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The Rings of Power - Discussion
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@Arkandel said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:
Episode 6 was the best one so far.
If they are doing what I think they are with Sauron it might a much more interesting, nuanced take on the character than I thought they would.
As someone who has not read the books but has somehow managed to absorb far more information about Tolkien’s universe than you would assume someone who has never read the books would be familiar with…
…I blame nerd osmosis, just like how I could quote "Monty Python and the Holy Grail before I ever saw the movie…
I actually really like what they’re doing with the foundation of Mordor as a long-desired homeland for the tortured creatures that Morgoth created. I mean, yes, orcs (uruk!) are definitely still violent, murderous, and cruel, but there’s sound reason behind their motivation beyond just the ontological cycle of:
“They’re evil!”
“Okay, but why?”
“Because they were made to be evil!”
“Yeah, but what was the reason for making this whole race of universally evil creature?”
“Because the god that made them was evil!”Especially when compared against the elves, whose defining characteristic seems to be “We are pure and good and better than you at everything, including morality, no matter how much we act like dicks.”
Now, please note that I’m not saying I dislike Tolkien or that I don’t recognize that the man essentially laid the foundation for a solid 50% of the media I consume and at least a quarter of my hobbies, but. Even he recognized some of these problems in his writing within his own lifetime and I’m happy to say that I feel like a century or so of letting the source material permeate the culture has resulted on improvements to some of the issues it contained.
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I found the explosive ending a little goofy, but like…nuanced take on the bad guys?? IN MY TOLKIEN??? Yes please. Very much looking forward to it, even if the payoff may not be all that profound.
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@Wizz I wish we had spoiler tags! Next week I’ll write about some parallels I really liked.
But two episodes to go. I expect there will be two reveals before the season ends; Sauron and the Stranger. I think by now the interwebs have cracked the latter open pretty much, as amusing as it is to speculate how everyone we meet might be him.
Including, apparently, most animals. After all he could take animal forms! Maybe Galadriel’s horse where she had that one goofy smile in that one weird scene was Sauron.
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@Wizz I’m starting to think the person I thought was Sauron is not Sauron after all.
Is Sauron the Enemy we made along the way?
Also I dearly hope we’re not heading into a really weird-ass love triangle down the line.
Also also come on, Rings of Power. We kinda know the person who’s supposed to be dead isn’t actually dead. If you’re going to fake a character’s demise at least don’t pick one of the Big Names.
… In fact two of them, if one only through exposition.
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@Arkandel said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:
Also I dearly hope we’re not heading into a really weird-ass love triangle down the line.
Also also come on, Rings of Power. We kinda know the person who’s supposed to be dead isn’t actually dead. If you’re going to fake a character’s demise at least don’t pick one of the Big Names.
… In fact two of them, if one only through exposition.
I will riot if Galadriel ends up with anyone other than
Tar-Míriel, played by the indomitable Cynthia Addai-Robinsonher trad husband Celeborn like the books intended. -
@Kestrel Okay, okay, okay.
What would cause the most internet outrage? Galadriel hooking up with a woman or with literally Sauron?
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I can’t be the only one getting a little bit of hey mama energy from her.
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A friend of mine is unhappy that Galadriel isn’t exactly as Tolkien wrote her in the books.
I told him that if they’re going to be making changes in the name of representation, then I would like them to address the distinct lack of lesbians in Middle-Earth with a bit of gayladriel.
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@Sammich said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:
New headcanon: Sauron was a woman who was finally sick of everyone’s shit and decided to give Middle-Earth what it deserved.
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@Kestrel said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:
A friend of mine is unhappy that Galadriel isn’t exactly as Tolkien wrote her in the books.
I’m a purist. I’d like major characters to be, if not exactly as they are written in the books, then in ways that don’t conflict the core of those characters completely. So for example if Elrond was portrayed as racist towards non-Elves that’d be an issue for me, since in the books he’s quite welcoming in Rivendell and runs it as a sanctuary.
So I get your friend, and to some extent I agree with them. However some of the complaints (and this isn’t limited to RoP, I’d seen plenty of it in Game of Thrones in the past, etc) are just made by people who really intend to be mad. Again for example there are protesting how only a few Numenorian ships had so many supplies, horses, crossed the Sea so quickly to intervene, etc.
My god, fuck off. Really, that’s a line in the sand now? Warfare logistics? I don’t exactly recall Tolkien writing a word about the supply trains following Aragorn’s army on the way to Mordor either, and the guy dedicated multiple paragraphs to describe how nice-looking trees looked.
Edit: This is what I’m referring to:
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@Arkandel said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:
@Kestrel said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:
A friend of mine is unhappy that Galadriel isn’t exactly as Tolkien wrote her in the books.
I’m a purist. I’d like major characters to be, if not exactly as they are written in the books, then in ways that don’t conflict the core of those characters completely. So for example if Elrond was portrayed as racist towards non-Elves that’d be an issue for me, since in the books he’s quite welcoming in Rivendell and runs it as a sanctuary.
So I get your friend, and to some extent I agree with them. However some of the complaints (and this isn’t limited to RoP, I’d seen plenty of it in Game of Thrones in the past, etc) are just made by people who really intend to be mad. Again for example there are protesting how only a few Numenorian ships had so many supplies, horses, crossed the Sea so quickly to intervene, etc.
My god, fuck off. Really, that’s a line in the sand now? Warfare logistics? I don’t exactly recall Tolkien writing a word about the supply trains following Aragorn’s army on the way to Mordor either, and the guy dedicated multiple paragraphs to describe how nice-looking trees looked.
Edit: This is what I’m referring to:
Well, shit. If that’s where all the mithril is going, no wonder the elves are so hard up for it.
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@Aria The
unobtainiummithril reserves are running low. Build moreRingssilos! -
Hmm. Well, that finale felt weirdly rushed, I gotta say. Kind of another victim of these condensed seasons that have become the standard in streaming now and inexperienced showrunners, imho. The pacing of the plot is so sedate for the first six episodes and then everything gets jam-packed into the last two in a way that just feels lopsided.
I was also honestly disappointed this is how and when they decided to portray the creation of the rings – def had “last-minute rewrite” energy to me. What the big twist was going to be was pretty telegraphed in the episode if you already knew the backstory behind the rings, but that element of the plot was something I wanted a much slower burn on in particular, just personally, not some sudden huge reveal at the very end. It all feels a bit out of left field for the character.
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I’m still in the middle of binging it all, but I’m incredibly annoyed that the Elves speak English, and not Quenya, when there are no other races around. See also: Dwarves speaking English, and not Khuzdul.
Immersion RUINED.
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@Wizz said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:
Hmm. Well, that finale felt weirdly rushed, I gotta say.
I think it’s the pace, frankly. There was a lot of filler scenes which, even though they played their part in setting the narrative especially among the Harfoots, could have easily been snipped to provide more room for what was one of Middle Earth’s most meaningful deceptions focused around Celebrimbor.
Hell, Celebrimbor himself wasn’t even on-screen that much. For a series called Rings of Power you’d think his role especially around the time of their making would be much larger. And the whole plot surrounding that - the deception, the crafting itself - felt like it took like ten minutes tops, and wasn’t even that masterful.
You-know-who is supposed to be an absolutely masterclass-level manipulator. We didn’t see that. I wish we had seen that. Hell I could even argue he was exposed much too early, far too easily.
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@Arkandel said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:
You-know-who is supposed to be an absolutely masterclass-level manipulator. We didn’t see that. I wish we had seen that. Hell I could even argue he was exposed much too early, far too easily.
I did like the offer made to a certain someone, because at least to me, it makes one of my favorite scenes from the LoTR film trilogy just a wee bit better.
(Don’t click the link if you don’t want spoilers about the episode, even if the movie is, like, twenty years old now.)
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@Arkandel said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:
You-know-who is supposed to be an absolutely masterclass-level manipulator. We didn’t see that. I wish we had seen that. Hell I could even argue he was exposed much too early, far too easily.
I mean, you could make the case that if you go back and view earlier episodes through this new lens that he was using reverse psychology to manipulate people and events to put him into the right place at the right time, but the problem is that it just doesn’t seem intentional to me in those episodes, which is why I said it has that last minute rewrite feel.
The bigger problem to me is, how tf is the One Ring supposed to have the power it does if everyone involved have already kicked him out and are aware of his designs? In the original material, he was involved in the creation of all of the rings except the Three while also creating the One in secret. Doesn’t revealing him early…undermine that entirely? Why would they even go through with any of it, knowing who he is and that he clearly wanted them made? It’s just frustrating and bizarre to me.
