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ThreeLittlePuigs t1_iu9lo21 wrote

Reply to comment by DiscreteConnected in What 'Rings of Power' Does — And Can Do — Better Than Peter Jackson's Films by chrisbokiul

I disagree with pretty much everything you said. The stranger developed from an inability to speak and no understanding of who he even is, to realizing he’s an Istar and deciding he’s there to do good. Poppy went from feeling no repercussions to her actions to feeling guilt and shame for who she was to embracing her adventurous side. It’s the first season so perfect arcs aren’t to be expected here, we’re just learning these characters. That’s pretty typical for a TV show….

And they aren’t foregoing plot for mystery’s. GoT had plenty of mystery’s in the first season, so do most shows, especially police / crime dramas etc.

The Sauron reveal was a major plot point of the season, but it wasn’t the only one, the forging of mount doom, the rings, the events in the south lands with the rise of the orc and fleeing of humans, establishment of colonies that will become key places for the story etc, all happened amid the Halbrand arc.

I understand critiquing dialogue or pacing of the story, but to say nothing happened and it’s just mystery boxes makes me wonder if we’re even watching the same show….

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DiscreteConnected t1_iu9mo1c wrote

Well I disagree with pretty much everything you just said. The Stranger suddenly going from not being able to speak to talking in metaphors and literally saying "I'm good" is hardly character development.

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ThreeLittlePuigs t1_iu9mwv8 wrote

They explained that though, and it wasn’t entirely sudden. He had developed speech overtime and the mystics lifted the rest of the vale. Out of curiosity what did I say that was wrong?

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DiscreteConnected t1_iu9oawb wrote

The stranger being able to talk and literally saying "I'm good" is not character development. It's just finding out who he is and a pretty terrible line of dialogue as well.

The show absolutely did put mysteries before plot. The clunky pacing proves it. There were two full episodes spent on the Numenoreans debating whether or not to sail to ME and then the forging of the rings happens in 10 minutes. I don't understand how you can argue in good faith that they didn't structure this show around the big reveal.

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ThreeLittlePuigs t1_iu9pgm1 wrote

I mean he goes from literally questioning his existence to declaring he’s there for good…. We know several istar were corrupted so it absolutely isn’t pre programmed for him to align with forces of good, especially not when others are trying to lead him to be evil. He literally goes from asking if he’s bad to declaring he’s good. That’s a pretty obvious linear character progression. Not everyone has character development in one season that leads them to be a completely different character. That would likely be bad writing.

There were plot points in two episodes about Numenor, but it wasn’t “two whole episodes” and much of this was character progression for other characters / relationships etc. it would have been weird to have Numenor flip the script in one episode. Could we have seen them move right along and miss some of the plot points in episode 5? Sure, but could have felt rushed / would have missed out on some of Halbrand’s character as well as the upcoming events in Numenor, like it’s fall and the rise of the cult of morgoth.

Also there are 17 other rings to forge and it wasnt just ten minutes of the show, literally several plot points converged, halbrand, mithril, Galadriel learning to share power etc, to enable the forging of the rings….

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DiscreteConnected t1_iu9rhz3 wrote

>He literally goes from asking if he’s bad to declaring he’s good.

This happens in the course of like 10 minutes screentime. In previous episodes he hadn't even been able to speak. It was very clumisly done.

Also him being Gandalf was another example of how extremely lazy the writing is. They have practically a blank canvas with the Blue Wizards, but instead they go for the easy nostalgia points and a weak attempt to give Gandalf an MCU-esque origin story. It's like the show itself doesn't even have confidence in its own writing.

You can like the show all you want. I'm just pointing out that it has some serious flaws, and leaning too heavily on mystery over plot and character development is probably the number one problem imo.

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