**Spoiler Warning** Rings of Power S2E8 - "Shadow and Flame"

[Boromir88]

Just a minor note before getting into some more details when I have time. Overall, Season 2 was a noticeable improvement over Season 1. I'd say mostly it is because of Celebrimbor and Annatar's scenes, which was far better than Halbrand's/Galadriel's story in Season 1.

I read somewhere that the showrunners have said the Dark Wizard is not Saruman.

It was a bit disappointing seeing Durin's Bane basically look the same as PJ's, but the effect of its shadow-y wings looked much cooler. RIP Durin III I really enjoyed Peter Mullan in that role.

Originally Posted by Snowdog

We check in on Numenor and it all remains confusing, half sketched. They really need to flesh out what is happening in Numenor to land this entire enterprise. Again, I'm hoping they spend more of S3 on Numenor, and I am hoping that with Elendil riding away from the mob scene in Armenelos, he find's Anárion in Andunie in the west. I fully expect to be disappointed though.

From comments made previously by the showrunners, I get the impression they understand the Numenor story far better than Peter Jackson. From interviews they've also said Numenor is their favorite "2nd Age story" and displayed the understanding that Numenor tears itself apart between the factions and Pharazon's desire for "deathlessness." So, they've demonstrated to have a deeper understanding of the source material than PJ's surface understanding. My question still remains if they can weave those themes into a compelling story. Numenor is also the story that suffers the most from the time crunch they have to do.