Part 1

The speaker talks about their involvement and opinions on the Lord of the Rings series, emphasizing the importance of analyzing and critiquing media. They discuss the success of the portrayal of Khazad-Dum and the emotional moments with the dwarves, praising the visual details and the performances of the actors. They also mention the friendship between Elrond and Durin as a positive aspect. However, they point out that the limited screen time for this plotline is a significant problem in season 1. Ah, the Lord of the Rings, the Rings of Power, the thing that's almost taken up a lot the last two years of my life, through releasing leaks, scoops, reactions, and even through building a brand, whilst also beginning doing all this before it was cool or even trendy to talk about on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, or wherever. Whether that is either praising the show to oblivion or mass hating it to oblivion, then the show came out and passed, which leads us to where we are right now. Often on this channel, I, Harry, personally haven't given my own beliefs or opinions all the time, as I believe when reporting news or leaks, having journalistic integrity and a non-biased factor is key. But that means there is a lot of stuff I have been holding back in, especially my beliefs and opinions around the strengths and weaknesses of Season 1 for the Rings of Power. I believe it is heavily naive to absorb a piece of media and find it completely trash or flawless and amazing, where there is not one success or failure attached to it. For example, my favourite film of all time is The Return of the King, but I hate Denethor's over-enthused and almost schizophrenic level paranoia, the army of the dead serving as a massive plot hole, with them attacking at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and so much more. Media and art is there for analysis and critiques, but also for its achievements, such as how I prefer film Aragorn and him receiving Andruil near the end instead of at the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring in the books. The point here is that this is the approach I am taking in tackling a behemoth such as the Rings of Power, and I'm sure in the comments, just looking at the title, people will be saying stuff like, quote, there is not one success, or people on Twitter getting angry at me for, quote, trashing the show. Hopefully the intellectual ability to go beyond these translucent takes will shine through. I will discuss a success, then a failure or critique, and continue in that cycle. So the first success or thing I think McPain and the team did right with The Lord of the Rings, The Rings of Power, is generally Khazad-Dum, and the emotional connections and moments with the dwarves. Even visually, when we enter Khazad-Dum, this is a lived-in kingdom, an important point that we'll come back to later on, from the dwarven extras back at work, to little details such as trees and nature grown to show dwarven kingdom, dwarvendom at its peak. This, coupled with excellent performances by the two duoden actors, especially in this scene here, and Sofia Nunvete, played by Princess Deesa, and Sofia Nunvete, who plays Princess Deesa. The dwarves here are beyond just the comical Scottish dwarves that the Peter Jackson movies sometimes embellished, and we see this through Arrayne Arthur, where the lack of dwarven prosthetics allows us to see raw emotions and reactions, such as this scene on the lift, or after disputes with his father. The fact that Elrond, who is again another great character in this season, spends so much time here too, and his friendship with Durin also makes this plotline even better. However, a key problem that ultimately even hinders this plotline for season 1 is screen time.