Rings of Power

[galadhir]

I have to admit that I stopped watching Amazon's Rings of Power half way through the first episode, because I didn't really recognize any of the characters or the world as recognizably the Middle-earth I loved, and also because by that time I was bored. But every scene I have seen of it has made me want to go 'Oh, God, No. You don't understand this world at all.' So I was delighted to read this article from A Collection Of Unmitigated Pedantry and find out that a proper historian agreed with me :)

Collections: Why Rings of Power’s Middle Earth Feels Flat

I can't wait for the next article which deals with things he thinks probably only niggle him and no one else - I suspect those will be the things that I also can't bear.

Comments

[ex_flameandsong751]

I haven't even watched it because everything I've heard about it makes me think this is the sort of thing I wouldn't enjoy, and I say this as someone who exclusively writes AUs. I don't want to sound like I'm being gatekeeperish and making fun of people who enjoy it - I think it's fine for people to like what they like. But I would have to suspend my disbelief a lot to get into it. Which is too bad, because I was pretty excited about the casting of BIPOC actors, I approve of elves of color, but I don't approve of short-haired Finrod or geriatric Celebrimbor [not trying to sound ageist, I'm middle-aged, but canonically the Quendi are immortal and shouldn't look that old, except for the extremely old ones like Círdan] or whatever's making people think Galadriel/Sauron is canon now.

[galadhir]

*g* Exactly! If people can like it then more power to them, and having more Tolkien fans and scholars can't be a bad thing, but honestly the whole thing is fanfiction, and I have read much better fanfic in my day. (And I say this as someone who has written the elves in Valinor having spaceships. I don't mind an unusual concept, I just want it to be rooted in the lore.)

Likewise, I am all for the casting of BIPoC as characters, but personally I would have preferred if they had done it more consistently, maybe by making all the Noldor black, or all the Sindar. But if it's just that they've chosen to make random OCs black without considering how to integrate that with the fact that most of their heroic and powerful elves are white then it seems like a missed opportunity. By which I mean that more of the main characters should have been BIPoC instead of just throwing in the odd token character.

And yes, short haired male elves are a travesty, and making Celebrimbor middle aged is just stupid. He's younger than Galadriel! And yeah, as a Celeborn fan the less said about the Galadriel/Sauron the better.

[ex_flameandsong751]

Yes exactly I would have liked to see the Noldor or Sindar as all-Black, or more of the main characters instead of random OCs. I made fanart of a Black version of Galadriel back in September: https://verhalen.dreamwidth.org/566880.html

[galadhir]

Ooh yes, she's gorgeous and has a mature and serious look on her face that suits an elf who's already seen the world end twice and is now gearing up for the third time. I feel like Galadriel's hot headed days were probably behind her by the Second Age.

[ex_flameandsong751]

Thank you! I agree, she is very poised when she's introduced in LOTR.

[dragongirlg]

Haven't read through the link yet, but just to say - I watched all of Rings of Power and the vibes were completely off the whole time! It definitely did not have any understanding of the characters, the world, the relationships...I had low expectations but even then it was a disappointment. I won't be continuing it.

[galadhir]

*G* Likewise! I told myself I wouldn't watch it, because all the promo material looked so wrong, but then I couldn't resist watching the first episode... and I just didn't recognize it. I don't think they have any idea about what makes Tolkien's work so magical and they treated it like just another sword and sorcery property.

If they finally bring in my main elf Celeborn, I may go back to see what they're doing with him. It's entirely possible that the indignation might fuel me to write more fic. (That's what happened with the movies.) But yeah, if he's not there, I'm not coming.

[sunshine304]

I didn’t even start watching. XD I didn’t like the promo pics and the trailer, it just didn’t look like LotR but rather some generic fantasy show.

[galadhir]

I don't think you missed anything. Some of it is quite pretty, I think, but you've only got to look at the elf men's short hair cuts and the dwarf ladies lack of beards to see that they didn't really care about the source. I still can't believe they thought they should write a whole series about the Second Age when they had no rights to any of the stories about the Second Age. It's so grieving because it could have been so much better! I know hundreds of fanfics that did it better

[sunshine304]

Yeah, the short hair for the elves was where I noped out of it when I saw the promo pics. XD And then not going for bearded lady dwarves, I’m sorry, why are you putting the Tolkien name on it again? Ah yes, money. XD

 

[mistressofmuses]

I will have to read the article (opening it in a tab for later), because I suspect it will justify a lot of my own disinterest!

[galadhir]

I follow Bret Devereaux (whose blog this is from) because he's a medieval historian and he can engage with things like Lord of the Rings on a similar level to Tolkien himself in terms of knowledge of the societies - the beliefs and the material culture etc. Which means that even if you don't know anything about the media he's watching, the blogs are always interesting and educational. But when you do, it's an extra treat :)

[mistressofmuses]

That's very cool! I'll definitely have to check him out.

[malinaldarose]

I gave it up after the first episode because I kept cocking my head and looking at it like a dog, going, "Um, whut?" But I had dinner out with my best friend last night and she urged me to keep going. She assured me that it got better. I dunno if I can, though.

[galadhir]

I know what you mean! I feel like I would probably have liked it a lot better if it had not advertised itself as Tolkien. I'm sure as a generic high fantasy it's probably pretty good, but if we're talking Tolkien's elves, there are things that I would want to see from the Second Age and this is not it.

(Specifically, I would have loved to see the court intrigue and drama in Eregion where Celeborn and Galadriel as rulers had to contend with Celebrimbor, the Gwaith i Mirdain and Sauron in disguise as Annatar, Lord of Gifts. All of which intrigue would wind up through an epic scene where Celebrimbor forged the rings and then realized it was all a ploy by Annatar to enslave the world, and ending in Celebrimbor being killed, Galadriel fleeing to Lorien and Celeborn and Elrond fighting to evacuate the people of Eregion to Rivendell.)

Celeborn is my blorbo from Tolkien fandom, so the fact that he's been absent all season while Galadriel got it on with Sauron has been enough to put me off

[xancredible]

Ooh thanks for the article rec. I'm gonna read that. I did watch the whole thing but I'm not a die-hard Tolkien fan and I had it on as background noise during work xD Given that they weren't allowed to use a whole lot of the source material, I'm not surprised it fell flat for real fans.

[galadhir]

Yeah, I do think that they couldn't have written something that would satisfy Silmarillion book fans given that they didn't have rights to any of the Silmarillion characters. I am slightly boggled that they even tried, instead of writing something set in the period that they did have rights to. I happen to have written a multi-chapter fic about what Lothlorien was doing during the wars of the rings that proves it's possible to write long stories in that period that don't require any characters that Amazon wouldn't have had rights to. The decision to specifically write about a period where they weren't allowed to use any of the canonical stories or characters was a bit mystifying!