Rings of Power is Not Very Good: Breakdown and Analysis - Part 4: The Great Wave

yep the time has come to do unspeakable things to episode 4 of rings of power bend over honey so we open with the queen region taking part in the blessing of the children which appears to be a ceremony for new mothers to show the queen their babies this tells us that the queen regent seems to have genuine care for her people and it further reinforces that she isn't a particularly busy person they are then interrupted by a gigantic wave which destroys numenor I do have things to criticize here but as this turns out to be a dream I will wait until it becomes a reality if it in fact does we then cut to this guy who was attacked by Hal brand after he tried to steal his Guild Crest he is giving a rousing speech to a group of guildsmen saying that Galadriel is Whispering poison in the Queen's ear and saying that someone needs to speak for them the commoners so I think it's fair to assume that this guy really really doesn't like elves so much so that when he gets beaten to a pulp by uh hellbrand who is not an elf he decides to start rallying people together with anti-elf rhetoric elf's mate attacked four gilsman and miriel has her up the team and while the elf Whispers poison in our Queen's ear who's speaking for us we then see Chancellor farazon mingling with the commoners and like the queen region he also appears to concern himself with small matters as well as large ones his son then approaches him and tells him that there may be trouble in the Square due to the Trump rally uh I mean the totally innocuous and very much not extremely blunt 2022 ERA American pseudor rhetoric Captain social commentary continues to complain that there are Elf ships on their Shore which there aren't because glad you'll arrived via a new minorian ship but I guess the man is lying in order to do a racism He suggests to the crowd that elf workers may take their jobs health workers taking your trades and he then curiously proceeds to explain why elves are in fact better than humans because they don't sleep Tire or age this goddamn show can't even do racism properly anyway the crowd are of course angry because they don't want no gosh darned immigrants taking no gerbs [Music] no elves have been unwelcome in our shore since the reign of my grandfather's great-grandfather meaning that Galadriel is literally the only elf any of them have ever seen and they don't know this but I do find it very funny that taking their jobs is the last thing on galadriel's mind she has spent her entire time in numenor trying to leave numenor now galadril is the first elf to arrive at numenor for what we can presume to be at least a couple of generations and therefore fear-mongering about them taking her Gerbes is not justifiable in universe but I guess the writers wanted to once again shoehorn modern 2022 trumpian talking points into their show pretty pathetic huh because if there's one thing that I watch a show that for some reason has the Lord of the Rings in its title IV it's to be reminded of Donald [ __ ] Trump but and it is calling to me random isn't it normal and inevitable that writers will draw from their own experiences and the state of the world they live in when writing fantasy stories Tolkien himself did this by drawing on his experiences in World War one and sure they can accept that to some degree but I must have missed the scene in The Lord of the Rings where Sauron removes his helmet to reveal his toothbrush mustache before throwing six million elves into Mount Doom while singing for [ __ ] sake just give these guys Mega hats and let's move on he finishes by accusing the queen region of being an elf lover just like her father firstly anyone present in the palace when she actually met Galadriel could tell you that this is absolutely not the case those two appear to despise each other actually on second thought you were in the palace when this happened so you know this hey it's all coming together secondly this reminded me that I missed something in episode 3 here is what we were told about the ex-king I think our last king and it's because of him this place wasn't torn down he was loyal to the elves is loyal we forced him from the throne for it so this means that the numenoreans removed the king due to his loyalty to the elves but rather than replacing him with someone else they let his daughter be the queen regent by all accounts it doesn't make sense so far at least we have seen that the queen region doesn't particularly like elves which might appear to explain this but even so I don't believe that the numenoreans who hate elves would be okay with letting the daughter of the guy they overthrew remain on the throne anyway Chancellor farazon then arrives and interrupts the crowd and appears to berate the workers calling them a gaggle of muelling children he then continues however and says that one single elf cannot threaten them and that they should be proud of their Heritage and he swears that he will never let an elf take numenor's Helm so this scene is informing us that farazon is able to capitalize on the emotions of the people in order to gain support even going so far as to embrace a nod out of presumably respect to the guy who was causing the trouble in the first place his rhetoric is uplifting and proud in spite of the anti-elf sentiment whereas Captain social commentary was simply complaining about elves so it's good at least to see that this ridiculous scene was used to inform us a little about farazon's character and motivations he very much appears to be a man of the people who is loved by the people and apart from the fact that episode 3 told us that he is rather terrible at recognizing threats to the queen regent I do like what they have done with this character thus far as a side note this scene also introduces farazon's son who meets with lindel's daughter ayarian and she tells him that she was impressed with farazon's ability to win the crowd whereas farazan's son seems more interested in flirting okay so farazan values wisdom is skilled at turning crowds and respects his opponents we then cut to the meeting between the queen region and Galadriel that was hinted at in the previous scene brace yourselves this is about to get messy I welcome you as a guest new Gallop off to our Countryside to steal ancient Scrolls whilst yourself and a companion assaults our citizenry yeah I said pretty much exactly this in episode three I'm also not quite sure why the queen region is addressing Galadriel when it was elendil who actually told her about the Hall of Law and took her there and I didn't even realize this but also allowed her to take the scrolls with her glad you're then defends halbrand's actions by saying his people are dying which you would think means his countrymen but in actuality this was a very very clever play on words you see which the queen regent picks up on even though she couldn't have known this was what galadia was referring to almost like these aren't characters but puppets and galadual reveals that when she said his people she meant that they are his in that he is the heir to the throne of the Southlands so I detailed why this conclusion does not make sense due to the insufficient evidence in episode 3 but at the end of episode 3 Hal brand Albert confirmed to galagial that this is in fact true so I will assume now that this is simply fact the queen regent of course doesn't believe this what would a normal person do in response actually scratch that that isn't a fair standard Galadriel is not a normal person she should be by human standards exceptional what would an elf who has lived for at least a thousand years and has presumably interacted with many thousands of people all over Middle Earth doing this situation well they might present some evidence as to why they know that Hal brand is the heir to the throne I mean if such evidence existed as it does not and as gladriel has the Diplomatic skills of a toddler who is demanding sugar she proceeds to ask the queen regent for her Army his people are scattered leaderless but with your backing they might unite behind his Banner what do you mean backing Sauron was once your people's enemy as much as mine call on you to finish the task left undone sure was a good thing that in the space of five minutes Gladwell discovered not only that halbrand is the heir to the throne but also that Sauron is totally still out there doing evil isn't it many proposals I dare say yours is the most surprising and ambitious I've heard in weeks weeks weeks don't you mean like forever or is it every few months that I lost air is discovered and war is proposed anyway the queen regent then continues that numenor has chosen another path means no Angel responds not all numenor again because I am not referencing any Source material here and I'm going exclusively from what the show tells us this is not made clear whatsoever from what we have been told numenor hates elves elendil doesn't and there might be a couple of guys at the hall of law who also don't that's it anyway because the dialogue in the show is not written as natural conversations but as ways to make the plot happen the queen regent doesn't actually reply to what Galadriel just said and she says that Hal brand will face judgment regardless of whether or not he is the heir to any throne and then prepare yourselves the hysterics are about to come rolling in Galadriel does this what could she be thinking what does she do next then I had little choice but to ask her another one with numenor's true ruler your father the king she is now antagonizing the queen region of newmanor for the second time because this woman seems utterly inept at speaking to people she can't argue she can't appeal to anyone else's interests she can't understand another person's point of view she can't empathize she can't [ __ ] communicate like an adult she is over a thousand years old and she acts like a 14 year old girl whose mobile phone has just been confiscated every time she does this all I hear is re anyway the queen regent reacts how one might expect when confronted with this impetuous [ __ ] and tells her you should not speak stand and glad you're response is not to counter what the queen regent just said oh no she isn't going to explain why in fact she should speak on these matters or why she does in fact understand them which may well be the case as it is quite likely that Hillendale informed her no no no no no no galagio then tells the queen to stand aside so she can present her proposal to One with the authority to answer it right back at it again with the demeaning [ __ ] you attitude of I am always right and I deserve to get whatever the hell I ask for because rings of power is written by incompetent morons the queen region also doesn't actually respond to what Galadriel just said a reasonable response might be [ __ ] you I'm in charge and then a quick signal for her to be arrested instead she asks with what Authority Galadriel is speaking when with what Authority do you speak that of your people or are you a Cast Away grasping for a handhold in a tempest I'm not entirely sure that asking for an army to go and kill Sauron constitutes grasping for a handhold but alrighty then anyway good thing she said the word Tempest because there is a tempest in me yeah so I'll try my best to remain serious when critiquing this [ __ ] line again Galadriel is not in fact responding to what the queen regent just said she is instead communicating I am really really angry some absolute eight-tier dialogue here from the writers of rings of power who are they again Patrick McKay who is an incredibly writer on Star Trek Beyond and oh that's it okay and John D Payne who he was also an uncredibly writer on Star Trek Beyond and that's it calamy's shocked so when Amazon went looking for riders for their Uber hit billion dollar TV Series rings of power they decided on two guys who wrote the first draft for a bad Star Trek movie That Was Then Rewritten after they left the project maybe they were trying to save money and thought cheaping out on writers was a good call that certainly paid off did end it yeah so glad you're really is just reading the queen region and yelling I will get what I want I will can't you hear how loudly I'm demanding that you do what I tell you and as a result of this Galadriel is locked up don't tell me Tavern bro sedition her reply here just confirms that she is in fact aware of the kind of behavior she is exhibiting which I I honestly don't know if this makes it better or worse I guess it can't get any worse can it [Music] means pretty pathetic huh we then join isildor who is continuing his sea trial we start with the sail Master telling everyone something they already know and something we already know been a few more days I'll have the pleasure of calling all of you stickmates and then once again the wind tells isildo his own name [Applause] so I was joking last time I thought maybe they were just doing this to be like hey guys look it's a dildo you remember him right but if this is a repeat occurrence then presumably they're going to do something with this I'll add that to my list of questions ah unless they're using this to tell us rather bluntly that isildor is having second thoughts about becoming a sailor then isildo accidentally on purpose releases his rope because I guess he's decided to sabotage his own sea trial this follows on from the last time we saw sildo when he left in a strop after his father told him that he must finish the sea trial then the sail Master tells him I've seen you ease that heliad proper a hundred times which suggests that a silver has been learning to be a sailor for quite a while at the very least a few months and he is now nine days from graduating nine more days and yet he now wants to bail and do something else by all accounts it doesn't make sense that was deliberate the sail Master tells him he knows he did it deliberately and he is kicked off The Sea guard all three of you wait but these two didn't do anything no they must suffer in order to serve the narrative theme so saith the writers so asilda apparently then tells his buddies that yes he did in fact sabotage his own sea trial in order to explore West numenor which was mentioned in episode 3. we still don't know why he wants to go there but hey as motivations are considered to be unimportant in rings of power all we need to know is that he really really really wants to go there so much so that he is willing to sabotage his presumed months of training to become a sailor and disobey his father in order to do so oh yeah it's all coming together we learned that isildo's brother who was also mentioned in episode 2 spews garbage about something relating to West Newman or being the real numenor his buddies are understandably pissed off with the sildor one of them says give it to you to get kicked out of something you never earned in the first place which again is blunt but it tells us potentially that the cylinder only got a spot in the sea trial because of who his daddy is which suggests that the lender is somewhat well known and very experienced if we are pulling the do you have any idea who my father is card this runs counter to some of his decisions in episode 3 notably the decision to commit treason because the sea told him to but I already detailed those so let's continue so this guy then because he is angry decides to tell the audience that isildor's mother is dead which is a strange move when isildor has just stated that he is going to pull the do you have any idea who my father is card to get them both reinstated but no time for that this scene calls for angry Exposition so angry Exposition it is alright so isildor is willing to sabotage his own career do you have any idea who his father is he feels pressured to do what his father expects and he is a bit of a social outcast some of this was communicated in episode three but I forgot to write it down alrighty then we return to arondia who is in Chains and presumably about to meet Adar hopefully there ends up being a reason why the Orcs didn't chop his head off in episode 3 and hopefully they didn't keep him alive purely so that Adar can spill his evil beings all over our earballs we see that Adar isn't an orc he looks kinda like an elf He approaches the orc that Aranda shanked in the neck with a twig appears to show respect and sorrow and then puts him out of his misery he asks arendir where he is from he answers belarian and Adar tells him that he is very familiar with the area Adar tells arundir to deliver a message to the men in the Watchtower presumably referring to the people of tyrad who have evacuated to the Garrison there isn't any way that Adar can know that the humans have evacuated to the Garrison as they only left very very recently but sure whatever throughout this scene arendia considers killing Adar but decides not to likely because he would be killed as a result I can't really comment on any of this yet because the scene is entirely set up so I will come back to it when we get some answers we then see the people of tehrad moving into the Elven Garrison we learn that Bronwyn is in charge because the script said that she is in my rations who gave you the right to decide everyone who decided to come to this Tower of Audrey including you this tells us that Bronwyn considers herself to be in charge because everyone from tiharad eobard and every other Village from here to margarine and wherever else who decided to come to this Garrison gave her the right to be in charge but what does that have to do with me no no he's got a point yeah that follows so while she may have miraculously defeated the mole boy and convinced the locals to evacuate this somehow equates to also I'm in charge now but I guess she's one of the main characters so she's gotta be in charge given that we are told from earbud that makes it every village from here to A rod ruin you would think they may have at least an amount of food with them but apparently not where's the rest that is the rest it is no concern of Mind whether your family has what was it again um food what do we eat find a way ow I don't know huh you really should have thought of that before you became peasants Bronwyn suggests foraging the hills again which suggests that they have been here for at least an amount of time because they have forged the hills previously meaning that they haven't literally just walked through the door but they have also apparently run out of food very very quickly if they have already had to go and forage the hills Theo says why not go back to the village and grab some more food which makes me wonder why they didn't bring it with them before but all right you're telling me that these people are idiots that's fine Theo then reveals that he wants to do something about the world going to poo poo and Bronwyn tells her son do what I say or else this scene makes clear that Bronwyn and Theo are the only people who actually have any agency everyone else just kind of does what they're told so we then see Captain racist and Theo who have ignored what Bronwyn said and are going back to the Village to grab some more food we see that Theo has the evil sword with him that as episode 3 clarified for us has a map of the Southlands on it Theo tells Captain racist to stop being a [ __ ] and they head into the village Theo decides to go in to the tavern on his own I wonder what will happen anyway before anything can happen we see Captain racist freak the [ __ ] out because oh snap there's now no sun which means the Orcs can they can just be here and he runs away they even [ __ ] this up so it's set up that this guy is pretty scared of going into the village and then when the clouds blocked the sun he decides nah this is too much Spooky For This Racist then he runs off he is so scared that he doesn't call out to Theo or go and get him but he's not so scared that he slows down his Escape by bringing with him the wheelbarrow full of food okay then anyway because predictables Theo is attacked by an orc who I guess was chilling in the basement Theo defends himself with the evil sword which causes the orc to ask him where he got it Theo plunges the spiky bit on the hilt into his arm which makes the blade come out this means he knew to do this so he has done this before how he knew to do this the first time I have no idea plunging the wrong end of a sword into your arm isn't exactly intuitive so time to recall something I said in episode 2. this orc is surprised that Theo has this sword her family her family it's a boy he hates the hills the boy and as we see the Orcs are aware of what this sword is as they refer to it as the hilt could this be the weapon they were searching for maybe we will see the reason I bring this up though is because this means that the Orcs are not able to magically sense its location they are not drawn to it via evilness or something as they were surprised to find it on Theo this means that the tunnel boy just so happening to dig under bronwyn's house in episode 2 was indeed a case of exactly the right thing happening at exactly the right time and in exactly the right location to advance the plot call me cynical but I had a funny feeling that was going to be the case hey it's all coming together anyway back to episode 4 it certainly is a good thing that the humans accidentally ran out of food that they happened to leave some in the village and that Theo felt compelled to return to the village and go and get some more and that they just so happen to be Orcs in the village looking for the hilt almost like the Riders are moving chess pieces into position without even trying to hide it with what's that thing called again oh yeah story anyway we also see that the walks are perfectly capable of walking around during the day which confirms that yes if there is a cloud Orcs are fine during the day which means they are totally fine in the sun just not in direct sunlight just establishing this for when the writers forget that they established this anyway Theo hides in a well not particularly quietly and the Orcs are unable to find him suggesting that the Orcs are at the very least this orc are not particularly intelligent because Theo is featured quite heavily in this episode I kind of need to do one of these for him so Theo wants to help is able to defend himself and doesn't like being treated like a child cut to irregion where the dwarves are Midway through building calabrimbo's Forge yes I remember when I said the timeline of the show is [ __ ] the last time we saw the dwarves the king made it pretty damn clear that he doesn't trust the elves and doesn't want to work with or for them so I guess off screen he decided actually building that Forge for them their elves sounds like a smashing idea pretty pathetic huh which means elrond and or durian were able to assemble a Workforce travel to a region and start building the forge all entirely off screen how long did this take [ __ ] you that's how long also apparently Keller Brembo has no hard feelings about being dumped in the middle of nowhere and left to walk home on his own why me why me anyway we learned that Keller brimborne knew elrond's father who had told him that his future would be in his son's hands elrond doesn't seem to think much of this but observes that Keller brimbor seems troubled and we learned that durian is the reason no I promised myself I wouldn't mention it as your friend either he's avoiding me he always he's hiding something so elrond then decided to travel back to kazadum and when I say travels I mean teleports because once again the show doesn't understand time and distance he's just he's there now and he asks Deezer about durian this confirms that even though elrond invoked the right of plot contrivance in episode 2 and lost he is in fact not banished from all Dwarven lands good to know we learned that elrond has been trying to speak to durian for some time and that he has been unable to dieser appears to joke that maybe durian has a piece of side action and elrond reassures her that he does not which he can't know because in the last 20 years elrond has spent about 10 minutes with durin diesa then remembers that durian had gone mining today and elrond responds that he does not believe her dieser considers this to be it's a recipe for strong gravy whatever that means and elrond observes that durian would not be mining without his chiseling ax and also that she has prepared a meal for him which suggests that he has not gone Mining and she is covering for him this tells us that elronde is perceptive but also willing to call out when he believes he is being lied to deser is able to explain a whale Ron's Curiosities and the impression is very much that she is concealing where durian actually is and is telling elrond to get lost it does seem odd to me that elrond is apparently quite urgently trying to speak with durian for seemingly no reason other than that Keller brimble believe durian was avoiding them especially given that pride of episode 2 elrond had avoided durian for 20 years anyway we reveal that yes diesel was covering for durin who is in fact avoiding elrond and then the show breaks again bear with me Duran Whispers to his wife that they are making good progress in the old mine why is he Whispering there is no one within earshot why is this piece of information worth hiding but the fact that diesel is lying to elrond is not and then we get confirmation in rings of power that elves have enhanced senses elrond was eavesdropping and was able to see and clearly hear what disa and durian was saying to each other from the other side of this Chasm I know that this is confirmed in the Peter Jackson movies [Music] and this must of course be canonical with tolkien's books but as I am trying to judge rings of power entirely on its own quote-unquote merits I was willing to assume that maybe elves in rings of power do not have super good hearing and eyesight Aaron dear being snuck up on in the tunnel can't for example necessarily be a flaw in and of itself if rings of power hasn't established that elves have super good hearing even though I know that elves in tolkien's world have super good hearing because maybe the elves in rings of power just don't except that this scene in episode 4 confirms that they do which means that rings of power is contradicting itself this is like establishing that Superman can lift a building and then having him not lift the building in the following scene when we know that he can by all accounts it doesn't make sense it is inconsistent and is as objective a flaw as you can get anyway back to Kaza Doom elron sees and hears what disa and Duren said meaning that he now knows firstly that they are both lying to him and hiding something and secondly that something is going on in the old mine okay so disa can be manipulative and is very loyal to her husband and elrond is perceptive persistent is willing to call out when he is being lied to and is willing to spy on his friend we then follow elrond who is apparently now going to the old mine at this point I have to pause and remind you of why elrond is doing what he is doing no I promised myself I wouldn't mention it as your friend either he's avoiding me oh he's he's hiding something he believes that durian is hiding something and avoiding him he finds out that the dwarves are making good progress in the old mine so he has to find out what's happening in the old mine that's it durian is hiding something and elrond just kind of really wants to know what it is so much so that he is willing to walk to kazadum interrogate Deezer eavesdrop on his friend and presumably now break into one of the dwarves Minds I know that the writers really really want to show us what Duren is hiding but they are relying on elron's inexplicable curiosity as a delivery mechanic which does not fit with the character whatsoever by all accounts it doesn't make sense anyway elrond is able to open the magic door because in the previous scene during his kids had been singing the password while playing together which is fittingly both convenient as hell and hilariously ridiculous I swear the characters in rings of power never actually work anything out they just get given the answers in the previous scene well except for galagial who just makes up the answers as she goes along and is inevitably correct anyway elrond explores the mind for a bit and I guess there's no guard protecting this super secret mine and then durian discovers him we then get another fantastic conversation that is characteristic of rings of power let me remind you of the setup which requires that I reveal at this point that the dwarves have discovered myth drill so elrond visits durian for the first time in 20 years to propose that the dwarves help him build a forge during his highly suspicious of this sudden attempt at rekindling their past friendship and believed that elrond was in fact sent by gilgalad to acquire some of the mithril as this is essentially a technological breakthrough durian learns from elrond this is apparently not the case however his father the king believes that the elves are indeed after their mithril for some reason the king agrees to have some of his dwarves work with the elves on building the forge in spite of his suspicions and Duren continues his work in the mines Gathering mithril elrond one day is like where's durian and then he spies on him to find him working in the mithril mine from durian's perspective everything that elrond has done is precisely what he would have done if he was in fact a spy sent by gilgalad with the goal of acquiring mithril so with that established what do these characters say to each other well durian accuses elrond of spying on him and of coming here to steal the mithril which as I just established makes absolute sense elrond maintains that he has no idea what the mind is and that he does not know what the mithril is he States I care nothing for whatever is in that chamber I do care for you for this friendship and secrets do not become it which is somewhat at odds with what we learned about him in episode two you missed my wedding the birth of my children do them and he's also at odds with what he is doing right at this [ __ ] Moment by investigating what is going on in the old mine and confirms that the entire reason he made significant efforts to travel from a regular to cause a doom and locate durin was because he doesn't like Secrets but what does that have to do with him no no he's got a point I know what the writers are trying to do here and had they had a scene where durian was supposed to attend a construction meeting in ireon only to not show up this would then give elrond cause for concern and a reason to go and look for him what we get in the show however is that Keller brimbor tells elrond that he believes durian is either avoiding them or hiding something instead of saying oh okay and then continuing with his day elrond then decides to go to Great Lengths to hunt down durian because he considers them friends this is thin and the only reason this happens is so that the writers can reveal to us that the dwarves have mithril so anyway durian decides that he will in fact show elrond what they have discovered provided he swears an oath not to tell anyone it's all coming together even though elrond has already shown himself to be willing to spy on you and durian really has no reason whatsoever to show elrond any of this even though elrond being a spy is a far more likely explanation for him being here than that he just kind of wants to say hi especially because he literally just spied on you minutes earlier because plots got a plot though he does we learn that the reason for all the secrecy is that durian's father the King has restricted their efforts to mine it due to it being perilous to mine what what does that have to do with me no no he's got a point which doesn't actually answer why they're being secretive about it but I don't know why I was expecting two characters in the show to actually have an ordinary reciprocal conversation anyway Duren then decides that not only does he forgive elrond for staying away for 20 years missing his wedding missing the birth of his children missing the incredible growth and the prospering of his City interrogating his wife spying on him and breaking into their super secret mind and he actually allows elrond to keep a piece of mithril as a token of their friendship I wonder if this will lead to anything all I can say about this is Holy [ __ ] they really want us to believe that during an ail round of the closest of friends even though we have seen very little to actually support that anyway right as they finish talking the mine shaft starts to collapse and durian rushes in to save the other dwarves that were inside okay durian is very forgiving very trusting and feels personally responsible for the safety of his people cut two numenor where we see Aryan who is doing a clumsy with farazone's son Kevin the writers really want these two characters to happen don't they and we then see that Galadriel and halbrand are still locked up and galadril is still being a condescending asshat has it ever occur to you that you're not battling trolls or Orcs but men are you really about to advise me in the Art of War even though the conflict that Galadriel currently has with the men of numenor is not war or anything close to war which again tells us that Gladwell is just waiting for any opportunity to jump down someone's throat to remind them of how good at everything she is it doesn't always have to be about you albrand then observes that the Queen's court is not her usual Battlefield in glad you'll lets him continue this means that the show is telling us that even though Galadriel is at the very least a thousand years old and quite simply must have had interactions with many important people before she is in Universe acknowledged to be utterly inept at diplomacy I know that rings of power has already shown this to be the case but until now I had assumed that gladriel was simply being an entitled little brat this scene seems to be suggesting that as she is willing to take advice from halbrand on this topic she is in fact acknowledged to be terrible at diplomatic relations so instead of showing us a character that is inconsistent with what we are told her past experiences are the show is now telling us that this character is inconsistent with her past experiences which is not an improvement halbrand's advice is to find out what her opponent most fears so as to give them a means to master it thereby allowing galagriel to manipulate people into doing what she wants rather than by threatening them gladriel appears to take this on board by realizing that demanding to speak to the queen Region's father is what got her locked up Tempest to me which any genius could have worked out and then we get see what happens when you stop galloping can you give yourself a moment to think he's comparing me to I mean I was going to say a female dog but okay I will highlight at this point that this is the second time Hal brand has explicitly helped Galadriel while in numenor for seemingly no reason he has gone out of his way to help her and we are given no reason as to why he would want to do this pretty pathetic huh anyway farazon arrives and informs Galadriel that the queen has decided that she is to be shipped back to the elves tonight well that certainly is nice of her now Galadriel doesn't have to steal a boat or kill anyone and she can go back to her people and inform them about Sauron and then get an army and [Laughter] no you [ __ ] absurd character you absolute joke of a person why would you do this what is your plan are you literally going to fight your way to the ex-king and be like yo give me your army please anyway if you didn't catch it through the magic of editing Galadriel is able to lock not one not two not three but four guards in her cell in about three seconds given that these guards were accompanying the chancellor and given that their intent was to escort galagial to another location I have to assume these were not Rando guards these were some real Gourmet [ __ ] and Galadriel can just do it she can do do that and then she wins because she is the best you see this could have been a good chance for an action scene we could have actually seen Galadriel fight in a way that shows us that she is as good as we keep being told she is by having her defeat four Elite numenorian guards whilst not killing them to put it another way the writers had the perfect opportunity to convince us that Galadriel is an incredible Warrior that that could have happened right you guys have like a billion dollars now instead these guys kind of accidentally themselves into galadriel's cell because she is of course the best while this is happening farazon radius his sword which Hal brand advises against and halbrand says he will tell farazone where giladriel is going so farazone is apparently willing to fight an enemy far stronger than he cut to my two favorite characters is sildor Andy Aryan the only and I do mean only thing we learn from this conversation is that ayarian is informed that isildo has been dismissed from the sea guard anyway no time for that soap opera [ __ ] now Galadriel has escaped so I guess farazon did go and get more guards but hellbran maybe didn't tell him where she was going because the guards say to search every alley indicating that they have no idea where she is either this means that Hal brand is a cheeky little prick Who tricked pharazon into letting Galadriel go or it means that either farazone or the guards or both are idiots now I'm going to freeze frame this right here can you see it can you see what's about to happen yeah so galagio climbed the outside of this Tower without any climbing equipment and without being seen and she did so before any guards were able to get to the Tower why me why me means that either Galadriel is incredibly fast at climbing what amounts to sheer and unscalable Tower or it potentially could confirm that halbrand did not tell farazone where she was going but oh no the queen regent is here how convenient gotta Wonder at this point the x-king looks very almost dead so how did galagial know from what she was told by Lendl that he would be able to facilitate or even understand her request he could be brain dead he could be comatose he could be demented by all accounts it doesn't make sense anyway we then learned that how did you know I would come here the Garrison of troops God damn it this [ __ ] show Okay so this confirms that Hal brand did tell farazan where galagio was going why he did this I have no [ __ ] idea but it sure is goddamn convenient that the queen region decided to imprison Galadriel right next to her buddy so that the plot could progress Galadriel also must know that Hal brand told farazon because halbrand was the only person who knew where she was going I trust that there will be no ramifications for this anyway the guards then made it to the tower but apparently decided to wait outside meaning that when gladrow was climbing the tower there were guards present that expected her to be there and yet no one saw her and it means that the guards didn't enter the tower meaning that the ex-king is entirely unguarded and vulnerable to make this absolutely crystal clear farazon has just learned that Galadriel who in this show may as well be a [ __ ] Terminator is heading to the tower where the ex-king and current queen regent of numenor currently are get every guard in the city and protect your nobility you utter spanner anyway glad you'll apologizes to the queen region and acknowledges that she has done something wrong for the first time in the show very good Croc congrats guys it only took nearly four hours for that to happen glad you'll then asks the queen regent why she doesn't like elves because the queen regent has apparently forgotten that there are guards downstairs either looking for or waiting for Galadriel the escaped prisoner so they can take her away she decides to give caladril a tour of the Tower and explain good thing this character is acting totally out of character so that the writers can give us an exposition dump eh we learned that after the king's coronation something changed he claimed that the numenoreans had provoked the anger of the Valor and that they must repent and return to their old ways why he thought the numenorians would provoke the anger of the valaries hinted at in a moment but never properly explained at least not in this episode anyway the king announced that he wanted to renew relations with the elves which caused a rebellion and he was then dethroned and replaced with his daughter which makes sense so again I don't want to reference the source material here but if there are supposed to be two factions in numenor the traditionalists who like elves and the modernized isolationists who do not then this show is doing a terrible job of portraying this the queen region shows galagial that she has a plant here and Galadriel knows what it is is not at all surprised that she has one galadual is invited to touch the plant here and sees a repeat of the vision from earlier in the episode of numenor being flooded this tells us that unlike in the movies palantir are in fact devices that show you premonitions rather than communication devices is this accurate to the books don't know don't care how's that anyway we learned that the vision that concludes with the destruction of numenor begins with galadriel's arrival meaning that the sequence of events are already in motion okay so this tells us that the ex-king wanted to renew relations with the elves because he believed that the future as seen in the palantir that he inherited from somewhere is caused by their lack of relations with the elves that is quite a stretch let's say that he knows with certainty that numenor will be flooded how exactly does that lead back to being friendly with the elves it doesn't at least not with the amount of information that the show actually gives us this really feels like the show is missing a huge amount of information and as a result this scene makes no sense I know that all of this is explained in tolkien's writing but it is the responsibility of the show to communicate things that are pivotal to its plot so what even are the Valor are they able to flood a city by just snapping their fingers does the queen regent or Galadriel know this is there a genuine threat that if they piss off The Valor that numenor will 100 be genocided because if so I'm amazed that the people of numenor aren't utterly devoted to the Valar who literally gave them their Island and from what the show tells us it's not like this happened thousands of years ago it happened a few centuries ago so this is kind of like if the United States was gifted to the Americans by the god being known as George Washington and then in a few hundred years everyone just kind of forgot I wonder if there's a reason why they can't talk about these things again I'm sure this is all explained in the books but if the show relies on people having read the books to make sense and let's be honest here I can probably count the number of people still watching the show at this point who have also read the silmarillion on one hand then the show simply did not do a sufficient job of explaining itself this would be like if the Peter Jackson movies didn't or weren't allowed to explain what the One Ring actually does sure it's explained in the book but this ain't the book this is the movie or in this case the show this is the adaptation and if it doesn't make sense without reference to third-party material it has failed as an adaptation anyway where was I the queen regent wants to single agile away so as to void the prophecy of the plant here thereby breaking the predicted chain of causation that leads to the flooding of numenor which makes me wonder to how much information the plant here actually gave her does she literally just know what we know that an elf will arrive and that at some point afterwards the numenor will flood because if so how does sending her away fix anything and if she knows more then her decisions later in this episode get seriously called into question Galadriel then I think tries to heed hellbran's advice by saying that they have to deal with the evil growing in Middle Earth and the queen Regent's response is that she will not second-guess the gods meaning that the Valar are Gods at least from the perspective of the numenoreans and if the gods literally gave the numenorians their Island this means that these gods are indeed living creatures capable of interacting with the physical world rather than being some unperceivable abstract entity Galadriel criticizes the queen region by saying she is making decisions based in fear and yeah you're goddamn right she's making decisions based in fear she's trying to avoid the literal and very real gods of Middle Earth genociding her people Galadriel then does her I'm better than everyone Spiel I know what it is to be the only one the only one who sees the only one who knows what he doesn't always have to be about you hold up actually hold on why is she so desperate to get help from the numenoreans aren't the elves a very well established military presence in Middle Earth why would the elves even need the help of the numenoreans again if Sauron isn't anywhere near the height of his power isn't Galadriel an elf isn't she the commander of the northern armies the scourge of the Orcs And The Warrior of the wastelands can't she just leave numenor thereby potentially avoiding genocide and get the help of her own people thanks to her detour in episode 3 she now has proof that Sauron is doing the evils in the Southlands even though that discovery made zero sense anyway she doesn't do this and instead appeals to the queen region to have faith in her and the queen region quite rightly points out that even if she were to agree the numenorians don't like elves so even if she were to be like hey guys we're gonna go fight the baddies with the elves their response would presumably be similar to their response when the ex-king tried to do a similar thing they would Dethrone her and then replace her with her daughter wait okay so glad Joel can climb extremely tall towers with no climbing equipment and now seems able to appeal to the desires of the people she speaks to and the queen is steadfast in her beliefs pragmatic and acts out of fear with every turn to the Garrison in tehrad and we find out that they were unable to get much food from foraging or hunting anyway Captain racism returns and given that it's night time this means it really took quite a while to get to and from the village his explanation as to where Theo is is that you should be right behind me all right so this guy has already established to be a dick but are we really supposed to believe that he traveled back from the village to the Garrison which we can assume is not a short distance without realizing that Theo was in fact not behind him or is he so much of a dick that he literally left him to die or maybe I should be asking if Bronwyn is expected to believe that is she going to acknowledge that this guy is full of [ __ ] and quite clearly left her son behind in what amounts to orc territory no probably not meanwhile the Orcs have been unable to locate Theo who is still in the well he then sneaks through the village and we see the Orcs are still looking for him and are sacking The Village at this point I think it's worth highlighting that it sure is convenient that the elves were ordered to leave tehrad after being there for centuries like a day before the Orcs arrived actually I guess they still would have [ __ ] themselves into being captured anyway so the end result is likely the same anyway Theo is caught and is about to be dismembered but wait he is saved by arendir whoo so Aaron deer is here to apparently deliver a message from Adar to the people in The Garrison so him arriving here makes a degree of sense but the timing is certainly convenient oh well so this means that not only is arendir alive purely because of a cosmic unjustifiable deus ex machina but so is Theo great job team so they then literally run from hordes of Orcs rather than trying to slink out in the shadows and this confirms to us that a child can outrun an orc we also see that the Orcs have bows and appear to have Stormtrooper aim which is contrary to what we have seen from the Orcs previously leading me to conclude plot armor then Aaron dear does this [Music] so in isolation I actually don't have a fundamental problem with this when compared to some of the things we see Legolas doing it seems about on par with what he was capable of if only there wasn't an elf who died and could have not died how do you remembered that he has insane Elven reaction time and hand-eye coordination also the music accompanying this scene feels very jarring it is somber and almost tragic and having it playing over a super badass elf maneuver is somewhat totally inconsistent if I put this music over I don't know this [Music] or this doesn't really work does it anyway Bronwyn then shows up so I know that she's here because she's looking for her son that she's I guess remembered exists but firstly it's quite lucky that she is traveling on exactly the same path as Aaron dear and Theo and secondly she's just kind of Waltzing towards a load of armed Orcs who are firing arrows in her Direction my issue here isn't that Bronwyn would do this it's that she is able to do this and the fact that it's presented in such a way as to indicate that she's barely even aware that she is in any danger I should highlight here as well that Aranda had stopped for quite a while and yet the Orcs didn't appear to catch up to him the magic of editing am I right anyway arendee then says that they need to get to the clearing because it's now daytime conveniently meaning that Theo's trip from The Garrison to tear head hiding and then they run back took at least 12 to 14 hours if we assume that they arrived in the evening and this is now morning anyway they then reached the clearing and stop God damn it are those Orcs about to forget that they have bows again oh wait no there they are that was lucky it's also pretty lucky that these Orcs apparently aren't willing to wander into the sunlight in order to chase the kid that they know has the evil sword when they vastly outnumbered them thought in episode 3 the Orcs were willing to wander into the sunlight while wearing the same robes in order to stop prisoners escaping it also also is ever so slightly special of arendir to Simply stop in the clearing when he knows that the Orcs are able to walk around in sunlight if they have the right clothes on okay around here is capable of insane Feats of hand eye coordination protective of Theo even though Theo doesn't like him and Bronwyn is willing to endanger herself to rescue her son we then return to the dwarves who were doing this [Music] there appears to be singing to the Rocks which was established in episode 2 as being something that she does this does actually seem to have some kind of effect on the Rocks which I assume is due to some kind of magic rather than any physical effect that her singing had on the rocks and Deezer then tells us I cannot stop thinking that if you'd not gone down there Durden might have been in that shaft wouldn't it this is in fact true I hadn't actually thought of this it certainly is a good thing that elrond went to a huge amount of effort to go and say hi to Duran isn't it she apologizes for lying to him and durian tells him that they were able to rescue all of the dwarves from The cave-in as a result of this the King has decided to shut down the mining of mithril because it is too dangerous which they already knew but I guess this must have happened before in this particular cave-in was the last straw for the king also why it is so dangerous we are never told so I can only assume that it just so happens to be located in a particularly dodgy cave Duren continues that he dislikes his father presumably believing him to be a coward who is overly cautious which also tells us that he conceals this usually to keep up appearances or simply out of respect sometimes I wish I could tell him exactly what I think of him for never trade words with the old firstly this actor is way too good for this show secondly it tells us that even though four dwarves very nearly died and durian could very possibly have been a fifth durian is still extremely motivated to continue mining missile this is somewhat at odds with the scene from episode 2 where it appears that the king is the one who is very protective and somewhat enthralled by the mithril and durian seems to not really care about it whereas in this scene he seems to care about it intensely we then learned that elrond's father convinced the Valar to join the fight against morgoth because this show still hasn't really explained who or what the Valar are we don't really know what this means anyway the point of aileron telling this story about his father is to convince durian that any relationship is better than no relationship and that he should value what he has I quite like this conversation so it's a shame that the Riders had to make durian extremely hot-headed in order to facilitate it and we then get further reinforcement that Duran and elrond are the best of friends which again is not corroborated by much of the other information presented in the show how is it that you and my husband met I told you I saved him from a hill troll to them during kept a spy on me elf I was asking elrond then I fear I have no choice but to amend your husband's account yeah I really expect me to believe you do not know but this was not the two reason he sent you here to begin with there were three trolls and it was I who saved him you wouldn't remember your face if you're getting in a mirror and like but I've lived an entire life in that time a life you missed it was in the midst of dodging their Mallet blows wailing screaming you missed my wedding the birth of my children do them it was a Battle Creek the screens were so high pitched I thought it was a child so I took up my book you cannot barge into my Mountain and demand I welcome you with open arms yeah it was a sword it was a boat ah yeah he cannot claim that which you discarded okay so during embellishes his stories to make himself look better so his vain and dislikes his father's cautiousness and elrond is able to sway people with diplomacy we then see Duran speaking with his father forgive me Father I was proud and stubborn and I was raw so during his apologizing to his father for being proud and stubborn and pursuing the mithril despite the danger his father then tells him that he stands with him and no forgiveness is needed I also quite like this scene as it tells us a lot about their relationship we already know that during very much respects his father even if he doesn't always agree with him we can understand that durian is the relative youngster would conflict with his far older and more experienced and cautious father his father however accepts his apology and acknowledges that he will stand with him even when they are angry with each other suggesting that he values family above all Duren then asks his father if he should accept elrond's invitation to Linden which I interpret as him asking for advice rather than permission elrond has invited me to go with him to London tomorrow shall I accept it all around has been very convincing in his Assurance to Dil Khalid borne oil and tender in his Center here he has but intuition is a powerful tonic what is yours tell you there is something more at work so given that durian has already told us that I've known eldron for half a century father I'd Sensei if you were hiding something this further reinforces the idea that elrondee is being used as a useful idiot to maneuver the dwarves on behalf of gilgalad when I know where this goes I will have plenty to say so durian acknowledges when he makes mistakes is not too proud to admit when he is wrong and is stubborn and we then returned to the Garrison in tiharad and we see that Arundel Bronwyn and Theo have all returned safely Bronwyn thanks arendir for rescuing her son and I am reminded that neither arinder nor Bronwyn mentioned each other since they separated evidently Bronwyn did not care about her India whatsoever after he went missing and for all we know she didn't even notice pretty pathetic huh this as if it needs saying does not support the romance plot they are clearly going for anyway arundir then delivers the message from Adar the message is that the humans of the Southlands are to forsake all claims to their lands and swear fealty to Adar and if they refuse he will presumably kill them so it certainly is a good thing that seemingly the entire human population of the Southlands just so happened to be here at this Garrison for some reason by all accounts it doesn't make sense and also that Adar somehow knew that this would be the case by all accounts it doesn't make sense also this message absolutely could have been delivered without keeping Aaron dear alive and then releasing him by all accounts it doesn't make sense also also it sure is convenient that the place Adar wanted arendir to deliver the message to is the exact place he came from previously thereby allowing him to save Theo and reunite with Bronwyn by all accounts it doesn't make sense also also also I have no idea why arendia showed zero urgency in informing anyone about adar's demand he just kind of tells Bronwyn after she thanks him for rescuing Theo by all accounts it doesn't make sense also also also all right I'll stop doing this there's a lot of problems with this I'm sure you get the idea as I said in episode 3 The Elves have to be aware that an entire Garrison has not returned and has seemingly disappeared meaning that if there were a shred of believability to Middle Earth in this show the elves would at the very least be checking out what went down well it counts it doesn't make sense if the writers were intelligent they would make our India know this but they aren't so he doesn't anyway waldrag offers Theo some food as a reward for what he did but then reveals that the evil sword was in fact his and that in episode 1 the barn which Theo found the sword was in fact waldreg's bun waldrag tells Theo that it is not a sword but a power and reveals that it was made by Sauron and we learned that wall drag is some kind of acolyte for Sauron power fashion for our ancestors by his master's own and the Beautiful servant age if you're the sorrow he then tells Theo that they must be ready for his return all right so a couple of questions that I assume will never be answered how did Theo know that the sword was in Wall Drugs shared especially when it was pretty well hidden why did he steal it we haven't seen any other indication that Theo is a thief and more importantly how does wall drag know that Theo currently has it and even though he does apparently know that Theo has it why does he assume that Theo is also on sauron's side anyway this ends up as just being another in the long list of characters in rings of power telling us exactly what they are thinking without any subtle deer Intelligence being applied meanwhile an orc approaches Adar and tells him that the evil sword is in the tower which gives us our Cliffhanger for the next episode and we then return to numenor where galadril is preparing to depart apparently she decided that leaving is a better option for her after all she boards the boat and leaves farazon reassures the queen region that her people will be relieved to have Galadriel gone further reinforcing their dislike for elves but wait what's this we then see the white leaves falling overhead which was the same ominous Omen that preceded the flood in the vision in the palantir the queen regent then addresses her citizens by telling them that she has in fact decided not to say and glad you're away she has decided that she and an army will be traveling with galagel to Middle Earth in 10 days time her reason for changing her mind is that the white petals falling is a sign that the valar's eyes are upon her and presumably that if she helps Gladwell it may save numenor from its fate this doesn't really make any sense but because we still don't know anything about the Valar it's very difficult to explain why however I will try my best to deconstruct this the queen regent apparently has Faith In The Valor as one would have faith in a God and she is trying to appease them so as not to incur their wrath however these gods that she puts her faith in are Elven gods and she does not like elves whether she doesn't like elves purely because the palantir vision apparently begins with an elf arriving in numenor or because basically all of numeral dislikes elves is unclear either way she has decided to put her faith in essentially God but the wrong God which is kind of like a Christian putting their faith in Vishnu but then we know that the Val are do actually exists so why is Faith necessary yeah this is what I mean when I say that we don't know enough about the Valor I can go around in circle like this and never get anywhere so I'll just say that the queen regent has changed her mind because she saw a sign from the gods also halbrand is not in prison anymore good to know we then see that isildor's buddies have decided that as they are no longer part of the sea guard they will volunteer to serve the queen in the Army asildo then also volunteers which I guess means that he wanted to go to West newmano for reasons that are entirely unexplained and he wanted to do this so badly that he was willing to sabotage months of training to be a sailor to get booted out and disobey his father to pursue only to then actually go now go to Middle Earth you could have skipped this entire subplot and had these three characters voluntarily drop out of the sea guard in order to go to Middle Earth which would have told us a lot more about their priorities so anyway most people appear to raise their hands to volunteer which is very very surprising given that the vast majority of numenor was established to be openly hostile to elves previously and just like that Galadriel has her Army all it took was a sign from the gods didn't require her to do any convincing they didn't require any clever manipulation or anything that required skills the writers just made there be a sign from the gods and then voila the queen changes her mind Galadriel gets her Army and the contrivance train keeps chugging along so if you have seen my previous videos on rings of Power by this point you know what happens next I am going to break down each plot line as a whole so far and see what the writers were trying to do and decide to what degree they succeeded let's start with the arendere plot the writers needed to explain why arundir was not executed at the end of episode 3. introduce the character of adab and have arendir deliver adar's message to the people in The Garrison firstly they do indeed introduce Adar but as we know almost nothing about him still this isn't really a criticism just a fact because they are clearly setting him up as something of a mystery to be uncovered so anyway there isn't really any reason why the Orcs didn't kill arundir we don't know why they specifically decided to take arendir to see Adar and we don't know why Adar needed a prisoner to send a message when there are many other ways to send a message to the humans therefore arendir was saved from Death by an inexplicable and unjustified deus ex machina who saw that coming anyway after being released arendir then crosses paths with Theo who was in the village because the villagers forgot to bring food to the Garrison the writers didn't need to have the villagers forget to bring any food but they chose to do this in order to facilitate Matic Chase where our India rescues Theo and then arendir does then deliver the message to the humans but we do not yet know what their response is in this plotline we also learn a little about the evil sword and it establishes that the elves are capable of certain insane Feats of physicality which the writers apparently have chosen to use selectively so overall this plotline saves arendir because plot armor has the villagers act like idiots to create tension and drama saves Theo because of plot armor is wildly inconsistent with the Orcs Behavior regarding sunlight and confirms that elves can do things like catch arrows mid-flight which would be fine if not for this additionally it is unclear why the villagers have all congregated in the same place and it is entirely unclear why they have all decided to stay at the Garrison in spite of apparently not having any food because the World building in rings of power is virtually non-existent we have no understanding as to why they can't just leave all it would take is a throwaway line establishing where they are in relation to other human orc or Elven settlements but because nothing apparently exists outside of what is on camera at each specific point in time the villagers are just kind of staying here because it's where the script decided they've got to be now onto the elrond plot the writers needed to establish that in the time since we last saw them the dwarves have made substantial progress on kellebrimbo's Forge and the writers needed to introduce mithril these are the two primary plot threads that I assume are necessary going forward but we also do earn a lot about the characters involved most of which is contradictory firstly given how much progress has been made on the forge I have to assume we are at least six months on from where we last saw the characters but if the writers told me that it was in fact a couple of years I would believe them anyway regarding the characters we learn a fair bit about disa which worked for me pretty much entirely it expanded on her relationship with durian in a way that makes sense and shows us her priorities even though she is outwardly extremely friendly we learn that she is incredibly devoted to her husband to the point of lying repeatedly to elrond someone who she appears to be on very good terms with we also have what is probably my favorite scene of the show so far which is the short discussion between durian and his father the problems appear however when it comes to elrond's interactions with durian which I have already detailed but will summarize eyes elrond is willing to breach durian's trust in order to find out what jiren is hiding only to be caught in the act to make clear that he has no interest in finding out what Duren is hiding which prompts durian to then reveal what he is hiding yeah this makes zero sense and I have no idea what the writers were thinking this plotline also established that elves do have heightened senses which I have already explained causes problems with the previous episodes and it ends with elrond inexplicably being given a piece of Mythril which I can only assume will be the cause of much drama in future episodes there are many ways to make this happen but the way the writers accomplished it means that anything that happens in future as a result of elrond having a piece of mithril is directly contingent upon both himself and during acting wildly out of character and doing things that do not make any sense whatsoever and finally we have the Galadriel plot the writers needed to foreshadow the flooding of numenor explore the numenorian's dislike of elves and of course for Galadriel to acquire her Army now if you were a talented writer or even a semi-competent rider how might you explore or expand upon the idea that the men of numenor dislike elves well how do two guys is Living in America in 2022 who I assume spend their entire lives on Twitter write this they have this guy decide that the elves are going to take their gerbs even though that doesn't make sense there is no reason for this character to think this we do learn bits and pieces about farazon specifically who is a character that for the most part seems to behave somewhat consistently which is a nice change anyway now for the big boy plot Galadriel has made her incredible discoveries in the Hall of law in episode 3 and now she has to acquire an army which she has hinted at twice before as being her direct intent I'm afraid you're sure it's an army leave the Army to me why are you dodging the question towards an army that is all about to change so her journey in this episode is to ask the queen region for an Army in a way that is about as socially inept as we have come to expect from her to be locked up as a result to escape from her confines and to then learn from the queen regent about the history of her and her father and the Planned here and the prophetic flood the queen declines to help Galadriel only to change her mind after the fact and the outcome is that galaguil has her Army so if I put it even more simply she speaks to the queen gets locked up escapes speaks to the queen again Bingo there are some extra steps here that are absolutely unnecessary steps that only happen due to gladial's utter ineptitude when it comes to communicating with others and due to the fabric of reality bending so as to enable her to perform impossible physical Feats these steps could have been removed entirely and the outcome could have been the same we could have had a fantastic lengthy discussion between the queen region and giladriel where she presents her evidence and argues her case knowing that the queen regent is very much prejudiced against her and she would have an opportunity to use her intelligence to almost bring the queen region on decide only to fail and have her be convinced later by the sign now you may be thinking that there is a narrative purpose for glad you're being imprisoned as she learns in prison from hellbrand that she must it seems to me that you do well to identify what it is that your opponent most fears give them a means of mustering him the problem is that this only happens because the queen decides to imprison galadril right next to Hal brand and that this only works if we assume that Galadriel is a millennia old child who has never spoken to anyone before that a maybe 35 year old human is giving a millennia old elf lessons in Etiquette is absurd which means that if Galadriel were to act in a way that is coherent with her established past then she very well could have had the discussion with the queen regent in the first scene without doing this there is a tempest in me which would then mean that this doesn't have to happen which would then mean that this doesn't have to happen [Music] and you get my point Additionally the advice that halbrand gives to galadril is to appeal to the Queen's Greatest fears in order to give her a means to master her fear but in the second conversation with the queen Galadriel does not do this she simply accuses the queen of acting out of fear and offers her the path of Faith as an alternative this means that there was indeed no narrative reason to have Galadriel get locked up and then escape the writers are once again wasting our time via incompetence and the icing on the cake is that the show is not explaining in anywhere near sufficient detail what the Valar are and what they are capable of which very much makes the stakes of the numenor plot in particular almost impossible to understand so in conclusion we are now halfway through season one of rings of power we have met a great many characters virtually all of whom are either contradictory or are simply idiots the only characters that I think are well written to any degree is King durian and disa who between them have about nine minutes of screen time we also have characters like ayarian who have done virtually nothing thus far and as such there's not really much to contradict so she's kind of inoffensive but there's also nothing to compliment either episode 4 I certainly think is bad but I don't think it's quite as terrible as episode 3. the arendere plot suffers from serious plot armor and inconsistencies the elrond plot suffers from good old-fashioned absurdity but is somewhat aided due to a couple of genuinely solid character scenes and the galagial plot continues to be utterly insufferable but this time shoehorns in a good amount of incredibly blunt social commentary excluding the episode Recaps and the intro outro credits we are now 4 hours and three minutes into rings of power which means that we are more than half an hour past the end of Fellowship of the Ring think about the insane amounts of World building that was achieved achieved in Fellowship of the Ring think about the various character introductions the arcs and the conversations what they achieved in those three and a half hours was Monumental what rings of power has achieved in four hours is pathetic so while I'm doing these reviews I'm also Gathering various bits of evidence so as to present a final conclusion after the Eight Episodes have finished so here's a little bit of a preview of that in terms of screen time so far in rings of power the top five characters with the most screen time are Galadriel with one hour and seven minutes elrond with 42 minutes arendir with 34 minutes Nori with 32 minutes and Hal brand with 30 minutes if we compare these characters to the screen time of the various characters in The Lord of the Rings trilogy as a whole we can see that even though we are only halfway through season 1 of rings of power Galadriel has already reached the top five in terms of total screen time falling between Gandalf and Pippin elrond has more screen time than Gollum Legolas or Gimli and arundenorian halbrand all have more screen time than characters like eowin Boromir or King Theoden so I know that this isn't an entirely objective measure because screen time does not necessarily equate to time in which you can develop your character nonetheless we know frustratingly little about even these characters with their substantial screen time and what little we do know is frequently contradictory take a character like Boromir or eowim who are both extremely well fleshed out characters the writers in the Jackson Trilogy managed to tell their stories in their entirety in 27 and 28 minutes respectively Galadriel in rings of power has been on screen for more than double that amount of time the writers have had literally twice as much time to work with not to mention substantially more money and the best they can do is there is a tempest in me I'm aware that at this point I'm kind of making an emotional argument so this on its own is not going to convince anyone but given that so far I've spent nearly four hours breaking down this absolute catastrophe I think injecting a bit of my own emotional reaction is warranted and potentially useful it is insulting for the creators of rings of power to feed us this people can of course enjoy whatever they want to enjoy but anyone who is parroting that this show is in fact good and that everyone who dislikes it is a hater you are the reason why rings of power is this bad when your standards are this low there is no reason why the creators of rings of power needed to put in any effort to make anything approaching half decent if you are willing to praise and reward mediocrity mediocrity is all you will ever get fed so if it even needs repeating at this point yeah rings of power is bad and there are at this point innumerable reasons why from what I have heard episode 5 is even worse but I guess I will find out well once again if you made it this far thank you so much for watching I know my channel is extremely small but honestly the response that I've had to these videos is Way Beyond anything I was expecting so thank you again if you would like to see me continue doing these please consider liking sharing or subscribing if you have any thoughts agree disagree if I missed something let me know in the comments again thank you for watching and I will see you in my next video

Channel: Random Film Talk

Views: 163,830

Keywords: random film talk, review, film, movie, movie review, film review, reviews, scene, clip, trailer, teaser, amazon rings of power, lord of the rings, rings of power review, a shadow of the past, rings of power explained, rings of power analysis, galadriel, elrond, rings of power, the rings of power, rings of power is bad, rings of power sucks, rings of power breakdown, rings of power episode 4, rings of power the great wave

Id: zoLln7gq7EQ

Length: 67min 54sec (4074 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 29 2022