Númenórean battle plans rankle the ‘Rings of Power’ fandom

This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Nitpicky viewers are running out of criticism for Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The impressive series blew viewers away with its sixth episode, delivering an action-packed story that dazzled with its every shot. Criticisms regarding the show’s pacing suddenly seem absurd, as Rings proves that its story is — as most fans predicted — simply taking time to unfurl. There’s plenty of action and death in this show’s future, it’s just not in a hurry to get to its most exciting points.

This was all proven in “Udûn,” which kept viewers firmly affixed to the edges of their seats for just over an hour. In the wake of the exhilarating episode, viewers found themselves faced with predictable criticism from the show’s adamant detractors, who quickly went on the hunt for anything and everything worth complaining about. Plenty of critiques quickly fell flat, given the episode’s status as a clear favorite among fans, but one or two negative remarks managed to land.

One note, in particular, rankled fans with an eye for history, after a number of desperate detractors attempted to criticize the Númenórean army for… doing its job? Some viewers believe the army shouldn’t have known where it was headed, thus making their arrival in Ostirith unlikely. Despite complaints of a lack of action, it seems they would have preferred an episode in which the Númenórean army wandered aimlessly around Middle-earth’s Southlands, hopelessly lost and embarrassingly far from the action.

In a post shared to the official Rings of Power subreddit, one user shared their response to the people who are “upset that the Númenóreans knew where the battle was.”

User dillonmccarthy went on to list a myriad of clear signals that would have indicated where the battle was taking place, including the clouds of smoke and fire. Given Galadriel’s well-established vision — which is far superior to that of a human — it’s not unreasonable to think that she could see signs of the battle from literal miles away.

On top of the basic functioning of a military force, there’s also the fact that the Númenóreans did know where they were going. It was established in an earlier scene that Halbrand suspected the orcs would hit Ostirith, and directed the army to go there. Thus, they were well aware of where the threat was headed and simply made their way straight to the source.

This detail, and the unheard-of inclusion of scouts, litter the post’s comment section, where viewers were quick to shred any criticism of this particular detail.

As for the confused detractors, who continue to be stumped by radical ideas like women fighting, black elves, and military scouts, there’s a simple solution! Find another show and leave everyone else to enjoy Rings in peace.