of her actions. That or a random point to be assigned by the writers in a convenient time for them
Your videos are way more fun and entertaining than the actual series. Thank you for taking one for the team. I can understand that this is pure pain. Lol
Ya but he got that troll now... that's like a +100 buff to his forces. A single troll... also love how elven scouts spotted Halbrand crossing the border but missed him going back across and have now also not seen an entire pissing army, a huge trench network and a literally evil shrine in their tower that was a dam lever.
Hopefully Glug the orc, his wife, and glugling child get through RoP ok. It would be even better if Glug slayed Galadriel and showed her a real slash and stab.
I thought this show couldn't get any lower in the "omg, we're such clever writers!" scale as it did when they did the fade-to-mordor lettering reveal in S01. But then they went and called not-gandalf "grand-elf"...
The funniest thing about Merrimac is that, after finding out he is a simpleton, Poppy is seemingly attracted to him given her body language and introduction. This suggests that her type of ideal partner is an idiot, or easily controlled.
why didn't sauron morph into a messenger after killing the others, supply his own forged letter that says "listen to this halbrand fellow" and hand it to celebrimbor????? like, buddy.
Having elves turn invisible for wearing a ring of power is as dumb as having a duck sink in water. Mortal men didn't turn invisible either. They slowly faded over a thousand of years of constant use. But no, let's just reference the movies. Remember the movies? Anyone? It's just like in them?!
One of the "powers" of all the Rings except the Three, was invisibilty: "And finally they ["all the rings alike"] had other powers, more directly derived from Sauron (‘the Necromancer’: so he is called as he casts a fleeting shadow and presage on the pages of The Hobbit): such as rendering invisible the material body, and making things of the invisible world visible. The Elves of Eregion made Three supremely beautiful and powerful rings, almost solely of their own imagination, and directed to the preservation of beauty: they did not confer invisibility." Letter 131 (It is possible that the Dwarves were 'immune' from being turned invisible)
Two words about traveling from Boston to Baltimore (and in reality, nobody from the Northeast would ever go further south or west). Lembas Bread. Cocaine infused Lembas Bread.
Tom Bombadil in any LoTR media that isn’t a book is a sign that the writers do not understand how to write. He is an entirely pointless character that only sort of works in the books because they have 1000+ pages to work with. To include him in film or tv shows a complete lack of ability in making decisions to improve pacing and narrative cohesion. Jackson cutting him from the trilogy was most likely the first thing he did, and the fact he’s been ham fisted into Rings of Power means the show runners are so desperate for links to Tolkien that they’re prepared to put the least narratively adept inclusion in all of LoTR into their show.
@@soma250 I hate diversity because I’m against the inclusion of a character where the actor is a… white man? And that character having always been depicted as a white man?
I dont agree that Bombadil is pointless, but I think his point is one that is very much at odds with basically any fiction which will try and include him. Bombadil is there to show that the world is bigger and stranger than anything going on, he is an enigma, something beyond the power of the ring and utterly uninterested in the quest to destroy it or in its use. He has a point in that he shows that the world exists beyond what we will see, that we are going to focus on only a specific aspect of it.
Competent writers can make literally anything work. Talentless nepos set themselves up for failure because they aren't aware that they really suck and that they should have had at least one smart person to sponge off of if they wanted to succeed.
I don't think Bombadil even works in the books given that he doesn't fit anywhere in the established mythology and the only reason he's there at all is because Tolkien previously wrote some poems about Bombadil and thought it would be cool to put him in Middle Earth.
@@notarealperson8956 I would add thet his part of the book itself is not pointless from a pacing point of view either because the Burrow Wriths is the first real "adventure" the hobbits survive and he is the first "stop" before they start theirs journey again and top of thet he saving them is thematicly relevant because it is the microcosm of the whole idea of the eucatastrophy the series hing on. Though it is abizarrly written part, but I like it and I think in a TV show Tom Bombadiil can work perfetly fine, maybe in an animated series better then in live action though.
I am repeatedly struck by how badly the writers handle conflicts. Nothing is set up ahead of time, things just happen, dangers and obstacles just blow up out of nowhere; bottomless chasms, giant worm monsters, orc armies, invulnerable liches, magical fumbles creating uncontrollable sandstorm twisters - they all just happen, one moment nothing and the next moment they’re there. And they frequently show situations that appear to be absolutely fatal, only to be either: resolved instantly, or: just not that bad trust me bro. When Isildur is trapped under debris inside a burning and then collapsed house, or when Estrid is backhanded so she goes flying and smacks into a rock, or when the hobbits are sucked up a hundred meters above ground in a violent whirlwind… and it looks as if that’s it, they’re definitely dead now, but it turns out they’re just inexplicably okay. Or when insurmountable problems are solved instantly and without effort. The giant worm monster that just ate our guys? No problem, they cut their way out from the inside. Invulnerable liches? No problem, use this weapon instead and now the fight is over in five seconds. The writers are constantly telling us the stakes are super high. And then showing us that there are no stakes, no consequences for anything. It’s fascinating how bad the writers are at absolute basics. Cheers!
Literally every single time Elrond says something to Galadriel she either has a snarky comeback or a correction. If these two people were real people they would hate each other. She has been wrong about everything and both of them know it. They don't even provide realistic interactions in this show.
If Elrond knew that the spooky ghosts can only be killed by the weapons they were burried with, why does he order an attack? He knew it wouldn't do anything and that they have to get the weapons from the tombs.
You know the worst part about this episode? "Folks round the withywindle used to call me Bombadil" no they fuckin didn't my dude Bombadil is a word in the language of Bucklandish. Buckland doesn't exist until after The Shire is founded. Nobody speaks the language Bombadil comes from. The thing people "used to call him" at this point of time, is Iarwain Ben-adar. "Oldest and Fatherless" I think they allude to that with "Eldest" but can't use his actual name. That's grounds, in my eyes, to omit the character. This butchery is absurd.
The forest is the barrow-downs... Downs are decidedly not forests. The wights didnt exist until after the Witch-king became undead. This time-line, judging from the events, Sauron as Annatar, Numenor existing, proto-hobbits, Rings not being forged (seriously, the rings shouldnt exist yet) the Barrow Downs didnt exist, therefore the wights don't exist. The events are all out of sequence, there are no redeeming qualities in this series.
Frodo must have had godlike powers when he was walking around wearing a coat of pure mithril mail. Forget the one ring, if a mithril alloy is all that’s needed to give these rings their crazy power than the mithril coat has got to be the most powerful artifact in all of middle earth
1:14:14 😳 Estrid saying sorry, just to be shown to be lying just proves to me that for Estrid, Galadriel or any other character, I’m convinced the writers have not comprehension of people being able to recognize a mistake and truly take responsibility. They either never take responsibility and recognize their wrongs, or if they claim to be sorry it’s actually just a setup for a trap.
You just have to know this: the showrunners are masters in quantum mechanics. The character are in a superposition of smart and dump as long not measured. And the elfs do not travel, they just tunnel. They are smeared out over all of Middle Earth and localize where the plot looks at. Basically, everyone in this show is a version of Schroedingers cat.
I have been rewatching the LOTRs films and it really emphasizes just how bad Rings of Power is as a series. I cannot fathom how folks can equally say Rings of Power is as good as the Jackson films(Yes, I know there are book fans who hate the movies but I'm strictly talking in terms of writing/ their own thing) in terms of writing. Or just as bad say the series could never get to the height of those films which I say: Why can't it? What's stopping Amazon or any of these "writers" from putting in the effort. A TV series more than a movie has ample time to explore Middle Earth and create some amazing characters, worlds etc. Just look at Arcane or heck, go back to Hercules, Xena etc. But nope. These showrunners and "writers" want to put us critics down and say we are "trolls" and claim we are the problem. No; this series is the problem. Good art/ media is timeless. The decades will go by and the shots and effects can age but writing is timeless. Rings of Power won't stand the test of time. It's just good looking sludge.
I wouldn't even say good looking. The visual effects are often good, but the sets all look cheap and are lit like a sound stage. The costumes are cheap and bland, the towns appear empty, and it all feels amateur.
@@JackChurchill101Definitely agree on the costumes. I don't get why people praise them. The armor looks like painted plastic (because that's most likely what it is), the general outfits are unflattering on the actors (especially any of the robes and that dress the character calling herself Galadriel wore at the end of the first season), and there was that easily noticeable printed scale-pattern t-shirt. I'm not knowledgeable about fashion or costume design at all (being a typical man lol), but even I can tell something is wrong with these designs. I remember at least one video coming out around the first season, from a costume designer who was critiquing the designs and pointing out why they're so bad.
No, you are the problem... for not eating up the streaming slime produced and fed to you. Be happy that some characters have some names which one can recognize. It does not matter if whole plot lines are taken into a car crash and get replaced by nonsense slob.
Just saw this comment on another video, makes the forging of the rings even sillier: magister343 "It should also be noted that in season 1 they made it very clear they the forging required precious metals from Valinor as the metals of middle earth were too corrupted by Morgoth and their corruption would be magnified in the process. Also, their only source of Valinorian silver and gold was the dagger Galadriel carried, which did not provide enough metal for crowns. I believe they said they only barely had enough for the 3 rings. That implies that the materials for the dwarven rings could not possibly be the same. They probably used gold from middle earth, despite knowing it was corrupted, and should expect the 7 and the 9 to magnify such corruption."
1:35:31 IGN giving Alien: Isolation a 5.9 and Rings of Power an 8 then a 6 is atrocious. Isolation is a better addition to the Alien Franchise than anything else that involves Alien for the past 2 decades. I remember falling in love with the Trailer for that game when I was in high school. The game lived up to everything it was said to be.
30:45 "The barrow-downs, where ancient men laid their kings to rest" Oh, you mean the kings of Anor, the human kingdom that is yet to be founded, a few hundred years in the future? Oh my, I never knew elves had time travellers in their ranks.
Ah yes. Episode 4. Level 3 of side quest hell. How do you make a filler episode for an 8 episode season? I know things slightly pick up towards the end, but... did anyone play Dragon Age Inquisition? The hinterlands. I felt like I was back in the Hinterlands. Way too much time wasted on pointless crap and fetch quests with no consequence. And then when you finally pull yourself out of the admin, it's like 3am and you have to go to bed and deal with the plot tomorrow. I cannot believe a TV show replicated that feeling so impressively. I'm not saying the Eregion plotline or the Khazad dum plots are perfect but lord did I feel the lack of thier presence in this episode. It felt like a monster of the week filler episode/ Easter egg and reference fest. It was a chore to watch, in a way even the first three episodes of this season weren't
31:31 hold it a second - having one or more _messengers_ not coming back is very, very different to Cellabribum not giving the messengers an answer or not sending his own messengers later. A messenger is a person, and for high level governmental messages they'd be trusted, skilled, well-equipped, and carry some authority - losing one or more _people_ like that is _not_ like an email ending up in the Spam folder
Sauron is able to do what he is doing, just because Galadriel did not just say who he was before leaving and following elrond. All of this season, it's because of her. All of season 1, is because of her. Everything, is because of her, she is so annoying.
Istrid forgot that Arondir exists because the writers are so inept they accidentally failed to give Istrid object permanence so as soon as something is out of sight, she forgets it exists completely.
Can we live in a world where companies as a whole hire script/lore/logic testers for every script written…that RoP is so broken and mistreated is a f*cking Inexcusable tragedy. Imagine if we got LotR quality and care for this show.
Galadriel’s over excessively rolling her R’s like she is some Spanish chick it’s so fkn annoying. Also, that Gilga-Daddy meme just ruined the series for me. On god 😂
Elrond has been so close to finally being close to a good character this season, which is a miracle considering how terrible he was last season. But the writers are just too stupid to understand that and keep regressing him back to being a complete idiot when the script says so.
Annoyingly it actually seems like the guy they got to play bombadil would actually be really good at it, if he had the script and the direction of someone who knew what they were doing.
There are probably a dozen people already mentioning this here, but I'll say it anyway. Nerd moment: the barrow-downs can't be a thing in the show, because these burial grounds were established by Anor... The kingdom doesn't exist yet. It was established after the fall of Númenor, which as you might've guessed hasn't happened in the show yet.
The burial grounds (or variants of them) has existed since the 1st Age. Problem is they're located way far to the East in the show, plus the enchanted weapons the Elves use to "kill" these "zombies" with didn't exist until the 3rd age/after the _fall of Numenor_ nor had the Witchking of Angmar "awoken" them from death yet. Guess Sauron taught him how to do it after doing it here in RoP :D
@@LateralTwitlerLT I didn't even look at the fact that the location was way off. Good catch. I do in fact have a detailed map of middle earth on the wall of my hobby room, so I could've gone down into the basement to check if I want a lazy sack right now. Thank you for pointing it out.
@@georgethompson913 Not the barrow downs per se, but burial mounds for kings and important men. Which is why the men who settled there at the end of the Second Age took up the practice.
The absolute worst part is that they actaully thought they had to spend an entire episode in season 1 just to show that Lemonlass cut down a tree once. Why? And, how does Standalf get a hot bath in the middle of the desert where there is only one tree, that won't even give hima single branch for a staff? "You are not worthy of a staff yet. But you can have my wood for a bath." The showrunners are Superhero flick guys and don't undestand the world building neccesary in Fantasy.
The show runners seem desperate to include all of the stuff left out of the Peter Jackson movies in some sort of attempt to show they actually care about Tolkien and the lore. They've already included the Barrow Wights and Tom Bombadil, I won't be surprised if that Stoor villlage gets destroyed by the evil wizard and referred to as a scouring.
_"if that Stoor villlage gets destroyed by the evil wizard and referred to as a scouring"_ How about all that, plus that this "scouring" leads them all to take the trek northeast and settle in the fabled "Shire" their legends reference? Meaning these *_are_* the future Shirelings? Just wait for it.
Just for the record, this is not indeed enthralling to a 5-year-old, not my 5-year-old anyway. She didn't even crack a smile at this stupid s*** & hates this show almost as much as I do - & when she sees, for example, "Galadriel," she says, "that's not the real Galadriel." 😂 She has great taste, though, & loves the Lord of the Rings movies & her dad's reading her the Hobbit, so, she has a decent amount of context as to why this show makes no sense.
Elrond in the books : - general of Gilgalad's army, his standardbearer, - warden of Harlindon - south province of Lindon, - scholar, - politician, - respected for his heroic ancestry, - mentor of young king Gilgalad, - husband of Celebrian, daugter of Galadriel, Amazon's Elrond : - a false friend, - a spy, - a poet, - a servant of Galadriel, - behaving more like a pageboy from the court of Numenor than like ancient elven nobleman.
Is it just me or is literally every actor I’ll suited to the role they’re in? Sauron’s actor is the only one that’s not off putting but Jesus Christ everyone else is just brutal to me
All the basic writing weaknesses are present. But what really gets me about this episode is their efforts to bring in pointless fan service fluff to appease Tolkien nerds like me, only to get them so badly wrong that they enrage the nerds. Bombadil is nothing like this irritating sarcasm bore and barrow wights v elf lords isn’t any sort of contest - those mournful dead guys are a threat to hobbits not elven super warriors who stand a decent chance taking on a balrog.
47:30 in One Piece there is a slave mark that the Sun Pirates, many of whom consist of freed slaves, cover with their own sun brand, and everyone gets the same sun marking so you can't tell who used to be a slave or not. I feel like RoP tried to go for something similar but didn't quite figure it out.
I’m not watching the show, this is the only way I’m knowing what’s happening, but I would assume that the reason for the “who are you?” “What do you mean?” Discussion is because non-Gandalf will be influenced by this, thus leading to his talk with bilbo in the hobbit “Good morning” “What do you mean by good morning?”
Love the vid as always. I literally only know what's going on now because of your videos. Also watching the EFAP episode of this...glad to see you on there now
What I've been wondering since the start of season two is; After Morgoth was eliminated at the end of the first age, Sauron tried to lead the orcs but was assassinated by Adar and friends. He became a glob of oily hair until eventually taking the shape of Halibrand and randomly meeting up with Galadriel in the middle of the ocean. So when did he lead the legion of orcs that fought the elves and eventually killed Galadriel's brother and kidnapped her husband? That's the start of her entire 1,000 year vengeance campaign and the basis for this entire flipping series. So when did he do that according to the show runners?
Just to log it. Given the theory that we still don’t have kings of men and that Theo just keeps hanging around. Theo becomes the Witch King of Angmar in the Amazon series.
the thing with Theo is that there is also no information on who his father is, which Arondir specifically brings up in s2ep3 to which Theo replies "no, i dont know who my dad is but it sure as shit isnt you" so im pretty sure they are setting him up to be a long lost son of a long lost king or something like that, one of the possible reasons for this being that yeah they dont actually have any human kings for the nine except Pharazon
2 หลายเดือนก่อน
9 human kings will suddenly appear when the plot needs them
Those pesky hobbitzes… when Nori wakes up and her first question is „have you seen him“ and not „are you okay“. Those folks are the true evil in middle earth 😅 Also how does not Gandalf know what Sauron is and that he is evil? Or is he just assuming since the priests didn’t like the horrorfoots and they might have been looking for him that he is evil? 🤔
Poopy and Nori surviving the tornado throwing them hundreds of feet is beyond disbelief; but that they don’t sustain even the slightest of injuries, a broken bone (her father broke his foot, the Hardoot’s arguably strongest physical component, proving their skeletons aren’t made from adamantium and are breakable), a dislocated shoulder, some bruised muscles, even a goddamn scrape or scratch, waking up like they passed out at a frat keg party, is utterly insane. These writers couldn’t wipe their own asses even if the TP was stapled to their palms.
Given how much history they want to compress into these five seasons it never fails to amaze the amount of pointless filler they stick into the episode. I'm not even going to ask why Celebrimbor doesn't try to get the Dwarven rings back if he's convinced they're tainted...
1:19:55 “Rings of Power is not a story. It is a sequence of events that were designed to elicit an emotional response.” That is the most succinct description of why this show is failing outside of respecting the source material.
I have a theory that the writers heard all the feedback on the pacing of S1 and responded by putting S2 on ffwd so they can inflict even more of their dullness on the audience. Given that Istari are Ainur, the first beings created by Elu Iluvatar, and Tom is behaving as if he's older than Not Gandalf, so the only thing he can be is Elu Iluvatar.
![The Consciousness Iceberg: Hofstadter's Strange Loops, Penrose, CEMI, McGilchrist, CTMU [Layer 4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/8AuYaT3L9DM/mqdefault.jpg)
I imagine I'm not alone in that I have yet to watch a single episode of season 2, yet I've watched *dozens* of hours of content about it lol.
Yea I gave a fair chance to a few episodes of season 1, but after seeing the direction it was going I tapped out for good.
Same but I haven't even watched season 1, and I'm not planning on doing it
I kind of hate watched season one and tried the second one but literally couldn't do it. Because I had to pause every 5 seconds to pic it a part. So I better watch a other guy do exactly that so I don't have to press the pause button so much.....
I have watched infinitly more content about how bad this show is, then watching the show. I figured this show was going to be garbage after Amazon failed at the wheel of time. That show had me depressed for a while.
I got prime for a week, figured I'd hate-watch for sh**s and giggles. There's nothing positive to say about it.
For those who don't know:
The Shire was never a f--kin' prophecy. The King of the region at the time gifted the Hobbits that land out of pity and as a reward for their help in a war. Their first settlement was actually Bree before most of them traveled further West.
And then that kingdom of Men died and aged out of memory and all of the buried kings became the Barrow-Wights.
Stop hurtin it with lore!
Its almost like this world has more than brain damaged magic to it
@silverscorpio24 Your knowledge of lore is not welcome sir and or madam and or they/them. Please take your logics and knowledge to another deep hole on the interwebs and let Amazon mutilate this franchise in peace!
@@Jeremy-83 As a fellow lore nerd, I disagree. Amazon is writing a topically conceived fanfiction, nothing more, and sunlight is the best disinfectant. Sure, they can say, "Oh, the king gifted them the land fulfilling the Harfoot prophecy hyuk hyuk!" but those of us who know how things play out from Tolkien's vision can smell weasel writing and bad correlation, and those of you who care about Middle-Earth deserve to know it's truth (not it's bastardization).
Edited because autocorrect doesn't know that amd is not a word...
But not until the opening of the 3rd age. By a being who does not yet exist. WHy sauron would bother with that is beyond me?
Whenever I feel upset about how my life is going, I take some time to consider Glug, the Glug-wife and the Glugling and how unfortunate their circumstances are. When compared, I don’t have it that bad after all. :)
Maybe Glug get happy ending
I’m rooting for Glug to slay Galadriel.
At least you are not in this show.
Maybe that was the plan. 🧐
Na.
Glug is doomed to eternal suffering.
Glug will be given Galadriel as a slave.
This version of Galadriel would've throttled Frodo to take the One Ring from him, believing that she can use it to defeat Sauron.
Which is what Galadriel actually mentions in lotr
@@easternwesterner
Um actually, Frodo offered it willingly, cos he figured someone as strong and wise as her could handle it better than him....
There was no threat of throttling, or even an implication of such, might wanna rewatch the movies if you somehow got that impression...
@@Jeartozer Galadriel literally refers to younger self as someone who would have taken the ring to use it and speaks of what it would've been like. She is not like that any more (older and wiser) so she refuses. Check out the scene yourself, she literally says it out loud.
Young Galadriel was pretty vain and craved power, and her character had an arc in the books. She passes the test of facing the Ring in her older years.
That doesn't excuse ridiculous RoP version, of course.
@@easternwesterner she does not say the same thing in the book as she does in the movie.
@@easternwesterner
Wrong. If you bothered to watch the scene again, which I did to make sure I wasnt mistaken and will post below, she is NOT talking of her younger self, but of what she would do if she took the One Ring from Frodo; ie taking Sauron's place as a Dark Queen. Please actually do the research next time, make yourself actually look smart.
m.th-cam.com/video/K3VOf3CBGvw/w-d-xo.html
I don't think McDaggerman and his companions were chosen because of their skills. They were the only elves not inteligent enough to know, that when Galadriel approaches you about some sort of an expedition, it's in your best interest to suddenly remember that you urgently need to water your dog and take your cactus to the vet.
😂 That has to be it!
Adar: bow before me or be gutted by Glug’s family doctor
Literal slaves: bows and gets branded in order to avoid needlessly getting killed
The writers: this is now a person of evil and a person of wild, even though they were very recently just a guy from the Southlands that was captured against their will, they are now different and bad? I can believe someone viewing a group like that as bandits, or dangerous, but they were just regular farmers 1 month ago and their actions are out of pragmatism.
The obvious equivalent would be the depiction of Wildlings in GOT, which most of the characters are prejudice against because they pillage southern towns and live barbaric or pagan-like lives. This is a view that formed likely after hundreds of years of isolation between each other, as well as the cultural and moral differences. In RoP, the wildmen are displaced refugees that were further displaced by a giant volcano, who were subsequently enslaved by evilmen and Glug, branded against their will, then released. They are desperate and hungry people released into a forrest, that the characters of the show view as “wild” and “evil”.
I’m gonna pull out the WWII card because this is malicious writing, this is the equivalent of wanting to ki** holoc**** survivors because got forcefully tattooed. That is, without a doubt, something you do not want your main characters doing unless they are morally bankrupt and drank brake fluid.
Small nitpick, but the Free Folk also live beyond the Wall, where it is colder, foraging and farming (if at all possible) are harder. It doesn't completely justify the pillaging they do south of the Wall, but it explains making a cultural norm aggressively taking resources otherwise they'll starve to death. That makes the Free Folk rather grey and easy to caricature either as "misunderstood" or "evil pillagers of evil".
"So as to not get shanked by the Gluglings daycare teacher" 46:18... This guy is a legend.
"We must get to Eregion as rapidly as possible! Quickly, hide all the fucking horses!"
You don't need horses when you have Elrond who probably has, from all the groveling and bowing to Galadriel, glutes of steel and is capable of running with 5-6 people on his shoulders faster than any horse ever could
Why do you think Celebrimborg did not have any horse during his travel to Khazad-dûm?
If Sauron can ride Galadriel to victory then Celebrimborg and Galadriel can ride Elrond to at least the nearest elven town
Horses cost money.
Budget is probably tighter this season.
Given that a horse died during the filming of season 1, they were probably pushing it with Berek. It does raise a valid point though: with all this traveling (and this also applies to season 1), why hasn't there been way more horse travel?
Galadriel isnt allowed near horses after the numenorean event
Nori and Poppi aimed for the bushes. They missed, and landed safely on a very stretched suspension of disbelief, but aiming for the bushes is the how of the thing.
Also: Non-Tombadil. Before anyone else tries to trademark it.
What about shortening it to non-badil
@@aliciastokes9897 After some thought, Tom Non-badil is pretty dang good.
We shall split the profits. 50/50.
Now I'm not a Tolkien scholar, (and I realise that Random Film Talk is only working from what is on screen in the show) but, they have absolutely screwed up the Barrow-wights too...
It is my understanding that Barrow-wights are the raised corpses of Northern Dunedain warriors from the kingdom of Cardolan. A kingdom which had been involved in a protracted war with the Witch-king of Angmar during the Third Age. The Witch-king raised these warriors as wights in an effort to prevent their kingdom ever being re-established.
It was during this war that the Dunedain created Westernesse weaponry specifically to combat and pierce through the magical protections the Witch-king had placed upon his forces...
It's for this reason alone that the weapons found within the barrows are able to kill Barrow-wights, they are Westernesse, belonged to the Dunedain who were buried there and subsequently raised, and they undo the magic of the Witch-king returning the wights to being lifeless corpses. This is why Merry's dagger did so much damage to the Witch-king leading to Éowyn being able to finally kill him. It was from a barrow and therefore of Westernesse origin!
So, there ARE no Barrow-wights without the Witch-king nor would there be any Westernesse weapons to kill them with, there is also no Witch-king without the nine rings for mortal men, and according to Rings of Power Sauron hasn't even bloody forged those yet... They have it ALL arse about face.
What is the point of forking out millions for an IP rich with lore if you're just going to damn well ignore it all!!
Money and IP recognotion for dumb uneducated and ignorant masses.
I mean... they have bungled so many things, this barely even registers on the scale anymore. They turned Galadriel, one of the wisest and eldest elven leaders in Middle Earth, pretty much a duchess on her own right, into a young, impulsive army captain. The Ishtari are only supposed to arrive to Middle Earth in the Third Age, yet they already have Gandalf here for name recognition. They messed up Annatar, they messed up the orcs, they compressed in-universe historical events that took place over centuries into a few months...
Honestly, the barrow wights are such a small detail, it's like talking about how a "historical" story where Winston Churchill helps Caesar to fight Napoleon before he could join hands with the evil George Washington and enslaves the Japanese in the hundred years war, the tommy-guns used by the Hungarian cavalry had scopes on them and were used as sniper rifles. Yes, it's technically a valid complaint, but it's but a stray wayward thread of a tapestry of WRONGNESS, so what's even the point?
@@Horvath_Gabor
Why the negative comment?
@@ikmor I think it's pretty self-explanatory, but just to reiterate: with how absurdly non-canon this whole thing is, I find pointing out inconsistencies in world-building-minutia that even most LotR fans wouldn't know or care much about to be pointless. I'm not attacking the OP, and he obviously knows his Tolkien lore, I just think trying to discuss this show in that context is an abject waste of time.
@@Horvath_Gabor I haven't read the books in years, so I'm picking up a good deal of lore from these discussions, though.
This is soap opera writing. Things happen just because to maximize drama, and conflicts and main plot points get resolved without rhyme or reason or off screen
The funny thing is, the Barrow Wights were awoken by the Witchking of Angmar, famously, the chief of the Nazgûl. And the nine rings of men have not yet been created 😅
And the barrow downs are from the kingdom of Arnor famously non existent till after the fall of Numinor.
@samuelgarrison1952 They actually did originate in the First Age, before Arnor
@g3rman1a501
From what I'd read, they were created in the third age, not the first... I'll have to do more reading.
@g3rman1a501 i stand corrected. It had been a while since I last read the books and was trying to go off memory. I did look it back up to refresh my memory. Thank you for keeping me in check I should have confirmed this before posting. I will leave my original post unedited so my blunder may live on. Though I shall make it a point that the barrow wights did not exist till the fall of Arnor well into the 3rd age.
@@ostatnifajek128 glad you mentioned that. Cuz I would've said the same thing but alas I feel like the two of us are more likely to have actually read the source material to understand this.
Fun fact, the elves go to a place named "burial mound of wraiths" in their own language and are surprised to find wraiths.
Suza-t is the Westron word for the Shire. Westron doesn't exist yet, and the closest language to that now is Numenorian. It is entirely possible the Harfoots could have reached the Shire and not realized they made it where they are going since no one calls it that yet.
They are teasing the Shire in the same episode they reveal there are already undead horrors on the eastern border of it.
Entwives as written by Tolkien didn't really care about forests and actually abandoned the Ents to make fields and orchards instead of tending to the wild woodlands.
"He probably read this in a book somewhere."
Yeah, Lord of the Rings. Except he got all the details wrong and somehow the Barrow Downs moved hundreds of miles east.
And thousands of years into the past 😂😂
YES! Am I the only one kinda confused that barely anyone talking about this show mentions how they are changing the maps, BarrowDown are in the north east of Arnor near to Angmar, Season one did it too, adding a River and Dam in Mordor for their retarded Volcano nonsense.
24:44 I never thought Tom Bombadil would sound so dispassionate. He sounds like a sheep farmer herding sheep rather than a jolly whimsical supernatural figure.
Come on, now. You know there could never be anything jolly in this accursed show...
I still can't believe in two seasons we have most of the rings made without having meaningfully built the world at all.
Anyone who has visited the DMV, post office or a municipal hospital has met a Gundabale.
Or met a parking attendant 😂
😆😆😆
If nobody goes off trail I would love to know who made the trails in the first place
Well if you asked Emil pagliarulo you'd hear "you just answered your question, why, obviously it was the trailblazers!"
God i hate slopfield so fucking much it's unbelievable
"There is a double fire arrow in me!" - random orc after fighting Galadriel, circa 1200 - 3319 of the Second Age
@@zak7an2 exploding orcs ! It is a common orc tactic to douse themselves in kerosine before any battle or engagement with the enemy. It's on page 57 of the orc manual, right next to instructions about loving your orc wife and educational games to play with your orc baby.
I personally believe they purposely had Galadriel get captured for the very reason so these two can 'chat' and the current orc leader can find out that Helbrand was Sauron. Infact, after he finds that out, dipshit might even 'let her go'. That's my prediction, anyway.
Circa 1200-3319 😂😂😂😂
I was there and i clapped when I saw it
@@Uhtred-the-bold given the Barrow Wights, we have to correct this to: circa 1200 SA - 1500 TA
The writers don't know how ancient the barrow wights are becuase they won't be created for about two thousand years. They're ancient in Bilbo's time.
Yeah. They were men from what used to be Arnor. And they died due to the Witchking killings them. And they rose again because the Witchking put evil spirits in their bodies to attack Frodo.
The specific barrow wights that Frodo and the gang encountered, yeah, but there has been mention that those were not the only ones.
The houseless souls of elves that refused afterlife are likely the source of these, corrupted in time by their unnatural state, and grabbing any body they could, even a dead human's
It's even 3000 years.
"I will see you soon for part five"
The cliffhanger is unbearable. Will Random still be sane in a week? Fingers crossed....
The twist will be that he is bed-ridden due to catching stupidity from watching the show, and retarded alter-ego will do the episode breakdown
@@matthewmiller8297 Random is strong - sanity is for the weak!
Your commentary gives me a catharsis I cannot find elsewhere.
I hate that the barrow downs exist this early in the timeline when they're supposed to be a burial ground established by the kingdom of Arnor that only becomes haunted after the WItch King sends evil spirits to them.
The oldest barrows date from the first age, later additions by the Dunedain after the fall of Numenor, and later corrupted by the Witchking. So they would have existed at this point as ancient burial mounds.
Add 'Galadrial can time travel' to the list of things that happened when the writers were dropped on their heads?
"I am the only person that can defeat Sauron"
*proceeds to risk her life in a meaningless skirmish*
I really feel like they shoulda said the wildmen killed Bronwyn off screen. It'd make Aerondir's hatred of them make so much sense.
Well yes but that would mean actually introducing motivations and consequences. We can't have that in ROP sorry.
@@tubag313 True. I was thinking it could pass the "RoP test" by it helping imply that Isildur had somehow survived with no food captured by a spider for a longer period of time than should be possible. But you're right, not having motivations and consequences is the show's goal.
@@tubag313 and worldbuilding, because then they may have had to explain how Mordor already has 'wildmen' 3 fucking weeks into it's history
Seriously, this show is progressing as if 'mordor' already has this rich back story with cursed forests and wild tribes when it's been less than a month since that damned volcano went off
I know why they say the sea is always right. It's because after Numenor sinks someone will say the opposite "No land was ever left". Or something crap like that.
@@Gutgulper id like to say yes, but that would mean that the writers know what foreshadowing is and also think ahead. Both of which are not true.
22:19 “Grand-Elf.”
This is pain.
Grand Slam Elf
Grand-Alf
Like he's some kinda powerful mage, a grand-wizard, if you will
@@NickiRusin Barkley the White.
I like half the harfoot's half as much as i would like, and I dislike half the harfoots's half as much as they deserve.
I’m so excited this is dropping today. I can’t watch the premier but it gives me something to look forward to when I get home from work tonight
If the Sauron in RoP was as competent as the Sauron in the books/movies…he would have conquered middle earth looooong before this! Not hard to conquer imbeciles.
But the writers have to be able to understand their own characters.
@RandomFilmTalk
I really enjoy your videos and I am now halfway through this, but I need to comment this before I forget it, as it would probably be a nice inclusion for your final autopsy.
You did nicely map out the travel route from Mithlond to Ost-in-Edhil, but you made a small geographical mistake in assuming that the writers are close to competent. Since I cannot attach images myself, I will try to explain based on your drawing at 37:41:
The path you drew in red is actually the fastest path to Eregion (Ost-in-Edhil). However, the crossing over the river Baranduin (Brandywein) there is the Sarnford. The Axa-Bridge (which is completely made up, by the way), is shown in the map of the show to be north of the Sarnford, approximately where the river has a more west-east orientation in between the two woodlands. The barrow downs are the hills right to the east of the supposed bridge (which is west of there the road crossing is).
In summary, that means:
1) Elrond, Galadriel and all the messengers did not take the fastest road (via the Sarnford) to Eregion, so as to be confronted with the destroyed bridge.
2) Going south from the destroyed bridge and taking the Sarnford would not only be faster, but also circumvent the barrow downs, as they are to the east of the destroyed bridge.
3) How going north would delay a journey of a few days (It takes much longer in real time, but alas, let it be for this show) by two weeks is out my understanding.
With a bit of middle-earth geography on the side-note: The landscape shots are gorgeous, but do not necessarily fit into this part of middle earth. The regions on the way from Mithlond to Eregion are what will later become the Shire and are, with a possible short exception of the Emyn Beraid (which are not particularly high either), rather gentle hills and not particularly mountainous. And neither should there be a deep canyon where the destroyed bridge is located.
Since I know you do not care about the lore for this analysis, but it is discussed in the comments, I want to mention this last:
The earliest version of the barrow downs was created by the Edain (Humans) on their way to Beleriand in the first age, so, technically, it is not entirely incorrect that they already existed. However, the regions was later inhabited by the people of Cardolan (one of the three Kingdoms of Arnor, established by the survivors of Numenor in the 3rd ! age). They expanded upon the graves and also literally lived in that area, until the barrow wights were awakened by the Witch King during the Angmar wars (again, 3rd age).
Is it entirely impossible that barrow wights were awakened by Sauron even this early? No. But is it very unlikely given that people would consciously decide to live in the spooky forrest aftwerwards? Hell yeah.
So lore wise, they took the two chapters that Jackson cut (rightfully so, in my opinion) from the Fellowship of the Ring (i.e. Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Downs), inserted both together in one episode (so for us to make the connection), only to include presumed "fan-favorites" that Jackson didn't. And they bend the whole geography of middle-earth in order to contrive the scene with the barrow downs. Two times, actually, as it was neither the fastest path nor are the barrow downs located in the south of the invented locataion for the "Axa" bridge.
I am sorry for the wall of text, but I needed to rant about this blatant geographical mistake of the show so that it doesn't go unnoticed. I hope it will help you for the final autopsy.
Have a good day and continue your nice work.
2:06:00 the line Galadriel won't cross is understanding the consequences of her actions. That or a random point to be assigned by the writers in a convenient time for them
blud is already watching the next video
Lord of the Rings was a love letter to Anglo Saxon England. Rings of power is a love letter to modern England... and it shows.
California*
This is spot on 😂
Dirty minorities.
24:12 You find any halflings yet?
WE AIN'T FOUND SHIT
When a literal spoof movie is better written than your multi-million dollar show, you know you've cocked up.
Your videos are way more fun and entertaining than the actual series. Thank you for taking one for the team. I can understand that this is pure pain. Lol
So adar's army got strong enough to attack one of the best defended elven cities a week after being defeated by a small village and a small calvary
And he somehow marched it from Mordor to a place between Lindon and Eregion in the space of 3 days.
Ya but he got that troll now... that's like a +100 buff to his forces. A single troll... also love how elven scouts spotted Halbrand crossing the border but missed him going back across and have now also not seen an entire pissing army, a huge trench network and a literally evil shrine in their tower that was a dam lever.
Hopefully Glug the orc, his wife, and glugling child get through RoP ok. It would be even better if Glug slayed Galadriel and showed her a real slash and stab.
they need a spin off
You got to hand it to Amazon, they created a new form of entertainment... watching critics make fun of their stupidity lmao
I thought this show couldn't get any lower in the "omg, we're such clever writers!" scale as it did when they did the fade-to-mordor lettering reveal in S01. But then they went and called not-gandalf "grand-elf"...
I must be the thickest mofo this side of the Southlands, because somehow that flew entirely past me 😆Jesus Christ!
Along with all the tortured metaphors and weird sayings, it screams the writers are high on their own supposed genius.
The funniest thing about Merrimac is that, after finding out he is a simpleton, Poppy is seemingly attracted to him given her body language and introduction. This suggests that her type of ideal partner is an idiot, or easily controlled.
🤢🤢🤢
How dare they used the name of Merry's uncle Merrimac for this person :D
@@TallisKeeton dog army needs to get a little *rough*
@@Gorbz sorry, I dont get it. what dog army? :)
@@TallisKeeton Merry (Merryweather) calls his fans the dog army.
why didn't sauron morph into a messenger after killing the others, supply his own forged letter that says "listen to this halbrand fellow" and hand it to celebrimbor????? like, buddy.
For all the bad that is rings of power it has given us so much content to watch
Having elves turn invisible for wearing a ring of power is as dumb as having a duck sink in water.
Mortal men didn't turn invisible either. They slowly faded over a thousand of years of constant use.
But no, let's just reference the movies. Remember the movies? Anyone? It's just like in them?!
There are unfortunately no more ducks, Haitians have eaten them. Move on, citizen.
No ducks?
But but what about second duck?
🤗🦆
One of the "powers" of all the Rings except the Three, was invisibilty:
"And finally they ["all the rings alike"] had other powers, more directly derived from Sauron (‘the Necromancer’: so he is called as he casts a fleeting shadow and presage on the pages of The Hobbit): such as rendering invisible the material body, and making things of the invisible world visible.
The Elves of Eregion made Three supremely beautiful and powerful rings, almost solely of their own imagination, and directed to the preservation of beauty: they did not confer invisibility."
Letter 131
(It is possible that the Dwarves were 'immune' from being turned invisible)
Two words about traveling from Boston to Baltimore (and in reality, nobody from the Northeast would ever go further south or west). Lembas Bread. Cocaine infused Lembas Bread.
Hang on, I thought Friday the 13th was supposed to be the day of BAD luck. Getting a Random Film Talk video today seems to contradict that.
Tom Bombadil in any LoTR media that isn’t a book is a sign that the writers do not understand how to write. He is an entirely pointless character that only sort of works in the books because they have 1000+ pages to work with. To include him in film or tv shows a complete lack of ability in making decisions to improve pacing and narrative cohesion. Jackson cutting him from the trilogy was most likely the first thing he did, and the fact he’s been ham fisted into Rings of Power means the show runners are so desperate for links to Tolkien that they’re prepared to put the least narratively adept inclusion in all of LoTR into their show.
@@soma250 I hate diversity because I’m against the inclusion of a character where the actor is a… white man? And that character having always been depicted as a white man?
I dont agree that Bombadil is pointless, but I think his point is one that is very much at odds with basically any fiction which will try and include him. Bombadil is there to show that the world is bigger and stranger than anything going on, he is an enigma, something beyond the power of the ring and utterly uninterested in the quest to destroy it or in its use. He has a point in that he shows that the world exists beyond what we will see, that we are going to focus on only a specific aspect of it.
Competent writers can make literally anything work. Talentless nepos set themselves up for failure because they aren't aware that they really suck and that they should have had at least one smart person to sponge off of if they wanted to succeed.
I don't think Bombadil even works in the books given that he doesn't fit anywhere in the established mythology and the only reason he's there at all is because Tolkien previously wrote some poems about Bombadil and thought it would be cool to put him in Middle Earth.
@@notarealperson8956 I would add thet his part of the book itself is not pointless from a pacing point of view either because the Burrow Wriths is the first real "adventure" the hobbits survive and he is the first "stop" before they start theirs journey again and top of thet he saving them is thematicly relevant because it is the microcosm of the whole idea of the eucatastrophy the series hing on. Though it is abizarrly written part, but I like it and I think in a TV show Tom Bombadiil can work perfetly fine, maybe in an animated series better then in live action though.
I am repeatedly struck by how badly the writers handle conflicts. Nothing is set up ahead of time, things just happen, dangers and obstacles just blow up out of nowhere; bottomless chasms, giant worm monsters, orc armies, invulnerable liches, magical fumbles creating uncontrollable sandstorm twisters - they all just happen, one moment nothing and the next moment they’re there. And they frequently show situations that appear to be absolutely fatal, only to be either: resolved instantly, or: just not that bad trust me bro. When Isildur is trapped under debris inside a burning and then collapsed house, or when Estrid is backhanded so she goes flying and smacks into a rock, or when the hobbits are sucked up a hundred meters above ground in a violent whirlwind… and it looks as if that’s it, they’re definitely dead now, but it turns out they’re just inexplicably okay. Or when insurmountable problems are solved instantly and without effort. The giant worm monster that just ate our guys? No problem, they cut their way out from the inside. Invulnerable liches? No problem, use this weapon instead and now the fight is over in five seconds.
The writers are constantly telling us the stakes are super high. And then showing us that there are no stakes, no consequences for anything. It’s fascinating how bad the writers are at absolute basics.
Cheers!
Literally every single time Elrond says something to Galadriel she either has a snarky comeback or a correction. If these two people were real people they would hate each other. She has been wrong about everything and both of them know it. They don't even provide realistic interactions in this show.
"Horses cannot run for nearly a week without stopping"....
A more intelligent sentence than anything in this show...
If Elrond knew that the spooky ghosts can only be killed by the weapons they were burried with, why does he order an attack? He knew it wouldn't do anything and that they have to get the weapons from the tombs.
"I told you to take the wizard's staff!"
-Grima Wormtongue
You’d deprive an old man his “”””””””walking””””””””” stick?
Grima's got more sense than every character in this show combined lol
You know the worst part about this episode?
"Folks round the withywindle used to call me Bombadil"
no they fuckin didn't my dude
Bombadil is a word in the language of Bucklandish. Buckland doesn't exist until after The Shire is founded. Nobody speaks the language Bombadil comes from.
The thing people "used to call him" at this point of time, is Iarwain Ben-adar. "Oldest and Fatherless"
I think they allude to that with "Eldest" but can't use his actual name. That's grounds, in my eyes, to omit the character. This butchery is absurd.
So... Tolkien's Gundabar crows
and then Jackson's Gundabar bats of war
...and now
Amazon's Gundabale the horrible Hobbit
My head!
The lack of horses was probably a budget issue, like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Which really raises suspicions re where the money went for a season that's meant to be quite a few hundred million dollars
they couldn't afford coconuts?
The forest is the barrow-downs... Downs are decidedly not forests. The wights didnt exist until after the Witch-king became undead. This time-line, judging from the events, Sauron as Annatar, Numenor existing, proto-hobbits, Rings not being forged (seriously, the rings shouldnt exist yet) the Barrow Downs didnt exist, therefore the wights don't exist.
The events are all out of sequence, there are no redeeming qualities in this series.
It's amazing how literally every detail no matter how incidental is wrong. It's like it's on purpose.
Frodo must have had godlike powers when he was walking around wearing a coat of pure mithril mail. Forget the one ring, if a mithril alloy is all that’s needed to give these rings their crazy power than the mithril coat has got to be the most powerful artifact in all of middle earth
As a lore nerd it pisses me off to no end that barrow wights exist before the kingdom of arnor
1:14:14 😳 Estrid saying sorry, just to be shown to be lying just proves to me that for Estrid, Galadriel or any other character, I’m convinced the writers have not comprehension of people being able to recognize a mistake and truly take responsibility. They either never take responsibility and recognize their wrongs, or if they claim to be sorry it’s actually just a setup for a trap.
You just have to know this: the showrunners are masters in quantum mechanics.
The character are in a superposition of smart and dump as long not measured.
And the elfs do not travel, they just tunnel. They are smeared out over all of Middle Earth and localize where the plot looks at.
Basically, everyone in this show is a version of Schroedingers cat.
I have been rewatching the LOTRs films and it really emphasizes just how bad Rings of Power is as a series. I cannot fathom how folks can equally say Rings of Power is as good as the Jackson films(Yes, I know there are book fans who hate the movies but I'm strictly talking in terms of writing/ their own thing) in terms of writing. Or just as bad say the series could never get to the height of those films which I say: Why can't it? What's stopping Amazon or any of these "writers" from putting in the effort. A TV series more than a movie has ample time to explore Middle Earth and create some amazing characters, worlds etc. Just look at Arcane or heck, go back to Hercules, Xena etc.
But nope. These showrunners and "writers" want to put us critics down and say we are "trolls" and claim we are the problem. No; this series is the problem. Good art/ media is timeless. The decades will go by and the shots and effects can age but writing is timeless. Rings of Power won't stand the test of time. It's just good looking sludge.
I wouldn't even say good looking. The visual effects are often good, but the sets all look cheap and are lit like a sound stage. The costumes are cheap and bland, the towns appear empty, and it all feels amateur.
@@JackChurchill101Definitely agree on the costumes. I don't get why people praise them. The armor looks like painted plastic (because that's most likely what it is), the general outfits are unflattering on the actors (especially any of the robes and that dress the character calling herself Galadriel wore at the end of the first season), and there was that easily noticeable printed scale-pattern t-shirt.
I'm not knowledgeable about fashion or costume design at all (being a typical man lol), but even I can tell something is wrong with these designs. I remember at least one video coming out around the first season, from a costume designer who was critiquing the designs and pointing out why they're so bad.
No, you are the problem... for not eating up the streaming slime produced and fed to you. Be happy that some characters have some names which one can recognize. It does not matter if whole plot lines are taken into a car crash and get replaced by nonsense slob.
It's a relief that it's so seperate from lotr. Unlike Disney Star Wars where everybody pretends that it's canon.
Why do you hate strong female characters, you bigot?
Just saw this comment on another video, makes the forging of the rings even sillier:
magister343
"It should also be noted that in season 1 they made it very clear they the forging required precious metals from Valinor as the metals of middle earth were too corrupted by Morgoth and their corruption would be magnified in the process. Also, their only source of Valinorian silver and gold was the dagger Galadriel carried, which did not provide enough metal for crowns. I believe they said they only barely had enough for the 3 rings.
That implies that the materials for the dwarven rings could not possibly be the same. They probably used gold from middle earth, despite knowing it was corrupted, and should expect the 7 and the 9 to magnify such corruption."
+1 engagement for a very passable Skeletor impression.
1:35:31 IGN giving Alien: Isolation a 5.9 and Rings of Power an 8 then a 6 is atrocious. Isolation is a better addition to the Alien Franchise than anything else that involves Alien for the past 2 decades. I remember falling in love with the Trailer for that game when I was in high school. The game lived up to everything it was said to be.
30:45 "The barrow-downs, where ancient men laid their kings to rest"
Oh, you mean the kings of Anor, the human kingdom that is yet to be founded, a few hundred years in the future? Oh my, I never knew elves had time travellers in their ranks.
Ah yes. Episode 4. Level 3 of side quest hell. How do you make a filler episode for an 8 episode season?
I know things slightly pick up towards the end, but... did anyone play Dragon Age Inquisition?
The hinterlands. I felt like I was back in the Hinterlands. Way too much time wasted on pointless crap and fetch quests with no consequence. And then when you finally pull yourself out of the admin, it's like 3am and you have to go to bed and deal with the plot tomorrow. I cannot believe a TV show replicated that feeling so impressively.
I'm not saying the Eregion plotline or the Khazad dum plots are perfect but lord did I feel the lack of thier presence in this episode. It felt like a monster of the week filler episode/ Easter egg and reference fest. It was a chore to watch, in a way even the first three episodes of this season weren't
31:31 hold it a second - having one or more _messengers_ not coming back is very, very different to Cellabribum not giving the messengers an answer or not sending his own messengers later. A messenger is a person, and for high level governmental messages they'd be trusted, skilled, well-equipped, and carry some authority - losing one or more _people_ like that is _not_ like an email ending up in the Spam folder
I will enjoy this 10x as much as ROP
You know gil galad was right all along since season 1, if galadriel didnt sail to valinor, she would awaken the evil she sought to destroy.
Sauron is able to do what he is doing, just because Galadriel did not just say who he was before leaving and following elrond. All of this season, it's because of her. All of season 1, is because of her. Everything, is because of her, she is so annoying.
Istrid forgot that Arondir exists because the writers are so inept they accidentally failed to give Istrid object permanence so as soon as something is out of sight, she forgets it exists completely.
Thank you Random for putting yourself through watching ROP so we don't have too!
Can we live in a world where companies as a whole hire script/lore/logic testers for every script written…that RoP is so broken and mistreated is a f*cking Inexcusable tragedy. Imagine if we got LotR quality and care for this show.
Galadriel’s over excessively rolling her R’s like she is some Spanish chick it’s so fkn annoying.
Also, that Gilga-Daddy meme just ruined the series for me. On god 😂
Shouldn’t the not-hobbits be surprised that they speak the same language?
They all speak Common
@@funkydiscogod But why do the all speak common?
Since "our" hobbits in RoP speak mock Irish I think this new clan should speak ebonics. Diversity
Elrond has been so close to finally being close to a good character this season, which is a miracle considering how terrible he was last season. But the writers are just too stupid to understand that and keep regressing him back to being a complete idiot when the script says so.
Annoyingly it actually seems like the guy they got to play bombadil would actually be really good at it, if he had the script and the direction of someone who knew what they were doing.
He's actually a really good actor. How he ended up in this crap I will never know.
@@Jamie_E_Pritchard Man's got bills to pay, I believe most actors have to take what they can get.
@@Rorannnn Fair point.
There are probably a dozen people already mentioning this here, but I'll say it anyway.
Nerd moment: the barrow-downs can't be a thing in the show, because these burial grounds were established by Anor... The kingdom doesn't exist yet. It was established after the fall of Númenor, which as you might've guessed hasn't happened in the show yet.
The burial grounds (or variants of them) has existed since the 1st Age.
Problem is they're located way far to the East in the show, plus the enchanted weapons the Elves use to "kill" these "zombies" with didn't exist until the 3rd age/after the _fall of Numenor_ nor had the Witchking of Angmar "awoken" them from death yet. Guess Sauron taught him how to do it after doing it here in RoP :D
@@LateralTwitlerLT I didn't even look at the fact that the location was way off. Good catch. I do in fact have a detailed map of middle earth on the wall of my hobby room, so I could've gone down into the basement to check if I want a lazy sack right now. Thank you for pointing it out.
@LateralTwitlerLT But I thought it was an arnor tomb, where does it say the barriw downs are first age?
@@georgethompson913 Not the barrow downs per se, but burial mounds for kings and important men. Which is why the men who settled there at the end of the Second Age took up the practice.
The absolute worst part is that they actaully thought they had to spend an entire episode in season 1 just to show that Lemonlass cut down a tree once. Why? And, how does Standalf get a hot bath in the middle of the desert where there is only one tree, that won't even give hima single branch for a staff? "You are not worthy of a staff yet. But you can have my wood for a bath." The showrunners are Superhero flick guys and don't undestand the world building neccesary in Fantasy.
Sauron: Takes a month to forge the rings. Ron Swanson - I crafted the rings in about 20 minutes.
Wait wouldnt be Ron short for Sau-Ron Ron Swanson is sairon thats why it took him only 20 minutes to forge the rings
The show runners seem desperate to include all of the stuff left out of the Peter Jackson movies in some sort of attempt to show they actually care about Tolkien and the lore. They've already included the Barrow Wights and Tom Bombadil, I won't be surprised if that Stoor villlage gets destroyed by the evil wizard and referred to as a scouring.
_"if that Stoor villlage gets destroyed by the evil wizard and referred to as a scouring"_
How about all that, plus that this "scouring" leads them all to take the trek northeast and settle in the fabled "Shire" their legends reference? Meaning these *_are_* the future Shirelings?
Just wait for it.
It’s so that Rasputin Saruman can scoure the hobbits twice.
I can see them completely bungle that quite cool part of the lore@@LateralTwitlerLT
ALTER EGO IS BACK
I've gotten so much entertainment out of this dreadful show.
I know right? I enjoyed making fun of the acolyte too, but it's a little TOO cringey for me. This cringe is just right.
It’s actually crazy 😂
Just for the record, this is not indeed enthralling to a 5-year-old, not my 5-year-old anyway. She didn't even crack a smile at this stupid s*** & hates this show almost as much as I do - & when she sees, for example, "Galadriel," she says, "that's not the real Galadriel." 😂
She has great taste, though, & loves the Lord of the Rings movies & her dad's reading her the Hobbit, so, she has a decent amount of context as to why this show makes no sense.
Elrond in the books :
- general of Gilgalad's army, his standardbearer,
- warden of Harlindon - south province of Lindon,
- scholar,
- politician,
- respected for his heroic ancestry,
- mentor of young king Gilgalad,
- husband of Celebrian, daugter of Galadriel,
Amazon's Elrond :
- a false friend,
- a spy,
- a poet,
- a servant of Galadriel,
- behaving more like a pageboy from the court of Numenor than like ancient elven nobleman.
Is it just me or is literally every actor I’ll suited to the role they’re in? Sauron’s actor is the only one that’s not off putting but Jesus Christ everyone else is just brutal to me
All the basic writing weaknesses are present. But what really gets me about this episode is their efforts to bring in pointless fan service fluff to appease Tolkien nerds like me, only to get them so badly wrong that they enrage the nerds. Bombadil is nothing like this irritating sarcasm bore and barrow wights v elf lords isn’t any sort of contest - those mournful dead guys are a threat to hobbits not elven super warriors who stand a decent chance taking on a balrog.
Bless your heart for trying to map and layout timelines and locations etc!! 😂
47:30 in One Piece there is a slave mark that the Sun Pirates, many of whom consist of freed slaves, cover with their own sun brand, and everyone gets the same sun marking so you can't tell who used to be a slave or not. I feel like RoP tried to go for something similar but didn't quite figure it out.
I’m not watching the show, this is the only way I’m knowing what’s happening, but I would assume that the reason for the “who are you?” “What do you mean?” Discussion is because non-Gandalf will be influenced by this, thus leading to his talk with bilbo in the hobbit
“Good morning”
“What do you mean by good morning?”
Love the vid as always. I literally only know what's going on now because of your videos. Also watching the EFAP episode of this...glad to see you on there now
What I've been wondering since the start of season two is; After Morgoth was eliminated at the end of the first age, Sauron tried to lead the orcs but was assassinated by Adar and friends. He became a glob of oily hair until eventually taking the shape of Halibrand and randomly meeting up with Galadriel in the middle of the ocean. So when did he lead the legion of orcs that fought the elves and eventually killed Galadriel's brother and kidnapped her husband? That's the start of her entire 1,000 year vengeance campaign and the basis for this entire flipping series. So when did he do that according to the show runners?
Just to log it. Given the theory that we still don’t have kings of men and that Theo just keeps hanging around.
Theo becomes the Witch King of Angmar in the Amazon series.
the thing with Theo is that there is also no information on who his father is, which Arondir specifically brings up in s2ep3 to which Theo replies "no, i dont know who my dad is but it sure as shit isnt you"
so im pretty sure they are setting him up to be a long lost son of a long lost king or something like that, one of the possible reasons for this being that yeah they dont actually have any human kings for the nine except Pharazon
9 human kings will suddenly appear when the plot needs them
The Skeletor impression at 30:!5 was ON POINT, hahahaha more of this character!
Those pesky hobbitzes… when Nori wakes up and her first question is „have you seen him“ and not „are you okay“. Those folks are the true evil in middle earth 😅
Also how does not Gandalf know what Sauron is and that he is evil? Or is he just assuming since the priests didn’t like the horrorfoots and they might have been looking for him that he is evil? 🤔
Poopy and Nori surviving the tornado throwing them hundreds of feet is beyond disbelief; but that they don’t sustain even the slightest of injuries, a broken bone (her father broke his foot, the Hardoot’s arguably strongest physical component, proving their skeletons aren’t made from adamantium and are breakable), a dislocated shoulder, some bruised muscles, even a goddamn scrape or scratch, waking up like they passed out at a frat keg party, is utterly insane. These writers couldn’t wipe their own asses even if the TP was stapled to their palms.
The scene where not gandalfs map is blown away by the wind made me quit watching this shit
Its like watching a real life cartoon with lotr names
Given how much history they want to compress into these five seasons it never fails to amaze the amount of pointless filler they stick into the episode.
I'm not even going to ask why Celebrimbor doesn't try to get the Dwarven rings back if he's convinced they're tainted...
1:19:55 “Rings of Power is not a story. It is a sequence of events that were designed to elicit an emotional response.”
That is the most succinct description of why this show is failing outside of respecting the source material.
The only emotional responses they invoke in me are frustration and disappointment.
I have a theory that the writers heard all the feedback on the pacing of S1 and responded by putting S2 on ffwd so they can inflict even more of their dullness on the audience.
Given that Istari are Ainur, the first beings created by Elu Iluvatar, and Tom is behaving as if he's older than Not Gandalf, so the only thing he can be is Elu Iluvatar.