Rings of Power: Tolkien's Shambling Skinsuit

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Gavinmad

Mr. Poopybutthole
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The ONLY thing I like is that their handling of elves (other than Black Legolas) is pretty well done. Every elf is almost exactly what I picture when I picture high-elves. Galadriel's brother was EXACTLY what I picture.

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Lunis

Blackwing Lair Raider
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This whole series has shed sunlight on the anti-woke cottage industry. It may have started with people pointing out absurd statements by some extreme leftists, but it's morphed into it's own reactionary sub-group who like to rage at things they know nothing about as long as it fits that narrative. I would bet money the people so angry about black characters have never read any Tolkien outside LotR or The Hobbit.

Fb4oJ1fXgAUymqg.jpeg


Amazon did take a lot of liberties (with limited source material and no rights to the First Age), and not every choice they made was the right one. But for fucks sakes people are making it sound like it's some front for the 'woke agenda', when in reality there really isn't much of it in the show. Overall they did a fair job so far, not a great one. Galadriel being a loner with other elves against her is a bit dumb, but most everything else is fine.
Finally decided to watch half of the first episode because of the fucking LULZ Elden Ring image(it was real, lmao), before turning it off.
It's almost as if Tolkien wrote about the Two Trees decades before the lore for Elden Ring was written... and Martin is a big fan of Tolkien...
 
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Zindan

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Lunis Lunis "Really isn't much of it.." Ha. If you're going to use descriptions like that to criticize people that dislike the inclusion of modern sensibilities into well loved stories, then you should also accept the descriptions of Elves and Tar Miriel as they are in the books, right?

I broke down and watched the first two episodes, and they were pretty much as described here already. Well made, and pretty good if you're not familiar with Tolkien at all. Those with more than a passing familiarity with the Tolkien works, you'll be a bit disappointed with how much is being changed. The apparent time crunch is the worst, given we have 4 more seasons to watch. Yet, it is making a good try at setting up two main factors of the early Second Age; the rise of Sauron in the South, and the friendship between the Elves of Eregion and Dwarves of Moria.

Galadriel is the biggest disappointment so far, she is a totally different character than what has been presented in the various books. At this time in the Second Age, she would have been married to Celeborn and not some wandering warrioress seeking the genocide of Orcs. Her jumping off the ship heading towards Valinor was peak idiocy and really poor writing... it was only done to allow for the introduction of Numenoreans. Anyone thinking that Haldan(?) is Sauron is pretty low IQ. I did like the mention of the Corsairs, so Umbar is a thing at least.

Arondir. This is pretty funny, tbh. The only black elf in existence is about to bang a single white mother. The medias love affair with black men + white women is so cringe. Other than that, I think that section was ok, and fits well into the world building (the magical sword of Sauron is kinda odd though).

Looking forward, I guess there are 3 main elements that should be developed: Sauron coming to Eregion and the war which comes from that; The Numenoreans helping the Elves defeat Sauron; the eventual subjugation of Sauron by the Numenoreans and the fallout from that.

Yet, with this time crunch, I have no idea what will happen. Tar Miriel / Ar Pharazon were not alive, nor ruling during the war between Eregion and Sauron. I will find it really funny if Galadriel becomes friends with Tar Miriel and that it is Tar Miriel who comes to the rescue of the Elves in Eregion.... and then subdues Sauron at that time to take back to Numenor, lol.
 
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reavor

I'm With HER ♀
<Bronze Donator>
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This whole series has shed sunlight on the anti-woke cottage industry. It may have started with people pointing out absurd statements by some extreme leftists, but it's morphed into it's own reactionary sub-group who like to rage at things they know nothing about as long as it fits that narrative. I would bet money the people so angry about black characters have never read any Tolkien outside LotR or The Hobbit.

View attachment 431919

where did Tolkien write this? which book? In the show they are white, black, brown. So it still doesn't work.
 

zignor 4

Molten Core Raider
592
754
where did Tolkien write this? which book? In the show they are white, black, brown. So it still doesn't work.
I don't know what that quote is from, but in The LoTR prologue Tolkien describes Harfoots as "browner of skin". Ultimately, by the Third Age the three early Hobbit strains largely mingle into one people and they simply become...Hobbits. If anything, the multi-racial makeup of the Harfoot clan in this show would be more accurate to how they might actually have looked in the Third Age. Evidently, Jackson was a filthy Hobbit white-washer. Where were all of your complaints then!?!?

I largely agree with Lunis that this show ain't woke beyond the barest of surface levels to this point. Whatever stupid shit the dolts in the cast and crew might have said around the topic during press tours and interviews, so far very little of it has made it into the show outside of the presence of invented black people (who stand along side a bunch of invented white people) and one obscure race swap. If that satisfies the definition of woke trash to you, so be it. Continue to fund and enjoy the company of The Quartering and other rage baiters if that's your thing.

I share Zindan's two biggest complaints relative to the lore changes. Galadriel is a vastly different character here. It's a bigger problem than Faramir was in Jackson's movies if for no other reasons than she's a protagonist in the show and is present in the mythology over a MUCH longer period of time. It's not even all that big of a deal that she's shown to be a combat powerhouse. Despite Tolkien never explicitly having her swinging swords, he made it quite clear that she was as wise, as athletic, and as strong as even the wisest and most powerful of the Eldar, and by now she's had thousands of years to perfect whatever dumb bullet-time acrobatics she'll be up to. However, her arc here is a complete invention of the show, and her relationship with the other Elves runs counter to the source material. It's only slightly forgivable because providing her with a proper back story that would offer much-needed context to her existence in the Second Age would require rights to books that the show doesn't have. They still could have and should have done a much better job.

The time compression thing is also worrying. I'd get it if they had only one season to tell this story, but they have five. That's hours upon hours and over a billion dollars to get from the forging of the rings to the Last Alliance. That should be plenty of time to introduce early Numenor and get the timeline mostly right. Instead, it looks like we're already into Ar-Pharazon as ruler which means thousands of years are being compressed into...months? A couple years? Maybe a decade? Meh.

Edit:
Arondir. This is pretty funny, tbh. The only black elf in existence is about to bang a single white mother. The medias love affair with black men + white women is so cringe.
Except she's not white. The actress (Nazanin Boniadi) is Iranian.
 
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reavor

I'm With HER ♀
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neil gaiman is a libtard, looking at his books now they are filled with prototype wokeisms and libtardism as an adolescent I didn't see.
 
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Asshat wormie

2023 Asshat Award Winner
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Lunis fucks trannies and Gaiman is a self admitted cuck. Two opinions that can be ignored.
 
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Warpath

Golden Baronet of the Realm
1,279
9,587
This whole series has shed sunlight on the anti-woke cottage industry. It may have started with people pointing out absurd statements by some extreme leftists, but it's morphed into it's own reactionary sub-group who like to rage at things they know nothing about as long as it fits that narrative. I would bet money the people so angry about black characters have never read any Tolkien outside LotR or The Hobbit.

Amazon did take a lot of liberties (with limited source material and no rights to the First Age), and not every choice they made was the right one. But for fucks sakes people are making it sound like it's some front for the 'woke agenda', when in reality there really isn't much of it in the show. Overall they did a fair job so far, not a great one. Galadriel being a loner with other elves against her is a bit dumb, but most everything else is fine.

lol @ you cry-bully faggots. 'the absurd statements from extreme leftists' are the cast and crew bro. and they never shut the fuck up about their 'secret woke agenda'


(article linked to support the anti-woke cottage industry... thanks for clicking)
 
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Chris

Potato del Grande
19,436
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This whole series has shed sunlight on the anti-woke cottage industry. It may have started with people pointing out absurd statements by some extreme leftists, but it's morphed into it's own reactionary sub-group who like to rage at things they know nothing about as long as it fits that narrative. I would bet money the people so angry about black characters have never read any Tolkien outside LotR or The Hobbit.

View attachment 431919

Amazon did take a lot of liberties (with limited source material and no rights to the First Age), and not every choice they made was the right one. But for fucks sakes people are making it sound like it's some front for the 'woke agenda', when in reality there really isn't much of it in the show. Overall they did a fair job so far, not a great one. Galadriel being a loner with other elves against her is a bit dumb, but most everything else is fine.

It's almost as if Tolkien wrote about the Two Trees decades before the lore for Elden Ring was written... and Martin is a big fan of Tolkien...
Why are more than half of the Harfoots white then?

If they did 100% hispanic Harfoots and just quoted that passage, nobody would be complaining.

If they did 100% black Southlanders, nobody would complain.

If they said that one of the three tribes of Elven allied men from the first age was asian, that's stretching a little bit you could do it.

That's MORE diversity but within the lore.

What we are complaining about is inexplicably one of each Tolkein race being black, no other IRL groups appearings, characters going against their book deacriptions and woke marketing.
 
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Chris

Potato del Grande
19,436
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I don't know what that quote is from, but in The LoTR prologue Tolkien describes Harfoots as "browner of skin". Ultimately, by the Third Age the three early Hobbit strains largely mingle into one people and they simply become...Hobbits. If anything, the multi-racial makeup of the Harfoot clan in this show would be more accurate to how they might actually have looked in the Third Age. Evidently, Jackson was a filthy Hobbit white-washer. Where were all of your complaints then!?!?

I largely agree with Lunis that this show ain't woke beyond the barest of surface levels to this point. Whatever stupid shit the dolts in the cast and crew might have said around the topic during press tours and interviews, so far very little of it has made it into the show outside of the presence of invented black people (who stand along side a bunch of invented white people) and one obscure race swap. If that satisfies the definition of woke trash to you, so be it. Continue to fund and enjoy the company of The Quartering and other rage baiters if that's your thing.

I share Zindan's two biggest complaints relative to the lore changes. Galadriel is a vastly different character here. It's a bigger problem than Faramir was in Jackson's movies if for no other reasons than she's a protagonist in the show and is present in the mythology over a MUCH longer period of time. It's not even all that big of a deal that she's shown to be a combat powerhouse. Despite Tolkien never explicitly having her swinging swords, he made it quite clear that she wise as wise, as athletic, and as strong as even the wisest and most powerful of the Eldar, and by now she's had thousands of years to perfect whatever dumb bullet-time acrobatics she'll be up to. However, her arc here is a complete invention of the show, and her relationship with the other Elves runs counter to the source material. It's only slightly forgivable because providing her with a proper back story that would offer much-needed context to her existence in the Second Age would require rights to books that the show doesn't have. They still could have and should have done a much better job.

The time compression thing is also worrying. I'd get it if they had only one season to tell this story, but they have five. That's hours upon hours and over a billion dollars to get from the forging of the rings to the Last Alliance. That should be plenty of time to introduce early Numenor and get the timeline mostly right. Instead, it looks like we're already into Ar-Pharazon as ruler which means thousands of years are being compressed into...months? A couple years? Maybe a decade? Meh.

Edit:

Except she's not white. The actress (Nazanin Boniadi) is Iranian.
Iranians can be white. Caucasian Mountains are just to their north and they are Indo-Europeans.

Pure blood Jews are less white, they are Afro-Asiatic, a totally different racial group they share with Arabs.

I'm a Tolkien AND racial scholar.
 
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