I call the Stranger Schrödinger's Gandalf. He's both Gandalf and not Gandalf as a result of the writers not knowing wtf they're doing.

@mikefink7548

Жыл бұрын

I wonder if maybe he is actually Sauramon. we forget that much of what Gandalf preached was things he learned from Sauramon before his fall to evil. So maybe when in doubt always follow your nose was a lesson he learned from another Istari/Wizard

@elphiegleason3899

Жыл бұрын

This made me laugh so hard 😂😂😂😂

@cally77777

7 ай бұрын

You don't have the information to make that assessment. We don't really know what they're doing either. Honestly the negativity towards this show is so frustrating. In most other shows, a character with an ambiguous identity would not be considered a weakness.

I never realised how much I took the amazing storytelling of LotR for granted. I watched it first when I was 5 or 6 and thought that was the standard for projects of that scale. How wrong I was....

@annakuch9108

Жыл бұрын

Yep

@letdomf

Жыл бұрын

Same

@cally77777

7 ай бұрын

Of course you were wrong. You were only a child, who hadn't seen the productions of fantasy films and television in the past. Some weren't so bad, but many were, and even the best usually had flaws. LOTR was a huge step forward, but also had some weak points.

They need better and far more experienced writers.

@AdditiveOutlier

Жыл бұрын

Which means... any other writers. Those two are literally novices if you only count stuff that got released (none).

@guardianaxiom205

Жыл бұрын

@@AdditiveOutlier I'm sure the drunk down my local has better takes to tell..

@yomamma.ismydaddy216

Жыл бұрын

Tons of people with way less experience would have done an infinitely better job, even I could have done a way better job and I haven’t even written all that much

@annafdd

Жыл бұрын

Or at least some *editors*.

@douglaslindeman797

Жыл бұрын

They only reached out George R R Martin who was already turning away from Fantasy Adventure. There are other FA writers out here. I am just one of them. I would love the opportunity to help save this series.

Seeing celebrimbor as an old man and galadriel as a teenager made absolutily no sense, that ruined all scenes with him for me. Just didnt make sense

@TheGeezer30

Жыл бұрын

Ain't supposed to make sense. It what always intended to be a purposeful vandalism of a cultural artifact.

@lordbane5627

Жыл бұрын

Of all things, THIS was your biggest issue with the show? Lol

@johnnyll91

Жыл бұрын

@@lordbane5627 its 1 of the things that annoyed me the most yes. Im fine with galadriel being young, but celebrimbor looking waaay older than her makes no sense. Who's oldest idk, but if both are from Valinor which is a possibility that would make them kind of similar of age, in the show however he looks 3 times her age. But yes i had more problems with the show How the rings where crafted Galadriel and Elrond being treated kinda weird by Gil Galad when they are from quite important bloodlines. The hobbits being evil etc

"There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the Tongues of Men for this treachery."

Honestly impressed by how they made something look so beautiful and have so little plot, originality, or direction.

@decimalexercise7154

Жыл бұрын

Bright and shiny!

@justinvanheerde4338

Жыл бұрын

Absolutely agree. And don’t forget Dialogue, plot consistency, i could go on.

@XfotisRonaldo

Жыл бұрын

they had originality they created something new and different of how i would imagine a Second Age BASED on Tolkien series. (based not adaptation)

@wd2989

Жыл бұрын

Didn’t a recent interview with McKay&Pane say that the second season was already written? That’s not a good sign if so. These writers are not creating a good product so far.

@MikeTheD

Жыл бұрын

Just don’t understand. It’s like they were playing at making a show.

I love how the "the Southlands - Mordor transition" is consistently mocked 😂 & being disappointed that Bronwyn didn't die -multiple times

@di3486

Жыл бұрын

The PowerPoint😂

@Yjn75

Жыл бұрын

I thought I'm the only one who noticed how cringey and novice that "revelation" was implemented. It's like a kids' story book show. Cut the scene before the villain speaks the name then show the name text change to that name. Ughhh... How amateurish!

@Azulakayes

Жыл бұрын

She was a useless character.

@annakuch9108

Жыл бұрын

Its like watching a video game from the 2000s what was that transitionnnn (no hate on then 2000s games

@guliealba

Жыл бұрын

well considering she was the only one who seemed to take a bath and wear clean clothes ever day (even after being shot), can you imagine the poor sod who would've lost his business selling her soap/washing detergent

Watched the Peter Jackson films again recently and was just in awe of how bad ROP is compared to it. Nothing compares to Jackson’s LOTR, nothing. He truly is one of the greatest directors of all time.

@justinvanheerde4338

Жыл бұрын

Yes

@meduseldtales3383

Жыл бұрын

I agree that LotR movies were more fun - except Two Towers - but lore-wise both were equally horrible.

@justinvanheerde4338

Жыл бұрын

@@meduseldtales3383 not even comparable with this show

@stefanoputignano1555

Жыл бұрын

@@meduseldtales3383 this is true. In fact I will never forgive Jackson for removing Tom Bombadil, but at least the films were enjoyable, both as a youth for the battles and as agrown person for scenes like the ones with Boromir. This one i tried...

@AtiShard16

Жыл бұрын

@@stefanoputignano1555 removing Bombadil was necessary. He’s arguably Tolkien’s biggest mistake and would have ruined the movies.

The creators of this show really need to pay attention to this review

@blacktemplarbrotherlucius1935

Жыл бұрын

We'll they wont need to when Amazon sidelines them and quietly fire them, plus the rumours season 2 reboot.

@gnickthegnome1981

Жыл бұрын

I find this review a little short. It is good, but nerd of the rings went into a lot more depth and offered more speculative grace that writers could benefit from. Let's be honest, the mistakes are made. Speculative grace is more helpful in critique than the more decisive critique in this review. Again, not a bad review by any stretch, but if we're talking about what the writers should look to, this may not be the one.

@lordbane5627

Жыл бұрын

Absolutely not. This review gives them far too much credit.

They really screwed Galadriel up. I even could see Sauron preying on a compacted grief of her brother & husband. However I came away confused why she’s grieving her brother more than her husband. I could see equal & even compacted grief driving her to her bratty state. But they really didn’t focus enough on her pain being relatable. Use her loneliness as a foot for Sauron. Ok but use it genuinely. Instead it came off as campy/overdone & her as bratty child. It was poorly written.

@stellarlare2031

Жыл бұрын

That was my thoughts also. I could understand an angry!Galadriel, after her millennia of losses. But I felt her anger would have come from an undercurrent of deep sorrow, rather than what seemed more like childish outbursts.

@douglaslindeman797

Жыл бұрын

What about her daughter, Celebrian, Elrond's future wife and mother of three, including Arwen?

@TETASARAIVACS

Жыл бұрын

Firstly, she’s obsessed about her brother’s death, although she had lost most of her family to Morgoth and Sauron (grand father, uncles, brothers, cousins, …) Secondly, by the lore, her brother Finrod briefly stayed in the House of Mandos and was already “recasted” to Valinor. She could have met Finrod if she had stayed on that boat! And Sauron would be until now floating around the sea 😂

@TETASARAIVACS

Жыл бұрын

@@douglaslindeman797 I reckon by that time Celebrian should be more than 1000 years old, living in Lindon or already in Lórien

@atticusosullivan9332

Жыл бұрын

They dramatically improved the character. Instead of a being a nun-like floaty figure they've made her a war-like bad@$$ savage 😂 Love it

Cannot be more on point with you guys, but i must say, youre too generous with the puntuation. A 2.5 es pretty on point. I had 0 expectatives, but i'd never imagine being this disappointed.

@lordbane5627

Жыл бұрын

100%. This show was a 2-3/10 at BEST for Normies. For true fans of Tolkien's world, this show was a complete ZERO.

@wd2989

Жыл бұрын

@@lordbane5627 you are absolutely CORRECT! I never imagined this end product would be created from the source material. And given that the appendix Tale of Years is essentially an outline, I did expect new original content to be inserted “here & there”. But this was off the chart neglect of the Tolkien content that was available. As for how casual viewers saw this… I can’t speak to that. But I think a casual viewer would say the show looked very disjointed and poorly paced. Too many story lines in 9hrs of TV.

I feel more connected to Sauron, than i ever imagined... And i never, ever, thought, that would be possible... So year, it was a show..

@delamoxica

Жыл бұрын

Well he was called "The deceiver" after all so it's all intentional

@scambammer6102

Жыл бұрын

@@delamoxica there was nothing deceptive about it. the reason people like Sauron is that Galadriel is horrible.

@srenkibsgaard9136

Жыл бұрын

@@delamoxica never said i felt deceived

@treakfly

Жыл бұрын

It seems almost too fitting. Sauron and his destruction of nature is often compared to how industrialism destroyed a lot of nature in real life, for power. The show being made by Amazon, fittingly, seems to make us almost root for Sauron and his dialogue on the shipwreck is almost perfectly reasonable up untill he says ruling and saving is the same thing to him.

This show is literally like post-war Dresden - you cry when you look at it...

@gdbssa

Жыл бұрын

10/10 analogy 🤣

Honestly, I was taken aback by how little in the show lines up with the books. It's like an elseworld version of the setting.

@tomaszgozdz7670

Жыл бұрын

Yes, it is true. But on the other hand I like the show - the way I like "Sherlock Holmes" with Robert Downey Jr., although this movie is not at all true to the book of Conan Doyle. This is simply another, non-canon-Tolkien story. And it will not be in line with the books, I suppose. And the question is whether it will be internally coherent and well told, or not. So far the series has its flaws (for sure too many side plots that don't add much to the story), but main plots (Sauron/Galadriel and Khazad-dum story lines) are done well and are interesting in my opinion. I see potential here for a good movie loosely based on books (like "Sherlock Holmes" with Downey Jr. or "Alice in Wonderland" by Tim Burton, etc.). Well, we'll see how this develops further.

Like you, I wanted it to be good. My youngest son, who is also a big fan of the PJ movies, we were constantly chatting in excitement about this upcoming Tolkien show by a company with deep enough pockets to hire the best people in the business to do it right. My son and I watched together. And by the 4th episode I was done. He didn't mind. He was on his phone looking at Tik Toks half the time anyway--so engaged was he. Now, with the writer's strike, we are hearing that all of the same writers and show creators (Pain and McKay), are returning for s2. Nothing will be better. Nothing will improve. Nothing. This show is utter crap and will remain utter crap.

In the end, the story matters the most. And they definitely shit the bed.

Something that really bothered me was the fact that whenever elves spoke elvish to each other it was in Quenya. Isn't Sindarin the most commonly used dialect for elves living in Middle Earth? I would think especially Silvan elves like Arondir would speak Sindarin but his subtitles said Quenya every time.

@stevie-con67

Жыл бұрын

Arondir said he was born in Valinor. Most people seem to have missed this. I don’t think Silvan elves are even a thing in this show.

@ConnerMacKenzie

Жыл бұрын

@@stevie-con67 he said he was born in Beleriand not Valinor and his character backstory calls him a Silvan elf. Why would wood elves not be a thing?

@stevie-con67

Жыл бұрын

@@ConnerMacKenzie I may be misremembering but I thought he said Valinor in one scene where someone asked him where he was born. As far as there being no Silvan elves, the intro to the show gave the impression that the elves came to middle earth from Valinor. They’ve changed so many other things that I’m not assuming anything from the actual lore unless it is explicitly stated.

@stevie-con67

Жыл бұрын

They are also following orders from the high king of the Noldor. Not sure that would make sense if they are Silvan elves.

@ConnerMacKenzie

Жыл бұрын

@@stevie-con67 nope he said Beleriand. Wood elves don't come from Valinor they refused to make the journey and remained in Middle Earth. All elves in Middle Earth with the exception of Thranduils Woodland Realm recognized Gil-galad as high king.

I'm glad you brought up the hair on the elves. It may not seem like a big thing in a way, it is, for me, the difference between them looking like elves and not looking like elves.

@stellarlare2031

Жыл бұрын

Yes! It's not a deal-breaker for me, but from the beginning I felt it was an unusual choice. Tolkien was a scholar of Anglo-Saxon, and aiming to write a mythology "for England". While the races in his mythology are fictional, they *were* inspired by real world races/cultures/peoples. We also know how Tolkien felt about the Norman Conquests - let's just say, he was not a fan! From my recollections, short haircuts were much less common among the early Britons, Anglo-Saxons and Celts, and much more common amongst the conquering Normans. For the showrunners to make that choice, seemed to me to be saying that they didn't have much of a clue about who Tolkien actually was, and even less about *why* he wrote his entire Legendarium. It's as though they saw a quote about Tolkien being exasperated by his elves always interpreted as beautiful and ethereal, and decided that it was a good reason to do the opposite. I hoped for much. I expected little. I was *still* let down 😂

Galadrial is suppose to be around the same age if not older than Celebrimbor but she acts like a child in this show.

@justinvanheerde4338

Жыл бұрын

Yes

@weststaf673

Жыл бұрын

older. Celebrimbor is her nephew.

@dllps

Жыл бұрын

@@weststaf673 celebrimbor is the son of her half-cousin

@aperson9847

Жыл бұрын

Galadriel is WAY older than Celebrimbor

Peter jackson writing and an amazon budget is what we need to make this better

@brialapoint2608

Жыл бұрын

Peter jackson supposedly offered. He was turned down. Stupid move ofc.

I'm rooting for Sauron this time around. Won't be watching any of this but hope he puts a proper end to this alternate twilight-zone timeline where nearly everything is abysmally wrong.

Where in Numenor did they keep an elven armor that exactly fitted Galadriel???

The show might have received a friendlier response if the character of Galadriel was not Galadriel but some original character.

@zoebaggins90

Жыл бұрын

She'd still be a Karen.

Thanks for the summary. I really love your lore videos, and the writers definitely could have used them when putting together this show.

@elphiegleason3899

Жыл бұрын

Yup lore videos are my favorites

At least half the season would be Annatar corrupting the elves to forge the rings. And show the powers of those Rings. Another: Halbrand touched the Mithril and materials, so the 3 are already cursed. Númenor was supposed to be a discussion about death vs life vs human nature vs immortality. Like Roy did in Blade Runner: "All those moments, will be lost in time like tears in rain..." They should show Harad and Rhûn. Tolkien said that he was inspired by Ethiopia and Saracens to Harad, and Asia (Japan, China, etc) to Rhûn. I would like to see a black prince taming a Mumakil. Sauron was supposed to be a mix of Mephistopheles from Goethe's Faust + Azazel from the book of Enoch + Asmodeus from "The Ring of Solomon". IMHO, they should show Sauron doing religious engineering. Galadriel was supposed to be a sage and a political opponent of Annatar's reformist ideas. She was a philosopher-queen. A student of Mélian and the Valar (like Aulë). Show something transcendent

@duhduhvesta

Жыл бұрын

The corruption of the elves should have taken longer without a doubt

@SamuelBlackMetalRider

Жыл бұрын

All good points. Nothing happened for most of that season and what should’ve been central and filmed at great lengths was rushed in a ridiculous fashion. Elves looked like simpletons (with absurd wavy short hair ans wrinkles…) and irrational dudes with 0 finesse and majesty. Totally agree on the Sauron doing occult Sorcery part that would have been great to display but… that would have required talent in the writing room which was so cruelly missing

“If I never watch this show again in my life.” Oh, what a nice thought

I personally didn't think the stranger would turn out to be Gandalf. Only because I'd never of thought they'd of wanted to piss us off so much!

*Reading most people liked Adar* Me: It’s Uncle Benjen! How could you not? ☺️

@sandermendes7799

Жыл бұрын

He had the most mysterious ,interesting and complex presence - he seemed very ELF like in a very ancient, noble and wise way...

"It seemed that Murielll and Guyladrielll formed the last alliance while Elendil was off to the side crying" LMAO

I truly hope they narrow down the writing room seats. I think the expectations that Amazon would’ve done something altruistic with this property was hopeful but I never expected that.

Lord of the rings.... one of the most successful trilogies ever made.... you don't need to break the law for a new audience when the audience is already there 🙈 it makes me angry

I want to say it was a disappointment, but then again, I’m not sure something can disappoint you when you are expecting to be disappointed.

@ottolehikoinen6193

Жыл бұрын

This would be the way to think if I ever happen to see this show. Better have antidepressants ready.

I never thought I would root for Sauron over Galadriel as she is a villain. They made Her partly at fault That Sauron a/ka Hallbrand became evil again for the love of Galadriel. Wtf?

@stanleyfranks9891

Жыл бұрын

Partly?? She’s responsible for everything he Does Now!! Lol The writers of this show are dolts!!

@neilgoldsmith482

Жыл бұрын

@@stanleyfranks9891 lol 😂

Arachir Galudirithon said it best, most honest and emotional in his “missing information” video for the last episode in the end. Facts.

The reason Celebrimbor told Elrond they needed to build the forge by spring is because GilGalad knew he would then go to the dwarves and they could get the mithril, which was his motive from the start.

Here I can fix season 2. 1) Halbrand isn’t really Sauron. Sauron is still unknown and he gave Halbrand a lesser ring of power that he’s been experimenting on which allowed Sauron to manipulate and control Halbrand. 2) Sauron then comes as Annatar to Eregion saying that he was sent by the Valar to advice and help protect against the new threat of Sauron and convinces Celebrimbor to make more rings of power for men and dwarfs to help unite and protect them against Sauron. 3) now we can get back on track to actual lore where he gets revealed and then later gets captured by Numenor. 4) the stranger isn’t Gandalf but at least is one of the blues and is going to Rhun to find his other companion blue. That would close the plot hole on how female Eminem knew about the istari if one of the blues is already there stirring up shit for those cultists.

@jayvogelsong4045

Жыл бұрын

Brilliant!

@loraelstad8941

Жыл бұрын

I know this is kind of a silly comment I’m making, but just throwing out there that I always seem to be overly entertained by people calling the main mystic woman Eminem. I just giggle like a school girl at it, when I’m actually older looking than they made Celembrimbor look. 🤣

The biggest problem of this show is story but not story as story I mean Tolkien wrote it so it cant be bad, but the problem is that it's not focused on the main story! There were just too many story lines put up together, if I'm not mistaken in one episode there where 5 story lines, 5 in single episode... Best episodes were ep6 and 8 because story was focusdd on single storyline, ep6 action, ep8 who is Sauron... And thats why I think they should have start to make this show with focus on Sauron and the Elves and true Tolkien forging of the rings, I mean Nori and Puppys farwell lasted longer than forging of the ring. They should have started with Celebrimbor, Galadriel and other and Sauron! And after that we are going with Sauron to Numenor and then we are getting back to Middleearth with Elendil and Gil Galad! But then there are rights, they have rights only for LOTR Apendixes... Does that mean that everything that Tolkien wrote in Sillmarillion will not be in this series and it will be changed only because that they dont have rights to it! I mean why are they filming series anyway?! They really need to do it better in next season I belive that they are going to focus on Sauron and his return to Eregion as Annatar and forging of Dwraven rings and rings of men! (I know this is not cannon, Im just saying what I think how this show will continue). Overall I liked Elendil, Adar, Durin, Disa, Miriel, and sort of Gil Galad and Elrond. Celebrimbor, Harfoots, Isildur are just boring and a vaste of time! For example Born of Hope and Hunt for Gollum have more Tolkien spirit than this, and people were saying that Hobbit trilogy sucked, Hobbit now seems like it should have had won dozens of Oscars! Jake, nice and interesting review!

15:35 - “Anyway, enough complaining. Let’s talk about the lore. Now, where to begin?” 😂😄

You are Absolutely Spot On. I don’t think the writers understand anything at all about Tolkiens works! Visually it was well done but the story line was atrocious!

Good summary. Best hope for now is a change in writers to some who have actually read the source material I guess, plus the removal opf whoever seems to think that Galadriel and Sauron need to become "good freinds".

You can't build a house on top of loose sand. Another season will no doubt be a disaster. They need to redo the first season with people who are actual fans of the franchise.

This movie is really off the story in The Simmarillion. Instead of filming the actual process making the ring of powers, they spent most of the time on Halbrand and Galadriel…

Celebrimbor looks like an 80s movie stock market broker. With pointy ears. I imagined Celebrimbor, like all elves who had accomplished great things, as extremely beautiful, with an aetheric glow to them. Elves with the best characters as even more glowing from the inside than "normal" elves. And I always imagined elves as looking as in their early twenties. I don't like The Hobbit but they did a great job with Thranduil. That's how an Elv should look, not like a middle aged human.

Galadriel is a LOT older than Celebrimbor yet she looks like his grand daughter

@kauetadaieski3131

Жыл бұрын

Not a lot, but maybe older. Curufin is much older than Galadriel so Celebrimbor could even be a little older than Galadriel.

@marymaepatalinghug2451

Жыл бұрын

@@kauetadaieski3131 i think Galadriels is a couple hundred years older at the least. nonetheless, the casting of Celebrimbor is a joke. just like the rest of the show. specially after playing shadow of mordor and shadow of war. they give us a weak old man.

Love love love your review, agree with it and also like your attitude of saying that even though you Ryder like it, don’t want to give up on it. You guys, showing hope, truly have Gandalf’s wisdom within. I find myself curious (I don’t think it’s possible but have to wonder) if the writers changed so much of the characters and lore because they were acting out of paranoia because they didn’t have the rights to do much of the story. If there’s any truth to that, they still could have explored much and given us a great story and I’d love to point out ideas as to how. Instead, we get this. Also, weren’t the show runners let go? Yes, use the 2 year break to reflect on what went wrong and come back from this. I love your channel, especially your calm, fair and well thought out explanations, story telling talent, visuals/art work and your content.

I wish bezos made decisions in the past in the same way he arrived at choosing the showrunners, then amazon wouldn’t even be a thing

Ok I started sceptical and it sometimes drags out. But by the end I have decided I like watching it! It’s fun to see the rings being made and the story unfolding. I would rather have something than nothing!

@Daddy_Bear_722

Жыл бұрын

You are the problem. Stop being a cum hungry consoomer. Try having some standards.

@maxpain9388

Жыл бұрын

Agreed. If I was a billionaire and could make it myself. I would make it fucken epic ! But I can barely make the rent each week. So in my peasant life this show has been giving me a moment of relaxation even if it isn't perfect. And I kind of like how they done helbrand .

@thomasdavies5415

Жыл бұрын

I wouldn’t, but that’s just me.

@jacobdenness8659

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, sure the show could have done some things better but I enjoyed watching it

Got to say, it did feel like they hired D&D to write this series. I really hope they get more experienced writers for the rest of the series 🙄

Great review! I agree with most of it and it reflects my own thoughts of the show. I especially agree with the Galadriel part. That was my biggest disappointment. She was not at all how I expected her to be and she was hard to like as a character and main protagonist.

I'm rooting for Adar here 😂😂 I now that the real baddie Dark Lord here is Sauron but I am more interested as how Adar acting as the leader and forefather of Uruk finding & creating home for his orc children! Oh, I totally agree with you that a showdown between Sauron & Adar would be great!

@TETASARAIVACS

Жыл бұрын

Who did Adar “kill”? He said he “killed Sauron”, alright. But did he kill Annatar, for instance? Second season might show Sauron’s past.

@princejohn8245

Жыл бұрын

@@TETASARAIVACS is it actually confirmed that Halbrands/Saurons actor will be in season 2? He might have already been Annatar or will still come back as Annatar. However he still has to deceive the human and dwarves and craft the other rings. I never thought about that he already could have done that but it wouldn't make any sense whatsoever.

Halbrand as Sauron was spelled out to anyone familiar with Silmarillion. The twist wasn't as much who was Sauron but what happens when Galadriel finds out he's Halbrand.

The graphics and CGI team need raises immediately. The Balrog may have been a little too much but those graphics are going to lead to a great Dwarf army vs Balrog fight scene and I can't wait. I thought it was really cool to see more dwarven society and how Elrond used his rare understanding of their traditions to gain access to his friend. It showed the pain of the lifespan difference between the two races. I love the attention on Saurons motives and personality. They did a great job explaining how he attempts to dominate the will of others through Galadriels visions. I can't wait to see Anatar "Lord gifts" lol. Galadriel is a few thousand years old by this point so am I crazy to believe that she would have mastered her fears and emotions at this point. She always feels like she's ready to cut someone's throat. She was way kinder in the books, a warrior no doubt but still kind. Maybe she'll learn this in the coming seasons? People seem a little bent up about the "black" actors and actresses playing some of the roles in the series. I understand that most of Tolkien's books were based on people of English Saxon descent, I can also understand that true earthly fans wanna stay as close to the source material as possible but as long as the actor/actress do their roles well it's really a trifle what color skin they have lol. Also, Easterlings are darker skinned then their brethren west of the mountains so to say that no blacks exist in Tolkien's legion is very dismissive. Shout out to the first female dwarf on screen in LOTR. The first season is always rocky, you always need that first bit of fan feedback to know how to move forward. The series still has great potential and I can't wait to see how they handle season 2

@ushagough9938

Жыл бұрын

Agreed!

@lesserspottedmugwump.363

Жыл бұрын

It’s really difficult to not just see it’s Lenny Henry in a wig though.

I give it a 3.. was so excited but man did they kill my hopes

Thanks! The lore critique is great.

Such a good point that the dwarves were well done but didn’t have any good storyline to generate interest in their characters 👍

I don't know how Peter Jackson's movies had the greatest costume design ever. I'm surprised that in 20 years; the Rings of Power's costumes were considerably lower in quality

The only thing that got me onto Halbrand was Sauron was that the "worm" didn't attack him, that got me thinking.

I think a fix for Galadriel's more violent street could be the influence of sauron, that's how I'd of written it if I wanted her to be like that.

I was looking for a balanced review that wasn't just pure raging and that covered things evenly (and in my mind fairly) and this review fitted the bill perfectly. Really appreciate the work putting it together.

The best thing you could say about the show is that it’s a well made Tolkien flavored fantasy show that in no way feels like Tolkien

I'm just glad that it's over for this year! If someone had told me two years ago that I wouldn't even want to watch to the end series about Tolkien's world, I would have said "îsh kakhfê ai-‘d-dûr-rugnul" Fortunately, no such conversation took place 😆

I was most upset at what they did with Celebrimbor and Finrod. I mean, yes, also Gil Galad, and the Elves in general, but Celebrimbor is my blorbo. Not only was he robbed of his Fëanorian black hair and his good looks, he was also one of the most important figures of the Second Age and here is little more than a side character. They took away his friendship with the dwarves to give it to Elrond. They took away his seduction by Sauron to give it to Galadriel. They took away his desire to preserve Middle Earth and make it beautiful and peaceful, and they gave it to Sauron (not wrong, but Celebrimbor was *sincere*). They took away his conceiving and forging the Three as a way to defend against Sauron and turned it into a way to “save the Elves”. Tyelpë was robbed! Charles Edwards plays him with the enthusiasm, kindness and gentleness tinged with mania that I associate with Celebrimbor, but he doesn’t look like him. And anyway, he’s hardly ever on screen. As for Finrod Felagund, the beloved, the beautiful, the wise, the Elf that sacrificed his life and his realm for a Man, for friendship and gratitude and honor, Finrod who knew he was going to his death and still fought to the end… They turned Finrod into a Fëanorian. And I love myself some Fëanorians, but Finrod is not one of them, he is not chasing Sauron with vengeance and hatred. The other thing that separately annoyed me, and continues to annoy me, was that a lot of the discussion about the series tended to revolve around speculation. Who’s Sauron? I don’t care. I wish the series would have enough self confidence to trust that when he is revealed, the payoff will be right - not try to manufacture interest by dangling possible candidate in front of me all the time. This is not Agatha Christie. (Not to mention the unspeakably stupid and puzzling decision not to tell poor Charlie Vickers that he was playing Sauron until he had shot the first two episodes!)

@CordeliaWagner

Жыл бұрын

Celebrimbor looks like an 80s movie stock market broker. With pointy ears. I imagined Celebrimbor, like all elves who had accomplished great things, as extremely beautiful, with an aetheric glow to them. Elves with the best characters as even more glowing from the inside than "normal" elves. And I always imagined elves as looking as in their early twenties. I don't like The Hobbit but they did a great job with Thranduil. That's how an Elv should look, not like a middle aged human.

@milosen6744

Жыл бұрын

Because Amazon only bought the television rights to The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, the writers had to identify all of the references to the Second Age in those books and create their own story that bridged all those passages. The writers were free to change and add characters and details, and they worked with the estate and Tolkien lore experts (same that helped Peter Jackson) to ensure these were still "Tolkienian". Simon Tolkien (the grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien), consulted on the whole series and helped develop its story and character arcs. He is credited as a "series consultant". The biggest deviation made from Tolkien's works, which was approved by the estate and lore experts, was to condense the Second/Third Age from thousands of years to a short period of time. This avoided human characters frequently dying due to their relatively short lifespans, and allowed major characters from later in the timeline to be introduced earlier in the series (e.g Gandalf). A disclaimer is featured in the series' end credits stating that some elements are "inspired by, though not contained in, the original source material". RoP is NOT supposed to follow the lore and nobody has claimed that either. Simon Tolkien and the Tolkien lore experts approved and helped write RoP, but you think they did a bad job? Btw, Vickers suspected he would be Sauron already when he auditioned, and the Trilogy was also changed a lot (even though Jackson had all the rights). Yes, Celebrimbor is blond and older in RoP, but at least he wasn't replaced by a female elf like Glorfindel was replaced by Arwen. Almost all main characters in the Trilogy got their personalities altered. The Scouring of the Shire was totally removed and so was Tom Bombadill. The army of the dead never came to Minas Tirith and the elves never helped at Helm's Deep and Haldir didn't die there. There's sooo much more things that's wrong with Jacksons Trilogy, but instead of complaining and write mean comments about the movies, I accept that they are Jackson's adaptations of The books. Same with RoP. It's Amazon's adaptation and they are loosely based on the little SA material that can be found in the LotR and Hobbit books. If we want it to be exactly the way we want it, then we have to make the movie/series ourselves!

Very good review, I never expected Tolkien quality writing and overall I did find the first season entertaining. My disappointment lies in the fact that I was hoping they would stay true to the lore and give us more original material. Like you said there is so much about the second age that we don't know, because Tolkien never wrote it. There was so much opportunity for multiple seasons of new Middle earth adventure I truly cannot understand why they compressed the timeline to include so much Tolkien lore in one season. Edit: At this point I really hope meteor man turns out to be some other original Istari that either completes or fails some mission which could lead to the sending of the five Istari from Tolkien.

I think we're all being a bit harsh on the Halbrand is Sauron line. The majority of those watching were casual fans, or at best, ardent watches of the PJ trilogies. For example, if they named him Anatar, it would've been confirmed he was Sauron straightaway and those not aware of the lore would've seen the same within 5 minutes of watching the episode due to social media/message boards

Nice evaluation! And I agree with many of your arguments. Just a small thought concerning the chained little warg of the orcs: I thought at first that it was ridiculously silly, and it looked like my cute little Chihuahua-Spitzdog mix when she gets angry because I try to remove her ticks 😉 But when I looked at my dog, I came to the conclusion that the small warg was probably meant to be a juvenile specimen which had either been captured by the orcs - pardon - Uruks, or they have domesticated some wargs for nefarious purposes. But this little tidbit got lost somehow or ended up on the cutting floor. It would have been a nice detail about the everyday life of the Uruks. The show has been badly edited, and it's very obvious that the coordination in the writers' room was very bad. There are hints at several narrative strands which have been discarded or modified, but the clues which point at an abandoned plotline are still there. It's confusing and annoying. I liked the story of Adar and his Uruks best. I was never a fan of Tolkien's orcs, and when he got older and more mature he started to feel uncomfortable about his treatment of the orcs as cannon fodder for the heroes or as a pest which needed to be eradicated. Killing as many orcs as possible was some kind of mildly perilous outdoor sport for Legolas and Gimly. In later years Tolkien acknowledged that he had created his orcs as sentient humanoid beings who most likely had a soul just as all other hominids on planet Arda. But Tolkien died without having solved his orc conundrum. I enjoyed that the show created a decent subplot about orcs and how they might have been created. And I loved Adar's character because Joseph Mawle is a great actor. I am firmly rooting for Adar and his Uruks now, and I hope that they have at least a few decent years in their new homeland which is now an excellent habitat for Uruks! I wonder how Sauron will deal with Adar! There's no love lost between the two of them. Will there be a show-down, or will Sauron seduce Adar with hollow promises? I don't think that Adar's future will be bright. If he is very unlucky Sauron will seduce him with a ring of power, and Adar might turn into a Nazgul 😞 I know that all Nazgul were humans before their rings turned them slowly into ringwraiths. But since the show-runners are not exactly wedded to Tolkien’s lore, I won't put it past the two milky-faced inexperienced guys that they might turn the first orc into the first Nazgul!

You guys have been one of my main "go-to" in regards to Tolkien lore since I first discovered you! And, without trying to spread hate here, I can really feel and appreciate your honesty about the "twist" and how Galadriel is written. Thank you.

Thank you for your honest review.

The numenorian white armor I actually like bc it looks like a type of scale armor or a type of ancient Chinese armor and since they are considered to be highly advanced capable people it makes sense for them to wear armor that is harder to craft

People compare this series to fanfiction a lot as a way of putting it down, but I've seen quite a lot of good fanfiction that honors the source material far better than what I've seen of Rings of Power suggests it does. I write fanfiction for the Silmarillion and LOTR, including some set in the Second Age. The source material for that era is a frustrating and fascinating thing to work with, because it is scattered between different books and there is often more than one version of events. It's a challenge to parse out, but worth it because the world and stories are beautiful and are much less often told by fanwriters than, say LOTR era events. So I have more creative freedom and the opportunity to write something that hasn't been done to death when I write Second Age stories. I don't get the impression that the showrunners for The Rings of Power tried to engage with the source material properly. And that's a crying shame, because there were stories there that deserved to be told and told well... not distorted in odd directions with original stuff added without thought to make it fit in with the canon. Seriously, the time compression. Oh man. Shakes head. They're losing so much thematically and it messes with the sense of grandeur of the tales being told.

i was very excited to see middle earth in screen again in my life and i enjoyed the show but now afte season ends and see your video i agree to your points i hope 2nd season to go more professionaly with the writing( i think this is the main problem) maybe some amazon co's see your video and reconsider :)

I heard a podcast from ‘Lore of the Rings’ where the guest was Paul Genesse, a Tolkien expert, and he theorised that the double Durins was a ‘6th Sense’ thing, where Durin can talk to his father. He talked about them always being alone when they spoke, but I don’t know if that holds up throughout all the episodes.

@currentlyabsinth

Жыл бұрын

That’s such a nice idea. But wouldn’t it be weird for Disa to talk about Durin (king) when she talks with her husband? It’s like Durin (husband) has an imaginary friend and Disa just accepts this and then she is mad at the bad decisions the imaginary friend makes. The idea would have been great but I think they already ruined the possibility.

@CPHLiving21

Жыл бұрын

@@currentlyabsinth that is a good point.

There is no longer justification for using Tolkien in RoP analysis. Going back and forth from book to tv characters and using those motivations as if they are interchangeable or using written events to predict future tv events is folly. What was the phrase, "The story is true but the names have been changed to protect the innocent" ? This is the opposite of that. The names remain but the story has been changed to enrich the guilty.

Arondir has Green Man in his chest armor

I'm impressed by how Sauron helped Celebrimbor create the 3 elven rings within 3 weeks instead of 300 years. As a lowman noless. Will be fun how he should proceed to create the other 16+1 rings now when he has revealed himself. Mean Celebrimbor have been taught the art of creation which means he no longer have any use of Sauron...Bye Bye 300 years of lore. Loved how Galadriel starting to mature at the age of what? 7000? She would have joined Sauron 100% there if her brother would'nt have died by his hand(or wolfs). She is an evil mf. She has spent time in Dorriath with Melian the Maia AND is the daughter of Finarfin and yet Bill the pony would outsmart her. She s supposed to be wise like her brothers instead She is more a stupid-vengeful version of Fëanor.

@darrylclarkson1799

Жыл бұрын

I'm more impressed by the fact Sauron shape shifted into human form which he never did and had absolutely nothing to do with the forging of the three elven rings!!! Utter crap

@CordeliaWagner

Жыл бұрын

Isuldur has to be alive at the end of the show. They squeezed hundrets of years into something that feels like three weeks.

@jacobdenness8659

Жыл бұрын

They had to shorten the time scale down to make the show work. It wouldn’t have worked if it took place over hundreds of years.

@jamesarnold7253

Жыл бұрын

To be fair they have immortal and mortal main characters. If they wanted it like you want it to be they'd have had to introduce new mortal characters either every episode or multiple times per episode

@emilpeterson7034

Жыл бұрын

Well they could just have done it season by season, since they already begun recording and spent billions purchasing the rights. They might aswell have done it with patience instead of rushing it. Imagine first season could be of Anatar (Sauron) and the father of Elendil (Amandil) & Nümenor. The development of the strife between the faithful and the kingsmen. Amandil is a quite important character. Since he sails west to warn the Valár, so having a young Amandil early season and the a young Elendil in the end would been perfect. They should also introduced us to to Anatar, lord of gifts and show the deception of Sauron the deciever. That would included the eleven realms of Eregion & Lindon. Which would lead to the introduction of Gil-Galad, Celebrimbor, Elrond & a adult Galadriel. Perhaps Celeborn aswell since he was there in the books. Not gone after 1 day when he lived in Dorriath where Galadriel spent time during the first age. Kaza-dum with Dùrin & Elrond is also needed since one of the 3 was made by mithril. They could just have postponed it abit since the rings were crafted after Sauron left, why not wait with them? I think everyone wanted to see Kaza-dum before it turned into Moria without stressing lt. Second season could be the creation of the last 3 elven rings which Sauron had no hand in after he left to create the one. By that point Elendil would been an adult with Isildur & Anarion grown instead of a random daughter. This would been the perfect way to get more in depth with the dwarfs instead of showing a Balrog waking up thousands of years to early. I rather have the mortal characters focused on the line of kings of Nümenor aswell as the line of Amandil who lived during the creation of the rings. Third season could be the war between elves and sauron leading up to Nümenor capturing him and by the end of the season have it fall since Sauron corrupted them very fast. I would have them to follow Tolkiens work any day instead of being stupid AF and making the 3 elven rings first by the hand of Sauron when they're not. They focused on the other 16 first instead of turning everything backwards and making the 3 rings first in 3 weeks. Adar would have been a good antagonist for the other elves to focus on making them blind to Saurons deception. This series is no more than fanfiction atm. Nothing is in line with Tolkiens work and by putting it all in 1 season is horrible. What mortals do we care about except line of Dùrin and the line of kings like Tar-Palantir, Al-Pharazon & Amandil? None really what I can think of atleast. The series had so many slows episodes that was useless, especially with the Harfoots. Imagine what they could have done with those episodes to build up to season 2 and the reconstruction of Bara-dur.

Biggest qualm I had with the show was that Galadriel's immature, selfish behavior. I would not mind this it all if it were it not presented as a virtue. We see her repeat this behavior from the beginning to the end. There is no arc. Her callous nature is depicted as perfection and I feel like this is the opposite of what Tolkien is trying to get through in his work Edit: for example, Turin (who is my favorite character in Tolkien's work) gets screwed over repeatedly for acting selfishly, and for disregarding the wisdom of others, and thinking that he knows best. It causes immeasurable death and sorrow. The fact that deep down he's a compassionate person is what redeems him though, and makes him such a complex character and I'm not seeing that with Galadriel . . . when she is given the ring at the end of the season it feels like she is being rewarded, but for what? What incentive does she have to learn from her mistakes when they are not even presented as mistakes? I can't even imagine Aragorn or Gandalf, or even someone like Turin defeating an enemy and then telling them that they will make them watch as they kill all of their subordinates. Wtf is that?

i saw your first comments of first prewiev you have invited and you were so carefull when all other influencers were happy happy commenting :) your are guys thanks for being honest always

I thought it was a solid 7/10. It wasn't great. But it was pretty good. The pacing was weird, the acting was solid, the writing was off in places but amazon didn't have much to work with in the their source material as they only had the trilogy, the hobbit and the appendices to work with. And most of the story they're telling is within the Silmarillion, Unfinished tales, ect. So I got what I about expected. We won't get ANY faithful adaptations of anything from the 1st/2nd age until the Tolkien estate passes into different hands.

@michaelmiller7272

Жыл бұрын

Basically it's a reimagining of the stories from the 2nd age. Do I prefer what I saw? Absolutely not. But at this point I'll take any type of middle earth entertainment I can get my hands on. Even if it's not great.

I share the exact opinions. Thankyou for staying true to what you believe and not giving in.

Perhaps the Istar isn't Gandalf and is a Blue Wizard, and Gandalf learned that line from him.

It seems we agreed on more things than I thought 😁 great review! 🙌

While I really enjoy your videos, I have to say, I can't agree with your review of the season. I think we can all agree that it wasn't perfect (how could it?), but in general, I found it very enjoyable. I think the casting and performances were excellent, it was visually stunning, and had beautiful music. Regarding Galadriel, her character is not meant to be the wise, kind and generous being she is in LOTR. She was described by Tolkien as being proud and ambitious in her youth, so it's fitting for her to have this sort of hubris and that would make her less likable, I think. My main complaint with the show is the dialogue; sometimes it's very good, but a lot of times it just feels odd. But I think it isn't fair to say that the people who worked on the show didn't know the source material well. I think as lifelong Tolkien fans, we should remember that the show will be it's own thing, just like "The Neverending Story." It's one of the most beloved fantasy films of all time, but best enjoyed when you set aside your knowledge of the novel and allow yourself to engage with the film on its own terms.

It's going to be so fun to see Rey and Kylo Ren......... I mean Galadriel and Sauron in their love story next season.

I'm so board with this show that I've turned this video off 3 times and put it back on cos I like you guys and you deserve the views

I think that you are correct in saying that the writers didn't understand the source material and just pulled names out of a hat to put them in the story, Maybe the stranger is Saruman? Gandalf was the last one of the wizards to get to middle earth.

@stanleyfranks9891

Жыл бұрын

Its Gandalf as he used the “follow your nose” line…

One of the most annoying plots for me in this show, was Halbrand's Saurun reveal. There were several hints throughout the episodes that Halbrand is Saurun, but I kept dismissing them for the wait of Annatar. Halbrand can't be Saurun simply because Annatar is coming soon, and he never came. I still like the Saurun revelation scene.

I took the rush to build the forge was due to the corruption / decay of the tree and the black stuff on the leaf. This was kept from Elron while the motivation for everything the King did. The King was moving the pieces into place to save the Elves, but Elron didn't know the full story. Not saying the plot was perfect on this, but that's how I understood the forge was to create a work to save elves, even if they didn't know what they would create.

Calling it a letdown would be an understatement imo

The comment about the smooth fade killed me 🤣

I may be mistaken but the armor Galadriel is wearing was provided by Numenor so not crafted by elves right?

@stevetrauger8037

Жыл бұрын

also regarding lore changes, i saw somewhere that they are only allowed to use lore from LOTR books and appendices.

the long hair on the numenorian armor looks like the rohirim

I really appreciate the honesty of your criticism. I agree with almost all the flaws you point out especially Galadriel's bratty immature moments. I did yell "come on she's like a thousand years old or something" at my TV. I watched all 8 episodes and I was decently entertained. Here is my analogy with instant coffee. I have a nice espresso machine and a somewhat expensive grinder and I'm particular about which roast of coffee I use. But I'm still able to enjoy instant coffee. And the reason is that I don't see instant coffee as really bad coffee, I see as a decent coffee-like warm beverage. I knew about Anatar and only figured it out when he said "call it ... a gift" in the last episode. Well actually started to see it coming when he started giving crafting tips to Celebrimbor and when he said "call it ... a gift" I was like "Oh shit! The Lord of Gifts... Nice!". I figured out that the meteor man was Gandalf quicker because I knew from In Deep Geek's lore videos that he came to Middle Earth without all his memories and he couldn't be Sauron because the whole thing with the hobbit girl telling him he's good wouldn't make sense.

Luke is to Last Jedi as Galadriel is to Rings of Power. Let's go Sauron!

Wasn't Mordor the result of the destruction of one of the two lamps by Melkor?

@TabiOya

Жыл бұрын

I believe so

@cally77777

7 ай бұрын

No

Disappointed doesn't even begin to describe how I feel. I so wanted this to be good, to add to the great original trilogy but alas, garbage writers making garbage decisions ruined it.

I can’t see how it’s anything other than an unmitigated disaster

@AHappyRaider

Жыл бұрын

Try using glasses

@edmonddantes563

Жыл бұрын

@@AHappyRaider I could say the same thing to you

@AHappyRaider

Жыл бұрын

@@edmonddantes563 That would be one lazy answer

@evangolebiewski6187

Жыл бұрын

@@edmonddantes563 this comeback is lazy writing, so you probably love the show, right?

@musicman717

Жыл бұрын

No.

Big missing point here. They were not allowed to touch the vast majority of the lore due to lacking the rights. Considering those constraints, they did alright. Still room to improve for sure, but drop the lore expectations and any of this “for the fans” nonsense.

Damn, if you didnt like a head strong Galadriel, I can only imagine how you'd feel towards "kin slaying, Boat burning, all around asshole" Feanor.

@TabiOya

Жыл бұрын

But feanors character has always been like that. Its like if they changed feanor to a patient sweet thinking before acting elf. It's different

Huge disappointment for me.

Omgosh I LOST IT when they made it seem like Celeborn was dead! Seriously? Y’all had to try hard to make this pseudo-romance with Halbrand happen? ALSO! Sauron I supposed to be in the guise of AN ELF when he comes to the elves…. Why is he a human?! Whyyyy

The problem with the music is that there are no memorable melodies in any of the themes. Sure the music style is similar to the music in the movies, but that's not all that determines whether the music is good or bad. I can instantly hum many different melodies from the LotR movies. The Shire theme, the Bridge of Kazad Dum theme, the Elven theme... I can remember what the melodies are and how they go. The movies also have several amazing vocal tracks like May It Be and Aniron. If I were asked to hum one single melody from Rings of Power... well I couldn't. I can't even remember what the title theme is, despite never having skipped the title theme and watched it every time. That's honestly a bad grade as far as music goes, in my opinion. It needs actual melodies, not just general chords and soundscapes.