The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

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Cuenca 'ammer
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by Cuenca 'ammer »

Metal Hammer wrote: Tue Sep 27, 2022 3:46 pm According to that article you linked earlier they are in it for the long haul so hopefully they will take on board the criticisms but they may lose too many viewers to save it.
thing is, they've committed to 5 seasons. as Estuary said above Bezos should be asking for receipts imvho..

I personally reckon that it will take headlines from journals explaining that the series has gotten better before people turn back on. some like myself won't bother.

I haven't once thought, "I wonder if I've missed anything REALLY good ?"

I don't think I have.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by WCpete »

You haven't. Nothing's happened. I read somewhere that Bezos had a cow over this and the writers have all been shitcanned. I'm not sure it isn't too late though. There would have to be the greatest 'Lazarus' act of all time to resurrect this series.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by smuts »

Poor old Jeff. :lol:

A few people I know have also given up with this. There's no way they'll make 5 seasons.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by Metal Hammer »

I've just watched episode 3.

I thought the entry into Numenor was visually stunning and found that whole segment really interesting. They stuck to the lore and showed Numenoreans as unusually tall, especially Elendil, and the whole 'greater than the lesser human kingdoms' vibe. The whole setting had that underlying current of a once great nation subsiding into decadence.

This lasted for 35 mins or so when they switched to the poxy hobbits and it all became a bit meh again - they are just not that interesting and the whole 'comedy' thing doesn't work for me. I'm also unsure as to the whole 'man who fell to Earth'. Assuming it is supposed to be Gandalf, he is meant to be one of the Istari sent to Middle Earth to help with the war against Sauron who form an order of wizards including Saruman, Radagast and the two blue wizards who don't appear in LOTR. A bloke who doesn't know his arse from his elbow doesn't make sense and assuming the other Istari are in the same boat why do they all become wizards?

Things picked up again when we moved away from the hobbits and back to the imprisoned elves/humans in the Southlands with some fighting, orcs, wargs, and bloodshed.

I'm going to stick with this as the show has much promise spoilt by a bad balance currently, I feel.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by wolf359 »

Today's episode (6) - now that is more like it.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by Cuenca 'ammer »

sorry to say I gave up a few weeks back.

can't honestly be bothered to catch up to see where it leads.

it seemed that the story lines with her tried to push her as a hard ass. the travelers seemed to be brought in to add some humour.

both failed miserably.

the elf seemed okay, but it wasn't worth sticking to 40 minutes of naff all to see about 15 minutes of a decent story line.

ditto with The House of Dragons.

binned them both off.

apart from crap story lines, there were no characters/actors who kept my interest. no depth in any of them.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by Metal Hammer »

Just finished episode 4, found it slow going. I guess this was an episode designed to move the various story threads along but it did so at a glacial pace. I found the idea of an elf leading the Southland orcs intriguing enough but other than that? Interesting that they decided to alter Numenorean patriarchal regency and give them a Queen, will she be the Middle-Earth version of Liz Truss leading the island state into disaster?
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by Cuenca 'ammer »

Metal Hammer wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 12:51 am Just finished episode 4, found it slow going. I guess this was an episode designed to move the various story threads along but it did so at a glacial pace. I found the idea of an elf leading the Southland orcs intriguing enough but other than that? Interesting that they decided to alter Numenorean patriarchal regency and give them a Queen, will she be the Middle-Earth version of Liz Truss leading the island state into disaster?
for diversity...

not sure I heard it 100% correct but Bill Maher is brilliant in general and at times spectacular. I thin he referred to a movie about 2 climbers how conquered a mountain and I think it was that they changed one of the "leads" to a femal for diversity reasons. Maher was like "it was a true story but they admitted they changed it for diversity's sake." he went off quite rightly I think.

and therein sometimes lies the problem. due to diversity sometimes they change the whole story line, in this case a real true life event, but from this book it's like The Hobbit. they invented something, and changed the story line completely for "diversity's sake. not that it added anything at all to the story. and even the character was appalled that they put in a love line (even thought her character NEVER appeared in the book) even though tey initially agreed NOT to put that story line in the film originally.

WHY ?

do more women go to see these films because the lead is a woman ? or vice versa male version ? have they changed story lines where women are the main character to a man for "diversity's sake ?"

I wonder what the outcry would be if they portrayed Rosa Parks as a transgender Asian person "for the sake of diversity ?"

Hollywood would be crucified.

and quite rightly so.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by Metal Hammer »

Cuenca 'ammer wrote: Sun Oct 02, 2022 3:48 am for diversity...

do more women go to see these films because the lead is a woman ? or vice versa male version ? have they changed story lines where women are the main character to a man for "diversity's sake ?"

I wonder what the outcry would be if they portrayed Rosa Parks as a transgender Asian person "for the sake of diversity ?"

Hollywood would be crucified.

and quite rightly so.
Indeed, can you imagine the fuss if they made a film about say Amelia Earhart but decided to change her into a man! When I did a module on the history of film and TV as part of my degree I remember studying Titanic and James Cameron made it clear he included the love story element to encourage women to return to the cinema.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by Metal Hammer »

Episode 5 was ok but not exactly edge of the seat stuff and as usual the hobbit bits were crap. Plunging into Ep 6 now.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by Metal Hammer »

No stupid hobbits in episode 6 and funnily enough this was by far the best episode so far. If this episode had come earlier in the series I suspect a fair few people wouldn't have given up on it. Epic scenery as ever, some good battles, some interesting character and story development - plenty to like.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by WCpete »

Curious, firstly, is there anyone apart from me still watching this? Secondly, is there anyone that has no Tolkien background at all watching, and if so what do you think? For anyone who has some lore background, the current episode has undoubtedly killed this series irredeemably.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by Cuenca 'ammer »

just you and Metal Hammer it looks like..

I've given up after I think maybe 3 episodes or it could have been 4, but whatever one made finish I think I was doing something else like maybe the laundry or dishes, which might give an idea of how much my interest was into it.

real shame because I thought I'd have something good going on here with a background as to how the entire thing got started.

I think the tv person at the Guardian likes it, heaps it with faint praise.

Plot holes

So yes, last week’s episode was rather strewn with plot holes and convenient turns of events. I like to think, had I been in Middle-earth that day, I would’ve checked to see it was the hilt wrapped in that rag and not a decoy axe, and yes, I reckon Adar and the orcs could’ve got all that water into the volcano by destroying the dam manually, rather than scouring the the Southlands to find it then staging a siege to retrieve it.

But none of that marred my enjoyment – I was so overjoyed for something – anything – to be happening that I wasn’t bothered about how the Númenóreans knew where the village in the Southlands was, or why it was dark when the orcs first started firing arrows but bright sunshine when the cavalry arrived. Sometimes people just know things and the sun rises. And this week was far less problematic on that score. Let’s forgive, forget and move on to next week’s finale. I can’t wait.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by WCpete »

That person is full of ****
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by Metal Hammer »

Haven't got round to ep 7 yet, the missus has been binging Dahmer.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by wolf359 »

I’m still with it. Never read anything beyond The Hobbit and Lotr so not knowledgable about the Lore. I’m watching it out of routine now, it’s been relegated from TV in 4K will full attention to PC second screen while working/gaming. I just don’t care about most of the characters, only the Dwarfs have anything about them to me, everything else is annoying and shallow.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by Mullhull »

I cannot believe how badly this series has been made.

The actors they've hired are sub par and I've not a clue why they've done it on the cheap but it really shows. The acting is atrocious. The dialogue terrible. The pacing is off. Time travel has been invented. The Harfoots are evil and unlikeable

They've made the main character as unlikeable as I've ever seen.

The Elves there is nothing about them, they are effectively Humans with pointy ears. They are not majestic or touched by the light.

There are so many holes to pick.

I started this thread, I had a tiny bit of hope.

But I have to admit, this is an absolute stain against Tolkien's name and legacy
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by Clacton-ammer »

I have either 2 or 3 episodes to catch up on. We keep finding other stuff to put on the TV than going back to this, I think we may be done with it and reading the thread we may have made a wise choice.
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by Mullhull »

The most depressing thing is, if you are critical of the show you're just a hater and weirdly a Tolkien purist.. Which is strange to me because most people who've read the books or know the world and it's characters would be your target audience? Surely?

The firing of Shippey (a Tolkien expert) the Showrunners getting the gig because they asked JJ Abrams to put in a good word for them... hiring largely unknown actors and focusing more on representation than writing a good story. I'm telling you right now if they didn't make such a big deal out of a black elf or a black female dwarf, nobody but your standard racists would have cared. Look at House of the Dragon nobody cares about the Velaryon's being black, of course your average racist is but on the whole, nobody cares, if they're good actors then that's all that matters. Although it's fiction I do believe characters should be represented as they are written though, but it's fiction so there's a lot more room to wiggle on that. I was a fan of Idris Elba being Bond for example not because we need representation but he's suave as f*** and would have pulled it off easily i.e. a good actor.

The shows main cast are largely made up characters.

Bronwyn: an utterly pointless character she was picking herbs or some ****, and nobody gave a f*** about her in her community, now she's the defacto leader of the Southlanders a band of 50 or so people which this show seems to put massive importance on but seemingly for no reason whatsoever. Watch Episode 6 where she gets hit by 2 arrows but they only remove one and she nearly bleeds out but magically survives. She has plot armour but she's a made up character she can die and she should have.

Halbrand SPOLIER POSSIBLY Literally too obvious to be Sauron but he is going to be isn't he? He's off to the Elves with Galadriel... who are building a forge... it's too obvious isn't it?

I could literally write pages on this show. Literally pages of everything that is **** about it. Visually it looks great. Could have even done a better job about the trees and their destruction and the silmarils but nope. In the prologue when Galadriel's brother dies (spoiler he's reincarnated and in Valinor in the books) look at the elf behind him whilst he's shouting in the weirdest fight scene ever. The bloke is stabbing thin air :crylol:

The whole thing is a **** fest. The directing, writing, acting and editing.

Lastly, this goes to show how stupid the show is, why did they desperately need that sword hilt to move one rock to allow the water to flow and spark Mount doom? they could have just moved the rock? Nope. They had to find that hilt it was so important! no chance someone with a brain couldn't be like hey lets save time, lets just kick this rock out that's blocking the water :crylol:
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Re: The Rings of Power TV Series (LoTR Universe)

Post by WCpete »

You're right, there are so many problems with the acting, the writing, the plot, the time line, the disregard for the lore and the disregard of its audience that i's not worth addressing anymore.

I will just add this one more possible SPOILER, which if comes to be is going to send Tolkien fans into a tizzy. I'd hide this might be spoiler, but I don't think anyone cares anymore. After 7 episodes we find out that Galadriel is married. She assumes he died in the war. It's looking very much like this show is setting up Galadriel and Sauron to have a "relationship" only to have her husband Celeborn return from being presumably dead, all to set up the "awkward" reunion. Typing that I'm imagining these nit wit writers thinking 'ooh,ooh, that could be the push that sends Sauron over the edge to become evil again."
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