TV Episode Review for "Rings of Power" - S1 E5 - "Parting"

Amazon Prime Video's "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" continues to be as long-winded as its lengthy title but ever since episode four the story has admittedly gotten a little more interesting.

Amazon Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the most expensive television series ever commissioned, coming in at a whopping nearly one billion dollars ($1,000,000,000). Upon learning of his father's company being in charge of the show, ex-CEO Jeff Bezo's son is rumored to have told his dad, "Please don't f*** it up," to which Big Daddy Jeff probably replied, "Elves are for b*****. I only watch The Boys!" Which is the overall feeling one gets when watching Rings of Power in comparison to other Amazon Prime Video favorite, The Boys, which is a massively popular show that enjoys glorious meme power whenever new episodes are out -- just taking out over sites like Twitter and Tik Tok. In comparison to the writing and marketing for that superhero-critique series, the energy around Rings of Power feels lacking, marketing-wise, and story-wise, and character-wise ... and on and so forth.

Anyway, as to the plot of Rings of Power -- a much younger royal warrior elf Galadriel, who is famous from previous cinematic installments from the Lord of the Rings universe, sets out to avenge her elven people and her brother by hunting down the defeated demon Morgoth's right hand man Sauron and his hidden armies of orcs.

Here she is pictured below, being sent home by the elven king of Middle Earth after upsetting him by finding evidence that Sauron and the orcs are still alive.

GALADRIEL
My soldiers mutinied against me but also
I found evidence that the second-in-command
of our greatest enemy is still alive, the wizard
Sauron who killed my brother!

ELF KING GIL GALAD
So sorry, all I hear is super fake news.
Orcs and Sauron are gone except for in bedtime stories.
This is Lord of the Rings, not Kill Bill.
Go home and bother someone else, girly.

BEWARE! SPOILERS AHEAD!

So Galadriel jumps off the ship that magically returns elves back to their ethereal homeland, survives a giant predatory fish and a deadly storm out at sea with the help of the mysterious Halbrand who is most definitely a royal in disguise who's fled from his home. Thankfully she learns from him that the orcs are definitely back and they end up being saved by sailors from Numenor, a beautiful island kingdom of humans that once worked together with the elves but no longer because most of them are racist against elves -- probably because they have't seen one in ages. A weird detail about the Numenors hatred for elves is that they're worried elves will "displace" them or "take their jobs" which would be appropriate if the elves weren't painted as stupidly richer than most humans, that there aren't very many elves in general because they're lazier than a sedated dog, don't procreate much, and live so long that procrastination is a basic way of life that makes it hard to get anything done.

As for Galadriel's friend Halbrand, pictured above, he ends up being royalty but not wanting to return to being royalty. After some very nuanced dialogue, he tells Galadriel he did bad things to survive when the orcs took over his lands. But in the end, despite Galadriel being rude to everyone in Numenor -- including the queen -- they all decide to help her and send ships to fight the orcs.

Here is Arondir a black elf who is an outpost warrior near a human town where bad things are happening underground -- mostly orcs. His story involves the most obvious romance play between him and an older single-mother human who he probably knew as a child since he's a very long-lived elf ... but anyway.

Arondir and Arondir's girlfriend find proof the orcs are alive and not just that but that they're being led by none other than an elf who claims everything Arondir knows about the past is a lie.

This is the latest development on RINGS OF POWER that has kept my attention and kept me watching. I want to know if we're going to learn some crazy new stuff about Lord of the Rings. I'm not an expert on Tolkien stuff but I haven't heard of elves siding with orcs before which could make for an interesting development -- especially the claim that everything Arondir knows about the past is a lie. In the latest episode, he even tells one of his orc henchmen that the sun would soon be a thing they wouldn't have to worry about which is hopefully a tremendous hint at some Skyrim-level magic involving the blotting out of the sun or one could only hope.

Elsewhere on the show, the dwarves have found a precious ore of mythril in the mines around their kingdom that according to the elves historically belongs to them -- putting the two races at odds with each other. The only hope for an alliance is Elrond who is friends with the dwarven prince Durin, which King Gil Galad does not seem super happy about since he claims the mythril will be able to cure the elves latest problem: the growing decrease of their immortality.

Meanwhile in proto-hobbit land, the main proto-hobbbit girl Nori has found a way to incorporate her magic hobo friend from the sky into their proto-hobbit life as a wagon-pusher. Not sure who this guy is, why he has such incredible magic but I did wonder if this could be a great origin story for Gandalf and explain his love of hobbits --but I think Gandalf's firs mention starts in the third age only so his prior existence would not make sense canonically. Interestingly enough, some elf-like evil priestesses show up to examine the crater from which the magic stranger arrived in, meaning he may actually hail from an evil group -- what if he's actually Sauron? That would be crazy, the big bad frolicking with hobbits while the rest of the cast is searching for him or fighting his lackeys.

Overall, I find the world and mythology of the Lord of the Rings a lot of fun. I've enjoyed their books -- sorry I've enjoyed their MOVIES and VIDEO GAMES lol but will one day re-read their books with the eyes of a wiser young adult. Unfortunately there is still no character in RINGS OF POWER that stands out to me. I root for no one, am worried about nobody, and only care to see the answers to the current feeble mysteries the show has strung me along with. It's rather strange that Amazon wouldn't rely on more star power, more talent, or that they wouldn't try to orchestrate a much more grand and operatic tale with the rich source material they have. But this just shows to prove that money can buy a lot of things but it can't buy greatness ... or not all the time.

Currently the show is enjoying rave reviews from big publications and places like Rotten Tomatoes -- but I do understand why people are afraid to criticize it since it's being paraded as a pioneer of diversity in story telling. And I'm all for diversity and inclusion but I'm also for quality and I expect a lot more from Amazon and from the Tolkien family who probably had some business in this show's making. But perhaps this is just a rocky start, maybe in the future you'll hear me raving about the show -- "oh my god, they retconned the canon! Those brave risky Amazon bastards! So that's why Gandalf loves the hobbits! That's why Galadriel likes the dwarves!" or something like that.

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