Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power [Amazon] *Spoilers*

Is there a non fanboi thread on the show?

Well it's five seasons, if you front-load it all to season 1 the later ones will be dragging the arse out of the story. And Celebrimbor has been estabished as a master craftsman with grand plans.

I've got 99 problems with the series but no rings ain't one

This season has been the very definition of dragging the arse out of it. We got introduced to a crazed psychotic Elf who thinks she's Charles Bronson in Death Wish, likes to swim, and happens to be involved in a series of contrivences and coincidences. Outside of that there's little to nothing about the rings. Sure, Celebrimbor likes to make stuff but to what end? It hasn't been even approached that the rings are the main purpose of the show.

Well in terms of the overall impact of the series it's better to do that in the first season I think. Lay the exposition and the world-building on thick even if a lot of the 'happenings' are pretty inconsequential. Fingers crossed this approach pays off in terms of graually building drama and tension in later seasons...

Sure, all that would make sense. Unfortunately this show doesn't do that. There's no sense of scale to the show, no world building going on, no political intrigue, no character development. Is Galadriel the protagonist or villain of the show? A trip to the undying lands is nothing more than a mere swim now. The numeriorians are relegated to a bunch of "they took our jobs" with only 3 ships available to them. The vastness of the Southlands turned into a village.

GOT was a slow burner in it's first season but we were introduced to the main characters, their main aims, a sense of the scale of the world (remember it took a few episodes for Ned to get from Winterfell to Kings Landing). I could go on and on but really what we've seen here is not how you build a world as big as middle earth.

The problem with Glad is not Morfydd Clark, it's the writing and direction. She's doing what's told and acting the part that was written. So replacing her won't do anything for the character. Plus actor switcheroos are always terrible.

TBH, though, I couldn't care less what they do with the show as I haven't any dog in the race at this point. The Orcs could tip a nuke on Lothlorien and it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference to me. I might, in 2 years 😄 , have a gander and see if there's any improvement. But I won't be waiting with baited breath for it.

Given that the show is a passion/vanity project for Bezos and he has the wealth of the Lonely Mountain at his disposal I don't see that happening

Id agree with that. A few of us, including yourself, pointed to lore violations early on - and i have come to the conclusion the show-runners just dont care

AS A STAND ALONE TV SHOW - This show is very poor

• Pacing is mental
• Time jumps everywhere, nothing lines up correctly
• The dialogue is extremely poor
• The story is baffling and poor

As a Tolkien Adaption, this show is ABYSMAL

• Despite claiming to be loyal to canon, the show is one great big deviation from the source material. I cannot understand how they got this so wrong.
• compared to the real Tolkien second age, what we are watching id diabolical

Tomorrow is potentially my final episode anyway - so i will be watching to see have they managed to salvage any credibility - id bet my house they wont

No i honestly wont -

Iv been down these road with three franchises -

Star Trek: I am a lifelong trekkie, my earliest memories of childhood were watching TOS on Sky one - And Wraith of Khan at Christmas. What has happened to Trek is insane. I never thought any Trek series would beat Enterprise to Lowest Quality, but in walks Discovery. Mid season 2 to present, the show has literally gotten worse with every episode. Culminating with the S4 finale, and an actual current year democratic politician appearing on the show (for those that doubt Culture war politics has invaded entertainment, she was playing 'president of earth' no less) - The only thing that has me remaining interested is Strange New Worlds. Aside from that show, i struggle to remain connected to the franchise at all

Star Wars: From the disaster of the Sequel trilogy, to Disney churning out Series after series of low quality fluff, i have disconnected from it, despite again being a life long fan. I havent bothered with Andor after week 1's three episodes. I may binge watch it at some point, but after Kenobi, and Fett, meh - We didnt know how lucky we were with the prequels

Doctor Who: Everything was proceeding well with the first female Doctor who most (including myself) loved and embraced.Then Chibnail (show-runner) decided to retcon 60 years of TV canon. Again for those who doubt 'woke' TV is a thing - The 1963 1st Doctor, William Hartnell - apparently he is NOT the first doctor. It was a female child of colour, who had her regenerative abilities culturally appropriated by the entities that would one day become known as the Timelords. And the spin matches exactly what happened with Rings. People who didnt like the retcon were deemed toxic.

I dont want or need to watch another franchise be steamrolled over, by studios and writers who urinate on their audiences, while standing on the shoulders of their far more capable predecessors. I dont need to be told that their additions to canon are actually IMPROVEMENTS. I dont need to observe as critical fans are accused of being bigots, racists, Alt-right, or misogynistic.

I said previously i would watch the first season, and i will. To be frank i am just waiting to see the Halbrand reveal tomorrow - and i will undoubtedly chat about it with folks on here - but Season 2 will be a no go for me. Il re-read the books, maybe tackle the Silmarillion, rewatch Jackson's trilogies, and leave it at that

Others have commented already but aside from the crap story the scale is really really really off. The distance is never considered ever and it really is sad and a stark lack of attention at best or an absolute disservice to fans at worst. As for the southlands? Why stay there? Oh look better save the hovel pub and 3 mud huts. They escape once , why not just f-in leave, re group and ce back?

It has been very poor and a massive dissapointment for me. The numonorean armor in the last episode really took the biscuit, like what the actual hell? It looks like a long sleeve all over print shirt. How did that get passed any form of Q/A? It’s like they have absolutely no pride in what they are putting out. In episode 4/5 I think you can actually see their helmets not fitting right, is the mighty nation of numonor bad at armor or was this again another lack of attention to detail moment?

As for folks talking about the hobbit being poor … this absolutely makes it shine. It actually has a start, middle and end and sticks to the books for the most part. It also sticks to the original trilogy where it can.

When will the if you don’t like it don’t watch it brigade actually bloody admit it’s garbage? Where are the review bombsand neck beards for better call Saul, Rick and morty, narcos and a multitude of other shows that are actually good? If you take something people like, or love in my case, then bastardise it You going to get some backlash, Hollywood should have learned that with Star Wars.

Ahh Liam, there's your problem right there ...you just grew up !

Taking about Andor...

It gets confusing when posters cross shows cos...

Just finished watching it. TBH if you enjoyed it, thats fair enough. 100% happy for you.

I will respectfully disagree with the following statement though, from your post

The show seemed to flirt with being reminiscent of true LOTR at certain times but this was the first episode I felt I was in the universe from beginning to end.

No. Its not LOTR. Its a poor fan fiction. for anyone interested, canon tells us the following

• Annatar Lord of Gifts is Saurons Fair form. He comes to Eregion and teaches Celebrimbor to forge Rings of Power
• They make dozens of lesser rings, as practice runs - to learn their craft and perfect the skills required
• They then forge 16 Rings (9 +7)
• Annatar leaves, and Celebrimbor forges an additional three, without Annatar's help
• these three are forged AFTER the initial 16
• Annatar returns to Morder, and forges the master Ring

This Fan fiction travesty - TBH im not gonna harp on, im sure we will all debate this later. But honestly, as i watched, i could tell exactly what they were doing. The brief misdirect at the beginning, was painfully obvious. The moment Halbrand spoke to Celebrimbor, i knew immediately what was to unfold. The big, eh, 'reveal', was tedious.

I imagine a writers room, of people who think they are very clever. And that OMG no one will expect this! And you know what they are right! When this show was announced, NO ONE WOULD HAVE EXPECTED A TRAVESTY OF AN ADAPTION.

And there is no excuse for this, this episode violates canon - from beginning to end.

Up until now, the showrunners could claim they were true to the source material, by stating that - Tolkien never said 'this' didn't occur, so we felt we had license.

Well, Tolkien explicitly described the forging of the rings of power, and this episode pisses all over it.

FARCE - Happy to discuss

@The White Wolf No offense intended at all, i get that you enjoyed it. 100% happy for you. Il be interested in what others have to say. But yea, if people enjoy it, thats fine, whatever. Its not LOTR though - not a word of that final episode is

Thought the finale was pretty good considering episode 7 was a whole load of nothing. The pacing definitely needs work in season 2 they seemed to spend too much time on small things and not enough in the areas that need more explanation or breathing room. I get the feeling they cut a lot from these 8 episodes and the editing wasn't the best.

I think they *really* rushed the genesis of the rings considering its probably the most fundamental part of this whole project.

Again visually and musically it was fantastic and good to get some actual answers in terms of motivations etc.

This episode was a 8/10 for me with the overall season probably a 7.

Interested to see what other people think of it.

Awful.

Just awful, I knew from the start that them calling Gandalf "Sauron" was BS, .... at this stage he should be just winking at the screen with the lines stolen from the PJ trilogy to scream at who he really is.

And as for Halbrandt being Sauron, was anyone surprised ? Nerdrotic and drinker, disparu, all the Friday Night Tights crowd had this predicted - spot on ...

I thought the true Tolkien canon was that he forged all the rings and gifted the elves/dwarves/men the 3/7/9 ?

Also, Elrond being ½ Elven ?

is this an amazon add on ?

Thanks for the links ! and the YT channel!! Subbed!!

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