The only person on Numenor with 2 working brain cells got a sword in the back because he listened to idiot-in-chief Elendil. The eagle was right; these people are too stupid to save.

Someone tell me Smaug is a possibility.

Really appreciate all this work gentleman!

Same, I have at least 10 book series I'd like to see adapt

They proceed to directly ask Egwene next time they meet 😂😂😂

There's definitely a pacing problem

I miss the wheel of time and thanks to twitter of time I have dozens of fantasy books to read while waiting for S3. I wanted to give the show a try before starting with the reading but I've never been able to connect with Tolkien and I love fantasy. It's hard to connect to the show, I kinda like the story but the world is meh to me...

Let's hope I'll catch quickly enough with you❤❤❤ I'm just in episode 5

Regarding "dig deep, etc." - ORIGINALLY said by Bombadil in the books to Old Man Willow, LATER used by Peter Jackson as dialogue for Treebeard.

Amber now rooting for the bad guy? Before you comment on this, remember that we all spent 3 movies rooting for the future bad guy - Star Wars episode 1-3.

To explain the Barrow Wights in a very short fashion… they shouldn‘t exist yet! They first appear in the second millennia of the Third Age. The Barrowdowns are the burial site of the kingdom of Arnor (and it’s successor state Cardolan) which is the kingdom of the Dunedain in Middle-earth (Aragorns ancestors) and the Witch-king of Angmar fights a war of several centuries against the Dunedain. He finally raises the spirits of the buried people who haunt the countryside and contribute to the collapse of that kingdom! They still haunt the region over a millennia later when the 4 Hobbits travel to the region to Bree. Fun fact: the knive Merry used to stab and wound the Witch-king at the Pelennor Field when he helps Eowyn is from their adventure when they get captured by the Barrow Wights! The weapons were highly effective against the Nazgûl due to that conflict against the Witch-king over a millennia ago

Treebeard in the Two Towers Extended Cut says exactly the same lines like Tom Bombadil to the tree that tries to swallow Merry and Pippin BUT that on the other side is just an adaptation of the stuff Tom Bombadil does when he meets the 4 Hobbits when they first leave the Shire through the Old Forrest to get to Bree in the Fellowship of the Ring. He meets the Hobbits again when he saves them from the Barrow Wights who ironically make an appearance too in this episode

Treebeard says those words "dig deep, drink water, go to sleep" on Two Towers, but they really belong to Tom Bombadil on the books

acolyte man, moth man, boba fett man had me in tears xD

Gollum was a Stoor, BTW. I could spend hours talking about the origins and varieties of hobbits, but I won't. I was super jazzed to see the Ent and Entwife. She was beautifully rendered. I'm really digging the Arondir/Isildur team up, but when are we going to see Theo's ears? I am probably the only Tolkien book lover out there who was happy that Tom Bombadil wasn't included in Jackson's LotR and was disappointed to see him here. I am hopeful, however, that here he will play an actual meaningful role, and not just appear as an Easter egg. Have you noticed how much better the costumes, hair and make up look this season? Thanks for the video!

Thanks for another excellent analysis video, impressive in its depth, breadth, and discernment.

Well the Bridgerton family is listed with chestnut hair and green eyes in the books. There may have been other eye colors in the books but I don't remember them. Casting any group of nine people with all of those qualities would be hard. Then you look for actual Talent and you have narrowed your field considerably. Now when it comes to Penelope/Nicola...I don't agree with Nicola's politics. However, I determined a long time ago that if I worried about only watching or listening to actors, musicians, etc. with whom I agree politically, I would get very little content. My opinion is if you disagree with someone's politics, argue those points. Do not resort to attacks on their looks. And I'm sorry but those empire waist dresses make Hyacinth look pregnant. They are really not flattering to anyone. Every time Ruth Gemmel puts her hand to her stomach, I think it looks like someone who is pregnant. You are correct, they had to work to cover up Nicola's looks the first two seasons, putting those awful bows in her hair and even the cut of the empire waist was done to minimize her bust. There was also the pale make-up. Season three merely lets her beauty shine through. The only thing I don't like about her "glow up" is that they cover up her freckles. I am a bit jealous of the boobs though. Mine are bigger (L cup) but hers do look perfect.

I LOLed so hard at the "Chris Angel Mindfreak" comment

agree with you on sauron being deliciously manipulative (i.e. they finally stopped trying to hide it in the background and just revealed how he did all his machinations step by step). imagine if they did that in s1, instead of taking 6 or 7 eps just to build up a somewhat meh reveal. however, the elves are still very annoying... in particular, galadriel and her whiny refusal to accept any responsibility for her failures. meanwhile, her counterpart elrond refuses to see her point at all and just absconds with the rings, without providing an alternative to the crisis at hand... are these thousand year old elves or just selfish stubborn toddlers!?? oh, my master cildran thinks it's ok to use the rings, welp, guess i'm convinced now! despite him using the exact same argument that uhhhh they need to use the power for good, basically, to counter sauron's rise yada yada. sauron would seem a lot more maleficent if his opponents weren't so stupid. celebrimbor caved in 2 days cos he empathised with "halbrand" getting drenched in the rain? the murdered messengers do make a good point of intrigue; but who actually murdered them? why leave it sorta vague... it was a great chance to show sauron's slowly growing power: how he managed to locate those messengers, how he plotted to isolate celebrimbor, how he would use his own persistence to exploit celebrimbor's empathy... the ideas were all there but the execution just felt a little underwhelming. but when he did that IMAX forge reveal tho! YES DO MORE OF THESE GRAND MAGICKY ILLUSIONS! fake jesus annatar lets fkin goooooo (the impact would've been even more amplified if the leadup wasn't so crummy tho) the show also feels long because it WAS three freaking hours... it's literally an entire LotR movie length. except instead of one continuous journey for the A plot, they managed to make EVERYTHING feel kinda equally B plot? the focus on each set of characters in their respective POVs/locations just makes them all feel like "hey lookit me I'M the main character!!!" which is rather tiring to follow, especially if the viewer has 3 eps to binge in one go. how are they still getting this so wrong? if it were up to me, i'd divide up all the episodes into very clearly labelled "locations/characters" and then put them up as separate episodes. i would space the release, perhaps 1 ep every 2-3 days, averaging 2-3 eps per week, each one shortened to 30ish mins (or less). the binge model is just not good for heavy voluminous works which demand a ton of attention... but imagine if they just cut the entire season's worth of the stranger+harfoot's arc together into its own standalone series and released that as a separate binge, i wouldn't mind getting that out of the way quickly! alternatively, just make those ultra short and release them as "post-credits" style clips instead of forcing us to go thru their journey step by step. i feel like under all its frustrating flaws, there's a really compelling story... but the story is still being held back by its format. khazad-dum and numenor are literally spinoffs of the main elves vs sauron arc; but they're being injection-moulded into the chronology for... reasons? the stranger/harfoots arc doesn't even fit in at all to the main arc right now, and they're expanding the cast on that end too? so tiring to watch this >.<

Dyyyyyyyyying 😂😂😂😂😂😂 The INCLUSIONS at the end of this short 😂😂😂😂😂😂 Some of your greatest work, Amber! 😉🤣

When you think about it; Celebrimbor, with an assist from Anatar, destroyed 7 dwarven kingdoms and 9 human city-states. He might have won the Feanor-family cup for bloody handed slaughter.

I think best performance has to go to the horse. 😀

The "moonlight magic ink" as you call it: to my recollection, Tolkien said that Celebrimbor inlaid the Doors of Durin with ilthildin, which made the writing on the doors invisible except in starlight and moonlight. He built the doors with Narvi.

Super disappointed they killed off Bronwyn rather than recast, but also disappointed that Adar was recast (although there are already too many GOT actors in this anyway). I like how creepiness of Rhun is replacing creepiness of Harfoots. Durin/Disa are still my fave power couple. Best of all for me was Cirdan, one of my favorite Tolkien characters of all time. Thanks for the video!

If Grace Randolph gets cancelled for constantly calling her white hekpers the N Word, this idiot is poised to take over 🤮

You had me at #vegasresidencies

spooky ai voice

Did the Rhun helmets remind you of the Seanchan? Not all of them - some of them felt a little more Witch-King inspired - but the first one had me going "how DARE you steal from Sharon!" lol

I think I can put my finger on why the season opener felt so cinematic: it was like the Gollum backstory "cold open" in RotK! And yeah, I love the conflict over, basically, whether orcs get to exist for their own sake or purely as minions - though I loved even more that we got the confirmation that Halbrand was never really in earnest about wanting to change his path, just adrift and looking for an alibi to get started with.

Good review! Some other youtuber also said that it picks up pace from episode 4 onwards...

Yeah I’m excited for the improvements on S1. Thanks for your review!

Great review

I could be wrong, but I haven’t heard anything or seen any real advertising for the show. Have they already given out advance copies?

I did not know it was coming out tomorrow! wtf! Yay for having something to watch this wknd :D

my one major gripe with season 1 was how Galadriel was written. I get the motivation for her being so angry and vengeful but it just never felt like Galadriel in those moments. There were glimpses of the Galadriel we know in there, like the boat scene with Isildur, the meeting with Elrond and when she escapes Mordor with Theo. I hope this season has more of That Galadriel and less "i will not stop until i wipe every last one of your kind", "maybe we should bring them into the light...", "There's a storm in me!" kind of Galadriel.

I've done an annual reread of The Silmarillion every year since 1978, so I try really hard not to be salty about this show. I find that I enjoy the totally made up characters better than the Tolkien-established characters. That being said, I was so not impressed with the first season that I had no idea that the second season had been released. I'll have to watch it and see what I think of it.

It's already out? All of it?

How don’t they understand lying when the Sophons used as a deceptive weapon?

This book has the advantage that the main characters are mostly in three separate groups with their own villains. I have no idea what they are going to do with Min. As long as they don’t go on warder side quests and other unnecessary time distractions they can cover most of the main points. I don’t think the Finn’s are happening though - which I think o may ruin Mat’s plot line. My largest issue is that Mat is very underwhelming at this point relative to where he is in TSR and without the Finn’s I am not sure how he ever really becomes Mat. But with the delays in season I think this is the last season in any event (hope not).

My biggest long term concern is once they introduce Traveling, they hop back and forth between different places so frequently, that there’s no way they can have that many sets. They’re going to have to cut so many places and combine their plots with other places. It will make the world feel much smaller.

I’ve only read EOTW but I do find it odd that they are skipping the entirety of “the dragon reborn” book to adapt I guess that one must be a lot of filler, with not many important things set up and I’ve been told Rand isn’t in it much and the big criticism of season 2, was that he didn’t have enough to do

Are we sure S3 will only have 8 episodes? It would be wonderful if Sony Pictures and Amazon Prime permitted 10-episode seasons. There is so much in book 4, we know the story has to be pared to the bare bones.

All great points, plus they have to get the Aiel right. :-D I'm excited for S3 whatever it ends up looking like, but I think it will be the best one yet! I hope it's a lot less than a year before we get a trailer! I'm thinking the show will come out in May, but perhaps that's optimistic 😀

It will be hard to get the payoff most of us want because Moiraine is the main character in the show so it is about her... not Rand and the others......With a limited time budget, every moment spent on Moiraine is time not spent on EF5....

Only having one season to do it.

I need a reread. In my memories are the biggest moments Mats development, the Seafolk and Rands permanently anger. But my greatest hope for season three is a better Min; she was my favorite char in the books and the series transformed she in my opinion too much. Thanks for the video.

While I don't hate the extra plot lines, I think Amazon will once again spend less time with main character story arcs. Other than the "Vid changes, this is my chief concern. Amazon has a habit of canceling shows after the third season. There is alot riding on this installment. I hope fan expectations to see everything don't spoil it.

I haven’t read the books, but I don’t mind book spoilers. As a fan of the show but acknowledging it has flaws. My biggest concern is whether person and rand will get power ups in their respective powers. Rand lack of power is weird and from what I gather from book readers it’s not like that in the books. Hopefully, in season 3 Rand travels with Lan and gets sword lessons and maybe even bring Logain along to teach him the one power. Well however addressed book faithful and rand learns from one of the male forsaken or logain. He just needs to jump in power. Honestly at this point I’m not looking for anything extravagant, just him becoming a competent make channeller is enough for me for the end of the season

I literally just finished reading the last book this afternoon, so I have some big feelings. Not gonna lie, while I'm a fan of the Cosmere, the Sanderson WoT books were a bit of a slog. Looking forward to S3 and it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to leave out some of the characters. I think the entire series of books would've been better without Faile and Slayer. It was all I could do not to skip those parts. I'm counting on seeing snakes and foxes. Thanks for the video!

Ser Duncan is a perfect example that a good man with good intentions can ultimately cause more damage then an evil character! Don’t get me wrong, I like his character, but Baelors death in the end is the result of his good intentions and kind heart and the realm gets robbed too soon of the most likely best ruler from the Targaryen line and the smallfolk suffers