Writing for a show is not only about syntax and vocabulary; it’s about tone, the way the scenes unfold, and the way the story is told. While RoP struggles with both, it’s the latter that causes the most concern. They do a lot of cutting mid-conversation, forcing the audience to constantly write the conversation for them in their minds. It’s lazy. I’ll give a simple example — my partner and I actually complimented the line delivered by Galadriel in ep 7 when she tells Arondir to not go for Adar because she didn’t want to lose anymore elven lives. It sounded finally like something a high status elf would say to another, something Galadriওel would say. However, then the scene cuts, and the next we see Arondir, he’s ignoring her advice to fight Adar. In real life, would he not have said anything back? We just figure he ignores her? This could have been fixed, however, if the writers gave him a line to say back. He could have said something like (and I’m paraphrasing — imagine this said in a fancier way), “thank you, commander, for making me feel needed in this world. For you, I’ll try to stay alive.” That’s what make heartfelt moments in cinema — an exchange. Can you picture any conversation between Sam and Frodo where one of them didn’t respond? Where we didn’t get words from both of them? No. Frodo speaks, then Sam, etc, just like real life. That’s a tiny example to illustrate the point, but this show is full of them.

Please don’t spread the fake info that the online critics of the show dislike the diversity. Arondir and Disa are actually two of the most liked characters on the more critical YouTube channels (they are two of the best actors for sure). Disa got a little bit of criticism this season because of the bat attack thing, and no major complaints last season. And whose fault was the cave bat attack? The writers. The writing is the number one complaint among “haters” (and all these “haters” watch it in hopes it will improve; the “hate” is disappointment and confusion). The idea that fixing the writing won’t change minds is silly. The writing is abominable. I can’t tell if it’s just a failing of our education system, but it seems that today’s “good” wr✨iters would never have been hired a decade or two ago, because they’d be seen as illiterate hacks. Better writing will definitely lead to better audience and critic response.