First Impressions of the Episode 6 of Rings of Power Season 2

These are my First impressions of Episode 6 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2

► Disclaimer:
I have permission of the artists to use their art works.

► Artwork and special thanks to:

► Sources:
The Lord of The Rings (1954-1955) by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Silmarillion (1977)
The Hobbit (1937; 1951)
Unfinished Tales (1980)
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien (1981)
The Peoples of Middle-earth (1996)
The War of The Jewels (1994)
The Book of Lost Tales Part Two (1984)
The Lost Road and Other Writings (1987)
The Shaping of Middle-earth (1986)
Morgoth's Ring (1993)
The Road Goes Ever On (1967) by J. R. R. Tolkien & Donald Swann
History of the Hobbit (2007)
The Nature of Middle-earth (2021)

Maps:
Amazon (John Howe)
Edited by: Murdo
Aman map by ThePhilosophersGames

► Mistakes:
-

► Playlists:
If you are interested in Tolkien's legendary fantasy Epic The Lord of the Rings and his related works, here some recommendations:

► Time Codes:
Intro - 0:00

► Social Media:
The Philosopher's Games / TPhGames / TPhLore aka Chris

► Of Games and Rings Podcast:

#RingsOfPower #LotR #LordOfTheRings

[Henez]

Tom spouting the iconic Gandalf lines really grated on me. Why, why do prequels do this? It strips away the wisdom and intrigue of a character to just show them getting it from someone else.

[ecthelionofthefountain]

I'm so glad I'm not watching this season but good to be updated and hear your review and thoughts. I have no desire to force myself to watch it though.

[carl_oak]

I really can't stand Galadriel's character, is borderline juvenile. Being so easily fooled and disclosing Nenya's existence and location. Lol? The great commander of the northern armies... And why are we losing screentime with harfoots and fake Bombadil? The quotes... If they focused on Eregion, Khazad-Dum and Numenor would be way way better developed.

[zaneramos]

At this point, I wont be surprised if they created a love triangle story line between GUYladriel, Sauron, and Adar, she get’s pregnant, gives birth to Gollum, and becomes a mystery on Who’s the daddy. 😓

[paulfreeborn]

I agree with you about the transplanted lines from the books / Jackson films. When Jackson threw in one of those lines, it felt like an homage... "A shortcut to mushrooms" to squeeze in the title of a chapter, for example. In the RoP, every time they do that it feels more like plagiarism. Even the name "Merimac" seems like a way to try and capitalize on the character "Merry" from LotR. Agree with you about Galadriel--it's not the actress' fault. Kind of like Natalie Portman in "Attack of the Clones"... She's doing the best she can with a ridiculous script.

[develhuntr]

8:42 adar knows about the rings because his orcs intercepted gil-galad's msg to eregion

[rothsshvili]

Arondir can do what? Will he assasinate Adar from a distance or something? Not sure what his quest is about

[stevejones]

The Hidden Psychology Behind the "Rings of Power" Backlash:

After watching the last two episodes I'm beginning to wonder: Is the general massive pushback against ROP really justified? Or are we falling victim to our own cognitive biases? Three psychological phenomena might be heavily influencing our perception of the series:

1) The Framing Dilemma: We know the series deviates from Tolkien's canon. This causes us to view it overly critically from the start. Anything non-Tolkien is automatically labeled as inferior, while Tolkien's originals enjoy a "halo effect." Can we truly judge the series objectively anymore?

2) The Groupthink Trap: Influential opinion leaders condemn the series. Many uncritically adopt these narratives. Once the majority rejects the series, even neutral viewers tend to align with this opinion. A classic case of groupthink. Also, if you say something positive, they call you a "shill" and claim Amazon has bought you.

3) The Schadenfreude Temptation: Let's admit it – sometimes it's fun to "bash" something. There's something alluring about watching a mega-corporation fail. But is that fair?

Don't get me wrong: The series (including the last episode) definitely has its weaknesses, and questionable decisions were made. But if we free ourselves from these psychological pitfalls, perhaps we can also recognize its strengths: The breathtaking visuals and the moments that make every Middle-earth fan's heart skip a beat.

Let's be honest: Does "Rings of Power" really deserve that much criticism? Or should we consider our criticism a bit more carefully?
I personally enjoyed episode 5 and episode 6 a lot and think the series is general is maturing and getting better.

That being said, I really love your channel, as you clearly try to have a very nuanced criticism in general - unlike many other youtubers. Keep on the good work!

[Don]

I laughed a *lot* when they butchered Gandalf’s line about people deserving life or death. Somehow a line about being merciful in your judgement of others gets turned into “have you considered that your friends perhaps deserve to die?” what were the writers thinking?

[MikaelKKarlsson]

I'll save viewing this one for next weeks episode, and pour a large whiskey or something. I'll need it. 🥃

[Enerdhil]

Who doesn't forget Mirdania's name?😅

[Enerdhil]

Crunching the timeline so Celebrimbor has to forge nine Rings of Power in half a day.🙄 As

[ShmuelSch]

I really liked that Galadriel was surprised to see the crown and started to say she thought the crown was... And obviously she thought it was made into a collar for Morgoth like written in the Silmarillion. But Adar was there and he can tell the lore of the elves is wrong and the crown remained in Middle-earth. It would probably annoy many people like 'are you correcting Tolkien?!' but I find it really cool and in the spirit of such lore transferred from person to person (one can also remember the fact Dwarves have another version to the Nauglamir story, and we don't actually know which one is more accurate).

[henryblunt]

The whole RoP conception of how the rings are made seems flawed to me. It's not just "science and technology". Tolkien didn't explain it, andI think that's because, in part, he thought of it as "Art", as creation, not invention. The elves are creators, and the rings (and the silmarils) are works of art.
The hacks who wrote RoP wouldn't see that. Instead they talk about alloys, and magic tricks.

[AnnoyingCritic-isrp]

When did this start where you don't know your main characters or where they're going or what they're doing?

I read John Carter, The Narnia books, Conan the barbarian, tons of sword and sorcery. Do you ever ask yourself in any of this material who am I watching and where am I going?

Who started this nonsense?

[fpvx]

Still can't get past the venom episode... and I really tried... but its just "meh"...
I appreciate that you suffer through this :D

[CarlosAfonso]

Elfs with alzheimer, business meal between orcs and elfs😂😂😂😂

[PriscilaTV]

I really enjoyed the Númenor plot, which was very odd because it is usually my least favorite parts. Miriel and Elendil are very engaging and Khazad Dhun continues to be strong. But ia lso felt very weirded out about other plots.

[SaintFort]

I enjoyed the episode. However, I feel like it's an extension of the story of the previous episode; the overall story of the season does not advance much. I expected this episode to be a full-on depiction of the Orcs' attack on Eregion, but - alas - we must wait until next week for that.

[theamazingbatboy]

The whole episode was incredibly contrived—simply awful. So many situations seemed to come out of nowhere, even when you see how they've manoeuvred us towards them all along. To think of the writers gleefully rubbing their hands together in anticipation of the 'surprise' and tension audiences would feel watching the thousands strong orc armies sneaking up on a whole city. I was certainly astonished at the lunacy of it and practically shaking so you could definitely call that tension. It was like watching a Tom & Jerry cartoon, the cat creeping towards the mouse with exaggerated movements to synchronised horn toots.

Pretty much _every_ character in the episode acted inexplicably, or stupidly, for the sake of the next narrative loop-de-loop they'd been written in to. I'd give examples by storyline but it's wearying to even think about tbh. It's a carnival ghost train ride of disconnected spectacle; rushed encounters; the telegraphed jump scares of unconvincing employees in masks and wobbly looking skellingtons :(