Streaming Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power

[gaskin]

Yes but you're giving the writers too much credit assuming that they will stick to the lore and story that we expect them to be bound in.

The problem that a lot of people seem to forget is that they don't have the rights to most of the lore from the 2nd Age. All they have access to IIRC is the appendices of the trilogy and what is mentioned in those books and The Hobbit. They are having to make up their own lore and chop and change what we already know to fit their narrative. This was established long before the show came out yet people are still getting upset about it.

 

[Forward Press]

Yes but you're giving the writers too much credit assuming that they will stick to the lore and story that we expect them to be bound in.

Speak for yourself - what's this 'we' business?

As someone who isn't that hung up about the Tolkien-verse and needs to ask what the f*** is a Silmarillon or Annatar, I'm fine with the show. Whether a show is entertaining is my main criteria, not whether it follows the lore rigidly. I finished this season feeling satisfied and wanting more, it's an intriguing prequel to things you know happen in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

Tom Bombadil and Celeborn weren't in the Lord of the Rings movies and they didn't lose anything by not having them. No one gives a toss about what is and isn't canon in the grand scheme of things except hard core fans, and they aren't the vast majority watching these productions. Black elves, who really gives a f***, the key is whether Arondir's actor actually could act.

/rant

Bring on season two.

 

[Kyptastic]

Tom Bombadil and Celebornweren't in the Lord of the Rings movies and they didn't lose anything by not having them.

Celeborn was in the movies, he’s right there next to Galadriel when the Fellowship arrives in Lorien.

 

[peternorth]

I just wanna put it on record that if the stranger ends up being saruman then I knew it was him all along.

 

[weevil]

Spoiler: EP 8 thoughts

Really enjoyable finale. I thought it tied up the mysteries quite well and ultimately introduced the setup for the second age quite well.

While Halbrand was not my choice of Sauron, I actually think it was such a Tolkien thing to do. In his books, mystery has never been a big factor, and while the mystery of 'who's Sauron ' was a big part of the story, if you connect all the things we thought were red herrings, they actually make a lot of sense.

The Mithril to cure the leaves s**t still stinks, but I think they can tie that up and connect it to Sauron in the second season assuming they want to.

Ultimately, it was a lot more entertaining than I expected, it gave a lot of love and respect to Tolkien and has got me looking forward to seeing the next four seasons play out.

Spoiler

Halbrand being Sauron was super cheesy and makes no sense at all. However, they pulled it off so incredibly well that it just doesn't matter. Worked brilliantly. Kinda ironic that they stumbled with some easy things but totally nailed something so difficult.

I'm pretty sure they are just going to say that the rings cure the Mithril problem.

Despite its early faults I absolutely loved being back in Middle Earth. And I grew to love the show creator's unique and kinda quirky vision.

Clearly the story took a while to get going. But once it did and they found their rhythm, they handled some of those big events in the second half absolutely brilliantly.

Obviously it was visually stunning, but the characters were great too, fabulous performances by so many of the actors.

Reading their interviews it seems clear that the showrunners have learnt plenty from the first season and that it's only going to get better from here. Can see this becoming every bit as good as Jackson's films.

 

[Nunez]

Lord of the Rings the Bots of Power.

The question is... who amongst us are the shillsView attachment 1536612

You can't really see the above but it's a compilation of a bunch of bots posting the same meaningless waffle like

"Best show ever"
"This moment was amazing"
"I was on the edge of my seat".

Given the amount of review bombing that happened on this show + the guaranteed negative bot attacks, I'm not surprised if there are some going the other way.

 

[Nunez]

Speak for yourself - what's this 'we' business?

As someone who isn't that hung up about the Tolkien-verse and needs to ask what the f*** is a Silmarillon or Annatar, I'm fine with the show. Whether a show is entertaining is my main criteria, not whether it follows the lore rigidly. I finished this season feeling satisfied and wanting more, it's an intriguing prequel to things you know happen in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.

Tom Bombadil and Celeborn weren't in the Lord of the Rings movies and they didn't lose anything by not having them. No one gives a toss about what is and isn't canon in the grand scheme of things except hard core fans, and they aren't the vast majority watching these productions. Black elves, who really gives a f***, the key is whether Arondir's actor actually could act.

/rant

Bring on season two.

Honestly mate half the lore nerds complaining about the show probably haven't read all the books. People just love to hate for hates sake. Even if they had the Silmarillion, it's not like they could even follow it verbatim as its basically just notes and bits and pieces. It's super limited and the showrunners absolutely had to fill in a ****load of blanks. It would be impossible to do otherwise, even if they owned all the rights.

This is and always was going to be an adaptation, but think they've absolutely honoured the lore well and if you've ever heard them speak, you'd know how important following the lore is to them if they can.

Spoiler

Am curious to see where they go with the rings for men and dwarfs. Wouldn't be surprised if Anatar pops up in the end.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Lord of the Rings the Bots of Power.

The question is... who amongst us are the shillsView attachment 1536612

You can't really see the above but it's a compilation of a bunch of bots posting the same meaningless waffle like

"Best show ever"
"This moment was amazing"
"I was on the edge of my seat".

Much like you posting same stuff on an ok ep of House of Dragon thread

Celembrimbor: "it is the key that unlocks the dam". Did a child write this line? That's not a metaphor, that doesn't make sense, keys don't open dams other than in the contrived plot we've all just seen. It's so hamfisted it makes me sick

This is high level nit picking …fmd

 

[FlowersByIrene]

The problem that a lot of people seem to forget is that they don't have the rights to most of the lore from the 2nd Age. All they have access to IIRC is the appendices of the trilogy and what is mentioned in those books and The Hobbit. They are having to make up their own lore and chop and change what we already know to fit their narrative. This was established long before the show came out yet people are still getting upset about it.

Their contract says they still aren't supposed to do lore breaking stuff. I.e they can fill in the grey but can't contradict the black and white. They seem to be interpreting that incredibly liberally (Tolkeing never expressly SAID that Galadriel didn't go to Numenor) whereas Gandalf arriving 1000 years before he's supposed to would appear to be a direct break (unless they say Tolkein never expressly SAID Gandalf didn't come to Middle Earth and leave and go back again).

 

[FlowersByIrene]

Much like you posting same stuff on an ok ep of House of Dragon thread


This is high level nit picking …fmd

Are you joking? That line was ****ing garbage.

 

[MinerBoy]

Maybe it's too obvious but Gandalf and the hobbit relationship seems the clearest intent for meteor man, as does Halbrand as Sauron (and his sword forging skills, with engraving/inscriptions...i.e. ring forging).

Pretty much played out as I'd expected.

Really enjoyed the season. Look forward to the next.

 

[BlakeyNoFlakey]

It would be impossible to follow The Silmarillion exactly as those stories are set over thousands of years, and it looks like they're trying to squish it all into one generation. That's why I can believe The Stranger is Gandalf, even though he never went East in The Silmarillion, because they can make him an amalgam of several wizards to tell the story. That's why Halbrand took the place of Annatar. The important thing about LOTR movies/TV is the Tolkienian vibe of the thing. I thought this season captured that nicely.

 

[Richard Pryor]

Decent enough finale. The "I'm good" scene was a bit cringeworthy (that line at least).

Hope they don't try and make a new 'mystery box' for the next season.

 

[Richard Pryor]

It would be impossible to follow The Silmarillion exactly as those stories are set over thousands of years, and it looks like they're trying to squish it all into one generation. That's why I can believe The Stranger is Gandalf, even though he never went East in The Silmarillion, because they can make him an amalgam of several wizards to tell the story. That's why Halbrand took the place of Annatar. The important thing about LOTR movies/TV is the Tolkienian vibe of the thing. I thought this season captured that nicely.

Going East and fleshing out the Haradrim is a good move as its a vaguely define aspect of Tolkien's world they can play around in (like Orcish culture/origins). That's where the shows strengths are.

 

[weevil]

It would be impossible to follow The Silmarillion exactly as those stories are set over thousands of years, and it looks like they're trying to squish it all into one generation. That's why I can believe The Stranger is Gandalf, even though he never went East in The Silmarillion, because they can make him an amalgam of several wizards to tell the story. That's why Halbrand took the place of Annatar. The important thing about LOTR movies/TV is the Tolkienian vibe of the thing. I thought this season captured that nicely.

And while The Silmarillion chronicles events separated by hundreds and sometimes thousands of years, literally nothing noteworthy happens in those in-between times.

Totally agree about the vibe. Rings of Power sucked reeeealy badly when it went against the Tolkien vibe (the family dinner with Elendil, Isildur and Earien was the low point for me)

But the longer the show went on, the better the characters began to develop, the better the pacing became and the more the story started hitting the right beats.

The last few episodes were just knocking it out of the park.

 

[weevil]

Their contract says they still aren't supposed to do lore breaking stuff. I.e they can fill in the grey but can't contradict the black and white. They seem to be interpreting that incredibly liberally (Tolkeing never expressly SAID that Galadriel didn't go to Numenor) whereas Gandalf arriving 1000 years before he's supposed to would appear to be a direct break (unless they say Tolkein never expressly SAID Gandalf didn't come to Middle Earth and leave and go back again).

Tolkien estate has to sign off on everything they do, so we just have to wait and see.

Mining massive amounts of mithril for the elves to bathe in to stop them from diminishing. That sounded very on the nose.

But creating three rings of power that achieve the same thing. That feels completely legit to me.

 

[James Colorado]

My thoughts leading up to the episode were that Halbrand was Sauron, but that the three pursuing the Stranger would believe him to be. I thought they'd acclaim him as Sauron right at the end, to allow for a plot twist to commence S2 (also, the main reason for thinking Halbrand to be Sauron, quite beside any plot points, is that he is always described as of "fair appearance" in this Age, so the person playing him would need to be the best looking rooster in the show).

Really enjoyed the finale and the series as a whole, but I will admit I went in wanting this show to be great; it's the main reason I signed up to Prime. Just a couple of observations I thought of things done well, when Galadriel realises who Halbrand is on the riverbank and they move through the discussions in her mind, her asking if he wanted her as queen was a nice call back to the scene in Fellowship where Frodo offers her the one ring and there's the vision of her as a mighty tyrant. When they are alloying the mithril to the Valar gold and silver, the image of it as it drops in is that of the Eye of Sauron.

 

[Brick Loosener]

Think the highlight of the finale was the Lindt Master Chocolatiers forging the 3 rings. Otherwise it was meh.

 

[Strange Cat]

The vibe aye

No need to follow established lore just make up your own stuff

Sounds extremely lazy

 

[Nunez]

The vibe aye

No need to follow established lore just make up your own stuff

Sounds extremely lazy

They followed plenty of established lore. Given how little Tolkien actually wrote about the second age, I'm not sure how you can call it lazy.

 

[Strange Cat]

They followed plenty of established lore. Given how little Tolkien actually wrote about the second age, I'm not sure how you can call it lazy.

Sounds like from all the reviews it does drift away from some established lore…examples have been made several times in this thread

But hey the vibe is there to keep the ill informed and those that are easily pleased happy

Glad I skipped it

 

[StingBitten]

Been reading LOTR every year for over 20 years since I was 12.

The show is in no way relative to the Tolkien-verse and there's almost nothing that resembles the very long history starting from Morgoth vs the Valar and Morgoth vs the Elves in Angband and Utumno and the rise of Sauron and Numenor.

But I don't care - the show started off clunky and confused (while visually stunning) but the last couple of episodes have convinced me they're finally onto a working formula and it's only going to get better from here. The last couple of eps really worked in terms of flow and entertainment.

With Gandalf, I like this creative turn as opposed to the Istari appearing from the West. It shows how Gandalf will form his 'love of the halflings'. And travelling to Rhun! I've been wondering what the lands of Rhun, Harad and Khand might look like for years - it would be awesome to see.

What would really make my day is finding out what happened to the two wizards (of the 5 Istari) who went east and never returned.

I'm really happy for this stuff to enter the realm of fan-fiction if it's enthralling and satisfying.

Onwards and upwards.

 

[StingBitten]

And to add my two-cents on race, here's my take.

Having loads of black actors in every race/storyline is pissing off people who knew the Tolkien-verse as white (except for perhaps the Haradrim). Hence all the arguments which tend to boil down to liberals vs conservatives.

An Aboriginal guy at my work who watches the show suggested that the best people to have been cast as elves are indigenous people (global).

Elves have many similarities to pre-colonial Aboriginal communities - they were an ancient race, fostered a spiritual connection and relationship with the land and kept their deep lore within themselves. There are similarities with the Incans, Mayans and American Indians.

How likely would that type of casting be? How often are Indigenous people across the globe cast in roles where they're not playing caricatures of themselves.

I'd say the casting in the show reflects the demographics of present day England - which is effectively limited and short-sighted.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Waiting for a star to fall
And carry your heart into my arms
That's where you belong
In my arms, baby, yeah

It's almost like a boy meeting a girl when you say it like that.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

Are you joking? That line was ******* garbage.

**** you're boring, why are you even watching it, if it's annoying you that much. I bet you sit there yelling at your screen as you watch it. FMD.