Rings of Power: Tolkien's Shambling Skinsuit

BrutulTM said:

I have to apologize to the losers that come here and post huge diatribes every week about how much you hate a TV show that no one is forcing you to watch. I mean, you guys are losers, but this guy is a MUCH, MUCH bigger loser.

Click to expand...

You’re the type of guy who passes a pulled over car on the highway and complains loudly that everyone slowed down to look, aren't you?

Gavinmad said:

I think yall taking such a soft stance on 6-7 is just because time has softened your memories and because everything seems better in the shadow of 8. Seasons 6 and 7 were mediocre at best, full of plotlines that were absolutely butchered after having been built up quite well in previous seasons. Do people not remember how unbelievably terrible the whole Arya and the Waif thing went? Littlefinger's abrupt swerve from brilliant mastermind into bumbling retard? Arya wiping out House Frey was a cool scene sure but the way we got there was completely retarded. Same with Littlefinger's execution, yeah it was great finally seeing that conniving bastard get his comeuppance but it only happened because he was written to be stupid beyond belief. The shit awful writing and choreography of the super hyped Tower of Joy scene?

I'd call 1-4 some of the most entertaining shit ever produced but shit was going wrong well before the disastrous final season.

Click to expand...

Where as I do agree with you, there was some excellent TV viewing in those later seasons

Quaid said:

You’re the type of guy who passes a pulled over car on the highway and complains loudly that everyone slowed down to look, aren't you?

Click to expand...

There would finally be something I respected him for if he was. Rubberneckers should all die.

Quaid said:

The dialogue in this show is Home Improvement/Family Matters tier.

Click to expand...

Gavinmad said:

Figuring it out as they go would imply improvement when it sounds like Season 2 is actually worse.

Click to expand...

Quaid said:

It’s significantly worse.

Click to expand...

Season 2 CAN'T be worse as it now has ALL female directors!!1!



Bunch of Misogynist

Gavinmad said:

There would finally be something I respected him for if he was. Rubberneckers should all die.

Click to expand...

Agreed.

But the only thing gayer than a rubbernecker is the faggot who whines about it.

binged through season 2 since the finale is this week. its great to watch in the evening before bed, with each episode over an hour you fall asleep super easy in the middle of an episode and have a great nites sleep

visually some really stunning stuff, good work by the tech crew on spending $500m or whatever on elaborate CGI and sets. Numenor and the dwarf stuff all look great. The battles vary between great and shitty "why are there only 10 elfs in a field big enough for an army of 2000" lol

its better than season 1 but that season was a hot mess, the show still has no depth or complexity at all, everyone just has 1 motivation and doesn't stray from it at all and are paper thin androids. This is like the Fantasy Westworld theme park.

The show had the greatest laugh line though, Sauron says at some point with a straight face "You are... THE LORD OF THE RINGS" i was laughing my ass off

spronk said:

binged through season 2 since the finale is this week. its great to watch in the evening before bed, with each episode over an hour you fall asleep super easy in the middle of an episode and have a great nites sleep

visually some really stunning stuff, good work by the tech crew on spending $500m or whatever on elaborate CGI and sets. Numenor and the dwarf stuff all look great. The battles vary between great and shitty "why are there only 10 elfs in a field big enough for an army of 2000" lol

its better than season 1 but that season was a hot mess, the show still has no depth or complexity at all, everyone just has 1 motivation and doesn't stray from it at all and are paper thin androids. This is like the Fantasy Westworld theme park.

The show had the greatest laugh line though, Sauron says at some point with a straight face "You are... THE LORD OF THE RINGS" i was laughing my ass off

Click to expand...

Risky move training your brain to make this thing come at you in your dreams

Sevens said:

Where as I do agree with you, there was some excellent TV viewing in those later seasons

View attachment 549386

View attachment 549387

Click to expand...

Hardhome?



Battle of the Bastards?

spronk said:

visually some really stunning stuff, good work by the tech crew on spending $500m or whatever on elaborate CGI and sets. Numenor and the dwarf stuff all look great. The battles vary between great and shitty "why are there only 10 elfs in a field big enough for an army of 2000" lol

Click to expand...

yeah, thats a strange take. like sure, "looks amazing for a TV show" would be a valid statement at normal TV show budgets. This was not.. this cost more to make then the Lord of the rings and hobbit movies. so why DOESN'T it have 100+ extras for the battle scenes? why doesn't it have advanced cgi crowd effects?
The artistry is trash as well.

Efap talked about this. Look at the Hall of Thrain in the hobbit. the craftsmanship. this looks properly dwarven. you can't even see it in this shot, but when pulled back, the THRONE is built into an ore vein. it comes down from the ceiling unbroken, one with the cavern. gold inlays.


compared to rings of power. Durin's throne room is a fucking cave. no craftsmanship. no gold inlays. rough, uneven stairs.


They talk about it here. some better screenshots in their discussion.


This is the kind of thing Platoon actually discusses in regards to magic in Middle earth. The world is a song. Magic is a natural power unseen to mortal man. its part of the world. Elves, valinar, wizards call forth magic intrinsically via songs, and the like. Men, dwarves, sauron, use machines to force magical things to happen. Dwarven stone singing is good in that its evokes this idea... bad, because its a dwarf doing it. Dwarves aren't in tune with the natural world like that. Elves are. Mt doom isn't just a volcano. Mt. Doom is a magical font of power created by morgoth.

This show doesn't understand the world or setting at all. and even something like Durin's throne room reflects that.

like it would make sense if he had an old throne room, then MOVED his throne room down into an unfinished mine cave, that is within a gold ore vein due to gold fever. that would be something. (ignoring the lack of one ring to corrupt his mind...)

I think this is a case of both the Hobbit movies and the show taking creative liberties to make some contrived points.

The Hobbit movies really turbocharged the opulence, insatiable wealth, and avarice of the Dwarves of Erebor, both to ramp up tension and to bolster the eventual "dragon sickness" subplot with Thorin. On the other hand, in the show's fucked up and heavily-compressed timeline, the greatest source of Khazad-dum's wealth, mithril, has only just been discovered. In the actual lore, Eregion was founded to begin with because of its proximity to Khazad-dum and its mithril deposits. If the show's Khazad-dum was already dripping with luxury and riches, its dumb invented subplot of the Dwarven rings corrupting their wearers prior to the One being made would make even less sense.

Another way to look at it:
When the Dwarves were all white, they took care of their shit. But you add diversity and inclusion and you get the unkept cave. <Shrug>

Furry said:

What gives you the idea that dwarves are good at cutting stone? Is there literally anything in the lore whatsoever? This is something really stupid to whine about.

Click to expand...

Dude, do you even Tolkien?

Furry said:

What gives you the idea that dwarves are good at cutting stone? Is there literally anything in the lore whatsoever? This is something really stupid to whine about.

Click to expand...

Caliane makes an excellent point about the craftsmanship.

The Dwarves were created by Aulë, the Vala of Crafting amd they live underground. What the fuck do you think they are doing?

Caliane said:

yeah, thats a strange take. like sure, "looks amazing for a TV show" would be a valid statement at normal TV show budgets. This was not.. this cost more to make then the Lord of the rings and hobbit movies. so why DOESN'T it have 100+ extras for the battle scenes? why doesn't it have advanced cgi crowd effects?
The artistry is trash as well.

Click to expand...

Pretty sure that 500m number that gets tossed around includes the 250m Amazon spent on the licensing rights which isn't really a production cost. Not that it doesn't still look terrible for the amount of money spent on it.

Additional rights had to be purchased for Season 2 so they could redo Season 1 over again, so it's no longer just the initial 250m on the license.

Balrog was the best acted part of the show.

The season finale was actually in danger of being sort of decent, but of course they ruin it with a bunch of dumb shit. Dindulas gets fully run through with a big fucking sword last week, complete with a dramatic slow-mo hero's death shot, so not only does he pop up this week alive and well, he's prancing about the battle, hacking away at Orcs, and no one bothers to question how he's still breathing. The whole sequence where he "died" is just straight up unacknowledged and may as well have not happened at all. If in the Jackson movies Boromir had spontaneously shown up to the battle of Helm's Deep and Aragorn said, "About time you got here, bro. LAWLZ!", it would have been less ridiculous.

Then, they actually keep true to the books for a second and finally have the Dwarves show up to Eregion to help support the retreat of Elrond and the Elves. But, what should have easily been a rousing moment to help drive the season to its conclusion is edited like total dogshit. A few dwarves run down some stairs and then in the following shot, it's all over. This show gets the easy stuff wrong so often, it feels intentional.