Rings of Power is Not Very Good: Breakdown and Analysis - Part 3: Adar
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- Опубликовано: 31 май 2024
- Rings of Power Episode 3 is actually terrible, and a significant drop off from the already bad episodes 1 and 2. Click here to find out why.
00:00 - Arondir at the Encampment pt. 1
02:11 - Arrival at Numenor
05:33 - Audience with the Queen Regent
13:11 - Elendil and the Condensing of the Timeline
14:48 - Isildur
15:57 - Elendil and the Queen Regent
17:23 - A Discussion about Distances
18:59 - Arondir at the Encampment pt. 2
22:02 - Elendil and Galadriel
26:43 - Halbrand and the Guild Crest
29:32 - The Hall of Lore
32:35 - Nobody Walks Alone (or do they?)
37:06 - The One Thing We Didn't Want To Happen
40:17 - Elendil's Family Drama
41:11 - The King of the Southlands
43:46 - Cliffhanger
43:56 - Nori's Family Walks Alone
44:26 - The Escape Attempt
48:04 - Arondir Plot Analysis
51:22 - Nori Plot Analysis
53:44 - Galadriel/Halbrand/Elendil Plot Analysis
59:32 - Conclusion
1:00:53 - Outro
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"Our hearts are bigger than our feet."
"I got a splinter in my foot."
"May you rest in peace."
We (won’t) wait for you x
Just regarding Galadriel's height, and you are quite right to take note of it, she is very specifically described by Tolkien as an unusually tall female, even amongst Noldor elves, at 6'4".
But numenoreans are supposed to be close to 7 feet tall as well
@@MelmanV2 true, but later when they're around regular Men, the Elves and Númenóreans don't look any taller
Really, did he say 6'4'', or did he use the metric system? I assumed Tolken was eurotrash, I also never read LOR, it f*cking sucks, mind numbingly boring and I enjoy reading the dictionary.
@@MelmanV2 Your mom is 7 feet tall.
@@JeffreyAllanBackowski I don't think Britain used the metric system back when Tolkien was writing.
This depiction of Galadriel just feels so... brutish. There's such a stark difference between the ethereal strength and beauty that she 'should' be, rather than this forced, angry, arrogant and insufferable scowling brat we have flailing about.
But girl boss though
You know what would have helped the orcs avoid the sun,.. all those trees they burned down around their trench
You know what chopping the trunk of a tree down doesn't solve,.. the roots that are actually in your way.
You know what might fell a tree, chopping away at it's roots until they're no longer enough to support it.
"Legolas, what do your elf eyes see?", "A giant-arse trench in a mile wide swathe of burning desolation!"
Also, they somehow were able to run into the only remaining single tree they did not bother to chop down for some reason. And its not them suddenly reaching the edge of empty field either, you can see its all empty area around the tree.
Somehow they all missed this not at all small, in fact fucking huge tree until roots suddenly became bothersome.
I just...
@@MrTheDratex Talk about not seeing the trees for the forest. ^^
Why didn't they just make a tunnel instead of a trench? It would let them work round the clock, be out of the sun and keep it hidden.
@@andrewlowe3273 you'd think that living mostly underground this kind of thing would be a no brainer, instead, it hurts the brain.
I like how in Peter Jackson’s movies at no point did you ever not realize someone was an elf. You didn’t need to see their ears, they were elves becaus they were huge, beautiful/slightly otherworldly looking, often glowed or had a halo effect around them, and acted different from humans. In this one hide your ears and no one would be the wiser because they’re all short, dark skinned, and mundane to downright ugly people.
I think you can also make dark skinned people glow but your other points stand
@psut295 I know the world is black and white for your small little brain, but sadly for you, the world is more complex than that.
Adding black characters in a fantasy settting is not the same as grabbing a real character figure or history and present them in a non-accurate fashion.
It is fine to adjust an old-ass work of fiction and alter it in an adaptation to a different media that's being created in another time in history.
it also doesn't quite work because the only dark skinned elf of any import is Arondir. Who just so happens to be a different Elf group from many of the others! He's a Silvan, not a Noldo who are the elves from Valinor. Make of that what you will, though I'm not sure how much thought was actually put into it by the writers.@@Affenzunge
@@fourthknower9831 wonder if he was a last minute casting, or he got more connections behind the scene
Here's something I've been wondering. If Amazon was so gung-ho about "diversity" in this show, why then didn't they take the opportunity to use Tolkien's description of harfoots being "browner of skin" and cast EVERYONE as brown?? It makes actual sense in the lore and wouldn't be seen as tokenism. But NOPE, they cast TWO characters as the token "diversity" characters in a race of people who don't ever get together with anyone outside of their group from what we can tell and call it a day. It's just one of the many things in this show that are completely baffling.
I am covering precisely this on my final video.
@@randomft I'm looking forward to it!
As a Black man I can tell you it wouldn't have gone well. Making all the "normal" majestic human like beings white and all of the hard scrabble halflings people of color, would've had this show canceled.
@@TheBlackEsquire Except that there are other races in Tolkein's world that are dark too, and they could have very easily brought them in as well. It's cancelled anyway for wokeness so it wouldn't have made much of a difference lol. But I do see your point.
@@TheBlackEsquireThey had the opportunity to also make significant groups of Men and Dwarves black in an organic manner that mostly keeps to Tolkien's lore simply because Tolkien recognized skin color as a function of geography. Taking advantage of that could have made Disa a much more significant character with a much more complex connection to the wider world than just being one random black Dwarf in one mostly white clan of Dwarves. There *were* six other clans who lived in other places. The only clan we have seen so far (in LOTR, The Hobbit, *and* TROP) are Durin's Longbeards. All of the other six clans will also play an important role in the War of the Rings, especially after receiving their own Rings. Disa offered the perfect opportunity to have a sympathetic character focus for relations between the Dwarf clans if she simply married Durin IV from a different clan in a more southern mountain range.
The Haradrim should be dark-skinned. The Appendices make very clear that they were not always evil, just like the Numenoreans were not always good. At the Time of the War of the Rings, in particular, at least one or two of the Haradrim became Nazgul, but others of the Haradrim recognized evil for what it was and honorably fought *against* Sauron. This could be interesting to explore.
Technically, because of their immortality, a black elf flat out makes *no* sense. However, even a black Elf could, at a *massive* stretch, be barely explained if he were from the group that broke off and traveled south down Anduin while the others went on to Beleriand and then Valinor, especially since Arondir is already supposed to be one of the sylvan Elves who never went to Valinor. But Amazon just couldn't bother with in-world sense, instead opting for one or two token characters from each significant group to randomly swap. And, frankly, even if they *had* bothered, it is now painfully obvious that they don't have the skill to do any of those potential stories justice. Maybe it's just as well they didn't think of it.
"Who is this mortal who speaks as if he has the slightest idea who I am?"
"Bitch I'm the *mortal* who saved your life."
Between you, Disparu and Little Platoon, I am very glad to see that Rings of Power is launching another generation of RUclips longmen careers. Much like The Last Jedi, there's a silver lining to all the tosh
Disparu is a bit of a MAGA antiWoke twit, to be honest.
But, but, but... longman bad!
I like Disparu. He’s very funny. But he’s not in the same league as Platoon, Critical Drinker, and Mauler. And Robot Head for that matter who’s the funniest of them all, he just doesn’t make enough videos.
In terms of shear brilliance in thier analysis, I have to put platoon and mauler at the top of that list, with drink or a close second. And I’m adding this guy right here at the very top. He is absolutely scarifying in his brilliant and brutal analysis.
Most of us instinctively know all of this stuff but are just unable to put it into words. These guys are amazing at helping us do that.
Can't recommend you check out the channel, "Reaper" 's analysis of rings of power .... hilarious stuff ! This channel is great too
Mauler is absolutely fantastic in his analyses of the Disney sequel trilogy. Another *very* good one is Zaid Magenta (formerly Misanthro Pony).
That scene between Galadriel and Elendil honestly baffles me. She's supposed to be our protagonist and Elendil has done nothing at all to classify him as evil, or even morally corrupt, so WHY did they think audiences would respond positively to seeing Galadriel threaten to murder him???
Because she is a Strong Female Character. Don't be sexist and question.
@@johnbox271 The 2020s is for women what the 1980s was for men in bad movies and TV shows. No more character arcs, no vulnerability, learning or growth, no believable motivation and no nice sides either, just fight scenes with unexplained magical fighting powers. What does it take to convince writers that's not what a strong character is?
@@skyspring7704 I don't know, but I wish someone would convince them.
@@skyspring7704 Dead on wow
"Nobody goes off-trail" is not some philosophical musing, it's a warning.
"Nobody walks alone" is not to encourage the bonds of familiarity, it's a threat.
If you do either of these things, _you will be left behind._ And then you'll be laughed at.
Certainly plausible and lends further evidence to the Harfoots being utter monsters.
@@randomft and if I may say, "decaravanned" is a ridiculous word
I have never even noticed, that the elves in the orc pits were the same ones from the second episode! They didn't have enough screen time or impact that I even remembered them!
I just wondered where the orcs have got two other elves from 🤷♀️
In LotR, the opening tells us: 1. The Shire is beautiful and worth protecting. 2. Sauron and his orcs are evil and live in a rocky barren land. 3. If Sauron gets The Ring back, places like the Shire will be like Mordor. We start out knowing what’s at stake and what the heroes must do. Most of this is conveyed visually. At this point in RoP, we still don’t know what, why, when or where. What will happen if the Orcs find what they seek? Dunno. What happens if Galadriel doesn’t get back to Middle-Earth? Dunno. What happens if the Comet Man disappears in the woods? Dunno. What happens if the Elven forge isn’t built? Dunno.
I can hear Critical Drinker your comment
@@CarnifexRex I think I channeled him subconsciously. 😄
Isn’t what we’re worried about in Rings Of Power the prologue of LoTR? (The making of the rings, and the war that so many of the characters fought in for middle earth)
I can tell you what happens if the forge isn’t built; hundreds of elven workers will remain unemployed!
@@Ozo_Maduka That's really not how prequels should work. You shouldn't say the story doesn't need internal logical consistency because the audience should be pre-qualified with information on LOTR. (By that logic,why should the Peter Jackson movies explain anything? They are a movie adaptation of a 50-year-old book.)
Case in point: Saying "to prevent the prologue of LOTR" doesn't actually answer the question "what's at stake if they don't stop the Orcs" because the Orcs aren't personally responsible for the entire plot synopsis of LOTR. As a writer you have to be able to describe exactly what threat level a villain is within the context of the story he's in.
Seems like the writers have a similar issue to Bethesda, where they vastly underestimate the passage of time. Galadriel is what, 4,000 years old at that point? She should not act like a petulant teenager.
I’m sure plenty of people have already mentioned this elsewhere in the comments, but the royal family of Numenor are the descendants of of Elronds twin brother, something Galadriel would be well aware of. So between the queen, Elendil, and others, Galadriel is repeatedly threatening to murder all the next-of-kin of her supposed best friend.
Elronds father was also the greatest hero in all Elven history, responsible for the defeat of Morgoth. The Numenorians don’t owe the elves sh*t, the only reason there are any elves alive in middle-earth at all is because of the ancestor of the Numenorians.
It's 25 or so generations down. At this point, Galadriel is far more related to Elrond than both are to Elendil through Indis.
@@malchir4036 I don’t think that’d actually work out genetically, with Elrond and Elros being twins and the fact the the Numenorian royals practice a fair amount of incest, and even when they aren’t marrying cousins are still limited to a dating pool made up exclusively of the descendants of the human clans that Elronds family came from. Plus the unique genetic makeup of Ainur, Elf, and human that Elrond only shares with the royal family, and since he and Galadriel have about 6 generations between them just on the elf side. I suspect Elrond would still be much closer genetically to the Numenorian royals at this point than he would be to Galadriel or most elves.
they technicaly don't, but also the survival of both Elves and Edain was one of co-operation. Though it does boil down to the fact the Numenoreans owe the Valar their very island and still end up falling victim to the vices of humanity.@@chables74
The scene where the Harfoots describe how they leave people behind for any reason does explain one thing: Why the hobbits hide from "big folk". Would you want these monsters in your lands? They apparently devour everything in an area, potentially leave some troublemakers behind, and move on to a new area to despoil.
* cough *
gypsies
* cough *
Except that harfoots are hobbits and most of the hobbits in the Shire in LOTR are descended from the harfoot breed
Also, the whole thing with Harfoots and Nori's family comes off borderline like that the Harfoots aren't celebrating a festival and making sure everybody knows how they stick together and help each other but more like that they are rubbing it in to those who are gonna get left behind especially with Nori's mother saying how they gonna get left behind immediately after Nori's father's accident and with how Poppy is pulling her cart all alone despite not being caught as the one who brought in the stranger, this is also suggesting that the Harfoots have a tradition of leaving few behind as a sacrifice to wild animals and such in order to ensure the safe passage to the rest
And I am going to stick with this theory
The warg bit is also dumb in another way. Wargs are a sapient species, like the eagles or, for that matter, humans. And they are allied with the other evil ones (though when actually working together, do tend to snack on goblins/orcs). But, basically, the orcs here have enslaved an allied evil race, which would cause issues, and the show treats the critter like it is a dog, rather than a sapient species, which would definitely hold a grudge about being enslaved.
But I guess the writers thought, "It looks like a dog/wolf, so it must be an animal." It is like they haven't read the books. The wargs are one of the five armies at the Battle of Five Armies, FFS. And while someone watching the show shouldn't have to read the books to know what things are, the writers of the show should.
Wait, the Wargs aren't animals? What!? I always assumed they were just a weird kind of wolf
@@dominicmarazita8103 Cool
I mentioned this in the Ep 2 video actually, but the Harfoots plot is so terrible.
- They laugh off people that died stung by bees, stop and think how many stungs would take to do that and how gruesome it actually is and they just laugh it off.
- Tons of Harfoots not carrying anything that could've perfectly helped the two carts left behind.
- In later episodes they'll tell the carts are vital to the Harfoots, yet back here they'll just leave two of those behind for no reason.
- If getting injured means you are left behind why would anyone do anything to help one another in this community? This is a dystopia setting, but they are painted as the Hobbit's predecessors.
Not to mention that Largo is a wheel maker. A pretty important figure in a comunity based on cars.
Imagine if they'd hired Gwendoline Christie to play Galadriel. Now that would have been worth watching.
Yes, we'd have judged her on her ACTIONS, and her CHARACTER, not as she appears in FLESH. And also, she could have used Galadriel's armor to cook casseroles for her friends.
Seriously, though, she's not a Galadriel. Try instead if they'd cast Morfydd Clark as Celebrian, Galadriel's daughter (and Elrond's future wife).
Harwin Strong, the strongest knight in the Seven Kingdoms in the time of "the House of the Dragon", was played by an actor who was 5'11 at most. But the actor brought energy and swagger to the role, knocking men about like ragdolls, you didn't notice! Acting makes all the difference, which makes Galadriel's 5'3 coming across 5'nothing all the more unforgivable.
Cate Blanchett is only 5'8" but it was not noticeable. The way she carried herself coupled with the way Jackson filmed her scenes made her look tall like Tolkien wrote her to be.
These guys from RoP made no effort in filming Morfydd Clark and other cast members to make her look tall like Galadriel is supposed to be.
Other television shows have built ramps or used a stool/box to minimize height disparities. A good example is Smallville. Welling is so tall and some of the ladies were almost a foot shorter than him. When filming they would disappear from the camera or you'd only get the top of their head when trying for closeups. They used forced perspective when filming as well. Jackson also utilized forced perspective in the LoTR films.
I guess my point was they could have easily resolved this issue if this is the actress they most wanted to use for RoP. They were just too lazy and disinterested in the lore to bother with it.
"In place of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen! Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea! Stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me, and despair!"
I believed it.
Why GuyLadReeee-el first insist the Queen regent give her a boat, and later tries to steal one, when she could just swim to Middle-Earth instead, as it's only half the distance she initially wanted to swim - is beyond my understanding.
But how anyone could trust 2 muppets with a $1 billion show is even further from my feeble mind to grasp, so there's that.
Love how you break down the logic of the stories (or lack thereof) even without referencing the lore👏
Adar was the only character with a clear moral compass and who actually had any kind of gravitas and the poise that elves were known for. Also Adar was the only competent character and was rewarded for it by getting both moral check mate over Karen, and overall victory for his campaign.
Not sure what I love more: Your use of Kronk memes, the tired note taking of characters "characteristics" (an excellent touch btw), or your cynical delivery that I still haven't quite been able to deliver to my own friends - I was _that guy_ who preached GoT was awful from season 5 onwards, thus being banished from group viewings due to my constant cackles and critiques.
Just mash them all together I guess.
Good stuff anyway Charlie. On to the next one 👍 (again, this is better than the actual show).
Edit: Using "The Day Today" was ruthless hahahahahhaa
did you notice at 47:04 that the Watchwarden is shot by three orcs standing out in the middle of a field in broad daylight? it seems their xeroderma pigmentosum can be switched on and off at convenience.
I did notice some serious inconsistencies with this when I was doing my script for episode 4, but I actually missed this one. I didn't notice that you can literally see the orcs standing right there behind him, good catch!
these were probably black orks
One thing: Galadriels belief that her bloodline needs redemption may be a reference to the ban of the valar upon the noldor (of which she is part of), however, this falls quickly when you realize that they purposely discarded the canon, since the ban of the valar was recalled after the war of wrath and the defeat of morgoth, also she was still banned by the time of lord of the rings because she refused to go because she wanted her own kingdom to rule which she had in lothlorien
The people that made this show surely are remarkable. I too hope to one day work on something for that which I have neither talent, passion or knowledge.
The whole warg rant almost had me in tears 🤣
It looked like a oversized Chihuahua
@@droopmasterflex2822 i thought it looked like a deformed Sonic 😂😂
These videos have been more enjoyable than the series. Please complete the series and do a full series autopsy! 👏👏
Character description
The Sea:
- is ALWAYS right
17:20 Haven't seen the whole video yet, but I am hoping for an entry for The Sea in your character sheets.
The Sea
* Is always right
I know it’s more of a nitpick, but I hate that every elf has short hair but Galadriel and the king. It’s always been one of their most recognizable characteristics, and this is supposed to be high fantasy…
If Numenor is a voyage of 20 days and 2000 miles from Middle-earth, then it is 39 days & (presumably) 3900 miles from Valinor. Making Valinor 5900 miles by sea from Middle-earth. For Galadriel to jump over the side of the Elven-ship was absolutely crazy.
When you mentioned Galadrrrrrriel's height, I recalled that Numenorians were described as very tall by Tolkien, often reaching seven feet. For a moment I thought the show had done something cool by using Galadriel to illustrate this feature of the Numenorians.
I then realised you were talking over a shot of Galadriel walking next to Halbrand, who is meant to be a regular man. So yeah, Galadriel is just short. How disappointing.
Follow-up to my previous comment (which is months late, I know) another thing the show neglects to inform the audience is the elves do have a "god of the sea" (An Ainur named Ulmo) who absolutely could have helped her.
This could have been as simple as having her realize her mistake (or admit that she at least needs help if she still thinks she was doing what is right) and pray to the Valar for assistance on her return to Middle-Earth. It could explain how the boat found her. It could have been on her journey of "redemption" as she attempted to redeem herself in the eyes of the Valar.
Shrug. Maybe the writers didn't know, or didn't care. Sorry, Legal Obligations ...
Yeah, I assume that Ulmo and pretty much all the valar except for Morgoth (well, ex-valar) are off limits due to not being mentioned by name in the portion of the appendices that Rings of Power has access to. It would make a lot more sense to have the Numernoreans referring to 'Ulmo's will' or something like that rather than the whole 'the sea is always right' line.
I have to admit, the actor who played Adar did a really good job; but from what I heard he got recasted by someone else. And to be fair, I kinda see it as a good thing because the actor deserve better roles for other stuff other than being on this show.
Galadriel is a D&D 5E murder hobo, much harder to do that in 2E
If I recall correctly, black speech isn't very well explained in the Lord of the Rings either:
It is it's own language, *but* crucially, it's written in elven script (because Sauron seemingly couldn't be bothered to make his own alphabet, despite making an entire language). I'm not sure which characters are meant to be able to read it, but as Gandalf alludes to in the scene early in Fellowship, very few are actually able to. Some quick research reveals that not even Sauron's orcs knew the full language, although they borrow many words from it in the third age.
Well to be fair, not making your own alphabet is how you do a Europe: Latin is modified Etruscan which is modified Greek, and if you don't use that chances are it's because you never stopped using Greek.
From my very (very) limited Tolkien knowledge, evil cannot create anything new, it can only twist what already exists, hence why Sauron can only change the original elvish language into something more evil.
Loving these breakdowns. You are doing a grand job sir!
Wouldn't a Harfoot left behind on their own also be a huge security risk for the entire group as well? If humans and other creatures seemingly hate them so much (btw did anyone ever explain why?), wouldn't they want to avoid any action that could get a Harfoot captured/interrogated and compromise the migration trails, how their homes/wagons are built and disguised, stuff like that? Like, killing them would be a safer and still just as heartless choice; actually, it would probably be a better plot line, creating natural tension by forcing Nori's family to hide her father's injury and making them volunteer to be at the back.
Same reason I wonder why they chant so loudly.
While I see the hyena resemblence for the warg, my thought was and still is "Chernobyl-mutated batshit insane Mega-chihuahua"
Mostly because of the "bulging" eyes, I think.
I did like the comment about cocaine in its stommach, it matches my impression as well, hence the "batshit insane."
best, most comprehensive breakdown and analysis i've watched, and i have watched a lot. please continue these!
That backflip over the warg was so ridiculous. He didn't even jump or anything, just floated upwards.
notice also Poppy at 43:57, whose parents are dead, pulling her cart all alone without a single Harfoot offering to help. of course if she falls behind, RIP.
Requisat in stomach...
But for the love of Satan stop this falls behind drivel. Lots of civilizations practiced it, including Western Europe and Retardistan until the 1700s. The Romans (washing babies in wine to test for seizures) and abandoning deformed ones. They were perfectly capable of being technologically advanced and erudite while playing child skull basketball.
It makes a lot of sense as does adults (parents) eating babies and children if there's a long drought - it gives the breeders a chance to survive long enough for the drought to break and food to reappear.
It'd help if you were educated on the subjects you're whinging about. A nuee ardente can throw large rocks for several hundred miles, and look up traps volcanic events - that explains HunkDor... The Siberian traps was 5 million years of eruption and was a major cause of the great dying...
I don't know if this has already been answered, but all Elves can read Black Speech though not all speak it. Sauron famously appropriated Elven letters and used them phonetically for his language, not unlike how Japanese integrated Kanji or how the English alphabet is used everywhere. The writing on the One Ring? A poem in Black Speech, using the Tengwar as a middle finger to his Elven foes, equally a boot to the head and representative of every Orc who is/ is decended from a tortured Elf.
This is one detail I'll give them a pass on, because Gandalf and Elrond covered it in Fellowship.
Just one thing... The English alphabet?! You mean the Latin alphabet.
this is insufficient explanation, most of western languages use mostly the same letters plus diacritics, but the languages are very different
These are great fun break downs, I am working from home today and binged the first three so far this morning. Now for number four. Keep up the good work
Your videos are really good. Top tier ROP breakdowns.
"De-caravaned" is such a Tolkienesque word... Lovely 😂
I think the idea that Halbrand is king Of the Southlands is further evidence that he is Sauron, as the Southlands is in the same place on the map that Mordor is supposed to be.
King of Mordor = Sauron
Really loved watching your breakdowns of the 3 episodes. Looking foward to more of these. :)
Would love to see a video on why Tom bombadil and scouring of the shire would be detrimental… assuming it’s not “the films are already so long”
Even Tolkien admitted he didn't really know why he included Tom Bombadil. It doesn't really add anything. But mostly, yeah, length.
Really enjoying these!
I do have three little nitpicks, though. Could you please lower the volume of the static noise when typing your fantastic character notes for the last episode? Love the gag, but they're a little loud and make me jump. Me being jumpy obviously isn't your problem, but figured I might as well ask.
The two guards talking made sense if they weren’t talking about the last time Gakadriel escaped, but the last time one of them had to report something that had gone wrong, and a dog running of would be a much smaller issue.
Last bit, and I'm fully prepared to be corrected here, but I assumed the guild crest was more of a work permit than a degree.
This in no way makes this show any better
Personally, I get the guards exchange during Galadriel's escape. It is essentially this:
Guard 1: "I don't want to do it, I did it the last time."
Guard 2: "The last time it was a dog, that doesn't count."
And honestly? That's one of the most reasonable and human exchanges in this show
It being a dog doesn't have anything to do with whether or not the guy should have to tell Pharazon someone has escaped, was my point.
@@randomft yes, one of them should definitely mention it to anybody higher up but they are arguing about which one of them because neither one of them wants to get yelled at for doing a bad job
That is what their conversation is about
That insert image of Gimli while you were stumbling over your words (for comedic effect, obviously) at 15:13 was priceless. I almost never laugh out loud even when I find things exceptionally funny when I'm listening at work, but that made me lol...
Liked, added, shared, subbed.
Edit:
Mmm, you remember that classic scene in LotR when Samwise was arguing & back talking Frodo, refusing to help him, so Frodo decided to blackmail Sam w/o conscience or consideration? So inspiring.
Oh man, just had a thought at 55:20 when it shows Guy'ladriel contemplating stealing a boat, inserting the South Park clip from the episode Whale Whores(?) where the idiot chick is like, "I'm a pirate! I have balls!" Would've fit so well. Ah, c'est la vie...
5' 3" is not minescule - that's only 1" below average for a caucasian woman. For an elf, however, it's very short. I don't understand why they couldn't use basic camera trickery to make her appear taller. We know they're capable of this.
I bet it's to hard for them to film with these filming techniques. Imagine they would have made a movie with Tom Cruise, poor boy.
Slight correction on the maps.
17:24 that map is horribly inaccurate and made up by David Day, a quite controversial guy within Tolkien fandom who basically inserts his own ideas as canonical. The map you previously referenced ( 17:29 ) is a sketch by Tolkien himself. Karen Wynn Fonstad later expanded on this map ( 17:33 ) and others in "the Atlas of Middle-Earth".
Otherwise, great video!
Thank you for your breakdowns. Super fun to watch. Looking forward to your future posts.
I only watched the first three episodes, but it was clear to me that in Numinor, there were two factions, the anti-elf majority and the secretly pro-elf minority. I was not sure where the queen truly fell (did she make Elendil follow Galadriel because she knew he was secretly pro and she wanted him to protect Galadriel or is she anti and punishing him for bringing an elf and hoping he will get mad when Galadriel mouth's off/escapes and arrest/harm her).
But the scene where Elendil speaks Elvish was him revealing to Galadriel he is on her side (one of the pro-elf group). Then, he offered her knowledge. He offers her access to knowledge she hasn't had (because Numinor has been closed off to elves) and that may help her on her quest. This offer serves to help her, keep her busy so she doesn't cause more trouble, and stop her plan to steal a boat, keeping him from getting in trouble for not stopping her. His offer to help her switched her attitude and she sees the value in gaining knowledge. So they go to the lore library. The motivations for why each of them was going there seemed clear to me.
However, I never watched any further episodes and I am not familiar with the lore, so I might have misunderstood. Finding the secret symbol, the human prisoner, all of that is still absurd. Maybe all elves can read black speech? Good people don't want to speak it aloud but can comprehend it if they learn it, I think? It"s just beyond convenient that the one answer she needs is hidden in this one lace she got taken to because this one boat found them after she jumped into the middle of the ocean!. And so, Sauron's plan was to come up with a symbol that is a vague map, carve it on a dead elf and in an isolated fortress and this somehow communicates to orcs to come to a location and gather?? What? And how would the "human prisoner" know this plan...unless...was the human prisoner Sauron in another disguise? None of it makes sense!
Considering NONE of that comes from Tolkien :) it's a fanfic of the script writers after all, your guess is as good as any....BUT as a lore nerd that I am :) I see the stupidity of this subplot, all that crap about the mark makes no sense, if Sauron had a secret plan he certainly would not be leaving such hints randomly and certainly NOT carved on the body of his enemy :) and clearly the writers didn't think this one through, the Black Speech is a language that Sauron devised in the Second Age in origin it was supposed to be this 'lingua franca' of his servants so to speak so it would be widely known ONLY afterwards his prsence would be revealed at large to the world :) and since in the show 'currently' Sauron and his servants are keeping low profile it's not known HOW the Elves are able to know this language (the early centuries of Second Age has Sauron in total stealth mode, meaning he is hiding his presence and activities of his servants, eventually some presence and workings of dark creatures are discovered but nobody knows it's Dark Lord Sauron doing until the big reveal 'I return suckers' style in lore at the specific point in time :)). Second, all records of any sort that would survive the first Great War with Morgoth that would be first kept by the Elves at Lindon so it's really strange why this one particular note is in the archives of Numenor or all places! (One must say that in Tolkien's world, the Edain who sailed to settle in the island and form the kingdom of Numenor would derive all their knowledge, skills, one way or another...from the Elves) the mark itself being a map of course it doesn't make much sense, it's hilarious to think that Orcs would have to figure it out basing on the shape of the mark that it denotes a geographic position hehe. Orcs in the show are portrayed as extremely primitive...which is hilarious considering that Orcs in the Second Age in Tolkien's lore LEARNED to read and write in runes:
"The Cirth in their older and simpler form spread eastward in the Second Age, and became known to many peoples, to Men and Dwarves, and even to Orcs, all of whom altered them to suit their purposes and according to their skill or lack of it." Lotr appendix E
The division in Numenor is not painted properly the Faithful and the King's Men factions are not explained well enough in the show:
"Then Tar-Ancalimon, son of Atanamir, became King...; and in his day the people of Númenor became divided. On the one hand was the greater party, and they were called the King's Men, and they grew proud and were estranged from the Eldar and the Valar. And on the other hand was the lesser party, and they were called the Elendili, the Elf-friends; for though they remained loyal indeed to the King and the House of Elros, they wished to keep the friendship of the Eldar, and they hearkened to the counsel of the Lords of the West. Nonetheless even they, who named themselves the Faithful, did not wholly escape from the affliction of their people, and they were troubled by the thought of death.
Thus the bliss of Westernesse became diminished; but still its might and splendour increased. For the kings and their people had not yet abandoned wisdom, and if they loved the Valar no longer at least they still feared them. They did not dare openly to break the Ban or to sail beyond the limits that had been appointed. Eastwards still they steered their tall ships. But the fear of death grew ever darker upon them, and they delayed it by all means that they could; and they began to build great houses for their dead, while their wise men laboured unceasingly to discover if they might the secret of recalling life, or at the least of the prolonging of Men's days. Yet they achieved only the art of preserving incorrupt the dead flesh of Men, and they filled all the land with silent tombs in which the thought of death was enshrined in the darkness. But those that lived turned the more eagerly to pleasure and revelry, desiring ever more goods and more riches; and after the days of Tar-Ancalimon the offering of the first fruits to Eru was neglected, and men went seldom any more to the Hallow upon the heights of Meneltarma in the midst of the land."
The Silmarillion, Akallabêth
This is the text they had no rights to so obviously instead of actual deeper philsophical, ideological division we get some weird racism allegory it seems.
The whole thing with the 'plan' is all invented for the show, there was no pre-existing plan, after defeat of Morgoth, Sauron and all the dark creatures were in disarray and it took some time before they organized again, and only when Sauron took over power he made plans accordingly to his vision. We know that he chose Mordor as his stronghold, new land to occupy for his purpose as giant military base and realm of his own for specific reasons, first he chose this area of land because there was this fiery mountain Orodruin which he used for his purposes:
"There was a fiery mountain in that land that the Elves named Orodruin. Indeed for that reason Sauron had set there his dwelling long before, for he used the fire that welled there from the heart of the earth in his sorceries and in his forging."
The Silmarillion V Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age
Second reason as Tolkien wrote outside of universe: "The placing of Mordor in the east was due to simple narrative and geographical necessity, within my 'mythology'. The original stronghold of Evil was (as traditionally) in the North; but as that had been destroyed, and was indeed under the sea, there had to be a new stronghold, far removed from the Valar, the Elves, and the sea-power of Númenor."
Mordor is a secure location due to it's geography, it's removed far enough from the main enemies of Sauron but also close enough to launch an assault from it when necessary:
In timeline of the Second Age in appendices we have this date, year 1000 of Second Age:
"_c_. 1000
Sauron, alarmed by the growing power of the Númenoreans, chooses Mordor as a land to make into a stronghold. He begins the building of Barad-dûr."
Watched your 3 current Hobbit videos, and I gotta say that you make some quality content. Makes work go by quickly. Keep up the good work, and I hope to see your channel get the support it deserves.
Galadriel won't say why her bloodline needs redeeming at 43:11 because Amazon do not have the rights to that part of the story. However, it would be because she took part in the revolt of the Noldor (although not in Feanor's Kinslaying of the Elves of Alqualonde), for which reason she and the other Noldor were exiled and banned from returning to Valinor, a ban which in her case was only lifted after the events of the Lord of the Rings, in return for her having resisted the temptation of the One Ring in that famous scene in Lothlorien with Frodo.
I learned about this after doing the video. This is nonetheless a flaw with the show because it is presenting something without explaining it.
@@randomft Indeed, for to the ones who doesnt know, the show basicly tells them that all of the elves of Valinor left to fight and not that it was a large chunk of a group of elves riled up by the royal family of said group. Its just one of the many stupid "easter eggs" for the ones in the know, but the way it's said makes it sound like this was information that shared in earlier episodes as well.
Sigh, I'm sorry, but I can't fit this pint sized sociopathic neuroduhvergent twunt (who walks like a gay cowboy after a good Saturday night) , with the tall graceful intelligent powerful Galadriel that inspires dwarven boners...and might be a pervy hobbit fancier...
My mind just can't do it...
Its like David Attenborough doing a Warhammer documentary...
Oh wait 😳🥺😂😂😂😂
@@randomft It also doesn’t seem like this lore can even possibly be part of the show’s canon, since Galadriel was on her way back to Valinor and clearly isn’t exiled.
Halbrand = Sauron
His first words to Galadriel when he saves her in ep 1 are words then said many years later in the Peter Jackson LotR when Galadriel tells Frodo about going to face Sauron.
I know there is a very high probability of this but I am trying to treat each episode based purely on what it explicitly gives me, believe me if or when they reveal that Halbrand is Sauron I will be tearing into that too.
@@Fredgilb29 Ok but how are they going get the rings if they already know who Sauron is and how he operates? I mean it's stated in the lore that the 16 rings given to the Men and Dwarves were made with Sauron's help the remaining 3 forged independently by Celebrimbor
@@Fredgilb29 well as long as they are making this up as they go why the hell not
@@Fredgilb29 That doesn't mean much and the way GOT went that doesn't spark any hope for any future development
I found your channel some days ago, and I've been binging through the videos ever since. Love the content!
As someone raised in a cult, a seemingly close knit society that will cut you off at the slightest infraction is very plausible.
The shoutout to Spartacus! 😍
Love your content man. Thank you for all the work you're doing!
It does make sense that Galadriel would know black speech. It is the speech of an enemy that she has been chasing for hundreds of years, so not knowing the language would have been a big disadvantage. In LotR, Gandalf and Elrond know it also, they just really don’t like it and avoid using it.
The real question of the hour is why the hell did Numenor imprison a dog? Did it hump the queen or something?
The pointy ears--it was obviously an Elvish dog.
Gone through the first three videos in a row while working, really enjoy it! Thanks for the great job breaking it down so thoroughly
Taking out the bloody tree would take days/weeks,digging dirt around it would take fewer days...
You mentioned Spartacus!!! I love Spartacus!!! Dude! Can we get a Spartacus video? That show was off the fucking chain, yo
I love the statistics on swimming part. Finding segments like that in videos is always amazing, because I'm a fantasy writer, and having neat stacks of facts like that is REALLY helpful when I need a reference for physical activities (usually travel, combat or encumberance) that I have little or no personal experience with. Along similar lines, you have a segment in another of these videos where you mentioned how much ground a horse can cover in one day. I really appreciated that one, too.
3 days is also a pretty quick turnaround to find a ship a crew a captain and to supply it with everything needed for a months journey even today today it takes about 8 hours to refuel a cargo ship and that’s assuming you sail straight in
I enjoyed this video. It was entertaining and humorous. I am looking forward to watching more and I subbed to the channel.
the best dismantling of ROP on youtube - bloody good show old chap!
Great breakdown! I really enjoyed listening to your analyses. Plus, I lOVE Kronk, so that's a bonus! 😁
Kronk is the best Disney princess.
These are great breakdowns! I'm going through every episode.
So gotta say I love your reviews and take downs, I also love that you enjoy spartacus, I think it is awesome aswell. I would love to see you do a walk through of spartacus and build up the charachter profiles and a breakdown of what makes it so good.
you know as a contrast
Loved that moment when Galadrial was about to kill Elendil to steal a boat, but then Elendil reminded her that both their mothers were called Martha.
The Lord of the Rings is the greatest novel ever written period. Peter Jackson's adaption of this book in his movies was equally brilliant. Your critique of Rings of Power is also brilliant. The real question why is it even possible that great works can be bastardized, to the extent that they are?
Because the people making it don’t care if it is good, they care if it makes money. Sad to say, but true.
@Reality Insights It's quite likely that there are people on the team who do genuinely care and want to respect Tolkien's work/make a good show. However, unfortunately, the people at the top don't care. It feels like this whole show was incredibly rushed and Amazon gave a list of things to the producers and told them to tick those things off and everything else didn't matter.
How does the elf know that the orcs are looking for a weapon when none of them even know about the sword? The audience needs reminding I suppose.
The thing that scene of the elves needing to cut the tree that made me the most confused is that they could make a reasonable excuse, such as "The tree is very old, so it is very hard, so we should dig around it, it would be quicker" and maybe they wouldn't need to cut it at all or get to that "trap" of giving water
"The sea is always right" seems to be a nod to Ulmo, the Vala of the seas. Which doesn't make any sense given that if Numenore was estranged from the elves at this point, then they would not be revering the Valar either....
Excellent analysis and review 👍 🖖🏼
A couple of other issues its that even if she could steal a boat is she capable of sailing it 4K miles to Middle-Earth by herself? Is the boat she plans to steal even capable of being sailed by a single person. Is the boat already provisioned?
Also the Queens father is still alive but deposed, which means he was overthrown but only to have his daughter put in charge?
Regent is also the wrong title as a Regent is: “a person who governs a kingdom in the minority, absence, or disability of the sovereign”
That correct title for her should be the Queen Regnant which is the term for a ruler who rules in their own right.
Her father *is* disabled, so, if that had been the reason his authority was removed, "Regent" would be appropriate. However, unless the writers are intending to imply highly questionable marriage practices in the Numenorean royal family, the proper title should be "Princess Regent," not "Queen Regent." However, the writers basically told us that Miriel's father had been forced to abdicate for "loyalty to Elves" *before* he lost his senses. This would make him no longer the king, so yes, "Queen Regnant" is more appropriate to what they seem to be leaning more heavily toward.
Did I mention that I adore all this analysis of RoP ? 👍👍👍 Such hard work to collect all those little bits :)
I looooove well done, extra long critiques. You’re doing the U.K proud, sir! Although….. I could do with 73.46% less identical cartoon cutaways
"Giant edgelord turbowolves" now there's an expression that'll be stuck in my mind for quite some time....
At this point, I am far more invested in the critique than the actual show. Can't wait for season two of your breakdown because I'll be fucked if I watch the actual show.
Very entertaining series of videos. Thank you. :)
Saw you got a mention on @CriticalDrinker 's livestream with @Nerdrotic ,
Congrats!
Awesome, I didn't catch that stream, will check it out, thanks!
The time issue/compression is what made me angry even before I started watching. I was still hopeful before, but after I read what they tried to make timeline-wise I lost all hope. They could have made Galadriel much more like the Tolkien OG character AND have her be a main character in the show if they stuck to the story. First Sauron disguised as Annatar shows up at the elven realms and Elrond/Gil-Galad and Galadriel think he is suspicious, but Celebrimbor (the grandson of Feanor, which is not mentioned in the show but is quite important because the Feanorians and Noldor Elves in general were a bit more susceptive to the influence of the dark lords) decides to befriend him and work with him. Rings get made (the elven ones without Saurons help), all the ones mentioned in the LotR, Sauron then fucking overruns everything, Eregion gets sacked and Celembrimbor tortured, then he dies in the most gruesome way and his corpse is being used a "banner" for Saurons army. A LOT OF TIME passes (around 1500 years), then the Numenor timeline starts with the Numenorians succumbing to their frustration of not being immortal like the elves (AND NOT BEING AFRAID OF JOB STEALING ELVES lol), they get arrogant and trample on the man of middle-earth (they do not just stay on the island like it's shown in RoP) in their colonies in ME. Ar Pharazon forcibly marries Tar-Miriel, he hates Elves and wants to be immortal. During an intervention in ME, Pharazon picks up the seemingly surrendering Sauron, takes him with him to Numenor and shit´s going downhill from there. They found temples for Morgoth on Numenor, with human sacrifices and all that.Sauron convinces Pharazon and his men to sail to Valinor (forbidden for mortals), this enrages the Valar and Eru Illuvatar and as a a consequence, Numenor gets flooded, Gondor and Arnor are founded by Isildur and Anarion, who survive and flee Numenor on time. From there on, the LotR explains the rest. They would have had plenty of story to tell, but no, compress it and make it muddled and non-sensical.
Tns. Good review. I enjoyed it. Well made, looking forward for more of your work! I’ll advertise you with friends & people Iknow…
☠☠☠ I'm dead .. you're videos killed me. They're too awesome
5:00 - It's important to remember that the way TV often works is that a writers room (headed by a showrunner) come up with the episodes as a collective. This is generally referred to as "breaking an episode." But then individual writers or pairs of writers are usually tasked with actually writing the majority of the episode's actual script (stuff like the dialogue, execution of the plot beats, etc.). This process varies between writers' rooms. Some showrunners choose to break down almost every detail in the writers room and the writer of an individual episode is basically just filling in the gaps, other showrunners choose to have a very loose approach and figure out very little collectively but instead leave a lot of leeway for the individual writers (or pairs of writers) of each episode. As a result it's not surprising that there would be some variability in how competently the dialogue was written from episode to episode because that is the thing that inidividual writers for their episodes often have the most control over. Because this episode was written out by different writers (John Cahill and Justin Doble) than the first one (John D. Payne and Patrick McKay) or the second one (Gennifer Hutchison).
It’s too bad that the orcish robe technology was lost to the ages. In the Third Age, they had to breed a whole new kind of orc to be in the sunlight.
Wait a minute.... If 5 foot 3 is tiny to you, then what do you call my height of 4 foot 7? Excellent job breaking down this mess. I subbed because you made me laugh many times😁
You probably don't want to ask that question 😂😂. A Komodo Dragon would think you were a perfect meal though. Megalania not so much (their landgoing version).
Of what great war Galadriel is talking in Numenor ? At the times of great war against Morgoth, there was no Numenor yet, the island was given as reward for the deeds of humans in this war. The next great war against Sauron was when the elves made their Rings of Power under the influences of Sauron, but this was not in the show yet, there is no Rings yet, and the third great war was against Sauron when the Numenorians have defeated Sauron (despite him having his Ring!) and he'd surrendered to them to be able to enter Numenor and influence it - this war was not long before the fall of Numenor, which is also in the future of the show becouse there is no Rings and Miriel and Pharazon still live. So about what war Galadriel is talking about? :D
Yay! Now I don’t have to actually watch this trash myself. Thank you!
Plus the editing is pretty good. I like the emperors new groove theme
On Halbrand and the Guild Crest: how he got the money he used to spend the rounds is the least of my concerns in the entire scene, as it has already been established that Halbrand is a capable pickpocket. How could he have gotten the coins he intends to use to pay for the meal he eats while being mobbed by the guild member ? Hmmm... ^^
It is much more the logic of his action that bothers me, as it is the same faulty logic that makes pickpocketing a problem in historical medieval towns.
In fact, this problem almost didn't exist back then, because in a settlement with only a few thousand inhabitants, you can't go anywhere without someone recognising you. Without anonymity, what happens is exactly what happens to Halbrand: you identify the culprit and he gets a kick in the teeth.
...ideally, if you consider the next scene. ^^
Historically, it was much worse that the community of one's place of residence was also the social safety net. However, if you had a reputation as a thief, it was not uncommon to be banished, which was effectively a death sentence in instalments, as you no longer had anyone willing to help you if you got into trouble.
Halbrand is established to be a supernaturally talented pickpocket, that is true, but there is a different between stealing a dagger and stealing enough £££ to pay for rounds of drinks for about 30 people.
I agree with the rest of your comment though. If Halbrand's goal was to live in Numenor as a blacksmith then becoming a criminal immediately is a somewhat counterproductive way to go about doing so.
@@randomft The question here is rather - how many bags did he actually empty on the way to the tavern ?
That he couldn't have stolen enough money for 4 rounds per 30 people from one person is something I agree with. But a purse - especially if you don't use it for anything else - may well contain enough money to pay for several rounds.
Especially since he is in an inn and not in a modern discotheque. Workers stop there who want a full meal at low prices during their lunch break and inhale the whole thing with a thin beer or a diluted wine.
The prices will be correspondingly low.
Referring again to the historical counterpart, I would argue that it will effectively be McDonald's prices rather than those of a "real" restaurant, and so he will probably only need an initial template of 1-2 inn rounds before he can help himself to the now more relaxed, sociable fellow drinkers, or their wallets, for the balance.
They will be relaxed as a result of his spendability, affable have no problems with physical proximity and will thus also be less alert when he uses his hands to gesticulate while talking and lets them drop every now and then and thus slide out of sight.
...but I'm probably looking at this from a purely feasibility point of view now and giving too much credit to the writers of this lousy piece of work, aren't I ? 😀
@@randomft i was thinking that he got some coins from the queen. It is for me logical that he got some coins to start his life or at least have some days some food. Also when not a welcomed guest, they still are.
I approve of your content a lot, for I go brain-afk with all the forced/unearned pathos in the show.