Lord of the Rings - [Amazon] *Spoilers*

Tony EH

I dunno. Just not getting much from this at all. It doesn't feel anything like Tolkien to me. Mind you, Jackson's movies never really felt like Tolkien to me much either. More like a satisfactory "interpretation" of it, but I spose that's what it was always going to be. This show, however, just feels off.

I absolutely loathe the Harfoot storyline. It's unbelievably dull, even for a relatively dull show over all. The only thing it has that's of any interest is who Oren really is*. But everything else to do with it is a crashing bore. The Harfoot (Harfeet?) themselves are the worst TV iteration of anything Tolkien I've yet seen.

Seeing the Numenor was fine, I guess, but that felt more 'Game of Thrones' than anything else and this version of Galadriel still isn't doing it for me, even if I couldn't care less about her wearing armour and leading an army at some point during her 8000+ year lifespan. But Clark's line delivery is just grating on me at this point and the full time stroppy mare act is absolutely tiresome. But, in general, the acting has been quite poor which is really something for a TV show that has cost an obscene amount of money.

The orcs were OK? But maybe that's because they were the only things in the episode that felt like they were from Middle Earth. Everyone else just feels too human. The Elves in this show are just people with pointy ears and the Harfoot are terrible, terrible, stagey Oirish cliches. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if they all hopped into Wanderly Wagons for their migration. But the only real Tolkienesque culture we've seen so far has been the Dwarves, and even that had its issues.

I'll probably stick it out for the next 5 episodes, unless something catastrophic happens, but I don't see myself sticking with this for multiple seasons. It's a slow burn, for sure, but three hours in an it's all been incredibly unexciting.

Spoiler Warning

*When we see Adar come toward the camera at the end, even if he's out of focus, it looks like the same actor. Joseph Mawle.

BruteStock

The escape from the orcs scene was good but was a letdown in the end as it lead nowhere except a Cliffhanger for the next episode. Find a better way to introduce blurred face guy. The storytelling is basic.

Saying that it doesn't suck. It's watchable, but then forgettable.

I would say the harfoots are easily the worst part of the show. Horrible creatures.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119599521#Comment_119599521

 Everyone else just feels too human. The Elves in this show are just people with pointy ears 

That so struck me watching the Elrond/Celebrimbor scenes; they could easily be two moderately successful building contractors talking about their new project and trying to arrange a meeeting with a brilliant but eccentric craftsman one of them knows....

Brian?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119599735#Comment_119599735

The Harfoots, although weird, are definitely not the worst part of the show IMO. At least they are novel and doing something interesting.

If they took out the Galadriel storyline the show would be hugely improved.

The White Wolf

Galadriel and the Harfoots are a liability to this show. When not focusing on them it actually feels like LOTR. I didn’t even finish this episode. Might return to it once all the episodes are available.

silverharp

its a really badly written show, nothing is naturally setup, its just one contrivance after another, for example the tree in that orc pit/tunnel or whatever it is, every other tree is cut down in the area, but they needed that tree so it could be part of the setup, and how did his friends end up being captured alive by the orcs? they went off the other way and when did orcs become vampires randomly lol. Then with Galadriel pretty much everything is off, how is one expected to believe that a 5000 year old Elf who was friends with higher beings in the past just comes across as graduating from Karen college and actually wanted to see the manager, she is patronising and unlikeable. The harfoots story line that you get left behind if you dont keep up, apart from making them comes across as asshats who dont care about their own people, again doesnt make sense, once the broken foot heals, they could catch up.

I cant see how its redeemable , it might speed up but hey wont suddenly start writing good lines and better constructed setups

odyssey06

Do the elves speak so slowly and deliberately because they are immortal and have plenty of time for such things along with over-elaborate pronunciations?

When Galadriel is speaking to Numenoreans she comes across as a beat slower... maybe it's a deliberate direction to emphasize differences?

PhiloCypher

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119600992#Comment_119600992

One man's contrivance is another man's fiction, we don't need to know how the Elf got there anymore then we need to see Kirk go for a **** to know the Enterprise has toilets, we can infer. The Orcs have been busy little beavers and have Tunnels everywhere and clearly managed to ambush them. If they were to spoon-feed us every little thing for fear of being accused of contrivances the show would be even slower paced then it already is, which surely nobody wants . As for the Orcs, they've never liked the Sun , it's why Surumans Urak Orcs in LoTR were so special, they didn't have an aversion to sunlight.

As for Galadriel...no you're right about that , she's a total Karen atm. But I'd imagine the intention is to soften her as the seasons go on so she's on her way to being the more Zen Cate Blanchett version by the end of the series.

Darth Melkor

Have watched three episodes. I'm not sure if I'll continue to watch. The visuals are excellent. I thought they did a good job with Khazad dum and sailing into Numenor. My wife is enjoying it. However I feel it is confusing me. Its a pity that they didn't make a show set in the fourth age during the reign of King Elessar. They have mangled the character of Galadriel, the Harfoots are annoying but also I am trying to get my head around the timeline..it doesn't seem to make sense. It's been years since I read the books but I feel that they're compressing thousands of years in some parts but still roughly following some sort of chronology. Is Numenor currently meant to be under the leadership of Ar Pharazon? They definitely have been inspired by Kings Landing for the daily life in Numenor scenes.

The White Wolf

Galadriel in episode 3 was honestly reminiscent of Dany in season 2 of Game of Thrones. In other words her worst season bar the end of the series.

Bafflingly arrogant with no political nous, yet there is an excuse for Dany. Galadriel is meant to be a seasoned warrior based on the lore of the show yet goes on like a child.

BruteStock

Remember in episode 1 they say - "we harfoots stick together, we're safe" ..

Well the writers kinda forgot about that cos in episode 3 when they migrate, it's shown they leave people behind to perish if they can't keep up

https://youtu.be/Foihgti2lHU

is_that_so

Really hard to see where this is going, although there are now a few more recognisable characters from the tale of the One ring, except that it's still all about Galadriel. It's baffling that she alone of all the incredibly smart elves has spotted what's going on in the Southlands and from far across the sea. The Halbrand reveal is pretty underwhelming. The Harfoots storyline is just dreary, irrelevant and frankly awful writing and the sooner they caravan off stage left the better. All things considered it's really not getting any better.

nix

C'mon guys, Galadriel is only like 1500 years old in ROP.. thats gotta be like 13 in human years right? perfectly normal to still be acting the brat 🤭

Nody

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119604457#Comment_119604457

No, she was 1500 when the age started, the second age was 3441 years and if we cut that in half (since the timelines are compressed) she'd be around 3200 years and she leaves at the age of 8000 so yea...

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119603075#Comment_119603075

It's been years since I read the books but I feel that they're compressing thousands of years in some parts but still roughly following some sort of chronology. Is Numenor currently meant to be under the leadership of Ar Pharazon?

My memories of the books are hazy like yours but I was aware this was the major departure from Tolkien's timeline. Just looked it up there and the rings of power were forged over 1500 years before King Parazone's reign. I'll wait and see thoughy, maybe they'll be able to tie it all up in a way that remains true to the spirit of JRRT

seraphimvc

Watched 3 episodes in one go and I had to fast forward for many moments - this is some excruciating painful experience lmao. So ya I am going to drop it here. The visuals and soundtracks are great but other than that, the acting, plot, writing etc are non-existent.

I now understand why they didn't bother to get the right of Silmarillion - because spending actual effort to adapt the source material is just too damn hard and it is way easier to just make **** up to tag on whatever from the beloved LotR trilogy ('hobbits', female frodo sam, gandalf, sauron etc) to bait people to watch. There are so much to explore and worthy to spend money to tell the stories from the First Age and Second Age ffs - but nope, they made this into a generic Karen revenge drama.

The dialogues - are literally words that make no sense and have no purpose to tell any story/plot - literally designed to drag on the screen time.

So ya we all expected this and House of the Dragon (HOTD) are some quick cash grab - somehow HOTD surprised and impressed me (it is very hard to **** up when they have the complete source material this time around...). For fantasy fans out there, I would recommend go watch HOTD instead.

corkie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119581181#Comment_119581181

I know I requested a gif/meme for that but this will have to suffice?

Galadriel Feels Conflicted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-XWIqm-DzY

If they ever make a new series of this, she probably be good at doing this as well?

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119605374#Comment_119605374

Reminds me of one of the faces Sheldon pulls in Big Bang Theory

pjohnson

Yeah for the amount of money spent you'd think they'd have actually found a good cast but most of the actors are quite poor.

AMKC

I actually thought the 3rd episode was really good. The 2nd episode was a bit boring and the 1st episode was good. I love the way they do the World building and go from one kingdom to the next. How far before the LOTRs films is this set?

is_that_so

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119599215#Comment_119599215

There is plenty of source material in LOTR and the Hobbit to present such scenes and they are really not out of place from the Sam character. Jackson did paint a very convincing image of The Shire. The Harfoots, on the other hand, are there to provide a thematic link through the film cycles so that viewers can say "ah Hobbits" just like they recognise Galadriel. They have little reference in Tolkien and absolutely no part to play in this Age at all. They are also a really terrible distraction from wherever the story is going.

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119606760#Comment_119606760

I assume female Frodo and female Sam will head off on their own adventure either in this or a future series?

is_that_so

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119606780#Comment_119606780

Probably not, once this completes! Short of remakes of LOTR in the distant future think cinema and TV are done with Tolkien.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119606449#Comment_119606449

It is set an era before the events of LOTR. If you remember the flashbacks to Isildur in LOTR and how the ring was lost... this is set in that period.

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119606804#Comment_119606804

I just remember she had some lines about curiosity about the outside world so there might be a side quest involving the 2?

Dufflecoat Fanny

I noticed the seeders for the most popular episode of House of the Dragon is more than double the most popular episode of The Rings of Scour. No meddling with ratings when it comes to the demand of torrents.

silverharp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119607727#Comment_119607727

Samba TV had a X2.5 in favor of House of the Dragon in 1st 4 days, also more people watched House of the Dragon E02 while ROP was down ~20% so they couldnt be arsed hitting the button for the follow on episode

thomas 123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119606760#Comment_119606760

A thematic link? Lmao, the two main hobbits look, act and sound like Frodo and Sam. The more I think about it the more it irks me.

sekiro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119605336#Comment_119605336

Who knows what kind of agreements and legal red tape is in place regarding the rights to all of this stuff. I have no idea.

It really seems like if they have the rights to so little then they should have just not bothered.

Given the title of the show and what we've heard about them having rights to the 2nd age you still have to wonder what the hell they are thinking at times.

The 2nd age is 3,000+ years so they obviously decided to fit that into 5 seasons of TV they would need to compress it all. That's a bit silly though. Why not just focus on a single major event, create a 2 season TV show and then move on to another thing? Compressing it all down is guaranteed to lose fans so why bother?

We know that the 2nd age will end with The Last Alliance of Elves and Men. We know that Elendil, Gil-Galad, Isildur, Elrond and Sauron will all be present for this and there will be an epic showdown etc. So the writers of this show decide to make Galadriel their main character? Why? Then they also decide to start messing about with not-Hobbits for their own reasons. Again, it makes little sense.

The main events of the 2nd age are Sauron convincing Celebrimbor to create the rings of power, the war of the elves and Sauron, the Numenoreans capture Sauron, Numenoreans sail to the blessed realm after being corrupted by Sauron, the world is made round and Numenor is sunk, the war of the Last Alliance.

So far the show hasn't really given much screen time to any of the major players in any of this which does raise a question of exactly what they have the rights to.

Galadriel, with her husband and her daughter, has long been established in Rivendell before the one ring is even forged and long before Elendil is even born but here we are in the show with the two characters out of place sharing screentime. Similarly, the banning of contact with elves in Numenor happens after the rings have been made and after the Nazgul have appeared but before Sauron has been captured.

The writing here is all over the place. The lore is chopped up and scattered around and I think they do not have any idea what they are doing.

I suppose it's sexist to say so but the handling of Galadriel here is just ridiculous. You really have to question the thinking behind it. As a character she should really be a side character in the story. With the main characters encountering her in much the same way as in the LOTR movies. She is a ruler. Instead they have her running around slaying trolls and attempting to swim incredibly long distances!

SURELY the most intriguing part of the 2nd Age is Sauron being captured after causing centuries of havoc in Middle-Earth but then he orchestrates the destruction of Numenor and the changing of the entire world. Yet we are spending hours focused on pretty boring stuff with a bunch of completely irrelevant characters. In a sense, the 2nd age is the story of Sauron.

Why create a TV show with the Lord of the Rings name to almost immediately turn round and say "honestly though if you do like LOTR you might hate this, if you care about Tolkien stuff at all it's just going to look like one big disjointed mess"? Why even bother?

Sleepy

As someone who's never read Tolkien (I gave up after about a chapter of The Hobbit as a teenager because I thought it was drivel) and who enjoyed the LOTR trilogy although I felt it would have been better if the Hobbits had been written out of large chunks of the story - I found Frodo's whinging more irritating than inspiring - and never made it past the first film in The Hobbit trilogy (honestly the only thing I was positive about in the entire film was the Dwarves singing) I'm coming to this as someone who's paid scant attention to the marketing bumf and and hand-wringing clickbait about the "Irish" accents of the harfoots being racist...

I'm only 2 episodes in but so far I'm enjoying it.