Rings of Power: Tolkien's Shambling Skinsuit

It's Gandalf. They called him Isstar. That's the name the high elves gave him.

lurkingdirk said:

It's Gandalf. They called him Isstar. That's the name the high elves gave him.

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Istar just means wizard. But these writes suck so it’s definitely gonna be Gandalf. It was obvious with Nori being his best bud

Penance said:

Found the Chrostopher Tolkien dick rider.

PJ definitely did some corny shit and took some liberties but to say it was an abomination just proves you literally don't know shit about shit.

You're like one of those faggots that likes the pop commentary around things and just chooses an opposition side. Or tries to say edgy takes thinking some how that gives your take substance. The purest of NPCs.

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Christopher wasn't exactly wrong (about the LotR trilogy anyway), his excessive veneration of his father's work just warped his opinion a bit too much. They absolutely are pale shadows of the books.

What he failed to consider though is that even the pale shadow of a masterpiece can be a masterpiece in its own right, and that the movies likely brought hundreds of thousands/millions of new readers to his fathers novels that would not have read them otherwise. While I do have quite a few issues with Return of the King and a couple issues with The Two Towers, I unquestionably acknowledge that the trilogy as a whole is a cinematic masterpiece and a worthy addition to the Tolkien collection.

lurkingdirk said:

It's Gandalf. They called him Isstar. That's the name the high elves gave him.

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Wat? His name in Sindarin was Mithrandir and in Quenya it was Olorin.

Gavinmad said:

Christopher wasn't exactly wrong (about the LotR trilogy anyway), his excessive veneration of his father's work just warped his opinion a bit too much. They absolutely are pale shadows of the books.

What he failed to consider though is that even the pale shadow of a masterpiece can be a masterpiece in its own right, and that the movies likely brought hundreds of thousands/millions of new readers to his fathers novels that would not have read them otherwise. While I do have quite a few issues with Return of the King and a couple issues with The Two Towers, I unquestionably acknowledge that the trilogy as a whole is a cinematic masterpiece and a worthy addition to the Tolkien collection.


Wat? His name in Sindarin was Mithrandir and in Quenya it was Olorin.

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Many names.

Yeah it's Gandalf. I think the fact that he's heading off on the adventure with Nori is laying the foundation for why he randomly shows up at Bilbos doorstep years later- he likes taking Hobbit buddies along with him on adventures.

Also didn't you guys catch the homage to the part in Moria in Fellowship where Gandalf is trying to find his way through the mines and comes to the place with three different passageways. He said one feels wrong and the other one smells wrong, so he takes the Third option. The end of this episode where he mentions following your nose sometimes was an homage to that I'm sure.

lurkingdirk said:

Many names.

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He's one of the Istari if that's what you're referring to, but that was never one of his names.

that scene does prove two people can survive on a small raft though, fuck Rose

Gavinmad said:

He's one of the Istari if that's what you're referring to, but that was never one of his names.

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That's fair enough, but the expectations for the audience would dictate to me that it can only be Gandalf.

spronk said:

that scene does prove two people can survive on a small raft though, fuck Rose

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It was an oak door that barely had enough buoyancy to keep Rose out of the water. Assuming that Jack could actually get on board without flipping it (he already tried and failed once) it would ride so low that it would be swamped and they would both freeze to death before being rescued.

lurkingdirk said:

That's fair enough, but the expectations for the audience would dictate to me that it can only be Gandalf.

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i think there are two expectations with pretty much every character in this show. the expectations of people who are even at least fairly familiar with tolkien's work and the expectations of people who have at most only ever seen the movies.

the expectation of those people are that, yes, the stranger is gandalf. the expectation of people who are more familiar are that NONE of these character choices make any sense.

the follow your nose line in fellowship is clear from tolkiens other writings that evil has a distinct smell, and gandalf is actively trying to take the safest route by steering away from what he knew killed durin (even if he didn't know what SPECIFICALLY killed durin). in RoP it's just, hey! the stranger said the line!!! ALL the quoted lines are like that, trying to piggy back off a better writer and hijack the meaning.

Asmadai said:

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Fuck this shit, i'm done with it. I can only take but so fucking much desecration of the lore.

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They forgot to buy the rights to the lore. That might have helped.

Falstaff said:

You forgot about the Return of the King movie which had the best song adaptations!

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to me as a little kid, yeah they were the bomb and they still are. i dunno how much thats due to nostalgia or they really were that good. the voice actors and even the songs were all done with class and devotion. there are maybe a small few musicals i have ever been able to tolerate. let alone love.

Gavinmad said:

It was an oak door that barely had enough buoyancy to keep Rose out of the water. Assuming that Jack could actually get on board without flipping it (he already tried and failed once) it would ride so low that it would be swamped and they would both freeze to death before being rescued.

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Mythbusters proved that it was possible.

Gavinmad said:

Christopher wasn't exactly wrong (about the LotR trilogy anyway), his excessive veneration of his father's work just warped his opinion a bit too much. They absolutely are pale shadows of the books.

What he failed to consider though is that even the pale shadow of a masterpiece can be a masterpiece in its own right, and that the movies likely brought hundreds of thousands/millions of new readers to his fathers novels that would not have read them otherwise. While I do have quite a few issues with Return of the King and a couple issues with The Two Towers, I unquestionably acknowledge that the trilogy as a whole is a cinematic masterpiece and a worthy addition to the Tolkien collection.


Wat? His name in Sindarin was Mithrandir and in Quenya it was Olorin.

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when i read the LOTR trilogy, nobody i knew had ever heard of them back in the early 80s. sure they made those animated films, but us kids were more interested in Star Wars or Conan/Arnie films. i took my time reading all three books and thought they were awesome. went to the library and read all the Tolkien stuff they had. even the Chris Tolkien books about his dad's footnotes and stuff. i found all of it intensely interesting. it was so cool seeing the Peter Jackson movies bring all that to life. i didnt care about the songs in the books so it was no problem when they were omitted from the films. Liv Tyler was a cutie and even though i did mind her presence, she was nice on the eyes and it broke up the massive sausage fest going on in the series.

j00t said:

i think there are two expectations with pretty much every character in this show. the expectations of people who are even at least fairly familiar with tolkien's work and the expectations of people who have at most only ever seen the movies.

the expectation of those people are that, yes, the stranger is gandalf. the expectation of people who are more familiar are that NONE of these character choices make any sense.

the follow your nose line in fellowship is clear from tolkiens other writings that evil has a distinct smell, and gandalf is actively trying to take the safest route by steering away from what he knew killed durin (even if he didn't know what SPECIFICALLY killed durin). in RoP it's just, hey! the stranger said the line!!! ALL the quoted lines are like that, trying to piggy back off a better writer and hijack the meaning.

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Nailed it.

There's nothing in the show for fans of the books, it's for casual viewers of the movies.

It has Star Wars prequels levels of "homaging" the original movies by just quoting them.

It also has Star Wars sequels levels of "mystery boxes" where all the random fan theories are better than what we actually got.

Arden said:

Why are you so absorbed with a show you hate? JFC, get a life people.

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That is their life... and for some, it's extremely profitable. Hell, the Critical Drinker shits on stuff and I watch the hell out of it.

Rabbit_Games said:

That is their life... and for some, it's extremely profitable. Hell, the Critical Drinker shits on stuff and I watch the hell out of it.

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Yeah I'm not talking about those people actually. Financial profit is a pretty pure motive, as far as I'm concerned. But if you're devoting all this time and (for some reason) emotional energy into something you're claiming to hate, week in and week out in this case, and you're not getting paid a dime to do it, I gotta ask- wtf are you doing with your life?

If that's the case, then yes... it's a completely different conversation. We're de-evolving into a society that has turned Compassion into a Sin. Just like Gluttony doesn't mean you shouldn't eat, and Lust doesn't mean you shouldn't want to have sex, the idea of making something Sinful is about it becoming destructive to both yourself and society, in general. We (society, in general) have started down this road of "excellence is demoralizing to losers, so we should start shaming those who excel in order to be more compassionate towards the losers". It's the same with criminals, too... we're so obsessed with being compassionate towards them that the innocent suffer for it.

The end result right now (and it's only going to get worse) is that people aren't feeling a sense of accomplishment from being productive, anymore. If you get successful, you get shamed. If you get productive, you get shamed. So what do people do when they don't feel appreciated in today's society? They go online and train themselves to feel satisfied every time they get a "Like", a "Share", or when some fellow loser gives them an "Attaboy!" in the comments. Why put in the work to win the race when you get a trophy, regardless? And then, oh what fun we'll have shaming the person who's actually proud of their Blue Ribbon... the ONE person who has it because they didn't want to be like the rest of us with our similar Participation Ribbons! Look at all of us! We have so many in our group, and you're standing there alone with your Blue Ribbon thinking it makes you special? Ha ha! One of us... one of us!

Sometimes it's just fun to LARP being a TV/Movie critic. It's an intellectual exercise.

There's no point going to the gym to make your muscles bigger either.

Penance said:

You're like one of those faggots that likes the pop commentary around things and just chooses an opposition side. Or tries to say edgy takes thinking some how that gives your take substance. The purest of NPCs.

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Hehe. I think you got me confused with all the other beta-bottoms here that think it's some kind of meta-political thing to hate on RoP, Black Panther, She-Hulk whatever because their trumpchan/critical drinker handlers tell them too