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.