My thoughts on The Rings of Power Season 1. No matter where you land on the show, we’re all Tolkien fans. My hope is this leads to some fun & interesting conversations as we all discuss our likes & dislikes about this visually spectacular series.
00:00-01:14 Intro
01:14-03:14 The Score
03:14-06:23 Geography & Fast Travel
06:23-08:21 The Tone
08:21-10:26 The Peter Jackson “Problem”
10:26-12:35 The Writing
12:35-17:05 Khazad-dûm
17:05-20:15 The Southlands
20:15-24:37 Mithril
24:37-25:47 Casting
25:47-42:03 Galadriel & Elrond
42:03-43:50 Set Design & Costumes
43:50-49:45 Halbrand & Sauron
49:45-52:53 The Stranger
52:53-56:21 Harfoots
56:21-58:49 Adar, Orcs, & Special Effects
58:49-01:05:15 The First Test: Crafting the Rings
01:05:15-01:10:11 Númenor
01:10:11-01:13:07 Conclusion & Looking to the Future
#theringsofpower #ringsofpower #lordoftherings
source
Let's start the conversation with this: name your favorite & least favorite thing from Rings of Power S1. I'll start:
Fav: Khazad-dûm & the characters/stories there
Least Fav: the creation of the rings
Great review & pretty much spot on. The show received a lot of undue criticism & a lot of it was just bandwagon hate & pouring it on. I could be a lot more detailed but in your long review you basically relayed that it wasn’t just a bad show with terrible writing but had a lot of good in it like good bits of writing, an excellent score, etc You encapsulated a summary review perfectly with your framing of it. It was flawed & had warts but overall I think the good bits were able to barely over shadow all the bad bits & shortcomings to make it enjoyable enough.
The score was amazing, it was aesthetically beautiful, & a lot of the acting was great – I think Joseph Mawle as Adar & especially Oswain Arthur crushed it as Prince Durin IV. If you block out all the superfluous noise & give it a chance, you remember what a joy & privilege it is to be back in the sprawling world of Middle Earth. Then you can just watch the show & enjoy it. It was entertaining & satisfying as a whole despite the flaws. In the end it leaves a decently strong foundation for the the future & pining for more. I am looking forward to Season 2. Now one can find flaws when you want to these days as many viewers are sophisticated & have the benefit of hindsight & review with a first blush look as basically an unbiased viewer.
Without knowing all the writing choices, motivations, politics of the show, real world problems, etc it’s easy to get granular & to nitpick. Of course we can say that about anything. Despite a legendarium, extended works, etc there is a lot of ambiguities & missing pieces in the FA & SA so crafting a compelling show even with a world as rich as this is a tall order. I’d give it a solid B- or maybe a bodrerline B. The potential is there for improvement.
They need to make the characters motivations & dialogue a little better and add some more dimensions – for example, Halbrand rightly or wrongly appears to be more of a sympathetic character than Galadriel – I liked her but she was also too aloof & insufferable at times. Maybe this was by design but many rightly pointed out these things. Halbrand as Sauron should have been more menacing is a critique I heard but I think that is too narrow during this time – he looks fair but maybe feels foul which is quintessential Sauron in the first & second – he is the great deceiver. Anyway, strong character depth would help the story. Also we need to feel the grandeur & magnitude of this epic world more & the fast travel made it feel smaller. There were grand macro shots contrasted with narrow microscopic shots without much in between. By juxtaposing better use of spatial & temporal planes, I think it can help relay the scale better. At any rate I am looking forward to Season 2.
Celeborn is NOT dead? After 1000 years of being held captive??? Yeah…not buying that sorry.
Genuinely shocked sometimes by how high Nerds batting average is at this point. I mean the criticisms and the praises are just dead on. 👏 I wish the show runners would watch this video and take notes lol
I agree they absolutely nailed the set designs. Elrond and Durin are certainly my favorite characters, and yeah they definitely botched the finale with the forging of the rings. Cool visuals, but lacking the narrative weight we all know that moment deserved.
I want to say that, while I am actually the most bored by the harfoot storyline, I'm still interested to find out which of the Istari the stranger is (I REALLY hope it isn't Gandalf, but I think the hints they've dropped are way too obvious for it NOT to be him). However, I will say that I am actually cool with the Harfoots being in the second age and living the nomadic lifestyle that they have. The first Hobbits are only mentioned as appearing in the third age, it's true, but I think them showing up out of nowhere in the 3rd age is simply a matter of other more advanced races like the Elves and Dwarves and Numenoreans not having firm historical records of their existence. Tolkien develops the LOTR mythos as a "real world" history which he alone has found and translated. In the same way that we have little knowledge of ancient cultures which had no contact with other well-known cultures and little written language to decipher, it would make sense that Hobbits did exist as a culture/subspecies much earlier than their first appearance in firm historical record, and that they simply fell by the historical wayside until they came into contact with more advanced peoples. The two hunters at the very beginning talk about Hobbits to each other with an almost "old wives tale" type of tone. This shows us that yes, the lesser men of middle earth had indeed encountered harfoots in the past, but any tales of these meetings were passed down as oral traditions and were subject to both disbelief and embellishments. Still a little jarring to see that harfoots regularly abandon their own to death for some misguided sense of "the greater good" though.
That comment by the showrunner saying "huehue who would believe annatar amirite?" made me so mad. Imagine being a showrunner for the most beloved property ever written and shitting all over tolkien like that as if you know better than him? That's so disrespectful and disgusting to me, why do hollywood keep hiring showrunners who seem to actively dislike the source material or think they can do it better?
SOME TIMES U HAVE TO AGREE
TO DISAGREE
Elrond likes Galadriel because he wants to marry her daughter, pretty simple 🤣🤣.
I was waiting for this review and I have to say, it is a very good one. You killed me on « what if Elrond went to Numenor instead ». I can’t get it out of my head. What a waste
Fav: Durin, Elrond, Disa relationships
Least Fav: so many… but to pick one, Galadriel.
Halbrand/Sauron isn’t sympathetic from my view. He is vastly manipulative, he only appears sympathetic because he fully understands how to use people for his ambitions. He’s sociopathic though he seems complex and multifaceted, which isn’t relatable for empathetic characters like Galadriel. The deceiver is magnetic, charismatic, attractive, seductive, cunning, and clever, clouding the judgement of those around him to make poor choices in his favor. Evil isn’t boorish, it’s slick. Also, Halbrand gives the tip of Adar’s exact move of heading toward the tower in the Southlands as the battle is beginning before heading to Middle Earth, so he is aware what is happening there in realtime and seems to be watching his greater plan unfold there. I’m interested to see where his character goes, as well as Galadriel’s, which I think we are only seeing the beginning of the incline of her character arch.
One thing is certain, you should have been hired for screenwriting at the very least. Very well done review
I would agree that with all the freedom they already possess in choosing this story, the amount they have constraint themselves is mildly infuriating to say the least. Instantaneously losing 1000 years of potential story seemed to be the biggest blunder thus far
I wasn't a huge fan of season one. I stuck it out, and I agree with what you say overall. My favorite thing about the show was finding this channel! Because of your videos, I finally sat down and read the books and got a little Tolkien obsessed. I love how informative all your videos are.
It also goes out the window when you realize Durin's own tree remained healthy. That said it could be that Durin is simply better at horticulture than the Elves.
I wonder if one could say the two phenomena are contradictory. Durin could have mythril in his home close to the tree. If not then why is his tree remaining healthy with no proximity to mythril? Perhaps minerals in the water or the environment?
The only other option is Sauron did something to the Lindon tree kick-starting the Elves' paranoia and didn't know about Durin's tree. Had Elrond been told this could have been investigated further and hopefully will in season 2.
Moreover did Halbrand take some metal shavings from the mythril ingot to craft his own ring and the others?
Is it possible that Sauron needed mythril not for its magical ability but its indestructibility?
I notice the subtle use of theological words/ terms that slip in lol you’ve outed yourself! 🙏 as I suspected
"Set design and Khazad-tum's"
Nat 1 on diplomacy 🤣
"One of the dwarfiest Dwarf to ever dwarf" XD Love it!
Thanks for your nuanced review!
Also, I would be totally excited for a video from you about Friendship in Middle Earth having more people care than romantic ones do, or a video in general about the Friendships in Middle Earth.
Without trying to sound too corny, I think you summed it up pretty well for me.
I do think, however, that the amount of good writing that was there, was eclipsed by the bad writing. I tried to rewatch the show and found myself absolutely uninterested, which made me sad.
On a side note, the audio clip of the show runners flippantly dismissing Annatar and the Annatar story line, that’s very worrisome.
Anyway, great video, Matt! I am pretty simpático with this over all! Love the content, my dude!!
Great review! Completely agree. I loved Durin and his frienship with Elrond and all around that, liked Adar and Wizard guy. What i didnt like: questionable choices of characters, screenwriters holding they intrigues and misteries, mediocre speeches and dialoges, hobbits shitty morale quality and diversity (they are genetically homogenious enough to be same sized but not enough to be same color, really??), teleportations, creation of the rings and invaluable suggestions of Sauron were quite basic.
Finally! Thank you!
Fav moment : Elrond friendship with Durin
Least Fav : Mithril foundation & Amazon
I really hope the writers watch this video you make great points and you’re not harsh at all and you touch all the bases that pissed us off with this whole rings of power mess! Great video!
What's the name of the music in the beginning?
Arondir was a good elf , but i hated that rapper haircut
I’m amazed you could watch this tripe twice. There wont be four more seasons
I think fans are just upset for anticipating a big budget Tolkien story (that they love) adaptation and they still get bad writing. Finrod’s battle scene in Dagor Bragollach was a missed opportunity for me. That would have been an epic battle scene. We were but instead introduced to the the cute and lovable Harfoots and the “stranger”. I hope the show runners also introduce the Fallohides and Stoors as well next season. 🥴🥲
Absolutely deserve my subscription for being true to you word.
This was a show for people who can't read