Filler Just 4 Episodes In??? Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 4 Review Reaction

The second week of Rings of Power, the fourth episode, the episode where Gandalf maybe takes a bath. But surely that's not the most interesting thing that happens, is it? No it is. We'll go through it though just in case we missed anything. Just in case you guys missed anything. We get 20 minutes of Elves in this hour and five minute show and we get that 20 minutes of Elves broken up. Five minutes, five minutes, five minutes, five minutes. And in between that you get not Gandalf, Norrie and Arandir. Just cause. It's weird because you think it has the perfect formula to make it go really quick by being like lots of short stories back to back. But it does the opposite. The short stories feel like a lifetime. So it's like this weird feeling you get where you're like, oh, was that an hour? And wow, that felt like a lifetime all at the same time. You're bored the whole time, but then it's over. Yeah. Like you would expect that it'd be a beginning, middle, and end to an episode of TV, but instead for Galadriel's journey, she starts a new quest. So we get like some lovely fellowship shots. It doesn't feel expansive because each of these fellowship shots are so quick. Like it's like, "Bwam, here's some cliffs. Bwam, here's some rocks. Bwam, here's a river." And then we cut in on her and she's just like in another place. So... Good that they're not just teleporting every character like they have been. The quest doesn't end, like there is no real end. It's just like they got somewhere, then they had to turn back, basically. Yeah. Nori's quest is just she's in one place the whole time. Gandalf gets somewhere, stays there the whole time. And Arandir... Well, he completed his quest, but then started a new quest. So he has at least the most structurally complete episode. But I still don't give a shit about him or this stupid ass kid. What did you think about the introduction in this episode of Indiana Jones travel lines, like across the map? I originally didn't mind it in season one because it kind of felt like they were trying to show me the world. Sorry. especially because we only get five minutes of Galadriel. They're like showing her and then they do the line, showing her someone else to the line. Then we're at another character completely. And it's just jarring and pointless. I think if it's done good, it can be nice. Life has to be done sparingly is the thing. When I read The Hobbit, it was like every few chapters, it would have like a little map or it'd be like refer to the map on the back and you'd go to the map on the back and you'd be like, oh, that's where they're going. These are all zoomed in though. So I still don't know how big the world is. But I think that's what they're trying to show. I think like a convergence. They're making it Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones ruined literally every other fantasy show. Like massive. Including their own? Yes. They're like busy showing us so many plot lines and this is especially bad for it because they've introduced two new groups of people that we didn't need. Like we've now got Tom Bombadil and we've got the not half-foots. The sand-foots. It's just more things for us to focus on. And now we've got all those characters that they rescued from the Ents as well joining the pack. But Gladriel is, they're getting to Oregyon basically. Like they're doing what we think they should have been doing from episode one. As soon as they got the rings, she should have been like, oh shit, what if Sauron goes to make more rings or do-- The king should have at least said, "Oh god, that means Arregyon is like under the influence of Sauron. We need to go have a presence there." So he sends two guys, but we'll like send the chick that is the most against Sauron, like she has the most to gain. 2,000 years now. He's in command of all of the elves in the human realm So it's like surely he has some pull and he can be like, all right everyone Let's all like, you know divert some troops here. Everyone says because he's leading the party now He says I need two swordsmen an archer and I need you to subscribe to Bergenbeard Yeah, I need two swordsmen and an archer and it is the most diverse group of elves you've ever seen in your life We get a black guy elf an Asian woman elf a white guy elf that isn't Elrond. That's important And a ginger ale. They send this crack team of elves. Like, that was the most shocking thing when they zoomed in. So we see Galadriel and Elrond on horseback doing a little chasey from Aragon to Lindell in the first episode. So we know that there's a path for horses and even the messengers go by horse. There was always a trek for horses. It's not like, oh no, we know that we can't use horses. It definitely feels like an excuse just to make the time gap of the first three episodes. So they make her argue with the King for ages and then they go by foot strange But he says it's 1500 leagues which you worked out with 150 leagues But that's the only reference we have to like distance and I think he says that's from the bridge not from where they're going So we still have no like scales the world Why not just say and I feel like they've never used like a length of distance like that's three days travel Oh, it's gonna add two weeks travel to our thing Why say leagues and also if it's gonna be travel that's gonna take a certain number of leagues Wouldn't a horse make that a lot easier because aren't you worried about the Dark Lord potentially corrupting your greatest craftsmen and then Destroying the entire world with what he's creating. We know they have boats too So like maybe a boat would be quicker and they asked I don't know but it's a massive time sink for literally no reason But then she finds a bridge that's been knocked out by Sauron. She says Like, mm. And Eron's like, "Stop touching that fucking ring." Yeah, he's still so against the ring despite it saving everyone. And it seems to be proven that Sauron had no involvement in those rings. that he even gets control of those rings. And as soon as he does make the one ring, he like puts it on and they're like, oh no, bad, bad, bad, bad. They take their rings off. So like they should be fine and they should know they're fine. But Elrond's just superstitious. And I think they're kind of ruining his character. Like he was such a good character in season one. He was probably the most likable character. Him and Duran are really good. Apparently by himself, he sucks. But they changed his character. He went from like, he kind of had a bit of like, Hopeful? Hopeful. He had a bit of like, nobility and he seemed very human-like, which like, maybe that's part of his character because he's like, half-cast. You know, he's best friends with the dwarf and he's like, "I'm sorry." Like, he felt sorry and you could see him kind of trying to atone for things, but then he's also tied to his elven side. Well, now he's just all, I don't know, he's become just like, a politician asshole now. Yeah, I mean, the king even says, I think, in episode one, he's like, "You're just a politician." But now he's also commanding like Galadriel and their troop and is giving them battle tactics. And the elves in the show just suck in general because they're meant to be like 4000 years old and like they're meant to be wise as hell and they all just act like normal men. Like there's no difference between the people in the show and the elves in the show. These are our British characters. Yeah the elves are just bigger wankers. They're just wankers. And a lot of the time they're not doing cool elven tricks and stuff. We're not seeing them do that. Until our gal Galadriel needs to like, girl boss her way out of a situation. I think you called it the worst fight scene you've ever seen. Yeah, so like the first one is they fight a bunch of whites and it's just like the creatures that we've seen kill people instantly and like shackle them with ghost chains and like drag them instantly under a thing. They immediately kill the black guy. They do. (laughing) I seen this movie, the black dude dies first. But like, as soon as they start fighting, the whites just like stand still and don't do anything and let them like swing on them. Like they just like stand and they're like, Ooh. Like they cut back to a multipliers of like, the chains just menacingly doing this. And they give time for Elrond and another one to open a tomb, find weaponry, and then Elrond runs back to Galadriel, who's getting dragged into a thing and save her. The only thing about that as well is, it's not a cool realization or like, it's not alluded to in any way. It's literally just at some point during the scene that's almost pitch black. realizes in his head how to beat them. Yeah. Is this sword? Shouldn't they all know that? They're all 4,000. Very true, but he's a nerd. This adventure should have been Galadriel's trying to lead with like how a general of an army would lead, but he's learned. But because he's in charge, they're not doing things how she would do it. They're doing things how he's doing it. But she has to like come to terms with like, even though he hasn't put things into practice, he's smart. Yeah. Like I have to trust him. But even then that would only work if their relationship was that. with the ring. It's impossible. thinking you can use evil to She's not getting corrupted by the power if she's using it for good at the moment. Yeah, which she proves later on as well, but just taking it off. What ques- Mm-hmm. Yep. We're doing like a battle of the three armies kind of thing where it's gonna be like Sauron is maybe fighting against Arandia Who's also fighting against the elves. They're all going to a reggae on yeah, which an expensive way to extend your season. I think that's going to be our season finale by the way. It'll be the last three episodes, yeah. This is our mid-season by the way. Yeah, this is our mid-season finale is like Galadriel meets Ada, which she gives the ring to Elrond. She heals a guy first. Yeah, using magic ring power, which, if this is your first introduction to Lord of the Rings, you'll have no fucking clue what those meant. Like why is a photo you do that more often? They can heal trees. It can make fish jump out of the water. And you can see the future with them. She sees the future all the time. Then one of the elves is like, "Oh, she's so noble and girl--" She sacrificed herself to save the ring. Bum, bum, bum. He's just a fucking asshole. Yeah. It's like, come on, okay, we get it. You hate the ring. Get that man Durin. Get that man his boyfriend back. But then he also has a ring. So he's gonna be like, not you too. Oh yeah, is he gonna put it on? Maybe. Just before she meets Ada, we get another weird fight scene. The orcs are supposed to be like Zerg, right? Like all just like swarming you like crazy people. But instead she's just like doing the bare minimum, fighting like one at a time, like shooting them with a bow and they're surrounding her. And I guess like they're trying to be like, they're so in awe of her. No, no, these guys are like battle hardened and like, you know, they have Ada with them as well. The thing I kept thinking the whole time is like, oh my God, she's killing all these fathers. All these loving fathers and husbands. These dads who went to, who got conscripted to war. She's just mowing them down, this heartless bitch. But that like three things. So leaving town, find bridge, attack whites, attack orcs, meet Ada. That's. Yeah. That makes up for so little part of the episode, and if anything, it should be the most interesting. Like, she's going to go fight Sauron. Like, she's the goal. She's the lead of the show. It's rings of power. She has a ring. And yeah, we get pissed all with her, and then the rest of it's broken up between Gandalf taking a bath. Mm-hmm. How do you feel about Gandalf meeting God? Tom Bombadil. Do you think it was brave of them to be like, "Hey, this thing that we didn't think was important enough to have in the movies, we're gonna adapt it for the screen." Especially because he can't do anything. And also, it's not based on anything. Yeah, it's literally to reference Tom Bombadil. But we get to see this show's version of it, which I don't like. He's played by the Black Mirror president that fucks a pig, so that's always- The show keeps doing it and it's just mysterious characters like Nara even calls Gandalf the stranger in this episode. Oh my god. But they talk about the dark wizard and then they cut to the dark wizard and like everyone with Amazon Prime has it accessed X-ray. So if you press X-ray it comes up with their names and the actors names. Yeah. do a bomb drop with it. Yeah. Like it's even pivotal to the episode with Nori's way of getting out of captivity from the Sandfoots. And she's like, "Oh, our leader was this guy." And she's like, "This guy?" And then like that guy was written on their cave painting. Yeah. Okay, sure. Thank God they named dropped him. The one important person they should name drop. Gandalf gets so many references to being Gandalf. Yeah, if it doesn't end up being him, this show is going to be like, "We got you." But it's like, come on. That's a dick move. Because Nori calls the stick that he's looking for a Gand. I tried Googling, like, "Is a Gand a stick?" No one... It's because they're made up half foot language. Yeah, like that's a gand in this show. And then when she's talking to the Sam people, she goes, he's a giant. It's like, so he's an elf. It's like, no bigger than an elf. And what do they say? A grand elf. And it's like, fuck, shut up. Shut the hell up. Men are giants to half. Like that's just leading into it. She could have been like, oh, they're people or actual giants because giants are a thing in this show Called Giants and they have people that come into their village later in the episode that are all Mm-hmm. He tries to steal a branch from a tree. Yeah. But also sucks up people giving tree and we're like cool. So he must get this stuff from that tree once he's worthy Well, he's gonna ask for it this time. Yeah, he's gonna say can I please have it cuz he was stroking that tree Real nice. No, he's fine Like we knew she would be because even though she got thrown a thousand feet Yeah, I heard Poppy these these tiny little people got flung into a hurricane and they're together like they landed Three and a half feet apart and it's like cool, but they go wondering they find Poppy's new crush the show at least knows it's stupid cuz like Nori gives like the I like are you guys floating right now? But he takes her back to the people, said when we meet the Sandfeet, and that's literally, we said it already, like they capture her and then she's like, oh no. I was like, watch this, what's gonna happen? The leader of the Sandfeet comes out and she's like, give me one good reason. And she's like, the music swells and it's a slow zoom in on Nori. And she's like, I made a promise to my friend that I would, I said one good reason. It's like, I knew that shit was gonna happen. I'm sick of these guys being like, (laughing) Don't you love it when this happens in a show? Let's add one of those in. It does make it feel like it's their first time writing and they're just like doing all the cliches. I didn't need another character in Mordecai, whatever the name is, to just to fall in love with Poppy. Does that even wrap up? No, cause yeah, the two bad guys come and say, hey, we're bad guys, where's the half-foots? And instead of saying who are the half-foots, she says, the only halflings we know are our people. And then they go, grrr, and then they leave. And like, that's where her story ends. Yeah, yeah. Cool show. Thanks. I'm glad. I'm really disliking it because this show will like, just like introduce something that you know is a problem that they're going to solve. And it's just not done right. Like in this, they, they go to the sand feet. And it's like, Oh, we're gonna have trouble with the sand feet. And then the sand feet are now our friends because they think maybe we're prophecy people. Asealdor whose story we'll get to it's like, he falls in love with this girl. She finds our boyfriend. It's like, Galadriel, we need to fight these people. They're not going to kill us. Here's the way to beat the wights. I don't think they reference Isealdor's girlfriend's husband at all in the first three episodes. She said something like she was looking for family maybe. Oh, maybe, but this episode four times. She's And it's sort of like maybe if you find your betrothed and then is there just a slave girl somewhere They're just about to kiss and his betrothed is like oh, yeah She pulled a sword out on him was going to kill him when he's like, please don't and Don Lemon's about to kill him And then they get attacked by the tree and then the next scene is them kissing Yeah, the next like interaction cuz she wakes up from getting knocked out. She's groggy from day not that is gonna kiss She gets thrown like 40 feet. She could not consent. She had a concussion. It's throwing up obstacles To basically just kill time. Yeah. Well, that's what story writing is. No, it isn't They give them these like tiny hurdles that just don't feel Important enough that it's like everything should make the characters grow a little bit. That's the reason that an obstacle should exist Spent. We don't learn anything about Nori. All we find out is that the guy that died last season was actually... Like an offshoot family member. The descendant of these desert people. So does that shrink the world or does that expand it? Well it expands it because they're like... They told him the legend of the Shire maybe? Yeah, but they call it a different name. The Shorror? So that's all they're doing. They just wanted a reason to be like... Do you've seen Lord of the Rings? Do you know the Shire? They're talking about it. You should watch our show. We spent a billion dollars. Grand Elf? Ever heard of him? Lose the R. Lose the hard R from Grand Elf. Just because they're not doing the main quest doesn't make it a filler episode. It's a filler episode when the characters don't even grow. When everyone in the episode stays exactly the same. Like you could have one tiny thing happen in your episode, but if it changes where the character is, then you're fine. I feel like Avatar the Last Airbender was really good because- That's great. Like even their fillers, like their characters are learning. Yeah. I wouldn't call any of those episodes a filler because there's a whole episode where Aang is freaking out and can't sleep because he has to face the Fire Lord. Yeah. Like, Phew. But this show was just like, yeah, nah, fuck that. I was going to put little obstacles because I need to fill out an hour. And we need to get Galadriel there, Arandir there, and Adar there. And Sauron out of there and then back into there. But we need to put a bunch of things in there things, because we have five episodes to take care of before we get there. Also, I wonder if Numenor is going to get there as well somehow. Yeah, true. Numenor... We didn't see any Numenor this episode. Which is probably a blessing. Yeah, thank God, honestly. We touched on Asildur a little bit. They pick up where their last kind of episode ended with the boy being kidnapped, and they're like just looking in the forest. And Arandir keeps finding these little tiny cherry blossoms, and he's like, "Hmm, what is this?" After we constantly are hearing trees rustling and he like groans. Yeah, creaking and groaning, and you're like, "Mmm, this sounds familiar." It must be the Whomping Willow, obviously. It must be. But then it cuts today immediately. And then we find out that Asildo's girlfriend, she burned off her thing in the last episode. And she's like, "No, I rolled into a fire. Haha, whoopsie, my bad." And yeah, Arendee is just like, "I saw your neck wound. It's something the village people do to hide their YMCA tattoos." But he didn't see her neck. She's wearing clothes and has hair over it. Yeah. His elf eyes. The elf eyes. His elf eyes. He saw off of a bucket onto the back of her head. To zoom in and enhance on your eyes. So they, they shackle her up cause they need her to lead them to the north end of the forest where she's like, "I think there's evil there and stuff and the mountain folk." That's when he starts firing his brow. And so for some reason, even though he's like, "Everybody gather your water and provisions and everyone kind of squabbles around." It's just Asildo and his girlfriend and Arendee. Asildo gets caught in quicksand, which is like gobbles him up. And we're like, "That's weird." Quick mud. And then a giant centipede comes out. But it was a really weird cut. It was just like editing and cause like, The gushing wound, but it looked like ass because CGI is hard. And then it just, they're just sitting there like gasping up against a rock. This is the worst for the whole day night cycle we were talking about last week. Yeah. Not even just with the one character. Every time it alternates character, it's like nighttime, daytime, nighttime, daytime, nighttime, daytime. It's so fucking jarring, cause you don't know if it's progressing time, every time it's nighttime or daytime, or if they're on the same day-night cycle. It's like they shot them completely separately as stories. They're like, okay, we're going to do day-night, day-night, day-night. Obviously we can't fight the whites during the day cause that wouldn't look spooky. So we have to fight them at night. And then when they went to edit this, they had all of these completely separate things, like storylines and they're like. and... Yeah. arranged this season. I didn't need to see Gandalf this episode. I didn't need to see Nori this episode. I didn't need to see the Dark Wizard either. Yeah, random cutaway to the Dark Wizard going "I am the Dark Wizard!" His thirty second scene of being like "Sand people, why don't you have the half-foot?" "They eluded us, he used magic, they're with the sandfoots now, well you better get them!" looks at Slim Shady, looks back at the Dark Wizard, that's it. And I'm like "Cool, it's just that Tom Bombadil and Gandalf can talk about the Dark Wizard!" We did miss that, they talk about the Dark Wizard and he says "I taught him magic and he got evil with it!" Bombadil says that he's looking for someone more powerful than him to do evil stuff with, which just makes it sound like Saruman and Sauron. like that But it's just a little weird thing that if it is Saruman, he's been evil for 2,000 years and Gandalf just let him be evil And then he becomes Gandalf's mentor Yeah, like ally and they fight the necromancer together and like teaches him everything and whatever and then he goes back to being evil Arendeir again, they find the ants. Yeah, and Arendeir rizzes up and then he's like But oh you're a girl ant. Yeah, I've been mean to trees before baby, but I'll never be mean to a tree again They did get the funny hark back. He's like I'm a friend and he's like have you ever cut down a tree? he's just like having like PTSD flashbacks to the one time last season where I had to fight a tree and Everyone's like oh, that's the most hulken thing ever like no but it doesn't make it any better. But that's his whole lock. He's like He's wearing like wooden armor and there's a fire on there. Like she should have said like, hide that fire from my sight, it offends me. Because she was concerned about the sword because that's an ax to them, I guess. What does that fell? It fells orcs. Oh! There's a fire going on. Like that needs to burn something guys. There's wood in that fire. Because the ants aren't really bad guys, they just let the kids go. And all the bad people who are actually bad people. Who are now good guys. Did they promise to never cut down trees again? They did not on screen. I mean, I think he'd have PTSD though. It's like if a big hamburger took me captive, I'd probably never eat another hamburger. You mean the hamburger look? He was a human. That's true. Yeah, so they just said all these people free and there's no discussion on screen about them being good guys anymore But one of them is Iseldah's girlfriend's husband. Yeah, they're like Oh baby you're home! Yeah, again, so cliche. This wasn't written by people that like fantasy. Why did the kid go after them anyway? Who fucking knows? He's dumb and then Arundeia's like, "I must go. You can come with me?" And the kid's like, "I have my own promises to keep." Yes, what promises? I imagine he's gonna become the king of that town or something. What is happening? This episode's so pointless but it ends with Gladryl meeting Adar. And that's kind of the only meaningful thing that happens. Are they friends? Did Gladryl know him before he went Morgoth? An ex? That'd be spicy. Is this gonna be the second evil guy who wants her to be his queen? Second queen? What will the show do? What will next episode hold? It was a very pointless episode that still took up an hour and it seems like Filla in every sense of the word. This was four episodes in a row of Filla. Because realistically all we are doing is getting Gladryl back to Eregion. Her and Elrond were already in Eregion. They left and now they're going back. So all they did was leave, save a tree, come back. And everyone else kind of converted. She's just boring and pointless. Boring and pointless. This was a billion dollar TV show. The show still looks pretty enough. I mean, when it does want to be, those nice fellowship shots, you know? I'm like, "Ooh, that was pretty. That was pretty." But then it's like, the dark shots are really dark. Some of those village shots of the half-foots and Tom Bombadil's kind of little shack. I'm like, "That's pretty." I think I enjoyed the first three episodes more. Maybe it was just there was more going on or maybe it was the fact I sat down for three hours. So when it was over, I was happy it was over. Whereas with this, it did feel like nothing. It felt like the hour ended and I was like, "Oh, shit." One whole week of waiting for this. And now you know that you're going to be waiting a whole other week. Yeah. And they're not at the battle yet. So next week isn't going to be the battle. It's going to be... or the battle's gonna start next episode and then there's gonna be the finale episode. Yeah, that means Galadriel's gonna side with Ada and she's gonna say, "Did you know Halbrand was Sauron?" and he's like, "Fuck, he said he would kill Sauron!" No! I promised those women and children had sai- and protect them. Next week will probably be everyone, I guess, because we have- Yeah, here's two people talking. Here's two people talking. Here's two people talking true three episode battle just means it's in three episodes It could start at the end of six. Will we get a Galadriel turning to adder or something and be like the enemy of my enemy is my friend I think it will be it'll be more people realizing that an Atari's Sauron which is kind of gonna kill Saron's whole vibe if he's He's meant to be like the deceiver Is he only gonna kind of to see a celebrimbo in like one episode? He's barely gonna get to deceive anyone before And you're killing that within an episode or two in season two Stupid whatever I'm not looking forward to next week, but hopefully the battle looks good. Yeah, I'm definitely getting bored of this show Tell us what you think of this show. Tell us what you like of this show