As episode 4 of Rings of power comes out and many reviewers have turned against the show, do you think this is a good sign? There are still some critics hanging on saying the show is good but "slow" and always that the plot is just about to kick off next week, but will they change their minds in the next few weeks too? With LOTRonPrime coming out and attacking the fans earlier, how will they be able to defend it if all the access media start turning against them too? What tactics will Amazon use for Rings of Power next? Let me know your thoughts below and as always, thanks for watching :)
_the show is good but "slow"_ Incredible. It's like they think the most media-savvy generations in the history of the world can't read between the lines.
Galadriel basically pulled a coup. The Harfoots abandon their weak. The Dwarves are really incompetent at secrets and the one thing they are known for. And the Orcs actually showed more compassion than anyone else in the series. It's all subversive stuff, but they haven't actually said anything about it; cause I guess they 'learned' to stop saying "subvert expectations" after Star Wars.
Which is funny, because orcs would have rather worked the people to death and then eat the body, after all they cannot waste meat whenever they get it. They are on the Pure Evil with no redeeming qualities side of the Tolkien Scale.
TheRe Is a tEMpESt iN mE!!1! Warrior Galadriel more than subverts expectations if her arrival submerges Numenor. A true Mary Tsunami she is... 🤣 When the best part this week was the LACK of Harfoots with Sir (Lenny Henry) Not-Appearing-in-this-Episode, per Monty Python - which even The Guardian highlighted in their review - Amazon should know they're in deep trouble!
Its just hilarious the irony which they don’t get.. but they are literally following the footsteps of the very evil Tolkien created in his books.. Melkor hated that he couldn’t create something good so he wanted to only destroy what others created with his own sick little twist, like creating the orcs.. This is exactly what these show runners are doing to his works..
The greatest sin a movie or TV show can commit is to be boring. Because even terrible movies are watchable if you can point and laugh at how bad they are, with something that's boring you've got nothing.
I watched the two towers in the theater today, and hearing some of the flowery dialogue made me realize that poetic fancy language IS good and can make sense. I of course always liked that kind of dialogue but I never thought much about it. For instance, the beautiful scene where Elrond talks about Arwen's future if she remains with Aragorn. It's gorgeous, poetic, and worded beautifully. But each word actually makes sense, he didn't throw in a bunch of shit about stars and moons and boats because it sounded pretty.
Who could have predicted that tossing a billion dollar project into the hands of a bunch of Hollywood D-listers would end badly? When Amazon told them this was going to be a Tolkien project, they thought Amazon said "token project". And they figured, "We can do that! We'll pack this series full of so much blatant tokenism, it'll make people sick!"
And that is the difference. When the Master of linguistics and prose like Tolkien gets well adapted we get Theoden's charge of the rohirrim. When it gets adapted by some nobody writer from LA that was hired just for quotas, we get the "Why do ships float and stones don't?" bullshit.
Absolutely, I actually disagree with the critique that the show us boring and slow. That's not the problem. The problem is the reason why it is boring. The reason is the writing is complete sh1te. It's borderline amateurish, it fails to make us care for any of the characters, it fails to build the world (that was already built by Tolkien, they just had to convey it). The writing actually gives us some lines that will likely go down in history as some of the worst dialogue ever. The example with the stones and ships is one of them, but don't forget "the sea is always right" bit and many others. Btw the first 5 seasons of GoT were incredibly slow and yet this slowness, this desire to tell everything along the way is what made those first 5 seasons probably the most impressive tv series we have ever seen, or at least in the fantasy genre.
It's mind-boggling to me that they hired people who seem to think making lines more flowery and poetic is making it more Tolkieny. Isn't it obvious how carefully he chooses every word??? Tolkien is so beautiful to read (and watch, in the Jackson movies because he used as much of the original dialogue as possible) because he uses the language SO expertly, using just a few perfectly-placed words to say things in the most distinct and vivid way.
"A dog may bark at the moon, but it cannot bring it down." That's literally what a child would say if they tried to sound dramatic and deep. I know it was episodes ago but it's still haunting me
For me it was the quote about how the same breath that tries to blow out a fire might also cause it’s spread (or some horrible nonsense like that). I came in wanting to love this show and totally deflated after hearing that.
10 year ago, if some no named writer is given a contract to write for a multi-million film production, you could guarantee they were once a generation talent. When that happens now I know the writer met at least 3 quotas.
My favorite part is when Galadriel's parents reveal to her that even though she's made great accomplishments as a warrior, they're disappointed that she didn't become a doctor. I like the way the writers tie the show to modern day realities.
4 hours into the series and nothing has happened. For comparison, by this time in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy: - The Fellowship was formed - The villains revealed - Gandalf had fallen - Boromir has died - Frodo & Sam team up with Gollum - Gandalf Returns - Theoden is freed from Saruman
I said this on Nerdrotic's video today but I'm rooting for Sauron and the orcs. These "characters" are ridiculously bad. Nothing is Tolkien and you'd be hard pressed to recognize any of them if they had different names. Good video sir.
Sauron/Halbrand is also the only remotely likable character on the show so far. Everyone else either has the personality of cardboard or is extremely insufferable And somehow they made the orcs more sympathetic than the proto-hobbits
Just imagine they actually had the guts to destroy all of middle earth in the next season and Sauron wins. Id actually support that. Galadriel is so insufferable I want her turned into a Nazgûl and be the reason for the fall of Gondolin, while Orcs start a book club with goblins and the Balrog tells us about how much he likes barbecues.
lol, I said the exact same thing on his vid. In contrast to almost everyone, Halbrand's been diplomatic and friendly and also counseled Galadriel to be nice. I guess that's the showrunners' idea of a villain, lol, especially considering how they're portraying their heroine! Plus I enjoy some of the looks he gives her when she's being stupid.
This is like Game of Thrones Season 8 where I wanted the White Walkers to win and kill everyone. The orcs have been about the only interesting characters so far. What few elves we've met are stuffy or obnoxious, the harfoots are unwashed savages, the dwarves yell a lot, and the humans are all stupid racists.
Here is the truth, my wife fell asleep 45% of the way through the first episode and the same thing happened with my buddy's wife. Of my half dozen coworkers, no one is watching this but me. I'm watching it because I write screenplays as a hobby and you can learn as much if not more from a bad story than from a good one. There I saved you a few hours of your life.
I also fell asleep around 45% of the first episode 😅 and I NEVER felt sleep watching anything before. I still watching the show only because I love Tolkien's world and I keep hoping that any moment now I will start enjoying the show. If it wasn't for that I would have dropped the show already.
A Tolkien lore enthusiast from my country was invited to the premiere to meet the cast of Rings of Power and you can tell he was really hyped about this whole thing. He remained silent until Ep4 came out and then he just went on a rant, completely tearing the series apart pointing out every single lore error in the episodes and ended up calling the series nothing more than a poorly written fanfic that leaves him with nothing but a sensation of despair and boredom. It was actually sad because you could hear it in his voice that he knew he burned the bridge with Amazon.
To become an expert at Middle-earth lore, you need to have spent a lot of time and energy learning all of the stories and how they relate to each other. You spend time getting a feel for the sorts of themes that Tolkien is trying to convey, of his tendencies and methods. Anyone who has achieved competency at this level will *know* when those things are being subverted. It's one thing to want a well-made story to make it to the screen; it's another to ignore what your gut tells you and to pretend that everything is fine and dandy. I *think* that your friend wanted Amazon to make a really good series, and he grasped that desire so tightly that he overlooked the warning signs until they were shoved in his face to the point that he could no longer ignore it. And then, as with the Voice of Saruman, it went "poof" and he was forced to face the truth.
I think its the fact that 90%+ of modern fantasy is derived from Tolkien in the first place. Therefore, when you get rid of the deep thought, story telling and decades of writing that went into the most influential piece of modern fantasy, you have just another boring bland movie. Its like they are trying to say, "We are LotR but we will be woke, but we will also try to be like the TV version of GoT and by the way, we are still woke". It just turns into a generic fantasy story with woke tropes. Nothing any normal person wants to see.
I'd dispute that; there's an absolute ton of beautiful. terrifying and philosophical fantasy works out there, in many languages and spanning well over 1,000 years. The lazy tendency is to just reach for and blame Tolkien when newer writers lack imagination and storytelling skills.
@@clogs4956 Totes. Even Tolkien is famous for his fondness of the Epic of Beowulf, and there's of course all the Eddas. I'm very fond of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and that's literally one of the oldest pieces of literature in existence. What Tolkien did was POPULARIZE what was a quite robust field of lore, and made it even more so by inspiring generations of other authors. No small feat!
The article talking about the sword being just like the dagger in WoT and so they just blamed Jordan of copying Tolkien when that's not in Tolkien and it's the writers adding Jorden in.
In a way I think "What did anyone expect." Tolkien was a genius who studied real mythology and understood it so well that his insights into "Beowulf" elevated it to a academic icon. His appreciation of myth's ability to convey meaning too deep to articulate but absolutely necessary for a thriving human life was inspired. When you take a half-baked child's ideology and toss it into even part of a Tolkien world, Tolkien's daemon will rip it to pieces. The new writers understand nothing of Tolkien, so they write blather and are puzzled by our boredom.
Not only he was a genius and understood what he was creating, he spent decades carefully crafting it, writing and rewriting the same passages dozens of time until he would find something satisfying. The arrogance of this people in thinking they can just come in and write something “better“ off the cuff is astounding.
So many shows are going to age badly because of an obsession with modern race and gender issues. This show could've been free of all that but they went with short term pandering instead of well crafted longevity.
You cant just create a show, write a random script, throw a bunch of money at it and expect it to be good. Game of Thrones was based on already successful books, the story was written, all they had to do was adapt it. Amazon threw the lord of the rings lore away for rings of power and tried to pull a story out of their arses to push politics, yet people expected this to be good?
Politics kill everything it touches but for some reason Hollywood is feingning ignorance. They're clearly LOSING money, tho. This "even bad publicity is good publicity" only takes you so far.
Well we expected it to be great...... until that first trailer came out lol... I mean, I'm sure people are happy to take amazon's money to pretend this show is great.. but in the end, they have been the ones with egg on their faces... because there's no way to hide the reality, that this show is a disaster....
Syndrome's line: "when everyone is super, no one will be." really applies here. When you decide, for the sake of "inclusivity" to mash together all of these different cultural elements to "reflect what the world actually looks like", you ignore the uniqueness and specialness of each cultural piece that deserves its own space and stories. It's why: let Christmas be Christmas and Diwali be Diwali. No one wants Christwali...
In the time that has passed in the Ring of Power so far, the followed events occured over the course of Fellowship of the Ring: * Bilbo held his birthday party where he bequeaths his wealth and estate to Frodo, and with great will, surrenders the Ring. * Gandalf finds out the ring very much is THE Ring, and that Sauron now knows where it is and is hunting for it. * Frodo sets out of the Shire along with Sam, Merry, and Pippin where they narrowly evade the Nazgul. * Gandalf finds out Saruman has sided with Sauron. * The Hobbits meet Aragorn at the Prancing Pony. * They are attacked by Nazgul on Weathertop, where Frodo is stabbed and poisoned. * Arwen deposes of the Nazgul and rides Frodo to Rivendell, where he is healed. * The Council of Elrond is held and the Fellowship is formed. * After evading all sorts of horrors, first atop the mountain of Caradhras and then within the mines of Moria, the Fellowship is attacked by a Balrog. Gandalf sends it plummeting into the pit, but the fiend drags him down with it. * The remaining Fellowship seeks refuge at Lothlorien, where Galadriel bestows them all with gifts to help them in the quest. * As the Fellowship moves further south, Boromir, under the Ring's corruption, attempts to seize it from Frodo. This prompts Frodo to split off from the rest and go alone. * Chaos ensues when Saruman's Uruk-Hai attack. Boromir is killed, Merry and Pippin are captured, and Sam joins Frodo in the journey to Mordor. In the aftermath, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas chase after the Orcs to save the Hobbits. The end of film one. Within three hours (three and a half with the extended edition), you got to see an epic journey unfold rife with action, drama, suspense, and character development. What happened in the same amount of time for Rings of Power? Constant nonstop setup that's not going to be paid off anytime soon on multiple storylines that don't seem related to one another in the slightest, all to reveal a plot twist that everyone knows already: that Sauron is in fact still alive and up to no good. All the while being carried out by dry and poorly-written conversations and the occasional low-budget CG fight. TV serials are a joke. They're glorified soap operas made to tell stories in the most inefficient ways possible so that they can run on for years with absolutely no end in sight.
I know right? It's not as if they needed to stretch out the source material when it was always so rich. They literally have thousands of years to play around with. But after brutally hacking away most of it and found themselves needing to come up with something original to replace what they trashed, I guess this is the result.
Jeff spending a billion dollars on something is indeed no guarantee for anything. Just look at his New Glenn rocket, oh wait you can't because he hasn't built it yet.
I have some hope for the Eragon series being made, since Paolini himself is involved. Maybe they all learn the lessons they need before it comes out and is actually good. How has Arcane been so widely regarded as masterpiece and yet no one seems to have learned from it...?
At this point (4 hours in) the movies were an hour into The Two Towers. Was the story underway? Yeah. It was underway minutes into the first movie. What a tragedy this is, but Amazon deserved it.
I watched the introduction to fellowship the other day. There is more storytelling and character development in 7 1/2 minutes than in 4 episodes of this series. Cate's narration is so good. Her voice is so well modulated, it draws the viewer into the story. Then the shire music starts and the viewer is hooked.
@@ibraheemabrar4677 Which is just pathetic, because we know how it's going to end. This journey is fan fiction, filling story points that don't need filling. This is Disney levels of fucking up, and that's saying something, because Disney threw out Star Wars extended universe until they realized they needed to borrow characters from it.
They simply forgot that Tolkien has sold >600,000,000 books and that the Peter Jackson films are maybe the most popular fantasy trilogy of all time. "Ignore that. We will make up our own version." FFS
At some point you might compare how Peter Jackson opened "The Fellowship of the Ring" with how Amazon's series opens. First, Jackson states clearly the broad backstory and thus why this tale matters. Then he makes Frodo and Gandalf likable. We find none of that in Rings.
They tried to address the backstory in the same way, in the first episode, and this turned out to be the single biggest problem with the series. You go from baby Galadriel playing in Valinor and then basically skip ahead like 3000 years (we have no idea though and that’s a problem) in a few sentences and cliché Hollywood montages. I’ve never seen a show rush so badly in my life - they flippantly skipped over an entire Age, and in the process created holes in the timeline and the lore that they simply cannot recover from. It set the tone in the worst way possible.
This is all just a big misunderstanding. When Amazon was pitched the idea of making a Tolkein series... they thought he said "token series". And they thought, "Hey, we're the masters of tokenism... we're gonna smash this one out of the park!"
Tolkien devoted a large portion of his life to developing the mythical world of Middle Earth. He drew inspiration from his real life experiences of fighting in WWI, the close friendships he maintained through his love of literature even the love of his life, his wife Edith inspired the stories of Beren and Luthien and Aragorn and Arwen. During the making of the Lord of the Rings trilogy there were always copies of the books on set to be used as reference for the director and the actors, even to the last day of filming. Peter Jackson and almost everyone in a high level position had read the books, loved them and were very respectful of the canon and lore. The writing and dialogue in TROP is not anywhere near as interesting and at times is as they say, cringeworthy. There will always be an audience for bad television/cinema. Not everyone is able to appreciate a masterpiece. Many prefer a simple story with lots of violence and gratuitous sex and Hollywood is more than happy to oblige. TROP is bad storytelling with bad writing, way too much CGI, and way too little love of the lore. That a couple of 40 something producers would fail to understand the importance of canon and lore versus pc and wokeness doesn't surprise me at all, being offensive while feigning being offended is a characteristic of their generation. I had really hoped they would produce a show that, given the obscene budget, would have approached the quality of the books and the Peter Jackson trilogy. A lifetime to write the stories and a singularly epic success of turning them into cinema. That is why people who CAN appreciate a masterpiece love the books and trilogy and do not love TROP. We are not racists we are lovers of the lore. Have diversity in the casting, I'm fine with that. What I'm not fine with are people who resemble Romans with pointed ears....with Elven warriors wearing slightly modified football helmets....with "Our hearts are bigger than our feet!" hardly quote-worthy....Ugh! I don't believe I can bear 5 more episodes so I'm cutting my losses and skipping the rest. I sincerely hope that someone in the future, who does love Middle Earth, will try again. These are stories that need to be seen as well as heard because they are singularly epic mythology!
I can't wait for more genius (read: late in French ) fantasy-esq phrases like : • "A dog may bark at the moon, but it cannot bring it down." • "A fart may be invisible, but if powerful, one can still taste it." • "Like it is with burning wood, we burn brighter when we burn together." • "Your light, is someone elses darkness, but the shadow is what's between them." • "The foot, it would not know where to go, be it not for the mouth." • "The differance between a rock and a bird, is that the bird has a secret. The rock loves the ground so it always rushes downwards. But the bird, the bird likes the sky and so it rushes upwards."
When Galadriel commanded just 5 dudes in the north she was unconcerned about their welfare and survival. Imagine what a horrific commander she'll be of a full army (of people she has contempt for) in the southlands. This reminds me of a certain unnamed despot of a certain unnamed country currently.
If you think your mind is not boggled enough, just consider this: Why is Numenor organizing and sending a fleet and an expeditionary force to Middle Earth? There is no war, no enemies that nobody knows about. It's all senseless. Reinspect the episode and reconsider why the Numenoreans would not think: wait... why the heck are we going? If you notice they are explaining it as badly (or in no real way) as the whole 'we don't like elves any more' thing that really does not get properly explained *in three hours*!!!! Just imagine when the Numenorean fleet arrives and the people there looking at each other 'uh... why the heck are you here?'. Because nobody knows about the orcs yet in the southlands (and the southlands are quite inland...). When the Numenoreans intervened in the books it was first after Eregion had been destroyed, Lindon besieged and Middle earth overrun by orc armies! It's the problem with changing so freely pieces of a story. All the pieces matter! (as Lester Freamon said) and if you change one so carelessly and freely the story suffers. If you change something, change it to make it more interesting, not less! How does it help the story that Elendil is a nobody instead of the LORD OF ANDUNIE (and that means he is the feudal lord of 1/6th of Numenor at least and the head of a party in the court). It LESSENS the story. How does it help that Galadriel is just a singleminded warrior with the charisma of a stone (and I am meaning the particularly uncharismatic ones, not every stone) instead of the wise founder and ruler of Eregion, there to mistrust this new guy called Annatar that comes with exactly what the elves need at this moment? It's... all lessened. Worse than lessened.
In the show so far, she's literally spent centuries trying to find Sauron, exhausting even her hand-picked troop of elves who never really helped her in any way. If she does the same with this human army, they'll all be dead of old age, and also will never really help her in any way. Why does she even WANT soldiers with her? It doesn't make any sense.
They crunched centuries of timeline into the span of a single adults life time (so Diza and her Scotish accent can be in every season) then didn't bother reworking the story timeline and course of events to actually make sense.
I just saw an interview with actors playing Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel - and this interview was watched by crowds, these actors were invited all over the world, they were respected and loved. Because they made a good movie. People behind the RoP could have had a similar situation. But now nobody wants to see or listen to them.
Well, who doesnt want to hear that one actress go on and on about being the first black, female dwarf as if she just solved racism and all that is bad in the world?
You don't even have to fume at the bastardisation of Tolkien. Even those of us who have read the legendarium for decades have disengaged Tolkien from the screen here. The basic rules that make any show entertaining are just lacking. It's shockingly amateurish for such a prominent show with such a budget.
I think part of the problem is modern viewing habits: people are paying less attention, so movies and shows can get away with less. While the show's on, a lot of viewers are also on their phones, and if 5min out of every 25min actually catches their attention they might think it's "pretty good" because the other 80% of mediocrity (if I'm being generous) is being filled in by whatever's interesting on their phone. The people who actually pay close attention dislike it and switch off. I personally have a friend who seems to like pretty much everything he watches (i.e. She-Hulk, The Eternals, Disney's live-action remakes, and more) for that very reason. If I were to ask him to describe the plot, he'd not really be able to give me any kind of detailed breakdown, but if it can grip him for 5min, he likes it.
I know retards like this. I guess the world needs idiots to allow people with skill, intellect, creativity, imagination and other skills to rise in society.
Yeah with all of the garbage that we have gotten in the last few years it really seems that some people (myself included) forget what made movies/shows good. I think also some people are basically desperate to like the garbage we have received to prove they are not a "toxic fan."
I loved the scene where Guyladriel is asked what is best in life and they/them answers "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their men."
What the hell?? I must have disassociated while watching. When was that? This sounds like an imposter of the Galadriel we know and love. I guess if thats the case I'll just pretend she's Sauron in disguise and the real Galadriel will come back many episodes later and expose Sauron when I am no longer watching this mess.
“It’s just taking time to set things up.” The episodes we have are already longer than the entire Fellowship Of The Ring. If they can perfectly accomplish their setup and launch the action in three hours, how can anyone possibly take this excuse seriously?
In the ACTUAL books, she manages to destroy an entire castle using nothing but her sheer wilpower. In this garbage she just beats people up. Which do you think is better?
All we need to do make sure the only people on Numenor when it gets sunk are Galadriel and the Harfoots. Oh, and that Theo kid. That'll go a long way to making it better.
The weirdest thing for me is the weird obsession the Harfoots have with their feet. The feet are in their sayings. Like it's an essential part of their culture instead of just their biology. There's a difference between having a few weird names with the word foot in them, and just having the word in sayings and having comparisons to them literally everywhere.
Bro, why is she so unattractive? The actress herself isn’t ugly, but she’s constantly either stoic, smugly smiling, or grimacing/sneering. She’s supposed to be beautiful, kind, powerful yes but not so hardened and masculine.
I can honestly say, this is the best break down of what is wrong with this series! He didn't say that you couldn't break from Tolkien but if you do, you better have great writers, which they don't! Man, that doesn't even sound racist!
I honestly can’t believe that it’s this bad. I knew it was going to suck but it’s shockingly inapt. I couldn’t even make it through episode three. I’m having much more of a good time watching the breakdown episodes than actually watching it myself at this point. There’s just something about it where I don’t give a fuck about any character at all. None of them are compelling. I don’t see how they’re gonna make five seasons out of this dog shit. If this was Netflix, they already would’ve cut bait.
@@stephenstevens6573 see that's what rational competent people do. Has there been any indication that anyone at any level has either of those qualities? This isn't exactly a new trend.
"Meaty character development will come later" - I know that feeling. I was telling myself that at the beggining of the Last Jedi, The Batman, Obi-Wan Series, Bobba Fett series and this very abomination. At some point you run out of cheeks.
@@justanotherguy560 The answer is no. It wasn't good. Unless your idea of Batman is an emo who sends a black woman out to do all his detective work for him because black women are better at everything and all white people are evil.
The only series thus far in the history of human entertainment, which rolled a natural 20 on boredom check and unwittingly critted its audience into the shadow realm.
I’m pleasantly surprised I haven’t been bored with it yet. I was pretty skeptical about this series at first, but now genuinely excited to see what’s in the next episode.
Imagine seeing the credits rolling for the end of The Two Towers. In the closing scene of the movie we see the firework display during Bilbo and Frodo's birthday party. It's taken two full movies and the hobbits haven't even left the Shire yet. Tune in for Return of the King, when the hobbits finally make it to Bree
Galadriel will be "mightily" humbled when the "good" man she gradually befriends and champions throughout the series (Halbrand) is Sauron himself. She will have helped him to not only gather his army and deceive leaders of the West , but forge the rings in the splendid new tower currently being built. Essentially, the one she has been single-mindedly seeking vengeance on these hundreds of years will use her to become a true existential threat to Middle Earth. Thus, the silly "prophesy" by Gil-galad of a fire stoking the thing it wishes to extinguish, comes true; as does the "prophetic" visions of Numenor's watery demise in the palantir that begins with the coming of an elf. Will anyone still be watching to say "Ooh, how clever" or really care by the time this happens? Should add that her choice of the dark sea over the light of Valinor sets all this in motion and harkens back to her brother's warning. Blaah
And in the second season the real Galadriel will finish off the impostor Galadriel from the first season and rescue Celeborn from the Amazon dungeon where he is locked up.
My father is a HUGE progressive. He is a "diversity and inclusion officer" and he was thrilled to bits about Tolkien's world being "re-imagined" in a more "modern" way. Anyone that said anything bad about the show was a "racist" and a "bigot" in his eyes... well at least for the first couple of episodes. My parents are now dropping the series because, frankly, they hate it. They dislike Galadriels character and said that episode 4 was so boring it was hard to watch. My point is this - as per usual, even the so-called progressives hate what has been "created". I've not watched an episode. I will not watch an episode. If I wanted to be attacked based on my skin colour and gender I would watch the news. How much has this cesspit of a show, run by a cesspit of a company, damaged Tolkien's legacy? I have a feeling that was always the intent.
yep... it appears that all of this is a political move to destroy our heroes and history and to create a false narrative of racism and bigotry to divide and conquer free people and destroy western civilization. this is straight out of orwell's 1984...
You're right - it was modernized to reflect the fringe clown-world element in my country. And it is embarrassing. And it is boring because they put too many groups or people in the show: The Harfoots take up too much time. They do not know what to do with Elrond or Celebrimbor. And so they have to give him something to do - so he is involved with the dwarves, kind of interfering with potential here. What do I mean? Instead of showing Elrond the mithril, they could have had the dwarves discover it in a lower part of Moria. Expand and explore the city down to the second or third deep, and show them mining, extracting gold, and gems. Then they discover the mithril. Instead of handicapping their storyline to give character Elrond something to do because he does not have a storyline. Morgoth may be gone, but the evil has scattered. When Elrond and Celebrimbor are walking in the woods maybe they meet up with a troll [at night] or orcs or a fricking Ent. Maybe a wolf and get into some kind of bind in order to give them some character building. Instead they remind me of paper dolls. Or maybe they should have just forged the damn Rings this season. Who set the criteria for the show? The writers? The producers? Because their perception of time in order to accommodate and tying everyone into a coherent storyline was not considered at all. And why have a vision of the flood now? Shouldn't that be a season finale somewhere down the road? In your review of Episode One you provided the formula in how you determine whether an object floats on water or not. Well, this show does not float because it is weighted down with so much crap that they cannot even write a decent enough story to get it rolling. Nerdrotic compares it to a soap opera. Yet none of these characters, including Halbrand Sauron, could hold a candle to my man Victor Neuman [Young & Restless].
There were plenty of down-low on-the-quiet rumours here in NZ *during the production* about an utterly toxic work environment. Loads of local people were working as crew and this is a small country... Nobody really wants to go on the record for fear of Amazon suing, and/or it harming their career. Eventually the Yanks flounced off citing some nonsense about Covid restrictions but IMO Amazon already knew they had a turkey on their hands *during filming*. And I heard all this about 18 months ago. The hysterical attack propaganda they've been indulging in for many months now is basically "get your retaliation in first". They've always known it just wasn't any good, and the visuals and score wouldn't be able to save it
One of the most insightful things I've read lately. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that someone there reached into the sack of money and took it to the Cayman Islands, I don't see that much money on the screen.
@@frankisantana Definitely money laundering 101. I'm watch Ozark right now (which is amazing) and I can see how LOTR show was a bottomless pit to launder money :)_
@@Nikitikitavvi Laundering money with artistic products is as old as eating. Everyone knows what a house is worth, but a special effects, a script, a performance, it can be worth any price you want to put on it.
The Lord of the Rings reflected a timeless European, British Christian theme & region. The Rings of Power does not reflect the world today. It just reflects modern liberal atheist America. Which is what most generic fantasy becomes- an Americanised boring culturaless corporate Mcdonalds like package. That is devoid of a unique ethnic cultural flair.
This series is empty. And I'm not talking about bad acting, over-CGI photography, generic dialogue, or generic soundtrack. I'm talking about not having that epic aspect, that timeless mythology theme. They may say: "But there's not enough written material" And I say: "Yes, there is! They are in the myths (Celtic, Norse, Finland, Judeo-Christian) and archetypes (Asmodeos, philosopher queen, etc) for the construction of characters, concepts, events". I thought Sauron would be a (pseudo) Promethean figure generating religious engineering in Middle-earth. I thought they were going to show Harad and Rhûn inspired (as Tolkien said in 1966) in Africa (Ethiopia + Saracens) and Asia (Middle East, China, Japan, etc) That Galadriel was going to develop into the Philosopher Queen archetype to ideologically oppose Annatar's ideas. That Númenor was going to be a discussion about death vs. human nature.
I think in a lot of ways the Rings of Power really is the fantasy drama to end all fantasy dramas. Mainly in that Amazon probably won't spend money on a fantasy drama in future because RoP is so bad.
I'd love to know what the hell Amazon was thinking when they got the bargin bin-tier writers and show runners to pilot a one billion dollar ship. It is like what happened with Game of Thrones all over again. Dumb and Dumber stole amazing opportunities away from really gifted people by the means of nepotism. Mckay and Payne's parents probably are in a club with Bezos or something and that is how they got the job.
Interestingly enough, I watched a post-mortem analysis of Amazon's failed MMORPG. Guess what? They only hired people without a shred of relevant experience there as well... I don't know if it's that no competent person would want to work for them, or if they go for the cheapest on the market. Probably both considering their reputation in their main field of work.
From what I've heard, they fired all the writers who didn't do exactly what the suits told them and deliberately hired people with no talent or experience who could be intimidated more easily.
@@ashyclaret Two miles, one barely speaking wizard, and zero baths later, all that we learned is that they're terrible people that unnecessarily migrate because farming doesn't require it.
If you don't have your audience hooked in 4hrs you've got NOTHING I personally am a huge fan of this show, I've suffered from insomnia for years and now finally a cure!!!!
I have literally had to pause the last two episode reviews I've watched midway through so I could go take a nap because I was bored with the show (but not the ranting. AZ does great rants) and had a headache from my brain trying to figure out how any of the show was supposed to be remotely good.
I wasn't all that hooked into GoT until episode 5 lol, the cliffhanger was good thou and caused me to binge watch the rest. As for RoP, I see no enthusiasm about it at all, just some paid shills in media and few normies liking it casually. I could torrent it I guess but why bother. TH-cam reviews like this one or AZ are hilarious, will keep watching.
Streaming seems to be full of shows where nothing happens. I gave up on Amazon's Night Sky because despite an interesting premise... it was just boring. Nothing happened. They seem to think we'll be intrigued and watch 40 hours of a show to get some tiny morsel of revelation and progress. Streaming TV shows seem to now be enough story for one story-light movie, spread over several seasons. What happened to TV shows that tried to grab your attention, that had drama, character and, yes, action? I give up.
@@etiennedevignolles7538 So long as he got to rewrite the scripts too. 😀 Get Disparu, Nerdrotic, Jayne Theory, Critical Drinker, That Star Wars Girl, and other hilarious YT commentators to overdub other voices from the new actual fan made scripts and it'd be even better. 😀
the Rings of Power is like if that guy you knew in school who could sort of draw was for some reason commissioned to do a remake of the sistine chapel for a billion dollars.
The funny thing with this show is they use "its fantasy so we could make up whatever we want to it" and "it must reflect the real world", in some articles/situations at the same time. Make up your mind. If it's fantasy, then doesn't reflect the real world. If it should reflect the real world, then don't call it fantasy.
It began with the forging of the great films. Threads were given by Tolkien, immortal. wisest and fairest of all beings. Rights were granted to Jackson, great minor and craftsman of the mountain of lore. And nine, nine hours were gifted to the race of Men who above all else desire quality. They were all of them deceived, for another show was made. In the land of Amazon, in the fires of Mount Prime, the dark Lord Bezos forged in secret a master flop. And into the show he poured his money, his malice, his greed, and his will to dominate woke film. One show to ruin them all
thus is true & we really can't get around it anymore let's call it what it is from now on. The Rings of Power is Garbage. Thanks for this Video. I always appreciate the Truth.
Since the start of the show I have been seeing all positive reviewers making excuses to like the show. It was subtle, but you could see them only praising the aesthetics and that they were so excited to be back in Middle Earth. Never anything about the story, or the characters, except to push the characters to go against what negative reviewers were saying. They never actually sounded like they liked anything more than how pretty the show was. So this is not that surprising that the copium has worn off finally.
I still haven't gotten over that "metaphor" about the rock and the ship. Did they just ask a sixth grader to write something that sounded philosophical and put it in the script without even reading it?
It's something you'd see out of a Monty Python skit... But the Monty Python skit makes more sense since there's an actual logical through-line that can take one from a piece of wood to a witch.
I think the smeagol story in the fellowship of the ring could've been their "inspiration" for that crap: "The most inquisitive and curious-minded of that family was called Sme´agol. He was interested in roots and beginnings; he dived into deep pools; he burrowed under trees and growing plants; he tunnelled into green mounds; and he ceased to look up at the hill-tops, or the leaves on trees, or the flowers opening in the air: *his head and his eyes were downward*." "[...]One day it was very hot, and as he was bending over a pool, he felt a burning on the back of his head, and a dazzling light from the water pained his wet eyes. He wondered at it, for he had almost forgotten about the Sun. *Then for the last time he looked up* and shook his fist at her. ‘*But as he lowered his eyes*, he saw far ahead the tops of the Misty Mountains, out of which the stream came. And he thought suddenly: ‘It would be cool and shady under those mountains. The Sun could not watch me there'" "[...]All the ‘great secrets' under the mountains had turned out to be just empty night: there was nothing more to find out, nothing worth doing, only nasty furtive eating and resentful remembering.' The chapter on the book and the episode both are named "The shadow of the past" so they probably have read this a couple times and decided to make their own version.
The positive thing about all this is how we can appreciate Peter Jacksons adaptations even more now. Even the hobbit movies are 100x times better than this.
Guyladriel is so insolent, abrasive and unbelievable.. Her "Tough Guy" attitude, she just can't sell it.. It's in no way believable, it's not entertaining and I cannot take her character seriously. I can't think of a single situation in which Guyladriel "wouldn't" end up crapping out her front teeth in the Tolkien Universe, if she spoke to people the way she talks to people. Then the Elves thing.. "They are all of them, without exception, fair of skin" - J.R.T.
By now, the Fellowship has already fought the Balrog, sliced their way through goblins and orcs and lost Boromir! In here, Guyladriel had a bit of an itch on her bum.
Regardless of Wokish ideological influence, I've thought for a very long time that screenwriting is weird. Authors of books tend to stick to a genre, or be primarily known for one. Tolkien didn't write hardboiled detective novels or planetary romances, Philip K Dick didn't write romance novels or crime fiction set in the world of horse racing, Dick Francis didn't write cosmic horror or young adult vampire novels. But screenwriters seem to wander from genre to genre and IMO routinely the result is they have no real understanding of the genre, just a kind of superficial mannerist pastiche. So they write some sci-fi show but don't really get sci-fi and it's full of laughable errors and lack of understanding of the tropes which are tired or generic, or they write fantasy and it's just soap opera with fancy costumes and dragons, etc. Good genre writing is hard, and requires a deep involvement in whichever genre it is. But screenwriters don't specialise, so they don't have that innate grasp, so they so frequently turn out rubbish. Even if someone is a good writer, if they don't know the field it's not going to turn out well.
We've got reviewers with battered wife syndrome. " I know deep down it's good, it's going to get better, the showrunners really do love me." How about no? It's not going to change, honey. They will just keep dishing it out so long as you keep coming back.
I'm not saying that people can't watch this, or even that people can't like it...but don't tell me that you've actually read Tolkien and then try to tell me that this show is amazing and honoring to his works.
The most painful thing about it for me is that the dialogue feels like it was written by a person who thinks they're really smart, but who has no idea what Tolkien actually sounds like and just kinda makes it sound like a pickle salesman at a Renaissance Faire. Tolkien - a gifted linguist - vs some Hollywood sheeple. You couldn't use strings to puppet the corpse of Tolkien to write a line as dumb as: "She's as much hair on her toes to grow as sense between her ears..." That is an offensive piece of drivel.
@@ZeerXX I would almost overlook it as the uninspiring metaphor that it is, if it hadn't been set up like Finrod was about to impart some actual practical knowledge. "I made the boat just like you showed me!" ... "Do you know why it floats? Because of nonsense!" Even then, I might just hand wave it away, but no... the writers were so pleased with themselves that it became the inspiration for the big pivotal scene at the end.
@@hank6628 totally agree. You could tell this was written by someone who never received an ounce of criticism in their life. The whole show is filled with it. I hate that I continue to watch it, but it is primarily because i have a bit of optimism left in me combined with seeing if it gets worse.
Even the extended versions of the films weren't quite 4 hours long and each was packed with story. How on earth does this show have 4 hours where nothing happens?
Even with the extended cuts if we say 4 hours of the films and 4 hours of this show, in the films we are all the way done with fellowship.and abt a half hour into two towers. Now just imagine all the story weve done in the films by now and how much has happened when in ROP we are 4 hours in and NOTHING has happened of any real significance or consequence
They keep deflecting with "racism" when the biggest complaints are the writing, the acting and Galadriel so its evident the elves and dwarves of color were added ONLY for use as an excuse to deflect criticism
"We wanted some female energy in the family." Yeah... I am pretty sure that Isildur had to have mother at one time. So why sister? I would underestand if it was a mother. That is at least off cannon character that we know it had to exist somewhere. And I can imagine at least a few scenes where it would make much better dynamic. So why it has to be a sister? Oh... I forgot. Married woman with husband is can not be seen as feminist icon and independent enough. So why not make absolutely useles female character that never existed.
Why have another OL when there are already 3 boss ladies billed? Why not a pretty piece of made-up fluff to pull in the teen demographic? Hot enough to pull the boys in while awkward and sweet enough for nerdy teenage girls to identify with. Win Win Win *sarcasm toward Amazon*
Everyone needs to realize the show was not meant to be good, or even have anyone watch it. It was made to claim territory, conquer the space, and demoralize you. You don't need to endlessly be outraged or disprove of it. The best thing to do is acknowledge it once, say they are horrible detestable people. Then move on. You can then mock those who do watch it, or mock those involved with it if they try to distance themselves with it. It wasn't made to be art. It wasn't made to improve your life. It wasn't made cause it had to be. It was made in order to make your life and all that you strive for less valuable. The sooner you realize that the sooner you can break the cycle and their hold over you.
That's the odd thing with this one. Amazon and Bezos said they wanted it to attract a 100 million worldwide audience. It really is that Bezos wanted a cultural phenomenon like GoT was for his own ego. He wanted that with his name and company attached to it. So no, this isn't like Obi Wan where they're intentionally destroying established characters so people will like their new ones so they get all the merchandise money. It really was intended to be good. Just they've all forgotten what good is. Edit: The Little Platoon does a great explanation. It's a 2 hour video, but his take on why Bezos and the showrunners made this is the first little bit in the introduction. I think it's insightful. He makes the case, that unlike other shows where the people associated with it don't know or like the source material, he has no doubt they truly love Tolkien. They just don't understand why.
They need their badges in order to work, right? So when that guy had his badge stolen (remember, he only wanted to fight the guy after that guy STOLE from him), he technically had his job stolen…. …they….TOOK HIS JOB!
My two main gripes are nothing to do with lore, books, canon etc (Which I do adore) The dialogue and acting are absolutely terrible. Certain scenes feel like I'm watching a play with drama students. Where on earth has the money gone? Below average sets, CGI? No name actor's? No name writers and directors? Bad robot must have 'special' bank accounts in the Caymans. Bezo has a case for fraud with them.
After the first two episodes I was like "Eh its slow but the world is gorgeous, the music is everything we've come to expect from the franchise and I enjoy spending time with it regardless." After it took me a week of multiple attempts to get through the third episode I think I've given up. So sad to whiff so badly when there was so much potential.
How the series is going reminds me of AppleTV+ Servant. Since M. Night Shyamalan is the executive producer, it was give about six seasons from Apple. Fortunately, yet unfortunately, it was then skimmed down to four (should've been axed by the end of Season 2). Season 1 showed potential but then people were getting tired of the fans saying "gotta tune in for the next episode because it might get better - trust the writers know what they're doing!" in Season 2 (which was the weakest season despite some needed exposition given). Season 3 was better than Season 2 but not much happened where it tries to iron out and integrate the horrific character choices that happened in the previous season. The final season is approaching in 2023 and the same questions have been asked since the very start of the season but no answer have been given. The die hard fans believe that Season 4 will be THE season that will absolve any issues in terms of plot and character development. One season, for the most part, to stir the ship true north. Yea right. I love the tone, the atmospheric quality, camera angles, costume design and lighting, but the content fails to delivery entirely. It's navel-gazing because it simply can -- riding on the fact that it has multiple seasons to think how amazing it is WITH Shyamalan's name attach to it. Note: Though Servant is an Shyamalan production to an extent, it was neither written by him nor directed by him (if we exclude a handful of episodes he directed). He's acting as the executive producer which is a role where he has decided to guide the directors brought in for each new script to keep with the overall tone and atmosphere of the series. The ending of the series has already been written, it's just what happens from Episode 1 to the very last is what's troubling - something that he doesn't have much say on, which I take, is his own choice. One BIG clue that it's not his screenplay OR his story is how the personal relationships develop - there is no warmth, no prudence and no respect in general given between the characters as the series creeps forward; the relationships are devoid of any thoughtfulness, heart, and insight that comes with a Shyamalan directed/written production. The series has been written by people who aren't talented enough to write a compelling story per episode as they resort to tired dramatic tropes and caricatures in unconvincing ways. Given the character in which the series is named after is underdeveloped (no matter how one analyzes the character it is NOT a well written character), this leaves the series ultimately doomed for an unsatisfactory ending for all since the series would not exist if it weren't for this character. The series existence has not been justified post Season 1 (it's best season so far). In the same vain, with a poorly written titular character alongside other poorly written secondary characters, Rings of Power should have never been given five seasons as other series, with much better writing, are canceled after one or two.
I believe them with they say "the fantasy series to end all fantasy series", because after this failure, I doubt anyone will want to produce another fantasy series for a long time, if ever.
As episode 4 of Rings of power comes out and many reviewers have turned against the show, do you think this is a good sign? There are still some critics hanging on saying the show is good but "slow" and always that the plot is just about to kick off next week, but will they change their minds in the next few weeks too? With LOTRonPrime coming out and attacking the fans earlier, how will they be able to defend it if all the access media start turning against them too? What tactics will Amazon use for Rings of Power next? Let me know your thoughts below and as always, thanks for watching :)
The special effects are not even that good. I dont get the praise for them.
_the show is good but "slow"_
Incredible. It's like they think the most media-savvy generations in the history of the world can't read between the lines.
Empowerment!
ALEGORY = The Sea is a WOMAN
THE C is ALWAYS RIGHT..
Of course they will. Easier than to admit that they fucked up in every way.
Galadriel basically pulled a coup.
The Harfoots abandon their weak.
The Dwarves are really incompetent at secrets and the one thing they are known for.
And the Orcs actually showed more compassion than anyone else in the series.
It's all subversive stuff, but they haven't actually said anything about it; cause I guess they 'learned' to stop saying "subvert expectations" after Star Wars.
Which is funny, because orcs would have rather worked the people to death and then eat the body, after all they cannot waste meat whenever they get it. They are on the Pure Evil with no redeeming qualities side of the Tolkien Scale.
Either that or they realized irl-they’re the orcs.
TheRe Is a tEMpESt iN mE!!1! Warrior Galadriel more than subverts expectations if her arrival submerges Numenor. A true Mary Tsunami she is... 🤣
When the best part this week was the LACK of Harfoots with Sir (Lenny Henry) Not-Appearing-in-this-Episode, per Monty Python - which even The Guardian highlighted in their review - Amazon should know they're in deep trouble!
I wouldn't be surprised if the writers are going to flip the LOTR story, you see Gondor was evil and Sauron/the Orcs were the good guys.
@@Lonovavir And then be sued by Kirill Eskov? Are you crazy, man? We are trying to avoid being sued or cancelled by anyone, can't you see the casting?
Morgoth created Orcs by forcing Elves to sit through ten hours of The Rings of Power.
🤣😂🤣😂🤣
😅😂🤣
I mean... evil is evil but dammitman that's too cruel
@@BurnDoubt Mwahahhaa...
BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH
Its just hilarious the irony which they don’t get.. but they are literally following the footsteps of the very evil Tolkien created in his books.. Melkor hated that he couldn’t create something good so he wanted to only destroy what others created with his own sick little twist, like creating the orcs.. This is exactly what these show runners are doing to his works..
LOL. And lefties are so devoid of self-awareness the showrunners have zero clue what's going on.
Hahahaha ahhh wow. Perfectly put.
It shows that Tolkien truly understood the nature of evil.
Hilarious? I find it tragic...
The greatest sin a movie or TV show can commit is to be boring.
Because even terrible movies are watchable if you can point and laugh at how bad they are, with something that's boring you've got nothing.
this show is literally karendriel wanting to speak to the manager in every single episode
I watched the two towers in the theater today, and hearing some of the flowery dialogue made me realize that poetic fancy language IS good and can make sense. I of course always liked that kind of dialogue but I never thought much about it. For instance, the beautiful scene where Elrond talks about Arwen's future if she remains with Aragorn. It's gorgeous, poetic, and worded beautifully. But each word actually makes sense, he didn't throw in a bunch of shit about stars and moons and boats because it sounded pretty.
Who could have predicted that tossing a billion dollar project into the hands of a bunch of Hollywood D-listers would end badly?
When Amazon told them this was going to be a Tolkien project, they thought Amazon said "token project". And they figured, "We can do that! We'll pack this series full of so much blatant tokenism, it'll make people sick!"
And that is the difference. When the Master of linguistics and prose like Tolkien gets well adapted we get Theoden's charge of the rohirrim. When it gets adapted by some nobody writer from LA that was hired just for quotas, we get the "Why do ships float and stones don't?" bullshit.
@@Spiri7ualShi7 yep, exactly.
Absolutely, I actually disagree with the critique that the show us boring and slow. That's not the problem. The problem is the reason why it is boring. The reason is the writing is complete sh1te. It's borderline amateurish, it fails to make us care for any of the characters, it fails to build the world (that was already built by Tolkien, they just had to convey it). The writing actually gives us some lines that will likely go down in history as some of the worst dialogue ever. The example with the stones and ships is one of them, but don't forget "the sea is always right" bit and many others.
Btw the first 5 seasons of GoT were incredibly slow and yet this slowness, this desire to tell everything along the way is what made those first 5 seasons probably the most impressive tv series we have ever seen, or at least in the fantasy genre.
It's mind-boggling to me that they hired people who seem to think making lines more flowery and poetic is making it more Tolkieny. Isn't it obvious how carefully he chooses every word??? Tolkien is so beautiful to read (and watch, in the Jackson movies because he used as much of the original dialogue as possible) because he uses the language SO expertly, using just a few perfectly-placed words to say things in the most distinct and vivid way.
"A dog may bark at the moon, but it cannot bring it down."
That's literally what a child would say if they tried to sound dramatic and deep.
I know it was episodes ago but it's still haunting me
For me it was the quote about how the same breath that tries to blow out a fire might also cause it’s spread (or some horrible nonsense like that). I came in wanting to love this show and totally deflated after hearing that.
When Guyladriel said sometimes even a fart can light the way, i knew the show was gonna be great.
That's because rocks sink and ships look up
how about "a stone sinks because it looks down into the dark water"...😂
Oh yeah the stone/boat elf, who definitely didn't look like a fratboy
10 year ago, if some no named writer is given a contract to write for a multi-million film production, you could guarantee they were once a generation talent. When that happens now I know the writer met at least 3 quotas.
I wonder what quotas J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay met.
@@edytaszafraniec7837 IQs below functional and they are pvssies? Of course, I am only guessing...
@@edytaszafraniec7837 getting on their knees was two quotas, opening their mouth the third.
@@edytaszafraniec7837 mental disability
@@edytaszafraniec7837 the 'obey and play the agenda' quotas
I love how Galadriel looks snarling, entitled and embittered every time you see her.
you mean Karen elf, that isn't Galadriel
It's probably because Morfydd Clark plays herself.
it's quite a talent
Its called resting bltch face.
She probably is so bitter because she gets cat called everyday. Or is that another show?
My favorite part is when Galadriel's parents reveal to her that even though she's made great accomplishments as a warrior, they're disappointed that she didn't become a doctor. I like the way the writers tie the show to modern day realities.
American realities* still missing on Buryat and Chechen orcs
And she calling Elrond a politician
And then Galadriel destroys her enemies with her extraordinary chi.
I genuinely don't know whether this is real or parody. Thanks, world!
I'd be disappointed too if my daughter wanted to fight with swords, instead of making a living as a doctor.
4 hours into the series and nothing has happened. For comparison, by this time in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy:
- The Fellowship was formed
- The villains revealed
- Gandalf had fallen
- Boromir has died
- Frodo & Sam team up with Gollum
- Gandalf Returns
- Theoden is freed from Saruman
Come on, noone watches the cinema versions.
I said this on Nerdrotic's video today but I'm rooting for Sauron and the orcs. These "characters" are ridiculously bad. Nothing is Tolkien and you'd be hard pressed to recognize any of them if they had different names.
Good video sir.
Sauron/Halbrand is also the only remotely likable character on the show so far. Everyone else either has the personality of cardboard or is extremely insufferable
And somehow they made the orcs more sympathetic than the proto-hobbits
Just imagine they actually had the guts to destroy all of middle earth in the next season and Sauron wins. Id actually support that. Galadriel is so insufferable I want her turned into a Nazgûl and be the reason for the fall of Gondolin, while Orcs start a book club with goblins and the Balrog tells us about how much he likes barbecues.
I’m rooting for the orcs too
lol, I said the exact same thing on his vid. In contrast to almost everyone, Halbrand's been diplomatic and friendly and also counseled Galadriel to be nice. I guess that's the showrunners' idea of a villain, lol, especially considering how they're portraying their heroine! Plus I enjoy some of the looks he gives her when she's being stupid.
This is like Game of Thrones Season 8 where I wanted the White Walkers to win and kill everyone. The orcs have been about the only interesting characters so far. What few elves we've met are stuffy or obnoxious, the harfoots are unwashed savages, the dwarves yell a lot, and the humans are all stupid racists.
Here is the truth, my wife fell asleep 45% of the way through the first episode and the same thing happened with my buddy's wife. Of my half dozen coworkers, no one is watching this but me. I'm watching it because I write screenplays as a hobby and you can learn as much if not more from a bad story than from a good one. There I saved you a few hours of your life.
I only know 2 other people who watched it and they both fell asleep, as did I.
I also fell asleep around 45% of the first episode 😅 and I NEVER felt sleep watching anything before.
I still watching the show only because I love Tolkien's world and I keep hoping that any moment now I will start enjoying the show. If it wasn't for that I would have dropped the show already.
I think once something gets so bad it transcends it and you can get enjoyment from laughing at how bad it is.
That's no excuse. Stop supporting this garbage.
" There are Perils that a Man Must Flee."
A Tolkien lore enthusiast from my country was invited to the premiere to meet the cast of Rings of Power and you can tell he was really hyped about this whole thing. He remained silent until Ep4 came out and then he just went on a rant, completely tearing the series apart pointing out every single lore error in the episodes and ended up calling the series nothing more than a poorly written fanfic that leaves him with nothing but a sensation of despair and boredom.
It was actually sad because you could hear it in his voice that he knew he burned the bridge with Amazon.
I'd like to see that rant lol
"I'll eat all your food, I'll play pass the parcel but I know this party sucks"
What is sad with burning a bridge with a immoral billion dollar company?
To become an expert at Middle-earth lore, you need to have spent a lot of time and energy learning all of the stories and how they relate to each other. You spend time getting a feel for the sorts of themes that Tolkien is trying to convey, of his tendencies and methods. Anyone who has achieved competency at this level will *know* when those things are being subverted. It's one thing to want a well-made story to make it to the screen; it's another to ignore what your gut tells you and to pretend that everything is fine and dandy.
I *think* that your friend wanted Amazon to make a really good series, and he grasped that desire so tightly that he overlooked the warning signs until they were shoved in his face to the point that he could no longer ignore it. And then, as with the Voice of Saruman, it went "poof" and he was forced to face the truth.
Link?
"The Sea is dark and full of terrors.....and always right. Also, Winter is coming. Expelliarmus!!" ~The script writers.
"That is not logical, Jim." Spockladriel, from the famous fantasy series, Space Scuffle
That "Elf-lover" clip killed me. Nobody talks like that in Middle Earth
I think its the fact that 90%+ of modern fantasy is derived from Tolkien in the first place. Therefore, when you get rid of the deep thought, story telling and decades of writing that went into the most influential piece of modern fantasy, you have just another boring bland movie. Its like they are trying to say, "We are LotR but we will be woke, but we will also try to be like the TV version of GoT and by the way, we are still woke". It just turns into a generic fantasy story with woke tropes. Nothing any normal person wants to see.
I'd dispute that; there's an absolute ton of beautiful. terrifying and philosophical fantasy works out there, in many languages and spanning well over 1,000 years. The lazy tendency is to just reach for and blame Tolkien when newer writers lack imagination and storytelling skills.
@@clogs4956 Totes. Even Tolkien is famous for his fondness of the Epic of Beowulf, and there's of course all the Eddas. I'm very fond of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and that's literally one of the oldest pieces of literature in existence. What Tolkien did was POPULARIZE what was a quite robust field of lore, and made it even more so by inspiring generations of other authors. No small feat!
The article talking about the sword being just like the dagger in WoT and so they just blamed Jordan of copying Tolkien when that's not in Tolkien and it's the writers adding Jorden in.
In a way I think "What did anyone expect." Tolkien was a genius who studied real mythology and understood it so well that his insights into "Beowulf" elevated it to a academic icon. His appreciation of myth's ability to convey meaning too deep to articulate but absolutely necessary for a thriving human life was inspired. When you take a half-baked child's ideology and toss it into even part of a Tolkien world, Tolkien's daemon will rip it to pieces. The new writers understand nothing of Tolkien, so they write blather and are puzzled by our boredom.
Not only he was a genius and understood what he was creating, he spent decades carefully crafting it, writing and rewriting the same passages dozens of time until he would find something satisfying.
The arrogance of this people in thinking they can just come in and write something “better“ off the cuff is astounding.
@@LeonardoPostacchini The writers asked the sea if they were wrong and the sea was silent and the sea is always right!
@@RoninDave Also the sea: "if I ain't got anythin' nice to say, I ain't sayin' anythin' at all!"
@@LeonardoPostacchini arrogance? More like sheer f*cking hubris.
So many shows are going to age badly because of an obsession with modern race and gender issues. This show could've been free of all that but they went with short term pandering instead of well crafted longevity.
You cant just create a show, write a random script, throw a bunch of money at it and expect it to be good. Game of Thrones was based on already successful books, the story was written, all they had to do was adapt it. Amazon threw the lord of the rings lore away for rings of power and tried to pull a story out of their arses to push politics, yet people expected this to be good?
As soon as the trailers were released earlier this year I don’t think anybody expected it to be a good show. We just didn’t expect it to be this bad…
Politics kill everything it touches but for some reason Hollywood is feingning ignorance. They're clearly LOSING money, tho. This "even bad publicity is good publicity" only takes you so far.
Just like wheel of time
This is probably the first time that strategy hasn't worked for Bezos. He must be super confused right now.
Well we expected it to be great...... until that first trailer came out lol... I mean, I'm sure people are happy to take amazon's money to pretend this show is great.. but in the end, they have been the ones with egg on their faces... because there's no way to hide the reality, that this show is a disaster....
Syndrome's line: "when everyone is super, no one will be." really applies here. When you decide, for the sake of "inclusivity" to mash together all of these different cultural elements to "reflect what the world actually looks like", you ignore the uniqueness and specialness of each cultural piece that deserves its own space and stories. It's why: let Christmas be Christmas and Diwali be Diwali. No one wants Christwali...
YES
That’s their end goal. Remove all uniqueness, all culture. Mash it all together.
One culture. One people. And most importantly… one government.
@@JustAnArrogantAlien One ring to rule them all? And in darkness bind them?
Also why mass immigration is a disaster and should be fought against
In the time that has passed in the Ring of Power so far, the followed events occured over the course of Fellowship of the Ring:
* Bilbo held his birthday party where he bequeaths his wealth and estate to Frodo, and with great will, surrenders the Ring.
* Gandalf finds out the ring very much is THE Ring, and that Sauron now knows where it is and is hunting for it.
* Frodo sets out of the Shire along with Sam, Merry, and Pippin where they narrowly evade the Nazgul.
* Gandalf finds out Saruman has sided with Sauron.
* The Hobbits meet Aragorn at the Prancing Pony.
* They are attacked by Nazgul on Weathertop, where Frodo is stabbed and poisoned.
* Arwen deposes of the Nazgul and rides Frodo to Rivendell, where he is healed.
* The Council of Elrond is held and the Fellowship is formed.
* After evading all sorts of horrors, first atop the mountain of Caradhras and then within the mines of Moria, the Fellowship is attacked by a Balrog. Gandalf sends it plummeting into the pit, but the fiend drags him down with it.
* The remaining Fellowship seeks refuge at Lothlorien, where Galadriel bestows them all with gifts to help them in the quest.
* As the Fellowship moves further south, Boromir, under the Ring's corruption, attempts to seize it from Frodo. This prompts Frodo to split off from the rest and go alone.
* Chaos ensues when Saruman's Uruk-Hai attack. Boromir is killed, Merry and Pippin are captured, and Sam joins Frodo in the journey to Mordor. In the aftermath, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas chase after the Orcs to save the Hobbits.
The end of film one. Within three hours (three and a half with the extended edition), you got to see an epic journey unfold rife with action, drama, suspense, and character development. What happened in the same amount of time for Rings of Power? Constant nonstop setup that's not going to be paid off anytime soon on multiple storylines that don't seem related to one another in the slightest, all to reveal a plot twist that everyone knows already: that Sauron is in fact still alive and up to no good. All the while being carried out by dry and poorly-written conversations and the occasional low-budget CG fight.
TV serials are a joke. They're glorified soap operas made to tell stories in the most inefficient ways possible so that they can run on for years with absolutely no end in sight.
I admit PJ didn't screw up Fellowship. Unfortunately he did screw up The Two Towers and Return of the King.
Spoiler: Sauron is Halbrand. End of spoiler. The meteor man is Gandalf. oh wow i'm sorry
I know right? It's not as if they needed to stretch out the source material when it was always so rich. They literally have thousands of years to play around with.
But after brutally hacking away most of it and found themselves needing to come up with something original to replace what they trashed, I guess this is the result.
Jeff spending a billion dollars on something is indeed no guarantee for anything. Just look at his New Glenn rocket, oh wait you can't because he hasn't built it yet.
I have some hope for the Eragon series being made, since Paolini himself is involved. Maybe they all learn the lessons they need before it comes out and is actually good.
How has Arcane been so widely regarded as masterpiece and yet no one seems to have learned from it...?
At this point (4 hours in) the movies were an hour into The Two Towers. Was the story underway? Yeah. It was underway minutes into the first movie. What a tragedy this is, but Amazon deserved it.
Whooaa that really contextualizes everything.
To be fair...this is a 5-seasons show.
We're only like 10% through.
I watched the introduction to fellowship the other day. There is more storytelling and character development in 7 1/2 minutes than in 4 episodes of this series. Cate's narration is so good. Her voice is so well modulated, it draws the viewer into the story. Then the shire music starts and the viewer is hooked.
@@audreybailey5139 exactly, they're going to milk this for as long as possible, with very little actually happening each episode
@@ibraheemabrar4677 Which is just pathetic, because we know how it's going to end. This journey is fan fiction, filling story points that don't need filling. This is Disney levels of fucking up, and that's saying something, because Disney threw out Star Wars extended universe until they realized they needed to borrow characters from it.
They simply forgot that Tolkien has sold >600,000,000 books and that the Peter Jackson films are maybe the most popular fantasy trilogy of all time.
"Ignore that. We will make up our own version." FFS
A lot of those books have been passed down to sons and daughters and grandkids like heirlooms too.
Because of the love people have for the story.
@@alexgillis9446 Indeed, the number of readers/times read is in the billions.
@@alexgillis9446 and there were many bootleg versions in some countries. He has probably sold around 1b copies officially + unofficially.
"We can do better than Tolkien."
Hubris on a Melkorian scale!
@@harbl99 hubris and intense wokeness ideology.
At some point you might compare how Peter Jackson opened "The Fellowship of the Ring" with how Amazon's series opens. First, Jackson states clearly the broad backstory and thus why this tale matters. Then he makes Frodo and Gandalf likable. We find none of that in Rings.
I have found one very likeable thing in the show so far: when the closing credits end.
They tried to address the backstory in the same way, in the first episode, and this turned out to be the single biggest problem with the series. You go from baby Galadriel playing in Valinor and then basically skip ahead like 3000 years (we have no idea though and that’s a problem) in a few sentences and cliché Hollywood montages. I’ve never seen a show rush so badly in my life - they flippantly skipped over an entire Age, and in the process created holes in the timeline and the lore that they simply cannot recover from. It set the tone in the worst way possible.
I may watch the Fellowship of the Ring tonight. To restore balance!
This is all just a big misunderstanding. When Amazon was pitched the idea of making a Tolkein series... they thought he said "token series". And they thought, "Hey, we're the masters of tokenism... we're gonna smash this one out of the park!"
That first act on the shire is so cozy, fun and well paced... masterpiece
Tolkien devoted a large portion of his life to developing the mythical world of Middle Earth. He drew inspiration from his real life experiences of fighting in WWI, the close friendships he maintained through his love of literature even the love of his life, his wife Edith inspired the stories of Beren and Luthien and Aragorn and Arwen. During the making of the Lord of the Rings trilogy there were always copies of the books on set to be used as reference for the director and the actors, even to the last day of filming. Peter Jackson and almost everyone in a high level position had read the books, loved them and were very respectful of the canon and lore. The writing and dialogue in TROP is not anywhere near as interesting and at times is as they say, cringeworthy. There will always be an audience for bad television/cinema. Not everyone is able to appreciate a masterpiece. Many prefer a simple story with lots of violence and gratuitous sex and Hollywood is more than happy to oblige. TROP is bad storytelling with bad writing, way too much CGI, and way too little love of the lore. That a couple of 40 something producers would fail to understand the importance of canon and lore versus pc and wokeness doesn't surprise me at all, being offensive while feigning being offended is a characteristic of their generation. I had really hoped they would produce a show that, given the obscene budget, would have approached the quality of the books and the Peter Jackson trilogy. A lifetime to write the stories and a singularly epic success of turning them into cinema. That is why people who CAN appreciate a masterpiece love the books and trilogy and do not love TROP. We are not racists we are lovers of the lore. Have diversity in the casting, I'm fine with that. What I'm not fine with are people who resemble Romans with pointed ears....with Elven warriors wearing slightly modified football helmets....with "Our hearts are bigger than our feet!" hardly quote-worthy....Ugh! I don't believe I can bear 5 more episodes so I'm cutting my losses and skipping the rest. I sincerely hope that someone in the future, who does love Middle Earth, will try again. These are stories that need to be seen as well as heard because they are singularly epic mythology!
I can't wait for more genius (read: late in French ) fantasy-esq phrases like :
• "A dog may bark at the moon, but it cannot bring it down."
• "A fart may be invisible, but if powerful, one can still taste it."
• "Like it is with burning wood, we burn brighter when we burn together."
• "Your light, is someone elses darkness, but the shadow is what's between them."
• "The foot, it would not know where to go, be it not for the mouth."
• "The differance between a rock and a bird, is that the bird has a secret. The rock loves the ground so it always rushes downwards. But the bird, the bird likes the sky and so it rushes upwards."
tell me these are not direct quotes from the series, these are so bad..
I want to know also. Are these real quotes from the series?
@@debbieroberts5866 The first quote is real lol, bark bark
When Galadriel commanded just 5 dudes in the north she was unconcerned about their welfare and survival. Imagine what a horrific commander she'll be of a full army (of people she has contempt for) in the southlands. This reminds me of a certain unnamed despot of a certain unnamed country currently.
The series can't count. She actually picks up an extra elf post-monster somehow.
Officer “Our left flank is collapsing, send in reinforcements “
Guymadriel “Push forward. We can’t stop for them!”
Zelensky?
@@zaprese no, it’s mark
The Bidet regime!
Holy shit, he nailed it with how all the shill media are using euphemisms for boring like it’s a good thing. 😂
If you think your mind is not boggled enough, just consider this: Why is Numenor organizing and sending a fleet and an expeditionary force to Middle Earth? There is no war, no enemies that nobody knows about. It's all senseless. Reinspect the episode and reconsider why the Numenoreans would not think: wait... why the heck are we going? If you notice they are explaining it as badly (or in no real way) as the whole 'we don't like elves any more' thing that really does not get properly explained *in three hours*!!!! Just imagine when the Numenorean fleet arrives and the people there looking at each other 'uh... why the heck are you here?'. Because nobody knows about the orcs yet in the southlands (and the southlands are quite inland...).
When the Numenoreans intervened in the books it was first after Eregion had been destroyed, Lindon besieged and Middle earth overrun by orc armies! It's the problem with changing so freely pieces of a story. All the pieces matter! (as Lester Freamon said) and if you change one so carelessly and freely the story suffers. If you change something, change it to make it more interesting, not less! How does it help the story that Elendil is a nobody instead of the LORD OF ANDUNIE (and that means he is the feudal lord of 1/6th of Numenor at least and the head of a party in the court). It LESSENS the story. How does it help that Galadriel is just a singleminded warrior with the charisma of a stone (and I am meaning the particularly uncharismatic ones, not every stone) instead of the wise founder and ruler of Eregion, there to mistrust this new guy called Annatar that comes with exactly what the elves need at this moment? It's... all lessened. Worse than lessened.
Charisma of a stone, and that stone is pumice. Pumice floats, was spit out of a "tempest", and is often used to clean toilets.
In the show so far, she's literally spent centuries trying to find Sauron, exhausting even her hand-picked troop of elves who never really helped her in any way. If she does the same with this human army, they'll all be dead of old age, and also will never really help her in any way. Why does she even WANT soldiers with her? It doesn't make any sense.
@@HerculesBallsInc Meanwhile Sauron standing right beside her the whole time :P
@@creativeconsciousness7392 Totes! Lol!
They crunched centuries of timeline into the span of a single adults life time (so Diza and her Scotish accent can be in every season) then didn't bother reworking the story timeline and course of events to actually make sense.
My favourite thing about the Rings of Power are these TH-cam videos.
Thank you to all reviewers for watching this so that I don't have to. Your sacrifice and suffering is not unnoticed.
I just saw an interview with actors playing Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel - and this interview was watched by crowds, these actors were invited all over the world, they were respected and loved. Because they made a good movie.
People behind the RoP could have had a similar situation. But now nobody wants to see or listen to them.
Well, who doesnt want to hear that one actress go on and on about being the first black, female dwarf as if she just solved racism and all that is bad in the world?
@@lunisinko7498 Because of seeing her, black lives everywhere are now better. Stunning and brave
Oh no, if they want on tour "toxic fans" could say something, or ask questions!
You don't even have to fume at the bastardisation of Tolkien. Even those of us who have read the legendarium for decades have disengaged Tolkien from the screen here. The basic rules that make any show entertaining are just lacking. It's shockingly amateurish for such a prominent show with such a budget.
Once again proving that money is no substitute for talent.
I think part of the problem is modern viewing habits: people are paying less attention, so movies and shows can get away with less. While the show's on, a lot of viewers are also on their phones, and if 5min out of every 25min actually catches their attention they might think it's "pretty good" because the other 80% of mediocrity (if I'm being generous) is being filled in by whatever's interesting on their phone. The people who actually pay close attention dislike it and switch off.
I personally have a friend who seems to like pretty much everything he watches (i.e. She-Hulk, The Eternals, Disney's live-action remakes, and more) for that very reason. If I were to ask him to describe the plot, he'd not really be able to give me any kind of detailed breakdown, but if it can grip him for 5min, he likes it.
I know retards like this. I guess the world needs idiots to allow people with skill, intellect, creativity, imagination and other skills to rise in society.
Yeah with all of the garbage that we have gotten in the last few years it really seems that some people (myself included) forget what made movies/shows good. I think also some people are basically desperate to like the garbage we have received to prove they are not a "toxic fan."
Ur friend is an npc
Yes and the dumbing down of society.
When people have the attention span of a Goldfish....
I loved the scene where Guyladriel is asked what is best in life and they/them answers "To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their men."
What the hell?? I must have disassociated while watching. When was that? This sounds like an imposter of the Galadriel we know and love.
I guess if thats the case I'll just pretend she's Sauron in disguise and the real Galadriel will come back many episodes later and expose Sauron when I am no longer watching this mess.
I remember Conan the Barbarian very well ;)
They/them! :D :D :D
“Lamentations of their men”? Utter woke nonsense.
“It’s just taking time to set things up.”
The episodes we have are already longer than the entire Fellowship Of The Ring. If they can perfectly accomplish their setup and launch the action in three hours, how can anyone possibly take this excuse seriously?
Elven cities and… magic? I’m still waiting for the magic part, since Guyladriel apparently has none of it.
Edit: Maybe the ‘tempest’ inside of her?
I think she just had to pee.
That could just be indigestion.
The tempest might just be her time of the week. Granted couldn't tell the difference she's like that everyday.
Numenorean chipotle. Potent stuff.
In the ACTUAL books, she manages to destroy an entire castle using nothing but her sheer wilpower. In this garbage she just beats people up. Which do you think is better?
All we need to do make sure the only people on Numenor when it gets sunk are Galadriel and the Harfoots. Oh, and that Theo kid. That'll go a long way to making it better.
So far, sauron is the most likable imo
They can bring theo's mother there too
@@minatodroger7890 No she's hot. The small number of attractive women is one of the only upsides to sitting through this shite.
It's easy;all they have to do is fly them all to Numenor,like governor
Desantis did when he flew all the illegal immigrants to Martha's Vineyard. 😆
Numenorrrrrrrr
It's so unfortunate when I see people defending this show in comment section. (I don't understand what they're watching?? 😂)
The weirdest thing for me is the weird obsession the Harfoots have with their feet. The feet are in their sayings. Like it's an essential part of their culture instead of just their biology. There's a difference between having a few weird names with the word foot in them, and just having the word in sayings and having comparisons to them literally everywhere.
Who designed their culture, Quentin Tarantino?
Imagine if they had big dicks. 🤣🤣
Kind of like how LGBTQ, vegans, and lefties do...
@@Clownbabyworldtour Exactly, just Stoopid HollyWeird that doesn't understand humanity. They've skinned Tolkien and this show is wearing the suit.
Proud FEET!
Bro, why is she so unattractive? The actress herself isn’t ugly, but she’s constantly either stoic, smugly smiling, or grimacing/sneering. She’s supposed to be beautiful, kind, powerful yes but not so hardened and masculine.
I can honestly say, this is the best break down of what is wrong with this series! He didn't say that you couldn't break from Tolkien but if you do, you better have great writers, which they don't! Man, that doesn't even sound racist!
I honestly can’t believe that it’s this bad. I knew it was going to suck but it’s shockingly inapt. I couldn’t even make it through episode three. I’m having much more of a good time watching the breakdown episodes than actually watching it myself at this point. There’s just something about it where I don’t give a fuck about any character at all. None of them are compelling. I don’t see how they’re gonna make five seasons out of this dog shit. If this was Netflix, they already would’ve cut bait.
@@Gauthierbrad27 oh, I think once the first season is done and the results come in, they may just decide to forget the rest...good money after bad...
@@stephenstevens6573 you're kidding right?? They'll just dig in like they have done... we've got another 5 seasons of this tripe if we're lucky lol
@@stephenstevens6573 see that's what rational competent people do. Has there been any indication that anyone at any level has either of those qualities? This isn't exactly a new trend.
@@altorins Some with a couple of insiders are saying heads are going to roll and there's going to massive changes next season. We'll see.
"Meaty character development will come later" - I know that feeling. I was telling myself that at the beggining of the Last Jedi, The Batman, Obi-Wan Series, Bobba Fett series and this very abomination. At some point you run out of cheeks.
Wasn’t the Batman good tho?
@@justanotherguy560 yeah...
@@justanotherguy560 Not for me. Slightly better than the rest of the list, I guess.
@@belisaurusgaming6192 eh, I really enjoyed it personally, but to each their own.
@@justanotherguy560 The answer is no. It wasn't good. Unless your idea of Batman is an emo who sends a black woman out to do all his detective work for him because black women are better at everything and all white people are evil.
The only series thus far in the history of human entertainment, which rolled a natural 20 on boredom check and unwittingly critted its audience into the shadow realm.
Rolled with advantage getting double natural 20 on boredom.
Worse, they rolled a d6 and still rolled a natural 20.
@@Lonovavir 🤣🤣🤣
@@Lonovavir with a -5 intelligence modifier
I’m pleasantly surprised I haven’t been bored with it yet. I was pretty skeptical about this series at first, but now genuinely excited to see what’s in the next episode.
Imagine seeing the credits rolling for the end of The Two Towers. In the closing scene of the movie we see the firework display during Bilbo and Frodo's birthday party. It's taken two full movies and the hobbits haven't even left the Shire yet.
Tune in for Return of the King, when the hobbits finally make it to Bree
Galadriel will be "mightily" humbled when the "good" man she gradually befriends and champions throughout the series (Halbrand) is Sauron himself. She will have helped him to not only gather his army and deceive leaders of the West , but forge the rings in the splendid new tower currently being built. Essentially, the one she has been single-mindedly seeking vengeance on these hundreds of years will use her to become a true existential threat to Middle Earth. Thus, the silly "prophesy" by Gil-galad of a fire stoking the thing it wishes to extinguish, comes true; as does the "prophetic" visions of Numenor's watery demise in the palantir that begins with the coming of an elf. Will anyone still be watching to say "Ooh, how clever" or really care by the time this happens? Should add that her choice of the dark sea over the light of Valinor sets all this in motion and harkens back to her brother's warning. Blaah
And in the second season the real Galadriel will finish off the impostor Galadriel from the first season and rescue Celeborn from the Amazon dungeon where he is locked up.
Honestly, that's probably exactly where this series is heading - which is unfortunate
All of which never happened in Tolkien's writings. This is alternate Tolkien universe, and it is bleach pale in comparison to the original.
Or when she'll be humbled when she loses the rap battle with Sau-minem.
Can't be Sauron. Sauron only ever appeared in human form as an elf, because he was an elf.
My father is a HUGE progressive. He is a "diversity and inclusion officer" and he was thrilled to bits about Tolkien's world being "re-imagined" in a more "modern" way. Anyone that said anything bad about the show was a "racist" and a "bigot" in his eyes... well at least for the first couple of episodes. My parents are now dropping the series because, frankly, they hate it. They dislike Galadriels character and said that episode 4 was so boring it was hard to watch.
My point is this - as per usual, even the so-called progressives hate what has been "created". I've not watched an episode. I will not watch an episode. If I wanted to be attacked based on my skin colour and gender I would watch the news.
How much has this cesspit of a show, run by a cesspit of a company, damaged Tolkien's legacy? I have a feeling that was always the intent.
They got exactly what they wanted and hated it. And yet they still won't learn from their disappointment. A modern tragedy.
yep... it appears that all of this is a political move to destroy our heroes and history and to create a false narrative of racism and bigotry to divide and conquer free people and destroy western civilization. this is straight out of orwell's 1984...
your father is everything wrong with the world.
I don't think they can damage Tolkien work with this shit show! Just don't watch it maybe some day we get a decent one! Jackson Copium
Tolkiens legacy is safe, because this show has nothing to with Tolkien.
Wasn't their goal in making this meant to lure in more Amazon prime membership❓
Ooops...
You're right - it was modernized to reflect the fringe clown-world element in my country. And it is embarrassing. And it is boring because they put too many groups or people in the show: The Harfoots take up too much time. They do not know what to do with Elrond or Celebrimbor. And so they have to give him something to do - so he is involved with the dwarves, kind of interfering with potential here. What do I mean? Instead of showing Elrond the mithril, they could have had the dwarves discover it in a lower part of Moria. Expand and explore the city down to the second or third deep, and show them mining, extracting gold, and gems. Then they discover the mithril. Instead of handicapping their storyline to give character Elrond something to do because he does not have a storyline.
Morgoth may be gone, but the evil has scattered. When Elrond and Celebrimbor are walking in the woods maybe they meet up with a troll [at night] or orcs or a fricking Ent. Maybe a wolf and get into some kind of bind in order to give them some character building. Instead they remind me of paper dolls.
Or maybe they should have just forged the damn Rings this season.
Who set the criteria for the show? The writers? The producers? Because their perception of time in order to accommodate and tying everyone into a coherent storyline was not considered at all. And why have a vision of the flood now? Shouldn't that be a season finale somewhere down the road?
In your review of Episode One you provided the formula in how you determine whether an object floats on water or not. Well, this show does not float because it is weighted down with so much crap that they cannot even write a decent enough story to get it rolling. Nerdrotic compares it to a soap opera. Yet none of these characters, including Halbrand Sauron, could hold a candle to my man Victor Neuman [Young & Restless].
it's a joy to watch the implosion happening in real time.
Definitely more interesting than the show itself.
I cancelled my Prime account because of 'wheel of time'. They just crapped on the source material. I knew they would screw up this one.
There were plenty of down-low on-the-quiet rumours here in NZ *during the production* about an utterly toxic work environment. Loads of local people were working as crew and this is a small country... Nobody really wants to go on the record for fear of Amazon suing, and/or it harming their career. Eventually the Yanks flounced off citing some nonsense about Covid restrictions but IMO Amazon already knew they had a turkey on their hands *during filming*. And I heard all this about 18 months ago. The hysterical attack propaganda they've been indulging in for many months now is basically "get your retaliation in first". They've always known it just wasn't any good, and the visuals and score wouldn't be able to save it
One of the most insightful things I've read lately. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that someone there reached into the sack of money and took it to the Cayman Islands, I don't see that much money on the screen.
@@frankisantana Definitely money laundering 101. I'm watch Ozark right now (which is amazing) and I can see how LOTR show was a bottomless pit to launder money :)_
@@Nikitikitavvi Laundering money with artistic products is as old as eating. Everyone knows what a house is worth, but a special effects, a script, a performance, it can be worth any price you want to put on it.
The Lord of the Rings reflected a timeless European, British Christian theme & region.
The Rings of Power does not reflect the world today. It just reflects modern liberal atheist America.
Which is what most generic fantasy becomes- an Americanised boring culturaless corporate Mcdonalds like package.
That is devoid of a unique ethnic cultural flair.
Yes. Deserves a Super👍 !
This series is empty. And I'm not talking about bad acting, over-CGI photography, generic dialogue, or generic soundtrack. I'm talking about not having that epic aspect, that timeless mythology theme.
They may say: "But there's not enough written material"
And I say: "Yes, there is! They are in the myths (Celtic, Norse, Finland, Judeo-Christian) and archetypes (Asmodeos, philosopher queen, etc) for the construction of characters, concepts, events".
I thought Sauron would be a (pseudo) Promethean figure generating religious engineering in Middle-earth.
I thought they were going to show Harad and Rhûn inspired (as Tolkien said in 1966) in Africa (Ethiopia + Saracens) and Asia (Middle East, China, Japan, etc)
That Galadriel was going to develop into the Philosopher Queen archetype to ideologically oppose Annatar's ideas.
That Númenor was going to be a discussion about death vs. human nature.
Episode 4: "They Took Our Jobs!"
I think in a lot of ways the Rings of Power really is the fantasy drama to end all fantasy dramas. Mainly in that Amazon probably won't spend money on a fantasy drama in future because RoP is so bad.
I'd love to know what the hell Amazon was thinking when they got the bargin bin-tier writers and show runners to pilot a one billion dollar ship. It is like what happened with Game of Thrones all over again. Dumb and Dumber stole amazing opportunities away from really gifted people by the means of nepotism. Mckay and Payne's parents probably are in a club with Bezos or something and that is how they got the job.
Tax write-off? Charity donation to education on how NOT to produce a show.
Exactly my thoughts. They didn't get the job on merit.
Interestingly enough, I watched a post-mortem analysis of Amazon's failed MMORPG. Guess what? They only hired people without a shred of relevant experience there as well... I don't know if it's that no competent person would want to work for them, or if they go for the cheapest on the market. Probably both considering their reputation in their main field of work.
From what I've heard, they fired all the writers who didn't do exactly what the suits told them and deliberately hired people with no talent or experience who could be intimidated more easily.
4 hrs in and absolutely nothing has happened. By this point in the trilogy we'd be an hour into Two Towers.
The Harfoots have travelled two miles down a field, are you not entertained?
@@ashyclaret Two miles, one barely speaking wizard, and zero baths later, all that we learned is that they're terrible people that unnecessarily migrate because farming doesn't require it.
If you don't have your audience hooked in 4hrs you've got NOTHING
I personally am a huge fan of this show, I've suffered from insomnia for years and now finally a cure!!!!
I have literally had to pause the last two episode reviews I've watched midway through so I could go take a nap because I was bored with the show (but not the ranting. AZ does great rants) and had a headache from my brain trying to figure out how any of the show was supposed to be remotely good.
I wasn't all that hooked into GoT until episode 5 lol, the cliffhanger was good thou and caused me to binge watch the rest.
As for RoP, I see no enthusiasm about it at all, just some paid shills in media and few normies liking it casually. I could torrent it I guess but why bother. TH-cam reviews like this one or AZ are hilarious, will keep watching.
Streaming seems to be full of shows where nothing happens. I gave up on Amazon's Night Sky because despite an interesting premise... it was just boring. Nothing happened. They seem to think we'll be intrigued and watch 40 hours of a show to get some tiny morsel of revelation and progress. Streaming TV shows seem to now be enough story for one story-light movie, spread over several seasons. What happened to TV shows that tried to grab your attention, that had drama, character and, yes, action? I give up.
@@thatpatrickguy3446 If Amazon got AZ to over-dub all the voices, I would watch Rings of Woke religiously.
@@etiennedevignolles7538 So long as he got to rewrite the scripts too. 😀 Get Disparu, Nerdrotic, Jayne Theory, Critical Drinker, That Star Wars Girl, and other hilarious YT commentators to overdub other voices from the new actual fan made scripts and it'd be even better. 😀
the Rings of Power is like if that guy you knew in school who could sort of draw was for some reason commissioned to do a remake of the sistine chapel for a billion dollars.
Well said.
Why would I want a fantasy to 'reflect the real world'? I live in the real world every day. I've seen it before.
The funny thing with this show is they use "its fantasy so we could make up whatever we want to it" and "it must reflect the real world", in some articles/situations at the same time. Make up your mind. If it's fantasy, then doesn't reflect the real world. If it should reflect the real world, then don't call it fantasy.
good point.
The sea is always salt.
The orcs are genuinely more likeable than the main characters. I'm rooting for them.
Saubrand is also the only remotely likable major character so far
Writers like this have a habit of making the villains the most likeable, because those are the only characters they allow to be flawed.
idk how they managed to make Galadriel so unlikeable. She is almost as dislikeable as Rey from SW
It began with the forging of the great films. Threads were given by Tolkien, immortal. wisest and fairest of all beings. Rights were granted to Jackson, great minor and craftsman of the mountain of lore. And nine, nine hours were gifted to the race of Men who above all else desire quality. They were all of them deceived, for another show was made. In the land of Amazon, in the fires of Mount Prime, the dark Lord Bezos forged in secret a master flop. And into the show he poured his money, his malice, his greed, and his will to dominate woke film. One show to ruin them all
Jackson fans like you aren't Tolkien fans
Nice one. Although I disagree that this show will ruin it all, if all includes the source material and Peter Jackson's films i.e., our canon.
Masterful!
thus is true & we really can't get around it anymore let's call it what it is from now on. The Rings of Power is Garbage. Thanks for this Video. I always appreciate the Truth.
Since the start of the show I have been seeing all positive reviewers making excuses to like the show. It was subtle, but you could see them only praising the aesthetics and that they were so excited to be back in Middle Earth. Never anything about the story, or the characters, except to push the characters to go against what negative reviewers were saying. They never actually sounded like they liked anything more than how pretty the show was. So this is not that surprising that the copium has worn off finally.
I still haven't gotten over that "metaphor" about the rock and the ship. Did they just ask a sixth grader to write something that sounded philosophical and put it in the script without even reading it?
That is exactly what I keep hearing and it's getting on my nerves 😂😂
It's something you'd see out of a Monty Python skit...
But the Monty Python skit makes more sense since there's an actual logical through-line that can take one from a piece of wood to a witch.
also they mentioned the Sun and stuffs as allegory.
the sun didnt fking exist at that time period
"that marble stuck up my nose, is made of glass"
I think the smeagol story in the fellowship of the ring could've been their "inspiration" for that crap:
"The most inquisitive and curious-minded of that family was called Sme´agol. He was interested in roots and beginnings; he dived into deep pools; he burrowed under trees and growing plants; he tunnelled into green mounds; and he ceased to look up at the hill-tops, or the leaves on trees, or the flowers opening in the air: *his head and his eyes were downward*."
"[...]One day it was very hot, and as he was bending over a pool, he felt a burning on the back of his head, and a dazzling light from the water pained his wet eyes. He wondered at it, for he had almost forgotten about the Sun. *Then for the last time he looked up* and shook his fist at her. ‘*But as he lowered his eyes*, he saw far ahead the tops of the Misty Mountains, out of which the stream came. And he thought suddenly: ‘It would be cool and shady under those mountains. The Sun could not watch me there'"
"[...]All the ‘great secrets' under the mountains had turned out to be just empty night: there was nothing more to find out, nothing worth doing, only nasty furtive eating and resentful remembering.'
The chapter on the book and the episode both are named "The shadow of the past" so they probably have read this a couple times and decided to make their own version.
"packed with scale and ambition"
-> Elrond teleporting back and forth to spy on his friend
The positive thing about all this is how we can appreciate Peter Jacksons adaptations even more now. Even the hobbit movies are 100x times better than this.
Guyladriel is so insolent, abrasive and unbelievable.. Her "Tough Guy" attitude, she just can't sell it..
It's in no way believable, it's not entertaining and I cannot take her character seriously.
I can't think of a single situation in which Guyladriel "wouldn't" end up crapping out her front teeth in the Tolkien Universe, if she spoke to people the way she talks to people.
Then the Elves thing.. "They are all of them, without exception, fair of skin" - J.R.T.
Saying something is good because if has potential, in my experience, means your justifying being in a bad relationship.
"There is a tempest in me!"
Said everyone after a midnight taco bell run
By now, the Fellowship has already fought the Balrog, sliced their way through goblins and orcs and lost Boromir! In here, Guyladriel had a bit of an itch on her bum.
It is clear to me that Isildurina the Architect is going to build Osgiliath or Minas Tirith. Yeah, they are that dumb.
My favourite part was Isildur getting his entire friend group thrown out of elite training program.
True leader that everyone wants to follow.
Regardless of Wokish ideological influence, I've thought for a very long time that screenwriting is weird. Authors of books tend to stick to a genre, or be primarily known for one. Tolkien didn't write hardboiled detective novels or planetary romances, Philip K Dick didn't write romance novels or crime fiction set in the world of horse racing, Dick Francis didn't write cosmic horror or young adult vampire novels. But screenwriters seem to wander from genre to genre and IMO routinely the result is they have no real understanding of the genre, just a kind of superficial mannerist pastiche. So they write some sci-fi show but don't really get sci-fi and it's full of laughable errors and lack of understanding of the tropes which are tired or generic, or they write fantasy and it's just soap opera with fancy costumes and dragons, etc. Good genre writing is hard, and requires a deep involvement in whichever genre it is. But screenwriters don't specialise, so they don't have that innate grasp, so they so frequently turn out rubbish. Even if someone is a good writer, if they don't know the field it's not going to turn out well.
Interesting point, have never thought about it that way!
you're quite a powerful speaker sir. A wonder you don't go into parliament.
@@nayeemhasan2713 My mum always told me I should go and talk somewhere else as well :)
We've got reviewers with battered wife syndrome. " I know deep down it's good, it's going to get better, the showrunners really do love me." How about no? It's not going to change, honey. They will just keep dishing it out so long as you keep coming back.
Too true.
I'm not saying that people can't watch this, or even that people can't like it...but don't tell me that you've actually read Tolkien and then try to tell me that this show is amazing and honoring to his works.
The most painful thing about it for me is that the dialogue feels like it was written by a person who thinks they're really smart, but who has no idea what Tolkien actually sounds like and just kinda makes it sound like a pickle salesman at a Renaissance Faire. Tolkien - a gifted linguist - vs some Hollywood sheeple. You couldn't use strings to puppet the corpse of Tolkien to write a line as dumb as: "She's as much hair on her toes to grow as sense between her ears..." That is an offensive piece of drivel.
did you know stones sink because they "look down", and ships float because they "look up to the stars"? Physics!!!!
@@ZeerXX I would almost overlook it as the uninspiring metaphor that it is, if it hadn't been set up like Finrod was about to impart some actual practical knowledge. "I made the boat just like you showed me!" ... "Do you know why it floats? Because of nonsense!"
Even then, I might just hand wave it away, but no... the writers were so pleased with themselves that it became the inspiration for the big pivotal scene at the end.
@@hank6628 totally agree. You could tell this was written by someone who never received an ounce of criticism in their life. The whole show is filled with it. I hate that I continue to watch it, but it is primarily because i have a bit of optimism left in me combined with seeing if it gets worse.
@@ZeerXX And they were so amazed with their own writing, they repeated it another time at the end of the episode 😂
NovelAI on the Tolkien module can write better Tolkien than these progressive writers.
The 'there is a tempest in me' scene is without doubt one of the most infuriating things ive ever seen on screen. It boils my blood when i see/hear it
@@The_Invisible_Self hahaha, stop. It hurts
@@The_Invisible_Self Oof that hurts
The big problem is that Hollywood seems to think that the name is what people like instead of the substance (which people actually like).
Even the extended versions of the films weren't quite 4 hours long and each was packed with story. How on earth does this show have 4 hours where nothing happens?
Because they tried so hard to shove diversity down our throats and it became a political series
the extended versions of the films are even worse than the theatrical films.
@@reek4062 Lol said no one ever.
Clear Pepsi was the best ever, said Reek.
Even with the extended cuts if we say 4 hours of the films and 4 hours of this show, in the films we are all the way done with fellowship.and abt a half hour into two towers. Now just imagine all the story weve done in the films by now and how much has happened when in ROP we are 4 hours in and NOTHING has happened of any real significance or consequence
They did exactly what they said they were going to do. We’re still telling them it’s not going to work but at least THE SEA IS ALWAYS RIGHT!
I've see the 4 Episodes and I can say from my Experience that literally NOTHING happens
They keep deflecting with "racism" when the biggest complaints are the writing, the acting and Galadriel so its evident the elves and dwarves of color were added ONLY for use as an excuse to deflect criticism
"We wanted some female energy in the family." Yeah... I am pretty sure that Isildur had to have mother at one time. So why sister? I would underestand if it was a mother. That is at least off cannon character that we know it had to exist somewhere. And I can imagine at least a few scenes where it would make much better dynamic. So why it has to be a sister? Oh... I forgot. Married woman with husband is can not be seen as feminist icon and independent enough. So why not make absolutely useles female character that never existed.
Why have another OL when there are already 3 boss ladies billed? Why not a pretty piece of made-up fluff to pull in the teen demographic? Hot enough to pull the boys in while awkward and sweet enough for nerdy teenage girls to identify with. Win Win Win *sarcasm toward Amazon*
You're really hitting it out of the park with these videos! Keep up the good work.
Everyone needs to realize the show was not meant to be good, or even have anyone watch it. It was made to claim territory, conquer the space, and demoralize you. You don't need to endlessly be outraged or disprove of it. The best thing to do is acknowledge it once, say they are horrible detestable people. Then move on. You can then mock those who do watch it, or mock those involved with it if they try to distance themselves with it.
It wasn't made to be art. It wasn't made to improve your life. It wasn't made cause it had to be. It was made in order to make your life and all that you strive for less valuable. The sooner you realize that the sooner you can break the cycle and their hold over you.
That's the odd thing with this one. Amazon and Bezos said they wanted it to attract a 100 million worldwide audience. It really is that Bezos wanted a cultural phenomenon like GoT was for his own ego. He wanted that with his name and company attached to it. So no, this isn't like Obi Wan where they're intentionally destroying established characters so people will like their new ones so they get all the merchandise money. It really was intended to be good. Just they've all forgotten what good is.
Edit: The Little Platoon does a great explanation. It's a 2 hour video, but his take on why Bezos and the showrunners made this is the first little bit in the introduction. I think it's insightful. He makes the case, that unlike other shows where the people associated with it don't know or like the source material, he has no doubt they truly love Tolkien. They just don't understand why.
^^this
Dang you blowing up! Keep em coming!
They need their badges in order to work, right? So when that guy had his badge stolen (remember, he only wanted to fight the guy after that guy STOLE from him), he technically had his job stolen….
…they….TOOK HIS JOB!
The latest preview tells us “Evil doesn’t sleep; it waits.” They literally stole a Chuck Norris joke. Hacks.
My two main gripes are nothing to do with lore, books, canon etc (Which I do adore)
The dialogue and acting are absolutely terrible. Certain scenes feel like I'm watching a play with drama students. Where on earth has the money gone? Below average sets, CGI? No name actor's? No name writers and directors? Bad robot must have 'special' bank accounts in the Caymans. Bezo has a case for fraud with them.
If I watched this show without any of the original names being used I wouldn't think it was Lord of the Rings.
you know what I just realized? Disney's kind of like morgoth, and Amazon's kind of like sauron
After the first two episodes I was like "Eh its slow but the world is gorgeous, the music is everything we've come to expect from the franchise and I enjoy spending time with it regardless." After it took me a week of multiple attempts to get through the third episode I think I've given up. So sad to whiff so badly when there was so much potential.
Yeah, this thing should be called The Rings of 💩. It stinks!
How the series is going reminds me of AppleTV+ Servant. Since M. Night Shyamalan is the executive producer, it was give about six seasons from Apple. Fortunately, yet unfortunately, it was then skimmed down to four (should've been axed by the end of Season 2). Season 1 showed potential but then people were getting tired of the fans saying "gotta tune in for the next episode because it might get better - trust the writers know what they're doing!" in Season 2 (which was the weakest season despite some needed exposition given). Season 3 was better than Season 2 but not much happened where it tries to iron out and integrate the horrific character choices that happened in the previous season. The final season is approaching in 2023 and the same questions have been asked since the very start of the season but no answer have been given. The die hard fans believe that Season 4 will be THE season that will absolve any issues in terms of plot and character development. One season, for the most part, to stir the ship true north. Yea right.
I love the tone, the atmospheric quality, camera angles, costume design and lighting, but the content fails to delivery entirely. It's navel-gazing because it simply can -- riding on the fact that it has multiple seasons to think how amazing it is WITH Shyamalan's name attach to it.
Note: Though Servant is an Shyamalan production to an extent, it was neither written by him nor directed by him (if we exclude a handful of episodes he directed). He's acting as the executive producer which is a role where he has decided to guide the directors brought in for each new script to keep with the overall tone and atmosphere of the series. The ending of the series has already been written, it's just what happens from Episode 1 to the very last is what's troubling - something that he doesn't have much say on, which I take, is his own choice.
One BIG clue that it's not his screenplay OR his story is how the personal relationships develop - there is no warmth, no prudence and no respect in general given between the characters as the series creeps forward; the relationships are devoid of any thoughtfulness, heart, and insight that comes with a Shyamalan directed/written production. The series has been written by people who aren't talented enough to write a compelling story per episode as they resort to tired dramatic tropes and caricatures in unconvincing ways.
Given the character in which the series is named after is underdeveloped (no matter how one analyzes the character it is NOT a well written character), this leaves the series ultimately doomed for an unsatisfactory ending for all since the series would not exist if it weren't for this character. The series existence has not been justified post Season 1 (it's best season so far).
In the same vain, with a poorly written titular character alongside other poorly written secondary characters, Rings of Power should have never been given five seasons as other series, with much better writing, are canceled after one or two.
I loved when Guyladriel slammed her first down and said, "You can't *handle* the tempest!"
Goosebumps.
You couldn't pay me to watch this show lol
the word 'mystery box' send shivers down my spine.....
I'm like "Oh, here's comes another flop"
I believe them with they say "the fantasy series to end all fantasy series", because after this failure, I doubt anyone will want to produce another fantasy series for a long time, if ever.