The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power took on a daunting task by exploring the lore of Middle-earth. J. R. R. Tolkien wrote an elaborate backstory for his fantasy world, though Prime Video only has rights to some of it. Still, The Rings of Power takes its cues from Tolkien’s history. The story is set during the Second Age, going into the origins of the titular rings as the threat of Sauron (Charlie Vickers) builds and Elves, Dwarves, and Men are each impacted by the darkness. Bringing in familiar characters and new ones alike to deal with the threat, The Rings of Power introduces a much different Middle-earth, expanding the story to include places never before seen on screen, like Númenor and Rhûn.
With the conflict spreading across the fictional world, there was no other option than for the series to separate its cast, but that became the show’s biggest weakness. There are simply too many people with their own plotlines to follow. There are stories with the Númenoreans, the Southlanders, the Elves, the Dwarves, and the Harfoots. And though all of the plots are solid, The Rings of Power is doing too much. The show has to carefully spread out time, sometimes leaving a central character out of an episode entirely and ruining the momentum. This is not exclusive to The Rings of Power and is pretty universal in fantasy television. House of the Dragon, The Witcher, The Wheel of Time, and Game of Thrones have faced similar problems, but it is particularly easy to spot in The Rings of Power Season 2.
‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Has Too Many Storylines
From the very beginning, The Rings of Power was full. The ambitious show introduced five different storylines: Nori (Markella Kavenagh) finding the Stranger (Daniel Weyman), Galadriel’s (Morfydd Clark) search for Sauron, Elrond’s (Robert Aramayo) attempt to win the Dwarves’ help, the Southlanders’ fight with Adar (Sam Hazeldine), and the political issues going on in Numenor. While these occasionally intersected in Season 1, like Galadriel’s stay in Numenor or Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) leading the Númenoreans to the Southlander’s aid, these storylines were largely separate, bringing in characters and conflicts that had little to do with any cross-over events. Because there was so much going on, the season was rushed and confusing, and it was a relief when a few storylines merged, allowing all to have a little more time.
Though the ending of Season 1 looked like it may simplify things slightly, Season 2 exacerbates the issue by separating characters to add more storylines. Celebrimor (Charles Edwards) and Sauron now have their own plot going on in Eregion. Though Elrond and Galadriel share a story, the Khazad-dûm plot is ongoing without Elrond. Adar has moved on to a new goal while the Southlanders rebuild their society, and even Nori and the Stranger are on separate adventures for now. By spreading out the characters, The Rings of Power covers more ground, but it struggles to explore any single plot effectively.
‘The Rings of Power’ Ignores Storylines for Too Long
The Rings of Power has become so spread out that episodes will ignore entire sections of the plot, leaving cliffhangers open for a whole episode or sometimes two. One of the biggest unanswered questions of Season 1 was Isildur’s (Maxim Baldry) fate. After the finale let everyone believe he was dead, dedicated fans knew Isildur would somehow return because his biggest contribution to the story had yet to happen. However, Season 2 didn’t address that until Episode 3, “The Eagle and the Sceptre,” avoiding mentioning him for the first two. Likewise, the Southlanders storyline was ignored in the first two episodes. This prevents the audience from getting too invested in any one story because there is so long to wait between installments. When we only get a single episode each week, it’s especially frustrating when a favorite character is missing.
Season 2 Episode 5, “Halls of Stone,” highlights this issue as the previous episode left Galadriel captured by Adar and Elrond rushing back to Lindon for aid. However, the story picks up, focusing on Celebrimbor, the Dwarves, and the Númenoreans, only showing Galadriel or Elrond for a minute near the end. After waiting a week, the audience had no resolution for these characters. The same can be said for Nori, Poppy (Megan Richards), and the Stranger, who were not touched on in Episode 5, leaving them separated in Rhûn and pursued by the Dark Wizard. Letting cliffhangers sit for an extra week does not help keep the audience engaged. Instead, it pushes them away as they forget what is happening with those characters without any development.
Can ‘The Rings of Power’ Fix Its Pacing Issues?
The season is more than half over, and some characters have only appeared a few times. Isildur, Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova), Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin), Miriel, and Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) have each only appeared in two episodes despite their central roles. The Rings of Power needs to reign in the story to fit its time frame. The pacing would be less of an issue if the season allowed more time to tell the story. Of course, The Rings of Power is an expensive show, but only eight episodes per season do not allow the show any time to waste. TV seasons are trending shorter these days, but with such an expansive story, the limitation does not serve The Rings of Power.
The other solution would be to cut back on characters. This could focus the story on the main conflict, trimming out the things that still have not connected to Sauron. But, that would drastically narrow the perspective. Considering Middle-earth’s soon-to-be-written history, these many plots will merge together eventually, culminating in an all-out battle against Sauron, which will require most, if not all, of the current plotlines. Other series with this issue righted the wrong by killing off characters, which fit perfectly for Game of Thrones, but The Rings of Power has established a different tone. Though it is not afraid of death, as proven in Season 2, Episode 5, deaths are few and far between, especially given the long life of many of its main characters. While there is no clear path forward for The Rings of Power to correct its biggest problem, it could, at the very least, stop dividing stories further. The Prime Video series desperately needs to find a way to fit most (if not all) of the characters into every episode.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is available on Prime Video in the U.S. with new episodes on Thursdays.
