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

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Negatives

 

Nori was present far less in Series Two than Series One.

Nori, Poppy and the Stranger are in a desert. Somehow, the acorns in Nori’s hair are still fresh and green. They should have dehydrated in the desert’s heat.

They finally find food, the flood of beetles emerging from a tree trunk. Nori watches the beetles get away rather than catching any. Creepy-crawlies are a regular part of her diet so she should know that, although they are streaming out, the onslaught will end as quickly as it began.

 

Desa, wife of dwarf prince Durin, is my favourite character. So it’s especially disappointing to see problems.

To summon the bats, Desa sings in a low pitch. Considering bats ear high pitch frequencies, her summoning them with a low pitch doesn’t make sense.

When Desa is in mourning, her long hair is worn down. Usually, she wears it in a truly massive updo. Seeing how long her hair is when down, it definitely isn’t long enough to produce all the volume its updo needs.

Desa says, “Light at the end of the cave.” Considering the phrase usually ends in ‘tunnel’ and dwarves live in tunnels, ‘tunnel’ would have been appropriate. Hence changing it is pointless. Also, caves can’t end in light: they are largish spaces in rocks so there’s no end because it’s not a space that leads to another space. They might have tunnels leading out from them, but then the light would be at the end of the tunnels, not the cave. They might have light shining in through the ceiling, but calling the ceiling ‘the end of the cave’ is ludicrous.

 

Other problems relate to Numinor’s queen.

When the Numinor queen was ruling in her father’s stead, she was called the queen regent. However, as daughter of a king, she would have been a princess, so her title should’ve been ‘princess regent’.

As the queen regent is being crowned queen after her father’s death, it’s discovered that she’s been using a Palantir (something forbidden because it’s elven). This makes the people unhappy. A giant eagle comes to the coronation, which should have legitimised the queen as having divine approval. Somehow the chancellor used this to say he was the true king and everyone went along with it. That didn’t make sense.

 

The Stranger and Tom Bombadil are both problematic.

The Stranger says, “A name isn’t something you’re given. It’s who you are.” Names literally are something that’s given to you, whether you’re born like a human or created like a wizard. Plus names aren’t who you are, it’s something used so that people listening/reading the name know what individual is being referred. A name is nothing but a sign post. Yes, one can want a signpost that fits better with the destination that it points to, but that’s different from the signpost being the destination.

Tom tells the Stranger that if he goes off to find Nori, he can never come back to the forest to find his staff. Why not? How can this be? It doesn’t make sense. This one-or-the-other decision is purely for the plot rather than truly being actionable from the character’s viewpoint.

Tom Bombadil was a complete let down. He’s my favourite character in the books. He’s meant to be this fun and joyous character. But here he lacked substance and purpose.

 

There were problems with other characters, too.

Elrond says that, because Galadriel turned her back on the light of the Good Place, maybe the darkness of Sauron was already calling her. However, Galadriel turned back from the Good Place before she met Sauron, so how could Sauron have influenced this? Sauron’s powers are based on deceiving people and you can’t deceive someone unless you meet.

The Numinor Chancellor says, “Throw him in.” But the guards take the captain’s manacles off, stepping back from him, letting him walk forward and stand there for a while. Letting the captain do something is different from their instruction to do something to the captain.

Sauron and a guard elf were talking about the city’s defences in the middle of a battle. One of the smiths, Mirdalnia, was part of this conversation. Why? What’s a smith got to do with the city’s defences?

An orc gets shot in the leg by an arrow. So the orc steps away, does a twirl, then falls flat on his back. There’s no way an arrow would’ve resulted in that chain of events.

The elves on their horses gallop towards the orcs at full speed. With the distance between the orcs and the elves when the horses started slowing, they wouldn’t have been able to stop before colliding with the orcs, let alone have stopped in such an orderly fashion.

 

 

Problems with Sauron

 

Celebrimbor’s interactions with Sauron constantly problematic.

Sauron shows Celebrimbor ‘powdered mithril’ the material was small chunks. Perhaps something like ‘grains of mithril’ would’ve been better.

Sauron says he’s enjoyed his time with Celebrimbor and the elf replies, “Nothing lasts forever.” But literally just before this, Celebrimbor says that the rings will last forever. This contradiction doesn’t make sense.

After Sauron drops the illusion from Celebrimbor’s smithy, the elf sees his tower’s been ruined by ballistae. How could have Celebrimbor have worked in the smithy when everything it is was broken? Even just getting to the forge means climbing over rubble and destruction. I doubt an illusion could make the materials whole to be used or to hide the physical sensation of climbing.

 

Galadriel and Sauron’s encounter had two flaws.

Galadriel picks up a sword to attack Sauron whilst Sauron has his back to her. Yet she let her sword drag on the floor, making a noise that alerted Sauron to her incoming attack. Yes, he was most likely expecting an attack, but hearing Galadriel’s attempt makes it much easier to defend himself.

Galadriel falls from a cliff with Sauron looking down. Then in the city, the audience sees the elves’ perspective. Galadriel (falling sideways) is about twice the length of Sauron. However, in every scene with them together, Galadriel is the shorter one.

 

 

 

Series Two made for a good watch. It was nothing revolutionary but not everything has to a stellar production. The concept it definitely worth pursuing in the future.