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

[Mr Jack]

Got a source for that extravagant claim?

Amazon. I'll try and dig out a link tomorrow if you can't find it.

These are totally opache numbers, of course, but since Amazon is a publicly traded company these claims are legally actionable by shareholders so I doubt they're completely fanciful.

 

[LiE]

I don't think a single one of them even had a cough.

This is what immediately stuck out to me.

 

[Vern1961]

At least in the latest episode we got to see (as I suspected) the Southlands becomes

Spoiler

Mordor

However the show still spawning more questions than it is answering...
We still don't know who Starman is, Gandalf, Saruman or another creation of the screenwriters.
The orc "leader" does not seem to have a counterpart in the books, other than the Uruk-hai were known to be almost man height. Did ponder whether he's been lined up to be one of the men who eventually becomes a ring wraith, but he's not a man.
Who were the three mysterious characters who appeared next to the halflings and

Spoiler

proceeded to burn their caravan

? They looked sort of elvish but their actions would indicate otherwise.
Best part came at the end though when we caught a glimpse of

Spoiler

Durin's Bane, aka the Balrog.

So next week shaping up to be a really epic finale or will it be a fizzle...

 

[Dis86]

Again they've played fast and loose with the timeline as it shouldn't awaken until well in to the third age. It was the dwarves under Durin VI that awoke it, not Durin III.

 

[Mr Jack]

So next week shaping up to be a really epic finale or will it be a fizzle...

Watching episode 7, I was thinking the pieces were beginning to come together, building nicely towards the climax in a few episodes time. Then I realised it's only an 8 episode season. Even with a feature length episode, I don't see how they bring this to any kind of natural conclusion for all of the major plotlines.

I know this is planned as a 5 season whole but each season needs to have a proper arc.

 

[C Kent]

Amazon. I'll try and dig out a link tomorrow if you can't find it.

These are totally opache numbers, of course, but since Amazon is a publicly traded company these claims are legally actionable by shareholders so I doubt they're completely fanciful.

I'll remind you

 

[C Kent]

Again they've played fast and loose with the timeline as it shouldn't awaken until well in to the third age. It was the dwarves under Durin VI that awoke it, not Durin III.

shocked

 

[Craterloads]

Watching episode 7, I was thinking the pieces were beginning to come together, building nicely towards the climax in a few episodes time. Then I realised it's only an 8 episode season. Even with a feature length episode, I don't see how they bring this to any kind of natural conclusion for all of the major plotlines.

I know this is planned as a 5 season whole but each season needs to have a proper arc.

Same here I cant see how they are going to do a satisfying end to season one. Feels like all the plots are only mid way through.

Harfoots gonna find the stranger, can’t see a reveal of who he is so soon. He still can’t bloody talk yet.

Galadriel and halbrand go to the elves, is healed cant see much development in a episode. King finds out what’s going on perhaps some more subtle hints or teases. He’s not souron.

The whole who is souron isn’t gonna get dumped on us in the last episode. Might be wrong on that maybe a big tease.

Durin / elrond, perhaps durin finds a way to get some mithrial and escapes back with elrond who is waiting outside. How much does he even need?

I can see some **** happening when the numinorians return home, perhaps with the queen gone for some time changes have been made, she’s been replaced. I feel like there is some darkness there lurking.

I like it being a slow burner, just feels like they need perhaps around 12 episodes to get to where they ideally want to be for a season.

Hope I’m wrong.

 

[McPhee]

My expectations for the finale:

Spoiler

Durin II dies. Possibly by the Balrog (but with this being unknown to everyone else).

Halbrand is revealed to the viewer to be Sauron in disguise. So many hints in this direction. Adar claims to be have killed Sauron. Halbrand hates Adar for past actions, but Adar does not recognise him. Halbrand is "king" of the Southlands, which is now Mordor. And he is heading to Lindon, which is precisely where Sauron should be. I still don't think this theory is 100%, but more likely than not at this point.

The Stranger storyline is a difficult one. I want to say he is revealed to be Gandalf. But that makes no sense in relation to the source material. Odds-on he is revealed to be an Istari though.

Over on Numenor, there is some trouble. My vet is the people wind up divided between Miriel and Pharazon, with roughly half of the population choosing to join Miriel in leaving Numenor forever for Middle Earth.

 

[Minusorange]

It's annoying they've messed up the timeline so badly on this

 

[Darujhistan]

Ah, in my case, I was simply referring to obvious visual bugs/defects that were done poorly by the vfx team, or was not done right at all. The lack of depth, etc would be a director issue, so that would be a separate matter from the actual "visual" bugs that were in the first few episodes that I was referring to (although the case can be made that the director was at fault too I suppose). Anyone who can spot those will get taken out from the scene very quickly, so that's why I suggested that the viewer gets really hammered before watching, watching it on a super large screen, or watching it on a super small screen for ways to avoid easily noticing those issues that then takes a person out of the scene.

We're talking at completely cross-purposes here, you're talking about technical bugs and glitchs, i'm talking about the flat empty World. I don't agree that this is just the fault of the director either, this is a massive creative failure. It is a lack of vision, ambition, creativity and care from the outset, in total contrast to PJ's Trilogy, he wasn't solely responsible for creating a truly believable lived-in realistic World either, there were dozens of artists, designers, people building sets, hands on artisans creating armour etc with incredible attention to detail.

LOTR was a massive collaborative effort with a cast of hundreds of talented people with a shared vision, RoP does not have the talent in any area to match LOTR, and this is why the World is so dead, unengaging and lacks believability.

 

[Bigpig]

We're talking at completely cross-purposes here, you're talking about technical bugs and glitchs, i'm talking about the flat empty World. I don't agree that this is just the fault of the director either, this is a massive creative failure. It is a lack of vision, ambition, creativity and care from the outset, in total contrast to PJ's Trilogy, he wasn't solely responsible for creating a truly believable lived-in realistic World either, there were dozens of artists, designers, people building sets, hands on artisans creating armour etc with incredible attention to detail.

LOTR was a massive collaborative effort with a cast of hundreds of talented people with a shared vision, RoP does not have the talent in any area to match LOTR, and this is why the World is so dead, unengaging and lacks believability.

Is Weta even involved?

Edit: can only find small snips that Weta Digital have had some work.

 

[PlacidCasual]

This might be the first episode when I didn't think the writing of Galadriel was awful. Putting aside teh inplausibility of the Southlands plot vis a vis ount Doom and there is so much to put aside, I quite enjoyed the episode. Durin/Elrond still remains the strongest part of the show.

 

[Kainz]

Yep, thoroughly enjoyed the episode. They’re not perfect by any means but I’ve enjoyed every episode this season barring the first one.

Durin and the King were simply stellar in the last eps. Galadriel for once I thought was very good and a lot more down to earth after the disaster.

 

[Mr Jack]

Is it actually possible to survive a pyroclastic flow and secondly with massive fires surrounding you wouldn't you just collapse and die due to lack of oxygen and smoke inhalation? I guess fire fighters wearing oxygen is just a gimmick?

Yeah, that didn't come across well. Pulling apparently dirty but unarmed children out of a completely burnt out building? Nah. I think they really overdid the effects on the whole sequence. Drifting smoke, some falling burning rocks causing fires, and heavy ash fall would have delivered the same impact and effect without being so over-the-top that it felt unrealistic whilst still delivering the same story impact.

 

[C Kent]

Amazon. I'll try and dig out a link tomorrow if you can't find it.

Found it! It's from a Varity interview, it's very clever corporate speak. Similar to how World of Warcraft can claim to have 121m players - what they actually mean is that over 100million people have tried it, but actual sub numbers are a hell of a lot lower. The 100million customer number would be the total number of people that have clicked on an episode - if 100million people were tuning into watch each episode it would be one of the biggest tv shows ever..

I wonder if it's total views, over all episodes?

A bit like when they claim the attendance for F1 is 300,000, but that could be 100,000 people coming all three days?

100% this

 

[Darujhistan]

Is it actually possible to survive a pyroclastic flow and secondly with massive fires surrounding you wouldn't you just collapse and die due to lack of oxygen and smoke inhalation? I guess fire fighters wearing oxygen is just a gimmick?

I understand fantasy and all that but surely the writers have some sense of basic education?

The writers haven't got a clue, everything just happens because they want it to, ignore time, distance, physics, fire, volcanic ash, oxygen or anything else that gives boundaries and consequences to actions and events in a real World.

They have their "plot points" they want to hit, and how they get there doesn't matter, suspend all disbelief, just join the dots, get to the "Girl power" moments, rinse and repeat. The plot armour, contrivance, and convenience are off the scale in this show. It is absolute nonsense from start to finish week in and week out.

 

[Darujhistan]

.

 

[ic1male]

I'm glad I stuck with it. Episodes 1-3 were total drivel but then 6 redeemed the whole series so far. Now my Prime runs out so won't see episode 8 for a while.

 

[StriderX]

It was genuinely entertaining how that pyroclastic flow didn't immediately kill everyone when it flew past them and only made Galadriel a bit dirty.