Lord of the Rings TV series

[Totenkindly]

I'll give the series a shot. I can't say I am thrilled they are marketing Tolkien's books with pictures from the TV show of people with swords, because it seems to be purely a cash grab, but it is what it is and at this point we all know this game. it doesn't necessarily mean the show will be bad.

Obviously they are fleshing out some things already. For example, they have cast a sister for Isildur I think or at least in that immediate family. Like, I don't really care because it's clear even in books as accepted as the Bible that there were people not talked about in the text who MUST have existed. (Otherwise where did the wives come from in Genesis for people to marry?) As long as it seems true to spirit and it's understood it's just a TV show they are developing, who cares?

 

[yeghor]

I'll give the series a shot. I can't say I am thrilled they are marketing Tolkien's books with pictures from the TV show of people with swords, because it seems to be purely a cash grab, but it is what it is and at this point we all know this game. it doesn't necessarily mean the show will be bad.

Obviously they are fleshing out some things already. For example, they have cast a sister for Isildur I think or at least in that immediate family. Like, I don't really care because it's clear even in books as accepted as the Bible that there were people not talked about in the text who MUST have existed. (Otherwise where did the wives come from in Genesis for people to marry?) As long as it seems true to spirit and it's understood it's just a TV show they are developing, who cares?

I do.

 

[Totenkindly]

I do.

*pat pat*

 

[yeghor]

One story to rule them and in darkness bind them

Impression about the producers, by Nerd Cookies

 

[Totenkindly]

To be honest, I'm less inclined to watch the show after the most recent trailer. I'm cool with the diversity (although I'm still kind of against hobbits appearing, they don't even get rings compared to the other races); it's the dumb pithy modern-esque dialogue that annoys me.

And I wanted to throw shit at the TV when they did that post-trailer video-game balrog tag -- it's one of the things I hated most of the Jackson films, and they're copying it? Douchebags.

 

[yeghor]

Wtf? You should be able to produce tens of good tv series with 1 billion USD. Are they laundering money or something?

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

nope

 

[Totenkindly]

So the final trailer dropped recently, but I found the YouTube comments to be far more hilarious/interesting. For your viewing pleasure, here's a portion of them:

When Galadriel pulled out her lightsaber and said, "Wakanda forever" sent shivers up my spine. Tolkien couldn't have written anything better

The moment Zeke yells at his pure titans "Looks like meat's back on the menu boys!" while throwing rocks at Helms Deep gave me goosebumps & left me speechless. Feels like straight out of the original manga that Tolkien wrote back in 1985, just shows how dedicated everyone is to stay true to the source material. Tolkien would be choking up with emotion

The moment Galadriel is about to be defeated by Sauron, and a portal opens and you hear Elron's voice "On your left", it sent shivers down my spine, true peak cinema by Jordina Tolkien

The scene were Elrond says: "Hasta la vista, baby" gave me goosebumps. Tolkien was a genius!

I loved Sauron's character arc and what he said after being defeated: "the moral of the story, my friends, is that it's better to have a ring on your finger than a finger in your ring."
You truly gave us something not even Tolkien could have written. Thank you, Amazon. Just... Thank you.

The moment Gandolf stood up slowly from his wheelchair and muttered “Tonight, Gandolf joins the hunt” sent chilling down my spine. It was really the peak of television.

Nothing screams Tolkien like modern music. 10/10

The part were Elrond says ''This is my ninja way'' and proceeded to Naruto run was breathtaking!

The moment Galadriel says, "I'm Mary Poppins, yall!" And performs the cruciatus curse on Captain Barbosa, gave me absolute chills

the moment Galadriel waved her hands in front of her face and said " you can't see me" sent shivers up my spine

The moment Gandalf said "THIS... IS... SPARTA!" and kicks the balrog down the well. Gave me chills!

The moment Ellen Ripley says "I don’t know which species is worse" while free climbing Barad-dûr, contemplating the difference between orcs, trolls and showrunners.. it brought a tear to my eyes, it was so touching.

The moment Galadriel casts out those bullets out of her revolver crossed her fingers and started chanting "LOVE AND PIECE! LOVE AND PIECE!" overwhelmed me with emotions... Amazon truly embraced J. R. R. Tolkien's Stampede vision and idea

"with our hearts, even bigger than our feet." Truly inspiring quote! I immediately donated to a charity for a big tax write off.

The moment Frodo was chased by sauron and Galadriel shouted "RUN FRODO RUN" I cried a river
Tolkien knew what he was doing writing this part

The moment Gandalf said “THIS IS BRAZIL” sent chills down my spine.

I was thrilled to see that they included Galadriel and Steppenwolf's iconic lightsaber duel in the Chamber of Secrets, that's really the turning point the books for me, so relieved to see JK Tolkien's masterpiece is in good hands.

When Sauron looked at Gimli and said "You're a wizard, Gimli" i began crying. That statement was so well captured, i bet George Lucas is proud.

The moment Galadriel pulled out her axe, punched a whole through the door and said "Here's Johnny!". It sent shivers down my spine.

The very fact that they are releasing this on the anniversary of Tolkien's death should tell you all you need to know about the people who made this show.

Man, the moment Anakin looked at Jon Snow and told him, “With great power comes dead younglings” — stunningly brave.

The part were Gandalf said “Say hello to my little friend” literally sh00k me

The scene were Gandalf screamed to the Ents: "RUN, FORREST, RUN" is so emotional

The moment Galadriel shouts 'Are you not entertained' after failing the Voight-Kampff test was just masterful, she's so brave.

The part were Galadriel say's "and now his watch has ended" and slammed her sword in the stone sent shivers up my spine

The scene where Galadriel has Sauron on the witness stand and says "I want the truth!" And Sauron screams "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!" is especially hair raising to me.

The moment Gandalf dropped Sauron from the top of Nakatomi Plaza gave me chills, you truly knew it was Christmas

That moment Galadriel walked right up to the patriarchy, looked it dead in the eyes, raised her sword and screamed: “I...have...the... Poweeeeer!!!” Amazing stuff!

The moment Django said “surprise motherfucker” while staring into the eye of Sauron really did it. I mean, after all, Hellen Keller was Tolkien’s favorite actress.

The part were Sauron says "I am Inevitable" only for Frodo to say, "No, I am a Hobbit" and cast the ring into Mount Doom is peak fiction.

"I see dead people." Galadriel uttered after fighting Sauron and his army of darkness in the Neverland. Best line in Amazon streaming history ever.

The moment those Numenorean knights rode up to the orcs with their chain and told them "you're the weakest link, goodbye!"... Literal chills!

The way Galadriel says "wind's howling" gives me goosebumps.

Man, the moment Elrond said "With great power comes great responsibility " to Galadriel.. I felt that

Galadriel building a miniature arc reactor from the salvaged Jericho Missile's Palladium core while trapped in a cave was superb!

The moment Sauron said, "I AM THE SENATE" sent chills up my spine. Truly magical writing by Tolkien

The moment Galadriel told Sauron "that's not a knife, this is a knife" and then put some shrimp on the barbie...Epic!

“One does not simply walk into Mordor, without a Pride Flag.” -Boroqueer

The moment Galadriel said get away from her you b*tch made me cheer out loud

Best Monty Python movie since the Life of Brian, didn't know so many of them are alive! John Cleese as Elrond, still looks good in a dress.

The moment galadriel screamed "show me your war face" was the best and most phenomenal thing I've ever seen on tv that I started crying

The moment she yells "I am groot" sent shivers down my spine.

The moment Galadriel said to Dominic Toretto, " One Does Not Simply Walk Into Mordor unless he has family", while driving a monster truck through Moria... Sent shivers up my spine

The scene were Gimli looked into Gandalfs eyes and lovingly said "Luke, I am your father" made me cry my eyes out.

“It's not about the money, it's about sending a message” - Galadriel, as she burns down a pile of cash.

The way Gandolf greeted John Wick in the Continental is just phenomenal and said "Same dark lord" sent shivers down my spine.

Not gonna lie... Using Hanna Montana's "Born in the USA" song really elevate this trailer and brings Tolkien's universe to real life. So brave.

The moment Galadriel said "Get your head in the game" while simultaneously danced a musical number was truly magical

I was especially struck by the choice of music - truly, a master stroke. Amazon has CLEARLY commissioned someone to travel to Oxfurt, Tolkien’s home village, to discover original soundtracks on vinyl. Amazon have control over Tolkien’s work, and that’s a good thing.

Galadriel gave such a beautiful speech: "I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain... Time to die." I just want to cry.

Elrond said, "Hey Galadriel, have you ever been mistaken for a man?". Galadriel answered, "No. Have you?" such brilliant writing, even Tolkien himself would be ashamed.

The moment Frodo says "Now might be a good time to get angry" and Gimli says "Thats my secret, Hobbit, I'm always angry" and then turns into a Balrog is better than anything Tolkien could have written.

When Frodo looked at Sam and said "I love you." And he stood there and said "I know". Brings me to tears every time.

The moment Gandalf arrived in a flying DeLorean and exclaimed "It's your kids, Galadriel. Somethings gotta be done about your kids!", just sent shivers of pure anticipation down my spine.

The scene of Galadriel invading Ukraine was amazing and brave

Favourite moment has to be when Galadriel said "I guess the real rings of power were the friends we made along the way"

Love the Stan Lee cameo as the Dwarf Queen , amazing what they can do with CGI these days.

That part where the Elves got together and screamed ''there can be only one'' and Galadriel was the only one left standing.... pure genius. Shoe in for a daytime Emmy.

The best part was when Galadriel said “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” and then she proceeded in conquering the whole of Arrakis.

 

[Totenkindly]

Anyway, minor quibble over some of the complainers -- the jury is out on how deep they will lean into Galadriel being a bona fide warrior. However, the numbnuts ranting about how this is a character revision don't seem to have read Unfinished Tales or The Silmarillion in detail.

The version of Galadriel we are best acquainted with, at the end of the Third Age, has been the Queen of Lothlorien (Noldor elf) and married to Celeborn (Sindar elf) for a very long time. She has had one of the Three rings for the Third Age, which she didn't have before. In other words, she has been using power in other ways than the way she originally was.

Galadriel is the niece of Feanor who made the Simarils. She was the only noble Noldor woman who was part of the ambitious crowd of Noldor who wanted to leave the Valar and head east, to carve out a niche for herself and a place she would have dominion over. (She had ambition.) At times Tolkien mentions she was tall of stature and had an image of her similar to an amazon, she could best others in competition. She and Celebron defended the Alqualonde. I think they were also pursuing Melkor/Morgoth (essentially the BBEG who Sauron served).

Things are complicated a bit due to Tolkien's ongoing expansion and/or revisions of his own work, but the seeds are all there. There was a horrific ice crossing that looks to be in the show, with the Noldor traveling east. While Tolkien never goes into detail, Galadriel had the physical ability and innate power to be a warrior, and in that time of her life, she was likely fighting those kinds of battles. Eventually once she gets a Ring of power and is maintaining her own realm, her strength and wisdom continues to grow and she is more powerful in other ways. But the likelihood she was a physical combatant in the first half of her life is pretty high.

---

Really fascinating tale that actually is described in Christopher Tolkien's publications about his father's notes includes that Galadriel despised Feanor, her uncle. (He was a real bastard, made the silmarils, resulted in a lot of bloodshed in the family, etc.) He's like the only Noldor she didn't get along with / hated with a passion. Galadriel's golden tresses were so beautiful that they were told to have captured the light of the two trees of Valinor (before Ungoliant drank their light and left them empty husks). Feanor begged Galadriel on three separate occasions to give him a hair from her head, and she totally refused. He was furious with her over this snub.

So now leap ahead to the Fellowship of the Ring, when Gimli (who dislikes elves originally, and this is after elves and dwarves have not been getting along for centuries) is so moved by Galadriel and her beauty that he asks for a single hair off her head.

She not only gives him one but three hairs from her head (!).

Talk about a priceless gift with a lot of echoes to the past.

 

[yeghor]

Exclusive Scene From The Rings Of Power - by the Babylon Bee

 

[SearchingforPeace]

Well.... maybe they should have hired better writers...... not a good start.

In my youth there was a lot of fantasy published that was basically LotR fanfic. This is on par with some of the worst. If Amazon was just going to put a Tolkien skinsuit on some bad fanfic......

Ugh...... I had difficulty watching it, and kept turning it off.

For now, round 1 goes to HotD. I really worry that RoP will end up as bad as WoT, just with slightly better production values.

 

[Totenkindly]

Watched the first episode over lunch today. In general, I am withholding judgment because I like to give things a fair shake and take some time to see if there's a method to the madness. I also really despise current fan culture that is shitting all over things that seem to go against their expectations before they even bother to watch them (She Hulk and Rings of Power are the most recent, but this has been getting worse and worse for awhile now).

I'll put my impressions (good and bad) in the Spoiler.

• Production quality at least in terms of lighting, cinematography, look and feel is pretty amazing, as it needs to be with a budget that large.
• Both the directorial camera work and the sequence editing is very confident. Again, not surprised. Editing was really great.
• Regardless of how people feel about the writing and plotting of the show, I think the acting even from people I've never heard of before is at least solid if not decent. (Kind of like last season of GoT, where I never had a quibble with the actors, it was the shitshow of writing / creative direction that sucked ass.)
• This version of Elrond is actually far closer to my knowledge of Elrond; I really hated Weaving's interpretation from the Jackson films, it seemed antithetical to the personality of this wise man bridging two different races.
• The music by Bear McCreary is actually a pretty decent bridge from the Jackson films, because it seems to incorporate elements of Shore's work while not cribbing it. On occasion, I was reminded of cues by James Horner for Avatar for some reason, but not often.
• I'm not a hobbit fan, aside from my drunken thug halfling in D&D 5e. Like, I don't have anything against them per se, but I don't love hobbits either like some fans seem to. So I was kinda "eh" about hearing they would feature prominently in this series. However, they're okay. I mean, I can't imagine them done better than what I saw in E1.
• I'm actually an elf person, out of all the Tolkien's races. I always found them intriguing and they would make my heart skip a beat. It was so great in Jackson's "Fellowship" when Arwen first appears and is like this glowing demigoddess... and then resolves into a more normal appearance as Frodo focuses on her actual look versus his view of her spirit. It seemed to really capture the elves, for me. So these elves....? Not sure how I feel about them.
• I've already accepted this is a younger version of Galadriel who uses her power in other ways and often more direct ways. And I will be thrilled if they don't do that "green glowy shit" with her that Jackson did. But I do feel like it is a variation on the character, not necessarily the book version. Which leads to my next point...
• This is feeling more like a decently scripted "fan fiction" narrative using elements of Tolkien's works, rather than something that is trying to embody Tolkien's works. I don't mean that necessarily in a disparaging way, although I could if the writing ends up getting bad.
• How is the writing? For the first episode, my opinion was that... I'm not sure. I found myself actually a bit bored by it, to be honest. WAY too much talking, not enough energy in the scenes. It made it hard to actually distill out the actual plot at times -- I had to consciously think, "okay, so what just happened in this dialogue? And where is it leading?" I will boil down what I got of the E1 plot in a later bullet, which might be off in some details but probably is more or less accurate.
• I feel like this is based more on GoT in terms of stylism, than necessarily LotR or any other series out there. It's what the episode most reminded me of, in terms of approach. The thing is, I remember being far more engaged for the GoT pilot despite all the talking and three zillion characters I didn't know; here, I actually know who SOME of these characters are and I still felt bored/lost at times. The races also seem more mundane, less glorified, if that makes sense.
• The history isn't meant to match literally up with Tolkien's history, is how I'm experiencing this.
• Honestly, I don't mind diversified casting; however, it doesn't make sense from how ancestry works. Like, if there are black elves, they had to come from a population of black elves in terms of real life biology, but the show seems to be treating it just as people of far different skin colors are popping up in a regular unified population. It appears in elves, dwarves, humans, and hobbit precursors. Whatever. There are a lot of other more important things to get hung up on, even if this doesn't genetically make sense to me. I'm more concerned about writing and acting.
• While I've said I love elves, I really think the shit with Legolas (and I mean in Jackson's works) and Galadriel almost being superheroes is ridiculous. Like, just pull me out of the story when they do superhuman things or act like they just came over from The Matrix set. At best it's funny and silly, at worst it's annoying. You're telling me she's THAT much better than her squad of trained male soldiers who just got their asses handed to them more realistically? Whatever. I just hope they don't keep doing stuff like that.
• Okay, here's what I got of the plots, and there are three. I will deal with each in turn
• (1) In this world, the Rings of Power don't yet exist, although it seems like Celebrimbor is about to make them with Elrond's help -- yes, apparently at this point Elros and Elrond have already decided which race to throw in their lot with and Elrond is firmly an elf. Finrod Felegund (Galadriel's brother) is dead, in some variation on his actual death in Tolkien's book (Beren & Luthien story), except here Sauron killed him directly and left his mark on him. Galadriel thinks Sauron is alive and has been tracking him ferociously, to stop him 4ever. But the rest of the elves think that either Sauron has fled and/or that obsessive maintaining the battle with Sauron is just keeping alive all the dark times and you need to move ahead into the bright and cheery future. Elrond (who people should note is younger than Galadriel and actually someone who bought into being an elf, not a true blood Noldor per se) and Galadriel are friends, and he tries to counsel her kindly and break this hard news to her -- that she has no support for maintaining the search for Sauron and will quickly be seen as a troublemaker if she doesn't let up. Gil-Galad basically wants to ship her posse back off to Valinor "as a reward" although it also clearly comes across as "hey, I want to get rid of you troublemakers so we can move more quickly to Happy Times for All and forget this Sauron ugliness". Galadriel at first agrees, but then as the boat enters Valinor, she just can't let go [clinging to advice from her dead brother] and throws herself off the ship, to swim a few thousand miles back to Middle-Earth without a life jacket.... cuz she's a strong swimmer and that's how she rolls apparently. Like, okay. This will not go well.
• (2) There's a bunch of happy halflings, living their little happy existence in the woods, and I don't remember all the mundane shit except there were some really fugly wolf/hyena/monster things lurking about who will no doubt attack their community next episode. But it looks like they a meteor streaks by at the end of an episode... and it's a naked human man lying in the impact crater. IMDB calls him The Stranger, and there is reasonable speculation this is the introduction of a maiar we all know and love, named Olorin...
• (3) There's some plotting around humans and mundane elves not getting along (they get called pointy ears and other nasty things), but it's clear this one elf is in love with a local human apothecary. Anyway, he's supposed to leave with his company but looks like he's going to bail and shack up with said healer, when a diseased cow is brought in, and when they go to investigate it they find a burning community and a further mystery to unravel. Also, the apothecary's son is hiding a relic of Sauron's out in the barn that he hasn't told anyone about. Surprise surprise.
• My overall impression of this? I don't know. Like I said, I kind found all the dialogue rather drowse-inducing and I hope once the story starts moving forward, the narrative will improve.
• So I don't quite align with the "positive critic community" here, but I don't quite align with the disparaging Tolkien fans who immediately whiffed this as "NOT FAITHFUL TO MY BOOKS 100%" and are writing it off. As noted, it feels a bit fan fiction-y with high production values. So....? Maybe it will get interesting? Waiting. But it is clearly not trying to be an exact retelling of Tolkien's words.

 

[Totenkindly]

Second episode was paced much better and a decent mix of talk/plot. It was scripted by Gennifer Hutchison of Breaking Bad / BCS fame.

Long story short, this feels like less an adaptation of Tolkien's actual narrative (because I don't think they owned the rights to some of the works describing that time period) and more like a campaign/storyline set in something like a Second Age MERP (Middle-Earth Role Playing TT game) using a few known characters reworked a bit for the narrative + far more unknown characters and/or characters created solely for the campaign.

What Material Does Amazon Have The Rights To For The Rings Of Power Answered!

One burning question fans have had is what material does Amazon have the rights to for The Rings of Power show? Well we know have an answer courtesy of

lrmonline.com

 

[yeghor]

Getting multiple video recommendations on my Youtube, all saying how the first two episodes sucked, mostly due to Mary Sue Galadriel and her company of feeble men who want to hold her back, and that Rotten Tomatoes is desperately removing 1/5 ratings to keep the score high and Amazon is even unwilling to disclose review ratings on their show's web page, keeping "be the first to review" link instead.

This harsh negative reaction mostly stems from the fact that the show/lore has been tainted by Wokeism by the producers. Female chauvinism is just as bad and deplorable as male chauvinism.

 

[yeghor]

Proof They Are DELETING The Rings Of Power Negative Reviews From IMDB & Rotten Tomatos! - by TheQuartering

 

[Totenkindly]

Of course they're scrubbing doxxy/neggy shit from their web sites. User scores don't mean shit nowadays when a lot of the negging is socio/politically driven. The fan base has a huge toxic element to it. It's sick when you're looking at scores running from 1 to 5 and there's a normal curve down from 5 to 2, and suddenly there's a stack of 1's as high as the 5's or higher. IMDB viewers are well-known for this level of bullshit of attacking shows that offend their sensibilities rather than doing honest evaluation; I've been using IDMB since probably in the 90's and it's always reflected a particular subset of the viewership and I've had to slant the scoring accordingly when I try to assess whether something is probably any good.

Things are also fucked up when critics who evaluate and compare shows for a living (and typically thus also have a far greater diversity of experience in their viewing and reading habits) are giving a show somewhere around a 75-80% "Yes" vote (vs "No") and the collective fan with no screening for who is voting is negging something with a 35%. That's pretty damned rare statistically and reveals some kind of effort to tank the show score, especially considering there was months of talk about specifically tanking the show because a vocal subgroup didn't want it. Is any of this shocking?

[Note: Typically where viewer base and critic scores legitimately differ is when there's a notable conflict between "enjoyment" and "quality." Something can be a high-quality work that only remains accessible/enjoyable to a smaller group of people, so general audience score would drop. There are also films and shows where the show itself might only be average but for some reason is VERY accessible and/or meaningful to the general viewer, so again the obviously different scoring where reflect that. Those are legitimate gaps between groups. This seems to be an illegitimate difference in the scoring, where one group is not evaluating something in good faith but simply to make a political statement or financially target another group. So yeah, it's gonna get scrubbed.]

----

The Rings of Power actor Ismael Cruz Córdova's DMs were filled with 'vicious hate speech' after taking role

The Lord of the Rings franchise star is the first person of color to portray an elf in J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved fantasy world.

www.yahoo.com

Here's the thing: Responsible "reviews" would look at the actor's performance and evaluate THAT -- because he's not the one responsible for his own casting nor the artistic direction of the show. But hey, just like with Kelly Marie Tran, they're abusing the performers. That's absolutely bullshit. I've actually seen the guy's performance and he's actually better than some of the white-guy elves in the show, to be honest. He's perfectly fine and there's no reason to be attacking him aside from some people don't think the color of his skin is appropriate for the book race of elves.

[Side note: The black female dwarf was also totally fine and actually better than many of the white guy dwarves in Episode 2 as well.]

If they want to rip on the writers and showrunners and the casting directors for choices regarding skin color, then go for it; but when you're attacking decent actors for things that were not their decision, that's just racism purse and simple. If you buy into that bullshit, you're just supporting it as well.

 

[yeghor]

Of course they're scrubbing doxxy/neggy shit from their web sites. User scores don't mean shit nowadays when a lot of the negging is socio/politically driven. The fan base has a huge toxic element to it. It's sick when you're looking at scores running from 1 to 5 and there's a normal curve down from 5 to 2, and suddenly there's a stack of 1's as high as the 5's or higher. IMDB viewers are well-known for this level of bullshit of attacking shows that offend their sensibilities rather than doing honest evaluation; I've been using IDMB since probably in the 90's and it's always reflected a particular subset of the viewership and I've had to slant the scoring accordingly when I try to assess whether something is probably any good.

Things are also fucked up when critics who evaluate and compare shows for a living (and typically thus also have a far greater diversity of experience in their viewing and reading habits) are giving a show somewhere around a 75-80% "Yes" vote (vs "No") and the collective fan with no screening for who is voting is negging something with a 35%. That's pretty damned rare statistically and reveals some kind of effort to tank the show score, especially considering there was months of talk about specifically tanking the show because a vocal subgroup didn't want it. Is any of this shocking?

[Note: Typically where viewer base and critic scores legitimately differ is when there's a notable conflict between "enjoyment" and "quality." Something can be a high-quality work that only remains accessible/enjoyable to a smaller group of people, so general audience score would drop. There are also films and shows where the show itself might only be average but for some reason is VERY accessible and/or meaningful to the general viewer, so again the obviously different scoring where reflect that. Those are legitimate gaps between groups. This seems to be an illegitimate difference in the scoring, where one group is not evaluating something in good faith but simply to make a political statement or financially target another group. So yeah, it's gonna get scrubbed.]

----

The Rings of Power actor Ismael Cruz Córdova's DMs were filled with 'vicious hate speech' after taking role

The Lord of the Rings franchise star is the first person of color to portray an elf in J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved fantasy world.

www.yahoo.com

Here's the thing: Responsible "reviews" would look at the actor's performance and evaluate THAT -- because he's not the one responsible for his own casting nor the artistic direction of the show. But hey, just like with Kelly Marie Tran, they're abusing the performers. That's absolutely bullshit. I've actually seen the guy's performance and he's actually better than some of the white-guy elves in the show, to be honest. He's perfectly fine and there's no reason to be attacking him aside from some people don't think the color of his skin is appropriate for the book race of elves.

[Side note: The black female dwarf was also totally fine and actually better than many of the white guy dwarves in Episode 2 as well.]

If they want to rip on the writers and showrunners and the casting directors for choices regarding skin color, then go for it; but when you're attacking decent actors for things that were not their decision, that's just racism purse and simple. If you buy into that bullshit, you're just supporting it as well.

We have fanatics on both end of the spectrum, people giving extremely low ratings and people giving extremely high ratings to make a political statement. Most people think that the show's deserved rating is around 4 or 5/10, and it is clear it doesn't deserve such high number of 9 or 10/10 ratings either. Mainstream review sites taking down extremely low ratings as inauthentic but keeping extremely high ones (rather than letting them even out each other) is simply preferential treatment and tarnishes their credibility and impartiality.

IMDB score is at 67% whereas Rotten Tomatoes scores is at 39%, how come? Averaging the two, 39+67=106/2=53% rating, i.e. 5/10 +/- 2.

So scores around 3 to 7 over 10 could be considered "normal" and anything lower than 3 or higher than 7 could be considered politically or ideologically-skewed, and distanced from reality. That means we have 30% of the votes below 3, and 53% above 7, meaning 83% of the voters are fucking political activists/extremists on both ends of the political spectum, 10/10 scorers being the highest for some reason.

Regardless, at the end of the day it doesn't change the fact that the show still sucks because it is a piece of female chauvinistic garbage, and ascribing all the negative audience reaction to racism or political fanaticism is a cop out.

 

[Totenkindly]

Why JRR Tolkien’s son hated Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films

Christopher Tolkien was aghast at Jackson's 'action movie for young people' treatment of his father's books. Did he have a point?

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[yeghor]

Jeff Bezos' son Warns him about Rings of Power backlash! - by JosiahRises

 

[mancino]

I've started a thread about typing Galadriel from the show, if you're interested you can find it here:

Typing Galadriel (LoTR Amazon Series)

I've seen there's already a thread on the TV show, but I wanted to specifically type Galadriel here. (I'm posting a link to this in that other thread, which you can find here: https://www.typologycentral.com/threads/lord-of-the-rings-tv-series.102547/) This is about Galadriel from the TV show...

www.typologycentral.com