Servant of Morgoth

To be honest Amazon is not even trying to adapt the few dozen pages from LOTR, the Appendices and the Hobbit they have See Elendil being a petty lord and a sea captain, see the forging of the Three before the lesser rings and much more

I agree overhall. Amazon and I fear Warner too have yet to understand they miss the boat. Bezos wanted the next Game of Thrones but Game of Thrones had such huge cultural impact and viewers because the circumstances were pretty unique. It came at the right time with no competition.. Let's see how The War of the Rohirrim will be welcomed by the fans and the critics alike...If it'll be a huge flop I doubt Warner will go ahead with the other movies planned they've announced a couple of months ago..

If you mean the Argonath sure. But Minas Tirith and Minas Morgul(originally Minas Ithil), Osgiliath were built by the Faithful Numenoreans Such a pity that in ROP we have seen nothing of their might. Numenor's army was the biggest armada since the days of the War of the Wrath Numenoreans were pride and tall and strong, their steel bows the true scarecrow of all M.E. What we got in the show it's an army of 300 hundred untrained green boys with awful gear and helmets or even worse some random blacksmith ranting about elves stealing muh jobs. Numenoreans that made even the Valar tremble(not really it's just an overstatement from me)reduced to such pity human beings

I mean I don't think Amazon is so stupid and reckless to try to fight a war they know they can't win They know that they cannot produce something as good as the first trilogy of Jackson. People would start ranting and complaining about it long before filming starts and so on I think maybe a more likely scenario could be Amazon filling with gold the Tolkien Estate pockets and gets the rights of the Silmarillion and HOME to adapt the First Age(and the Tolkien Estate sooner or later will sell these rights to the highest bidder before they become pubblic domain).But they will butcher the First Age too if they follow the same mindset they're doing with the 2nd Age on ROP I think that people nowdays prefer a different kind of fantasy like the one written by Abercrombrie or GRRM to be honest. As I book reader I can confirm Yep the oath of Eorl, the Kinstrife, the golden age of Gondor with the ship-kings, the rise of the Witch King of Angmar and the fall of Arnor.. All at least on paper all worthwhile adaptations.

Indeed. Also as I said before if we take a quick survery I'm pretty sure the so called PJ's fans would be the most disillusioned regarding ROP even more than the so called book purists.

I don't think it will over soon enough I think if they will be able to keep the same number of viewers then they will stick with the already five seasons template plus a couple of spinoff

Nobody asked for the spiritual prequel of PJ's movies at least not me. They were supposed to adapt the 2nd Age where the characters,the tone, the themes are entirely different from what Jackson has to adapt. Not only they are taking unrequired liberties from the source material, not only they have entirely undermine Sauron's character the mastermind behind the fall of Eregion or Numenor and all the despair and sorrow through two whole Ages and replacing him with just a random guy that in the most obvious cliche falls in love with our warrior princess Galadriel. The thing above all that leaves me totally desmayed is that they have already proved that they are not enough good to write compelling and engaging storylines and characters So if they think to survive and keep afloat for other 4 seasons only parroting Jackson, with mystery boxes, subvert expectations, plot twists and giving occasionally to the book readers some bribes like Celeborn, they should for their own sake think again and think better I would have been much more merciful if they have tried to to their own thing, follow differents paths and patterns, have enough courage and even a little reckless to break with the past or even with the schemes that we see in every damn fantasy tv series nowdays(this is why they look and feel so generic like they have been made by the same dressmaker) I mean according to IMDb only this year Bear has been involved in at least 4-5 projects(different medium too from movies to videogames to the new seasons of Foundation and Outlander) So yes as other composers of the rising generation he has a team that works for me 24 hours per day Unless he doesn't eat or sleep

So Fellowship of the Fans revelead today that the actor Calam Lynch is going to play Celeborn in season two( there were rumours since January 2023 around this dude I wasn't surprised) This young actor looks just like a younger version of Marton Csokas the guy who played Celeborn in PJ's movies I'm not excited at all and here is why: While I can be slightly happier to see more Tolkien canonical characters(canonical at least on paper), they have at last thrown away their masks with this casting(without questioning Calam Lynch skills as an actor) They are deliberately trying to parrot and to live on PJ's patterns, dynamics and even the looks of the actors serves the same purpose. But this can't and won't be enough as season 1 has already proven. Maybe they thought that giving nods, going for the full M.E. experience with hobbits, wizards and so on will be enough at least to win the affection of the so called PJ's movie fans For me they have failed since the so called PJ's movies liked ROP season one even less than the book purists and they were maybe those who have most blatantly criticesed the show. Let's me know your opinion and thoughts guys..

I think that even as a commercial success ROP was very middling. Just 37% of viewers managed to finish the entire series in U.S. and a bit more in the rest of the world(like 45%). Still not enought. A decent still not great result should have been around 50% I think that the major flaws of the show will be still there in season two. Pacing should be better but will it be enough? Also we're going to get even more characters and storylines(and honestly as a book purist I don't care at all about most of the bunch of the OC characters) One of the biggest grip from even ordinary viewers in season one was that the screentime wasn't enough with this huge cast, to know, fall in love and root for these characters Amazon answer: let's add another 10 new characters in season two And I really prefer not to speak about the showrunners fetish for convoluted storylines, technicism, myths and mystery boxes

For better or for worse they will do five seasons. They are legally obliged to produce five seasons as far as I know The only way we don't get more seasons is literally a WWIII Anyway I've watched on Sunday the lastest episode of Second Age Show from Fellowship of the Fans and I've to say that the new leaks kill that little shred of optimism I had for the next season @Chen G.

I mean the one about Sauron having a fair form playing by a different actor than Vickers. The leaked pictures about the siege of Eregion looks promising And yes I hope they will try to diminish their extreme love for technicism. I hope they will try to take a step back about the mithrill stuff without contradicting themselves Galadriel being captured by Adar also potentially it doesn't sound too bad. It mirrors her daughter Celebrian being captured by the orcs in the T.A. As you mentioned the fact season 2 shouldn't have the same boring pacing of season 1 is already a big improvement on its own I guess Also season two should have at least on paper less mystery boxes than season one Also potentially we'll see more canon characters Cirdan, Celeborn and Anarion I agree I think the very concept of this show with compressing 2000 years in a decade(best case scenario or as the showrunners said once a handful of years) is entirely wrong. Why? Because you are discarding and throwing away the best storyline of the S.A. which is Numenor And then you have those horrible scenes and lines like Elves stealing our jobs But let me know what you think @Chen G.

The one about Annatar for example

I don't really want to play devil's advocate here but reading the leaks from Fellowship of the Fans of the last months I'm slightly more optimist about season 2

This

I mean if Amazon bosses and the Tolkien Estate like the showrunners pitch the most we can only imagine how bad should have been the pitches of the other applicants And last but not least the creation of Mordor, with all the scientification around the hilt of a random Morgul blade and so on To be fair and intellectuallly honest Tolkien Estate must be blamed too for this mess. Not only the showrunners, the rest of the writing room or Amazon Studios or Bezos for give me the next Game of Thrones. They wanted to make money. Fine totally understandable. The problem is they didn't give enought rights to Amazon and they just let do the writing room do as they please without putting some damn boundaries..

Not only them. The book fans are second in line. I don't as a book reader really hate Rings of Power. I find it just tedious, boring, bad written(for the most part of it) with infuriating or not compelling enough characters.. And with too many unrequired changes from the source material they got the rights to see all Elendil reduced to a petty lord and a random sea captain or Numenoreans being petty instead of prideful or just the chronological order of the forging of the rings or Sauron reduced and humbled to a middle man About the aesthetics the things that I didn't like the most are: most of the armors( not just because it's plate armor but because some pieces looked very poor crafted see Numenor's armor or the cerimonial armors of Galadriel and the rest of her company and most of the wigs. Also not really the biggest fan of this Jackson concept of city-state The kingdoms overhall seems very small.. Agreed Instead of losing time with the creation of Mordor show Halbrand travelling across Middle Earth winning the allegiance of many powerful warlords and different folks, using the rivalry between the different lords of the Easterlings for example to his advantage or if you wanna show his moment of repentance showing him teaching men differents skills in agriculture or crafting or smithing.. Aspirin Mithril pills subplot was also awful.. Not the biggest fan of Gil Galad. He is a jerk and also I don't understand why they made him the only one who can decide who is worthy or not of going back to Aman..

The showrunners and the writers of ROP haven't realise yet that despite all these references, winks,callbacks, boxes checked(call them whatever you prefer) to PJ's trilogy the first in line that hated and bashed the show are the so called PJ's movies fans..

I'm the only one that thinks that Bear McCreary work's in ROP was one of the fewest redeemable highlights or qualities of the show? Beside some wide shots like Khazad-dûm and Armenelos and some characters like Durin(both father and son) and maybe the Harfoot's storyline( which was objective good but also too much cheesy and maybe even pointless in the great scheme of things of the Second Age. All the rest at least for me was like meh, boring or infuriating But let me know if you agree or not guys Also Fellowship of Fans revealed on Sunday that Shelob will be in season two of Rings of Power. I don't know if she will be a huge character or she will make just a small cameo I really hope they won't take the path of the videogame Shadow of War when Shelob was some kind of skinchanger and she can take the likeness of a very hot chick(she was also some kind of lover of Sauron and she was betrayed by him) But I think they won't do that. I would be ok if she will just make a cameo where she meets Halbrand/Sauron and possibly also Isildur. While I wouldn't mind it seems to me they are trying to check too many boxes from PJ's movies.. A tactic that really didn't work in season one since PJ movies fans were first in line to bash the show lol Why again all this useless technicism? The mistery box around the creation of Mordor with the broken sword was already more than enough. About Tom Bombadil I don't know what to say. I understand they have the rights only to the characters mentioned in the LOTR, Appendices and the Hobbit but nobody asked or wanted to see a tv show with the full M.E. experience. This was supposed to be a tv show through five season mostly about the themes and the main characters that shaped the Second Age. So Sauron, Celebrimbor and above all Numenor with his rise, moral decline and fall. Harfoots, Gandalf or Tom Bombadil don't really belong here... Numenor was entirely a mess in season one. I don't know how they're going to fix this. Instead of having the golden Age of mankind with gigachads numenoreans that made even the Valar tremble we got some petty human beings too afraid of a single elf stealing their jobs.. Jesus.. Elendil actor was good the problem is they remove all his background and they made him just a sea captain and a petty lord which is pretty offensive to Aragorn lineage.. I think Anarion will be in season two..He was mentioned in season one Galadriel, Elrond, Arondir, Nori, and girl Anarion all basically have the same basic character arc of “young upstarts challenge the status quo”. LOL this made me laugh but yep the're taking a very modern and light approach. Nobility, lineage and titles these are things very important in Tolkien's universe..

Sadly it's true

In my opinion the show is very bland and middling. Not the kind of let's say luxury you can afford when you're adapting Tolkien For me at least it was a big disappointement. When they announced the deal back in 2017 between Amazon and Tolkien Estate I was overjoyed and I've been waiting for five years with all the best will I can manage towards the show, without bias open minded and so on also towards the people behind it. So naive of him I can agree that there are bits to like here and here but it's simply not enough, not with the name of Tolkien sewed on it I will watch season two and beyond but it seems Amazon doesn't care about feedback even the constructive criticism from the fandom For example one of the biggest grudges for many viewers was there were too many characters and too few screentime to actually care and fall in love with them. What is Amazon doing to fix this for season two?Let's double the cast for season two with the same number of episodes and probably the same ammount of screentime

My two cents that nobody asked for: I cannot agree when the head of Amazon Studios said months ago after the show aired that people just came in because they were biased and already wanted to dislike and hate the show. Amazon has to own up to its failure instead of blaming the fandom. The fact that ROP season one got 37% of completion rate means it failed to reasonate with the fandon that point blank it wasn't an hit show. To be fair and intellectual honest millions of people worldwide gave ROP a fair shot, a try. without prejudices and preconceptions. On the first opening weekend according to Amazon there were around 100 millions viewers for the first two episodes. If they lost 63% of these viewers in the next weekends maybe you have to think about what didn't work(everything expect for the aesthetic and the soundtrack)then just blaming the viewers and the fandom Agreed. Also I would add ROP first season shares with the last seasons of GOT not ony this but also the same issues of logical coherence and the same let's say conflictual relationship with the source material And this is very worring considering there are already four more seasons and a spin off planned so we are very far from the ending

The only thing that I liked more of this episode compared to the previous four was the pacing. The storyline of the southlands and Adar(or if you prefer the Discount Dark Lord of the first season)were decent or quite good. Elrond and Durin are carrying the show and the chemistry between the actors is very good. The rest was not ok. Sometimes even a damn dumpster fire

I have lost any hope for this season after the last episode I really hope the entire writing room will start to take things more seriously when they'll write the scripts for the next seasons about the forging of the rings, the war of Elves and Sauron, the downfall of Numenor and the Last Alliance, the canonical events of the Second Age. This show has two big problem: first as a fantasy tv show is only likeable and very far for being unforgettable despite the insane budget they have poured on it. As an adaptation of Tolkien it is a dumpster fire with the only exception of some references to characters like Feanor or Earendil..

I think that kid was one of the 7 sons of Feanor. So he deserves it. Jokes aside this versione of Galadriel isn't very sympathetic. Quite the opposite.. And in the third episode she gets even worse As @Chen G. said not only she threats Elendil with her knife but she has one of her tantrum in the presence of Miriel and Pharazon and all the Numenorean court

After I've watched the first two episodes twice I think that I will give to these two episodes 7/10. And yes it is very generous 7/10. In reality the first two episodes deserve no more than 6/10 barely sufficient but I'm feeling generous. The comparision with the first three episodes of HOTD is a little harsh ROP is not doomed yet but they to need to write more appealing characters and far better storylines Harfoots with proto Gandalf, Southlands as proto Mordor, Galadriel as a character driven only by vengeance(they made her even worse than the Fëanorians), Numenor army mady by cavalry charging against a besieged fortress with a tower, Halbrand being potentially Sauron for me are all big NO. They are just examples of cloying and lazy writing. I didn't ask for this. I didn't pay for this. Sure I find these two first episodes better than what I was expecting after reading leaks and watching videos for the last five years(because yes after the dumpster fire the last four seasons of GOT or the first two seasons of the Witcher, totally disinchanted as a book reader of both the first two fantasy saga I was looking forward to ROP to save the day and again they have already started to let me down again). Knowing quite a lot about the events and the characters of the first season of ROP I don't have great expectation for the rest of the season. But I expect a great discontinuity in the latter seasons.. As I said the show is not doomed but they have to roll up their sleeves and very quickly. And since the comparision with the other contemporary fantasy tv show is inevitable yes even with a couple of issues HOTD is doing much better( GRRM is involved and they have actually some kind of book, Fire and Blood, to adapt)