The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Amazon | September 2, 2022

[Valonqar]

38 minutes ago, Torontofan said:

 

Why spend 250 million on rights if you cant get full rights lol 

 

its like trying to make your own version of star wars and not be able to reference half the material. 

 

Silly rabbit, no one who has the power to adapt a popular source wants to adapt a popular source. They all want to write their own fanfic under the safe and profitable brand. Even Jackson and his team had terrible fic tendencies that exploded in The Hobbit. They had to reign them in in LOTR cause they didn't have the power to do whatever they wanted, but once they got that clout, we saw what happened. Amazon now has an excuse to fanfic the shit out of blanks created by lack of rights. Which is better than stuffing an adaptation of a condensed short book with shit that didn't fit cause there was no blanks to be filled. 

Edited October 11, 2022 by Valonqar

[jedijake]

I've really liked the last 2 episodes. Shame they are now saying season 2 will take 2 years. They may end up cutting the series down to 3 seasons at this point.

[XXRDJisDoctorDoom]

5 minutes ago, jedijake said:

I've really liked the last 2 episodes. Shame they are now saying season 2 will take 2 years. They may end up cutting the series down to 3 seasons at this point.

 

Contractually I don't think that's an option for them. 

[Brainbug]

Not gonna lie reading all this if Galadriel and Sauron actually bone this will be a 10/10 show.

 

Not a good 10/10 ofc, but an ironic 10/10. It would make the Internet explode and implode at the same time. Morgoth himself would beg Eru for the erasure of the show, Amazon, Jeff Bezos and probably Isildurs sister.

[Valonqar]

The show's buzz literally lives off H=S and will H/G bone mystery boxes. Once they resolve it one way or the other (2 more days), there will be nothing to talk about. 

[Torontofan]

This show not getting much mainstream buzz compared to house of dragons

[Factcheck]

15 minutes ago, Torontofan said:

This show not getting much mainstream buzz compared to house of dragons

How can a show get 218k votes on IMDb without mainstream buzz and that's when the show has not been over yet?

Edited October 12, 2022 by Factcheck

[Ozymandias]

 

 

[Valonqar]

Oh no no no a ha ha ha I predicted right that there would be Anidala/Reylo-like Join Me moment! It's Bad Robot and they are predictable af despite their mystery box shit. 

 

This was a terrible finale. So Galadriel is now a smith who forged Rings of Power lmao! Also felt terribly rushed and H=S immediately got character transplant so he didn't feel like a character from previous episodes. And how stupid he could be to use exactly the same "power of flesh" "the Unseen World" words that he knows Adar told Galadriel was what Sauron was after? He was present just 2 episodes ago? LMAO! I'm not surprised that the writers have barely anything to their credit. What amateurism!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2022 by Valonqar

[Ozymandias]

 

[Valonqar]

Like, this episode rendered the King of Soutland plotline entirely pointless. They came to Soutland for nothing. Adar activated the volcano, created Mordor. H=S which we knew but the execution is dumpster fire. What was the point again? They could have just had Mordor from the start without boring fastforwardable characters that populate that region and bringing Numenoreans for nothing. Way to ruin your show retroactively not that it was great to begin with but this is now just complete waste.

Edited October 14, 2022 by Valonqar

[Porthos]

Spoiler

Well, at least they didn't string it along, but I definitely maintain this was Not Earned by prior episodes.

 

Executed about as well it could and the temptation of Galadriel was well played but..

 

Not Earned.

 

And a shame, as the acting was top notch, as were the non-Elven scenes.

 

Also, @Valonqar would it kill you to add spoiler space?  Especially  when going back and editing posts that were made beforethe finale was aired?

 

[Ozymandias]

how did that credits song make it past any person with a human ear

[Porthos]

More immediate thoughts

 

Spoiler

I can take small solace in the fact that they didn't do a silly romance plot line between Halbrand and Galadriel like they were threatening to do or that some here thought.  They didn't suddenly start dropping hints and leave us wondering one way or the other and save it for next season. They ripped the bandaid right off, which is... something.

 

And I can also take solace in that I gave myself an out by saying that entertainment is littered with examples of questionable plotting.

 

But ain't gonna lie.  This does put more than a bit of a damper on my enjoyment of the series.  Not enough to not see where it goes whenever the next season is.  But is a pretty large step back, IMO.

 

Enough bitching about that, as there was some genuinely great things in here.  Namely

Spoiler

The Harfoots and VeryProbablyGandalf.  That was excellent throughout.  Right down to the "Nobody walks alone" moment at the end.

 

Hell, they actually showed restraint there and didn't hit us over the head with that by having Nori repeat it as she left. They actually let us see it mostly unsaid.  That was actually a geniuely good piece of plotting and writing there.

 

Really, when it comes right down to it, the Harfoot plotline (along with the Elrond/Durin one) as been the best thing about this season.  That alone gives me some hope for the future of this series (he said to echo a line given in this episode).

 

 

Really difficult for me to give a score, honestly.  Good was very good.  Other bits, not so much.  Prob go with 6/10 or so.

 

===

 

Prob the score I would give the first season overall, actually.  Maybe bump it up to 6.5/10.  I want to give it a 7/10 or 7.5/10, but at the moment I can't.  Uneven with very high highs but the downsides being plotting all over the place.  Maybe after I sit on it/or I do a re-watch I'll adjust it.

 

Which is a shame because the themes of the show are very much in the right place.  Very very right, actually.  IMO at least. Execution leaves more than a little to be desired though.  Just have to see if the execution improves or not (there are signs that this series can have really good execution after all [Harfoots, Durin]).

Edited October 14, 2022 by Porthos

[Inceptionzq]

Spoiler

I was really hoping that Halbrand wouldn't be Sauron... Not 100% sure how I feel about it. I think the execution in the episode alone was good, but the buildup to it is really lackluster and some storylines are retroactively hurt by this decision to me. I don't know, maybe some of it was just me expecting Sauron to be more involved with manipulation in the background.

 

The Harfoots were really good this episode though. Didn't expect them to pull at the heartstrings as much as it did. The Sauron cultists weren't anything special, but I'm glad they gave that a good conclusion instead of dragging it on to next season. Most excited to see "The Stranger" and Nori's adventures next season.

 

Also some interesting articles about the finale and a bit of next season. Seems like Sauron will be more like I expected this season in season 2 (just less background stuff). The showrunners even call people like me out at the end of their Hollywood Reporter article lol.

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/rings-of-power-finale-sauron-actor-interview-1235240895/

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/rings-of-power-sauron-season-2-lotr-1235240809/

https://variety.com/2022/tv/features/rings-of-power-finale-sauron-halbrand-stranger-1235402886/

 

[Valonqar]

7 hours ago, Porthos said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Well, at least they didn't string it along, but I definitely maintain this was Not Earned by prior episodes.

 

Executed about as well it could and the temptation of Galadriel was well played but..

 

Not Earned.

 

And a shame, as the acting was top notch, as were the non-Elven scenes.

 

Also, @Valonqar would it kill you to add spoiler space?  Especially  when going back and editing posts that were made beforethe finale was aired?

 

 

Added tags. Sorry about that. Amazon dropped the finale early, so I thought it was OK.

 

anyway so much stuff looks really stupid in retrospect just dumb mystery boxes for the sake of it

 

 

Anyone got the chuckle out of this Spiderman 2 reference

 

 

the power of the sun in the palm of my hand lmao Doc CeleOck 

 

Miriel and Elendil are shippy af but who the heck writes the scenes, like

 

 

if a blind woman asks you to tell her what you see bloody say it. I hate that cliche when characters just won't answer the question cause it's a bad news

 

Feminem and her BFFs were total jobbers, basically ROP's Knight of Ren, all hype no payoff

 

 

Harfoots almost beat them with mere rocks lol

 

Expectations for S2:

 

 

we are done with Harfoots except Nori though Poppy will most likely follow for Sam and Frodo dynamic. But at least the rest of the annoying bunch will be benched.

 

 

I hope that they cut Southland characters from the show now that their arc is over and there's no King of Southland plot anymore. Their role on the show was really just to find the Volcano Key and with that over, time to clean up the house. The show already has too many characters and Bronwyn, Theo and Arondir were the most boring and like I said fulfilled their destiny.

 

However, I have a bad feeling that they'll find Isildur and be the part of his arc. Blech. 

 

Galadriel's hubby returns

 

Isildur's brother Anarion returns.

 

Balrog wreaks havoc on Khazad Dum.

 

Elendil and Miriel ship floats 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2022 by Valonqar

[Black Hawk]

Overall I like it way more than I thought I going to.

Season one 7.5/10

[Brainbug]

Oh gosh that was a funny finale. Mostly not in a good way, but hey, i wasnt bored.

 

Overall, id give Season 1 like a 5/10. I still think this show is not terrible, but the thing is ... its not good either. The "resolution" for the plotlines in the finale felt extremely rushed and unearned. I like the music (on itself), most of the showcasing of places like Numenor and i find Galadriel - despite or because her beeing a pretty bad character - extremely entertaining and i also like the darves and Elrond in this. What i dont like is the plotline beeind to muddled together, the rather irrelevant Hobbit plotline and the dialogue beeing very un-tolkien like in many scenes.

 

Honestly, i think these 8 episodes can be summed up with "a fan who doesnt really know all that much about the Second Age writes a fanfiction about it" with the core element in it beeing

 

Spoiler

what if galadriel and sauron nearly have a bad romance? woohoo

 

[Liiviig 1998]

Hartfoots carried this episode on their darn backs . After how stagnant it had become ,Good to get something going and look forward to noryn 's adventure.

 

Some scenes had some well earned emotional moments.

 

The rest of the subplots conclusion was a mess.

 

Starting with numenor, why is isildur 's sister in this. She has done fuck all this season and just feels like a self insert character. Can't believe they cut out anarion for her.

 

Liked the dialogue btn the queen and elendil but why do I get the feeling they want to ship them.

 

And I'm sorry but what ,shit doesn't decay that fast . They have been away for just days. Just feels rushed.

 

Eregion plotline was rushed as hell and just undermines the reveal of sauron,turns celebrimbor into a gullible idiot and everything around the rings feels so anti-climatic.

 

Why the hell is galadriel witholding sauron  identity !!!.

 

And Dont get me started on how she discovers his identity. Like why didn't she think of that before? .This episode just made galadriel and the elves look stupid instead of sauron being cunning or clever.

 

The whole southlandler plot was pointless. I think we can now atleast agree it was just for the formation of Mordor.

 

What a waste of a subplot just because the writers had shove in the mystery box which just halted pacing for the previous episodes and now we have rushed mess of a subplot .

 

This season should have focused on the rings with numenor and hartfoots as b plots with modor already there with adar in charge and like arondhir and the elves having an outpost to fend of the oaks and trying to keep them in modor , atleast that would have boosted world building instead of southland extras.

 

JJ Abrams writing at its finest.

 

Didn't hate this episode as much as 7 . 

 

Overall season is 6.5/10. The last two episodes really brought this down.

 

Season 2 really needs to step up. Audiences won't remember this in 2 years. If it starts out weak, think viewership will go down. A solid season but nothing home to write about.

 

 

 

[Valonqar]

I think 5/10 is fair. Not terrible but far from great. Mostly very dull fanfiction and that's wrong cause fanfiction should let your imagination run wild. But this was safe and predictable. I mean if I could predict they would lift most famous Star Wars trope for their big reveal you know how safe and by numbers this is.

 

Also, it was totally unearned. Like, the reveal required that the character suddenly acted like he was on a totally different show, not a single trace of the character he was until that episode (he changed his behavior from the get go, before the reveal itself). That's plot-driven rather than character drive. And don't get me started on:

 

outing himself by using exactly the same phrases that he knows she has heard from Adar when he talked about Sauron

 

that she never contemplated to check Southland kings lineage until she became suspicous. Like, girl, you were convinced that carrying around a royal crest = secret king which is stupid and now suddenly you are like I need a private eye to do his background check. Why weren't you more cautious from the get go????? He could have been a cosplayer, like, are you going to assume that neckbeard #6758 carring Cap's shield in his backpack is Cap himself? 🤦‍♂️

 

Drama happens cause characters are witholding vital info. I know who's back but I'm not telling casue drama. Ugh.

 

JJ Abrams fingerprints all over indeed.

 

EDIT: I can't be the only one who thought that they were setting up Sauron King of Southland as his launching pad for influence and power. Yet this episode just dropped that plotline altogether so it felt to me like a whole season between Ep 7 and Ep 8 was missing. Ep7 has him promise to keep fighting and all those people cheering him and then they just dropped it altogether. There was absolutely no reason why he couldn't rise to power from that position including helping Elves with rings since they would be allies. Such wasted plot. 

 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2022 by Valonqar