Rings of Power S1E5 Recap: "Partings"

Welcome to the Podcast of Power of the show. The only show on the entire Internet. No one else is doing this right now, the only show that is talking about this little show that's on Amazon called The Lord of the Rings, the Rings of Power. We're the only ones doing it, folks. It's me and it's Chris tesshow we're doing it biggedly over here man came up to me, had tears in his eyes and he was like, thank you, thank you, mister White, thank you for talking about the Rings of Power.

No one else on the Internet is talking about the show. It means so much to me, and especially this episode, episode five, called Partings. It really touched my heart. He somehow knew that our discussion was going to be so good that he was already thanking me for it. And then another guy came up to me and said, thank you for being the only people on the Internet having the courage to say what you're saying about the show, because apparently we are.

We're really courageous people with the opinions that we have about a Lord of the Rings show that's on the Internet that everybody can see. Boy, it really burns your ass that they're black dwarves in this show, doesn't it internet? Oh a black dwarf, a black Oh, Oh my god. Man, it's gonna explode speaking lines and they're not just relegated to the background. But Chris, I watched this episode twice.

I don't know if I'm going to be able to handle because, man, we're talking about cross cutting this episode. Oh my god. Yeah, we were predicting in the last episode, We're like, Okay, we're they're going to hit like three out of the four major storylines. No, they hit every single storyline in this episode, and multiple times and just jumping on all over the place. I was just like, oh my god, what is happening here?

It was a little much this again. I was like, Okay, I'm waiting for the fan editors to come in here and just kind of straighten these storylines out a little bit, just a little bit more. Just give me to stick with one of them just a little bit longer so I can get my footing, get my hard footing in here. But instead we're just cutting all around. I'm not complaining, mind you, but it's a little much.

It really took me a bit to figure out what's going on with each one of these storylines. Where do we want to start? Where do they want to start? Is the real question. It's yeah, it's we're now at the point with the show where the expansion should be contained and being metered, and they should be refining the stories and kind of maybe digging down into the guts of the story after they've introduced it.

And no, it's like we're just going still, We're still going it. It's like whoa, whoa. Because again, like I've we've talked about multiple times on this show, I'm also watching Game of Thrones and Game of Thrones coincidentally, the same week that this episode is doing what it's doing, Game of Thrones did the exact same thing. They just took the story, blew it up and said, here's all the pieces in the air, and we're just gonna have to re grab them and bring them back down. And it's like, guys, that show has a time jump.

This show is just going It's it's it's splitting the narrative too much. It's dividing the narrative a little too much, like one story too many. It feels like, you know, buttering I'm sitting here rating like make it please, it's this show. You can do it here. It is it is.

It is butter being spread on too much bread, just not enough butter, and we're just doing it. If anything, it's it's almost the opposite problem. It's almost there's a little piece of Melbot toast with the whole stick of butter on it. It's just like, please, you don't have to give me all of this all at once. You can dole it out a little bit more.

There are five seasons of this show, with at least eight episodes a season. That's a lot of time and ground you can cover. So why why are like why are we learning all of this stuff right now? And well you are teasing things like nobody's business. We've got Adar in here, who's just like, soon, my brother, soon the sun will no longer burn your arms.

Then what is he missing? He's missing stuff already. He's just like, oh, I'll never feel something rather again. I'm just like, I don't know where you're coming from. Adar.

You gotta like, can you spell this out a little bit more? Explain to us what's going on? Yeah, are you going to do like the mister Burns thing and like put like a whole shield over middle Earth so the Orcs can walk around and like dimness kind of thing. Well, that's the thing. I mean.

The question that I have with all of this is what they're trying to do is make it so the Orcs can walk around in the daylight, right, I guess you know, is there a secret to that? Is there something to do with that Morgel Blade? And then at the very end of the episode, they look up at the tower and I'm like, is the tower is supposed to represent the Morgel Blade because it's got shit kind of wrapped around it and it kind of looks like the health of the blade. Yeah, I thought that they were showing the tower because the tower was going to be the tower at Syrith Ungle. I thought that's what it was because like because again we know that the south Lands are gonna be more do Or at some point, but I didn't know what was going on.

Again, like now we have stuff that they're changing because Mithril boy, oh what is Mithrol? Now? Can you even begin to explain this? Well, so an Elf and a bottle rog apparently fought each other on top of the Misty Mountains or excuse me, on top of where Kaza Doom is and I guess a bolt. They were fighting over a tree and lightning struck the tree and they were touching the tree or something and the power of the tree went into the mountain and in what what that's not?

What like? That is? Actually I'm going to take problems with this. That is not where myth Roll comes from. Like myth Roll well, and the tree also had three of the Silmarins.

Yeah, like and so now so so do you you remember when we were talking a couple episodes ago and we were talking about um, hold on, what was it? We were, oh, fuck me, we're talking about myth Roll, and like, it's a big deal that they fied Mythrill, right, But you also ask the thing about is I think either you asked it or we've talked about is the Arkinstone a silm Rill? It's not. But they're like edging dangerously close to talking about the silm Rills in a way that Tolkien never did. And they already have now because Mythrill has nothing to do with the silmar Rills.

That is now a connection that is being made by this show, and it is changing the folklore of this world's Middle Earth, not the books. This is separate shit still, like I don't want to hear people getting mad. They're changing it for what this show is going to use mythrill for. And it's not a great interpretation because it seems kind of what's the word, awfully convenient? I don't know, it's like Deus X mythrill.

Yeah, it's very animantium to me as well, or just like vibranium, I suppose is the other element for the Marvel universe, where I'm just like, it can do anything. So they're right, and you know, because at one point you have Gil Gallant going we need mythrill to restore the light of the elves, and it's like whoa, whoa, whoa what? Like what what? What? Now?

Like are you made out of light? Now? Is like one light of the Valor is leaving us and we have to have mythril to get it back, and we have to sat They they say in this show, saturate ourselves with my thrill, which is just like the dumbest phrase I've ever heard. It's using terminology that doesn't work in the world of Middle Earth. Saturate That word doesn't like it just sounds weird.

Any characters saying we must saturate ourselves in mythrill, Like you can't tell me you weren't confused. I was confused. We're all confused totally. Can you were being confused is one thing, but everybody being confused is another because admittedly you're you're not reading all the background source material for this show, even though there is no source material for this show, because the Silmarrillion isn't part of this. So they're just doing whatever they want with things that are kind of explained elsewhere, and that I understand people having a problem with because I myself don't think the way they define myth thrill in the show is interesting or serves the narrative.

It kind of, like you said, is just DAO SX mythrow, Like, oh, it's it's worth of infinite money. Essentially, it's worth more than anything else. So whatever it's worth is dictates the worth of everything. And it is magical because lightning hit a tree, okay, and then it also will restore the life of the elves. So like, what the fuck now is mit?

Is the show just about myth throw or what? Yeah? I am so confused. So we've got that miss where you going on, We've got the whole thing of like, well, you have to swear on this rock that you are never going to talk about this at all. And then like Calebron comes in, He's just like, hey, that thing, you know, that thing that the elves desert, sorry, that the Dwarfs discovered wink wink, nod nod, nudge nudge, And it's just like what you knew about that?

And then basically it's like, oh, yeah, by the way, I might have to break this promise with you, Duran. I'm so sorry. He's like, ah, yeah, yeah, it's no big deal. I got this new table fuck everything else. I'm okay, Like what's like, this was like this major pledge and there's going to be this major thing between these two characters.

And it's like, Nah, don't sweat it, man, it's all right now. I just got to convince my old man to give you guys a mythroll because it's gonna say the whole Elf and race, but doom the Dwarfs in the process. Yeah, I guess yeah, Like I mean, if I was a Dwarf, I'd be really pissed off if I had to go through all this dig too deep on her a bow rog and then be like, oh, yeah, here you go, Elves enjoy thanks, Like, yeah, how are the elves supposed to be sympathetic characters in this world? Because they're building a case that the Elves are the most manipulative scumbags in the show pretty much like like I keep saying, they're that that invading force that's set up camp, and they're just like they're basically now to me, you know, I keep trying to make these metaphors and stuff.

They're the Americans when they came to Japan post war, and they're just like, you know what, We're gonna do whatever the fuck we want. Fuck all you Japanese people are gonna, you know, be crime lords. We're gonna like, do you know, feed into your drug addictions all the bad stuff. Yeah, we're gonna do that because we're America. Fuck you.

Well and the and the Elves, I mean, the the pushback against the Elves feels warranted in this show. It never it never feels like people don't hate the elves for no reason. They hate the elves for good reason. I mean, you have the character of Waldreg who his reasons for hating Elves is more I just hate people that don't look like me, So it's a little less nuanced. But the stuff in Newmanor I kind of understand where they don't like the elves and the south Lands and the South Asia kind of ippy.

But the Dwarfs, I totally understand why they don't like the elves. Oh yeah, and we're about to find out why they really don't like the elves. I'm getting so confused by the New Minor stuff in what way because it makes no sense the way they're telling Yeah, because there's there's the guy who looks like, uh, Michael, what is it, Michael Sheen, Um, Yeah, yeah, Yeah. There's Farrizon, who is, you know, manipulating things. I imagine he's the guy that bombed those ships and stuff that we're in the harbor.

And so there's him doing his thing. There's the queen who's hesitant. There's the king, the deposed king. There's Ellen Drill, there's the there's Ilsador his son, there's the daughter. There's that other dude who's just like and all the time, there's like Lord what's his name now they're calling him lord thing and I'm just like, wait, he's a lord now?

The piece of shit guy that yeah, how brand or he's just like, you don't know what I did on that ship. You know, maybe you don't think I'm the best guy in the world. I mean, we know what he did in the south Lands. He allied with sad or more Goth I guess. But like, what do I like this character?

Then? Like what do you want me to root for? Do you want me to root for? No one in your show? Right right?

Because like you mentioned, even the character of Duran now looks like a complete idiot. Yeah, he's a puts. Yeah, like oh, I've got that. You have the entire elf life in your hand, Like fuck you. Then in my response, like okay, I do.

And you know what if you're not meant to be here anymore, because that's what's going on, so be it. I'm not going to put my people at danger. Obviously he doesn't know that, but you know that he his dad does, because his dad he's trying to stop them from digging too deep. And his dad is right on the money. Oh yeah, d d Or Duran's dad is just like, yeah, oh, by the way, they're here for the mythrow bro, Like it wasn't an accident there here exactly exactly, and yeah, so now it makes it makes l Ron look like a chump too.

It was about to say el Roun looks like the biggest dumb shit this side of half of the other idiot characters that this show like, this show is taking characters that have been operating not smartly, but have been operating by traditional logic and just throwing it out the door completely right, right, Yeah, Duran of two episodes ago would not acquiesce to l Round that easily after el Round broke his like binding promise on his children or his mother or whoever the hell he pretended to swear on because it didn't matter two scenes later, you can't give us tension, and then exploded in our faces to a so two season two scenes later, just because uh like why like that needs some time to breathe. There needs to be some time for this to actually be an issue, be a concern, be a weight that wears down on el Ron, not like, hey, by the way, we're gonna die if you don't like just backtrack one percent on what you said like ten minutes ago.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And the guy with the overly large wreath around his head, you know him and Calabron, they're just like, yeah, we kind of knew what we were doing when we sent you in there, so we kind of knew that you're going to volunteer to touch to the dwarves. So you're pretty much a patsy. So thanks a lot, Bro.

Abraham Lincoln with no facial hair because Benjamin Walker played him in that Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter mood. Yes, the only thing I've seen him, and he's he looks like an elf, I'll tell you that much. He looks, you know, as much as Robert Aromeo doesn't look like an elf. Benjamin Walker looks like a right proper elf. But yeah, it's like he you you've been played by everybody, oh round, Like I don't want to root for a character that is dumb, yeah, like and that it's in like again, like dumb is so derogatory.

But they're writing him like an idiot, Like it's not me, it's not me passing judgment on it's his character. It's the show writing him in a way where nothing makes sense that he's doing. He's backtracking on things that he is claiming he's not going to backtrack on two scenes in the episode later like what one then Gladriel. She's just angry all the time, and it's like inside me, yeah, yes you do, lady. And what of it?

Have you thought about maybe smoking a dube or something? You know? The the hard Foots probably has some really good pipe weed going on. Right. Oh, and the and the hard Foots are here.

Uh they're back. Yeah, and we get a little bit more of Tom Bombadel. So that's pretty nice. I don't think he's I don't think I'm just not going to let it drop. I don't think he's end off at this point.

Like, I don't think he's gonna I don't even think he's good. I think he is an evil character who has just confused and trying to like embrace what's going on. But I think him like realizing, oh, I killed those fireflies. That's my nature. It's like he's almost like the scorpion realizing, oh, I'm getting arived from these frogs.

I just need to sting these motherfuckers. I mean, that's now what it's feeling like, because it's you know what, if it's Gandolf, it's Gandolf, sure, but I don't think it is at this point, Like, you know, we're as confident as I was in the first four episodes of this show that we've been doing about what the character of the stranger is. We may not even figure out who he is by the end of this season. No, no, we may not find out who he is for some time. So prognosticating about who he is because like, I feel like it's either going to be at the end.

If they don't reveal who he is by the end of the season, it's gonna be a while, right, And yeah, I think the longer he's not introduced as someone of name is, the more likely it is that he's someone who's just a baddie. And I inclined to agree with you right now. Yeah, he could be the witch king of Bangmar. I don't know, I mean, And then you got Eminem coming over and looking at where he landed and just like pull him at the cloak a little bit. I'm just like, all right, who's this stickhead?

Right? Because again, like we're interesting, it's the show is just like for as well paced and well edited as the last four episodes were, this episode just goes We're going to show you a bunch of stuff, like everything every storyline is here, including new ones like you mentioned with whoever those people were, the progenitors from Prometheus is who. I thought that the smaller ones, the less bulky ones. But that was a character that they were showing in teasers for the show, and people are like that saw Ron right there, and it's like, I don't know who the fuck that is, And you know what, I'm not convinced it's Saron. Now.

If anything, that's one of the Ininor, which are like Gandolf the less they're not the Valor. They're the Een or the Iron or like the Demi gods. So that's what Saron is. That's what uh no, excuse me, the or No, yeah, the Mayr. So the Ior is what Saron is.

The Mayr or like Saron, the Blue Wizards Gandolf like they're one tier beneath them. So I think they might be they might be the ein Or. They're not the Mayr. I think I don't know who he is, because again, now that they're introducing these other characters, it would lead me to believe there is something bigger going on, which I think was always the case, but now I think it's less Gandolf and it maybe as somebody else. It might be Saron it could be, I don't.

I mean, yeah, I did like that. That guy getting his ass kicked for calling Adar Sauron. I was just like, oh, nice, you're right, I am or I worship you, You're my God. No, I mean, hey, I appreciate that the show. There is a level of brutality to this show that is not present in the original movies, even the Hobbit, Like, you know, having to sacrifice a character in front of all these other characters to show your fealty to Aidar is something else.

Like that's a pretty dark for a Lord of the Rings show. Oh yeah, yeah, and I did like that. Yeah, I enjoyed that. Yeah yeah, again, like there has to be some steaks to this story because yeah, it's three thousand years ahead of the Lord of the Ring, so whatever we're seeing here does affect that show. But we know where it's going.

So I want them to give us some steaks outside of the Sauron story. And they are. I mean, Joseph Maley not given much to do still again just kind of looking weird. But I hope by the end of the season there's only three episodes left, we get to see more of him. But I hope that he's not gone by the end of the season, that's for sure.

I hope that is a character throughout the show. And again, if they have five seasons that they're playing with, they don't have to just have big bads every season. They can have people come back and enter, you know, enter the show in season one and leave in season three. It doesn't have to be enter season one, leave at the end of season one, which is such a common thing in TV, especially this kind of TV, like with Dexter or Sopranos or Game of Thrones where oh, you had Pedro Pascal in this season, but you know he's going to eat ship at the end of the season because I don't think he's coming back, you know that kind of thing where it's like you don't expect people to come back when they've been introduced like this character.

But he could again, he could be here for two or three seasons. Yeah. Yeah, they probably have all these characters signed to or all these actors, i should say, signed to long term contracts and the here you go, we will use you as we see fit, right and then own you. Now we are Amazon time to pay. Yes, you have five minutes to go to the bathrooms, time starts now exactly, and you know what, would they even They even have more of the Rondear Bronwyn's story, which I think for me, outside of the stuff with the Dwarfs, which now is like verging on like ruining all of it, I still like Ismail CRUs Cordova's performance a lot.

It's an interesting elf performance. Of the three Elves four elves that we see, he's the one I would like to spend the most time with. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I want to know what's going on down there. I think, you know, they are in the heart of all of this darkness, and I think that they're you know, they're in the most danger. Obviously they're in the most danger when we see an entire Orc army marching on them.

But I'm like, okay, I'm on the edge of my seat. I want to know more what happens to these characters and what's happening in their world. I was really glad to see more of the hard Foots. I was pretty intrigued with that. I really like Poppy's song.

I like the little you know nod to those who not all who wander are lost. I was curious where the fuck they're going because they're going south for a while and then they're suddenly going east, And I'm just like, is there a better way of doing? Like, show me a little bit more of that map, why you're taking that particular route. I'd love to know that going across those dead marshes all feels like a bad idea? Man?

Yeah? Yeah, can't you go a little bit in a you know better way there? So around that attacking them? Yeah? Ye, don't cook in the water.

Yeah right, well that hasn't happened yet though, right right, we're we're a couple. I don't know how many years removed from that happening, because I believe that's well, that's this right as isn't that? The conflict coming up? Is the grame the marshes, the dead bodies come from the conflict, but sarre on this time around? Right?

And then all of the guys that are living in that cave, all those ghosts, the ones that you know, betray their their oath, Yeah, that might be coming up as well. So oh wait, whoa hold on? Is that? Who? How brand might be?

Then? Oh? Release us? Yeah I could be again, he's either the Itch the Itch King. He's so itchy.

I'm the King of Angmar and I need something else and it ain't lotion. My teeth are ching too. Holy shit, feel those bees under your skin. I'm gonna fix. Yeah, he's either the witch King of Angmar or he is going to be one of the the you know, the ghosts under the mountain as it were, because again, like the characters of men, it's well established and they've gone on to mention a countless times.

There were some men that stood up and fought Saron or more Goth at the time, but there were plenty that that allied with him, and it's clear that how Brand was one of them. That's how he was doing what he was doing. We'll see where he goes as a character, but he's not going to end up as a hero by the end of this show. I don't think there's any way that that happens, right, right, Yeah, it feels like he's kind of more the way that Sawyer from Lost was supposed to be, Like Sawyer starts off as a bad guy, eventually becomes a hero where he really should have just gotten worse as time went on, Right, And Yeah, there is a level of kind of questioning what his like the character of Halbrand is still kind of shrouded in mystery because I'm not even sure that's his name, you know, again, like he is the king who wasn't in a way, like he's the king who ran from his responsibilities, and like he has another name, so whatever that is is his character's name.

But I genuinely believe that's where his character is going. But again, that makes sense because thousands of years before the other conflict, the men were still acting the same way that they were and the Lord of the Rings conflict because we see those men in Lord of the Rings, I will fight forced like those are the men again, Like it's that that behavior is repeating. So and we see it with Walter guys. Right, you get those guys, You get those guys that are coated as Middle Eastern. You get the guys on the ship that are coming in where you see Peter Jackson for the third time walking on the prow of the boat.

So and are they coming from a new manoor? I don't know where these guys are coming from, but yeah, there's plenty of men that are going to align themselves with Saron. Yeah. I mean again, it's not just orcs. So and that's and I appreciate that in this show they're showing that, they're showing that there are villainous characters that are, you know, the men of the world, because I again, like it's the original series of movies.

It's not black and white, but they try to show like, oh, the whole world is going up against Saron. Wasn't necessarily the case then, wasn't necessarily the case now, which now, which I think works for the kind of what's going on with Bronwyn and THEO, which I'm still like, not sure what that is leading towards with that dagger, So I don't know. I think our predictions of him being a villain are wrong, but I think it's more. I think they're going to enable the villains to do what they want, intentionally or unintentionally. I think that's being made kind of clear by the this what I thought was a Morgel blade kind of being like the focal point of why what Dar is Adar looking for that thing that he has?

I guess, well, and what is so the one elf pulls down the branches and reveals this big thing, but I couldn't figure out what that big thing was. I think it was like the face of Saron, Is that right? I don't. I couldn't figure it out either. Again, they just kind of show things sometimes in this show and they're like, well, just you know right, Yeah, it's that thing with the guy.

Yeah, and yeah, how did you feel about the older storyline this episode? Again, I'm just like, what's going on? Like, Okay, you got kicked off of the team, but you want feedback on the team. Oh, isn't it funny? Now You're going to be like handling swabbing after the horses.

Okay, ha ha ha. I'm just like I couldn't give a rat's ass what's happening with this older and these other guys and just this whole Like, oh, if we happen to get a blow against glad Reel, we will be promoted to lieutenant. I'm like, okay, so who cares? I don't care about this stuff. Well, and that's and that's what's strange is like the show feel.

The show feels like it is telling an interesting story in New Menore and it's failing horribly. Oh yeah, Like I'm glad that they left at the end of this episode. I'm so glad because I'm not even joking. It was giving me flashbacks of Game of Thrones, and this is like three episodes in this show. In Game of Thrones, it's like two seasons of this constant bullshit of like, well, the people are revolting and they stink on ice, and then the slave traders are terrible, and then it's like and by the end of it, they by the end of it, the showrunners on that show feel like what the showrunners on this show are doing.

They're just throwing their hands up in the earth and saying they're leaving nothing else matters, like right, right, God damn it. It only took three episodes in this show, thank you, because two seasons. I would not have if this show, at the end of the season was still in New Minore with Gladriel and all this, I would be checked the fuck out of this show, right Like, I would be out of this show entirely. And I have no mental concept as far as how many people are traveling on these three ships, you know, is it a hundred, is it a thousand? I mean they don't look like that bigger ships, but just give me something to be like, we have one hundred and fifty men that will be taking this journey with us something?

And is that enough? Like? How many orcs do you think there are? Right right? Exactly ten fucking orcs like like they're scratching their balls hanging around.

Are you going on an expedition to figure out what's happening in Middle Earth? Are you actually going over there to do something? Because it seems like you need a lot more ships than just three. I know, yes, some were blown up, but and then at the same time, I'm like, is this like a remember the main kind of thing? Are we blowing these ships up on purpose?

And yeah? I felt like that. Yeah, the character of Kenmon, who I guess his Farazon's son, is going and blowing the ships up and stops him but can't because I guess the sealedor is also an ineffectual dipshit in this show. Wow, we watch that, right, which I that's obviously going to change by the end of the show, but well maybe not. No, he's an ineffectual throw it into the fire.

No, I mean was there when the will of Men failed? Is that going to be the end of this whole series? Is it going to be that battle against Souron and then I'll Sildor throw it into the cast it in the fire. No, I hope it's I hope it ends like The Hobbit ended, where it's like el Ron is talking to Sealder. He's like, let's go on up to Mount Doom together, right, and then it cut and it shows them walking up to Mount Doom and it just fades to black.

I'm just fantasy booking the end of the show because the way I imagine it ends, Saron gets his hand cut off, and then it's like an epilogue of where all the characters are going and the har Foots are going to the where the Shire is, you know, blahla da da and oh and el there goes out and there goes glad Reel to loth Lourie and blah blah. It's like, oh my God, make me puke now, yeah exactly. Hey, I hear there's some really good pipe weed over in this little place. I think it's called the Shire. It's I mean again, I don't we don't want to be those guys like clowning on the show, but the show is making it easy because there are just some really goofy things that the show is doing that I don't like that.

You don't like, and you know what, the people on the internet, they're not wrong about this episode. This is not a good episode of the show. It's not it's not. This is weak sauce all through this whole episode. And I mean, I really want to like it, obviously, I'm very curious what's going on, But at the same time, you're just like, bam, bam bam, here's this other thing.

And oh my gosh, you're just like force feeding all this stuff to me. And it's just asking down, it's just asking questions. Mike. Yeah, thanks, it's just asking questions. Yeah, that's but that's what it feels like.

Like you said, there, there is this element of like the mystery box and you already mentioned the bane of modern television story writing, which was lost, and a lot of shows in the last ten to fifteen years have been doing their damnedest to undo the damage that Lost did to the mystery box storytelling idea, because there are plenty of shows that do the mystery box thing well, and they do land that landing at the end that Lost like broke bill of its legs, then its neck, then its arms, and then somehow it broke its back. After all those things were already broken. It did that, and there have been plenty of TV writers who have been doing everything in their power to undo that. And this show is falling right into the traps of that show unless they answer all the questions.

Maybe they will, they probably will, but they are, like you said, bombarding us with too many questions and not enough answers. In the fifth episode, yeah, this is going to be the who was flying that plane that was dropping food off at the island? But yet the island is purgatory, So why are people dropping food off on the island? Yeah, just all of those things. Why are their polar bearers here?

Mike's just asking questions, folks. Yeah, I just want to know why you ran the story in circles and then by the time it had spiraled in on itself, you had nothing interesting to say. And that's my concern here, nothing at the heart of this whole thing. Yeah, yeah, I mean I want to trust these writers. I want to trust that they have a plan.

But at the same time, guys, you got to learn pacing a little bit better, Like, do not just just rap? I mean, this was a fire hose episode where I was just like, oh my god, there's so much stuff going on. If I'm good, I'm gonna leave the room and I'll come back and maybe I'll figure it out. Maybe I won't, and I'll even watch it a second time and be like, now, who is this guy? And what's happening over here?

Like I understand the characters that we've seen, but then you keep introducing more characters, and I'm like, okay, I thought eight hours it for like a few episodes, but now we have these silent guys prometheans as you're talking about, very apt description. Yeah, I'm like, oh, more people are here at this party. Okay, they clearly look like bad guys. I don't know if they are, but they look it. They sure do.

Painted awfully broad, aren't they, and a white skin with pale white hair. Holy shit, could you be any more of a villain if you tried? And is it the the cape that I'm mixing or do they have like mullets you know, because it's like very shaved hair. I think it's in the back. I think that's the show, all right, because for sure that would be a villain's hair.

I was hoping that they would be naked like in Prometheus, with just like the tiniest little like like yes, tiny little codpiece. Yeah, I don't, I don't. I don't know who those characters are, like I said, could be the iron work, could be the mark, could be neither one of those, and could be some bullshit that they created a whole cloth because they already did it with the Mythroll. I can't get over the myth Roll. It's so like, yeah, you know what, people on the internet, You're right, there are things wrong with this show.

The Mythrall is one of them. Like, and there's nothing you could say that would convince me otherwise. Yeah, because it's like you're you're taking science and magic and working them too much together, because it's like the science of electricity, science of mystical stones. I don't know, but just like, okay, so how does did it melt the stones? Are these the stones that are melted and somehow shot down?

And I'm just they're imbued with the magic of the tree. Sure, yeah, this whole tree thing. I'm like, okay, I could take some of this as like an environmental message, but now it's like, no, the elves are made out or tied to the tree. Well always, but they're always tied to the tree. Oh yeah, well tied to nature itself.

Yeah right, but I mean that, but the two trees and all of that is from you know, that's still really and obviously which is which is what they're kind of going for, but they can't. So I don't know why you would imbue Mythrill with an unnecessary amount of like plot more importance, yeah, or more, because again, what was important about Mythrill in the original series was that it was the most sought after material in the world. Why does it need to be anything more than that. You don't have to tell me why everybody's going after it, because if somebody's going after it so hard that it's really important to them, there are going to be, undoubtedly other groups of people who want to take it for themselves, to keep it from those people, to sell it to those people, to do with it as they please, who knows.

But you don't have to say, well, it's also now magic stone god material, like why what? No? Who cares that doesn't? You don't need to do that because, like you said, then it verges on adamantium or on obtonium or any of the other bullshit things, and that's what it hues close to now. It didn't used to do before.

It was just a part of the world. Now it's like it's a magical thing. Yeah, that's a TV writer thing. That feels so TV not. That does not feel like it's serving the source narrative at all.

It almost feels like they should have gotten like Philippa and Franny and Peter to come in and do a pass at the script and be like, ah, this doesn't work, Let's change this, you know, because yeah, because the writing in the three original movies is just the smartest thing ever, you know, Eliminating my favorite character, Tom Bombadill and giving so many of his lines to Treebeard makes the most sense in the entire world, just the way that they did structuring, the way that the beats are, the way that they end the movies where they end them, all the stuff that they forgot about in the second trilogy, but in the first trilogy, in Lord of the Rings, which perfect, I love all of those beats, and this one it was just like, oh, you like beats, well, here's fifteen of them all on your face.

I'm dropping the fucking beats. I've got some hot bars for you right now, baby, fucking doctor dre just doing it. You know, Yeah, it's a lot. It's way too much and it I mean again, it's smacks of TV. It's smacks of modern TV writing.

It's you know, there's your Game of Thrones influence. Baby, you want to see that. That's a Game of Thrones thing right there, just like doing too much and it's not even a game. It's a Game of Thrones thing, but it's not like Game of Thrones the first one to do it. They're just aping other TV shows because yeah, undoubtedly, if you have eight to ten episodes of a season, one of those episodes may or may not be heavily expository.

Like if you're a competent writer, you know how to avoid loading it all into one episode. You know what they could have Slash should have done possibly for this one, no cross cutting at all. We focus on one story. Maybe it's even a story that we've never seen before. They just cut to somebody somewhere else and we just get a whole episode about this person, man, woman, dwarf, elf, whatever.

We just learn about them and eventually they'll come back in the story and you're just like, oh, wow, that was really smart and that that is the way that you write an Emmy winning episode is you just forget everything else and you tell a really super solid story about a character that nobody knows about, and it just becomes like that episode where you're like, but yeah, but remember when they produce this character, and it's just like, yeah, that was a great episode. I had no idea how they're going to tie it back into the narrative overall, but man, that was really smart. And do you know what show on HBO did that rather well? Fucking West World and its second season. Do you remember that episode?

No, I didn't make it that far. Oh my god, remembers me of the mic episode from Better Call Saul. Never seen Breaking Bad? Well I never saw Breaking Bad, but I did start watching Better Call Saul and the episode with and I'm trying to remember the name of the actor, the guy that was in Beverly Hills Cop. He plays Mike German trout right, Yeah, yeah, he's Jonathan Banks.

Jonathan Banks, thank you, He's just great, heavy, And they just stop what they're doing with the soul story and they basically give you a full mic episode and it's like, this is the origin of Mike. This is the reason why Mike is the way that he is. And I watched that and I was just like, fucking hey, that was a great episode. Like we've never just spent an hour with this character, you know you're talking about like I'd love to spend some time with this one Elf, And I'm like, yeah, great. What if it was just about him?

What if it was his trip from the and I know he already made it back, but what if it was his trip from when he got booted out by the Orcs to go back and tell them like you need to pledge allegiance or die? Like, what if it was just his journey across like the barren waste land as he's trying to get there and all the obstacles he has to face because he's a lone elf, no weapons or anything because they were stripped of him at that camp. What's that story? You know? Give me that for a full episode and just make me care about that character even more.

I agree with you. Another episode of another show to check out. Eighth episode of the second scene of season of West World is titled kick Suya, which is Lakota for remember, and it is all about one of the Ghost Nation characters who you just kind of saw throughout the season, but they never ever really talked about and then the entire episode is about him, and the entire episode, almost all the entire episode is in Lakoda, of all things, and it is one of the best episodes of television I've ever seen. Friend of the show, watcher of Game of Thrones, watcher of the Lord of the Ring show, Father Malone, he would agree he's actually the person who was going to bat for it is Hard when it came out, and I remember being like, it's good.

And then I've watched it since and I see what he's talking about, because it's exactly what you're talking about. You need to give us a reason to care about these characters, and you don't have to give an entire episode to one character to do it. But it's not a bad idea. And hey, Zon mclarnin to plug another show that totally nobody is talking about, the Dark Winds show that came out this year. That is an adaptation of Tony Hillerman's book Dark Winds, where he plays Joe Lee Porn.

He is amazing in that show. I guarantee you very little people saw it because it was on AMC and it's not breaking bad and better calls, but it's a show that I am convinced he got that role because of that episode in Westworld, So I agree, Like, if you give these characters a moment to shine, if you give these actors an opportunity to do what they're doing, shit, do an episode all about during the third Like doing a whole episode about Peter McCullen's character before he becomes durin the Father, Like do that, Like there's nothing saying you can't. There was an episode going back to Lost again. There was an episode with because we've already we met Desmond a little bit, Oh, I know what you're talking about.

Yeah, I'm talked about an episode called The Constant where it was Desmond's story and just showing like his whole thing with him and Penny and all this stuff. We came into work the next day and it was just like, my god, was that a solid episode of television. That was probably one of the best episodes of that entire series, even like the introduction to Desmond when we get to see him with the Mama Cass record and just like what he's doing before the people even make it to the island, him resetting the numbers and doing all this stuff. I fucking love that it was. It was so solid.

Yeah. I you know what's funny. I have seen very little Lost, but I have seen that episode. Weird, great episode. Yeah yeah, And I know very little about the show other than how badly the show kind of crashed and burned, and like, I know, the main story beats.

But that is one of the few episodes that I have seen and it sticks, like, for whatever reason, it sticks in my memory right because it was a good episode of the show. And I don't even like that. It's not I don't like the show. It's I don't have any vested interest in giving a shit about that show, exactly exactly. I wonder if they're going to do that in this show.

I hope to god they do, because I'm trying to I don't even think Game of Thrones did that. This these kinds of shows are really working on the idea that people need spectacle, they need this big, all reaching conflict, and it's like, not necessarily, it doesn't have to be. You know, I was just recently talking about get Out, and that movie works because it's a small, contained conflict. It's isolated. You look at a movie like Us it's about the United States and like all of that, and like that movie doesn't work as well because it's such a big narrative, but get Out works because it's a small contained thing.

I know what we're talking about with Lord of the Rings and this show is a rise of darkness and an all encompassing narrative. But give it a moment to breathe, because we've been on a downhill run since the first episode. There's been no moments of quiet with any of these characters. It's kind of a problem because when well, there hasn't been none, there's been like one or two one of them, the dinner with Lisa and el Rond and Durhan. That seems amazing.

Why because you give the fucking characters a moment to talk to one another and sit down. Yeah, Like this characters barely even sit down. They're like running around constantly, Like, give everybody a moment to breathe, please, please, Because I was not expecting the show to continue this pace, were you? No? No?

And yeah, I feel almost tired when I'm done watching one of these because it just is coming at me so quickly, and I'm just like, yeah, please just give us a moment to rest. Yeah, they just lost someone. The orcs will be here by night, like just And that's the other thing. We're straying further away from the quality of the movies. Yeah, oh yeah, big time.

Yeah, And that's a concern because the first three episodes of this show, I was like, yeah, kind of tonally with the movies, and now it's like straying further and further every episode, and I hope we don't lose it, but you know what, again, there's only three episodes left this season, So I'm with you, isn't it it's it's it's it's it's a lot, and there's a lot going on, And like watching this with Game of Thrones, like it's overwhelming. Man, there's like eighty characters you gotta keep track of because that show, in its most recent episode blew up the show and introduced like ten new characters. So it's like a different kind of overwhelming because that show is not letting anybody sit because it's had like thirteen time jumps.

This show is just ever expanding the net to the point where it's like it's gonna break. You can't keep expanding it. You gotta start narrowing the focus down even a little bit. Yeah, Episode one point six still doesn't have a title though, No, of course not. That's the running Gang now, Yeah, this show is never gonna have titles ahead of time.

It's not Thursday night at midnight, come right right? Yeah, and we didn't mention the title for this episode's awful. Yeah, partings hard days great, and there's really not that many partings. There's just like them leaving New Minore, anybody else parting? No, Yeah, I guess waldreg leaves Bronwyn, but like he was always going to Yeah, because he's a dick, because he's a lie.

He lies with sar On. He's already said as much, like whatever, oh yeah, he's just tell Raffing that he's evil. He's he's whirling his mustache, basically the groundskeeper from the Harry Potter films, just like, uh, yeah, you're a pretty evil character just from looking at you, sir, Yeah, like we know, we know what you look like. I'm surprised it wasn't that actor, Like that's I know right right. It feels like a perfect role for him because he played kind of a scummy turd on Game of Thrones too, So it's like it you kind of just look, you know, you're probably a perfectly nice guy, but you just have a good look where you can play scumbags.

So didn't he play the farmer in um hot fuzz as well, the guy that nobody can understand? Yes, he did. That's right, God, oh so good? God? Yeah, why isn't he in this show?

I mean, I don't know, I mean, yeah, yeah, among the townspeople of wherever. Yeah, I mean, I guess it feels like, yeah, when you look at some of these actors, there's still doing a lot of Kiwi and Oscar actors, like, yeah, you've got your Lenny Henry and stuff being flown over. But there's a lot of Kiwis in this show good, And it's clear that the Orcs are all Kiwi. Yes, I'm perfectly fine with yeah, yeah, maggotty brand, Yeah, give me more of that. You know what, though, like real talk, just give us a show with the Orcs, like stop stop to stop with everything else, give us the Orcs orc in the house.

I mean, I could deal with a whole episode about that one guy with like he's kind of got a nice quaffre. He's the guy that uh that takes Frodo away from Sheilab, you know, just um oh yeah, you know I'm talking about He doesn't look like yeah, oh yeah, he's got a name for sure. Doesn't look like any of the other Orcs, or even the guy who's just like yeah, they don't need their legs, like that guy or the Harvey Weinstein. Yeah, even like any of the Orcs. Like, please, let's make an actor have to be an orc makeup for seven to eight episodes.

Yes, fuck that guy. That actor five hours every day in the chair and you're the main character of the show. Enjoy. Yeah, I want to be an Orc, but I didn't want to be an orc this bad, right. Yeah, you know, we joke about the quality of the show, and this show is still a good show, but it's doing a little too much for its own good and it needs to remember it does have five seasons.

You don't need to introduce everything to us in the first eight episodes. You just you just don't. Yeah, slow it down, folks, please, Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, next time we're going to be talking about episode one point six. One of my favorite titles of this whole season, TBA.

Yeah. Sure, Like what what is the harm and even releasing the episode titles at a time they mean nothing. Literally, this epis title means nothing. Yeah, I'm gonna put this episode titles fart, fart, peep, and it would have made just about as much sense, you know what I mean? Like that, It's not like the episode is titled the Rector I've saw rod it's writing.

It's like you're you're not giving anything away, and if you think you're giving something away, promise you're not. Yeah. Man, it feels so Amazon, though it doesn't it. It's just like it keeps in kind of with my head cannon interpretation of Amazon's business practices. It's like they're run by a paranoid billionaire lunatic.

So he's paranoid about the episode titles coming out ahead of time. Yeah, that's my head cannon. Don't release them. Don't release them. No Elon may know ahead of time.

Yeah, he might make fun of me on Twitter. Yeah, god oh boy. Well until next week when we come back and we talk about that great episode one point six, Chris, where can people find you, sir? Well, if you want to find the things that I work on, specifically cstacchiw dot com that's my link tree. Go there.

But more importantly for the things that we you and I and plenty of other people that we consider both friends and business acquaintances. Weirdingwaymedia dot Com is our podcast slash media company that we've created to keep everybody ORC in the house. As they would say, we're Orc's in the house. So we're trying to keep everybody under one roof because we all work together anyways. And if you want to hear the things that we work on, which aren't just Lord of the Rings, and it's not just movies and it's not just TV.

It's all kind of stuff. Weirdingwaymedia dot com. What about you, Mike, No show named Orc in the House yet though, No, not yet, No, mostly just working on the projection booth, you know, and then all the other good stuff. And yeah, like he said, podcast Jesus fucking Christ. Yeah, like he said, Weirdingwaymedia dot com.

You can see the whole gamut, all kinds of great shows. And we've got more coming out all the time, orcingwaymedia dot Com. We've got Orc coming out all the time, a lot of Orc all the time, all Orc all the time. Yeah, you are turned into Radio Orc and coming up next we have she Bob Took My Baby Away and then afterwards maggoty Bread still on the menu by the Orcrist. Five.

Why do orcs know what a menu is? Or why do orcs fall in love? Yeah? My Life presents ORCS Classics. Hey, man, is that Orc rock?

You'll turn it out? Man? Yeah? Man, all Orc rock, all the time, all the time. That's a promise you can't keep.