The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Prime)

[Btone]

Show me a non-white Hobbit in Hobbiton in any of the films, or a mention in any of the books.

show me in the books were Tolkien gives the colour of any of the hobbits

Bilbo is first described as a small creature of around three feet with curly brown hair and large, hairy feet. He live in The Shire and keeps to himself, like most other hobbits. As the story progresses his character is described as brave, clever, and moral.

note no skin colour, you just assume it white


but given he describes Gollum as "dark as darkness" and that Gollum came from a hobbit type race, and unless you believe skin colour can change then is it not fair to say that some hobbit may be POC

 

[throwaway4372]

lmao copium

 

[Mr Jack]

Show me a non-white Hobbit in Hobbiton in any of the films, or a mention in any of the books.

I think it's a mistake to consider this as directly connected to the films. They're made by different people, different companies, etc. It's like complaining that Kiera Knightley doesn't look like Greer Garson in two adaptations of Pride and Prejudice. And, yeah, I'm pretty sure that Tolkien thought the Hobbits in the books were all white, as were the elves. We don't get much mention of dark skinned people in the books at all, and they're aren't exactly flattering. But so what? Your claim wasn't just that that the Hobbits having mixed skin tones doesn't match the books but that it required a "suspension of logic" to believe. That's just not so.

The Rings of Power isn't a direct translation of anything Tolkien wrote, it's an extension of a handful of appendixes. And it's made for a modern, and mostly American, audience. Enjoy it for what it is.

 

[Dis86]

show me in the books were Tolkien gives the colour of any of the hobbits

Bilbo is first described as a small creature of around three feet with curly brown hair and large, hairy feet. He live in The Shire and keeps to himself, like most other hobbits. As the story progresses his character is described as brave, clever, and moral.

note no skin colour, you just assume it white


but given he describes Gollum as "dark as darkness" and that Gollum came from a hobbit type race, and unless you believe skin colour can change then is it not fair to say that some hobbit may be POC

Again, another one who can't read and with no comprehension. I've not said hobbits should be white however the Harfoots are described of being "browner of skin" than other hobbits, therefore implying that the other hobbits are of light complexion. Note that's browner of skin, not brown of skin. So no assumption, logic.

We know that the Haradrim and Easterlings are dark skinned. The North-men are white. The Hobbits originated in the North of Middle-Earth (around the Anduin). Therefore since they're a descendant of men it would be logical that they too are white in that region.

Gollum is described as the following "Tolkien explained this by saying that Gollum had pale skin, but wore dark clothes and was often seen in poor light" so you're just completely full of crap on that one.

 

[Dis86]

Post reminds me of John Wayne playing Genghis khan. Absolutely incredible. Didn't even attempt an accent

The Conqueror (1956) John Wayne, Agnes Moorehead (Scene) .

The Conqueror (1956)

youtu.be

Precisely, and it was absolutely horrendous! It's been panned over decades for the terrible casting and tbh script.

 

[TriedandTested]

I thought the first two episodes were OK. Nothing special but decent enough for me to watch more.

I don't like Galadriel/actress...if she's going to be gazing intently in to the camera several times each episode I may have to call it quits. Hope she's not the main character throughout it all.

I don't like the accents being all over the shop, or the awful writing in places, or the blatant green screen/massive displays (or whatever they use in the business these days) - it's ugly and jarring. I also don't like the constant sweeping vista shots....boring already. The music is sub-par and misused - the heavy drums/chanting used to great affect in the original Lotr is seemingly used when some minor character leaves their hut and walks up a hill - it makes no sense. They've picked some really odd looking actors for a lot of the roles!

I actually though Lenny Henry was OK! Hah.

Overall, fine and perhaps a little below average. Better than some of the other series being released though - but then they have been trash also.

 

[Minusorange]

My only complaint is skipping all the Morgoth story, would have like to see a focus on the dark side showing Sauron's rise and betrayal of being a Maia

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

Why is it always the same handful of poster who derail threads with their identity politics nonsense? This world have zero similarities with our Earth, it is a complete fantasy world, if you want to apply our Earth logic to it you've got bigger problems than some dark skinned hobbit like creatures.

 

[Shocky-FM]

It's even worse than I thought it would be, a lot of the dialog makes no sense at all, pseudo intellectual nonsense most of the time.

The CGI is great but you would expect that considering the budget, it's just a shame the quality of the writing nowhere near matches this. I think the writers may have been high when they were working on this, the more I think about some of the dialog between characters in the this show, the less sense it makes.

 

[Kyo]

My only complaint is skipping all the Morgoth story, would have like to see a focus on the dark side showing Sauron's rise and betrayal of being a Maia

Same would have loved to see the Morgoth arc and expand how it connected to Sauron. Never read the books myself but fleshing out the antagonists would definitely be good viewing.

 

[Shocky-FM]

Looks like it's going down well with the audience, RT is also deleting hundreds of reviews but they can't keep up the negative reviews.

Amazon have blocked viewers from leaving reviews for this on their website, cowards.

 

[Mr Jack]

My only complaint is skipping all the Morgoth story, would have like to see a focus on the dark side showing Sauron's rise and betrayal of being a Maia

I don't think they had the rights to all that?

 

[C Kent]

Why is it always the same handful of poster who derail threads with their identity politics nonsense? This world have zero similarities with our Earth, it is a complete fantasy world, if you want to apply our Earth logic to it you've get bigger problems than some dark skinned hobbit like creatures.

Why is it the same handful of posters that makes excuses for showrunners and writers ignoring what the creator of the world himself said about the races involved ?

 

[Rroff]

Why is it always the same handful of poster who derail threads with their identity politics nonsense? This world have zero similarities with our Earth, it is a complete fantasy world, if you want to apply our Earth logic to it you've got bigger problems than some dark skinned hobbit like creatures.

There is the rub though - when some of the casting choices or writing may be for reasons other than the source material, or what might be, and/or what brings the material to life best on the screen. Personally don't feel it a big issue based on the first couple of episodes but still.

While the line can be subjective even complete fantasy/sci-fi rarely does "anything go" and it works.

 

[Malevolence]

My only complaint is skipping all the Morgoth story, would have like to see a focus on the dark side showing Sauron's rise and betrayal of being a Maia

Do they have the rights for Melkor?

 

[Minusorange]

I don't think they had the rights to all that?

They must have to be able to include the leaving of Valinor to fight Morgoth, who knows though maybe one of the episode will be a story from the side of Sauron and include some of his past although I think there's enough material to have an entire season for the Morgoth stuff which leads into Sauron taking over as the great evil

Same would have loved to see the Morgoth arc and expand how it connected to Sauron. Never read the books myself but fleshing out the antagonists would definitely be good viewing.

There aren't really books on the early history of Arda it's mostly a collection of notes (edited into a story by Christopher Tolkien)

 

[Mr Jack]

They must have to be able to include the leaving of Valinor to fight Morgoth, who knows though maybe one of the episode will be a story from the side of Sauron and include some of his past although I think there's enough material to have an entire season for the Morgoth stuff which leads into Sauron taking over as the great evil

They only have rights to the stuff in the Lord of the Rings appendixes, apparently. That includes a loose sketch of all this but nothing more.

Maybe someone will get the rights to the rest of it at some point and make that story into something great.

 

[Minusorange]

They only have rights to the stuff in the Lord of the Rings appendixes, apparently. That includes a loose sketch of all this but nothing more.

Maybe someone will get the rights to the rest of it at some point and make that story into something great.

Oh I thought they had rights to the Silmarillion stuff too

I guess if it's successful and the tolkien estate approves we could get more

 

[Mr Jack]

Oh I thought they had rights to the Silmarillion stuff too

So did I until, er, about 2 pages ago?

I guess if it's successful and the tolkien estate approves we could get more

The rights issues seem to be complicated. Hopefully, they can be sensibly resolved at some point.

 

[leemk]

Thought the first episode was great looks like this is going to be lots better than wheel of time.

(how did i know even on the 1st page i read of this thread (page 42)someone would be moaning about black characters).