The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

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Indeed Christopher Tolkien made his thoughts on Peter Jackson's adaptation quite clear. (He hated it)

I love the LOTR trilogy myself, it changed my life when I saw it in theaters age 7-10. (the Hobbit is awful) But as an adult who has studied the primary texts and loves them I can see why Christopher did not like the films, particularly the theatrical cuts that remove key thematic dialogue and change the character of Faramir, who is essentially a stand in for Tolkien in the tale.

Humans invariably would envy the Tolkien elves, They are beautiful, powerful and live for thousands of years. The norse tradition of elven (which is also where the old anglo-saxon tradition of elves derives) seems to be where Tolkien has drawn his lore from.

Dark elves or Dökkálfar = orcs and dwarves (dark and lurk about underground)
Light elves or Ljósálfar = elves (brightblonde and live in the sunlight)

In Anglo-Saxon sources the light elves are referred to as female nymphs or aelfs. In myth they were magical beings possessed of a supernatural beauty. While some saw them as helpful, many tales describe them as monstrous, harmful creatures.
This suggests in myth they did have a complicated relationship with humans, either luring men to their doom or helping mankind.

Gondor established a monument in Umbar to honor the ancient might of the Numenorean fleet led by Pharazon that humbled Sauron. This was done some 1000 years into the Third Age, long after the events of the downfall, after Gondor captured the ancient Black Numenorean stronghold in 933 T.A. Minas Arnor was renamed Minas Tirith and had no such monument.

You would think sweaty nerds concerned with the canon would actually know the canon, especially when it's in the appendices and not an obscure source.

No disputing Canon/lore....you are the master

Feel free to take up such quibbles with the author, what was written is perfectly fine for a brief summation if you ask me - but it is very much not the point being made. If there is an argument about the lore it is that it is all but irrelevant to the TV series beyond the letter of the contract with the Tolkien estate. The core of the production is the urgent, burning, desperate politics of the writers and producers. It is "yas qween", "black elves", "lol look at the black hobbits" and "haha take that Trump" wearing the skin of Tolkien. They've already made Elrond suspiciously gay, how long before we see a trans hobbit or a trans elf and a wizard appearing to perform a magical sex change operation? Not long I suspect, if it hasn't happened already. Stop defending this garbage.

Bruce Charlton reviews RoP

https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2 ... -west.html

I have watched the first three episodes of Amazon's Rings of Power pseudo-Tolkien series; and - although it is indeed very bad, as everyone with a capacity for valid judgment realizes - I think the fundamental quality of its badness has been somewhat misrepresented by the reviews I have seen.

My personal context is that the show is so completely un-Tolkienian (in all but a few names) that it is actually much less painful to watch than I have feared it would be... at least much less painful in that way.

I feared some kind of cunning and parodic subversion, which would tend to exploit and twist Tolkien, intending subtly to reshape and poison ones memories and concepts - and to program the expectations of new Tolkien readers with a false and evil frame.

But Rings of Power comes across as something else altogether - something rather more like the TV series of Sword of Shannara (but, in effect, much worse). Sure - RoP grossly misrepresents Tolkien - but so grossly that it ceases to be Tolkien altogether.

Therefore, I could not help but watch RoP in its own terms; forgetting my lifelong love of Tolkien's work and judging the show purely as if it was an original fantasy series.

...

I think the reviewer is fair in his assessment, watch it objectively without trying to fit the narrative into Tolkien lore which is in itself a piece of fiction from yesteryear.

You know? I think I should at least give it a chance before I knock it off. Even though I hate watching stuff that I have a feeling I won't enjoy at the risk of being proven right after i watch it.

But sometimes I get pleasantly surprised by new stuff.

I loved the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies but it wasnt until many years after they were released that i gave them a chance because i didnt think they would be as good as the books.

I still have not watched The Hobbit movies though because I heard they were not as good.


I think I'm afraid to watch new things for some reason. But I confess now that my reasonings for automatically writing off ROP was probably very close-minded. Maybe if it were released a decade or two earlier when society wasn't so hyper focused on race and politics like we are today I'd have been more willing to watch it and not thinking anything of it.

I mean for one thing, I like strong leading female characters AND Galadriel was my favorite character in the books and movies. So WHY exactly was I so bothered by this?

I guess if I'm going to blame anything it's the times we live in.

It seems you don't care about the core work and it's themes at all and are here to post divisive nonsense to further your culture war because I guess people with dark toned skin can't be the good guys. The Numenorean's in particular made port and established colonies all along the coasts of Middle Earth (fictional Europe, Asia, and Africa). Certainly some of them would have found love or later in their history as colonizers might have had more nefarious relationships. Interracial marriage is a key theme in the legendarium. Numenor itself was in line with fictional pseudo North Africa. Color coding (skin) was never Tolkien's intent and if he were alive today he would be horrified by the people who are trying to appropriate his works to causes he opposed in his own time.

You point about Elrond being gay is just homophobic paranoia. Didn't people say the same thing about Frodo and Sam in PJs trilogy

There are certainly some things to criticize about the show but it is an incomplete work so I shall reserve final judgement until the whole is revealed.

What I write is just going in one ear and out the other isn't it? I'm not going to repeat myself or rephrase again. Whether or not you can wring flimsy justifications from the body of lore doesn't matter, the problem is what they set out to do in the first place - make political kabuki - that is why it is and will be bad from start to finish.

Sometimes you have to give the film adaptation a bit of a chance. Certainly when the LOTR first came out, you had boffin fans criticising Peter Jackson for not sticking to Tolkein's work.

One important consideration is the cost. Movie sets are terribly expensive. Fan fiction that adheres to canon isn't going to come close to a fast flowing high def production set with fantastic landscapes, the best costumes, A-list actors and the latest CGI tech.

Financial investors will demand a storyline that sells tickets/subscriptions > pleasing hardcore fans in order to a) recoup costs and b) make a handsome profit. Let's not forget the merchandise.

I think we should be grateful at what's being produced. In the end I want a good story/plot with good effects and if it sticks to canon then that's a bonus. If diehard fans want to experience the original author's work then they know where they can go.

We need more new Intellectual properties in movies with cool black heroes rather than stirring up controversy for publicity sake

There's plenty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luke_Cage_(TV_series)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lig ... (TV_series)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162650/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455944/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052448/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovecraft ... (TV_series)

That's literally the tip of the iceberg. The HBO decision to shelve Lovecraft Country was outrageous. it remains the best TV drama I have ever seen

I'm not as critical as I used to be and have decided to like it. I may not actually get Amazon Prime and watch it, but I'm enjoying some recaps by youtubers who have fun with it. Guyladriel, Doogie Elrond, Grandma Celebrimbor, Gandalf not Gandalf. Funny stuff.

Just in case anyone doesn't know, Numenor is Atlantis.

Although I poke fun of the "uber-fans", I respect there are alt-universes where a virtual fictional landscape exists based on the consensus of fans.

One of the things I hope Meta does is create online portals to virtual worlds where fans can visit the Star wars, Harry Potter and LOTR virtual universe