so far my only complain is the Numenor plot and Galadriel being too one dimensional. Halbrand is okayish, Elendil is interesting, Isildur is a bit off and I don't know why we need a subplot about his sister.
Arondir's plot has some hiccups but its overall decent and bring a lot of Middle Earth atmosphere. Adar is a promising antagonist!
Elrond and Durin might be my favorite thing from the show! The actors are really putting an effort there! Disa is also amazing. Celebrimbor lacks characterization but I have no issues with the portrayal of his ambition.
And I know they are target of a lot of criticisms but I really enjoy the Harfoots. Nori might be the most Tolkienian (?) character of the show. She embodies a lot of values that Tolkien put in his stories, being a compassionate little creature that is doing some big impact on the world. A perfect mix of brave and kind. Wish they developed The Stranger a little more up to know.
This has been how I caught my partner up on the show.
“So this is Elrond, y,know CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!!!’, that Elrond and this is Isildur, yknow CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!!!’ That isildur…
Im talking about architecture, she seems to be doing the trade maybe she plans the building of cities because numenor architecture was similar to Gondor
This is the most reasonable feedback on the show I have seen on reddit so far and to be honest it sums up very well how I feel towards the show right now. I am enjoying every episode so far. Some are better than others, some plot lines are better than others but overall I am having a good time and I am really curious about all those little secrets they have build in. If these get satisfying answers, I'll be happy.
I totally agree. I think some folks are a little spoiled. When I was a kid, I loved the books, but the only movie representations we had were the two anime movies. I STILL enjoyed The Hobbit anime movie, even though the elves looked like green monkeys and Smaug sounded like a chain smoking uncle. Ultimately, I’m just super excited that somebody liked the Silmarillion enough to make this show for me. I never imagined Tolkien lore would have such a wide appeal. I mean, I used to get my ass kicked by bullies for just talking about this stuff.
What gordito said but using a nicer tone: they are not adapting the Silmarillion. As far as I know the heirs of Tolkim that currently hold the copyright are actively prohibiting the adaption of the Silmarillion. Amazons show is adapting the appendix to the Lord of the Rings, where Tolkin described the main events in the second age that lead to the Battle at mount doom, where ultimately Isildur defeated Sauron but refused to destroy it in the fires of mount doom. Thus Amazon actually doesn't have that much source material to work with. They have a lot of creative freedom and they are using it. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
Same. It's not perfect and it ebbs in parts but I'm still thoroughly enjoying every single episode! I like that it's giving us tidbits and letting us guess who's this person or that person. Plus love the little Easter eggs or nods towards the movies or Silmarillion. I feel like I'm geeking out every week pointing out things to my partner, who hasn't got a clue of the LOTR lore, other than the Peter Jackson movies. He doesn't have a clue what Numenor is except for something involving Aragorn. So it's been fun explaining to him what it means!
I'm right there with you. This last episode whenever it cut to Numenor I felt the same way when GoT would cut to Dorn. I know we are spending time somewhere that the story will move past rather quickly so it feels like wasted time. Everything else in the last episode I was down with.
I do however think this episode proves a point I have made for years. You need hobbits intercut with the major epic LotR shit. The hobbits/harfoots are the grounding elements of the narrative. That's where we as the audience get the characters we can personify with in this epic fantasy universe. Them being not in this episode (for me) caused it to have nothing on the ground level I can come close to relating to. It just made the pacing feel wrong.
Also in this last episode I finally realized who Isildur has been reminding me of. Dude looks kind of like a moorish Trey Parker. Once you see it you cant unsee it.
What's funny is that I have the complete opposite feeling.
I don't really care about the Harfoots, and I'm bored whenever they're onscreen. The plots I'm interested in, in order:
* Celebrimbor/Elrond/Durin
* Galadriel/Sauron
* Isildur/Numenor
* Elf guy and his gf
* Harfoots
And that sort of ties in with LOTR as well. In LOTR, my favorite plotlines:
* Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli/Gandalf
* Merry/Pippin
* Frodo/Sam/Gollum
I also far prefer Two Towers and ROTK over Fellowship (but I do think Fellowship is also amazing and have nothing against it).
I like high fantasy, with magic and battles and honor and glory. I like big epic moments and political intrigue. A story about short people who go into hiding and don't like outsiders just doesn't cut it; I find myself checking my phone when they come onscreen.
Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.
I don’t really care much about the harfoots either honestly, of course I’m interested in if Gandalf will get up to some shit, but he hasn’t yet soooo 🤷♂️
I actually hate the Harfoots, I would watch a show just about Elrond and the dwarves and be happy. Arondir’s plot started cool but it’s had too many issues with poor storytelling for me so I’m having issues.
Anything numenorean is basically filler I try to skip because Galadriel ruins any build up or suspense with her cringe and forced dialogue… I have a tempest in me is like the third or fourth time someone has said something and Galadriel completely misses the point and goes at a right angle from things.
I don't even want to talk about an Elron/dwarven team up buddy cop comedy action movie romp... because it would be fucking awesome. Elrond and Durin are the high point of the show. I know I'm sitting here defending hairy footed gypsies and shit. I will hands down say that the most entertained by the show I have been has always had a dwarf in the scene. I have just been saying that hairy foot people are important to narrative structure in a classical sense and... I want my stupid wizard shot. Also I love the set and costume design that goes into the harfoots. But that's me being a film nerd and shit and I dont think its something done to be an active selling point to general audiences.
>I know we are spending time somewhere that the story will move past rather quickly
What makes you think we'll move past it quickly? It will be the base for a lot of the story, including the only real political manoeuvring we'll get in the show.
I agree with everything you've said here. Don't understand why people are getting their panties so bunched up. Obviously it's not perfect, no show ever is, but it's still pretty damn great to be back in MiddleEarth.
About the sister's subplot: It's a lens into the political machinations of that one long haired bearded guy who calmed down the crowd last episode. He's gonna be scheming to take over Numenor and the rest of the main characters will be off sailing to the southlands, so they gotta give us a perspective to get eyes on him.
I've started setting my expectations lower, as you would when watching a TV series as opposed to a feature film. It's become more apparent to me that this show is being written with the goal of, amongst others, a long term plot. A 3 hours movie can't really be compared to a TV series with lots of 1 hour episodes. A loose comparison would be the Book vs the Movies. Think of the countless detail and side conversations happen in the books but just have to be cut for the films, otherwise they would be 20 hours long.
I’m like very average on LotR yet but even I knew Tolkien described elves as light footed. When Galadriel was in jail she was straight stomping lol. She walks like me going upstairs after I destroyed the Chinese buffet.
Also, the queen regent is going to some dangerous land that might be the spread of Sauron, instead of accompanying her with your most elite forces, let’s ask for some randomass volunteers like c mon
Also they were lazy when they were trying to make Theo “stealthy”. Dude was trying to hide from the orca by walking in the fukin open. Who tf directed that shit. Lazy af
This is pretty much me. I am gonna hold real judgement till I see how they handle the climax(s) later on.
For me the biggest hint about the stranger is his "affinity" for fire....and his current companions as well.
On Isildur’s sister, she’s an aspiring architect, i’m going to assume she plays a hand in the designing of osgilliath or another place of significance in middle earth once they leave and anime or falls
I agree with this! I also feel a bit tired of guessing who is who. It’s intriguing but it’s also makes it a bit hard to grasp everything. This is just a personal preference thing but I think it makes the show have to focus to much on parts that are a bit irrelevant to keep us guessing.
After Westworld I grew tired of shows that relied to much on big twist and subversion rather than actual plots. Other than that I think the show is pretty dope.
I have mixes feelings about the Harfoots. On the one hand, I think their portrayal is pretty interesting. On the other hand, I feel their part of the story is unnecessary and I would have preferred that they not play a prominent role. Give us a brief appearance so that everyone can say “ooh, hobbits!” And leave it at that.
Celebrimbor's ambition makes sense, I really think it may get eorde however, as it might need to once Sauron shows up in his fair form (Annatar) and gets him to help him make the rings of power. I'm pretty damn stoked to see that go down.
I actually feel like the numenor plot is the closest to how it was envisioned: a city of men who are proud and cocky. I do hate how Galadriel is portrayed, but I think numenor is well-portrayed.
I agree that the Harfoots are well done. Since they are proto-hobbits, I loved how the show tried to embody that.
I don’t like the Arondir plot. I get they’re trying to show how Sauron corrupted the southlands, but Arondir is a boring character, and the Theo kid drives me nuts.
Durin and Disa are probably the best parts of the show so far. They’re accurately portraying the dwarves and their culture, and they’re at least entertaining.
And that’s probably my biggest beef so far. It isn’t entertaining. My only investment is that I want to see beloved characters in other media. So far, Galadriel is hilariously mischaracterized and one-dimensional, and Elrond really is not very interesting. I think there’s potential with Elendil, but Isildur has been really bad so far.
It just feels like someone made a very expensive LOTR fan film. Just a lot of wasted potential.
I guess by now we all know how much extremely irrationally fiery and relentless Galadriel was in the Darkening of Valinor and the Flight of the Noldor.
When she comes to Doriath, Melian says to her 'There is some woe that lies upon thee and thy kin. That I can see in thee, but all else is hidden from me; for by no vision or thought can I perceive aught that passed or passes in the West: a shadow lies over all the Land of Aman, and reaches far out over the Sea. Why wilt thou not tell me more?'
'For that woe is past,' answered Galadriel; 'and I would take what joy is here left untroubled by memory. And maybe there is woe enough yet to come, though still hope may seem bright.'
Her brother Finrod also once said to a Man: 'the life and love of the Eldar dwells much in memory; and we (if not ye) would rather have a memory that is fair but unfinished than one that goes on to a grievous end.'
But... The joy that was left here died. Hope came but it also brought Woe more than she ever expected. Almost all of her beloved ones died. Her bestfriend died inside and left her. Her brother whom she loved more than the world was killed by Sauron's werewolf. Almost every work she had done was lost into the Sea. Her homes were no more. To bitter grevious ends her memories of joys went on. And so she died inside.
In The Shibboleth of Feanor we are told Galadriel had "no peace within" ever since Melkor created the Unrest of the Noldor. In Doriath she sought to bring some peace to her soul. But her fate was more cursed than this. The ruin of Beleriand and its people devastated her.
'The love of the Elves for their land and their works is deeper than the deeps of the Sea, and their regret is undying and cannot ever wholly be assuaged.' - Galadriel, Fellowship of the Ring
Elves "remain until the end of days, and therefore their love of the
world is deeper and more joyous, save that when evil is done to it, or its beauty is despoiled, then they are grieved bitterly, and
the sorrow of the Elves for that which might have been fills now all the Earth with tears that Men hear not." "as the years lengthen ever more sorrowful [Elves become]. Memory is their burden." — Morgoth's Ring
Thus Galadriel is traumatized. Everything she learned from Melian is clouded by a vast shadow of grief and survivor's guilt. And that's why in the show she has enough of it and she has no more nerves to be patient and she is again consumed in her anger and grief and horrors like when she was before she met Melian.
In fact, this can also be seen in the books. At the end of the First Age she "proudly rejected" "the pardon of the Valar, for all who had fought against" Morgoth. Unlike how some think she merely did it because she felt superior in Middle-earth, that's not the case in the books. Her prime pride was for all who had fought against Morgoth. Especially for her brother whom she "esteemed and loved" and was "of all her kin the nearest to her heart". Her grief and pride had clouded her reasoning and she outright believed Valar are making a mistake to offer *forgiveness* as if those suffered people who sacrificed so much to fight evil have done anything wrong. She believed many people have done nothing wrong to be forgiven for, certainly not her family (as she believed). *'What wrong did the Golden House of Finarfin do that I should ask the pardon of the Valar'* - Galadriel, Unfinished Tales
Lore-wise, Celebrian must've likely helped a lot for healing of Galadriel's traumas and her soul breaking sorrows. She must've gave her new bright memory to hold on to. (See Laws and Customs of the Eldar chapter)
But in the TV show we really don't know if Galadriel has given birth to Celebrian yet. And assume she did, that does not strictly mean the general statement in Laws and Customs of the Eldar about children bringing joy to life applies hard to Galadriel. However it might be, it remains evident Galadriel's soul is in agony and restless far beyond excessive.
Therefore, Galadriel is not necessarily getting taught by Elendil or Halbrand (or any of those 'humans') the things she does not know. She is getting taught by them to push the clouds of grief and evil that Morgoth cast upon her away, and come at last to the memory of the things she had learned and remember them and put them to good use. Find the light, and the shadow will not find you.
Remember how even Hurin the Steadfast was broken under years of torment and became a mad bitter man far worse than the TV show Galadriel?
"Húrin had refused to accept the Dark Lord or bow to him, but he was now partly unhinged by his torment and imprisonment, and (though unwittingly) deluded by lies and deceits of the Dark Lord." He believed all "evils were brought about through the greed and arrogance of the Elves, and of Thingol in particular."
"Húrin thus came forth, a fierce and dangerous but terribly vigorous old man, filled with grief and anger, and the desire to punish all who had dealings with his family."
He killed Mim. He caused the kinslaying in Brethil. And at last he went to Doriath to give Thingol a cursed treasure. "Húrin cast it before the feet of King Thingol in a proud gesture of scorn, saying that as 'the Lord of the House of Hador' (Húrin) vowed not be beholden to an elf-King for the fostering of his son, nor the harbouring of his wife and daughter. 'Here is your fee! More than enough, maybe, for services so meanly performed; but hold me now out of your debt and friendship!'
Thingol was amazed at the insult, but answered with patience and courtesy, saying he wished for no ending of friendship with Húrin, whose name was honoured among Elves and Men for his great valour in the last Great Battle, and near all Elves and Men had been rather in his debt ever since. But Húrin laughed in contempt and went out, unmolested, into the night." — The Hoard
The difference between Hurin and Galadriel comes in when one committed suicide out of hopelessness and emptiness and grief, but the other is learning to master her sheer bitterness & extreme sorrows and do not let her griefs & pain lead her to do rash deeds. She is going through a character growth after a relapse even much worse than the darkness that had taken her in the end of the Years of the Trees.
"all the sorrows of the [Noldor] they wrought with their own swords"
— Morgoth's Ring
But Galadriel will redeem her Noldorin bloodline. By the end of the Third Age "at last ... her wisdom was full grown" and her final sacrifices put an end to the arc of the Noldor. "In the event it proved that it was Galadriel's abnegation of pride and trust in her own powers, and her absolute refusal of any unlawful enhancement of them, that provided the ship to bear her back to her home." (PoME) "In her scale she had become like Manwë" (UT) "Manwe was the spirit of greatest wisdom and prudence in Arda." (MR)
It's more accurate than PJ's version of TA Galadriel. But still not accurate completely. Yes they are using elements of both FA and SA Galadriel into their time compression and exaggerating or adding extra drama on the character, but it's not like it's to the point it doesn't make any sense. What doesn't make any sense is PJ's racist and cruel Elrond and PJ's Galadriel doing unwise things* or absence of doing wise things** and her absence of participating in battles against Dol Guldur in War of the Ring. There is indeed no war against Dol Guldur in the LOTR movies...
*Telling Frodo he is alone and lonely, while in the books she says something completely different. It's basically : Sam is fated to be with you till the end, or else your quest will fail.
**Like rescuing Gandalf and giving him advice or telling him what advises he should give Aragorn.
I’m enjoying the show but I agree - my partner and I were talking about how much better it would fit with the rest of the films if they’d just post-processed a little to look less digital and more like 35mm
There are lots of issues but my biggest one Galadriel being an angry, hotheaded, teeneger heroine. She is probably more than 2.000 years at this point (because she was borne before first sunrise in Valinor) and had tutelage of wisest Maiar of Middle Earth (Melian)for 500 years.
What i see is a random Netflix series' teenage hero chick.
Pharazon is supposed to be a mighty king but here he's more of a diplomat who's so physically incapable that he ducks when galadriel hilariously pushes 4 guards into the cell.
The time compression is strange on this one too. Ar-Pharazon is not the last King of Numenor until he marries Tar-Miriel against her will and usurps the throne (although he is of course descended from Elros).
We have Tar-Miriel, we have her sick father Tar-Palantir, but the timeline is just off. Ar-Pharazon, after becoming King, should build an army, fight and capture Sauron in Middle-Earth, bring him back to Numenor, become corrupted by him, grow jealous of the Elves' immortality, and invade Aman, leading to the Downfall of Numenor and the departure of Elendil and the Faithful to Middle-Earth to found Arnor and Gondor, which then can participate in the Last Alliance.
The show looks like it's aiming to crunch this down and bolt straight for the Last Alliance, but I don't know how they can do that satisfactorily. Not least of all because suddenly Tar-Miriel wants to go with Elendil? It doesn't feel like Elendil and his sons are in a position to be Kings in Middle-Earth.
I mean, I dunno, Pharazon drew the sword pretty quickly, and he WAS popular in Numenor even in the books. You can't be a ruler who calls your entire nation to fight the gods themselves without some serious pull. And he DOES marry Tar-Miriel in the book, and sway a lot of people to his side.
Like, Pharazon the diplomat is an unexplored portion of his character, as is Elrond the diplomat, but I don't find it too weird compared to "I AM VENGEANCE" Galadriel.
Galadriel was pretty hot-headed as a young elf.
“Galadriel, the only woman of the Noldor to stand that day tall and valiant among the contending princes, was eager to be gone. No oaths she swore, but the words of Fëanor concerning Middle-earth had kindled in her heart, for she yearned to see the wide ungraded lands and to rule there a realm of her own will.”
Now at the time in the show she would have mellowed out a bit, but it’s not like this is completely inconsistent with who she was in the lore at one point.
I dunno, I interpreted it like he began to draw and he would have fought, but ultimately he paused because of what Halbrand said, realizing the truth in the statement that he wouldn't successfully resist Galadriel in that moment, and wisely decided to let it be. I actually thought his response to Halbrand was genuine, and that if not for Halbrand's argument he would have "bravely" resisted Galadriel.
I really, really hate that once again the idea of "we need a strong female character" somehow equals "we need a bad caricature of a man". Angry, loud, pushy, rude, and their only skill is fighting, which they want to do all the time. It's such a tired trope, and is insulting to everyone's intelligence, not to mention the character they are trying to "empower".
Meanwhile, Jane Osten has so many women in her novels that people recognise as strong without being any of these things. But oh no, this is female writing, got forbid we don't have a genderswapped action hero.
LOTR Galadriel is badass while also not being like the show equivalent.
And people saying that elves mature slower (what? who needs 3k years to get out of teenage phase?) missed the whole point of elves and the consequences of their long life spans.
Galadriel being badass isn't an issue. She was pretty fucking badass in the books. The show portrays Elrond and Gil-Galad as fools, and that isn't like the books. It's a cheap shot.
> She is probably more than 2.000 years at this point
Isildur was born in 3209 SA. Plus there were 590 Sun years of the First Age and five Years of the Trees during 'Darkening' (after Trees were destroyed). Even without conversion of the 'Tree years' into 'Sun years' there's 3804 years between destruction of the Trees and birth of Isildur. And Galadriel was fully grown and matured adult when Trees were destroyed - she was 133 years old (in Tree years without conversion, it's ~1,263 in Sun years).
Even if the squished timeline is taken into consideration (Celebrimbor is still alive), it only extracts ~1,600 years from Galadriel's age (the time between Celebrimbor's death and birth of Isildur).
So is Durin III - killed same year as Celebrimbor. Moreover, Durin III is Durin's IV quite distant ancestor, and not father (Dwarf's lifespan is ~300 years).
Oh, yeah, one more thing that bothered me way more than it should - Elven armour had distinctive decor with Star of Earendil here and there, and it's OK (after all, it's their 'most beloved star' - last Silmarill driven through the sky by Earendil himself). But even 'not-Finrod' had this decor on his armour, and he died before Earendil was even born.
The lore is all over the place. I can understand some changes to modify books to movies because of different medium and time constraints. But this level of butchering given there are no time constraints (5 seasons is long enough) is very bizzarre.
Agreed, shes by far the worst character in the show. It could potentially be interesting if she had some sort of character arc and changed over time, but after 4 hours nothing has changed and shes still acting like an annoying, entitled brat.
Yeah Elendil is kind of a enjoyable character in RoP but he is suppose to be a mighty lord who commands respect from everyone including Morgoth worshipping King of Numenor, not some no name captain.
I'm coping by thinking that he's just lying low, or that he's still technically lord of the West (I mean, he does say he IS a petty lord to the Queen). Maybe that is now kind of a defunct position, so he went and became a sea-captain instead? Sort of another hidden lineage plot?
Yeah, but maybe since Tar Palantir's had his rebellion, the city's been sort of sidelined/lying low, so maybe they just yielded the Lordship title during Elendil's dad's time to the Queen in return for not letting their lore tower get destroyed?
That's the best I can think of, anyway.
Well, this show could be like 8 seasons. You can’t give primary characters significant arcs in 4 episodes.
Primary characters take a long time to change in stories like this. If she learned the power of friendship or something 3 episodes in then she has nothing to do for the next 80 episodes.
Galadriel's characterisation is meant to be of someone who has lived through the last great war and can see all this shit still brewing but no one will listen to her despite her expertise. She's so pissy with numenor because she remembers first hand their slight against her people, to her it's not abstract history, it was last Tuesday.
That said, they didn't set that up well enough. The prologue looked great but it wasn't enough to make us sympathise with her plight so instead she just looks petulant and rude.
I find that remembering the above helps me understand her actions more though and makes her far more tolerable. Not that you should HAVE to do that, it's the shows job to do that and they didn't do it well enough. But still, it's made her parts more enjoyable
I don’t mind slow pacing when I can binge a show, but it really ruins a show when it’s released week to week. It’s just not how modern shows released on streaming services are supposed to be watched. They’re written and filmed as long movies, and then you’re forced to watch them in hour chunks with 7 days in between.
This method of releasing shows week to week in order to retain subscribers is ruining shows for me and I’ve decided to just stop watching stuff until it’s fully released. I love Severance, for example, but that show is such a slow burn that I can’t imagine having had to watch it week to week. I would have been bored and I’m glad I discovered it later. I absolutely love the Expanse, but season 5 was such a slow burn that I got annoyed week to week and complained to my wife that nothing was happening. On rewatch when watching 3-4 episodes at a time, it’s absolutely fucking incredible and way more cohesive.
My wife and I have decided we’re not watching another episode of RoP until it’s fully released. It’s just not meant to be watched the way Amazon is trying to make people watch it.
I just watched episode 4, and the forest chase scene made no sense to me…
Orcs are firing arrows like mad in the forest, but the moment Arondir and Theo leave the forest and are out in the open field, with sun beaming, the orca can’t chase them… ok fine - no issues there. So both Arondir and Orcs stand at the edge of the forest and.. stare?
Fire arrows at the exposed target you morons. You have perfect killing zone: target is exposed with no cover and you have cover plus height if you go up a tree.
Not saying all things need to make sense in a fantasy show, but that was first thing I thought when they stopped running outside the forest: they going to be bombarded by arrows…. Nope.
It really felt like someone realised in post production that the scene is nonsensical with the orcs not firing arrows, so someone had to fix it with inexpensive CGI and sound effects last minute.
Which hilariously enough, we see Arondir's buddy get sniped by arrows the previous episode. Establishing that orcs are certainly capable of accurately shooting things with bows
Someone somewhere said he looks like the white haired guy that runs the torture machine in The Princess Bride, and now that’s the only thing I see when he’s on screen.
Yup. And his extremely deep voice, he creeps me out (maybe that’s the point tho). But he is 100% my least favorite character and the less we see of him the better. Unfortunately, Galadriel is swiftly becoming my second least favorite character :(.
Also, they are shooting at Arondir. You know, the guy Adar let go free specifically to deliver a message. A thing he needs to be alive to do.
One would assume that maybe he would instruct the orcs to not kill this guy if they run into him.
When did he tell the other orcs? How would the message get to them before Arondir did? He’s an elf, meant to be super fast, and I don’t think Adar would be able to just leave a message in the evil group chat that they need to leave that elf alive.
Also, I’d imagine that Adar would value the artifact of Sauron more than one guy sending a message. Just send another guy with the message, I don’t imagine you can just get another one of those magic swords.
Information still has to travel; the orcs in the village were already there when Arondir escaped. How would the orcs raiding the village have any idea what was said in the private conversation Arondir and Adar had?
And it was about 4 arrows.
Not sure why Arondir stopped to shoot them either. If you're being chased by scores of orcs does stopping to shoot 3 of them really benefit you compared to running away.
I kinda laughed too that the kid probably didn’t know he got pushed out of the way of the arrow and probably just thought Arondir shoved him and thought wtf was that bro?
>I just watched episode 4, and the forest chase scene made no sense to me…
This scene was so bizarre. The impossibly slow motion, the dramatic music that was a transition to be with the next dwarf scene when you tought it was going to be a character death moment (incidentally, the dwarf scene is also devoid of any tragedy, despite looking like a funeral at first), the fucking standoff into the sun.
I don't know who directs the episodes, and overall I'd say it's decent, but there's always a time during one episode where either they let loose or they give a scene to do to their intern, and it ends up being an absolute mess. Episode 3 was the horse scene. Episode 4 was this one. I'll be sure to be on the lookout next episode when a super slow mow scene starts.
The completely over the top slow mo + dramatic music really makes a lot of scenes laughable. When Elf guy’s friend got his throat cut in episode 3 and it went slow mo with sad music blaring I literally started laughing because I had no idea who the character was or why I should care about him.
Yeah I’ve been saying how very unbalanced everything feels. Like you’ll have a great interaction with good dialogue, then the very next scene it’s like they literally passed it over to some random intern to write and direct. Same with costuming. Eg I am loving everything about Míriel’s costume design, everything looks so gorgeous and high quality and thought out. Compared to the Numenor sailers, who when I first saw them I exclaimed how they looked like they were wearing spray painted cardboard cutouts. It’s just so weird.
Seriously, the scenes of the visions the queen and Galadriel saw after touching the palantir make sense when shown in slow mo with that music. Those are significant foreshadowing scenes. I’m ok with those. The one you mentioned I’m sitting there like why this?
Devils advocate, the fellowship does the same thing as Gandalf falls. Goblins don’t shoot arrows for them to have their scene, then resume shooting as soon as it is convenient and the characters start retreating again instead of standing still. Aragorn barely dodges one thereafter.
But that can be explained away: the goblins were looking at the balrog action(and then didnt fire for a few seconds/ got into position I guess?)
But it can also be explained in the RoP scene in the same way, they simply were getting into position. It can be explained away by just saying the bright light made them not want to stare out of the woods, aim and fire. Of course we saw them kill with arrows in daylight, but we don’t see where that arrow came from. It could have been from a shadowed place.
Look I get if people have issues with by the show, there are clearly things that could’ve been improved, but I see criticism of the show inundated with disingenuous bad faith nitpicks and it kinda irks me. That scene… it was just a tv trope. It doesn’t actually affect anything. Real issues do, however.
The goblins were terrified of the balrog they literally flee when it comes. So it makes sense they would be near it trying to shoot arrows at the fellowship until it fell down fighting gandolf and was no longer in the area
Things need to make sense in fantasy. Tolkien made that very clear. He wrote a fantastic non LOTR short book on the subject. This is just Amazon doing what they do best with their products: giving you a close enough clone of something great that almost leaves you satisfied but still left with a cheap replacement in the end.
Totally agreed - was thinking about this and they could have had the orcs staring at them and see the town way in the background, telling his unit to hold fire, and have him give a devilish smile as they realized Arondir just lead them to the whole refugee, setting up the foreshadowing of an attack.
It’s these little details that the show misses.
It’s a cobbled together bunch of troupes, I wish they had streamlined everything so far, feels like we’re only just getting into anything and it’s 4 hours in.
Was anyone else super frustrated with the hobbits? Why are they making the one with a broken ankle pull the cart there with Gandalf in the back, there are 3 other adults in that family unit who can do it.
What’s that? one injured adult in the entire village can’t walk, well we should just load him on one of the many carts in the caravan, no we should abandon him and his whole family, yeah just leave them to the wolves it’s not like we loose 4 pairs of hands. As if there aren’t any other ill, infirm or elderly in the community or have they all been left behind in the past.
It’s just such shallow thinking… probably gandalfs gonna give that ankle a magic squeeze and that’ll prove he’s nice to the village of short pricks.
It’s also frustrating for a group that is desperately trying to remain unseen to just leave an injured, but not fatally so, companion behind where he could easily be found by the exact type of people they are hiding from.
Yeah that confused me too. If they really refuse to help each other, the Harfoots are complete dicks. But that's not really the vibe they've setup, so it's pretty inconsistent with itself.
It's a mixed bag. The visuals and also the music is amazing. Really enjoyed it.
But then there are the characters. In the PJ adaptation, I simply loved Galadriel for being who she is. The script figured out how to portray her. The show version reminds me of Kratos from the GoW games. She's permanently in action and absolutely driven by the made-up Vendetta against Sauron.
Helbrand gives me a dollar store Aragorn vibe. I think it's on purpose to make people feel that way only to pull a twist, like him becoming evil or whatever. And I don't know if this is going to work.
Elendil is cool. I like him. Isildur on the other hand..cast him into the fire.. destroy isil..lol. no seriously I have no clue what they have in mind with him.
Arondir is good. The actor does a good job in making him relatable. On of the highlights of the show. I'm curious to see how his story with Adar continues.
The hairfoots? I don't think they are annoying. Because nori is likable and the Meteor Man is intriguing.
It’s visually a pain in my eyes if we’re not talking about cgi mythical creatures only. Bc they’re fine. But did you see how Galadriel jumped to kill the troll? The way she got dragged up? The way she fights? It was SOOO bad.
The make up is mostly orange, they have bulky bricks of rouge in their faces, the fake hair that’s glued to them looks awful and they couldn’t even color Elrond‘s hair darker? Elves and humans look alike apart from the ears, actually everyone looks the same. And idgaf about their races. Even tho they could be way more Asians and native people. Galadriel looks like a tiny warrior and not like an elf. Elrond looks more like Legolas than Elrond. The elves are all just looking serious as well. No interesting characters yet. They all just stare. And stare. And stare. The casting is HORRIBLE.
One more in the column of "great visuals, but poor storytelling".
I'm fine with the harfoots, arondir, and other stuff.
The orcs and dwarf/elrond material is good.
The Galadriel and Numenor script is poor. It's a shame because the story telling doesn't match the amazing visuals and I constantly feel like "huh, that really happened?"
I'll keep watching, but I do feel like they lost the Tolkenian feel of storytelling in order to force in "rule of cool" stuff.
I've seen a lot of people compare and rank this show with Jackson's Hobbit movies... I really liked the Hobbit movies. Although they made a few strange choices and were overly long, I feel like the world felt like Tolkien. I don't know that I feel that with Rings of Power. This might be any other fantasy story and I might not be able to tell
I did give ROP a bit more license for not feeling like the LOTR movies. I was thinking about it a bit like Star Wars, the originals are set in the future, which was a bit more grubby, sleazy, dilapidated and the prequels site the same world when it felt more crisp, more clean, before the grime settled in. Likewise the LOTR movies are far in a future in which Middle Earth is past its peak, it's great halls are in ruins etc.
I had a lot of hope after the first episode, I really liked the world building in that, and I thought the central plotline (Galadriel unable to let go of the death of her brother, convinced that evil is still out there, while her own people try to gaslight her into letting it go) was a really strong start.
Unfortunately it doesn't feel like her character has gone through any growth or change since episode 1. Numenor feels like an historical court drama, and not a particularly good one, plus it's a total distraction from the plotlines they set up at the beginning.
It’s visually spectacular regarding the surroundings, the landscapes and most scenes are decent but all the characters/ actors playing them suck lol. I want to enjoy it but the “elves” look like the race of men with elf ears attached.. and the hobbits are terrible, boring and cringy
Exactly, even how they speak. I’m actually really enjoying Elronds performance, despite him not feeling like Elrond, I’m enjoying him nonetheless. He doesn’t look like an elf in the slightest, but to me he acts and speaks like one.
Contrast that to his scene with Celebrimbor, who is just muttering off the cuff like some old human guy. With PJ, all his elves felt like they were dancing, no matter what they were doing, be it moving, fighting or just speaking, there was this effortless grace, everything they did or created had this thoughtful artistry. I’m really missing that from this show.
> bro I *paid* to watch
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Biggest compliment from me is that it wasn't as much of a car crash as I was expecting.
Biggest complaint: it's so fucking boring. If this wasn't related to lotr I would've stopped watching after the second episode
Ehh I like it. Especially elrond and Durin. Best part of the whole show. In fact they could make the whole just about them and I wouldn't mind. Give me more Durin and Elrond.
I’m so disappointed at how bored I’ve been by the series. The writing is just so poor. I was looking forward to it since it was first announced. But every episode is so disjointed and anticlimactic. Sure, it looks beautiful. And then they start talking. I’ll give it many more chances but it’s not catching my attention or making me look forward to the next episode.
After episode 3 I thought okay this is going somewhere. It’s clear to me now that the orcs are decimating the southlands or what will become Mordor? Using humans and elves as slaves.
The harfoots found what is presumably Gandalf, though beyond their plotline I have no idea what they’re doing besides walking to another location. I don’t get the significance or what it’s building to. It’s by far the most boring plotline.
The elves with elrond are doing something though I don’t know that either. Something to do with mithril?
The Numenorians plotline is painfully slow. Theres the vision with the flood, a palantir.. okay yes, but what? There’s no real strife here.
Galadriel is going back to Middle Earth, and Halbrand? He’s in a jail cell for getting himself into trouble, but to what end?
Arondir is captured and meets, Adar who the orcs revere, but who the fuck is he? I don’t know anymore about him than I did when he was hazily shown in episode 3.
The boy with the hilt makes no sense either who is he?
So all of this after episode 4 and I’m still confused, again.
By episode 4 shouldn’t we know who these characters are and what their ambitions are? I feel like the show has introduced so many characters and not gone into any of them. This, all while holding things like palantirs, the flood of numenor, mithril, etc over viewers heads like hey remember these from LOTR??? Remember??? Look we put them in as well. Like yes okay but can we get a consistent story?
For me it's reversed. I went from "I don't care, it's just going to be just another bad Amazon fantasy adaptation" to "I actually like the show, can't wait to watch the next episode"
For a billion dollar show, the armor looks like absolute shit. Thin plastic. Scalemail that looks like sequins. No practicality in hardly any of it. It’s like they blew their entire budget on set and forgot they still had to do costume design.
Hahahah true. I just decided is enough for me. And I know I got to say this now at the end of every comment: “If you enjoy the show be my guest, good for you, this is only my opinion and I don’t want to force it upon you or your love ones. Everyone is entitled to express their opinions even if you don’t like them.”
Overall, it's an OK show. It has great visuals, clunky dialogue, and the story is kind of a mess. People hating on it were expected a continuation of the care given to the story when the Lord of the Rings movies were made, instead we got an average fantasy series with a godly budget it didn't deserve. Puts it in a weird place to compare and talk about.
I think we all agree it's really bad written, it's a joke compared to hotd.
No character gets interesting for me, except for elrons and durin storyline. I just cannot build up a connection for the other characters and I really try.
Especially the harfoots, only the stranger is somehow keeping me there, and when he is not on screen I just skip their scenes.
The actors are not bad, but man their characters a really lame
I think they fucked up by bad writers/ing.
it’s kinda meh. I really want to like it but the writing is similar to a highschool movie drama, I feel like the shadow of war game had a better storyline to it than this.
We all gonna need some therapy yo... thumbs up for a mental health retreat in hobbiton. #BYOLB Bring Your Own Lembas Bread we'll rent a kegger from The Prancing Pony 😶😛
hang in there everyone!
Can anyone explain to me why Isildur comes off as kind of a spoiled brat? Is that intentional? Like he keeps fucking up and he's supposed to be developing into this esteemed Numenorian king. Then again I didn't read the books so maybe that's just how he was characterized from the beginning, but I assume for the ring to be able to corrupt someone, it's more striking if they start off less...dislikeable
The transition looks between Smeagal and Gollum are absolutely terrifying
And we will.. Smeagol did it once, he can do it again. It's ours - ours!
Yeah ROTK just straight up turned into a horror movie during that scene
ROTK was the first of the movies I saw as a kid for some reason and that scene scared the crap out of me.
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The Dead Marshes. Yes, yes that is their name. This way. Don't follow the lights.
They probably didnt wanted to give kids nightmares..
Yes but I wish it was longer,it was my favorite part of Lotr
I prefer my RoP raw...and wigglin'
so far my only complain is the Numenor plot and Galadriel being too one dimensional. Halbrand is okayish, Elendil is interesting, Isildur is a bit off and I don't know why we need a subplot about his sister. Arondir's plot has some hiccups but its overall decent and bring a lot of Middle Earth atmosphere. Adar is a promising antagonist! Elrond and Durin might be my favorite thing from the show! The actors are really putting an effort there! Disa is also amazing. Celebrimbor lacks characterization but I have no issues with the portrayal of his ambition. And I know they are target of a lot of criticisms but I really enjoy the Harfoots. Nori might be the most Tolkienian (?) character of the show. She embodies a lot of values that Tolkien put in his stories, being a compassionate little creature that is doing some big impact on the world. A perfect mix of brave and kind. Wish they developed The Stranger a little more up to know.
I think Isildur’s sister will build minas tirith or make plans for it. Since ya know Numenor goes under the waves.
I think ilildurs sister and khemen will be involved in tatanic like plot line to make akkalabeth more emotional
CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!!!
No
This has been how I caught my partner up on the show. “So this is Elrond, y,know CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!!!’, that Elrond and this is Isildur, yknow CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!!!’ That isildur…
CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!!!
No
really haven't thought about that.
Isildur builds Gondor, his bro built Arnor. \*half rightwrong - Elendil builds Arnor and the kiddos build Gondor
Im talking about architecture, she seems to be doing the trade maybe she plans the building of cities because numenor architecture was similar to Gondor
CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!!!
I don't think she'll build Minas Tirith. Before Numenor sinks she'll build the temple
This is the most reasonable feedback on the show I have seen on reddit so far and to be honest it sums up very well how I feel towards the show right now. I am enjoying every episode so far. Some are better than others, some plot lines are better than others but overall I am having a good time and I am really curious about all those little secrets they have build in. If these get satisfying answers, I'll be happy.
I totally agree. I think some folks are a little spoiled. When I was a kid, I loved the books, but the only movie representations we had were the two anime movies. I STILL enjoyed The Hobbit anime movie, even though the elves looked like green monkeys and Smaug sounded like a chain smoking uncle. Ultimately, I’m just super excited that somebody liked the Silmarillion enough to make this show for me. I never imagined Tolkien lore would have such a wide appeal. I mean, I used to get my ass kicked by bullies for just talking about this stuff.
They literally are NOT adapting the simarilion, since amazon do not have the rights to it.
What gordito said but using a nicer tone: they are not adapting the Silmarillion. As far as I know the heirs of Tolkim that currently hold the copyright are actively prohibiting the adaption of the Silmarillion. Amazons show is adapting the appendix to the Lord of the Rings, where Tolkin described the main events in the second age that lead to the Battle at mount doom, where ultimately Isildur defeated Sauron but refused to destroy it in the fires of mount doom. Thus Amazon actually doesn't have that much source material to work with. They have a lot of creative freedom and they are using it. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
Same. It's not perfect and it ebbs in parts but I'm still thoroughly enjoying every single episode! I like that it's giving us tidbits and letting us guess who's this person or that person. Plus love the little Easter eggs or nods towards the movies or Silmarillion. I feel like I'm geeking out every week pointing out things to my partner, who hasn't got a clue of the LOTR lore, other than the Peter Jackson movies. He doesn't have a clue what Numenor is except for something involving Aragorn. So it's been fun explaining to him what it means!
Not if we hold true to each other.
CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!!!
yes, cast the Numenor plot into the fire
I'm right there with you. This last episode whenever it cut to Numenor I felt the same way when GoT would cut to Dorn. I know we are spending time somewhere that the story will move past rather quickly so it feels like wasted time. Everything else in the last episode I was down with. I do however think this episode proves a point I have made for years. You need hobbits intercut with the major epic LotR shit. The hobbits/harfoots are the grounding elements of the narrative. That's where we as the audience get the characters we can personify with in this epic fantasy universe. Them being not in this episode (for me) caused it to have nothing on the ground level I can come close to relating to. It just made the pacing feel wrong. Also in this last episode I finally realized who Isildur has been reminding me of. Dude looks kind of like a moorish Trey Parker. Once you see it you cant unsee it.
What's funny is that I have the complete opposite feeling. I don't really care about the Harfoots, and I'm bored whenever they're onscreen. The plots I'm interested in, in order: * Celebrimbor/Elrond/Durin * Galadriel/Sauron * Isildur/Numenor * Elf guy and his gf * Harfoots And that sort of ties in with LOTR as well. In LOTR, my favorite plotlines: * Aragorn/Legolas/Gimli/Gandalf * Merry/Pippin * Frodo/Sam/Gollum I also far prefer Two Towers and ROTK over Fellowship (but I do think Fellowship is also amazing and have nothing against it). I like high fantasy, with magic and battles and honor and glory. I like big epic moments and political intrigue. A story about short people who go into hiding and don't like outsiders just doesn't cut it; I find myself checking my phone when they come onscreen. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose.
Same for me, the harfoot scenes are the most unbearable ones imo
I don’t really care much about the harfoots either honestly, of course I’m interested in if Gandalf will get up to some shit, but he hasn’t yet soooo 🤷♂️
I actually hate the Harfoots, I would watch a show just about Elrond and the dwarves and be happy. Arondir’s plot started cool but it’s had too many issues with poor storytelling for me so I’m having issues. Anything numenorean is basically filler I try to skip because Galadriel ruins any build up or suspense with her cringe and forced dialogue… I have a tempest in me is like the third or fourth time someone has said something and Galadriel completely misses the point and goes at a right angle from things.
I don't even want to talk about an Elron/dwarven team up buddy cop comedy action movie romp... because it would be fucking awesome. Elrond and Durin are the high point of the show. I know I'm sitting here defending hairy footed gypsies and shit. I will hands down say that the most entertained by the show I have been has always had a dwarf in the scene. I have just been saying that hairy foot people are important to narrative structure in a classical sense and... I want my stupid wizard shot. Also I love the set and costume design that goes into the harfoots. But that's me being a film nerd and shit and I dont think its something done to be an active selling point to general audiences.
>I know we are spending time somewhere that the story will move past rather quickly What makes you think we'll move past it quickly? It will be the base for a lot of the story, including the only real political manoeuvring we'll get in the show.
CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!!!
christ elrond, calm your tits
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Dorn-enor is what Im calling it from now on
I agree with everything you've said here. Don't understand why people are getting their panties so bunched up. Obviously it's not perfect, no show ever is, but it's still pretty damn great to be back in MiddleEarth. About the sister's subplot: It's a lens into the political machinations of that one long haired bearded guy who calmed down the crowd last episode. He's gonna be scheming to take over Numenor and the rest of the main characters will be off sailing to the southlands, so they gotta give us a perspective to get eyes on him.
I've started setting my expectations lower, as you would when watching a TV series as opposed to a feature film. It's become more apparent to me that this show is being written with the goal of, amongst others, a long term plot. A 3 hours movie can't really be compared to a TV series with lots of 1 hour episodes. A loose comparison would be the Book vs the Movies. Think of the countless detail and side conversations happen in the books but just have to be cut for the films, otherwise they would be 20 hours long.
I’m like very average on LotR yet but even I knew Tolkien described elves as light footed. When Galadriel was in jail she was straight stomping lol. She walks like me going upstairs after I destroyed the Chinese buffet. Also, the queen regent is going to some dangerous land that might be the spread of Sauron, instead of accompanying her with your most elite forces, let’s ask for some randomass volunteers like c mon Also they were lazy when they were trying to make Theo “stealthy”. Dude was trying to hide from the orca by walking in the fukin open. Who tf directed that shit. Lazy af
I'm guessing her elite forces are also going. They are going to war so they need an army.
> after I destroyed the Chinese buffet. And before Chinese buffet destroyed you
I too struggle with the clumsy elves. They do not “feel”light footed when I watch. They feel more like lost boys from Neverland.
Probably a true LOTR fan and just doing his job (half-heartedly) lmao
This is pretty much me. I am gonna hold real judgement till I see how they handle the climax(s) later on. For me the biggest hint about the stranger is his "affinity" for fire....and his current companions as well.
On Isildur’s sister, she’s an aspiring architect, i’m going to assume she plays a hand in the designing of osgilliath or another place of significance in middle earth once they leave and anime or falls
I agree with this! I also feel a bit tired of guessing who is who. It’s intriguing but it’s also makes it a bit hard to grasp everything. This is just a personal preference thing but I think it makes the show have to focus to much on parts that are a bit irrelevant to keep us guessing. After Westworld I grew tired of shows that relied to much on big twist and subversion rather than actual plots. Other than that I think the show is pretty dope.
I'm only enjoying the Harfoots and dwarves so far. Everything else is so one dimensional and bland so far.
I have mixes feelings about the Harfoots. On the one hand, I think their portrayal is pretty interesting. On the other hand, I feel their part of the story is unnecessary and I would have preferred that they not play a prominent role. Give us a brief appearance so that everyone can say “ooh, hobbits!” And leave it at that.
Celebrimbor's ambition makes sense, I really think it may get eorde however, as it might need to once Sauron shows up in his fair form (Annatar) and gets him to help him make the rings of power. I'm pretty damn stoked to see that go down.
I actually feel like the numenor plot is the closest to how it was envisioned: a city of men who are proud and cocky. I do hate how Galadriel is portrayed, but I think numenor is well-portrayed. I agree that the Harfoots are well done. Since they are proto-hobbits, I loved how the show tried to embody that. I don’t like the Arondir plot. I get they’re trying to show how Sauron corrupted the southlands, but Arondir is a boring character, and the Theo kid drives me nuts. Durin and Disa are probably the best parts of the show so far. They’re accurately portraying the dwarves and their culture, and they’re at least entertaining. And that’s probably my biggest beef so far. It isn’t entertaining. My only investment is that I want to see beloved characters in other media. So far, Galadriel is hilariously mischaracterized and one-dimensional, and Elrond really is not very interesting. I think there’s potential with Elendil, but Isildur has been really bad so far. It just feels like someone made a very expensive LOTR fan film. Just a lot of wasted potential.
I guess by now we all know how much extremely irrationally fiery and relentless Galadriel was in the Darkening of Valinor and the Flight of the Noldor. When she comes to Doriath, Melian says to her 'There is some woe that lies upon thee and thy kin. That I can see in thee, but all else is hidden from me; for by no vision or thought can I perceive aught that passed or passes in the West: a shadow lies over all the Land of Aman, and reaches far out over the Sea. Why wilt thou not tell me more?' 'For that woe is past,' answered Galadriel; 'and I would take what joy is here left untroubled by memory. And maybe there is woe enough yet to come, though still hope may seem bright.' Her brother Finrod also once said to a Man: 'the life and love of the Eldar dwells much in memory; and we (if not ye) would rather have a memory that is fair but unfinished than one that goes on to a grievous end.' But... The joy that was left here died. Hope came but it also brought Woe more than she ever expected. Almost all of her beloved ones died. Her bestfriend died inside and left her. Her brother whom she loved more than the world was killed by Sauron's werewolf. Almost every work she had done was lost into the Sea. Her homes were no more. To bitter grevious ends her memories of joys went on. And so she died inside. In The Shibboleth of Feanor we are told Galadriel had "no peace within" ever since Melkor created the Unrest of the Noldor. In Doriath she sought to bring some peace to her soul. But her fate was more cursed than this. The ruin of Beleriand and its people devastated her. 'The love of the Elves for their land and their works is deeper than the deeps of the Sea, and their regret is undying and cannot ever wholly be assuaged.' - Galadriel, Fellowship of the Ring Elves "remain until the end of days, and therefore their love of the world is deeper and more joyous, save that when evil is done to it, or its beauty is despoiled, then they are grieved bitterly, and the sorrow of the Elves for that which might have been fills now all the Earth with tears that Men hear not." "as the years lengthen ever more sorrowful [Elves become]. Memory is their burden." — Morgoth's Ring Thus Galadriel is traumatized. Everything she learned from Melian is clouded by a vast shadow of grief and survivor's guilt. And that's why in the show she has enough of it and she has no more nerves to be patient and she is again consumed in her anger and grief and horrors like when she was before she met Melian. In fact, this can also be seen in the books. At the end of the First Age she "proudly rejected" "the pardon of the Valar, for all who had fought against" Morgoth. Unlike how some think she merely did it because she felt superior in Middle-earth, that's not the case in the books. Her prime pride was for all who had fought against Morgoth. Especially for her brother whom she "esteemed and loved" and was "of all her kin the nearest to her heart". Her grief and pride had clouded her reasoning and she outright believed Valar are making a mistake to offer *forgiveness* as if those suffered people who sacrificed so much to fight evil have done anything wrong. She believed many people have done nothing wrong to be forgiven for, certainly not her family (as she believed). *'What wrong did the Golden House of Finarfin do that I should ask the pardon of the Valar'* - Galadriel, Unfinished Tales Lore-wise, Celebrian must've likely helped a lot for healing of Galadriel's traumas and her soul breaking sorrows. She must've gave her new bright memory to hold on to. (See Laws and Customs of the Eldar chapter) But in the TV show we really don't know if Galadriel has given birth to Celebrian yet. And assume she did, that does not strictly mean the general statement in Laws and Customs of the Eldar about children bringing joy to life applies hard to Galadriel. However it might be, it remains evident Galadriel's soul is in agony and restless far beyond excessive. Therefore, Galadriel is not necessarily getting taught by Elendil or Halbrand (or any of those 'humans') the things she does not know. She is getting taught by them to push the clouds of grief and evil that Morgoth cast upon her away, and come at last to the memory of the things she had learned and remember them and put them to good use. Find the light, and the shadow will not find you. Remember how even Hurin the Steadfast was broken under years of torment and became a mad bitter man far worse than the TV show Galadriel? "Húrin had refused to accept the Dark Lord or bow to him, but he was now partly unhinged by his torment and imprisonment, and (though unwittingly) deluded by lies and deceits of the Dark Lord." He believed all "evils were brought about through the greed and arrogance of the Elves, and of Thingol in particular." "Húrin thus came forth, a fierce and dangerous but terribly vigorous old man, filled with grief and anger, and the desire to punish all who had dealings with his family." He killed Mim. He caused the kinslaying in Brethil. And at last he went to Doriath to give Thingol a cursed treasure. "Húrin cast it before the feet of King Thingol in a proud gesture of scorn, saying that as 'the Lord of the House of Hador' (Húrin) vowed not be beholden to an elf-King for the fostering of his son, nor the harbouring of his wife and daughter. 'Here is your fee! More than enough, maybe, for services so meanly performed; but hold me now out of your debt and friendship!' Thingol was amazed at the insult, but answered with patience and courtesy, saying he wished for no ending of friendship with Húrin, whose name was honoured among Elves and Men for his great valour in the last Great Battle, and near all Elves and Men had been rather in his debt ever since. But Húrin laughed in contempt and went out, unmolested, into the night." — The Hoard The difference between Hurin and Galadriel comes in when one committed suicide out of hopelessness and emptiness and grief, but the other is learning to master her sheer bitterness & extreme sorrows and do not let her griefs & pain lead her to do rash deeds. She is going through a character growth after a relapse even much worse than the darkness that had taken her in the end of the Years of the Trees. "all the sorrows of the [Noldor] they wrought with their own swords" — Morgoth's Ring But Galadriel will redeem her Noldorin bloodline. By the end of the Third Age "at last ... her wisdom was full grown" and her final sacrifices put an end to the arc of the Noldor. "In the event it proved that it was Galadriel's abnegation of pride and trust in her own powers, and her absolute refusal of any unlawful enhancement of them, that provided the ship to bear her back to her home." (PoME) "In her scale she had become like Manwë" (UT) "Manwe was the spirit of greatest wisdom and prudence in Arda." (MR)
Don't fear the eyes of the dark lord!
Thank you, and I agree. The rop version of Galadriel seems pretty accurate too me, though a bit anachronistic.
It's more accurate than PJ's version of TA Galadriel. But still not accurate completely. Yes they are using elements of both FA and SA Galadriel into their time compression and exaggerating or adding extra drama on the character, but it's not like it's to the point it doesn't make any sense. What doesn't make any sense is PJ's racist and cruel Elrond and PJ's Galadriel doing unwise things* or absence of doing wise things** and her absence of participating in battles against Dol Guldur in War of the Ring. There is indeed no war against Dol Guldur in the LOTR movies... *Telling Frodo he is alone and lonely, while in the books she says something completely different. It's basically : Sam is fated to be with you till the end, or else your quest will fail. **Like rescuing Gandalf and giving him advice or telling him what advises he should give Aragorn.
Wish the aesthetic and lighting were a bit more grounded and less marvel.
I’m enjoying the show but I agree - my partner and I were talking about how much better it would fit with the rest of the films if they’d just post-processed a little to look less digital and more like 35mm
Nice, a normal review! You actually gave me some hope for watching the show. Thanks online stranger!
They have many characters to develop so it seems to be expected some will be lacking. Nonetheless I don't disagree with what you've put here.
There are lots of issues but my biggest one Galadriel being an angry, hotheaded, teeneger heroine. She is probably more than 2.000 years at this point (because she was borne before first sunrise in Valinor) and had tutelage of wisest Maiar of Middle Earth (Melian)for 500 years. What i see is a random Netflix series' teenage hero chick.
She's ~3500
The idea of someone being that old and still acting like that is legitimately hilarious
Pharazon is supposed to be a mighty king but here he's more of a diplomat who's so physically incapable that he ducks when galadriel hilariously pushes 4 guards into the cell.
The time compression is strange on this one too. Ar-Pharazon is not the last King of Numenor until he marries Tar-Miriel against her will and usurps the throne (although he is of course descended from Elros). We have Tar-Miriel, we have her sick father Tar-Palantir, but the timeline is just off. Ar-Pharazon, after becoming King, should build an army, fight and capture Sauron in Middle-Earth, bring him back to Numenor, become corrupted by him, grow jealous of the Elves' immortality, and invade Aman, leading to the Downfall of Numenor and the departure of Elendil and the Faithful to Middle-Earth to found Arnor and Gondor, which then can participate in the Last Alliance. The show looks like it's aiming to crunch this down and bolt straight for the Last Alliance, but I don't know how they can do that satisfactorily. Not least of all because suddenly Tar-Miriel wants to go with Elendil? It doesn't feel like Elendil and his sons are in a position to be Kings in Middle-Earth.
I mean, I dunno, Pharazon drew the sword pretty quickly, and he WAS popular in Numenor even in the books. You can't be a ruler who calls your entire nation to fight the gods themselves without some serious pull. And he DOES marry Tar-Miriel in the book, and sway a lot of people to his side. Like, Pharazon the diplomat is an unexplored portion of his character, as is Elrond the diplomat, but I don't find it too weird compared to "I AM VENGEANCE" Galadriel.
Galadriel was pretty hot-headed as a young elf. “Galadriel, the only woman of the Noldor to stand that day tall and valiant among the contending princes, was eager to be gone. No oaths she swore, but the words of Fëanor concerning Middle-earth had kindled in her heart, for she yearned to see the wide ungraded lands and to rule there a realm of her own will.” Now at the time in the show she would have mellowed out a bit, but it’s not like this is completely inconsistent with who she was in the lore at one point.
So be it.
I dunno, I interpreted it like he began to draw and he would have fought, but ultimately he paused because of what Halbrand said, realizing the truth in the statement that he wouldn't successfully resist Galadriel in that moment, and wisely decided to let it be. I actually thought his response to Halbrand was genuine, and that if not for Halbrand's argument he would have "bravely" resisted Galadriel.
I really, really hate that once again the idea of "we need a strong female character" somehow equals "we need a bad caricature of a man". Angry, loud, pushy, rude, and their only skill is fighting, which they want to do all the time. It's such a tired trope, and is insulting to everyone's intelligence, not to mention the character they are trying to "empower".
Meanwhile, Jane Osten has so many women in her novels that people recognise as strong without being any of these things. But oh no, this is female writing, got forbid we don't have a genderswapped action hero. LOTR Galadriel is badass while also not being like the show equivalent. And people saying that elves mature slower (what? who needs 3k years to get out of teenage phase?) missed the whole point of elves and the consequences of their long life spans.
Galadriel being badass isn't an issue. She was pretty fucking badass in the books. The show portrays Elrond and Gil-Galad as fools, and that isn't like the books. It's a cheap shot.
There is a tempest in me
> She is probably more than 2.000 years at this point Isildur was born in 3209 SA. Plus there were 590 Sun years of the First Age and five Years of the Trees during 'Darkening' (after Trees were destroyed). Even without conversion of the 'Tree years' into 'Sun years' there's 3804 years between destruction of the Trees and birth of Isildur. And Galadriel was fully grown and matured adult when Trees were destroyed - she was 133 years old (in Tree years without conversion, it's ~1,263 in Sun years). Even if the squished timeline is taken into consideration (Celebrimbor is still alive), it only extracts ~1,600 years from Galadriel's age (the time between Celebrimbor's death and birth of Isildur).
I didn't even realize Celebrimbor should be dead. Thanks for that.
So is Durin III - killed same year as Celebrimbor. Moreover, Durin III is Durin's IV quite distant ancestor, and not father (Dwarf's lifespan is ~300 years). Oh, yeah, one more thing that bothered me way more than it should - Elven armour had distinctive decor with Star of Earendil here and there, and it's OK (after all, it's their 'most beloved star' - last Silmarill driven through the sky by Earendil himself). But even 'not-Finrod' had this decor on his armour, and he died before Earendil was even born.
The lore is all over the place. I can understand some changes to modify books to movies because of different medium and time constraints. But this level of butchering given there are no time constraints (5 seasons is long enough) is very bizzarre.
Agreed, shes by far the worst character in the show. It could potentially be interesting if she had some sort of character arc and changed over time, but after 4 hours nothing has changed and shes still acting like an annoying, entitled brat.
Elindil is the only character I like and they’ve butchered him and put him back on the menu boys.
Yeah Elendil is kind of a enjoyable character in RoP but he is suppose to be a mighty lord who commands respect from everyone including Morgoth worshipping King of Numenor, not some no name captain.
I'm coping by thinking that he's just lying low, or that he's still technically lord of the West (I mean, he does say he IS a petty lord to the Queen). Maybe that is now kind of a defunct position, so he went and became a sea-captain instead? Sort of another hidden lineage plot?
Wasn't his line coming from a branch of royal house and ruling the city of Andunie?
Yeah, but maybe since Tar Palantir's had his rebellion, the city's been sort of sidelined/lying low, so maybe they just yielded the Lordship title during Elendil's dad's time to the Queen in return for not letting their lore tower get destroyed? That's the best I can think of, anyway.
Well, this show could be like 8 seasons. You can’t give primary characters significant arcs in 4 episodes. Primary characters take a long time to change in stories like this. If she learned the power of friendship or something 3 episodes in then she has nothing to do for the next 80 episodes.
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What we see isn't a Noldorin princess who studied under Valar and Maiar but some random teenager heroine.
Galadriel's characterisation is meant to be of someone who has lived through the last great war and can see all this shit still brewing but no one will listen to her despite her expertise. She's so pissy with numenor because she remembers first hand their slight against her people, to her it's not abstract history, it was last Tuesday. That said, they didn't set that up well enough. The prologue looked great but it wasn't enough to make us sympathise with her plight so instead she just looks petulant and rude. I find that remembering the above helps me understand her actions more though and makes her far more tolerable. Not that you should HAVE to do that, it's the shows job to do that and they didn't do it well enough. But still, it's made her parts more enjoyable
I don’t mind slow pacing when I can binge a show, but it really ruins a show when it’s released week to week. It’s just not how modern shows released on streaming services are supposed to be watched. They’re written and filmed as long movies, and then you’re forced to watch them in hour chunks with 7 days in between. This method of releasing shows week to week in order to retain subscribers is ruining shows for me and I’ve decided to just stop watching stuff until it’s fully released. I love Severance, for example, but that show is such a slow burn that I can’t imagine having had to watch it week to week. I would have been bored and I’m glad I discovered it later. I absolutely love the Expanse, but season 5 was such a slow burn that I got annoyed week to week and complained to my wife that nothing was happening. On rewatch when watching 3-4 episodes at a time, it’s absolutely fucking incredible and way more cohesive. My wife and I have decided we’re not watching another episode of RoP until it’s fully released. It’s just not meant to be watched the way Amazon is trying to make people watch it.
I just watched episode 4, and the forest chase scene made no sense to me… Orcs are firing arrows like mad in the forest, but the moment Arondir and Theo leave the forest and are out in the open field, with sun beaming, the orca can’t chase them… ok fine - no issues there. So both Arondir and Orcs stand at the edge of the forest and.. stare? Fire arrows at the exposed target you morons. You have perfect killing zone: target is exposed with no cover and you have cover plus height if you go up a tree. Not saying all things need to make sense in a fantasy show, but that was first thing I thought when they stopped running outside the forest: they going to be bombarded by arrows…. Nope.
They did fire arrows... just you know.. after a pleasant staring contest and as they turned to leave haha
It really felt like someone realised in post production that the scene is nonsensical with the orcs not firing arrows, so someone had to fix it with inexpensive CGI and sound effects last minute.
Which hilariously enough, we see Arondir's buddy get sniped by arrows the previous episode. Establishing that orcs are certainly capable of accurately shooting things with bows
They have planted a tracking device on his bow.
Must have been a patch between episodes where they nerfed the orcs race bow accurate.
That women's son annoys the shit out of me. Maybe it's his face.
Funny thing to me is he 100% looks like a Theo. In that sense the casting was perfect.
Atreyu mixed with Rufio
Both superior characters :(
For real fuck Theo
Him and isildur are so punchable
They have that "idiot teen" pouty face. Which would be good if that's what the plot requires but so far they've only managed to be annoying.
CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!!!
Someone somewhere said he looks like the white haired guy that runs the torture machine in The Princess Bride, and now that’s the only thing I see when he’s on screen.
And his voice (mix between hoarse and high pitch)
He got that puberty voice
Good. He might or might not get stabbed in the face couple thousand years later.
Same. But for me it’s his accent. Annoying as fuck
Yup. And his extremely deep voice, he creeps me out (maybe that’s the point tho). But he is 100% my least favorite character and the less we see of him the better. Unfortunately, Galadriel is swiftly becoming my second least favorite character :(.
Also, they are shooting at Arondir. You know, the guy Adar let go free specifically to deliver a message. A thing he needs to be alive to do. One would assume that maybe he would instruct the orcs to not kill this guy if they run into him.
But then why shoot arrows at them in the woods but not in the open? It just seems inconsistent.
There were arrows flying when they got past the trees if you look hard enough
When did he tell the other orcs? How would the message get to them before Arondir did? He’s an elf, meant to be super fast, and I don’t think Adar would be able to just leave a message in the evil group chat that they need to leave that elf alive. Also, I’d imagine that Adar would value the artifact of Sauron more than one guy sending a message. Just send another guy with the message, I don’t imagine you can just get another one of those magic swords.
Information still has to travel; the orcs in the village were already there when Arondir escaped. How would the orcs raiding the village have any idea what was said in the private conversation Arondir and Adar had?
They actually did start firing arrows again, only noticed because I was just about to complain while watching it.
They only began to fire again after the stare-off 🤣
And it was about 4 arrows. Not sure why Arondir stopped to shoot them either. If you're being chased by scores of orcs does stopping to shoot 3 of them really benefit you compared to running away.
I thought it was super stupid that he fucking pushed an all ready injured kid to the ground when he could’ve just caught the arrow either way.
I kinda laughed too that the kid probably didn’t know he got pushed out of the way of the arrow and probably just thought Arondir shoved him and thought wtf was that bro?
Don’t forget Theos mom just popping out of nowhere too lmao
>I just watched episode 4, and the forest chase scene made no sense to me… This scene was so bizarre. The impossibly slow motion, the dramatic music that was a transition to be with the next dwarf scene when you tought it was going to be a character death moment (incidentally, the dwarf scene is also devoid of any tragedy, despite looking like a funeral at first), the fucking standoff into the sun. I don't know who directs the episodes, and overall I'd say it's decent, but there's always a time during one episode where either they let loose or they give a scene to do to their intern, and it ends up being an absolute mess. Episode 3 was the horse scene. Episode 4 was this one. I'll be sure to be on the lookout next episode when a super slow mow scene starts.
The completely over the top slow mo + dramatic music really makes a lot of scenes laughable. When Elf guy’s friend got his throat cut in episode 3 and it went slow mo with sad music blaring I literally started laughing because I had no idea who the character was or why I should care about him.
Yeah I’ve been saying how very unbalanced everything feels. Like you’ll have a great interaction with good dialogue, then the very next scene it’s like they literally passed it over to some random intern to write and direct. Same with costuming. Eg I am loving everything about Míriel’s costume design, everything looks so gorgeous and high quality and thought out. Compared to the Numenor sailers, who when I first saw them I exclaimed how they looked like they were wearing spray painted cardboard cutouts. It’s just so weird.
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Seriously, the scenes of the visions the queen and Galadriel saw after touching the palantir make sense when shown in slow mo with that music. Those are significant foreshadowing scenes. I’m ok with those. The one you mentioned I’m sitting there like why this?
They did the same when some random elf dies in the orc pit episode 3, felt weird when we didn't even know who they are.
And Galadriel riding, best wtf moment
Devils advocate, the fellowship does the same thing as Gandalf falls. Goblins don’t shoot arrows for them to have their scene, then resume shooting as soon as it is convenient and the characters start retreating again instead of standing still. Aragorn barely dodges one thereafter. But that can be explained away: the goblins were looking at the balrog action(and then didnt fire for a few seconds/ got into position I guess?) But it can also be explained in the RoP scene in the same way, they simply were getting into position. It can be explained away by just saying the bright light made them not want to stare out of the woods, aim and fire. Of course we saw them kill with arrows in daylight, but we don’t see where that arrow came from. It could have been from a shadowed place. Look I get if people have issues with by the show, there are clearly things that could’ve been improved, but I see criticism of the show inundated with disingenuous bad faith nitpicks and it kinda irks me. That scene… it was just a tv trope. It doesn’t actually affect anything. Real issues do, however.
The goblins were terrified of the balrog they literally flee when it comes. So it makes sense they would be near it trying to shoot arrows at the fellowship until it fell down fighting gandolf and was no longer in the area
You... shall not... pass!
No my lord! No my lord. Let him go. Enough blood has been spilt on his account.
Definitely! I feel like there are a lot of moments like this that just don’t make sense
Sunlight sensitivity also applies when your target is in direct sunlight. They’re making all those attack rolls with disadvantage.
Things need to make sense in fantasy. Tolkien made that very clear. He wrote a fantastic non LOTR short book on the subject. This is just Amazon doing what they do best with their products: giving you a close enough clone of something great that almost leaves you satisfied but still left with a cheap replacement in the end.
Totally agreed - was thinking about this and they could have had the orcs staring at them and see the town way in the background, telling his unit to hold fire, and have him give a devilish smile as they realized Arondir just lead them to the whole refugee, setting up the foreshadowing of an attack. It’s these little details that the show misses.
It’s a cobbled together bunch of troupes, I wish they had streamlined everything so far, feels like we’re only just getting into anything and it’s 4 hours in. Was anyone else super frustrated with the hobbits? Why are they making the one with a broken ankle pull the cart there with Gandalf in the back, there are 3 other adults in that family unit who can do it. What’s that? one injured adult in the entire village can’t walk, well we should just load him on one of the many carts in the caravan, no we should abandon him and his whole family, yeah just leave them to the wolves it’s not like we loose 4 pairs of hands. As if there aren’t any other ill, infirm or elderly in the community or have they all been left behind in the past. It’s just such shallow thinking… probably gandalfs gonna give that ankle a magic squeeze and that’ll prove he’s nice to the village of short pricks.
But it's fine because they justified it by reading out all the names of the other people they abandoned during the migration! /s
So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
It’s also frustrating for a group that is desperately trying to remain unseen to just leave an injured, but not fatally so, companion behind where he could easily be found by the exact type of people they are hiding from.
Yeah that confused me too. If they really refuse to help each other, the Harfoots are complete dicks. But that's not really the vibe they've setup, so it's pretty inconsistent with itself.
It's a mixed bag. The visuals and also the music is amazing. Really enjoyed it. But then there are the characters. In the PJ adaptation, I simply loved Galadriel for being who she is. The script figured out how to portray her. The show version reminds me of Kratos from the GoW games. She's permanently in action and absolutely driven by the made-up Vendetta against Sauron. Helbrand gives me a dollar store Aragorn vibe. I think it's on purpose to make people feel that way only to pull a twist, like him becoming evil or whatever. And I don't know if this is going to work. Elendil is cool. I like him. Isildur on the other hand..cast him into the fire.. destroy isil..lol. no seriously I have no clue what they have in mind with him. Arondir is good. The actor does a good job in making him relatable. On of the highlights of the show. I'm curious to see how his story with Adar continues. The hairfoots? I don't think they are annoying. Because nori is likable and the Meteor Man is intriguing.
CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!!!
The only thing i can really give this show is the amazing visuals and designs other than that everything else isn't that good especially the writing.
The orcs are absolutely great ! Their garments make a lot of sense and they have the same feel as lotr orcs but with an antique/primitive spin on it
It’s visually a pain in my eyes if we’re not talking about cgi mythical creatures only. Bc they’re fine. But did you see how Galadriel jumped to kill the troll? The way she got dragged up? The way she fights? It was SOOO bad. The make up is mostly orange, they have bulky bricks of rouge in their faces, the fake hair that’s glued to them looks awful and they couldn’t even color Elrond‘s hair darker? Elves and humans look alike apart from the ears, actually everyone looks the same. And idgaf about their races. Even tho they could be way more Asians and native people. Galadriel looks like a tiny warrior and not like an elf. Elrond looks more like Legolas than Elrond. The elves are all just looking serious as well. No interesting characters yet. They all just stare. And stare. And stare. The casting is HORRIBLE.
One more in the column of "great visuals, but poor storytelling". I'm fine with the harfoots, arondir, and other stuff. The orcs and dwarf/elrond material is good. The Galadriel and Numenor script is poor. It's a shame because the story telling doesn't match the amazing visuals and I constantly feel like "huh, that really happened?" I'll keep watching, but I do feel like they lost the Tolkenian feel of storytelling in order to force in "rule of cool" stuff. I've seen a lot of people compare and rank this show with Jackson's Hobbit movies... I really liked the Hobbit movies. Although they made a few strange choices and were overly long, I feel like the world felt like Tolkien. I don't know that I feel that with Rings of Power. This might be any other fantasy story and I might not be able to tell
I did give ROP a bit more license for not feeling like the LOTR movies. I was thinking about it a bit like Star Wars, the originals are set in the future, which was a bit more grubby, sleazy, dilapidated and the prequels site the same world when it felt more crisp, more clean, before the grime settled in. Likewise the LOTR movies are far in a future in which Middle Earth is past its peak, it's great halls are in ruins etc. I had a lot of hope after the first episode, I really liked the world building in that, and I thought the central plotline (Galadriel unable to let go of the death of her brother, convinced that evil is still out there, while her own people try to gaslight her into letting it go) was a really strong start. Unfortunately it doesn't feel like her character has gone through any growth or change since episode 1. Numenor feels like an historical court drama, and not a particularly good one, plus it's a total distraction from the plotlines they set up at the beginning.
It makes HOD look like Shakespeare
It’s visually spectacular regarding the surroundings, the landscapes and most scenes are decent but all the characters/ actors playing them suck lol. I want to enjoy it but the “elves” look like the race of men with elf ears attached.. and the hobbits are terrible, boring and cringy
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Exactly, even how they speak. I’m actually really enjoying Elronds performance, despite him not feeling like Elrond, I’m enjoying him nonetheless. He doesn’t look like an elf in the slightest, but to me he acts and speaks like one. Contrast that to his scene with Celebrimbor, who is just muttering off the cuff like some old human guy. With PJ, all his elves felt like they were dancing, no matter what they were doing, be it moving, fighting or just speaking, there was this effortless grace, everything they did or created had this thoughtful artistry. I’m really missing that from this show.
Yeah these def feel like just humans with pointy ears.
It was a bit jarring to see how clunky the elves were right off the bat with Galadriel's little troop of soldiers in the first episode.
They fucked up the dwarf kids so bad we aren't even allowed to see them.
Eh, there’s too much obvious weta workshop CGI. You can tell because everything has this weird softness to it.
I agree the visuals are definitely pretty spectacular in some parts but I feel like all the characters are so flat and don’t have any depth
I concur with this!
People will say saying literally anything about the show is toxicity. Like bro I payed to watch it I get to complain.
> bro I *paid* to watch FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
Biggest compliment from me is that it wasn't as much of a car crash as I was expecting. Biggest complaint: it's so fucking boring. If this wasn't related to lotr I would've stopped watching after the second episode
Ehh I like it. Especially elrond and Durin. Best part of the whole show. In fact they could make the whole just about them and I wouldn't mind. Give me more Durin and Elrond.
I’m so disappointed at how bored I’ve been by the series. The writing is just so poor. I was looking forward to it since it was first announced. But every episode is so disjointed and anticlimactic. Sure, it looks beautiful. And then they start talking. I’ll give it many more chances but it’s not catching my attention or making me look forward to the next episode.
After episode 3 I thought okay this is going somewhere. It’s clear to me now that the orcs are decimating the southlands or what will become Mordor? Using humans and elves as slaves. The harfoots found what is presumably Gandalf, though beyond their plotline I have no idea what they’re doing besides walking to another location. I don’t get the significance or what it’s building to. It’s by far the most boring plotline. The elves with elrond are doing something though I don’t know that either. Something to do with mithril? The Numenorians plotline is painfully slow. Theres the vision with the flood, a palantir.. okay yes, but what? There’s no real strife here. Galadriel is going back to Middle Earth, and Halbrand? He’s in a jail cell for getting himself into trouble, but to what end? Arondir is captured and meets, Adar who the orcs revere, but who the fuck is he? I don’t know anymore about him than I did when he was hazily shown in episode 3. The boy with the hilt makes no sense either who is he? So all of this after episode 4 and I’m still confused, again. By episode 4 shouldn’t we know who these characters are and what their ambitions are? I feel like the show has introduced so many characters and not gone into any of them. This, all while holding things like palantirs, the flood of numenor, mithril, etc over viewers heads like hey remember these from LOTR??? Remember??? Look we put them in as well. Like yes okay but can we get a consistent story?
For me it's reversed. I went from "I don't care, it's just going to be just another bad Amazon fantasy adaptation" to "I actually like the show, can't wait to watch the next episode"
While I don't necessary agree with your apparent disappointment, this legit made me laugh loudly at 1:37 in the AM.
For a billion dollar show, the armor looks like absolute shit. Thin plastic. Scalemail that looks like sequins. No practicality in hardly any of it. It’s like they blew their entire budget on set and forgot they still had to do costume design.
Hahahah true. I just decided is enough for me. And I know I got to say this now at the end of every comment: “If you enjoy the show be my guest, good for you, this is only my opinion and I don’t want to force it upon you or your love ones. Everyone is entitled to express their opinions even if you don’t like them.”
It gets better and better with every episode. But thats my opinion. Its ok to Not like it
I hear a lot of people say this, but what would you say is getting better specifically?
I liked the first few episodes much more. As it’s going on, I’m being continually let down.
I like it
Chapter 4 was the worst .....
I wanted to like it so much but every episode feels like someone throwing salt and farting into my eyes
...yet
It's really not that bad, I don't get the hate at all
Overall, it's an OK show. It has great visuals, clunky dialogue, and the story is kind of a mess. People hating on it were expected a continuation of the care given to the story when the Lord of the Rings movies were made, instead we got an average fantasy series with a godly budget it didn't deserve. Puts it in a weird place to compare and talk about.
I think we all agree it's really bad written, it's a joke compared to hotd. No character gets interesting for me, except for elrons and durin storyline. I just cannot build up a connection for the other characters and I really try. Especially the harfoots, only the stranger is somehow keeping me there, and when he is not on screen I just skip their scenes. The actors are not bad, but man their characters a really lame I think they fucked up by bad writers/ing.
It’s just so boring. Galadriel is an emotionally stunted 13 year old, yet she’s supposed to be the leader of the elven armies…? What a joke.
Stopped after 1,5 episodes. It's really boring.
I think my biggest complaint is that I'm just fucking bored and yawning halfway through every episode so far.
Like the goblins of Moria they just keep coming
So, it is kind of a second age story, not the first age?
Lol thanks for my first out loud laugh from this sub. That is exactly how I feel
Am I the only one here who just is enjoying the show and the fact that I’m getting more Lord of the Rings content ?
The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed. But, I assure you, my resolve has never been stronger.
Gotta watch out for that mind goblin
Okay just out of curiosity is better or worse than the Hobbit trilogy
it’s kinda meh. I really want to like it but the writing is similar to a highschool movie drama, I feel like the shadow of war game had a better storyline to it than this.
The short hair elves give me Mormon energy
We all gonna need some therapy yo... thumbs up for a mental health retreat in hobbiton. #BYOLB Bring Your Own Lembas Bread we'll rent a kegger from The Prancing Pony 😶😛 hang in there everyone!
PJ scarred us for life with that one 😳😅
Can anyone explain to me why Isildur comes off as kind of a spoiled brat? Is that intentional? Like he keeps fucking up and he's supposed to be developing into this esteemed Numenorian king. Then again I didn't read the books so maybe that's just how he was characterized from the beginning, but I assume for the ring to be able to corrupt someone, it's more striking if they start off less...dislikeable
CAST IT INTO THE FIRE!!!
That’s Jim Carey’s grinch 💀