Critique: The Rings of Power (Series Two) 1/2

*****SPOILERS*****

Questions

 

Winterbloom said that she and her ent friend have tended the forests since before mountains rose up.

However, ents look after wild plants whilst entwives cultivate domestic plants. The forests are wild, not domestic, so why is Winterbloom looking after them?

Although, in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Treebeard seems a bit forgetful about the entwives. So maybe the entwife-domestic plant link isn’t as solid as people assume.

 

I have two other queries.

When Sauron died, he froze everything nearby. Somehow, his blood remained liquid. However, if he’s strong enough to change the entire weather system, maybe he’d be strong enough to make sure it didn’t affect him. Also, in Lord of the Rings, the Eye of Sauron is a ball of fire. Perhaps Sauron is inherently fiery, hence warm, so that might prevent him from freezing, too.

The queen takes the captain’s place in his sea trial. When she’s found to be innocent, the public want her to be their queen. Also, when she initially offered herself, everyone was shocked and horrified. If the people felt this way about her, why would they have let the chancellor become king? Maybe it’s because the trial was one of the Old Faith and the people of the Old Faith are supportive of the queen.

The Stoors are leaving their destroyed home. Poppy goes with them because she’s in love with one. Nori and the Stranger have a talk, Nori walks off to join Poppy and the Stoors, and then the Stranger goes back to Bombadil. Nowhere in the Nori-Stranger conversation did they mention they’d be going in different directions. Nori was talking about the Stoors’ first migration so presumably she’s helping them. Considering she disobeyed custom to help the Stranger in the first place, and she believed in his cause strongly enough to leave her community, one would imagine Nori would have preferred to stay with him.

 

 

Who is the Dark Wizard?

 

This is the question.

Tom says that the Dark Wizard is looking for someone far more powerful to spread his influence. Now, I originally thought the Dark Wizard was Saruman. However, Saruman only became evil after he made contact with Sauron. If the Dark Wizard wants to work with evil, and Saruman only became bad after contacting evil, Saruman can’t be the Dark Wizard.

So, the Dark Wizard isn’t Saruman. He can’t be Gandalf (it was clear since Series One that the Stranger was Gandalf. That, and the Stranger names himself Gandalf at the end of this series.) He doesn’t seem enamoured with animals or nature, nor is he a hermit, so he can’t be Radagast.

So, that leaves him as either one of the Blue Wizards or as an unknown, sixth Wizard. Nowhere in the literature does it mention more than five Wizards, so I’d conclude the Dark Wizard is a Blue Wizard.

The Dark Wizard tells the Stranger that the Stranger told him to leave the lands of the west. The Blue Wizards are known to have left the west. This does make me wonder where the second Blue Wizard is.

The Stoors and Bombadil have West Country accents, meaning it’s an accent of that area. Bombadil is a known resident of the Shire. The Shire has West Country accents. So maybe this desert is the Shire but in the past? This would make the Dark Wizard, another resident of the desert, in the west and thus he couldn’t be a Blue Wizard. However, the Dark Wizard (another resident of the desert) says long ago the Stranger told him to go east, which means the desert can’t be in the west. So was all this misdirection?

Series Three better answer this.

 

 

Visual Positives

 

Much was achieved on the visual side of things.

One scene is dark in a dull hut then the next scene is a light and bright open space. Not only did it make the open place seem more positive but it made the hut seem even more oppressive.

Often, the hairstyles of the elves have it cover their ears. This is clever because it means not as much time or money needs to be spent on the false elf ears.

 

Sauron and his crown had good moments. It’s the first time an inanimate object had truly captured my attention on film.

Adar turned the pointed crown upside down to stab Sauron rather than crown him. This was clever.

The way that Sauron used both crown and sword to fight Galadriel, the way its choreography was put together, was genius.

 

Two points on the animation are noteworthy.

Winterbloom, an entwife, has cheery blossoms. She’s very pretty. This was great because she has the twisted, gnarled shape of the rest of the ents, a feature that would otherwise make her visually unappealing to most.

When the Stranger is getting sucked in by the tree, the bark growing around his was done extremely well. However, the bark growing around his head was done poorly.

 

 

Positives

 

There were four instances that really made me chuckle.

Durin calls Elrond a, “tidal-haired, flowery-tongued beanpole.” Brilliant. By far my favourite line.

Estrid stabs Isildur, removing the knife upon realising he’s not an orc. Isildur says you’re meant to leave it in and Estrid says, “Well I don’t know, I’ve never been stabbed before.”

The dwarf Durin doesn’t trust a guy who saw Elrond because “Elron wouldn’t say such nice things about me.” Hilarious.

When Elron kisses Galadriel, she raises her eyebrows like, “What the f*ck did you just do?” So funny.

 

There were three particularly clever moments.

Nori’s missing her family and the Stranger says something quite profound: “It’s strange that what’s left behind is the heaviest burden.”

In Series One, Galadriel and Elrond were friends. In Series Two, they have been at odds with one another. So when Elrond kisses the orc-captured Galadriel, it’s a shock. However, we see his badge in her hand (containing a lockpick to get free of her manacles): the kiss was nothing but a distraction.

Elrond tells an elven archer to take the shot. Instead, several orcs take the shot at the elven archer. Then the elven archer uses one of the orc arrows to blow up the siege engine.