The Three Worst and Three Best of Rings of Power Season 2

 The Three Worst and Three Best of Rings of Power Season 2

*Note: This post is highly opinionated*

Three Worst

3.) Cirdan’s terrible advice

Cirdan tells Elrond that just because the rings were made with Sauron’s help, doesn’t mean they are inherently evil. His reasoning for saying so is sound, but his conclusion is utterly incorrect. All the rings made with the help of Sauron were corrupting, just as Elrond feared. In season 2, we already see the negative effects of Durin III’s ring. There’s literally an entire three volume series about how the One Ring needed be destroyed because it was created by Sauron, and Sauron is evil. It just so happened that the three elven rings were made only by Celebrimbor, who was, in fact, not evil. Cirdan’s wisdom was completely misapplied and Elrond was right all along. 

2.) The sympathy for the orcs storyline

Orcs are canonically twisted creatures who consistently destroy and slaughter. They are established to be irreversible stains of darkness left by Morgoth — insults to Elves and by extension Men. Even in this series, they take delight in torturing Elves and Men for no apparent reason. Whether or not female and baby orcs exist in LOTR, why is Amazon trying to get us to sympathize with evil? 

Yes, there are groups of both Men and Elves who are questionable, but they’re “humans” who have the potential to be good and usually try to be. So, the sympathy-for-the-Southlanders storyline is not as outrageous. Orcs, on the other hand, are always bad. They purposefully and repeatedly side with evil, and they’re only remorseful about it when they’re loosing. Orcs are the perpetrators, not the victims. 

1.) When Elrond and Galadriel kiss 

Galadriel is married to Celeborn! Elrond is Galadriel’s son-in-law! Why on Arda would they be kissing????? 

Although everyone in the series thinks Celeborn is dead, remarriage is against the laws and customs of the Eldar. So, even if Celeborn was actually dead, Galadriel would still be married to him. Even though Elrond didn’t know that he would one day marry Galadriel’s daughter, Celebrían, he knew that Galadriel is married and would not try to kiss her. 

Later in the show, it’s heavily implied that the kiss was only meant as a distraction so Elrond could give Galadriel the pin without the orcs noticing. That said, there were other ways they could have distracted the orcs or hid the pin. It’s very unbecoming of highly respectable elves to go around kissing each other as distractions. This behavior was rather adverse to the moral characterization of elves in general, let alone the specifically conscientious characterization of Elrond.

I guess we should at least be grateful that Galadriel and Sauron didn’t kiss. 🙄

Honorable mentions: 

• Serious Tom Bombadil and the “Grand Elf” storyline 

• Elves who are thousands of years old acting like angry teens

• Anything said by Theo, Isildur, or Kemen

Three Best

3.) Gil-galad’s song in Quenya

When he believes the Eldar are fading and must leave Middle Earth forever, Gil-galad sings a song called “Golden Leaves” in Quenya. “Golden Leaves” embodies the themes of ancient beauty and melancholy nostalgia that belong to the Second Age. After all, the High Elves of Middle Earth have spent centuries trying to rid Middle Earth of evil, to the point where its all they’ve known. Almost all the original Elves from Valinor have passed away. So (at least in the series), the legacy that so many of their ancestors have died for seemed to come to abrupt end, and now they would return to the blissful land that the former left behind. The fact that the song is in Quenya, a language no longer spoken by the Noldor in Middle Earth but still in Valinor, further amplifies this effect.

2.)  Galadriel’s fight with Sauron

Needless to say, Galadriel was quite troublesome in season one. Though she’s still far from the book version of herself, she’s much better in season two. Her one-on-one stand off with Sauron was a testament to her character and her allegiance to good. It proved that even though she made mistakes, she would rather die than submit to evil. She would sacrifice her own life to give the free peoples a chance of victory, and relinquish her life-long dream of ruling if it meant turning to darkness. 

Besides, it was a pretty epic fight scene! Although she lost, Galadriel made an awesome stand, especially considering that Sauron is a Maia and she’s an Elf. (Perhaps a Fingolfin vs. Morgoth reference?) 

1.) Celebrimbor’s final speech

Poor Celebrimbor deserved so much better! He just wanted to make some cool arts and crafts, but “Annatar” came along and ruined it all. As Celebrimbor was being tortured, he predicted that the rings would be Sauron’s demise and declares that Sauron will forever be a servant of darkness. What Celebrimbor said made Sauron so angry that he killed the smith on the spot. Celebrimbor managed to psych-out Sauron, the master manipulator who has been deceiving people the entire series. He may have died, but in his moment of awesome he thwarted Sauron’s plan to torture the truth out of him, and gave Sauron the mocking title of “Lord of the Rings”. Now Sauron can never trick nor torture him again. 

Honorable mentions

• The army of Lindon’s charge on the Orcs

• Elrond declaring the library as more important than their lives and Gil-galad being okay with it

• Pharazôn looking like a fool after Míriel was “declared innocent” by the Valar