Pellaeon

Is this going to be another Mattris sort of deal, where it’s our own fault if we respond to him? Tolkien Disenchantment.

But printing the laserdisc onto a DVD and making you buy it in a bundle with the version you don’t want... not a gimmick?

Friends don’t let friends not watch the 4K77. Let us help you. Please.

I have no opinion about this. Middle-earth Enterprises is just some company owned by some company, being sold to a company that will eventually get bought by another company, etc. They don’t do anything themselves other than own+license the movie+merch rights for Hob+LR. They used to be Saul Zaentz, but he’s dead, so they can be anyone. I guess the fact that the new owner make games themselves will mean they will crank out games more easily since there will be no licensing negotiation there. Hopefully they will not cancel other licenses and will still be open to new licensees. I expect they will.

You know, it’s kind of fun to go back through this thread and look at our theories from 4 years ago.

Have you guys caught the news that the Eminem guy is not a guy?

Not all readers understand or appreciate Tolkien’s achievement. Laura Miller criticizes Tolkien’s more enthusiastic readers for admiring “the quantity, rather than the quality, of invention” (Miller 214), but she fails to realize that the quantity is an essential component of the quality of his kind of invention. Tolkien’s legendarium is the equivalent of the mythology and history of a people, indeed several peoples. That this vast epic was the creation of one man is in a way the most impressive and astonishing thing about it, as much so as its specific contents. —David Bratman, Tolkien Studies, Volume 19, 2022 Supplement, p. 3, emphasis mine Anyone else dumbfounded that the most expensive TV show ever is a pastiche? Who the heck can pull off Tolkien pastiche? And why the heck? Guaranteed to disappoint.

They drop a trailer, we react. They drop an interview, we react. These events are designed to create buzz around their show and to attempt you to persuade you to tune in.

The turning point for the TV series came in S4 E2, (“The Lion and the Rose” — the one with Joffrey’s wedding). The episode, which mainly adapts Chapter 60 (out of 80) of the third book, had originally been written by GRRM himself, who (up through this point) wrote one episode per season. But the showrunners changed the episode in ways that were unacceptable to GRRM, and that’s when he ragequit his involvement in the show, supposedly to go work on his books. The episode turned out pretty good, IIRC, but several plots were set in motion in a very different direction from GRRM’s novels — i.e., failing to set up several of the plotlines of the fourth and fifth books (which were already published at that point). On some level, can you blame GRRM for not finishing his books after all? Because even if he had finished them, the showrunners had already shown that they were going to do whatever they wanted. That’s got to be demoralizing AF.

Is it possible this show takes place in two different time periods? Cutting back and forth in some fashion between the “present” of Ar-Pharazôn and the “past” of Celebrimbor? Perhaps in the form of memories of the Elvish characters who straddle the 1,800 year+ gap? Trailers show the Two Trees and I think the Helcaraxë — and those would obviously be flashbacks. The Balrog, that’s a stumper, he doesn’t come into the tale till the year 1980 of the Third Age! Is he just in dreams? I have no Meteor Man theories, but it does occur to me, there are writings in PoMe about how maybe Glorfindel and the Blue Wizards returned to Middle-earth in the 2nd Age, not the 3rd Age.

Isn’t it amazing? Amazon wanted a Game of Thrones of its very own, and they’re actually modeling it after the later seasons of GoT by plowing ahead without source material. Sheer fucking hubris!

Yeah, for years any suggestion that Edwards was fired and replaced with Gilroy as director of Rogue One (same MO as with Solo and TRoS) was severely scowled upon as some sort of anti-Disney hysterical conspiracy theory. Now the open secret is a selling point. Interesting point.

Well for example, here is Forest Whitaker acting the shit out of a scene, and Jyn Erso’s emotionless response. No “yes, and…” here!

Interesting parallel between Rogue One (2016) and Discovery, Season 1 (2017): Rebellion/Starfleet not idealistic Dead-faced protagonist super not idealistic Entire movie/season of gritty, cynical badassery Protagonist suddenly decides to lecture Rebellion/Starfleet on how they should be idealistic after all

Solo was at least trying to be fun.

I have a theory that Season 1 was meant to be TOS-like, Season 2 TNG-like, and Season 3 DS9-like. Season 1 was the most standalone and exploration-based. Season 2, more character-driven; female security officer leaves the show; epic two-parter revealing the Borg…? Season 3, even more character-driven and serialized, lots of politics/war involving known peoples, and almost no exploration.

Awesome! I thought the 4th book was where the series really hit its stride. 5th+ all excellent.

Would love for them to revive the idea of this as a trilogy, but first they would need to rehabilitate the first movie, maybe a new cut? Bring back Lord/Miller? Make it easier to see? Nix all the worst fanservice, like the cringey “Solo” name origin story?

Maybe we can call this forum “Tolkien Central & Peripheral.”

The U.S. paperback edition of LotR has an intro by Tolkien specifically refuting it as allegory in general, and of WW2 in specific. It’s really interesting and quite intellectually. In fact he goes into what would have happened in his story if it were a WW2 allegory.

You have not seen what I have seen.

In order to attract an initial fanbase, Amazon wants some minimal visual continuity so that audiences can imagine it’s fleshing out the movie-verse. Hence the whole reason they brought New Line on board. But they muddy the waters on purpose, and will do so more and more over time, because eventually the goal is that the Amazon-verse will overwrite the movies with their own adaptations of the main narratives of Hob+LR. After all, that’s precisely what they bought the rights to. Also, we have seen in some other franchises that Hollywood has decided to intentionally piss off the fans who care about continuity early and often, so they can ridicule them as toxic and shed them or shame them into pretending they don’t care. “Turn off your brain!”

Dwarf-masks are a thing from the First Age lore. You can read about them in UT.

Yeah, I thought about that. (It’s a thinker.) There were some bold choices in that script. They could have showed the audience the stakes—Ed and Kelly (and the audience) find out exactly how the future is changed, and that makes it less of a conundrum. Bolder choice to make them stick to their resolve without having to know. They could have pulled a Voyage Home and not worry about the damned timeline. (“How do we know he didn't invent the thing?”) They could have softened the impact by mentioning that, there being infinite timelines, the married Gordon would have lived out his life in his timeline. They could have given the rescued Gordon a moment of melancholy reflection at the end. But it’s more impactful that he just isn’t there emotionally.

House of the Dragon doesn’t particularly interest me, but I would check out other spinoffs. Snow sounds appealing (I do love the lands beyond the Wall, and hey, not a prequel!) as does The Hedge Knight (the stories are just really wonderful). Also, adaptations of GRRM’s science fiction works would be welcome — Tuf Voyaging, perhaps? Difficult to wish for any of this if it slows down his writing, but, it kind of is what it is. The Rings of Power — what can be said? Tolkien is one of the most voluminous authors of all time. I have a glorious bookcase packed with his writings alone. And yet they decided they would rather do a bland and politically correct Galadriel fanfic? Bizarre. Hard pass.