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Thread: The Rings of Power discussion thread

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    Member since 7/13/2000 Hal...'s Avatar
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    The Rings of Power discussion thread

    Jerol suggested the thread and since no one had started it, I figured I would.

    Anyone seen any of the new episodes yet? They premiered yesterday.
    “From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.” – Philip Marlowe

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    Member since 7/13/2000 Hal...'s Avatar
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    I was just reading about the show on Wikipedia and apparently Amazon has already committed to five seasons of this show. So that's excellent.
    “From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.” – Philip Marlowe

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    woah!


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    Five seasons? Half an hour was enough for me last night. I loved the original three films by Jackson, but thought The Hobbit should never have been more than two hours long. Where can this current story possibly go for even one season?

    Within ten minutes or so of the programme's start last night the elves were battling orcs or fighting a snow troll. Of course the elves all get slammed against walls by the snow troll and thrown about, of course the snow troll gets killed and of course the brave elves all pick themselves up, dust themselves off and continue their hunt for Sauron. Then we get to meet the cheery Hobbit-like people (with Irish accents, for goodness sake) who wend their happy way, and then ...

    And this presumably is more or less how the series will continue for the next year or so. Call me a curmudgeon, but count me out.
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    Serengeti Svengali Hobo Chang Ba's Avatar
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    I'm not going to watch this show (I don't really like the Lord Of The Rings), but my roommate watches various youtube people who have been shitting on this show for like a year now so I am curious to read 'regular' people's (hopefully unbiased) opinions on it.
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    Stick to the books.
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    Member Jerjo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Piskie View Post
    Stick to the books.
    Read 'em about fifty times. I want it on my TV.

    I am one episode in and I'm in for the long haul. This is going to be a slow steady build. They've got five years, why rush it. Some characters work better for me than others. The little Harfoot is a walking trope - I hope she improves. Galadriel was everything I hoped she'd be, I didn't like the looks of Elrond at first but the actor won me over, and the elf that's in the Southlands, he's impressive. I look forward to seeing Durin and his kin. I had always wished that Tolkien had written a saga about the Second Age, so this works for me.
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    Member since 7/13/2000 Hal...'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerjo View Post
    Read 'em about fifty times. I want it on my TV.
    I haven't read them that much but, yes, I feel the same way. I'm only one episode in, also, and already I like it more than Jackson's trilogies... for the most part. I also liked it a little more than House of the Dragon.

    I have absolutely no knowledge of the appendices nor of The Silmarillion (do they play a part in this?), so I shouldn't have any issues with the story lines or characters.

    The little Harfoot is a walking trope - I hope she improves.
    I assume you mean Nori and I totally disagree. She reminds me of Merry & Pippin: curious and mischievous. Now, is she totally likable? Meh.

    Galadriel was everything I hoped she'd be, I didn't like the looks of Elrond at first but the actor won me over, and the elf that's in the Southlands, he's impressive.
    Agree on all points.

    The only person I had an issue with was Benjamin Walker, who plays Gil-galad, the King. He didn't come across as regal enough. Part of it is his age. Maybe I just need to grow into the actor/character.

    I couldn't help it, but I kept comparing this Elrond and Gil-galad with Hugo Weaving and they came up lacking. Not fair, I know, but there you are. I suspect – or hope – I'll eventually come to accept them as is.
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  9. #9
    I've seen the first episode.

    It was nowhere near as horrendously bad as I had feared. I will probably give it a second episode, but I don't know about after that unless it improves.

    I wonder if the guy in the meteor is Sauron? He could disguise himself as a "fair seeming" humaniform until he was caught laughing in the fall of Númenor, and he's known to have cozened a number of Elves (the ones who made the Rings of Power, except for the One -- their leader, Celebrimbor, is introduced near the end of episode 1).
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sturgeon's Lawyer View Post
    I've seen the first episode.

    It was nowhere near as horrendously bad as I had feared. I will probably give it a second episode, but I don't know about after that unless it improves.

    I wonder if the guy in the meteor is Sauron? He could disguise himself as a "fair seeming" humaniform until he was caught laughing in the fall of Númenor, and he's known to have cozened a number of Elves (the ones who made the Rings of Power, except for the One -- their leader, Celebrimbor, is introduced near the end of episode 1).
    Many are thinking it's one of the Maiar and not the bad one (we'll see that one in a much fairer form).
    Last edited by Jerjo; 09-03-2022 at 05:43 PM.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sturgeon's Lawyer View Post
    I've seen the first episode.

    It was nowhere near as horrendously bad as I had feared. I will probably give it a second episode, but I don't know about after that unless it improves.
    Good to hear! I'll be holding my Prime horses until a few further reliable positive reviews drops in - having the Great Foundation Failure in mind...
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    I loved the first two episodes and am excited for next Friday.


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    They're keeping it very PG, thus dashing my hopes for some Elvish skin.
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    Checked out the first episode tonight and it was not nearly as cheesy as I had feared/anticipated. I quite liked it.

    My only problem with any CGI, whether it's a show with a budget this size or otherwise, is that I find myself looking to see where the line is between actual actors/scenery and the CGI (battle scenes, sailing, etc.). I don't think it will ever be well done enough that it doesn't look fake to me. That said, there are some beautiful shots in this one so far.
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    Five seasons?!?! I guess it will go wherever the writers want to take it since it is now the "LotR cinematic universe" and almost completely untethered from canon.

    Gil-galad looks young because this was presumably thousands of years before The Hobbit and LotR....but who can say really, since they supposedly massively compressed the timeline and the details surrounding Galadriel bear little to no connection to what Tolkien wrote.

    In the first episode I was annoyed with seemingly every spoken line attempting to be as clever, weighty, poetic, and elegant as the best lines from LotR and I started to wonder how many episodes of that I could take. (That is, when the lines weren't coming from Dwarves or Harfeet.)

    But my feelings are somewhat kept in check by watching with someone who never read any of the books and is free to take the series as it comes. And just like when people are annoyed with remastered/remixed albums - we still have the originals (the books, in this case).
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    Quote Originally Posted by Plasmatopia View Post
    Gil-galad looks young because this was presumably thousands of years before The Hobbit and LotR....but who can say really, since they supposedly massively compressed the timeline and the details surrounding Galadriel bear little to no connection to what Tolkien wrote.
    More to the point, Gil-Galad looks old because he's an Elf (Quendo) and Elves age really slowly.

    Though Tolkien never described Gil-Galad, he somehow looks wrong to me. I always imagined him looking rather rough, for an Elf; here he looks exceptionally smooth, even pretty.

    As for time scale ... well, as you doubtless know, the Third Age is about 3000 years long, so even if they compress the Second Age (as seems to be the case here, at least so far), there's still thousands of years between here and Hobbit/LotR.

    [QUOTE=Plasmatopia;1141475]In the first episode I was annoyed with seemingly every spoken line attempting to be as clever, weighty, poetic, and elegant as the best lines from LotR and I started to wonder how many episodes of that I could take. (That is, when the lines weren't coming from Dwarves or Harfeet.)[QUOTE]

    True dat.

    Quote Originally Posted by Plasmatopia View Post
    But my feelings are somewhat kept in check by watching with someone who never read any of the books and is free to take the series as it comes. And just like when people are annoyed with remastered/remixed albums - we still have the originals (the books, in this case).
    Indeed. Though I have found myself unable to reread LotR since 2002, for fear that images from the movies will invade the impressions I had built up over thirty years B.J. (Before Jackson).

    What really grinds my teeth though is realizing that far more people have seen the movies than have read the books, and fear that, for those who graduate from the movies to the books, the books will seem wrong because, to them, the "real" Lord of the Rings is that of Jackson-and-Company.
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    Member chalkpie's Avatar
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    ^ That's true about many films/books, not just LOTR.

    I liked the first episode, but it was a tad overwhelming imo with so much thrown at us...but I understand it's setting stuff up. The CGI does suck Mooseballs, but it sucked in the other films too. Rivendell looked like a video game. I'm gonna watch the 2nd episode tonight.

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    The jury is out for me after one episode, but I found it enjoyable and visually stunning! One of my kids is a big Silmarillion fan as well as a reader of Tolkien's created world histories & minutiae and was, so far, a bit disappointed on the grounds of the way certain things were depicted and a perception of license being taken. I'm not sufficiently educated in those matters to feel that way.

    I read the hobbit and trilogy long ago and again to my kids when they were young, but just in case you're looking for another depiction of those books you will of course be disappointed or befuddled. This series is based on parts of the Silmarillion and Tolkien's legendarium long before the events of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

    I look forward to more in the hope that this can evolve into something great or at least worth wile. I for one, thought the Jackson Hobbit trilogy was a tremendous let down after the Lord of the Rings. I'm hoping this will not be the same.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Sturgeon's Lawyer View Post


    What really grinds my teeth though is realizing that far more people have seen the movies than have read the books, and fear that, for those who graduate from the movies to the books, the books will seem wrong because, to them, the "real" Lord of the Rings is that of Jackson-and-Company.
    This kills me more with biopics (cough Queen cough) when facts are mangled for the "story" - but in the future - will become the defacto popular "history" of the individual, even if factually incorrect.
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    An article in NYT gives an informative detail (or reality check, some might say) to viewers who aren't familiar with the books / written material by saying this series is "based primarily on only a few dozen pages in one of the historical appendices to “The Lord of the Rings,” meaning that almost the entire plot of the show has been created by Amazon Studios’ writers and showrunners."

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    I read that there were strict restrictions on using anything from the Silmarillion as well. Amazon's rights only extend to the appendices. The showrunners worked with the estate on what liberties they could and couldn't take in what characters could be used and compressing the time line. Spoiler: The stranger the Harfoots discover is part of that discussion.
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    from a newsweek article:

    For those looking to pick up just one book after watching The Rings of Power, well, the Tolkien estate has you covered, because a new book is set to be published on November 10, 2022 which collects all of Tolkien's writings from the Second Age of Middle-earth, titled The Fall of Númenor.

    Edited by Brian Sibley and illustrated by Alan Lee, the book will use "The Tale of Years" from The Lord of the Rings appendices to create a complete history of The Second Age.
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    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    After episode two, I can say I'm definitely enjoying this. I'm in for the long haul.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sturgeon's Lawyer View Post
    More to the point, Gil-Galad looks old because he's an Elf (Quendo) and Elves age really slowly.

    Though Tolkien never described Gil-Galad, he somehow looks wrong to me. I always imagined him looking rather rough, for an Elf; here he looks exceptionally smooth, even pretty.

    As for time scale ... well, as you doubtless know, the Third Age is about 3000 years long, so even if they compress the Second Age (as seems to be the case here, at least so far), there's still thousands of years between here and Hobbit/LotR.

    Indeed. Though I have found myself unable to reread LotR since 2002, for fear that images from the movies will invade the impressions I had built up over thirty years B.J. (Before Jackson).

    What really grinds my teeth though is realizing that far more people have seen the movies than have read the books, and fear that, for those who graduate from the movies to the books, the books will seem wrong because, to them, the "real" Lord of the Rings is that of Jackson-and-Company.
    I didn't think Gil-galad looked particularly old, in fact I thought he seemed on the younger side. So I was just trying to say that his appearance seemed appropriate, given the slow aging process of Elves.

    I don't read much these days although I hope to change that someday. I have often considered reading LotR and the Silmarillion yet again, but have had similar worries about invasive imagery.
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    Member chalkpie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Progatron View Post
    After episode two, I can say I'm definitely enjoying this. I'm in for the long haul.
    Yep! Me too. Sort of like when The Mandalorian got really good in a hurry. I think this is going to be highly entertaining. I love the little scenes like the Harfoots dragging the olde weird dude in a cart in the countryside at night, it has that classic Tolkien/Hobbits feel

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