The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Prime)

[GoinAllTheWay]

Originally Posted by Sr. Mints

I chuckled a bit at how pathetic the Eregion elves handled themselves toward the end. The way the elves have been portrayed in the show has bugged me at times throughout the series.

I've always envisioned, elves as nearly flawless, wise, and powerful beings with centuries of experience. Yet, in RoP, they come off as naive, disorganized, and surprisingly vulnerable. Instead of embodying the legendary strength and resilience we've seen in other depictions, they seem to be constantly on the back foot, making poor decisions and failing to rise to their own standards.

It feels like a missed opportunity to showcase the grandeur and competence that should define the elven race.

Agreed. This series made them seem.....human.

[octothorp]

To me that's really appropriate for the elves of the second age. The late first-age elves could not be more different than the serene, noble elves that we know from the third age... they've declared violent vendettas, they've killed one-another in senseless battles, they've been pridefully foolish in their confidence of their magic, many of their choices have unwittingly aided evil, and they only survived that conflict against Morgoth because a mortal half-man went and pleaded with the Valar to intervene. So it's appropriate that they're in a sort of low point here... a Morgoth-like threat arises, and they truly don't know whether they have the strength or judgement or the willpower to withstand him. If the elves still feel the same way by the end of the series, I'll be disappointed in that, but I think the elves finding their direction again through the alliance with men would be a good arc for them.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Finished S2 and I found it to be quite a slog. Some of the storylines just kind of sit there, with no dramatic tension or compelling narrative to them. Like the Numenor stuff, couldn't figure out why I should care.

Part of the problem is acting. Sauron is great but much of the acting is not good or miscast. Galadriel is the biggest offender.

The dwarves are interesting, the Sauron angle was good. Everything else just meanders.

The whole Gandalf thing is weak. Through two seasons, his character arc is just him stumbling along looking confused.

The show seems to exist to fill in the Tolkien lore. If you don't live and breathe that stuff, it's very hard to care about much of what happens.

Pretty big Tolkien nerd here and "live and breathe" it to an extent. And I can tell you I don't care about a lot of what happens.

I try to disconnect my brain from the source lore while watching to give myself a chance to enjoy it because I know it can't and won't be true to the source material. The films diverged from the source and were still a masterpiece.

But here there were so many useless and boring storylines in the show. I genuinely found myself wishing Nori & Poppy died in Gandalf's storm, just so that storyline would end. The stranger being Gandalf was boring.

Eregion, Lindon, Numenor are amazing and legendary realms teeming with life, culture and achievement, yet the show made them seem like a few dozen people lived there, and the majority of them (Elves and Men) were generally dumb and useless, despite the fact that Elves are ethereal spiritual Chosen beings and Numenoreans are the most advanced race of humans that ever lived. They did Galadriel dirty and the actress wasn't great. How lame was it that she jumped of the cliff and Sauron is like oh dang, the ring and key to my plans is 100 feet away from me now - feeling too lazy to levitate down there and get it.

Some stuff in the show was great in S2. Annatar and Celebrimbor were terrific. Khazad Dum was good, the

Spoiler!

Balrog

was a homerun. I liked that they started to portray Elendil as an incorruptible morally correct hero. Bombadil was alright, needed to be jollier. But the film references/fan service were cringy like Poppy's rip off from Sam's speech and Tom using Gandalf's lines about dealing out death and judgement. Gross.

All in all, S2 miles better than S1. But missing the mark still. Hopefully they pare some #### down in S3 and focus more on Numenor.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Pretty big Tolkien nerd here and "live and breathe" it to an extent. And I can tell you I don't care about a lot of what happens.

I try to disconnect my brain from the source lore while watching to give myself a chance to enjoy it because I know it can't and won't be true to the source material. The films diverged from the source and were still a masterpiece.

But here there were so many useless and boring storylines in the show. I genuinely found myself wishing Nori & Poppy died in Gandalf's storm, just so that storyline would end. The stranger being Gandalf was boring.

Eregion, Lindon, Numenor are amazing and legendary realms teeming with life, culture and achievement, yet the show made them seem like a few dozen people lived there, and the majority of them (Elves and Men) were generally dumb and useless, despite the fact that Elves are ethereal spiritual Chosen beings and Numenoreans are the most advanced race of humans that ever lived. They did Galadriel dirty and the actress wasn't great. How lame was it that she jumped of the cliff and Sauron is like oh dang, the ring and key to my plans is 100 feet away from me now - feeling too lazy to levitate down there and get it.

Some stuff in the show was great in S2. Annatar and Celebrimbor were terrific. Khazad Dum was good, the

Spoiler!

Balrog

was a homerun. I liked that they started to portray Elendil as an incorruptible morally correct hero. Bombadil was alright, needed to be jollier. But the film references/fan service were cringy like Poppy's rip off from Sam's speech and Tom using Gandalf's lines about dealing out death and judgement. Gross.

All in all, S2 miles better than S1. But missing the mark still. Hopefully they pare some #### down in S3 and focus more on Numenor.

Yeah LOL they seem to switch leaders every episode for some random reason (look read this scroll!). Either give me some plot momentum to care about who rules the place, or some compelling characters who I care about.

I agree there are some cool moments in the show.

As for Tom Bombadil, he just seems written as tall Yoda. Maybe devote some time to the guy if he is supposed to be important.

[Erick Estrada]

Season 2 was far superior but this show would be a lot better if they trimmed some of the storylines particularly the human ones involving Isildur, Theo and the woman. I felt bummed out everytime they moved to that storyline which fortunately wasn't a lot.

[blankall]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Season 2 was far superior but this show would be a lot better if they trimmed some of the storylines particularly the human ones involving Isildur, Theo and the woman. I felt bummed out everytime they moved to that storyline which fortunately wasn't a lot.

Given the large breaks between seasons, I found it difficult to remember (or care about) what was going on with the human storylines at all.