It's late but I hope you still like it 😅 For me it was really a pretty solid episode and I'm curious where they will go from here. Ofc I also have some worries. The Analysis stream will be later. Shout-outs to the artists (links in the description): Kimberly80 Jenny Dolfen Art

Definitely the best episode so far, I wasn't disappointed by the revelation that the tunnels were dug to channel the water into the mountain to trigger an eruption - that part was a pleasant surprise to me - admittedly because Arondir laid a red herring for us when he suggested that the tunnels were used by the orcs to evade the elves stationed there and to navigate during the day. The writers get a lot of grief, so kudos to them on that subversion of expectations. I'm a bit worried though that Halbrand might in fact be Sauron now, since Adar claims that he killed Sauron. The writers made a point of describing Sauron as a Sorcerer in the first episode and keep bringing up his experiments with the Unseen World. I get the feeling that they will lean heavily into the fact that Sauron was known as the "Necromancer" too. Remember when Halbrand said that he found that pouch off of a dead man? What if he's being literal? What if Halbrand was dead and his child was sacrificed in a ritual similar to the one in the Shadow of Mordor game to bring back Sauron. Who knows maybe those cultists from the last episode might even be the same ones that performed the ritual with Halbrand and might be planning to use the Stranger's body as a new and powerful vessel for Sauron's spirit. Either way this episode definitely hooked me into the show! I'm watching HotD as well but each week I slowly find myself unironically looking forward to new RoP episodes more than new HotD episodes.

So, when there's an evil magic McGuffin that is some kind of key that your enemy is desperately searching and battling for, and he escapes with it, and you dispatch your mightiest warriors to chase him down to recover it,.. well then obviously, you just pay that McGuffin no more mind. You don't even remove it from it's rags to make sure you actually have it. You don't have your wisest of elves and scourge of orc inspect it to discern it's meaning. You certainly don't take it to your captive and demand what it's for. No, you just ignore it for the rest of the day and then give it to some child to decide what to do with it. That's just obviously what real people would do! Bravo "writers"!

How does Adar know that the old man knows how to activate the sword with blood? How two days of sail became just one day of sail? How did the Numenorians know where was the battle going on? It's a big land, shouldn't they go directly to the place where Halbrand is from? Why did Galadrial never thought of checking the weapon/artifact if she is so into finding everything about Sauron?.... Idk, there were so many little things that made the episode feel disjointed. Like it's a cut piece of different shows. At least I like the character Adar, he's much more human than Galadrial and the Hartfoots. He's trying to make a land for the orcs (whc is cool, but i hoped if it was done by Sauron himself for his own purpose)

This episode is only the best because there wasn't as much dialogue as in the others, but still.. I don't buy it. The action scenes are great this time, believable; effects, color grading, locations are all wonderful. I can't accept the decisions made for the timeline and many others, they aren't believable, it totally breaks my immersion. As you said, the villagers teleporting from the tower behind the Orcs down into the valley, or the Numenoreans being immediately ready to ride for the village. For example Arondir destroying the whole tower and making it fall perfectly in the center of the square inside the fortress. Another is Halbrand intercepting Adar that is being followed by Galadrield from the opposite direction, can his horse teleport? Did they make a turn and we're going back to the village? Not talking about the water that perfectly follows the tunnels and has no other effect outside the trenches made by the Orcs. Everything happens just because, doesn't feel real. Not believable, beautiful, but no, don't like it. 5/10

I liked this episode better than the other ones. My favorite parts are the orc raids and fight scenes, actually. Well choreographed and the orcs look really really good.

Opening with Adar planting seeds, particularly in front of his watching "children" was brilliant. Added so much to creating a nuanced character.

The villagers were a collection of "all the villages from here to Orodruin" so would be a lot more than seen at the start of the season, even after splitting.

The invention of Adar makes the entire show meaningful. Tolkien struggled with his treatment of the orcs and Adar answers that in a way which I think JRR would have to acknowledge appropriate. I want to see what would have happened with his Uruk Nation. In LOTR we do get glimpses of discord among the orcs and not everyone up for Sauron's game. And unlike Dwarves, the orcs were "given the divine breath" as elves from the start. Adar is brilliant and one of the great "what if" scenarios we used to play at as kids along with "what if Gandalf put on the Ring?".

what i really really start to hate are all those defenders of the show giving you this two arguments all over again: they telling us to worship all the little easter eggs the show does right, while ordering us to ignore all the lore breaking? what is it now? stay to the canon or not? and also they are saying "But the showrunners couldn't show us this or that, becasue they do not have the rights for it. Oh please shut up and think for a second. Just give us a show with things you HAVE the rights for or just do your own stuff, but don't try to out-write a man who put decades of his life in creating a world that was consistent in itself.

I maybe change my mind after a rewatch, but from my first impression this was a big step in the wrong direction. Yes, it's an action-driven episode in which finally something's happened and the Numenorian and Southland story-lines have been connected. And the secret of the sword hilt has been revealed, yes. But how bad is this revelation? You need blood to unfold the blade so it fits into an unseen mechanism which breaks a dam in some unknown location to make water flow throw tunnels to ignite a volcanic eruption? Sorry, that's not how it works. A volcanic eruption needs to building up pressure like every explosion. An open tunnel system would only lead to vaporising the water and releasing the pressure backwards through the tunnels. We've already seen the exploding fumes getting out of those openings in the village. And if the pressure is to high, no more water would flow into the to the tunnels. But aside of the physics it doesn't make sense story-wise either. The sword hilt has been passed down for generations, we know that from Waldrek(spelling?). So this "key" is centuries old. Why had the mole orcs have to dig tunnels to make the mechanism working in the present time of the story? If it was prepared in ancient times the tunnels should already been there. I can't make heads or tails out of it.

I liked the reveal that the tunneling was in order to dig a river channel to cause the eruption. Nice suprise!

The plot is so contrived it hurts. Nobody check the package with the sword. No one. Why?? Cause the plot needs it. “Harbrand you have a tiny bag with a symbol? Are you the king?” “Well I don´t know…” “Long live to the king !!” why?? Cause the plot needs it The charge at daylight then 5 minutes of battle in the village completely at night. Then tyhe arrive and the sun is rising now!! This series is a cancer. Who gave these people a 500 M$ project?!?! Baffling

Again, the capture of Adar should have happened in the 3rd or 4th episode. Then we could've focused on the other characters for a bit,, followed that human Adar follower now and then, and then ended up in the same place but with Adar interrogation interspersed throughout. I think he's the most interesting character. They may have wanted to keep him mysterious, but I feel he's been underused thus far. Plus, a longer interrogation would have lent itself to letting us understand Galadriel's insane, genocidal rant. He could have worn down her patience after the heroes realized that they didn't have the hilt. I dunno. I feel like there was quite a bit of potential, but it's been a slog.

9:30 Wasn´t it established that the users of the hilt fell a connection to it? So he didn´t need to sneak on Arondir, he just knows when he is near the hilt.

Loved the episode, loved your review, don´t pay attention to the haters. The show is flawed and I hope they make it better for second season, they learn from the things that did not work etc, so criticiing the show is completly okay, but being a downer and trying to shame people who happen to enjoy it is not ! PS: i also have nothing against people hate watching it if thea dmit it! I myself hate watched shows all the time!

I give this a 5/10, which makes it the best episode so far. This is largely due to the lack of hobbits and the lack of deceitful elves and dwarves. The action sequences were OK but there's still tons of holes in the timing of things and the strategies used. Also, pyroclastic flows incinerate people, even elves who are a few thousand years old. That's some massive plot armor they will be using.

19:00 I hope this scene works as a purgatory for Galadriel and she rises out of the ashes ready to transform and lose her tempest.

I enjoyed it. Still some bumps in the road 🙄, but I enjoyed the episode. There is DEFINITELY something up with Halbrand….

The leaks say H is Sauron. I hope he is, as it makes sense. I don't think there's a conflict a humane H and Sauron. Firstly, he's not in power, so, in a very Tolkien way, he's less corrupted. Secondly, he's at a crossroad. He could still choose not to be Sauron. Lastly, much like Daenerys, the character won't start as a megalomaniac. It will be a path. I'd bet we'll know who S is before the characters do.

I appreciate your positive take and all the proper Tolkien Lore you explain, but personally find it very hard to get past the plot contrivances, poor dialog and character development. To me it has become apparent that the writers don’t understand how to write a heroic character since everyone we are suppose to think is a bad guy, are the only characters that I have any sympathy for. I’ve never been on the side of the Sith in Star Wars so I don’t think that I’ve been corrupted yet. Again, thank you for the education.

I suspect at the very least show runners will toy with an idea of romance between Galadriel and Halbrand. Can't say I like the idea of it myself.

They hinted at the sunrise by showing the numenorians riding. From the east, I guess? I guess the river left them to the east of the village.

No one noticed that shady ass guy fleeing the battlefield

The show was definitely too slow to start, i dont understand why they had a whole episode of galadriel literally treading water, but with each episode it just gets better and better

Thank you, finally a fair review. Its good to see that at least some youtubers are not entering this negative spiral of critizicing for the sake of critizicing. There are an overwhelming amount of youtube channels which claim that especially episode 6 is utter garbage. Its ridiculous. I have to say in my opinion the show has room for much improvment and naturally struggles with lore difficulties but that doesn't legitimize the whole Rings of power bashing movement. Its childish and plain stupid. Thank you for your channel. Your channel is getting more and more a staple before going to bed every evening. There is no tolkien youtube channel with such a quality. Your in depth videos of the characters of middle earth are throwing me (38 years old) back into my childhood fascination with the work of Tolkien.

I would agree that even a couple of seconds of transitional night to day transformation for the audience would have given a better sense of time, but as we see there is so much more time flowing during scenes that it would not add much more than more detail confusion if not used regularly. I do like the show quite a lot already. Perhaps it could have been something neat for extended versions of each episode for collectors and enthusiasts, where we could have an extra hour each episode, and I think actors, directors, and the whole production team would gain a smooth refined experience arc if that was the case. But it all comes down to production time, cost, and written material - which is fragmented, rare, and requires incredible skill to create for anyone but an incarnation of J.R.R. Tolkien in his prime. An Artificial Intelligence supported database system and a whole team of dedicated Tolkien enthusiastic professors could do it, perhaps. Then it would always be a question of that compared to new and other things. But I do find the entire prospect of an enriched, embellished, and seamless lore friendly continuation of the works of fundamental fantasy and fiction writers quite interesting for the future. I dare not foresee what will come to pass considering the first age of J.R.R. Tolkiens fantastical and magical work - but I will be open for any such experience.

I liked this episode the most so far, even though I also felt the timing was kinda off.

Great analysis, thank you. This episode was a noticeable improvement compared to the previous ones. Finally some meaningful developments happening, some good plot advance, and better dialog and pace. I liked the Galadriel scenes and dialogs, and I found the riding acrobatics much more credible and impressive than her showing off action scenes in other episodes. The laziness and incoherence with size and time annoy me greatly because it's just carelessness and lack of respect to the viewer. The contracting and expanding of numbers of villagers is ridiculous. The hundreds of riders and horses that were supposedly in 3 small ships is just silly. These things just put me off.

Subscribed, one of the reasonable reviews of an understandably difficult subject. No hint of ideology, just common decency.

Thanks Chris. Great?analysis as allways. Most interesting figure in this season is sill Adar though.

Awesome !!

Good review. However I don't think the scene between Galadriel and Halbrand was about romance.

Thanks mate your analysis is usually the one I am waiting for the most. Re: Episode 6 - a 6.5 imo. The misgivings about the show now firmly stem from the writing that has this sense of enervation; the lack of material shouldn't be the reason to not even try & be inventive plus mentally resourceful with just avoiding basic blunders, forget being imaginative. Show looks cool otherwise. The awesome cinematography should spare some budget to pass along to department of writing.

I have a feeling the pyroclastic flow might not be hot. The torches in the first episode weren't hot, the strangers crater wasn't hot. We'll see I guess.

6 episodes in, and multiple episode did not need to happen to get to this point.

Thank you for another great video! Couldn't agree more. 👏 Visually this show is a masterpiece and I can imagine alot of awesome fan-fiction in my head. I'm also hooked and watch along with my girlfriend, which helps alot since she hasn't read any of the books. And she loves the series. I must say you really put it all into words what I feel is missing and is wrong. But, as I lowered my expectations it really is entertaining and nice to have a show in this magnitude. Just not what I wished for. I'm still gratefull!

Underwhelming, is definitely the word. Quite strange to say considering the spectacular events on display, which are just shot through with a lot of mediocre story beats and disappointing payoffs. I was incredibly let down by the resolution to the black sword question, a real waste of an intriguing artifact. I like the series generally but so far it's been a patchwork of brilliant moments, with flashes of beautiful dialogue, connected by contrivances and madness-inducing time skips. I find you sometimes need to watch through a couple of times to properly enjoy them, unfortunately; they're often a bit too inconsistent (and confusing) to be wholly satisfying viewing on their own.

I really enjoyed your review as always especially because you finally found some good words for Galadriel :D (i personally liked her all along as i liked the whole show so far because i've never expected them to stick to the lore very closely. with only the appendices and some references in the LotR for the second age there is not so much background material for a at least 5-seasons-lasting show. Therefore maybe I am not so critical as so many others seem to be and I just enjoy the ride) and though it might have been predictable i also liked the sword plot. On the other hand I would not support a Galdriel-Halbrand-Romance. I just would not feel right (Although I could understand if Halbrand would go for her, because she is super hot :D - but should she not already be married to Celborn?)

Fascinating for "gimbatul" is translated both as the infinitive "to find them" and the imperative "Find them!" I think this sometimes also occurs in Castillian Spanish.

I think the overall arc for Galadriel arc will be the wise are not born but are forged from their mistakes. I'm hoping that over the coming series we will see her becoming less aggressive and head strong and embracing a more passive and political role she has in the lore. We as a fandom need to learn to be more patient and let the story be told before condemning it.

"...Galadrial really shines". Oof cringe. 3.5 / 10

They’ve really botched the show a great deal, mainly with their wokeism, but also flawed writing and failing to follow the lore. Tolkien was a genius, so straying from his plot line is always going to be a mistake. Perhaps they can salvage it a little, though I think in general most fans of Tolkien will consider it heresy and regret watching it. Halbrand as Sauron makes sense to me, though I think they could have been more subtle about the possibility. Answers the question, how did Sauron manage to gift the rings to the elves, dwarves and humans. He played the part well enough that they trusted him in his guise. I think we’ll eventually see Halbrand forge the rings of power in Mount Doom, in secret, then somehow manage to gift them all to the various peoples. Likely not in this first season. Halbrand as the Witch King makes little sense to me. That would be one of the human lords that Sauron gifts a ring to. Who else would be the master smith Sauron able to craft the rings? Certainly not the Stranger, who if not an out of Era Gandalf makes absolutely no sense being in the story at this point. The Eminem character? Perhaps, and then Halbrand as one of the human lords receiving a ring fits in. So far the writing has been so contrived anything is possible. Rather than Galadriel being portrayed as a male hero with alpha male traits, I think the story would have been better swapping her with any of the elves back in the elfin stronghold. Elrond and Gil Galad were bad asses in Tolkien lore. Galadriel was as well, but in a much different manner. How they will explain her surviving the volcano eruption about to obliterate everyone and everything will undoubtedly ruin the next episode. How will any of those characters survive what is basically a Pompei incident that transforms the south lands into foul smelling Mordor? Will they fly away on dragons? Climb to a high spot so the lava surrounds them, ala Frodo and Samwise? Will the eagles fly in the save them? Obviously something saves them, and that means more characters than just Galadriel will have thick plot armor. Maybe Alondir’s time will come opening up a relationship between Halbrand and Bronwin, meaning Halbrand is not Sauron but rather one of human lords to receive a ring. But why did they portray him being a master Smith if that’s the case? Frustrating.

No you realise people like it even after the shit it got now you want to join the clan??? 😂

They are grooming you. The boundaries of what you consider acceptable are expanding rapidly.

it is 9.5 for me.