Never read or watched anything Tolkien. Perhaps I should start.
I am a huge fan of Tolkien. The Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales are waaaay better than The Hobbit or LOTR, as far as stories. They are more dark and gritty.
Yet, my interest in the Rings of Power show went from hyped at the announcement to disinterest by the time it released.
I understand that. That seems foolish. It makes me think that the Tolkien estate did not want to offer up rights for their core and meaty lore. Then I wonder why? Are they waiting for the right time? Were they not enthused with Amazonâs ideas, so they just gave them a sliver of appendices to work with?
If the Tolkien estate did not want to go into this series with full throated access to their lore and history, that makes me wonder why.
Yeah this is my thinking.
Rings of Power seems like unaffiliated fan fiction, which is fine for mindless entertainment, but not very appealing to me. As a Tolken fan, I am not upset about the IRL racial representation, but the other departures from the lore are a bit much.
I am the opposite when it comes to GoT.
I have not read any GoT books - but the actual creator himself is working on House of the Dragon. The House of the Dragon is actually being advertised as the actual canon, clearing up the confusion of the different takes on the events from the books, more than just a reboot/retelling. That makes me a little more interested.
Where Rings of Power is the Alternate take based on canon lore - House of the Dragon is the canon take on the Alternate conflicting perspectives, shepherded by the actual Author himself.
Imo, House of the Dragon just did the whole ârepresentationâ ethnicity swaps almost seamlessly. Especially having the author himself explain why. Some thing the Rings of Power just does not have the benefit of, as Tolkien is no longer with us.
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Rings of Power recontextualizes this scene.
instead of saying âYou are dead to me.â to an ex, the apporiate thing to say is now.
You have no power here Servant of Morgoth. You are nameless. Faceless. Formless. Go back to the Void from whence you came.
Power move.
I did some searching because the subject interested me. No one is quite sure, but itâs probably tied up with the complexities of the contract when Tolkien sold the majority of the adaptation rights to United Artists in 1968 (later transmitted to the Saul Zaentz Company in 1976 which formed the holding company Middle-Earth Enterprises; that holding company is now known as Tolkien Enterprises and was purchased by the Embracer Group as of this year). There are some loopholes, which the TV show uses â part of the clauses carve out an exception for TV shows with more than eight episodes â but without having a practiced contract lawyer evaluate it, hard to say for sure exactly what is excluded and included as part of the terms. Iâm not sure the contract is anywhere publicly available to read.
Primary Source: âLord of the Rings,â âThe Hobbitâ Movie, Gaming Rights Up for Sale - Variety
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Hereâs a bit of useless information;
Apparently Stone Cold Steve Austin got his stage name from a comment from his wife. As he was puzzling out a potential stage name his wife was making tea and told him to come get his before it was, you guessed it, stone cold.
I find that funny as I always roll my eyes in movies when they show artists or scientists getting ideas like that. But occasionally that is apparently how it actually goes down.
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Because it was really the only period of Lord of the Rings that they could use.
But all thing considered? They had the blessing of the Tolkien Estate, Simon Tolkien and worked with multiple Tolkien lore experts. As far as Iâm concerned, thatâs enough to validate the work. If the Tolkien Estate and Simon Tolkien think itâs good enough, then itâs good enough.
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Meanwhile Iâm just enoying fandom and a good showâŚ
https://tenor.com/view/chaos-calm-drinking-panicking-gif-15082106
âŚwithout having to expend the emotional and intellectual labour wondering if they are lore accurate before I can enjoy them for what they are. The criticism this show is getting is unreal. Itâs a good show. it doesnât always have to make sense.
Speaking of really good shows that people are enjoying, Andor so far is just killing it. I am loving the darker, grittier and just slower pace they went with on this show.
It really drills home how high the stakes were for the fledgling rebellion
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Couldnât even get through the first episode. It was boring af, and the internet seems to agree.
And RoP is getting lambasted on most review sites. So that statement is meaningless
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Yeah I donât care about all that, honestly. Either I enjoy a show or I donât. Who cares what anybody else thinks.
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RoP has an 82% critics raitng on Rotten Tomatoes (not that it always gets things right)
But I have seen this show come under fire from the manosphere of the same fanboys who attack everything that has a female lead or female centric story. I donât hold their opinions very high obviously. If I donât put up with that sexist crap in the SW fandom I wonât put up with it in the LotR fandom, or the HoD fandom or any other fandom I happen to be a part of.
Yeah I am not one of those Tolkien fans who is rabidly against the series. I just recognize it as a sort of Fanfiction AU show for mindless entertainment. I like the original stories. These Rings of Power stories are just less interesting versions in the same setting.
The LOTRO MMO is sort of the same - it is non canon, but I can still enjoy it as a non canon romp in the Middle Earth setting. That is how I see Rings of Power.
I probably will binge watch the series in a few years, if I am on vacation or baby sitting some family memberâs children. When more of the episodes are out. But it is not something I eagerly wait for and make time for, like GoT.
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Yeah Iâve been craving something like this. I really adored season 1 of The Mandolorian for the same reason. And while I enjoyed the next season it really piled on too many backdoor pilots for my liking. Boba Fett, Ashoka, Luke etc. When I was really enjoying just this gunslinger man with no name type just getting into space trouble. It need not always be about the damn moon wizards.
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I wouldnât agree that itâs mindless entertainment. But to each their own. As I said, in the end the only thing that matters to me is if I think itâs good or not. I think itâs good. I enjoy watching it. But I donât think itâs worth getting into arguments about it.
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Disa has a beard which confirms that dwarven women do have facial hair and thatâs actually confirmed again by a joke between Disa and Durin that his mother-in-law has more lice in her beard than the king. I felt like the Dwarves seemed more like WoW dwarves and thatâs not a negative.
I like WoW doorfs.
Itâs usually the other way around where Tolkien inspires WoW, but WoW seemed to have inspired some parts of RoP so thatâs cool in my books. Maybe I follow the right fandom circles because the only negative impressions I got from my circles about RoP before I watched it was that the male elves all had short hair. Sadge elf noises
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Itâs great to have a Star Wars (or, hell, Disney+) series that doesnât feel like it was made in a content factory.
I mean, I like some of the content factory shows donât get me wrong, but Andor has likeâŚnormal TV drama pacing and good smart dialogue and just kind of feels like a real actual show, so thatâs nice. Really hope that Daredevil reboot is more along these lines than the other stuff.
Elrondâs one of my favorite characters in the show but I cannot deny he and Celebrimbor look like hi-res Oblivion NPCs sometimes.
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It would be better if they didnât have the same hair as my mom in the early 90âs
Aemond Targaryen looks more like an elf than Elrond.
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Seriously. That Netflix Daredevil series was almost too good for a superhero show.
Thatâs maybe my favorite ideological argument Iâve seen on film. Even in very serious dramas about very serious situations that donât involve blind catholic ninjas in Halloween costumes, characters just recite like prepared monologues about why their way is best.
And here theyâre repeating themselves, shouting, stumbling over words, getting fed up and resorting to insults. It feels like an actual argument between two people with irreconcilable world views.
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I wonder what people here think about the situation with Amouranth.