 Clearly none of them have seen Revenge of the Sith. Oh, boy do I feel dumb now. Does he write that time? Bruh, bro. And if you thought Galadriel's sword skills were impressive, wait till you see her. As you probably know by now, Rings of Power is one of my absolute favorite comedy shows on TV right now. But while last week's episode was more akin to Seinfeld, or it's funny because it's about nothing, this week's episode was more like Tropic Thunder. Now I love when anything but especially comedy uses homage and pastiche, and we see a lot of that in this episode. One of the biggest influences on the beginning of it at least is Disney's Beauty and the Beast. So we start out where Gaston, I mean Data, I mean Adar, is giving an empowering speech to his mob. And then that mob marches up to the castle in single file with torches lit, but the mob in Beauty and the Beast was a little bit smarter because they did bring a battering realm. But anyway, they march up there and they open the door and they find it deserted. And I was really waiting for Lumiere to shout, now! And when I saw that they really had abandoned the tower, I had two thoughts. One, clearly none of them has seen Revenge of the Sith, because as we all know, if you have the high ground, you win automatically. And two, it's really stupid to leave the tower, which is a much more defensible location than anywhere nearby. Boy do I feel dumb now because I, unlike Arundir, did not study structural engineering. Arundir was able to recognize that the tower was structurally unsound. And if he shot a single arrow at it, the whole thing would come crashing down, on the orcs, killing all of them! Well, a handful of them anyway. So next we check in with Isildur, who is heading to Middle Earth with the rest of the Numenoreans. And the thing with Isildur is he's kind of a dick, or at least he has been so far in the show. As we all know, the best way to develop some likeability and sympathy for an asshole character is to show them interacting with and being kind towards an animal companion. So we see Isildur sharing a bite of his apple with his horse, and it's really nice of him to share a bite of his apple with his horse, because food on board a ship is not limitless, so you can't just wait. And he threw most of the uneaten apple into the ocean. What a dick! Galadriel is fascinated by this behavior, so she comes over to talk to him. She is still wearing her full plate armor, so she's really committed to wearing it for the entire journey. But I really enjoy how they sort of subvert our expectations around elves right here, because while even Isildur comments on the keenness of the eyesight of elves, Galadriel tells Isildur that she hasn't seen him on board for this whole voyage, even though he was right there on deck when she first boarded the ship. She was probably distracted by like the orchestra swelling as she was gradually stepping onto the deck. But having met Isildur now, Galadriel wants to chat with Elendil about what happened to Isildur's mother, which kind of puts Elendil in an awkward position given his people's positions on the infallibility of the sea. So he starts talking about the sun and where it's setting and you're kind of like, uh, did he not hear the question? Then he finally gets around to it and tells Galadriel that his wife drowned. Is the sea right at that time? So we check back in with the villagers in the Southlands, and here Arundir tries breaking the MacGuffin key that the boy showed him in the previous episode, but you can't just break evil things, nah. So he decides that he should hide it, and no one can know where. This is top secret, and only he can do it, because if you left it up the humans, they'd probably hide it somewhere dumb, like behind a cupboard or under a floorboard or something. So Arundir's going to handle it. Meanwhile, the rest of the village is getting ready for the orcs to attack them. Now I thought that they left the village initially when they heard orcs were around, because the village was not a very defensible location. That's why they went to the tower. Oh, the Arundir gives a speech explaining how their position now gives them an advantage. I wish he'd say what that advantage was though. And Arundir empowers them by telling them that he has seen smaller armies defeat greater foes. He doesn't have a lot to say about no army, which is their current situation, but then there's a little private moment between Bronwyn and Arundir, and she asks them if he's ready for battle. As we've learned from Elrond, elves are not about deceit, so he can't exactly straight up lie to her. So, like a true politician, he just avoids the question and starts talking about planting trees before battles or some nonsense. Night falls and the orcs attack, and it looks like basically none of them died in the tower collapse, so oh well, when some of you lose them. So the orcs come in there, and the orcs are probably assuming that these villagers are going to try to defend their village, but jokes on them, the villagers are going to set their own village on fire. I wonder if that was the advantage that Arundir was talking about. But despite the numbers being way in the favor of the orcs, it looks like the humans win pretty handily, easy peasy, and oh, just kidding. Looks like they only killed their own deserting villagers. Oops. And here comes the actual orc army. Oh no, and you can't burn your village twice. Rupro. So a bunch of people get shot with arrows, but only Bronwyn matters. So we bring Bronwyn into the tavern, where we're going to see to her arrow wounds. Everyone else can just fuck off and die. And Arundir is helping Theo tend to her wounds, and they pull out the arrows, and it's like really gushing some blood, because unlike elves, humans have a ton of the blood. But just then, Arundir remembers that he didn't plant any trees before the battle, so quick thinker that he is, he just plants some seeds right in her wound right there. Oof, glad we remembered that. Anyway, so they cauterize her wounds, by which time the orcs have finally figured out that the humans are probably all in the tavern. Taverns, as we know, are much harder to break into than stone fortresses designed to withstand sieges, so they have brought a battering ram for the tavern. But anyway, it's time to check back in with the new Menorians, who have made land, and they have just immediately begun to charge across the lands of Middle Earth, because they came here to fight, and goddamn it, they're going to keep charging until they find a battle. And we can tell this is no joyride, because collateral, she is not smiling this time, she is real serious right now. So back in the village, in the tavern, Badaar, he wants that MacGuffin key thingy. The thing Arundir handled that already, telling no one about the super secret, super clever place that he- oh, just kidding, it's under the floorboards, and Theo knew the whole time. But just when it seems like all hope is lost, they remember that they sent Gandalf to seek out the Rohirrim and- oh, no, that's a different movie. It's just the new Menorians, who have just been charging across Middle Earth, and they've finally stumbled upon a battle. What luck. And if you thought Galadriel's sword skills were impressive, wait till you see her dismount her own horse to avoid an arrow. Arundir debriefs with Galadriel and informs her about the MacGuffin the data she's trying to run off with. I'm so happy for Galadriel to finally get her epic Arwen galloping through the forest moment. Good for her. Somehow Halbrand has managed to get ahead of them, which is a neat trick, and cut off Data's path from the other side. Real tricksy that, Halbrand. And not to be outdone by Galadriel's stunts, Halbrand, by holding out a spear with his hand, trips a whole ass horse so they capture Adar and start questioning him, and we learn that he believes that he has killed Sauron, so, you know, mission accomplished. We can all go home now. Turns out it's been taken care of already. But the reason he killed Sauron was because he was sick of his Orc babies being mistreated by Sauron. Unfortunately for Data, Galadriel is here, and she's decided to eradicate all of Orc kind. We love a genocidal girl boss. So then we get back to the village where it looks like it was a good idea after all to put those seeds in the wounds because Bronwyn is walking around and she's totes fine. And she gets to meet Halbrand and she immediately zeroes in on this tiny little little pouches hanging out his waist. And she's like, are you the king that was promised? Promised by who? I'd like to know. It looks like the good guys won and that's a wrap, but they were all of them deceived for another plan was made. It turns out the Orcs were working on a Rube Goldburn machine this whole time. Just a little turn of the evil McGuffin Key, which is for some reason also a sword and for some reason also featured on the wall art of the tower. Just give that a quick turn and Bob's your uncle, you got yourself a Mount Doom. So yeah, I mean, this episode, it just left me with so many questions. Questions like, why did the villagers leave their village in the first place? Why didn't the collapsing tower kill any of the Orcs? Why did they decide to burn their own village? What were the Numenoreans going to do if they just kept riding and riding and didn't find a battle? Who built the dam in the first place? Who decided that an evil sword should be the key to this dam? How did Halbrand get ahead of Gladriel and Data? Why are elves immortal and not humans when it seems like a tiny bit of blood loss will kill an elf and an immense amount of blood loss is not even a problem for a human woman? And most importantly, is the sea still right? Let me know your thoughts in the comments down below about this epic episode. What could possibly happen next? I have no idea. Are they all going to burn in the fiery lava pit? Is that a wrap for Gladriel and Company? Will Isildur ever be not a dick? Will we ever see the Harfoots again? Do we want to see the Harfoots again? I mean, personally, no. Whatever you want to let me know, I post videos on Saturdays, other random times as well, definitely Saturdays, I'll like and subscribe, join my Patreon if you feel so inclined, and I'll see you when I see you.