Rings of Power thoughts after ep 4 [Spoilers]
Rings of Power thoughts after ep 4 [Spoilers]
How are people feeling about it? I was disappointed by season 1, but happy to keep watching as I'm a die hard fan from childhood.
Season 2 had me excited at first ...
spoilers (and ranting)
The first two-three episodes at least had me even a little pumped.
The dark wizard in the east very much signals to me that the stranger could be a blue wizard, along with the dark wizard, which is honestly very cool and a nice way to split the difference around Tolkien's "speculation" on what happened to them.
Getting more complex Sauron manipulation and moving the plot along too seemed nice.
But after episode 4, I don't know. I came away from it thinking it might have been the worst tv episode I've watched since Picard S2, which was very strange given how much interesting shit they did. Ents, Bombadil, Wizards, Hobbit origins (actually I don't care for the amount of hobbit stuff in the show at all).
But there was something just boring about it all for me.
The only way I can explain what I think I'm seeing, and why it's fundamentally flawed, is that the writers/directors want to take Tolkien seriously and even feel rather pressured to do so ... and so in many ways they're actually writing/filming that sense of seriousness rather than a well thought out adaptation style.
The clue for me is how the whole show is at once strangely grounded and somehow "elevated" at the same time. The elves, such as Galadriel and Elrond, are kinda normal people doing normal things a lot of the time (compare LoTR trilogy Galadriel basically being mind-crushing and haunting most of the time) ... but talk as though they're reading directly from the bible or Silmarillion. Same for Halbrand/Annatar/Sauron. The construction of the rings is a clue into this I think, where they've attempted to portray it as powerful and important, but there's absolutely no sense of how in the world they're magical, no indication that there's some special elven craft behind them. Just "add mithril and get powerful rings".
Bombadil's dialogue seemed the same to me. Talking about being the eldest as though he's talking about what happened last week. Now in that character this sort of approach makes the most sense. But even so, there didn't seem to be any joy, jolly or aloofness about the character to signal how old he must be to be casual about witnessing the beginning of time. And there's always the concern the show should have for making us the viewer feel what's happening on screen ... and I don't think we felt Bombadil's mysteriousness much at all. Compare with, in the LoTR books, Tolkien using a wonderful way of showing that ... the one ring had no affect no him whatsoever to the point that he could see Frodo while he was wearing it.
The only breath of fresh air so far has been the dark wizard, which clearly takes cues from Saruman. It's probably been the only sense stylistically I've gotten that we're in a lost age of a fantasy world.
One take I had from season 1 was that RoP's biggest problem might be that it's being made after Game of Thrones not before it. That GoTs is absolutely the wrong influence for a show like this and yet is likely to have one due to its pervasive success. And I feel like I may have been right about that. The Tolkien world and GoT "politics and intrigue" are not compatible. Moreover, I suspect the GoT style may have run its course somewhat. A show like RoP was a chance to try something interestingly mystical and I don't think the creators were up to the challenge, perhaps not at all.
Going to watchep 4 tonight so I have not read your post yet but they really lost me when they had the orcs being like "we don't wanna fight we have peace" lol
Come back and let me know how you feel!
Interestingly, I'm kinda down with the orc stuff. As far as lore is concerned with, I don't think Tolkien was every happy with what he'd done with the orcs, or at least felt like the ideas weren't finished. That they are derived from elves is right there, thus Adar, and given that this is all supposed to still be "early", and kinda not that long after the first age, it makes sense to insert some diversity from that. It's not like the show's orcs aren't orcs, they're still plenty awful creatures. They've just added some backstory and depth to the "race" I'd say, pretty much inline with the lore AFAICT. And also consistent with how Tolkien wasn't entirely sure about having a race that's intrinsically "evil" to the point that it gets passed directly or genetically on to its children. Given that their origin is through the torture of elves, it makes sense that they could be conditioned to revert and that being lead by Adar, an essentially half orc half elf creature, has that effect.
One could also argue that it adds weight to the harm done by Sauron's work. That a truly better world could have come about had he not sought to rule it.
Yeah, in LOTR and the hobbit they're just evil animals on 2 legs, cruelty embodied, basically a reflection of the worst parts of humanity.
I really like that these orcs have more depth to them, even in the silmarillion they were just empty villains.
Ok, full disclosure I am by no means a LOTR fan Ive seen the movies and that's about it... But
I really agree with your last paragraph about how they seem to be trying to fit a square inside a circle type of thing with trying to fit the GOT type of universe and storytelling with political power inside of something where it feels just off. I wish we got more details on what the rings are how they give powers etc for me all I know is that they are elven made rings that have mithril (no idea how to spell that) in them and now boom they are magic.
As for my thoughts on this season so far I don't really think it's good either. The fights or actions scenes really look bad no idea why like in the last episode where Galadriel fights the orcs it seemed like the orcs just did nothing and she did fake looking moves and then of course a slow motion back bend. And then hommie grabs the arrow... What... Anyways I do agree the dark wizard and the fellas with the masks are actually really cool and intriguing and how they are hunting the stranger (this might be one of the only things I like right now) the harfoots with him could kinda care less. I remember being interested in the other main elf with the group of humans but now he just seemed to have done nothing besides help carry water in first 4 EP and now will go hunt orcs because of the promise to the trees that's cool. As for the other guy who meets the girl and ride on the horse (sorry I know I'm terrible with names...) I just fail to connect with him like at all he seems boring and makes stupid decisions like helping that fella who was broken down on the road.
Thanks for you take on the orcs however I understood them as being intrinsically evil like how the dark side in star wars is intrinsically greedy and evil.
Edit: I still like it though lol it's good enough looks fantastic and I love fantasy
I'm still on board, I thought about it and here's why:
This is an excellent series, for 10-15 years ago.
It's puts a LOT into the atmosphere and world building, which is why we loved the movies.
It mostly nails the akallabeth, the whole post-silmarillion era. There's some hobbit in there too.
Post-GoT, it is extremely boring, no moments of shock value or incredible twists, the plot is slow and lumbering... But that's Tolkien. He wrote in the 30s and his books read closer to the Bible, they were just fun to read.
I like this show because kid me who adored the silmarillion would have loved this.
I'm not ashamed to say this is nostalgia in a bottle for me.
I hear you and I’m probably exactly the same! I’ll almost certainly watch it till its end.
I'm sure there are dozens of us.
But this is less about the plot and more about seeing the elves, which LOTR always teased us with. Moria was fun too, though it really felt like an afterthought.