 So obviously Rings of Power is one of the greatest shows we've had on streaming services in a very long time, but even great shows can be perfected and improved. So today I've prepared a little script doctor to help it along to show you how it could be it's most brilliant with just a little bit of help. These obviously won't be suggestions for everything that could be improved, but just a few things that I spotted and noticed that could help it a lot a bit. So the first thing that I think they could improve on is how they handled the villain. I feel like in Rings of Power they show their hand a little bit too early, making it a little too obvious who the villain is. So it's not that big a surprise when we get the reveal. I think they should take their time and be subtler about it. That way it would be more of a surprise and the audience would feel more shocked about it. So a couple suggestions on how they could go about doing that, changing a few things to make it subtler and less obvious. First I would suggest that they have Galadriel do something somewhat like a bullet sympathetic in the first few episodes. I mean even villains do gain an audience's sympathy from time to time. They could show Galadriel showing some remorse or compassion for the men that she is leading when they are hurt or suffering or dying. We could even later have a flashback showing her secretly grinning about their deaths or suffering. We could show Galadriel sometimes being courteous to other people, being rude to everyone all the time. It's not only obvious, but it just kind of gets a bit boring and samey. The next thing I think they could improve is pacing. Of course it's a bit tricky to know when to take your time with things and when to kind of rush through it. How much time is the appropriate amount of time to take to tell the story you're telling? That's a difficult thing to gauge and these are first time show runners. So they gave us eight episodes. I think we can all agree that eight is not a good number of episodes for this story. I propose they make it 32. The first 16 would each focus on one character to introduce them and flesh them out. First Galadriel. Second Elrond. Third Duran. Fourth Bronwyn. Fifth Theo. Sixth Arundir. Seventh Adar. Eighth Talbrandt. Ninth Nori. Tenth Not Gandalf. Eleventh The Coltas. Twelfth Miriel. Thirteenth Elendil. Fourteenth Isildur. Fifteenth Isildur's sister. Sixteenth Arizona. Then episodes 20 through 32 would be when they all cross paths with each other. Number 17 would be Galadriel and Elrond. Eighteen Elrond and Duran. Nineteen Bronwyn and Theo. Twenty Arundir Bronwyn and Theo. Twenty one Arundir and Bronwyn and Theo and Adar. Twenty two Nori and Not Gandalf. Twenty three Nori and Not Gandalf and The Coltas. Twenty four Galadriel and Halbrandt. Twenty five Galadriel and Halbrandt and Miriel. Twenty six Galadriel and Halbrandt and Miriel and Elendil. Twenty seven Galadriel and Halbrandt and Miriel and Elendiel and Isildur. Twenty eight Galadriel and Halbrandt and Miriel and Elendiel and Isildur and Isildur's sister. 29. Galadriel and Halbrandt and Myriel and Elendil and Isildur and Isildur's sister and Farazon. 30. Galadriel and Halbrandt and Myriel and Elendil and Isildur and Isildur's sister and Farazon and Arendir and Bronwyn and Theo and Adar. 31. Galadriel and Halbrandt and Myriel and Elendil and Isildur and Isildur's sister and Farazon and Arendir and Bronwyn and Theo and Adar and Nori and Not-Gandalf and the Coltists. And then 32, the season finale, would have everyone. Galadriel, and Halbrand, and Miriel, and Elendil, and Isildur, and Isildur's sister, and Farizan, and Arundir, and Bronwyn, and Theo, and Adar, and Nori, and Knott Gandalf, and the cultists, and Elrond, and Durin. The next section for suggestions I have is a bit longer, and this is to do with sort of pointless arcs that happened in the series. I'm assuming these are arcs that might eventually pay off in future seasons. I have great faith in these writers and showrunners, but you know, it would be nice if there was some payoff in the arcs in the first season. I'm sure we would have gotten this if they hadn't felt so rushed, and had to cram their story into eight episodes. So if we went with my 32 episode model, this would probably solve this problem already. But in any case, here's some suggestions for how to get some more payoff, and give some more meaning to some of the arcs that we saw. First, there's a few sort of questions and situations that all kind of come together, and could be made to come together into a really effective way. So, why does a Scyldor throw an apple overboard? Why are there no consequences for this? Why do Nori and the Hartfords exist in the narrative at all? Why would Galadriel jump off of a boat in the middle of the sea? Does this foreshadow that she knows the sea is always right and is destined to go to Numenor? Instead of showing a Scyldor throwing one apple overboard, let's establish that he has an apple-throwing problem. He's just throwing them overboard every chance he gets. This causes some tension among the Numenorians. Then in a fun call back to the Lord of the Rings films, a specifically golem-framing Sam with the lemba-spread, they'll begin to suspect one another, and because they hate elves, they'll blame Galadriel for the apple shortage. As a consequence, they will throw her overboard. Now it'll make sense that we saw her jumping overboard before because this established what a strong swimmer she is. While the Numenorians think they've gotten rid of her, really, they've just sped her way to Middle Earth. So when the Numenorians make land, Galadriel's already standing on shore waiting for them. She could say a fun girl boss line like, What took you so long? But they still have an apple shortage, even after they get rid of Galadriel, because it was Isildor throwing them overboard. Elendil's the one to discover this, and he asks his son, why is he doing it? And Isildor then explains that the sea is always biting. Realizing his son has misheard and misinterpreted their cherished saying, Elendil laughs and explains that no, no, it's that the sea is always right. This upsets Isildor, whose mother died by drowning. But Elendil comforts him, telling him that the sun sets in the west, which makes Isildor feel a lot better. But in any case, regardless of whose fault it is, the Numenorians still have an apple shortage. So when they make land, they have to resupply. So they wander around looking for somewhere that they can refill their apple cash when they come upon a bountiful orchard. And this is how they meet the Harfoots. The Harfoots, of course, will be distrusting and suspicious of these big people and vice versa, except for Nori. Then in another fun callback to Lord of the Rings, Galadriel will scoop Nori up onto her horse and say, ride with me. And together, they'll ride to the battle that they're definitely going to eventually find. Okay, so that's the apples and the Harfoots sorted. But what about Isildor's sister? Her presence in the narrative seemed kind of pointless. So in the episode that will be devoted entirely to introducing this character in my 32 episode plan, we're going to learn about a small rebel group that does not believe that the sea is always right. Isildor's sister was radicalized when her mother drowned. Everyone continued to insist that the sea was always right. The rebels want her to kill the king. So they put together this plan. They want her to join the stone masons gill because everyone knows that once the king starts dying, they'll call all the stone masons to his bedside to draw him. And everyone knows that once a stone masons begins drawing the king, they are left entirely alone with the king. No servants, no guards. And once she is left entirely alone with the king, she can assassinate him. And no one will suspect that she or the rebels are behind it. Because he was already dying. She does realize though that this plan is kind of dumb and it gains the rebels nothing. So she starts flirting with Farazon's son thinking she might actually be able to do more for the rebels that way. Only to discover that he has also been radicalized and has been tasked with committing acts of terrorism for the rebels. That's why he's blowing up the Numenorean ships. When Isildor's sister and Farazon's son realize that they're both actually rebels, but that the rebellion is kind of pointless and not very well organized, they decide to run away together. So they stow away on one of the ships that's headed for Middle Earth. And this turns out to actually be the real source of the apple problem. Because they were eating them the whole way over. Okay, so what about the cultists? In the episode devoted entirely to introducing the cultists, we'll learn that they heard a prophecy pertaining to a force for darkness that they will recognize by the paleness of their hair. So when they come upon Nott Gandalf, they believe that this is that force for darkness because of his pale hair. But when the Numenorians cross paths with the hearthboots, they'll see Galadriel and realize their error. But Galadriel kills them. For some reason, while she does this, she screams, I am no man. So the audience will think Galadriel's killing them because they're evil, but really Galadriel's killing them because she's afraid that they'll give her away. Okay, so what about Adar's plan? In the show, his plan goes something like this. Dig lots of trenches undetected while simultaneously searching every village for an evil artifact, which looks like a sword hilt, but it's actually a lightsaber that requires blood to activate it, and then use that sword hilt, which Adar somehow knows is a key to a dam to release the waters from that dam and then force the waters to travel through the trenches they were digging uphill to the dormant volcano, which Adar somehow knows will cause it to erupt, thereby darkening the skies so that the nocturnal orcs can be active during daylight hours, which is necessary because those are business hours and it's really discriminatory to not have the orcs be able to participate in the economy of Middle Earth because they can't be out in daylight. So this plan seems a bit convoluted. So I propose this instead. They're raiding the towns in search of a map. That map will lead them to an evil magic hilt, and if you stand in the right place in the Southlands and hold the hilt sideways, the curves of the bleed will match up with the topography of this part of the Southlands. And if you pull out the little extended bit, it'll point to the abandoned fortress that they need to go to, and when they get there, they find a hole in the stone that's just the right shape in size to fit the hilt into. So they stick the blade hilt into this hole and turn it, which makes the rock wall open, revealing a passageway, in which they'll see a mural etched onto the wall which shows them the process for creating a powerful ring of magic. This ring will give them the power to darken the skies, but it shows them that they will need a super special secret ingredient called mithril. The mural shows that the mithril is buried deep, so they begin to dig and try to find it, but they dig too deep and find a balrog. Scared, they run away, but the balrog pursues them and chases them all the way up the mountain, which is where they'll tell him to give up because they have the high ground, but the balrog disagrees. The balrog charges at them and then falls over the cliff they're standing on and falls to his doom. Or should I say his Mount Doom? But of course it'll turn out in the season finale that the person that left them this map to find was Galadriel. Okay, so what about the elf plague and the mithril vaccine? It's kind of silly that they thought that mithril would inoculate elves against tree rot. There is a way that it could work though, so instead of the dwarves denying the elves access to the mithril, have the dwarves allow them access to the mithril, all they want. And the elves will soon realize that while the mithril is an effective lodestone and can draw iron filings off of things like leaves, it doesn't actually have any healing powers. So at the end, Halbrand comes upon Galadriel and she's cackling with Glee at the success of all her plans. She starts villain monologuing at him, bragging about her success. First, her plan to leave the map for Adar to find so that they'd start digging for mithril for her. It didn't get her any mithril, but it did create Mount Doom, so winning. Her other plan, which involved poisoning the elves' water supply so that they would think that they were sick and then leaving around some clues that would make them think that mithril would be the cure, this did gain her access to the mithril in the minds of Khazad Doom, mithril which she needs in order to create rings of power. Poor, love-struck Halbrand thinks that she wants to create these rings for good and to help Middle Earth and he offers to help her and to join in her efforts. But she needs no man's help to conquer and rule all of Middle Earth. She shuns him and banishes him and then orders Celebrimbor to make her rings of power. We end the season with poor, heartbroken Halbrand ready to rally the forces of Middle Earth and Numenor to rise up against the tyrannical evil of Galadriel. So yeah, those are just a few ideas for how they could just tweak the plot here and there to make it just absolute perfection in my opinion. But if you have other suggestions for how they could improve the plot, please let me know or do you think the plot was just perfect the way that it was? Whatever you want to let me know. I post videos on Saturdays. Other random times as well, definitely Saturdays. So like and subscribe. Join my Patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you.