I understand why they cut Scouring from the movies, it's a pretty long chapter that is pretty crucial thematically, but pretty superfluous for plot purposes.
In a perfect world we'd have gotten a tight 90-minute standalone Scouring of the Shire movie instead of whatever the hell the live action Hobbit trilogy was supposed to be, but c'est la vie.
I never made it more than a few pages through the Silmarillion so any content missing from there doesn't bother me. Also, while I've read the Hobbit and LoTR several times, I've enjoyed them as stories but haven't felt inclined to dive deep into the lore itself. So, certainly I'm not a Tolkien fan on the level of some here.
I think the hands down worst episode was episode 2 which worked through the ramifications of Galadriel swimming hundreds of kilometers. Clearly she wouldn't have made it without other events intervening in her favor. On the other hand, I have enjoyed the way she displays clear immaturity, and the contrast between her character in the films. The actor is doing a phenomenal job, well, as is most of the cast IMO. I think the writers have done a great job having dialog sounding true to the way they speak in the books without going overboard.
Ah yes, Galadriel is but a callow youth of three thousand. Maybe in another couple millennia she'll settle down.
It shows how elves mature differently. It wouldn’t make sense if you had an ageless elf after 100 years who experienced no character growth from then on. Galadriel is clearly ignorant of much of life outside of war which is captured perfectly by her interactions with Elrond and Halbrand.
So according to this theory it doesn't make sense for an elf to have character development from age 0 to age 100 and never again, but it does make sense for all character development to stagnate for three millennia before resuming.
Okay.
If that's how you choose to interpret what I wrote then sure. The events portrayed in the show are her life consisting of war and a futile quest for thousands of years to find the remnants of Sauron's forces. As a short lived human, it's pretty much impossible to get my head around that. But, that's the character they are choosing to give us so I'll take it. To be clear, I'm not trying to convince you to give the show another shot, not at all. Just why I'm not bothered by it.
I think this series bumps on the adagium 'the more you love the books, the less you will enjoy the movie'.
The book is better in 99% of the cases, though Villeneuve's Dune comes pretty close.
Which movies are better than the book - I wonder while typing. I think I will settle for Blade Runner.
Which movies are better than the book - I wonder while typing. I think I will settle for Blade Runner.
Agree with Blade Runner. Also...
Lifeforce
Planet of the Apes
The Quiet Earth
The Hunt For Red October is my go-to example, but I'm not much of a Clancy fan.
I'm still really enjoying this, though I read it, I probably wouldn't call myself a fan of The Silmarillion.
Re: Galadriel, I think framing this as someone dealing with trauma is more helpful than her Growing Up.
I've been watching Corey Olsen's videos about this, and he makes it clear the showrunners have done their homework. You might hate their adaptation and their decisions, but it hasn't come from a place of ignorance.
I'd also not realised how broken the lore is. There's a reason why it wasn't published during his lifetime. Points like how Sauron gets his ring back to Mordor after the flooding problem don't have definitive answers.
I think this series bumps on the adagium 'the more you love the books, the less you will enjoy the movie'.
The book is better in 99% of the cases, though Villeneuve's Dune comes pretty close.
Which movies are better than the book - I wonder while typing. I think I will settle for Blade Runner.
The thing with Blade Runner is it was SO different from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, saying it was a movie based on the book is a real stretch.
I'm not sure if they count as better or not, but the Michael Crichton books - Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park translated very well to movies.
Except Hammond (good riddance) and Malcolm died in the first JP book. But Goldblum was so good they brought the character back from the dead for other books even.
More Malcolm is good but pretty huge changes.
World War Z wasnt even sort of the same story, to the point Im not even sure why the name was used. Just too good a name? Anyway, the book (and the fully cast audiobook especially) was better
Yeah, Hammond was a lot more of an out-and-out villain in the book, as opposed to the misguided but kindly grandpa who sees the error of his ways in the end.
There are things I like better about the Fight Club book, especially the ending, but the film was a lot more focused and David Fincher's direction adds a lot of visual panache.
I'd also not realised how broken the lore is. There's a reason why it wasn't published during his lifetime. Points like how Sauron gets his ring back to Mordor after the flooding problem don't have definitive answers.
If you’ve ever read The Lost Tales you’d know just how much of what Tolkien wrote were half formed ideas and random musings rather than fully formed narrative stories. Hell, even The Simarillion suffers from that for half of it. He wrote more about Numenor in those LotR appendices than he did almost anywhere else and they were really very skant on detail.
Although I know enough to know the compressed timelines are making everything a bit skewed if they are covering what I think they are covering, I’m actually quite impressed by the ambition they’ve been showing. It isn’t always coming off but I am very much enjoying the friendship between Durin and Elrond, the Numenor stuff seems OK but the Humans in the Southlands only appear to exist to give the series it’s Helm’s Deep moment. And let’s not talk about the hobbits and the wizard. That’s been dragging out for episodes of going nowhere fast.
It’s flawed but impressive.
The important thing about Tolkien is his day job was mythology, he was Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. He taught Norse and Germanic myth. All the models for his own mythology exist in various forms and versions. That the mythology of middle earth in the writings isn’t consistent is a feature not a bug of the project. If there is just one version of the myth (and he definitely thought of the First Age as a mythical time), it doesn’t feel authentic.
Are we absolutely sure that The Stranger is...
Gandalf
and not...
Saruman?
Are they the only two choices? I'm not familiar with the lore. The second doesn't feel right to me and the first would be too fan-servicey (IMO).
I've been assuming it's Radagast.
After 5 episodes I'm struggling to care about the Hobbit storyline. It doesn't seem to be going anywhere quickly, so to speak, and the identity of the Stranger is probably going to be a letdown (either because it's predictably Gandalf, or because it's a total "twist"). If I had to guess, they figured that for most people "Tolkien == Lord of the Rings == Hobbits on adventures" and so had to throw in these Harfoots as buy-in opportunity for that audience.
The Galadriel/Halbrand and Arondir/Bronwyn plots are clearly converging
into a *very* Tolkien-esque last-minute salvation on the battlefield. (cf. Helm's Deep) (cf. battle of Minas Tirith, twice)
And the Elrond/Durin one seems to be playing the long game of setting-up elvish motivations for technological salvation (hence, eventually, the Rings).
Forced myself to watch the second episode - I am there halfway and still not impressed.
Galadriel floating in the sea and 'needs a bigger boat'
That Elanor-Hobbit gets on my nerves and now Kal-El is coming to Middle Earth?
Elrond and Durin smashing stones as a competition?!
Come on. Why do they have to degrade Dwarves into these irritated cartoon-figures.
I know there is little humor in the books - it all is pretty serious. But this kind of cringe... brrr.
I've been assuming it's Radagast.
This is where I’ve been. It won’t be one of the other two because nobody knows who they are and apart from ‘heading to the Far East’ Tolkien doesn’t say much else about them.
Also they can't use the Blue Wizards' names, because they're only given in the Unfinished Tales. The only reason we have to suspect they exist in LotR proper is a throwaway line delivered by Saruman about "the rods of the Five Wizards." So everyone would have to say "hey you! Yeah, you, in blue! No, the other one!"
Forced myself to watch the second episode - I am there halfway and still not impressed.
Galadriel floating in the sea and 'needs a bigger boat'
That Elanor-Hobbit gets on my nerves and now Kal-El is coming to Middle Earth?
Elrond and Durin smashing stones as a competition?!
Come on. Why do they have to degrade Dwarves into these irritated cartoon-figures.
I know there is little humor in the books - it all is pretty serious. But this kind of cringe... brrr.
The second episode is an absolute stinker, easily the worst. Fourth my favorite so far, not coincidentally, no hobbits. I do think it was funny in episode three how the hobbits sing the song of nobody being left behind then list of all the hobbits that they… left behind. Elrond and Durin are the shining light of episode 2, their relationship is charming and the dwarven city is beautifully realized. I really like this version of Elrond.
Are we absolutely sure that The Stranger is...
Spoiler:Gandalf
and not...
Spoiler:Saruman?
There are those that believe the Stranger is...
a balrog
-BEP
Loved the end credit song on this week's episode. Very similar to Bear McCreary's Outlander opening theme. Super fun.
I adored Paper Girls only to finish it and find out Amazon passed on a second season. 
Is Rings of Power trying to catch up to GoT or what?
Peoj Snamreh wrote:Which movies are better than the book - I wonder while typing. I think I will settle for Blade Runner.
Agree with Blade Runner. Also...
Lifeforce
Planet of the Apes
The Quiet Earth
Children of Men
Haven't watched the latest Rings episode yet, it's just one of those shows where I'll get around to it eventually, not one of those shows that I'm like, yes, a new episode dropped I need to watch ASAP.
Pages