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I end up deriving more enjoyment from watching/listening to reviews than the series itself. Since I haven't read "The Silmarillion", I don't know a lot about the Second Age and I enjoy learning more about Tolkien's source material. For example, I didn't realize that Pharazon was friends with Elendil's father. I usually listen to Nerd of the Rings, Men of the West and The One Ring channels. I'll check out some of the ones you mentioned after the season ends. I've only watched the Peter Jackson movies twice (I've read LoTR and the Hobbit twice as well), so I also often don't realize when lines are lifted directly from those. It reminds me how important delivery and context is... a lot of the dialogue and lines from the films had an impact on me, but on this show, the same lines almost always end up sounding trite/boring or falling flat. Maybe it's also because when you don't feel a connection with the characters, it's hard to find anything they say genuine or meaningful.

I don't watch previews with the hope I can possibly enjoy some elements of surprise, so I'm just musing out loud. There's also Isildur and his "girlfriend", plus Theo, so I am curious if we revisit them one last time this season. I was reading this article, which has some interviews. Elrond and Gil-galad had an emotional journey in this episode? Sorry, I had to laugh.

When did Adar realize that Halbrand was Sauron? I wonder what would have happened if Adar had truly tried to kill Halbrand when he had him in chains at the start of the season.

Yes, I remember he put a drop of his blood when they made the 7. The Elven rings didn't have his blood, so are they still corrupted in any way, as Elrond suggested, since Halbrand did still have a hand in their creation. Elrond was the reason that he and Galadriel left Eregion in such a hurry, and leaving Celebrimbor alone and vulnerable.

Mithril was really important for the previous rings. So why was mithril not needed for the rings for men? If Sauron thought his own blood was good enough for the 9, why did he bother going all the way to Khazad-dum to ask for mithril? Since he went all the way there, why didn't he just use his reality-altering powers to steal some mithril from the dwarves?

When things are dire and writing gets tough, snuff out the light and bring on the death and gratuitous violence - Not J.R.R. Tolkien I finally watched an episode in a timely fashion. I found this episode depressing. I did like the reunion between Elrond and (oops, I wrote Gimli in my notes) Durin the Younger. I was relieved Narvi finally stopped backing the King, but this would have been much more satisfying if it had been developed more gradually and if more dwarves willingly supported Durin the Younger. Likewise, the Dwarves wanting to come to the aid of the Elves would have been more rewarding if we saw more than Elrond and Durin cooperating. Still, that was one of the better motivational speeches. All the Dwarven troops needing to stay back to subdue the King was hard to believe, though. The actor playing Celebrimbor did a good job, I guess, but he just felt like one of the chess pieces to get the rings made. Galadriel arrived, and all the Guards immediately supported Celebrimbor again? Wouldn't it delay and distract Sauron more if Celebrimbor also went on the run? Instead of just going up the tower and having everyone become a sacrificial lamb? What was the point of all those workers if Celebrimbor can just make rings himself? Celebrimbor accidentally pushing his female assistant off the top of the wall felt ridiculous. So much of this horrific scenario falls at the feet of Galadriel making bad decisions, and that just ruins the character and makes the story frustrating to watch. Starting with her decision not to tell Celebrimbor about Halbrand being Sauron (why didn't Elrond tell Celebrimbor, when he had no problem telling Gil-galad?). She shouldn't have confronted the orcs and gotten captured (why didn't she just run in a different direction to draw their attention?). She shouldn't have talked so freely with Adar telling him all about her rings and details of the Elven troop movements. Because of all this, the pivotal scene with Galadriel and Celebrimbor left me cold. And what was with her weird baby-voice talk to Arondir, when he stupidly wanted to go on a suicide mission to kill Adar, who took "everything" from him. I thought I imagined Gil-galad on one of the horses, because he promptly disappeared for such a long time and Elrond was the one who went to negotiate with Adar. For a few weeks there, I thought this season was better than the last, but I'm now thinking it's probably on par. I think I thought similarly with last year's big battle in the South Lands.

I don't think any of the characters on this show are complex/layered or particularly well written, male or female. A lot of the time, their actions feel driven by the plot, from the very start of the show. None of these characters got to "live" in their world, whether it be Numenor or Eregion or the South Lands or Lindon or Khazad-dun before they were thrust into artificial situations where it was telegraphed how the audience should feel about them. So now, we are halfway through Season 2, and I still don't buy most of the supposedly important relationships between characters, which means it's hard to care when the characters fight or make up or whatever. Galadriel and Elrond's "friendship", for example. If you don't buy it, then their season-long bickering was just annoying and petty. Elendil and his daughter, Durin the Younger and Durin the Elder, Celebrimbor and his workers... their rifts in this episode meant nothing if there was nothing to hang on to in the first place. Even the scenes with Elendil and Muriel left me cold, because I have no idea how well they knew each other before Galadriel arrived. Even if Amazon pushed the stuff with the Harfoots and the Stranger, it doesn't excuse the poor writing, pacing, and worldbuilding in all the other story threads. If Numenor got less time, then they shouldn't have bothered with Pharazon's son and Elendil's daughter and the trade unions, Galadriel being abrasive and getting thrown in jail, etc.

I found this episode disappointing. Stuff was happening, but I hardly felt any emotion and I found it hard to root for any of the characters, who were either being foolish, stupid or gullible. This show made the Numenorians seem like fickle idiots. First, the witch hunt mob mentality at Elendil's "trial". They were fine with Pharazon acting like an intolerant dictator? But then later, totally forgetting that dumb Eagle and switching to Team Miriel simply because she survived the sea monster. I wanted to cheer on Elendil, if he pretended to bow down to Pharazon but worked behind the scenes to help Miriel, but nope. He offered himself on a silver platter. They never established his daughter ever cared about him, so it was impossible to feel sad in their scene together. Why did she have so much trust in Pharazon, anyway? It wasn't like she knew him that well either. The Dwarf king turning into a gold hungry tyrant wasn't subtle at all, and just happened really fast. I wanted to cheer on Disa and Durin the Younger, but again, their methods were simplistic. She even suggested lying on the path to one of the tunnels? Really? Surely, some of the dwarves would have been grumbling about the King's unreasonable demands... Durin the Younger couldn't get some of them on his side? The older King has always been an antagonist for his son, so I couldn't even feel sad for Durin the Younger. How did Halbrand get his hands on mithril when he visited? Just using his magical influencer powers? The Elves in Eregion running in panic looked like any medieval town of humans under siege. Weren't Elves supposed to be more calm or methodical? Never mind they only had one group of scouts out and they all died apparently. How did Galadriel know for sure Halbrand was in Eregion forging rings? And if Adar suspected Halbrand was Sauron, why did he let him go? I thought the first conversation between Adar and Galadriel and the fact they had in common Sauron's "seduction" of them was sort of interesting, but it basically devolved into Galadriel being gullible and oversharing. And now Adar will be gullible as well. Even the daddy orc guy side-eyed him. How did Adar know about the 3 elven rings, anyway? If Sauron had that much control over Celebrimbor (making him lose his memory of that female assistant's name?), why not just force him to forge the rings? Only giving a single elf a speaking role in the workshop weakened this whole subplot. Surely, some of the other elves would have worked with Celebrimbor for years, and would have tried to get through to him. Instead, Eregion and Celebrimbor's workshop was simply bunch of extras + female assistant elf + Celebrimbor + Sauron. Tom Bombadil said things that were seemingly profound but sounded like blah blah blah. Is he going to fall and hit his head later, and that's why he eventually no longer cared about the dangers of Sauron by the Third Age? Overall, it felt like season 2 episode 6 of "Rings of Power" was just checking off boxes leading up to everything falling into place for Sauron, but it just left me cold.

So much for my plan to watch this episode earlier, but every time I considered watching on the weekend, it felt like a chore so I deferred it. Finally got to it, and it was depressing. I think the episode was still engaging, but I can only take so much of everything going Sauron's way while no one listens to the voices of reason. Starting with Numenor, Pharazon's son was evil to the point of caricature. I was sad that Isildur has no friends left anymore and there are only redshirts left to kill off (plus his death means one less potential payoff when Isildur is discovered to be alive). It would have been more interesting to see Elendil, Muriel and that friend start to build an underground movement first. The "good guys" were just helplessly reacting and hurting, and that was no fun. Elendil's daughter was pretty nasty to her father. Was their relationship that bad in Season 1? Not that we saw much of them so the characterization was never fleshed out to begin with. Elendil seemed to hate her too. I don't blame him, but this was supposed to be his daughter. Are we to believe they didn't have a private conversation after the disaster of a coronation? The timeline mentioned by many above also stopped me from being fully immersed in the overall plot. I wish we saw more spread-out pacing of the dwarves with the rings. The emissaries of the other dwarf kingdoms all came so quickly? This whole dwarf subplot seemed to be on fast forward, while Elrond took another scenic route back to Lindon. Plus it still didn't make sense to me why Durin the Younger would go to his dad about the plan with the rings when he didn't trust them to begin with. We hardly saw Durin the Younger in Eregion but he should have had some screentime with Annatar before he expressed he didn't trust him. And why would Durin assume Annatar was the ringmaker and not Celebrimbor? The subplot with Sauron manipulating Celebrimbor didn't make sense to me. Celebrimbor said he wouldn't approve the making of rings for men. Sauron said "Fine, I'll make them myself", and Celebrimbor just let him do it? Later on, Celebrimbor admitted the 7 rings were flawed, but to fix the problem, they should make 9 more? Wouldn't these 9 rings also be messed up because "deceit" was also baked in? Why was Celebrimbor lecturing his smith assistants so angrily? It felt like they only had that scene so we could see Annatar "winning over" those elf extras, who all looked bored and spaced out. I couldn't really buy Annatar's sway over people, mainly because he could only have conversations with two characters in Eregion (and one was that thinly drawn assistant woman and she was swayed with a single conversation in a single episode).

I've read people commenting that in the Two Towers, Legolas, Aragorn and Gimli could run really fast, and maybe they were trying to show the same thing. But it's hard not to assume it's just plot convenience, so Galadriel and Elrond wouldn't get to Eregion to inform/stop Celebrimbor until it was too late. I can't think of any in-show reason why they wouldn't have ridden horses. The map guy at the broken bridge that if they took the "northern" route, it would add 2 weeks to their journey. Would that have been reduced to 1 week with horses? How long were Galadriel and Elrond racing on their horses in Episode 1 of Season 2 when they went to Lindon before the bridge was destroyed? Who knows. I wonder if they will eventually explain how and when Halbrand/Sauron managed to destroy that bridge. Because if he could do that, he could have done a lot of other stuff to make things easier for himself. It must have been before the elven messengers in episode 1 were sent, since they had to detour to the south through the dark forest. But wasn't Halbrand still chained in Mordor at that time? I don't remember exactly.

I might not wait until the end of the weekend to watch, since it was easy to accidentally see spoilers on websites and video titles, etc. I thought this one was reasonably engaging, on par with the last one. Tom Bombadil was alright but didn't stand out as unique given his reputation. I did find the Stoors slightly more interesting, though it was a bit clunky how they got the Stoor lady on their side to show them the wall drawings. It would have worked better if Poppy showed her Sadoc's maps and that made her realize their leader was a descendant of their ancestor. Why did the Ents imprison some of the wildmen, while killing others brutally? I did like the scene with Arondir and the talking trees. I loved the Ents in "The Two Towers" book, but did not like them in the Peter Jackson films. I didn't mind their portrayal in this episode. I too was relieved Arondir figured out Estrid's true origins quickly. It is nice to have a character who shows brain activity. Though captured Southlanders were also being branded with Adar's mark against their will, so couldn't Estrid have been one of them? Speaking of brain activity or lackthereof, is Isildur that desperate for a girlfriend? I can understand him forgiving her after she saved them from the mud monster, but give it some time before trying to kiss her (plus he knows she's engaged). And then when she betrayed him again by grabbing his sword, he was ready to forgive and forget minutes later, and even went for another kiss. As usual, the weakest dialogue and plotline went to the Elves. Galadriel and Elrond were wooden. It was obvious Elrond's decision to ignore Galadriel's warning from the ring was going to blow up in his face. They seemed to be clueless walking into that dark forest, yet promptly knew the name of the Barrow-wights and knew that they could be defeated with the swords that slayed them? So did this episode take place concurrently with what we saw in Eregion in the last episode? Since this episode started with Galadriel and Elrond still moseying around in Linden coming up with a good archer or two. Shouldn't they have been hurrying if there had been no word from Celebrimbor? They was no urgency at all. Adar and his Orcs are already close to Eregion? That was fast. I can see now that Galadriel and Elrond are not going to get to Celebrimbor before Sauron gets all the rings made, but the pacing of the subplot over the last 4 episodes was poorly plotted out.

To improve the show, the showrunners need to honestly identify the actual flaws. From their interviews, it seems like the only criticism they internalized was the first season's plot moved too slowly, so they promised more action and excitement this season. The actual problems, like timeline/distance inconsistencies (Elrond and Galadriel not arriving yet for no explicable reason), shallow and barely developed characters acting in ways that were convenient to the plot (eg. Gil-galad's horrible leadership, Isildur's sister's betrayal) and focusing on the outcome rather than natural storytelling (eg. We want Isildur to fight baby Shelob, so let's have him somehow webbed up in a cave with zero explanation how he got there in the long length of time his people sailed all the way back home to Numenor, but let's have him act like the volcano just erupted a few days ago). Their explanation for the Season 1 problems was that they needed to introduce the characters and establish the premise, which was just an excuse for bad writing. There was no reason why setting the scene needed to be insipid and clunky, especially in a world as rich and complex as Middle Earth. The same problems have persisted. Having said that, I do think the first three episodes of this season have been a bit more watchable. They are definitely limited by only having the rights to the Appendices. But the show is still not well written, and I have no confidence that these inexperienced showrunners/headwriters even have the ability.

I vaguely remember Poppy was the one pulling her own cart solo at the back, so she would probably be "left behind" at some point anyway.

I know the Eagle wants to stay regal and all, but one well-placed peck and the people would know he doesn't support Pharazon.

Samba TV reports 902,000 households watched the Season 2 premiere in the first 4 days, compared to 1.8 million households that watched the Season 1 premiere in the first 3 days. https://deadline.com/2024/09/lord-of-the-rings-rings-of-power-season-2-premiere-viewership-samba-1236077869 Meanwhile, Luminate estimates 2.7 million views of Season 2, making it the second most watched streaming series on Labor Day weekend. Last year, Season 1 had 8.9 million estimated views on Labor Day weekend. https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/rings-of-power-season-2-ratings-labor-day-1236130619/#recipient_hashed=01d65bc3553267d275b31582423917c376436a5008f40edbeb3df8e8ad31f930&recipient_salt=6299afe830497fd18b471d8064244013d4ae0a4857d6eeda07166fe44c978960&utm_medium=email&utm_source=exacttarget&utm_campaign=newsalert&utm_content=549047_09-05-2024&utm_term=12921464

I'm glad I watched the three episodes separately. I thought this was definitely the more engaging episode thus far, but I probably wouldn't have thought that if I endured Episodes 1+2 immediately before this one. It was still annoying to see Sauron playing Celebrimbor like the stupidest of all fiddles but they at least had minimal scenes. Time and travel on this show still felt like it was due to plot convenience. Durin and Disa visited and came back with his father, but Elrond and Galadriel were still conveniently on the slow, slow road to Eregion. If Durin the Younger was so distrustful about the rings, why did he quickly reconcile with his father, unless he wanted a reason for his father to want to mine mithril again? Meanwhile, Isildir was conveniently not attacked by spiders until his horse wandered into the cave after who knows how long. Isildur still thought his father was waiting around, suggesting it hadn't been long since he escaped from the collapsed house, but daddy already sailed back to Numenor, so how long had it actually been? Especially since Brownyn's funeral was only just being held now. I was a little disappointed she was killed off. I knew the actress didn't want to be back this season, but thought they would just keep her off-screen in case she returned in a few years. Theo was bratty as usual, but I actually found the interactions with the characters here, and the political issues in Numenor more interesting and less predictable and contrived than the Elven rings/Sauron manipulation stuff we got in the first two episodes. The first scene with Isildir and the shady woman he befriended was a total tonal shift with her casual speech and meet cute banter with the knife wound. Isildir's sister, meanwhile, spoke in a weirdly formal way to her father. Those were two weird-dialogue moments that stood out. Pharazon was just casually discussing usurping the crown in a public tavern with his loudmouth son? I wanted to like that Eagle... but terrible timing and landing location, oh wise one, if you wanted to support Muriel's bid as ruler. I think my favorite character so far was Isildir's horse, though I expected him to put up more of a fight against the men who took him, after his spectacular takedown of the orcs. I think I would have been good with a three episode season. I think I've had enough for now.

This episode was alright, again about the same as the last episode. Though it took me a day or two to be motivated to watch another episode. Nice to see the Dwarves again... better than Adar and the orcs. It was interesting to see Khazad-dum's marketplace. What was up with the map showing black strands flowing out of Mordor's volcano? Is Sauron somehow causing the rock collapse and the inability of the rock singers to communicate with the mountain? If so, how? Durin the Younger is getting bullied? I don't seem to remember him being disrespected by his father's subjects last season. So do the dwarves evacuate people before the rock singers begin their performance in case something collapses? Random evil wizard and copper face mask villain guy are annoying. Can we please end the endless journey to Rhun first? I actually want to see what the Rhun settlements are actually like. And I'm not talking about the caves where Enimem and moths undergo metamorphosis. I'm also tired of the Elves being stupid. I just don't find it enjoyable as the audience to see characters being duped left right and center. It was of course predictable that the messenger sent by Gil-galad was killed, and there was no urgency to send more after Galadriel expressed what she saw in the vision. And now apparently, she is confident about knowing Sauron's entire plan for the rings but she still wants to wear one? Halbrand's "manipulation" of Celebrimbor made me think Celebrimbor was stupid rather than Sauron being particularly clever or strategic. It doesn't help we didn't get to know Celebrimbor well enough in Season 1 to know what drives him (or make us care about him). I agree with Elrond but he's acting like a petulant kid. He is furious with Galadriel but still seems to respect Cirdan and hanging out in his shipyard. Cirdan looks better with a beard. The scenes between Galadriel and Elrond didn't land because they didn't do a good job establishing them as close friends in Season 1. Basically, the weaknesses of the first season directly impact this second one, but they haven't done anything to fix those weaknesses. They are giving the impression that these 3 elven rings are sinister and having controlling influences on the three ringbearers already. Cirdan, Galadriel and Gil-galad all had moments where they looked dazed or possessed. Like when Cirdan put his hand into the water and the fish all gravitated towards the ring, he sort of looked evil. Not sure if the showrunners are actually trying to make the audience think Cirdan is under Sauron's sway due to the ring and liable to turn to the dark side. He's supposed to be a beloved book character but based only on this show, I don't like or respect him.

The change in the geology to show the passage of time was a great idea, but I didn't see it either, so I wouldn't have known without reading about it. As for the showrunner's intention of taking us "an emotional journey with Sauron and help you feel that — for potentially hundreds of years — he had been this creature", I'm not sure I was moved to any emotion. Are we supposed to feel bad for him? Goo Sauron flopping off a rock was funny, though. As usual, time and distance continue to be a weakness for this show and it confused me. Elrond got to Gil-galad minutes before Galadriel but it seemed like they had a long conversation already and Gil-galad had already made up his mind about the rings. How far away are the Grey Havens from the trees at Lindon? One moment, we saw Cirdan putting on the ring on the boat, and then next time we see them, everyone was back under the trees for a going-away ceremony and Circan was a surprise guest. The Stranger and the Harfoot friend (who recently left the Harfoots since she was able to tell Nori how everyone was) sang the song, walked a little and "We're in Rhun now". Sauron got to Celebrimbor before the messenger from Gil-galad, so is Eregion that much closer to Mordor? The scope of the world seems small when travelling seems so quick without reference to time.

The season premiere seemed par on course from last season, not any better or much worse. The episode did feel like it was walking around in circles for the most part (literally, in one subplot). I don't fault Elrond for not trusting the rings. Gil-galad was still so unlikeable and Galadriel was still making the same old vow to destroy Sauron, so not much progress there. Too bad she didn't come clean to Celebrimbor in person, eh? Cirdan and Galadriel looked hypnotized by the rings. The whole subplot felt like we were watching characters making bad decisions and playing right into Sauron's hands. I'm worried it will feel like that for the entire series, actually. The extended flashback of how Halbrand came to be on the raft dragged a bit. Why would he be suddenly considering being good after being betrayed by Adar. Felt convoluted to have him getting himself captured by Adar and them "convincing" him to let him go. As pointless as the Nori/Stranger subplot was, it provided the only lighter moments in the overall depressing story. I wouldn't say it was overall enjoyable to watch, but I will keep on. The cinematography is really very beautiful.

If they're going full-out "Once", then: Rafiki knew all along what was going to happen but couldn't "interfere" because of a prophesy Simba and Nala decide to name their next child "Scar" Did anyone also watch the new Snow White teaser trailer? Seems like just live action re-creations of scenes from the animated movie thus far and not much more cinematic than the "Once" look for Snow White and the Evil Queen. Not sure I like the wet hair look for Snow.

I just watched the Lion King prequel ("Mufasa") movie trailer. It gave me "Once Upon a Time" backstory vibes. So based only on the trailer...

I really liked the show in Season 4 and most of Season 5. I really didn't find Season 3 that bad, though. Some episodes were better than others, but I found that most episodes had at least one subplot that intrigued or entertained me. Then again, I did enjoying watching most of the characters.

Bertha would have a fit if she found out who ended up on that video thumbnail.

This forum has too much unfinished business to die. I don't like this either. Typical redshirt treatment, where anyone without a name doesn't matter. Even more egregious was stuff like shooting the Flying Monkeys in Season 3 with lethal weapons.

Interview with Grammer, and some details about Roz's appearances in Season 2, as well as a new cast member/character: https://variety.com/2024/tv/features/kelsey-grammer-frasier-family-kids-political-jokes-1236022933/