"Rings of Power" Topic

Inasmuch as many of us game the Tolki'verse and the chances that tie-in gaming figures to the Amazon series are likely, I would like to invite a discussion re the degree to which the series has, or seems to have, veered from the source material.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to render a teleplay of the Tolkien world faithfully, but there are vast differences between omitting Bombadil and adding sandworms, and omitting Arwen's brothers and importing Elves to Helm's Deep.

Prithee, opine away…

I utterly hated the way the movies and shows messed up the story Tolkien wrote.

I am just a purist I guess…!!!!

Plenty of YouTube videos on the subject for every episode. Easy search.

We're watching the series just for the continuous train wreck it is.

Initially, I was flexible about Jackson's "liberties." But, as the stories progressed, the changes seemed more frequent and less necessary.

I told friends that I thought changing the stories had become, for Jackson, like eating peanuts. Once he had started, he couldn't stop.

I was leery of tRoP given what a complex and downbeat tale the 2nd Age was. So far we have a mystery wizard, an Elf gone bad in a subplot that seems like a subsidiary baddie in a convoluted fantasy RTSG, and The High Elves suffering a sort of creeping crud that only mithril can assuage.

It's getting a bit thick.

Given they can only work from the appendices in LOTR I expected it to be very divergent from the source material. Given that Ive sat back and enjoyed it as a more generic fantasy series

It has caused a local resurgence in the LotR strategy battle game so it's great!

I think Jackson's deviations from the story in the LOTR trilogy are minimal compared to the nonsense we are seeing with Rings of Power (I am deliberately not mentioning The Hobbit, but even it was light years better on this point than Rings of Power). The Rings of Power looks decent much of the time, with decent costuming and good sets (Numenor is really good, though some of the elven scenes are and look like indoor sets from classics like "Krull" from the 1989s.)

Plot wise, Rings of Power is just wholesale making things up. Mithril has magic powers to save the elves? Wtf? ROP has jacked up the timeline all over the place, for completely unknowable reasons given they have a five-season runway and could even go longer should they want. And what the hell are the Harfoots nonsense—I keep telling people these are Ewoks dressed up as Peter Pan's Lost Boys from the "Hook" children's movie; the Harfoots wouldn't be quite so bad, but for the fact that they have taken up a HUGE portion of screen-time in the series so far. And the whole "People of the Southlands" stuff for those who occupy Mordor prior to Sauron is a train wreck.

The Wheel of Time series on Amazon, as mediocre as it is, was still much better than the ROP mess. The Witcher was MUCH better; House of the Dragon, while not as good as the first GoT, is still light years better than ROP. Given that money was not an issue for the ROP showrunners, I have to chalk it up to the arrogance of them, thinking they could use Tolkien's various writings as "inspiration" and felt free to write all their own versions and stories without regard to the contradictions.

Many of Peter Jackson's deplored changes can be defended as decisions he made to better translate the hundreds of pages to the screen—characters were deleted and added, character arcs condensed, etc. I keep seeing so many gripes on this forum about the armor worn by Gondor, but even this was partially dictated by a desire to better distinguish them on the screen both as soldiers and as a society for the casual viewers (seriously, had everyone in the movie run around as Anglo-Saxons then it would have confused many viewers). And plate armor bs chain mail is a ridiculous thing to complain about compared to Kili and Tauriel falling in love in The Hobbit, or the complete mess of the plot lines in ROP.

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Seems Amazon doesnt own all the rights to truly tell the whole story – which may explain part of the issue – The Tolkien Estate still has the rights to The Silmarillion which is the best telling of the Second Age.

Haven't read the Silmarillion. Enjoying what I've seen thus far, as a Middle Earth-based fantasy. Just enjoying it as a fantasy series, for its own merits, regardless of Tolkien, or his estate.

How few years left before it goes Public Domain?… That will be fun! Cheers!

Under the Mickey Mouse Copyright Act, 90 years from death of creator, so 2063, Sgt Slag--unless, of course, interested parties bribe enough congressmen, MPs and MEPs to stretch it out even further.

Conan Doyle is now public domain. So's AA Milne and portions of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Robert E. Howard should be coming up in 2026, and Lovecraft, bless him, left his estate in such a mess that it's always been public domain. But apart from me not living to see it, I'll be a little surprised if any "creative" who died after 1950 ever enters public domain under the current political setup. At the very least, they'll find a way to ring-fence the serious money-makers.

Agreed, Robert. It was a big deal, in the news media, when the earliest images of Mickey Mouse went Public Domain. Nothing more really happened with that, thus far.

So they extended it to 90 years post death of the author? Wow! Last I knew it was either 50, or 75 years. I agree: if the estate is making money off of it, they will lobby lawmakers until they get what they want, to keep the money rolling into their pockets, via the estate. Public Domain will be a thing for pre-20th Century works, only… Cheers!

It's not just JRR Tolkien holding the original copyrights. Christopher Tolkien holds them as well for The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and the other various works he compiled and contributed to, which places the characters and terms squarely under his name as well, thus extending the copyright further. It will be a looong time before the elements of Middle-Earth becomes public domain.
Which IMHO is a good thing; there's enough crap claiming to be Middle-Earth out there as it is.

Smithsco +1
Sgt Slag +1
TBH I'm quite enjoying it, yeah there are things I would have done differently but what the heck. Personally I prefer it to House of the Dragon in which I can't find a single character I like or feel I can root for.

The Marvel universe has taught me that this is exactly what Tolkien wrote…in another multi verse. Just not this one.

I have enjoyed the visuals of the show. I love Durin and the dwarves the most so far. Durin: "She wanted a new table"

I will see where it goes.

The annoying thing is being asked "what happens next" and saying "I don't know they are making this up"

hard to be the house Tolkien expert.

Just tell them the series covers the Second Age of Middle Earth. It lasted 3400 years. The series is set to run 5 seasons. "I have no idea what comes next, cuz I've no idea how much they'll be omitting, abridging or making up out of thin air. They've already introduced 3 characters I can't figure out."

"Oh, but that bit at the front of "Fellowship" about the Rings…that all happens sort of in the middle of this series."

Prior to ROP, I had never before heard the term "fan fiction" used in a derogatory way.

@Archon64

I've mostly heard "Fan Fiction" being referred to dismissively, but sometimes also derogatorily.

I have to think any fiction arises to at least some degree of respectability once supposedly serious people deem it worthy of investing large amounts of "0's" in.

I have lately begun listening to the score as an exclusively audio experience, and it's really pretty impressive.

I've enjoyed it. I'm not a Tolkien literalist and given this is lifted from the very brief appendix, what the heck. Give it a shot. It is vastly better than the Hobbit. Jackson's LOTR had a lot more to work with and still couldn't stick to the script. So I'm okay making something from nothing.

"The annoying thing is being asked "what happens next" and saying "I don't know they are making this up""

That was behind the creative efforts of "Lost" as well… ;-)

it appears that some have taken exception to the accents used in the series.

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I have no real interest in the series and not being a Tolkein purist have nothing to add.