I’ve read LOTR 25+ times (3 times in one year when I was 11) and the Silmarillion at least 10.
I’m enjoying the show. I think there is enough “room” in the lead up to the end of the Second Age to tell a fun story.
I also don’t have a problem with Galadriel’s character per se, although it seems she is portrayed more like she would have been when she first travelled to Beleriand rather than the more established ruler she would have been at the time of the show.
I’m fine with some artistic license, I get the impression the timeline isn’t going to match exactly for sure, and I think the people making the show care about what they are doing. I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the show!
I’m pretty sure the show didn’t say anything about him dying in a big battle. It said Sauron killed him before he could kill Sauron. The change was claiming that Finrod was pursuing Sauron in the first place. But Sauron captured him and he was killed by Sauron’s werewolf so it is pretty accurate to say Sauron was the one that killed Finrod.
1 Like
Only Star Trek spinoff I couldn’t get into tbh. Avery Brooks. and Colm Meaney were great though.
I think DS9 has the best intro music of any Star Trek as well.
It is just gorgeous.
1 Like
I’m pretty sure it showed him in a big battle, and then went into about him chasing Sauron, and then implies that Sauron burned his sigil into his flesh. Then if we really want to go down their rabbit hole of dramatic license simply Galadriel’s story line. I’m sure there will be more…
It showed him in a big battle centuries before he died. I don’t think it said anything at all about how he died specifically other than Sauron killed him and burned that sigil into him.
It is possible I missed something though.
Edit: There is definitely a lot of license going on. Galadriel wouldn’t have been a soldier, elite or not, in Gil-Galad’s service at any point. Even though he was her political superior I don’t believe there was any time that he wouldn’t have deferred to her greater wisdom and power. Even at the tail end of the 2nd age I think she would have been the oldest and most powerful elf in Middle Earth.
It’s like I said… It is going to depend under what lens you view the series. To the casual viewer it will be marvelous… To a tenured fan, not so much. But then I thought the same thing about Amazon’s production of Wheel of Time. There were a lot of things that were stressed in the books that were pretty glossed over.
1 Like
I’m an extremely in-depth Tolkien fan by pretty much any definition but I guess I’m just open-minded about what story they want to tell.
I think Wheel of Time and The Rings of Power are adaptations coming from opposite ends of the spectrum. The Wheel of Time is a huge series where the challenge is to somehow wrestle a version down to a manageable screen time whereas the Rings of Power only has a bare skeleton of a story outline that needs a great deal filled in to make a TV show.
I was more or less happy with WoT, I would have made some different decisions but I don’t envy anyone the job of making a screenplay for it.
I’m liking it so far. The what I think is a wraith blade plot with the young son seems interesting. Also visually stunning and I don’t trust that “architect” elf.
Not huge on it. The costumes are ok but like, you can tell they are costumes and they don’t feel very Tolkien. None of it does really. As a stand alone fantasy, it’s pretty nice visually, pretty ok, but as a LOTR thing, it just doesn’t feel it at all. Doesn’t have the heart and soul of Tolkien.
It’s weird to see young Ned Stark be an elf now.
2 Likes
The series is literally rewriting established story cannon just like the Wheel of Time.
“Dís was the daughter of Thrain II. She is the only dwarf-woman named in these histories. It was said by Gimli that there are few dwarf-women, probably no more than a third of the whole population. They seldom walk abroad except at great need. They are in voice and appearance, and in garb if they must go on a journey, so like to the dwarf-men that the eyes and ears of other peoples cannot tell them apart.”
Ie. dwarven women are so similar to dwarven men (beards) that outsiders can’t tell them apart.
This has been known for decades. The word “dwarven” was popularized by Tolkien’s books.
5 Likes
I liked it. That Galadriel is one heck of a swimmer. Who is the guy in the flaming but cool crater supposed to be? Too soon in the story to be Gandalf but it looks like that’s who he’ll turn out to be (the fireflies give it away).
I’m just going to roll with the changes and enjoy the story.
One thing I don’t like, the Elves armor looks a little cheap. The best armor smiths in the world could do a lot better.
2 Likes
LoTR died after the third one.
1 Like
You can easily tell where all the money in the budget went.
Hint, wasn’t to the writer’s room.
4 Likes
I’m sorry, but I have no idea what message you’re trying to convey. Seems to be a theme for me tonight.
I like She-Hulk! I didn’t care much for Falcon and The Winter Soldier.
Compare that to anything else that went to any extreme to stay faithful to the original material.
Viewers rioted when Berserk got a reboot and they used extremely budget cut low quality CGI to animate it.
Look at the original Berserk which only covers part of the first arc and is extremely primitive and early 90s low quality animation.
It wasn’t mindblowing until the Eclipse. At least they did the best part justice.
Now watch Wheel of Time or Rings of Power again and tell me they are actually trying to do the source material justice or whether they are trying to modernize the story and make it better for social media audiences.
I know what they’re doing and why, it’s irksome but sometimes you got to use a little imagination and what Steven King calls “suspension of disbelief” to enjoy an unlikely scenario. I reread the source material for all these books once in a while, we always have that to fall back on.
Actually House of the Dragon has been good so far, I do not feel that any of the characters were forced into the show just for the sake of inclusivity and there are female characters who are strong, but still believable.
1 Like