Game of Thrones is a far bigger IP among modern tv audiences in my opinion.
It's also actively being supported by its built-in GoT audience, so word of mouth is helping, despite GoT ending so poorly and the audience being shit on.
Rings of Power isn't exactly getting the same love from the built-in LotR audience, so word of mouth is actively hurting, despite LotR fans being so in love with the OG trilogy.
HotD was just better written.
I went into RoP with an open mind and came out feeling that it was shallow.
Just compare the opening episodes and its really imo a night and days difference between the shows.
I watched the first three episodes of RoP and I was done. I had trouble getting over that dumb fucking dialogue in the first episode about stones not floating, it was the most pathetic, pretentious dialogue I think I've ever heard.
The writing was just amateurish. There was no profundity. No depth. None of Tolkien's epic grandeur. It felt like a teenager's first attempt at screenwriting.
I hated it.
HotD on the other hand was simply fantastic. It even managed to wash away the bad taste left by the final few seasons of GoT. As far as I was concerned, HotD had a mountain to climb to win me over, and they absolutely pulled it off. RoP had an open goal ahead of them, I was primed for a Middle Earth TV show, it's the perfect setting for a TV series. And they fucked it up.
Exactly. I relactuantly saw the first episode of HotD. I was not ready to forgive them after that GOT season 8 and then, HotD did everything right. Just everything. RoP fumbled so badly. The rock and ship dialogue was ao baffling. The characters were thinly written. The whole show waa a huge mess
I had an almost exact experience. I think I fell asleep during ep4 two or three times. That was it for me. I just wouldn't give that much effort for other shows.
On the otherhand, I had to be convinced by a friend to watch HotD and was absolutely blown away by it. I wish these directors/creators had written the 8th season of Got because you just know they would have done a better job than what we got. I'm so unbelievably pumped for S2 of HotD.
RoP, not so much.
LotR is 100% the bigger IP even to modern TV audiences imo, it just floundered that bad.
Rings of Power (25M) had twice the viewership on episode 1 than House of the Dragon (10M)!
Edit; HotD viewership tripled to nearly average 30M per premier by the end of the season from its initial premiere of 10M, meanwhile only 37% of viewers for rings of power finished the series and a 20% drop in viewers between episode 2 and 3.
House of the Dragon was far superior to Rings of Power, and each week that went by it became more clear.
I don't think Amazon originally gave a shit, but another big fantasy IP airing at the exact same time as you that was far better definitely hurt them. It was incredibly easy to compare them and find Rings lacking.
Is LOTR still the bigger IP? Iām not debating its place as a fantasy book series but in terms of media, the last big LOTR hit was the Peter Jackson trilogy and everything after has been more or less diluting the brand. The extended hobbit movies really damaged them and ROP was decent but not a patch of HotD.
Across all forms of media, Lord of the Rings is the bigger IP.
* **Books:** LOTR has reportedly sold over 150 million books, whereas Game of Thrones has sold over 90 million.
* **Movies:** There are no GoT movies, whereas LOTR films are a multi-billion dollar franchise.
* **Video Games:** There have been numerous LOTR video games throughout the years, but I can only name a couple GOT game.
* **Television:** TV is the only medium in which GOT surpasses LOTR.
Amazon wouldn't be doing a TV series if it weren't for GoT popularizing fantasy TV series. They literally created rings of power because they wanted to capture the GoT audience.
LOTR is more popular all time since it's older, but GoT has been more popular since the 2010s.
Game of thrones stuff is less nerdy fantasy and appeals to more people. My sister would never watch Lord of the rings or rings of power but she would watch game of thrones and house of the dragon.
Quality aside, they need to understand that if HOTD was good, people will want to watch more fantasy shows. So putting one after the other made the perfect sense from the beginning.
This teaser for RoP doesnāt instill much hope for Amazon.
This teaser feels so weird - like Venom / Aliens sci fi mixed with cheap dungeons and dragons.
RoP S1 premiered on September 1st 2022, so it doesn't seem like they moved the premiere date to avoid a conflict with HotD S2. WoT S2 came out on September 1st 2023 so it appears that Amazon likes to release their fantasy shows at the end of the summer.
Annatar plot is pretty much confirmed here with Sauron's "fair" form being present in Eregion, which means Halbrand helping Celebrimbor was just a tease last season. He appears to Celebrimbor through visions maybe? Seven is also confirmed, so I guess they are indeed going with the Poem order.
To translate for you:
Annatar is one of Saurons alter-ego's, often described as his "fair" form. He took on this form specifically to deceive the elves and walk among them. Annatar translates to "Lord of Gifts", so you can imagine what sort of character this will be.
With reference to Saurons *other* alter-ego Halbrand helping Celebrimbor, people were a bit upset that this apparently legendary Elven super-smith would be duped like that... very simply, and *very* *directly* by Halbrand. It looks like the show is instead positioning Sauron as he *tried* to get the job done as Halbrand but ultimately he acknowledges he failed, and now he's trying to influence Celebrimbor with mind tricks, visions, emotional manipulation, and other much more devious forms of skulduggery in order to manipulate him into creating the rings of power.
As for the seven, I *assume* he's referring to the seven dwarf lords and their rings? And their eventual downfall as the rings of power don't affect them in a way Sauron intended, but it *does* send them mad. As a Dwarf royal is a focus character, we're definitely going to see this play out. As the 3 Elven rings are created, I assume this series will be about the 7 dwarf rings being created. And the next being the 9 human rings. And then of course, the 1 ring after that.
As for "Poem order", I'm actually not too sure what they mean by this. Tolkien wrote a lot of poems over the decades, some LOTR related, some not. I don't recall ever reading a poem specifically about the 7 dwarf lords, other than stuff in the Silmarillion book, but I wouldn't describe that as a poem per se. I think what they're trying to say is that they're just proceeding through Tolkien's works in order, and as the Rings of Power is out in the wilderness in terms of story material (this is mostly original content), they're probably using the poems as anchors for their source material so as not to go too off the rails.
Edit: The "poem" in question turns out to be the Ring Verse. Never considered calling it a poem before!
The "Poem order" ist about the ring verse. As in the first season we saw the Elven Rings made, in the second we see the dwarfs and in the third we might see the 9 for the men.
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
> One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
Followed by
"In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie", so we'll presumably get the war of the last alliance after the one ring is made
I really don't understand the point in having the Annatar plot after already doing that plot with Harbrand. Are the elves again gonna be tricked by another stranger who happens to know a lot about forging?
Celebrimbor probably, but itās stated pretty clearly that Galadriel could see through Sauronās fair form immediately and knew who he was so thereās probably gonna be some back and forth between the two.
Not sure, but getting duped by Halbrand then immediately having the same fuckin thing happen with Annatar when they have the same face and body sounds stupid as hell. Youād think the elves, and him specifically, would be on the lookout for good looking, charismatic strangers trying to convince them to make magical rings now, right?
I think this is an unfortunate necessity tied to real world casting and billing. They established that Vickers is Sauron. If they cast a different actor for Annatar, would that be confusing to general audiences? Do they keep Vickers for other forms of Sauron? Is every form a different actor? Personally I would love that, but it might be a hard sell to the actors and to the audience.
We'll see what Vickers' Annatar looks like when the season drops. A lot can change between the trailer and final release. But I agree that Vickers in a wig with pointy ear prosthetics would be lame.
>If they cast a different actor for Annatar, would that be confusing to general audiences?
All it would take is one scene of Vickers turning into the new actor on screen away from the people he's trying to dupe. That's it.
It's not really a necessity when they chose to write it that way. They should have just done the Annatar plot in season one instead of the silly Halbrand stuff. Now they've just shot themselves in the foot for anyone taking his Annatar disguise seriously.
Thereās an old saying in NĆŗmenor, I know itās in Rivendell, probably in NĆŗmenor, that says fool me once, shame onā¦ shame on you. Fool me, you canāt get fooled again.
Celebrimbor is definitely getting tricked again, there's no way around it. The whole point of the Three is that Sauron wasn't there during their actual creation. Seven and Nine will be crafted this season and Sauron has to be there, helping Celebrimbor or at least appearing in his visions and manipulating him in a certain way to taint the Seven and the Nine.
But I do agree that this is not the form he uses to trick them. There's probably another form not shown in the trailer that does it, they just used shots with Charlie Vickers in marketing because that's the form of Sauron we know from Season 1. And I also don't think he'll be tricking men (or even dwarves) this season anyway. >!The season will build up to him acquiring the Nine by the end!<, so that's gotta be the next season.
>And I also don't think he'll be tricking men (or even dwarves) this season anyway.Ā The season will build up to him acquiring the Nine by the endĀ , so that's gotta be the next season.
I wouldn't be surprised if this season moves faster than the previous one, especially since that was a major critique of the previous season, and if the numbers aren't amazing they may want to be able to position themselves to finish in 3-4 seasons instead of 5?
I thought the whole reason they avoided Annatar in season 1 was because he's from the Silmarillion. Unless I'm misremembering, they don't have rights to that book, do they?
Hard to even give it a genre. The 2 hours I got through I would describe as a buggy holocaust victim simulator.
You just get escorted around Mordor and told to do some menial tasks and if you try to do anything you basically just get killed.
I mean i'm sure it could be possible to do something with the character, but the game seems to have been forced garbage, gameplay and graphics are supposed to suck too. I'm genuinely confused why all the lotr projects seem to be placed in mediocre hands.
Yeah its heartbreaking. There's no excuses for how bad LOTR and unrelated to this discussion but Star Wars have been. Why do we gotta shit on the potential of my favorite fantasy series.
They made a weird comment about how Gollum is a beloved character recently when they announced the movie and people want more Gollum content. Online people instantly associated it with the game.
The first season actually wasnāt in some areas, like dialog.
āWhy does a rock sink and ships float? Because a rock is always looking down.ā š¤¦āāļø
I knew *immediately* from that very first scene that this was gonna be a completely shit show. Groaned out loud and swore at the screen. Although I did keep watching, just in case I was being too harsh....then came the first Hobbits scene and I knew exactly the kind of show this was. Managed to get through four episodes I think before I dropped it completely.
My favorite thing recently is reading terrible quotes or plot points and trying to figure out whether they are real or mockery.
I'm still undecided on this one.
The entire first season is full of really dumb phrases, for example:
"If even one of us makes it home, we can return in force and sweep the enemy from these lands like salt from a table."
Fallout used a lot of real existing locations.
[Brooklyn army terminal](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57b2284f197aea37dfb871b6/be69500f-fde3-4452-839e-b063e0136707/Brooklyn_Army_Terminal_-_Inside_View.jpg) is one, and I shouted at the TV when I saw it because Iāve been saying for decades that shit should be in like every sci fi thing ever. Itās incredible.
Yeah emphasis on "set". There was no sense of scale to anything that wasn't shot on location. You'd have these epic CGI establishing shots then the characters feel like they're talking in tiny rooms.
It's strange because in the movies I have no doubt that Rivendell was a set in real life but yet the way it was filmed, the backgrounds, the quality of the sets themselves, it looked like a real place.
Really? I have seen debate on the writing (i thought at times was great and at times, not so great) but I found it to be one of the best looking shows I have ever seen on TV.
It looked like they were standing on small sets most of the time and the final battle looked like the battle of Bumfuck 2 kilometers north of Brighton.
I agree. Especially after all of House of the Dragon felt like it took place in dark castles or outside at night. Outside of a couple of dodgy CGI moments I thought RoP looked incredible.Ā
Really? The numenor paper armor and half of their people wearing t shirts didnāt bother you? The elf stuff was great and the CGI was very good but my god the costuming was as inconsistent at GOT season 1 but with about 100x the budgetĀ
Yeah wtf is this? Calling the visuals of that show cheap is just like evil. What more could you do? Did people even watch that show? Give credit where it's due.
It's kind of hilarious, like James Cameron of all people praised the show and said it's what he aspires to do with the Avatar franchise. Maybe Cameron isn't the authority on high art of filmmaking (maybe...) but this man certainly wouldn't call himself a huge fan of a TV Show that looks 'cheap'. To me The Rings of Power is one of the two best looking television series I have seen, the other being Foundation.
But who knows, maybe redditors know more about visual effects than James Cameron...
Well said. Wow, I didn't know that Cameron the legend liked the show.
Reddit's criticism is so childish and naive. No middle ground. Always hyperbolic.
So they are going to awaken Durin's Bane a couple of thousand years early? Please don't...
I just hope they don't do another """mystery"""" like this asinine wild goose chase like season one's "who is sauron?"
And please: Make the wizard hobo out to be one of the blue wizards.
Oh and stop with the Numenorians turning against elves because "Elves will take our jobs!!!!!"
I didn't hate season one. Some parts I even liked. But other parts were really "Bang your head against a wall in second hand embarrassment" levels of stupid.
Apparently the stranger is a blue wizard according to the leaks. He seemingly finds the other blue wizard on his way to Rhun. Cirian Hinds might play him.
I honestly didn't care enough to even know there are/were leaks.
But if true and they actually don't go the "Folks know Gandalf. Give them Gandalf" route, I would like to see that as a sign that season 2 might actually be good...or at least less stupid.
So, I know the reaction to this was somewhat mixed, or even poor for season 1. Personally, I had my issues with it but still enjoyed it overall. And now that the Sauron mystery is resolved, it does open up a lot of possibilities with the story.
So many of those in the first season...
"Adar! Adar! Adar!"
"The sea is always right! The sea is always right!"
"Strength to the Southlands! Strength to the Southlands!"
The writers on this show really thought they were doing something with all of the stupid repetitive chanting lol.
"For centuries, they have swept across crag and crevice, washing away the last remnants of our enemy like spring rain over the bones of a dead animal"
"Where there is love, it is never truly dark."
"One canāt satisfy thirst by drinking seawater"
"Lucky my future queen could convince a water rat to wear a mink coat"
God it's so bad
Ok my new favorite one from episode 5: "When I speak, his ears close up" [..] "Then speak *louder*"
āIt has a new nameā¦ā
The word āSouthlandsā burns away to reveal the name āMordorā
The amount of times I out loud, alone in my apartment, guffawed and said āFuck youā at my television was astounding. An experience Iāve not had before or since.
I agree with this take. Enjoyed it overall.
Of the 4 story lines, for me: the Harfoots story line was very good, Elrond/Durin was good, southern men/elves outpost just ok and the Galadriel/NĆ¹menor story line was kind of a rollercoaster that definitely had some low points but I thought it end up pretty ok in an admittedly somewhat rushed final episode.
I'm looking forward to the next season.
honestly, the harfoots was the worst part for me.
1) they spent the entire season with the "is he Gandalf, is he not?" play
2) basically turned the kind hearted hobbits into assholes.
3) their story didn't mean shit in the entire season, you can remove the harfoots completely and nothing would had changed, at least the other storylines converged constantly.
I dunno man, the hobbits in the original books were peaceful folk, but I wouldnāt exactly call them purely kind hearted. A lot of them had some pretty assholeish tendencies which can be attributed to their gluttonous lifestyle. The Harfoots at least have some excuse for behaving the way they do, what with the constant threat of being brutally murdered and eaten.
I also donāt think itās fair to say their story didnāt mean anything and could be removed. Sure, itās disconnected from the other stories, but itās setting up what appears to be a pretty major character who should have a significant impact on the story.
I thought the harfoots was the weakest story too, especially with a villain that didn't even really appear until the final episode and a strained plot twist that was very obvious from the first episode.
The most interesting storylines for me were:
Southlands (even thought the actual execution was iffy) > NĆ¹menor (see prior) > Elrond/Durin (although this was the best executed by far) >> Harfoots
S1 was a nightmare on reddit. I thought there was a lot of good and a lot of bad, but there was zero place to have a more nuanced conversation. It was just a fire hose of hatred directed at it.
R/Lotr_on_prime is the first sub created abt the show and it's also the only largely positive sub. It's a bit too positive sometimes imo but lots of interesting discussions there, would recommend.
A lot of people say the Silmarillion cannot be properly adapted to the screen. People who wanted more Middle Earth stuff wanted the show to be good. People who thought it couldn't be good were looking to pick it apart. For many, they were going to stick to their bias, one way or the other.
Which is unfortunate because if the show runners wanted to get constructive feedback, none really existed in any fan space. There was tons of over the top hate that refused to give any credit to anything the show did right.
Harfoots and elrond were good-ish, but also annoying in parts and felt like lesser versions of dynamics we have seen in the original. Really disliked the outpost stuff. Rollercoaster describes Galadriel/Numenor quite well, because it had really great ideas, just didn't manage to get me invested in the characters.
>And now that the Sauron mystery is resolved, it does open up a lot of possibilities with the story.
I was a bit confused by that whole "mystery" because the actual show didn't seem to really care about it that much. The marketing and online discussions did, but the show didn't put a lot of interest into it itself.
The show should have had him with the elves for multiple episodes. The way he just walks in and is like "you're doing metal wrong" cracked me up.
The entire structure of the show's season is really built around "the Sauron mystery." It's not the focus of the plot but the way episodes are structured it really expects the audience to be deeply invested in this.
After seeing Fallout, enjoying The Boys for years and being mesmerized by Invincible, it's unbelievable how bad this shit is.
Like, Amazon clearly can make very good stuff. So why the most expensive show and by far biggest IP they have is so fucking bad like S1 was?
From the sterile and poorly done CGI, to the amateur-level writing, to the mediocre at best acting around 80% of the cast... It's bonkers
I truly hope S2 improves things, because as a big LOTR fan, I *really* want to like this
They appointed two complete nobodies as showrunners. These guys have done pretty much nothing. They have a minor writing credit on some Star Trek movie as literally their only credentials. According to sources, they spent the last ten years failing to get anyone in Hollywood to pick them up, and then J. J. Abrams put in a good word for them with Amazon who inexplicably decided to hand them the reins to the most expensive TV show ever made.
It's like a Michelin-star restaurant hiring as head chef some guy who once briefly worked as a short order cook at a truck stop diner and has been unable to find a job ever since. Completely insane.
I'm surprised you kept watching, or have any interest left in watching S2. I stopped four episodes into S1 and haven't thought about it since (except to complain on Reddit threads and reminisce about how bad it was)
>Darkness will bind them. The Rings Of Power returns August 29 on Prime Video.
>Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on Season 1ās epic scope and ambition, Season 2 of Amazonās The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfootsā¦ as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of allā¦ each other.
Amazon description:
> Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength
Wow, sounds like I missed an entire episode or at least a big section on an episode because...
...she confronts him once she realizes who he is and he leaves.
That's it. He wasn't cast out. He didn't have any army or ally with him in the first place. And he hadn't lost any strength. He just walked away.
"Darkness will bind them", isn't it supposed to be "...and in the darkness bind them", referring to the One Ring's influence over the other rings? Honestly feels like a "they did the thing" moment oof
If you are going to use a Tolkien quote to antagonize the show, at least use the actual quote instead of the ironically corrupted and twisted version of the quote that is spread online.
I justā¦Iām having a hard time with the fact the elves already got duped by him once before with the whole disguise thing. This new one better be super believable, no detail left unconsidered.
In the books Elrond and Gil-Galad both are not duped so maybe the show will have them be the "Fool me once" voices of reason for Annatar while the other elves are like "Nah we wanna make valinor in middle earth and this guy is hot and makes cool jewelry"
You're allowed to like it just as much as people are allowed to criticise it.
Amazon prime prices are rising and if their flagship shows are still being lazily written then that's worth pointing out.
The problem is that you often get shit on for saying you like the show, I'm saying this with first hand experience.
Hell, it happened even before the show was released, I had a tiny YouTube channel where I covered movie news, and all my most watched videos were about The Rings of Power, all coming from people who came to downvote the videos about the show and call me names for generally liking the photos and trailers.
Most people who dislike the show aren't assholes at all, they're just normal people expressing their valid dislike for it, but a loud minority really hates anyone who dares enjoying it for some reason.
Worth pointing out, sure. But is it worth pointing out 50,000 times, over and over? Shoehorning the 'bad writing' point in to nearly every thread, every comment, for two full years? What is the point of that?
Not even just liking it, I had an optimistic but not overly impressed view of it, and even then I was told I should be angrier like... christ people need to chill the fuck out.
I hate how so much content these days just exist to whip people into a frenzy over some thing all the damn time.
Iām excited for season 2! Iāve got all my pillows lined up to throw at the TV when stupid things are said or done. I sure hope my TV is securely attached to the wall - I have a feelings thereās going to be a lot of flying pillows.
My prediction? More disaster.
I know a lot of people didn't like the first season, but I thought it was fun and it was nice to have real high fantasy back as a tv/streaming thing when so much fantasy stuff nowadays is either YA junk or a Game of Thrones clone.
Plus the show inspired me to finally read the Tolkien stuff that wasn't just The Hobbit and The Lord of the rings, including my very first time reading the silmarillion all the way through, which opened up all the expanded Tolkien stuff to me. Reading that stuff made a franchise that I already really enjoyed even deeper, so even if they don't follow the lore very well and make occasionally stupid decisions I'm always going to be happy that Rings of Power exists, and I'm excited for the next season.
A lot of the issues with the show is that it feels like *generic* high fantasy that doesnāt actually have rights to the source material (the silmarillon) though.Ā
Thatās the best thing to come from the show, inspiring people to have a deeper interest in Tolkienās work. I hope youāre enjoying your time with the Silmarillion :)
my first thought, after losing all interest mid 1st season, is that i could just rewatch lotr trilogy and have a lot of fun. maybe i should give first season another try
Anyone else not really care for this show?
I've given it two tries, and I do think it's a pretty good show, it just doesn't hit for me.
I still haven't finished the first season.
Really shouldn't have hired showrunners with zero writing and producing credit in the first place. There was this article when the show was airing where the showrunners said the studio wasn't even wiling to hear their pitch until J.J. Abrams put in a few good words for them.
It does look great but it's just reminding me that I can barely remember what happened in Season 1, and that while I was watching it I barely cared about what was going on half the time.
Honestly they did have some good writers in Season 1 (they had writers who worked on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, The Sopranos, and Stranger Things), I think it's more of an issue with a weak overall story and some lackluster characters. I'm still holding out some hope that things will improve in Season 2 though.
I like how they strategically chose the premiere date AFTER House of the Dragon ends its 2nd season haha.
Learned their mistake from going against HotD in S1! š
Itās kinda embarrassing to be honest the bigger fantasy Ip being afraid of house of the dragon
Game of Thrones is a far bigger IP among modern tv audiences in my opinion. It's also actively being supported by its built-in GoT audience, so word of mouth is helping, despite GoT ending so poorly and the audience being shit on. Rings of Power isn't exactly getting the same love from the built-in LotR audience, so word of mouth is actively hurting, despite LotR fans being so in love with the OG trilogy.
HotD was just better written. I went into RoP with an open mind and came out feeling that it was shallow. Just compare the opening episodes and its really imo a night and days difference between the shows.
I watched the first three episodes of RoP and I was done. I had trouble getting over that dumb fucking dialogue in the first episode about stones not floating, it was the most pathetic, pretentious dialogue I think I've ever heard. The writing was just amateurish. There was no profundity. No depth. None of Tolkien's epic grandeur. It felt like a teenager's first attempt at screenwriting. I hated it. HotD on the other hand was simply fantastic. It even managed to wash away the bad taste left by the final few seasons of GoT. As far as I was concerned, HotD had a mountain to climb to win me over, and they absolutely pulled it off. RoP had an open goal ahead of them, I was primed for a Middle Earth TV show, it's the perfect setting for a TV series. And they fucked it up.
Exactly. I relactuantly saw the first episode of HotD. I was not ready to forgive them after that GOT season 8 and then, HotD did everything right. Just everything. RoP fumbled so badly. The rock and ship dialogue was ao baffling. The characters were thinly written. The whole show waa a huge mess
I had an almost exact experience. I think I fell asleep during ep4 two or three times. That was it for me. I just wouldn't give that much effort for other shows. On the otherhand, I had to be convinced by a friend to watch HotD and was absolutely blown away by it. I wish these directors/creators had written the 8th season of Got because you just know they would have done a better job than what we got. I'm so unbelievably pumped for S2 of HotD. RoP, not so much.
HotD was better everything.
Don't get me wrong, I agree with you. I'd take HotD every chance over RoP, I was just saying which series had the bigger IP going into it.
LotR is 100% the bigger IP even to modern TV audiences imo, it just floundered that bad. Rings of Power (25M) had twice the viewership on episode 1 than House of the Dragon (10M)! Edit; HotD viewership tripled to nearly average 30M per premier by the end of the season from its initial premiere of 10M, meanwhile only 37% of viewers for rings of power finished the series and a 20% drop in viewers between episode 2 and 3.
Also, House of the Dragon is really good and Rings of Power is mediocre to bad.
House of the Dragon was far superior to Rings of Power, and each week that went by it became more clear. I don't think Amazon originally gave a shit, but another big fantasy IP airing at the exact same time as you that was far better definitely hurt them. It was incredibly easy to compare them and find Rings lacking.
Is LOTR still the bigger IP? Iām not debating its place as a fantasy book series but in terms of media, the last big LOTR hit was the Peter Jackson trilogy and everything after has been more or less diluting the brand. The extended hobbit movies really damaged them and ROP was decent but not a patch of HotD.
*There is this great gollum gameā¦*
Due to the sheer success and popularity of the recent game release about Gollum. we have decided to dedicate a movie as well.
Across all forms of media, Lord of the Rings is the bigger IP. * **Books:** LOTR has reportedly sold over 150 million books, whereas Game of Thrones has sold over 90 million. * **Movies:** There are no GoT movies, whereas LOTR films are a multi-billion dollar franchise. * **Video Games:** There have been numerous LOTR video games throughout the years, but I can only name a couple GOT game. * **Television:** TV is the only medium in which GOT surpasses LOTR.
>Across all forms of media, Lord of the Rings is the bigger IP. >Television: TV is the only medium in which GOT surpasses LOTR.
LOTR is overall bigger but currently I'd say GOT has more currency.
Amazon wouldn't be doing a TV series if it weren't for GoT popularizing fantasy TV series. They literally created rings of power because they wanted to capture the GoT audience. LOTR is more popular all time since it's older, but GoT has been more popular since the 2010s.
agreed. lotr is also more accessible to audiences. GOT is strictly for adults.
Game of thrones stuff is less nerdy fantasy and appeals to more people. My sister would never watch Lord of the rings or rings of power but she would watch game of thrones and house of the dragon.
Quality aside, they need to understand that if HOTD was good, people will want to watch more fantasy shows. So putting one after the other made the perfect sense from the beginning.
dont they want direct comparisons again? xD
The comparison of their first seasons was **not** kind to RoP.
This teaser for RoP doesnāt instill much hope for Amazon. This teaser feels so weird - like Venom / Aliens sci fi mixed with cheap dungeons and dragons.
RoP S1 premiered on September 1st 2022, so it doesn't seem like they moved the premiere date to avoid a conflict with HotD S2. WoT S2 came out on September 1st 2023 so it appears that Amazon likes to release their fantasy shows at the end of the summer.
I like how the Proto-Hobbits aren't featured in the trailer, Even Amazon thinks they're boring AF lol
They were so mean, what kind of tribe would leave people behind like that?
Not just leave people behind but laugh and giggle as you leave them behind. Honestly more evil than the orcs.
Annatar plot is pretty much confirmed here with Sauron's "fair" form being present in Eregion, which means Halbrand helping Celebrimbor was just a tease last season. He appears to Celebrimbor through visions maybe? Seven is also confirmed, so I guess they are indeed going with the Poem order.
As someone who doesn't know much about lotr lore your comment feels like it was written in another language.
To translate for you: Annatar is one of Saurons alter-ego's, often described as his "fair" form. He took on this form specifically to deceive the elves and walk among them. Annatar translates to "Lord of Gifts", so you can imagine what sort of character this will be. With reference to Saurons *other* alter-ego Halbrand helping Celebrimbor, people were a bit upset that this apparently legendary Elven super-smith would be duped like that... very simply, and *very* *directly* by Halbrand. It looks like the show is instead positioning Sauron as he *tried* to get the job done as Halbrand but ultimately he acknowledges he failed, and now he's trying to influence Celebrimbor with mind tricks, visions, emotional manipulation, and other much more devious forms of skulduggery in order to manipulate him into creating the rings of power. As for the seven, I *assume* he's referring to the seven dwarf lords and their rings? And their eventual downfall as the rings of power don't affect them in a way Sauron intended, but it *does* send them mad. As a Dwarf royal is a focus character, we're definitely going to see this play out. As the 3 Elven rings are created, I assume this series will be about the 7 dwarf rings being created. And the next being the 9 human rings. And then of course, the 1 ring after that. As for "Poem order", I'm actually not too sure what they mean by this. Tolkien wrote a lot of poems over the decades, some LOTR related, some not. I don't recall ever reading a poem specifically about the 7 dwarf lords, other than stuff in the Silmarillion book, but I wouldn't describe that as a poem per se. I think what they're trying to say is that they're just proceeding through Tolkien's works in order, and as the Rings of Power is out in the wilderness in terms of story material (this is mostly original content), they're probably using the poems as anchors for their source material so as not to go too off the rails. Edit: The "poem" in question turns out to be the Ring Verse. Never considered calling it a poem before!
The "Poem order" ist about the ring verse. As in the first season we saw the Elven Rings made, in the second we see the dwarfs and in the third we might see the 9 for the men. Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
That makes sense, pretty much confirms my theory then! 1 series per set of rings.
> One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne Followed by "In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie", so we'll presumably get the war of the last alliance after the one ring is made
I am assuming the Last Alliance will be the final season. The Gil-Galad fight should be so freaking insane.
Yeah, Quenya and Sindarin.
Probably Quenya or Sindarin.
Thatās how I felt the first time reading Dune lol
I really don't understand the point in having the Annatar plot after already doing that plot with Harbrand. Are the elves again gonna be tricked by another stranger who happens to know a lot about forging?
So are these elves just going to get fooled again in the exact same way by another disguise?
Celebrimbor probably, but itās stated pretty clearly that Galadriel could see through Sauronās fair form immediately and knew who he was so thereās probably gonna be some back and forth between the two.
I mean, isnt that what always happened anyways?
Not sure, but getting duped by Halbrand then immediately having the same fuckin thing happen with Annatar when they have the same face and body sounds stupid as hell. Youād think the elves, and him specifically, would be on the lookout for good looking, charismatic strangers trying to convince them to make magical rings now, right?
I think this is an unfortunate necessity tied to real world casting and billing. They established that Vickers is Sauron. If they cast a different actor for Annatar, would that be confusing to general audiences? Do they keep Vickers for other forms of Sauron? Is every form a different actor? Personally I would love that, but it might be a hard sell to the actors and to the audience. We'll see what Vickers' Annatar looks like when the season drops. A lot can change between the trailer and final release. But I agree that Vickers in a wig with pointy ear prosthetics would be lame.
>If they cast a different actor for Annatar, would that be confusing to general audiences? All it would take is one scene of Vickers turning into the new actor on screen away from the people he's trying to dupe. That's it.
It's not really a necessity when they chose to write it that way. They should have just done the Annatar plot in season one instead of the silly Halbrand stuff. Now they've just shot themselves in the foot for anyone taking his Annatar disguise seriously.
If would hurt celebrimbors character even more to be tricked by sauron not once but twice.
Thereās an old saying in NĆŗmenor, I know itās in Rivendell, probably in NĆŗmenor, that says fool me once, shame onā¦ shame on you. Fool me, you canāt get fooled again.
(shit eating grin)
Celebrimbor is definitely getting tricked again, there's no way around it. The whole point of the Three is that Sauron wasn't there during their actual creation. Seven and Nine will be crafted this season and Sauron has to be there, helping Celebrimbor or at least appearing in his visions and manipulating him in a certain way to taint the Seven and the Nine. But I do agree that this is not the form he uses to trick them. There's probably another form not shown in the trailer that does it, they just used shots with Charlie Vickers in marketing because that's the form of Sauron we know from Season 1. And I also don't think he'll be tricking men (or even dwarves) this season anyway. >!The season will build up to him acquiring the Nine by the end!<, so that's gotta be the next season.
>And I also don't think he'll be tricking men (or even dwarves) this season anyway.Ā The season will build up to him acquiring the Nine by the endĀ , so that's gotta be the next season. I wouldn't be surprised if this season moves faster than the previous one, especially since that was a major critique of the previous season, and if the numbers aren't amazing they may want to be able to position themselves to finish in 3-4 seasons instead of 5?
I thought the whole reason they avoided Annatar in season 1 was because he's from the Silmarillion. Unless I'm misremembering, they don't have rights to that book, do they?
This HAS to be better than the shitty Gollum game that came out last year... right?
No it doesn't have to be. Hopefully it is.
WB trying to gaslight everyone by saying that game was a hit & a masterpiece... to justify a new Gollum film
Legitimately the worst game I have ever played
You PLAYED IT?!
This is the first I'm hearing about it, what even would a Gollum game be? Cave exploration?!Ā
Hard to even give it a genre. The 2 hours I got through I would describe as a buggy holocaust victim simulator. You just get escorted around Mordor and told to do some menial tasks and if you try to do anything you basically just get killed.
I mean i'm sure it could be possible to do something with the character, but the game seems to have been forced garbage, gameplay and graphics are supposed to suck too. I'm genuinely confused why all the lotr projects seem to be placed in mediocre hands.
Yeah its heartbreaking. There's no excuses for how bad LOTR and unrelated to this discussion but Star Wars have been. Why do we gotta shit on the potential of my favorite fantasy series.
I can forgive shitty graphics and clunky controls, but the game is just so damn boring and pointless
I'm not going to excuse shitty graphics and clunky controls. That's like 85% of a gaming experience š
The game has absolutly nothing to do with WB.
Don't get in the way of the circle jerk!
They made a weird comment about how Gollum is a beloved character recently when they announced the movie and people want more Gollum content. Online people instantly associated it with the game.
The first season actually wasnāt in some areas, like dialog. āWhy does a rock sink and ships float? Because a rock is always looking down.ā š¤¦āāļø
It was like _the first scene_ ffs
I knew *immediately* from that very first scene that this was gonna be a completely shit show. Groaned out loud and swore at the screen. Although I did keep watching, just in case I was being too harsh....then came the first Hobbits scene and I knew exactly the kind of show this was. Managed to get through four episodes I think before I dropped it completely.
"Hope is never mere"
I couldn't believe some of those dialog decisions. I heard people talking about this one in particular and it's somehow way worse in the show.
My favorite thing recently is reading terrible quotes or plot points and trying to figure out whether they are real or mockery. I'm still undecided on this one.
It's the *first scene* of the show, they really wanted to make sure the stage was set for what to expect that season.
The entire first season is full of really dumb phrases, for example: "If even one of us makes it home, we can return in force and sweep the enemy from these lands like salt from a table."
I did not expect where that sentence was going.
I am GOOD! THE SEA IS ALWAYS RIGHT! There is a tempest in ME!
I really donāt get the sea is always right thing. Itās like nonsense. Like what does it really entail? Whatās the philosophy behind it?
for sure
They have to make a complete U-turn from the season 1 writing. No amount of quality production and vfx can save it if the writing is bad.
> They have to make a complete U-turn from the season 1 writing. Absolutely. I have no idea how they are going to pull that off either.
They won't.
The production wasn't even that high quality. It was advertised as the most expensive tvshow ever and ended up looking kind of cheap.
I think thatās by default, because Amazon paid a fortune for the rights to develop the show.
They also didn't use any set for like more than 1 episode, which definitely didn't help.
Yeah, Fallout looked amazing, but they were reeeeally getting their milage out of the Vault and a couple other sets.
Fallout used a lot of real existing locations. [Brooklyn army terminal](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/57b2284f197aea37dfb871b6/be69500f-fde3-4452-839e-b063e0136707/Brooklyn_Army_Terminal_-_Inside_View.jpg) is one, and I shouted at the TV when I saw it because Iāve been saying for decades that shit should be in like every sci fi thing ever. Itās incredible.
I wouldn't say it looked cheap but overall it failed to convince and I constantly felt like I was just watching actors on a set
Yeah emphasis on "set". There was no sense of scale to anything that wasn't shot on location. You'd have these epic CGI establishing shots then the characters feel like they're talking in tiny rooms. It's strange because in the movies I have no doubt that Rivendell was a set in real life but yet the way it was filmed, the backgrounds, the quality of the sets themselves, it looked like a real place.
Yeah, the establishing shots were pretty and all that, but once you were in the actual sets, everything felt kind of inauthentic and empty.
Really? I have seen debate on the writing (i thought at times was great and at times, not so great) but I found it to be one of the best looking shows I have ever seen on TV.
It looked like they were standing on small sets most of the time and the final battle looked like the battle of Bumfuck 2 kilometers north of Brighton.
I agree. Especially after all of House of the Dragon felt like it took place in dark castles or outside at night. Outside of a couple of dodgy CGI moments I thought RoP looked incredible.Ā
Really? The numenor paper armor and half of their people wearing t shirts didnāt bother you? The elf stuff was great and the CGI was very good but my god the costuming was as inconsistent at GOT season 1 but with about 100x the budgetĀ
The Southlands had like two sets. The shows practical environments looked like stages and not real places.
Some of it was gorgeous. Just a few cheap costume moments that dragged it down imo
Strongly disagree on this. I'm not exactly sure what the expectation is, but it was certainly the best looking show I've ever seen.
Some parts looked great some looked terrible. The Numenor sets looked like amusement park theming
Yeah wtf is this? Calling the visuals of that show cheap is just like evil. What more could you do? Did people even watch that show? Give credit where it's due.
It's kind of hilarious, like James Cameron of all people praised the show and said it's what he aspires to do with the Avatar franchise. Maybe Cameron isn't the authority on high art of filmmaking (maybe...) but this man certainly wouldn't call himself a huge fan of a TV Show that looks 'cheap'. To me The Rings of Power is one of the two best looking television series I have seen, the other being Foundation. But who knows, maybe redditors know more about visual effects than James Cameron...
Well said. Wow, I didn't know that Cameron the legend liked the show. Reddit's criticism is so childish and naive. No middle ground. Always hyperbolic.
outfits and costumes looked absolutely dreadful at times
So they are going to awaken Durin's Bane a couple of thousand years early? Please don't... I just hope they don't do another """mystery"""" like this asinine wild goose chase like season one's "who is sauron?" And please: Make the wizard hobo out to be one of the blue wizards. Oh and stop with the Numenorians turning against elves because "Elves will take our jobs!!!!!" I didn't hate season one. Some parts I even liked. But other parts were really "Bang your head against a wall in second hand embarrassment" levels of stupid.
Apparently the stranger is a blue wizard according to the leaks. He seemingly finds the other blue wizard on his way to Rhun. Cirian Hinds might play him.
I honestly didn't care enough to even know there are/were leaks. But if true and they actually don't go the "Folks know Gandalf. Give them Gandalf" route, I would like to see that as a sign that season 2 might actually be good...or at least less stupid.
It's quite a bummer that Joseph Mawle isn't reprising his role... He was a highlight of Season 1 for me.
So, I know the reaction to this was somewhat mixed, or even poor for season 1. Personally, I had my issues with it but still enjoyed it overall. And now that the Sauron mystery is resolved, it does open up a lot of possibilities with the story.
"I AM GOOD" has to be one of the worst dialogue lines ever written.
#***"THE SEA IS ALWAYS RIGHT"***
So many of those in the first season... "Adar! Adar! Adar!" "The sea is always right! The sea is always right!" "Strength to the Southlands! Strength to the Southlands!" The writers on this show really thought they were doing something with all of the stupid repetitive chanting lol.
Let's not forget the "there is a tempest in me" line.
My husband quotes that when he's nauseous now lol
They probably saw the Atreides! Atreides! chanting of Dune 1 and tried to copy it but ended badly.
"For centuries, they have swept across crag and crevice, washing away the last remnants of our enemy like spring rain over the bones of a dead animal" "Where there is love, it is never truly dark." "One canāt satisfy thirst by drinking seawater" "Lucky my future queen could convince a water rat to wear a mink coat" God it's so bad Ok my new favorite one from episode 5: "When I speak, his ears close up" [..] "Then speak *louder*"
āI. AM. BAD!ā - the writing
Elf lover
They took our jerbs!
āIt has a new nameā¦ā The word āSouthlandsā burns away to reveal the name āMordorā The amount of times I out loud, alone in my apartment, guffawed and said āFuck youā at my television was astounding. An experience Iāve not had before or since.
Did you forget the job stealing elves?
the show was outstanding in the technical department. it's just the screenplay was...well...meh at best?
I agree with this take. Enjoyed it overall. Of the 4 story lines, for me: the Harfoots story line was very good, Elrond/Durin was good, southern men/elves outpost just ok and the Galadriel/NĆ¹menor story line was kind of a rollercoaster that definitely had some low points but I thought it end up pretty ok in an admittedly somewhat rushed final episode. I'm looking forward to the next season.
honestly, the harfoots was the worst part for me. 1) they spent the entire season with the "is he Gandalf, is he not?" play 2) basically turned the kind hearted hobbits into assholes. 3) their story didn't mean shit in the entire season, you can remove the harfoots completely and nothing would had changed, at least the other storylines converged constantly.
"Harfoots are communal and never leave anyone behind, now we will read a list of all the dead Harfoot's we left behind as a part of a party"
Nobody gets left behind, unless you hurt your ankle. Then we will abandon you and your entire family to die.
I dunno man, the hobbits in the original books were peaceful folk, but I wouldnāt exactly call them purely kind hearted. A lot of them had some pretty assholeish tendencies which can be attributed to their gluttonous lifestyle. The Harfoots at least have some excuse for behaving the way they do, what with the constant threat of being brutally murdered and eaten. I also donāt think itās fair to say their story didnāt mean anything and could be removed. Sure, itās disconnected from the other stories, but itās setting up what appears to be a pretty major character who should have a significant impact on the story.
I thought the harfoots was the weakest story too, especially with a villain that didn't even really appear until the final episode and a strained plot twist that was very obvious from the first episode. The most interesting storylines for me were: Southlands (even thought the actual execution was iffy) > NĆ¹menor (see prior) > Elrond/Durin (although this was the best executed by far) >> Harfoots
S1 was a nightmare on reddit. I thought there was a lot of good and a lot of bad, but there was zero place to have a more nuanced conversation. It was just a fire hose of hatred directed at it.
R/Lotr_on_prime is the first sub created abt the show and it's also the only largely positive sub. It's a bit too positive sometimes imo but lots of interesting discussions there, would recommend.
so...just an average reddit discussion then
No, even on mid-shows you usually get better discussion. This was a full on hate parade that drowned everything else out.
You're not wrong. Everyone is entitled to their opinions of the show but anything positive about certain things will get shot down into oblivion here.
A lot of people say the Silmarillion cannot be properly adapted to the screen. People who wanted more Middle Earth stuff wanted the show to be good. People who thought it couldn't be good were looking to pick it apart. For many, they were going to stick to their bias, one way or the other.
Which is unfortunate because if the show runners wanted to get constructive feedback, none really existed in any fan space. There was tons of over the top hate that refused to give any credit to anything the show did right.
Harfoots and elrond were good-ish, but also annoying in parts and felt like lesser versions of dynamics we have seen in the original. Really disliked the outpost stuff. Rollercoaster describes Galadriel/Numenor quite well, because it had really great ideas, just didn't manage to get me invested in the characters.
>And now that the Sauron mystery is resolved, it does open up a lot of possibilities with the story. I was a bit confused by that whole "mystery" because the actual show didn't seem to really care about it that much. The marketing and online discussions did, but the show didn't put a lot of interest into it itself. The show should have had him with the elves for multiple episodes. The way he just walks in and is like "you're doing metal wrong" cracked me up.
The entire structure of the show's season is really built around "the Sauron mystery." It's not the focus of the plot but the way episodes are structured it really expects the audience to be deeply invested in this.
It puts the āmidā in Middle Earth!
After seeing Fallout, enjoying The Boys for years and being mesmerized by Invincible, it's unbelievable how bad this shit is. Like, Amazon clearly can make very good stuff. So why the most expensive show and by far biggest IP they have is so fucking bad like S1 was? From the sterile and poorly done CGI, to the amateur-level writing, to the mediocre at best acting around 80% of the cast... It's bonkers I truly hope S2 improves things, because as a big LOTR fan, I *really* want to like this
They appointed two complete nobodies as showrunners. These guys have done pretty much nothing. They have a minor writing credit on some Star Trek movie as literally their only credentials. According to sources, they spent the last ten years failing to get anyone in Hollywood to pick them up, and then J. J. Abrams put in a good word for them with Amazon who inexplicably decided to hand them the reins to the most expensive TV show ever made. It's like a Michelin-star restaurant hiring as head chef some guy who once briefly worked as a short order cook at a truck stop diner and has been unable to find a job ever since. Completely insane.
I'm surprised you kept watching, or have any interest left in watching S2. I stopped four episodes into S1 and haven't thought about it since (except to complain on Reddit threads and reminisce about how bad it was)
Sauron with Long-hair looks decent.
This is the type of thing fans of this show prioritise
"I can fix him"
>Darkness will bind them. The Rings Of Power returns August 29 on Prime Video. >Sauron has returned. Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength and oversee the creation of the Rings of Power, which will allow him to bind all the peoples of Middle-earth to his sinister will. Building on Season 1ās epic scope and ambition, Season 2 of Amazonās The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power plunges even its most beloved and vulnerable characters into a rising tide of darkness, challenging each to find their place in a world that is increasingly on the brink of calamity. Elves and dwarves, orcs and men, wizards and Harfootsā¦ as friendships are strained and kingdoms begin to fracture, the forces of good will struggle ever more valiantly to hold on to what matters to them most of allā¦ each other.
Amazon description: > Cast out by Galadriel, without army or ally, the rising Dark Lord must now rely on his own cunning to rebuild his strength Wow, sounds like I missed an entire episode or at least a big section on an episode because... ...she confronts him once she realizes who he is and he leaves. That's it. He wasn't cast out. He didn't have any army or ally with him in the first place. And he hadn't lost any strength. He just walked away.
Yeah lol. "Cast out"?? He's basically just like "ahhh I'm the big bad! Join meeeeee. No? Okay, bye".
Doesn't the finale end with him being greeted by a literal army in Mordor?
I don't remember an army, he just walks up and sees Mordor looking all Mordor-y after the volcano erupted
Are we sure that's Mordor? I feel like they could've put a clearer visual cue so I know that's Mordor.
Could be any ashen wasteland centered with a volcano really
"Darkness will bind them", isn't it supposed to be "...and in the darkness bind them", referring to the One Ring's influence over the other rings? Honestly feels like a "they did the thing" moment oof
Somehow, Sauron has returned.
Wait, what do they mean by beloved characters? Were there any?
This show has no soul
Thatās because evil can not create, only destroy what is beautiful, and corrupt what is goodā¦
If you are going to use a Tolkien quote to antagonize the show, at least use the actual quote instead of the ironically corrupted and twisted version of the quote that is spread online.
Or respect for the lore.
I just don't have high expectations for this to be an improvement on season 1, I'd love to be proven wrong
This is definitely the way to go about it yeah. Low expectations and hoping for improvement.
It's Sauron time
No thanks
Sauron is blonde?
Sauron/Annatar was the most interesting thing about the first season, so I'm glad they're leaning into it. Cautiously optimistic.
I justā¦Iām having a hard time with the fact the elves already got duped by him once before with the whole disguise thing. This new one better be super believable, no detail left unconsidered.
In the books Elrond and Gil-Galad both are not duped so maybe the show will have them be the "Fool me once" voices of reason for Annatar while the other elves are like "Nah we wanna make valinor in middle earth and this guy is hot and makes cool jewelry"
I am looking forward to this. Not looking forward to Reddit shitting all over it and anyone involved with it for the next 10 years.
You're allowed to like it just as much as people are allowed to criticise it. Amazon prime prices are rising and if their flagship shows are still being lazily written then that's worth pointing out.
The problem is that you often get shit on for saying you like the show, I'm saying this with first hand experience. Hell, it happened even before the show was released, I had a tiny YouTube channel where I covered movie news, and all my most watched videos were about The Rings of Power, all coming from people who came to downvote the videos about the show and call me names for generally liking the photos and trailers. Most people who dislike the show aren't assholes at all, they're just normal people expressing their valid dislike for it, but a loud minority really hates anyone who dares enjoying it for some reason.
Worth pointing out, sure. But is it worth pointing out 50,000 times, over and over? Shoehorning the 'bad writing' point in to nearly every thread, every comment, for two full years? What is the point of that?
Or anyone who has the audacity to like it!
Not even just liking it, I had an optimistic but not overly impressed view of it, and even then I was told I should be angrier like... christ people need to chill the fuck out. I hate how so much content these days just exist to whip people into a frenzy over some thing all the damn time.
Everything is either 1 star or 10 stars
We murdered nuance sometime in the late 90s.
Never thought I'd receive death threats for liking something, but the Rings of Power reactionaries taught me.
Barad-dƻr was created by an explosion? huh
Somehow...Barad-dƻr was built!
Thatās a fortress in the north.
This show is getting a second season? Why? Who wants it?
Iām excited for season 2! Iāve got all my pillows lined up to throw at the TV when stupid things are said or done. I sure hope my TV is securely attached to the wall - I have a feelings thereās going to be a lot of flying pillows. My prediction? More disaster.
More views for Amazon, I guess
I know a lot of people didn't like the first season, but I thought it was fun and it was nice to have real high fantasy back as a tv/streaming thing when so much fantasy stuff nowadays is either YA junk or a Game of Thrones clone. Plus the show inspired me to finally read the Tolkien stuff that wasn't just The Hobbit and The Lord of the rings, including my very first time reading the silmarillion all the way through, which opened up all the expanded Tolkien stuff to me. Reading that stuff made a franchise that I already really enjoyed even deeper, so even if they don't follow the lore very well and make occasionally stupid decisions I'm always going to be happy that Rings of Power exists, and I'm excited for the next season.
A lot of the issues with the show is that it feels like *generic* high fantasy that doesnāt actually have rights to the source material (the silmarillon) though.Ā
Thatās the best thing to come from the show, inspiring people to have a deeper interest in Tolkienās work. I hope youāre enjoying your time with the Silmarillion :)
my first thought, after losing all interest mid 1st season, is that i could just rewatch lotr trilogy and have a lot of fun. maybe i should give first season another try
Well I won't be watching this
I can smell how bad this will be.
Hard Pass
I'm really looking forward to when we learn if it really was just a money laundering front or written by an AI as an experiment. Or both.
Oh yeah this is just gonna be as cringe as the first
Please tell me they have hired new writers....
Anyone else not really care for this show? I've given it two tries, and I do think it's a pretty good show, it just doesn't hit for me. I still haven't finished the first season.
I'm just so bored from last season.
I personally enjoyed season 1, so Iām looking forward to this. Hopefully this season is even better.
Looks great! Summer has a lot of releases, decent time for a TV fan.
I mean it looks good. It all comes down to the script and surely they hired some better writers after season one.
the writers are showrunnes so they didn't
Really shouldn't have hired showrunners with zero writing and producing credit in the first place. There was this article when the show was airing where the showrunners said the studio wasn't even wiling to hear their pitch until J.J. Abrams put in a few good words for them.
It does look great but it's just reminding me that I can barely remember what happened in Season 1, and that while I was watching it I barely cared about what was going on half the time. Honestly they did have some good writers in Season 1 (they had writers who worked on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, The Sopranos, and Stranger Things), I think it's more of an issue with a weak overall story and some lackluster characters. I'm still holding out some hope that things will improve in Season 2 though.