Rings of Power is Not Very Good: The Final Autopsy

Join me for my final dive into season 1 of Rings of Power. We already know that the show is not very good, so let's find out why.
00:00 - Intro
01:03 - Part I: Corrections
04:02 - Part II: Writers' Intent
10:11 - Part III: Is it a Problem for Characters to be Unlikeable?
17:35 - Part IV: The Characters
18:57 - Tertiary Characters
40:18 - Secondary Characters
1:01:37 - Primary Characters
1:22:13 - Additional Data
1:24:41 - Part V: The Plot
1:32:48 - Galadriel Plot Flowchart
1:48:53 - Nori Plot Flowchart
1:55:37 - Elrond Plot Flowchart
2:03:32 - Southlands Plot Flowchart
2:18:24 - The Impact of Writing Flaws
2:20:58 - Part VI: The World
2:22:56 - Language
2:26:05 - Distance and Time
2:33:03 - The People
2:40:15 - The History
2:43:26 - The Gods
2:45:15 - Racial Tensions
2:48:26 - The Soundtrack
2:49:32 - Part VII: Storytelling
2:50:43 - Mystery Boxes
2:57:34 - Dramatic Reveals
3:02:01 - Inefficient Storytelling
3:07:15 - Consequences (or lack thereof)
3:10:09 - Unanswered Questions
3:11:13 - Part VIII: A Shadow of the Past
3:20:31 - Part IX: Who Was Rings of Power Made For?
3:24:34 - Part X: Conclusion
Second Channel - / @randomft2
Rando Discord - / discord
Patreon - / randomfilmtalk
Twitter - / randomfilmtalk

[@orion1anon]

"I have prepared a flow chart." up until now has been a terrifying phrase in any meeting I have been in.

[@masterofthedeathwing2839]

you know its bad when you have to produce paperwork just to keep up with just how bad it is.

[@sarahgould5435]

Yeah, but this time the flow chart was aimed at the other guy.

[@sdrakkon2k]

haha and what a monster of a flowchart that one is. one could get the impression rings of power stole his wife.

[@modjoe4107]

i just want to say that the writers have accomplished something i didnt think possible, they turn a world so massive and sprawling with some of the most detailed and interesting lore and story and turned it into what appears to be 3 small back water towns of 30 people each filming their morning walks to and from each others place.

[@trumpsextratesticle8590]

they are "15 minute cities"...lol

[@toxicculture4682]

This is what happens when film schools have been over run with progressive professors. Instead of teaching a craft, harnessing creativity, storytelling theory and the tools to make them good, they are taught how to be advocates, how to “change society” and how to insert gender idealogies, virtual signaling, white people bashing, etc. So we get reboots, remakes, remixes and other garbage like this one

[@MasterIceyy]

The only character I kinda liked, was the Father of the Orcs, he actually had a motivation that made sense and you can sympathise with him. It amazes me that none of the higher ups ever questioned any of the decisions being made. PJ literally had to avoid new line executives on set because they were hounding him about the film, these guys seem to have just been left to their own devices. I also really hate the whole LED screens for sets

[@doubleMify]

This. The Middle-earth lore is so detailed and vibrant and the books and movies takes us along on these amazing journeys Whereas RoP just teleports characters all over the place and wide overview shots are so full of CGI that theyre limited amount. Constant close-up shots and small rooms/crowds makes it feel so cramped and low budget (ironic I know)

[@hrafnagu9243]

I love how only two elves, Gil-Galad and Adar, are the only ones to look elvish and have long hair where as long hair is one of the elves' biggest physical characteristics.

[@RecluseBootsy]

Idk this feels like seeing a Mohican and saying their hairstyle disqualifies them from being Native American...

[@hrafnagu9243]

@@RecluseBootsy That's different since Mohicans are real. But Tolkien created his world and he explicitly stated that elves had long hair.

[@sydneyslaughter7163]

I found the lack of long hair very distracting, it felt like I wasn’t watching elves at all, not Tolkien elves, not Dragonlance elves, but something different. So I suppose it’s only fair that the hair is wrong, seeing as they people are most certainly not the elves Tolkien described

[@reactiondavant-garde3391]

@@RecluseBootsy Considred this. Elves are vry long living race, most charatcers in the series is first, scond or third geenrations elf and they have low populations. So if there culture used to have long hair most propably most of them will have long hair.

[@AnarchistPoop]

...they look old....

[@Lattrodon]

I would absolutely love to see you breakdown the LOTR trilogy and why they are so good after you're done with the Hobbit Trilogy. Your videos are amazing

[@Sukuna950]

First, why breakdown something that is already a masterpiece? Second, I don't think he has to break down as he is already comparing scenes from TLOTR to the hobbit and rings of power. Third, you are either skipping or not paying enough attention to his videos. Lastly, unless the guy wants to milk the content and why not... 🤣

[@oldoddjobs]

Embarrassing awful films still drooled over lol

[@selbergful]

Agreed! Idk what the opposite of an autopsy is, but giving the PJ trilogy the same treatment; looking critically at the characters, plot, etc. would be fascinating. Like a deconstructed masterclass or something

[@TheCrazyHedgehogLady]

@@selbergful Agreed! I would watch the hell out of a breakdown of his (and likely most of our) favorite film of all time!

[@biobeckerrr]

Hear, hear!!! 🍻🥂👏👏👏

[@davidgustafik7968]

Holy crap, looking at all the charts, analyses and everything, you probably spent ten times as much time working on Rings of Power than the writers.

[@yurikendal4868]

An amazing understatement

[@mcnultyssobercompanion6372]

That's actually exactly why I don't like this video. There were only 46 dislikes before. Now there's 47. Tragic. I didn't like "Rings of Power" either. I found it irritating for many reasons, primarily because of "Galadriel", who I felt was astonishingly one-note and insipid. A few of the characters I enjoyed solely because of the performances which I personally believe rose above the material, but most of the characters and plot lines I simply found boring (the contradictions exasperatingly pointed out here don't entirely bother me, show me even a great film where certain characters don't contradict themselves; there can't be drama without at least someone compromising their values.) Overall I agree, it's a bad show. But whatever else this show is, it's still art, and the parade of flowcharts and tier-rankings here made me feel like I was watching ESPN, or- shudder- CNBC. Personally I don't feel that is how art should be assessed. Watching this video made me feel like I was trapped in a conversation with an accountant talking shop, not discussing an albeit bad (in my opinion) television show composed by writers, directors, and actors. I could talk at length about the things I didn't like about "Rings of Power", but I'm never going to do it with a flowchart. It's a standard I find as insufferable as "Galadriel's" perpetually stoic expression. I do think it's a well-made video though, I'll give it that. I don't want to come off _completely_ like a prick troll. This content creator is good at _his_ craft. We just have apparently diametrically opposed views as to _how_ the art of film and television should be assessed.

[@davidgustafik7968]

@@mcnultyssobercompanion6372 Here's the thing - in highly commercial pieces of art, such as industrial designs, movies, TV shows with a billion dollar budget and so on, somewhere behind the "art" are flowcharts, graphs, research and other tools that you'd expect in engineering. Stories can, and often need to be, visualised in some way or another, dissected and analysed to see what works and what does not. This is an objectively functional method to see whether something works as a whole and whether it fits together. The fact that so many issues were found this way shows that either the people who made that didn't give a damn about consistency or good story telling, or expected the audience to just turn of their brain and enjoy the pretty pictures. I believe that flowcharts and such were mostly used as a means of hammering home the point that the producers were simply hacks that should have in no way been allowed anywhere near Tolkien's legacy nor a billion dollars and they should have stuck to toothpaste commercials.

[@-MrFozzy-]

Writers should be made to write a story then do exactly what random did….tier lists, connections, time in the story, impact on the story, logical pipeline diagrams all in order to identify weak points, nothing characters any plot holes etc etc etttttttc….then it should be redrafted and the same done again….this should be an absolute minimum……especially on shows like this

[@-MrFozzy-]

@@mcnultyssobercompanion6372 I mean….it’s an in depth critique….what do you expect? And you can easily skip anything you don’t like… personally I love the use of the charts etc…but should be used by the writers, it’s a shame because this tv show was doomed by its restrictions…it’s beyond me why they thought they could do it justice

[@brodriguez7934]

Just blows my mind that the character development that happens in 8 hours of show is less than that in 2 hours of movie

[@BigCowProductions]

It is going to be what is taught in film schools after the dark times are over. Lol.

[@Razzlion]

The worst part is that they don't fill the other 6 hours with anything of substance either!

[@flydye45]

To be fair, it was 7-10 hours of movie. Except for Boromir.

[@Razzlion]

@@flydye45 If you count the whole trilogy yeah, but there is more character development in LOTR fellowship than there is in the entire season of ROP.

[@JPG.01]

Not to mention plot development. After one episode of ROP, we would have at least reached Bree in the Fellowship.

[@serithraz2255]

2:26:03 the disappointing thing about RoP timeline is also the fact that Tolkien wrote his books in such a way a reader could follow the timeline no matter which party the reader was reading about. He was afraid of losing continuity by losing track of the timeline because he needed everyone who split up (Aragorn, gimli legolas' party, frodo and sam's party, and then later merry, pippin, and gandalf 's party) to all end up at the Black Gate at the same time, so it's insulting how RoP couldn't have a coherent timeline considering Tolkien took meticulous effort for his timeline to make sense. Also at 2:49:32 your opening statement about feeling like you were watching something on screen has a term for it, it is called the Suspension of Disbelief, and you described it perfectly, RoP doesn't feel LOTR because when you watch it you feel like an audience member. An example of suspension of disbelief being done right is if you play Dungeons and Dragons, when you play DnD you are aware that it is just a tabletop game and it's not actually real, but to the characters you are roleplaying as, that is their world and it is real. The best example of this is if you watch Critical Role, Matt Mercer is a fantastic dungeon master because he keeps that suspension of disbelief from breaking, the players in his campaigns you can tell don't feel like people playing DnD, they feel like their characters interacting with Matt Mercer's world, and anyone who has DM'd knows that keeping your players invested in your world (keeping that suspension of disbelief) is KEY to roleplaying. RoP fails at keeping the suspension of disbelief, whereas with Peter Jackson's LOTR you feel like you are a part of that fantasy world, watching the world's history unfold Also, thumbs up

[@phoenixkayra555]

I really appreciate how much effort you have put into a nuanced analysis with reasonable arguments. Most other content creators I have seen either scream "ROP is bad because it's woke" or "ROP is great because it's woke". It felt like a breath of fresh air when I stumbled over your series and was not contronted with the same bs. Thank you!

[@nicolasturenne415]

This show is garbage for many reasons. But it's indeed woke also.

[@paulgibbon5991]

@@nicolasturenne415 Define "woke" without accidentally making it sound like a good thing.

[@nicolasturenne415]

@@paulgibbon5991 English is not my first language but in a few words : woke can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your goals and actual work. It can a bad thing when for instance : 1- If it’s detrimental to the original story, the universe building / consistency or the writing of the characters. For instance, the diversity of a group like the hobbits in ROP makes no sense. Or why only one elf or dwarf is black ? It’s not the modern world of big cities. I don’t care about the real world : I live in it. 2- When it demonizes a group of individuals or the other way around intentionally or not (the way they try to depict Galadriel for instance…) ; 3- When it tries to rewrite history (for instance the woman king or cleopatra of Netflix), 4- When it destroys or humiliates original beloved characters in order to replace them with a « new modern one », etc. If you don’t see why ROP can be seen as woke, there is nothing to argue. Nothing personal. I m just tired of this kind of things.

[@TheGuyCalledX]

​​@@nicolasturenne415I thought HOTD was a lot more "woke" and a lot better. ROP's problem is its social commentary is all surface level and the scenarios in which they are presented are contrived af. Galadriel doesn't experience obstacles because she is a woman or she is an elf, but rather because she's a raging, self-righteous, unrepentant asshole. Compare that to the genuine struggles Alicent, Rhaenyra, Cristin Cole, and Laenor experience as a result of their gender/ orientation. ROP isn't bad because it's "woke." If those themes were addressed well, you probably wouldn't have a problem. But because they handle themes of sexism, othering, racism, xenophobia, antimiscegenation, etc, with the same grace they handle character growth, "surprise twists," and plot contrivances-- well let's just say the result is not surprising

[@ethanhandel1001]

Another fantastic breakdown. One correction though. Galadriel does not discover Halbrand's lineage. She discovers what the medallion that Halbrand is wearing means (which is a contrivance). Halbrand told her that medallion was something he found on a dead body, so it's not related to his heritage at all. The leap to Halbrand being the rightful heir is entirely in Galadriel's head.

[@yurikendal4868]

And the villagers accepted it w/o question

[@Gjergji311]

The whole Halbrand thing made no sense. The Numenorians and the Elves would not have had anything about the kings of the people who were subjugated to Morgoth. If they were allied with the Elves and the Edain, they would be in Numenor. If they were kings under Morgoth, then that is a really good reason not to want to have anything to do with them. How that was supposed to make sense to anyone who has even been in the same room as the Silmarillion, I cannot fathom.

[@RoninDave]

Yeah, it was Galadriel who made all the necessary leaps in logic to drive the plot. Sauron/Halbrand never once confirmed her assumptions but she just ran with it convinced a random guy on a raft with a pouch was the heir to the Southern King whom she remembered existing a thousand years ago but conveniently not knowing the line had died out also a thousand years ago. All the time together and she never bothered to ask him about his home, parentage, lineage, etc... but she's a moron willing to risk others' lives for some rando she bumped into on a raft.

[@Horvath_Gabor]

@@Gjergji311 I mean, this is a show that condenses about two millennia of Middle Earth history into a few weeks. Three, if the Stranger really turns out to be Gandalf, because he was only supposed to show up in the year 1000 of the Third Age. The whole thing is just insane.

[@TheGuyCalledX]

​@@Horvath_Gaborit's crazy how events thousands of years apart-- forging of the rings, fall of Numenor, fall of Sauron, and the appearance of Gandalf-- are all going to happen within like 20-50 years.

[@ericsbuds]

"Help! The King!" - Isildur's sister god the craft of writing is beyond me

[@csillaszarnya2319]

(Irony ahead) The writers are such misogynists. How dare they depict a woman asking for help? Do they think that she couldn't handle the situation as the strong independent woman she is? Descipable bastards.

[@RollingCalf]

​@@csillaszarnya2319 she wasn't asking for help. She was commanding anyone to help.

[@JDM-is-my-name]

​@@RollingCalf we all know that women cannot possibly ask for help. They always command help and if you don't respond it's because you are a major misogynist!!!! /j

[@kylefrank638]

The screentime comparison with Haldir made me chuckle, whether intentional or not. Haldir's mini-arc, as simple as it is, holds so much more water than virtually anything in RoP. Haldir is proud, wary, torn between allegiances, ultimately takes the noblest path before him, pays for the victory of a people he's never really known with his life.

[@mikesuttles8059]

Màde me go back and watch those again

[@mikesuttles8059]

Even tho it wasn't canon. That scene at helms deep was amazing

[@Rags]

This was really fun to watch. I'm super glad that this video has taken off; it's very clear a lot of effort and care went into it. Excellent work. Definitely gonna be looking at anything else you make from this point on.

[@randomft]

Cheers Rags, I'm also big fan of your content myself!

[@lokiswager]

Hi Rags!

[@the4thamigo]

Oh shit I've watched ur videos

[@ninianstorm6494]

@@randomft it is beyond doubt wef nuland-pnac Rumsfeld either did-let 9/11 happen>analyze overlap cia targets tell the truth that mccain in person syria/libya prove also cia did coup in ukraine! recall 2001 wesley clark kill 7 country 5y memo said libya syria? 2.3 trillion missing 2001 to do proxy libya-syria-2004 ukraine cia agitators(troops on ground) aware bush send rice to georgia with 1 billion dollars after his nato speech you can say he persuaded earlier georgia to strike first blood on russia=then pay them with 1 billion as sorry since no one else in nato back georgia up much like later nuland order shell donbass with obama tell russia not to interfere=same with assad must go speech kzbin.info/www/bejne/aX6mlGCKa5yqbbs 1. dnc/mccain types say russia bomb own pipeline-missile in to poland=lied about never received hurricane maria supplies counterpart=kzbin.info/www/bejne/p4rQdKePgapsoZI 2010 wesley clark got blackmailed by hillary clinton= kzbin.info/www/bejne/laGqnHmDndRpedE putin files created to cover up coup 2014 nuland f eu with by obama greenlight shelling donbass 1>kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZ7Ve4V-rMeJfZo 2>kzbin.info/www/bejne/qpKclYqImKmIhqM 3> kzbin.info/www/bejne/f3PIg3Vtp7yelZo obama is bush 3-4th term, biden 5th kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5PJpIeZf6h-eqc kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJfQeaKci7GserM

[@thinkwithurdipstick]

It is incredible how they manage to do so little character work with the amount of screen time they have. It’s a master class on what not to do.

[@whitegoose2017]

It's because the writers have never written a complete show before. They aren't known for anything. They have no reputation beyond J.J. Abrams giving them a referral. On the other hand it should give us all great relief that the world doesn't truly revolve around money. All the gold in the world couldn't polish this piece of ****.

[@backalleycqc4790]

I wonder what the writers would say if they saw this video... I mean, all the other KZbinrs ripping this show a new one, just blah blah blahed without analysis. This is analysis with evidence, and if I were one of the writers of this show, after seeing this video I would either cry and smash my head against the wall until my brains leaked out or find a rock to crawl under in absolute embarrassment.

[@youtubeshadowbannedmylasta2629]

is it though? I mean clearly someone knew this is what they wanted.

[@colten53]

I just did a sleepover marathon with a bunch of friends where we watched all 3 extended editions of LOTR. Nobody was bored; not even the one person who had not watched them before. I couldn’t make it 4 episodes into RoP. There was just nothing going on story-wise and none of the characters stood out.

[@velkonemriam1935]

That’s one good thing I can take out of this and the other recent bad shows and movies; the idea that we can collectively learn from them as what NOT to do when writing, adapting, and buying IPs, hoping to either push your own narrative or make a cash-in simply by the OG author’s name.

[@katarinakremberg1319]

Your autopsies of this show are by far the best I have watched on KZbin. I am a hardcore Tolkien fan and still I find it extremely compelling that you mostly ignored the lore and focused on internal logic, continuity and how well the story was told. And to be honest your videos have givem me devices to use during some battles with people who still are delusional enough to defend this dumpster fire of a show. Thank you

[@JeremyRight-zi4yp]

In my opinion, people like being true to the lore because it helps moviemakers avoid the very mistakes this series is made up of. The garbage that is the plot of ROP is unimaginable in Tolkien's work. So being true to the books is not necessary, but it is an indicator of at least a certain basic level of quality that ROP is clearly far below.

[@PitchSkullBlack]

So you enjoy harassing people that like the show? pathetic.

[@velkonemriam1935]

Yes! I love this too. While I appreciate the ample amount of channels dissecting this show’s atrocious “adaptation” of the source material, but it’s also important, as well as refreshing, to see this in the perspective of how the show simply stands on its own.

[@GeronimoPlaz]

Books have no correlation to shows or movies other than inspiration. When I watch a movie or show, I don't give a single dusty fuck what's in the book. If I cared what's in the book, I'll read the damn book.

[@shockmesane4158]

If I had gone in writing for this show the character they should have struggled with was Sauron. Because you were always going to need to make him at least somewhat relatable, a giant flaming eye of pure evil is not a villain that can carry a multiple season show. There was never going to be a noncontroversial way to portray Sauron. But all they needed with Galadriel was a woman with 1/10th the mystery and grace Cate Blanchett created for the role but what we got instead of a wise elf woman was a petulant child that I'd be embarrassed to call my own, let alone a thousand year old lady.

[@Horvath_Gabor]

Of course there was a non-controversial way to portray Sauron. In the canon, Sauron at this point (read: before the founding of Mordor) wasn't a grand threat. He was a mediocre lackey of Melkor who only rose to prominence because of his scheming, aided by his ability to shape-shift. The show should've just ignored all that and started with him as The Lord of Gifts: while Galadriel is out on a wild goose chase, trying to find Sauron and getting entangled with Númenor and all the other factions, Sauron had already assumed the form of Annatar, and is actively manipulating the Elven Lords into making the rings while pulling all the other strings in the background. It should've been a story about Galadriel, as the only high-ranking elf still actively looking for him, slowly unraveling his ploys. However, she's too late, and by the time she makes the connection, Celebrimbor already made the three Elven Rings, and Sauron is in the process of making the One Ring. End of season. The main problem is that the show is condensing over a millennium of history into a few weeks. Sauron establishing Mordor takes place a thousand years before he shows up as Annatar, the forging of the Rings of Power takes over a century, and then the war with Sauron wielding the One Ring lasts for nearly two thousand years. This kind of time-scale makes sense when your main characters are timeless elves and lesser gods, but because the show wanted to shoehorn in men and harfeet and whatever, they condensed the hell out of everything. That was probably the cardinal mistake that caused the entirety of the show to fall apart. That, and Galadriel, but that's beside the point.

[@snatchadams69]

​@@Horvath_Gaborbut, but, you need halflings... Lest you make a show casuals can't follow or don't have anything that says "hey, I recognize hobbits and humans, I'm in."

[@mattparsons2045]

@@snatchadams69 and here's the thing, a story with elves watching human allies grow old and pass on, as well as their children and their grandchildren would be really interesting and heartbreaking. These kinds of concepts are where fantasy and sci fi thrive yet the writers seem incapable of recognizing this limitation as a potential strength.

[@snatchadams69]

@@mattparsons2045 The older I get the more type of stories like that I care about. It's that human condition that drives the story along and I'm still learning to accept the good, the bad, and the ugly of humanity. Stories help us do that they help us examine ourselves and our hearts and minds and morality and mortality to an extent. If we can't make a connection with at least one character then that story is a failure.

[@aglaraandune6602]

holy shit, you begin with corrections of criticisms and even rescind a few. That's the mark of a good creator with a sense of integrity. This video series has been a wild ride and I look forward to finishing this video. You might have inspired me to do a similar breakdown but from the perspective of a book nerd.

[@spacecat_scribbles]

Yessss more well supported dissection of RoP Also, every time you mention how long characters appeared onscreen in the Lord of the Rings movies I'm shocked because they feel so much more present than the tiny numbers would suggest. How do Haldir, Wormtongue, Galadriel, Sauruman, Treebeard, Eomer and Elrond all have less than 15 minutes of screentime??? Edit: ok HOW do only Frodo, Aragorn, Sam, Gandalf, and Pippin have more than an hour of screentime??? the trilogy is 11 HOURS LONG. W H A T. I would also have expected Sam to have a closer amount of screentime to Frodo since they share so many scenes. Man, graphs are WILD

[@adc1222]

I think the two biggest parts of the Frodo-Sam discrepancy is the beginning of fellowship has a ton of Frodo but barely any Sam, and even in many of the scenes where Sam and Frodo are technically together, the camera is fixed on just Frodo to give us what he is emotionally going through, since Sam is just a stoic badass for 99% of his time. It's a really clever bit of filmmaking, and something I didn't think about until watching this video.

[@spacecat_scribbles]

@@adc1222 oh true, those are excellent points. I guess my brain just counts "Sam is present in the scene" as "screentime for Sam" even if the camera is not actually *on* Sam

[@RianD-xp3kk]

In the book Aragorn says it will take a fortnight to get from Weathertop to Rivendell. Alone using the road he could prolly do that in about 5 days. Using that as a guide it should have taken so much longer for anyone to get anywhere. Yet in the show it seems like everything is no more then a week from anywhere else. It is horrible.

[@chazzitz-wh4ly]

Second Age Middle Earth had a really efficient public transportation system.

[@gracesprocket7340]

Well ain't this place a geographical oddity, 2 weeks from everywhere. My Hair! We're in a tight spot!

[@davemiller401]

@@chazzitz-wh4ly I hope you are joking, because I am LMAO. 😄

[@SeviathTheHumanDrago]

@@gracesprocket7340 "I don't want no damn FOP, I'm a Dapper Dan Man."

[@robertmicropenis5114]

they went really hard on the 15 minute city structure

[@Iamapuzzlepiece]

I regret being a little late to the party, having just recently discovered your channel, but I nonetheless want to express my sincere gratitude for such a detailed and very well structured analysis of RoP. Watching the series, for me, was beyond surrealistic. It seemed like things should make sense, but they never really did. The actors were oftentimes convincing in their demeanor, yet, or perhaps because of this, they were utterly confusing. Like listening to a very charismatic and enchanting preacher trying to convince you that the earth is flat, while continuously referencing contradictory evidence. The only other experience I can recall to compare with watching the show was when I played through the Human Campaign of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and I finally understood that - spoiler alert - the protagonist actually was a bad guy (!!!). It was honestly a traumatising experience for my 15-year-old self. I felt deeply betrayed by the game and very confused about why it did that to me. The only way to recover from the shock and indignation was to play through the rest of the game - being a great game with a great storyline - in order to redeem myself... which helped me heal. RoP, however, became increasingly more frustrating over time. I honestly don't remember anymore why I even finished the season. I guess I was hoping beyond hope to experience something - anything - that made it all make sense. Or perhaps I was too upset, thinking "Well, I made it this far...". Anyway, what I am trying to say is that it really wasn't until I watched your content about the series that I finally found some real sense of closure - or whatever the heck it can even reasonably be compared to. Hearing you unravel the mess and explain in detail why everything about the series was so utterly confusing was precisely what I needed. So thank you very much for that. I really like your style and I look forward to more awesome content.

[@phoeniqs]

Thanks so much for your amazing work. I hated the series, but thanks to you, I *enjoyed* hating it. Looking forward to whatever you come up with next, even if we have to wait until 2024 to see it. Your analysis is unparalleled!

[@cavalleriarusticable]

"Enjoy to hate" - I think we actually need a new word for that because it embodies the essence of all those wonderful bad reviews.

[@cavalleriarusticable]

(In German wie call it "Hassliebe" (love-hatred)

[@Dru2037]

That's sad

[@TK-04]

Thanks man, didn’t realize how great this show is. You really opend my mind to this masterpiece. Me as Tolkien fan who read all books thought that he made a good job but Amazon showed us that Tolkien didn’t understood his characters, that he made mistakes but thanks to almighty Bezoz Amazon fixed those mistakes. Finally I have seen a good story in the world Tolkien created. I hope season two makes even more fixes on tolkiens characters. There is nothing I would love more in this planet. -no one No one on this fucking planet.

[@neonobilcristina6346]

You got me for a moment 😂🤣🤣

[@ActionJacksonMan]

"Oh a sarcasm detector... that's a REAL useful invention"

[@Erri_17]

Had me too in the first half ngl

[@dukenukem993]

You are mentally chalenged if you think that. Although you were an america soldier, so your IQ is probably in one digit.

[@insanum666]

Actually there probably are a few people that think this. But they have ice cream for brains

[@denissediaz3640]

Finally!!!!!!! So excited you have provided us with *content* Rather binge this than the actual show.

[@xyzrt7]

Totally!!!

[@TristouMTL]

Aaaaaah... got my comfy slippers on and just made a nice cup of herbal tea, bring it on! Much better than the actual show.

[@DarthWinterMadness]

100% agree! It's like the MauLer reviews, longer than the movie itself, but so much more entertaining and especially: valuable. RFT's videos have value, or at least more value to me than the actual show has. (Let's say the show has some value: it is content good KZbinrs can use to make better content. Without it, we wouldn't have these amazing lengthy reviews.) It's weird, but I'll take it nonetheless. Cheers from France! 🍻

[@huntertaylor367]

Not only is it better content, it's more content than rop.

[@outrider44]

The thing that sticks with me the most in Rings of Power is how on the one hand they want to have weighty and epic moments, events, and dialogue ("trailer moments" like the Numenorean ships blowing up or Elrond's oath), and, on the other hand, have no serious consequences for anything that happens so that they are not forced in any direction narratively and get everything they originally wanted on screen, instead of viewing narrative limits as an opportunity for creativity and character growth. The effect of this is that those "trailer moments" become empty and hollow and the writers look dumb for trying to make them come across as important. The stakes become minimal and character development suffers. Contrast this with the actual Silmarillion where a group of characters take a rash oath that ends up driving and influencing events and decisions all over Beleriand for centuries. The oath almost becomes a main character. Fantastic work on this whole series of yours. Thank you for putting in the time and effort, you've had so many good points. "The only people who are going to fully understand the show, if that is even possible, are the very people who are most likely to be incredibly pissed off by it." Exactly, couldn't have said it better.

[@rachagainstthemachine.]

The amount of effort and detail that has gone into this series is far beyond anything else I've seen. I'm absolutely blown away. This is mauler level stuff. Also your funny as fuck 😁. Thank you for the quality entertainment ❤️

[@reeve1991]

An extremely satisfying conclusion to a genuine masterclass of a series. I can barely imagine how many hours must have gone into the full creation of this series, between research, viewing and re-viewing, scripting, editing, and everything else... but, for whatever it's worth, the end result is something that I believe will remain (at least to those of us that have seen it) the definitive deep-dive analysis of this show. I watched a very great number of Rings of Power reactions/analyses/reviews as it came out, which is likely why the YT algorithm made me aware of your show, and your work stands head-and-shoulders above all others, something I am likely to come back to multiple times to watch again. Like virtually everyone else here I only discovered your channel through this series, but regardless of what you choose to do next I will definitely be watching it. I'm also very appreciative you found two of my mini-essays worth including in your video. As a very minor point, I will defend my assumption that Galadriel is the oldest living thing in Middle-Earth. Though it's confusing since the setting itself is often referred to as "Middle-Earth", I meant specifically Middle-Earth the continent, as referenced in the show and on the many maps you displayed, distinct from Valinor the continent. Galadriel's parents are indeed still alive in Valinor (as referenced on the show), but they're in Valinor and never went to Middle-Earth the continent. So I didn't include them or the many, many other elves in Valinor that would be older than Galadriel. Obviously referring to Tolkien's dates since the show never specifies this, but within that context Galadriel is a third-generation elf from their race's origination, and I'm fairly confident that literally every other elf that returns to Middle-Earth that is older than her is dead by the time Rings of Power takes place (excluding Cirdan). Of course, within the context of Rings of Power it doesn't matter precisely how old Galadriel is among the Elves, merely that she is extremely old and has already experienced a great deal and so her immaturity and idiocy is rather inexplicable... I just found it amusing that, going by Tolkien's dates, she is older (sometimes significantly older) than every single other named major living elf in the series. For utterly pointless reference, Cirdan does appear in the Peter Jackson movies, but that point is so technical and irrelevant as to be the height of pedantry since he's never identified and has no lines. He's the elf Ringbearer with the red ring in Fellowship's opening montage-monologue, and appears for a few seconds at the very end of Return of the King as Frodo and Bilbo get on the boat.

[@menabiss321]

Technically, Adar has a good chance of being older than Galadriel, since, as one of the first orcs, it's very likely he'd be really, really old. So I guess it's a question of whether he should be considered as an elf, or just as an orc. And Galadriel is definitely not the oldest living _thing_ in Middle-Earth in the series, let alone the books, because, well, Sauron is right there, cmon xD As well as, presumably, whoever the Stranger is supposed to be. She is, however, absolutely the oldest of our main elf (and, obviously, dwarf and human) characters - Elrond, Gil-Galad, Celebrimbor. So i think your point is correct in spirit, but incorrect in technicalities)

[@reeve1991]

​@@menabiss321 Oooh, that's true, you've got me on Adar. I didn't even really consider him since he's Show-Only, but since this is about the show and they establish his origins as being one of the original elves Morgoth kidnapped to create Orcs he's almost certainly older than Galadriel. And I believe in my original mini-essay I specified... I think I said "non-spirit" (I'd considered saying "mortal", but that word is weird in context of elves), specifically to rule out all the things in Middle-Earth that pre-existed the world itself, like Sauron, Stranger/Legally-Distinct-Gandalf, the Balrog, presumably Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, etc. Though I do remember when writing it I was worried about Maglor, since we don't know definitively if he's dead by now or still wandering the shore insane, but I decided to write him off as "functionally dead" to not overcomplicate and distract from the point. But you are right, the core point is that Galadriel is the senior of all the Elves (excluding Adar) we see on screen, which is just incredibly given their relative personalities and maturity... and that it's equally inexplicable that her reaction to Adar, the first one of the elves stolen in the darkness in their earliest days to ever be recovered, should be so shallow and so hateful.

[@menabiss321]

@@reeve1991 ah, got it, i guess i missed the non-spirit part, my bad) And yeah, Galadriel's age is one of my big problems with her character, the show made her act so, so, so incredibly young compare to her actual age, it's really jarring. I could maybe - maaaaybe - excuse some of her brashness if it was frist-age-just-out-of-valinor-going-to-fight-morgoth Galadriel, but yeah, nah. Show Galadriel doesn't work even with just the background they state for her in the show (hundreds if not thousands years old, went through war and losses), not to mention the books background (thousands years old, went through wars and losses, watched her kin do terrible things to each other, saw first hand what hubris and impulsiveness do to people, etc).

[@reeve1991]

@@menabiss321 This actually reminds me of a thought I'd had about halfway through ROP's running... while obviously the ideal thing to have done would have been to scrap everything and completely rewrite it from the ground up, if we HAVE to stick with the basic shell of what we have and try to improve it with minimal changes... just make Galadriel into Celebrian. She'd be appropriately young and not have gone through any major life-altering events of her own yet, Tolkien wrote extremely little about her early years so you'd be EXPLICITLY contradicting significantly less... you can keep the Celeborn plot point they throw in near the end of the series and swap him being killed/kidnapped by Sauron in for Finrod as her driving motivation, it even plays well into her character's deep friendship / romantic overtures with Elrond. Obviously this change in isolation would be like plugging a leak on the Titanic, but still, it felt so natural and obvious to me after thinking about it that I could not help but wonder specifically why the showrunners were so set on forcing Galadriel into their mangled story.

[@menabiss321]

@@reeve1991 this does sound like it could be cool, yeah. A little harder to do the whole ptsd angle, but considering they didn't do it particularly well with Galadriel, i doubt it'd be a huge loss. As to why they stuck with Galadriel - if i were to guess, it's because she is in a lot more key events during the second age and has a bigger power level. Now, if they really wanted a figure that is connected to as many main plot points as possible, god knows why they didn't go with Elrond. Elrond is such an obvious choice for a protagonist for a Second Age show, it's really baffling to me what they did with him. His connection to Numenor alone makes him way more viable and interesting than any other potential elf protagonist, and yet they hardly even mentioned it? So yeah, this show made some... some choice, let's just say that xD

[@adamoneil5317]

I didn't know how much LOTRs meant to the fan base until my gf legit broke down and started crying the night Rings Of Power aired. She was so upset at what they did to Tolkien's work.

[@zoebaggins90]

Don't lose that girlfriend, she's precious!

[@grimmwolf9690]

Lets one know just how heinous what amazon did as a response to the fan backlash really was. They called them all racist, misogamists, supremacist trolls and bots.

[@brianmontgomery4604]

She cried?’ Lol what a goober

[@TallisKeeton]

we Tolkienians can be fanatical bunch I concur. :) Though maybe 'ardent' is more precise description :) But IMO the main difference between us and some religions fanatics or fanatics of a political ideology is that we know that our story is not real :) For us Tolkien's art is escapism art. Its not about politics and its not religious belief, even though I think that we can have intelectual exercises from it and feel emotional depth of it, from the fact that it is based on deep roots of European spirituality and morality, which come from religious background of the author. :)

[@tsemayekekema2918]

She cried only at the 1st episode 😂 Too early for that. I imagine she jumped off a cliff with the later Galadriel fight scenes

[@TallisKeeton]

One of my fav advantages of _good_ fanfics set in Middle-Earth is that they enable a Tolkien fan to read additional dialogues between charachters who in the books have never talked with each other but who could have met under very much book circumstances (like Gandalf and Tom Bombadil), or were actualy present at the same place and time in the books. Like for example Frodo and Eowyn in Minas Tirith after the war. Or Arwen and Eowyn. Or Gimli and Beregond (a Gondorian guardsman from the book). Or Elrond's twin sons and Eomer. Or Cirdan and Bilbo in Grey Haven. This is one of the reasons I love _good_ fanfics - to see more meetings of the book charachters in the scenes and places we know they were present together but never spoke to each other. This opportunity was lost in RoP I guess :( IMO in RoP the greatest such opportunity was the visit of Galadriel in Moria - instead of Elrond. Elrond was never interested in Moria, but Galadriel was.

[@chararii]

I typically don't leave comments or reviews on any type of creative work but I took a moment to think back on this series I binge watched for the past few days and realised I've consumed months worth of hard work in a matter of days and at this point, simply leaving without acknowleding this would be nothing short of an insult. I initially didn't plan on watching the ROP videos after finishing part three of your Hobbit series (which was presented to me by the youtube algorithm and which I also greatly enjoyed since I did have fun watching the movies at the time of their release but now in hindsight no longer appreciate *as* much) since as a lifelong LotR fan and Tolkien purist the pure existence of that show caused me enough grief to deliberately avoid any mention of it. However, after finishing your analysis on the Hobbit and finding how much I appreciate the extreme detail with which you explored those movies as well as enjoying your current-year-inappropriate sense of humour, I decided to give your ROP analysis a try as well. This series has, in the end, left me with a bag of mixed feelings. On one hand I subjected myself to the entirety of a product I inherently despise and exposing myself to what has been done to one of my most favourite intellectual properties enraged me about as much as I expected. But on the other hand, I thoroughly enjoyed every single second of each of your videos and I am sure if I'd watched a similar series done by a fellow Tolkien purist or anyone else who would've been similarly emotional, I would've stopped watching about one or two videos in. Your clearheadedness and composure, as well as your refusal to approach this series from a "book-lore" point of view helped me retain my composure myself and the layer of humour injected throughout your video series made me laugh more than a few times. I'm not one to analyse TV series or movies myself - it's simply not a pasttime I enjoy - so I don't have much to offer in terms of criticism or commenting on the technical aspect of your videos but I believe simply expressing how much I enjoyed them despite having very little, if any reason to, is compliment enough. You managed to turn what essentially boils down to the character assassination of my most favourite Tolkien character (Galadriel), as well as a disrespectful insult to one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, into an amusing as well as fascinating jaunt through the minds of people-who-live-in-a-society and the soulless, shambling corpse of a great IP they so carelessly vomited out. I realise I still sound incredibly angry as I type this out, but I'm not and I genuinely thank you for it. Whatever you do next after finishing up your Hobbit series, I'll eagerly await its release.

[@randomft]

100k views guys. I can't thank you enough. A few of you have mentioned that you wanted to support me on Patreon. Well, ask and ye shall receive: patreon.com/RandomFilmTalk And, as promised, and as reminded by a couple of you, here is a copy/paste of the character notes as taken during the series. Galadriel Not interested in socialising with others Extremely talented at origami Unable to negotiate her way out of disagreements Violent and impulsive Highly motivated to the point of obsession Disregard for her own life and the lives of her companions Extremely talented at climbing Extremely physically strong Godlike powers of deduction Totally not a Mary Sue Extremely skilled at using a sword, can 1v1 a troll!? Commander of the Northern Armies Warrior of the Wastelands Rude Seems willing to bow to authority if needed Apparently severely traumatised Considers fighting to be her only purpose in life Galadriel can be snuck up on by a giant sea monster Sympathetic towards others’ losses Very defensive of Elves Sarcastic Values nature over cities Is really really really small Trusts Halbrand enough to eat food that he gives her Likes Halbrand enough to explain to him where they are Wears her achievements on her sleeves Is not modest Doesn’t care if she makes people angry Is the opposite of a diplomat Willing to commit murder to get what she wants Is an idiot Cocksure Rude Demeaning Arrogant Really enjoys riding horses Believes for some reason that her bloodline needs redeeming Can cling extremely tall towers with no climbing equipment Seems able to appeal to the desires of the people she speaks to Manipulative Only cares about what she herself wants Apparently very talented at swordfighting Does not understand why a blacksmith might be skilled at handling swords Is willing to manipulate people to get what she wants whilst apologising to them for manipulating them to get what she wants Vain, wears her ornate armour every day whilst crossing the ocean Values humility Dislikes pridefulness Is morally ok with genocide Cannot control her emotions Is willing to torture someone to get what she wants Is willing to go out of her way to torture someone for no reason Is an idiot Is literally invincible Is omniscient Was right all along Still thinks violence was her only option Prioritises her own self-preservation over the safety of Middle-Earth Incredibly selfish Sauron Is totally not evil Perceptive and intuitive Doesn’t take bullshit Doesn’t mince words Village was burned down by Orcs Knows how to respect royalty Prefers diplomacy to threats Willing to break the law Provocative Overconfident Seems to prefer to avoid violence Extremely violent when fighting Possibly psychopathic Is probably the king Dislikes his ancestors due to their oath to Morgoth Has some kind of personal grievance with Adar Might actually be invincible Might be evil Is grateful for Galadriel saving his life Has incredibly convoluted plans that don’t make any sense Is indecisive Prioritises fucking with people over taking over the world Is unwilling to kill Galadriel Can incapacitate people indefinitely by simply thinking it Nori Brave Doesn’t follow the rules Curious Can be clumsy Doesnt fiklkiw the rule clumsy curioous brave braeb vlumsy dowesn tfollwo the wrulse curious brave brave]ckymsy curious brvaele] doesn’t forlwlow the rule Stealthy in spite of also being clumsy caring compassionate brave Brave Doesn’t follow the rules Curious Can be clumsy Brave Doesn’t follow the rules Curious Can be clumsy Brave Doesn’t follow the rules Curious Can be clumsy Brave Doesn’t follow the rules Curious Can be clumsy Brave Doesn’t follow the rules Curious Can be clumsy Brave Doesn’t follow the rules Curious Can be clumsy Feels responsible for everyone caring Theres nothing she can’t do Is willing to blackmail her friends to get what she wants Is willing to defend herself if needed Does not consider herself special Doesn’t understand how ice works Isn’t as brave as we were lead to believe Doesn’t seem to care that she was abandoned by the other Harfoots Is an idiot Is willing to risk her life to protect not-Gandalf Is willing to put everyone’s lives at risk when it suits her Is dedicated to helping people even if it risks people’s lives Is unobservant Lucky Elrond Creative Likes time to himself Lighthearted and relaxed Seemingly very open and friendly with Galadriel Well versed in history Very confident in his diplomatic skills Dick Somewhat confident in his physical ability Potentially manipulable and ignorant Terrible at timekeeping Bad at reading social cues Perceptive Persistent Willing to call out when he is being lied to Willing to spy on his friend Able to sway people with diplomacy Willing to call out when he is being lied to Values his friendship over his duty to his king Is an idiot who can’t keep his mouth shut Values his oath so much that he accidentally breaks it repeatedly without realising Is a terrible friend Is a moron Has the authority to offer vast wealth when on diplomatic missions Is multilingual Is honest whilst also being dishonest Is willing to emotionally blackmail his friends Is forgetful and unobservant Is an idiot Is prone to giving up Is now confirmed to be a dishonourable manipulative liar Willing to admit to his mistakes even if they aren’t actually his mistakes Durin Brash Loud Confident Believable as a leader Caring Forgiving Very forgiving Very trusting Feels personally responsible for the safety of his people Embellishes his stories to make himself look better, vain Dislikes his father’s cautiousness Acknowledges when he makes mistakes Is not too proud to admit when he is wrong Stubborn Rude and disrespectful to Gil-Galad Gullible Makes extremely risky political moves in the name of table Deeply respects his father Can be emotionally fragile Is also an idiot Willing to speak his mind if he feels he is correct Celebrimbor Modest Aspirational Dislikes war Wants to make the world a better place Deep admiration for the Dwarves Does not know what an alloy is Is unfathomably naive Might be evil Arondir Godlike cognitive ability Not quick to anger Physically capable Avoids violence where possible Soft spoken Was previously a grower Prioritises love over duty Prioritises exploring a hole over protecting Bronwyn Acts without thinking Does not have heightened senses Pragmatic, does things he doesn’t want to do if it will avoid violence Very very strong Extremely agile Can be overpowered by two orcy bois Capable of insane feats of hand eye coordination Protective of Theo even though Theo doesn’t like him Devoted to protecting the Southlanders Has stanky BO Is a boss with a bow Has bad hearing Was raped by Big Chungus (rip) Terrible at keeping secrets Terrible at hiding things Is an idiot

[@randomft]

Bronwyn Prioritises her Elf BF over looking after her child Knows all about holes Extremely physically strong Brave Willing to endanger herself to rescue her son Direct in her speech Charismatic and compelling Can convince people who don’t know her to fight and die alongside her Pessimistic to the point of considering being evil Is still in charge Is protective of her son Is sometimes vulnerable Yells at her enemies when attacking them quietly Can apparently 1v1 an orc Prioritises the lives of her people over her own Regenerates health faster than Master Chief Elendil Does what the sea tells him even if this is an act of treason Is not particularly perceptive Calm Measured Diplomatic Confident Not easily intimidated Loves his children Shirks his responsibilities Learns from his mistakes Is a stern father Extremely gullible Believes the sea to always be right even though the sea killed his wife Cares about Isildur’s safety Does not care about Isildur’s safety Reacts emotionally both on and off screen Loves elves Is willing to persevere no matter the cost Is a very experienced sailor Pharazon Is terrible at identifying security risks Values wisdom Is skilled at turning crowds Respects his opponents Willing to fight an enemy far stronger than he In some instances unable to control crowds Is extremely influential Does not respect his son Is either feared/respected by Numenorians Despises Elves Prefers to swim with the current rather than against it Isildur Willing to sabotage his own career Do you have any idea who his father is Feels pressured to do what his father expects Is a bit of a social outcast Indecisive to the point of absurdity Claims to value his country Repeatedly abuses his fathers’ position to get what he wants An entitled little brat Uses people to get what he wants Acts without thinking Theo Wants to help Able to defend himself Doesn’t like being treated like a child Warms to Arondir after he observes his commitment Wants to fight Is clairvoyant Feels extremely guilty Disa Manipulative Very loyal to her husband Respects her husband and her king Is not afraid to speak her mind Eager to become a leader Queen Regent Miriel Steadfast in her beliefs Pragmatic Acts out of fear Is not perceptive and is easy to fool Is willing to put herself in danger to save civilians Abandons people Understands the importance of her role as leader Does not give up easily Willing to persevere no matter the cost Is not letting blindness hold her back Adar Cares about orcs Inflicts needless pain on the orcs Wants the orcs to have a home Employs fear tactics Employs military strategy so as to maximise drama in a tv show rather than to actually achieve his objective Does not value his own life Cares deeply for the orcs Walreg Highly motivated to be evil Strangely forgetful Earien Very much against the war Curious and inquisitive Goes out of her way to help people Kemen Thinks with his dick Is willing to vandalise military equipment and risk the lives of everyone nearby in order to get into some sweet moist pantaloons Extremely selfish and stupid Gil-Galad Very perceptive Very diplomatic Has insane plans that rely on blind luck Is mildly displeased when presented with earth shatteringly bad news Saddoc Is superstitious Does not like outsiders Can be compassionate Abandons his lifelong friends when they get old Thinks dying to bees is hilarious Doesn’t seem to care that Nori etc are all still alive Does not understand how cause and effect works Brave Is extremely heavy Capable of teleportation Wants to die Celeborn DEAD King Durin III Doesn’t trust Elves Trusts Elves Respects his son Is ruthless Acknowledges the gods and cares about what they think Is unfortunately also an idiot Does not respond well to shouting matches Writers Manipulative swines

[@tuliosan9399]

This is perfect to show how the longer they explore a character, the more idiotic they become lol

[@happynihilist2573]

It's amazing how much work you put into this

[@Handle35667]

@@randomft Galadriel’s parents aren’t on Middle Earth.

[@Handle35667]

@@randomft also how can you not have guyladriel in your show breaking category, when in your own words her character is completely at odds with everything the writers intended. That’s not show breaking?

[@w7x509]

More than 3 hours of methodical analyse structuring my valid hate of ROP, what more could I ask for ?

[@cy-one]

World peace. But in lieu of that, I'll take this :D

[@watzegtu116]

I can rest in peace now

[@ifrisb6865]

how accurate

[@tubag313]

@@ifrisb6865 4 hours?

[@emhu2594]

I don't hate it, but it is definitely mostly unwatchable. To hate it, it would have had to have made me feel something. Other than annoyance at angry twitchy face

[@Sampson-9091]

I binged this entire series of videos in two days and I gotta say, this is beyond impressive how thorough and detailed you've made it throughout. Well done! 👍

[@Simon_Nguyen]

The Rings of Power showrunners should be forced to watch this and subsequently quit their jobs forever.

[@adc1222]

Holy shit dude the amount of effort that must have gone in to this video. You've officially done at least 10x the research for your reviews of ROP than the showrunners did to actually make ROP

[@fractalfae5418]

This analysis series of Rings of Power should be mandatory viewing for both screenplay writers and writers in general. The depth of detail presented here, such as the study of cause and effect, the considerations of convenience and contrivance, plot holes vs gaps, the importance of character consistency, world building and presentation, and so on, is breath-taking. As a fledgling writer myself, I've found more guidance and inspiration here than actual writing classes and tutorials. In particular, the breakdown and study of plot using flow charts presented here is exceptional work, and has inspired me to reconsider the structures of my own material, and how I should plan future plotlines. Had the idiots responsible for RoP been aware of even a fraction of the material presented here, the show could've been very different, but sadly Amazon handed the job to clueless, talentless imbeciles and the results speak for themselves. Spending a billion dollars for a lesson in what NOT to do as a writer is pretty steep. But the silver lining is Random Film Talk and this incredible and entertaining series of analysis. Combined with the wonderful humour and presentation, this has been an epic, educational and fun experience, so thank you Random! I can't wait to see what's next!

[@TwinsenR]

I just want to say I happened to randomly come across your channel about two weeks ago. It was a coincidence after I had just went through my first watch of the Extended LoTR Triology. I had already unfortunately viewed Rings of Power, so I was thoroughly entertained from start to finish by your break-down of this train wreck. I haven't watched The Hobbit Trilogy and am debating on watching it just to then be able to fully enjoy your critic upon the Trilogy. Either way, thank you for this, and I will continue to watch your work as you continue to grow at now 29.9k subs!

[@Phillibetrus]

Look up the M4 book edit for the Hobbit. you can get the gist of the story and Ignore the bulk of issues with the movies. Then when you watch Random's review and get all the extra bits that were cut out as raw comedy. Or you can get the extended Hobbits if you want the full context of his review.

[@TwinsenR]

@@Phillibetrus Thanks for the tip! I watched Hobbit Extended last night. For the most part I enjoyed it, it did have a lot of random nonsense in it. But it mostly felt like FotR all over again. I had heard the last two movies are slogs, but I'm going to try to slog through them anyway. 😆

[@BangtanAmi225]

THANK YOU SO MUCH for this thoughtful analysis, for not just saying “this was bad.” I too love to look at WHY something works or doesn’t work in storytelling and such, and I’m so glad I found your channel. Thank you for sharing!!

[@michelle4054]

The screen time comparisons of iconic LOTR characters vs the wacky world of Rings of Power characters was very interesting 👍

[@Aranel_Alasse]

I have been looking forward to this and it did not disappoint! I am not at all surprised that your channel has grown so much, given how well put together these videos are. I love how you have tried to remain balanced and talked about what worked, whilst also very eloquently and comprehensively explaining what didn't. As someone who has read the Silmarillion, I thought your description of all the history showed just how little of Tolkien's work was actually considered in the making of this thing. They just used his name to try and legitimise their own terrible storytelling. I can't help but laugh that in your reviews of the show, you have given so much more thought to the characters and plotlines than any of the writers of the show did! I wanted to give the show a chance and watched the whole of the first season, but I can't imagine watching any more. I think I will still enjoy your reviews of future seasons though 😄 P.S. Just to clarify a couple of lore points, the comment about Galadriel being the second oldest elf in Middle Earth is correct, at least in the third age, but I'm not sure about the second age (there are older elves in Valinor, but that is not part of the continent of Middle Earth. She is an older relative of Gil-Galad and Celebrimbor!) And the thing about Elrond's dad being made a star is literal. When Galadriel gives Frodo "the light of Earendil" that is the light of the silmaril he wears when he sails his ship through the sky every night!

[@the4thamigo]

Agreed. To all that ☝️

[@DurinFolk]

I love that you set up the intention and perspective so clearly! Being a huge ‘Tolkienian’ loyalist, it was refreshing to see someone’s objective thoughts removed from canology and based solely on the execution of film devices. I busted out laughing at your mentions of “and I’m sure Tolkien purists will lose their mind with what I’m about to say…” because although I love Tolkien’s lore to its roots, I watched RoP without preconceived demands for content. I allow a lot of room for creative liberties of retellings and I appreciated your thoughts based off the RoP lore building and your nod to those like me to buckle up because we’re going off trail! Hilarious! 😂 S - Tier breakdown, Sir! You’ve +1’d another subscriber. = )

[@eowynsisterdaughter]

Level of depth and critique that gives you a pretty unshakeable foundation for your premise. Haven't watched the show, though I have enjoyed seeing what others have thought of it, and it's rather nice to see you give credit where you feel it's due, while still utterly savaging the parts you take issue with. Wasn't able to watch this all in one sitting, but certainly enjoyed it enough to parcel it out and keep coming back 'til I made it to the end.

[@vardamir0397]

I hope the showrunners see this video. Because you've likely worked on this whole analysis more than they have to write the damn thing.

[@Mrixna]

I'll always wonder who the fuck let them write this. Did no one stand up and said "wait a minute, what is this crap!"

[@chazzitz-wh4ly]

As I understand it they had a Tolkien lore professor of whatever part of the writing team but fired him. Probably because he was like Cavill and wanting things to be consistent to the source material and not some botched fan fiction.

[@mere7583]

Really glad you’ve sacrificed even more time for us to go back and confirm things! Characters we’re supposed to root for being asses can be blamed on modern morality, but inconsistencies like Arondir’s hearing really drive home how bad the writing is.

[@veracyning5572]

I just realized that Gil-Galad is awesome! Elves are sometimes gifted with foresight. What he said would happen absolutely did happen! The showrunners just didn't know that. That is hilarious because it's so obvious that they should have been beating us over the head with it, but I'm not sure they noticed. It could have been sooooo much better. He's still jowly and neutered, but I think if there had been any shadow of competence in this travesty it would have been awesome.

[@MichaelFrenchCPA]

Thank you for opening my eyes... Having grown up in the 80's, it was a fun feature family event to sit down together and watch a new episode of a favorite show to air. We would pop popcorn in a stove-top pot, crack open some glass bottles of Pepsi, and watch a show as a family night. In today's streaming society I have not indulged in something similar with my children. Rings of Power was our first (in this case just with my older son, the 7 year old hung out with mom). My 11 year old and myself had a standing date to gather each Saturday morning and watch the latest episode. Maybe it was the joy of reliving a feeling from my childhood, or maybe it was my half-asleep state of viewing, but I DID enjoy watching parts of the show on first pass (though I did fall asleep on several occasions). The pretty visuals, and the....well honestly that is the only thing I can think of right now that I enjoyed other than watching it with my son. Yes, let's go with that...and the time spent with my son, made it an enjoyable experience at the time. However, I WAS left with a hollow feeling in my gut that things didn't quite add up, and I didn't at the time put my finger on why. This was beyond the obvious crimes such as making the glorious Galadriel a c-bag and implying things like Celeborn was dead. After watching your videos I realized that I was watching the show thru the eyes of my 11 year old. On that face, the show was great. Some great scenery, some lightly scary characters like big chungus, and some mild violence, but nothing over-the-top (the Bronwyn scene where she bled out was INTENSE for him and one of the more realistic depictions of the stakes of war that he has seen to date. I have never rooted more for a main character to die so it would really hit him hard (as a small piece of preparing him for real-life death); too bad they screwed that up). Now, thanks to your video series, the nature of that hollow feeling in my gut has been fleshed out in overwhelming detail. It sucks that I had to do a 180 on the show, but I do agree that it was/is important. My son needs to understand now that stories should make logical sense. I have no intention of raising a "look at the pretty lights" dunce of a child, a trap which I myself fell into (though again, in part to the fact that I was half asleep for most of it!), and your video's have helped me prepare argument after argument to counter him anytime he states that, "Rings of Power is my favorite show". Rather funnily, this came up at his 6th grade parent/teacher conference. In our opening "getting to know you" conversation, he brought up that Rings of Power was his favorite show, to which his 20-something teacher responded she liked it too, and I immediately went on the offensive! With no additional buffer, my opening line was "Why would you lead the townsfolk out of a fortified tower to make your last stand in a defenseless open town?!" "Who made her leader, anyway? She is not a military tactician!" "Why did that elf throw away the axe when he was trying to escape?! Wouldn't want to KEEP his only weapon?" "Why would the volcano explode when some water entered an open chamber? There was clearly a place for the steam to get out! That made no sense!" They both sat there and looked at each other and said, "hmmm, yeah...that WAS dumb." And now, proud to say, my son watches movies with a much more critical eye. He's fading from superhero movies because of the obvious lack of stakes and world breaking of "their powers keep expanding to accommodate any new situation," and he's now pissed at Star Wars 9 for the inconsistencies in the force healing powers, among many, many other things between episodes 8 & 9. So bravo, Brilliant Primary Entity. Your measured analysis and critical eye have helped convert my son, and in no small part myself as well, from drooling buffoons into thoughtful....well, he IS 11, so don't think we can shed the buffoon title quite yet. But, at least he's not drooling, and you DID help him to understand that you have to use your brain even while watching a movie for entertainment. Thank you. Cheers! Mike and Dylan

[@a.scottanderson4490]

This is the best breakdown I've seen. You would indeed hate this more if all you had as a kid was the books, you had spent an inordinate amount of time picturing the imagined yet very detailed three thousand year history of a world's second age, and then see it smooshed into three-nine weeks, 20-50 miles, populated by a couple hundred thousand types of humans separated only by height, British dialect, beards or pointy ears.

[@LargeMetallicFellow]

By all means, I'm extremely happy for your channel growth thanks to your Rings of Power videos. I rewatched the first 8 videos last week because I thoroughly enjoyed your approach to the series being similar to my views (never read the books but love the Jackson films), your editing is very well done, I love that Kronk is your avatar because he really just fits your voice in a funny way, and on that note your comedy truly has me laughing for minutes at a time to where I need to pause the video so I don't miss your next bit of dialogue. Despite my overwhelmingly negative opinion on this show, I'm happy that you still pointed out and praised the few good things, ultimately Durin's actor being incredible and Deeza being a genuinely good character. You really have become one of my new favorite channels, one I want to be successful because you truly earned your growth and success through your great effort and content. You're charismatic, funny, intelligent, and have me quoting some of your jokes lately when talking with my friends. Namely the "Symbolism, symbolism, metaphor, derp derp" line from your episode 8 analysis. And of course, you got me saying jerb instead of job again thanks to the South Park reference, lol. Whether your next series is praise or criticism based on your opinion of the shows or films you choose, I'm along for the ride to hear your fantastic takes and have a laugh at your jokes. Jerb well done Random. I already subbed to you back on your first Rings of Power video but I'll share you around so my friends can do so as well!

[@quaintquixotic4777]

(something I noticed and I feel it adds to Galadriel's character. Also, adding to your Sauron just like to mess with people analogy. I hope you might mention or revisit it in season 2. Being, that this is where season 1 left off. However, I would like to ask for clarification encase I am wrong.) The dagger a.k.a. her knife. The one she keeps pulling out indiscriminately. The knife she uses to stab and scale an ice mountain with. Showing very little care for it. It is just an instrument she uses and abuses to get her whatever she wants at any given time. The same knife Saruon steals back for her. The knife she only reveals any sign of emotional attachment to in the smelting scenes. This dagger a.k.a. her knife is the very same dagger she stole off her brother Finrod's DEAD body? (S1E1) This should be something she cherished. A symbol of the love she holds for her only brother. Yet her character shows nothing of it being more than a prop for the plot. It is only a answer to where / how she got it. Also, also, I think it is funny that Sauron fought and killed Finrod and would recognize the dagger as having once belonged to him. Thus, he is being a bit of a smarmy jerk by stealing it back for her.

[@linuxwizzerd5908]

I had a think about it, and I think I came up with an interesting idea for a plotline involving at least Elendil and Sauron since the showrunners are hellbent on ignoring large parts of the lore; this doesn't fix the whole show but I think it would at least make the Numenor and world domination Sauron plotlines more cohesive and in-character, as well as bring one of the coolest parts of the lore into the show while changing it for contractual obligations but first, I'll need to set the stage a little with the lore to explain some stuff, it's wordy but I hope it makes some sense so in the lore, Numenor fell because they were steadily becoming more and more disrespectful of the elves for many different reasons (unsurprisingly beyond "dey tuk ur jerbs"), from relatively minor things like shifting away from using Quenya to using Adunaic (which is the root language for the "common/English" tongue of Middle Earth but that's another subject) to becoming a hostile sea-faring nation that colonized Middle Earth by force, since the Numenoreans were jealous of the elves' immortality and figured that "if we can't take Valinor then let's take everything else". Pharazon was also a part of this but he becomes king of Numenor by forcibly marrying Miriel and then basically becomes a warlord, seeks out Sauron to prove himself and Sauron does a fake surrender so he can be captured and brought back to Numenor and destroy it from within, and he does this by convincing the Numenoreans they can achieve immortality if they start to worship Morgoth, and this is ultimately what leads to Numenor being destroyed (again unsurprisingly, instead of "I guess some rando elf shows up and pisses off the Valar somehow"). For my idea, I thought it would be cool to have Elendil be some respected military leader who at first was on board with Pharazon, since their insular culture wasn't doing them any favors in the way of expanding their territory and he wants to explore and expand Numenor. You can probably add the "Elendil's wife died because the sea is always right" subplot into it too because I think it could serve as another solid motivation for Elendil ultimately deciding to abandon tradition in favor of some degree of change, since it's a character-motivated representation of how the old "let nature take its course" mindset could be damaging. However, he sees that Pharazon is slowly becoming more and more bloodthirsty and tyrannical, and the people as such are disrespecting everything about "the old ways", including their alliance with the elves which is what got them there to begin with. And it could end up being a really cool political intrigue/military cat and mouse between Elendil and Pharazon as they try to gain more followers and one-up/assassinate each other, with an additional thematic throughline of "the destruction of change vs the stagnancy of tradition" with Elendil trying to reconcile the two.

[@MourningCoffeeMusic]

This is like “layers of earths crust” deep. Also, they just lifted Fëanor’s character to write their Galadriel.

[@zoom4368]

Brilliant retracting certain criticism with explanation. Lord knows there's an overabundance of baffling bs to cover and you absolutely nailed it. Congratulations 🎊

[@MonkehBuns]

As one of those big Tolkien nerds who reads all the books every year and only watches the extended editions (and pretends the Hobbit movies don't exist) it has been so refreshing to get a really deep perspective piece from someone who only knows LotR as a piece of cinema. I love me a deep-dive into the lore any day of the week, but it has been great to hear your thoughts on how the movies succeeded at storytelling where RoP failed. Also I refused to watch the show (not as a protest, just because if a property is really important to me I tend to avoid remakes because I feel like it takes the shine off my . . . precious?) so now at least I know what it was about. 😅

[@knicknevin9975]

The most barebones breakdown of the theology of Tolkien's universe is that the One is Eru Illuvatar. Since Tolkien's world has a quasi Christian theme, he's the one true God. The Valar are essentially the chief Angels. Each was created with an understanding of some specific part of Eru's mind, in order to carry out the world's creation. Eru did not create the world directly, but rather the Valar did so under His direction. Literally sang it into existence (watch "How Howard Shaw uses voices"), to a theme that Eru composed for them. Eru did, however, create the peoples of the world, Men and Elves. One of the Valar, Aule, created the Dwarves without Eru's direction, but since only Eru could grant living beings a soul, they were basically automatons. Eru chastised Aule for this, but Aule sincerely regretted trying to one up Him, so Eru accepted his apology and granted the Dwarves souls of their own. If we were to assume the writers had some level of familiarity with the lore, we might be led to believe this was why Durin III was shown as being fairly devoted to the powers above. Thankfully, we know better. Eru is only named in the Silmarillion. He's only referred to as 'the One' in the appendices, so that's presumably why they can't name Him in the series. Eru's power of creation is called the Flame Imperishable, or the Secret Fire, so when Gandalf says to the Balrog in Fellowship that he's "a servant of the Secret Fire" he's basically calling himself a servant of God. Melkor was the greatest among the Valar, but his great power led to pride, which led to him becoming obsessed with gaining even greater power, and he tried to twist creation in his own image, creating orcs, dragons, goblins and the like by corrupting existing beings. After he destroyed the great trees, stole the Silmarils and fled to Middle Earth, he was titled Morgoth. He's the Lucifer to Eru's God. Below the Valar are the Maiar, spirits created to assist the Valar with their tasks. We see a few Maiar in Lord of the Rings, as characters like Sauron, the Balrogs, and the Wizards are all Maiar, though that's only discussed outside of the main texts. All of them, however, are timeless, immortal beings older than the world itself. The Valar and Maiar are collectively called the Ainur. I think that's the basics.

[@leichtmeister]

I am pretty sure the Balrogs aren't Maiar. 🤔 Aren't they something evil that just was there and then bowed to Morgoth?

[@bernadmanny]

​@@leichtmeister They're a type of Maiar that were transformed by Morgoth. Morgoth was aligned with fire and most of the maiar who were aligned with fire fell to his sway, Gandalf notably was not corrupted.

[@brandonkordenbrock1736]

This is masterful! I love it! I love the breakdown would also love to see you break down Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy in similar fashion. Tell us Random, why is it so good?

[@karlheinz4098]

Yeah, thought the same thing. Especially as you compared the screentime of the characters and their development. I mean I know that all of the characters of the Peter Jackson movies are like a million times better, but I wondered how did they achieved this? Why does I cry everytime Boromir dies and why do I have the feeling I know Legolas and Gimli for ages and not only 30 minutes? Would absolutely love an almost exactly same structured review series ❤

[@brendentebow4667]

Random, Thank you for this series, stumbled across your channel shortly after episode 1 of this series in my attempts to find if any reviews shared my thoughts. You sir articulated mine and clearly 6000 other peoples thoughts perfectly and I commend you for this. When I saw this video pop up today I audibly said "Fuck yea" grabbed a beer, sparked up the devils lettuce and enjoyed the show. I particularly enjoyed your objective approach to breaking this show down and it was explicitly clear to us when you were injecting your opinion and I think the audience you found are those of us that got turned off by other larger channels inserting politics into their reviews when some viewers simply want an objective breakdown of the quality of a work of art. Your breakdown felt academic at times, and for me that added to the appeal. I offer up my opinion like this so that you can know what drew your viewers to your videos and possibly help you in deciding the direction you go with the channel as I am eager to see what comes next and sad to see this series come to a close. On the future of your channel, a breakdown series of a show that you consider "good" or "well written" scripted in a way that allows us the viewer to have a clear Compare and Contrast to this series could be something this current audience as well as others would enjoy. I enjoyed the review of Avatar as well, and whatever direction you choose to go with the channel I will be sure to check out your videos. Solid work here, for real and remember...... There is a tempest in you..... it swept you to this community for a reason.... and it will not be quelled by you, ALGORITHM!

[@Headbanger203]

And here we are a few hours later after my comment on the previous video talking about Waldreg probably being thought as "Human fleeing from orc" and you're listing it as a correction, if only I'd waited before commenting, definitely been a good series to watch through, I'm looking forward to your future hobbit videos.

[@ZertusDarkSun]

I didn't expect a Witcher 3 call out. Always a welcome addition :D Also, the modern diversity thrust upon the cast, as you mentioned in the "The People" section, always bothered me for the reasons you stated. It's not that hard, just be consistent. In the LotR movies it was consistent, even down to hair color. House of the Dragon also did a good job. Then you've got this show (and the Witcher show, which somehow fucked this up even worse than RoP) where they just sprinkle in random ethnicities without rhyme or reason like it's modern day USA.

[@ericsbuds]

In season 2 we find out that the Balrog was just misunderstood! thanks for the video :) I havent watched any of that Philadephia show, but it does look hilarious :D

[@NoxAtlas]

Thank you for breaking down and dissecting the most expensive wattpad quality fanfiction ever. I love your dry and sarcastic humor. It's very refreshing to see a review from the perspective of someone who doesn't have an encyclopedic knowledge about Tolkien lore. You invested so much time and brain matter into this hot garbage of a series and deserve much more subs. Keep it up, I'm looking forward to your future projects.

[@arjunpatel212]

Found your channel recently and watched the hobbit trilogy (which I have watched) and the rings of power (which I haven't). Love your stuff you definitely deserve more and if you haven't seen it you remind me of mauler's page. Good stuff.

[@fabiopauli420]

9:15 very ez to answer to asking to stop due to losing to many soldiers: "They gave their live to a higher course, wouldnt you do the same? would you want their sacrifice to be meaningless? to be in vein?" This would allow to show that Galadriel does value the life of her soldiers to an extend but uses their deaths more as a sunk cost fellacy, instead of getting doubts due to their deaths it pushes her to go even further in her quest for revenge.

[@TheRisingHeroz]

I was so happy to see this pop up! Galadriel and Elrond are characters that I hated in this show which is sad because I loved them in the movies. At this point, I can't see this Elrond turning into the Elrond in LOTR or even Galadriel. Galadriel became the typical female that is an ass to everyone but for some reason, they admire her and agree with everything she says or does. Galadriel knowing how the dam and volcano happened is dumb, information that is shown to the audience away from the characters should only be known by the audience, they shouldn't be omniscient to stuff they've never seen

[@esito069]

This is a true masterpice, all episodes were. Thanks to you I got so much enjoyment out of this show as if it had actually been good, probably even more. Thank you so much.

[@RamGuy459]

One problem I have with the strange travel time and spacing during the show is how this really undermines the whole idea that Galadriel has been searching for Sauron for so long. Considering how fast they can seemingly travel from the Southlands to Eregion, one would expect Galadriel and her company of elves to be able to pretty much search Middle-Earth in it's entirety dosen of times over when considering for how long and how dedicated she has been when searching for Sauron for all this time. This is the same problem Game of Thrones started to have in the later seasons when characters are seemingly teleporting all over the place to fit the plot. You don't need spend several episodes showing us how great the travel time might be. But you need to make things consistent. Nothing in Rings of Power Season One makes travel consistent. The various plots and areas are seemingly moving at different pace, even though major events happening in place A is having effects in place B meaning that they do have to follow some kind of shared timeline even though the events in each place and the travel time between places does not match this is any way. This lack of consistency is showing all over the show. Characters getting to know pin-point accurate details on topics they have no reason to know anything about. Orcs not being able to withstand sunlight in one scene, to be perfectly fine the next scene, then in the next episode the show makes a point about them not being able to withstand sunlight. It's a mess.

[@darinaknoops9031]

Thank you for your amazing series and the amount of effort you put into it. I really enjoyed listening to your arguments in the background whilst working etc, and you have a very pleasant voice to listen to. I also liked that you explained your arguments (a number of other analyses I was looking at simply bashed the show and its characters without properly explaining each point), so good job, and i can't wait to join you for season 2. Perhaps the Hobbit trilogy or Doctor Who might be options that interest you for the mean time? If not that's also fine.

[@captainhurricane5705]

Well done, sir! You have put a massive amount of work into this series as a whole, and it has been entertaining and informative. Currently the viewed figures are low, but there is no reason that you couldn't reach the 1M views that Mauler has got on some of his Star Wars reviews - the standard of your work is comparable to his; perhaps the only drawback being that people are seemingly obsessed with Star Wars and can't let it go, whilst RoP is already forgotten, at least for the time being. As for reviewing shows like Willow or Blood Origin, they are really just not worth the time and the effort; you could probably get more satisfaction stacking shelves at your local supermarket than forcing yourself to endure these shows and critique them. Salute!

[@CharlesUrban]

Great finale to a great video series. I'm happy to have played a part in it. Thank you for all of your great work in eviscerating this awful show like it deserves. I look forward to your future endeavors!

[@michaelschmid4039]

Im honestly waiting for saison two just I can see you taking it apart

[@DrKumkar]

Love your work, I’m reallly looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts on new and popular shows! The depth and quality of it all, is awesome. “By all accounts, it doesn’t make sense!”

[@philipphammer3474]

The sheer amount of applicability of this meme tells everything you need to know about this shows

[@patrickDTC]

Thanks for this man! I watched al 8 parts. Some i even rewatched (like the one where the spooky digged a diggy hole). The right mix of humor, facts and analyses. Thanks and hope to see this format applied to more media you will cover. Especially with the memes.

[@DarthWinterMadness]

I wasn't sure whether to add this as an edit to my initial comment or as a new comment but I have more to say. I really appreciate the emphasis you put on words and definitions. Too many reviewers use the term "plot hole" to illustrate some of their gripes with whichever film or show they're talking about when it's not warranted. More often than not, they're not talking about plot holes but contrivances, conveniences and other things. And it can be really frustrating. I understand they use it as a shortcut so people understand that's it's a fault of the movie/show, but again more often than not it's just inappropriate. As you can see I'm barely halfway through, I can't just watch the whole video in one go (I wish I could). But I wanted to say that. I might do it again before I finish, but in case I don't: Cheers from France! 🍻

[@pogo575]

The best part of ROP is being able to commiserate with this series. I've enjoyed these critiques immensely. Great work. I really hope your channel takes off.

[@christallh24]

When Random brings up 'Death of the Author', I had a flashback to the epic disagreement/discussion between Mauler, Rags and TLP on EFAP! It really was a fascinating convo!

[@Silvershadowfire]

Thank you for all of your hard work with this excellent series. Even if nothing inspires you until season 2, I will be waiting patiently.

[@FinalBeggining]

YES! for some time i got scared you gave up on making it. But i guess 3.3h of video surely takes a long time to make. I will give u 100% watch time on this one

[@PresidentDwayneEMDHComacho]

3.5h*

[@FinalBeggining]

@@PresidentDwayneEMDHComacho 3.3 as 3:30

[@venomvevenom]

@@FinalBeggining 0.5 hour = 30 minutes 3.5 hours = 3 hours and 30 minutes

[@RollingCalf]

Reminds me of the Earth Sea mini series from 2005. The adapted an 8 hour mini series from 4 tiny books(about 800 pages if that) and ended up covering basically just the first book.

[@LukeMason]

I'm extremely impressed by your work on this series. I found you through EFAP, by the way. Your videos are extremely well researched, thorough, and well written. Your voiceover is so easy to listen to, which is a relief considering how many other content creators sound like Jonah Hill doing a bad Gollum impression with a sinus infection. If I had to offer a critique, it would be your choice of reaction clips. While funny, the clips you used from Emperor's New Groove got repetitive pretty fast. Including more varied reaction clips with even more of your own voice making jokes in line with the script would be perfect. It's apparent that you've already gotten better at this in your Hobbit series, which is great to see. The humor really helps to keep attention in a video that is otherwise very dense, very long, and, at times, very technical. Love what I've seen from you and can't wait for the Hobbit autopsy!

[@Edward-W]

This was fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed your detailed review and seeing the meticulous process you've gone through for this project. As awful as it might seem, it's cathartic to hear people rip into the show from all possible angles after the sour experience of watching the thing itself. As a Tolkien nerd I've already become mostyly numb to the pain this abysmal abomination has caused but the segments from 2:40:15 onwards started stinging with a renewed vigor. It's just so unbelievably sad to know what this all could have been, had there been any kind of passion or competence behind the project. Thank you, Random, for your dedication and hard work!

[@matthewharris7640]

It’s obvious that this series was a LOT of work. They have been well thought out, entertaining, and fair. I would be really interested in your character and plot breakdown of Willow even if it is awful.

[@seaofenergy2765]

Really great analysis, agree thoroughly with 99.9% of it, and hope the RoP writers actually see this so there could be some hope of subsequent seasons being worth the time to watch - although like you say, it is probably unsalvageable at this point, which is a real shame. A true to lore and grown up portrayal of the origins of inter-factional relationships between the different cultures/races of men, elves and dwarfs and politics of the incredible world tolkien created, with the rise of sauron etc, that didnt just turn everything in to a shallow nostalgia cash grab with wildly out of place multiculturalism identity politics and feminism as central anchors for the starting point of the writing and characters, could have been something very special indeed. Instead we got this absolute wasted opportunity of a show which is a complete parody of tolkiens works, and a perfect example of everything that is wrong with adaptations, tv shows and movies in the current day. Anyway, I digress, thanks for the excellent work!

[@gyderian9435]

I never watched the show but now I feel like I did 😂 hah thanks for the awesome binge experience, what a wild ride. Also, hats off for the amount of work that must have went into this 🎉

[@vrview8315]

Finally! 🎉 i just realized that your serie on ROP is in my top 3 of "best shows of the year" with Andor and..... damn 2022 was a real treat 😂

[@tacobees]

Thanks for your series on ROP. I'm an amateur storyteller and listening to critical breakdowns on plot and story have always been awesome. I find your reviews among some of the best structured especially during your character breakdowns. You did a great job. Thank again.

[@unitron2005]

56:40 Galadriel has parents, but her parents aren't in Middle-earth. Middle-earth is a continent, the planet is Arda. Valinor as well, is not in M-E. Hope you find this helpful.

[@jspaingreene6350]

Is it wrong to hope you find another bad piece of media to dissect? I'd be happy to hear you explain what works in a successful show as well, even if it was shorter. You do a great job of explaining why certain scenes work.

[@cy-one]

Yiss! I've been waiting for this, Random Film Talky Person! *checks runtime* So... this is what, half the runtime of ROP S1? :D

[@StainedRevenant]

This was a masterclass presentation that managed to be far more compelling and entertaining than its source material, hands down. Well done.

[@AnaatthiGozo]

Love the early 5-10 minute characters where I keep going "who?" And then you compare their screen time to someone like Grima who is one of the more interesting minor characters in all of lotr

[@dukesilver3491]

Thank you for not only providing us with the definitive review of Ring of Power, but personally, you have kept me fully entertained for a whole week at work, so thank you. This was incredible.

[@sariellakingdom1878]

There is something you may have missed in terms of continuity. Arondir. While Waldreg makes a reference to weeks passing. Its not really born out if we watch what happens to Arondir. In one episode he is captured in a cliffhanger, next episode he is brought to the orc camp and put to work meeting the other elves. This appears to happen in a short space of time. Then at the end of this episode we have the attempt to break out and Arondir is taken to Adar. Cliffhanger. Then Adar chats to Arondir then sends him to make his offer to the Villagers. Arondir then meets up with Theo and Bronwyn after Theo tries to forage some food (which does not seem to be long after anyway). Next episode we have Bronwyn trying to convince the villagers to prepare to fight orcs, then Waldreg convinces half of the villagers to leave. Unless this is weeks later which does not appear to be the case, and makes NO SENSE (because why would she wait three weeks or more before saying "Hey Gang, perhaps we should get ready to fight the orcs" even IF Adar would give them that much time which also seems not to be the case) Then the speech and split is the day after the rescue plus a couple of days travel back and forth from Tir-Harad. So continuity is utterly broken IMO

[@alisanne1]

Hooray! I’m glad you finally uploaded this, I’ve been waiting with great anticipation. Anyway, I think this was an evenhanded evaluation of this disaster, lol. Very thorough and thoughtful and you brought lots of receipts. If only the show creators had put half as much effort into creating the show as you’ve put into these analyses. Ah well. Great job! And, as I have with the other “chapters”, I’ll probably rewatch this several times to get all the points since these videos are dense and detailed. As for what you should do next, I can’t seem to access your poll (I admit I’m not great at navigating KZbin) but just a couple of thing which come to mind are: Vox Machina, Willow (as you already mentioned), Velma (you may regret that one), and I know you said you’ve no interest in Marvel, but I would LOVE your opinion on She Hulk. Anyway, whatever you decide to do, I’ll be here. I find your commentary amusing and pointed and not so mean spirited as too make me uncomfortable. So thanks for that. Fabulous work!

[@TheStacanova]

Alright, Here’s the plot device “McGuffin” I would use to fix ROP in season 2, since they’ve already written the show at this point, I know they most likely won’t be doing this! Like I said, I would open the season with Finrod defeating Sauron’s werewolf at the cost of his own life. This is where we would show Sauron being aware of Finrod’s Sister Galadriel, & the beginning of his plan, with a “proof of concept”, prior to the forging of the Rings of Power. The proof of concept would be to imbue Finrod’s dagger with some basic emotions that will infect the dagger’s owner, of hate, revenge and obsession, etc. and allow Sauron to more easily manipulate them. We would reveal that Sauron’s plan was for the dagger to end up in Galadriel’s possession, possibly corrupting her and perhaps gaining him an ally, best case, but corrupting and distraction is enough. 1. This would explain why, when Finrod’s body was found, the dagger was with it. 2. This would allow the writers to rehabilitate Galadriel as a character, by attributing her actions to being the results of her slowly being poisoned by the dagger over hundreds of years. 3. This would also connect to a “call back” of why Halbrand stole the dagger and gave it back to her. 4. This will also explain “why” Galadriel jumped off the ship, she was being manipulated by the dagger. 5. This would explain how Halbrand was able to find Galadriel in the vast ocean, because she had the dagger. 6. Since they changed Tolkien’s lore or at least didn’t show a “magical process” with the forging of the 3 Elven rings, the Dagger that Sauron had already imbued, being used to construct the rings, helps to explains how they’re connected to the one ring Sauron will forge later on. 7. This also explains why it was so easy for Sauron to manipulate Galadriel and enter her mind, while she was in possession of the dagger. 8. This can also be used to explain why Galadriel wasn’t nearly as focused on her missing husband as she should be. In summary, it’s the perfect McGuffin to save ROP. You rehabilitate Galadriel’s character. You make Sauron more brilliant, manipulative, evil and intentional. You somewhat repair some lore they screwed up, that will matter when the one ring is forged. At least the primary Protagonist & Antagonist will be closer to Tolkien’s characterizations. Then all you have to do it rehabilitate Elrond, Celebrimbor, and the Numenorians and figure out how to make the Harfoots NOT psychopaths!

[@dynjarren5454]

Are they going to make a season 2? I don't know if to say I care or if to say I look forward to it. Love the whole breakdown you provided and the incredible effort it took to do it. Thank you

[@thomasdoubting2730]

At around the 7:00 mark, you mention that Galadriel doesn't need soldiers. While this seem correct, I would like to suggest that she need a servant named *_Patsy_* to cary all her stuff while banging to coconut halves together, as well as a *_herald_* to loudly proclaim that: "Yes, this is in fact the *Hero!"*

[@liliesaregoodfortheliver2954]

But how could the coconuts have gotten to Middle Earth? I suppose two Numenorean swallows could have carried it there on a string between them...or a fell-beast could have carried it there...

[@thomasdoubting2730]

@@liliesaregoodfortheliver2954 Hmm... Maby Patsy III bang the skulls of Patsy I&II together 🤔

[@liliesaregoodfortheliver2954]

@@thomasdoubting2730 unfortunately, they were not galadriel, and did not survive the pyroclastic flow

[@izupie7393]

Thoroughly enjoyed your entire video series on this show! You offer really insightful opinions and analysis while also having a really fun sense of humour. I really appreciated the odd moments of praise you gave too - it's so refreshing to see someone rip into this show while also acknowledging the very rare things it did well. Your format has been fun to listen to and watch the whole time and I'm looking forward to whatever you do next, whatever it's about!

[@cavalleriarusticable]

Thank you so much for your hard work. I am an opera singer, so I professionally deal with dramaturgy, and I happen to be a fan of Tolkien's works too. So watching RoP has been very very frustrating for me on any level as you've pointed out so meticulously. I think that RoP criticism has become a genuine new art form in itself and I enjoy watching all those funny, witty and merciless reviews to nurture my hatred and keep it alive 😂 . Your series are absolutely fabulous. Also I've been sick this week and could do nothing but binge watch your reviews - so I just wanted to tell you that you've really lightened up the days of a temporarily bed ridden wretch ☺️ thanks!

[@MrMarttivainaa]

Took a little over 24 hours but I finished your whole ROP series. I have never been so invested in a critique, I can usually stand a couple hours on a topic I care about but this takes the cake. My youtube history is nothing but your ROP series from start to finish. I'm happy to finally be free to do something else but I'm glad I found your channel, good job!

[@AlexLawngtv]

Alright :) finished the video. I want to let you know that after finding your stuff for RoP, i watched your other videos and enjoyed those as well. So i'm here for your content on the way you see media. The 'not very good' and the amazing, like Bladerunner, that director and editor team, is just hitting thier stride and i love it :). Keep up the good work. I could hear how tired you were of hearing endless hate without something to balance the productivity of the conversation. I'm with you there i think. I love talking about story and how its constructed. So again, thank you for all this work to lay it all out on why, Rings of Power is Not Very Good. ps my vote, you do videos on types of character, Where they are done well, where they aren't. compare and contrast. examples like chosen ones, underdogs or nihilists villains vs savior complexes.

[@durtyd9625]

How do you have any less than 1 million subs? I'm not sure when you started this venture but keep at it, don't alter your whole model (obviously tweeking some things around as you evolve is natural) and monetization, followers and mass praise are all but guaranteed. Assuming some of that is what your after with this? After a lifetime in the movie industry, I like to pretend I have an eye for talent. Some things panned out, fewer did not. Your voice adds to that sort of ironic condescending humor. It all just works bro! Here to time giving you the things you've clearly earned 🍻 E pili mau na pomaika`i ia `oe from Maui 🤙

[@AliciatheCho]

Thank you for this! I love that you put intellectual rigor into your analysis using actual data points. This show is difficult to analyze because the inconsistency and outright bad writing makes it hard to know what is what. So, in the memorial forest, Elrond does acknowledge that Galadriel’s quest did get some of her soldiers killed. It’s like the one time he checks her. Yet, like her suicide attempt, it’s not highlighted. It makes her 1000x more revolting that she continues her quest. I’m a Tolkien lore fan and also had low expectations for this show mostly because the showrunners have the writing experience of a kid practicing their letters in crayon. But I like this show despite itself because I find it interesting. But I think unspecified amount of issues are more about Jennifer Salke. It’s interdicting that the showrunners got 7 chances to pitch and apparently the last time was with Salke. She has an ideological agenda. All S2 directors are women. All of the leaders except Gil-Galad are women. I think they hired the showrunness because they’d be Yes Men. I wonder if Galadriel had been the original protagonist. I don’t care but perhaps the showrunners willingness to adhere to Salke’s agenda gave them the advantage over more qualified writers. But you can tell Galadriel is a self-insert of the showrunners. A common phenomenon with fan fiction writers. You can see their worldview and values reflected in her

[@Revan1007]

I really apreciate how much time you invested for this Autopsy. I will definitely have to go and watch all the other parts now as well as finish the Hobbit Analysis. Exactly my cup of tea! As for people with deeper knowledge of the Tolkien-universe I would say that they would not really understand the Rings of Power either since the references to the Silmarillion don't really make any sense either (Mithril for example is very different there as is its History, most of the references don't fit as far as I can see and I have read the Silmarillion more than once and even the proto-version of the Silmarillion (Unfinished tales)).