The Rings of Power - Discussion
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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.
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@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.
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@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.”
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@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.
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@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. -
@Arkandel In case my post came off as addressing you rather than Elon, I’d just like to clarify that now.
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ADMIN EDIT by Tez:
Removed racist content.
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@Sam-Hyde Hi! We don’t do racism here. So cut it out.
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@Pavel Oh yeah? Well, Elves suck. Fucking know-it-alls.
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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> -
Durin + Elrond are amazing!
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@Arkandel said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:
Durin + Elrond are amazing!
Disa always wanted a new table.
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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.
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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.
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@Wizz I’m a bit miffed about Gil-Galad being… well, disagreeable. Not quite a villain but certainly douchey if you get my drift.
Come on. It’s this guy:
Gil-galad was an Elven-king.
Of him the harpers sadly sing;
the last whose realm was fair and free
between the Mountains and the Sea.His sword was long, his lance was keen.
His shining helm afar was seen;
the countless stars of heaven’s field
were mirrored in his silver shield.But long ago he rode away,
and where he dwelleth none can say;
for into darkness fell his star
in Mordor where the shadows are.On the other hand complaints by hardcore fans are getting absolutely ridiculous at this point. One person actually complained Numenorians are too short - why isn’t Elendil a giant?
Good luck finding a bunch of 7 foot tall good actors who fit the roles.
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@Wizz said in The Rings of Power - Discussion:
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.
I feel the same way. I’ve loved Tolkien’s world and books since my earliest memories of being able to read at all, and I’m still greatly enjoying the show, but depictions of servile adoration for fictional monarchies hits different now.
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@Kestrel
I hate when people and publications act like there’s some sort of rivalry between this and GoT or like you have to choose one over the other or whatever because that is just endlessly dumb, but I do think in this one area you could actually make the case that GoT is the better series in that on the whole it doesn’t mimic Tolkien’s weird glazed-eye fawning over feudalism like so many other fantasy series and presents it at least fairly realisticly as deeply flawed and problematic instead.I was very much the same as a kid and just took it all at face value, lol. It almost makes me wonder if that’s at least some part of why so many modern people have this rosy fondness for actual real world monarchies, just having grown up with these glowing and romantic fantasies? If even remotely true…big oofs.
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To some degree the fawning over feudalism is something I accept as a genre convention within fantasy. I won’t say it doesn’t bother me, it’s one of the things that makes me not entirely engage with the genre, but I kind of accept it going in. For all the things I dislike about A Song of Ice and Fire, Martin does undercut this in interesting ways at various points (and was quickly followed by a legion of imitators who did it less well, just like Tolkien).
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@Third-Eye I really wish that more governmental systems were explored in fantasy rather than strong-state hereditary feudalism, especially the kind that tends to downplay or eliminate the role of guilds, militaries, and cities. There were so many interesting possibilities even around the same time period that most of these fantasies draw from, and if you’re adding magic, then things should be different!
Which is not as relevant to a Tolkien adaptation, but still.
