Thank each one of you for clicking on this video! I hope this can be a good start for some of the great stuff coming on the channel! I want to dive deeper into Tolkien's lore and philosophy and I hope you'll join me on this journey. The Rings of Power seemed like a fine spring board to this topic, as it gets pretty much all of it wrong. This is also why I couldn't keep watching. Hopefully the vastness and depth of the lore makes it even easier to understand why the Rings of Power bothers me so much. There's one more video to go, and then I hope not to think or speak of the Rings of Power in a VERY VERY long time! Cheers and have a great weekend! 🧙♂✌
hey council, what do you think is a great rebuttal for RoP super fans who keep saying "stop watching it if you hate it" lol. I've been replying with lore related reasons but it just makes them more stupid and incessant 😂
You haven't yet shared your reactions on Grand-Elf and Sore-Man. How Balrog went to sleep after killing durin (Mission achieved). How Adar swore never to make war on middle earth and orcs betraying him for no reason at all . The show just dived deeper than the pits of Moria
@@CounciloftheRingsthanks for the reply Council. It makes sense. I might say something like that as well, that I need to review it for academic or study purposes😊
@@CounciloftheRings but many people got introduced to Tolkien's world with this 💩show and that is just saddening. These days most of them definitely won't read the books and probably won't even watch the movies, so they will just accept this mindless, disrespectful BS for the sake of zombie consumption. :/
That's exactly that the root of all the problems are. They had no intention of bring any of the Tolkien-world to life. They just needed a big IP to attract views to generate more Prime subscribers and generate revenue, while also pushing their social narratives.
Î think the the actors themself do a good job in this show, minus a couple of exceptions. The choice of casting certain roles is mostly a bit questionable, like certain elves, that do not have elvish features and look more like humans with pointy ears. Charlie Vickers as Annatar is very good, i think he nailed that role. But this series feels very different than the Peter Jacksons Movies. They lack this grandeur, this immensity of this world. In Peter Jacksons vision the elves are actually ethereal as they should be. They are tall and have great wisdom because of their age. You can feel a big difference between an elf and a human for instance, which you cannot see in this show. All races seem to behave like humans do. Even bullying a Prince among the dwarves, like wut? Those are highschool teenager problems.
@@JayTeeGR RoP is a disaster, no doubt, but let's stop pretending Petey respected the source material. He did his own thing especially with the characters. Still, compared to RoP, Little Petey's trilogy is great.
Bad writing. Sauron, in the second age, was supposed to be a pseudo Promethean figure generating religious engineering in Harad and Rhûn with the metallurgical revolution he made in the east and south. He was like Mephistopheles from Goethe's Faust or Azazel from the book of Enoch. Galadriel, in Eregion, was supposed to be a sage and a political opponent of Annatar's reformist ideas. She could be like a philosopher-queen archetype.
It’s the writing. All sound and fury-no depth. They aren’t trying to tell a story. They’re just trying to make a show. EDIT: I wish I knew some people worth sharing this wonderful video with. It’s so spot on it’s nearly painful
"They aren’t trying to tell a story. They’re just trying to make a show.". These words describe it perfectly. As evident by the many, annoying references to dialogue from the lotr movies, in an effort to lure in fans of the movies to go "hey I remember that line from the movies!!!"
Great video, I loved how you delved into the themes of his work. Another thing that I find feels very anti-Tolkien about this show is it’s lack of respect for time and distance in middle earth. Characters seem to almost teleport to the other side of the map within days which is in stark contrast to Tolkien who would put thought into how many miles characters could realistically travel and how long it would take them. It’s a seemingly small thing but it helped make middle earth feel real and massive.
Yeah It's actually something that will come up in the other video "Epic stories vs Modernity". So fear not, a lot of cool stuff is coming in that regard too!
This is what made the early seasons of game of thrones so good. It took a long time for characters to get to their destination, and it made it feel like you the viewer were a part of the journey. It's also much more immersive and makes the world feel real.
@@tonysiouxfan Haven't seen GoT yet, planning on reading the books first though. I know John Howe also does a lot of illustrations for the series which is a pretty cool connection to Tolkien.
I feel the same way about the timeline compressions and the distance shortening. Year of the Trees Galadriel gets in her time machine and shows up in S.A.1590. Elendil and Isildur are alive at the time the Rings of Power were forged. Too many ugly decisions were made in regard to time and space.😞 I just laughed and shook my head when I realized that all the Elves that escaped were in the place that will become Rivendell. So Imladris is just behind the mountain on which Ost-in-Edhil is located, a few miles, instead of the 400 or so miles away that it is actually located.
When the Elves being the Firstborn and greatest creation of Eru Iluvatar looks like a cosplay meet up at NYC with a mix of different skin colours and being short and old which btw is a TOTAL MISCAST so the uniqueness and awe and beauty and grace of the Eldar feels like discount Target.
You're pretty much spot on here. It is a sadly common phenomenon that writers today are not only unable to see things from any perspective but their own, they often don't even seem to be aware that other perspectives actually exist.
I totally agree! It's quite sad, really. Some things I love about other films and shows is how they tangle something in a way I haven't seen before. For instance Ragnar Lothbrok questioning the existence of the gods, while all his countrymen are firm in their belief. They kinda butchered in the following episodes, but it was good until that point at least.
@@CounciloftheRings The example that comes to mind for me is The Pharaoh Key by Preston and Child. It's a total mess for several reasons, many of which boil down to Preston and Child lacking the imagination to see the world from any perspective other than that of their own time and place in history and society. It's not just writers, of course, but it's a bit less excusable and much more visible when writers have this fault. I'm surprised how many people fail to understand that the Samurai Jack universe is posited to be more consistent with Eastern religions than with Abrahamic religions. The presumption of reincarnation has major, major consequences for how the show ends. It doesn't matter if you believe reincarnation happens in the real world; in the cartoon, it presumably does.
For me, a big part of why the show doesn‘t feel like the movies is the music. It just is not reminiscent of the great and unique themes which Howard Shore wrote for the movies. The only exception is the Intro theme, which - would you look at that - is written by Howard Shore.
I am by now convinced that since Amazon didn't get the rights to the Silmarillion, the show runners thought they didn't have to read the novel and could just get away with LOTR (mostly going off of the movie, it seems) + google. The mind boggles...
The thing that bothered me from the first minutes of Rings of Power was that the elves were just people with pointy ears, not ancient people. Galadriel was supposed to have walked the Earth before there was a sun to mark the days, but comes off as amazingly immature and petty. Dwarves, orcs, and hobbits were little better. A story with truly different races allows us to see ourselves through alien eyes, or to see other things that people might be.
The writing on the Elves in particular showcases just how little these writers have grasped of Tolkien's work, or its scope spanning literal millennia They behave (and oftentimes look) like regular humans, which is crazy.
Portraying Elves is pretty hard I think. Peter Jackson in LotR actually didn't have to give the Elves too much screen time (apart from Legolas), so he was able to pull it off by letting them be very dignified and aloof. That approach wouldn't work with all the characters and dialogue there is in RoP. Anyway RoP have managed to mess it up in their own way.
@@vindolanda6974 I agree that writing true aliens is tricky; if you make them too alien you lose the audience. I think Babylon 5 handled it best. There were "younger races" who were different but relatable, and ancient races so advanced that they struggled to communicate with humans. Strazinsky used those differences to examine what it means to be human.
Then why is he doing a show where the characters are smitten with evil? Why was he promoting empathy to an evil character who is supposed to be the literal devil incarnate.
besides the coherent writing and narrative structure, the secret sauce of peter jackson's films is that they felt REAL. hobbiton felt like a real place. the world felt lived in. this is rare among any fantasy adaptation and unfortunately ROP is one of many that fail to pass the test.
@@Zero-90977 not even necessarily the writing, although obviously it's not as good. the set designs, costumes, etc. in LOTR felt very real. ROP is very good visually, but it still feels like you're watching a fantasy rather than a depiction of real places and stories that could've existed.
Why did the "hobbits" name Gandalf? He was given that name by the men Anor! Oh and he doesn't appear until the 3rd age! The Balrog fought and killed Durin the 6th, hence the name, Durins Bane!
The soundtrack, which in itself is great, emphasis this every episode for me. It swells and swells, with Bear McReary giving us the epic music we expect for an epic story like this. Except what we hear doesn't match the boring, poorly-written, underhwelming scenes on screen at all.
LoL... because it is stupid. The guy was stabbed twice, and next day he is fully healed..... Galadriel fell off a mountain, they damned a river and it dried up? like the water wasn't a flowing river coming from somewhere?
Its a poor man's adaptation of Peter Jackson's films. They copied the scenes, the dialogue and used up 100 times the budget and still failed Spectacularly
@@CounciloftheRings taking is fine, but they copied scene exactly, the Balrog pulling the leg, Elendil unsheathing the sword, Grand-elf moron being stuck in the tree. Not even an iota of creativity was bought using a billion dollars
This is the only analysis I’ve come across that accurately pinpoints the actual heart of Tolkien’s story and why ROP fails so badly. Thanks for you work
I think something else that makes ROP feel so hollow compared to Tolkien’s work is how inconsistent the characters are. Tolkien is known as the man who defined archetypes through consistent characters. Some do grow and mature (just look at Bilbo in the Hobbit), but it’s never at the comprising of their core. In ROP, characters will flip on the whims of the story the show thinks it’s trying to tell. I’ll list some examples. - Adar. Supposedly he cares for the orcs deeply. They are his children. And yet in the first season alone he is reckless with their lives in battle, does not punish Arondir for killing several, and needlessly burns one just to monologue. Nor does he do anything to curb their darker impulses and behaviors, and this attitude continues into season 2. Now I’m sure the showrunners might say that was the point, that he has become what he despised Sauron for. But there can be no fall if the character was never consistent with his desires in the first place. It’s lip service to an arc, not actual development. - Sauron. In this show Sauron starts out supposedly remorseful, wanting to start a new life away from his role as the Dark Lord. He even makes the repeated claim that his fall to evil was Morgoth’s fault, and that upon Morgoth’s defeat it was “as if a veil had been lifted”. Yet we see in the prologue for season 2 that this is not true. Sauron was ready to continue being evil of his own free will and only stopped because the orcs mutinied against him. Yet his resistance to Galadriel’s attempts to get him involved in events seems genuine, and season 2’s prologue supports this as a genuine attempt to turn over a new leaf, even remarking to Galadriel in Mordor that fighting by her side for a good cause made him feel good. Yet all of this is down the drain once he wakes up in Eregion because he is now fully back on board with being evil. It’s an abrupt shift in his personality and goals with no catalyst for the change beyond “it had to happen sometime”. (TBC)
Aye - I think the writing is some of it's weakest points. It feels like too many had their hand on it, which is why each episode also feels disconnected. "Too many cooks in the kitchen" one is tempted to say.
@@CounciloftheRings It’s like you say, it’s the writing. I watched a bunch of old sci-fi shows from the early 2000s, and what keeps me hooked aren’t the pretty visuals (they didn’t have the budgets for those) but the strength of the characters and story. That is what survived. Hope you’ll continue your 2nd Age series.
Excellent video. I think I'm going to watch this again to really consider what you brought up, but on a first pass viewing there were some really interesting points I'd like to personally explore. I recently read Tolkien's essay on fairy-tales and it was a fascinating read, if not simply to show how much thought he put into each and every decision made in the crafting of middle earth. There's no frivolity in it, and it's not "Just fantasy, get over it".
It's a great read! I read it some months ago! Keep in mind he wrote it in 1939, before The Lord of the Rings. You can still see how it's all woven together and LotR is truly a work that proves his line of thought.
This is the best video I've ever seen assessing RoP. It's clever and simply the truth. Thank you so much, I love this channel. The world of RoP is a flat, dead, rigid, dull, soulless, godless, unimaginative and mechanistic world. It is strongly relativistic, which is why it doesn't know the difference between good and evil, true and untrue, up and down. The world of LotR is the opposite: deep, alive, moving, exciting, animated, divine, magical and mystical. It has a clear moral compass and therefore knows the difference between good and evil. The world of RoP thus reflects the idealised modern (Western, anti-authoritarian) order, the world of Tolkien the idealised old authoritarian order as it existed in the West until the 1960s. We love Tolkien for idealising the old world because his stories are closely interwoven with our innermost longings. We hate the showrunners because they flatten these stories to the extreme based on modern superficial principles and thus destroy our dreams. Basically, RoP is not a fantasy series, but a political series. It's all about power relations.
Thank you! Glad you like it! And yes I agree - it has been changed so much it's not even remotely connected - except by name. I'm mainly shocked (and somewhat horrified) the Estate would allow this. Everyone points towards Simon, but what about the other people in the Estate? Don't they care about Tolkien's works at all? Well too bad I can't join their team and have a say.
This video has been really insightful and even taught me some new things, that really enlightened me... This is probably the best video that puts RoP into perspective. Without someone going into a rant. 👏 I will recommend this video to others.
Thank you! Exactly what I was hoping for! There's so much more to be said, but I had to keep it short. More stuff will be brought up in the upcoming one "Epic stories vs. Modernity".
Thank you..another thoughtful and interesting analysis of both Tolkien’s work, and the limp ROP. I always feel smarter after your words. I have enjoyed Tolkien for over 50 years, but I am no scholar. I made a study of his work, specifically LOTR as my year 12 English, as a full project, year long, and yet I barely understood the most important aspects at that age. Tolkien managed to make the world of fairies, elves and goblins into a serious and deeply moving world. The origin of man, from the ancient Numenorians was especially significant, at least to me. It created a deep and ancient past, something to aspire to in life. Overall, it is a masterpiece of wide expanse. ROP is so flawed and shallow, and the writers and producers have absolutely failed to portray any worthy aspects to any race of beings in this world. Truly worthless, pop culture garbage that is insulting and offensive to the original material. They failed to give us one single character that I deem worthy to survive…even Gandalf…seems to me the writers cast every single character as a weak, flawed facile being that lacks the essential essences of the race depicted. All are greedy, egotistical, unreliable, driven by anger, and lacking patience, wisdom, courage. ROP has stripped the most important and fundamental traits from every race. Including orcs. A waste of effort by Amazon, and a blight on filmmaking. It deserves mockery and contempt.
If you want a good introduction to the deeper stuff, I highly recommend Bradley Birzer's "J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth" then followed by Tom Shippey's "The Road to Middle-earth". Not exactly easy reads, but if you love the subject you'll certainly keep reading. My only complaint is that they are too short! Hahaha
Because it is not remotely close to Lord of the Rings. It's nothing more than a thin veneer of Tolkien slapped on the story the people behind the show decided to tell and using Tolkien's name and various other things lifted from Tolkien's writings to attract an audience they would have otherwise never gotten. And they couldn't even make their own story anything close to being a good one.
I agree wholeheartedly with what you say in this video, especially the presentism part. You have a very polite way of saying the show is very WOKE. As a "boomer" myself, I can relate with the fact that RoP seems agenda based. Maybe I'm too narrow minded, but I can't get myself to get over the fact that RoP casts just about anyone on in any role and seems to totally ignore established lore, as if they think they have enough power over there at Amazon to do whatever they want with their $billions. For example, and this is probably the part that irks me the most. ELVES.... They are very well documented, and all have things like LONG HAIR, and HIGH CHEEK BONES, and fair skin. Note, I didn't not say tone. wood elves, high elves, dark elves, and many more types of elves exist, but they are all similar. None have short hair! Why? Because elves are immortal and their hair is very important to them. To cut it is a SIN to them. So, there wouldn't be any elves with cuts like you see in Celebrimbor in RoP. Nor would you see elves with kinky curly hair. Yes, Dark Elves exist, but they wouldn't look like sub saharan african americans with british accents. Its this total lack of repect for the lore of LOTR that makes RoP such a bad show. And this is only one example of the many things RoP does completely wrong.
Imagine watching Rings of Power without having watched Lord of the Rings and knowing nothing about Tolkien's universe: What the fuck is the show even about? It's even much worse because the show constantly hits us with clues about Tolkien's universe to plug in holes of their crappy plot line, but without those clues the show simply doesn't have a logical plot.
This is such an important topic for all those who want to understand why we hate TRoP so much. All the important aspects of Tolkien's world building are explained. Everyone who likes TRoP and belittles those of us who love the lore should be forced to watch this video.
Aside from all the obvious points that are listed ad nauseum, with their gigantic billion dollar budget, they managed to make the world feel very small.
You're very talented and sensible. Please expand your content beyond the lore. Just what your heart feels in this or that. No need to worry about not being an expert in the then analysys. Well, just an idea. Very nice video.
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Great video sir! you and I seem of the same mind on this though perhaps I am a little more militant than you :) I am pretty sure Patrick and McKay simply lack the experience and viewpoint to write a show set in a world as rich and beautiful as Tolkien's Legendarium. Firstly, and probably of the least importance to me but still valid, they originate from Bad Robot that alone is a strike against them, there is a reason why many people I know call it Bad Reboot. Secondly, and far more importantly they do not believe in true Beauty, truth, faith and goodness. They believe in Modernity in "subverting" expectation, of the subjectiveness of morality and ethics and that evil is simply misunderstood. If they do not believe in or serve goodness, they can only serve it's opposite. I have no idea what Peter Jacksons personal beliefs are, but I can say that Peter Jackson desired to honor Tolkien's beliefs with his work (even with the changes he made that some people disliked) where Patrick and McKay and the writers and directors who work with them at Amazon only want to honor and enrich themselves off the work and the backs of their betters. I doubt they even begin to understand Tolkien, nor do they really want to. they want to "skin suit" his life's work for nothing more than their own personal glory. The biggest thing it comes back to for me, why did they get rid of Tom Shippey. I think that action says a whole lot in my eyes.
It is true that friendship and unity are two of the many rich themes of the Legendarium, and there are many examples in the Trilogy that illustrate that beautifully. But the world of this series is steeped in allegory of modern day politics, trading on contemporary ideologies revolving around content that wasn't there in the text to begin with. Gone is the moral certitude of the world and its author, in its place is this typical Hollywood moral relativism, resulting jarring experience. You haven't created a series that supports a great aspiration of people coming together in friendship to resist a great evil, you've taken the most superficial veneer of that great Secondary World and corrupted it with moral myopia and abysmal characters who range from incompetent oafs to to being little different from the orcs and the Dark Lord.
Let’s be honest, seeing a bunch of different races randomly mixed together in a setting that would obviously be very ethnically homogeneous makes the show feel like a school play. It completely ruins any suspension of disbelief
In their attempt to prioritise "diversity", they have erased all trace of it. From the supposed to be mighty Numenoreans, to the proto-Hobbits, or whatever they're supposed to be, Dwarves, Elves, all human populations, like the "Southlanders", every group is EXACTLY THE SAME. Irrespective of even rudimentary world building, all the distinctive people are gone, and in every corner of their counterfeit Middle Earth, the population is the same as any contemporary, global urban centre. As if nobody can get enough of that and must root it even in the fantastic.
May I add „gratuitous violence“??? The amount of eye gouging, gang stabbing and torture in this show is SO unlike Tolkien‘s spirit it‘s unreal. Extremely offputting IMO
@@CounciloftheRings I think that Tolkien ultimately would have still liked the Jackson films despite some of his visions being changed. His critique of the animated LotR movie showed that he cared most about the messages, values and ideas still being conveyed - and that‘s what the films did splendidly. And he would hate RoP.
Well, what is missing apart from the team's worldview being completely antithetical to Tolkien's? They are msising all the literary theory of the early XX century, like all the theory of fiction the Inkling's themselves developed, take for example Talking of Bicycles of C S Lews. Hell, if you take what the actors and producers talked about overtly in interviews and such, it is almost a item by item opposition to what Tolkien explains of his process and goals in On Fairy Stories
Nothing in Rings of Power feels epic and huge in scale. The Peter Jackson films had massive epic battles. ROP missed on every opportunity to create those epic scenes.
I think that the mindset was to fix lotr instead of adapting it. Fantasy inspired by Tolkien has evolved and the showrunner want to "modernize" lotr. Orks were at the beginning mostly swordfodder, but in latee depiction they got more nuanced. Do these modern interpretations of the orks work with lotr? I think not. Also the grey in grey morality that is more in common in modern media doesn't work with lotr. If Sauron is not that bad, then it is not that bad when he rules middle earth. Rings of power has more in common with these infamous bad live action adaptions from Disney then their source material.
Excellent analysis as expected. Which reminded me why I love UNGOLIANT so much: She is the only being that is not absence of light but almost PRESENCE OF DARKNESS. Palpable Darkness. Fabulous Creature inspired by SKOLL
The opening is of this video is pretty strange because Tolkien constantly said he hated symbols and symbolism, and it’s hard to imagine trying to lay heavy-handed Christianity themes on his audience
I think you mean 'allegory'. The quote provided is from the foreword, where he also mentions his hatred for allegories. I'll make a whole video about it, at some point. To keep it short: It's far more complicated. A lot of people just throw it around without getting the context. He mainly wrote that because at the time of the release every thought the story was an allegory of WW2 (a few WW1). Both are wrong of course. That doesn't mean there aren't symbols in the story though. Far from it.
Very well said! That last line «It's full of soul & fury, but signifies nothing." Is spot on! I also thought the everyone cries was significant as even Sauron sheds a tear. There is so much wrong with this show, but trying to humanize the Orcs! Make those who are evil relatable & maybe not really evil while making our heroes evil.
"They not only think themselves superior to Tolkien but they also try to update and change his work " - "distortion of the good nature that God originally created" in other words. Tolkien himself would categorize the show-runners as evil
Excellent video! Perfect description of the point of TLOR as Tolkien put. As a religious person (Christian), I agree completely. Thank you for your hard work and honouring Tolkien's work.
Because five cent hacks want to 'fix' classical literature by inserting modern day messages into it, without any subtlety, wit, ability, or understanding of the original works. Hubris =/= ability.
“Low quality props” I will at least defend the props-work of my dear friends and fellow swordsmiths; Peter Lyon and his apprentice Chris Menges at Weta Workshop who made all the swords for season 1! (They did not work on season 2) While the designs they were given and tasked to make were unfortunately not their own designs, and sadly they were not given creative-freedom to make them as good as I know they wished they could’ve: they did the damned best with what they were given, and I know that’s true of many other friends & colleagues who are artists and craftsmen that worked on the show. I can’t defend every prop and design, but had to at least defend my friends at Weta who did the weapons and orc makeup for season 1. It’s just a sad damn shame that so much good art for the show was overshadowed and wasted on such a cringey terrible script.
Yeah I don't think the swords are a weak point of the show - I think it's some of the best elements actually (Even though I don't think the horse-association with Númenor makes sense). Narsil looks good, Pharazôn's sword, Aranrúth & Tuor's axe (at least the concept art). The Dwarven axes are a bit crude (not as weird as in The Hobbit, though). I think the make-up for the orcs is some of the best parts of the show (there's a few extras with questionable performances, but that's a different issue). It was mainly regarding the rings, the costumes, armours, helmets (especially these), the pickaxe of king Durin (looks like plastic) and in a few instances the teeth of some of the orcs. There's probably some more stuff, but this comes to mind. And yes I totally agree that so much of the good stuff from the show gets overshadowed by the bad elements. I think the concept art is 10 times better than the end result, which also seems to indicate the ideas were better, but the execution dragged down some things. I also think the music is decent - not on par with Howard Shore, Hans Zimmer and James Horner, but who really is? I think Bear McCreary could in time become almost that good, but he needs more experience (not through games, but actual shows).
@@CounciloftheRings The helmets of the Elves in the battle of Eregion were bad. Really really bad. Not saying your friends did that, CedarloreForge. I'm just pointing it out.
this is an absolutely perfect explanation! I struggle to explain these things to friends who liked rings of power, hopefully i can convince them to watch your video
To me, TROP feels like I am watching Krull, or Ator the Fighting Eagle, or Beast Master, or Barbarian Queen.... It just plays like a campy 80s sword and sorcery movie to me. Those at least I could enjoy because they didn't take themselves seriously.
This is wonderful! The showrunners should watch this with humility. It's never too late to try to right the ship and look to create a show that can be timeless.
This brilliant philosophical video should be required viewing for all of the Amazon executives, as well as anybody making decisions about ROP. Although it probably would be dismissed as irrelevant by the showrunners, at least some of the executives might understand why the show fails. The showrunners removed Tolkien's foundation while deluding themselves that they are portraying Middle Earth, just because the character and place names are Tolkien's. I'm starting to think the showrunners had a better understanding of Tolkien's good and evil than I had assumed. They saw what was good in Tolkien's eyes so they had to overturn that eg. replacing male leaders with female leaders, etc. They saw what was evil in Tolkien's eyes, so they delved too deeply and greedily into that because they wanted to give those characters a sympathetic backstory. They unwittingly made Guyladriel the biggest villain. All of the suffering in season two is her fault because she refused to tell the other elves that Halbrand was Sauron. Although, I can't imagine why the elves didn't ask her questions about why Halbrand left, and why she said not to deal with him again. And at the end of season two, why are the few surviving elves not furious with her? They still treat her respectfully as a person of honor and military leader. 😡 This video is really one for the ages! I hope it gets a very wide circulation! (Ring pun!) 🙏💚🧝♂️🌟
Thank you! It would be nice if Amazon decided to turn the boat around, but I think it's far too late, by now. I guess it just proves shows and films these days require more time in the early phase, rather than just flashy production on set. And yeah the inconsistency of the writing will be brought up in the upcoming video, hahaha.
Because it's not. It's the fever dream of two nitwits who were handed the reins to a show for which they were completely out of their depth and massively unprepared to work on.
@@CounciloftheRingsI think a key to the success of Peter Jackson’s films was the constant use of Tolkien’s language from the books. I presume most of the people making the trilogy were secular people, but they loved Tolkien’s world and, crucially, they let Tolkien speak by putting his actual words in the mouths of the characters.
Presentism - the most important time is...now. The most important place is here (wherever that is). The most important person is me - and my close coterie. ROP in a nutshell both as presented and the mindset of the conceivers
Tolkien is the pinnacle of fiction writing.. he created every fiber of this universe. People writing for this show aren't even fictional narrative writers of the least order. They're one dimensional cause & effect storytelling technique and overuse of expository dialogue (they tell more than they show).. sounds like they're essayists with inflexible linear thoughts. They don't understand how conflict works, how to make uniquely nuanced characters and don't know how to make interactions feel real.
Great video about the situation. Nicely thought out and presented. Face it. We all knew it was just a cash-in that was going to blow chunks. But NONE of us expected the chunks to be so big , and so many!! 😳
Just doesn’t feel like middle earth, so many lame characters, especially in numenor. Crap writing, lore breaking left right and centre. I’m actually a little bit shocked at how bad it all turned out tbh. Didn’t even bother watching season 2!
am shocked too also did not watch season 2 and, that says a lot...usually I watch till the end, hoping for some nice cinematography dialogues or fight scenes...but as with witcher...it s simpy too sad...and yeah, bad.
I just wanted to hop in and say how much I resonated with what you discussed in your video. In so many ways I have struggled to convey why I felt this show lacked any real relation to Tolkien, and why I have always felt it be more a very average fan-fiction or generic fantasy show. It lacks a soul, specifically the soul Tolkien gave his work. Thank you for this video! I am defs going to reference it whenever I want to explain these points to my friends!
As an intellectual critique this video, is very (very!) good but feelings are not being addressed. The question being asked is, unhappily, deeply flawed. Like all modern intellectual deceits employing such language, it annoys me. You cannot "feel like", "feeling that", "feel as if", these are all thoughts masquerading as feelings. They do not tell you what feeling was being felt. The questioner either cannot distinguish clearly between what is a thought and what is a feeling, or is concealing their feeling behind word salad. "I feel like I was hit by a whip." Well, did you feel pain and hate it? Or did you feel pleasure and like it? What did you feel? What was the feeling? This question is, in reality, a thought and to answer it requires only thoughts (not feelings) necessitating mental (not emotional) analysis, critique and intellectual cognitive dialogue. To answer the question correctly; People dislike / hate, move away from, feel ambivalent towards, are repelled by, reject and seek to destroy, ROP. People like / love, move towards, are attracted to, feel deeply attached to, deeply embraced by, close to, LOTR. How does this happen? Importantly, Tolkien, like all great authors, engages the reader in our basic Jungian human archetypes (J.K. Rowling does the same thing). These are 'primitive' mental images phylogenically (naturally) inherited from our earliest human ancestors present within the collective unconscious of every human mind (we naturally all recognise fear, happiness, love, hate, despair, the numinous, the spiritual, expressions and representations thereof). Thus, although fantasy, LOTR is grounded fundamentally in real and ancient human emotional experience that we all relate to. The fear and courage of the hobbits approaching Mordor. Profound and bitter envy, the hatred and malice of Sauron, that he inculcated and bred into the orcs to direct against humans, elves and dwarves. The profound, ancient, cultural and racial, courage of Theoden and the Rohirrim at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. The timeless deep theological struggle of good v evil. The sagacity and ancient wisdom of the immortal high elves like Galadriel. Meanwhile, ROP is a fantasy grounded in a fantasy that is contemporary ideology. Amazon attempts to engage the viewers in a shallow (not deep) fantasy of contemporary human experience (e.g., false Galadriel, not sagacious, ancient, wise, goddess-like, but conceptualised (thought of) as a contemporary ultra-feminist) that most people cannot relate to at depth. To meet the requirements of contemporary globalist DEI ideology, Amazon hates and deliberately rejects (destroys) basic human archetypal experience, especially one with culturally racial associations (blonde bearded Vikings, stalwart Welsh Britons). It seeks to impose its philosophical origins in the emotion of envy by behaving in an envious fashion. It gaslights, shames, belittles, seeks to undermine by, for example, trying to humanise hate driven, envious, orcs, having dominant women and weak male characters, de-racialising cultural associations. Amazon also rejects the enemy of social-liberalist DEI progress, history, which Tolkien loved, which grounds us all in a sense of tradition, belongingness and the eternal. Consequently, the Amazon version will only appeal to those progressive ideologists who feel a similar hatred for ancient collective phylogenic human experience. An experience that from basic human survival necessity required, before the intervention of technologies, historic distinctions in male and female gender roles just as the natural animal and plant world (not our purple haired version) continues to do. Tolkiens story is a survival battle which recognises, and identifies with, the realities of ancient human experience. Amazon's story rejects ancient human experience in favour of an ideological imposed fantasy of humanity i.e., what it would like the world to be not what it is. Tolkien tells an ancient world story we relate to. Amazon delivers propaganda intend to change world thinking into its own image. How do we feel towards Tolkien? Warm, fellowship, attached, love, gifted, befriended. How do we feel towards Amazon? Cold, hatred, detached, rejected, deceived. This is what is being felt. This is not a critique and discussion of what is thought about the story and its adaptations, masquerading as emotional experience but, in reality, not concerned with feeling at all.
Looking at this video makes me understand that the ROP film writers did not understand anything nor have they the capacity to understand. They are very superficial and this is reflected into the show.
5:20 A lot of the more fantastical elements found in The Hobbit, like the trolls' talking purse and the talking birds, can be attributed to the book being Bilbo's autobiography, which he frequently embellished for his audience, and I don't read Turin's sword talking to be literal as much as a projection of his own conscience. But that's one of the many things that makes Tolkien's writings so fascinating to read, his narrators are unreliable, which combined with the many different versions of some of his stories, allows for a lot of freedom of imagination and speculation. (To be clear, I am NOT trying to excuse talentless hacks for disregarding the things that Tolkien did make abundantly clear.)
Aye, I agree! It's true we can't know for certain if these two objects could actually talk - but it is still presented as 'the truth' without anyone questioning it. For long I too also thought it was just Túrin's mind, but I find it more interesting if it's not. The sword certainly had a personality of its own and also had a unique origin. It's fun to never know the true answer. I think the talking birds are correct enough, whether you mean the ravens, thrushes or Great Eagles. Those can be found elsewhere too - They can't all be making up stuff, haha. Cheers! 🧙♂️
What’s missing? Respect for the source material, obviously. Not to put too fine a point on it, but the creators of RoP don’t like the fact that LOTR is a fictionalized mythology of England and Northern Europe. They find that offensive, actually. And so these are the changes they made to mythology to make it more palatable for people with their same belief system.
Watching the Wrongs of Power is like watching a poor quality exploatation film: Terminator vs CyberCop etc. If Roger Corman got the budget of the Wrongs of Power he would create a Masterpiece but those dumb talentless Amazon people can't do anything right. Even the visuals of P.Jackson films made decades ago look way better using miniatures, limited cgi and camera tricks
Wonderful. Someone with deep knowledge of what Tolkien's text is truly about and a great analysis of why Rings of Power feels so very wrong. I'm incredibly sick of people claiming to know Tolkien and at the same time defending this show. Most of them then proceed to insult fans by claiming they are the ones who know nothing about Tolkien. Some big youtubers are shilling for the show as well and are just dishonest to their fans, because they want access and whatever else they're getting for their a$$-kissing. Even a so-called Tolkien professor among them. It disgusts me. So I'm really happy every time I stumble upon someone who truly understands and is honest about it. There a many who do that and I'm glad about it. Thank you for making this video.
I see it positive the first episode of the second season reminded me to rewatch the trilogy again. Its honestly sad how they structured the show, smart immortal beings are just as smart as their writers unfortunately and too much filler and selfinsert. Again like the first season the last episode had glimpses of what could have been with better writing.
If you imagine that an epidemic of glue sniffing descended on Middle Earth, the dialogue almost makes sense. I wasn't committed enough to actually sniff glue myself though, I had to be content with having a few drinks with friends and laughing at every episode
Because neither the Hobbit, nor the Lord of the Rings was a soap opera. If you were to 'ambush' a show executive and forced them to give an answer, they couldn't tell you how it ends. They just start stuff and then milk it till no interest remains. Welcome to modern TV.
Re the race/diversity bit ~22 mins, I'm white and I've watchedd all-Asian shows, all-Chinese, all-Indian, Thai, African, whatever. I never thought about it until I saw these silly racial mashups which're obviously done for meta-reasons - when I watch, I'm meta-pulled right out of the show's world and into an LA casting studio.
It’s just baffling to me that Amazon would invest so much money on a series and hire brand new showrunners to helm it. They are literally learning on the job. I genuinely don’t get why you wouldn’t pony up to get someone with decades of experience. Seems like malpractice or just straight up stupidity to me
Thank each one of you for clicking on this video! I hope this can be a good start for some of the great stuff coming on the channel! I want to dive deeper into Tolkien's lore and philosophy and I hope you'll join me on this journey. The Rings of Power seemed like a fine spring board to this topic, as it gets pretty much all of it wrong. This is also why I couldn't keep watching. Hopefully the vastness and depth of the lore makes it even easier to understand why the Rings of Power bothers me so much. There's one more video to go, and then I hope not to think or speak of the Rings of Power in a VERY VERY long time!
Cheers and have a great weekend! 🧙♂✌
hey council, what do you think is a great rebuttal for RoP super fans who keep saying "stop watching it if you hate it" lol. I've been replying with lore related reasons but it just makes them more stupid and incessant 😂
You haven't yet shared your reactions on Grand-Elf and Sore-Man. How Balrog went to sleep after killing durin (Mission achieved). How Adar swore never to make war on middle earth and orcs betraying him for no reason at all . The show just dived deeper than the pits of Moria
@@markgregorygacosta531 My excuse have been I've reviewed it, but I don't any more, so I'm not watching any more.
@@CounciloftheRingsthanks for the reply Council. It makes sense. I might say something like that as well, that I need to review it for academic or study purposes😊
They admitted to having no script in the NOTR interview, they didn't know who the wizard was going to be.
The only good thing this show did was get me to rewatch the LOTR series again and appreciate its beauty
That's something at least!
Yes, when i watched Return of the King extended edition, I was blown away at the beauty of a 2 decade old film, unparalleled to this day
EXACTLY!
@@CounciloftheRings but many people got introduced to Tolkien's world with this 💩show and that is just saddening. These days most of them definitely won't read the books and probably won't even watch the movies, so they will just accept this mindless, disrespectful BS for the sake of zombie consumption. :/
It also makes the Hobbit trilogy shine in comparison, so if you are ever wanting more of LOTR, that's available now!
For Amazon, Lord of the Rings is just a name. A marketable and profitable name they don't wish to understand deeper or present it with care and love.
That's exactly that the root of all the problems are. They had no intention of bring any of the Tolkien-world to life. They just needed a big IP to attract views to generate more Prime subscribers and generate revenue, while also pushing their social narratives.
Crass commercialism over refined art, good taste and skilled craft; it's what capitalist 'corporate' America does.
Yeah, but it was made by & with diverse people, what more could you possibly want? 😅
-Lack of creativity and skill.
-No respect to the source material.
-Horrible casting.
That's certainly important elements for it's downfall
Î think the the actors themself do a good job in this show, minus a couple of exceptions.
The choice of casting certain roles is mostly a bit questionable, like certain elves, that do not have elvish features and look more like humans with pointy ears.
Charlie Vickers as Annatar is very good, i think he nailed that role.
But this series feels very different than the Peter Jacksons Movies. They lack this grandeur, this immensity of this world.
In Peter Jacksons vision the elves are actually ethereal as they should be. They are tall and have great wisdom because of their age.
You can feel a big difference between an elf and a human for instance, which you cannot see in this show. All races seem to behave like humans do. Even bullying a Prince among the dwarves, like wut? Those are highschool teenager problems.
Adherence to a strict DEI policy.
@@SaithMasu12they're all ugly as sin though unfortunately
@@JayTeeGR RoP is a disaster, no doubt, but let's stop pretending Petey respected the source material. He did his own thing especially with the characters. Still, compared to RoP, Little Petey's trilogy is great.
Lack of respect for source material and specially no writing talent there.
The best that Hollywood has to offer.🙄
Plus poor casting and costumes
So you actually wanted some secret love affair between elves?
The show isn't that bad. Could be better, sure.
To be fair, Jackson didn't respect a lot of the source material. He did make Frodo wimpy and Gimli a buffoon after all. RoP is obviously worse.
@@BinaryBunyip I bet you really loved the diverse cast.
Bad writing. Sauron, in the second age, was supposed to be a pseudo Promethean figure generating religious engineering in Harad and Rhûn with the metallurgical revolution he made in the east and south. He was like Mephistopheles from Goethe's Faust or Azazel from the book of Enoch.
Galadriel, in Eregion, was supposed to be a sage and a political opponent of Annatar's reformist ideas. She could be like a philosopher-queen archetype.
THIS!
Ghezz just your words wore far more engaging than 20 hours of rings of poooo
I'd 100% watch that series.
@@DrStrangefateyes you would but sadly the average person isn’t interested in that and they want gurl power and sauron simping over her
What's missing? Love for Tolkien, soul, respect, passion, interest...
Aye!
It’s the writing. All sound and fury-no depth. They aren’t trying to tell a story. They’re just trying to make a show.
EDIT: I wish I knew some people worth sharing this wonderful video with. It’s so spot on it’s nearly painful
"They aren’t trying to tell a story. They’re just trying to make a show.". These words describe it perfectly. As evident by the many, annoying references to dialogue from the lotr movies, in an effort to lure in fans of the movies to go "hey I remember that line from the movies!!!"
Great video, I loved how you delved into the themes of his work. Another thing that I find feels very anti-Tolkien about this show is it’s lack of respect for time and distance in middle earth. Characters seem to almost teleport to the other side of the map within days which is in stark contrast to Tolkien who would put thought into how many miles characters could realistically travel and how long it would take them. It’s a seemingly small thing but it helped make middle earth feel real and massive.
Yeah It's actually something that will come up in the other video "Epic stories vs Modernity". So fear not, a lot of cool stuff is coming in that regard too!
This is what made the early seasons of game of thrones so good. It took a long time for characters to get to their destination, and it made it feel like you the viewer were a part of the journey. It's also much more immersive and makes the world feel real.
@@tonysiouxfan Haven't seen GoT yet, planning on reading the books first though. I know John Howe also does a lot of illustrations for the series which is a pretty cool connection to Tolkien.
I feel the same way about the timeline compressions and the distance shortening.
Year of the Trees Galadriel gets in her time machine and shows up in S.A.1590. Elendil and Isildur are alive at the time the Rings of Power were forged.
Too many ugly decisions were made in regard to time and space.😞
I just laughed and shook my head when I realized that all the Elves that escaped were in the place that will become Rivendell. So Imladris is just behind the mountain on which Ost-in-Edhil is located, a few miles, instead of the 400 or so miles away that it is actually located.
When the Elves being the Firstborn and greatest creation of Eru Iluvatar looks like a cosplay meet up at NYC with a mix of different skin colours and being short and old which btw is a TOTAL MISCAST so the uniqueness and awe and beauty and grace of the Eldar feels like discount Target.
Amazon have tried to contemporise a mythological fantasy, and it just doesn't work. It's lost all its epic grandeur and heart. PJ had more sense.
It can work, though. Troy was a great movie, even if it does modernize/change things.
@@justachannel8600 Don't give Amazon ideas. 5 Seasons of The Iliad, "the story that Homer should have written". Lolol
@@justachannel8600 it wasnt popular and was considered a flop
@@richardPhilips2 Really? Interesting.
@@justachannel8600 you heard folks recomending it ? I certainly havent
You're pretty much spot on here. It is a sadly common phenomenon that writers today are not only unable to see things from any perspective but their own, they often don't even seem to be aware that other perspectives actually exist.
I totally agree! It's quite sad, really. Some things I love about other films and shows is how they tangle something in a way I haven't seen before. For instance Ragnar Lothbrok questioning the existence of the gods, while all his countrymen are firm in their belief. They kinda butchered in the following episodes, but it was good until that point at least.
@@CounciloftheRings The example that comes to mind for me is The Pharaoh Key by Preston and Child. It's a total mess for several reasons, many of which boil down to Preston and Child lacking the imagination to see the world from any perspective other than that of their own time and place in history and society.
It's not just writers, of course, but it's a bit less excusable and much more visible when writers have this fault.
I'm surprised how many people fail to understand that the Samurai Jack universe is posited to be more consistent with Eastern religions than with Abrahamic religions. The presumption of reincarnation has major, major consequences for how the show ends. It doesn't matter if you believe reincarnation happens in the real world; in the cartoon, it presumably does.
Bad Robot is a blight on all creative media. Doesn't surprise me Payne and the other dude worked for them.
For me, a big part of why the show doesn‘t feel like the movies is the music. It just is not reminiscent of the great and unique themes which Howard Shore wrote for the movies. The only exception is the Intro theme, which - would you look at that - is written by Howard Shore.
You can sum it up with this, Galadriel has seen the light of the trees, and whoever wrote ROP doesn’t understand what that means.
I am by now convinced that since Amazon didn't get the rights to the Silmarillion, the show runners thought they didn't have to read the novel and could just get away with LOTR (mostly going off of the movie, it seems) + google. The mind boggles...
Well their Galadriel sure doesn't act like she's older than the Sun, which she is in universe.
The thing that bothered me from the first minutes of Rings of Power was that the elves were just people with pointy ears, not ancient people. Galadriel was supposed to have walked the Earth before there was a sun to mark the days, but comes off as amazingly immature and petty. Dwarves, orcs, and hobbits were little better.
A story with truly different races allows us to see ourselves through alien eyes, or to see other things that people might be.
The writing on the Elves in particular showcases just how little these writers have grasped of Tolkien's work, or its scope spanning literal millennia They behave (and oftentimes look) like regular humans, which is crazy.
The writers probably behave like how Galadriel behaved in the show. Immature, grumpy and self-centered.
Portraying Elves is pretty hard I think. Peter Jackson in LotR actually didn't have to give the Elves too much screen time (apart from Legolas), so he was able to pull it off by letting them be very dignified and aloof. That approach wouldn't work with all the characters and dialogue there is in RoP. Anyway RoP have managed to mess it up in their own way.
@@vindolanda6974 I agree that writing true aliens is tricky; if you make them too alien you lose the audience. I think Babylon 5 handled it best. There were "younger races" who were different but relatable, and ancient races so advanced that they struggled to communicate with humans. Strazinsky used those differences to examine what it means to be human.
The points regarding the over-analysation of evil and importance of heeding wisdom were very well-thought out. Splendid stuff!
Thank you! I think Bradley Birzer also dives into the topic very well in his book; “J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth”. 😁
What I truly do not understand is how Payne, a devout Mormon, has managed to excise almost all of the spiritual aspects of Tolkien's work.
@@michelibarra191 do explain
@@michelibarra191 which rings and realms?
Because Mormons hate Catholics
Christianity is not a monolith.
In his interview with Matt of Nerd of the Rings, he said he drew inspiration from the Book of Mormon.
Then why is he doing a show where the characters are smitten with evil? Why was he promoting empathy to an evil character who is supposed to be the literal devil incarnate.
You never fail to make me think about Tolkien's works in a different way than i did before.
Glad to hear it! It's what the channel is all about, really! My own view has also developed over time!
besides the coherent writing and narrative structure, the secret sauce of peter jackson's films is that they felt REAL. hobbiton felt like a real place. the world felt lived in. this is rare among any fantasy adaptation and unfortunately ROP is one of many that fail to pass the test.
It would require quality writers to bring the universe to life.
@@Zero-90977 not even necessarily the writing, although obviously it's not as good. the set designs, costumes, etc. in LOTR felt very real. ROP is very good visually, but it still feels like you're watching a fantasy rather than a depiction of real places and stories that could've existed.
Why did the "hobbits" name Gandalf? He was given that name by the men Anor! Oh and he doesn't appear until the 3rd age! The Balrog fought and killed Durin the 6th, hence the name, Durins Bane!
The "signifying nothing" reference was perfect
Thank you! I always try to sneak in a Shakespeare reference, if I can get away with it 😂
@@CounciloftheRings
Those clowns who run the show try to sneak in Shakespearean sounding lines too.😂
The soundtrack, which in itself is great, emphasis this every episode for me. It swells and swells, with Bear McReary giving us the epic music we expect for an epic story like this. Except what we hear doesn't match the boring, poorly-written, underhwelming scenes on screen at all.
Why doesnt deadpool feels like LOTR ? ... i feel like answer is the same.
LoL... because it is stupid. The guy was stabbed twice, and next day he is fully healed..... Galadriel fell off a mountain, they damned a river and it dried up? like the water wasn't a flowing river coming from somewhere?
This is such a well written video. ❤ Thank you.
Its a poor man's adaptation of Peter Jackson's films. They copied the scenes, the dialogue and used up 100 times the budget and still failed Spectacularly
Aye there's a lot of stuff taken from PJ's adaptations, no doubt!
@@CounciloftheRings taking is fine, but they copied scene exactly, the Balrog pulling the leg, Elendil unsheathing the sword, Grand-elf moron being stuck in the tree.
Not even an iota of creativity was bought using a billion dollars
"do you know why a ship floats and a stone cannot?" 💀💀 the writing is so beyond absurd and retarded... it should be called The Retards of the Rings.
This is the only analysis I’ve come across that accurately pinpoints the actual heart of Tolkien’s story and why ROP fails so badly. Thanks for you work
Thanks for taking the time to comment! Truly 🙏
I think something else that makes ROP feel so hollow compared to Tolkien’s work is how inconsistent the characters are. Tolkien is known as the man who defined archetypes through consistent characters. Some do grow and mature (just look at Bilbo in the Hobbit), but it’s never at the comprising of their core.
In ROP, characters will flip on the whims of the story the show thinks it’s trying to tell. I’ll list some examples.
- Adar. Supposedly he cares for the orcs deeply. They are his children. And yet in the first season alone he is reckless with their lives in battle, does not punish Arondir for killing several, and needlessly burns one just to monologue. Nor does he do anything to curb their darker impulses and behaviors, and this attitude continues into season 2. Now I’m sure the showrunners might say that was the point, that he has become what he despised Sauron for. But there can be no fall if the character was never consistent with his desires in the first place. It’s lip service to an arc, not actual development.
- Sauron. In this show Sauron starts out supposedly remorseful, wanting to start a new life away from his role as the Dark Lord. He even makes the repeated claim that his fall to evil was Morgoth’s fault, and that upon Morgoth’s defeat it was “as if a veil had been lifted”. Yet we see in the prologue for season 2 that this is not true. Sauron was ready to continue being evil of his own free will and only stopped because the orcs mutinied against him. Yet his resistance to Galadriel’s attempts to get him involved in events seems genuine, and season 2’s prologue supports this as a genuine attempt to turn over a new leaf, even remarking to Galadriel in Mordor that fighting by her side for a good cause made him feel good. Yet all of this is down the drain once he wakes up in Eregion because he is now fully back on board with being evil. It’s an abrupt shift in his personality and goals with no catalyst for the change beyond “it had to happen sometime”.
(TBC)
Aye - I think the writing is some of it's weakest points. It feels like too many had their hand on it, which is why each episode also feels disconnected. "Too many cooks in the kitchen" one is tempted to say.
@@CounciloftheRings It’s like you say, it’s the writing. I watched a bunch of old sci-fi shows from the early 2000s, and what keeps me hooked aren’t the pretty visuals (they didn’t have the budgets for those) but the strength of the characters and story. That is what survived. Hope you’ll continue your 2nd Age series.
@@zirkalda9502 Yeah exactly a well-written story lives for longer than flashy explosions. That's the stuff that sticks to the soul! I certainly will!
I think their most egregious sin was what they did to Galadriel. I can't stand her, the way she is presented in the series.
@@zirkalda9502
That's why the original Star Trek series was so successful for so many decades.
Excellent video. I think I'm going to watch this again to really consider what you brought up, but on a first pass viewing there were some really interesting points I'd like to personally explore.
I recently read Tolkien's essay on fairy-tales and it was a fascinating read, if not simply to show how much thought he put into each and every decision made in the crafting of middle earth. There's no frivolity in it, and it's not "Just fantasy, get over it".
It's a great read! I read it some months ago! Keep in mind he wrote it in 1939, before The Lord of the Rings. You can still see how it's all woven together and LotR is truly a work that proves his line of thought.
...THATS THE POINT to me. it looks like narnia, warcraft, snow white or willow. not middle earth.
glad there r still smart people out there
This is the best video I've ever seen assessing RoP. It's clever and simply the truth. Thank you so much, I love this channel.
The world of RoP is a flat, dead, rigid, dull, soulless, godless, unimaginative and mechanistic world. It is strongly relativistic, which is why it doesn't know the difference between good and evil, true and untrue, up and down.
The world of LotR is the opposite: deep, alive, moving, exciting, animated, divine, magical and mystical. It has a clear moral compass and therefore knows the difference between good and evil.
The world of RoP thus reflects the idealised modern (Western, anti-authoritarian) order, the world of Tolkien the idealised old authoritarian order as it existed in the West until the 1960s.
We love Tolkien for idealising the old world because his stories are closely interwoven with our innermost longings. We hate the showrunners because they flatten these stories to the extreme based on modern superficial principles and thus destroy our dreams.
Basically, RoP is not a fantasy series, but a political series. It's all about power relations.
Thank you! Glad you like it! And yes I agree - it has been changed so much it's not even remotely connected - except by name. I'm mainly shocked (and somewhat horrified) the Estate would allow this. Everyone points towards Simon, but what about the other people in the Estate? Don't they care about Tolkien's works at all? Well too bad I can't join their team and have a say.
This video has been really insightful and even taught me some new things, that really enlightened me... This is probably the best video that puts RoP into perspective. Without someone going into a rant. 👏 I will recommend this video to others.
Thank you! Exactly what I was hoping for! There's so much more to be said, but I had to keep it short. More stuff will be brought up in the upcoming one "Epic stories vs. Modernity".
Thank you..another thoughtful and interesting analysis of both Tolkien’s work, and the limp ROP. I always feel smarter after your words. I have enjoyed Tolkien for over 50 years, but I am no scholar. I made a study of his work, specifically LOTR as my year 12 English, as a full project, year long, and yet I barely understood the most important aspects at that age. Tolkien managed to make the world of fairies, elves and goblins into a serious and deeply moving world. The origin of man, from the ancient Numenorians was especially significant, at least to me. It created a deep and ancient past, something to aspire to in life. Overall, it is a masterpiece of wide expanse.
ROP is so flawed and shallow, and the writers and producers have absolutely failed to portray any worthy aspects to any race of beings in this world. Truly worthless, pop culture garbage that is insulting and offensive to the original material. They failed to give us one single character that I deem worthy to survive…even Gandalf…seems to me the writers cast every single character as a weak, flawed facile being that lacks the essential essences of the race depicted. All are greedy, egotistical, unreliable, driven by anger, and lacking patience, wisdom, courage. ROP has stripped the most important and fundamental traits from every race. Including orcs. A waste of effort by Amazon, and a blight on filmmaking. It deserves mockery and contempt.
If you want a good introduction to the deeper stuff, I highly recommend Bradley Birzer's "J.R.R. Tolkien's Sanctifying Myth" then followed by Tom Shippey's "The Road to Middle-earth". Not exactly easy reads, but if you love the subject you'll certainly keep reading. My only complaint is that they are too short! Hahaha
It just doesn't look like Middle Earth. From then on there's no polishing a turd.
Because it is not remotely close to Lord of the Rings. It's nothing more than a thin veneer of Tolkien slapped on the story the people behind the show decided to tell and using Tolkien's name and various other things lifted from Tolkien's writings to attract an audience they would have otherwise never gotten. And they couldn't even make their own story anything close to being a good one.
True. And Season 3 is on the way to a Prime Video channel near you.😞
I agree wholeheartedly with what you say in this video, especially the presentism part. You have a very polite way of saying the show is very WOKE. As a "boomer" myself, I can relate with the fact that RoP seems agenda based. Maybe I'm too narrow minded, but I can't get myself to get over the fact that RoP casts just about anyone on in any role and seems to totally ignore established lore, as if they think they have enough power over there at Amazon to do whatever they want with their $billions.
For example, and this is probably the part that irks me the most. ELVES.... They are very well documented, and all have things like LONG HAIR, and HIGH CHEEK BONES, and fair skin. Note, I didn't not say tone. wood elves, high elves, dark elves, and many more types of elves exist, but they are all similar. None have short hair! Why? Because elves are immortal and their hair is very important to them. To cut it is a SIN to them. So, there wouldn't be any elves with cuts like you see in Celebrimbor in RoP. Nor would you see elves with kinky curly hair. Yes, Dark Elves exist, but they wouldn't look like sub saharan african americans with british accents. Its this total lack of repect for the lore of LOTR that makes RoP such a bad show. And this is only one example of the many things RoP does completely wrong.
Man's even citing Augustine of Hippo, this is several levels above so many popular channels.
Amazing work.
Thank you! ❤️
I was trying to explain that ROP didn’t feel right but couldn’t find the words. You have explained what I feel perfectly!
Wonderful 🤗
Imagine watching Rings of Power without having watched Lord of the Rings and knowing nothing about Tolkien's universe: What the fuck is the show even about?
It's even much worse because the show constantly hits us with clues about Tolkien's universe to plug in holes of their crappy plot line, but without those clues the show simply doesn't have a logical plot.
This is such an important topic for all those who want to understand why we hate TRoP so much. All the important aspects of Tolkien's world building are explained. Everyone who likes TRoP and belittles those of us who love the lore should be forced to watch this video.
Aside from all the obvious points that are listed ad nauseum, with their gigantic billion dollar budget, they managed to make the world feel very small.
You're very talented and sensible. Please expand your content beyond the lore. Just what your heart feels in this or that. No need to worry about not being an expert in the then analysys. Well, just an idea. Very nice video.
Great video sir! you and I seem of the same mind on this though perhaps I am a little more militant than you :)
I am pretty sure Patrick and McKay simply lack the experience and viewpoint to write a show set in a world as rich and beautiful as Tolkien's Legendarium. Firstly, and probably of the least importance to me but still valid, they originate from Bad Robot that alone is a strike against them, there is a reason why many people I know call it Bad Reboot. Secondly, and far more importantly they do not believe in true Beauty, truth, faith and goodness. They believe in Modernity in "subverting" expectation, of the subjectiveness of morality and ethics and that evil is simply misunderstood. If they do not believe in or serve goodness, they can only serve it's opposite. I have no idea what Peter Jacksons personal beliefs are, but I can say that Peter Jackson desired to honor Tolkien's beliefs with his work (even with the changes he made that some people disliked) where Patrick and McKay and the writers and directors who work with them at Amazon only want to honor and enrich themselves off the work and the backs of their betters. I doubt they even begin to understand Tolkien, nor do they really want to. they want to "skin suit" his life's work for nothing more than their own personal glory. The biggest thing it comes back to for me, why did they get rid of Tom Shippey. I think that action says a whole lot in my eyes.
It is true that friendship and unity are two of the many rich themes of the Legendarium, and there are many examples in the Trilogy that illustrate that beautifully. But the world of this series is steeped in allegory of modern day politics, trading on contemporary ideologies revolving around content that wasn't there in the text to begin with. Gone is the moral certitude of the world and its author, in its place is this typical Hollywood moral relativism, resulting jarring experience. You haven't created a series that supports a great aspiration of people coming together in friendship to resist a great evil, you've taken the most superficial veneer of that great Secondary World and corrupted it with moral myopia and abysmal characters who range from incompetent oafs to to being little different from the orcs and the Dark Lord.
Couldn't agree more. Postmodernist crap.
Great take on that! I always felt similar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it or put it into a concise words, as you did.
Let’s be honest, seeing a bunch of different races randomly mixed together in a setting that would obviously be very ethnically homogeneous makes the show feel like a school play. It completely ruins any suspension of disbelief
In their attempt to prioritise "diversity", they have erased all trace of it. From the supposed to be mighty Numenoreans, to the proto-Hobbits, or whatever they're supposed to be, Dwarves, Elves, all human populations, like the "Southlanders", every group is EXACTLY THE SAME. Irrespective of even rudimentary world building, all the distinctive people are gone, and in every corner of their counterfeit Middle Earth, the population is the same as any contemporary, global urban centre. As if nobody can get enough of that and must root it even in the fantastic.
May I add „gratuitous violence“???
The amount of eye gouging, gang stabbing and torture in this show is SO unlike Tolkien‘s spirit it‘s unreal. Extremely offputting IMO
Excellent point! I feel Jackson was also more subtle in that regard, though perhaps still too much for Tolkien.
@@CounciloftheRings I think that Tolkien ultimately would have still liked the Jackson films despite some of his visions being changed. His critique of the animated LotR movie showed that he cared most about the messages, values and ideas still being conveyed - and that‘s what the films did splendidly.
And he would hate RoP.
@@boshman11 💯
Well, what is missing apart from the team's worldview being completely antithetical to Tolkien's? They are msising all the literary theory of the early XX century, like all the theory of fiction the Inkling's themselves developed, take for example Talking of Bicycles of C S Lews. Hell, if you take what the actors and producers talked about overtly in interviews and such, it is almost a item by item opposition to what Tolkien explains of his process and goals in On Fairy Stories
Nothing in Rings of Power feels epic and huge in scale. The Peter Jackson films had massive epic battles. ROP missed on every opportunity to create those epic scenes.
ME in this show feels like it has a few hundred inhabitants total. It's insane how small they made Tolkien's vast world look and feel.
I think that the mindset was to fix lotr instead of adapting it. Fantasy inspired by Tolkien has evolved and the showrunner want to "modernize" lotr.
Orks were at the beginning mostly swordfodder, but in latee depiction they got more nuanced. Do these modern interpretations of the orks work with lotr? I think not.
Also the grey in grey morality that is more in common in modern media doesn't work with lotr. If Sauron is not that bad, then it is not that bad when he rules middle earth.
Rings of power has more in common with these infamous bad live action adaptions from Disney then their source material.
Yeah, well, if this is before Lotr, where did all the diverse people go in the third age ? Makes literally 0 sense.
Excellent analysis as expected. Which reminded me why I love UNGOLIANT so much: She is the only being that is not absence of light but almost PRESENCE OF DARKNESS. Palpable Darkness. Fabulous Creature inspired by SKOLL
RoP feels like LotR reimagined by orcs.
🤣🤣🤣
Second hand Orcs at that.
Orcs who have somehow been corrupted into an even more degenerate mockery of life 🤔
The opening is of this video is pretty strange because Tolkien constantly said he hated symbols and symbolism, and it’s hard to imagine trying to lay heavy-handed Christianity themes on his audience
I think you mean 'allegory'. The quote provided is from the foreword, where he also mentions his hatred for allegories. I'll make a whole video about it, at some point. To keep it short: It's far more complicated. A lot of people just throw it around without getting the context.
He mainly wrote that because at the time of the release every thought the story was an allegory of WW2 (a few WW1). Both are wrong of course. That doesn't mean there aren't symbols in the story though. Far from it.
Probably my favorite video that you've made so far. Thanks!
Wow, thanks! Glad to hear it! There's so much more coming like it! This was only a smooth transition, to some extend 😁
@@CounciloftheRings
Great! Bring 'em on!!😀👍
Very well said! That last line «It's full of soul & fury, but signifies nothing." Is spot on! I also thought the everyone cries was significant as even Sauron sheds a tear. There is so much wrong with this show, but trying to humanize the Orcs! Make those who are evil relatable & maybe not really evil while making our heroes evil.
"They not only think themselves superior to Tolkien but they also try to update and change his work " - "distortion of the good nature that God originally created" in other words. Tolkien himself would categorize the show-runners as evil
Beautifully encapsulated
Excellent video! Perfect description of the point of TLOR as Tolkien put. As a religious person (Christian), I agree completely. Thank you for your hard work and honouring Tolkien's work.
Thank you very much! ❤
Because five cent hacks want to 'fix' classical literature by inserting modern day messages into it, without any subtlety, wit, ability, or understanding of the original works. Hubris =/= ability.
“Low quality props” I will at least defend the props-work of my dear friends and fellow swordsmiths; Peter Lyon and his apprentice Chris Menges at Weta Workshop who made all the swords for season 1! (They did not work on season 2)
While the designs they were given and tasked to make were unfortunately not their own designs, and sadly they were not given creative-freedom to make them as good as I know they wished they could’ve: they did the damned best with what they were given, and I know that’s true of many other friends & colleagues who are artists and craftsmen that worked on the show. I can’t defend every prop and design, but had to at least defend my friends at Weta who did the weapons and orc makeup for season 1.
It’s just a sad damn shame that so much good art for the show was overshadowed and wasted on such a cringey terrible script.
Yeah I don't think the swords are a weak point of the show - I think it's some of the best elements actually (Even though I don't think the horse-association with Númenor makes sense). Narsil looks good, Pharazôn's sword, Aranrúth & Tuor's axe (at least the concept art). The Dwarven axes are a bit crude (not as weird as in The Hobbit, though).
I think the make-up for the orcs is some of the best parts of the show (there's a few extras with questionable performances, but that's a different issue).
It was mainly regarding the rings, the costumes, armours, helmets (especially these), the pickaxe of king Durin (looks like plastic) and in a few instances the teeth of some of the orcs. There's probably some more stuff, but this comes to mind.
And yes I totally agree that so much of the good stuff from the show gets overshadowed by the bad elements. I think the concept art is 10 times better than the end result, which also seems to indicate the ideas were better, but the execution dragged down some things. I also think the music is decent - not on par with Howard Shore, Hans Zimmer and James Horner, but who really is? I think Bear McCreary could in time become almost that good, but he needs more experience (not through games, but actual shows).
I think the Orc make-up in Season 1 was better than that of Season 2, which in many cases went overboard on applying prosthetics and make-up.
@@CounciloftheRings The helmets of the Elves in the battle of Eregion were bad. Really really bad. Not saying your friends did that, CedarloreForge. I'm just pointing it out.
this is an absolutely perfect explanation! I struggle to explain these things to friends who liked rings of power, hopefully i can convince them to watch your video
To me, TROP feels like I am watching Krull, or Ator the Fighting Eagle, or Beast Master, or Barbarian Queen.... It just plays like a campy 80s sword and sorcery movie to me. Those at least I could enjoy because they didn't take themselves seriously.
This is wonderful! The showrunners should watch this with humility. It's never too late to try to right the ship and look to create a show that can be timeless.
I envy your optimism friend
After two seasons of 💩💩, I am afraid it is too late to right the ship.😞
This brilliant philosophical video should be required viewing for all of the Amazon executives, as well as anybody making decisions about ROP.
Although it probably would be dismissed as irrelevant by the showrunners, at least some of the executives might understand why the show fails.
The showrunners removed Tolkien's foundation while deluding themselves that they are portraying Middle Earth, just because the character and place names are Tolkien's.
I'm starting to think the showrunners had a better understanding of Tolkien's good and evil than I had assumed.
They saw what was good in Tolkien's eyes so they had to overturn that eg. replacing male leaders with female leaders, etc.
They saw what was evil in Tolkien's eyes, so they delved too deeply and greedily into that because they wanted to give those characters a sympathetic backstory.
They unwittingly made Guyladriel the biggest villain. All of the suffering in season two is her fault because she refused to tell the other elves that Halbrand was Sauron. Although, I can't imagine why the elves didn't ask her questions about why Halbrand left, and why she said not to deal with him again.
And at the end of season two, why are the few surviving elves not furious with her? They still treat her respectfully as a person of honor and military leader. 😡
This video is really one for the ages! I hope it gets a very wide circulation! (Ring pun!)
🙏💚🧝♂️🌟
Thank you! It would be nice if Amazon decided to turn the boat around, but I think it's far too late, by now. I guess it just proves shows and films these days require more time in the early phase, rather than just flashy production on set.
And yeah the inconsistency of the writing will be brought up in the upcoming video, hahaha.
Writing a legendary story like Tolkien definitely doesn't happen on accident.
100%
Because it's not. It's the fever dream of two nitwits who were handed the reins to a show for which they were completely out of their depth and massively unprepared to work on.
Excellent analysis
Thanks! 😁
@@CounciloftheRingsI think a key to the success of Peter Jackson’s films was the constant use of Tolkien’s language from the books. I presume most of the people making the trilogy were secular people, but they loved Tolkien’s world and, crucially, they let Tolkien speak by putting his actual words in the mouths of the characters.
I’ve missed the episode reviews. The finale was absolutely terrible. Probably worse than a lot of the previous stuff. I was almost ill.
There is too much money dumped in this 'show'. Acolyte - cancelled. Now Velma (yes, there was a second season) - cancelled (thank goodness).
Hahahah yeah. I'm curious if they'll cancel it.
Because it simply isn't.
Presentism - the most important time is...now. The most important place is here (wherever that is). The most important person is me - and my close coterie. ROP in a nutshell both as presented and the mindset of the conceivers
This is the video I've been waiting for ❤
🧙♂🎉🤗
It hurts because some of my family love this series-I don’t want to ruin their fun but if someone’s eating slop should you not tell them?
Yes, you should. Doesn't mean you should change your feelings for them. It's an opportunity for You to grow.
great video and on point explanations. couldn't agree more. thank you for your work, the research and finding the right words.
Much appreciated
Tolkien is the pinnacle of fiction writing.. he created every fiber of this universe. People writing for this show aren't even fictional narrative writers of the least order. They're one dimensional cause & effect storytelling technique and overuse of expository dialogue (they tell more than they show).. sounds like they're essayists with inflexible linear thoughts. They don't understand how conflict works, how to make uniquely nuanced characters and don't know how to make interactions feel real.
Great video about the situation. Nicely thought out and presented.
Face it. We all knew it was just a cash-in that was going to blow chunks.
But NONE of us expected the chunks to be so big , and so many!! 😳
I love your understanding of Tolkien's philosophy, I'm glad that at least some people understand it as more than just a fairy tale
The fight choreographs are absolutely horrendous as well. Like when they're on guard, why do they seem to be posing like they're carrying guns?
Just doesn’t feel like middle earth, so many lame characters, especially in numenor. Crap writing, lore breaking left right and centre. I’m actually a little bit shocked at how bad it all turned out tbh. Didn’t even bother watching season 2!
Elves were supposed to be enchanting. Here is like they are taken straight off the street.
am shocked too
also did not watch season 2
and, that says a lot...usually I watch till the end, hoping for some nice cinematography dialogues or fight scenes...but as with witcher...it s simpy too sad...and yeah, bad.
I just wanted to hop in and say how much I resonated with what you discussed in your video. In so many ways I have struggled to convey why I felt this show lacked any real relation to Tolkien, and why I have always felt it be more a very average fan-fiction or generic fantasy show. It lacks a soul, specifically the soul Tolkien gave his work. Thank you for this video! I am defs going to reference it whenever I want to explain these points to my friends!
Awesome! Thank you and I'm glad you liked it! Maybe your friends will like it too 😁
Wokeness, ego and the need to piss off the original fanbase and have their own take over
As an intellectual critique this video, is very (very!) good but feelings are not being addressed. The question being asked is, unhappily, deeply flawed. Like all modern intellectual deceits employing such language, it annoys me. You cannot "feel like", "feeling that", "feel as if", these are all thoughts masquerading as feelings. They do not tell you what feeling was being felt. The questioner either cannot distinguish clearly between what is a thought and what is a feeling, or is concealing their feeling behind word salad. "I feel like I was hit by a whip." Well, did you feel pain and hate it? Or did you feel pleasure and like it? What did you feel? What was the feeling? This question is, in reality, a thought and to answer it requires only thoughts (not feelings) necessitating mental (not emotional) analysis, critique and intellectual cognitive dialogue. To answer the question correctly; People dislike / hate, move away from, feel ambivalent towards, are repelled by, reject and seek to destroy, ROP. People like / love, move towards, are attracted to, feel deeply attached to, deeply embraced by, close to, LOTR. How does this happen? Importantly, Tolkien, like all great authors, engages the reader in our basic Jungian human archetypes (J.K. Rowling does the same thing). These are 'primitive' mental images phylogenically (naturally) inherited from our earliest human ancestors present within the collective unconscious of every human mind (we naturally all recognise fear, happiness, love, hate, despair, the numinous, the spiritual, expressions and representations thereof). Thus, although fantasy, LOTR is grounded fundamentally in real and ancient human emotional experience that we all relate to. The fear and courage of the hobbits approaching Mordor. Profound and bitter envy, the hatred and malice of Sauron, that he inculcated and bred into the orcs to direct against humans, elves and dwarves. The profound, ancient, cultural and racial, courage of Theoden and the Rohirrim at the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. The timeless deep theological struggle of good v evil. The sagacity and ancient wisdom of the immortal high elves like Galadriel. Meanwhile, ROP is a fantasy grounded in a fantasy that is contemporary ideology. Amazon attempts to engage the viewers in a shallow (not deep) fantasy of contemporary human experience (e.g., false Galadriel, not sagacious, ancient, wise, goddess-like, but conceptualised (thought of) as a contemporary ultra-feminist) that most people cannot relate to at depth. To meet the requirements of contemporary globalist DEI ideology, Amazon hates and deliberately rejects (destroys) basic human archetypal experience, especially one with culturally racial associations (blonde bearded Vikings, stalwart Welsh Britons). It seeks to impose its philosophical origins in the emotion of envy by behaving in an envious fashion. It gaslights, shames, belittles, seeks to undermine by, for example, trying to humanise hate driven, envious, orcs, having dominant women and weak male characters, de-racialising cultural associations. Amazon also rejects the enemy of social-liberalist DEI progress, history, which Tolkien loved, which grounds us all in a sense of tradition, belongingness and the eternal. Consequently, the Amazon version will only appeal to those progressive ideologists who feel a similar hatred for ancient collective phylogenic human experience. An experience that from basic human survival necessity required, before the intervention of technologies, historic distinctions in male and female gender roles just as the natural animal and plant world (not our purple haired version) continues to do. Tolkiens story is a survival battle which recognises, and identifies with, the realities of ancient human experience. Amazon's story rejects ancient human experience in favour of an ideological imposed fantasy of humanity i.e., what it would like the world to be not what it is. Tolkien tells an ancient world story we relate to. Amazon delivers propaganda intend to change world thinking into its own image. How do we feel towards Tolkien? Warm, fellowship, attached, love, gifted, befriended. How do we feel towards Amazon? Cold, hatred, detached, rejected, deceived. This is what is being felt. This is not a critique and discussion of what is thought about the story and its adaptations, masquerading as emotional experience but, in reality, not concerned with feeling at all.
Looking at this video makes me understand that the ROP film writers did not understand anything nor have they the capacity to understand. They are very superficial and this is reflected into the show.
The answer is simple, it doesn't feel like LoTR or anything Tolkien wrote because it isn't.
5:20 A lot of the more fantastical elements found in The Hobbit, like the trolls' talking purse and the talking birds, can be attributed to the book being Bilbo's autobiography, which he frequently embellished for his audience, and I don't read Turin's sword talking to be literal as much as a projection of his own conscience. But that's one of the many things that makes Tolkien's writings so fascinating to read, his narrators are unreliable, which combined with the many different versions of some of his stories, allows for a lot of freedom of imagination and speculation. (To be clear, I am NOT trying to excuse talentless hacks for disregarding the things that Tolkien did make abundantly clear.)
Aye, I agree! It's true we can't know for certain if these two objects could actually talk - but it is still presented as 'the truth' without anyone questioning it. For long I too also thought it was just Túrin's mind, but I find it more interesting if it's not. The sword certainly had a personality of its own and also had a unique origin. It's fun to never know the true answer.
I think the talking birds are correct enough, whether you mean the ravens, thrushes or Great Eagles. Those can be found elsewhere too - They can't all be making up stuff, haha.
Cheers! 🧙♂️
Who could have heard Gurthang speak at that time? No one but Turin and a dead Glaurung were there. So someone made it up.
What’s missing? Respect for the source material, obviously.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the creators of RoP don’t like the fact that LOTR is a fictionalized mythology of England and Northern Europe. They find that offensive, actually. And so these are the changes they made to mythology to make it more palatable for people with their same belief system.
What's missing? Tolkien is missing
Watching the Wrongs of Power is like watching a poor quality exploatation film: Terminator vs CyberCop etc. If Roger Corman got the budget of the Wrongs of Power he would create a Masterpiece but those dumb talentless Amazon people can't do anything right. Even the visuals of P.Jackson films made decades ago look way better using miniatures, limited cgi and camera tricks
Wonderful. Someone with deep knowledge of what Tolkien's text is truly about and a great analysis of why Rings of Power feels so very wrong.
I'm incredibly sick of people claiming to know Tolkien and at the same time defending this show. Most of them then proceed to insult fans by claiming they are the ones who know nothing about Tolkien. Some big youtubers are shilling for the show as well and are just dishonest to their fans, because they want access and whatever else they're getting for their a$$-kissing. Even a so-called Tolkien professor among them. It disgusts me.
So I'm really happy every time I stumble upon someone who truly understands and is honest about it. There a many who do that and I'm glad about it. Thank you for making this video.
"Why Doesn't The Rings of Power feel like The Lord of the Rings?" Bad writing. Bad acting. Bad direction. Bad stories.
Incredible video. You nailed it. Agree 100% with every point made in the conclusion! Thank you!
Thank you! 🙏
I see it positive the first episode of the second season reminded me to rewatch the trilogy again. Its honestly sad how they structured the show, smart immortal beings are just as smart as their writers unfortunately and too much filler and selfinsert. Again like the first season the last episode had glimpses of what could have been with better writing.
Great video. One of the best you've done.
Glad you think so! More stuff like it is in production ✨
Presentation feels more like Narnia than LOTR
What’s missing the joy and beauty and talent of creating art because you love the material so passionately. This is hot garbage for greed sake
If you imagine that an epidemic of glue sniffing descended on Middle Earth, the dialogue almost makes sense. I wasn't committed enough to actually sniff glue myself though, I had to be content with having a few drinks with friends and laughing at every episode
Because neither the Hobbit, nor the Lord of the Rings was a soap opera. If you were to 'ambush' a show executive and forced them to give an answer, they couldn't tell you how it ends. They just start stuff and then milk it till no interest remains. Welcome to modern TV.
Re the race/diversity bit ~22 mins, I'm white and I've watchedd all-Asian shows, all-Chinese, all-Indian, Thai, African, whatever. I never thought about it until I saw these silly racial mashups which're obviously done for meta-reasons - when I watch, I'm meta-pulled right out of the show's world and into an LA casting studio.
It’s just baffling to me that Amazon would invest so much money on a series and hire brand new showrunners to helm it. They are literally learning on the job. I genuinely don’t get why you wouldn’t pony up to get someone with decades of experience. Seems like malpractice or just straight up stupidity to me
Easy answer to what is missing: Good writers