Rings of Power Failed to Make People Care About Southlands
What should we call it now? Well... does anyone care?
There is a sentiment on Reddit that Amazon's The Rings of Power has failed to properly handle the arc of the Southlands – and this failure directly led to viewers not really caring for the land devastated by Adar and his orcs.
In episode 7, titled The Eye, the Southlands are ravaged by the orcs and effectively turned into Mordor. However, according to Redditor PalatineOrtho, the show never made sure that viewers knew and empathized with the lands before the tragedy.
"In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really feel like anything has been lost. For all the talk of the Southlands, we practically know nothing beyond the fact that it's been having a few problems with orcs recently. What exactly would Halbrand have been king of if Mordor wasn't created?" the user argued.
According to the Redditor, the movies did a better job at familiarizing the viewers with culture and history of other Middle-earth "realms" such as Gondor, Rohan, Shire, Rivendell and the rest of the lands Tolkien created. However, the Southlands received little to no screentime despite The Rings of Power's long episodes and impressive budget.
"It just seems like another case of really poor storytelling, where they're assuming our investment in a particular thing just because they show the characters respond as such (similar to Isildur's reaction to his friend dying with all the dramatic music and cinematic shots), without giving us anything as viewers to connect with," the fan concluded.
Other fans have largely supported the sentiment, arguing that epic music and great visuals are simply not enough to make sure the viewer is invested in the story. Some storytelling rules, fans argued, are necessary for both cinema and books to work.
"You wouldn't read a book and the author goes "And the southlands were worth protecting. All the people there are innocent and so we must save them from tragedy." No, a good writer would, through character development and world building, make us feel those things without telling us to do so," Redditor talvanian said.
No matter how much you did or did not care, the Southlands are now officially Mordor, as we have seen in the latest episode's ending scene when the name of the land was switched to "Mordor" via a caption on the screen – a move that was also blasted by fans as "cheap".
As The Rings of Power continues to muscle through the criticism regarding its storytelling and character development, the final episode is just a couple of days away.
The finale will stream on Prime Video on Friday, October 14.