#LOTR TROP critical

[laoih]

It's really sad how Amazon butchered the Elves in their Middle-earth fanfic series.

Sure, to each their own interpretation – but I don't have to like each interpretation, and as far as I am concerned, Amazon's imagination is very poor when it comes to Elves.

Almost none of the male Elves has long hair. Instead, they have weirdly modern hairstyles. In the North, almost every Elf-women aside from Galadriel is veiled. In the South, the Elves are occupiers of human villages. Elven soldiers are a joke – they easily get tricked, captured and killed by Orcs in the South and easily get taken out by the troll in the North.

And those Elves that were originally created by Tolkien... it's a mess.

Galadriel, one of the oldest Elves, coming from a house of kings, is portrayed like a moody child throughout the show. She constantly talks about her pain but shows no empathy or concern for the opinions of feelings of others. She antagonises everyone she meets for no apparent reason. She demands to see the manager at least twice. People tell her that she's behaving poorly, but decide to admire her anyway because the series demands it. She manipualtes others to get what she wants. In the 6th episode she suddenly wants to torture and kill her prisoners. In the 7th episode out of nowhere Galadriel suddenly feels guilty for what happened in Mordor for no reason. And the show tries to give her a character arc from not being able to let her dagger go in episode 1 to letting it go in episode 8, but the reason behind what happens in 8 has nothing to do with what happens in 1, so this isn't actually a character arc at all. She just stays the annoying, childish, dislikable character that she's been from the start.

Gil-galad is just as badly portrayed as Galadriel. He is constantly dressed all in gold instead of silver. He lets Elrond write his speeches, as if he doesn't know what to say by himself. He shipps his political opponents off to Valinor. He somehow believes that the Elves will all fade and die by spring because a tree is losing leaves. He seems to know darkness is spreading, but pretends it's not happening, ignoring the signs of trouble that have been found. And he comes up with super dumb strategies to get Elrond to spy on the Dwarves in Khazad-dûm, and even tells Elrond to break his oath. Sure, Gil-galad is not a very well-developed character in Tolkien's texts, but this is just not him.

Celebrimbor is almost worse. He is an old man, spending most of his time suddenly remembering random stories that he can tell Elrond about his father. At times he actually looks like he is tired or slightly disoriented because of his age. He is supposed to be a master smith, but doesn't know how alloys work. Gently coaxing mithril to be combined with gold and silder imply means dropping the mithril piece into the liquid gold and silver mix. And the Three Rings are not the height of his craft, but a relatively sponatous project because the plot says the Elves will soon fade or leave Middle-earth. Everything about this is just horrible.

Elrond is probably still the best portrayal of Tolkien's Elves. He is somewhat sympathetic at least. Yet even he has to suffer from the poor writing of this show. The legacy of his father is acknowledged, but Elrond is still not considered an Elf-lord. He is portrayed as someone ignoring his friend's marriage and the birth of his children. He lies to his friend, he spies on him, and tries to discover his secrets despite it being obvious that they are supposed to stay secret. He swears an oath to his friend to protect his secret, but later on breaks it, even though the show tries to make us believe he didn't.

Finrod is barely shown in the show, but the few bits and pieces are more than enough to mess up this character as well. Finrod here talks in dumb metaphors, and then gives his sister questionable advice – advice that Sauron would later used to build his argumentation on! In addtion, even though his death stays very vague, the show images that imply that his heroic end has been changed.

I have love the Elves ever since I was a child and listend to a radio play of The Lord of the Rings on the radio. This show can't expect me to like it if it treats the Elves like this.

#Elves #LOTR #LOTR TROP #LOTR The Rings of Power #Rings of Power #LOTR Rings of Power #The Rings of Power #Rings of Power spoilers #random thoughts #LOTR TROP critical

[anipologist]

Does anyone one else remember that terrible Tolkien adaptation called The Lord of the Rings Musical?

It was super weird, very expensive with a moving stage, used almost none of Tolkien’s actual songs and was quickly forgotten…

#jrr tolkien #lord of the rings #lord of the rings musical #anti trop #anti rings of power #rop critical #to be fair some of the songs sounded amazing #they just weren’t Tolkien #and not Galadriels voice was 👌 #like Tolkien already wrote Lotr the musical why wouldn’t you use the built in songs…?

[fixing-bad-posts]

From your tags: "if anyone wants to ask me about rings of power please do because i have thoughts™" This is me asking. (Also love your blog!)

i love you for asking, thank you 💛💛💛 this will be part three: parting thoughts & the funniest details from rings of power (part one; part two).

some parting thoughts:

i absolutely hate that all critics of the show are labelled as racists, misogynists, and anti-progressives, especially when the show’s treatment of women is tokenizing and pitiful, and it does nothing revolutionary nor makes a meaningful statement on issues of marginalized race. they don’t get to position themselves as champions of diversity just by doing the bare minimum and casting poc in side-roles, and having one original-character black elf whose plotline is tragically underwritten. they’re already taking vast liberties with the source material—why not a black galadriel? why not an asian elrond?

with that out of the way, some of my favourite* parts from rings of power:

* when i say "favourite" i mean i'm about to make fun of the show.

i love the part in the show where galadriel spends years of her life tracking down the ‘mark of sauron’—which looks like a little stylized pitchfork—only to discover it’s actually not a sigil. it’s a map, turned sideways, and sketched in modern minimalist style with the least helpful, least detailed, least interpretable shapes because apparently morgoth was really really bad at drawing mountains. and sauron, for some reason, is so forgetful that he carves this “map” into dead bodies and his tables and weapons and gloves so that he? won’t forget which mountain range he’s trying to conquer? wants to give his enemies fun clues about his favourite piece of real estate? unclear.

i love that one scene where galadriel and halbrand are on a raft and the set designers/director did not give morfydd clark enough stage business so she spends the whole scene pulling the same piece of rope tight, and then loosening it, and then pulling it tight again, on a random piece of wood.

in the same vein, i love the part where a conversation between nori and her mom happens except the stage business they were given for the scene was apparently… rub a rock on a piece of wood. and they just have to do that for the entire scene as if it’s normal.

i love the part where the writers seemingly forgot to actually go in and edit their placeholder dialogue and they have gandalf yell, “i’m good!” when he’s mistaken for sauron in the finale.

i love the part where galadriel discovers who sauron is and then goes inside and does not tell anyone what she learned for some reason. and elrond asks her what’s up and she’s just like, there’s no time to explain. and then never explains ever.

i think it’s really funny that the writers want sauron to be “like walter white, tony soprano and the joker,” when these characters have nothing in common except being well-written characters. i like to imagine they sit around the writers’ room examining every single piece of well-written television, marvelling over the very idea of multifaceted characters—a concept completely foreign to them.

and, for posterity—i have fun criticizing rings of power. i like to think i gave rop a fair shot—when i started watching it, i was fully hoping it would be well-done. when i heard the show was coming out, it gave me an excuse to re-read the silmarillion for the first time in years, and has connected me with the tolkien fandom on tumblr. i’m also a script writer irl and, so it’s been a fun exercise to pick apart why the show didn’t work for me both from a fan’s perspective and a writer’s perspective. a lot of tolkien fans are deeply hurt by this show and hate its existence and its fans—that’s not me. i would not be engaging with this material if i wasn’t having a good time doing it.

that's all for me, folks—thanks for tuning in; i'll shut up about this now haha.

#ask fbp #anon ask #fandom posting #rop critical #anti rop #anti amazon lotr #anti rings of power #amazon rings of power #rings of power #rings of power negative #anti trop #rings of power critical #rings of power analysis #rings of power meta

[adelcrait]

the rings of power (2022) would have been funnier if sauron was so burnt out from being evil that his powers glitched. flying birds would die around him and animals would hiss at him. flowers and trees would rot when he walks by. he blinks and gets snake eyes. when he gets mad, it snows on a sunny day. when he sneezes, buildings crash. he drags random passerbys into terrifying, scream-inducing visions just by accidentally brushing hands in a crowd. he gets the occasional demonic voice crack and has to cough it out. and galadriel? she thinks halbrand has been cursed by sauron

#this is too entertaining for my little brain im having too much fun with this au #tags: #the rings of power #trop #trop spoilers #sauron #galadriel #halbrand #trop meta #lord of the rings #lotr #txt #the rings of power spoilers #also mind you that my lotr lore is very limited and im aware this show has criticism from lotr fans! i just think the potential for sauron #being an absolute wreck w his powers as a concept is very funny

[symphonyofsilence]

Of "The Rings of Power" and its many problems

so, so many trailers had been released and all of them are centered around Galadriel & not even one of them had mentioned her canonical ambition of becoming a queen.

I understand that she’s now a military commander and military commanders are and do raise in positions of power. but if she does, it’s not because she was actively seeking it.

what they’ve kept telling us about Galadriel so far is that apparently, only now after thousands of years she has been informed that her brother is dead. (*sarcasm*) & is seeking revenge and for that, "Galadriel has been on a quest for over a thousand years. Scouring Middle-earth."

& if you don't show that she was trying to gain political power, then you're not showing that she desired power, then she's not fulfilling the very wish that brought her to Middle-earth. She wanted to rule her own land, you’re not showing that she left everything she had in Valinor to come to Middle earth to spend years seeking that power, & if you're not showing that she desired power, then there will be no weight to the scene where Frodo offers her the ring & she refuses for the sake of Middle-earth, even if the destruction of the one ring results in the destruction of her own ring & her power. She "will diminish, go into the west, and remain Galadriel."

So, you know WHERE the character will end up & you have a whole series to get her to that point, but you don't, & you make a whole other bullshit not-arc cuz you believe that the only way to write a strong female character™️ is to give her a sword & make it her whole character. I've talked about that problem here. & "the authentic observer" explained the problem in depth in her video essay "the Desecration of feminity" way better than I.(go watch it! It's fantastic!)

and I thought I was being nitpicky when I said that I felt like I just witnessed a student walk up to their Professor & call them by their first name (in our country it’s very disrespectful) when Elrond called Galadriel by her first name instead of “Lady Galadriel”. but really, no, it’s not. It’s even more testimony to how they keep insisting on reducing Galadriel’s position, age, wisdom, caliber, magnitude, and power. one sure way to show such things in a character is by showing others’ reverence towards them. Elrond & Galadriel are not peers to be on first-name terms. they’re not the same age and not on the same level. Galadriel is 4 generations Elrond’s senior on his father’s side, and three Generations older on his mother’s side, she’ll become his mother-in-law, She’s seen the light of the trees, she’s been taught by Aule, by Melian the Maia, she’s seen Elrond’s legendary ancestors, and their land, she’s survived the first age! living with Maedhros & Maglor, Elrond has seen firsthand what the war did to people, and he would respect Galadriel immensely for surviving that. he wouldn’t try to advise her to PuT uP HeR SwoRd, which by the way was a very cringe line, that whole conversation was very cringe, like every other dialogue we’ve heard so far of the show. It sounds like George Lucas is trying his hand at writing like Tolkien, but I digress, Elrond wouldn’t do that because aside from him living through the first age and many personal adversaries and being a loremaster & very wise & having the gift of foresight & canonically always perceiving evil before it reveals itself & suspecting Annatar from the get-go, he would immensely respect Galadriel, he would listen to what she had to say and take her advise & in cases such as this, doubt himself first before doubting her. she knew she’s much wiser. and he would call her “Lady Galadriel”.(these aside, even Maeglin & Aragorn called their mothers “Lady”, and Aragorn called Arwen “lady Undomiel”, and Arwen & Idril called their husbands “lord” & Maedhros called his uncle “lord”. that was just how they talked back then. at least that’s how the “royalties” talked, and by showing them talking like that, you capture the era you’re trying to show. and also the class of the characters you’re showing. GoT understood that. but I wouldn’t nitpick this if It wasn’t for Elrond calling Galadriel by her first name alone, and it wasn’t after many attempts at assassinating Galadriel’s character.)

& then there was that scene of her companion throwing her like a baseball ball. That aside from that being SO FUCKING STUPID OH MY GOD WTF WHAT WERE THEY THINKING! could you imagine someone throwing book!Galadriel, Fingolfin, or Elrond or Feanor like that?! No! ‘cause they great lords & ladies! like second age Galadriel is! even in the show, she’s the COMMANDER of the army!

& she's apparently, as morfydd Clarke said "on a quest for revenge". When has ever revenge worked out for any Tolkien character? Fëanor was after revenge, his sons were, Thorin Oakenshield was, Turgon took revenge when he pushed Eol to his death. Even Eowyn was not after revenge when she killed the witch king of Angmar. She was just protecting her uncle's body.

all their anger was justified! But the story is against revenge. Revenge is answering violence with violence. & the story, written by a war Veteran, is against violence.

& also she's described as "brash & angry". "Angry" is never a positive feeling in Tolkien's writings. Fëanor was angry, three of the sons of Fëanor were angry (even his "better" sons are never described as angry), Fingolfin was angry moments before his death, Melkor was angry, and Turin was angry. Anger was people's downfall. & yes, Book!Galadriel when she decided to "pursue Fëanor in anger"! But what happened? They crossed the frozen Hell in anger and lost people dear to them (& probably blamed themselves cuz they were the ones leading the rebels.) just to find out that Fëanor was dead. & what reunited the Noldor & made them strong & triumphant & resulted in the long peace was Fingon's kindness that made him let go of his anger & forgive the Fëanorians even though he had every reason to hate them when the burning of the ships resulted in his brother's & his sister-in-law's death. Then Galadriel was taught for years by Melian the Maia. She must have learned her anti-anger lessons by now.

"Good" people or "good' warriors are like Finrod the beloved, Fingon who "troth and justice he loved and bore goodwill to all, both Elves and Men, hating Morgoth only; he sought not his own, neither power nor glory", Faramir who did not "love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. only that which they defend.", Elrond "as kind as summer" Peredhel (notice how Tolkien does use "as strong as a warrior but ends the description with "as kind as summer" as though this was the most important & impressive part.) Or BOOK!GALADRIEL!

because being gentle, mild-mannered, nice & kind is not weakness! (Just coincidentally traditionally feminine qualities...hmmm. telling.)

Actually, when you don't give into anger it shows that you're a master of your emotions and behavior. Things cannot easily provoke you. You're in control. & since anger is usually due to other emotions, it also shows that you can process your own emotions. It’s a lot more powerful.

I've also talked here about why her motivation sounds like Fëanor & how they could make it actually meaningful. But I highly doubt that they would end it like this. I'm not saying that she should never be angry. Just that the moral of the story should be anti-giving-in-to-anger as per Tolkien. Yes, make her go after revenge & be angry. But then make her realize that she's becoming the very thing she hated & anger is burning her life away (& maybe make her do sth horrible like unleash all her power without control & hurt some innocents) and let her let go of her revenge. But judging by the route they took, and what they did until now to her character, I don't think it's going to end like this. "Anger" is cool & badass for women in the eyes of Hollywood. You know all these things that are contributed to toxic masculinity like acting on anger, forcing yourself to be stoic & emotionless, not showing vulnerability, acting rudely towards your subalterns & peers, that are condemned, you know, "toxic"? Yeah, it's toxic for men. But women? Nah, it's badass. Do it.

As I've said before I don't have any problem with Galadriel wielding a sword & going to battles, there are parts in the books that indicated that she did.

What I do have problems with, is turning this

To this

'cause apparently, the first one (the canonical one) is not powerful enough. Probably because it's ladylike 'cause with it being said & shown multiple times in the book that Galadriel is very powerful, I don't see what else would be the problem.

& again, could you imagine book!Galadriel, Fingolfin, or Fëanor in this pose?

No, 'cause it's not "genteel" behavior! Being "noble" is a huge factor in Tolkien's writings & noble people act like the court-appropriate upbringing they had!

and I think we all know why there is no word of Celeborn and Celebrian so far at least in the marketing: strong women don’t give in to patriarchy by marrying a man and becoming mothers.

(also you know that you don’t have to make your male characters weak so your female characters can be strong. right? you know it’s very offensive and patronizing like putting an adult in a competition among children to win? right? and besides that, every male character telling Galadriel to “put up your sword” and “why do you fight” so Galadriel can say that she will always fight and “there is a tempest in me” is very cringe you know?)

but enough about Galadriel.

not only they don’t understand the themes of the book but they also went for Tolkien’s worldbuilding!

you know how Tolkien invented some languages & then realized that he needed a world for those languages & then wrote his stories?

well, Amazon went for the languages & the worldbuilding.

there is a hobbit named Elanor. which is a Sindarin name. the name of a flower that the Eldar brought from Tol eressa to Numenor. both lands that the hobbits never set foot into. they also never met any elves. the elves didn’t know that they existed.

let alone that no hobbits should have any important roles in the second age &  Harfoots ARE hobbits!

And the calm & quiet & anti-adventurous nature of the hobbits except the Tooks was part of the world-building. So our heroes could be unremarkable persons of an unremarkable community that left their peaceful lives behind so they could change the world without actually having such responsibility so that the moral of the story could be that "Such is of the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world: small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere." & "even the smallest person can change the future."

& ELANOR was significant for Sam, a gardener who travelled through Lorien & saw the flowers & brought the gift of Galadriel with him & revived the Shire after the war. & FRODO was the one who suggested it! It was a big, beautiful moment! Elanor, Keeper of the Red Book of Westmarch must be the first hobbit to be named Elanor!

also, there are two Durin at the same time. they’re father and son. the showrunners said that it’s because of the time compression. but that’s not a convincing reason. the time compression itself doesn’t sound good. how are you going to compress a whole age? not only it will destroy how powerful Sauron was to gain and hold power over Middle-earth for so many years, but it also ruins the rich history of Numenor and its slow, tragic demise. (fast corruption arcs are either like Anakin’s and show! Daenerys’, or look like the character or characters were evil from the beginning.)

also, OC Pharazon’s son is named Kemen. a Quenya name. you know, the Pharazon who hated anything elvish & so firmly believed in only using Aduniac that he even changed Tar-Miriel’s name to aduniac Ar-Zimraphel?

unless they address it in the series (like, say that Kemen’s mother was the one who named him, & that’s why she’s not married to Pharazon anymore cuz they had widely different beliefs, & the name shows how different Kemen is to his father or something like that) it’s just another testimony to their ignorance, with what I’ve seen so far, I don’t have much hope.

& yes, the long hair of the elves, & the beard of the dwarves was unique & proper for their races & suit them & made the elves graceful & ethereal & the dwarves rough. & changing them was breaking the lore & also in the case of female dwarves, once again, trying to appease wider audiences by eliminating creative elements of the fantasy world.

but it was part of the worldbuilding! different communities have different beauty standards & different clothes & hairstyles & different everything!

like in the real world, Chinese people all had long hair 'cause they believed that all parts of their bodies, including their hair, were a gift from their parents & cutting their hair was an offense to their parents. cutting them was for nuns or criminals. native Americans kept their hair long 'cause they believed that long hair shows a connection to nature & power. It’s like if GoT cut the hair of the Dothrakis & or ATLA cut the topknots of the fire nation! it’s not just about appearances, but culture, beliefs, and history, too! like, family is important for the Chinese & nature for the native Americans, etc...

so the long hair of the elves, & beard of the dwarvendams showed their culture, beliefs, history & in the case of the dwarves, genetics,

& It’s funny how some rightists are screaming about how the show is woke while the show is here like, God forbid, traditionally feminine women are strong & powerful & women have facial hair & men have long hair?! not in this house!

& I wouldn’t have this much problem with it had the showrunners not LIED ABOUT ALL THESE!

and well, I think all of these, whether it’s changing a rich, beloved character to the point that it’s unrecognizable from the original because they don’t understand and appreciate the original character because they don’t give enough time to thinking about it, or not understanding or appreciating the themes & the worldbuilding, & or coloring fabrics like metal or scale to look like armor & not even bother to edit out the folds of the fabric, and not bother to use more creativity in the designs of the character, or find a more beautiful wig for Galadriel, or bother to use any accessory for any character, I think it just speaks of lack of love.

and lack of love & appreciation results in a lack of dedication & half-hearted products,

nobody forces fan artists or pays them to draw their favorite characters in the most beautiful way they can imagine. they do it because they love them. nobody forces fanfiction writers to write about their favorite character in the most in-character way they can think of. It’s because they appreciate them.

I don’t think you should make any adaptation of any book unless you love that book. & I don’t see any love in Amazon’s LOTR.

#I think the image of the LOTR!Galadriel is from the amazing ifallelseperished #lotr on prime #the rings of power #rings of power #trop #rop #lotr trop #tolkien #amazon lotr #rop critic #galadriel #elrond #long post #very very long post #tolkien meta

[absynthe--minded]

so Amazon is heavily airing and promoting a TV spot for TROP that centers around the fan experience through the eyes of a young Black boy, uplifting specifically their take on Tolkien as racially diverse and welcoming and highlighting the presence of nonwhite fans excited for this show.

I have nothing to say right now, productively, except for anger, bitterness, and deep disgust. Amazon’s show includes nonwhite actors in original-character roles, filling stereotypical bit parts or slots that have a lot of frustrating coding associated with them in the canon. Every character who was white in the Jackson movies is white here. They have created token offerings in the cause of diversity and now they’re doubling down on the idea that the only reason people criticize this show is because it’s “full” of nonwhite faces, and that nonwhite fans have no problem with what they’ve been given. They’ve tokenized every nonwhite fan who ever “went deep”, and they’re encouraging young children to throw themselves into a canon with real problems around race as if it’s automatically guaranteed to be safe.

I’m not a token. Other nonwhite fans aren’t tokens. This is, frankly, beyond appalling to me, and I cannot believe they’ve stooped so low.

#rejectringsofpower #anti amazon lotr #anti trop #trop critical #absynthe's salt

[nateofgreat]

ROP Fans: Show Galadriel is so relatable!

Show Galadriel: Give me a boat or I’ll kill your people!

Show Galadriel: Let me steal the boat or I’ll kill you!

Show Galadriel: If you fall behind, I leave you behind!

Show Galadriel: Boohoo listen to my sob story but if you express sympathy I’m going to snap at you!

Show Galadriel: There is no peace for you except through doing what I want you to, even though that hasn’t brought me any peace.

Show Galadriel: I’m going to genocide your entire race! Not for being inherently evil though, in fact, I’m going to use your capacity for empathy against you. Keeping you alive so I can revel in your suffering as I slaughter your children! And then I’ll torture with that knowledge before I murder you too!

Show Galadriel: You think I’m crazy? I’ll show you crazy! *Goes to stab*

#anti rings of power #rings of power #anti rop #rop #trop #trop critical #anti amazon lotr #amazon lotr #young galadriel

[silenceinternalmonologue]

i think all that needs to be said about jackson vs amazon's portrayal of (especially male) elves is that i, a lesbian, am attracted to all of the elves in lotr/the hobbit and none of the elves in trop.

#lotr shitpost #tolkien shitpost #seriously though #elves are supposed to be supernaturally attractive and charismatic right? #so i think the metric of lesbian attraction is a good one to determine that #trop elves just look like some Guys and i'm not here for that #trop critical #anti trop #anti amazon lotr #anti amazon #anti rings of power

[kenobihater]

amazon execs after the gollum game came out and drew the collective ire of the tolkien fandom away from their garbage show for a moment

#len's memes #lotr #anti rop #rop critical #anti trop #trop critical #gollum

[stanboromir]

ok here’s the take no one asked for. i don’t care if the rings of power changed some of things in the canon. as an adaptation it would be obvious this would happen, there are things that don’t translate well into screen, there are elements that can’t really be communicated in visual form. what i do care about its the intention, care and love the showrunners put into it and in my opinion the show bleeds with admiration and respect to tolkiens work, especially in the harfoot storyline. there are choices that i don’t appreciate (such as the elves with short hair, the pacing in some episodes, how rushed some of the story plots felt, the “de-queering” of sauron, etc) but i do think that as an adaptation they did a wonderful job. and that is the whole point. it’s an adaptation!!!! it’s not trying (and it doesn’t want) to be a replacement of the books and the source material. it’s not one for one. any adaptation will inevitably change a lot and make choices that will displease some. i feel like a lot of people here are upset because they wanted (conscious or not) an extremely faithful adaptation, but you can only appreciate the show when you take the time to understand it as its own thing, and see the changes from this perspective. the pj films also made an insane amount of changes, but they make sense in the universe of the movies and i think this need to be the perspective here. not facing the changes comparing them as to how faithful they are to the lengendarium, but understanding that it’s an adaptation and thinking about how much sense they make in the narrative of the show and the message the story aims to convey

#like yes of course i wanted long haired elves #but sorry guys the length of their hairs doesn’t really change their role in the story #obviously there a lot of things that can and should be criticized #but the showrunners have showed to be extremely open to criticism #and very open to rethinking and accepting that some of their choices were not the best #and simply attacking them and claiming that this intere project is a cash grab feels very disrespectful #and let’s not forget that THE tolkien state actually endorses the show #and they had a say #they could literally ask them to change some aspects #so saying that this show is not tolkien is simply incorrect #anyways i feel like we should judge enjoy the fact that tolkien is back in the big media #and there are more people getting the know the legendarium and get interested in the story #trop #lotr #the rings of power

[lasc-o]

Looks like Rings of Power is desperately trying to guilt-trip Galadriel for daring to save the Southlanders from the orcs and daddy Adar. Oh, you were deceived by the evil divinity who managed to dupe one of the greatest gods, Eonwe, into thinking he was repentant? Then all the bad things that will happen will be your fault! Things went bad for multiple reasons? Well, I suppose that’s entirely your doing! It’s like I’m listening to Scar after Mufasa’s death. Maybe Galadriel will realize she doesn’t have to feel guilty: that she was right about the rise of evil, she didn’t see who Sauron was but, guess what? No one did.

Oh, but Sauron was about to give up and Galadriel gave him motivation again, didn’t she?... Well, even if it wasn’t just another of Sauron’s lies, it’s utter BS! Galadriel didn’t cure Sauron from apathy. He did! Your depression can't be fought by other people, they can help you but their help means nothing if you don’t fight it yourself. So well done, Sauron, you're the one who deserve to be congratulated! Now go peg your gaslighting a*s on that pointy tower of yours.  Sauron was born long before Galadriel. She has no responsibility in him being an evil pr*ck. But victim-blaming seems to be Amazon’s path.

Also daddy Adar chastizing Galadriel for wanting to eliminate his children while he’s genociding the Southlanders? Priceless.

And yes it is genocide: even the humans who pledge allegiance to him are forced to kill the weakest members, mostly women and children (the survivors are all men apparently) and then they’re sent to die as cannon fodders. RoP orcs, as tragic as they are, aren’t  Warcraft orcs, they’re not the oppressed, they’re just colonialist dark elves with cool mutations and questionable fashion sense.

#the rings of power #critical #victim-blaming #gaslighting #Sauron #Galadriel #Amazon #amazon prime #adar #orcs #humans #lotr #lord of the rings #trop #trop spoilers

[laoih]

Review of "The Rings of Power": Episode 5

Part 1: Contradicting Tolkien

In this fifth hour of The Rings of Power, the show massively contradicts Tolkien's writings and messes up even the half-decent storylines.

I decided to focus on the large lore break in this first part, and to review the episode for the series as itself in a separat part. I also want to focus only on two major contradictions, because all other lore breaks pale in comparison.

Failing as an adaptation

No adaptation cannot completely and fully adhere to the source material – that much I understand. Different mediums have different requirements. However, there is a large difference between changing something because it doesn't work in a medium, and completely changing one of the funamental basics of the world that the story is set in. The show already had some terrible contradictions to Tolkien's texts, but this episode once and for all shows that the series does not care for the world and history that Tolkien has created.

Because this time they messing with the Silmarils and the Elvish immortality.

The Silmarils

Touching the history of the Silmarils is no small matter, because one of Tolkien's most important stories, the Quenta Silmarillion, is centered around them. Their history is not some irrelevant detail without meaning, and therefore should always be treated with care.

And their known history in the Quenta Silmarillion ends with:

”And thus it came to pass that the Silmarils found their long homes: one in the airs of heaven, and one in the fires of the heart of the world, and one in the deep waters.“

So not matter what some misguided Arkenstone=Silmaril followers may say, there can be no doubt about what the eventual fate of the Silmarils was at the end of the First Age.

Yet the show comes up with the idea that "the last of the lost Silmarils" was hidden in a tree "high among the peaks of the Misty Mountains". Furthermore there is a legend in the show that lightning striking the tree caused the light of the Silmaril to seep "down the roots into the mountain depths".

As a result, Gil-galad and Celebrimbor apparently believe that mithril contains "the light of the lost Silmaril".

Nothing about this makes any sense, neither light nor the Silmarils work that way. The light of the Two Trees isn't like electricity running through metal, it cannot seep down through stone. The Silmarils were unique because they were able to hold in the light of the Two Trees. Without them as a vessel, the light isn't just trickling into the ground.

But this gets even worse. There can also be no doubt about the Silmarils having no connection with the Elvish immortality at all, yet this is what the show wants us to believe.

Elvish immortality

Elvish immortality in Tolkien's work is a complex topic. Tolkien developed this idea over time, and naturally the shape of this idea was different at different states. However, there is also a certain consistancy about it in many regards, and many changes are simply due to Tolkien refining the idea more and more and adjusting it to correct aspects that were illogical or did not work in the overall context.

Tolkien's worldbuilding

And here is an essential part of the Elvish immortality as Tolkien wrote about it:

When the Elves first awoke in the darkness of Middle-earth, they were already immortal, because immortality within the world is in the Elves' anture as intended by Eru.

To exist until the end of the world is the fate of the Elves, and they cannot avoid it. If this can be changed at all, at least someone with the power of a Vala needs to be involved, if not even Eru himself.

Sooner or later, the Elvish body will fade in Middle-earth. Tolkien was not always 100% clear about whether that was always intended to happen or if it was a result of Morgoth's marring of Arda, but it was a) a very slow procress that would not be observed in Middle-earth for a long time, certainly not before the Fourth Age, and b) a result of the powerful immortal soul of the Elves.

Even if the soul has "consumed" the body of the Elves, they would still be considered to be alive and immortal, they just wouldn't be seen anymore by mortal eyes.

The Noldor were aware of this because Mandos had prophecied it.

Amazon's version

Now the show comes up with a different idea in this episode:

For some reason, the "the light of the Eldar [...] is fading". Gil-galad suspected it to be a result of war somehow and that's why he send Galadriel with her negative thoughts away, but it obviously didn't work.

They now believe that the Elves now have to leave Middle-earth until spring or perish: their immortal soulds would "dwindle into nothing, slowly diminishing, until [they] are but shadows, swept away by the tides of time".

As a new counter meassure Gil-galad and Celebrimbor now believe that mithril may be the salvation of the Elves because "nothing diminishes its light" and that if they can "secure vast quantities of it quickly, enough to saturate every last Elf in the light of the Valar once more" they can avoid the fading.

This massively contradicts what Tolkien wrote. For some reason the Elves need to be charged with the light of the Two Trees to keep their immortality, and this is simply bullshit. It also completely disregards all the Elves that have never been to Valinor.

It changes the fading into a death sentence for the Elves, something it is not intended to be. Sure, some Elves in Tolkien's writings may resent or dread it, and it is sometimes associated with getting "weaker", but that usually came from a place of not wanting to make place for the Age of Men, of wanting to stay relevant and powerful for example as a lord within the tangible world. It never meant that the Elves would be "swept away by the tides of time".

And the artificial deadline of spring is also laughable.

Everything about this is just nonsense.

Possible setup

Now, I suspect the show tries to create a motivation here why the Elves would eventually created the Rings of Power.

In canon, the Rings have the power of perservation, but the issue is not the preservation of the Elves because they would otherwise "dwindle into nothing", but the fact that everything else is constantly dying and the Elves have a hard time dealing with that. That is why Lothlórien is such a timeless place when the fellowship reaches it in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

If the show now tries to make this about the preservation of the Elves themsevles, they have basically turned the whole thing on its head, proving once more that they haven't understood a thing about Tolkien's stories.

Possible "plottwist"

There is a small chance that Gil-galad and Celebrimbor are just lying to Elrond, or that Celebrimbor is just lying to Gil-galad and Elrond, or that somehow Annatar in the background is lying to all three of them.

But if that storyline is what they're going for then they create two other major problems:

One or several of these Elves are absolute morons for believing this lie.

All the drama with the Dwarves that now results from this lie was wasted time because it was build on the Elves being morons.

...I cannot imagine any way in which this plotline is still salvageable, and I truly hate what this part of the story turned into in general.

It's made even worse because it's dumb within the context of the series as well, which I will adress in the 2nd part of the review once I get to it.

#LOTR rings of power #LOTR #LOTR the rings of power #the rings of powers #rings of powers #Silmarils #LOTR TROP #LOTR TROP critical #LOTR TROP review #Had to put this out first because I'm so annoyed

[disorentedfae]

Sad thing is Amazon had a chance to make a show that tolkein fans would love and adore, they had the chance to make a show that fans would go back and watch throughout the years.

But no, the bar was so low and they still didn’t hit it

#rings of power #LotR #trop critical

[fixing-bad-posts]

I haven't watched rop myself but I would absolutely like to hear your thoughts. Like, this is your cue to vent (if you wanna) :)

okay so i just got three asks about rings of power when i didn’t expect anyone to actually message me about this at all!!! as such, i’ll be giving my opinion in three parts with this being, part one: rings of power as a bad adaptation.

basically, the failure of rings of power is two-pronged: 1) it’s a bad adaptation, and 2) it’s a poor piece of writing. charitably, it’s a solid first-try for a pair of newbie showrunners who have never written a big project before. and following that, a bad adaptation is actually easier to forgive than a poorly written story—with a text so beloved, and without the proper rights to all the material (they only had access to the appendices of lotr), it was always going to be impossible to make a perfect text-to-screen translation. that said, it’s (imo) a pretty bad adaptation (although still not as bad as the artemis fowl movie lmao) for a few reasons: thematic interpretation, use of characters/characterization, justification of setting, and fidelity to canon lore.

on: themes—a good adaptation requires both an understanding and an appreciation of the source material, two things which rings of power lacks. in this promo article, the rop writers summarize tolkien’s works as about “friendship,” “brotherhood,” and, “underdogs overcoming great darkness,” and cannot imagine a tolkien story without hobbits. from this, it’s clear that they were first peter jackson movie fans, and then read all other book material as auxiliary support for what is inevitably peter jackson’s interpretation of tolkien’s writings on the third age. whether or not i agree with pj’s interpretation is irrelevant against the fact that the first and second ages of middle earth are stories with completely different themes than the third age. interpreting everything though the same thematic lens as the third age is a fundamentally flawed approach to telling a second age story.

the second age is permeated by arguably recent, memorable trauma from the war of wrath—the human characters are further removed via the mortal generations that have passed, but many of the elves were alive to see these events in (relatively) recent memory. this dissonance between elves and men regarding the events of the first age fuels some of the most interesting wider conflict throughout the second age (ex. the númenóreans being manipulated to become obsessed with/envious of elven immortality & the powers of the valar). furthermore, the world impact (i can’t say global impact because the world is not yet a globe) of the war of wrath fuels the setting (political reformation, social, cultural, and technical development). but rings of power ignores all of this because the showrunners don’t seem know what to do with any of it. they are trying to interpret second age events as if they have the same story elements/are painted in the same thematic palette as the events of the war of the ring. they relegate the events of the first age to ‘ancient history,’ instead of using its fallout as direct motivation for anyone except galadriel (more on this in the following section). the tension between elves and men is flattened into an allegory for contemporary immigration, which neither makes sense in-universe (there is a scene in which a group of men gather in the town square to protest the elves ‘stealing their jobs’ even though there is only one (1) elf on the island and she has not to date done any labor or craft associated with the people present), nor adapts the canon themes of anti-industrialization, anti-materialism, and fear of mortality.

on: character—whether the writers were/are incapable of doing their own analysis of the text, or their analysis is flawed, the result is that they struggle to write characters and conflicts who don’t fit into stock tropes. for example: galadriel—she’s the only elf who has any trauma about the war of wrath/the wars in beleriand, and this makes her seem like a poor communicator at best and paranoid/unreasonable at worst (she claims sauron is still at large but the writers never give the audience a reason to believe this, which implies that her crusade is fueled by dubiously exceptional trauma). this is especially egregious in a scene played opposite elrond where she tells him he can’t possibly understand her pain, and he just kind of lets this accusation stand despite the fact that he was functionally orphaned in a slaughter, and then adopted by two mass murderers before losing them too. but i digress.

on: canon lore—many creative decisions were ostensibly made to appeal to casual fans of the peter jackson movies. characters with recognizable names are given top billing in the storylines. galadriel. elrond. the pre-hobbits are given an entire section. meanwhile, key players of the second age like celebrimbor and gil-galad are made side characters in elrond plotline. why? because no one who has only seen the films recognizes their names, thus they wouldn’t be profitable to feature, and they wouldn’t sell a show. it’s only so transparent because the writers spend every episode contemplating how best to recreate memorable moments from the lord of the rings movies. galadriel is constantly shot with close ups on her eyes to mirror her film introduction in fellowship. shots of bronwyn (one of the rop original characters) at the elven outpost are framed, blocked, and even written in word-for-word monologue to recreate iconic éowyn-at-helms-deep scenes. various characters are constantly quoting the lord of the rings movies. the worst is when bronwyn practically quotes a section of sam’s iconic osgiliath speech to her frightened son, implying that sam’s speech is a collection of common idioms.

on a tangible level, the writers also fail at the monumental task of presenting a large map in a way that makes sense to people who don’t already know the world. they represent “the southlands,” as two villages, giving the sense that mordor as a whole is about fifteen kilometers wide. the timeline is fucked because they tried to condense it, while giving no clear indication of when anything is happening in relation to anything else, so it’s incredibly difficult to grasp the scope of any project or journey. for some reason they invented a fourth silmaril of dubious origin. they had elrond, raised by sons of fëanor, swear an oath only to break it in the following episode. they’ve made the choice to have all the elves speak quenya without acknowledging the history of sindarin vs. quenya and the politics of why certain elves speak it or don’t (i would love to see even one nod to thingol’s influence on elven language).

tl;dr—rings of power misreads, misunderstands, and miscommunicates the crucial themes of the second age. this leads to a complete misinterpretation of the pre-known movie characters they feature, as well as a sidelining of important book characters who aren’t movie-fan favourites. their attempt to properly explore a vast setting is clumsy, and the show invents lore out of a source material that already has arguably too much. 

(i have to go run some errands but i have more to say on rop as a poor piece of writing regardless of its status as a so-called adaptation. i’ll be back.)

#ask fbp #anon ask #fandom posting #rop critical #anti rop #anti amazon lotr #anti rings of power #amazon rings of power #rings of power #rings of power negative #anti trop #rings of power critical #rings of power analysis #rings of power meta

[serregon]

Tolkien: Galadriel was a tall athletic warrior who was given the name Nerwen, meaning man-maiden, for her notably masculine demeanor

Tolkien dudebros: why is amazon making Galadriel act like a man? Tolkien never wrote this. they’re forcing wokeness onto Galadriel

#I am critical of the show #but like calm down #lotr #galadriel #trop

[symphonyofsilence]

Why, for what reason does tar-Míriel need to be introduced to her relative, her cousin, the son of the bestie of her cousin who she's apparently close to, the son of the lord of Andúnië, Elendil?!

WHY DOESN'T THE QUEEN KNOW THE LORDS?!

Like, okay, you want to introduce this character. But WHY IN THIS WAY?!

(I really liked the portrayal of tar-míriel tho. One of the best in the show. I liked Elendil and his children, too.)

And WHY DOES GALADRIEL GET WORSE EVERY EPISODE!

Why does she look at EVERYONE like they just killed her pet?! She just angrily stares with very, very opened eyes at everyone for 25 minutes and then says her very, very terrible lines through gritted teeth angrily. EVEN WHEN SHE'S COMPLIMENTING SOMEONE OR SOMEPLACE AND OR THANKING SOMEONE! She's like that in every situation!

Why is she so horrible to people who save her?! To poor guards of a castle?!

And apparently, now Halbrand needs to calm Galadriel down, cuz strong women are so angry they can't diplomatically handle a situation. Or you know, AT LEAST TALK TO PEOPLE RESPECTFULLY!

as I've said before, being angry is not being powerful. On the contrary, a lot of times, it shows that the character is not in control. Not of their emotions, not of their actions, not of the situation. Not being angry in a situation that triggers anger and holding your composure makes you look powerful and in control. Look at villains who are calm and smiling in situations that looks like everything is against them. You know it's not. You know they're winning. Cuz they're calm. They're powerful and in control. Look at Azula in ATLA for example.

It's like a lot of times, portraying women as furious is the go to way of portraying strong female characters™️ in Hollywood. It's not. Yes, a lot of angry people are strong. But it's not the other way around. Strong people are not all angry.

It's good to have angry characters. It's good to have every kind of character. You can actually write a lovable, multi-dimensional, well-rounded, strong, powerful, dynamic, beloved angry character. But it takes writing skills. Look at Fëanor, Turin, Caranthir, Arya Stark, Harry Potter during Ootp, Zuko during 2 first seasons, Rangi, Cersei Lannister, Anakin Skywalker, Squidward, and a lot of other characters, especially in comedy. Some of the loveliest people I know in real life are kind people who have "mildly angry" as a personality trait.

You should show them being genuinely loving and caring towards some people. Genuinely kind if not nice. And not necessarily people who are close to them (though, them, too.) It humanizes them. You should show their humanity. Their vulnerability. If done right, it makes them lovely. You should make the audience sympathize with the cause of their anger. Show that their anger is eating them from inside and is not a positive thing. Show that they have other characteristics and other moods as well. Add a dash of humor to their lines and deeds and anger. In general, look at the "kind but grumpy" trope.

And...Elendil compares Galadriel to his children?!?! OLDER THAN SUN AND MOON , RESPECTED, MIGHTY GALADRIEL?!?!

THE FAITHFUL WOULD HAVE KNELT IN REVERENCE IF THEY SAW THE LADY OF LIGHT, GALADRIEL OF THE NOLDOR!

God forbid men look up to a female character and show her reverence and listen to her. No, let's put her in the most powerless, degrading situations and toss her around.

And why are the Harfoots so ableist wth!?

Also, I guess now with a hobbit and a maia and an excuse to go around Middle-earth for a uniquely adventurous hobbit, a dwarf/elf friendship, a king in exile preferably brunette about to fulfill his duty, a romance between two people of the different races of Middle-earth the Tolkien adaptation format is complete even if this second-age adaptation should have nothing to do with lotr and hobbits and the Istari don't come into Middle-earth until centuries later.

#tolkien #silmarillion #lotr #anti rings of power #the rings of power #trop #rop #rop critical #lotr on prime #anti rop #anti trop #lord of the rings #tar miriel #elendil #galadriel #my two cents #halbrand