Summary: The Harfoot migration continues. Nori stumbles upon some wolves and The Stranger saves her. The Stranger becomes loved by the Harfoots, but scares Nori after he accidentally hurts her while practicing magic. In Lindon, Elrond learns that Gil-Galad and Celembrimbor sent him to find mithril from the dwarves. The elves are going to die since their tree is poisoned and they need the mithril to stop it. Elrond shares this information with Durin who agrees to help him. In Numenor, the community readies to ride for war. Kemen tries to convince Pharazon to shut down the war, but Pharazon refuses, seeing opportunity to profit. kemen tries to burn the ships instead but finds Isildur who is trying to stow away since he has not been selected. The ship burns but Isildur saves Kemen and is allowed to join the fight. Galadriel opens up to Halbrand and he decides that he will live up to his name and help out in the war. Half of the men at Ostirith leave and bow down to Adar. The remaining group starts losing hope.
The Good: Durin and Elrond are my favourite part of this show. Amongst some pretty bland writing, the show has created an easy to enjoy relationship between these two characters, one that has been earned through character exploration in these first five episodes. We have a good sense of who Elrond and Durin are, and a good sense of what they like about each other. This makes their relationship by far the most effective aspect of this show. I was beginning to get concerned that this show was going to use the typical trope of miscommunication to make Durin and Elrond's relationship fall apart, but I was thrilled to find out that this wasn't the case. Elrond thankfully told the truth to his friend instead of hiding it from him, and Durin thankfully understood that Elrond had simply intended to meet him as a friend and was unaware of the larger plan at work. Having both of these characters be truthful and honest with each other makes you truly believe that these are two friends, and I'm glad that the show allowed them to act like this instead of opting for melodrama by having them keep secrets and fight with one another. This was excellent stuff, and both characters were handled brilliantly. Elrond having to deal with choosing loyalty to a friend and the fate of his race was a brutal choice, and I'm pleased with his decision to inform Durin about his dilemma. Meanwhile, Durin remains a lot of fun as he speaks bluntly to the elves and offers to help Elrond, all the while reveling in the fact that he has total power over the Elvish race. The latter was easily one of the highlights of the episode, both comedically and as a beautiful moment of connection between Elrond and Durin. The Numenor story has its moments. Halbrand and Galadriel being honest with each other was a needed moment to make the connection between these two characters feel more realistic. We needed to have them open up to each other, and it does help inform us more about each character's individual struggles. Galadriel struggles with how her desire for vengeance has taken over her entire being, while Halbrand struggles with making peace with his own mistakes. It's nice to see them both help each other in this moment. Pharazon gets a very good scene too when we understand that the only reason he is cooperating is because he sees an opportunity for Numenor to profit by making an alliance with the Southlands. This is the exact sort of selfish motive that a man in Pharazon's position would abide by, and I'm pleased that he isn't just a wet blanket and instead has an underlying goal that he is trying to achieve. The ending of the episode is nice because it shows the plot finally moving as Numenor has officially left to join the war in the Southlands. Hopefully this takes the show in an engaging direction. The singing montage while the Harfoots migrated was a fun moment, evocative of an animated Disney film. It is a bit out of character to be sure, but it's a fun injection of energy and creative film-making into the otherwise bland Harfoot storyline. I smiled while I watched it. The Bad: As I just said, the Harfoot storyline is not doing anything for me. It has less plot progression than all of the other storylines, and has very little relevance over all. The Stranger was interesting when he first appeared, but as episodes have gone by and other storylines have emerged, I find myself caring less and less about him. His relationship with Nori is quite perplexing to me. I'm confused by the fact that he seems to be learning to speak from her, which is all the more unbelievable because she is not speaking to him in a way that would help him grasp a language. I'm confused why Nori trusted him so much this entire time, especially after he killed those fireflies. Surely she should be at least a little scared. This makes her final scene of the episode all the more infuriating when The Stranger accidentally hurts and scares her, and she runs away from him. Either have her be totally accepting that he accidentally hurts others, or have her be afraid of him for it, you can't have it both ways. The story does not make much sense with the way it has been written. The Ostirith storyline is building up to a battle and I really could not care less about it. These characters are beyond bland, and I'm not invested in the upcoming conflict at all. Bronwyn in particular has become an irritating character who embodies the predictable strong woman stereotype that is all over Hollywood TV shows these days. I find it hard to believe that she managed to make herself the leader when multiple villages gathered in Ostirith, and I find it even harder to believe that people would listen to her. This is still a medieval world where women are looked at as inferior to men, so why does this not play a factor in the story here? This inclusion of modern rules in historical times is immersion-breaking and stupid. Furthermore, I despise how this show is portraying crowds. An important character can say a single sentence and sway the opinion of an entire crowd, which is ridiculous and unrealistic. Crowds develop mob mentality, and one line from a leader is never going to be enough to completely sway the opinion of a mob. Yet that is what "The Rings of Power" depicts every time characters interact with a crowd. I've seen a lot of Isildur's story now, and I can safely say that it is completely stupid. The problems start with last episode where Isildur was inexplicably dismissed from the Sea Guard because he made a mistake. The claim that it was intentional was laughable, and throwing out his friends alongside him was equally absurd. The rules of this society seem like they are built to allow for plot conveniences. Anyways, Isildur ends up regretting his dismissal because now he needs to have a strong position to be selected to go to war. So Isildur spends the rest of the episode trying to manipulate his friends into giving him a position, which is disingenuous and selfish. Am I supposed to connect with this character? The height of stupidity happens afterwards when Kemen burns down one of the ships and the guards find Isildur with him in the water. Instead of suspecting both of them for burning down the ship like any sane person would, they take his story at face value and allow him to join the soldiers because of his heroism. What???? What an unsatisfying ending to this character arc because Isildur has quite literally done nothing to earn his place, and this feels completely undeserved. Galadriel training the soldiers ended up being a poor scene. Not because it's badly written or unrealistic that she would train the soldiers. But because the elf-hating Numenor is now suddenly gathering around to enjoy the spectacle of an elf inaction. Are these guys with or against the elves? Let's have some consistency please. Furthermore, Galadriel showing off how awesome she is feels like blatant fanservice and is ultimately unnecessary. Perhaps I missed something, but how did Halbrand get a guild's crest? He says that he sold out Galadriel for a crest, but I have no clue when this happened. Perhaps this is my fault, but I don't think the show ever showed this happen on screen. There's no way that Halbrand should be able to get out of imprisonment for murder (or at least attempted murder) just through a simple trade. This has been in previous episodes too, but since the show only directly mentioned it now, I've saved my criticism until this episode. But the show has completely changed Tolkien's world by making it that orcs are hurt by the sunlight. This is an absurd change. Orcs are not vampires, they don't burn in the sunlight. They simply do not like it, and so they avoid it. The idea that they get burned by the sun is laughable, and begs the question of why they don't just use umbrellas and armour to travel in daylight. The Unknown: Who are the guys that found the crater left by The Stranger? Is this Sauron and his men? What is the decay on the Elvish tree? What is causing it? Why would the Silmarils fix it? What exactly was in Halbrand's dark past? Did he ally with the orcs in the past? Is he still allied with them? What is Theo's sword supposed to unlock? Apparently it is a key. To what? Can this power be used by people other than orcs? Did Waldreg kill to join up with Adar? It seems like he did. Is Adar not acting under Sauron's will? He took a lot of offense to Waldreg calling him Sauron. Gil-Galad has seen Elrond make peace with Durin. Will he take issue with this? What is he going to do? Will Durin be able to convince his father to help the elves? Best Moment: Durin and Elrond steal the show again. I'll give this to the scene where Durin decides he will help Elrond save the elves. A sweet moment between two friends, and you get the sense that things are about to go horribly wrong. Character of the Episode: Durin. Conclusion: This episode moved the show in the right direction, yet it still fell for the same trappings that hurt the first four episodes. The writing just is not up to the standard that it needs to be. Another disappointing effort. Score: 54
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|