Television The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

That was great!! Proper fantasy show. As someone else said, it can only get better from here. The foundations have been laid out.

Don't compare this to the turkish soap opera (with dragons) of the competition. :D
 
Like Baldur from God of war, I feel nothing, when watching this show. It's like a show put together by people with no experience. It's problems are deep rooted in the screenplay, it doesn't make sense. Scenes which should be more fleshed out aren't, and others which add very little are dragged on.
 
Sylar said:
So many people saying the reveals were obvious for so long. Yet I've only really seen @glazed mention a reveal and stuck with it throughout. A lot of you are not being honest with yourselved are ya :p

I enjoyed it but again I'm probably a casual towards the whole lore so have no idea what canon is broken or not or whatever most of you are complaining about

I'm seeing
annatar mentioned a lot on this thread. Who or what is that? Is this non show stuff? Or did I miss something completely?
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It doesn't help matters when a member of the production crew leaked the entire plot before the season began with very specific details. Gives people like Robin in the GoT thread a wet dream.

To answer your question about Annatar, he's a fake identity that Sauron uses to accomplish the same mission that Halbrand in the show does. With the exception that Annatar was an elf, his name means Lord of Gifts and he went to the Elves pretending to be a servant of the Valar and offered them his services as a craftsmen. The elves rebuffed him on the whole with the exception of Celebrimbor who traded knowledge with Annatar and learned how to craft powerful jewelry which was later perfected with the creation of the three rings.
 
Felt it was slow and not very interesting beyond the ordinary till the final episodes. I did like the final episode though, buys it an extra mark for me. 7/10
 
Well to hell with all you miserable sods. I loved it, especially the last 3 episodes and I can't wait for the next series already.

Does make me laugh reading all the negative comments on here but mainly other platforms in fairness. Seeing 2 out of 10 and 3 out of 10's and yet these same people are watching every episode as soon as it's released almost. Does one protest too much perhaps? Hahahaha.

Solid 8/10 for me. Some things I'd have liked to have seen done differently but still a very good show all the same.
 
RedSky said:
It doesn't help matters when a member of the production crew leaked the entire plot before the season began with very specific details. Gives people like Robin in the GoT thread a wet dream.

To answer your question about Annatar, he's a fake identity that Sauron uses to accomplish the same mission that Halbrand in the show does. With the exception that Annatar was an elf, his name means Lord of Gifts and he went to the Elves pretending to be a servant of the Valar and offered them his services as a craftsmen. The elves rebuffed him on the whole with the exception of Celebrimbor who traded knowledge with Annatar and learned how to craft powerful jewelry which was later perfected with the creation of the three rings.
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Yeah I’m not giving anyone much credit for guessing that, especially since the poster getting plaudits for it also declared when Sauron would be revealed based off “rumors”.
 
I enjoyed it... Its not top tier tele or anything, but it's been decent all the same.

I have a few questions on things that I may have missed...

1. How did Galadriel make the leap from "not king of the Southlands" to "the most evil force in the world"? And how wrong did she get initially claiming he was that lost king!? If the lineage has been dead for years

2. Did Sauron give that fella the knife/key then? Or was it just Mr. OrcElf that did a switcheroo.

3. Have they explained what the rings actually do yet/how it will save the people? In fact, will they ever explain this?
 
RedSky said:
It doesn't help matters when a member of the production crew leaked the entire plot before the season began with very specific details. Gives people like Robin in the GoT thread a wet dream.

To answer your question about Annatar, he's a fake identity that Sauron uses to accomplish the same mission that Halbrand in the show does. With the exception that Annatar was an elf, his name means Lord of Gifts and he went to the Elves pretending to be a servant of the Valar and offered them his services as a craftsmen. The elves rebuffed him on the whole with the exception of Celebrimbor who traded knowledge with Annatar and learned how to craft powerful jewelry which was later perfected with the creation of the three rings.
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Organic Potatoes said:
Yeah I’m not giving anyone much credit for guessing that, especially since the poster getting plaudits for it also declared when Sauron would be revealed based off “rumors”.
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Oh is that the case? No wonder people had formed opinions before it was released and their opinions never shifted (but yet still watched)
Shame

Hopefully that's tightened up for S2

Also thanks for explaining @RedSky
 
Annihilate Now! said:
I enjoyed it... Its not top tier tele or anything, but it's been decent all the same.

I have a few questions on things that I may have missed...

1. How did Galadriel make the leap from "not king of the Southlands" to "the most evil force in the world"? And how wrong did she get initially claiming he was that lost king!? If the lineage has been dead for years

2. Did Sauron give that fella the knife/key then? Or was it just Mr. OrcElf that did a switcheroo.

3. Have they explained what the rings actually do yet/how it will save the people? In fact, will they ever explain this?
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1. That entire thing was stupid. She saw that he had an amulet that looked like something kings from hundreds of years ago had and decided he must be the King's heir. It would be like assuming a tour guide from the British museum must be a Pharoah's grandkid because he knows where the tombs are. She was foolish for thinking he was king with no evidence but it was what they wanted the audience to believe so they just had all the characters pretend it was true when there was no reason to. Theo (the kid) found a sword from Sauron and that would make him Sauron with Galadriels logic.

2. I think the Orc Elf/Uruk gave it to him. He told Waldred (which was the guys name iirc) that he "had a task for him" right before the cavalry showed up.

3. As far as I know, the rings have subtle magic. Galadriel wore one in the LOTR and it helped keep her forest Kingdom of elves safe. Gandalf had one and it helped to influence people. The dwarves used them to become wealthier. The rings seem to have a pretty passive effect rather than allowing them to throw fireballs or do Harry Potter style magic. Plus I think it gives an extended lifespan. In LOTR, Bilbo said he feels "stretched" because the ring he wore practically pushed back his time of death.
 
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Spoony said:
I really enjoyed it. The hobbits are bloody boring though.
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Agreed. I don't even like them. I laughed when it was revealed that they basically abandon anyone who falls behind when they're moving around. The orcs had a funeral for one of theirs that died in the second episode and that was more humane than the Hobbits apparently.

The orcs are more likely to help each other than the hobbits.
 
Tyrion said:
1. That entire thing was stupid. She saw that he had an amulet that looked like something kings from hundreds of years ago had and decided he must be the King's heir. It would be like assuming a tour guide from the British museum must be a Pharoah's grandkid because he knows where the tombs are. She was foolish for thinking he was king with no evidence but it was what they wanted the audience to believe so they just had all the characters pretend it was true when there was no reason to. Theo (the kid) found a sword from Sauron and that would make him Sauron with Galadriels logic.

2. I think the Orc Elf/Uruk gave it to him. He told Waldred (which was the guys name iirc) that he "had a task for him" right before the cavalry showed up.

3. As far as I know, the rings have subtle magic. Galadriel wore one in the LOTR and it helped keep her forest Kingdom of elves safe. Gandalf had one and it helped to influence people. The dwarves used them to become wealthier. The rings seem to have a pretty passive effect rather than allowing them to throw fireballs or do Harry Potter style magic. Plus I think it gives an extended lifespan. In LOTR, Bilbo said he feels "stretched" because the ring he wore practically pushed back his time of death.
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Cheers

On Q1 - yeah, now with the reveal it's especially bizarre... I figured at the time he must have been present as king at some point in his childhood and she recognised him after seeing the amulet... But the fact that the lineage has been dead for ages makes it a pretty big leap... Also shouldn't she know its been dead for ages?

Still not sure how she made the leap from not King to definitely Sauron though
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Cheers

On Q1 - yeah, now with the reveal it's especially bizarre... I figured at the time he must have been present as king at some point in his childhood and she recognised him after seeing the amulet... But the fact that the lineage has been dead for ages makes it a pretty big leap... Also shouldn't she know its been dead for ages?

Still not sure how she made the leap from not King to definitely Sauron though
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The thing is that the whole season 1 is a cluster feck in line with season 7 and 8 of GoT they need to get better writers. I think that the cast can deliver on a decent level of content if the show is written to a decent standard. The whole thing was no better than WB standard of writing and production on everything but FX.
If they continue with this level of writing this is dead on arrival.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Cheers

On Q1 - yeah, now with the reveal it's especially bizarre... I figured at the time he must have been present as king at some point in his childhood and she recognised him after seeing the amulet... But the fact that the lineage has been dead for ages makes it a pretty big leap... Also shouldn't she know its been dead for ages?

Still not sure how she made the leap from not King to definitely Sauron though
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Celebrimbor started spouting classic catch phrases from Sauron’s TED Talks after saying the Southlander was inspiration for his new ideas (might have been specific references to convos between her and Adar or others earlier?) and she suspects something is seriously wrong, eventually leading to her “And that’s when she knew, she fecked up” realization.

‘Not being king’ was just confirmation he wasn’t who he said he was, more evidence to add to what she was already suspecting.
 
Liked the finale a lot. For me the season started off well but fell off in the middle and I think it caught up at the end. Halbrand reveal has been obvious for a while but always expected the Stranger to be one of the Blue wizards but as soon as he said “whenever in doubt, follow your nose” I loved it though still feel Blue wizard in the east would have made a better storyline for future seasons. Coming into the series being skeptical of the Harfoots, it ended up being my favorite storyline. I also like they are giving Galadriel a tinge of darkness, and the tension between her and Elrond might be interesting going forward.

Again, I feel people are expecting this series to be like GOT. It is not. It carries the vibe of LOTR to an extent. They still need to improve the writing a bit for the next seasons, but I’m looking forward to it. And regarding the lore problems, I had given up on that before the series started as its pretty much impossible to be true to the lore with the minimal amount of rights they have as well as the actual meat of the story there is. So might as well enjoy it for what it is.
 
Red Shorts said:
Credit to @glazed for sticking to their prediction throughout. I thought it would have been him after the end of episode 7, but definitely didn't up until then. I wanted them to go in a different direction to reveal him, but hey ho at least they didn't leave us 3 seasons to find out who it is.

Overall really enjoyed this season. For a starting point it was entertaining, beautiful to watch and can only get better from here.
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Well thank you but it had to be the case so I never really doubted it. I thought it was rather enjoyable.

I'm still not sure who the Stranger is though. A wizard it seems but not sure which one.
Maybe Amazon are holding out for the rights to use Gandalf because he is definitely a third age character outside their current contract. And Istari were all commanded to manifest as old men, which the Stranger clearly isn't.


Sylar said:
I'm seeing
annatar mentioned a lot on this thread. Who or what is that? Is this non show stuff? Or did I miss something completely?
Click to expand...

Annatar was one of Sauron's pseudonyms, meaning Lord of Gifts. So when he said to Celebrimbor that his knowledge should be treated as a gift....
 
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Donaldo said:
That last episode was dogshite.
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It really was. I actually liked the slow pace that it built up for the first 6 episodes, and then an entire season got crammed into one episode, with so many bizarre leaps of logic.

I will continue to watch S2 but that was terrible writing. This was the episode equivalent of sticking "Mordor" on a powerpoint in E7.
 
Amarsdd said:
Liked the finale a lot. For me the season started off well but fell off in the middle and I think it caught up at the end. Halbrand reveal has been obvious for a while but always expected the Stranger to be one of the Blue wizards but as soon as he said “whenever in doubt, follow your nose” I loved it though still feel Blue wizard in the east would have made a better storyline for future seasons. Coming into the series being skeptical of the Harfoots, it ended up being my favorite storyline. I also like they are giving Galadriel a tinge of darkness, and the tension between her and Elrond might be interesting going forward.

Again, I feel people are expecting this series to be like GOT. It is not. It carries the vibe of LOTR to an extent. They still need to improve the writing a bit for the next seasons, but I’m looking forward to it. And regarding the lore problems, I had given up on that before the series started as its pretty much impossible to be true to the lore with the minimal amount of rights they have as well as the actual meat of the story there is. So might as well enjoy it for what it is.
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This is how i feel about it also.

Show definitely had its moment but it has some very bad lows. Something any decent show should avoid. I wouldn’t mind if it didnt have spectacular scenes if it managed to keep the lows of show to be watchable.

Writing and direction seems immature and rushed. This for a show which has budget running into billions is just criminal.

Not to say its bad show and with LOTR lore, many like me will tune in again ( because of soft spot towards LoTR lore) but i feel its 6 out of 10 show at best. Spectacular to look at but with very less focus on characters and their motives. Plus some very bizarre choice of camera work ( slow moving shots of Galadriel should have been cut the moment the editing team saw it, but they allowed it thrice in one season) and some forced storytelling which they could have explored more.

Maybe my expectations were too high. I hope they improve the writing team next season and spend more time on few lores rather than trying to accommodate multiple in one season
 
Annihilate Now! said:
I enjoyed it... Its not top tier tele or anything, but it's been decent all the same.

I have a few questions on things that I may have missed...

1. How did Galadriel make the leap from "not king of the Southlands" to "the most evil force in the world"? And how wrong did she get initially claiming he was that lost king!? If the lineage has been dead for years

2. Did Sauron give that fella the knife/key then? Or was it just Mr. OrcElf that did a switcheroo.

3. Have they explained what the rings actually do yet/how it will save the people? In fact, will they ever explain this?
Click to expand...

To give Q1 a little more explanation:

1. She notices the pouch and the peculiar symbol on it.
2. She heads over to the Numenor library and find out that the symbol matches the symbol of the King of the Southlands.
3. Despite Halbrand claiming he took it off a dead man, she leaps to the conclusion that he's the King.
4. I do think she suspected something was slightly off at Episode 6 which people misinterpreted as her being attracted to Halbrand.
5. Roll on to this episode, and she sees him getting involved with the crafting of the Rings.
6. Celebrimbor also talks a load of tyrant dialogue and she gets troubled.
7. She therefore double checks Halbrands identity and confirms he's a liar.
8. What confuses me though is she's been hunting for Sauron for centuries and when she finally finds proof he's alive. She's remains tight lipped which the rings are made, not even questioning it despite Sauron driving the process forward every turn. Doesn't mention it to anyone or suggests that perhaps they should discuss if they should go through with the rings but instead simply comes up with the idea of making three.

As for Q3, they've implied what the rings do, they're going to protect their lands from the black virus using the mithril that's in them.
 
Salt Bailly said:
They didn't do a very good job of explaining why he is 'The Lord of the Rings'.
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To be fair, he never ruled over Elven rings. He tried to, but ultimately failed.

I imagine that they’ll get deeper into this with other rings. Basically the speech that Celebrimbor gave about the power of the unseen world kinda explains the basis of the corruption that almost inevitably makes to Sauron being able to control them. Only powerful elves were capable of resisting the pull.
 
harms said:
To be fair, he never ruled over Elven rings. He tried to, but ultimately failed.

I imagine that they’ll get deeper into this with other rings. Basically the speech that Celebrimbor gave about the power of the unseen world kinda explains the basis of the corruption that almost inevitably makes to Sauron being able to control them. Only powerful elves were capable of resisting the pull.
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That makes sense, I'm just annoyed at how rushed the entire process was. I'm still excited about the next season though.

Somebody made a fitting analogy on Reddit:
Sauron taught Celebrimbor how to create the rings. Imagine some tech company teaching you how to build a piece of software, but unbeknownst to you, that code has a backdoor in it. One Sauron knows how to exploit.
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Nou_Camp99 said:
Solid 8/10 for me. Some things I'd have liked to have seen done differently but still a very good show all the same.
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I think we dole out high marks far too easily.

10/10 shows over the last few years might be Sopranos and Band of Brothers

9/10, The Wire, first season of True Detective, Chernobyl

8/10, first few seasons of Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Expanse

7/10 stuff like Better Call Saul, Narcos, The Boys, Rome

6/10, Homeland, Westworld first season, House of the Dragon

5/10 would be the highest possible mark for Rings of Power for me. Not awful, but a long way from great.
 
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Enjoyable season as a whole, but really feels like events are just falling from one area to another, without any actual purpose. The whole visit to Numenor, them raising an army and then heading back didn't seem to serve any real purpose or logic. Then you have a rather rushed forging of the rings scene towards the end, yet it is intertwined among a massive drawn out hobbit plot line.

Still think the story is at it's best when the orcs are involved, as they give an actual reason for the plot to move naturally. Overall they really need to tidy up the writing, some areas drag out massively, while others are far to rushed. Pacing just seems to be all over the place.

I'm still looking forward to season 2, though annoyingly that is ages away. Hopefully with Sauron revealed, and the evil side clear to the viewer, the story and writing improves.
 
Yeah one thing I didn't get is why galadriel just kept the whole sauron thing quiet. I mean she's been chasing him for all this time despite others thinking he was gone

glazed said:
Annatar was one of Sauron's pseudonyms, meaning Lord of Gifts. So when he said to Celebrimbor that his knowledge should be treated as a gift....
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Thanks
Makes sense
 
One big takeaway I had from the episode was that some sort of forging of a ring (melting metal / hammer smashing etc) should have been the opening credits instead of the sand stuff, which is a bit meh.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
One big takeaway I had from the episode was that some sort of forging of a ring (melting metal / hammer smashing etc) should have been the opening credits instead of the sand stuff, which is a bit meh.
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Hopefully season two now given its a scene that's happened. I do think the opening credits for ring of power is so underwhelming. I always hit skip

Something like got, psych, etc are catchy or get you into the type of show. This one is just meh as you said
 
Sylar said:
Hopefully season two now given its a scene that's happened. I do think the opening credits for ring of power is so underwhelming. I always hit skip

Something like got, psych, etc are catchy or get you into the type of show. This one is just meh as you said
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And then it keeps playing for another 10 seconds. Infuriating.
 
Bobski said:
I think we dole out high marks far too easily.

10/10 shows over the last few years might be Sopranos

9/10, The Wire, first season of True Detective, Chernobyl

8/10, first few seasons of Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Expanse

7/10 stuff like Better Call Saul, Narcos, The Boys, Rome

6/10, Homeland, Westworld first season, House of the Dragon

5/10 would be the highest possible mark for Rings of Power for me. Not awful, but a long way from great.
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These aren't facts. These are your opinions mate.

GOT and Breaking bad only at 8 is laughable. Both 10's for me. Some of the greatest TV ever made.
 
Semper Fudge said:
And then it keeps playing for another 10 seconds. Infuriating.
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:lol:
Yep haha

Hopefully this was just a place holder. Lotr movie has some good music so they could easily compose something good for this show.
Maybe I'm being harsh on the intro as I just can't remember it
 
Nou_Camp99 said:
These aren't facts. These are your opinions mate.

GOT and Breaking bad only at 8 is laughable. Both 10's for me. Some of the greatest TV ever made.
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Well obviously.

8/10 for me is still a pretty great show, a 9 superb, and 10 near perfect. I would give out very few 9 or 10's. I see it in quite a lot of review sites for various mediums, if something is getting less than a 8 or less than 85% a lot of people read that as the product being trash. Using the full range makes more sense to me as giving Rings of Power an 8 is telling me it is only a couple of marks down from the greatest shows ever made and that is crazy to me.

7 is good

6 is above average

5 is average

and so on.
 
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Bobski said:
I think we dole out high marks far too easily.

10/10 shows over the last few years might be Sopranos

9/10, The Wire, first season of True Detective, Chernobyl

8/10, first few seasons of Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Expanse

7/10 stuff like Better Call Saul, Narcos, The Boys, Rome

6/10, Homeland, Westworld first season, House of the Dragon

5/10 would be the highest possible mark for Rings of Power for me. Not awful, but a long way from great.
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Some comical underrating of Westworld and Better Call Saul, which almost invalidates your entire opinion. Almost as if you got the rest of your list correct by chance.

On topic, is that actually gandalf???
 
Spark said:
Some comical underrating of Westworld and Better Call Saul, which almost invalidates your entire opinion. Almost as if you got the rest of your list correct by chance.

On topic, is that actually gandalf???
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I have only actually watched the first season of Westworld, enjoyed it but never got around to continuing.

These lists are of course flexible but if you start everything at a 7 or 8 there isn't much room for distinction.
 
Bobski said:
Well obviously.

8/10 for me is still a pretty great show, a 9 superb, and 10 near perfect. I would give out very few 9 or 10's. I see it in quite a lot of review sites for various mediums, if something is getting less than a 8 or less than 85% a lot of people read that as the product being trash. Using the full range makes more sense to me as giving Rings of Power an 8 is telling me it is only a couple of marks down from the greatest shows ever made and that is crazy to me.

7 is good

6 is above average

5 is average

and so on.
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You're a harsh critic to only give GOT and BB an 8 though. Very harsh. Hahaha
 
Spark said:
On topic, is that actually gandalf???
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Seeing as he almost quoted himself from the Hobbit, it's hard to imagine him being anyone else:
I am looking for someone to share in an adventure that I am arranging, and it's very difficult to find anyone
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