Elliot Kessler

I thought “Rings of Power” was only ok at first. It wasn’t anything special, and it certainly didn’t adapt Tolkien’s work very closely, often straying from the lore to tell the story they wanted to tell. That is still the case, but the writing of the last two episodes is much better than how the show started. The last episode introduced some interesting moral dilemmas, putting more tension on the characters and revealing more about them. This episode is centered around a tense battle between the people of the Southlands and the orcs, and it is done very well.

The episode begins with the orcs storming the old fortress the Southlanders were using as a shelter, only to find it empty. The people had set a trap that Arondir stays behind to trigger. Arondir collapses a tower on many of the orcs and escapes to the Southlanders, hiding in wait. This was a fun and exciting sequence that I enjoyed watching. I loved the tension, and I’m beginning to care for Arondir more and more as he faces his trials and strives toward his goal of living a peaceful life with Bronwyn. It is entertaining and gets better as the show goes on.

The orcs then try to take the village of the Southlanders. From the beginning of the sequence, I knew it would be a remake of the Battle of Helms Deep. It was still fun and exciting, then it seemed to end too early without much splendor. I was a little confused, but then Arondir realized that most of their foes were other Southlanders rather than orcs. We knew they joined with the orcs, but we thought they would combine their armies. Instead, they sent the men in with some orcs as the first wave to discourage the Southlanders and put fear into their hearts. Then they would bring the rest of the orcs in and finish the job.

It was a very exciting, tense, and bloody conflict. Watching Arondir take a few hits added to the tension, and made the conflict that much more entertaining and fun to watch. Arondir isn’t perfect, and this was a good reminder of that. All good characters get beaten sometimes. It was nice to finally see a main character defeated in this show, as strange as that sounds.

Bronwyn getting shot by an orc arrow was a surprise, and I enjoyed the suspension that came from that moment. For a little while I thought she had died, and I honestly think it might have been better than her living. It would have added to the loss and sorrow of Arondir, giving him more depth, as well as putting an interesting twist on the elf/human romance story we’ve seen a couple times already in Tolkien lore. I would have loved that if only for the mere shock of her death. It would have had a lot of meaning to Arondir and Theo, and it would have shown that this show isn’t messing around anymore. However, for the moment, all the main characters feel safe, and that pulls away from the tension.

The Galadriel and Halbrand story finally merges with Arondir’s story, which means that, the next time we see the pair, it will be with more interesting characters as well. Halbrand is becoming more and more interesting as his story progresses, but I still don’t like Galadriel. Elves are supposed to be fantastic at almost everything, sure, but that doesn’t mean they should be god-tier at everything. Why is Galadriel able to dodge arrows on horseback? It doesn’t make any sense. That’s one thing about Arondir that I enjoy. Even though he’s an elf soldier who has trained for combat, he still gets knocked down and isn’t perfect. But as soon as Galadriel draws her sword, it doesn’t matter who the enemy is, they’re going to die without leaving a scratch. It doesn’t make her interesting, it makes her boring and annoying to watch. No matter what happens, Galadriel always gets what she wants with no consequences to haunt her. It’s really annoying. But it does seem that she is growing, and it looks like she might be a more admirable character by the end of the season.

The cliffhanger still has me intrigued. I’m curious to see what happens in the next episode. What volcano is that? Is there something living in it? Where is Sauron hiding, and what is he doing? I’m excited to see the answers, and I look forward to whatever the next episode has to offer.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.