THE RINGS OF POWER Season 2 Finale Review || A Dreadful, Pathetic Disaster
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- Опубликовано: 6 окт 2024
- Written review: www.forbes.com...
The Season 2 finale of The Rings Of Power was every bit as terrible as we knew it would be, and maybe even a little bit worse. Other than a cool scene with the dwarves and Sauron being pretty good, the rest is a jumbled mess. The Stoor plotline is the worst and Numenor is almost as bad. But the whole thing is just dreadful.
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They inserted the Harfoots because they thought the Frodo-Sam archetype was an essential ingredient of the Tolkien "recipe". Inserted them without thinking for more than a handful of episodes what they would actually DO with them. Now they're just hanging around in some sort of storytelling no-mans-land. It's just so unbelievably amateurish.
agree. I read somewhere that they don't have the rights nor can they mention the Hobbits. Surely to tell "their" weak story about Grand Elf😂 they thought that adding some tiny beings accompanying him would give that LOTR touch that they evidently want to achieve...but fail miserably.
They only said the word "Gandalf" at the end because they'd apparently been negotiating all along to buy the rights to use his name. Pathetic. I genuinely believe AI could have written a better script.
Two seasons, eight episodes. All the halflings seem to have done is walk from place to place. If they took away their story completely it wouldn’t have made a difference to the show.
From episode 1 ive thought the harfoots and gandalf are there because the showrunners think the audience is braindead drooling muppets who wouldn't be able to watch something about LotR without gandalf or hobbits
@@chopthatpanda”Let’s put in that thing and that other thing even though we don’t have rights to either one!”
Next season: everyone's favorite character, Theo, becomes the Witch-King of Angmar.
Theo is the only reason anyone watches the show. (joking!)
So they turned Gandalf into Hodor.
Haha. That’s good!
At least the sea is always right, I think we can all agree on that.
Except if you're on an island's West coast facing North. Then the sea would be on your left.
They actually freaking did the whole Grand-Elf nonsense. I made that joke like a month ago and it became an actual thing. I was flabbergasted to say the least.
After all of the stupid decisions they have made, you shouldn't have been surprised.
That Adar died here just tells me how unnecessary his character is. What did he even matter, if now Sauron just controls the orcs anyway with no explanation how or why? This is THE WORST SHOW ever made, CHANGE MY MIND!
Yeah I was irritated that we didn’t get to see how Sauron manipulated the Uruk.
Interestingly enough, the showleaders were going to kill off Adar's character much sooner. Simon Tolkien was the one that wanted to see his character developed more.
Nah Fear The Walking Dead still holds that title my guy 😅
@@SarcasticPlotRecaps I liked the first three seasons. But Velma, She Hulk and Cleopatra are virtually unbeatable as bad shows.
I found myself laughing whenever it was clear that I was supposed to be on the edge of my seat and emotionally invested.
By the end, at that last scene, I physically cringed…
The whole thing is just so superficial. I’m convinced that they are trolling the Tolkien fans at this point. It has to be deliberate.
It has been deliberate all along.
That last scene was insane. Cringed so hard like wtf even was that shit
Yeah, I don't get what that was even representing. Your spirits are broken, your homes destroyed, but Galadriel is still alive so you're instantly cheering again? What? Read the room.
Gosh. I don’t want to say anything that can be construed as defending the showrunners…but it’s so obvious that they are amateur writers! Never really produced a script before. Not sure they’re capable of deliberately trolling the fans.
Best part of RoP is listening to Erik Kain Reviews!
Man I know it sounds like I'm brown nosing, but god damn, you're a great critic!
@@lenoobpwner thank you! For me it's Charlie Hopkinson's stuff
Agreed. Thank you Eric for helping me stay sane through all of this.
@@ErikKain Agree. You are great and pleasant to listen to with rational takes but i do NEED to wash it down later with Charlie Hopkinson lol
It's impossible to sum up all the reasons why Tolkien's writing is great and RoP is crap. One key, however, is authenticity. Tolkien's world feels authentic because of the sheer thought and detail and craft that went into its creation. That is why is feels believable, despite magic and dragons etc. The writers of RoP clearly have NO idea what authenticity is, still less the ability to do justice to Tolkien.
Glad I skipped this. i admit to schadenfreude in watching some reviews of Bezo's massive egotistical project though.
The pacing and editing was insane - I believe it caught up on 5 different story lines in five minute increments in a row - here's celebrimbor tortured, here's the resolution of the whole rhun thing where not saruman throws a few rocks around and goes home, here's the durins reconciling before papa jumps.down the balrogs throat, heres galadriel popping in to save people, here's isuldur getting all sloppy with the low people, here's eledils daughter saving him while helping to imprison the other faithful.
There was one scene where the numinorean joffrey asked about survivors, isuldur says berek the horse looking stage left, and the scene cuts to the horse standing in a doorway nodding on cue. It's like something out of mel brooks blazing saddles, and I am quite sure the writers are unaware of their own ridiculousness. I laughed out loud at the TV for the first time in a while...
They're not making best use of the horses. They set one on fire in the Mordor Blood Origins episode. Ran around with flames down its back. And then we never see it again. Actually the horse, and the Florist, both seem to exit stage left and are never seen again. Suspicious. Berek has a couple of stars turns then just walk-on parts. Very disappointing.
@@mxvega1097 I think they thought the stars wars people did a great job with chewbacca in the sequels. Everybody already likes him, just have him shuffle around in the background and threaten to kill him once and a while, it'll be great.
I wondered how they would manage, because they left so much to do for the final episode. So they did have to jump around from here to there to yonder and could only give five minutes to each. Which was five minutes too much for the Passionate Kiss between Isildur and Who She. At least Kemen continues to be a Weasel and a Bully, so consistency there! But I can't wait for Númenor to be drowned fast enough.
@@maryokeeffe3528 yeah - if you glanced at the appendices timeline, this has to be 500 years of ringmaking in eregion compressed into three months at most, which is quite a trick, but theoretically watchable. But if youre watching that, you can't care about isuldur who won't be born for 1500 years or khaza dum, which won't worry about a balrog for over 3000. Never mind answering questions no one ever asked, such as how did the Hobbits decide to build houses instead of rolling around in the mud.
These people have no story editor, because 'auteurs" don't need a plan to display their "creative genius". Never mind tolkein heavily used editors to turn his material into the books, because no one is great at everything.
Erik, could you tell me why are all these people praising this series? All these people scoring the show 8/10 9/10... Are they crazy? Are they amazon bots? Are they blind? Did they just watch no cinema at all, like very very casual cinema audience? I mean, at one point its not just down to what one likes or dislikes, this is not like what colour do you like, this is objectively bad. Shit smells bad, no one can say it smells roses, why do these people keep saying this is the best television ever?
Sauron the Fool has deceived them all...
I don't think those 8-9-10 actually watched it. They know the serie is .. blah blah toxic racist fascist homophobic patriarchal fans blah blah .. and so they rush in to vote to compensate. They think it's some cultural clash their side needs to win.
They don't realize we are giving horrible scores because the show sucks donkey's and no other reasons .. as Erik said, this show is way sub par and terrible even for a generic fantasy, let alone Tolkien's.
Who is it that's giving it 8-9/10? It's mainly journalists, who are often contractually obliged to give big budget shows like this favorable reviews. When you look at user reviews they are much much worse, the Metacritic user score is 2.9 which is horrendous, and even Rotten tomatoes (which usually has more generous reviews) sits at 48/100. It is not a very beloved show
@@exantiuse497 journalists are never contractually obliged to give shows a specific score. That doesn't happen. There are other pressures, however. The desire to be seen as liking the right things, or not disliking the wrong things. The fear of pissing off a company you want access to. The desire to be friends with the actors and directors involved. Many reasons, none of which are "bought by Amazon" or whatever other childish conspiracy theory people dream up.
@@ErikKain "the desire to be friends with actors or directors involved" seriously? That's so fucking childish. They have a job to do and they'd refrain from doing it properly because of that? That's the same as the sports media refraining from genuine criticsm because they want the players to like them. Are these people 5 or something? That's like still having the mentality of wanting the 'cool kids' to like you as a grown ass adult, who gives a shit. That's easily the stupidist thing i've heard in awhile I'm quite surprised it's an actual thing.
This has been so painful.
Never watched anything like this...show which treats audience as people are complete idiots. Isildur stabbed with rusty knife to the thigh...walks next day without even limping. Arondir gets killed, resurrection after hour. Eregion magically grows walls between seasons ....Galadriel...Lady Galadriel....looks like second grade teacher, fights like second grade teacher, talks to people like they are second grade students....
Glad we are over this nighmare
Those defending this vandalism of Tolkiens work well done you deserve this tripe
It pisses me off that those writers and directors, will keep working and getting other shows to destroy, like nothing happened… my career would be ruined if I messed up like that one single time.
Admittedly I was one who got sick and tired of the negative mentality from the canon purists, but after that god awful last episode I’m doing a 360..😒
Of course you will after seeing this crap.
@@jasonturner2206 You mean 180...
@@bjornh4664 Ha... Exactly...
Her mousy little voice and her squinchy little face? 😂😂😂😂 Hilarious
She is canonically a foot too short for the part. I did like that her fight with Sauron was so uneven, because that was at least semi-realistic. He is a Maia and this version of Galadriel has no chance to beat him one-on-one. That was much better than the "I can one-shot an ice troll without breaking a sweat" of season one. And she does seem to have learned some lesson from being so wrong all along, in the ending where she does *not* advise "we're outnumbered and in a bad situation, let's all go attack Sauron and his vast Orc army because I want revenge!" A big switch from what she was like all along, but better.
It's clear they cut multiple scenes in the Gandalf storyline. Last time we saw the Harfoots, they had decided to "fight", but now they're suddenly captured and the bad guys are in the village. So apparently they must have lost whatever fight they were preparing for offscreen.
While the last time we saw Gandalf, he was looking over the valley with all the dead wood, so he had to decide to abandon that and look for the Harfoots instead, the choice they teased in the previous episode he had to make, AND he had to then figure out somehow where the Stoor village was.
They probably filmed multiple scenes that were supposed to be in episode 7, that they then cut to make that episode focus solely on Eregion. But the transition becomes so jarring, and so many things happened offscreen with Gandalf and the Harfoots, that I first assumed his meeting with Saruman had to be some kind of dream sequence.
They did go very fast through this, which I appreciated after all the time they wasted on this pointless storyline hanging around doing nothing in the desert. I was surprised (but glad) they didn't give us a long drawn-out sentimental farewell scene between Nori and Grandelf. Oh God, the way they revealed the name is so embarrassing. But at least no more fake pretending "oh he isn't Gandalf, or is he? is he good? or bad? who can say?" Everyone, since he landed in the meteor, is who.
I really think this season was originally planned for 10 episodes. Some cuts are absolutely insane
They cannot possibly still be making another 3 seasons after this. No one cares about any of the characters.
Oh they are
@@ErikKain So 3 in 2026, 4 in 2028, and 5 in 2030. Should give up now, have no confidence it can get better, and it's going to be dominated by the Harry Potter series in 2026.
I can only see this happening (a renewal of season 3) if they film seasons 3 and 4 back to back. It could work??????
@estiennedecarteret5559 it's not a matter of renewals. Their contract with the Tolkien Estate was for 5 seasons, more specifically 50 hours. They have to produce that.
@@ihatevnecks7015man, it almost seems like Tolkien Estate is as much to blame for handing out the rights without having been shown a proven formula for what was planned for it… 🤷♂️
I got so pissed because of that show that I’ve raided YT searching for content that thrashes this crap and speaks my despise and disgust towards RoP, so I could like and support it. You are doing public service here. Thank you, sir. Fuck Amazon.
Thanks for all the great comments! I really appreciate it and I appreciate you subscribing and all that jazz!
Divesrity for hollywood today means the diversity of LA, or London. Not the diversity of Kano, or Bogor, or Zacapoaxtla, which of course is no racial diversity. Tiring.
We know that all those "fly-over zones" don't really matter to progressives.
How do people not see this? They're not highlighting racial diversity. They're erasing it until we're all whitewashed Californians in racial costumes. They're not showing faceted, heroic women - they're grinding us up into obnoxious and badly written super hero-things.
"Rings of Power, is a tale, told by two idiots, full of sound and thunder...... signifying nothing."
(With sincere apologies to Will Shakespeare. Macbeth Act 5, scene 5)
Can't think of anything else to say. It's a travesty. I am a writer one book published, Urban Fantasy genre, I would be ashamed if I turned out writing like that.
The only thing I like about this episode is the little verbal slap Celebrimbor gave Sauron before dying, calling him a prisoner of the ring. It's a good reading of Sauron personality, so obsessed with control that he became a slave of his ambition. All the things he could have done with his immense, Godlike power and in the end he put everything he was in a ring and became extremely dependant of it. I think he was crying because he realized it was true.
This series is a missed opportunity and a disaster.
Sauron was supposed to be a pseudo Promethean 😂figure generating religious engineering in Harad and Rhûn with the metallurgical revolution he made in the east and south. He could be like Mephistopheles from Goethe's Faust or Azazel from the book of Enoch.
Galadriel was supposed to be a sage and a political opponent of Annatar's reformist ideas. She used arguments and debates to fight Sauron in the Unfinished Tales version. She could be like a philosopher-queen archetype.
Númenor is a tale about life vs death vs immortality vs human nature.
I couldn’t take anymore after 4 episodes of season 1. The most cringeworthy show I’ve ever seen. Glad you are watching this so I don’t have to . Erik, hope you are doing well with your recent struggles. I had to take a look at myself after you revealed your own. Ive cleaned up my life myself. Godspeed
Good for you!
you can take any 2 random people on the streets and make a better rings of power show,then what what we got.Sure there are some good moments but not worth the time invested ,its a shame,hope they learn something and just cancel it
Come on, Sauron could have flopped down the mountain after her! Y’all established his magic floppy powers in the first episode.
Sorry, we only get one mountain-flopping per season. It's just too good to waste by having it happen all the time 😁 We'll have to wait for season three to have him flop down Orodruin, aren't you excited?
When you have to rely on callbacks for emotional impact, is a bigger symptom of Lazy writing and lack of ideas…I’m looking at you Gandalf Not-Gandalf, and everything else lifted from the PJ movies
Thanks for your reviews Erik. You're always measured and honest, and I really appreciate that.
I absolutely agree. The casting in general is wrong and Galadrievil is the worst. Clark is just not Galadriel. The nonsensical writing and plot are just mind numbingly bad. There are so many plot holes in the show it's not funny.
In general this show is such a wasted opportunity. Amazon had a sparkling diamond in the form of a world already built, and characters well defined and thought out over a lifetime, just sitting there waiting to be put on screen. They just had to stick to Tolkien's vision and adapt it, keeping the spirit in which it was written. Instead they've dunked the diamond in cement, painted eyes on it, and yeeted it into a volcano. What a waste of one of the greatest stories ever penned.
Next season on ROP:
EPISODE ONE
Hobbit: Hey don’t be so sour man!
Wizard: Saruman, that’s what they’ll call me isn’t it?
Amazing writing well done
Cancel ❌❌❌❌❌ This Show.
That's one way to correct the fan service.
I'm hoping for all the Tolkien diehards that this is the end of this slop. I couldn't watch past episode 3 of season 1.
The Breaking Bad analogy was spot-on...and the most obvious, gratuitous call-out to the OG LotR so far. I am just glad the pseudo-hobbits didn't mention second breakfast (or did they?). I really do hope however that Amazon just cancels the show rather than subject us to 3 more season (over the the next 3-5 years) of this slog into a deeper pool of dreck.
i now have a new appreciation for the LOTR and Hobbit movies and all the books. if ROP has introduced a new generation to the writing of Tolkien and the Peter Jackson movies, then thats a good thing
This is my take as well. The show isn't some heinous crime that destroys Tolkien's work. As stupid as it is it will not damage what came before, those things will be there and as good as they ever were.
And if someone new to Tolkien watched the show, thought something along the lines of "the world seems interesting even if the plot makes no sense" and finds the books/films as a result (something that happened to me as a teenager with a different series, the Inheritance series which I found because I watched the terrible Eragon movie), then that's objectively a good thing the show caused
But this generation doesn’t read. If they did, they’d be up in arms at how awful this show is in its inability to tell a proper story. They will grow up thinking this was Tolkien.
It's still unclear what the elvish rings of power do. Why didn't Galadriel use the power of nenya while fighting Sauron?
So far we’ve seen them provide visions, guidance, healing of wounds, healing of nature, renew and reinvigorate body, mind, spirit, counter the effects of dark magic and we will see them do more before the end. Simply by wearing it she was “using” it when fighting Sauron. They could have hinted though that she was being enhanced hey the ring, like they did when Durin III hit his son with strength clearly enhanced by his ring.
Yes, agree with almost all of what you raised. Actually burst out laughing several times, Agree about Vickers being good, gut not so much about the dwarves and the scene with the balrog generated no tension or fear at all, so fell flat for me. Bombadil, whose character here I hate, and Gandalf should have been the end, and then as you say we get the dreadful diverse stoors, with poppy doing her Sam impression. The romance is trying to please an imagined (female - sorry) audience who have to have romance - actually almost surprised we haven't had a sex scene! I won't go on as it was sooo awful. Peace ... (Oh I almost forgot to mention that they even stole from Harry Potter - "The staff choosess the wizard" - these people should sued for plagarism)
Because of all of the other flaws, we both managed to fail to mention that half of this show is so dark that I had to pump my LCD brightness to max to make out what was happening. Half of my screencaps look like they are solid black as thumbnails.
Gandalf name also came from them saying the Stranger needed a "Gand" - old Norse word for staff. We all knew he was Gandalf since the beginning. Wasted opportunity
The other wizard is very obviously Saruman too.
@@zoebaggins90 unfortunately yes
I do not know if you would be interested but check Tolkien's letter of 1958 to Ackerman. What he thought of cheap adaptations. Worth checking it.
Tolkien is dead. This is the new stuff.
Dwarfs can't jump because they are short and stout. The reason why Gimli needs to be thrown by Aragorn. The dwarfs here defy physics and any logic!!! Stupidest show since Acolyte
I thought this was pretty much the best episode of the series. I was impressed that they did manage to cover all the different plot threads in one episode. The Dwarven storyline was the strongest as usual, because they spent enough time to develop these characters and their relationship to make us care. Celebrimbor and Annatar was good, given the way they changed the story. I liked Charles Edwards performance, and I wish they had let him be like this all along (instead of doddery old geezer). I was very happy to get "Celebrimbor's tortured arrow-riddled body lifted up on a pole" for canon! I agree: I wasn't convinced by Annatar's tears, and how did he manage to take over the Orcs now? I guess the Orcs are bad again now! Adar's death was touching, I have to say. And I was *so* happy that they *finally* stopped messing around with the Gandalf storyline. Yes, he's Gandalf. Dark Wizard is officially one of the Five Wizards, so he could be one of the Blue Wizards, or he might be Saruman. No more Harfoots and Stoors anymore, yay! Numenor storyline was weak, they seem to have made Pharazon stupider (instead of trying to sway the Faithful to his side with 'Miriel is in cahoots with Sauron' he immediately goes for the purge). And I'm sorry, but Elendil the Lord of Andunie is not going to be working as a tavern waitstaff.
I think maybe the end is where Rivendell will begin
If I didn't know better I would swear you're just joking, surely this can't be real...!?! It's beyond embarrassing and actually makes me angry.
Some really cringey saturday morning cartoon quality writing. Gil-galad raising his sword to a crowd of elves behaving as sport fans will haunt me.
I actually found the baltog scene too rushed. They had only just broken through and bam, its there. A bit more suspense/fear would have been better
When I saw it teased in the trailer, I was so angry that they seemed to be going for the downfall of Khazad-dum. I was glad they had the sense not to do that, so I forgave them for having the Balrog show up so early. And the CGI there was pretty good. They shouldn't have the Balrog this early at all, but at least they didn't let it run around Khazad-dum before Dísa drove it back into the depths by having the cave bats dive-bomb it.
agreed, but how would they fit the seven other storylines in, then?
@@ErikKain haha they'd find a way 🤣
Gandalf learns from Kenobi to use The Force against rocks like in that awful Disney series... xD
Why are they calling him gandalf at all? The elves (who knew him the longest) call him Mithrandir, grey-pilgrim. It was the obvious choice.
Olorin was his real name.
@@zoebaggins90 true, but he doesn't talk about Valinor, and if they wanted a prequel to the movies, he gets called mithrandir a lot in them
Because the hobbits called him Gandalf and he hasn't met any Elf. In other words, because Peter Jackson did it that way.
@@Arcessitor they could just have had his story intersect with the elves plotline. They spent so long last season teasing that he was Sauron, why not have Galadriel think he was? What the hell are these writers thinking.
It’s all so the writers can produce another “mystery box”. The Abrams school of story telling is shallow; certainly fits viewers who support this garbage.
Lord of the Cringes
This show is like a community theatre production of a vague hodgepodge of Tolkien’s ideas.
"Galadriel has the blood of all three Higher Elves.
Noldor - (Elves of the Deep--excelled in arts & crafts)
Teleri - (Elves of the Sea, excelled in ship building)
Vanyar - (The Fair Elves--they never returned to Middle Earth after the journey to Aman. Therefore, there are no full blooded Vanyar Elves extant in Middle Earth. Galadriel's golden hair comes from her Vanyar lineage as they were fair haired. Most Elves in Middle Earth are dark haired with grey eyes.)
She was born in the land of the Valar, but returned to Middle Earth. She was essentially in exile in Middle Earth, because her journey back to Middle Earth was made against the wishes of the Valar. However, when Galadriel passed the test of the Ring, (Frodo with the mirror), she was pardoned.
Galadriel chose to stay in Middle Earth, after her pardon, to help resist the dark forces. With the power of her Elven ring & her own will & grace, Galadriel was able to resist all evil which tried to enter Lorien, save Sauron himself. (For instance, the Ringwraiths can never enter Lorien.) However, not even Sauron can bend her will or read her thoughts."
Now, does that character sound like she would be caught by Orcs, or find herself in a lone fight with Sauron?
The acting and screenwriting is just a joke. These characters are absolutely nothing like the LOTR characters of the same name. I'm embarrassed for them.
Waaait, wait wait... Why would Sauron even need to walk, fly, or float down the cliff side? If Galadriel can just, you know, fall off, and survive... Surely he could, too? 😂
@@pri1ime880 fair!
I hate the idea of trying to create "sympathetic" orcs. The whole point of orcs is that Melkor/Morgoth corrupted the songs of creation and made discord, and the result are these abomination creatures. The corruption of elves into orcs is the worst thing Morgoth did. The orcs are inherently bad. That is their nature because of Morgoth.
What next, a sympathetic Balrog, who just made a mistake siding with Morgoth? Or the Nameless Things are not dangerous monsters, but endangered species, and need to be placed into habitat preserves and breeding programs. I mean, there is no actually bad character, not even Sauron---he's just still trying to figure out how to be a good dude after tens of thousands of years.
Given how they've portrayed Galadriel this series, she would totally take the One Ring and become a Queen...more beautiful and terrible, etc.
The idea of making elves corrupt is fine, Feanor, for example. But the point is that the allure of power is what is the corrupting influence. Instead, they just make Galadriel a character already operating in the grey and being a brat without the allure of power from the rings.
The show demonstrated the corrupting influence of Sauron's ring just fine with King Durin 3. But the writers don't do this with the elves and I don't know why...Other than the writers don't care about the source material.
The killing straw was Gil-Galad playing Justice League atop the mountain and the elves screaming like a horde of Barbarians
I dont think I've ever agreed with a review as much. You nailed it. This is exactly how I feel about this show. Every time I start to "kindov" enjoy it, some Hollywood grouphack writer bullshit comes along and ruins it. It boggles my mind how Morfydd Clark got this parr (a part Katheryn Winnick was born to play), she is just awful. I cant remember seeing such a bad casting choice. Moving on, I mean having Saruman being already shady is just pure lore rape (something the show now fully embraces) and completely cheapens his fall to darkness later. At least hopefully that awful "oirish" hobbit storyline might be over. Im Irish myself and you have no idea how much those accents offend me and the fact they didnt even employ Irish actors (so much for diversity). Why do the elves just look like regular humans? Not fair beautiful otherworldly beings. (Lots of closeups on the overweight plain looking lady elf cuz "even normal people can be elves too! l - another box ticked). The elves in general are a travesty, both visually and storywise. They come across weak af. Eregion fell in the books as Sauron with his ring in his full might was leading the orc host with gods knows what other creatures. Yet in this show the tiny host of elves get whipped by "regular" orcs. I loved annatar though, and the dwarf bits were great, even if their acting got a bit hammy at times. Where the fuck is Celeborn? Another rmain
n grip is what is the point of Estrid and Isildor? Shes a regular human and he will live for a couple of hundred years. Have they forgotten that 2 whole Numenorean realms have to be established in middle earth before the war with Sauron? Shell be long dead beofre that happens. The timeline compression is starting to show cracks.
I did prefer it to season 1 though and I will watch season 3. It was kind pf "enjoyable crap" at times.
But at least they remembered the existence of Anarion! Also, I hate Isildur now. I don't care about him or the girl and his romance. Stupid dumb idea. I'm glad that's done now, as well. I did think it was funny that after getting arrow and sword stabbed, Arondir is not even mildly inconvenienced. 'Twas but a scratch! Oh well, roll on season three, I guess? I have no idea how they will manage the alliance between the Numenoreans and the Elves to take on Sauron, now the official position is "We hate Elves (but we love the Valar and are the true faithful not those traitors)". Also the Dwarves and the rings - Durin knows the rings are evil, how can he hand them over to the other realms? I guess we'll get Dwarven civil war?
It is unacceptable the amount of lore they broke, Saruman was not evil, Gandalf was not even on earth at this point !!! It's disgusting
I doubt not her heart, just the reach of her arm...
This show is so depressingly bad that I even stopped enjoying watching hour upon hour of youtubers trashing it. That saying something...
The characters of a show can only be as smart as the writers. And these writers are idiots.
I am so happy that this is over.
Were any of these character deaths in the last episode related to actors refusing to do a third season like we saw with Bronwyn and Adar's actors from Season 1?
The actors love the show.....
The show runners think they are writing better Tolkien than TOLKIEN!!! Their attitudes drives me insane.
Picking up boulders and half of a mountain is impossible
Morfryd Clark is really good in "Love and Friendship".
And in David Copperfield! She really seems like a gifted actress (and very nice person); I hope this terrible show doesn't stick with her.
The worst thing is the writing, and it supposed to be at least Tolienesque, so they've fallen down where it matters most. It's also badly directed. Brändström, Hamri and Hooper should never have been involved. What did they know about middle earth before the making of this rubbish? Galadriel is poor, the elves are poor, Numenor is poor the dwarves are poor Durin says things and feels things that belong more on a soap box. I hate it. It's a waste of money and time and an opportunity squandered. One BILLION for this?? All they have done is insulted the good name of Tolkien.
The Lords of inter-marriage.
Better spent the billion dollar on marriage counseling, preventing divorce and single parenting...
Looking at Clark's portrayal of Galadriel compared to Blanchett's is just too comical for words. Like you said, it's laughable. Blanchett just oozed strength, wisdom, and authority. Clark oozes petulant teenage angst.
RoP: Grand Elf ( repeated many times)>>>>>> Gandalf
GoT: Hold the door ( repeated many times)>>>>>>>Hodor
😂😂😂
I wonder if Amazon will go with a season 3. Just money down the drain. Imagine what good showrunners and writers could have done with this material
It was so bad. 7 storylines to confuse them all... The core conflict between Sauron and Galadriel is utterly mishandled, and everything else is padding, irrelevant, irritating and lore-breaking in equal measure. Galadriel "fighting" is absurd.
The end reminded me of Conan.
Thanks for watching and reviewing this for us Erik, although a travesity of a show, your reviews have entertained me.
Oh man. The elf rings heal Galadriel..."when your powers combine...I am...Captain Planet!"
And now, the elves will fight Sauron...somehow the exiled Numenoreans will be useful...and then we get the Last Alliance at the end of Season 3 and this horrible $1Billion waste can be over.
In season 3, somehow, Numenor will fall, and have kingdoms already setup in Middle Earth for Arnor and Gondor...all while Poppy and Nori have aged 6 months and traveled to the west to setup the Shire.
Compressed time in which all history happens at the same time within a 300 mile diameter of location...please Amazon...just cram in a bunch of name drops...like Witch King of Angmar without doing anything to lay the ground for it. Sauron gives the rings to 9 dudes and within 4 episodes they totally convert to Nazgul. Just cram all of it next season and spare us a season 4 and 5.
Fan-fiction written by teenagers. I can’t believe that Payne and McKay are actually in their thirties.
It was impossible to be worse than Season 1 but they managed it
Beyond what anyone could logically predict
I can’t process how horrible this entire season was. That last shot was one of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen in a long while.
I think the writers of this show have created a whole new genre. This show made me feel almost physically ill at times and not through any means of traditional horror. The writers of this show are akin to pdf files in Tolkien's playground.
I hear you but I enjoyed this season. There was a lot of action and although there were a lot of questionable scenes. I loved it more than season 1
dude your vids are the quality of a 250k+ channel. love your voice, the music, your takes. Gonna fall to sleep to you absolutely dismantling the rings of power 😂
Also, sorry, I will always disagree with your rating. 2/10 is too high: Ignoring lore destruction and malice toward the author, the inconsistencies in the episode, are massive. Dwarves teleporting in to save Eregion, after in the last episode they feared a greater evil might ruin their own kingdom. Greater evil manifests, and suddenly they teleport in to save thew day at the exact moment where they're required...
It should easily take five days to two weeks for that army to assemble, and make the trek from Khazad-dûm to Eregion. The logistics of planning alone, for battle, take time.
Sauron not simply snatching Nenya when Galadriel took it off. Why did she take it off at all if she was going to yeet herself off a cliff as Elrond did in E1.
Why can elves survive being stabbed in the heart with The Iron Crown, and half mile falls, while every other Elf dies to a single arrow.
How is Arondir alive? Not only alive, but alive and fighting?!
I gave it a flat F, because I can't shut my brain off and ignore things like this, to enjoy what is good in it. This show should have started in Eregion with Annatar.
And also, if Sauron intended to propose to Galadriel and make her his queen he should have given her a ring not have demanded one from her.
You are spot on about Charlie Vickers. He's the highlight of the show. The problem with that is that I should not be ROOTING FOR SAURON.
I can't believe they had like a solid 5 seconds of dwarven battle scene at the ending, what an absolute disaster.
So this whole Durin thing is just painful from a lore perspective. One: There's one Durin. There's Durin II, Durin III, etc., but they're all the same Durin. There never would have been 2 Durin's alive at the same time. And since the writers don't understand that, they don't understand why preparing some, "Which brother to rule" crap doesn't make sense, even if they saw it on a late-night TNT movie. All the Durins are, literally, Durin. The first dwarf. There would be no chicanery of, "Ohhhh.... but I think Throtho, his brother, might be a better pick!!!"
Also in your Forbes review, super easy, barely an inconvenience? Someone's been watching their pitch meetings.
Also funny to notice how every group of people is very diverse, except for the colonizers Kemen brought with him. There is one black guy among them, all others are white guys. No Asians or Indians, and also no women.
The wrong people are in charge....look at the show's producer. Now look at galadriel's casting. If some distorted perception of physical capacities and a degree of projection isn't at play here I'm willing to eat all of your hats.
God, THANK YOU for mentioning the TERRIBLE casting for Galadriel. I thought since her first scene it didn’t make any sense.
Casting is perfect
How can that be Saruman? Wouldn't Gandalf be aware of his abject shittiness then long before the plot of the LOTR films?
I made the mistake of going over to Emergency Awesomes comment section of reviewing this episode, and was going to bash it, but everyone there loved it. I stopped myself cause what’s the point in arguing with blind people you fools
I've seen enough. There doesn't need to be a season 3.
Too bad. There is going to be another 3 season so get used to it 🎉😂
Liked the Sabaton AI opening song. Thanks for the even handed reviews that are not just piling on relentlessly. I have one question was not the royal family of Numenor half elves like Elrond(including Aragorn) and the Numenoreans the descendants of the first men in middle Earth who were greater than just normal men.
I'm not as harsh on Season 2 - but agree 100% on a few points of episode 8: 1. Galadriel needs to be recast. Her writing is atrocious - when she stands 20 feet away from Adar while he gets murdered is a total joke. Warrior - I think not; 2. Grand Elf to Gandolf - lmfao - I immediately thought of Hodor and "Hold the Door"; 3. Opening Dwarf scene was the best of episode 8; lastly, 4. Season should have ended with Gandolf and Tom Bombadil.
“That’s what happens when you have third graders write your script!”
My favorite part of this season was checking your reviews immediately after I watched a fresh episode and yelling "YES!! EXACTLY!!!"" to every paragraph. Thank you for your work!
"HOLD THE DOOR"
"HOLD THE DOOR"
"HOLD THE DOOR"
"HORDOR"
GANDELF!
She was just as shocked as adar was....
No no no no Sauron crying g was one of my most hated thing! Other than another good review 😊
I liked it. It was a tear of rage as much as sadness. He felt the truth of the prophecy and it enraged him causing him to lose his cool and kill Celebrimbor.
Ok, BUT you forgot they hired only female Directors this season....so it's actually great 👍
The finale is a vast improvement in pacing and giving an actual Lord of the Rings feel to the series. But this isn't saying much because so much more is bad.
Full honesty: i actually haven't watched a single episode of season 2. I was willing to give it another chance to see if they’ve improved, plus i was excited at the idea of Annatar being in Eregion and wanted to believe they could pull it off well.
Needless to say, all the reviews I've watched, including yours, have shown otherwise. So thank you all for your brave sacrifice 😅