Bilbo

"Listen Lorne, I know it sounds crazy but I trust you with Obi-Wan. Make good use of my theme."

What's ironic about this is, they all claim to be "Superfans", and call Tolkien's work "progressive", yet lament that lack of representation and diversity in his work. Which makes you wonder how they became "Superfans" in the first place if they found so little to relate to.
 
It's interesting, because Peter Jackson specifically said that they very intentionally avoided projecting any of their own beliefs into the films, and that they wanted to stay true to Tolkien's vision (which they largely did). 
 
I don't know, in my judgment it's an insult to say Tolkien needs "updating" to appeal to a wider audience. Isn't the phenomenal success of the films, and the popularity of all things Tolkien, evidence enough of Lord of the Ring's universal appeal?

"Tolkien's work was always about being inclusive" is just a baffling sentence.  Obviously it's fine for any reader to take any meaning they want out of a work of literature, but it's quite different to say "[author born in 19th century] was always actually writing strictly about [my particular very contemporary political obsession]"

I'm still sad that we didn't got Desplat's scores for Rogue One and Black Widow.

I would LOVE it if Powell scored "Obi-Wan", since he did such a great job on "Solo."
 
I don't want to get my hopes up too much. Whoever scores the six part series has their work cut out for them with Williams' new theme.
 
Maybe it's William Ross?

That’s it, blame the fans. How dare they react to trailers, discuss them, realign their expectations?
 
Anywho.
 
Looks to me like they negotiated the rights to do a “Young Aragorn” show and instead decided to do “Young Galadriel.” (Well, youngER.)

I mostly object to the "Troll" (WTF?), to the Hobbits and to Asteroidude. Having Hobbits in this is eyeroll-inducing enough: not from a canonical standpoint so much as for it being cloying, especially the whole "wide eyed youth in a secret community wondering about the outside world." Seeing Markella Kavenagh's Elanor Brandyfoot (WTF?!) looking like a derpy pixie out of Ridley Scott's Legend doesn't exactly help.
 
And then we have "The Stranger" (Daniel Weyman) AKA Asteroidude. I like the visual of an asteroid crash, but having a person emerge out of its crash site is too Terminator-y. Having that person, discovered by said derpy Hobbits, possibly be Gandalf would be the panderingiest pandering pander ever pandered in the history of pandering. I hope its not.
 
On the other hand, I think Romenna looks sweet. Durin IV (Owain Arthur) looks awesome, and his father Durin III (Peter Mullan) is probably going to be just as awesome. I like the casting of Morfydd Clark and Robert Aramayo as Galadriel and Elrond, and Benjamin Walker's Gil-galad looks good. Its neat seeing full suits of armour in a movie/show again, and its great to see the Belegaer and Forodwaith finally. On the other hand again, Elves with short-hair just look weird. We get a glimpse of Finrod (Will Fletcher) and... he just looks like a dude.
 
So its a mixture of good and bad. Mostly, I'm just very, very concerned with everything to do with Asteroidude.

I fear Shore can't Bear working with McCreary.

TORn hasn’t been relevant for a long long time now.

So either: the deal is not actually finalized yet and therefore could fall through OR the interview reveal wasn't part of whatever dumb marketing strategy some overpaid executive put in a dumb powerpoint presentation

So not only is it adding a bunch of non Tolkien storylines and characters none of it is actually going to really look like the Jackson films because legally it can’t. That explains the generic looking cities and stuff. 
 
This is going to be everything bad about the Hobbit x1000 
 
People complained about the Hobbit being a single book made into three movies. This is a handful of pages being made into several seasons of TV! 

So not only is it adding a bunch of non Tolkien storylines and characters none of it is actually going to really look like the Jackson films because legally it can’t. That explains the generic looking cities and stuff. 
 
This is going to be everything bad about the Hobbit x1000 
 
People complained about the Hobbit being a single book made into three movies. This is a handful of pages being made into several seasons of TV! 

So not only is it adding a bunch of non Tolkien storylines and characters none of it is actually going to really look like the Jackson films because legally it can’t. That explains the generic looking cities and stuff. 
 
This is going to be everything bad about the Hobbit x1000 
 
People complained about the Hobbit being a single book made into three movies. This is a handful of pages being made into several seasons of TV! 

A Shore score and this is already better than Rings of Power.
 
the concept art is hopefully an indication that this won’t be too stylised. 

alfrid is skeptical

Guys, in 2022 we're getting a new Spielberg/Williams collaboration, a new Raimi/Elfman collaboration, and now a new Howard Shore Tolkien score.  Good times!

.......
 
Not to be that guy, but... really, Disney? One day after JW's 90th birthday, this is what you release?
 
I have so many questions, I don't know where to begin. Who forked out the AFM reuse fees for all this extra music?!

That just looks like Elizabeth: The Golden Age to me, but okay.

I don't know...this one feels pretty Hobbit/Game of Thrones-ish (there's even a mountain in the back! ;)). Maybe because I feel like its undermined by the giant statue...which feels like a fantasy cliché at this point.
 
It also, as Jay put it, doesn't feel "lived in". Which is what makes the Argonath statues so special in Fellowship:
 

 
And with The Hobbit, or at least An Unexpected Journey, they felt more wondrous in its production design, despite the digital gloss:
 

 

 

 
 
That Numenor shot feels like a limp after-thought to some of Jackson's visual ideas (even though it all goes to total shit by the third film).

Looks like whatever Balkan city was used for Thrones and Last Jedi

Well, to me, it did feel like a great city in decay:
 

Nailed it on the head there. Zero personality.
 
This is also Numenor we're talking about...the greatest civilization of Men, in their Golden Age.
 
The thatched roofs of Edoras look more impressive! Or at least distinctive.

That, plus it feels small and unspecial to me. Most dime-a-dozen mid-2000s RPGs have more personality in their fantasy cities. The movies focused on certain design elements for certain cultures, here you get a hodgepodge with nothing to stand out except the statue and some bridges.

The real story is that I was replying to a spambot that had a weird post about writing history essays for pay.  Moderators deleted the spam post leaving my joke reply out there like a cold fish.  So folks, if you wanna do a joke reply to spam, make sure to quote the spam