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deer-with-a-stick · 10 months

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It’s been nearly a year (10 months?) since the Rings of Power show was released and yet somehow I keep finding it on my dash. I have Thoughts and decided to share them.

This will be my attempt to review the show (keeping in mind that I’m part of the group that started it and never really finished but still got spoilers) as civilly and eloquently as I can.

A lot of the debate over this show has just ended up in a screaming match, with some die-hard fans screaming “racist bigot racist bigot racist bigot” while some die-hard haters scream back “woke shit woke shit woke shit”.

I am going to try and express my opinions of the show without that, and if anyone wants to have a civil conversation, feel free to talk to me :)

(Also, this got very long holy moly)

Going to preface this entire thing with “I do not condone criticisms of this show just because it’s ‘woke shit’ nor do I condone bashing the actors themselves for decisions the directors made”. I think it’s wonderful that they’re adding diversity to a world like Middle Earth and I honestly don’t think that canon really contradicts this.

I do have to say something about the whole “token POC character” thing though (please don’t attack me for these opinions. I do also have to say that I am a POC, albeit not black.) Some might argue that they have multiple POC characters that are important to the plotlines and that therefore there isn’t a ‘token POC character’ trope in this show.

One of my main issues with this is that there is only one POC character per race. It feels token-y, especially since the background characters are still all...white.

The second main issue: the diversity in this only extends as far as white people and black people. There is no Middle Eastern representation, there are no South Asians, no Pacific Islanders, and there aren’t even East Asians (who, unfortunately for the rest of Asia, tend to be people’s go-to “Asian diversity casting” these days). It would have been easy to make some of the dwarves some flavor of Asian, seeing that Khazad-Dum has had dwarves come in from all over Middle Earth. You could have made at least some of the Numenorians Pacific Islanders, and the elves could quite literally have the most diverse range of ethnicities.

Moving on from the whole diversity casting thing, I’m going to talk about the changes.

I’m fully aware that the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit were modified, but they’re adaptations. Changes are expected. I am also fully aware that had I been one of those Tolkien fans before the movies were released, I too would have likely been pissed over some of the changes: Faramir and Denethor’s personality changes or the army of the dead in Minas Tirith, for example. That being said, I likely would still have enjoyed the trilogy and some of the changes. Changing Glorfindel in for Arwen might have made me a little annoyed, but in the end, I could see why they chose to give Arwen the role of saving Frodo or why they cut Tom Bombadil and the Burning of the Shire.

I have tried to extend this same courtesy to Rings of Power. I have a lot of issues with the things they did, but I am not entirely sure how much of this is actually my opinion and not the influence of social media, so I will be typing them out and working through why these changes bothered me.

Making Galadriel have to work towards the version of herself we saw in Lord of the Rings was something I’d expected to enjoy. But I hadn’t expected them to go for the whole “angry warrior out for revenge” type of thing. For me, it compressed the timeline too much. Had this show been set in the First Age, I would have been all for it.

That Galadriel, having crossed the Helcaraxe and having witnessed the elves that she’d grown up knowing all her lives die horrible deaths on the ice as they tried to make their way to Middle Earth, only to find everything in flames, is one I could see as being this type of character. But this is the Second Age, and this is character development I’d expected her to already have gone through. I had expected her arc to around trying to heal, perhaps, from the scars left by the kinslayings and from the threat of Sauron to this new life and realm she’d been trying to build. That would have created timeline issues as well, but it would, at least for me, have been more believable, especially with the timeline compression they’ve been doing.

I really liked Galadriel because she was a strong female character that didn’t have to be all angry and brash and, I’m not sure if I want to use this phrase but I don’t know how else to say it, hyper-masculine. Strength doesn’t always mean physical strength, and I liked that Galadriel was very obviously portrayed as a strong character without having to lug a sword around everywhere.

For me, I think, I would have enjoyed an arc about Galadriel struggling to put down the sword, or having to pick up the sword again against Sauron after having struggled to put it down, especially with Celebrian alive now.

Furthermore, I find her reactions to certain people...confusing. She’s certainly older than Gil-Galad, and I certainly believe that she wouldn’t seem to act like a petulant child next to him. The whole “Valinor as a gift” also confused me. The Noldor, including Galadriel, had the opportunity to sail back whenever they wished after the War of Wrath. Galadriel chose not to, and sailing isn’t something the High King can demand of the other elves.

Bronwyn and Arondir had potential. I won’t get mad about introducing new original characters because that can go very well, especially in things that take place in worlds like Middle Earth (and also I would be a very big hypocrite because I didn’t mind Tauriel in the Hobbit). I would have loved to see the events of the Second Age and the Last Alliance from the perspective of a common elf and human.

But how they handled it...I think that this could have been an excellent tragedy. I’m not a Tolkien scholar or anything, but I personally think that having this specific arc end up as a tragedy would fit with Tolkien’s themes really well. Bronwyn’s village is relatively small, I think, and Arondir is a soldier stationed there.

The story that could result from the two groups they’re from banding together to stop the orcs as much as they can, knowing that they’ll be overrun but at least it will be worth it because the next generation will survive to continue the fight for a better future, is a story that is more appealing to me than the Sauron’s sword plotline and the mini resistance.

In many of Tolkien’s stories (in the Third Age at least), the hero is one of the common people. In the Second Age, where we have Numenor and the Elves and Khazad-Dum, I think I would have been more impactful to see a village and some soldiers, people whose names wouldn’t normally have been passed down through history and to those Third Age characters, take a stand against the inevitable darkness. And, like the common people, they die, they fail, but they don’t fail in the ways that matter.

They slow the orcs down just enough, perhaps, so that the heroes that history would laud can finish the enemy off. They protect their children the best they can because what they’re fighting for is a future for those children. The common people might not care about the fate of the world as a whole, but they certainly will care about that which they love.

This kind of story, I think, would show that they aren’t the exceptions; they mounted a resistance and they all died in the end. But despite that, their actions mattered, and even if their names won’t be passed down through the history books, the final victory wouldn’t be possible without them, their courage, and their sacrifice.

The Harfoots...alright. I lied. I haven’t moved away from the diversity casting thing. The Harfoots definitely could have been cast better. From what I know, they are described as being “browner of skin” and again, this would have been an excellent opportunity for the show makers to actually display diversity, instead of placing a singular person of color into each race.

I don’t necessarily understand the whole of what is happening about the Irish accent debate, but seeing as I am not Irish and I do not actually know what is going on, I won’t discuss this.

That being said, with the compressed timeline, I suppose it makes sense if the show makers wanted to introduce some Hobbits early. They would have had to come from somewhere, but I think they tried too hard to make them relevant to the plot. The storyline was cute, but if I am going to be honest, the Harfoots plotline is a fairly large part of this show’s “too much going on” problem.

I disliked how they introduced the Stranger. I suppose that it’s fairly obvious that they wanted to get in references to The Lord of the Rings, but they already had Galadriel, Elrond, the Balrog, and the Hobbits. The entire point of the Istari being introduced to Middle Earth was because Sauron had lived, despite the effort of the Last Alliance.

The Valar only sent the Istari because a: they themselves could not interfere with Middle Earth’s affairs directly, due to having sunk all of Beleriand the last time they did, and b: a massive alliance between the three major races of that time, the likes of which hadn’t been seen since Nírnaeth Arnoediad (I believe), had failed in defeating Sauron.

The Second Age has no reason to send the Istari. The inhabitants of Middle Earth have not shown that they are incapable of dealing with Sauron by themselves, so the Valar won’t interfere.

I suppose an argument could be made about how Gandalf showing up early is like how Legolas showed up early in The Hobbit, but in The Hobbit’s defense, it makes sense for Legolas, someone who lives in Mirkwood, to appear when the Company travels through Thranduil’s realm. Gandalf is not native to Middle Earth, and originally, he didn’t want to go out of fear.

Moving on from Gandalf, I’m going to talk very briefly about Celebrimbor and the rings of power. I am quite upset that for a show called The Rings of Power, the rings themselves aren’t all that important until the last episode, and even then, they’re forged in a few moments. I am also fairly upset that Celebrimbor and Sauron’s (or rather, Annatar) relationship that completely thrown out of the window (even if I would have gotten annoyed at the influx of Silvergifting in the fandom).

The show technically wasn’t able to use the Silmarillion, but if they were, I certainly hope that they would have kept this relationship because it’s another illustration of how the Noldor continue to bring their own doom onto themselves.

I think the show tried too hard with the whole “decay of the elves” plotline, but I will accept it for plot and timeline purposes.

I will take issue with the whole “tree with the last light of the Silmaril” thing. I recognize that this is a myth, and would have accepted it had Gil-galad and Celebrimbor not accepted it as truth. But since they do... which Silmaril? Maglor’s? I don’t think Ulmo will give that one up. Is it Maedhros’? That one is in the core of the earth, how could it have gotten into a tree? It certainly isn’t Earendil’s, seeing as that was the first one to be “lost” and that it’s still in the night sky.

Myths and folklore are fine, but it doesn’t work so well when the elves, the immortal race who still remember the truth of these things, believe the myths. Gil-galad and Celebrimbor were both born during the Year of the Trees; Feanor is Celebrimbor’s grandfather (Gil-galad may or may not be related to him, as he is still Son-of-Plothole). I don’t see how both of these two would believe this myth.

If a young elf, one born after the Sinking of Beleriand and part of a family that had (somehow) been disconnected from the Sons of Feanor business in the First Age had proposed this, I might have said “alright, I can accept that this elf doesn’t really know what actually happened to the Silmarils,” especially if an elf who had been alive in the First Age contested that later.

But as it is now...Even if they didn’t have access to the Silmarillion, they had plenty of other options to explain mithril. They could have, for example, explained mithril as Aule taking the few scarce remnants of the Trees’ Light and scattering it across Middle Earth as a last gift to his dwarves and as a way to show to Yavanna that not all her work was lost.

I have mixed feelings about Halbrand. I understand that they didn’t have access to the Silmarillion so they had to make do. I can kind of understand why they chose to have Halbrand echo Aragorn in a way, but I do wish that they’d kept his storyline something close to Annatar’s anyway. Maybe part of my issue with this is the way they compressed the timeline.

Barad-Dur was supposed to rise before Sauron’s deception of the Noldor in Eregion and I think that the mystery aspect of this show could have been more interesting if these two were happening at the same time (if the timeline had to be compressed). They could have explained Halbrand as perhaps an escaped thrall, going to the Noldor with blueprints of a secret weapon that could keep Middle Earth safe from Sauron.

Halbrand and Galadriel’s relationship is something I firmly dislike. Not only does Celeborn deserve more than a throwaway line implying his death, but Celebrian deserves to exist.

Shipping Galadriel with others has been a recurring problem, I suppose, with the specific scene in The Hobbit, but I actually never read that scene between Galadriel and Gandalf that way. For me, the kiss on the forehead was just a form of endearment (although this might actually just be “blind aroace things”).

Halbrand and Galadriel, on the other hand, are explicit. The ship does not make all that much sense to me and frankly, I don’t see the point of including this. Most changes when adapting something have a point.

Denethor’s character was changed likely due to timing issues (especially since we get more book-canon Denethor if the extended versions are considered), Faramir’s character was changed to be more flawed (and more “interesting” for some), and even changes like the Ghost Army have a purpose (even if that purpose is just ex-machina and possibly getting through canon faster).

But there is no purpose to Halbrand and Galadriel, besides perhaps to make Halbrand’s betrayal more potent and give Galadriel further motivation and a tiny bit of character development.

The thing is though, Halbrand’s betrayal should already have been potent. In the books, Eregion falls and the last confirmed living member of the House of Feanor (as well as the kindest), Celebrimbor, is tortured to death. This destroys a haven for the elves and for the Noldor and Galadriel loses yet another relative.

Her character development, in my option, should have been one of gaining confidence as a leader and balancing her desire to put down the sword with the need to pick the sword back up. The “character goes from brash and arrogant warrior to mellowed out and wise person” arc is better given to a human, dwarf, or even a younger elf. What’s more, is that elves tend to change slowly. Galadriel’s arc in the show is very human in terms of timing.

It would make sense for immortal creatures like elves to change slower (although this particular nitpick might just be a me thing). Even a change as drastic as Maedhros’ (from a relatively new leader and fighter that could be argued as relatively innocent and naive to a seasoned war general, tactician, and diplomat) was brought on by roughly thirty years of torture within Angband.

Back to Galadriel, I don’t think she needed more motivation. Finrod was killed by Sauron (in both show and books) and Celebrimbor was too, not to mention that Sauron posed a threat to everything she’d built in Eriador and to the relative peace she’d found after the First Age.

Moving on from Galadriel is Elrond. I actually don’t have as many issues with Elrond, I just wish that they’d not tried to go for the whole “politically ambition son of no-one” kind of plotline. Tolkien loves his “power corrupts” arcs and Elrond has consistently rejected power. He has embraced his duties, raising Rivendell after Eregion fell and leading people when they require it of him, he does not seek it out. He doesn’t want the role of High King of the Noldor, and he rejects it when the crown is offered after Gil-Galad dies.

His lineage is one that could invite genuine criticisms of “Mary-Sue” as he is quite literally part elf, part human, and part angel, with connections to most of the important people throughout history. He is descended from the rulers of Doriath and of Sirion, and his brother founded Numenor. His father is Earendil and his mother defied the Sons of Feanor, and he marries Celebrian, Galadriel’s daughter.

The derisive tone Gil-Galad adopts when he said “Peredhel” in one of the first few episodes rubbed me the wrong way. There is quite literally one person who could claim that title and therefore claim a relationship to Beren and Luthien, and it is viewed with scorn? I don’t understand that particular decision.

All of this being said, I loved Elrond’s friendship with Durin and Disa. Those parts were the only parts I actively looked forward to and enjoyed. The friendship felt natural and the banter was very much reminiscent of Legolas and Gimli’s relationship in some parts. It also made some excellent memes. (I do wish that they didn’t cut Celebrimbor and the Noldor’s friendship with the dwarves, however.)

I love Tolkien’s dwarves, for all their flaws and occasionally problematic portrayals. The thing that drew me to them was, in part, because of their designs. Erebor and Khazad-Dum in the movies were beautiful, and one could easily tell the difference between elven and dwarvish architecture.

Khazad-Dum in the show, on the other hand, takes after elvish sensibilities. The show’s creators explained this as how Khazad-Dum had looked before greed and corruption and decay had set in. But I disagree with Ramsey Avery. Perhaps I am reading into this too much, but I dislike the implication that the elves are the pinnacle of perfection. To me, what this statement implied was that the dwarvish fashion was a result of corruption and greed and that the elvish style was superior in its perceived purity. Those geometric columns, symmetry, and towering ceilings? You can find those in nature. Dwarves try to make their stone beautiful. With gems they shape and polish it and with rock formations like the ones in the Glittering Caves, they leave them alone, so it makes sense that the dwarves would shape and mold the stone.

Dwarvish culture and elvish culture are very different, and their architecture shows this. Elves prefer spaces open to the sky, greenery, bright colors, and curved lines and arches. Dwarves prefer grand halls, jewel and metal tones, sharp angles, and straight lines. The stark differences showed that, without a doubt, these two cultures were vastly different and unique and I would have preferred them to have kept this.

Now that we’ve moved away from lore changes and characters, I’m going to continue talking about the world in this show and its design. The still shots and cinematography of this show are stunning and from a distance, it’s beautiful. I still couldn’t help but be disappointed when the camera came in closer, however.

The production quality for the clothes and armor is...not as good as I’d expected. The metals seem to be made out of tinfoil or spray-painted cardboard at times and there is often a strange quality to the props that reminds me of a cheap cosplayer’s prop that was thrown together in a few hours. The armor was particularly bad. Who proposed the armor-design-printed-onto-shirts idea?

Some of the outfits were decent, but most of the time, I found myself wondering “What are they wearing?”

My main problem is most likely that the clothes they wear don’t give me the problem vibes. The elves seem too...human (as evidenced by the scene where the ship-wrecked humans don’t recognize Galadriel as an elf until they see her ears), Disa’s white-cloth-with-gold-triangles outfit just straight up confuses me every time I see it, and some of the outfits that the humans wear seem out of place and out of time.

Some people find the short hair elves fine, some find them a sin, and I am...somewhere in between. I really would have preferred long hair elves, although if some of them had shorter hair due to the whole “going to war against Sauron” aspect, I would be fine with it. But the modern fade haircuts...they break immersion for me. The way the show makers explained this change also angered me greatly.

The thing about elves, and I will say this again, is that as immortal beings, it would make sense for them to change slowly. Beyond the show makers’ explanation of “oh, hairstyles change over time,” I have been given no reason as to why they all have short hair and why they all have a specific style of hair.

And for a show that liked to laud the fact that they had a strong female character that broke molds, I find it a bit strange that only Galadriel’s hair wasn’t touched. The show makers said they made Galadriel a warrior because of the etymology of her name (which implied a pinned-up hairstyle I believe), but they kept her hair down and loose in fights while giving Finrod (who’s name means Great Hair Guy) a generic fade haircut.

I disliked the beardless dwarf women immensely. At that point, when I saw female dwarves without beards, all I could think of was “Why do elves and dwarves have to follow modern human standards of beauty?” Dwarven culture is “the bigger the beard the more beautiful,” so why are all of the female dwarves beardless? I had really looked forward to see the female dwarves and was sadly disappointed.

(I will address the possible hypocrisy of my criticism here as I quite like The Hobbit. Thorin (as well as Fili and Kili), for the movies, was given the excuse that he’d shorn his beard short after Erebor fell as a way to remind himself of the dishonor of losing Erebor. This is a bit of a thinly veiled excuse to have the actor’s face less covered and more appealing to the audience, but in the flashback scenes that took place before Erebor fell, Thorin does indeed have a longer and slightly more elaborate beard.)

Moving on: Numenor was particularly bad and was honestly like 75% of why I quit the show. Perhaps some people might find beauty, but I got whiplash. I think they tried to mix in too many forms of architecture (I am saying this as someone who has only a few crumbs of architectural knowledge) and the Roman, Greek, several other types of architecture, and the marine life-inspired designs didn’t mesh very well. I would see stone columns (all hard straight lines) and then be immediately hit with a fish carved into an arch.

The armor and fashion did the same thing and the dissonance nearly made me quit. Nearly.

The tipping point was really the army. Numenor, the Atlantis of Middle Earth, known for their powerhouse of a navy, had five ships? Two of which were burnt? If we consider the HMS Victoria (one of the largest wooden warships ever built), she held around 1000 people. So let’s say that Numenor’s navy consisted of somewhere between 5000 to 6000 people (since it’s possible that a few stayed behind).

Comparing this to the Imperial Japanese Navy (as Japan is also an island nation that had been previously isolated from the rest of the world), we see that the Imperial Japanese Navy had lost around 300,000 people by the end of World War Two. This means that there were definitely more than 600,000 people serving in that navy during the war. Even with the Industrial Revolution in my example, it’s clear to see that Numenor’s navy is a joke.

The landing party for the beaches of Normandy was 156,000 people in comparison. Unless the Numenorians decided to abandon their three ships, this means that the landing party and the resulting Numenorian army was less than 5000 people, no where near the “massive army” that had been raised to defeat Sauron in the books.

I am also upset about the changes to Numenor’s story. Numenor is Atlantis, a fact that is widely established. But whereas in the books Numenor falls because of the kings’ pride and hubris, the pride and hubris are shown to be traits that Queen Miriel does not share. Personally, I think that by changing Pharazon to be a simple advisor instead of the King means that the story is less impactful.

I can’t help but get the sense that even in a show like this (that loves to call itself progressive), the female characters have to be irrevocably good. Miriel refuses Galadriel’s demands (and I would have thought that Galadriel would find the act of killing people and stealing their ships abominable) because she wants to protect her people, only agreeing later because she believes the Valar/Gods themselves told her to.

I see a pious and good ruler, a ruler that would have fit in perfectly if the story had not been set near the end of the Second Age (which seems to be between 100 to 200 years due to the compressed timeline). What I do not see are the final warning signs before Numenor’s collapse. Numenor’s story has less of an impact if their rightful ruler, the one whose lineage is directly blessed (as their ancestor was Elros, brother of Elrond, descendent of Luthien and Beren) had been trying to follow the Valar’s rulings and protect their people.

(Also, where is Isildur’s brother, Anarion?)

Adar and the Orcs are...interesting. I suppose that I don’t have too much to say beyond “they might be trying too hard to make a ‘grey’ villain with the whole ‘orcs just want a homeland’ story beat.”

The volcano scene I won’t touch on because I find myself laughing uncontrollably every time I think of it, and also because I left off before that episode. Well. I won’t talk about it beyond “the science isn’t there, although this is a fantasy show, so they’ll get some leeway.” Whether or not I am willing to bend the laws of the natural world enough for me to believe that scene is still up for debate.

My final thought will be on the strange white-clothed women. Who are they, why are they relevant, where did they come from, and what was the purpose of including them in this show?

That’s more or less all I have to say. If you’ve read this far, I have to applaud you because I wrote quite a bit and am not entirely sure if it all made sense. In the end, my issues with the Rings of Power is that it takes things too far. Changes to canon I can accept: it’s an adaptation, after all. But there are too many in Rings of Power and I am quite tired of having my immersion broken so much. It had potential, but they could have, should have done more with their plotlines in terms of fleshing them out and matching them to Tolkien’s themes. Ironically, the show also tries to have too many plotlines, and it got rather tiring of keeping track of Halbrand and Galadriel in Numenor, Elrond in Khazad-Dum, Nori with the Stranger, Bronwyn and Arondir, and also the various side plots in those four main arcs.

If you enjoyed this show, good for you. All I ask is that people be civil when they discuss things.

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tolkiens-middleearth · 2 years

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Tolkien's story telling and Amazon's The Rings of Power

Having seen the trailer for Amazon's Middle-earth series, I won't lie: some parts look good in it. Especially the landscape is fantastic, some of the sets look good, and there are some decent effects in there.

However, it still leaves me wondering both about the atmosphere and the direction of the show.

There are, to these stories, two different emotions, as Tolkien put it: "the heart-racking sense of the vanished past" and "the more 'ordinary' emotion, triumph, pathos, tragedy of the characters".

I want to talk about both in regards to the show.

Distant trees and near trees

The Vanished Past

"I think you are moved by Celebrimbor because it conveys a sudden sense of endless untold stories: mountains seen far away, never to be climbed, distant trees never to be approached – or if so only to become 'near trees'." – J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien's description about getting close to an untold story is quite fitting: there is always the danger of turning something fascinating into something mundane.

He was a master of invoking that sense of a vanished past, and it's especially visible in The Lord of the Rings: for example Gandalf's words about the Palantir and Fëanor, or Aragorn telling the Hobbits about Beren and Lúthien, or Elrond remembering the Last Alliance.

But it's in his other writings as well: I feel that's one of the reasons why they have authors, why their tradition inside the universe is known, and one of the reasons why Tolkien uses frame stories. One of my favourite bits of his writings comes The Book of Lost Tales, the ending of The Fall of Gondolin:

"Then said Littleheart son of Bronweg: 'Alas for Gondolin.'

And no one in all the Room of Logs spake or moved for a great

while." – J.R.R. Tolkien

This little bit makes the whole tale even more emotional for me than it would ever be without it, and it's difficult to put into words why.

Traveling into history

And that, in my eyes, is the challenge of any series that tackles something like the Second Age or – even more difficult – shows parts of the First Age. They can't just turn these distant trees into near trees without a thought. For me at least this is what any visual material needs to try: it needs to try to keep some parts of the grandeur of the past legends. Tolkien excelled at it. Some artists are able to depict it in their work as well. Peter Jackson's movies managed to hit that emotion on rare occation.

Amazon's Middle-earth series? So far it does a good job in conveying this mood with wide shots of landscapes and architecture. However, based on the promo material it has release so far, there is no indication that this important atmosphere is achieved in their characters.

Certainly the invented Haarfoots can't achieve that, and characters like Halbrand or Arondir aren't predestined for it either. But the characters that could be this way among the Númenoreans and Elves – they don't give that impression either.

Ar-Pharazôn the Golden, the proudest and most powerful of all the Kings of any human empire in Middle-earth, is already an old men when we meet him in Amazon's Middle-earth show.

Some of these characters seem to be larger-than-life in Tolkien's writings, and they can be, because they're not average humans. The princes, kings and queens among the Eldar and the Númenoreans are supposed to be impressive – both in their monstrosity and their greatness. This applies to characters like Gil-galad, Celebrimbor, Finrod and Galadriel, and yes, to characters like Ar-Pharazôn as well.

We haven't seen much of them yet in the trailer footage and the promotion images. However, what we have seen so far makes me believe that the show won't be able to show this quality of Tolkien's writing in any convincing way – judging by the character designs it didn't even try. With characters like these, the show should have gone for extra, and I don't think they did.

Celebrimbor, grandson of Fëanor and creator of the Three Rings, who would later fight Sauron in person when defending the house of the Mírdain, looks utterly unimpressive in Amazon's Middle-earth show.

23 character posters for 8 episodes

"A story must be told or there'll be no story." – J.R.R. Tolkien

Another part that Tolkien adressed is the idea of story and the "triumph, pathos, tragedy" of the characters. And that's what my other main criticism of the trailer is about:

The trailer has failed to make me care about any of these people – and that is saying a lot, given the fact that I care a lot about these characters in Tolkien's writings.

I've gone back to trailers for series like The Witcher, Carnival Row, and Shadow and Bones. The ones that leave an impression on me are those that show me the promise of actual characters: the hint of an emotional conflict, the chance for an emotional connection with the character. Any good movie or series that can catch my attention and my heart has character stories at its core.

Since Tolkien barely wrote detailed stories for the Second Age that are "enough" for the screen, this is something the show writers have to deliver by themselves – and it would be too early to claim that they can't do it. However, the promotion so far is not encouraging:

There have been 23 character posters published when the series started its promotion These 23 major characters all have to share the screen time of 8 episodes, of which 2 will be an 'introduction' of sorts. That is not much time to do any of these characters justice – a problem that is not unique to this show by the way, many of the streaming shows these days that only allow for about 8 episodes a season struggle with this.

The other less-than-encouraging thing in the trailer is that it gives barely any clues about the characters themselves or what their story will be about: they all have a vast interest in the comet, they sense some vague darkness, and they have some generic lines like "the enemy is still out there" and "the past is dead" and "this could be the beginning of a new era". At best, Elrond's and Galadriel's discussion could be seen as a character moment, but neither dialogue nor acting is impressive, and the weird choices for Elrond's character design are still way too distracting.

The potential is certainly there in theory, according to various articles and interviews. But that's just that: promotional interviews that say little about the actual product in the end. Does anyone remember what all the actors of the dwarves in The Hobbit had to say about their characters? They had thoughts about their characters and their backstories and all, but for most of them all that didn't make it on screen and the characters were still barely refined for the viewer at the end of the story. I hope for this show's sake that they'll be better than that...

Long story short

To put an end to these rambling thoughts: I've seen legendary characters well done in media, and I have seen character work in general done well in media.

However, I don't trust this show to do to these very important things right, both in regards to story telling in general and story telling in Middle-earth. I don't trust them to get the atmosphere and mood right for Tolkien's legendary characters, and I don't trust them to make me care for these characters individually.

So while the trailer looks pretty, I still think it's mostly empty.

#LOTR ROP #The Rings of Power #Rings of Power #RoP #LOTR on Prime #lotr:rop #LOTR #Amazon LOTR #my posts

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