Television The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

RedSky said:
Yet Jackson invented several scenes and changed characters to allow these scenes happening. He could have also reduced the length of battles as well. For me is was unforgivable to omit the death of Saruman in the RotK theatrical cut for example.

I love the films, but they certainly aren't 'perfection' as some LOTR nerds seem to think. Personally, I think Gondor in particular is butchered, it's clear that Jackson loved Rohan and spent far more love and attention on that culture and used Gondor as the whipping boys. They were ultimately pretty soulless, even Faramir's character was altered (I understand this change a little more) but still, it's a change from the books and wasn't Tolkiens vision.
Click to expand...
Agree, partly why for me Fellowship is the best one, by RotK you really begin to feel the chops and changes.

It's an interesting comparison though as the main adaptation problem is kind of inverted - from having to cram all the books into digestible films, to now basically expanding a timeline and a few scraps of text into 50 hours of TV. You'd think that they'd stick to the bare bones that had been laid out and embellish around them, but they've made it (for me) a bit harder on themselves by making so many changes. While it's silly to get too hung up about what is essentially expensive fan fiction, at the same time it's hard not to be disappointed when the potential was there.
 
Jacksons problem was a bit too often uncessary cheesy scenes. I think even Tolkien would have been delighted desipte omissions and changes. ROP though is GOT S8 on steroids though.
 
Thought that trailer looked promising myself, but that was always going to be the case. They have generally got the visuals right, with the writing being the poor part. Which we are not going to be able to tell from a 3min trailer.
 
Eplel said:
Saruman had black hair when he arrived in Middle Earth too. Might be him.
Click to expand...
Looks wise yeah, and I'd say Hinds is comfortably the best actor in the show so he could pull it off, but he seems to have a cult in Rhun with priestesses allied to Sauron, which sounds more like a blue than Saruman. Then again... the show is the show.
 
Salt Bailly said:

Saruman?
Click to expand...

This is finally getting interesting. Chap playing Gandalf looking decent enough to handle the big role, but this one is such a blast.

Hinds will easily carry the 2nd season, and if he'll have to, he'll carry the whole effin show.
 
Van Piorsing said:
This is finally getting interesting. Chap playing Gandalf looking decent enough to handle the big role, but this one is such a blast.

Hinds will easily carry the 2nd season, and if he'll have to, he'll carry the whole effin show.
Click to expand...
Big shoes to fill.
 
Salt Bailly said:
Big shoes to fill.
Click to expand...
Yup, and he's perfect for it. Rome had quite powerful cast, but he still came on top, without trying as Caesar. Bit of theatrical stuff was never a challenge for him.

At some point, perhaps this is what Rings of Power should be from the start. Big names and overall ambitious execution, as they clearly had budget for it.
 
Gehrman said:
That's cool trailer tbf. Im looking forward to seeing Sauron fleshed out as he looks like the lead of the show now.
Click to expand...
Was always gonna be the most interesting for me. I am gonna miss Adar's actor though thought he was the highlight of the first Season.
 
Not too interested to see the Elves teaming up with the orcs to fight Sauron. Amazon has mistaken Tolkien's works for GoT.
 
The Cat said:
Was always gonna be the most interesting for me. I am gonna miss Adar's actor though thought he was the highlight of the first Season.
Click to expand...
Yeah, he was actually very good. New guy seems to just be taking the frown and growl approach, though unfair of me to judge based on trailers.

What the feck is going on with Gil-galad's ears though :lol:
 
Eplel said:
Not too interested to see the Elves teaming up with the orcs to fight Sauron. Amazon has mistaken Tolkien's works for GoT.
Click to expand...


Not enough poetry and singing in Amazon's series. I reckon not one Tolkien fan went through the ordeal of reading his poetry in LOTR.
 
Last edited:
Spoony said:
Not enough poetry and singing in Amazon's series. I reckon not one Tolkien fan went through the ordeal of reading his poetry on LOTR.
Click to expand...

I not only went through his poetry in LOTR, I went through the Silmarillion poetry too!

I don't understand the siding with the orcs thing - why not just follow canon and have what actually was written - A huge army of 7ft tall superhumans arrive at Imladris and massacre the Orc Army.
 
AfonsoAlves said:
I not only went through his poetry in LOTR, I went through the Silmarillion poetry too!

I don't understand the siding with the orcs thing - why not just follow canon and have what actually was written - A huge army of 7ft tall superhumans arrive at Imladris and massacre the Orc Army.
Click to expand...
That wouldn't appear to be this battle, though.

Not that that answers the question with the orc alliance, I guess enemy's enemy etc.
 
Ubik said:
That wouldn't appear to be this battle, though.

Not that that answers the question with the orc alliance, I guess enemy's enemy etc.
Click to expand...

It would, technically, be the aftermath of the fall of Eregion. Gil-galad knows what is coming and sends a messenger to Numenor for aid. Eregion falls, Elrond and Gi-galad retreat and are trapped. Amorth runs inteference with the Dwarves slowing Sauron down so Elrond/Gil-Galad can escape to Imladris. Imladris gets besieged. Tar-Minastir shows up with 200,000 7ft tall superhumans with wills so strong that, "Even the one ring could not deter their pursuit," with metal bows that can fire 1.5 miles with pinpoint accuracy. Sauron's army is absolutely annihalated and he goes scuttling back to Mordor.
 
From a lore point of view, I kind of want to see what an army of what is basically "200,000 Aragorn's" would be like.
 
AfonsoAlves said:
It would, technically, be the aftermath of the fall of Eregion. Gil-galad knows what is coming and sends a messenger to Numenor for aid. Eregion falls, Elrond and Gi-galad retreat and are trapped. Amorth runs inteference with the Dwarves slowing Sauron down so Elrond/Gil-Galad can escape to Imladris. Imladris gets besieged. Tar-Minastir shows up with 200,000 7ft tall superhumans with wills so strong that, "Even the one ring could not deter their pursuit," with metal bows that can fire 1.5 miles with pinpoint accuracy. Sauron's army is absolutely annihalated and he goes scuttling back to Mordor.
Click to expand...
That happens over a period of years. They're contracting a lot but in this case it makes sense for them to have the war actually last a while.
 
Never wanted to compare the two major fantasy tv series against one another, but after HOTD's showing for S2 this could beat it after those clips from the trailer.

That being said, we could have seen the absolute prime bits and be left with poor filler for most of it. TV shows aren't filling me with confidence to deliver nowadays.
 
The first season was very pretty but incredibly blandly written. From the trailers the productions values still look to be very high, we can only hope they have brought some decent writers on board.
 
Nice to see some positivity about this show, I’m looking forward to watching it. Some of the comments online have been overwhelmingly negative and the season hasn’t even started yet.
 
Himannv said:
Nice to see some positivity about this show, I’m looking forward to watching it. Some of the comments online have been overwhelmingly negative and the season hasn’t even started yet.
Click to expand...
Contradicting pt: ive also seen a lot of positive comments at least one Reddit which tends to be a sour bunch about the show as well. Trailer looks to bring a lot of fan service in terms of showing some major events and characters people were probably yearning for since S1 so I hope it delivers. I still think S1 was much better than some people give it credit for. Flawed but a fairly decent setup for shit to hit the fan starting with S2. Don't forget Tolkien himself spent an ungodly amount of time setting up the world and focusing on Hobbits in particular in the first book of the LotR trilogy. I tried to look at S1 of Rings of Power kind of doing a bit of the same.

Bring forth the excessively annunciated rolling Rs again in every word that has the letter!
 
Yeah, the trailer has been far better received than the season 1 promo content. I'm still hesitant as personally the main issue I had with season 1 was the writing. Still I'm hyped and forcing myself to rewatch season 1 prior to the release of the first 3 episodes at the end of the month.

I actually really did like the opening episode of S1. The music and visuals really do shine.
 
Semper Fudge said:
If the writing is better this'll be fantastic.
Click to expand...

That's the problem why would it be? A lot of the writing shouldn't even have been cleared by an editor. I hope it is better but i have never seen a trend where the writing improves when its a given that it will rake in a fortune because of the universe its set in.
 
Gehrman said:
That's the problem why would it be? A lot of the writing shouldn't even have been cleared by an editor. I hope it is better but i have never seen a trend where the writing improves when its a given that it will rake in a fortune because of the universe its set in.
Click to expand...
That's the spirit, Grumphrman.
 
Gehrman said:
That's the problem why would it be? A lot of the writing shouldn't even have been cleared by an editor. I hope it is better but i have never seen a trend where the writing improves when its a given that it will rake in a fortune because of the universe its set in.
Click to expand...
It'll actually help a lot that it's moved into more specific events on the timeline, a big problem in season 1 was rushing between plot points where not a lot happened, so it felt both too fast and too slow. Hopefully no more mystery boxes, either.
 
New clip from I'm presuming episode 1, avoid if you don't want any spoilers etc



Not crazy about the "sent to see the headmaster" vibe.
 
Ubik said:
New clip from I'm presuming episode 1, avoid if you don't want any spoilers etc



Not crazy about the "sent to see the headmaster" vibe.
Click to expand...

Ahh the dynamics of this don't make sense to me.

Galadriel exists outside of the Noldor power structure. She is so respected, and so revered, she practically can do what she wants and no Noldorian King has the will, or intention to stop her. As shown many times in the second and first age, she basically fecks off whenever she wants to do whatever she wants, and brings other Noldorians and Sindarins with her and nobody will tell her to stop. For example, despite the fact that the Elves of Doriath hate the Noldo for basically genociding their Teleri kin at Aquilonde, Galadriel is the only one admitted to Doriath to study under Melian the Maia.

Furthermore, Galadriel is the last of the children of Finarfin in Middle Earth. She is the only family that Gil-Galad left in the world who hasn't had to be reincarnated in the halls of Mandos and is still in Middle Earth. His sister got impaled by orcs due to Turin Turambar, his father and mother died at the sacking of Nagaroth, he had no aunts and uncles and every single one of his grandparents siblings died in the wars of Beleriand save for one...Galadriel. His great-grandparents all perished in the same war.

Galadriel, quite literally, is the only remaining family he has left. She is the last scion of the house of Finwe other than himself...and this is how he treats her?

I understand drama and conflict but this is breaking the lore so badly.
 
AfonsoAlves said:
Ahh the dynamics of this don't make sense to me.

Galadriel exists outside of the Noldor power structure. She is so respected, and so revered, she practically can do what she wants and no Noldorian King has the will, or intention to stop her. As shown many times in the second and first age, she basically fecks off whenever she wants to do whatever she wants, and brings other Noldorians and Sindarins with her and nobody will tell her to stop. For example, despite the fact that the Elves of Doriath hate the Noldo for basically genociding their Teleri kin at Aquilonde, Galadriel is the only one admitted to Doriath to study under Melian the Maia.

Furthermore, Galadriel is the last of the children of Finarfin in Middle Earth. She is the only family that Gil-Galad left in the world who hasn't had to be reincarnated in the halls of Mandos and is still in Middle Earth. His sister got impaled by orcs due to Turin Turambar, his father and mother died at the sacking of Nagaroth, he had no aunts and uncles and every single one of his grandparents siblings died in the wars of Beleriand save for one...Galadriel. His great-grandparents all perished in the same war.

Galadriel, quite literally, is the only remaining family he has left. She is the last scion of the house of Finwe other than himself...and this is how he treats her?

I understand drama and conflict but this is breaking the lore so badly.
Click to expand...
You have to be applauded for that post, I consider myself a LOTR buff, but would never have been able to explain that.
That aside, this is why most Tolkien purists will avoid this series like the plague, from series 1 and the clips of this, it seems to me that yet again the writers have got lost in the lore. At this point Elrond was already very old in human terms, but the person playing him looks like a 15yr old who has not even had his first shave.
The camera angles seem wrong, it's as if they are trying to force perspective without understanding how Jackson did it.
The first episode will have to convince me to watch more, at the moment, I'm going to treat it like GOT 8+, a series that has less than bugger all to do with the books.
 
Matt Varnish said:
You have to be applauded for that post, I consider myself a LOTR buff, but would never have been able to explain that.
That aside, this is why most Tolkien purists will avoid this series like the plague, from series 1 and the clips of this, it seems to me that yet again the writers have got lost in the lore. At this point Elrond was already very old in human terms, but the person playing him looks like a 15yr old who has not even had his first shave.
The camera angles seem wrong, it's as if they are trying to force perspective without understanding how Jackson did it.
The first episode will have to convince me to watch more, at the moment, I'm going to treat it like GOT 8+, a series that has less than bugger all to do with the books.
Click to expand...

To be fair, most of this isn't found in LOTR. It's from reading LOTME, Morgoth's ring, a bit of the Appendix of Return of the King and most importantly the Silmarillion and the Akallabeth. Most of the 2nd age events is described in the Akallabeth.

Some lore got broken in season 1, and it's unfair to expect season 2 to fix some of the lore problems (Like for example, right about now, Elrond would basically be on romantic rendezvous's with Galadriel's daughter and they were betrothed already).

But to double down and continue to break even more lore stuff in season 2 is unforgiveable.
 
Matt Varnish said:
You have to be applauded for that post, I consider myself a LOTR buff, but would never have been able to explain that.
That aside, this is why most Tolkien purists will avoid this series like the plague, from series 1 and the clips of this, it seems to me that yet again the writers have got lost in the lore. At this point Elrond was already very old in human terms, but the person playing him looks like a 15yr old who has not even had his first shave.
The camera angles seem wrong, it's as if they are trying to force perspective without understanding how Jackson did it.
The first episode will have to convince me to watch more, at the moment, I'm going to treat it like GOT 8+, a series that has less than bugger all to do with the books.
Click to expand...
It's funny, he played a young Ned stark in GOT and absolutely nailed it, but he doesn't have the gravitas of a Hugo weaving. I'm hoping he'll be better this season.
 
Salt Bailly said:
It's funny, he played a young Ned stark in GOT and absolutely nailed it, but he doesn't have the gravitas of a Hugo weaving. I'm hoping he'll be better this season.
Click to expand...

What did you think of Hugo Weaving as Elrond?

I thought he nailed the gravitas and persona of the Elrond that Jackson wanted him to be portrayed as, but I still think there were a few discrepancies:

1) He basically was too old, Elrond looked about 30ish by the time LOTR came to be.
2) He was really harsh to Aragorn, and for people who haven't read the books/the appendix, they won't see that Elrond was basically Aragorn's father in all but blood, who supported him at every turn and carved him into the man he would be.
3) He was a bit too stern. In the books, Tolkien describes him, "As kind as summer".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.