“Dan! You’re a weird dude.” Priceless

This quote makes me excited for the episode lmao

Brandon's facial expression is a perfect reaction to it.

This is the man who is going to write more Cosmere books.

@@samm8190 I couldn’t feel more secure

Herooo

thank you

Jesus, thank you, friend. I can't take clicking through another food heist intro lol

You are a gentleman and a scholar.

You're the best!

You know, there’s metal in people. Not to mention cannibalism sounds like a very efficient form of hemalurgy…

@@mrlaforgephysics I’m half way through era two book two. Slept on the wax and Wayne series for years till now. I’ve always wondered about this as well. Like cadmium exists in the body so could Mereci form a bubble at Will if she’s hydrated and eats healthy? Kinda like avatar when they bend the water in the blood as the final water bending twist at the end of the series.

>_> DAN please make a cannibalism based magic system!

@@balance00wow check out the first law trilogy by joe abercrombie

Tastes like chicken

I hope he never finds out about warhammer

clearly, you haven't seen the Shadversity reviews XD. or Eat Garbage

I said an audible "what" both when they leave the fortification, and when they refer to the village as being a place where they have an advantage.

@@Fozzie1481 Those are great! I can't tell whether to feel bad or laugh whenever he comes across something that contradicts medieval combat. His rant on back scabbards in particular made me laugh. For the original commenter, Shad has run a medieval combat channel for a long time, and was a consultant for the combat in Rhythm of War. Shadiversity is his main channel for combat analysis and testing, while Knights Watch is his main video commentary. He goes into the literary mistakes more in Knights Watch, though he will also add combat or political commentary when things really bother him. Both channels have Rings of Power reviews, but hopefully this will be helpful with finding the ones that you want to watch.

Arondir: "This position gives us an advantage." If he's representative of the quality of the elven soldiers at the tower, no wonder they were captured and slaughtered.

@@Fozzie1481 NO I avoid Nazism in my life lmao

He had to develop a very simple wrist-friendly signature many years ago due to how many signatures he has to do these days

Whats he actually signing?

@Ruben Soeteman I see Words of Radiance... maybe the title page of the book?

haha that's so funny. I never got used to it myself

Yes the whole fake out/red herring/mystery box is so overused as a cheap hook to try and keep you interested rather than just telling a good story

Agreed 👍

There were SO many times when just changing costumes could have implied the passage of times and alleviated headaches. I'm not even saying have that many MORE costumes (maybe one or two for a few of the characters), just alternate between them.

that was a perfect opportunity to do some world building as they travelled. But there is no world in this show, just a series of sets.

@@scambammer6102 Remember the southLANDS is just one small village lol. I refuse to believe that this show had 60 million per episode.

Yes, it made them such hypocrites!

That didn't bother me about the Harfoots at all. In fact, it made them more realistic. People often profess one set of ideal beliefs while acting differently out of necessity. The Harfoots are a close social group that is forced to leave stragglers due to harsh conditions. I was fine with the Harfoots until the last scene, which was too long and boring.

@@scambammer6102 Have we seen really harsh conditions, that warrant not helping someone with a sprained ankle who will contribute to the survival of the clan within two weeks? I can hardly imagine conditions, where such a decision makes sense.

@@thrombocyte2054 "Have we seen really harsh conditions, that warrant not helping someone with a sprained ankle" well no, because the show is garbage. But such conditions could exist. If we were being chased by wolves, the stragglers would have to fend for themselves. The show does allude to such conditions, but does a poor job of portraying them. The alleged brutality of the Harfoots didn't bother me. In fact, it was the most realistic thing in the show (which isn't saying much).

If they had justified just a bit more why characters believe so strongly it's better to leave some to die (talk of personal experiences where trying to save someone resulted in risking more lives for instance), and then tackled "what we're doing is actually horrifying, whether it's necessary or not". That could have worked without changing too awfully much. If the characters WANT to be better but believe circumstances require them to be this way. I agree with Brandon, having them choose to welcome the Stranger before his powers benefit them would have been an enormous improvement.

Fanatics who blindly bend the knee to a supposed savior, rarely are

They really didn't explain anything about those witches. Apparently inspired by Shakespeare ad opposed to Tolkien. That entire subplot - Gandalf/Not Gandalf, all the proto-hobbits, the 3 witches - none of that was necessary or relevant to the main story. They should've axed all of it. Hell, they should've axed the whole show and started over, because this first attempt was a swing and a miss

well then then they try to kick the ass off the guy they are worshipping. kinda strange. if I was convinced I found the second coming of Christ with amnesia I wouldnt get into a bare knuckle with him

I would be asking why there are even Ring Wraiths before the One Ring was forged. They only existed because of the One.

What would be a good example of something that you think is bad vs something you don’t like and why?

@@yomamma.ismydaddy216 An example I can think of, from Brandon's writing, is Lift. Lift is easily my least favorite storm light character. I recognize that she is a well written character with a clear character arc, but I find the character to be annoying in almost every one of her scenes. Something about her doesn't work for me.

I really like this way of thinking. It helps me feel better about the fact that I actually enjoyed Rings of Power after seeing and hearing so many complaints about the writing of the show. I'm a storyteller myself, and the complaints here have legitimacy, I can see that, and I can see how someone else would write Rings of Power differently, but I like the idea that it wasn't actually bad. That said, I'm not deep into the lore of Lord of The Rings, so I'm your undereducated viewer. I certainly enjoyed the movies. The books were difficult for me to get into, and I'm quite happy binge-reading the Mistborn series right now instead 🤪

@@yomamma.ismydaddy216 Well in my opinion the Harfoots storyline I think is just bad and poorly written. Something I would have done differently is Halbrand and Celebrimbor. I wouldn’t have waited until the last episode to show him smithing. Have him working on something that’s really ambitious and he keeps failing. Show him struggling in a very specific spot. Then show Halbrand doing something else that can be the solution to Celebrimbor’s problem, but it would have to be something subtle and not obvious. That way when they come together at the end there can be an “ah ha” moment for the viewer. In concept all of this is easy to talk about, but in practice and actually writing it… well I’m not oblivious to the fact that it’s actually really hard and complicated to pull off.

@@3DagrunHonz I’ve learned that it’s okay to think something is bad while understanding it’s okay if someone else enjoys it. I can be very confused on “how does Galadriel not know about the king of the Southlands thing when the Elves have literally been watching over it for hundreds and hundreds of years. It’s where Arondir’s story starts. You’d think they would pay attention and notice if there hadn’t been a king for a long time.” I think that’s bad writing, but my friend is willing to look past that and not worry about it to enjoy the show. And that’s okay, I’m happy for him. I know the lore decently well and can point out where it was changed, but to me, as long as it can still be explained in a cohesive story I’m fine with changing how things happen. I mean look at the new God of War. They change quite a bit in the story, but they did such a fantastic job with the execution that no one cares.

That was probably my biggest frustration. They decided to undercut what could.have been a great betrayal arc by squeezing it all into one season. If it had taken another season or two to reveal Sauron, it would have landed. He still has to persuade all the men and dwarves to accept rings from him, so he can't be "out" ... I'm really annoyed by that.

Also, when you reveal that character A (halbrand) was actually character B (sauron) the whole time, the audience needs to be able to look back at A's actions with this new knowledge and make new sense of them. This isn't really possible, apart from some strong contrivances, to do in this case. If halbrand was Sauron the whole time, his actions during the first 7 episodes mostly make close to zero sense.

@@cbpd89 even if they wanted to do the beyrayal arc in one season they could have started later and kept the story more focused. Have him be someone who has a plan in place, social/political power, and charisma. Then he's a powerhouse set up to manipulate and dominate. A villian we love to watch and love to hate.

@@cbpd89 I think making it a mystery undercuts the whole thing. Since his villainy isn't meant to be obvious, he can't do anything to revealing... except doing things revealing of their character is how you make a character interesting; it would have been much better that we know from the start and the show then builds tension by showing us how he manipulates other characters, how he escapes their notice, etc... Particularly aggravating; him manipulating the elven smith should have been a matter of several episodes, if not a full season. But no, it has to be squeezed into the finale so we rush it while we've dragged our feet the whole rest of the season. That show has so much potential, but it's really hard to love what's done well when they squander so many great narrative opportunities.

@@maximeteppe7627 that would require much better writing than these writers are capable of

Same

Totally disagree with Brandon and Dan on the Harfoots, because they seem to have misunderstood the point of them. They're proto-Hobbits not Hobbits. Nori and Poppy are more traditionally Hobbit-like in terms of the goodness of the main 4 Hobbits from LOTR, but there are plenty of examples of insular, avaricious, self-interested, 'utilitarian' Hobbits in Tolkien's works. The tale of the Harfoots one the show is one of moral and cultural evolution - in the beginning the "nobody walks alone; no-one goes off-trail" is an imperative that reveals the collectivist, tribal mindset of the Harfoots. It's a command to members that everyone follow the collective or else they get left behind. But as the show progresses, it is becomes more of a motto of solidarity - nobody walks alone because now the group will support you. The Harfoots learn and grow as result of their experiences with the Stranger, and they are humbled by Nori's goodness. I love Brandon and Dan, but if they don't see the duality inherent in the Harfoot motto, they've just missed the point. The show has plenty of other issues, but not the Harfoots.

@@GMBethHarmon The Harfoots are a massive issue. Using Tolkien’s lore. They’re a lie the showrunners are selling. Tolkiens Harfoots are one of the three main Hobbit races. To say “they’re not hobbits, they’re Harfoots” is like saying “they’re not Asian, they’re Korean”. Outside of his lore, using just the show, the Harfoots are absolutely told to the audience they survive by relying on each other, and only each other. They are a closed off from the world group that has a massive strength in their working together. But then we are immediately shown this isn’t true by the fact that Nori’s father is terrified once he gets hurt that he’ll be abandoned, and the superstitious older lady calls out it’s time to kill the family for bringing strangers. It makes you wonder how many names in their book of the dead were uncontrollable deaths vs intentional murders. The Harfoots are easily one of the worst things about this show. Especially as they add nothing. They’re 1/3 of the narrative of this dragged out mess of a show, and could have been removed with nothing really being lost from the primary narrative

@@GMBethHarmon The 'point' of the Harfoots in the show is "hey, remember Frodo and Sam? Weren't they great? This is Amazon Basics Frodo and Sam, and they're just as good, honest!"

@@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t Amazon: "Remember how dirty and filthy Sam and Frodo looked by the end of LOTR? Well, boy, do we have the 'Not-Hobbits' for you!"

*throws tomato*

What I'm wondering is, what about the other rings? We didn't see most of the other rings being made at all. Unless I just missed that scene. It seems to me either they did it off screen, sauron will make them by himself, or sauron will trick celebrimbor AGAIN. None of those seem like appealing options imo and definitely the end was rushed.

@@Blizzhobbs Pretty sure in season 2 we are going to see that Saruon in disguise had a meeting with the elves, the one Elrond was not invited to and convinced them that they were fading. He could also return to Eregion in another form to have the rest of the rings forged in the next season as well.

I could see this as a way to explain how "annatar" gets introduced into the story but it would still make the elves look dumb for them to be fooled twice about the same thing imo. But anything is possible i suppose

Yeah, I'm like "what do you mean not-Gandalf? He's clearly Gandalf!"

Agreed. Can’t see how anyone would think otherwise, unless Amazon left it an open question so they could pivot based on the reception of season 1

It was obvious from the first episode. He whispers to moths and hangs out with hobbits. Nobody wanted him to be gandalf, which was the only reasons people denied. I felt the same way about discount aragorn being sauron. What a cheap plot gimmick.

You guys are WAAAAAY too credulous. He's going to be one of the Blue Wizards. He'd going to Rhûn, where the Blue Wizards went. One created a sorcerer cult. So I think this is the second Blue Wizard.

@@hawkname1234 you the credulous show writers never heard of the blue wizards

Honestly, for me they only time I cared what was happening was when Adar was on screen. The actor really brought something to the screen. I cared for him. I felt for him. I hated Galadriel for how she didn't show a ounce of compassion to a CLEARLY in pain, traumatised fellow being. She didn't act like an Elf at all! Ador was more Elf then her.

Those writers were writing the wrong story period.

@@ghouling1111 I am not opposing your thoughts but maybe it's much more of the writers' fault than one of the actors'.

@@knightlon I agree it's the writing. Galadriel is the character the script wanted, apparently. Her lines and personality aren't the actor's fault

@@ghouling1111 Elves are dickheads. That is pretty much cannon. The difference between the immortal race and the rest of the Middle Earth inhabitants are expressed quite a lot in Tolkien's writing. FFS Lelogas" dad abandoned the Dwarves to die at Erobor when Smaug came. This is not a unique trend.

They were very polite, I think is professional courtesy. The show was honestly horrible.

@@ramiroexposito4010 The amount of derision and hate this show has generated on-line has been fairly impressive. Who says that a billion dollars is all you need to buy people's applause?

So are magic mushrooms, are they food?

@@Lezzyboy87 yes

"Valued for its ability to be eaten" does not necessarily make it food. It would have to provide sustenance. I think the only metal that comes close is Pewter. But also I'd argue it's still not "food" because its burned away and not digested.

Are tablets food?

@@L1ghtweaver I suppose that depends on how you define food. I don’t think your definition is a bad one, but Dan seemed to be defining food as something primarily intended to be eaten, which I’d argue Atium is in the Final Empire.

They obviously start living in the opposite direction of time arrow once the One Ring got destroyed. And by the time they reach the beginning of Time they will high five Iluvatar.

People have been propagandised for years that 'to be judgemental is bad' so there is never any hard and fast condemnation which would, coincidentally, help prevent hack writers from propagating their hackery and destroying the cache of well loved cultural artifacts. Of course, the elephant in the room is that such cultural vandalism is nowadays often *an actual goal* of the writers (or the purse-holding producers), here and elsewhere They'll tell you quite clearly so long as you're aware enough to read between the lines of their virtuous sounding coded language. Those 'virtuous' goals inform all of the otherwise inexplicable contortion of canon that helps make this series so bad in it's execution - the writers are not serving the goals of storytelling first and sometimes not at all. If the choice is between agenda and narrative coherence... agenda wins. I'd go further and suggest that they're often so blinded by that 'virtuous' zeal that they don't even *recognise* the faultlines it creates in the narrative cohesion, thus you get examples such as the Hobbitwife who demands they sabotage the wagon of the 'undesirables' condemning them to 'falling off trail' .... later being lovingly described as 'always being right' because of the opportunity to totemise a moment of 'female empowerment'. I'd argue this whole conversation is more important than people might think because it mirrors (and is in fact tied into) far greater concerns, I'd suggest the at least semi-explicit reason such a 'non-judgemental' mindset has been propagated is to prevent such pushback across the entire socio-political landscape and that the mental costs are poisoning public discourse and social cohesion. You ever wonder why left of centre politics has gone more and more off the deep end? This same 'I don't want to be judgemental' mindset. With nothing pushing back, the lefts insatiable desire for revolutionary change and pushing back boundaries just becomes more and more divorced from the world as it actually exists and the bounds that actually serve to protect people from bad outcomes. The irony of course, is that this non-judgement is entirely suspended for people not buying into the constantly evolving vision of the 'one true path', they're all (we're constantly encouraged to believe) domestic terrorists in waiting, their every thought and utterance MUST be interpreted in the most nefarious light possible. Immediately even one of the cults greatest adherents falls away from purity in the slightest (JK Rowling).... they transform instantaneously into a deceptive infidel, a likely member of the 'far right', and/or MUST be driven by being phobic or an ist of some form. To fall away from grace couldn't possibly indicate a problem with the dogma of this new 'enlightenment' after all.... It's almost like the cognitive dissonance that comes with a reflexive baseline denial of reality - as the totem characters they venerate reveal their shortcomings (and cognitive decline) and the bad outcomes their own 'well meaning' policies propagate (defund the police,BLM etc) - HAS to be offloaded onto a scapegoat *somewhere* ... After all, as previously stated, it couldn't possibly be that their assumptions are wrong. They KNOW as a fundamental axiom that they are the 'good' people - their whole self -image rests upon basking in their self determined virtue, its a much easier life when you can offload all of that existential doubt into the chimaeric representation of 'evil fascism' as embodied by those ignorant 'bad people' over there - with their shocking irreverence and off colour jokes and view of offense as something to be shrugged off not clutched at for cultural relevance/power etc etc Worst of all *draw in breath* they might try to argue the utterly backward notion that perhaps some of the traditions of days past (which *became* traditions at least in part due to interactions with real world pressures and the molding of societal structure along the lines of human behavioural norms) might not need to be entirely discarded, at least not all at once, for the sake of that pure and holy revolutionary zeal. After all, anything that might serve to limit your actions is without question fundamentally oppressive and thus an evil to be purged. But hey ho, lets continue to cowardly refuse to judge while cultural touchstones (and the world in general) burns, 'cause heaven forfend we might make a mistake and cause someone unearned heartache to their fee-fee's (unless they have the wrong think, then go ham). 😏

@@ssharp755 well, these guys are in the business. they don't want to piss off potential customers.

@@ssharp755 Best comment so far.

@@scambammer6102 Don't be a shill. Don't cover for shills. Don't omit yourself. Be part of change, and not part of the problem.

@@ssharp755 Good shit man. We gotta speak up. Always. These things happen because ppl are too p*ssy to say or do anything.

Not really

Yeah

Haha no. They’re both quite near the trash end though.

Arcane is an incredibly written masterpiece. RoP is a dumpster fire. You, sir, are spot on here

It's an insult to compare ROP to Arcane quite frankly.

I think he is attempting to be funny in that situation tbh

tbf there were undoubtedly staff writers screaming the same points at a lead trying to please execs. these kinds of jumbled messes are often the result of too many good ideas smushed together in illogical ways, or half of a solid plotline on a cutting room floor.

@@spunlines4557 100% what more than likely happened. It's always easier to critique a finished product than it is to create one. Their criticisms are very valid and I agreed with most but even the most skilled writers take 2 years or more to write a story that will also have flaws. Once a story is finished it is very easy to point fingers at all the "flaws." Not to mention there are a lot of other factors when it comes to the production of a show of this scale. Overall, the show wasn't perfect but I enjoyed it more than enough to want more seasons.

While I totally agree that to be true. I don't give a lot of credit to an extremely under qualified show runner with little to no experience being handed a story of this magnitude. While it likely got contorted by execs, the general world building (like the hardfoots be dark/grim) almost 100% came from the original show runners and writing staff

@@Jiaphet didn't expect flawless, but the show was legitimately unredeemable in almost every storyline. But now we're arguing preference for shows, which isn't fun for anyone, so I'll just say "agree to disagree". I would say, if Amazon was open with metrics, I bet you'll see a minimum of 60% drop off from season finale of season 1 to finale of season 2. I don't think the show is recoverable at this point. But, I would be super happy to be wrong

@@spunlines4557 I heard that the writers shrouded themselves in secrecy. Blacked out the windows. Apparently to prevent leaks

I’m still convinced they just killed and ate the fat Harfoots. Then read about them at story time

I just read it too! I literally couldn't put it down and read it in an afternoon.

Mr. Monster was by far the hardest for me to get through.

@@samuelfriedbaum4450 For me too. I eventually put it down and had to come back to it much later.

Omg, I came down into the comments to say this as well! I went out and bought the first three and I don't regret it one bit. /Now/ The problem becomes finding peremant placement on the shelves next to Brandon since he'll be writing in the Cosmere and I have to keep all books by an author near each other.

@@samuelfriedbaum4450 is that because of the cat scene? I struggled with that one too

It was so obvious I assumed it was a red herring.

@@ryanbradley5557 I was a little weary until Not Gandalf showed up, and that red herring gave it away immediately for me.

it wasn't to me, but that's because I really only watched like 2 or 3 episodes, so I didn't see it =P

And yet that one element worked well. It was just stupid that they tried to hide it

@@danielbroome5690 It did not work well at all to anyone who knows anything about what Tolkien actually wrote on the 2nd age.

especially now that season one is complete, such an incredible show 🥰

I think when they say fan service they mean nostalgia bait/‘member berries

You hadn't see volcano coming (so did I) because that twist is so utterly nonsensical and dumb it can't hold a candle to even the most in-your-face fantasy explanations. Even if not-Sauron would have just wished Mount Doom into existence it would make more sense. First, we are talking about supernatural universe where powers of creation sometimes just act openly. Second, it would save us a ton of time spent on BS plot twist that probably didn't deserve so much attention. Subversion of expectation is truly a plague of modern media. Done bad, it doesn't just fail - it takes from other elements.

That's not how volcanoes work, so obviously it wasn't expectable.

@@tomasxfranco I mean, yeah you are totally correct. :D I'm willing to suspend disbelief here and there though. I'm a Star Trek fan afterall! I thought the volcano/tunnels thing was a really neat concept and executed well, so I forgave the fact that it would have only been a big steam explosion & not an actual eruption.

The wraith looks exactly like the ring wraith from Peter Jackson movies. Should have used different design if they want to avoid confusion.

@@markusbisma5015 Totally agreed, but I dont think avoiding confusion was their goal. I'm pretty sure their goal was fan-service. Which is dumb. But so much of the writing is dumb, it's just par for the course.

Brandon tricked him into it by hiring him to write Cosmere books XD

Yes, the rings were not yet made and so they cannot be ring wraiths. No, „kings of men“ refers to „kings of humans“, as „kingdom of men“ as eg in the bible.. so their sex is not given from that naming.

@@franz5998 they were still all men

@@bard5865 guarantee that the show will make some women

Technically, some of the Nazgul were never kings to begin with, but yes Tolkien rarely used female characters, so it's unlikely that any of them were female.

@@franz5998 I think the male part is implied in "kings" not "men." For the record, I don't think they're ringwraiths, I do think Tolkien envisioned all the Ringwraiths as male, but the show will probably make some female and that doesn't bother me.

Well put!

Like 75% yeah

Yup no way any horse could ride that distance. Especially not with someone wounded.

If this show gave any hint of caring about lore, I would suggest that "brandy" could very well be a corruption from Sindarin baran for golden-brown (like the Brandywine/Baranduin river)...but this show doesn't care. It's just 'memba this?

Couldn't have said it better myself. A huge missed opportunity by Amazon. When I heard rumors that they were thinking of just junking this 1st Season and making a completely fresh attempt in a couple of years, it made total sense to me. Just forget this attempt (and the billion dollars) and start over..... Reply

The Numenoreans might as well have sent themselves to the Southlands via Amazon express delivery. It would actually have made more sense to have a fourth wall breaking joke reminiscent of Spaceballs over them sailing a thousand miles, disembarking their army somewhere on the coast or up the river Anduin and then marching another hundred miles *at minimum* in a couple of days.

I'm sure they wrote it as the grey, but I think they will pivot to a blue as it's what a better writer would have done.

Interesting. . .I've tried watching all three with the same general background. . . I actually finished RoP and will probably watch the next season at least (maybe. . .I don't really like it, but I love the backdrop enough to give it another season. . .but I have many problems with it). I couldn't finish the Wheel of Time season, I stopped just when they went into the Ways. My husband and I watched all of the Witcher and hated it.

@@hallaloth3112 Havent read Wheel of Time, so for me it was just meh, not great not terrible. Have read the witcher. Season one was ok, had its weak points but still "workable with". The weak points were big indicators tho for the shitshow the second season became. Rings of Power couldnt even convince me with its trailers. It looks so generic, uninspired and cheap that I had no reason to start watching it. And afterwards literally everybody, both young and old, personal or online said "show was shit", so even less incentive for me to start warching it. So yea. Wheel of time, sure whatever, witcher season one i can recommend to other people, season two is dogshit, and RoP was so fucking bad that it could not even convince me to start watching it.

He is working with the show runner so obviously he isn't going to.

@@AdeelTariq0 I wouldn't call that "working with"

Too bad for business unfortunately.

They have a couple episodes discussing the Wheel of Time tv series as well! Brandon consulted on the wheel of time tv show, because he finished the series after Robert Jordan’s passing.

Kings not kinda (damn autocorrect!)

They're not saying they are currently Nazgul (I don't think...) I assume he was implying that they are allies of Sauron who will be given rings in the future and become Nazgul.

@@1lamafarmer But, they aren't Kings of men who will be corrupted. They are obviously already evil and in possession of "powers" that are not granted by the rings which haven't been made yet.

that bugs the hell out of me. was this not important enough to have his full attention?

Sorry, but RoP is just bad. Like, bad bad. Andor and House of the Dragon had a fraction of the budget and managed to tell a more compelling, entertaining, and cohesive story by far.

@@Sealdog Ok. That's fine. So you disagree with them. I just object to people turning the fact that they didn't hate it into some sort of test of character. Like "they say they didn't hate it. They must be lying" when they're being a lot more specific about what they did and didn't like and why than anyone in the comments is.

its insane to me that people can listen to Brandon here and think he's being paid off or somehow fears retribution from amazon.

Agreed, some of the visuals were stunning! And the actors did the best they could with what they had, can't really fault them too much, and some of the Elrond/Durin story was even somewhat enjoyable. That's all the positives I can muster, the rest was incongruent, derivative and nonsensical. But tbf WoT didn't even look good, so I guess it still beats it there. But all in all I guess they are both some of the most expensive garbage ever produced.

WoT didn't look good at all, so I guess this one is the better one out of the two...

@@giverdend1416 I actually agree and realized that after my comment just didn’t feel like changing it. It was just flat out awful all around.