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I agree with a lot of your points. Somehing else I would add is the costuming is not up to par. I get that Weta probably wasnt available for a seria style show, but there clearly isnt enough work going into the costumes/armor. The elf armor is missing the flair from the lore and lots of "armor" looks cheap. Some you can tell are just shirts with a printed pattern.

To be fair, there are plenty of us who have major issues with the PJ movies. The real difference is that the movies still told a good story that made sense. In Rings of Power the story is stupid, the acting is pretty bad generally, the fight scenes are so bad they make Power Rangers fights look realistic in comparison, and the dialog is some of the cringiest ever recorded.

As per your comparison of the two versions of Galadriel, at the time of Rings of Power she should be married with a couple of grown kids and starting Lothlorien. They basically demoted and downgraded Galadriel for the series.

He would have been perfect for the role❤

Asfaloth Glorfindel's horse had saddle, the riding 'elven fashion' without a saddle is probably more like well...a fashion which takes account of the natural ways of Elves with animals...which reminds me of the letter of Tolkien regarding that.... One can also interpret this as the Noldor, High Elves used saddles, other groups of Elves may not (maybe it also comes from the relative manner of the 'sophisitication' of the culture...the more wilder more in tune with nature Nandor maybe wouldn't use these or it's a matter of choice and cultural views) the Elves the Noldor of the First Age also used saddles (Curufin captures Luthien and keeps her on his saddle: "“Then Celegorm turned his horse, and spurned it upon Beren, purposing to ride him down; but Curufin swerving stooped and lifted Lúthien to his saddle, for he was a strong and cunning horseman. "). “‘I did not know you rode bare-back, Gandalf,’ he said. ‘You haven’t a saddle or a bridle!’ ‘I do not ride elf-fashion, except on Shadowfax,’ said Gandalf. ‘But Shadowfax will have no harness. […].’” Lotr ... “At need an Eldarin rider could remain in the saddle for long hours with brief halts and light provision” The Nature of Middle-earth Tolkien writes about those matters: "I could, I suppose, answer: 'a trick-cyclist can ride a bicycle with handle-bars!' But actually bridle was casually and carelessly used for what I suppose should have been called a headstall. Or rather, since bit was added long ago (Chapter 1-12 was written very early) I had not considered the natural ways of elves with animals. Glorfindel's horse would have an ornamental headstall, carrying a plume, and with the straps studded with jewels and small bells; but Glor. would certainly not use a bit. I will change bridle and bit to headstall."

The letter metaphor was so great, especially when I think about how P.J. often played around with direct quotes, giving them to different characters or using them at different points than they were originally said. Or the way some songs made it as dialogue.

My number one issue with The Rings of Power is that it doesn't seem to have any sincerity behind it. My second big issue with the show is how they treat my favourite elf Galadriel: When I was a kid and watched Fellowship of The Ring for the first time - I was in awe over Cate Blanchett's portrayal of this character, she had the look, the commanding and authoritative presence, she came off as being wise and knowledgeable, graceful and yet dangerous. Cate Blanchett did such a good job that she's the only cast member of the movies that I picture every time I read Tolkien's works. I know now that I'm older that Galadriel is the Great Mother archetype, the most powerful of all feminine strengths - a woman can copy male traits and the strengths of manhood, we often call this 'tomboyish' behaviours, but the feminine strength behind the Great Mother archetype cannot be copied by men, and most women do not possess this trait as their core character. Alas, we get to Rings of Power Galadriel, she has been stripped from her core archetype, an unmatched feminine strength, and was given the stereotypical view of strength that only amateurs would deem to be an improvement - the cheap copy of masculine traits with this new 'girl boss' trope that seemingly thinks that the only way a woman can be strong is if she's a carbon copy of male strength, and yet they neglect the most powerful strength that Galadriel already had, most likely deeming it to be 'outdated.' I can only view the 'girl boss' trope to be a misogynistic view of what strength is, and they parade this notion as if it were some progressive view, whilst simultaneously ignoring a timeless, psychological archetype that is attributed to this character. I am a big fan of the real Lady Galadriel, and as a 26-year-old Autist who fixates obsessively on archetypal structures and psychical processes, I am deeply disappointed with Amazon's cheap bastardisation. P.S. Sorry for the essay.

RoP is blantantly SHITTING ON not only the works, but the intent the Writer had for his works. They are The OPPOSITE. They are closer to Melkor than even Sauron could be. And for the casuals here: (Sauron was a mere lieutenant of Melkor.) & Michaela, to really understand who Galadriel is you have to look at her family and brothers. The Silmarillion holds those tales, but should you not want to read that, I suggest you look up Finrod Felagund & Feanor's (her Uncle) Lore should you wish to delve deeper. These two hold particular signifigance because 1 is a catalyst and the other is where Galadriel mostly gained her hard earned wisdom from. And incidentally Finrod is my personal favourite out of all the Elves Tolkien wrote about.

I'm a fan and I'm loving the RoP series. Just re-watched series 1 before starting series 2 and it's a phenomenal production. Series 2 so far is even better. I'm hooked.

I love this show, and I love the books and I love movies. You don’t speak for all the LOTR fans!

👍

lord IF the rings? thats actually smart.

you asked for comments, i find you absolutely entertaining, please keep not editing these videos, they are most fun to watch (just subscribed just now)

Depends on the plot. He is strong (or weak) as much writers need him to be

Your audio needs improvemeant. Its too echoey. A mic would help.Maybe a colorful background insteaf of the clinic white behind you.

This is such a wonderful video. You hit many of the points as to why this show is so terribly hard to embrace. I totally agree about the elves. Without the ears, you wouldn’t know an elf from a human. Another issue for me the the condensing of thousands of years into months. Perhaps a year? I also appreciate how you argued passionately without being mean spirited. I look forward to more videos!

Great video!

I do agree about the elves, but don't agree with Galadriel, Morfydd Clark does a very good job. I disagree about the Numenoreans, they look imposing enough compared to the people of Mordor. As for likeable characters, there are plenty of likeable characters.

I think the writers are definitely hinting at this…

We don’t. lol. The far right does. And nobody cares. They’re a minority in politics and a huge minority in society.

1st troll is just here to show how powerfull can be a "strong female" character, nothing comparable

It would be interesting to see the RoP producers call out Michaela as racists.

I don’t hate it at all, it’s intriguing… doesn’t all have to be killing.

Thanks for talking about this. I remember seeing a video a while back that explained it well using the example of Jurassic Park: “Viewers are willing to believe that we can bring dinosaurs back to life. But they’re not willing to believe that someone can outrun a T-Rex while wearing high heels.”

Rings of Power series was doomed before they even started filming it. When you check the interviews with creators more often than not you find out arrogance meets ignorance combo.

Solo los delicaditos odian la serie.

Good vid. You raise alot of good points! If you only have access to the "apendacies" then perhaps you shouldn't make the show at all. Yes, peter did change a number of things. But he didnt deviate or distract from the story or the characters that Tolkien wrote. Theres a difference between adding to a story and completely rewriting it to suit your narrative.

The most changes Peter Jackson made was to cut off content like Tom Bombadil that really didn't matter to the story. The others where at least not contradicting the books. And honesty, i don't think that the writers were forbidden to read the books. But i always had the impression that they really disliked their source material. Just with the witcher, why making a show of a content you dislike than rather create something new?

Love Tolkien. Def one of my fav authors of all time! Lovely video, liked hearing your thoughts on the book as a first time reader! silmarillion is really hard to read, it’s like a really big history book and dictionary in one. It takes alot of effort and energy to read! Def worth it, but just a heads up! 📚 Happy reading! ❤️

I guess tolkien would have liked people discussing and enjoying his works. Probably he him self was never a stuck up "muh canon" elitist, as he often wrote things in a way for you to interpret in a way you can relate to it yourself. We would all do good if we just enjoyed things and learned more about tolkiens world. Christopher Tolkien also did not like the Peter Jackson Movies everybody praises. He did not even want them to be made. Afaik his opinion basically can be shortened to "It's too much hollywood". So saying Tolkien fans will hate this or that is bs, sorry tolkien would probably be all about enjoying his world. Even his books are written by persons out of his world and are stories written from their eyes. This alone implies that even they are not always the absolute "truth" as a story told always has influences of his writer. Also even implying one is not a "true" tolkien fan if you not hate this or that is a childish and elitist way to say "I'm a better fan because I hate on RoP".

I honestly don't like the show simply because has nothing to do with anything Tolkien wrote and the fact that they lied about reading parts of the parts of the material that was given to them, this show is nothing more than a cash grab

They don't, they are watching it, its a greats show.

I'm currently watching Season 2 (not bothering with season 1 because it's too hard to get through). I'm trying not to watch it through a Tolkien lense, so to speak. But even so, I still don't like it. The story reminds me of my writing when I have no idea what I'm doing or when I've lost interest in my own story. It has no soul, the characters aren't believable, and it's just bad storytelling.

RoP made the elves just look like regular people. Gilgalad looks like a Walmart manager. It's so funny.

RoP Galadriel is more of a Karen.

I'm a fan since 1998, and I'm enjoying ROP! Brings some hope after Peter Jackson made whatever he did.

I love it, idiots hate it

I love that expression - “I had a total Celebrimbor moment.” 😂

Very good points. They spend a lot of money on the rights but really they could change the names and nobody would know it was supposed to be Tolkien. Just some generic fantasy.

they even added a story element from the Empire Strikes Back in the last episode of ROP. Its pure insanity.

this is more of a love story then fantasy/adventure. women writers. Galadriel is just ridiculous in so many ways. the characters and directing is garbage

Congratulations, Michaela, on a thoughtful contribution to the discussion. FWIW, I was entertained by the Jackson films but also had serious problems with choices that Jackson made which I don't think were made in order to make the characters be antagonistic to Tolkien's work but for purely commercial considerations (For example, The Hobbit would have made a decent one-off picture, but Jackson was committed to the trilogy and so had to pad it almost beyond recognition.) But the real point about Jackson's films is that they kept the overall integrity of the story. The Rings of Power does not. The "showrunners" (pretentious phrase) and writers are creating a world of their own that really has nothing to do at all with LoTR. That is the travesty. I can give one contemporary example of how to do it right: the Dark Winds series. Yes, they make substantial changes to the Hillerman novel (For example, Leaphorn is stationed at Flagstaff, Chee is already a Navajo policeman, and Bernie comes in further along). But, they retain the tone of the books as well as the respect Hillerman has for the Navajo culture. They have changed Hillerman's constructs without desecrating and discarding them. RoP can make no such claim. OK, I'm not a published writer but have written short stories for my own satisfaction, and have a pretty good idea of what an actual writer has to do. Here's what neither the "showrunners" (again: pretentious phrase) or "writers" know, understand or even would be able to do if they did know or understand it. An epic must above all have an overarching purpose and aim. Everything worthy of note in the epic story is in service of that overarching purpose. The story may contain moments that are irrelevant to the overall purpose and aim, but those are few and far between. This production does not have any such vision. Watch it from the first moment of the first episode (if you are masochistic) and you will never find any sense of the epic as I define it here. Where is all this going? Nowhere that I can detect. What they are producing is a disconnected series of soap opera-like vignettes, none of which have any purpose in telling the overall story. So there is no continuity, and no relationship between any of these vignettes. The only thing these "modern" writers are interested in is sending and pounding us with their DEI messages regardless of the complete lack of verisimilitude anywhere. It's all complete artifice in service not to the Tolkien saga but only in service of their "woke" agenda. So when critics of the series invoke "The Lore", this is how I understand it. The overall story line has to aim at the end, which has to be the start of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (i.e., The Hobbit). If it is going anywhere else (and it is, though that "anywhere" is impossible to divine), then it is not only disrespectful of "The Lore" but irrelevant to it. And that's what these people have left us with: a disconnected maze of stories that are irrelevant to each other, with casting that treats Middle Earth as if it were downtown Manhattan.

I'm glad you get to read the Silmarillion for yourself. Its so good. It makes sense. It can be a little bit repetitive like aome parts of the bible, when a chapter will start with a summary of the story so far. But Sauron is hardly in it. Sauron isn't inately interesting, hes just a symbol. I think maybe the show makers don't really understand the scope that some fantasy can have that can only be done with tight timelines and the visible passage of time. Anyway, it was fun to hear you express my opinion lol.

your video analysis is awesome. You weirdly talk like you were scared to wake up a baby. Anchor your voice to your body, breath from the belly, find the vibration in your throat that will resonate the more naturally to you, fill the room, hence capture your audience. And it will be more easy to play with your voice like the instrument it is: convey emotion, humour or give emphasis to what you say. Your voice is very sweet as is, don't get me wrong, if you'd work on it a little, you could give it more layers, more depth

The Numenorean story has been the worst thing about it I get the merging of the timeline( although it's hard to bear)

i agree its not compatible with the original work. cant see how Tolkien fans made this.

It has nothing to do with it. It has to do with that Galadriel is banished to middle earth. She can't go home.

This was really good. You nailed all of my issues with this show. Its painful, but i can't look away. From an audio guy, some completely unsolicited suggestions that you are tr I to take or leave, but i had trouble hearing you a few times. You might need to put your mic a bit closer to your face, or turn the recording volume up about 20% cos sometimes, you can be a little quiet. It can also be boosted in editing software. Thanks!

I always enjoy hearing your perspectives on Tolkien. I liked that scene too in Fellowship where they used the ropes as a bridge. And it had a bit of humor too because the hobbits were so so nervous about walking on the ropes. 😊

well said and great video