Spoilers Lord of the Rings TV series
- Thread starter Cyrus
- Start date
Never seen that before, but yeah it does. I have to admit, I am a little shocked we've never gotten any original Middle Earth Comics.
We live in a world where some people don't like the stuff that others do.
I'd just like to know what redeeming qualities the series has apart from pretty scenery, good design and a decent musical score. If the adaptation were good, I would probably like it even though it diverges radically from the appendices. The rationale given for Númenórean distrust of the Elves made absolutely no sense given that they had no contact with Elves apart from nutty, driven Galadriel showing up accidentally and being very eager to leave. The showrunners have obviously decided to abandon Tolkien's primary theme contrasting death and deathlessness.
Galadriel being driven by seeking vengeance for Finrod's death also makes no sense as she knows his fëa will go to the Halls of Mandos. In fact, in The Silmarillion, we learn he is re-embodied and reunited with his father Finarfin and his betroathed Amarië.
Although Galadriel might not learn of Finrod's fate until she returned to Valinor at the end of the Third Age, the Istari such as Gandalf and Saruman possibly might have known as his reincarnation was a special exception among the souls of the exiles. In the First Age, even Melian the Maia seems to have been unaware of the facts surrounding the Kinslaying at Alqualondë ,so she couldn't give the glad news to Galadriel.
I really enjoyed it, I liked the characters, the story was interesting, and as a very minor plus for me, it has cool horses.
Some people don't appear to grok Tolkien even though they claim they've read The Unfinished Tales and The Silmarillion. That's fine. There's enough TV drama to go around, but don't expect people to be uncritical when it so egregiously fails to live up to the hype or be even one iota faithful to the source work. I just wonder how pissed off Bezos is with how much of his money has been spaffed uselessly up the wall by McKay and Payne.Oh yeah, it's absolutely terrible how the show diverged from the books and didn't give us an entire season of Aldarion and Erendis drama
You certainly don't and it's good to see you admit it.
Um, so did Jackson's adaptations. People just ignore those complaints now but those films are not faithful or Tolkien-esque. They are adaptations, designed to appeal to a contemporary audience, not the audience Tolkien wrote to. So, yeah, sorry, I see this whole "knocked the heart out" and I think that it is missing the forest for the trees. The whole battle against evil, both internal and external, the struggles with the harsh realities of war, and the nature of friendship is very much Tolkien-esque.
And, it's an adaptation. Demanding it "be a classic" like Tolkien is unrealistic.
I would not suggest watching Season 2.
If in doubt, apply the Roshomon principle. Where different tellings/experiences of the same events have different perspectives/versions/spin on things. Inconsistencies come due to unreliable narrator, non-total recall etc etc.
If only it were as good as Rashomon. I can't see the series improving given recent reports, so I've decided to give further seasons a miss and leave this thread to its own devices. I wish I'd done the same with Lost and Heroes, but the sunk-cost fallacy had kicked in.
Looks like the 3 directors for Season 2 have been announced:
https://www.ign.com/articles/the-lo...ectors-reflect-the-female-filmmaker-landscape
https://www.ign.com/articles/the-lo...ectors-reflect-the-female-filmmaker-landscape
Nerd of the Rings review gives season one 6 out of 10. Short version, he disliked what they're doing with Galadriel, found the mythril origin story baffling, and he thinks they dropped the ball with Sauron and the forging of the Rings, but he likes what they're doing with Elrond, Numenor and Khazad-dum.
There are more, unspecified, Tolkien related projects in the works from New Line and Warners.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ho...rings-new-movies-in-the-works-1235332695/amp/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ho...rings-new-movies-in-the-works-1235332695/amp/
I'm up for it. More LOTR stuff being made is good news, to me at least. Good or bad, we need more Fantasy stuff, and even a mediocre or bad Tolkien project would still beat a GOT copycat or YA thing (the two most common Fantasy story types we've been getting on TV and film in recent history) any day of the week.
The entertainment world really has given up on making new stuff haven't they?
Compulsively tugging the cash cow's withered udders.
I think it was a few weeks ago someone posted like an upcoming release/project content from Warners and like almost everything was either a sequel, reboot/remake, or adaption of existing material from a book/comic and this was like out of dozens of projects.
The entertainment audience has given up on purchasing new things, haven't they?
This leads to several questions that I’m not smart enough to answer myself:
- What was the last new IP developed that was truly successful? Harry Potter?
- why are there no new successful ipS. Is it risk adverse studio execs, the high cost of a new major motion picture , the impact Covid had on the industry ?
it seems that the solution for studio execs is to raid their closet of IP… and then change it completely so it bears no resemblance to the previous show thereby completely undermining the actual value of the IP.
With a track record of fiscal failures like that, how do execs stay in their jobs?
I'd say Avatar. Maybe a bit of Stranger Things.
I think this is a bit of self-perpetuating cycle. Studios look at successful projects based on IPs and so shoot for replicating that success for a quick buck, rather than funding something more creative. It doesn't make all the money, so they go back and try another IP, while another studio has more success with some other IP. And it goes back and forth and back and forth until something new is tried.
Meanwhile, there is always an interest in entertainment, either streaming or theaters, and people love distraction and spectacle. So there is just enough money made for studios to go, "Well, if we just do this thing different then we will hit it big."
Well, I'm going to try looking at the bright side. If these things are going to happen, like it or not, there are some stories I would love to see brought to life. The story of Cirion and Eorl and the founding of Rohan is one that I particularly liked in my recent perusing through the appendix material.
I have no issue with them doing these stories. I get it that what Rings of Power is doing isn't to everyone's tastes and that's fine. But, from my perspective it is just like any other real world mythology that Tolkien himself would have borrowed from. It's a retelling of the tale, within a slightly different cultural context and so takes on elements of that context. That's how storytelling and fairy tales work. Look at the Brothers Grimm tales or Hans Christen Anderson's works and how they were adapted by Disney. No doubt that would offend some who want a literal telling of the tale, but it was adapted and can be enjoyed or dismissed on its own merits.
If Amazon came out and declared that only the Rings of Power or their current works were they only Tolkien works allowed and were not selling Lord of the Rings I would have issue. But they are not, and they won't. So, I can have Rings of Power and the Similarion and Lord of the Rings and I can enjoy all in different measures.
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