Really? I remebember my grandmother always said: "No matter what they tell you in school, Tolkien was a one legged gay pansexual black vegan social worker..."
he isn't. Otherwise he would know, the middle earth in LotR doesn't exist for tens of thousands of years, so Treebeard can't be tens of thousands of years old. He is, as far as known, around 8.000 years old, so a few thousand years older, than Gandalf
Also Tom Bombadil was in the original LotR. He basically did, what Treebeard did in the movies. Saving the hobbits from a tree, saying the same lines. Frodo wanted to give him the ring, but Elrond warned him, Tom wouldn't care and just forget about it, so the ring has to be destroyed.
@@avarion9538 Gandalf was around 48,500 years old at the start of the Second Age (if you count one Valian Year equal to 9.582 solar years) and existed "out of time" prior to the creation of Arda.
@@avarion9538 I would love to see you go up against him in Tolkien. This guy knows his stuff, you can't just simply dismiss him because you don't like his criticisms of a horrible show.
Not a big fan of George R.R. Martin anymore, but he did sat something recently that was spot on. Most adaptions are done by people who think they can improve upon the original story. And 99% of the time, theyre wrong.
@@ianmacdiarmid1249 It is common for authors to do that. Sometimes ideas run out and they need space to find creativity back. Humans are not machines he obviously cares a lot about his work, and now seeing what Hollywood is going to do he might be even more careful what he leaves behind as his legacy. He is very upset about changes to the House of the Dragons for instance
George R.R. Martin has damaged his legacy by leaving his longest story incomplete and then insulting his fans when they ask for closure. I own most of his GoT novels but when I found out that the story arc is a "bridge to nowhere" my desire to read any of them disappeared. Had he actually finished the story the disastrously bad ending to the GoT HBO TV series would not have happened. People lose interest in stories that have no ending or that end badly. I also own all of the GoT TV series on DVD but I lost all interest in rewatching them knowing how badly the series ends. The same cannot be said about Tolkien's mythos.
Tom Bombadil says the exact same lines to Not Gandalf in this show than he says to Frodo and friends in the Old Forest thousands of years later. That makes him a goddamn NPC, he says the same thing to everyone.
Bombadil is a reminder that the ring and Sauron, powerful as they are, are not the only power, or even the most powerful. It's the B story, the epilogue.
Tom Bombadil is purposeless character until you read about Tolkien's life. While recovering from PTSD from WWI, he entertained his firstborn son as a toddler with stories about his favorite toys. One of these was a little ceramic gnome figurine his son Christopher named "Tom Bombadil". Eventually these stories inspired him creatively to write the Silmarillion, the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings (LoTR). Hence the speech in the Fellowship of the Ring about Tom was there before the mountains, hills and the elves awakening etc. It is a meta-reference to the bedtime stories a father told his son from which Middle Earth evolved. LoTR was written in installments that during WW2 were mailed to his now grown son Christopher serving with the RAF in South Africa. Tom Bombadil is an "Easter Egg" for his son to discover and therefore can be excised from the story with little damage to the plot.
I think...maybe Amazon is using an AI scriptwriter on this project... that said...the road from Lindon to Eregion was *Heavily Trafficked* and it's *gentle travel.* There's no craggy ravines and bridges until MAYBE the Trollshaws, which weren't the Trollshaws yet, ad ain't no orcs since the Elves patrol the roads AND the Orcs didn't arrive in Eregion until the War of Elves and Sauron. And ain't no barrow downs or Barrow Wights yet. And HOW did the orcs get to Eregion??? the distance from Mordor to Eregion from 600 miles of rugged terrain...and then the Elves being afraid of a bunch of Orcs stomping around in the woods at NIGHT with torches, so they'd have no night-vision (where Elves have excellent senses) and couldn't possibly hear anything with all the "Oi DIS!" and "Oi, DAT!" blather. The Elves would have picked off every Orc from the darkness. And how the truck did the Orcs, given their shoutin' and stomping around stop and say, "Oi, did ya hears that?!?" What? Do the Orcs have sonar or something, then they hit an Elf with blind volley fire into the woods, at night...and then Galadriel, for some reason says, "I will stop them" so the others can escape (as if Elves can't stealth away from Orcs at night?!?) -- and all of a sudden she has exploding napalm arrows or something because all of the Orcs burst into flames when she shoots them...she charges into the fight and jumps around like a Wire-Fu master and then jumps on the back of a HORSE?!?!? Where da heck did that horse come from? How'd it get there? Why didn't the Orcs catch it or kill it? And she does some more Arrow-Fu and exploding Orcs, and soliloquies about "go back to the Darkness" to provide cheap Fellowship of the Ring movie fan-service, then Adar steps outta nowhere and just captures her, easy peasy...What the heck was that?!?
Facts! What a missed opportunity to see the roads from Lidon to Eregion guarded, full of activity at one of the best times for elves. So surreal what they come up with instead.
The Barrow-downs had existed since the First Age. The Barrow-wights, you are correct. They are mid Third Age. Mordor to Eregion is about 750 miles in a straight line. More like a thousand on foot. Possibly more.
@@grimsonforce7504 i guess in this case its less fear mongering then protecting the actual writers, since writing shit like this, might need some true geniuses, yet it would need that kind of genius that freezes boiling water for the time you need some hot tea.
@@MsRakuen Yes, they are basically rebooting LOTR, which is set in the "fallen" 3rd Age when all the mighty kingdoms of the past have crumbled. So they are showing the sam theme instead of setting it in the context of the 2nd Age when the ELves were at the height of their power, when Numenor was a might empire -- not an island city with three ships...
the black elf dying reminds me of a claim that despite stereotypes, black people are not the first to die in horror movies, in fact it usually happens in every other genre except horror movies.
Correction: The palantiri do not show the future. The Ents and Entwives seperated when Morgoth returned to Middle-earth after the destruction of the Two Trees: "Then when the Darkness came in the North, the Entwives crossed the Great River, and made new gardens, and tilled new fields, and we saw them more seldom. After the Darkness was overthrown the land of the Entwives blossomed richly, and their fields were full of corn. Many men learned the crafts of the Entwives and honoured them greatly; but we were only a legend to them, a secret in the heart of the forest. Yet here we still are, while all the gardens of the Entwives are wasted: Men call them the Brown Lands now." LotR, Treebeard The Darkness is Morgoth, The Great River is the Anduin, the Darkness overthrown is the War of Wrath. The next paragraph tells how the Ents croosed the Anduin about the time of the Last Alliance, but the gardens of the Entwives had been devestated and the Entwives gone.
Entwives were around at least until the Second Age. It is unclear what happened to them, but they definitely could have been relevant to Rings of Power. Its likely that their love of growing things and tamed agriculture was important to man's knowledge early on. We even know where their orchards were- in the east bank of the Great River between Mirkwood and the Emyin Muil. The region known in the 3rd age as "the Brown lands"
guys I'm worried sick about the Northern Elven Army: nobody has seen them in forever, or even mentioned anymore. Where are they stationed? Why aren't they doing anything now there are Orc raids, ancient evils waken up, where are they? Do they know their commander is back from the ocean, that she boinked Sauron, lead a small army of Numenorians to battle for no result at all?
they want future generations to watch rings of power and lord of the rings and to think that peter jackson ripped off rings of power. i promise that this is one of their goals.
It was Elrond that had the gift of Foresight (Arewn chewing he father out because he didn't tell her about her and Aragorn's son in Return of the King) so why isn't he...oh wait, Elrond has dangling bits so he can't use any power that would usurp strong wahman in the show.
The "effects team" might want to double check their light sources to what's lit and what's shadowed however. The amount of times folks fronts/sides are "lit" by lanterns light sources on the OPPOSITE SIDE, with shadows going TOWARDS THE LIGHT SOURCE.
The funny thing is that Hobbits from 1.500 years before the War of the Ring had no surname but just archaic (Anglo-Saxon in Tolkienian fictional translation in English) names: Marcho and Blanco, and hundreds of years later their are still named just Bucca, Smeagol, Deagol.
Something was really bugging me about TROP characters teleporting across the map and I finally put my finger on what it was after Elrond's company met Adar's in what should be Eriador (but probably isn't in TROP). How did Adar's company get there? Adar is in Mordor with all of his "family," while Elrond and co are traveling from Lindon to Eregion. Mordor is not only on the other side of Eregion, it is also on the other side of the Misty Mountains. The Misty Mountains are basically like the Rockies pre-modern road-building. You can't cross them just anywhere you feel like unless you also feel like suddenly doing a bit of free-hand rock climbing with a full pack. The Misty Mountains are a not insignificant barrier between the west coast of Middle Earth and the rest of the continent. That's why it's safe for the Great Eagles to nest there. But apparently the only Misty Mountains in TROP are the three peaks that house Khazad-dum. The more you think about it, the less sense their geography makes, no matter how many map screens they load for travel sequences. And compared with the books, their geography is as unrecognizable as everything else.
Lore correction: We know the Entwives disappeared once the lands beyond the Anduin where they lived were blighted and destroyed by Sauron before the end of the Second Age so more than 3000 years before the events of LOTR and so they became known as the Brown Lands. (Roll cheesy title font name change ala ROP style lol) So in Amazon's defence Entwives were around then. So glad I haven't watched this travesty of a show.
I think they're trying to imply that Elrond's legendary healing ability was just Vilya all along. Also, don't be surprised if Tom Bombadil gives fake-Gandalf his signature hat.
Really appreciate your reviews JSG, your knowledge on the lore is a massive boon to your critism and keeps me invigorated to continue readings Tolkiens work myself.
Rop is the kid who used to copy the answer of the child next to them in class and still got the answers wrong. The callbacks/easter eggs are so blatant and are inserted even wheb it doesn't fit with the overall story.
Yeah. It really does not feel like they are adapting Tolkien's work. It feels like they shanked it and are now slowly plundering the body, going through the pockets.
Galadriel learned from ALL the Valar (beyond angels), that was possible to be taught from them. she always knew there was more to know, to learn and more to create and had a drive to visit the homeland of her forefathers. To the hitherlands. Middle Earth. Where the elves truly were meant to live and mentor mankind for thousands of years so men could be fully ready to take the reigns in being the stewards of the world.
I appreciate your praise of the VFX team. Good Form. Started rewatching LOTR last weekend. First time in over a decade. Having seen the poor set and costumes in ROP S1... Hard Pass on S2...
Just Some Guy, did you, by any chance, watch the new critique from Generation Film's Ben? He basically said that The Critical Drinker is wrong about The Rings of Power. He obviously knows Tolkien's work and made some refutations that sound valid but I wouldn't know because I've never read the source material. And as someone who follows you, Generation Film, and The Drinker, I would LOVE to see a debate between you all in a podcast setup with your 3 channels, along with Gary from Nerdrotic. I think it would be really cool to see all of you guys sit down and talk about the issues that are plaguing Fandoms. I think it would be really interesting for the fans who aren't well versed in the literature as well, to get a multi faceted take on Tolkien.
Issue plaguing fandoms is that modern cinema springs forth from corporate studios. That's not an issue in itself but the fact that these corporate entities espouse political messages in their products is a colossal problem. Like the scene where there's an Asian Elf, African Elf and a White Elf. When I see that I just cringe deeply, because the realization sinks inside of me that I'm actually seeing American Elves on the screen and the reason why they are there is due to the contemporary identity politics of America. This is incredibly jarring to non-Americans. I for one live in a near-homogenous country which means close to to a hundred percent everyone here is of the same ethnic identity or looks like they belong. I can't just figure out how a world that has not invented a bicycle has the ethnic representation of modern America. Literally everyone looks American in the show.
@@whitegoose2017 Where do you live? Can I come live with you? I’m Irish/british/American. I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to be with people like me and who cherish, love and respect our roots. Is it possible to migrate there?
Slow degradation of white society and culture. Don’t stand for it. Fight. Before you become the next UK or Ireland that’s finally fighting back. Be like that place in the Balkans that famous leader long ago kept the world from becoming under Islamic tyranny. He’s very famous. Statues and all.
“If they were just going to pigeonhole the story beads from the novel, why not make a LOTR TV Show? I mean, that’s actually what people expected to do.” Thank you!!! I would have much preferred this and would gladly have waited till the rights to the Silmarrilion were sold so we could get an actual dignified 2nd Age show. Instead, we get Barrow Whites, Ents and other weird throwbacks showing up in the 2nd Age because….reasons. lol
Treebeard tells the Hobbits a story about the search for the Entwives in the Two Towers...i think...and it sounds like they went misding in the Second or First Age
@JustSomeGuy - from The Harper Collins 1997 paperback edition of the Two Towers - in reference to Entwives - Page 465, Chapter: Treebeard "I remember it was long ago - in the time of the war between Sauron and the Men of the Sea, desire came over me to see Fimbrethil again" - Treebeard So this is one thing the show got right, the Entwives and their Gardens were present in Middle Earth in the Second Age, in what in the Third Age are called the Brown Lands
Another big thing about this show is the completely inconsistent passage of time. The old legend of Barrows makes it seem that the traveling band left the desert before any of its current inhabitants were born (at least 50 years) but the current location of that traveling band is a few days (a couple of weeks at most) away from that desert.
This reminds me of WoW. The cinematics compartment, doing animations and visuals, nail it time and again. That being said, WoW remains a woke game just like ROP is a woke series with good effects and visuals. Aka, heresy against Humanity.
Bombadil gets mentioned in the council of Elrond so sending Elrond through the barrow downs where he lived would have been a perfect opportunity to include him without messing with the lore
While I was suffering through this episode, I almost lost my mind when the elves bumped into Adar’s army. The orcs are coming FROM MORDOR, the OPPOSITE direction as the Elves. But somehow they meet near the Barrow Downs?? Several hundred miles NORTHWEST of Eregion, when Mordor is to the SOUTHEAST????
With the knowledge yoy have on LOTR, i would live to see yoy on FNT and hear you bouncing off of garys knowledge, it would be the most geeky, amazing episode.
Well Leia in return of the Jedi said she remembered little things about her mother "a little bit she died when I was very young, just images, really just feelings. She was very beautiful kind but sad." So Leia saying this and Padme dying giving birth to Luke and Leia and Leia saying she remembers her mother looking sad doesn't break canon as that happened in ROTS. The other things you mentioned do break canon such as Darth Vader fighting Obi-Wan twice yet in a new hope Vader said "when he left you I was but the learner now I am the master" implying they haven't seen each other in decades. Or Leia not recognising Obi-Wan cause she never met him originally she was just told to get the message to Obi-Wan about the plans and take them to Alderan she didn't meet him originally.
I just started watching the second season (actually thought the show would be cancelled) and I am enjoying season 2 better so far. I enjoy the magic, music, and the whole atmosphere of that universe and seeing what happened 5,000 years before lord of the rings took place even with all the issues and not being the strongest plot and characters. I would really like to see what happened at the beginning and the rise and fall of Morgoth!
I agree with you nearly all the way - the story is a mess. BUT the Entwives could exactly show up in this age - though probably not with an ent. It might just be a cameo, but perhaps we will see her again when Saurons forces will destroy the gardens of the entwives east of The Anduin.
At this point I'm convinced that Season 2 is a desperate attempt to convince us that no, really, Amazon IS a more faithful adaptation than the Jackson films. "We've completely rearranged the events of the Second Age in a manner that some characters from the original trilogy can't even exist, but we have Tom Bombadil and Entwives! That makes us better than Jackson, right? Payne and Mckay have killed Arwen with their thoughtless dismissal of Galadriel's family, but Barrow-wights! B A R R O W W I G H T S!"
Amazon's position: "Its ok, any continuity errors will be the fault of the sequels to the RoP.... You know the books and stuff" LotR fandom " You mean the books JRR Tolkien wrote?....... Those BOOKS??"
Good video, but how are the ents a continuity error? Saruman knew all about the ents and used to walk with Treebeard in the forest. He just completely underestimated how pissed they would be in Two Towers
The bridge.....heck the guys making this show don't even know geography of Middle-earth!!!! :) I mean Shire doesn't have any gigantic canyons :) and this here is the Bridge over river Baranduin(Brandywine) which in book is of numenorean make and called Bridge of the Stonebows: "For it was in the one thousand six hundred and first year of the Third Age that the Fallohide brothers, Marcho and Blanco, set out from Bree; and having obtained permission from the high king at Fornost, they crossed the brown river Baranduin with a great following of Hobbits. They passed over the Bridge of Stonebows, that had been built in the days of the power of the North Kingdom and they took all the land beyond to dwell in, between the river and the Far Downs. All that was demanded of them was that they should keep the Great Bridge in repair, and all other bridges and roads, speed the king's messengers, and acknowledge his lordship." The Lord of the Rings, Prologue, Concerning Hobbits Besides....why the hell they use this specific road?!! I mean come on they could have easily avoided the Barrows if they went through the Sarn Ford....effin hell the makers of this show kind of forget that Tolkien actually made geography of this world for them....THERE ARE MAPS of this world!!!! SERIOUSLY! The power of the Rings,....the Three are supposed to be made with the intention of getting power of "understanding, making and healing, to preserve the things unstained"...they are also amplifier artifacts they ENHANCE all natural powers of the possessor!!! Boosting their innate abilities! The rings also would be only connected once the actual full on the chain would be completeld....so as long as the ONE RING HAS NOT BEEN forged there is no connection yet...or rather it should be dormant!!! The ONE RING is the last final link in that chain of connections,....the Ring Ruling Ring gives power to dominate all other rings and telapathically connect the users to transfer the superior dominating will of the Master Ring! Hell this whole thing is incomplete...
Albeleo spotted some issues with the VFX, at least the editing and the practical effects. A technician on screen who failed to fire a dust charge in time when Nori and Poppy jumped off the cliff; and the Galadriel vs Orcs fight being a bad mishmash of bad edits, horse handling, lines of sight...
No no. The Entwives were lost when Sauron’s Armies rampaged over their Gardens and turned them into The Brown Lands north of Mordor. So that is late Second Age. It’s presumed they had to east… if any survived. Also they were supposed to have taught agriculture to men.
It annoyed me no end that in this episode the Barrow Wights suddenly attack with magical chains that you might expect Pinhead, Ghost Rider or Spawn to use, and appear to be ethereal, insubstantial entities akin to the Ring Wraiths. In the Lord of the Rings, the wight depicted during the Barrow Downs sequence aligns much more closely with the originating European mythology Tolkien took inspiration from, where it is a corporeal undead being similar to a Nordic draugr. The Ring Wraiths are separate beings that are incorporeal (apart from their armour, cloaks and weapons) and use fear as a weapon in the manner of mythological wraiths, with the added ability to issue a debilitating, unnatural cry that seems to have been taken from the scream of the banshee from Irish mythology. Both types of creature are forms of undead in both Tolkien's world and in the originating myths, but they are very different from one another and are not interchangeable.
I can't tell if JSG hasn't realized this entire series is a skinsuit, like HBO's watchmen, or if he just really enjoys roasting this like it's historically inaccurate war movies
I dont understand why the Showrunners make every race Diverse the elves have 5 different races the Hobbits have 6 different races the Dwarfs have 5 different races lmao how is every race diverse lol it's so modern its laughable lol. 😂😂😂 Make it make sense it just takes me out of it. At least the Hobbit movies felt like LOTR the hobbit movies had the right music the right characters the elves looked great the Dwarfs looked great yea it was alot of CGI but I'll take the hobbit over this trash show any day of the week
I honestly can’t understand how you think some of the VFX or anything in this show looks good. if you compare it to PJ’s trilogy, filmed over 20 years ago, the quality between them is night and day!
It's not strange that you mistook Adar with Amazon's Sauron because writers of this show decided to split JRR's Sauron into two characters to fuck up the story even harder.
I still don't get why they simply didn't go for a spin-off. They rammed Tauriel into Hobbit, might as well give her some backstory in a fantasy setting barely resembling Tolkien's lore.
My grandma always said: "No matter what they tell you in school, Tolkien was a trans-gay-pansexual- black woman"..
You mean just like the vast majority or historical figures, from Ramses to Napoleon.
Finally, Tolkien represents the modern world.
That’s what they believe in Tumblr
Really? I remebember my grandmother always said: "No matter what they tell you in school, Tolkien was a one legged gay pansexual black vegan social worker..."
@@burgundian777 exactly, books tell lies, my grandma knows best 😏😏
They gave that black guy a mercy . They gave him a paycheck and he doesn't have to be in this show anymore.
Well said
The thing about callbacks: They are no substitute for a story.
Unless...it's a story about...callbacks😂
Maybe except in a refresher or recap episode, but that would get boring unless it's done right.
Tell that to rings of power 😂😂😂
This show has the depth of a puddle
It just makes me go: hey, remember that BETTER story?
@@shadowspark220 recaps require you to have actually told a story that needs to be recapped, unfortunately...
Dude the fact that you are ENCYCLOPEDIC in regards to the ACTUAL lore makes your Ring of Powers reviews "Must See TV"....best on RUclips...💯
he isn't. Otherwise he would know, the middle earth in LotR doesn't exist for tens of thousands of years, so Treebeard can't be tens of thousands of years old. He is, as far as known, around 8.000 years old, so a few thousand years older, than Gandalf
Also Tom Bombadil was in the original LotR. He basically did, what Treebeard did in the movies. Saving the hobbits from a tree, saying the same lines. Frodo wanted to give him the ring, but Elrond warned him, Tom wouldn't care and just forget about it, so the ring has to be destroyed.
@@avarion9538 Gandalf was around 48,500 years old at the start of the Second Age (if you count one Valian Year equal to 9.582 solar years) and existed "out of time" prior to the creation of Arda.
@@avarion9538 I would love to see you go up against him in Tolkien. This guy knows his stuff, you can't just simply dismiss him because you don't like his criticisms of a horrible show.
Not a big fan of George R.R. Martin anymore, but he did sat something recently that was spot on. Most adaptions are done by people who think they can improve upon the original story. And 99% of the time, theyre wrong.
adaptation*
Why not a fan? Cause of how long he’s taken to release a new 1200+ page book?
@@IarwainBen-adar he's had over a decade. In which he's written other books and worked on other projects.
@@ianmacdiarmid1249 It is common for authors to do that. Sometimes ideas run out and they need space to find creativity back. Humans are not machines he obviously cares a lot about his work, and now seeing what Hollywood is going to do he might be even more careful what he leaves behind as his legacy. He is very upset about changes to the House of the Dragons for instance
George R.R. Martin has damaged his legacy by leaving his longest story incomplete and then insulting his fans when they ask for closure. I own most of his GoT novels but when I found out that the story arc is a "bridge to nowhere" my desire to read any of them disappeared. Had he actually finished the story the disastrously bad ending to the GoT HBO TV series would not have happened. People lose interest in stories that have no ending or that end badly. I also own all of the GoT TV series on DVD but I lost all interest in rewatching them knowing how badly the series ends. The same cannot be said about Tolkien's mythos.
Same budget, better writers. Just imagine what it could have been.
Just hire a classroom of middle-schoolers at this point
@@IarwainBen-adar Nah man I'm saying the middle schoolers will 100% do a better job, and I would actually watch the show
@@GuacamoleKun that went right over my tiny head. Apologies 😂
Half the budget, better writers that actually know the world. Better that budget be used for us who toil away in the warehouses of Amazon.
Not just the writers, the core problem are the producers. Telling as a movie producer myself.
Tom Bombadil says the exact same lines to Not Gandalf in this show than he says to Frodo and friends in the Old Forest thousands of years later.
That makes him a goddamn NPC, he says the same thing to everyone.
Nice day for fishing, eh?
Better you than me watching this. I'll say a quiet pray for you. You had to lose a few brain cells on this series.
She used “Force Healing”, just like another Mary Sue - Girl Boss does in a canon breaking addition to a great franchise.
Also the callback where Isildumb sees dead people im the water
Bombadil is a reminder that the ring and Sauron, powerful as they are, are not the only power, or even the most powerful. It's the B story, the epilogue.
Tom Bombadil is purposeless character until you read about Tolkien's life. While recovering from PTSD from WWI, he entertained his firstborn son as a toddler with stories about his favorite toys. One of these was a little ceramic gnome figurine his son Christopher named "Tom Bombadil". Eventually these stories inspired him creatively to write the Silmarillion, the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings (LoTR). Hence the speech in the Fellowship of the Ring about Tom was there before the mountains, hills and the elves awakening etc. It is a meta-reference to the bedtime stories a father told his son from which Middle Earth evolved. LoTR was written in installments that during WW2 were mailed to his now grown son Christopher serving with the RAF in South Africa. Tom Bombadil is an "Easter Egg" for his son to discover and therefore can be excised from the story with little damage to the plot.
Real life things don't make a character any more important in the actual story itself.
I think...maybe Amazon is using an AI scriptwriter on this project... that said...the road from Lindon to Eregion was *Heavily Trafficked* and it's *gentle travel.* There's no craggy ravines and bridges until MAYBE the Trollshaws, which weren't the Trollshaws yet, ad ain't no orcs since the Elves patrol the roads AND the Orcs didn't arrive in Eregion until the War of Elves and Sauron. And ain't no barrow downs or Barrow Wights yet. And HOW did the orcs get to Eregion??? the distance from Mordor to Eregion from 600 miles of rugged terrain...and then the Elves being afraid of a bunch of Orcs stomping around in the woods at NIGHT with torches, so they'd have no night-vision (where Elves have excellent senses) and couldn't possibly hear anything with all the "Oi DIS!" and "Oi, DAT!" blather. The Elves would have picked off every Orc from the darkness. And how the truck did the Orcs, given their shoutin' and stomping around stop and say, "Oi, did ya hears that?!?" What? Do the Orcs have sonar or something, then they hit an Elf with blind volley fire into the woods, at night...and then Galadriel, for some reason says, "I will stop them" so the others can escape (as if Elves can't stealth away from Orcs at night?!?) -- and all of a sudden she has exploding napalm arrows or something because all of the Orcs burst into flames when she shoots them...she charges into the fight and jumps around like a Wire-Fu master and then jumps on the back of a HORSE?!?!? Where da heck did that horse come from? How'd it get there? Why didn't the Orcs catch it or kill it? And she does some more Arrow-Fu and exploding Orcs, and soliloquies about "go back to the Darkness" to provide cheap Fellowship of the Ring movie fan-service, then Adar steps outta nowhere and just captures her, easy peasy...What the heck was that?!?
Facts! What a missed opportunity to see the roads from Lidon to Eregion guarded, full of activity at one of the best times for elves. So surreal what they come up with instead.
The Barrow-downs had existed since the First Age. The Barrow-wights, you are correct. They are mid Third Age.
Mordor to Eregion is about 750 miles in a straight line. More like a thousand on foot. Possibly more.
I swear the AI fear mongering is getting out of hand. Lol do you truly believe that humans can't write bad stories?
@@grimsonforce7504 i guess in this case its less fear mongering then protecting the actual writers, since writing shit like this, might need some true geniuses, yet it would need that kind of genius that freezes boiling water for the time you need some hot tea.
@@MsRakuen Yes, they are basically rebooting LOTR, which is set in the "fallen" 3rd Age when all the mighty kingdoms of the past have crumbled. So they are showing the sam theme instead of setting it in the context of the 2nd Age when the ELves were at the height of their power, when Numenor was a might empire -- not an island city with three ships...
The name of the cap was “ membe you membe ? “
"I member!"
I refuse to acknowledge the goat Tom was in this show.
You got Tom.wrong. He's not the goat. He's way more and way beyond time. So he's more than any wannabe goat can ever wish to be
Why? You don´t like lamb chops?
the black elf dying reminds me of a claim that despite stereotypes, black people are not the first to die in horror movies, in fact it usually happens in every other genre except horror movies.
i'm looking forward to the racism that they conjure up to explain why there are no "diverse" dwarves and elves in the 3rd age.
Correction: The palantiri do not show the future.
The Ents and Entwives seperated when Morgoth returned to Middle-earth after the destruction of the Two Trees:
"Then when the Darkness came in the North, the Entwives crossed the Great River, and made new gardens, and tilled new fields, and we saw them more seldom. After the Darkness was overthrown the land of the Entwives blossomed richly, and their fields were full of corn. Many men learned the crafts of the Entwives and honoured them greatly; but we were only a legend to them, a secret in the heart of the forest. Yet here we still are, while all the gardens of the Entwives are wasted: Men call them the Brown Lands now."
LotR, Treebeard
The Darkness is Morgoth, The Great River is the Anduin, the Darkness overthrown is the War of Wrath.
The next paragraph tells how the Ents croosed the Anduin about the time of the Last Alliance, but the gardens of the Entwives had been devestated and the Entwives gone.
Entwives were around at least until the Second Age. It is unclear what happened to them, but they definitely could have been relevant to Rings of Power. Its likely that their love of growing things and tamed agriculture was important to man's knowledge early on. We even know where their orchards were- in the east bank of the Great River between Mirkwood and the Emyin Muil. The region known in the 3rd age as "the Brown lands"
guys I'm worried sick about the Northern Elven Army: nobody has seen them in forever, or even mentioned anymore. Where are they stationed? Why aren't they doing anything now there are Orc raids, ancient evils waken up, where are they? Do they know their commander is back from the ocean, that she boinked Sauron, lead a small army of Numenorians to battle for no result at all?
We got to the bridge and i was waiting for "I cannot make the jump you have to toss me"
@4:30 the black elf died first and in chains 😂
they want future generations to watch rings of power and lord of the rings and to think that peter jackson ripped off rings of power. i promise that this is one of their goals.
ROP Beyond Thunderdome.that Mad Max is reference you made was spot on.
It was Elrond that had the gift of Foresight (Arewn chewing he father out because he didn't tell her about her and Aragorn's son in Return of the King) so why isn't he...oh wait, Elrond has dangling bits so he can't use any power that would usurp strong wahman in the show.
Again...the roastings of this show by the YT critics are far more entertaining than the show itself
The "effects team" might want to double check their light sources to what's lit and what's shadowed however. The amount of times folks fronts/sides are "lit" by lanterns light sources on the OPPOSITE SIDE, with shadows going TOWARDS THE LIGHT SOURCE.
To be precise, the Orcs shoot at a horse, miss it and accidentally hit one of the Elves. Yes, I know, it's stupid.
The funny thing is that Hobbits from 1.500 years before the War of the Ring had no surname but just archaic (Anglo-Saxon in Tolkienian fictional translation in English) names: Marcho and Blanco, and hundreds of years later their are still named just Bucca, Smeagol, Deagol.
“Do ya ‘memba, Mr. Bozo? Do ya ‘memba da taste a dem ‘membaberries?”
“I ‘memba!”
Something was really bugging me about TROP characters teleporting across the map and I finally put my finger on what it was after Elrond's company met Adar's in what should be Eriador (but probably isn't in TROP). How did Adar's company get there? Adar is in Mordor with all of his "family," while Elrond and co are traveling from Lindon to Eregion. Mordor is not only on the other side of Eregion, it is also on the other side of the Misty Mountains. The Misty Mountains are basically like the Rockies pre-modern road-building. You can't cross them just anywhere you feel like unless you also feel like suddenly doing a bit of free-hand rock climbing with a full pack. The Misty Mountains are a not insignificant barrier between the west coast of Middle Earth and the rest of the continent. That's why it's safe for the Great Eagles to nest there. But apparently the only Misty Mountains in TROP are the three peaks that house Khazad-dum.
The more you think about it, the less sense their geography makes, no matter how many map screens they load for travel sequences. And compared with the books, their geography is as unrecognizable as everything else.
Lore correction: We know the Entwives disappeared once the lands beyond the Anduin where they lived were blighted and destroyed by Sauron before the end of the Second Age so more than 3000 years before the events of LOTR and so they became known as the Brown Lands. (Roll cheesy title font name change ala ROP style lol) So in Amazon's defence Entwives were around then.
So glad I haven't watched this travesty of a show.
So the only difference between series 1 and 2 is that they've polished the turd.
Excellent and fair reviews. Keep them up.
The ROP screenwriters are going to need JSG to get all the way off their backs about these callbacks. 😂
I think they're trying to imply that Elrond's legendary healing ability was just Vilya all along.
Also, don't be surprised if Tom Bombadil gives fake-Gandalf his signature hat.
Eventually the investors are going to ask for their money
Really appreciate your reviews JSG, your knowledge on the lore is a massive boon to your critism and keeps me invigorated to continue readings Tolkiens work myself.
Rop is the kid who used to copy the answer of the child next to them in class and still got the answers wrong.
The callbacks/easter eggs are so blatant and are inserted even wheb it doesn't fit with the overall story.
Yeah. It really does not feel like they are adapting Tolkien's work. It feels like they shanked it and are now slowly plundering the body, going through the pockets.
Galadriel learned from ALL the Valar (beyond angels), that was possible to be taught from them. she always knew there was more to know, to learn and more to create and had a drive to visit the homeland of her forefathers. To the hitherlands. Middle Earth. Where the elves truly were meant to live and mentor mankind for thousands of years so men could be fully ready to take the reigns in being the stewards of the world.
Those are his real ear, don't shame him!
Always enjoy your well thought takes!
Most of these callbacks make zero sense canonically.
Randomly pulled cool things and randomly inserted them into the "story" without logic
I appreciate your praise of the VFX team. Good Form.
Started rewatching LOTR last weekend. First time in over a decade. Having seen the poor set and costumes in ROP S1... Hard Pass on S2...
Bless you for suffering though this and giving your opinion bc I gave up 4 ep into season 1.
Raise your hand, wherever you are, if you heard me scream "OH FFS" when he said elen sila lumenn omentielvo at the end. Thanks
✋
Just Some Guy, did you, by any chance, watch the new critique from Generation Film's Ben? He basically said that The Critical Drinker is wrong about The Rings of Power. He obviously knows Tolkien's work and made some refutations that sound valid but I wouldn't know because I've never read the source material. And as someone who follows you, Generation Film, and The Drinker, I would LOVE to see a debate between you all in a podcast setup with your 3 channels, along with Gary from Nerdrotic. I think it would be really cool to see all of you guys sit down and talk about the issues that are plaguing Fandoms.
I think it would be really interesting for the fans who aren't well versed in the literature as well, to get a multi faceted take on Tolkien.
Issue plaguing fandoms is that modern cinema springs forth from corporate studios. That's not an issue in itself but the fact that these corporate entities espouse political messages in their products is a colossal problem. Like the scene where there's an Asian Elf, African Elf and a White Elf. When I see that I just cringe deeply, because the realization sinks inside of me that I'm actually seeing American Elves on the screen and the reason why they are there is due to the contemporary identity politics of America. This is incredibly jarring to non-Americans. I for one live in a near-homogenous country which means close to to a hundred percent everyone here is of the same ethnic identity or looks like they belong. I can't just figure out how a world that has not invented a bicycle has the ethnic representation of modern America. Literally everyone looks American in the show.
@@whitegoose2017
Where do you live? Can I come live with you? I’m Irish/british/American. I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to be with people like me and who cherish, love and respect our roots. Is it possible to migrate there?
Slow degradation of white society and culture. Don’t stand for it. Fight. Before you become the next UK or Ireland that’s finally fighting back. Be like that place in the Balkans that famous leader long ago kept the world from becoming under Islamic tyranny. He’s very famous. Statues and all.
@@emilinebelle7811guess RUclips is automatically deleting my comments again. Peace.
@@emilinebelle7811resist. Join other freedom groups
Shout out to brotha JSG for giving us an honest knowledgeable n fair review.
“If they were just going to pigeonhole the story beads from the novel, why not make a LOTR TV Show? I mean, that’s actually what people expected to do.” Thank you!!! I would have much preferred this and would gladly have waited till the rights to the Silmarrilion were sold so we could get an actual dignified 2nd Age show. Instead, we get Barrow Whites, Ents and other weird throwbacks showing up in the 2nd Age because….reasons. lol
I like the fact that JSG is still surprised things are being changed in the RoP, I mean wake up man!!! They ain't doing Tolkein no more 😂
The Memberberries of Power.
Except, in this case, it's the Forgettingberries of Power.
Treebeard tells the Hobbits a story about the search for the Entwives in the Two Towers...i think...and it sounds like they went misding in the Second or First Age
@JustSomeGuy - from The Harper Collins 1997 paperback edition of the Two Towers - in reference to Entwives - Page 465, Chapter: Treebeard
"I remember it was long ago - in the time of the war between Sauron and the Men of the Sea, desire came over me to see Fimbrethil again" - Treebeard
So this is one thing the show got right, the Entwives and their Gardens were present in Middle Earth in the Second Age, in what in the Third Age are called the Brown Lands
You KNOW that when Elrond gets his ring he'll just look into the camera and say "Fine. I'll do it myself."
Black dude should've been wearing Red like star trek lol....did anyone know his name
Another big thing about this show is the completely inconsistent passage of time. The old legend of Barrows makes it seem that the traveling band left the desert before any of its current inhabitants were born (at least 50 years) but the current location of that traveling band is a few days (a couple of weeks at most) away from that desert.
Treebeard is just 8.000 years old.
I kinda suspected it during the first season, but now I'm almost positive that Adar is going to end up being Celeborn.
This reminds me of WoW. The cinematics compartment, doing animations and visuals, nail it time and again. That being said, WoW remains a woke game just like ROP is a woke series with good effects and visuals.
Aka, heresy against Humanity.
Are you sure I thought the entwives disappeared after Sauron destroyed their fields at the end of the second age
Bombadil gets mentioned in the council of Elrond so sending Elrond through the barrow downs where he lived would have been a perfect opportunity to include him without messing with the lore
While I was suffering through this episode, I almost lost my mind when the elves bumped into Adar’s army. The orcs are coming FROM MORDOR, the OPPOSITE direction as the Elves. But somehow they meet near the Barrow Downs?? Several hundred miles NORTHWEST of Eregion, when Mordor is to the SOUTHEAST????
Stargate has entered the chat...
Memberberries! My absolute favorite.
With the knowledge yoy have on LOTR, i would live to see yoy on FNT and hear you bouncing off of garys knowledge, it would be the most geeky, amazing episode.
Well Leia in return of the Jedi said she remembered little things about her mother "a little bit she died when I was very young, just images, really just feelings. She was very beautiful kind but sad." So Leia saying this and Padme dying giving birth to Luke and Leia and Leia saying she remembers her mother looking sad doesn't break canon as that happened in ROTS. The other things you mentioned do break canon such as Darth Vader fighting Obi-Wan twice yet in a new hope Vader said "when he left you I was but the learner now I am the master" implying they haven't seen each other in decades. Or Leia not recognising Obi-Wan cause she never met him originally she was just told to get the message to Obi-Wan about the plans and take them to Alderan she didn't meet him originally.
Ent wives were in the brown lands during the 2nd age if I recall. Sauron routed them out before the war of the last alliance.
I just started watching the second season (actually thought the show would be cancelled) and I am enjoying season 2 better so far. I enjoy the magic, music, and the whole atmosphere of that universe and seeing what happened 5,000 years before lord of the rings took place even with all the issues and not being the strongest plot and characters. I would really like to see what happened at the beginning and the rise and fall of Morgoth!
THIS IS NOT HOW THE FORCE WORK.
Right the witch King creates the Barrow wights and he only does that after he gets a ring and his ring hasn't been made yet
They got confused with starwars, the rings now can force heal.
You think the callbacks are bad here, just wait till "The Hunt for Gollum" comes out!
Weird, it is as if all the money they where given was immediately spent on drugs and partying and there isn’t anything left…
I agree with you nearly all the way - the story is a mess.
BUT the Entwives could exactly show up in this age - though probably not with an ent.
It might just be a cameo, but perhaps we will see her again when Saurons forces will destroy the gardens of the entwives east of The Anduin.
Youre like black oprah!
At this point I'm convinced that Season 2 is a desperate attempt to convince us that no, really, Amazon IS a more faithful adaptation than the Jackson films.
"We've completely rearranged the events of the Second Age in a manner that some characters from the original trilogy can't even exist, but we have Tom Bombadil and Entwives! That makes us better than Jackson, right? Payne and Mckay have killed Arwen with their thoughtless dismissal of Galadriel's family, but Barrow-wights! B A R R O W W I G H T S!"
Yeah that was my first thought they killed the black dude the only guy to die.
Amazon's position: "Its ok, any continuity errors will be the fault of the sequels to the RoP.... You know the books and stuff"
LotR fandom " You mean the books JRR Tolkien wrote?....... Those BOOKS??"
The strong woman 😂😂😂😂😂
Ah, those show ruiners, what are they like?
I noticed something during clip editing. Turns out if you cut the series...from the series, it doesn't change anything.
Dingleberries lol
Good video, but how are the ents a continuity error? Saruman knew all about the ents and used to walk with Treebeard in the forest. He just completely underestimated how pissed they would be in Two Towers
Why does this show feel like this was a SNL parody? I keep expecting Will Ferrell to interrupt the show to say, “ummm, need more callbacks.”
I got a fever, and the only cure is more callbacks.
The bridge.....heck the guys making this show don't even know geography of Middle-earth!!!! :) I mean Shire doesn't have any gigantic canyons :) and this here is the Bridge over river Baranduin(Brandywine) which in book is of numenorean make and called Bridge of the Stonebows:
"For it was in the one thousand six hundred and first year of the Third Age that the Fallohide brothers, Marcho and Blanco, set out from Bree; and having obtained permission from the high king at Fornost, they crossed the brown river Baranduin with a great following of Hobbits. They passed over the Bridge of Stonebows, that had been built in the days of the power of the North Kingdom and they took all the land beyond to dwell in, between the river and the Far Downs. All that was demanded of them was that they should keep the Great Bridge in repair, and all other bridges and roads, speed the king's messengers, and acknowledge his lordship."
The Lord of the Rings, Prologue, Concerning Hobbits
Besides....why the hell they use this specific road?!! I mean come on they could have easily avoided the Barrows if they went through the Sarn Ford....effin hell the makers of this show kind of forget that Tolkien actually made geography of this world for them....THERE ARE MAPS of this world!!!! SERIOUSLY!
The power of the Rings,....the Three are supposed to be made with the intention of getting power of "understanding, making and healing, to preserve the things unstained"...they are also amplifier artifacts they ENHANCE all natural powers of the possessor!!! Boosting their innate abilities! The rings also would be only connected once the actual full on the chain would be completeld....so as long as the ONE RING HAS NOT BEEN forged there is no connection yet...or rather it should be dormant!!! The ONE RING is the last final link in that chain of connections,....the Ring Ruling Ring gives power to dominate all other rings and telapathically connect the users to transfer the superior dominating will of the Master Ring! Hell this whole thing is incomplete...
Albeleo spotted some issues with the VFX, at least the editing and the practical effects. A technician on screen who failed to fire a dust charge in time when Nori and Poppy jumped off the cliff; and the Galadriel vs Orcs fight being a bad mishmash of bad edits, horse handling, lines of sight...
No no. The Entwives were lost when Sauron’s Armies rampaged over their Gardens and turned them into The Brown Lands north of Mordor. So that is late Second Age. It’s presumed they had to east… if any survived. Also they were supposed to have taught agriculture to men.
One wonders if Tom is a cameo for Tolkien.
The black guy dies first isn't just racist, is also a clichee.
It annoyed me no end that in this episode the Barrow Wights suddenly attack with magical chains that you might expect Pinhead, Ghost Rider or Spawn to use, and appear to be ethereal, insubstantial entities akin to the Ring Wraiths. In the Lord of the Rings, the wight depicted during the Barrow Downs sequence aligns much more closely with the originating European mythology Tolkien took inspiration from, where it is a corporeal undead being similar to a Nordic draugr. The Ring Wraiths are separate beings that are incorporeal (apart from their armour, cloaks and weapons) and use fear as a weapon in the manner of mythological wraiths, with the added ability to issue a debilitating, unnatural cry that seems to have been taken from the scream of the banshee from Irish mythology. Both types of creature are forms of undead in both Tolkien's world and in the originating myths, but they are very different from one another and are not interchangeable.
🍇 'Member *CALL-BACKS!?*
I can't tell if JSG hasn't realized this entire series is a skinsuit, like HBO's watchmen, or if he just really enjoys roasting this like it's historically inaccurate war movies
JSG is being broken by this series. Havent seen him this adamant before
2:27 to 2:37 Did you notice that the tree in front of the bridge has disapeared? Must be an Ent
Nah, if they made a LOTR TV show, they will still f*ck it up.
The elven rings were the last rings created. Shame on amazon! 😡
I dont understand why the Showrunners make every race Diverse the elves have 5 different races the Hobbits have 6 different races the Dwarfs have 5 different races lmao how is every race diverse lol it's so modern its laughable lol. 😂😂😂 Make it make sense it just takes me out of it. At least the Hobbit movies felt like LOTR the hobbit movies had the right music the right characters the elves looked great the Dwarfs looked great yea it was alot of CGI but I'll take the hobbit over this trash show any day of the week
12:54 his ears are so weird!
I honestly can’t understand how you think some of the VFX or anything in this show looks good. if you compare it to PJ’s trilogy, filmed over 20 years ago, the quality between them is night and day!
Could it be watched on mute with Lord of the Rings score on in the background and just enjoy the VFX?
It's not strange that you mistook Adar with Amazon's Sauron because writers of this show decided to split JRR's Sauron into two characters to fuck up the story even harder.
I still don't get why they simply didn't go for a spin-off. They rammed Tauriel into Hobbit, might as well give her some backstory in a fantasy setting barely resembling Tolkien's lore.
it's called lifting at times, it's just cheap.