The Rings Of Power continues to substitute good storytelling with an endless, inane parade of callbacks to Lord of the Rings.

4 points

this dude is so pissed off at this show for all the right reasons, when you read it you can hear his little nerd brain go squeeeeeze, hahahahaha. i hate rings of power so much.

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13 points
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Nope. Another click bait rage garbage article, from no less than Forbes, the shittiest cesspool of shitty shit on the internet.

The show is fine. Looks amazing, sounds incredible, full of wonderful performances and nuanced characters with interesting takes on adapting an incredibly complex source material. I’ll take it over 90% of “prestige” dramas about rich families and murder procedurals any day.

Even if it’s not your particular bag, it doesn’t deserve anywhere near the level of vitriol leveled at it by people desperate to drive clicks to their mediocre blog or reaction channel.

TheOneRing.net had an incisive take on this recently that I think everyone ought to read. https://www.theonering.net/torwp/2024/09/06/119303-dont-kill-content-no-one-needs-your-hot-take/

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2 points
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Yeah I feel like rings of power is just a hatewagon everywhere. I’ve been really impressed with the sets and costumes in both seasons. They are a beautiful treat. And while I’m not terribly interested in the characters or story it’s good watching just for that.

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-5 points
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15 points
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While I’d personally argue that the quality of the character development, writing, and storytelling in the show doesn’t even achieve the level of “fine”, you’re right in that 1) people should be allowed to enjoy things in peace and 2) RoP in particular attracts criticism which is often hyperbolic. At the same time, however, there should also be the freedom to honestly critique a piece of media without being labeled as a hater, obsessive fanboy, or a neckbeard, etc. Especially when dealing with an IP as treasured as Tolkien’s.

Whether you find this article excessive in its criticism or not, the writer makes the very valid point that the media landscape today is becoming increasingly saturated with this 'memberberries/nostalgia/callback type of storytelling, along with the constant stream of prequels and sequels based on this formula. People are growing tired of it, and Rings of Power has it deep in its bones.

For a good examination of the showrunners’ over-reliance on referencing the Jackson movie trilogy in lieu of interesting, original storytelling, I highly recommend this YouTube video. I think it really gets to the core of why so many people find RoP frustrating or disappointing as a show in its own right, let alone as a Tolkien adaptation.

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9 points

I’m getting tired of this hate wagon bullshit and now mainstream media is doing it. Anger memes or outrage sells and spreads, so it’s profitable.

The show isn’t amazing and you can criticize it but it’s quite enjoyable. A lot of people enjoy it. It’s not slop. It takes some liberties and things but overall the storytelling is pretty solid. Creature design is amazing. They tell the origin story of the hobbits, the istar and sauron. The legends are slightly different but that is why they are legends.

I very much look forward to season 2. I do not look forward to the inevitable review bombing and hate posting. If you don’t like it, don’t watch it, and yeah if it gets cancelled due to lack of interest that’s fair too. The problem is that both reactionaries and profit-seekers are weaponizing online outrage and clickbait and manipulating ratings and online perception.

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0 points

Reactionaries, really.

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-1 points

Yeah but also I suspect it’s become like a sport or outrage hobby and grifters feed into it for clicks. Like building negative hype.

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5 points

I think the real problem here is being missed… probably deliberately so. Surely if you inherit someone else’s ip you have to play to their rules and law? If you don’t want to then you need to make an original ip that lets you do what you want. The lack of understanding, the entitlement and the disrespect it takes to tear-up existing law because you know better than the original author is insane. I’m gonna remake Sesame Street. I’m gonna place it on a farm and make that big yellow fucker into a small blue pony and have all the other characters hunt humans. B… b… b… but that don’t sound like Sesame Street anymore say all the (insert meaningless generic insult here)’s. The quality, or otherwise, of the finished product won’t matter if it has one foot in tradition and one foot in new made-up contradictory law. It will be a bastardisation whatever.

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1 point

I totally get what you mean and feel similarly angry about the star wars sequels, but not about the rings of power. Only thing that annoys me is the insertion of varying phenotypes, but no reason to get angry, it’s fantasy. Other than that there are many things to like and a few to dislike.

I also don’t get how everyone claims how they find this or that part of the story so boring, the production design is amazing enough to gloss over parts that you don’t find that interesting.

They also tell the story pretty straightforward without big twists. And they let the viewer experience how Sauron deceived the elves and others, and experience how confused the stranger feels about his purpose. Except for the “no horses” in Episode 4 the storytelling is pretty good.

If you do not talk yourself into a rage and discuss it in a positive sub like r/LOTR_on_Prime you can totally enjoy it.

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4 points

I’m no fan of Tolkien / LotR’s but the revisionism of Orcs in the new series to be essentially humans that look a bit different is such a colossal change that it undermines everything in that world. Imagine if the tinfoil dude in Starwars (CPO?) unzipped his costume in episode XII and he turned out to be a human. Would that make a mockery of the franchise - or at least make it look stupid? Spock & Kirk in Star Trek are now the opposite of what they were. The film called Snow White might not even tell the Snow White story. Velma from Scooby Doo has become a deplorable bitch. If you don’t have the talent to write something original stick to the rules and lore of the people who did. Having said that, enjoy the rest of the series.

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6 points

I mean for a fan with big expectations its certainly disapointing, but like I can’t think of anything that has not been that way since, well, lord of the rings. Barring that its ok which again is sorta par for the course for media currently. Its not horrible but not great and its hard to point to things one may like about it outside of the general feel of fantasy. Like a high point to me is the dwarves but its not that great. But I could certainly complain a lot on it endlessly. Seemingly adding to galadriels abilities as best at bow along with sword and magic and fisticufs did not help this episode. I am watching mostly because its fee for me and im trying to figure out who the evil wizard is being that they seem to make him look like sauruman but boy will it be an F up if that is who he is but he can’t be melkor or morgoth.

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0 points

When I went back to and watched LOTR recently, a number of special effects were incredibly disappointing. They definitely rushed some of those scenes.

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7 points

are you sure you are just not seeing an effect of the times? return of the king was filmed 20 years ago. Do you remember what graphics where like back then? SGI was still a thing.

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35 points
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Hard to argue with him about the JJ-Abramsification of all things, or the perplexing fact that modern audiences appear to lap it up.

Watching season one of RoP felt undeniably reminiscent of watching The Force Awakens and almost hearing the audible *ding as yet another callback got checked off the list. It’s not art any more; it’s just content to be consumed.

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-8 points
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All three of the characters in the picture looks like they should be flushed down the toilet by a bully. :)

Where are the adults? Haven’t seen this show so maybe I’m unfair but it looks bad…maybe it’s because I just rewatched the three lord of the rings movies and they were epical.

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3 points

“epical”?

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1 point
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:)

True story, we are working with a consulting company at work who is called Epical… I know it’s not correct English, just funny.

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