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    The Rings of Power - Discussion

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved No Escape from Reality
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    • ArkandelA
      Arkandel @Wizz
      last edited by

      @Wizz said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:

      Also the dwarves because they’re THE ACTUAL BEST

      They fucking were and I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say it was the first time I’ve ever watched anything with Dwarves in it that does the race justice. Even Gilmi in the LotR movies (which I love, mind you) was used as a cranky comedy plot device too often for my tastes. But these specific ones, and the culture we’re exposed to, rock.

      … I didn’t even mean for the pun to happen. It just did.

      WizzW 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
      • WizzW
        Wizz @Arkandel
        last edited by

        @Arkandel

        I actually really enjoyed how they were portrayed in the first Hobbit film, which seems like the same vein they’re mining here!

        alt text

        (We’re just going to ignore the sequels tho. FOREVER.)

        ArkandelA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • ArkandelA
          Arkandel @Wizz
          last edited by Arkandel

          I was really concerned (okay, I still am) about how generic fantasy this series was going to be, and whether it’d shit all over Tolkien’s work to make a
          buck using the franchise’s name as a vehicle.

          All I can say is so far it’s given me nothing to worry about. Obviously this is fan fiction. They aren’t following any one specific arc from the book and the characters (at least in this Age) are barely described even in the Silmarillion. What do we really know about Gil-Galad from the books? That he kicked ass with his spear, that he had a cool shield, some of his major decisions leading up to the Last Alliance and - mainly - how he died. Almost anything he says and does in Rings of Power will be invented, including giving him an actual personality.

          But unless they make him into a total asshole… who cares? Folks online are raging and nitpicking over stuff like short-haired Elves. Holy shit that’s not a hill to die on. Yes, the ones Tolkien described wore it long; what the fuck does it matter if some, among thousands, like it short? Maybe they get sweaty, dammit.

          As for the race card, IMHO especially in this specific show it’s almost pure racism. Yes, I am 100% sure the very, very Anglo-Saxon and product of his age author envisioned most characters in his head to be white. But when Ilúvatar or Aulë the Smith created People they might have thrown in some melanin variations, why not?

          I didn’t find this to be distracting at all - whereas in the Wheel of Time it came off as really weird sometimes that small isolated villages looked like Manhattan, race-wise.

          WizzW 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
          • WizzW
            Wizz @Arkandel
            last edited by

            @Arkandel said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:

            As for the race card, IMHO especially in this specific show it’s almost pure racism. Yes, I am 100% sure the very, very Anglo-Saxon and product of his age author envisioned most characters in his head to be white. But when Ilúvatar or Aulë the Smith created People they might have thrown in some melanin variations, why not?
            I didn’t find this to be distracting at all - whereas in the Wheel of Time it came off as really weird sometimes that small isolated villages looked like Manhattan, race-wise.

            To this point, I was actually gleeful imagining all the outrage the casting was causing. Like, more talented people are getting work they deserve and it’s kinda-sorta becoming the golden age of television, babyyyyy. Fuck the whiny toxic dipshits who can’t handle their precious imaginary racist “utopia” getting thrown in the trash where it belongs.

            ArkandelA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
            • ArkandelA
              Arkandel @Wizz
              last edited by Arkandel

              @Wizz I would have been outraged if they made Galadriel anything but a blonde since so much was written specifically about her hair. Tolkien had a thing!

              Also, my understanding is they will compress the events of the Second Age within a few decades (years?) to avoid basically all of the mortals in the cast dying off after the first couple of episodes. I guess yeah, that deviates from the books but I’d chalk it up as a necessary part of adopting the work to a different storytelling medium.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • KestrelK
                Kestrel
                last edited by

                People who are mad about dark-skinned Harfoots clearly didn’t actually read the books they claim to be sticklers for. Ironic outrage is ironic.

                So far, I adore the way Hobbits and Dwarves have been portrayed, and holy shit Khazad-dûm is goddamn majestic and beautiful.

                I dislike the adaptation of the Elves, and wish they were a little more ethereal and otherworldly. They encapsulate the main problem I have with the show altogether, which is the HBOificiation of Tolkien’s work; adapting an adult fairytale into a modern edgy fantasy for modern edgy teens. LotR is vastly superior to GoT in my eyes, and has no need to imitate the latter’s success. The parts of the show I’ve liked best are the ones that really lean into the magic of Middle-Earth instead of hamming up the grit. So like, less of Galadriel chopping up trolls with a giant sword, more of the weird guy whispering to fireflies please.

                ArkandelA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 11
                • ArkandelA
                  Arkandel @Kestrel
                  last edited by Arkandel

                  @Kestrel This is my all-time favorite quote about the way Tolkien envisioned his Elves, as spoken by Treebeard:

                  “Elves began it, of course, waking trees up and teaching them to speak and learn their tree-talk. They always wished to talk to everything, the old Elves did. But then the Great Darkness came, and they passed away over the Sea, or fled into far valleys and hid themselves, and made songs about days that would never come again. Never again.”

                  Mind you, I am enjoying the show, but I wish they wouldn’t make Elves… optimistic. They have lost, and can see their own end, even in the Second Age; they are nostalgic about what came before, not optimistic about what’s yet to come.

                  This is perfectly captured in the nature of the Three, which are neither weapons nor tools, only ways to preserve and maintain. As a race they aren’t even trying to expand; just to keep what they have, and not decline further. They love Middle Earth but it’s their nature to retreat, reflect and ultimately diminish.

                  ArkandelA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
                  • ArkandelA
                    Arkandel @Arkandel
                    last edited by

                    d80ed712-85b6-40ca-beb1-1363bdb6eed8-image.png @Arkandel

                    G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 5
                    • G
                      GF @Arkandel
                      last edited by

                      @Arkandel “This authority who’s dead and therefore can’t speak for himself totally agrees with my opinions, which I shall now prove he would do by citing nothing he ever said which would support my assertion.”

                      AriaA ArkandelA 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 3
                      • AriaA
                        Aria @GF
                        last edited by

                        @GF said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:

                        @Arkandel “This authority who’s dead and therefore can’t speak for himself totally agrees with my opinions, which I shall now prove he would do by citing nothing he ever said which would support my assertion.”

                        I tend to assume anyone who does this to complain about “wokeness” is basically just the kid in Jojo Rabbit – running around with his imaginary friend in his head, telling us all what he’d want, with all perception of said imaginary friend completely divorced from reality, and to be taken about as seriously as, yes, Taika Watiti playing Hitler.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                        • ArkandelA
                          Arkandel @GF
                          last edited by

                          @GF Well, J.R.R. Tolkien’s opinions on race were… pretty clear, I think. We don’t need to resort to necromancy or anything. 🙂

                          “I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White." - JRR Tolkien, in his own words, denouncing any conscription of his stories to a specific race.

                          G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 5
                          • G
                            GF @Arkandel
                            last edited by

                            @Arkandel In case my post came off as addressing you rather than Elon, I’d just like to clarify that now.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • Sam HydeS
                              Sam Hyde
                              last edited by Tez

                              ADMIN EDIT by Tez:

                              Removed racist content.

                              PavelP 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • PavelP
                                Pavel @Sam Hyde
                                last edited by

                                @Sam-Hyde Hi! We don’t do racism here. So cut it out.

                                He/Him. Opinions and views are solely my own unless specifically stated otherwise.
                                BE AN ADULT

                                ArkandelA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
                                • ArkandelA
                                  Arkandel @Pavel
                                  last edited by

                                  @Pavel Oh yeah? Well, Elves suck. Fucking know-it-alls.

                                  ArkandelA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • ArkandelA
                                    Arkandel @Arkandel
                                    last edited by Arkandel

                                    On the other hand the depiction of Dwarves in this series is fucking amazing and possibly the best part of it for me. I didn’t see that coming! Disa and Durin are awesome.

                                    Online posts trying to guess who Sauron is are so funny, too.

                                    <literally any new character appears>
                                    <DiCaprio meme pointing at screen>

                                    ArkandelA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                    • ArkandelA
                                      Arkandel @Arkandel
                                      last edited by

                                      Durin + Elrond are amazing!

                                      D 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                      • D
                                        dvoraen @Arkandel
                                        last edited by

                                        @Arkandel said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:

                                        Durin + Elrond are amazing!

                                        Disa always wanted a new table.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                        • Third EyeT
                                          Third Eye
                                          last edited by

                                          I’ll probably have more coherent thoughts later but I dipped by toe in over the weekend and I am hooked, in spite of myself. Seems really well-done all around.

                                          I want something else to get me through this
                                          Semi-charmed kinda life, baby, baby
                                          I want something else, I'm not listening when you say good-bye

                                          She/Her or They/Them

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • WizzW
                                            Wizz
                                            last edited by

                                            I gotta admit, some of the shine came off for me in the episode before last when Galadriel confronted Halbrand and was basically like, “ugh pathetic, man you’re above these commoner rags.”

                                            I know it’s probably an incredibly silly thing to complain about considering this is Tolkien but like, the whole romantic fantasy of how noble and divine the concept of monarchy is just strikes me as gross now. Maybe I’ve just grown out of it, which doesn’t bode too well for my enjoyment of the series.

                                            Durin and Elrond do indeed still kick ass tho.

                                            ArkandelA KestrelK 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 2
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