The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 7, here’s my review and the big battle of this season begins with a whimper. All has been building to the battle of Eregion, even though none of the motivations for the battle happening make sense in the show. There is some good here, it gets undermined, but I call it as I see it.
Full disclosure this is a FULL SPOILERS review, so if you’ve seen it cool, if you don’t care cool, if that annoys you, come back later.
The Good
Sadly this section is pretty short, there are two good scenes this week. Also, some very good acting from Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor. Yet…. No, I’ll get to that.
The veil of deception is lifted from Celebrimbor and the reality of his situation comes crashing down. Edwards does really well here and it’s the one scene in the show that almost feels like the real deal for a moment. Like, this could be lifted out a well made film or series, the transition as he goes outside and comes back to see the state of his forge. Brilliantly put together scene and well played from Vickers (Sauron) and Edwards. My issues are still the motivations, but sadly we get another scene between these two which I disliked. More on that later.
Secondly, Durin IV made a decent enough speech, though the moment was laughably undermined by the plot.
That’s it.
The Bad
Look I’m gonna be fairly brief with this as much as possible. after all, I probably sent more time writing these reviews than the showrunners did writing the scripts. That’s an exaggeration, I know it, you know it, let’s pretend we have a sense of humor and move on.
The Battle of Bad Editing
So, the battle begins as we saw in Episode 6. But it’s okay because the Elves arrive led by Elrond…No, Gil-galad….no Elrond. Anyway, they charge the music swell, and the director rips off Peter Jackson’s charge of the Rohirrim scene from Return of the King. Even the music sounds similar and the shot choices and lighting very much so. anyway, they get within 5 feet of the orc army they show they have Galadriel in a cage, and the entre force of Elves just stops. Then they go have a talk.
Whoever had that idea, sorry, but all that tension to just have a parley in a tent was poor. Listen I know Eregion has to fall, it can’t survive, but setting up all these heroic moments and then not paying them off because the plot requires Eregion to fall is just bad plotting on a seasonal level and that falls at the showrunners door.
The Kiss
The Elrond kisses Galadriel to pass her a brooch to escape. You can imagine the raised eyebrows at Elrond kissing his future mother in law who’s old enough to be his grandmother really. However, it really was played as a ploy to pass her the brooch. I’m just not sure why none of the orcs spotted him removing the brooch first, he just does it in full view. Anyway, the kiss could have been one of those Elven touching of the foreheads they do and it would have caused less drama.
Adar lets Elrond Leave to go back to his army, as they have agreed to fight. I’m not kidding by the way. These orcs are as honorable as venerable knights. They even burn the dead bodies of their comrades and say sad prayers to…..I don’t know, Morgoth? No, ‘looks like meat is back on the menu’ in this series.
Suddenly, Elrond, who by this point has not spoke to his King Gil-galad once since the attack began is in the battle again. The horses the Elves charged on…erm are gone. Elrond loses his on screen, the others, they must have…died, I dunno. The writers don’t know either.
The Elves from Eregion were fighting also up to a point. However, later in, when the writers just want a heroic last stand with a few red shirt Elves and Elrond and Gil-galad, they mysteriously are no longer helping from the walls of Eregion.
Dam It
Adar decides to dam the river surrounding Eregion so his Orcs can cross. His master plan for doing so is to use a trebuchet to launch rocks at the mountain. Which just so happens to be so precariously balanced from some sort of magical erosion technique that no longer exists that it crumbles in an avalanche of rocks and dams the river…yeah, sure. Oh and it dams the river in like 10 seconds.
Now, by this point Gil-galad who is clearly seen as a secondary character has been seen once. Where is he? Is he not making the decisions and commanding the armies? If not, why did he come?
Here’s another question, why when Arondir shows up, does he always do mad flips and jump like he’s using the Force? ‘He’s an Elf Cam’, okay so why don’t they do this with any Elf except Arondir? I’m half expecting him to be revealed as Legolas Grandad and that’s why he has ninja skills. Oh…. he did have Ninja skills, until he fights Adar. Then sadly the plot says he has to be injured and presumed dead till next week’s episode. So Adar makes quick work of him.
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Gil-galad showed up finally. The hundreds of Elven fighters who were admittedly outnumbered have been whittled down to a small band of red shirts and Elrond, then Gil-galad shows up on his horse, with like one other Elf. Just so he can be there when they have their last stand I assume. Where was he the rest of the episode, I dunno?
Where are the Dwarves? Not coming, okay so instead of helping his friends and King, Elrond mopes. Right up till the point Adar walks up to him and holds a sword to his throat.
The only characters we follow in this battle are the leads apart from a few shots of some Elves on the tower that barley have speaking parts firing a few arrows and putting down Celebrimbor.
Horrible battle full of poor editing, nonsensical events, massive amounts of suspension of disbelief required and worse than all that it’s boring and fails to deliver on any level. Its so amateurish it’s hard to fathom. Go watch the big battle in any decent movie and you’ll see the director finds ways to make us feel inside the battle. Maybe they give us random soldiers to follow, etc. None of that is here, its just scenes held together by some wide shows of fire and debris to disguise there’s only around 50 extras on set. Another huge crime the script/director makes is that the battle only progresses in the places on screen. Everywhere else off screen has stayed static until we next see those people again.
The Rings
Okay we had one excellent scene with Sauron and Celebrimbor, I enjoyed it even for a show I don’t. However the second scene between them, where Sauron basically chains Brimby to a desk and makes him finish the Nine. I just don’t get it. It’s like in the show Sauron has no skills, he needs Celebrimbor to create the Rings as he’s the teacher and Sauron is the learner. Of course, this relationship is very much reversed in the books. Though, with the knowledge gained from Sauron Celebimbor secretly forges 3 Rings (the Three) which surpass the work of Sauron…to that point.
The show cannot do any of this because they switched the order around, and everyone’s motivations. In the show Sauron needs Brimby to finish the Nine, which he’s poured part of his being into, so he can enslave Men. It also seems like he may have partial control of those wearing the Seven, which makes no sense until he forges the One. So Brimby decides to hide the Rings from Sauron with Galadriel. then he goes back to meet up with Sauron and have him arrested. You can imagine how well that goes. All because the show wants to give Celebrimbor the end he has in the books. Why when they’ve changed everything else I’m not sure, but here we are.
I just don’t get the big deal about the Nine this show is making…Oh it’s the Nine, they’ll make wraiths. So would the Seven if you gave them to men, that’s the point of the books. Men cannot wield Rings of Power without becoming wraiths. It’s a side effect Sauron never foreseen.
The Dwarves
Long story short, Elrond asked Durin for help. We get him make a big speech, though there’s only about 30 Dwarves listening. They all cheer and get ready to go to war. But, there’s only 30 of them? Ah it’s okay, a quick CGI shot shows that somehow everyone in the distance (made by CGI) was also magically able to hear what Durin said inside a small cave. The CGI tiny Dwarves in the distance all cheer as well… yay.
Then just as they are getting ready for war, in a small corridor with around 4 Dwarves with Durn, Narvi appears. Durin III has gone off his rocker and attacked his own Dwarves with an axe, because they weren’t digging where he told them. Wow, that’s extreme even for a Dwarf with Gold lust from a Ring. Narvi pleads with Durin the younger to cancel the help to Eregion because the whole army will be needed. Durin III plans to keep digging, and he’ll release that beast. In other words the writers need the army for next week when Durin III breaks through and the Balrog shows up. By the way Sauron seems happy with all this. Apparently he doesn’t really want to control Dwarves, just watch them get killed off a Balrog.
Anyway, the Dwarves don’t arrive, we get no charge, so Durin IV’s speech was for naught. Exciting eh?
Miscellaneous Nonsense
Ff Adar knew Elrond had the Ring why not take it earlier?
Why did Elrond not report Adar’s offer to his King who was waiting behind?
Why does Durin III going cray cray happen off screen?
Celebrimbor seems surprised he cannot destroy the Nine in a fire. So the guy who was the greatest smith in Elvendom and the guy who forges the Rings of Power could not unmake them and thought they’d melt in a fire?
If he wanted to destroy them, why did he sit and finish them for Sauron instead of flat refusing as he does later? Because we need the nine to be made so they can give them to characters in Season 3.
Why did Sauron want the Orcs to attack Eregion. They cause him to have to make the illusion for Brimby and be in a big rush. Why not just relax and chill until Brimby makes them? Because they want the battle of Eregion to happen as a dramatic end to Season and the book motivations cannot happen.
But… I like It?
Look, maybe you don’t care too much about character motivations? Maybe, one battle is as good as another? If that’s you. you’re golden. In fact I saw someone online earlier who loves the series and said they’re a huge Tolkien fan. This person had a cool theory. What if Adar is Elrond’s dad? That tells you what kind of Tolkien fans are watching this show and enjoying it. They don’t even know who Elrond’s dad, saviour of the First Age and the bearer of final Silmaril for eternity is. Massive Tolkien fan I’m sure.
This is not The Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power is sadly cheap fan fiction that would be low budget rubbish if these showrunners were actually working at their own level. The fact Amazon gave them millions and this is the most expensive TV show of all time is absolutley crazy.
GRADE: C-
Just for the cool Celebrimbor and Sauron reveal scene. Pity the rest of the show isn’t that good.
The finale is next week, and it’s likely the last episode of this show I watch. I won’t be back for Season 3. One of the poorest shows for the money spent on it I’ve ever seen.
As always, if you disagree with my review of The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 7, let me know. If you agree, let me know. Comments below. I’ll be back for the final time next week.
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