THE RINGS OF POWER Season 2, Episode 6 Review: The Sea Is Always Right

This episode gave us a few glimpses of what an actually competent, well-written series could have been like if they'd only stuck closer to the books. It also had a bunch of mind-numbing idiocy. As always, the music is something I made with AI.

[stephengibbons]

They just cannot resist the crutch of cheaply repurposing dialog and visual beats from the LotR films. It's the height of laziness and this episode had several egregious examples. And you're right, Bombadil as Gandalf's Yoda figure is beyond dumb.

[namenloss]

Rings of power pisses me off the same way acolyte pissed me off:
They had the budget, they had some interesting ideas, and they utterly botched the execution turning the whole thing into a brain dead mess

[frankvandorp]

It's not that they just should have stuck closer to the lore, they simply should have hired MUCH better writers.
It could never have been a good show with writers so incompetent they require an elf city not noticing an orc army camping on their doorstep, or who write a 'manipulative' character like Sauron not by devising smart plans for him to follow, but by having other characters say "this is all Sauron's plan!" in response to every random event happening in the plot.

[Makkaru]

Amazon waited until Christopher Tolkien died early in the production of its DumpsterFire, his "demand" was that Amazon could use the Appendices to make the show, but they couldn't change the lore. As soon as Christopher died, Amazon delayed the show for reshoots, fired Tom Shippey who was the lead Tolkien scholar & friend of Tolkien himself; they wanted Jackson on the team.

PeterJackson asked for the scripts then they ghosted him. Then later when asked about it he basically told them good luck.. You can blame this garbage show on Simon Tolkien (who Amazon used to get around all the laws and protections set around the estate and JRR Tolkien’s legacy), its stink doesn't reach Christopher.


Firstly: they merge events (from thousands of years of history & build up towards several events but puts them all into one moment as if it’s happening in the same few years without time jumps or anything.) Guyladriel the murderous one dimensional girlboss heroine version of Galadriel never met Miriel(one of Aragorn’s ancestors) because, as an elf, she would have been sacrificed to Morgoth by the King's Men.

The hobbits and Gandalf never met in the 2nd Age because Gandalf was in Valinor till the 3rd Age.

Miriel wasn’t even born yet. She was born 2000 years before the rings of power era. A precursor to other events to come in later ages.


Also Elendil would never say “forget the past and toss it aside.” That’s the whole thing about the Faithful Númenoreans!!!


Faithfulness to what’s good. To their elf friends. To the Valar, to Eru Îlluvatar(The One AllFather), The way Galadriel acts like Fëanor when he isn’t seeing straight such as how she threatened bloodshed in the highest court of Númenor! The way she isn’t tall, the way she fights rookies doesn’t make her look strong.

Should have had her spar with Elendil who was greater than Miriel in many ways even as far as lineage goes too! (Canon has her as a grandson or son so…)

Have her spar with those greater Numenoreans and let the rookies laugh at their masters being vested by an elf woman holding back from actually hurting them! Now that’d be cool.


(Remember. Their whole mantra was to write the book Tolkien never wrote”. Also watch them fake super fans. And then watch their social media that had nothing Tolkien on it ever. Like…. It’s painfully obvious what’s going on here. Same formula towards other titles. They’re just trying to bank on the brand of which that’s the only reason they did this.

Just watch Peter Jackson’s new movie coming out and the War of the Rohirim. You’ll see that Brian Cox is involved In it along with Philipa Boyens as well as Actor for Èowyn named Miranda Otto. Fran Walsh I also believe is Involved as well!


Watch George The Giant Slayer’s first video regarding the war of the rohirrim. It was beautiful. And he has a wonderful soul too. When I say first video.

I don’t mean very first uploaded video though lol. )
There was also no Adar. No poppy. No Nori. No fake Gandalf who literally didn’t come the way he was supposed to which introduces Círdan. And since they screwed up the themes and lore so badly they have to dig in their heels.


& they are also being sued by multiple people and groups and companies actually. The rings were forged last and not first. They were not in his sights or touch nor did he even know about them. And also guyladriel wasn’t a murderous Fëanorean either. But the note of the elven rings.

They were made last and without the knowledge of Sauron.


His touch never got to them. Made in secret so that whole story is thrown out the window as well. And making them first and having the obvious Sauron figure who wasn’t an elf to just be there when they’re making them and have his eye show up in the forge which wasn’t even the worst of it.

The greatest of elven smiths still around which is Celebrimbor doesn’t even know what alloying is.


Not to mention all their environmental scandals on top of bad CGI stuff.


Full of copy past crowds and plagerisms up the wazoo. It’s also getting sued by several people and groups.



I’ll also remind you that they just ran an old sick horse til it died of cardiac arrest and then only had a ten min coffee break to loosely honour this horse. Not to mention Tolkien loved animals in a deep way. They also have been causing environmental damage one of which being King Charles ancient forest to make a set. It’s scandal after scandal. And the fire in studio that took four hours to put out with firemen for yet another example.




PS they don’t have the rights to the Silmarillion nor anything much of the second age let alone the first. Only the trilogy books and their appendices….



Remember that they also plagiarized tonnes of films in nontasteful instead of true a homage way…

“tempest in me” but when threatening Fëanorean level bloodshed in the court of Numenor was from Cate Blanchett’s Elizabeth role which was done with grace and poise of a veteran actress(which doesn’t even sound like anything those of the great chill house of Finarfin would even act like.

Again it’d be best to put Elrond there due to Elros. But ooook let’s make girlboss do everything. Even if it continues to make zero sense. )😍


​​⁠ fact they downplayed Elendil who’d never say to “forget the past”, Gil-Galad and Finrod is beyond infuriating and not explaining Elwing, Elronds mother beyond just showing her as a swan was pure LOLism. Like. What’s worse is Grandpabimbor…. Let’s not forget good ol’ Guyladriel either. The LOTR version of Star Wars’ Rey! Guyladriel the Female Fëanor without any of his charms and subtleties and wit… just the bloody violent rages…


​​⁠They lost alot of viewers after their bait and switch behaviour. Hundreds reported shenanigans on their app where it’d force you to watch and episode twice in variously described circumstances. Bribed people left and right with things like that screening. Even the official critics fell asleep.


Many longtime film analysts along with actors and film students/professionals give basic criticism and in depth look at the editing and so forth which causes it to fall flat on its face. Abandons plot left and right. Full of member berries. Just because we got fake Tom Bombadil doesn’t mean we’ll flip onto our backs to play with the jingling keys. Balrog wasn’t awoken until thousands of years later. They’re horridly depicted scenarios which often aren’t canon: were separated by hundreds of years. Some of them by thousands. Not cool. Amazon is known to be corrupt.

[KleinKore]

This somehow defines this whole Show: what could have been

[Makkaru]

It’d have been way cooler if they didn’t ghost Peter Jackson & chase out Tom Shippey as the whole weta team could have designed Dol-Amroth together with us as well as other places.

[Lothiril]

They have too many storylines, they cannot progress a single one of them properly and with the attention it would need. Take Pharazôn for example. They just tell you that he is envious about the eternal life and bliss of the Elves in the West. But do they show it? Do they show humans die of old age and sickness while the Elves don't visibly age and never suffer any sickness? Do they show Pharazôn's fear of his own death? No, they just start a coup on Númenor without ever clarifying the two factions on the island and why the believe what they believe.
So. much. wasted. potential...
And what was the point in having the eagle lead to Pharazôn being named king when now a sea monster causes the people to call Miriel queen again? Why is kingship on Númenor dependant on random animals showing up? Nothing about this gets established anywhere, it's just ridiculous.
There's more to criticise, but I'll focus only on one other thing: what they did to Celebrimbor is just really really bad. That character stopped making any sense in that episode, and it's a shame that they reduced him to being a fool who's now just tricked by magic. If Sauron can change the reality for people 8as Gil-galad said), there shouldn't be any limit to this ability, but if also makes the characters hollow and pointless because they lose their agency.

[brucemooney]

Galadriel telling Adar about HER ring that’s on the way was blasphemy. The Three ARE SECRET!!!

[verisimlitudesque]

I will never be able to not imagine Hispanic Yoda now while watching star wars, thanks Erik.

[KeytarArgonian]

I still think they could have made this show with time jumps, with each season leaping forward hundreds of years and told the proper story. That’s the beauty of having immortal characters. They stay. The mortals die as seasons change and you cycle out the mortal actors. You could have seen Numenor before the fall, get progressively worse. This could have been done largely in the wardrobe department. Each season with new fashions, could have been shown on the architecture. The creation of the rings would be meaningful and the story told correctly.

[TacticNorthEast]

Part of me thinks "it is what it is, get over it", and the other part of me thinks that this is what happens when you have showrunners who haven't a clue what they are doing. This could have been outstanding, should have been outstanding, but there are entire passages where I find myself switching off. I don't care at all about the Harfoots, or Numenor really. Dull dull dull.
But still, for all of its issues, I love the show. This series is much better than the first.

[MrDedGuy]

With how egregious the callbacks and nostalgia bait from the books and the films in this show has been, I was really surprised Durin IV didn’t tell his father, Durin III, not to “delve too greedily and too deep, lest we awaken something in the darkness.” I’m like 90% certain that line will rear its ugly head here soon, I just wonder how cringe-inducing it will be.

[frankvandorp]

Tom Bumbledore's wizard school is one of the worst ideas ever.

[johanngerell]

"As always, the music is something I made with AI" - damn! I asked Shazam about that intro part and it couldn't find anything :D LOVED IT!

[scdavis]

Celebimbo is too much of a frumpy beta male for me to ever believe he could be the greatest craftsman at the time. It takes me out of it too much to enjoy his storyline

[AnthonyBerkshire]

In RoP middle Earth are only 1000 people in total. It’s so empty like their dialogues

[thegoblonoid]

Would be interesting to see once this show is over (or preferrably cancelled) what was actually going on behind the scenes.
As some people have pointed out I think it has to do with Christopher Tolkien's passing. There needs to be an investigation on this and it would make for a great youtube documentary lol.

[janatman]

I'm not familiar with the original lore, so I love learning about it from reviews like these. But even for someone like me, this series suffers from poor writing, poor pacing (it seems to move too slowly and too quickly at the same time), and callbacks galore. Much like season 1, season 2 will be relegated to a single viewing and never again.

[denglongfist]

The callbacks had been there from Galadriel’s introduction in S1 E1. When Galadriel is talking about how her brother went searching from Sauron (insert Gandalf voice) “but the enemy found him first” was too much for me

[AnnoyingCritic-isrp]

Your recommendations are good but what hurts the show is the screenplay, not just the fact that it violates lore.

If you want to tell a story about Anatar corrupting Celebrimbor, then you have to make these characters three-dimensional characters. You have to introduce them, show what they do in the normal part of their lives. Make them do interesting things on their own. And then you can set up both characters. You will have to show one that has the power to corrupt and the other to be corruptible. And you have to do it in a way that we all can relate to somehow. That both corruption and the ability corrupt have to be explained in terms that we can understand and relate to and have experiences in.