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

[Rroff]

Your twisting hard here

There are others as well, I didn't put them, i went from the two extremes. But it seems on trend he went from many semi weak to very few very powerful.

Not following what you are getting at there - the various different instances don't exclude each other if assumed there was a range of them in terms of power and not always all present at once. It is only his last note which makes them hard to reconcile - remove that and everything else falls into place with a fairly simple explanation consistent with other aspects of the lore i.e. that the Maiar were numerous.

Morgoth didn't need a production line to corrupt the Maiar who became Balrogs - he used influence to attract them to his cause corrupting them in the process - many of the changes they did to themselves - it wasn't like he did something specifically to each of them one by one.

 

[Darujhistan]

Would have been good to have a company that had a decent track record in the genre that's for sure.

The more I think about it, it was doomed from the start. I followed its development religously from the first announcement and nothing gave me optimism about the production. Blow after blow, then amazon's propaganda war started in earnest in the New Year, and I knew it was going to be bad.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

Not following what you are getting at there - the various different instances don't exclude each other if assumed there was a range of them in terms of power and not always all present at once. It is only his last note which makes them hard to reconcile - remove that and everything else falls into place with a fairly simple explanation consistent with other aspects of the lore i.e. that the Maiar were numerous.

Morgoth didn't need a production line to corrupt the Maiar who became Balrogs - he used influence to attract them to his cause corrupting them in the process - many of the changes they did to themselves - it wasn't like he did something specifically to each of them one by one.

It doesn't seem that all he attracted were corrupted "...of the Maiar many were drawn to [Melkor's] splendour in the days of his greatness, and remained in that allegiance down into his darkness; and others he corrupted afterwards to his service with lies and treacherous gifts. Dreadful among these spirits were the Valaraukar, the scourges of fire that in Middle-earth were called the Balrogs, demons of terror."

My personal feeling is Tolkien pretty much narrowed it down to 7, but almost sought to make that 3 later and discarded the rest.

I certainly don't get the impression there being vast numbers personally.

When it was talked about the balrogs they seem few in number, 7 to Ungoliant.

The only way I can reconcile it, because it is unreconcilable without some manipulation is that he at some points was referring to all the corrupted minions in effect as Balrogs, and somewhat later made Balrogs more specific. even thats a bit of a stretch to try to reconcile.

Its very hard to get away from "In the margin my father wrote: 'There should not be supposed more than say 3 or at most 7 ever existed.'" Key word highlighted. Maybe he just forgot or chose to revise what else he had written at that point.

It "hundreds", then "and there came Balrogs one thousand" then the balrogs (all of them totalling 7) to ungoliant, then "say 3 or at most ever 7". I dunno it just sounds a bit like he wasnt that worried about the exact number and definition and your just supposed to take them as being a strong force either in number, or in individual power and not get too bogged down in taking detailed notes and comparing works

 

[Craterloads]

Rewatched all three episodes as have a hobbit of drifting off. Surprisingly enjoyed just as much as I did as the 1st watch through.

Think pacing, world building, story development and production is excellent. Just what I wanted.

Although I don’t think I’m sold on the actress playing Galadriel. She just seems a bit too impulsive / tantrummy in comparison to the stately portrayal by Cate Blanchett. I understand this is set 1000s of years before LOTR, is she supposed to be more impulsive back then and matures by the 3rd age? Willing to give her a chance though and probably unfair comparing to cate who is a fantastic established actress.

I like the harfoots story line, which a few have complained about. Lenny is ok in the role, not great but nothing to moan about.

The guy playing the captured elf is excellent, enjoying that story line too.

Aside from Lenny being passable and the actress playing Galadriel, no complaints from me.

Side not what was in the case the dwarfs had, arkenstone?

 

[VincentHanna]

I've just finished episode 3, and other than a few odd choices, I'm enjoying it.

Odd choices like the super slo motion Galadriel, smiling on horseback

 

[Mr Jack]

Side not what was in the case the dwarfs had, arkenstone?

The Arkenstone was a specific crystal from the Misty Mountain. I'm guessing it's Mithril?

 

[omnomnom]

I've just finished episode 3, and other than a few odd choices, I'm enjoying it.

Odd choices like the super slo motion Galadriel, smiling on horseback

I'm loving it so far but yea that horseback scene was just strange. Like something from a horror film.

 

[Kyo]

I'm up to speed now. As someone that hasn't seen the films (that I can remember) and knows nothing of the lore, so just watching this as a TV show in its own right, I'm really enjoying it. There aren't many shows where the time passes so quickly tbh.

Same out with the movies i dont know much about the Tolkien universe, Been waiting for more stories to expand from middle earth and that world. I wanted to know more about the Sauron and the darkness.

 

[Jono8]

I have to admit, the best (well, worst) thing to come from this are the internet arguments over why black elves/dwarfs make no sense in a fantasy world due to how melanin works in the real world.

The trees walk and talk
A gold ring can make people do things/decide the fate of the world
Spiders are the size of elephants
Wizards exist
There is a race that is immortal

That is all fine, but the biology of skin colour/pigment is too unrealistic....

You have to wonder whether these people actually listen to themselves sometimes...

 

[Junglist]

I've just finished episode 3, and other than a few odd choices, I'm enjoying it.

Odd choices like the super slo motion Galadriel, smiling on horseback

Yeah that horse scene was just weird and I'm still not sure what the point was

 

[Thekwango]

Yeah that horse scene was just weird and I'm still not sure what the point was

to make the audience uncomfortable? one thing it did make me realise, i never want to see morfydd clark doing sex scenes, that face she pulled would on the horse would put any man off his stroke

 

[Darujhistan]

In response to #1309

They'd made sense within the World if it had been written that way, but it wasn't. I'm not sure you know actually what a fantasy World is because the things you list are pretty much what you'd expect to find in such a World I think.

I fail to see why any FANTASY WORLD has to reflect the real World particularly as it's aesthetic is long established and known to all. But then again, I'm not the one who has upset The Irish Times with my portrayal of the Harfoots am I?

What is a massive shame is these people could create any fantasy realm that they could imagine and populate it however they saw fit, IF they had any creative talent whatsoever, but of course they don't...

But moving on, and I'll preface this by saying I have not seen EP 4, but the show so far has been that bad that the incongruent casting has hardly rated a mention amongst the tsunami of criticism the show has faced - Storytelling, writing, pacing, dialogue, Galadriel full stop, acting, costumes - and probably worst of all the fact that the show is soooo boring, but the list goes ever on and on...

 

[Darujhistan]

Yeah that horse scene was just weird and I'm still not sure what the point was

It's like with the dialogue "The stone can see only downwards" and that guff we have been laughing at, they're trying so hard to make the series seem epic and memorable, this was meant to make Galadriel look heroic and super-awesome, but because they don't have the talent to pull it off, they just made her look stupid. What I want to know is, who is watching this in post-production and is saying:

"Whooooaaaa that looks amazing!"

 

[VincentHanna]

I think it was just meant to show her looking happy actually, but it was badly executed.

However, I don't think a 10 second scene is reason to dismiss an hour long episode.

 

[Washout]

I kinda got the raised eyebrows about the race issue. It’s a world that doesn’t have airplanes and international travel so seeing supposed isolated communities being so diverse doesn’t necessarily make sense.
But then I watched the show and I found I couldn’t care less so it’s not a big deal. Even if it were you can just make your own head canon for those characters (if the show hasn’t done so already) so they or their family hail from elsewhere originally.

 

[C Kent]

I have to admit, the best (well, worst) thing to come from this are the internet arguments over why black elves/dwarfs make no sense in a fantasy world due to how melanin works in the real world.

The trees walk and talk
A gold ring can make people do things/decide the fate of the world
Spiders are the size of elephants
Wizards exist
There is a race that is immortal

No, once again you've failed to understand the point. The additions above make sense because the creator of the fantasy world deemed it so.

That is all fine, but the biology of skin colour/pigment is too unrealistic....

Again it's unrealistic because the creator of the fantasy world deemed it so.

Why are people such as yourself so keen to drag Real World western politics/issues etc into something that has no place in it? Ask yourself why it is so important to you to see these elements inserted into a fantasy setting that isn't reflective of the world that was created by the author. It's no different from any number of tales and myths created from places such as Africa/Asia where there isn't a white guy to be seen (nor should there be), but i'd stake my life on the fact that the same people cheering on diversity in a world created by a white dude from England would be the 1st to moan likes there's no tomorrow if there was a bunch of white actors cast in a show derived from an African myth for example.

 

[VincentHanna]

Even back then he had brown hobbits.

And so Gollum found them hours later, when he returned, crawling and creeping down the path out of the gloom ahead. Sam sat propped against the stome, his head dropping sideways and his breathing heavy. In his lap lay Frodo's head, drowned deep in sleep; upon his white forehead lay one of Sam's brown hands,

And in The Hobbit he described Hobbits as:

have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs...

But ok.

 

[VincentHanna]

Incidentally one of the best characters for me (so far) is the kung-fu elf, who is a black Puerto Rican.

 

[Darujhistan]

I think it was just meant to show her looking happy actually, but it was badly executed.

However, I don't think a 10 second scene is reason to dismiss an hour long episode.

Who is doing that?

 

[C Kent]

Even back then he had brown hobbits.



And in The Hobbit he described Hobbits as:



But ok.

This is half the trouble of taking selective quotes and ignoring all other descriptions of Sam and hobbits.

But ok.