[Michael Murry]

Formendacil . . . the biggest thing I want to see out of Season 2 is the avoidance of "the Mystery Box"

Good point about the mystery boxes, about which overused and irritating plot device in "Rings of Impotence", I came across this analysis recently:

Why the Big Reveal in The Rings of Power Didn't Work
Like Stories of Old
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fk9zNQF2Vs

The first season of The Rings of Power relied heavily on what are generally called mystery boxes which are, well, kind of exactly what they sound like. They are puzzles presented to the audience that, on paper at least, play into our desire to solve them, thereby making us more engaged in a story. ...

The two major mystery boxes in the Rings of Power were built around the identity of the stranger that fell from the sky and the whereabouts of the show's main antagonist, Sauron, which quickly turned into the question, who is Halbrand, really? In fact, the association between Halbrand and Sauron became so popular so quickly that a writer [Erik Kain] for Forbes Magazine wrote:

"It would be ridiculously obvious and boneheaded to make him Sauron"

And indeed, I think most people had already guessed Halbrand would be revealed as the Dark Lord and were only speculating otherwise ... because deep down they were just hoping that the mystery box wouldn't be this simple. And that brings me to the main topic of exploration for this video.

Because when done well, mystery boxes can be very effective at getting you hooked. They tickle the brain, keep you guessing, keep you invested in trying to figure out their grand solutions that always seem just one tiny bit of information always seem just one tiny bit of information away. But when done poorly, the problem just isn't that mystery boxes fall flat, that they end up feeling boring and unsurprising, but also that they can severely diminish the quality of the overall plot, of the characterizations, and of the narrative momentum. ..."

"... and so, if we want to get a better understanding not just of mystery boxes, but of storytelling as a whole, it is absolutely worthwhile to examine these dynamics in more detail, which, unfortunately for the Rings of Power, is sometimes just easier when you have an example of how not to go about it."

"... the one good thing about the poorly constructed mystery boxes is that, well, they seem to be over now."

" ... an example of how NOT go about it." A fitting epitaph for not just the lame, red-herring mystery boxes, but the first season of this series as a whole. But not to lose all hope for "something better" in yet another season, I recall an old joke from my youthful days: "They told me to cheer up because things could always get worse. So I cheered up. And, sure enough, things got worse."