Apparently Isildur’s mom was also part of a group with close connection to horses, so we’ll likely get more development on that front now that Isildur’s bonded himself to his mount in battle. The Lord of the Rings has always been a great franchise for horse lovers and there’s lots of spectacular riding shots in this episode, particularly involving Galadriel’s impressive saddle acrobatics and her chase scene with Adar. Of course Númenor shows up to save the day in a scene highly reminiscent of the arrival of the Riders of Rohan. Making the villagers kill each other is brutal and also plays into Adar’s ethos that an orc’s life has just as much value as a human’s. While Waldreg is a true traitor, most of the people who defected were probably just desperate and scared. The scrappy traps the people of the Southlands laid for the orcs, and Bronwyn’s clutch killing of an orc scout to make sure they went off, produces a victory that’s all too short lived as it’s revealed that Adar mostly sent in humans in the first wave. After spending so much time running from a past he still hasn’t explained, it’s unclear that Halbrand’s actually ready to accept this level of responsibility.Įpisode 6 showed a masterful ability to weave all this character building into dramatic action.
Bronwyn looked relieved to give up the leadership she’d earned through battle to the prophesied king Halbrand, but it’s very questionable if she actually should. The writers seem to be drawing a contrast between these supposedly noble saviors with somewhat questionable morality and Bronywn and Arondir, who seem more grounded and genuinely good. Galadriel and Halbrand take turns this episode pulling each other out of vengeful rages, the bond between them deepening up until the point it looked like it was about to actually get romantic before they’re interrupted to be pulled into a royal council. She might do so in the name of fighting evil, but the results would be just as catastrophic. Adar pointing out her own similarities to Sauron is a clever nod to the darkness she invokes when Frodo offers her the One Ring - she could actually be Sauron’s successor because she has the single-minded will to reshape Middle-earth in her image. They may have been created by a force of evil, but now that they exist with their own feelings and worldviews, Galadriel’s genocidal vow feels utterly monstrous.
The Rings of Power is reckoning with that through the different ways the orcs are viewed by Adar, Sauron, and Galadriel. Tolkien’s orcs have a complicated legacy that’s still playing out in debates within Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy tabletop games, with disagreements over what it means to have races that are evil by nature, designed for heroes to be able to kill without feeling bad. Adar was understandably tired of being a lieutenant to a distracted boss who views the orcs as disposable cannon fodder at best and has more recently been using them as experimental subjects for his research. But it’s just part of his past that he clings to, driving home why he decided to give up on Sauron. When Adar first does it, it seemed like dark magic meant to spawn more orcs or maybe even protect his soul phylactery style should he fall in battle. Seeing the “life in defiance of death” seed-planting ritual performed twice this episode provides some strong character- and world-building. While Theo’s trying to resist the hilt’s pull, he’s a curious kid in over his head. Arondir’s smart to hide it, but dark artifacts are also deeply corrupting. Arondir’s hammer breaking before the hilt does is a direct reference to Gimli’s hammer shattering when he tried to sunder the One Ring in The Fellowship of the Ring. I’d love to know how Adar and Waldreg survived the collapse of Ostirith pretty much unscathed, but the entire episode is a back and forth as the humans and Adar’s forces take turns scoring big wins that then crumble into scathing defeats.The real action of the episode happens after Bronwyn and Arondir lead the retreat from the guard tower and start bracing for the counter offensive with plenty of ingenuity and tender moments.Īrondir understandably tries to break the hilt, but at the very heart of the Lord of the Rings is the concept that powerful artifacts are not easily destroyed.
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