ObiWanSpoonobi

Halls of Stone is a marked improvement on the previous episode, with some stunning sequences and captivating scenes, but can't quite fully escape the weaker points of the Rings of Power.

It was always going to be a challenge to condense source material which takes place over hundreds of years into a short timescale, and I would have preferred the show to take place over a much longer timescale to give us a much stronger feeling of the immortality of elves and differing lifetimes of Dwarves and men (including those from Numenor), but this episode does a much better job of condensing events in a coherent way than Rings of Power has done previously.

There's far fewer line lifts from elsewhere given to characters here and fewer out of place Easter eggs. I appreciated that. There's a stronger feeling of it's own identity here, and I think the show is stronger for it.

This is the first Star Wars movie or show that I've found painful to watch. I had dismissed much of the criticisms of the show - I don't often agree with Star Wars criticisms - but it really is pretty awful. I feel like I was constantly taken out of the moment by something inconsistent, strange, or just a bit dumb (no-one is very clever on the show, and that becomes incredibly frustrating, very quickly). I can understand why people don't like the depiction of the Jedi - there's absolutely nothing impressive about the Jedi here (they sense very little, have very inconsistent powers, and, in all honesty, are a bit thick - they're basically a dumb cop stereotype with added powers).

The visuals and tone aren't aimed towards younger Star Wars fans and the writing isn't aimed towards older Star Wars fans. I'd say it was Young Adult, but I wouldn't want to insult their intelligence either. It's basically a mashup of annoying tropes with some Star Wars imagery. The acting is bland and the visual effects are as well.

Star Wars has fallen hard since Andor.