THE RINGS OF POWER 2x07 Breakdown & Review!!!
00:00Introducing the new Volvo XC90 with seven-seat versatility,Google built-in, and advanced safety features for all your precious cargo.The new Volvo XC90, designed for life.Visit volvocars.com slash us to learn more.At Sierra, discover great deals on top brand workout gear,like high-quality walking shoes, which might lead to another discovery.40,000 steps, baby.Who's on top now, Karen?
00:26You've taken the office step challenge, a step too far.Don't worry, though. Sierra also has yoga gear.It might be a good place to find your zen.Discover top brands at unexpectedly low prices.Sierra, let's get moving.This summer, try the new Strato Frappuccino blended beverage at Starbucks.It's the classic blended iced coffee you know and love,now topped with a creamy layer of handcrafted brown sugar cold foam.
00:51Available for a limited time.Your strato Frappuccino is ready at Starbucks.It's a good time.Come join us.Roll the bumps.What do we got?Oh, God.Is this like one of those Viking metal bands?
01:16Oh, I feel like whoever this is just toured with Mastodon or something.Wild stuff.Oh, God.Let's talk about it.All right.Well, dang.If you guys are listening by a chance on Apple or Spotify.I leave us a five-star rating or whatever rating you like, but, you know, five is a nice place to start.
01:35This was a big, I mean, we got, we're in battle territory now.It's huge.This is a big one.Big battles.One of the biggest battles.Big one.The whole show.Everyone's talking about it.
01:48Gee, I know you had expressed some concerns about how the episode was kind of paced at one point throughout.Now that we have seen it in its totality.what say yeum yeah i thought it was good it's not my favorite of the i felt like season two's been uh pretty goodand i feel like the past few have been great and uh especially the last i think the last onewas still my favorite episode yeah we've gotten so far i i did like this one overall i do thinkthere was some pacing issues like i don't think any of the scenes necessarily are badthere's some clunky stuff in the action moments that i i do think there was some clunky stuff in the action moments that
02:29I don't feel like theylike there was one momentor John I were laughing when someone clearlywasn't hit by anything but they acted likeit. Sure. Andsome stunt man salad there.Yeah. And then like it seemed a little bitfunny in the way how that one girl got
02:45shot by all those arrows all of a sudden.It just turns around.She's like,a lot of them.And it was likethat seemed like somethingthat would have been brought upand then paid off like
02:5720 minutes down the line in a movie.or I don't know why they didn't like save that to the next episodeother than I guess the battle had to end this oneYeah I do think that there was it just felt like oh we're getting momentumAnd now we're really going to slow it down with this other thingNow we're getting momentum now we're really going to slow it down with this other thingAnd so I do think some of the cutting around the stuffActually kind of affected it when I think this episode might have been a little bit stronger
03:24If it was mainly just the caliber more stuffAnd and andand the battle.Does everything surrounding a reggae on?Yeah, yeah.If it was just mainly that,I think it would have been more focusedand it would have been a little bit stronger.
03:38And like,technically it was that.Like, technically,it,there was just the way the scenes were doneand how they chose to cut around them.I just thought kind of affected the,the overall pacing of it to the point where
03:51it never really quite soared,even though this was like their biggest battle thingthey've done on the show.Yeah.And there were moments in the battle sequence that I totally think were really cool.Like, I think there's a lot of great destruction moments.There's some cool violence that goes down.And it looked good.
04:09It looked fucking great.A lot of the destruction stuff.But, yeah, there was just a sense of like, when I say slowed down, I'm like, this battle is a very urgent high stakes thing.And then that urgency really would feel like it's being put on hold.and so I kind of wouldI kind of felt likewhen things should just constantly be ramping upit didn't feel it would be like
04:37like I don't know how to explain itwell yeah it's you've got this battlecoming to a head and you've also gotyou know Sauron doing his torment ofKellebrimbor and so there's like enough of likea dilated sense of stakes like there'sthe super physical stakes right outside the doorand there's this like yeah mental torture that we need to pay off
04:54and I think cutting to the dwarvesand doing the likeall the stuff they did with the dwarves was goodand I feel like maybeit might have been better served in the previousepisode so that we could spend thisepisode wonderinglike they're going to show up though
05:10and then like maybe cut later to revealwhy they haven't showed up or somethingand I think they were trying to do the thingof no when the dwarves show upit'll be like they're saving the dayand I never reallygot the sense that the dwarves were their secretweapon to victory here
05:26and so I didn't reallyfeel like we needed to spend that much time with them in this episode yeah so it's really not likeis it's really this that that's my main thing here is yeah it's a pacing problem um but you knowgood violence and uh hell running laddriel guestin that's right adar's co and uh and errone dearbetter not be dead errone dear uh yeah i know he really love that aaron dear he's my boy he knowshis name. He is my boy. And Kellibrimbor, it's tragic. This like gaslighting abusive relationship. AndSaron really seems to not just be saying words to abuse him. He really seems like a narcissisticsociopath. He does, which I think is cool. He's really like, you forced me to do this. I wouldn't
06:13be doing this, but you made me. You chose this. Yeah. You know, it's really cruel. And I actuallyreally like that. I really like how they wrote him that way. Yeah. I'm just like, he's an abusiveWhat makes him interesting is the fact that several times throughout his scenes, like, I'll get lost thinking, like, it seems like he really believes what he's saying.Yeah.And then you'll see that anger underneath, like, boil over when, like, all of the options, like, you can watch him kind of cycle through manipulation tactics where he'll come in and be like, hey, Keller Brimbor, we're making something beautiful.We're going to balance the world.And then it becomes, but you made me, I mean, like, we were doing so great, but then you made me do this stuff that corrupted the process.Early just made me think of like when a husband hits his wife and he's like, you made me hit you. Look what you made me do. Look what you made me do. And then when that doesn't work, then it goes to like, I am going to Lord over you and force you to do my bidding. And yeah, like it's a nice detail because I think it's a very hazardous thing arguably to like develop Sauron too much because you don't want to like demystify him or, you know, undercut the dark Lord Emperor vibe motif. But yeah, like Charlie Vickers, like what he's like what he.
07:24He's been bringing to the character throughout this in like the subtle little micro expressions.And yeah, the way he plays this guy, you know, what he's talking about like, you know,Morgoth, what he did to me, like to repeat that cycle of abuses is painful to me.And in a way, I believe that.And like, that's, yeah, that's good stuff.Like, that's interesting.They found something interesting thematically to do there.And then, yeah, like, I kind of forgotten in a way until he and Galadriel had their moment
07:53together outside where they're both likeI this is all my faultI let him in no no no I did toolike this is like that shameof being the one and then comingto find like no this guy is just an extraordinarilypowerful manipulator andeveryone falls for this stuff
08:09you know because he is so good at worminginto all the things you want to needalmost likeanalogousis an analogous yeahfor people in powerit isyes it is
08:22the rings of people in power.I can get you a role in this movie.If you do a little some, some for me.Yeah.If you make me these nine rings, I will greenlit your entire franchise.That's what did he did to everyone?That's right.It's like going to every nine rings up.
08:40Make me nine rings.I will get you as many drugs and bodies as you need.Yeah.I like that stuff a lot.The battles were really great, really tangible.And I feel like that does stand in contrast to some of the, you know, battle stuff in the first season.Not to say that, you know, some of the stuff they made there wasn't, you know, lovely looking.But this really had that sort of tangible punch, whether you were in the heart of Aregion where it's mostly like, you know, structures being destroyed or you're in the mud.
09:12I really did feel like they were in a huge place.With tons of people.They didn't feel like a volume or some or like just a fill in with CGI.I really like, I actually really love how the opening shot is in Kellebrimbor's mind,and it's just a big circle around panning, showing, like, the beauty and how he's seeing it.Yeah.But it's also giving you an idea of the geography of how massive this all is.So I really like that opening shot a lot.
09:37Yeah, and like the continued destruction does read nicely across the episode.And, yeah, like all of the practical and physical stunts,and then the blending of CG with stunts and,physical effects like this is whatI expected originally when youhear the idea of like Amazon's payingall the money to make a Lord of the Ringsseries I'm like this is the kind of
09:59budget you expect to see onscreen the kind of production value and thekind of choices of what sorts of effectsand stunts how to orchestrate themthat you would kind of expectand while it might not you know structurallyand pacing wisefully live up to some of the stuff in the
10:15movies it at least made me feel likeI was in a similar experience asand I was marveling at what they were able to bring togetherand I was sitting here going,I hope they're able.This is, like, the more we've gotten into season two,the more I'm like, I hope they're able to continue this.Whereas, you know, as in the first season,
10:31I was a little bit ambivalent about it.And, you know, even the stuff with Adar, like,uh, I like the themes.I'm not as plugged into the whole, like,oh, are the orcs going to turn on him?I think they could make that more interesting.But I like just the ironic concept of like,These two people having this all-out battle are actually kind of fighting for the same thing.
10:53They just can't agree on it because that's what Sauron does.There's some story elements that I think it's not really quite hitting there still.You know, like the – because I agree with everything you said.All the positives, I agree with John.So you had those few minutes on to me because apparently I just come in here and I'm like, well, let me tell you.You start out of positives, too.I got a little bit of the negatives.I think some of the story points are really hit.
11:16Like, I, I see how much people kind of clown on the whole thing with humanizing the orcs.I don't mind it.I actually kind of prefer it.I'm like, that's interesting.Yeah, why not?People always just make the orcs, you know, just vicious creatures.And there's something kind of interesting to me about this community.And they, yeah.
11:37They clearly haven't all killed each other.So there must be some way they live together.Yeah, yeah, yeah.Like, they're not just savages.And so I, I like that.but I still don't feel like, yeah, but we never really get to see you.They're only human through that one guy when he comes up and he's like, Daddy, do you love us?And I like that, but yeah, like we don't really get to observe them.
12:01We were in the prison camp before a little bit, but we don't really get to observe them.And I don't need them to be warm and fluffy even.I'm fine with the idea of like if they just give me an understanding of what orculture could be like without me having to like agree with.with it you know like i get the kind of juxtaposition of like more or less evil races across afantasy show like this but but yeah the way it's presented here it it almost feels like thatmoment with the woman getting shot with all the arrows it's sort of like when it comes in it'sso brief that it feels kind of silly yeah the way it's articulated uh and arndair uh going afteradr like we barely spend time with him this season yeah i'm not really feeling for this um
12:44obviously wanting the revenge make sense when you consider all the context and everything from season one yes it does make sense but you want to charge back up on that before they actually fight yeah you want you want some of that emotion to be translated and maybe it is for you uh just for taking just this season on its own i don't really feel that that much so yeah like there's a couple of things that are kind of lacking here and glad you'll drop the pin glad you'll drop the pin she shows up at the right time for kill the proofthat was that was a bit frustrating that was very plot mechanics yeah well i mean nothing's gonnathere's nothing wrong with him drop with with him finding the pin really like it doesn't changeanything no ultimately no that's that's fair but it was one of those things i was like damn i i justwere taking it yeah i don't know why because that also implies uh elrond because he saw him wearingi don't know it doesn't really matter that's true so it could be worse but yeah yeah umBut overall, it's good.Like the troll, cool.
13:46Hell, yeah.And that, like, this season seems more apt to throw in details like that.When it's dying and laughing and gurgling on itself, like, that's a truly interesting, weird little moment of life inside this universe.Yeah, sometimes there's some, like, uncomfortable, it's not, like, aggressively gory, but there are times where the violence is a little off-putting.And I'm like, eh, no, that never happened in the Lord of the Rings movies.But it still, it does, I get what you mean there, because it's not, like, hard-ar.and this is going a little, I would argue.There's like a full-on throat slash of the horse.
14:18Some guy got his whole elbow, like, or shoulder chopped open.Well, yeah.But, like, when they're crushing, like, the humans and the, like, stomping on them.Yeah.You got, like, blood splats happening.Yeah.The Lord of the Rings movies, to me, and in the battles, you know, with the orcs and stuff, especially,do have some horror, horrific element because you are fighting monsters in the mud.
14:42So it's like it is.It's never R-rated, though.This goes R-rated sometimes with its violence.It does, but the Lord of the Rings movies, I think,part of how they manage to grip people so heavilyis because even in a PG-13 context,they communicated the intensity and, like,the harshness and the terror,
14:58even if they're not as, like, explicit as this is.And I think that's a good thingthat they've been able to translate here as well.Yeah, man.So excited to see how they wrap this up next week.You know, usually you get, like, a big old battle,and then you get your thematic wrap-upsplus setups for the next season.
15:16But we'll see.Maybe there are more fights to be had.There's still more going down at Caza Doomwhere we get a Balrog tease.We'll Gandalf and Tom Bombadil kiss.Find out next week.And leave us your thoughts on this one.Love you guys.
There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click any sentence in the transcript to leave one.