Like S1, S2 involved a disgusting amount of cheesy dialogue, ill-advised plot, and deus ex machina. Unlike S1, S2 found no epic redemption in the end.
It makes me wonder if the wonder of S1's end was but a dream. It stands so tall above the rest. Was it a different writer?
The best part of S2 I can recall is Celebrimbor falling into madness, especially the moment his illusion crumbles. But why would the best part of the season feature a secondary character?
That's just it: I'm a little infuriated by writers' obsession with ensemble casts. GoT committed this crime in the first degree. I established my alliances in S1 of GoT, and they never changed. Through scores of new characters I remained interested in the players of S1, which means GoT was an awful wanderfest (just realized that's probably a niche climbing term). RoP hooked me with the familiar players: Galadriel, Elrond, Gandalf, Isildur,... and while I can forgive some new ones (I like Nori, and the Arondir/Bronwynn stuff is fine, you know, whatever), RoP follows GoT's miserable example in ever-bloating the ensemble, at the expense of those who actually matter. Stick to your guns, I say -- your guns being your main characters. Pick a few at the beginning, and stick to them, for the most part!
Celebrimbor is a secondary character I'll easily forgive, and I liked his role in this season. He's a great elf, one I'd heard of. But he shouldn't be the emotional core of the season, and certainly the season shouldn't be dripping with so many empty characters.
What even happened this season? It was so disappointing? Look, Gandalf developed 90% of where he's at now in the first season. He didn't get anywhere in S2! He's my favorite character ever! Why can't you do anything with him? In fact I don't really remember anything happening at all between that wandering clan, other than Poppy joining, which I said I didn't want. What a letdown. Isildur literally did nothing. Arondir is just awkwardly hanging around, having lost his love, being kind of a bummer of a guy now, but somehow always popping up to do some magic acrobatics at impossibly coincidental moments.
I don't know what the writers were thinking. You have a whole season. If you would have thought at the beginning "what do I want done by the end of the season" surely you'd have said more than this. Or you'd have said the same general scope but let's enjoy it along the way! Instead, they kept the scope very unambitious, yet packed every available moment with crap that didn't matter.
I'll correct myself -- I know what the writers were thinking, and it wasn't about their writing, it was about the business constraints. They're expected to draw out this story into several seasons without losing viewership. So they try to trick us into paying attention the whole time, waiting waiting for it all to coalesce. If you're only going to cover this ground in a season, let me enjoy it, let me deeply understand it, let me soak in it, don't splatter me in empty chatter. RoP is a shower of white noise typically drowning out the deep resonances echoing through the ages of Middle-earth. I don't mind a couple of easy plotlines to ground the grandeur, but those should be spare. RoP is obviously not made with my taste in mind. It's made to draw out what really matters for the fictional world (what Tolkien actually wrote about) for the sake of mass consumption.
S1 redeemed itself. I got to thinking it might be a new canonized love of mine. S2 had none of that. S2 was pretty disappointing, even if no more than most of S1.
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