I am struck by not just how little the show runners understand Tolkien, but how little they understand classic literature, plot, character development, and storytelling.

@dronesclubhighjinks

Жыл бұрын

It's quite amazing, isn't it? They've spent at least the last 10 years in Hollywood writing scripts. Their incompetence is on par with She-Hulk's writers.

@charmawow

Жыл бұрын

@@dronesclubhighjinks That explains everything!

@ronthecon9772

Жыл бұрын

I'm just struck by how they get hired.... what do they have to do Wink? Or who do they know? Or is it a Cultish Club you have to join? I mean do they take Vow's to the Message and Such. It's crazy how Hollywood is now Controlled by talentless hacks and activists!

@Wayoutthere

Жыл бұрын

'classic literature' is part of the 'toxic huwhite male' legacy in the eyes of the woke.

@josie_the_valkyrie

Жыл бұрын

​@@dronesclubhighjinks ten years unsuccessfully "writing" in Hollywood. Most of their projects never took off lol.

10 bucks says once the media catches back up with public opinion they're gonna put out hit pieces and pretend they never liked the show to begin with.

@tetsuotakahashithe5thpilla708

Жыл бұрын

Id take you on, but I have a feeling ill lose xD

@gravenwolf6535

Жыл бұрын

Ironic that's exactly what they're doing now.

@oldgoat142

Жыл бұрын

I doubt anybody will cover that bet because we all know it's how those people operate.

@roberthesser6402

Жыл бұрын

Didn’t the guardian do literally exactly that?

@TheVioletBunny

Жыл бұрын

Where can I mail your check ?

"What kind of man would leave his companions to die?" She asked, shortly after leaving her companions to die.

@sigmacademy

Жыл бұрын

But, it's duality? :P

@Guilherme-ow3wb

Жыл бұрын

"No one left behind!" said the Harfoot, after leaving entire families behind to die for no reason.

@sillypuppy5940

Жыл бұрын

She's a woman so that's ok

@anon17472

Жыл бұрын

I am no man!

Tolkien debunked them before they were even born.

@tanyachristensen5330

Жыл бұрын

🏆

@davidcoleman757

Жыл бұрын

Boom!

@Joshua_N-A

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like he always been many steps ahead

How can immortal elves have "apocryphal" or "legendary" stories? Galadriel, Celebrimbor, and Gil-galad all were alive when these event occured. They know whether they're true or not!

@therra1101

Жыл бұрын

Right? And Tolkien explores this a lot in LOTR (especially). Different characters react differently to stories. But just remember how they talk about Galadriel in TT. The Rohirrim call her a witch. But Aragorn wa raised in Rivendell and had access to first age people and understood a lot better.

I think another problem is the very literal lack of love between characters. By the end of Fellowship, you could see real love and camaraderie between characters. And it was earned by shared experience.

@mikemcmike6427

Жыл бұрын

Hell by the end of the first movie you could see their bond (everyone distraught over Gandalf’s fall) and Aragon and legalos and gimli going after the hobbits. They did more in 3 hours

@TheOuroboros84

Жыл бұрын

well that is a true representation of modern times, that they did achieve...picturing tolkien's work with modern attitudes, where friends value more ppl on instagram that the people they have right besides them. Pathetic.

@SoldierSpiderx

Жыл бұрын

@@mikemcmike6427 big fact you can tell they are brother and they lost one of their own

Understanding the lore and respecting the fans are true representation.

@ColdHardTruthNews

Жыл бұрын

Too bad it flew way over the writer's heads.

@jopaymemore8056

Жыл бұрын

@@ColdHardTruthNews Of course it did, because they had their heads so firmly stuck up their own asses they couldn't see anything at all.

@AlexanderTheGoodEnough

Жыл бұрын

NO, expectations must be subverted!

@ahoramazda6864

Жыл бұрын

If we forget about big words and promises - then what kind of diversity is there in this show? A black elf who not only turned out to be stereotypical and with "on the nose" level metaphors, but also under the heel of the strong florist womyn. The dream of any warrior... With masochistic inclinations. The black female dwarf - was supposed to turn the whole world and open the way for black women, like Moses (but not Moses Ingram), but for some reason became a minor character. Strange. The Elder of harefoots is the unspoken leader of the unsympathetic faction. He died at the end of the season, although he could easily have survived because showrunners say they don't want to be like Game of Thrones, but in fact they want it even more than soy silk milk. Speaking of larp as Game of Thrones - we have a diverse queen - who rules as a female regent, just like Cersei and that chick from House of Dragons. Besides, she's going blind, just like Arya Stark. But we have to believe that the showrunners were reading Tolkien and not watching HBO while drunk. These are four characters, and all but the warrior, and maybe sometimes the queen, are practically unimportant and not needed for the plot. As for the Asians, apart from a few randos in the crowd, I didn't notice any among the characters. Although I'll be honest - after the first twenty minutes of the first episode, I drop the show harder than the warriors of Galadriel their swords. The rest I saw in the review and do not regret it. And it was not the casting of minorities that stopped me, but the terrible dialogues and Galadriel. She is so insufferable that I couldn't watch it for long. And the dialogue is the most important part of the show because the viewer will hear it all the time. But who needs dialogue anyway? The showrunners have really chosen the right strategy - to show off a few hand-made things against the backdrop of shabby CGI.

@Tara-Maya

Жыл бұрын

Your wisdom has no place in Their modern world.

The most insulting part? According to lore, it took Sauron and Celebrimbor something like 70 years to make 16 rings; the 9 for mortal men, and the 7 for the dwarf lords. The elves used what they learned to make their own three rings. In other words, Sauron didn't actually make the three elven rings. Yet, in this show, they not only make the elf rings first, Sauron is involved in their making. They didn't read the books, clearly.

@michaeltalpas

Жыл бұрын

Making something up would have been one thing. They could have made it the tears Aulë. Aulë is the Valar responsible for creating the materials and ores that are in Middle Earth. It makes more sense for him to have been involved. I think they went into this show thinking that Valar aren't real. That they're made up like gods by men and elves. That's why they never used them in any part of the story. Whatever. Just further proof they didn't read any of the source material.

@loviatar9

Жыл бұрын

They probably skimmed Cliffnotes, which is likely what got them thru college so they figured 🤷

@adventwolfbane

Жыл бұрын

Technically all 16 rings of the rings were meant for the Elves. When he found out that the Elves made a their own rings he took back the rings and gave them to others.

@joefish6091

Жыл бұрын

A long time ago I always wondered about the five 'missing' rings and five wizards. But there was never five rings.

@vladimpaler3498

Жыл бұрын

In fact, that is why Sauron is so upset. The rings he helped them create were to serve his purpose. That the elves went on to create their own without him means he has much less overt control over them. Now he has to forge the One Ring and imbue it with an enormous amount of his native Maia power to regain influence. The elves are n ot stupid and take the rings off forcing Sauron into a huge war, when he had been on the cusp of controlling everyone with ease. I will say it again, Sauron would not appear as a man or discount Aragorn, he would appear as an elf or Maia. A mortal showing up with that kind of power and knowledge would be a complete tip-off. You only get that kind of knowledge with millennia of study, something a mortal cannot do. The reason most elf lords do not trust him is someone of this level just walking around is unusual. This is why the concept of some witches is nonsense, mortals would not get to this level. The only reason the Numenorians are at this level is because they have elven assistance over millennia. (And their leaders elven/Maian blood.)

"Don't Care About The Lore - Go Poor", quote from Johnny Law, sums it up.

The 'superfan' gave it away when he said sauron was 'hot' and that he wanted to 'save him' or whatever. The moment Galadriel started making 'do me' eyes at Haladriel it was BLATANTLY OBVIOUS who Sauron was.

@sigmacademy

Жыл бұрын

Well, the pure fact that the "superfans" were not really talking about anything (which NDAs would have prevented in any case) even remotely related to the books, was the biggest red flag. The media outlets who knew next to nothing about Tolkien (apart form the 2 trilogies) were probably better informed.

@Guilherme-ow3wb

Жыл бұрын

It's actually bizarre that everyone cringed when they said that but the showrunners were panicking at unintended spoilers...

@moseszero3281

Жыл бұрын

@@Guilherme-ow3wb I think the whole superfan BS was completely scripted. Badly scripted like the show but still scripted.

@doubleot1984

Жыл бұрын

Save him from what 😿😿?

@moseszero3281

Жыл бұрын

@@doubleot1984 i forgot the exact wording but it felt like that same attitude of when a girl finds a bad-boy and tries to 'fix' him.

I was so shocked when the PowerPoint title changed from Southlands to Mordor that I fell of my chair. Same with Halbrand being Sauron. Surely the most unexpected plot twists in history

I'm super impressed with the Show runners ability to get paid without any skills, talent or even basic intellect on creating a decent show. I'm envious cause I would like to find a gig like that.....I'd even respect lore and fans. But clearly that is the one attribute that would keep me from getting hired.

@joefish6091

Жыл бұрын

Daytime TV, direct to video movies, We used to have a Family video store, blockbuster movies plus older ones, plus the direct to video and TV stuff, there was a TV movie called 'P-51 Dragon Fighter' this is the sort of dross that Lindsay 'Overlord' Weber and her minion daytime soap showrunners made before becoming Amazon vunderkinds.

@robertbeisert3315

Жыл бұрын

It helps to have worked under Jar Jar. His former and current minions have been behind most of the garbage since Lost.

Strong Woman: "What kind of man leaves his companions to die?" Dunno, the same woman who wanted to leave two of her own to freeze to death on a mountain.

Funniest thing about whole shtick how Galadriel is obsessed with the murder of her brother and her obsession with revenge against Sauron is that her brother is totally fine and chilling with his father and mother in the local equivalent of Eden. And Galadriel KNOWS that, she even can send him freaking letters. Elves do not fucking die in the Tolkien verse.

@englishlady9797

Жыл бұрын

In the series though, she doesn't know that. She thinks death is final, and that she will never see her brother again. There's no real concept of Valinor as the afterlife at all.

@ABurntMuffin

Жыл бұрын

@@englishlady9797 which is a HUGE sin

@adventwolfbane

Жыл бұрын

@@englishlady9797 except she was from Valinor. She knows the hall of mandos is a thing and is where the souls reside until they are either remade with new bodies or the end of the world happens and they are unleashed to fight. It isn't a secret to the Elves that it is their fate.

@GeraltofRivia22

Жыл бұрын

@@adventwolfbane exactly. All elves know that, which is why men dying and not knowing what happens is called the Gift. If elves didn't know, then they wouldn't be different from humans in that regard.

@adventwolfbane

Жыл бұрын

@@GeraltofRivia22 That is my point. there is no way she doesn't know where her "dead" brother is. Since it is only the races Men that are not bound to world and get to leave it when they die and return to the creator.

The showrunners approached the writing of the show with the same level of care, thoughtfulness and reverence as a teenager with a sharpie scribbling lewd graffiti on a public bathroom stall

@sonofthebearking3335

Жыл бұрын

☝exactly. Sweet, refreshingly honest, clear, and informative take right there. I think I'll sit here a minute, sip something, and cleanse from the bs.

For some time I was hoping (flying in the face of the timeline, as if the writers gave a shit) that Halbrand would end up being the Witch King. "Was a king at some point, and received a magic piece of jewelry" being the sum of his canonical pre-wraith backstory is a blank check to write your Own Original Character into the story. When people are coming up with alternatives to your reveal because they've considered what'll actually happen and think it's too simple, it's not a good reveal.

@shadowking9739

Жыл бұрын

That would've been so amazing!

@verindictus3639

Жыл бұрын

@@shadowking9739 of course, almost anything would seem amazing compared to what Amazon came up with.

@furcifur3

Жыл бұрын

Hal is the witch king who swore his allegiance to galadriel before she reveals herself to have been sauron in disguise ever since he captured the real galadriel in the north fortress in episode 1.

@furcifur3

Жыл бұрын

Also, adar 100% should have been finrod or whatever her brother's name was.

@kimandre5842

Жыл бұрын

but seriously, i decided to go to sleep with about 20 min left of ep4, i never got back to it, and i was by no shot suprised by halbrand being sauron, anyone else suprised? Edit: btw, i am stilling "waiting" for Gal to learn some magic and become a mystic or caster of some sort

It would have literally taken these writers only a day to read and absorb the “Letters of Tolkien.” They couldn’t even be bothered to do that.

@tkps

Жыл бұрын

Oh they've pulled the odd few words out when they THINK it proves their point. Like when some produce a line from the Bible and say 'see it means X' but when you read the whole chapter it means nothing of the sort.

@cherryfireice8216

Жыл бұрын

TBH don't think it would help. These 2 seem to be self satisfied like a couple of overly indulged 10 year olds convinced that the shallow cringe they turn out was A level vs actual D level that got jawdroppingly worse as it went along.

@skinnysnorlax1876

Жыл бұрын

@@tkps my favorite example of that is "All this I will give to you if you merely bow down and worship me." Phrased as God giving you stuff for your worship. Except that's Satan tempting Jesus in that quote. Lol, pretty apt

Sauron taught the art of forging magic rings, playing into the Elves love of making art and gift giving. The show declined to read.

@dannydude6

Жыл бұрын

The worst part is the show runners saying “no one would believe a guy would just help them with secret knowledge, they’d all suspect him if he did” while they forget that the guy can fucking shape shift, lies about who he is and plays into the elves predispositions to get what he wants. What they meant is that they can’t write well enough to have an intelligent character trick other intelligent characters because the writers themselves aren’t intelligent. It’s like some moron trying to play a smart wizard in a DnD game but just casts fireball at everything then gets confused when people treat his character like an idiot. Sad really

It takes some level of skill to make something great that everybody will love, but you have to have a special kind of talent to ruin something so thoroughly bad that its considered unrecognizable.

Go to a Korean grocery and buy some "Asian pear tea". It will come in a glass jar, and it's really a jelly or jam. You put a spoon or two of it into hot water or tea. It will soothe your throat a lot. (Same thing for stewed/baked Asian pears.) I'm a singer, and this has saved my bacon a lot since the Korean grocery lady told me about it. Although honestly, any jam/jelly will do a decent job, as will honey (of course). Asian pear is just the best I've found.

@talesofgore9424

Жыл бұрын

Asian pears are loaded with pectin which is an ingredient in old cough drops

@klhaldane

Жыл бұрын

We used to use honey, lemon, hot water, and whiskey (during high school musicals!). I think I would have preferred the pear tea.

@Cassandra112

Жыл бұрын

lemon and whiskey. oh god. lol no. Caffeine also tears the throat up. Chamomile, liquorice root, honey, are good. you can get herbal teas of, licorice root, cherry bark, fennel seed, slippery elm, mullien leaf, mashmallow root, in most grocery stores. these actively help heal the lining of your esophagus.

@fenrir6002

Жыл бұрын

I have to look it up but vinegar and honey also work, the vinegar killing the bacteria while the honey seals and calms the throat.

@theredheadwiththread1275

Жыл бұрын

@@Cassandra112 Whisky can help to thin mucus. You're not supposed to use more than a shot.

These writers were just one step above naming Halbrand, Noruas.

Magic doesn’t work like that in Tolkien, it’s subtle and never overt. It’s never more than the manipulation of the world already present, or the encouragement of minds (good or evil). It’s almost always a background to the narrative, or a minor episode along a journey to a physical and moral event. Not witches and wizards casting spectacular spells, but divine (or fallen) beings influencing the world and its people. Just my tuppence. 👍

@simonwahlen7150

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, it is even a point that good magical beings and magic users are subtle because they don't want to cause undue destruction or side effects with their powers. That's the whole thing about Sarumans fall and corruption he stops caring about the side effects of exerting his influence on the world and creates a desolate wasteland just like Sauron.

@billyb4790

Жыл бұрын

very well said and great point, the both of you.

The who is Sauron 'twist' reminds me of old mystery TV shows in the 1980s where the writers only bothered to give you one plausible suspect then the big reveal is 'Ta-daa! Its him, the guy you knew all along!'

@tkraid2575

Жыл бұрын

"It is I! My machinations lay undetected for years!"

@xuedalong

Жыл бұрын

Scoobie-doobie-dooooooo

@lorenzolyleabadia1669

Жыл бұрын

@@tkraid2575 For I am a master of deception.

That's nothing just wait a year. That's when the great rewriting of reality will begin to ramp up.

0:02 “how Sauron hid in plain sight” Dude, a blind man could see Halbrand was Sauron from a mile away!

Rey: glad I’m not the word Mary Sue anymore.

A twist villain doesn't work if the audience can see it coming from orbit.

This is exactly what I expected from amazon after what they did with The wheel of time. Every thing changed was made worse with far reaching implications that the writers lack the ability to comprehend.

@MoriMemento117

Жыл бұрын

Exactly. WoT was literally easy mode and they punted. Punted so hard. Sigh.

@_Jay_Maker_

Жыл бұрын

What I find hilarious about RoP is that it's somehow _even dumber_ than what they did with WoT. Legitimately dumb. Painfully unintelligent writing across the board. Wheel of Time was a _literal easy win_ for them as far as "strong, female characters" and a narrative that points out the flaws and strengths of _all_ the characters involved. They had an _actual goldmine_ in their hands and they somehow buried it deeper than Floyd Collins. Unbelievable. WoP was guaranteed to fail and we all knew it.

@jasonwrathorn9281

Жыл бұрын

@@_Jay_Maker_ They are just unwilling to allow any female character to have growth. Nynaeve & Egwene start out as villagers... the show really wanted them to be powerful from square one. Changing that fact instead of letting come in when fitting ruined the whole flow, and compromised major story beats for the next four seasons. I'm really looking forward to the scene where Rand's power is directly compared to Egwene's... Somehow I doubt they will be able to admit that he is not only a stronger caster, but it is by orders of magnitude. So much contortion just to avoid gendered magic!

@DVSnark

Жыл бұрын

literally everything jj has been even tangentially associated with. This is the new philosophy, they don’t need writers, just ‘visionaries.’. Writers demand fair pay and worry about project-delaying things like backstories and logical consistency. Visionaries create ‘scenes’ and get scripts sold to investors asap. Way easier to spend your millions on special effects studios where everyone is a slave and part of some massive team that has no personal accountability or responsibility. That’s what you’re getting now, no more stories or characters, just spectacle.

@MoriMemento117

Жыл бұрын

I agree with everything said so far. WoT had all of the ingredients in place to have a host of strong female and male characters, and they went full misandrist with it. Perrin breaks my brain. A simple character. A man of action. And they were more interested in characterizing his fake blacksmithing wife who he fridges immediately than they were with him. He's a blacksmith who does no blacksmithing. He defends egwene in the tent by... Standing there. I'm like, I know the murderous white cloak isn't your wife, but you could as least try to kill him. Same thing the final episode... I can't even remember the stupid in that one. Loial dies for some reason. Perrin still doesn't take any action. He's like whoa, a fade? Why would I kill that? He's not even my wife! Gosh, WoT makes me so angry.

These shmucks had the nerve to basically say that whole Anatar plotline in the books makes the elves look plain stupid (like sauron wouldn't have the capability to manipulate them), and somehow they "fixed" it. I know it all comes down to rights issue, but they're beyond defense for this.

@CATDHD

Жыл бұрын

I don't think there was even that amount of attention to implications of the screenwriting decision being made by Amazon that you give them credit for. I think the writing was focused on surface level things, such as virtue signaling and overall media's opinion . What came after was just a ripple created by that irresponsible approach.

@ApocGenesis

Жыл бұрын

Middle Earth in the Second Age was bleeding magic like a leaky boat. The Elves, reliant on magic like we are on electricity, were desperate for a solution to try and preserve what they still had. Enter Anatar, an "emmisary from the Valar" who brought them a DIY solution with some handy recipes that he just happened to have lying around :D But it turns out that Anatar actually scammed them--the elves quickly figured out that Anatar's recipes all came with built in back doors. Still they were useful, and the elves were forced to rely on equipment filled with critical security flaws because it was still better than going without. I daresay that plot might be more understandable today than even when Tolkein first wrote it.

@fingolfin7295

Жыл бұрын

@@ApocGenesis I think is pretty straightfoward no matter the time. But the parallels are even more obvious today

You're doing god's work, JSG, watching this shit so we don't have to. You're a modern-day "sin eater".

@dusk6159

Жыл бұрын

As painful as watching Vikings, Barbarians and Romulus.

@CordeliaWagner

Жыл бұрын

Which god's work? Asking for an atheist friend.

@stinkypitz0005

Жыл бұрын

@@CordeliaWagner fill in with your own favorite God.

I can't stop looking at those rings and think how my middle school class rings didn't even looks so cheap.

@savioblanc

Жыл бұрын

Exactly. How does a show with a billion dollar budget end up with rings looking that cheap? Even the sets look terrible.

@TaoScribble

Жыл бұрын

I literally have better-looking rings that I've gotten out of gumball machines.

The lies of the shill..... .even Morgoth would go “ Damn that is f’ed up”.

The thought they were smart enough to have Sauron in plain sight. They weren't smart enough to actually hide it. We all saw it. And those very sceptical knew they were going to 'ship Guyladriel and Sauron. Same is that it was obvious "The stranger" was Gandalf. Because you knew they were setting up the reason why Gandalf was fond of the Hobbits. The only way it's Saruman in s2 is to subvert our expectations with plotholes galore.

@sigmacademy

Жыл бұрын

Also, the "maybe it's Gandalf, maybe it's not" theory also doesn't make sense, because we already KNOW they gave the character a specific sentence that Gandalf uses in LOTR, PLUS you have a setup with the character and the Harfoots in order to establish Gandalf's fondness of Hobbits. We saw NO such fondness from any other magic user in The Hobbit or LOTR, so it was DELIBERATELY set up as an earlier Gandalf moment moment in his life to explain why he likes Hobbits.

@harbl99

Жыл бұрын

"Where is Sauron and who is OC? Oooooh, it's a mystery." -- They _stink_ of Bad Reboot.

@BrightWulph

Жыл бұрын

Just watch them try to "subvert expectations", by last minute changing meteor-man into Saruman, despite all the hints that it was originally meant to be Gandalf. XO

@LizRealGirlBeauty

Жыл бұрын

@@sigmacademy which is stupid, because it's not a catchphrase. Gandalf doesn't walk around randomly telling others to "follow their nose;" he said it in a specific situation when explaining what to do when lost in a mine, "find the sweet air." I honestly hate this.

@Stargazer1974

Жыл бұрын

The thing i cannot understand is why they had to create this ''mystery'. We all obviously knew which character is going to be Sauron, not because we all have read the books, but because its a series about the forging of the rings. Anyone who had seen the opening scene of Fellowship.. (basically everyone) knew . It could be really smart to not play the ''mystery box'' but to play with audiences mind seeing Sauron as Anatar and the way he manipulated elves, until he reveals himself.. Not as a ''surprise'' but as s01 climax. About ''Gandalf''.. i dont want to say much about it, but the writing of this character is beyond stupid. I cant even understand the usage of this character in the plot (same with the highly unlikable harfoots). Man, this is a disaster, especially if this wizard is -as you say, Saruman!!

Hey did you know that rocks sink because they look down?

@Nuneven

Жыл бұрын

I thought they sink because they're not a witch?😉

@kamion53

Жыл бұрын

Ijust saw a article from Northwestern University that a study shows fish look down. but they did not explain why the fish don't sink.

@manoz6194

Жыл бұрын

@@kamion53 i think fish are half boat half rock

@klhaldane

Жыл бұрын

@@manoz6194 I saw a fish floating along on the surface, well half floating and half sinking. So your theory must be true.

@Halfwit_The_Brave

Жыл бұрын

So if I’m standing on land and look up I can fly, right?

You won't have to worry about this show for another 2 years... If it comes back at all.

@georgechapman9688

Жыл бұрын

It'll be breaking rings or the rings of bad

@InkyMuste

Жыл бұрын

The real question is why would anyone tune in for more of this garbage.

I have a co-worker who is a long time Tolkien fan and he liked the show However, the reason why he enjoyed it was because it was such a mess and overall shitshow that it was straight up entertaining for him

@RoninDave

Жыл бұрын

That's the only way. Other adaptations had their flaws and changes but nothing compared to this dumpster fire which is both an insult to Tolkien and storytelling in general

@regiman222

Жыл бұрын

So, not quite "So bad it's good" but so bad it's hilarious

@TheSuperappelflap

Жыл бұрын

yup, i watched it and it was quite entertaining for that reason. i did need some help from my good friend Jack to get through it.

@joefish6091

Жыл бұрын

Yes, the critique videos on KZread are hilarious for the most part. some are bandwagon affairs by bearded video game reviewers LMAO, but the genuine experts are good at deconstructing the production in a fair way. The visuals for the most part of RoP are pleasant to look at. In the Dragons series theres similar copy paste characters at the coronation crowd, bottom left shows two very obvious copies that look almost like ghosts.

@joefish6091

Жыл бұрын

@@regiman222 The question is where did the money go, or is TV series production that expensive these days, or were they ripped off by their subcontractors.

The Dracula comparison is excellent. Perfect explanation of pathos. Showrunners take note, please 🙏

I read somewhere an analogy: RoP is like opening a restaurant from a beloved franchise that is specialized in making the best burgers in the world, and then forcibly feeding broccoli to your customers.

A Coppola Dracula reference. JSG is a man of culture to be sure

TRoP is really about the struggle to stay awake.

who wants to bet after Patdick & McGay mention nuclear power season 2 is gonna be an allegory about NATO, Russia and Ukraine?

These are the kind of writers and “journalists” that would RAVE about the subversion of expectations when it’s revealed that, when playing a game of peek-a-boo, you did not, in fact, disappear when placing your hands in front of your face, but that the twist of you removing your hands had all kinds of hints and nods as to you being still there the entire time. Infants, basically…that’s the level of intellect they aspire to.

@tkps

Жыл бұрын

Whilst it was 'bleeding obvious' Hallbrand was Sauron, the reasons they're giving for us 'guessing' was 'well when he said x and when he said y and she replied with z'. No bugger was paying that much attention. It was just bleeding obvious and his words had little to nothing to do with it. Do they really think we were analysing every sentence out of a characters mouth? I knew they were fools but hell talk about being so far up your own arse you think everyone else wants to be up there with you.

@joefish6091

Жыл бұрын

@@tkps Mormons

They’ve got two years. If Amazon Studios came out and admitted that season one was a horrible mistake… And replaced the Showrunners… I believe the audience would be fully willing to give them both a Mulligan and a second chance to do it right. Just completely start over from scratch. Most of us would completely respect that.

@ladyalaina42

Жыл бұрын

NEVER!

Who in their right mind will give another chance to this abomination that took the mythological timelessness of Tolkien's works? As a fan, I don't care if they create new characters, if they change the timeline or the Lore. But I do not forgive if they corrupt the soul of the work. Not that.

@kamion53

Жыл бұрын

The greatest offense is the pretention these two Dunning-Kruger clones have; They most likely don't know anything more about Tolkiens work than that they could Google for and meanwhile are very confident they could "inprove" Tolkien. Everybody has the right to write a "fanfiction" ( meaning use some elements from a excisting work - and that is mosttimes done by fans) settled in the by Tolkien created world. As long it is clear it is just "fanfiction" and not the introducing to Tolkiens world as it will be for a large group of people with an attention span shorter than that of a goldfish. Oh and I just realise why goldfish have those big bulby eyes, that is so they can look up and won't sink.

@TheVioletBunny

Жыл бұрын

They don’t follow the world building at all they shit all over it

@sigmacademy

Жыл бұрын

Well, if you change the characters, you change the timeline and you change the lore, you're LITERALLY creating something new and something that the original work never was. :/

@jonathancummings6400

Жыл бұрын

It's no more an abomination than the Video games like Shadow of Mordor. I really liked it. I hope when season two opens Galadriel has reconsidered Halbrand's offer and they are together. Now there's an interesting development, how does everyone respond? What would Gil-Galad do?, what would Elrond do? Adar? Etc. This would almost certainly permanently stop Dark Lord Sauron from ever developing, she empowers him to want to be better, to do better, be a better person. Since canon is already impossible anyway, they might as well do something wild, Halbrand/ Sauron+Galadriel.

@eaenneae5822

Жыл бұрын

@@jonathancummings6400 Actually true, but I think they are going to do exactly that. With one difference, they will pretend that it belongs to Tolkien's world.

Needing an external document to explain the show is kind of like those 8 bit games where the backstory is in the instruction manual instead of the game itself.

@sigmacademy

Жыл бұрын

... and the only way you can beat the game is with cheat codes.

@joefish6091

Жыл бұрын

That was fully understandable in the days of cassette loading games, and small format floppies.

@TaoScribble

Жыл бұрын

To be fair, those games _literally_ did not have the space to include their stories. WTF is this show's excuse?

It would be more of a twist for the strong woman was Sauron.

As much as I love your videos, I've grown so tired of this show -- talking about it, thinking about it, listening to podcasts about it, watching videos about it. Bottom line, my life is better without it, and i am so glad it is done. I so want to move on, and i know you do too. I almost wish your videos were not so well put together that i could ignore them, but as I say, i love them and must dig in multiple times, even as much as i want this show gone baby gone.

@RoninDave

Жыл бұрын

Agreed but I don't want this to slip off the table and they continue with this travesty. This series needs to stopped and burned then forgotten

@sigmacademy

Жыл бұрын

Well, you can always look forward to the media outlets telling you how GREAT this show is in another 2 years' time. :/

@tkps

Жыл бұрын

@@RoninDave I'm with you.They want those of us who hate it and are still angry to shut up and forget. We shouldn't do that whilst the media keeps producing these puff pieces even if they keep it up till the next crappy season comes out. I don't want them to be allowed to forget how we feel.

@noneyabidness9644

Жыл бұрын

Same. The show is bad, and though the shit talking about it is fsr better, there is too much of it.

I actually kind of convinced myself that Halbrand wasn’t Sauron because when I thought about it I thought that it was so unfathomably stupid that no one would actually do it

It's as if if every modern screenwriter is afraid they will suddenly explode and level everything in a three block radius if they so much as think about admitting to the most minor of mistakes, let alone the bigger ones.

Reminder: Cancel your Amazon Prime subscription.

Basically they turned Tolkien into Scooby-Doo. "Old man Halbrand? You're the Dark Lord??" Naw it's a shit comparison, the Scooby-Doo writers actually had some chops

They really thought they were surprising us with that reveal. I am flabbergasted by this fact.

JSG got the juice on LOTR

I have travelled oceans of time to be with you ( Dracula to mina )

LOL...the QVC rings!

You know, if I was going to write a LOTR fanfic, I could have done way better than this shit. My idea, given the legal restrictions... I would tell the story from Sauron's point of view and that he was truly penitent and had good intentions to start, but he was still corrupted and kept seeing the possibilities of the rings. And finally, when he forged the final ring, he thought he could fill it with all his evil and finally be pure again... but Sauron was it's first victim and couldn't resist putting it on, completing his return to evil. Of course, this is completely non-canonical, but we're fucking the lore anyway so why not.

@NickGreyden

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like a good fanfic. I'd read it.

@Rokabur

Жыл бұрын

Sounds far better then anything Hollyweird can come up with.

@limsagen

Жыл бұрын

there are good ways of fucking with the lore and shitty ways of doing it - this is the former.

@andrewmcguinness1845

Жыл бұрын

I'd read this.

@MastaChief10

Жыл бұрын

Not sure that fits, he spent all of the first age with morgoth and them werewolves to then try to become good? If he was going to turn he would have surrendered himself to the valar but instead fled to ME. I'd say he was too far gone by then

"We knew the whole time! Really! We anticipated that this would shit all over the legendary works of the greatest Fantasy author of all time. That was our entire plan all along! The _billions_ of dollars Amazon spent on this travesty of human effort was entirely planned to be a disappointment from the very beginning and _we consider that a success."_

The best thing about rings of power is the content it provided for us through Just some Guy lol

Ngl, I literally saw Amazon ads about this show. They were still showing clips of RoP in the commercials and acting like it didn't fail whatsoever. Edit: Yo JSG, you got some people impersonating you while spamming in people's comment replys.

@BigBrotherMateyka

Жыл бұрын

They're catering to the ignorant masses who don't know any better.

@oldgoat142

Жыл бұрын

@@BigBrotherMateyka Yup. Exactly.

The cake is not baked but the show runners' minds clearly are.

Watching this show has been a nightmare for my mental health. I've been banging my head against the table and/or wall for so long that if I keep it up I'll start forgetting precious childhood memories.

@kalm6872

Жыл бұрын

I knew it was bad when they got schooled by Colbert in comic con so didn’t watch a minute

I LOL every time I see the picture of the ring props. 6:21 They look like something you would get out of a coin op vending machine in the entrance of a big box store.

@Ackalan

Жыл бұрын

They look so unbelievably bad, especially the white one, it looks like someone tried to make a UFO-ring.

Sauron hid in plain sight with subtlety of mowing your lawn with a battery of howitzers.

Simple question to gauge the real popularity of this show - Now that Season 1 is finished, who wishes it was still running? I personally wish it had never started!

Isnt it ironic that Game of thrones /House of the dragon that everyone was cautious about has done so damn well while Rings of power with all that cash behind it and a treasure trove of lore crashed and burned?😂

I just recently found out that the witch king was a bad man he did some work

I bet these showrunners didn't even read Tolkien his actual works- they just read the Cliffnotes version and feel that this makes them experts on Tolkien. this would explain so much

I would have been surprised if fake Galadriel had turned out to be Sauron.

My 15 yr old nephew (someone that barely remembers the LOTR trilogy and has never read the source material) immediately texted me (his uncle that he thinks knows everything about Tolkien) the moment Discount Aragorn appears, "Evil dude on raft HAS to be Sauron! Right!? " If my nephew spotted Sauron right away, then all of the so-called "super fans" are that much more pathetic and are obviously passionate about their paycheck, not the God of Fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien. 🙏

Warner Bros have recently stated that they still have the rights to do Lord of the Rings movies and they will be focusing on this. I suspect they know there is a fan base here waiting for real Tolkien stories.

At this point, if I hear “Tolkien never elaborated”, it just sounds like “We didn’t do enough research”

I thought it was joke when the show runners said they had no experience boy how was I wrong

Oh boy the title of that article and where it’s at is irony

Lol the fandom knew exactly who he was the second he appeared on the show.

It just hit me they built the big forge and didn't even use it, they made the rings in Cel's old workshop.

I can't believe how cheap those rings look. They literally look like they pulled them out of a Cracker Jack box.

I read a comment somewhere online that someone actually, unironically, said that Halbrand being a subversion of the Aragorn story was amazing writing. I had to pause for a moment to let that hot take sink in.

It's nearly forgotten already. Do they honestly think people will still remember it in 2 years.

I haven't seen Dracula since I was kid (when it came out actually which means I would have been 10. Probably too young to watch it). I am going to have to watch it again as an adult. What a genius Gary Oldman is.

@tkps

Жыл бұрын

I watched it a few months ago. It really is very good (except Keanu & Winona's accents though they tried poor loves).

@adamheywood113

Жыл бұрын

All the special effects were achieved in-camera

Rings of Girl Power really showed us who these people's intellectual superiors are. They post strings of big, fancy words, however there is no wit backing them up. Their gums are flapping, but they aren't speaking any sense.

You know, I didn't watch a single episode of this. I only know what happened in it because of this guy. He was MUCH more coherent and entertaining than that hot mess. Many thanks, JSG.

@noneyabidness9644

Жыл бұрын

I saw the first two episodes...you aren't missing anything. It was pure cringe.

@lauriegermaine6506

Жыл бұрын

Same!!

They got paid. They all got paid.

The Bad Robot rejects intervierws are like the books for the Disney Wars trilogy: DLCs trying to make sense of the "story" they wrote.

I appreciate you and the rest of the independent critics taking the hit by watching this for us.

In the five star reviews everywhere I see..."The show was a little slow but"..."I didn't watch it a second time but it will be better when I do"..."The second season is going to speed up as the show runners say"..."Why are people worried about the lore when the CGI is so great" or "Better than HotD". Freaking idiots or shills everywhere. In the end I'm thinking I am watching a different show than everyone else.

@greebj

Жыл бұрын

Nah you're just using your brain in a different and more individual way. Welcome to the resistance

@RoninDave

Жыл бұрын

There are shills but then there those who will slurp up anything if they told it's good but these types have goldfish like memories and will forget the show long before 2 years

I refuse to believe the timing of Miguel Sapochnik leaving House of the Dragon and the initial bad press related to the showrunning of Rings of Power when compared to HotD just happened to occur simultaneously by coincidence

This shows needs a parody in the level of Scary movie and you realize how little was required to make it a parody.

I imagine that Payne and McKay set around everyday discussing how stupid all the people are that don't see their genius or the depth of their talent. How can it be that no one else can see it? And so the discussion progresses entrenching them ever deeper into the delusional world they have been living in most of their life. See they can't admit their wrong, if they do then it all comes crashing down around them and they have to face reality.

@ovcharkaboxing

Жыл бұрын

smoke me a kipper

@acerimmer8357

Жыл бұрын

@@ovcharkaboxing I'll be back for breakfast

It's like the two of them are asking, "how would you like your bucket of chum? Smooth and bloody, or Chunky and bloody."

"We designed every moment so you can be 'is this a thing he's saying because it's true? Or is he playing a role to manipulate her?'" They might have designed it that way, but like a repeating geometric pattern that accidentally turns into infinite swastikas, what they achieved was having every moment like "they're not this stupid, right?"

So much of that "hints in the show" article reminds me of the "Undercover Boss: Starkiller Base" skit on SNL. "You're Kylo Ren, we know...I knew from...Hi, I'm Matt."

"We designed every moment" 😂😂😂

I think it's funny how those who liked the show in some capacity didn't think Halbrand was Sauron, and if they had any guess it was that he was either the Witch King or the King of the Dead. While everyone who disliked the show knew he was Sauron. lol.

@TGuard00014

Жыл бұрын

I will admit to being a hater but I knew he was Sauron after those super-fan videos came out. The gay guy wanted to screw Sauron into turning good and Halbrand was the closest thing to an attractive guy on the show…

"We just focus on the 100 influencers (we pay) that liked the show... Everybody else is simply too dumb to understand our genius writing. But, no problem, just watch it again and again..."

I really enjoy your breakdowns on rings of power. You know your stuff.

when i was a kid, i used to get chicken wings with my dad on wednesdays at this great bar. it was a popular spot. back then you could smoke in restaurants. anyway it got bought by some foreigners because they wanted to take over a successful business. but what they didn't realize is that they didn't understand why it was successful, they thought it would just continue to be that way under their ownership. but the food changed, the service changed, the atmosphere changed, and it wasn't long before they had to close. it kind of reminds me of how these big companies buy up an IP and then go about ruining it by ignoring the fans, the people who made it successful in the first place.

Sounds like Amazon needs to put out a companion book to Rings of Power, providing the background to the story and highlighting the important plot points which the show developed 😂

Showruners deserve a self-savotaged career. No wise Film firm should trust back in neither of them

You know...I've got a wild idea and need to see if this could fly. So...we all remember the nonsense of the showrunners saying Sauron will be like Walter White? What if we actually roll with that? We could see Breaking Bad retold in Middle Earth. Sauron figures out he's got cancer from hanging around smoggy Mordor and, wanting to insure some financial security, starts cooking and slinging some wild meth? Blue Dragon it'll be called. I think a show like that could go places...

@TGuard00014

Жыл бұрын

Won’t work, meth is so 2010…clearly it needs to be a fentanyl based drug.

Amazon studios is complicit and ultimately responsible for shows like Wheel of Time and Rings of Power. The studio Execs may be familiar with an incredible amount of data and marketing metrics, but seem to be lacking life experience, self awareness, and the integrity and level of maturity requisite to appreciate great characters and stories.