Lord of the Rings Series -- Amazon (2 Viewers)

[Cage1]

After Better Call Saul we should be wweeeellllllll past ‘the only stakes are death’ silliness
The HOW something happens is way more important than the WHAT

I've never watched one episode. I'm sure it's great and I'm glad so many people are enjoying it. It's not my jam though.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

We watched the second episode last night. So far I think it's really well done and I'm enjoying it, however I do get bothered by the changing of the cannon for reasons I don't entirely get. For example, by this point in Tolkien's story, Galadriel is already married to Celeborn, with a child and is considered a ruler in her own right. She did spurn returning to Valar (due to her pride and love of Celeborn)... You could totally make her a super powerful strong female character and still follow the cannon.. however, you could not have her adventuring around. In cannon, she has a daughter, Celebrian and there isn't much written about her other than she marries Elrond... you could do all sorts of things with that character.

So, they are getting parts of Galadriel's character right -- her athletic prowess, her pride, her distrust/hatred of Sauron, but they are changing other parts of the story which seems silly to me.

As far as black elves, and what not -- I generally don't care - but you kind of have to suspend disbelief that skin tone and other phenotypes are not genetic - so that you can have people of different colors be closely related. I think it might have made more sense to have the Sindarin elves be black or some other phenotype, the Noldor be Scandanavian, the Teleri be something else, etc.

All that being said, when Tolkien wrote the story, his society looked a lot different than our society now. So he crafted a mythology to reflect his world. I don't think it's terrible to adapt his story to reflect the world we now live in as long as the central themes of his mythology exist. I'm not sure they're hitting that either though.

Overall, you can tell Amazon spent a ton of money on this, and the storytelling is way better than the WoT adaptation.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

I've never watched one episode. I'm sure it's great and I'm glad so many people are enjoying it. It's not my jam though.

Which is completely fine - but I think it’s important to draw distinctions between personal taste and structural concerns

Like someone might not like unreliable narrator stories, but that doesn’t make a story lesser bc it has an unreliable narrator

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

I should note that I've read the Silmarillion a few times, and the LoTR maybe a half dozen times. I don't know why but I've always found the mythology to be super interesting to me, and the world felt so rich.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

We watched the second episode last night. So far I think it's really well done and I'm enjoying it, however I do get bothered by the changing of the cannon for reasons I don't entirely get. For example, by this point in Tolkien's story, Galadriel is already married to Celeborn, with a child and is considered a ruler in her own right. She did spurn returning to Valar (due to her pride and love of Celeborn)... You could totally make her a super powerful strong female character and still follow the cannon.. however, you could not have her adventuring around. In cannon, she has a daughter, Celebrian and there isn't much written about her other than she marries Elrond... you could do all sorts of things with that character.

So, they are getting parts of Galadriel's character right -- her athletic prowess, her pride, her distrust/hatred of Sauron, but they are changing other parts of the story which seems silly to me.

As far as black elves, and what not -- I generally don't care - but you kind of have to suspend disbelief that skin tone and other phenotypes are not genetic - so that you can have people of different colors be closely related. I think it might have made more sense to have the Sindarin elves be black or some other phenotype, the Noldor be Scandanavian, the Teleri be something else, etc.

All that being said, when Tolkien wrote the story, his society looked a lot different than our society now. So he crafted a mythology to reflect his world. I don't think it's terrible to adapt his story to reflect the world we now live in as long as the central themes of his mythology exist. I'm not sure they're hitting that either though.

Overall, you can tell Amazon spent a ton of money on this, and the storytelling is way better than the WoT adaptation.

Again, they only can do 8 episodes a season and only use the trilogy and appendices
They trying to find an efficient way of synthesizing 2 epochs into a tight(ish) narrative
I’m sure the concerns y’all are expressing were discussed AT LENGTH in the writers room - and what we are seeing is the compromise of many strong and heartfelt conversations/fights
And it’s not canon - it’s an adaptation of canon

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

I also really hope that the weird wizard guy is not Gandalf.

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

Again, they only can do 8 episodes a season and only use the trilogy and appendices
They trying to find an efficient way of synthesizing 2 epochs into a tight(ish) narrative
I’m sure the concerns y’all are expressing were discussed AT LENGTH in the writers room - and what we are seeing is the compromise of many strong and heartfelt conversations/fights
And it’s not canon - it’s an adaptation of canon

Right, so tell a story within those confines. It's totally doable, there's a lot of depth written in the LotR that you can pull from to tell a story within this time frame. They are setting up the fall of Numenor and the forging of the Rings of Power. It's a pretty awesome story. There's a lot of wiggle room in that. You've paid for the IP, so use the IP.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

I should note that I've read the Silmarillion a few times, and the LoTR maybe a half dozen times. I don't know why but I've always found the mythology to be super interesting to me, and the world felt so rich.

And that’s actually what I’m loving about this series
The movies are great as epic fantasy with a bit of lore as icing
RoP feels like actual mythology
And maybe one of the greatest myths ever

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Right, so tell a story within those confines. It's totally doable, there's a lot of depth written in the LotR that you can pull from to tell a story within this time frame. They are setting up the fall of Numenor and the forging of the Rings of Power. It's a pretty awesome story. There's a lot of wiggle room in that. You've paid for the IP, so use the IP.

And that’s a choice you would make, but it’s not the only choice

 

[UncleTrvlingJim]

And that’s a choice you would make, but it’s not the only choice

I didn't say it was, right?

 

[tjharris]

Is this series worth the watch will all the other great shows on right now plus more to come in the next 2 months?
I'm somewhat familiar with Tolkien but never had interest in the 2nd age. So I'm not sure if I should even start watching.
Is it a good show or is it just cool because it's LOTR related?

 

[Hoodoo]

It didn't completely follow canon, but I didn't really expect it to. That's not a huge deal to me as long as the story is good and coherent. In the same sense, I don't really care what color a character is as long as it's acted well and I really enjoyed the acting in the first two episodes.

 

[Hoodoo]

I also really hope that the weird wizard guy is not Gandalf.

Pretty certain it's Saruman.

 

[Hoodoo]

Is this series worth the watch will all the other great shows on right now plus more to come in the next 2 months?
I'm somewhat familiar with Tolkien but never had interest in the 2nd age. So I'm not sure if I should even start watching.
Is it a good show or is it just cool because it's LOTR related?

Unless you're somewhat familiar with the lore, you're probably going to be a bit lost in the first episode, but it seemed to flow much better by the second. I would wait till the third episode before diving in if you're not already invested going in. But so far if you enjoyed LotR then you will absolutely enjoy this series.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Is this series worth the watch will all the other great shows on right now plus more to come in the next 2 months?
I'm somewhat familiar with Tolkien but never had interest in the 2nd age. So I'm not sure if I should even start watching.
Is it a good show or is it just cool because it's LOTR related?

It’s the best show on tv now, so yeah