this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2024
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Why? Honestly?
I didn't find it amazing, but not horrible either. I'm not the deepest of lore nerds, but I have somewhat read the Silmarillion a few decades ago, and enjoyed seeing all the "mythical" places like Númenor.
It's no LOTR, but it sure beats a lot of other shows I watch
The writing for Rings of Power is just bad. It comes off as someone's self-insert fan fiction. Let's start off with Mary "Galadriel" Sue. Solving all of Middle Earth's problems single-handedly while making googly eyes at Sauron. There's also the entirely forgettable plotline around the people in the town being overrun by orcs being guarded by an elf with the emotional range of a fence post. It seems an entirely contrived plot to get a magic sword in the right place and nothing else. The characters involved are flat, and predictable. We also get to see Numenor, yay! Except it's filled with another bland plot which is like someone really loved the Grima Wormtounge plot from LotR and wanted to spend a couple hours doing the same thing while also giving Galadriel another chance to Mary Sue her way through the city's problems. And all of those issues are shot through with dialog which sounds like a 16-year old LARPing around a girl he has a crush on. Completely stiff and unnatural.
Really, the only things the show has going for it are incredible CG artwork in the backgrounds and the Lord of the Rings association. Forget that this is based on the LotR connection for a moment, and the show looks like really well funded fantasy shlock from the height of the SyFy channel. Sure, if you're dead drunk on the couch and the TV remote is across the room, it's good enough to not put in the effort to go change the channel. But, as a tent-pole show on a streaming site? Ya, they need to can the entire writing staff and try again.
Oh no, a romantic plotline in a billion dollar production!
Sauron has always been portrayed as beautiful and as "the deceiver." Why would being charmed by him be a bad thing?
Yes, Galadriel is "solving all of Middle-Earth's problems single-handedly" in that she's doing with the help of everyone.
Reminder that Elrond's dad literally plead to the gods to help them fight Morgoth and was made a literal star afterwards. This is literally a fantasy epic? You don't expect there to be... epic things in it? Galadriel is just one of the main characters.
"Elf with the emotional range of a fence post"
So because there's no overt expression of emotion, there isn't any emotion? I feel like that's a "you can't read emotion" problem more than a it's lacking emotional range problem. Do you recall Legolas as mightily expressive emotionally, or could it be that a splash of stoicism is actually something associated with the portrayal of wood-elves?
No offense, but your analysis feels rather shallow.
Idk, like something from the early 20th century? I wonder why there'd be a feeling of something like that. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I think people are rather just going with the bandwagon on these reviews. It's not great, but its definitely not terrible.
It's mediocre/fine basic entertainment, and just there's so much supply in that area that I can easily choose to spend my time on something better. I'd rather not reward them for doing this.
Also, I am a Tolkien nerd and it's difficult not to take offense from some of the details.
Please do share, I watch a lot of shows and the reason I'm watching ROP s1 rn is I have to recap some of these personal storylines from it, so that I might enjoy s2 — first 3 eps of which came out today — better.
Again, I'm not trying to sarcastic or a dick or anything, but asking in honest curiosity, which parts bothered you? I'm sort of in two minds about the Stranger. There's a lot of news about how the Tolkien Estate had very strict limits on Amazon not being able to do anything to do with the Third age, or at least nothing that would alter anything in it. But that would mean the Stranger isn't Gandalf, to which they were dropping major hints at, obviously. If those hints were a red herring though, and it turns out the Stranger is one of the blue wizards, I'd be pleasantly surprised. I still think that should be the case, but... it's hard to ignore people saying "Gandalf confirmed" after the whole "always follow your nose" business.
Well, for the genre of fantasy, and perhaps as some sort of a master class of telling a story -- I recommend checking out Frieren.
The writing, the characters and the actors mostly. Say, Galadriel and Elrond. Gandalf also, yes. If I thought about it more, I'd probably remember more irritating details.
I mean, it would've been a perfectly fine 7/10 series if it hadn't had to happen in the context that it did. But when they chose to do a Tolkien world thing, that carries with it a certain responsibility.
Uh, I'm looking more for non-animated shows, but thanks for the suggestion. (Reminded me that Arcane s2 is coming out in a while I think. Oh yeah: in November.)
But... you just named things. Not what annoyed you about them..? What was wrong with the writing? I thought it was rather nice how they sort of phased out bioessentialism a bit, despite it being very inherent to the world. Like do you have any specific qualms about what you found bad?
Again, not trying to disagree or antagonise or anything of the like, but am genuinely curious. Just discussing.
I agree. If the Stranger actually turns out to be Gandalf, I'll consider them having broken that responsibility. If not, then I don't think they have.
Well, there's the Dungeons & Dragons movie from 2023. That was fun and entertaining. Game of Thrones of course, for the most part -- and I believe House of the Dragon is good even though I haven't gotten there yet.
I think you should still check out Frieren imho if you're into fantasy at all.
Sorry man, I don't want to remember why anymore.
So sad to see it bomb at the box office
It was a whimsical jaunt indeed, I quite enjoyed the D&D movie yeah.
Seen HotD, read all the books. Better than GoT imo, because of the huge fall in quality in GoT. I still believe Winds of Winter will come out some day. I still believe, George!
Eh, I'm not surprised. It's the sort of answer most people give as to why they didn't like it. Rather vague feelings, but as entertainment is mostly subjective, I can't (and wouldn't) challenge that.