My Chemical Ringbearer / Welcome to the Black Gate
(Based on Welcome To the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance)
When I was a young boy,
My uncle took me into his study
To see a golden band.
He said, "Boy, when you grow up,
Would you be the savior of the Hobbits,
The Elves, the Dwarves, and Men?"
He said, "Will you defeat them,
The Ringwraiths, and all the Orcs and Uruks,
And plans that Sauron made?
Because one day I’ll leave here:
Gray Havens, and then the Lands Undying,
On ships the elves have made.
When I was a young boy,
My uncle took me into his study
To see a golden band.
He said, "Boy, when you grow up,
Would you be the savior of the Hobbits,
The Elves, the Dwarves, and Men?"
Sometimes I get this feeling that Smeagol’s trickin' me,
So many nights it feels unsafe to doze.
But dammit all, the orcs, the stairs, that spider made me sleep,
And when I wake, I know I’ll have to go…
I'll carry on,
I'll carry on,
And though the quest it might defeat me,
The Ring I have to carry on.
I'll carry on.
And in my heart I want to take it,
The wizard won’t explain it.
The One Ring gets you reeled in with dazzling wicked dreams,
Its misery and hate will kill us all.
So take it back to Mordor black.
My Sam will conquer fear!
Alliance like three friends, but Gollum falls.
I’ll carry on,
I'll carry on,
And though the Hobbits won’t believe me,
The mission I will carry on,
I'll carry on
And when I’m broken and defeated,
My weary Gamgee marches…
On and on, he carries me through fires. (Ooh, oh, ohhhh.)
Disappointed faces of the Shire. (Ooh oh ohhhh.)
Take a look at me, ’cause I could not care at all!
Do or die, you'll never make me.
For Middle-earth, oh I will make my mark.
Go and try, you'll never take me.
I want it all, I want to break this dark.
I won't explain, or say I'm sorry.
I'm unashamed, I'm gonna show my scar.
Give a cheer for Aragon King.
Listen here, because it's who we are.
I'm not a man, I'm not a hero.
I’m a Baggins, I had to sing this song.
I'm not a dwarf, and I'm not elven.
My! Toes! Bare!
I’ll carry on,
I'll carry on,
And though the Hobbits won’t believe me,
The mission I will carry on,
I'll carry on.
And when I’m broken and defeated
My weary Gamgee marches…
Do or die, you'll never make me.
For Middle-earth, oh I will make my mark.
Go and try, you'll never take me.
I want it all, I want to break this dark. (I’ll carry on.)
Do or die, you'll never make me. (I’ll carry on.)
For Middle-earth, oh I will make my mark. (I’ll carry on.)
Go and try, you'll never take me. (I’ll carry on.)
I want it all, I want to break this dark. (I’ll carry on.)
Sonic and Sally are in for a wet weekend now. Can they encircle whoever stole their golden circles, or will this be a ring out for the Freedom Fighters?
That should be enough puns to please the Archie editing team in 1993.
being called misogynistic for not liking rop galadriel because people instantly assume it's the warrior part that I have a problem with is CRAZY.
bestie, buddy, my rotten soldier, trust me when I tell you that warrior/fighting women make 80% of my favorite female characters in fantasy. the problem isn't the warrior part, it's the everything else.
I honestly couldn’t find it in me to simply sit through it as if I wasn’t compiling a mental checklist of all of the offences. And the offences are many. It’s just my first watch so I’m sure I missed a lot of finer details. It’s hard comparing certain things to anything because it’s all just made up by the showrunners and the timeline is at this point irrelevant because this whole thing is some weird AU.
I also mostly don’t comment on the acting because although it’s of exceptionally inconsistent quality from actor to actor, and it’s obvious that some of them have not managed to get into character, I find more fault with the writing. Had the writing been better I’m sure that the actors’ deliveries would have felt more natural. With that said...
Episode 1:
Even the opening scenes of baby Galadriel playing with other children like a bunch of little gremlins who appear of accurate age to their physical development doesn’t sit right with me.
Elves mature much slower than Humans physically, but develop much faster mentally. According to The Nature of Middle-earth they reach puberty only at over 200 years old. Which means that an Elven child that looks 7 might instead be over 100 years old and has lived for what would be for a Human a whole lifetime or more. To portray Elven children as comparable to Humans in their speech and manners is absurd.
In the first few minutes of the episode Galadriel is portrayed consecutively by two actresses whose accents are cardinally different and it stands out.
The timeline is such a disaster, that much is obvious before the first 10 minutes.
Galadriel’s history lesson in the beginning could have had a much better effect if they took any notes from the prologue to The Fellowship of the Ring. Controlling the pace and emphasis, even modifying Cate Blanchett’s voice achieved an effect that has been carved into our minds permanently. Morfydd Clark’s delivery falls face first into mud. It’s just dull, monotone and unfeeling.
Obvious makeup. Very meh.
I honestly think the use of this weird font to mark location on screen looks really cheap and like as if their graphics department couldn’t find the original font so they just used the papyrus one instead. Like what is that? (I know I’m a design snob but seriously.)
The dialogue is just stiff, awkward and unelegant.
The fight scene with the troll is just terrible. Galadriel singlehandedly takes down a massive troll with almost no help and without a hair out of place. Complete with entirely unnecessary sword flourishes. It’s embarrassing to watch honestly. Seems also like Galadriel’s entire company is purely decorative as she does all the fighting, is always right and does everything on her own while others try to keep up with her. Mary Sue down to a T.
The Harfoots are a travesty. Irish cosplay, but make it primitive.
The moment you take a closer look at their setup it’s hard to believe they’re nomadic. So much seems decorative, rather than functional to them. And that’s before we get to the characters. They’re just made to look pointedly primitive.
They’ve also deisgned the Lindon set without being able to decide whether it’s fall or summer. Because it’s both at the same time. It’s seemingly fall where they walk among yellow trees (canonically there are NO mellyrn outside of Lorien; Gil-Galad had the seeds, but none grew in Lindon) and on layers of fallen, yellowed leaves. At the same time the surrounding hills are in full greenery as are all the other plants surrounding them. Like there’s no biological consistency to the living environment and the result is that Elves almost look removed from nature, rather than in utter harmony with their environment as they’re meant to be.
And what the hell is it with those Roman civic crowns everywhere.
The dialogue is... it’s to Tolkien what Aliexpress is to haute couture.
And speaking of the costumes. Aliexpress sale bin.
They’re importing present-day social issues into Middle-earth as if it didn’t have enough of to go around already. On top of that it feels forced and shoehorned, which it didn’t have to be if they had chosen to make the xenophobia contextually authentic to Middle-earth. Like fear of the unknown peoples and lands, which wouldn’t be much of a stretch. Rather than synthesising anti-Elf racism to show how one black Elf in particular is the victim of this, as if this then wouldn’t apply to all the other Elves somehow. So is it about the ears or is it about his skin color because there are no other black Elves on record and none appear in the series besides him? Make it make sense.
The short hair on Elven men is so weird. WTF is this? The Witcher?
Also the way Galadriel’s memory of her conversation with her brother is overlayed the scene feels terrible because the audio is too similar to those speaking on screen and there’s not enough of an echo or some other sound effct to distinguish it. So it sounds like director’s commentary.
They are all way too unphased by a giant fireball falling from the skies. Plus the way everything is on fire, but somehow his loincloth is unharmed. Right. There would have been so many other ways of dealing with that for the sake of modesty which would have been a lot less laughable.
Episode 2:
The Harfoots are supposed to be way more archaic than their Hobbit descendants. And they are made to look the part visually, but their dialogue has been bothering me since the beginning because it’s way more contemporary than that of Hobbits in LOTR, and it stood out since episode 1. It’s only stylized to the extent of using ‘unrefined’ language so to speak. The manner of speaking doesn’t feel authentic to bygone times. And neither does their acting, manners etc. Which again makes it feel even more like Irish cosplay.
Looking at the set decorations in Eregion reveals that apparently they just went thrift-shopping in Camden market or something. It’s more of an eclectic mix of 19th century European furniture and neo-styles with some accent decorations from Italy and Morocco than anything I’d associate with Elves of any Age. It’s not even Art Nouveau and Arts & Crafts dominant. And I swear one of those lanterns is painted plastic and not even made of metal. WTF is this Disneyland giftshop shit? I’m not seeing the millions in anything but VFX.
All of the Dwarven costumes are a massive downgrade. I feel like all of the effort was put into prosthetic noses and that’s the extent of it. Meanwhile the culture is shown to be brutish above everything else, to the point that it makes me question how they could possibly create such fine things. There’s a major disconnect there.
Plus this one sure feels like Scottish cosplay. Remember groundskeeper Willie from The Simposons. Yeah.
Also I feel like everything to do with Durin is essentially everything criticized about the Hobbit trilogy and more. Plus this domestic scenery (which is pulled out of their asses) completely breaks the decorum characteristic to Tolkien. It’s just awkward to watch.
The breaking of decorum gets its own bulltepoint. Because it’s just that big of an offence. Would Elrond really call a Dwarven princess by her first name even though they just met? Really?
With all the gold, mithril and jewels under the mountains. And they still made Disa’s jewelry out of old hubcaps.
Galadriel still remains a foot too short. She’s towered over by literally everyone and she’s supposed to be the TALLEST WOMAN IN ALL OF ARDA.
Disagreement is necessary in deliberations among mortals. As the saying goes, the more we disagree, the more chance there is that at least one of us is right.
- Steven Pinker, Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
ok so a bunch of lotr fans just followed me bc of my last post and I think it is only fair that I share my childhood lotr obsession with everyone. pls tell me someone remembers The Funny Lord of the Rings Podcast (by Brandon and Michael with Matt) from like 2009
ok if yes and you want to relive it or if no and you want to have your neurons permanently altered I will link it here (if the link doesn’t work just search it on podomatic)
I recently relistened to it and doodled some of my favorite moments. the pure nostalgia. 99% of what I say comes from this podcast i swear