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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

JohnC

By JohnC
in Film, TV & Radio

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JoeK

JoeK

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, scottcr said:

The first age is so mythic that it would be almost impossible to put to screen… massive spiders, balrogs, massively fantastical. It would be like trying to film the book of Genesis 

 

Well, Phil Collins can't move very well these days, poor bugger. 

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kensei

kensei

Posted
Posted

Some nicely coordinated action but this is still plot by stupid

 

Spoiler

Like they didn't check the sword? Galadriel would just give away a thing that clearly needed destroyed and the elf she gave it to would give it to a child?

 

You could still have made the switcheroo work without that nonsense.

 

 

First Age

 

Spoiler

There are three perfectly well designed stories that would make decent movies or mini series without making stuff up - though you'd need to chose between revisions

 

Beren and Luthien

Children of Hurin

Fall of Gondolin 

 

There's much more connective tissue in other areas too. I don't know why the estate didn't license the Silmarillion if they were worried about adaptations being unfaithful.

 

 

Balrogs

 

Spoiler

Tolkien later decided there were only like 8. The end of the First Age would still be metal as fuck, though.

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scottcr

scottcr

Posted
Posted

On the sword it was obvious that

 

Spoiler

Arda had switched it and given it to the old boy… but… I thought he would’ve used a fake one and we would’ve found out when Theo tried to use it and it didn’t work.

 

for Galadriel… she didn’t know what it looked like and was probably happy for it to stay wrapped up lest she be consumed by shadow and fall into the void of despair or something.

 

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kensei

kensei

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, scottcr said:

On the sword it was obvious that

 

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Arda had switched it and given it to the old boy… but… I thought he would’ve used a fake one and we would’ve found out when Theo tried to use it and it didn’t work.

 

for Galadriel… she didn’t know what it looked like and was probably happy for it to stay wrapped up lest she be consumed by shadow and fall into the void of despair or something.

 

 

Spoiler

Galadriel is a moron in this and the murder every orc speech was just awful on multiple levels. And just FYI, as much as Tolkien was always uncomfortable with making the orcs irredeemable he never really solved the problem and going to deep on it creates precisely the problem created here. You are best treating them as monsters.

 

In any case, a battle hardened commander knows the difference in shape, weight and feel of an axe and a sword, and also knows not to give an obviously important and evil artefact away. It's the type of stupidity that undercuts the character and no number of horseback doves or training montages can fix.

 

 

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scottcr

scottcr

Posted
Posted
51 minutes ago, kensei said:

 

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Galadriel is a moron in this and the murder every orc speech was just awful on multiple levels. And just FYI, as much as Tolkien was always uncomfortable with making the orcs irredeemable he never really solved the problem and going to deep on it creates precisely the problem created here. You are best treating them as monsters.

 

In any case, a battle hardened commander knows the difference in shape, weight and feel of an axe and a sword, and also knows not to give an obviously important and evil artefact away. It's the type of stupidity that undercuts the character and no number of horseback doves or training montages can fix.

 

 


I really like what they are doing with the Uruk

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Sarlaccfood

Sarlaccfood

Posted
Posted
21 hours ago, kensei said:

Happy to be proven wrong on it

 

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Giving it to the kid was still stupid 

 


I see you’re from the “makes no sense!!” School of criticism. 
 

It might have been strategically dumb or something but symbolically it was about him trusting the humans to make their own choice and do the right thing, as the whole plot thread started with the resentment the humans have towards the Elves for supervising them for hundreds of years, watching over them suspiciously in their tower.

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JoeK

JoeK

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Sarlaccfood said:


I see your from the “makes no sense!!” School of criticism. 
 

It might have been strategically dumb or something but symbolically it was about him trusting the humans to make their own choice and do the right thing, as the whole plot thread has been the resentment the humans have towards the Elves for supervising them for hundreds of years, watching over them suspiciously in their tower.

 

I think you're giving the scriptwriters far too much credit. 

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kensei

kensei

Posted
Posted
48 minutes ago, Sarlaccfood said:


I see your from the “makes no sense!!” School of criticism. 
 

It might have been strategically dumb or something but symbolically it was about him trusting the humans to make their own choice and do the right thing, as the whole plot thread started with the resentment the humans have towards the Elves for supervising them for hundreds of years, watching over them suspiciously in their tower.

 

No. That level of stupid undercuts the characters in involved. They spent huge amount of time establishing that the object is associated with Sauron, of huge importance to the enemy, intrinsically evil and hard to destroy. Having invested that amount of time you have to treat it with a certain amount of respect.

 

Just think about Galadriel in context of the show. Established that Galadriel has been chasing Sauron forever. She's obsessed to the point of risking friendships. She got off the boat to paradise to chase Sauron. She convinced Numenor to send an army. Yet she's not the remotest bit interested in a clue that could lead her to him, or give a clue about his power. It's not just it doesn't make sense, it contradicts work done to date.

 

If you want the "We trust these humans now" payoff, you can get there but you need more work.  

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metallicfrodo

metallicfrodo

Posted
Posted
4 hours ago, Sarlaccfood said:


Course they did, 

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surely the point was it was swapped after they checked, because they were betrayed by someone they trust. 

 

Yeah I don’t think that happened at all. I think it was as simple as it appeared

 

Spoiler

Adar gave it to the human guy just as the Numenorians were bearing down on them and off he went to where he used it.


Galadriel was never actually told what it was, just that she needed to get it off the guy. Once she had captured him she was far to focused on him to care what he had.

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JoeK

JoeK

Posted
Posted

In retrospect, I think it was a mistake not making Sauron jump up and announce himself just as 

Spoiler

Mount Doom appeared.

 

He could have started singing a lovely tune mouthing all the lines from the 'One ring to rule them all' poem.

 

Balrogs to be the backing singers.

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Nicky

Nicky

Posted
Posted
16 hours ago, metallicfrodo said:

Yeah I don’t think that happened at all. I think it was as simple as it appeared

 

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Adar gave it to the human guy just as the Numenorians were bearing down on them and off he went to where he used it.


Galadriel was never actually told what it was, just that she needed to get it off the guy. Once she had captured him she was far to focused on him to care what he had.

 This is exactly what happened.

Spoiler

Adar even says to the old human dude "I HAVE A TASK FOR YOU!" at that point he switches the blade out with a fake, buys the old man some time to scale the fucking mountain to get to the key place, and belittle all the "good guys" while he's at it.

 

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Wiper

Wiper

Posted
Posted

Yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at. I kept hoping things would improve (and there are bits I enjoy — basically any scene with Elrond in, and generally the halfoot sequence), but the dialogue, characterisation and general plotting around Galadriel/Halbrand/Numenor/The Southland humans just gradually killed my interest, culminating in that last episode of sound and fury, signalling nothing. We'll watch to the end of the season as Jo wants to get to the end of it, but I'm bitterly disappointed.

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Ste_S

Ste_S

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, Padster said:

Surely even one of the Noldor can't survive

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a pyroclastic flow?

 

 

Spoiler

Not-Gandalf turns up in the next episode and holds back the lava? Next episode opens up with Not-Gandalf and Nori, following the star map, which leads them to....

 

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