Meme - "THE MANY FACES OF GALADRIEL"
‘The Rings Of Power’ Has Inexplicably Terrible Writing - "I’ve come to a sad realization: The creators of Amazon’s The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power know how to create spectacle, but they don’t know how to tell a good story... The writers and showrunners responsible for this show could have won me over with good fan-fiction. They could have tossed Tolkien’s lore onto a bonfire and I’d have been perfectly happy if they’d simply crafted an enjoyable story with characters I care about. Unfortunately, The Rings Of Power is written so poorly it defies even my worst fears. Oh yes, I was awed and impressed by the opening two episodes just like many others. But my how quickly a badly written TV series can wear out its welcome once the shimmer fades. “All that glitters is not gold” is the old aphorism; it’s the one Tolkien flipped on its head for “The Riddle Of Strider”—all that is gold does not glitter. But The Rings Of Power knows only how to glitter, and it’s certainly not gold... This is a show of spectacle and it gets the spectacle mostly right. The problem is everything else. Galadriel’s adventure in Númenor is honestly just embarrassing. She arrived there—after being rescued—and effectively just bullied everyone in her path like the elven version of a steamroller. The queen regent has her hands full from the moment Galadriel barges through the door, and soon she’s demanding to see the king, then asking for an army. Miriel has to lock her up and then pack her off back to the elves just to get her to stop. Then—thank to petals falling from a tree—she decides to take her back and commit her people—who moments earlier were all but chanting “death to the elves!”—to a war in a strange land? Everything taking place in Númenor is just a shortcut for the plot. Move the plot forward at all costs no matter how many characters are butchered in the process... Instead of actual character drama, the creators of Rings Of Power simply make everyone bicker and argue with one another all the time. Whether that’s Isildur and his father and friends, Elrond and Durin, Nori and the village elders, Bronwyn and the village idiots, or Galadriel and, well, everybody—all anyone seems to do is argue. The people Galadriel wants to go save are evil and stupid and some of them seem ready to throw in with Sauron at the drop of a pin. But for some reason we’re supposed to care about Galadriel’s quest to go fight to save them from the Enemy?... I’m not upset with this show for being slow. I’d be perfectly happy with a slow show that did a good job at developing its characters. This show is tedious and rushed all at the same time. And while I like the Harfoots they, too, have been written into a very strange corner. “No one walks alone!” the little folk chant, while leaving their lame and their elderly, their sick and their maimed, behind to suffer and die. Then there’s the new villain Adar. I was excited about him at first. He seemed like a pretty intriguing bad guy—until he let Arondir go “to deliver a message to the humans” which, if you ask me, may as well be “just because.” Just because the writers couldn’t be bothered to come up with a more clever way to get Arondir out of there, I guess? Way to undermine the very tension you were hoping to create. We have spectacle, though. Lots of big, dramatic moments with . . . literally no build-up to them. Arondir is set free, rescues Theo just in the nick of time, and then they run through the woods (directly to where Bronwyn finds them!) and escape dozens of orcs because they shoot arrows like Stormtroopers shoot blasters and run about as fast as those bounty hunters from Obi-Wan Kenobi. We’re supposed to remember Boromir at this point, right? Lots of little callbacks to the Jackson trilogy. Lots of little reminders that those movies were far, far better. Nothing is earned in The Rings Of Power. Neither the emotional nor the epic. Things just happen because the writers want those things to happen. Something happens and then something else happens. There are no real consequences, no real hard spots to get out of, just a string of events unfolding, frictionless and boring. Galadriel gets her army—just by being a jerk for a couple days—and what now? We’re going to war! The problem is, we don’t care. Arondir gets back to Bronwyn and his tidings are very dire! The problem is, we don’t care! This is bad writing, pure and simple. Bad characterization. Choppy dialogue. Characters who don’t make sense and clearly dislike one another as much as we dislike them. Everything feels forced and contrived, especially in the Galadriel storyline... They had carte blanche to make up whatever Middle-earth fable they wanted and they give us this cobbled together nonsense with a cast of characters we can barely stand, tossed haphazardly into predicaments and events that ooze fake gravitas but have no real stakes... All the money in the world can’t save bad writing. No amount of spectacle will ever be able to paper over a lousy script. For all its spectacle, The Rings Of Power lacks something precious: A sense of adventure... tell a good story first. Then let that story find its way into your epic fantasy. Not the other way around... maybe Galadriel simply shouldn’t have been a central character in this show. She’s one of the only elves that has lived long enough to have come from Valinor. In the films, Peter Jackson used lighting trickery to make Cate Blanchett’s eyes shimmer and glow because she’s seen the Two Trees of Valinor and their light still infuses her being (including her hair). Indeed, Fëanor was so bedazzled with Galadriel’s hair that he came up with the idea to imprison the light of the Trees into his gems, the Silmarils, which then were so bewitching to Melkor/Morgoth that he stole them (we hear about this briefly from Celebrimbor when he’s discussing his plans with Eldrond—Celebrimbor appears much older than Galadriel, but he is not)... Galadriel does not have shimmering eyes and her hair doesn’t glow with the light of the Two Trees of Valinor. She just comes across as a young and very serious and very angry young woman who ignores advice and has very little wisdom, all of which is both odd and frustrating. I don’t think she’d be a very likable character even if she wasn’t Galadriel and was some young, non-canon elf made up for the story either, but at least that would make sense."
This is interesting, because I thought the first two episodes were worse than the next two
Too bad for the writer's suggestion, Elrond can't be one of the heroes because he's a white man
Amazon’s ‘The Rings Of Power’ Is Playing Fast And Loose With Middle-earth’s Second Age Timeline - "The First Age ended with the defeat of Morgoth but this would have been thousands of years in the past at this point, and very few people would even remember that there was a Morgoth, let alone know of the existence of Sauron—and yet commoners in the Southlands bring up Morgoth like the war was fought yesterday... the whole “in the event of Morgoth’s defeat” bit just sounds ridiculous. Morgoth was one of the most powerful beings in existence. I don’t think anyone was making contingency plans to create a realm of evil if the dark god was slain. All of this just seems to give very human, mortal motivations and logic to beings that are operating on a whole different level. And why not create this realm of pure evil whether or not Morgoth is defeated? Why is this even set up like some contingency plan? Sauron went into hiding at the end of the First Age and virtually nobody alive now would remember that he even existed—outside of ancient elves like Galadriel. But then here is where we get into all kinds of timeline issues."
The Rings of Power: A Masterclass in Storytelling - YouTube - "Oscar-winning performances illuminate the screen in the Rings of Power. Take Galadriel, for instance. No matter the scene or situation, her face remains stoic. A dramatic fight to the death? Check. A lucky escape from the jaws of Jaws? Check. Delivering an inspirational speech to her people? Check, check, check. The many faces of Galadriel are not many, they are singular, because she understands that true acting comes from the eyes, from the dialogue, from the heart and not from changing expressions. Such impressive acting feats are matched all across the showcase story of The Rings of Power."
This video is annoying but this bit is a good showcase
Four Episodes In, ‘The Rings Of Power’ Has Not Swayed Audiences - "By all available metrics, there is no place where fans have rallied to give the show consistently high marks, with scores not having improved noticeably the more episodes that have been rolled out, which you will sometimes see after some initial period of bombing/skepticism... Everyone does not like me comparing Rings of Power to HBO’s also high-budget fantasy series, House of the Dragon, but needless to say, despite enduring similar initial race and gender-based casting controversies, its audience scores are much higher. The low scores are generally the product of either fans saying the show strays too much from Tolkien’s original world or just…not thinking the series is very well-written or paced, with its long, slow-building arcs."
Meme - Council of the Rings: "I tweeted this before going to bed and this is what I woke up to. My Twitter exploded... the amount of people that blindly loves this show, go out to defend it and throw vile accusations and insults at me is astounding... I only pointed out 1 thing out of a million flaws. I don't understand their motivations for defending it honestly. It's the same on Reddit r/LOTR_on_Prime. I guess it's another week of death threats, just for pointing out a show got some weak points. But you know how it is... The Sea is always right..."
The only "toxic" fans are the ones who won't shut up and consume
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Is On a Worthy, Slow Build - "‘Rings of Power’ Wasn’t Built for the Water Cooler (and That’s OK)"
They know it's flopping
Thread by @DrThalaSiren on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "“Fan-baiting” is a form of marketing used by producers, film studios, and actors, with the intent of exciting artificial controversy, garnering publicity, and explaining away the negative reviews of a new and often highly anticipated production. Fan-baiting emerged as a marketing strategy in 2016/17, after fans of beloved franchises such as Ghostbusters and Star Wars objected to what they saw as poor writing choices, sloppy scripts, and cheap alterations to plot lines and characters for the sake of shock value... Bigots have always attacked diversity on screen, but in a highly polarized political climate, instances of harassment on garnered disproportionately massive media coverage, which provided production studios with both free publicity and a new defence against actual critics. Studios seized the opportunity to discredit criticism of poor writing & acting, insinuating that these, too, were motivated by bigotry. What used to be accepted as standard critiques were increasingly dismissed as part of the ignorant commentary of a “toxic fandom.” Soon, it became standard practice before release to issue announcements specifying diverse casting choices, coupled with pre-emptive declarations of solidarity with the cast whom they now counted on to receive disparaging and harassing comments. Actors who are women and/or BIPOC became props & shields for craven corporate laziness and opportunism. The studios save money both by avoiding expensive veteran writers as well as by offloading publicity to news outlets and social media covering the artificial controversy. “Fan-baiting” works. It brings in a new sympathetic audience whose endorsement is more about taking a public stance against prejudice than any real interest in the art. “Fan-baiting” also permits studios to cultivate public skepticism over the legitimacy of poor reviews. “Fan-baiting” also compels reviewers to temper their criticism, for fear of becoming associated with the “toxic fandom” and losing their professional credibly, resulting in telling discrepancies between critic and audience review scores. The true nature of “fan-baiting” is never so clear as when a script is well-crafted and audience reviews are accordingly positive, exposing the announcements, declarations of solidarity, & grooming of skepticism for what they really are: cynical corporate marketing tactics. Put another way, media corporations have found a way to monetize the racism that they set their actors up to receive. Amazon knows exactly what it's doing. One of the first images released was of Disa. On cue, a couple bigots said the predictable, allowing a giddy Amazon to release its pre-prepared scripted statement denouncing the "pushback". It's the new business model... Even while a studio purports to be "challenging bigotry" it is also counting on bigots being bigoted, and doing its best to direct them to the actors... As evidenced by the success and great reviews of HBO's "House of the Dragon" in comparison to Amazon's Rings of Power, both of which feature a diverse cast, the problem is the quality of writing, not the complexions of the actors. For those of you who like this thread on #fanbaiting, know that it is an example of structural racism: the individuals involved may not be personally racist, but the profit motive of the corporations who employ them orients them to make decisions that harm racialized peoples."
Nowadays almost all criticism is called "harassment", so
Similarly, there're tons more people being outraged at people supposedly being outraged over Black Ariel than there are people outraged over Black Ariel (even among those who criticise Black Ariel, very few are actually outraged)
Meme - "Numenorean Ship
Chit Chat Promenade
Galadriel's Room
Highly Flammable Wine
100 Fully Equipped Numenorean Soldiers with Plastic Armors
100 Fully Equipped Horses + Food
Supplies for a War in a Distant Foreign Country
Mithril Fuel
High Speed Turbo Engine"
Meme - "*manly smooch
*well written friendship and a touching moment
*men not having "toxic masculinity"
*any LOTR fangirl on tumblr: I dunno man, seems kinda gay to me"
Meme - "This is Lord Halbrand, your King"
"Well I didn't vote for him"
"You don't vote for Kings"
"Well how'd you become King then?"
"Galadriel of the Noldor recognised my sigil and brought me across the sea from Numenor to be your King"
"Listen. Strange Elves you rescued from the Sea talking about special sigils is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony."
Facebook - "2) one of the worst parts about this show has been the action scenes. They are anime tier. This episode was mostly action scenes. When we watch the show together in the discord, we slow the speed to .5x and just watch all the lazy bits of choreography come to the fore. In the scene where Isildur's horse is struck, the orc which hits it is seen swinging from different angles between camera cuts. That is entirely common. Worse is the nonsensical action. There is one scene where strong minority friend Token, whose real name I do not care to know, jumps off his horse to tackle a pile of orcs and fist fight them, all the while his dagger and sword remain sheathed. The man credited as the fight choreographer is a man named Daniel Andrews. If you don't know that name, you shouldn't, he's a relative nobody given prominent role in a billion dollar franchise. What has he done in the past? Among other work, the new Mulan film, the Hobbit, and Power Rangers. Knowing this, I now cannot help but see Power Rangers fighting style in all the elf combat.
3) The other main contention is this. The writing remains contrived, lazy, stream lined and convenient. For instance, the episode open with our dirty villagers under siege in a hilltop watch tower. Instead of remaining in the fortifcation with a single narrow and long bridge as an entry way, they opt to sneak out somehow out the back, with torchlights illuminating them at the base of the hill. (???) Then they go to their village in the valley, the village they fled from 2 episodes ago, and stage the fight in the little hamlet. Why? The answer is simple. They wanted a payoff cavalry charge. And that's what we got
We have 3 main scenes with the Numenoreans led by The Woman King. We have the boats at the mouth of the Anduin, talking about sailing into Mordor, 75 leagues in one day. The next time we see them, we just see hundreds of cavalry charging across the plain at full gallop. No introduction to them landing, or moving, or where they are going or why are they charging. Nothing. But the audience knows because the A storyline, the villagers defending the hamlet, requires a solution in the charging horses. But that is not explained, it is given to the audience to put A and B together, even if the merging of the two plots make no sense, and if they are to make sense, requires a great deal of writing for the authors in your little head canon. How do the Numenoreans know about this little village? How do they know it is under attack? Why do they care? The answer is because the writers are lazy and want the cheap payoff and easy way to bring together the 7 different storylines they are alternating between. It happens because the writers want it to happen, not because it makes sense to do so.
4) And that is the summary of this show. The writers want it to happen. The writers can't even show time passing correctly between storylines. An entire invasion fleet is made, soldiers are levied and trained, and the fleet departs in one episode, which then shows 1, maybe 2 days passing in the Black Elf/Villager storyline. They cannot even get day and night right. In one scene, it is pitch black outside, and after 4 minutes of dialogue, they walk outside and it is midmorning. In another scene, the village is under attack in the black of night, the scene cuts to the scene below, horses charging at dusk, and then it goes back to the Village in the dead of night. Even if the acting was good, even if the dialogue was good, even if music was existent, the show is hamstrung a complete lack of sophisticated writers, who cannot make anything more sophisticated than they are.
It is lazy, and the only reason this episode has an 8.5 on IMBD is because morons will always be delighted by the most amateur of action scenes.
Oh did I forget to mention? It is lore the Numenoreans didn't use cavalry. And the show has hundreds of levied recruits suddenly become cavalry soldiers, in a period when Cavalry would've been the most elite troops and expensive to outfit.
I also forgot to mention the volcano! The orcs flood a valley and used tunnels to redirect water up to the top of a volcano (????). The volcano then becomes a nuclear bomb and explodes, and our heroes are caught right next to it, and the episode ends. This will only be a good episode if they all end up dead and the show ends"
Facebook - "In light of the RoP showing the Numenorean expedition to be made of entirely cavalry, I thought to show you all what the lore says"
"The Númenóreans in their own land possessed horses, which they esteemed [see the "Description of Númenor," p.177]. But they did not use them in war; for all their wars were overseas."
Someone claimed that it didn't follow the lore, but didn't contradict it. I showed him this and Christopher Tolkien saying all dwarf women have beards, and he didn't reply
Meme - "It was important we broke with lore, because Tolkien failed to write about any people of color"
*visible Easterling confusion*
*angry Haradrim noises*
Meme - "Tolkien's Numenoreans
Resents mortality itself
Cavalry?
Casually walks into Sauron's land
Army so powerful Sauron just surrenders
"We're going to invade heaven"
Assorted flavors of twinks
Amazon's Numenoreans
Resents elves taking their jobs
Chainmail?
Casually sails 2000 miles in 2 days
"Army" filled with 300 peasant levies
"We're going to invade a dirty village"
7ft tall Chads"
Facebook - "So we hate watched the Rings of Power last night in the discord, yo-ho, and in short, it was bad. Not only is it very boring, but it is undercooked, mechanical and streamlined, but more on that later. But there was one scene in episode 4 that was so painful, it merited greater griping. The episode opens with a rabble of racist guild workers, led by one of the few non diverse Numenoreans, spreading sedition openly against the Queen Regent. Reminder, they're really racist against elves. The rabble rouser charges the queen with being manipulated by the one elf on their island ethnostate, leading a chant of "Elf-lover". Then he descends into a diatribe on the Elves taking their jobs. Yes. Literally, THEY TOOK ER JERBS but with elves. 1 billion dollars folks. Now, it is very on the nose to turn Numenor into a Dark MAGA natalist movement. However, the elf distrust is very canon. The Numenorean Kings for centuries had been splitting from the Eru/Valar and the Elves to forge their own path. This caused civil strife between the King's Men and the Faithful, those who split against the Valar, and those who remained loyal. But the central issue I have with this is that to dumb down the splitting of men from the elves with DEY TURKER JERBS detracts from Tolkien's vision of the Downfall of Numenor. Tolkien did not justify the envy of the Eldar with materialistic complaints about their work or money. The Men turned from the Valar and Eldar because of the Gift of Men, their own mortality. Men feared death and in their fear looked west to the Undying Lands of Valinor, and their fear turned into envy. They could not travel due to the Ban, and in their envy, resented the elves. Being banned from sailing west, they built great kingdoms and power from expeditions to the east. They became conquerors and tribute gatherers, no longer teachers and friends. Their hearts hardened, they refused to 'worship' the Valar and Eru, and then turned to Morgoth. In light of this complex banishment from Eden/tower of Babel narrative, Amazon turns that into the Numenorean nationalists are really racist and they durka derbs. This show is missed opportunity after missed opportunity."
Meme - "Orcs in The Lord of the Rings 'show Tolkien was racist'
Tolkien's demonisation of the ores in The Lord of the Rings without seeking to understand their motivation betrays a racist belief that some peoples are inferior to others, according to an American author."
Orc: "I want to kill every man, woman and child then burn your cities"
Aragorn: "I will stop you"
Liberal: "NooOOOOoOO that's heckin racist, what about their motivations??""
Facebook - "You know the show is failing when they double down on calling their critics racist. It's the clarion call for journalists to start defending the show as part of the 'team'. The funny thing is that there was a way forward where they could respectfully show Middle Earth as diverse. They could show the various ethnicities in Harad, Rhun, Umbar as travellers, exiles as their kingdoms fall to darkness. But no. We have a random dirty English village in the southlands, with a sprinkle of sub Saharan women. Forget that that entire village by rights should be the brown people they want to include so much. However, those southlanders are sketchy, racist and filthy, so they need to look like Bretonnian peasants. Amazon doesn't understand not respect the IP it bought. LOTR is not Magic the Gathering. They can't paint with that palette and color Tolkien's work with authentic feel. However, they don't mean to understand and respect, they paid their hundreds of millions for the right to wear the skinsuit and for the corporate press to cheer them for it."
It totally makes sense that small, geographically isolated populations would have racial diversity. But that only extends to black people, not other "minorities"
Meme - "Based Aragorn IV: An Unexpected Yeeting: According to the article, Tolkien was proto Alt Right. The same article which can't even spell Tokien's name properly
On Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Alt-Right Trolls, and Racism in JRR Tolkein's Writings BY ANDREW STEWART"
Meme - "Galadriel
In the books
6' 4"
Never visited Numenor
Extremely wise and powerful
Magic Capabilities
Elegant and refined
Acts her age
Her presence commands respect
gaLadRriEL
In the show
Takes command of Numenor
Immature and impulsive
Needs a sword
Acts like a 10 old spoiled brat
Tough guy attifude"
Now it’s over, let’s come out and say it: The Rings of Power was a stinker - "When The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuted at the same time as House of the Dragon, much noise was made about which show attracted more eyeballs. According to Nielsen, it was a conclusive victory for Tolkien, with The Rings of Power viewers watching the first two episodes for 1.25bn minutes, compared with House of the Dragon’s 741m. But over the weeks, something strange has happened. House of the Dragon has sucked up the spotlight. It has attracted tweets, theories, memes, discussions, all on a rolling boil since the first episode. Meanwhile, if The Rings of Power has been seen anywhere, it was only in places paid for by Amazon. There are billboards and adverts and special Amazon packing tape adorned with the show’s logo. But, in terms of spontaneous, organic excitement, it has been a wilderness... There are moments in almost every episode where I have found myself sniggering into my sleeve at how inept it is. And all these misgivings were massively underlined by the finale... in terms of both plot and presentation, The Rings of Power simply hasn’t cut the mustard. The biggest issue, the one that caused the bulk of the sniggering, was the acting. This is a show with a sprawling cast blasted across a number of locations. And there is no consistency whatsoever. People don’t seem to have been told what sort of show they are acting in. It’s bizarre... Bear McCreary’s ever-present score was syrupy and phoned in, as if he fell asleep on the “Fantasy” preset on his keyboard. The whole thing was lit as if it was an episode of Hollyoaks. Given the sheer amount of money thrown at the show, some of the visual effects were incredibly inept. Tonally, too, the drama didn’t know if it was meant to be for beginner-, intermediate- or expert-level Tolkien fans. As such, it felt like it was made for nobody. A while ago, someone on the financial side of the television industry reminded me that Amazon isn’t a television company. It’s a mail order business that dabbles in TV to boost its cred. The Rings of Power seems to be a perfect case in point, as if Amazon dumped a billion dollars into it for the headlines, then ignored a lot of the details."
Amazon's 'Rings of Power' Struggling With Young Viewers - "The "TheRingsofPower" hashtag on TikTok has 656 million views, while the "#HouseoftheDragon" hashtag has 5.4 billion. While not exactly a perfect commentary on "The Rings of Power's" popularity, it does suggest a limited appeal for younger viewers compared to the competition, as TikTok's user base skews young. Other data suggests the limits of the show's reach, as well. Google Trends data shows that searches for "House of the Dragon" have greatly outpaced "The Rings of Power" over the last month... The two-episode premiere of "The Rings of Power" was watched by 12.6 million viewers in the US in its first three days. Nielsen confirmed to Insider that the third episode was watched by 7.47 million average viewers in the US in its first three days, though Nielsen only measures viewing on connected TVs, which doesn't include other devices like laptops"
Rings of Power: Is a Fascist Fandom Dragging It Down? - "Some media outlets, however, are accusing the disappointed fanbase of racism and misogyny. If you don’t like Rings of Power, it might mean you hate diversity and inclusion. Amazon notoriously hid a number of reviews on its platform the first few days after the show’s release and put out statements condemning racist or other “hate speech” in the reviews. Literature professor Anna Smol recently wrote an article for The Conversation on the “far-right” attempt to discredit Rings of Power, claiming every story is subject to creative reinterpretation to better fit the times... Based on Smol’s understanding, the low reviews should have been vitriolic in all the wrong ways, but that’s far from what I found. Reviewers called the show “boring,” found the writing “terrible,” and tended to feel like the show didn’t look like a billion dollars... It’s almost like the writers think their show should be above any criticism, so now the low reviews are misconstrued as a “far-right” conspiracy to maintain cultural hegemony. While the racist and sexist reviews are certainly out there, lots of fans simply don’t like the show, and for valid reasons. Scolding the fanbase is a strange marketing strategy, and hasn’t seemed to work, as the audience score witnesses. You must earn a fan’s approval through good storytelling and carefully balanced dialogue and action. You can’t please the racist internet troll out there, no matter how hard you try, but you can please the LOTR fan. Just get the storytelling right! Smol also claims that every adaptation requires re-interpretation. She’s right. However, how much of Rings of Power involves a Tolkien-written storyline? Aside from some familiar characters and the general setting of Middle-earth, the show invents more than it interprets. So, the show struggles under the burden of creative liberty"
If you don't like a bad TV show, you are a fascist. No wonder antifa and many liberals see fascists everywhere
Facebook - "tfw a "true fan of lotr" tries to strawman and smear the entire Tolkein fandom and then a whole army of LOTR fans and even Ian Fucking McKellen proves you wrong in an interview. and in a hilarious twist - it turns out this "true LOTR fan" website....was a shill for Amazon's upcoming LOTR seriously tho, what is with Western wokesters attacking and demonising their actual fans and primary source of income every.single.time? so pretty much, Amazon's staff are pissed that the new LOTR Amazon series is not getting anybody hyped, so they attack fans for not being excited for it."
