Nick1Ø66

A big problem with KOTC is that they only filmed in the USA, so every foreign location looks extremely fake. 

Actually, I prefer a system of government based on women (preferably watery tarts) lying in ponds distributing swords. 
 

She's great. I like her better than Enya actually.
 
That said, I'd have really liked to hear Loreena McKennitt do one of the LOTR or Hobbit film's song. I think she'd be perfect for Middle-Earth.

It was more an attack on Amazon just aping the bones of the Jackson films. 
 
Fiona Apple is great. Don’t think her voice is quite as iconic as the three singers used in the OT but I’m not attacking her here. 
 
just Amazon following another part of the Jackson blueprint. 
 
Female singer over the end credits? Check.

Ahem...
 

 
And that's not even the most egregious example of this!
 

Amazon: “we’re not a prequel, we’re doing our own thing and making it our own”
 
Also Amazon: “we are aping absolutely everything from the PJ films and making things look slightly different by using their non Union Mexican equivalents”

Actually, I prefer a system of government based on women (preferably watery tarts) lying in ponds distributing swords. 
 

Actually, I prefer a system of government based on women (preferably watery tarts) lying in ponds distributing swords. 
 

It's Blake's Jerusalem come to life!

Actually, I prefer a system of government based on women (preferably watery tarts) lying in ponds distributing swords. 
 

Any criticism you may levy will just elicit "you need to wait all five seasons to have the whole picture!" from the ROP apologists.

So which of these applies to watching Rings of Power?
 
#4?
 

Any criticism you may levy will just elicit "you need to wait all five seasons to have the whole picture!" from the ROP apologists.

Don't forget putting a sword into a rock to create Mordor.
 
Usually it's pulling a sword out of a stone that causes all the fuss.

Are you trying to tell us something with your Avatar, Chen?

You have not seen what I have seen.
 
 

In two years Season 2 of this will feel about as necessary and relevant as an Avatar sequel.

That was part of the problem with the Star Wars prequel trilogy...the Jedi order, the Clone Wars, etc. we're all spoken of as myth and legend in the OT. There was no way the on-screen portrayal was going to be able to live up to whatever people conjured in their imagination while watching Star Wars....and it didn't. At least for me.
 
Shows with contemporary settings, and that are more character driven, especially psychologically complex characters like those in Breaking Bad, are more suited to a "backstory", IMO. How Saul got to be the person he becomes is interesting and even relevant, whereas portraying how Mordor became Mordor just takes away from the magic.

More's the pity. You're on your own after this season Chen. The Lord tells me he can get me out of this mess, but he's pretty sure you're f*cked.
 
 

Good grief, that was awful.
 
The show is just full of poorly written, cliché-ridden TV tropes has little to do with Tolkien. It's getting worse, not better, by the week.  It has the same beats, and flaws, of any other average streaming show, except that it has that huge budget. And what of that budget?  Yes, the settings are spectacular and very well done. But the big, epic battle they were leading up to felt decidedly small scale, and even...amateurish. And the writing...my God...when you start having your supposedly brilliant and heroic main characters act stupidly in order to move the plot forward (e.g. the misdirection with the evil sword that was obvious from the get go) you know you've hit rock bottom.
 
I’ve seen people praising episode 6 as “one of the greatest hours of TV ever”, and to each their own, I don’t begrudge anyone enjoying the show. But to me, at this point all ROP is doing is taking away the mystery and magic of Middle-Earth by strip mining its history to facilitate made up "origin stories". 
 
If there's anything that's surprising, it's that it's even more fan fiction than I suspected it would be. The whole story is basically TV writers making up, well, everything. The show is not going to get better, the DNA on this one is coded. I might finish the season, because I hate leaving things unfinished, but after that I'm out. 

That's not being pedantic, that's distancing myself from your comment. You made this about the discourse, and I don't want people to assume I agree. If you had said something like "Anything positive you may say will just elicit "you're in denial!" from the ROP haters", I would've answered the same. I'm not interested in casting accusations either direction.

So which of these applies to watching Rings of Power?
 
#4?
 

So which of these applies to watching Rings of Power?
 
#4?
 

Well, no. I like to think I appreciate art, study art, watch, listen to and read art.
 
I guess it's just my own thing, I cringe when words like "consumer" and "franchise" attached to music, literature & film, like I'm buying a toaster or going to McDonald's. Even more so when it comes to Tolkien I guess!