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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

JohnC

By JohnC,
in Film, TV & Radio

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Thor

Thor

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, kensei said:

About a million years ago, I ranted extensively on the Edge forums about the shitness of the Lord of The Rings films because how they changed Aragon and a bunch of other things. And indeed, 90% of Jackson's changes are pure shite. But I have loosened up a bit since because adaptations have to adapt and what works on the page might not work well on screen. Treat them as different animals.

Gonna have to disagree, I prefer Peter Jackson's LotR to JRR Tolkiens'. But I know I may be in the minority there.

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scottcr

scottcr

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I love the LOTR books - my folks read the Hobbit to me when I was but a lad and couldn't read 'big books'.  Tolkein is a massive part of my personal history.

 

and then

 

The LOTR films are my favourite trilogy.

 

It's really really possible to love both and understand why changes are made.

 

If someone took the LOTR and put it directly onto the screen as written - it would've been a massive and expensive flop.

 

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Captain Kelsten

Captain Kelsten

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Posted

Oh and I can see why they made Galadriel the lead - it wouldn't do to have another male led ensemble piece and it's great to see imo - and I'm fine with it being divergent from her book counterpart (let's face it, Tolkien didn't exactly write females well, did he?). I'm also fine with black or other skin-coloured elves and dwarves because, really, they're fucking made up races so who cares? I'm all for diversity in casting and getting the right people for the role regardless of gender or skin colour. In fact the ONLY character I saw in the trailers and thought 'nah, that's not working for me' was bloody Elrond! And only really because the bloke looks a bit odd.

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kensei

kensei

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Festoon said:

 

It's a long time since I read them, but I'm really sure Galariel's general arc was that she was just like any other Elven leader until her group came to Lothlorien, whereupon she took on this 'Luthin style power reveals' but had to lay aside the more conventional forceful methods to do it.

 

She definitely was "a ward of Doriath who often went to borders of Doriath to hunt down the enemies" as it's a direct quote from Tolkien and, I dunno, but I'm pretty sure Tolkien's thinking (as I remember it) was the opposite of what you're saying, making her a more involved character in the First Age. 

 

Galadriel is a significant character but not a lot of stuff makes it into the Silmarillion proper. Pretty sure the refusal to give Feanor any of her hair is from unfinished things.

 

Hunting orcs on the borders of Doriath must be seen in the context of the the first age. She's not at any of the major battles. Her brother Finrod is. He has has life saved by Barahir and the ring he gives ultimately ends up with Beren. Who Finrod then saves from Sauron. Her other brothers were killed when Morogoroth broke the Siege of Angband. Her uncle went toe to toe with Morogoroth himself. And so on.

 

Second Age she moves about and establishes kingdoms but Gil Galad's is high king. Those kingdoms are involved in wars but she's not mentioned in battles. She's wary of Sauron as Annatar but so are all the major elves. She's the one that suggests hiding the rings. She's sets up the White Council. 

 

Like basically all of Tolkien, her powers are all enigmatic. In the Third Age it's mostly the Ring. Before that she's still powerful in typical Tolkien handwavey seen the light of the Two Trees, mighty among the elves, no one actually knows what it means until someone needs to turn into a wolf or something.

 

Though maybe it's just the trailer giving the wrong impression and 10,000 incels on the internet making noise. We'll know tomorrow.

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kensei

kensei

Posted
Posted
24 minutes ago, Captain Kelsten said:

Oh and I can see why they made Galadriel the lead - it wouldn't do to have another male led ensemble piece and it's great to see imo - and I'm fine with it being divergent from her book counterpart (let's face it, Tolkien didn't exactly write females well, did he?). I'm also fine with black or other skin-coloured elves and dwarves because, really, they're fucking made up races so who cares? I'm all for diversity in casting and getting the right people for the role regardless of gender or skin colour. In fact the ONLY character I saw in the trailers and thought 'nah, that's not working for me' was bloody Elrond! And only really because the bloke looks a bit odd.

 

Tolkien wrote some great female characters. Just not many. And the entire social order was different when he conceived and write the thing so "good" has changed.

 

Take out the malicious fuckers driving hate for clicks and a lot of this sort of controversy is "How invested are you in this?". If you aren't invested you don't care. If you have spent a lot of time with other versions then you tend to be like "I just wanted what's in my head". That's okay and normal human reaction. Just don't be a dick.

 

Elrond does look weird.

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Chindie

Chindie

Posted
Posted

Bit disappointed to hear the prologue on the First Age is very short, similar to Jackson's covering the Second Age in his trilogy. I was hoping the first 2 episodes would give us a good chunk of set up for the Second Age by showing the abridged big moments of the First Age.

 

Also disappointed that the not-hobbits are apparently a big deal in the show.

 

I'm now pretty certain that they'll have fudged things so that Meteor Man is

Spoiler

Gandalf, because it's not Middle Earth if they don't have the familiar names. Sigh.

 

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scottcr

scottcr

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, Chindie said:

Bit disappointed to hear the prologue on the First Age is very short, similar to Jackson's covering the Second Age in his trilogy. I was hoping the first 2 episodes would give us a good chunk of set up for the Second Age by showing the abridged big moments of the First Age.

 

Also disappointed that the not-hobbits are apparently a big deal in the show.

 

I'm now pretty certain that they'll have fudged things so that Meteor Man is

  Reveal hidden contents

Gandalf, because it's not Middle Earth if they don't have the familiar names. Sigh.

 

 

dunno - seems reasonable to me

 

Spoiler

The time that the Blue Wizards arrived in Middle-earth is uncertain. In Unfinished Tales, Tolkien wrote that the five Istari came to Middle-earth together in TA 1000. However, in The Peoples of Middle-earth, they are said to have arrived in the Second Age, around the year SA 1600, the time of the forging of the One Ring.[3] Their mission was directed at weakening Sauron's forces in the eastern and southern parts of Middle-earth, whereas the other Istari were focused on the west.

 

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Chindie

Chindie

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, scottcr said:

 

dunno - seems reasonable to me

 

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The time that the Blue Wizards arrived in Middle-earth is uncertain. In Unfinished Tales, Tolkien wrote that the five Istari came to Middle-earth together in TA 1000. However, in The Peoples of Middle-earth, they are said to have arrived in the Second Age, around the year SA 1600, the time of the forging of the One Ring.[3] Their mission was directed at weakening Sauron's forces in the eastern and southern parts of Middle-earth, whereas the other Istari were focused on the west.

 

 

If it's

Spoiler

one of the Blue Wizards, I'm fine with it. They basically don't have a story and can sit in the Second Age nicely.

 

But they are heavily hinting it's Gandalf. The connection with the not-Hobbits, his appearance, the connection with fire... It's gonna be Gandalf. And it shouldn't be. He doesn't appear until the Third Age, the last Wizard to arrive in the world iirc.

 

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scottcr

scottcr

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, Chindie said:

 

If it's

  Hide contents

one of the Blue Wizards, I'm fine with it. They basically don't have a story and can sit in the Second Age nicely.

 

But they are heavily hinting it's Gandalf. The connection with the not-Hobbits, his appearance, the connection with fire... It's gonna be Gandalf. And it shouldn't be. He doesn't appear until the Third Age, the last Wizard to arrive in the world iirc.

 

 

I'd be cool if it were that... some of it is going to depend on what they have the license for... e.g like the LOTR films, they weren't actually allowed to talk about

 

Spoiler

the blue wizards... but the wizards *did* come to middle earth in the second age, so take some liberties and make it Gandalf.  I'm cool with that.  It's not that big a thing.

 

 

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kensei

kensei

Posted
Posted

Ack-tually 

 

Spoiler

I believe the Wizards are canonically Third Age. This would be shit.

 

However, there's a loophole, which would probably particularly apply to Gandalf. The Valar and Maiar are basically angelic beings, and were noted to sometimes observe elves and men either as incorporeal or as disguised among them.

 

I'm pretty sure Olorin was one of the Maiar that was sympathetic even during the ban, plus he was noted as being afraid of Sauron.

 

It could be okay or it could be shit. My bet:

 

Gandalf and Galadriel were close in LoTR - it's Galadriel who sends the eagle to get Gandalf after he fights the Balrog. They are going to make their connection pre-date his arrival in TA.

 

This would fall in the shit pile, but we'll see. I don't think he should be interacting with any of the major players.

 

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Festoon

Festoon

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Chindie said:

 

I'm now pretty certain that they'll have fudged things so that Meteor Man is

  Reveal hidden contents

Gandalf, because it's not Middle Earth if they don't have the familiar names. Sigh.

 

 

Was that not a certainty from the second we saw him in the trailer? I remember mocking

 

Spoiler

The Stranger

 

as a title.

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Chindie

Chindie

Posted
Posted
59 minutes ago, Festoon said:

 

Was that not a certainty from the second we saw him in the trailer? I remember mocking

 

  Hide contents

The Stranger

 

as a title.

I wondered whether it might be their way if showing 

Spoiler

Sauron's

coming to earth.

 

Or

Spoiler

the blue wizards

 

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Mikes

Mikes

Posted
Posted

Well I'm fucked off. All advertising has RoP being avialable on the 2nd. It's the 2nd here. Has been for 10 hours. And yet:

 

image.png.3441eee1b6eaace5d81c9ff425cbcf34.png

 

Media companies do this all the time. Can't piss off the yanks by letting them think other countries get something a few hours earlier, but how fucking hard would it be to have "3rd" written on the Australian app?

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