The Rings of Power Post-watch Discussion (Spoilers)

A new thread for people who have seen the show to talk about it. Spoilers for days. Nothing is off the table.

{{ Ill hopefully be seeing it Saturday evening. And I plan on watching it in a VR cinema to give it the maximum chance to impress me.
Ill make a 'first impressions' post afterwards and probably something more in depth later. }}

It feels like the calm before the storm around here...

Because it is! Galadriel is going to release the tempest inside of her.

Couldn't get to see it here. Booked out.
That many bookings could have sold a fortnight's worth.
Apparently it's crap and not worth watching if you go on Twitter.
Reviews sound pretty good.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{ Ill hopefully be seeing it Saturday evening. And I plan on watching it in a VR cinema  to give it the maximum chance to impress me.
Ill make a 'first impressions' post afterwards and probably something more in depth later. }}

Unleash the Crabbit!

Well I guess it's available this evening at 6 o'clock my time. Curious.

It's my mom's birthday today but she was being dodgy as hell about whether she wanted a party. If she's not going to be doing anything I may watch the first episode tonight (borrowing my sister's prime password of course) and share some thoughts.

Oh no, this is being released all at once isn't it? I hate that format. So... indulgent, the way that people can binge an entire season in one afternoon and evening.

I mean, imagine waiting five years, and then you coom your way through all of that content in a matter of hours.

24 minutes to go

Despair.

{{ Well I have eps 1 and 2 ready to watch- noone warned me Id have to endure 2 of them! Unfortunately dont think Ill get chance to watch till I finish work tomorrow. But expect my crabbit thoughts or very surprised happiness tomorrow. }}

Having trouble caring enough to post, to be honest.

Here's your fair Galadriel everyone:


Self-righteous crabby Mcstinkerface.

Forest Shepherd wrote:Having trouble caring enough to post, to be honest.

That is a review in itself!

I'm still not sure if I want to watch it or not, nothing about the marketing/plot summary (or leaks/spoilers) has really grabbed my interest and I barely watch TV anyway, also wondering if I'm too much of a hardcore fan of the books to give a truly objective review? It's essentially going to be fan fiction so is it fair to compare it to Tolkien himself? It's apparently something of a slow burn series and is planned to run for 5 seasons? The first two episodes are a prologue/setting the scene for the series so if I don't like them I don't think I'd bother continuing with the series.



None of my family are Tolkien/LOTR fans at all, though my partner's family are casual fans (though I think only her mother has actually read the books-only LOTR and The Hobbit though doubt she knows anything about the 1st/2nd ages) and are apparently watching the opening episodes tonight, they seem to love fantasy/sci-fi in general so I think they'll like it?

(My partner said she'd rather watch the show with me but isn't bothered if she dosen't...not sure we'll trust her mother's opinions on this as she told us we'd love 'The Witcher' TV series... and both of us hated it...

I think I'd rather just wait and see what Petty and Eldy think first before I decide whether to watch it...

It's been over 7 years since Battle Of The Five Armies was released and I've not yet been able to bring myself to rewatch the Hobbit trilogy (I've caught a few scenes here and there on TV) though I've watched LOTR a few times since, not sure I could stomach another dissapointing adaptation...

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{ Well I have eps 1 and 2 ready to watch- noone warned me Id have to endure 2 of them! Unfortunately dont think Ill get chance to watch till I finish work tomorrow. But expect my crabbit thoughts or very surprised happiness tomorrow. }}

Been far too long since we'd had a good crabit review Petty...

...I actually have this week (and half of next) off work so can watch the episodes at any time I choose...I haven't yet...not sure I want to risk ruining my holiday like that

Well...I did just watch the opening credits on youtube/listen to the Title theme just now...



Which I liked...I think?...a clear reference to The Ainulindalë though I imagine some viewers were less than enthralled by such a low key title sequence...not entirely sure what connection it has with the 2nd age or rings of power though...

I liked the sands and vibrations, but it did look like they were trying to make a GOT intro.

Well hello to all
Been a long time since I've vented here.
Looks like it's time again.

Watched the netflixs LOTR new show episodes One and two last night and all I have time to say now is... WTF?

Hopefully everyone else is thrilled but... that would surprise me very much indeed.

Petty, you'd better get in the right head space to watch it.
I recommend maximum levels of calming libations allowable by law and more.
I suspect that will fall short of what's needed to numb your sensibilities and spare you the anguish I believe we will share after your viewing.

In any case I wish you all a pleasant weekend.
Happy trails to all

Welcome back!

Ah yes, the crabbit is uniting some of the far-flung members of our little society. Very good.

So apparently it was just the two episodes at first, and future episodes will be released weekly. https://www.ign.com/articles/lord-of-the-rings-rings-of-power-episode-release-schedule-timings-premiere-date

They're coming out at 9 PM my time on Thursdays.

I think I shall re-watch episode 1 this evening and post some thoughts.

Episode 1 Thoughts, let us begin

We start with a young Galadriel being bullied by orc-children. She has made a folded paper boat and sets it in a stream. One orc-child, a male, mocks her attempts and the others throw rocks at it as the paper unfolds into the shape of a swan boat. The boat is hit, Galadriel leaps on to the boy and gains the upper hand in a scene that will be familiar to anyone who has seen a movie about a powerful female character. Wait a second...

Hold on I'm sorry, these are elf-children, they're just acting like orcs. Oops!

An older brother of Galadriel's shows up and they talk for a while. The boat is a metaphor for her of course. And so the show wants us to know two things:

1. Galadriel is mistrusted and mocked by her fellow elves. Only her brother believes in her.
2. Galadriel will be challenged in the future to determine which path to take, as "sometimes the lights [the right thing to do] shine just as brightly reflected in the water as they do in the sky" and it can be hard to know what to do.


I mean it's something. Tying it into stars is a good idea, whatever.
But the first point is ass. Why set up Galadriel as a misfit hot-head who noone believes in but who only fails when the doubts of her companions hold her back? Hold on, this reminds me of a trope... I think it starts with M...a...r... No I can't remember the rest.

Anyway, little brother-sister moment between [Finrod] (noone says his name, but he's on the cast list) and Galadriel, and then onward, to the main prologue!
(Brief nitpick, strange that ?Finrod should tell her that he won't always be there to help her discern the truth when, as the narrator says immediately after, "we had no word for death". But perhaps ?Finrod meant that he might be off on some journey or something.)

The brief shot of the elves swearing with their swords around a table is NOT the Oath of Feanor, because Finrod is one of the elves here.

The prologue is real broad-strokes, and has very, very little to do with the histories we know.

We get:
-Morgoth destroys the trees
-Elves sail east to slay him with eagles
-War goes on for centuries
-Morgoth is defeated
-his orcs multiply under Sauron and spread across Middle-earth
-?Finrod is slain by Sauron while hunting him. Sauron places a mark on his flesh. (??)
-Galadriel takes up the hunt for Sauron
-many years pass and the elves believe that the threat is ended

That's about it. Not much more going on. Dumbed-down to a ludicrous extent, but I guess they didn't want to "bore" their audience.

Something begins here that I believe we'll see more of throughout the duration of the show. And this is LotR-*movie* callbacks:
The giant eagles are here and the fell-beasts of the Nazgul, looking unchanged from their appearance in LotR, at least to my eyes.
Galadriel is narrating again.
Phrases are lifted almost whole-sale from LotR. Gandalf's "I searched for the creature, Gollum, everywhere, but the enemy found him first" becomes Galadriel's "My brother vowed to seek him out and destroy him, but Sauron found him first."
"History became legend, legend became myth, and for two and a half thousand years the ring passed out of all knowledge" becomes "Year gave way to year, century gave way to century, and for many elves, the pain of those days passed out of thought and mind".




Well anyway, that's the set up for the show. As usual in adaptations it dumbs down the material, shrinks the size of the world, and teases out a single thread for the audience to follow. Unfortunately, in this case, that single thread is a man-hunt for Sauron rashly pursued by a mistrusted and disliked by her fellow elves version of Galadriel who has nothing left to lose (TM).
She even narrates from a biased position, talking about how the other elves foolishly, it is implied, believe that the threat is past because... well the threat is past. Hmm I wonder if the threat is really past??? What a riveting plot.

More to follow.

Because, after all, it is one thing to add in little Tolkien-isms, but Jackson-isms have such a blatant REMEMBER LOTR??? feel to them.

We pick back up with Galadriel and her company ice-climbing. The dreaded scene! The elves have spikes on the toes of their sabatons and picks that they are using to climb with. Excuses must be made for the lack of realism because these are graceful elves, but still: Galadriel climbing with only her dagger is utter rubbish. Did I mention that she outpaces everyone by a wide margin?

Oh look, the same little orc-boy who Galadriel fought as a child has grown into a Gollum-elf creature. Wondrous!


I am so glad that the writers chose to have Galadriel surrounded by others who dislike her and resent her position of authority over them. What is this, a show written for bitchy women who work in retail?

While studying a map by herself on the cliff-top, Galadriel draws her dagger (strangely unblemished after hammering it into ice and rock for the last two thousand feet) and points it at a location on the map. Perfectly normal behaviour. I do that all the time when I take my phone out for directions: draw my knife and point it at my destination.

There are some real quality lines in this section.
"My hand is past feeling".
"No, this place is so evil that our torches give off no warmth".
And the lines from the scene we saw already.

A burning-hot mark of Sauron is found: still fiery enough to vaporize water after perhaps a hundred years. Hot hands of a dark lord

They fight an ice-troll. Galadriel alone is able to harm the beast and slays it in about 12 seconds. Everyone else gets thrown, crushed, and beaten.
Hey do you remember the troll from FotR? Yeah that scene dragged a little but the defeat really felt earned. It is not so here. She just looks like she's showing off: facing away from the creature after striking it, slinging troll-blood onto the camera lens. (My immersion!)
This is enough to provoke a revolt from her company, and everyone turns to go home. Cue main title screen!

Next we jump over to Rhovanion, the Wilderlands, and it's those antler-hunters we all saw before. They have those fake-looking giant moose antlers strapped to their backs, and this seems to be all that they're bringing back with them. Unless they killed the moose and are bringing back just the antlers I would call these fellows "gatherers", because you don't need a spear to pick up some fallen antlers in the woods and carry them home. They could use it for various crafts, I suppose, but it's kind of silly. This is an old custom though, because the chief of the midgets has a pictograph of the hunters with their antlers. Unless this is prophecy and not just pattern recognition?

Now one of the antler-hunters is some old hairy, crusty fellow, but the other is... quite diverse, shall we say.

And from here on out folks, all bets are off. You can find anything in this vast world, because while consistent accents within a culture are important enough to pay full time accent coaches, consistent clothing and tools within a culture are important enough to pay set-dressers and costumers a small fortune, the ethnicity of an actor or actress doesn't matter at all! Because, you know, caring about that aspect of world-building is RAY-CIST AS FUCK.

The first hobbit erm harfoot? nah let's go with: midget that we see is a jolly little troll-faced gnome looking guy who is just pleased as punch to be stalking around in the grass. Quite amusing lol. But also kind of a strange choice.

The midgets live in a Lost Boys type settlement of various assorted wagons and wicker-baskets, and they were all hiding with their food while the two worst hunters of all time traipsed by. As soon as the all-clear is blown the midgets bring out their food and get back to midget-activities.

Lenny Henry is fine as the chief. He has some personality to him.
But it is jarring to see him and his part-African female midgets gossiping in what I assume to be some West Country accent about the reason for the hunters being here this time of year. Why use a rural English accent for your diverse cast of midgets? Eh? I THOUGHT YOU WERE MAKING THIS SHOW FOR EVERYONE. WHY NOT HAVE A DIVERSITY OF ACCENTS. You disingenuous hacks. (Refer to my corrected image in an earlier post to see who is responsible.)

Also, this must be Nori's step-mom, because they look nothing alike.
Bah, whatever moving on.

All the female midgets have a lot of rouge on their cheeks. I'm sure this is meant to make them look rosy-cheeked, but I guess no-one informed the diversity director that "rosy-cheeked" is not so much a black person thing. The result tends towards the garish.


That screen-grab was poorly timed. I'll try and get a better one:


Ehh, I don't know, maybe the rouge isn't too bad. It does stand out though as you watch. Definitely over-done.

Perhaps I need to elide over the rest and not pick at details so much. This is taking a long time.
I'm off for the night.

You are doing a great service Forest. I am totally not watching this as I can't be giving them the views to encourage more of this rubbish!