Only the lazy did not criticize The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The first season became a real disaster for fans. Ordinary viewers did not particularly appreciate Amazon's creation either. With an astronomical budget, there was nothing outstanding in the project. In addition, the creators took great liberties with the canon and shook up, it seems, everything. And then the second season came out — and unexpectedly started much more successfully. It was still criticized, bloggers recorded multi-hour videos with devastating reviews, but the fact remained a fact — viewers liked it a little more. In this article, we decided to take on a heavy burden and not describe the obvious problems of the new chapter of «Rings», but to prepare a top list of reasons why the second season, which has already been released in full, can improve your impressions and deserves a little more attention.
Let's start with the basics. Imitating Game of Thrones with its multiple main characters, The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power presented several plot lines that developed separately from each other for a long time.
The first is, of course, young Galadriel, who changed the image of a wise elf to an impulsive warrior. In the Galadriel line, we met young Elrond, Gil-galad — the ruler of one of the largest elven kingdoms of that time — Lindon, and, naturally, Celebrimbor — the best elven blacksmith of his time. In parallel, Sauron himself joined Gala, whose identity the scriptwriters clumsily tried to hide throughout the debut season.
The second line is the dwarves and their problems with the mountain. Here the main characters were the young prince Durin the Fourth, his wife Disa and the then king Durin the Third.
The third line is an unknown wizard, in whom everyone immediately recognized Gandalf, and who lost his memories, except for one — to go to unknown lands. He teamed up with the ancestors of the hobbits — the hairy legs and for almost the entire season did not understand what was happening.
Among other things, viewers were introduced to Numenor, a young Isildur and his father Elendil — the same ones who would later create Gondor, as well as a chocolate elf who protects the southern people from attacks by orcs, and builds a complex relationship with a village healer and her precocious son.
All this mess regularly replaced each other in each episode, which is why interesting events had to be waited for a long time, watching bad dialogue and confusion in less significant subplots.
The second season feels different. The scriptwriters were apparently given a kick in the pants, so now we have a solid core of main lines that are concentrated on screen time. Other characters still flicker, but now no one pretends that they are important. Numerous branches either merged or began to take up much less space. The entire second season is the story of the rings of men and dwarves, their creation and Sauron's participation in this process.
The relationship between the Dark Lord and the blacksmith Celebrimbor is generally the main and, perhaps, the best thing in the show today. The line of elves and all the main characters revolves around this. The second locomotive was the events in the kingdom of the dwarves and Durin's confrontation with his father, who fell under the influence of the new ring. Both of these lines were more attractive than others in the first season, but now everything fell into place.
The chocolate elf finally accepted the role of a secondary character and spent almost all of his screen time next to Isildur, and the problems of Numenor are outlined in a few strokes and without much detail. This is good, because Numenor will be the central location of the story in one of the future seasons, so its time will come.
The general conclusion that can be made after watching all eight episodes is that the story has become more complex and coherent. Of course, it is still far from ideal, but this is a huge step forward for a completely failed show.
Another big problem with the first season was the characters' personalities. People spat the most about Galadriel, and we fully support this. The elf literally became a different character compared to her image from The Lord of the Rings. The writers wanted to create a strong and strong-willed female hero, but decided that the strength should be physical and brute, and so Galya waves a sword, swears at everyone and thinks that her opinion is the only correct one. Add to this the frankly inconsistent decisions and irritating stupidity — and here is the reason for the anger of the fans.
In the second season, they tried to fix the situation. From the first minutes, literally everyone thoughtfully tells Gala why she was a fool, that she did not notice Sauron two steps away from her, that she believed in the rings and generally behaved inappropriately. Elrond was especially successful in this, who turned from an errand boy into a brave leader, ready to do anything for his beliefs.
The second bright star was Prince Durin. He was already well developed in the first season and continued to develop in the second. In general, the dwarves are one of the clear successes of the show. Yes, the black princess Disa is still an eyesore, but against the background of a beautiful and, most importantly, logical conflict, you forget about it. If the writers leave the fact that Durin will also eventually receive the ring, we would really like to see it. There are hints in the finale.
Adar also turned from a passing villain into an interesting character who can surprise. He has a very clear motivation, although far from canon, which the Uruk will follow until the very end.
And finally, the main and best thing is Sauron. We declare with full responsibility that in the first season, the actor who played such a complex role was underestimated. The script returned a little to canon and showed how the Dark Lord pretended to be Annatar — the Lord of Gifts — deceiving Celebrimbor and other elves. The way Sauron cleverly manipulates weaknesses and builds a web of lies around the blacksmith is fascinating. In many ways, this is not so much the merit of the script as the actor himself. His facial expressions, eyes and subtle facial expressions create a very lively and natural image, close to how you imagine Sauron during the Second Age.
The Lord of the Rings does not consider himself evil at all, he even sincerely believes that all the negative events that occur are only the result of the choice of others, not his. Sauron wants to save Middle-earth and «liberate» it, and the rest do nothing but interfere. This generally echoes the canon, so like it.
Almost from the very beginning, it was clear that the series would have a hard time without the rings. Until they were created, what was happening developed slowly and seemed secondary. And now, finally, the rings are officially part of the narrative. Yes, no one is talking about the One yet and its creation is far from over, but the rest of the cast is actively involved in the plot and is already influencing the bearers. The scriptwriters have a particularly wide scope for creativity in the third season, when Sauron will be looking for future Nazgul.
Here, however, there were some nuances, since the elven rings do not give significant power and for some reason do not have an effect, while the dwarven ones, on the contrary, offer too much to the wearers and poison their consciousness — these script minuses have not gone away from the project. In general, the whole show was supposed to revolve around the rings (the name obliges), and therefore we finally got to the main thing, and this is good.
This is both a plus and a minus, but it all depends on your perception. Various references and fan service were supposed to be mandatory companions of the series. This makes the project related to the main works and at least a little bit connects everything into the general universe. We were shown the Balrog, the sword of Elendil, the palantir and even Tom Bombadil. The latter had never appeared anywhere before, and therefore became a surprise character. And they also brought in eagles, albeit crudely.
However, it is precisely thanks to numerous references and Easter eggs that the active elements of the series slowly acquire familiar features. Gandalf finds a staff, the Hairyfoots meet another kindred race that is much more gardening and domestic than they were in the first season, and Isildur and Elendil are increasingly acquiring the features of future kings. Even Galadriel has suddenly realized by the end of the eighth episode that it is not necessary to confront the darkness with a sword at the ready, and has tried on a more canonical contemplative image.
This may be surprising, but the series has indeed seen a noticeable decrease in the overall level of the agenda. We don't know whether this is due to criticism of the first season or new trends in Hollywood, but in eight episodes we have not counted many shots with Asians or blacks, and certainly none of them have taken new leading roles.
Yes, the elves are still colorful, Disa hasn't turned white, and the chocolate elf hasn't died, but still. You won't see any unconventional relationships either. Even the black hobbits were written in logically, since their people have lived in a real desert for many generations.
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Don't get us wrong, «The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power» is still very bad in almost everything. But while watching it, we didn't get any new moral trauma, and the pain from some of the old ones became weaker. It is clear that adjustments have been made to the overall vision of the project. The writers tried to at least partially return to the canon and clean up a little of the mess that the first season left behind. And, of course, Sauron, who the vast majority of viewers and fans were waiting for, finally shines in all his glory. The show desperately lacks scale, although the budget is sufficient, and the first real battle has already happened, but again — these are obvious disadvantages that you already know from hundreds of other articles and videos. We want to say that the project is not as hopeless as it might seem. The second season was filmed almost immediately after the first and many of the critical comments simply could not be physically taken into account, but if the trend continues, «The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power» is quite capable of competing for viewers with the same House of the Dragon, which, frankly speaking, has also become boring and turned into a «soap opera». Yes, we ourselves are shocked.