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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Is Off To A Great Start: Episodes 1-3 Review | MM
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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Is Off To A Great Start: Episodes 1-3 Review | MMORPG.com
Bradford is an unabashed Tolkien fanatic, so when given the chance to review the second season of Amazon's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, he jumped at the chance. Here are some of his thoughts after watching the first three episodes of the upcoming season.
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The hobbit beats it because in most it's true to the version that Tolkien wrote, not perfect but way better that ROP.
*whacks self in the skull with a hammer 32 times and huffs an entire can of spray paint*
Alright, let's do this.
Tolkien's elves were not these glamorous beings that a person awed or admired, they did not have human-like features. There is more to it than that, but let's just say the Elder Scrolls, Neverwinter Nights, Baldurs Gate games were more faithful with elves then Peter Jackson was.
I love Peter Jackson's films, but man the elves...... that was my only real gripe, hehe. Still, LOTR is a masterpiece and i love the books as much as i love those movies, and i watch the extended versions pretty regularly.
That said, i don't know if my stomach could handle watching these Amazon re-tellings.
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Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
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Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
There are also fan cuts that remove a good amount of the added stuff.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Elven_characteristics
I guess it was a month or two ago that I sat down to start binge watching.
Sadly, I just couldn't do it. I found the first episode to be just incredibly unlikeable that I had to force myself to watch the whole thing. I never loaded episode 2.
That said, the trailers for season 2 certainly LOOK better, but.. I just do not think I can get myself to watch. The writing was horrendous IMHO and the characters were forced. Other than the setting, it just did not seem very Tolkien like. YMMV and you aren't a bad person for liking it though (sad I feel compelled to say that but this is the world we live in today).
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As far as Dwarven women, sure they have beards. I think portraying them without is an optics thing as you need the audience to accept them without issue.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Lore wise it was too early for Hobbits and Dunedain, but you still could have had other races of humans. This was basically "lets do second age to make our mark and transport as much iconic stuff from the third age as we can".
Stylistically some hairstyles, armour and 'unfunctional clothing' was taken to task.
But I think all of that would have been forgiven if the story, acting and characterisation was good enough, but although not poor it seems that at best was average. Just like in gaming with so many new titles coming out average is not good enough.
/shrug
Maybe I just don't get too caught up in "how things should be". Especially in a world as shallow (lore-wise) as Middle Earth.
I want a mmorpg where people have gone through misery, have gone through school stuff and actually have had sex even. -sagil
Brenics ~ Just to point out I do believe Chris Roberts is going down as the man who cheated backers and took down crowdfunding for gaming.
That said, I have already watched season 2's first few episodes twice, and I do think that they lean more into feeling Tolkienianl than the previous season. That season had its moments, especially if you really dive deep, but it didn't feel Tolkienian at a surface level. Season 2, at least in my mind, does. And that helps me tremendously as someone who both understands that this isn't canon and won't ever be, but also wants to see the true story and spirit of the Professor's writing portrayed properly and as accurately as they can.
Whether the rest of the season holds up remains to be seen, but I do think it's worth giving another shot, if for no other reason than to get to season 2, where it does get much better from the jump.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
However, because there is so little exact detail that ROP can pull from, the created characters like Arondir (best new elf, IMO) or Adar's arc will be confusing. But the season 1 recap with the first episode (and it's on YouTube) could get you up to speed most of the way.
I am on a re-watch of it and knowing where the season ends up, re-frames it for me so I have found it more interesting than my first watch.
All the core parts of Tolkien's work and philosophy behind his legendarium, including fundamental elements involving Sauron, the Elves and pretty much everything else have been butchered beyond recognition and these barbarians have the temerity to lie through their teeth about their respect for the original work. The morons acting in this garbage even claim that Sauron and Galadriel have a "psychic connection" or that there is some kind of romance between them, and that they are "magical beings". How such stupidity and ignorance are allowed anywhere near Tolkien's work is completely beyond me. But I guess money can indeed buy anything and anyone - even Tolkien Estate.
When Cristopher Tolkien bemoaned Jackson's adaptation, which 'turned JRRT's work into an action movie for young adults' how little did he know what these Hollywood clowns are truly capable of. This show is a deliberate butchery of Tolkien's work and not worthy of any association with the source material.
It demonstrably is not faithful to Tolkien by any definition. It completely butchers his work.
Tom Shippey is not involved with the show, he departed the team very soon after work on Season 1 began. We can only guess that when he saw the barbarism of Amazon and the entire crew, he would not accept to have his name tarnished with this travesty.
Tolkien Estate of 2024 is miles away from Tolkien Estate pre-January 2020. Those vultures sold out to Amazon everything CJRT nurtured and protected after JRRT's death. It's probably a good thing that CJRT did not live to see what happened to his father's work.
Tolkien is impossible to adapt to any media without creative license. Its the nature of his work.
So we have two options - just like with people who argue and screen about Star Wars, Harry Potter, and any other major fandom.
Either we get new media - movies, games, tv shows, anime, etc... or we do not. At the end of the day, I am thankful to get new Tolkien adaptations as it shows the desire for his stories and world is still thriving. I may disagree with changes or parts here of there but I will take it over a world where it ceases to be.
pretty much my view as well. people really have a hard time simply enjoying something, and enjoying that we get to see more of a fictional world we love and the imagination that world inspires. this is why i generally don't care what other people think about these kinds of things as fandoms are often so uptight and purist they're impossible to appease because there will always be 10,000 things wrong with any adaption in many peoples minds. i just watch for myself and make up my own mind on whether i liked it or not.
in the case of this show, i enjoyed it, i enjoyed watching an adaptation of these events and getting to see further development of characters i really like from the original material, as well as seeing an adaptation of middle earth beyond the entry point of the hobbit and lord of the rings.
However, the second part is where I disagree completely. Sure, people enjoy all kinds of stuff and not everyone spends their evenings re-reading The Brothers Karamazov for 15th time. But that is not a reason for dumbing down existing classics so that they can be consumed by a popcorn-munching, soda-slurping audience laughing at feeble burp jokes.
There are many works that should not be adapted and should be left for the people to work towards, instead of trying to lower them to their level. It's the whole arguing with idiots maxim all over again.
Many people will not make the effort and that is fine (well, almost - it's just reality). But to instead completely ruin such material in order to get to their level - or worse yet, use it as a hollowed-out vehicle for your own pathetic fan fiction generously sprinkled with modern agitprop, as is the case with this show - is the exact opposite of what should be happening.
The whole idea is for the people to aspire to something more, something higher, especially intellectually. And if they are not willing to or unable to: they should definitely not be lied to by claiming the slop they're watching is actually what this or that great work is about. We've had plenty of experience with rewriting history and this is the same thing happening again through "adaptation" of cultural works. It is just as dangerous as what we saw last century.
Hollywood has been an endless deluge of slop for the better part of two decades and this new instalment just shows how low they are willing to push the bar.
It reminds me a bit of Mitchell & Webb...
Or the Idiocracy.