Tolkien’s Corner: The Kiss That Tanked Amazon’s The Rings of Power Season 2

Despite Amazon’s obfuscation when it comes to viewership and watch time numbers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the information available is pretty damning for season 2. What is even more interesting is how, through domestic viewership numbers from Nielsen, we see how Season 2 compared to Season 1. But a big surprise is how The Rings of Power season 2 completely tanked after it showed “The Kiss.”

From the start of season 2, Amazon’s $1 billion fantasy series took a severe nosedive as Nielsen, Luminate, and Samba TV all revealed there was around a 50% drop in viewership across the board domestically. It also didn’t help that season 2’s premiere were the first three episodes compared to season 1’s two-episode premiere which painted an even bleaker picture for the show. 

Amazon, of course, tried to paint a positive picture revealing that 40 million global viewers tuned in to watch the show during the first 11 days since release. Then later stating that 55 million viewers tuned in during the first month. However, those figures are disingenuous due to the fact that someone clicking on a video and watching only a minute of it would be counted in that number. A similar tactic was used for Season 1 and was eventually revealed that only around 37% of domestic and 50% of global audiences watched the entire first season of The Rings of Power. 

According to Nielsen’s domestic watched minutes data, which was collected and posted by X user @countesslillian, we can see that The Rings of Power season 1 viewership numbers drastically declined for its first three episodes and levelled off for episodes 4, 5, 6, and 7 before peaking for the finale. With the collected information we created a graph to show how Season 1 and Season 2 for The Rings of Power lined up and it is not a pretty picture for the second season.

For The Rings of Power, only one episode in Season 02 outperformed its Season 1 counterpart: episode 7. Titled “Doomed to Die,” Season 2 episode 7 was where the show’s watch time peaked at 733 million minutes watched which was a 26% drop compared to episode 7 of Season 1 (988 million). The episode also kicked off the nauseatingly touted “epic” battle for Eregion. 

It was tiresome hearing the showrunners and actors lauding Season 2 as this epic, grand story that was going to outdo the underwhelming battles of the first season. Except the battle didn’t, was poorly written, wasn’t thought out, and made no sense to the point that many critics of the show pointed out how poorly developed the fights were and that the plot’s pacing was poor.

But it wasn’t the underwhelming fights or supercilious treatment of overly-advertised characters such as Damrod and the Asian elf who died quickly and badly. Or the fact that, once again, Galadriel is the reason why so many people are dying and their homes being destroyed. 

No, it was the poorly contrived kiss between Elrond and his future mother-in-law Galadriel which really set social media ablaze and caused The Rings of Power season 2 to nosedive when it had finally picked up.

I don’t care how the writers contrived Elrond kissing Galadriel. This fanfiction is disgusting.

The writers and fans are weirdos.

Amazon’s #TheRingsofPower Is An Expensive Lesson In Bad Writing – https://t.co/ZqHNN2bpCd #RespectforTolkien #LOTR #Tolkien #RingsofPower https://t.co/2KrhNM3Ym1 pic.twitter.com/Ab1z6uyVeJ

— Sean D Knight (@SeanDKnight) September 26, 2024

That kiss is the penultimate example of everything that is wrong with The Rings of Power. It reminded Tolkien fans that the ROP showrunners wanted to make a Game of Thrones-like show, that the writing is horrible (as seen with how there are orcs who can see Elrond passing something to Galadriel), that there is no respect for Tolkien’s characters, no respect for Tolkien’s world, and no understanding of how Tolkien’s elves view relationships.  

How the scene was written and shot made absolutely no sense. Adar turned his head away like some virgin beta, the background music made it seem like the kiss was far more than a ploy (despite the showrunners claiming it was about “respect and loyalty”) , and then the two orcs on the right are staring directly at Elrond while he is passing the object to Galadriel. All for a ploy that would never work when it comes to Tolkien’s elves, but the elves in Rings of Power are not Middle-earth elves in the slightest when it comes to their appearance and their culture (Morfydd Clark wanted the elves to kiss on the mouth all the time).

Which is why Tolkien fans reacted with disgust and anger while ROP Faulkiens cheered for the kiss. 

And the proof is in the pudding. 

After episode 7 aired, the season 2 finale “Shadow and Flame” dropped rather than increased in watch time. A fact that is rather damning for season 2 overall since a show’s finale tends to bring in more viewers, rather than lose them, unless the show is bad. 

Unfortunately for Amazon and the Faulkiens, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is an atrociously bad show that has irreparably damaged The Lord of the Rings brand. Which is why there still has been no confirmation for season 3. Amazon is looking at its figures and deciding whether to cut their losses or continue on with cutbacks and a smaller budget.

Not surprising when a show titled The Rings of Power didn’t get anything about the rings of power right and thought it was a great idea to make Elrond and Galadriel kiss (we called it back in season 1).

Author’s Note:

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