I litererally spent the past 20 minutes trying to articulate a nuanced response on that show but i could only ignite my own mount doom remembering how incredibly stupid the first season was.

But I heard Henry Cavil is going to fill in as the beloved and most important character of the appendix listing of: Forest Men (all of them) and they will be sure to guide Galadriel into a love triangle with the not-hobbits, sauron and the wampa (ice troll?) from S0101 and also sexy Shelob from that one game and also reallly sexy Ungoliant and Morgoth, but they’re married now and just living a quiet life in the country with some low key friends in another world.

this might have been an anime im thinking about though…

Hard to argue with him about the JJ-Abramsification of all things, or the perplexing fact that modern audiences appear to lap it up.

Watching season one of RoP felt undeniably reminiscent of watching The Force Awakens and almost hearing the audible *ding as yet another callback got checked off the list. It's not art any more; it's just content to be consumed.

This review makes a lot of great points about parts of the series that I was having trouble putting into words. Especially the bit about the scope being so grand and beautiful and then zooming too far in so that the cities or towns feel like a set.

On social media, I keep seeing the Rings of Power promotions with 'Deep Dives in Lore' or something like that. Why have these deep dives if the lore doesn't add up? Tom Bombadil doesn't deserve this.

Lol Not-Gandalf

I haven't watched the second season, but I remember more than one sigh during the first one. I really liked the costumes and decoration, but I just kept thinking, "Why did they need to tell this story?" I didn't hate it, but I thought the entire exercise was pointless and unnecessary: apathy is worse than hate.

The question is rhetorical, of course. They couldn't get ahold of the rights to the Silmarillion, and the machine hungers.

Kind of weird to call it a "callback." I think the author just didn't quite know what to call it when Rings of Power is just taking straight up stealing scenes from the books an entire Age before they happen?

I don't think there is a name for it, because it's stupid and no one thought it was a good idea before now. Some marketing bozo heard book nerds were salty about Tom Bombadil not being in Jackson's movie and figured they paid for the rights, just rewrite the scene to fit?

Nope. Another click bait rage garbage article, from no less than Forbes, the shittiest cesspool of shitty shit on the internet.

The show is fine. Looks amazing, sounds incredible, full of wonderful performances and nuanced characters with interesting takes on adapting an incredibly complex source material. I'll take it over 90% of "prestige" dramas about rich families and murder procedurals any day.

Even if it's not your particular bag, it doesn't deserve anywhere near the level of vitriol leveled at it by people desperate to drive clicks to their mediocre blog or reaction channel.

TheOneRing.net had an incisive take on this recently that I think everyone ought to read. https://www.theonering.net/torwp/2024/09/06/119303-dont-kill-content-no-one-needs-your-hot-take/

I guess I'm in the minority, but as someone who grew up with the books and pretty much enjoyed everything apart from Hobbit, I've been thoroughly enjoyng the show. First season was a tad slow to grab me, but after the slow start the episodes have been the highlights of my week.

I have zero issues with using the great lore as source of inspiration and doing new stuff with it.

I too am bummed out with the constant 'echoes of the future' and also the lazy storytelling. (Seriously the elves do lack proper communication methods).

But the thing this episode did was 'you know Tolkien geeks, all the stuff Peter Jackson left out like Tom and the wraiths we'll put in. And add in some ent wifes too'

It's laid on so thick that it's cringing me out.

I'm getting tired of this hate wagon bullshit and now mainstream media is doing it. Anger memes or outrage sells and spreads, so it's profitable.

The show isn't amazing and you can criticize it but it's quite enjoyable. A lot of people enjoy it. It's not slop. It takes some liberties and things but overall the storytelling is pretty solid. Creature design is amazing. They tell the origin story of the hobbits, the istar and sauron. The legends are slightly different but that is why they are legends.

I very much look forward to season 2. I do not look forward to the inevitable review bombing and hate posting. If you don't like it, don't watch it, and yeah if it gets cancelled due to lack of interest that's fair too. The problem is that both reactionaries and profit-seekers are weaponizing online outrage and clickbait and manipulating ratings and online perception.

I’m not watching, but really enjoying watching the Internet go into a meltdown about a TV show again.

I am meh about much modern media including rings of power but my complaint of the complaint comes from the reference to an earlier complaint he had about gandolf saying “If in doubt, always follow your nose” to the characters like he had in lotr. That is a phrase that if someone uses they will not just use once. Its likely a phrase they would use many times such that someone else would say. Like mister gandolfs says or such. Like my granpaapy used to say. Might as well complain when shrek says better out than in.

this dude is so pissed off at this show for all the right reasons, when you read it you can hear his little nerd brain go squeeeeeze, hahahahaha. i hate rings of power so much.

Far too much does this now and it's a short term win, long term loss.

Die hard fans of the material maybe enjoy it for a bit but then get sick of it. New people won't get into it as huge chunks of it are meaningless to them.