The Southland goes to war in episode 6 of The Rings of Power.
ThisLord of the Ringsreview contains spoilers forThe Rings of Power.
Although split across three waves of Orc-led attacks and a Numenorean counter-attack, this is essentially one drawn-out battle.
We dont see anything of eitherthe HarfootsorElrondandthe Dwarves.
And the less we see of Celebrimbor, the further we are from actually forging any Rings of Power.
The title of the episode, Udun, can refer to a couple of different things from Tolkiens mythology.
It is also a valley in northern Mordor.
That would make sense, as the episode ends with the flooding of the valley and a volcanic eruption.
But those sequences featured more actual fighting than this one does.
But theres more to it than that.
The final quarter of the episode is devoted to the aftermath of the fighting.
There are some other effective moments in the episode.
The action itself is decent enough, with Orc blood dripping into Arondirs mouth an especially memorable image.
Galadriel is even whispering the same word (nurolim which is Elvish for faster) to her horse.
Overall, the story is finally starting to really kick into gear.
It completely destroys the feeling of peril and momentum produced by the scene of the dam breaking.
If they can just settle the mysteries that are now starting to become annoying (is the Stranger Gandalf?
Is Halbrand Sauron?)
we might be looking at something with the potential to be really exciting.
Rating:
3.5 out of 5
