Rings Of Power Delivers A Giant Battle Episode You Can Actually Follow

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, and one spoiler warning for those who haven't watched episode 7 of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" season 2.

It doesn't matter how different they are; the one thing every Tolkien adaptation — whether they're video games, the Peter Jackson movies, or even the animated movies — has in common is that they've made action a big part of the narrative. Jackson, in particular, turned a rather short battle that readers don't even get to experience in the original "Hobbit" book into an almost two and a half hour epic.

The first season of "Rings of Power," the delightfully nerdy TV show that brings the Second Age of Middle-earth to the screen, already had a massive battle worthy of the big screen. Now, the even better second season has done it again, delivering a lengthy and truly spectacular showdown that's set over several episodes. It also offers something that few TV shows (and even movies) do nowadays — action you can actually follow.

To recap, season 2 of "Rings of Power" focuses on the tragedy of Celebrimbor (aka the Oppenheimer of Middle-earth), a master smith whose pride and desire to surpass his grandfather Fëanor's greatest creation (the Silmarils) led to Sauron creating the Rings of Power with him and wreaking chaos and destruction on Middle-earth for thousands of years to come. Now, Sauron the Deceiver's great machinations are bearing fruit, with Celebrimbor not only coerced into making rings for Men, but Sauron also tricking Adar and his Uruks into leading hordes of orcs to lay siege to Eregion in the biggest battle of the show thus far — not to mention, the best Middle-earth action scene since the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in Jackson's "Return of the King."

The Siege of Eregion, in the grand tradition of Tolkien adaptations, is an event so big it cannot be contained in a single episode; rather, it spans the last three episodes of season 2. It starts in episode 6 with the Uruks using trebuchets to attack Eregion at nightfall, with fiery projectiles and torches scattered across the city making the action completely visible — a rarity these days. Episode 7 thereafter smartly jumps forward to the following morning, avoiding placing the entire battle at night while still having so much smoke and ash in the air from the fires and the destruction to give the siege a feeling of darkness spreading.

Much like the big battle scenes in Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, the siege of Eregion has a clear sense of time and space. Although the show hasn't fully explored the different areas in the city of Ost-in-Edhil, it's easy to tell what areas of the city are being attacked at any given moment, where things are before they are blown up, where the soldiers and the guards are defending the city, and where the opposing orc army is. By the time the outside of Celebrimbor's forge begins to crumble — the most recognizable image of the city because we'd spent weeks there — it hits hard as a loss of history, craftsmanship, and beauty.

There is some fantastic filmmaking at work these episodes. Just look at this behind-the-scenes clip of the making of episode 6 and the sequence where Sauron steps out of the mind prison he's trapped Celebrimbor in, goin from a beautiful sunny day in Eregion to the darkness and chaos of a city under siege. It's done practically in one continuous shot, which is a testament to the epic scale blockbuster fantasy filmmaking at work here — artistry that, again, makes the battles feel worthy of the big screen.

Before you ask, no, this whole article isn't merely one giant dig aimed at the infamously dark Long Night battle in "Game of Thrones." Rather, it's a response to the general tendency in modern blockbuster movies and shows (particularly superhero ones) to overcrowd their action scenes to the point where it's hard to know what's even going on, who is where, and why, exactly, all this matters. Thankfully, none of that's the case with the Siege of Eregion. Even when whole armies clash in the dried-up river field outside the city, you can tell where our main characters are, who they are fighting, and (perhaps most importantly of all) why they are fighting. 

Though season 1 did have a big battle scene, this is the biggest battle yet for "Rings of Power" and a test to see whether the show would be able to handle the War of the Elves and Sauron. Judging by this episode, and the overall portrayal of the Siege of Eregion, this series will be a joy to watch if it ultimately makes it to the War of the Last Alliance and The Great Siege.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is streaming on Prime Video.