Shadow and Flame

This is the best episode so far, in my opinion. The first sequence was probably the best scene of both seasons. The action scenes were very well done.

This is much closer to what I was hoping for with this series, and hopefully it keeps going that way in the next seasons.

I feel like pieces are falling into place now, and it's much easier to see where this is going, and understand how this would lead to The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

I wasn't a big fan of Halbrand but his transformation into Sauron has been very cool to see, and how he actually deceives people.

Well done, now we wait 2 years! XD.

Strong 7/10 - this is a challenging show to rate because what's good is _very_ good but many of the storylines are uninteresting and poorly executed.

Overall this season had some excellent Sauron/Annatar material, with Galadriel, Adar, and Celebrimbor as excellent foils/mirrors. All four performances were great, and this storyline has a satisfying conclusion in this finale.

The Dwarves storyline was also satisfying (though to a lesser degree.) I think the actors struggle with the greenscreens and with the stiffly written material.

Unfortunately most other stories were short-shrifted by the abbreviated episode count and accelerated pace. Arondir, the Stranger, Nori, Isildur, and Elrond all felt like afterthoughts and the conclusions to their storylines felt unearned and abrupt.

And then there's the worst part of this show: all the humans. The Numenor scenes have been irredeemable for the entirety of the series. They feel like high school theater instead of a billion-dollar prestige TV show. Uninteresting and momentum-killing.

I watched House of the Dragon season 2 and this season sequentially, and this was better than House of the Dragon season 2 in many aspects.

This season explores more in depth stories of all the characters in a great way. Even when the episodes were slow I find them not to be disengaging.

And some revealing characters from the old movies was a nice touch. Returning of some beloved Lord of the Rings characters was really nice to watch. I am now all open for coming seasons of this because the story is making more sense now. The introduction of the rings and their influence on the minds of it wearer, great.

No this review isn't about breaking bad. Rings of power season 2 is much better than season 1 and this finale was brilliant. All the performances were golden but the standouts this season are Charlie Vickers as Sauron (he's the best part of the show) and Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor. But most of the characters are great too. Elrond is the goat, Gil Galad is great, Galadriel is greatly improved, Captain Elendil is brilliant, Durin is brilliant, almost everyone is brilliant and much greater than in season 1. This show is worth a watch and this is a great finale, I say this one beat house of the dragon this year. 9/10 season and 9/10 finale.

Please, the writers and show runners need to focus on what works, Sauron being evil and manipulative, Galadriel being a bad ass, Elrond and Gil-Galad adding elvish wisdom, The Dwarves under the mountains and The Stranger and the The halflings discovering the magic of middle-earth.

The best things about this episode were the opening scene in kazad-dum and the scene with Gandalf and Bombadil.

The second season is a huge improvement on the first. They are doing something right.

But there's still the same issues from season one sprinkled throughout, feelings of clunkiness, bad editing, not great dialogue and just a lot of waiting. A lot of nothing, you can easily fast forward 30 seconds in every scene and you won't miss any dialogue just people staring into the distance.

The action isn't great so you end up noticing the corny dialogue and not caring about alot of side characters who don't need to have so much story time because it ends up just typical B line stories from every show you've ever seen.

They have the greatest source material in the world USE IT and stick to it, focus on what works and let go of what doesn't.

I hope season 3 is even better than season 2!