The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

[Mikes]

49 minutes ago, scottcr said:

I took that as

 

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It being a sign of his return, like an omen

 

 

Same.

 

Also (lore spoilers)

 

Spoiler

After the expulsion of Morgoth sauron basically handed himself in to the Valar and was ordered to return to Valinor for judgement, but instead did a runner to the east where he built his strength.

 

As such, he was already in the east, and the meteor came from the west. Moreover, meteor man was pretty defenceless when he landed. I mean, two adolescent hobbits managed to kidnap him. Putting himself in danger goes against everything Else sauron has ever done.

 

[Festoon]

I like that people see things and interpret them differently, like the meteor, without they, or us, knowing if they are correct.

 

That's good scriptwriting to me. A lot of shows feel too modern in how communications happen (HoTD, for example - ravens are just text messages).

[Festoon]

2 hours ago, Mikes said:

 

Same.

 

Also (lore spoilers)

 

  Hide contents

After the expulsion of Morgoth sauron basically handed himself in to the Valar and was ordered to return to Valinor for judgement, but instead did a runner to the east where he built his strength.

 

As such, he was already in the east, and the meteor came from the west. Moreover, meteor man was pretty defenceless when he landed. I mean, two adolescent hobbits managed to kidnap him. Putting himself in danger goes against everything Else sauron has ever done.

 

 

What I like in the actual lore is that 

Spoiler

Sauron seems to be genuine to some extent in his regret to the Valar, and it takes him time to slip back into his old ways. Such a nice detail.

 

[wev]

This gets better and better doesn't it? I do hope now that's not the last we see of Disa though, quite enjoy her and Elrond ganging up on Durin

[scottcr]

No chance - she’s all in for the series. Watched episode 4 for the second time. Don’t understand the bad ratings it’s getting apart from incel Elon stans 

[jonamok]

This continues to be wonderful. I love everything about it.

 

Interestingly, tonight our Sheltie, who normally has little interest in the TV (unless it’s barking dogs), went absolutely fucking mental at the Orcs in this Ep, proper barking and growling at them, then turning to us for support. Every time they came back on, same full-on attack mode: fuck them orcses!! Bless him.

[Mikes]

17 minutes ago, scottcr said:

No chance - she’s all in for the series. Watched episode 4 for the second time. Don’t understand the bad ratings it’s getting apart from incel Elon stans 

 

That is just it. But they can't change the viewing numbers.

[Festoon]

What I think is enlightening is how muh better practical orcs are, and how shit The Hobbit ones were.

[Darwock]

Everything in the Hobbit ‘trilogy’ was shit.

 

I watch the friendship onion podcast with Billy Boyd/Dom Monaghan pretty regularly and they are always talking about LOTR, reminiscing about the days in NZ and all that. The Hobbit stuff very rarely gets mentioned, which is understandable as they weren’t in it - although it does come up now and then.

 

Rings of Power hasn’t been mentioned even once, despite high levels of audience interaction with an audience that is full of LOTR fans. They must be intentionally ignoring it, but I wonder why?

[scottcr]

2 minutes ago, Darwock said:

Everything in the Hobbit ‘trilogy’ was shit.

 

I watch the friendship onion podcast with Billy Boyd/Dom Monaghan pretty regularly and they are always talking about LOTR, reminiscing about the days in NZ and all that. The Hobbit stuff very rarely gets mentioned, which is understandable as they weren’t in it - although it does come up now and then.

 

Rings of Power hasn’t been mentioned even once, despite high levels of audience interaction with an audience that is full of LOTR fans. They must be intentionally ignoring it, but I wonder why?

 Probably not allowed to talk about it… it’s not unusual 

[Mikes]

 

[JoeK]

Can I just say, if anyone does want to read a nice potted history of the first and second ages, then just open up the preview pages of the Silmarilion on Amazon. There’s a long letter written by Tolkien that describes the whole shebang really nicely. Completely forgot about it until I was idly thumbing through the pages!

[Girth Certificate]

Who the fuck is that Eminem looking guy? Has he been in it?

[Festoon]

1 hour ago, Girth Certificate said:

Who the fuck is that Eminem looking guy? Has he been in it?

 

Not yet.

[Mikes]

It was in one of the trailers.

 

I reckon the season will end with a big hint at who or where Sauron is. For my money (lore spoiler):

 

Spoiler

I reckon he's already Annatar and in Lindon or Eriador, working his way into Celabrimbor's trust.

 

[Captain Kelsten]

Watched all four episodes over the weekend with my wife, both of us huge LotR fans. This is...slow. And a bit boring. None of the characters are particularly compelling yet. Galadriel is too grumpy with all the emotional range of a brick so far, the human guy is too Aragorn, the Dwarves are great because Dwarves. Elrond looks like a weird mix of Neil Patrick Harris and Matt Smith.

 

So far, so meh. Hopefully it picks up a bit.

[Captain Kelsten]

 

Saw this on Facebook on one of those sites it recommends because you once looked at something to do with something else. 

 

Ignoring the bottom bit (which I think/hope is meant to be a joke?), having this be an actual plot point would have given some character to Galadriel outside of being a grump so would have been nice to see. Yes, she's doing this all for her brother or whatever, but the only emotions she has shown so far are angry, annoyed, grumpy and pissed off. She needs some more depth, which four episodes in they've not given her at all. 

[Delargey]

Exactly! I want to see Galadriel take a break from her quest to save the world from impending doom to do a tight 5mins stand up on the differences with elves and dwarves and have a date night with her hubby.

[Captain Kelsten]

Of course that's what I meant

 

LotR works because it has those moments of character development, of levity. Aragorn is mostly a grump but then he has a bit where he sings about his lost love, or finds himself incredulous at the Hobbit's voracious appetite...that kind of thing. So far Galadriel has had none of that. She needs something to even out all the doom and gloom. 

[Delargey]

It's always nice to see different side to a character - though I don't think her character is particulary lacking in depth or growth (she's learning from NuAargon) I don't think her circumstances particularly lend themselves to levity at the moment- it's pretty much been one shitty thing happening to her after another. Bit, sure, it would be nice to see a less guarded side to her at some point.

 

I hope they don't do a love story between her and halbrand though.

[Pug]

5 hours ago, Captain Kelsten said:

 Elrond looks like a weird mix of Neil Patrick Harris and Matt Smith.

 

That's exactly what I said to my wife! He so does.

[Delargey]

It's so rare that a man and a woman pairing are just mates - or at least it feels that way to me.

 

Elf dude and medicine woman's earnest well chats are dull. 

[JoeK]

4 minutes ago, Delargey said:

It's so rare that a man and a woman pairing are just mates - or at least it feels that way to me.

 

Elf dude and medicine woman's earnest well chats are dull. 

 

I find medicine woman's attire slightly off-putting too. There's a definite attempt to give her a little more cleavage, to the extent where her clothes look a bit out of place. 

[Captain Kelsten]

I kept thinking she was wearing dungarees. 

[Festoon]

1 hour ago, JoeK said:

 

I find medicine woman's attire slightly off-putting too. There's a definite attempt to give her a little more cleavage, to the extent where her clothes look a bit out of place. 

 

That's why I called her 'tits' earlier. It's so out of place it's comical.

[kensei]

6 hours ago, DualSense said:

I really hope not. We’ve already got one miserable elf lusting after a human. I’m finding it a bit dull myself tbh. There’s far too much going on and not much that is really that interesting it’s like butter spread thin over too much bread said someone somewhere.

 

My money is on: RIngs of Power.

 

"Nine for mortal men doomed to die"

 

The show has to be setting up some candidates to get one of the Nine, because their subjugation by the ring is too good a plotline to pass up, and Tolkien is explicit that some people took the ring with good intentions and that's what determines how long it took them to corrupt.

 

10 hours ago, Captain Kelsten said:

 

Saw this on Facebook on one of those sites it recommends because you once looked at something to do with something else. 

 

They've completely screwed the timeline, so my assumption is that Galadriel isn't married yet despite it really not fitting. Celebrian marries Elrond (and they are parents to Arwen). But Elrond only refers to Galadriel as "my friend" and if he was into her hot daughter, you'd think he'd give a hint.

 

Avoiding Tolkien related rants, this has a common problem of people doing stupid things to advance plot

 

Spoiler

Galadriel is the zenith of this. Getting on the boat was stupid. Getting off the boat at the edge of ocean was stupider. The whole spat with in Numenor was braindead. She's meant to be something like 15,000-20,000 years old. She's literally stood in the presence of the gods. She knows how to behave and play the game. There's no amount of arrogance that justifies the way she behaves in a situation she's clearly at a disadvantage. It's just stupidity to advance plot

 

In general, the Elves are too human

 

Spoiler

In addition to being immortal and able to reincarnate after death, they are supposed to be temperamentally different from Men.  

 

It just feels like you could replace any elf character with a human and they'd be the same. This is probably as a result of them taking lead roles rather than supporting characters, so it's harder to achieve. But there's definitely something missing as a result.

 

 

[Mikes]

25 minutes ago, kensei said:

In general, the Elves are too human

 

This is my biggest issue, although this is mostly through Celebrimbor. His chararcter is not being given the attention it deserves. The rest are just elfy enough.

 

Anyhoo, interview with Wayne Yip, one of the series' directors.

 

 

 

[Festoon]

Elves being 'too human' - well the sons of Feanor are absolute melts that constantly behave in an arrogant, destructive and human manner.

[kensei]

1 hour ago, Festoon said:

Elves being 'too human' - well the sons of Feanor are absolute melts that constantly behave in an arrogant, destructive and human manner.

 

Feanor himself is fairly unique among the elves for a variety of reasons, and the driving force of both him and his sons is the oath. Even then at the end they have a kind of repentance though.

 

But ignore Tolkien, because this largely does. You have a bunch of characters that are immortal and have already lived a huge amount of time. It just seems like a huge waste that they don't really seem any different to the mortal characters.

 

There's a wee hint in

 

Spoiler

You missed my wedding and the birth of my child because you are immortal and didn't notice. But again, I felt this was acting stupid to create drama. Elrond is in a senior position in an elf kingdom, meaning understanding succession and politics in other kingdoms is important him.

 

Needed just a touch more Thrones-like politicking in this. It's worth remembering that GRRM was directly inspired by Tolkien. He just decided than getting the divine right of kings, it was more realistic that the virtuous get absolutely shafted.

[Mikes]