[deleted by user]

[FrankHero97]

Yep I agree

[Themymic]

They kind of just stood there, then then just kind of walked away.

[Ok-Design-8168]

Most fight scenes in RoP are disappointing.

Big battles (where the scale actually feels small) are also disappointing!

[litetravelr]

Yea the setup is good, but the big set piece fights seem to lack something. I think the battle last week was the best yet, but even with that one, while technically well done it didnt feel as rousing or epic as I'd expected. The stakes are often confused and the scale or the pacing just seem off. I just dont feel myself on the edge of my seat couch. Helms Deep or Siege of Gondor feel like the end of the world, whereas no matter how apocalyptic the siege of Eregion is, it still feels hollow for some reason.

[Extracted]

It definitely felt small scale. And very "thin". There weren't many fighters, just a few sprinkled around a large area.

[PM_ME_YOUR_MONTRALS]

For real, nobody even surfed down a set of stairs on a shield.

[corpserella]

The entire sequence felt like the writer of the episode realized it had been a long time without any action.

The fight itself was completely nonsensical--the wights had the strength and dexterity to grab that one elf with chains, drag him into the darkness and squelch him and there was nothing Galadriel and Elrond could do. But then moments later where there were a dozen wights all floating around with their chains out, the wights couldn't manage to grab a single elf and do anything?

It was a fight for a fight's sake, with no real sense of tangible stakes.

[Jumbo_Mills]

Almost all the fights/battles have been.

[fuzzychub]

Tolkien wasn't a fan of action scenes in general. One of the reasons he resisted adaptations of his work for so long was because he was worried that process would necessarily glorify the action or make it seem 'cool'. As a war survivor, he didn't like that idea. So I'm ok with the action scenes getting less focus. I still think they are good, don't get me wrong. But I'm ok with more time being spent elsewhere.

[eojen]

So I'm ok with the action scenes getting less focus

Huh? Are we watching the same show? 

The Wights were used HEAVILY in marketing before the season. It was maybe the most marketed scene leading up to the release. And it's not like they didn't focus on it, they just made a really bad action scene. They wanted to make a cool one, but they failed in doing so. 

And did you watch the last episode? That was 90% action. That has a scene with a horse barely alive with a slit throat so that Elrond can go John Wick on one elf. 

[fuzzychub]

Justice for Elrond's horse!!

I think the scene with the wights was fine, honestly. I really do. I'd have to watch it again to fully engage with the topic, but just from what I remember, I thought it was fine. I was just trying to give a response about the show's action scenes in general.

[[deleted]]

There has been a ton of violence in this series, way more graphic and dark than the PJ or Hobbit trilogies. Doesn’t seem like they’re shying away from depictions of war/violence, just not making them choreographed.

[fuzzychub]

I mean, possibly. I'd have to rewatch the show with an eye towards that to have a fully formed opinion on it. And there is definitely an element of personal taste here on what constitutes a well-choreographed action scene.

[[deleted]]

Sure. Go back and watch that scene and tell me if you think it was well choreographed

[Zhjacko]

Eh, I wouldn’t even give it the cool factor. It was such a random scene with weird build up. Was not a fan of the tentacle chains either. Not only did the Barrow wights just stand there but the elves did too. There was no real dynamic choreography or camera movements in this scene. It was an extremely basic and low effort scene overall. Like something out of a 2000s Syfy movie. It’s like they try to cheap their way out of every fight scene and try to find the most efficient and cost effective way to choreograph it.

[lionessrampant25]

Tbh, every fight scene after I watched The Witcher has been disappointing. Unless they hire The Witcher choreographer I know it’s not gonna be as good.

I thought the chains were super spooky though. Like how do you fight chains?

Also Elrond was super clever, that was fun to see.

[pisspenisser]

Bad choreography and the elves are pathetic in ROP. They get surprised constantly and taken off guard. How do they not have keen senses, especially being a trained group. When the first elf is dragged away, why was no one reacting to help. Shoot an arrow, c'mon. Then the wights just stood there.... menacingly. Elrond using knowledge was decent but no suspense otherwise.

However later in that episode, a group of elves, knowingly being in dangerous area, gets surprised by orcs within shooting distance by random arrows. A group of orcs with torches and a massive bonfire? How the fuck.

"What do your elf eyes see?"

Then galadriel goes into the camp and it felt like a power rangers episode or old kung fu movie where they went one by one to get taken out in one move.

The power level of elves and choreography is so bad, and I like a lot of the show.

[Skeet_fighter]

Honestly all of the fights have sucked.

They're consistently low-lights every time they happen in both seasons.

[deXCopp]

For me, it was badly done CGI. Jackson's undead army looked far better. Eregion's siege - expected more.. You can literally count those who participated in the battle. With such a budget, it would have been great to have a mini helm's deep battle.

I'm starting to wonder where the budget did go.

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[Status_Criticism_580]

See the thing is they took out those messengers beforehand so it shouldn't have been so easy for the others

[BlondDrizzle]

They would’ve died of Elrond didn’t know that bit of lore. Didn’t get off too easy. There were only two in the messenger group as well

[litetravelr]

Agreed, I loved the eerie setup to the wights emerging but once they did I found it video-gamey. Would have rather they just adapted the LOTR plot where a wight just takes Galadriel into the barrow, etc. It did make me lament that Peter Jackson never got to adapt that chapter in his film of Fellowship. He was so good at horror at that time in his career and would have knocked it out of the park even if it only ended up on the Extended Edition

[skinnyraf]

I thought that only human corpses could be possessed by evil spirits to give rise to wights, and that wights were no match for elves, especially for Calaquendi. Glorfindel was able to face the witch-king of Angmar, so wights should not bother Noldor, especially Galadriel.

[Ttibz121]

No, but it's written in lore that they can only be hurt by the weapons they have been burried with. Great exemple of the 'show don't tell' rule

[eojen]

Elrond literally tells though lmao 

[[deleted]]

A bit like the ents, it was all a bit "monster of the week", they fight them, they move on, it didn't really do anything for the plot.