Dwarves bring the party that The Rings of Power badly needs

polygon.com:

Not to get political, but if you ask me about which of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy humanoids is best, dwarves or elves, I would go with dwarves every time. You are free to think what you wish — again, this nation is so divided, heaven forbid we draw more lines here — but if you find yourself on Team Elf, please do yourself a favor. Check out the second episode of Amazon’s The Rings of Power, and reconsider.

While Tolkien’s rich lore has left plenty of great stories to tell about the elves — seeing a more complete history of Galadriel will likely be one of the best things about The Rings of Power — elves are among the most stodgy of Tolkien’s creations. While there is a world of tragedy and tradition in the immortal society he built, it’s all terribly self-serious in the way a lot of lesser high fantasy inspired by Tolkien comes across. You wouldn’t call one of Tolkien’s elves to help you throw a party.

Tolkien’s dwarves, however? Those folks know how to get down. This has never really been in question. Even if all you’ve seen are the movies, part of the horror of Moria is that Gimli promises everyone a subterranean bender and instead learns that they will be the hors d’oeuvres for a sea of goblins instead. Hell, The Hobbit kicks off with a whole squad of dwarves inviting themselves over to Bilbo’s pad for a rager on his dime.

In its second episode, The Rings of Power doesn’t just get this, it delights in this. It even has Elrond (Robert Aramayo) on a quest to prove he is Not Like Most Other Elves and splitting rocks to gain the favor of the dwarves, hostile to him for reasons he can’t figure out.

But the best thing about Rings of Power’s second episode is that it also takes them seriously on a dramatic level. In hashing