Doomed to Die

They have been building up to this battle for so long without showing any of the actual buildup to the battle. There was no preparation shown as was done with Saruman and his Uruk Hai, yet we got a ton of boring dialogue with Adar instead. Even though in a TV series you have MORE time to show the interesting build up and escalation to a battle. Too much that needs to be shown was glossed over or never mentioned and too much that doesn't need to be shown is dwelled on.

So here we go. Sauron just walks around calmly while everything is in chaos and the elves seem completely helpless in organizing a defense without input from the one man at the top??? You spent time training commanders and soldiers and when a battle takes place its all "oh gawd wat do we do sir!?!". The elves are portrayed as frail, weak, clueless and the complete opposite of what elves are supposed to be. It just doesn't seem right and there needs to be more shown that simply isn't.

I am tired of the boring Dwarf drama and that annoying self righteous dwarf lady that screams and barks all of the time. All of her scenes are so tough to get through. She walks all over the prince and yet he's supposed to stand up to his father and take charge? It's painful to watch. Some of the scenes with king Durin are done well, but the prince's lines are less palatable and he comes off poorly as whiny and impotent. He makes a speech that somewhat makes up for his poor showing throughout the series.

There were so many moments where logic was just thrown out the window. The scene before the battle where the cavalry all just suddenly stop was just awkward. How many times do we see people fighting a large battle, win a minor fight and then just take a long break while orcs are running around them killing their people? Too many times. The tactics that were shown were just bizarre and the way the battle played out was frankly absurd. There was too much I found myself questioning and calling stupid.

I'm starting to think that the original Adar actor quit when he realized that the show wasn't that good and was not going to improve under the the current showrunners. They really need to hire someone competent to manage this mess because they have so much potential here that they are squandering. The LOTR trilogy was a masterpiece. The ROP is a tragedy of what happens when someone is handed all of the right pieces, a great but long story and has no clue how to put them together. What a disappointment.

It's insane how many great stories are being butchered by incompetent showrunners that have vast resources and no talent. The studios are run by clowns in suits and social activists that can't tell a story but can spend hours filming nonsense.

Thought it hasn't been a perfect show, I've enjoyed it up to this point. The pacing isn't always great and the writing can be sub-par from time to time, but this episode changes it all for me. This was a roller coaster of emotions, with some of the best set pieces and epic fights I've ever seen in television. It's also got some of the best dramatic scenes of the series, particularly with Sauron and Celebrimbor. Both actors are just outstanding and exceed expectations with their performances. Even Galadriel, who has been one of the weaker writing points in show, feels more realized in this episode. The promise of a great Tolkien epic was finally delivered here, and it was worth the wait.

This is, so far, probably the best episode of Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power that we've seen, but it still exemplifies a lot of what's "off" about the adaptation at large.

It isn't completely inexplicable to me that Season 1 had fans, but I am prepared to argue that almost none of them would exist if it simply wasn't set in Middle Earth; if it was largely the same, only the characters and locations were named something else. If people weren't being reminded of other, less bland movies and books while watching this one, nobody would be telling themselves this is great -- beyond the people who pretend to enjoy it because it annoys "M-SHE-U" YouTubers.

The mere fact that this is Lord of the Rings is enough for some fans; it's about fealty to a brand. The mindset of the creators may have been something similar: "Should we give viewers a reason to care about or want to follow these particular characters? No need, it's Lord of the Rings! Should we try to live up to the production design and art direction of the films, to make this show stick out just a little bit from other generic straight-to-streaming Fantasy shows? No need, it's Lord of the Rings! Could we at least try to mimic the prose of Tolkien? No need, we already copy-pasted bits of it!"

Season 2 is not as lifeless as its predecessor and sometimes its effects are impressive, especially during the battle in this episode. But its characters are still frightfully boring -- even if you don't know how awesome and majestic they're canonically "supposed" to be (I know little of Celebrimbor but I know I wouldn't have cast someone who gives the impression of a younger Michael Palin) -- and its attempts at subverting expectations are facile. This modish deconstruction might have a valid point about the values of Tolkien's time but plays like an attempt at rage-baiting on Amazon's part or, at best, a fatuous attempt at complexity from one of the writers. ("What if orcs had a family" has about the same ring to it as "What if Cruella DeVil was just misunderstood" and neither question led to a particularly clever work of art.)

Oh but they also do a version of the "help is coming" moments from the battles of Helm's Deep and the Pelennor fields except this time it's a fakeout and it turns out nobody's coming. Aren't we just so ironic and subversive?

Hands down, the best episode of this series. Until this episode I was painfully forcing myself through the slow pace and some irritating stories and dialogues. But this episode was a gem. I will probably rate it 10 after a re-watch.

This episode for the first time brings this series to somewhat near to the LOTR trilogy. Elrond (Hugo Weaving) and Adar were great. The others have also improved compared to their portrayals in the previous episodes. Especially, Galadriel has done a lot better in this episode. I hope the characters not shown in this episode will also have improvements as some of them are still very disappointing.

I wanted to talk a lot about it but in the fear of spoiling, I am stopping.

Finally, "Highly RECOMMENDED"

The episode was okay, but I didn't feel fully connected to it. While it focused heavily on war and fighting, I never felt genuinely worried about what would happen to my favorite characters. The action scenes were visually impressive, but the tension just wasn't there. There were also some plot issues that didn't make sense-like, why would two enemies suddenly want to negotiate in the middle of a war? It seemed out of place and made me wonder what the writers were thinking.

Sauron's power was displayed well, but at times he came across as more foolish than intimidating in this episode. The death scene of a supporting character at the start was well done, but since I didn't even know her name, it lacked emotional impact for me.

The episode really needed to develop its characters more, especially the supporting ones. For instance, when women and children were running for cover and being attacked by fireballs, the scenes were intense, but I wish they had shown more of their fear and struggles. It could have really increased the tension if their stories were explored further.

Overall, it was a good episode and definitely exciting leading up to the finale. This season has been much better compared to the last one, and the recent episodes have shown significant improvement. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all concludes in the finale.