The Adar questionĪfter all the sword-fighting and archery in the first two-thirds of this episode, the long scene of Galadriel interrogating Adar was a welcome change of pace - and also a major advance of this season’s larger plot. ![]() But here’s the bitter irony: For all the importance the humans have attached to Halbrand coming home and dispatching his mortal enemies, when the king looks Adar straight in the eyes and asks, “Do you remember me?,” the villain says, sincerely, “No.” The humans have their agenda but as we will see in the episode’s closing minutes, this is of little concern to Adar and his orcs. This week he even gets to face his old tormentor when his armies beat the orcs and capture Adar. Still, I appreciate how he remains reluctant to embrace his place as the true king of the Southlands, even as he understands that the restoration of a ruler to a broken kingdom gives the humans a cause to rally around. Halbrand’s whole story arc so far has been one of my favorites of Season 1 - so much so that I now wish the writers had given him more screen time earlier. It’s no wonder Theo gasps, “Who is that?” as Galadriel rides by. Galadriel and Halbrand are especially impressive, dodging arrows and ducking off the sides of their horses to get a better slashing angle. It makes for some more great action sequences too - and shot in daylight this time. And, worst of all, Theo tries to save the day by handing over his much-coveted evil sword-hilt … right when we hear the rumble of horses’ hooves, off in the distance.Īnyway, the Númenóreans arriving when they do makes for better television. The villagers make the mistake of peeking under the helmets of their attackers and see that many of the “orcs” they killed were actually humans - likely their former neighbors, who joined up with Adar at Waldreg’s behest. Bronwyn, who saves Arondir, gets pierced by an arrow and nearly bleeds out. In classic “just when all seems lost” pulp-fiction fashion, the nighttime battles end in a series of seemingly insurmountable losses. Arondir gets a well-deserved spotlight during much of this long sequence, showing off not just the archery skills we have seen throughout the series but also his brute strength when he has to fight hand-to-hand with the orcs. Auden wrote about “The Fellowship of the Ring,” the first volume of Tolkien’s trilogy, in 1954.īroken down into individual moments, though, there is a lot going during the night scenes, as the orcs and their minions first storm a mostly abandoned tower fortress and then, after a frustrating defeat (and a brief respite from all the fighting), make their way down to a nearby village where Bronwyn and her people have retreated to regroup and fortify. A Soviet Take: A 1991 production based on Tolkien’s novels, recently digitized by a Russian broadcaster, is a time capsule of a bygone era.Being Frodo: The actor Elijah Wood explains why he’ll never be upset at being associated with the “Lord of the Rings” movie series.He invented an alternate reality, complete with its own geography, languages and history. Artist and Scholar: Tolkien did more than write books.Tolkien, now adapted into a new series for Amazon Prime Video, has inspired generations of readers and viewers. Here are five takeaways from an episode that accelerated the plot in this series, before delivering a cruel twist.Įxplore the World of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ The literary universe built by J.R.R. Plus, the stakes of their skirmishes are always perfectly clear … which makes the ultimate outcome of the fighting this week all the more devastating. The time the writers have taken to establish each of these characters makes it easier to pick out who’s who in the middle of any melee. That said, it is always exciting to see the likes of Halbrand, Galadriel and Arondir fight with skill and valor. The daredevil stunts and dynamic camera moves in this week’s episode are just as excellent but when there are so many of them, they become less special. So far, each episode of this show has featured impressive action choreography, in scenes that stand out because they last for just a few minutes. The 45 minutes or so of nearly nonstop fighting stands up well to both “Game of Thrones” and the “Rings” films - though as was the case with those, it was also a little fatiguing. Now “The Rings of Power” has its first “battle episode” with “Udûn,” in which roughly two-thirds of the running time is spent on the orcs’ two swarming nighttime invasions of the human strongholds, followed by the tide-turning daytime arrival of the Númenórean forces. ![]() Those scenes in turn inspired some of the most talked-about episodes of “Game of Thrones,” which devoted entire hours to armies at war. Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” movies won raves for their lengthy combat sequences, filled with fantasy beasts and spectacular backdrops, unlike anything ever seen before in a multiplex.
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