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[SirKicksalot]

The other active thread is based on outdated information, so I thought a new one would be good.

tl;Dr:

- the series is set in the Second Age. The Second Age ended with the defeat of Sauron (FOTR prologue). Amazon only has the rights for this time period and can't contradict anything Tolkien wrote. Five seasons were included in the contract, two already greenlit by Amazon

- John Howe (concept art) and Tom Shippey (Tolkien scholar) are on board. They were key staff for the six movies, with Howe being responsible for much of the visual design. I can't find anything about Weta being involved, but since it's shot in NZ it's hard to believe the Workshop's not in.

- J.A. Bayona directs the first two episodes. Filming starts in February 2020. Apparently there will be a hiatus of a few months after the first two episodes are in the can.

Cast reveal here

 

[EviLore]

Awesome that it’s set in the Second Age. Going to allow myself to get hyped for this one.

 

[Rentahamster]

- the series is set in the Second Age. The Second Age ended with the defeat of Sauron (FOTR prologue). Amazon only has the rights for this time period and can't contradict anything Tolkien wrote.

Is there already lore about this age, or is it uncharted territory?

 

[jshackles]

Is there already lore about this age, or is it uncharted territory?

In flim: more or less uncharted territory aside from the opening scene of Fellowship that shows the "final battle" with Sauron.

The LOTR books reference this age quite a bit but typically focus on the history of the time period: things like the creation of the one ring, the creation of the Ringwraiths from the kings of old, the races all coming together to take down Sauron, etc. Tolkien (JRR, edited by Christopher) wrote pretty extensively about the second age in his "Unfinished Tales" work which released in 1980. Unfinished Tales mostly talked about the island of Numenor and it's inhabitant's migration to Middle Earth (in particular, the elves and Galadriel).

When Unfinished Tales was a semi-success, Christopher Tolkien started compiling his father's notes into a collected works known collectively as "The History of Middle Earth".

So there is no shortage of source material for them to draw from. But the 2nd age also took place over the span of about 3,000+ years so it's possible they toss most of this in the garbage and just start their own story that fits in the existing cannon timeline.

 

[Richard Packer]

Is there already lore about this age, or is it uncharted territory?

I think there was a lot of snippets in The Silmarillion.

I hope this series is dark as fuck.

 

[Rentahamster]

Thanks for the responses, it looks like they have a lot of room to stretch their legs, but will still have enough broad strokes source material to guide them and keep them (hopefully) from derailing.

Hopefully, they don't pull a Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

 

[SirKicksalot]

I suspect the series deals with the end of this age. The island of Numenor is drowned like Atlantis 20 years before the movie prologue of FOTR and the flat world is turned into a planet.

Warner, New Line, HarperCollins and Alan Howe are on board so the look of the show might stay true to what's in the FOTR prologue (Isildur has Numenor armor, some important characters were designed etc).

 

[TindalosPup]

Thread watched, I have high hopes for this

Amazon, you have my trust, for now, don't mess this up

 

[jshackles]

I suspect the series deals with the end of this age. The island of Numenor is drowned like Atlantis 20 years before the movie prologue of FOTR and the flat world is turned into a planet.

Warner, New Line, HarperCollins and Alan Howe are on board so the look of the show might stay true to what's in the FOTR prologue (Isildur has Numenor armor, some important characters were designed etc).

This does make the most sense, especially since what most people care about that happened in the 2nd age is how it ended.

How did "the last alliance of elves and men" form and why? How did the races of Middle Earth come to find out that the shadow (Sauron) was trying to take over Middle-Earth? How does Elrond fit into all of this?

 

[Captain Zyrain]

Looking forward to this.

Will be interesting how and what they cover.. Since there are so many important points but spread over so much time. I'd almost be cool if each season was a different point in the time line. Most of the main characters have long lifespans in this time so it could work with keeping most cast from season to season.

Hopefully they plan everything out ahead of time for X number of seasons and don't just go making shit up for padding.

 

[Kev Kev]

I suspect the series deals with the end of this age. The island of Numenor is drowned like Atlantis 20 years before the movie prologue of FOTR and the flat world is turned into a planet.

Warner, New Line, HarperCollins and Alan Howe are on board so the look of the show might stay true to what's in the FOTR prologue (Isildur has Numenor armor, some important characters were designed etc).

god this would be so amazing. im torn on whether or not i want to read through all my books again. on one hand, they're so good. but on the other, ill likely criticize the show even more if the books are fresh in my mind.

still though, im excited this is actually happening. lets hope it does the source material at least some justice.

 

[Rentahamster]

the flat world is turned into a planet

That actually happened? lol

 

[SirKicksalot]

That actually happened? lol

Yes. The men of Numenor blow the fuck out of Sauron and take him prisoner. He corrupts the king and manipulates him to attack the continent where elves and demigods live, in search of the secret of immortality. God gets mad and destroys the invading armada and sinks their house lol. Few survive, including Aragorn's ancestors. Sauron manages to return to Middle-Earth and 20 years later the prologue happens.
The continent of the elves is taken out of the world, which is made round and has some new lands are added. A normal ship going West would now circle the planet but Elves can still reach the continent by metaphysical means. That's where they're going during LOTR. It's an equivalent of Heaven. VIPs like Frodo, Bilbo, Gimli and Sam are also allowed to go there before their death.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

Yes. The men of Numenor blow the fuck out of Sauron and take him prisoner. He corrupts the king and manipulates him to attack the continent where elves and demigods live, in search of the secret of immortality. God gets mad and destroys the invading armada and sinks their house lol. Few survive, including Aragorn's ancestors. Sauron manages to return to Middle-Earth and 20 years later the prologue happens.
The continent of the elves is taken out of the world, which is made round and has some new lands are added. A normal ship going West would now circle the planet but Elves can still reach the continent by metaphysical means. That's where they're going during LOTR. It's an equivalent of Heaven. VIPs like Frodo, Bilbo, Gimli and Sam are also allowed to go there before their death.

Yeah aren't the Balrons from a Hell like realm that exists "beneath" the Heaven type realm where the Middle Earth equivalent of gods exist?

 

[SirKicksalot]

Christopher Tolkien died. Article from a local French newspaper:

Christopher, le fils de J.R.R. Tolkien, s'est éteint dans le Var à l'âge de 95 ans

Toute sa vie, cet universitaire érudit aura vécu dans l’ombre des géants comme de celle des petits hobbits. La rançon de la gloire d’être le fils du maître britannique, mais aussi l’histoire d’une extraordinaire transmission littéraire entre un père et son fils... Vie discrète dans la campagne aup

www.varmatin.com

He was 95 years old and lived in France. A gigantic amount of his father's work was painstakingly compiled and published by him. The Hobbit was written for him as a child and he helped with LOTR.
The stories this show is based on were mostly published by him.
Control of the Tolkien estate was given to his successors in 2018 so his death won't affect this project. However, the family might feel less pressure to keep a tight lid on things.

 

[Captain Zyrain]

RIP Christopher Tolkien.

Wasn't the Hobbit written for him by J.R.R.?

 

[Contica]

Christopher Tolkien died. Article from a local French newspaper:

Christopher, le fils de J.R.R. Tolkien, s'est éteint dans le Var à l'âge de 95 ans

Toute sa vie, cet universitaire érudit aura vécu dans l’ombre des géants comme de celle des petits hobbits. La rançon de la gloire d’être le fils du maître britannique, mais aussi l’histoire d’une extraordinaire transmission littéraire entre un père et son fils... Vie discrète dans la campagne aup

www.varmatin.com

He was 95 years old and lived in France. A gigantic amount of his father's work was painstakingly compiled and published by him. The Hobbit was written for him as a child and he helped with LOTR.
The stories this show is based on were mostly published by him.
Control of the Tolkien estate was given to his successors in 2018 so his death won't affect this project. However, the family might feel less pressure to keep a tight lid on things.

He was a bastion. He ruled the work of his father with an iron fist, and I fear the future will be far less concerned with staying true to Tolkien's works.

 

[Rentahamster]

RIP

Hopefully the Amazon series is something that both he and his father would have been proud of.

 

[SirKicksalot]

I'm slowly making my way through this incredible making-of book for both trilogies. This grabbed my attention (sorry for the quality, I'm a dumb phoneposter):

Second Age version of Barad-dur cut from FOTR and an Alan Lee painting of Galadriel after the FOTR prologue with the tower in the background.
Maybe this design will show up in the Amazon series...

 

[DeafTourette]

Is Hugo Weaving in this? Cate Blanchette(sp)?

 

[Punished Miku]

With the news that Star Wars is likely going to be relegated to TV only for at least a few years, I'm pondering the success of The Mandalorian compared to Rise of Skywalker, and the whole thing reminds me of this upcoming LOTR series.

I think the golden age of TV is almost replacing movies now. This is particularly true in the case of any fantasy that requires mythology, history, or lots of explanation to set the world up. These benefit the most from having more than 2 hours. The most successful fantasy FILMS are now cinematic universes, which basically amount to huge budget, slow moving television shows.

I'm starting to realize now that if any Tolkien media ever has a chance at standing on par with the Jackson LOTR trilogy, it's not going to be another set of movies. They really can't be done better than they already have. The only thing that could really compete is a top tier LOTR TV series that can expand the world building over 40-80 hours. I sure hope this delivers, as it's pretty much our best chance in terms of funding.

 

[Urprobablyright]

A few thoughts.

- Before i look at this new series, i have a couple of things to say about the PJ trilogy. Namely: they have aged so badly.

Full of turn of the century directing tropes, bad CGI, vignette style quick cut exposition, hugely cut lines and reduced characters, shallow exploration of important characters... Go back and watch Treebeard and his less important fellow ents.. they look like rejects from Fable (fantasy game from similar time).

They also become steadily more self-aware, you can almost hear a brass fanfare whenever some action figure'd character strides through a light breeze into our lives for a few frames~ I know he had heaps to get through, but that didn't stop him stretching out the Hobbit into 3 interminable films did it? (or was it 4? I forget if they split the third into two..)

Undoubtedly there were good points. WETA workshop and Smeagol's voice (alongside Yoda as the most fun to imitate), Aragorn being old like he was in the books, the sound design at certain points.. yeah.

- This series. I'm inclined to back this series to do alright, but I'm also sure that they'll use the relative lack of territorialism over this portion of the lore to take heaps of liberties with things like personalities (elven hero with sass, handsomely ugly human mercenary making one liners for marketing) fighting styles, ethnicities (i don't have anything against this per se but immersion may suffer hugely from any ninja/shaolin warrior - and eventually the rest of their warrior priest mountain tribe- they shoehorn in to court the far East markets) and bad guys (foes clearly many times the size and power of Sauron from the films being conjured out of minor characters in Tolkien's histories just so our band of immersion-resistant heroes have someone to fight and rage against... Rather like that white orc in the Hobbit movies who was hogtied and yanked forward a bunch of centuries and re-headed and relocated just for that trilogy)

Yeah so in summary I'm inclined to think this tv series won't suck but it will be spoiled by faultless commercialism and Star Wars episodes 7-9 style cavalier attitudes to canon.

 

[Scotty W]

I hope this series is dark as fuck.

I doubt they would spend a billion dollars on something dark as fuck.

 

[MaestroMike]

I doubt they would spend a billion dollars on something dark as fuck.

so no hobbit sex?? fack

 

[SirKicksalot]

Shooting in Auckland with up to a thousand extras every day and big water tanks. Hardcore security measures. Will spread across both islands.
Unless the coronavirus shuts it down lol.

Stuff

i.stuff.co.nz

There was news of a stunt gone wrong earlier this month. They were rehearsing something in a water tank and a stuntwoman hit her head badly during a jump.

 

[Armorian]

so no hobbit sex?? fack

I doubt there will be any hobbits in it. Now dwarf sex...



It would look homosexual so LGBT fanatics would love it.

 

[Southern Gentleman]

How can anyone be hyped for this?

All signs point to it being a half-assed fan fiction with completely new characters, Peter Jackson nostalgia bait, and a new story that isn't even adapting anything particular by Tolkien, aside from the setting which is nothing more than an excuse to do whatever the writers want. It's like Disney with The High Republic.

If they adapted something like The Children of Hurin or parts of The Silmarillion, say, with good directors and writers who actually cared about the material more than Disney Star Wars whiteboard-tier diversity checklists and aping Game of Thrones (which itself wouldn't have happened without The Lord of the Rings, making this a human centipede), then the show would stand a chance of being interesting.

Daily reminder that Bezos wants this to be Amazon's Game of Thrones. That is the stated goal. The casting is a diversity checklist. Will Poulter bowed out. Every announced character except Galadriel is a brand new invention, created by a room full of blue hairs.

From what's been revealed so far, I don't think it's fair to say this is based on Tolkien, or even "inspired by."

Of course, we don't actually know what the story is at this point, but what they've implied is not encouraging in the slightest.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

How can anyone be hyped for this?

All signs point to it being a half-assed fan fiction with completely new characters, Peter Jackson nostalgia bait, and a new story that isn't even adapting anything particular by Tolkien, aside from the setting which is nothing more than an excuse to do whatever the writers want. It's like Disney with The High Republic.

If they adapted something like The Children of Hurin or parts of The Silmarillion, say, with good directors and writers who actually cared about the material more than Disney Star Wars whiteboard-tier diversity checklists and aping Game of Thrones (which itself wouldn't have happened without The Lord of the Rings, making this a human centipede), then the show would stand a chance of being interesting.

Daily reminder that Bezos wants this to be Amazon's Game of Thrones. That is the stated goal. The casting is a diversity checklist. Will Poulter bowed out. Every announced character except Galadriel is a brand new invention, created by a room full of blue hairs.

From what's been revealed so far, I don't think it's fair to say this is based on Tolkien, or even "inspired by."

Of course, we don't actually know what the story is at this point, but what they've implied is not encouraging in the slightest.

Pretty much sums up my feelings.

 

[Pagusas]

Ill wait and see on it, not hyped but mildly interested in what they can do in a serialized TV forrmat with a big budget. Its not like anyone is *trying* to make this crap, a lot of good names are tied into it who all have talent. I see nothing wrong with it being new material.

 

[Southern Gentleman]

I see nothing wrong with it being new material.

It's like Disney scrapping the EU and making The Last Jedi.

You have some of the finest fiction ever written, beloved for decades, some of which hasn't even been adapted for the screen yet. Why on *earth* would you write your own story instead of just adapting the source material?

Do these writers honestly think they can do better than Tolkien? Or was the deal they made with the estate really so limited that they're only allowed to produce fan fiction? In which case, why bother making the deal at all? And why make literally the most expensive TV show of all time with it?

 

[eot]

A few thoughts.

- Before i look at this new series, i have a couple of things to say about the PJ trilogy. Namely: they have aged so badly.

Full of turn of the century directing tropes, bad CGI, vignette style quick cut exposition, hugely cut lines and reduced characters, shallow exploration of important characters... Go back and watch Treebeard and his less important fellow ents.. they look like rejects from Fable (fantasy game from similar time).

They also become steadily more self-aware, you can almost hear a brass fanfare whenever some action figure'd character strides through a light breeze into our lives for a few frames~ I know he had heaps to get through, but that didn't stop him stretching out the Hobbit into 3 interminable films did it? (or was it 4? I forget if they split the third into two..)

Undoubtedly there were good points. WETA workshop and Smeagol's voice (alongside Yoda as the most fun to imitate), Aragorn being old like he was in the books, the sound design at certain points.. yeah.

I rewatched Fellowship for the first time in over a decade and I don't agree that it's aged poorly. The CGI is mostly used for backgrounds, and is rarely the focus of the shot. The two main exceptions being the Balrog (which looks fine) and the cave troll, which does stand out today but it's not that distracting. The later movies have more CGI I guess, but still. Cut lines? It's an adaptation, and the movies are 3+ hours long each in the extended cuts, what more do you want? It's not like the movies needed Tom Bombadil.

I'm not a huge LOTR fan (which is why I haven't re-watched the movies in forever) and in particular didn't like RotK that much at release, but watching Fellowship now the amount of craft and hard work that went into these movies stands out. Real sets, real props, real stunts (like Aragorn deflecting that thrown sword) and so on, it has an entirely different feeling from the green screen crap we have to put up with today.

 

[Kev Kev]

How can anyone be hyped for this?

All signs point to it being a half-assed fan fiction with completely new characters, Peter Jackson nostalgia bait, and a new story that isn't even adapting anything particular by Tolkien, aside from the setting which is nothing more than an excuse to do whatever the writers want. It's like Disney with The High Republic.

If they adapted something like The Children of Hurin or parts of The Silmarillion, say, with good directors and writers who actually cared about the material more than Disney Star Wars whiteboard-tier diversity checklists and aping Game of Thrones (which itself wouldn't have happened without The Lord of the Rings, making this a human centipede), then the show would stand a chance of being interesting.

Daily reminder that Bezos wants this to be Amazon's Game of Thrones. That is the stated goal. The casting is a diversity checklist. Will Poulter bowed out. Every announced character except Galadriel is a brand new invention, created by a room full of blue hairs.

From what's been revealed so far, I don't think it's fair to say this is based on Tolkien, or even "inspired by."

Of course, we don't actually know what the story is at this point, but what they've implied is not encouraging in the slightest.

im pretty sure the tolkien estate is closley attached to this project and it will remain mostly true to the source material. we wont know till it comes out, but seeing how protective christopher was about his fathers work, and the fact that this project started formulating at least a couple years before he died, i think its safe to say that he wouldnt have willingly accepted them gutting the whole thing, and therefore this will not be an abomination.

then again he is dead now, and its entirely possible that they just hollywood-ize and sexualize the shit out of this thing, but the signs are pointing to that probably not happening.

edmond dantes used to post here a lot (hes now on resetera) and in his topics about this over there he seems fairly confident that the lore will remain largely intact, but some liberties will be taken.

we really just have to wait for it to come out.

 

[Urprobablyright]

I rewatched Fellowship for the first time in over a decade and I don't agree that it's aged poorly. The CGI is mostly used for backgrounds, and is rarely the focus of the shot. The two main exceptions being the Balrog (which looks fine) and the cave troll, which does stand out today but it's not that distracting. The later movies have more CGI I guess, but still. Cut lines? It's an adaptation, and the movies are 3+ hours long each in the extended cuts, what more do you want? It's not like the movies needed Tom Bombadil.

I'm not a huge LOTR fan (which is why I haven't re-watched the movies in forever) and in particular didn't like RotK that much at release, but watching Fellowship now the amount of craft and hard work that went into these movies stands out. Real sets, real props, real stunts (like Aragorn deflecting that thrown sword) and so on, it has an entirely different feeling from the green screen crap we have to put up with today.

When i think of how it's aged for me, i think it's in the directing style and reliance on cgi, and the unsubtle characters.. i can't name characters since that surpass guys like Legolas but I'm sure they're out there.. i mean, Geralt from the Witcher is already an adequate example and i guess Game of Thrones was just in general a more refined style... What I'm saying here is that Jackson had a pretty technically dry source text to work from, and heee didn't stray very far.. but he DID cull heaps of stuff.. which didn't help... But i also just don't think he's such a great director anymore. I think he kind of got the James Cameron treatment.. make some technologically great flick like terminator 2 and everyone thinks your movies are a cultural event... See Avatar...

The quick vignette shooting style, filled with a lot of epic set piece frames, it makes it all feel like a toothpaste commercial.. it's a style from the turn of the century, also clear in Runaway Jury, i guess it's meant to build a sense of flow and tempo and import but to me it is just, not suitable for serious film...

Yep, those movies are, for me, kind of becoming less and less impressive with every new take on the genre that gets made. I'll always love them, but yeah.

 

[SirKicksalot]

Bayona also uses fluid camera and self-aware framing, so if you don't like PJ's style you won't like this.
My hope is that it will feel like PJ's movies and transition nicely to FOTR's prologue.

 

[sol_bad]

It's like Disney scrapping the EU and making The Last Jedi.

You have some of the finest fiction ever written, beloved for decades, some of which hasn't even been adapted for the screen yet. Why on *earth* would you write your own story instead of just adapting the source material?

Lucas never considered the EU as cannon so Disney never considered it cannon.
Nothing changed.

 

[SirKicksalot]

Weta Digital is working on the show. They've been working from home since March lol

Young Galadriel

Production resumed two months ago but they're not saying much. There's more information on the Avatar sequels than on this show.

Some people are panicking because recent casting calls mention nudity, but two other shows are currently shooting in Auckland and the calls don't mention a name. They're both from Netflix and one of them is Cowboy Bebop.

 

[Kadayi]

This thing seems to have been in production forever.

 

[SirKicksalot]

The first two episodes have finished filming in early December. Post-production with Weta Digital already started on them during the lockdown.

The rest of the scripts were finished during Covid lockdowns. Bayona left New Zealand last week after spending almost a year there (stuck because of the pandemic lol) but another team is already working on the rest of the episodes.

A lot of new actors have joined the cast, including Naevia and Crassus from Spartacus.

 

[Punished Miku]

The first two episodes have finished filming in early December. Post-production with Weta Digital already started on them during the lockdown.

The rest of the scripts were finished during Covid lockdowns. Bayona left New Zealand last week after spending almost a year there (stuck because of the pandemic lol) but another team is already working on the rest of the episodes.

A lot of new actors have joined the cast, including Naevia and Crassus from Spartacus.

Spartacus crew means the whole thing is going to be nude isn't it lol?

 

[Shadowplay1979]

Tolkeins books were filled with slow story telling, longing and nostalgia. Despite what people say ..THIS can be adapted to screens.....but it wont..im inclined to believe ever.

PJ's movies were good but mainly for the fact that they ever got off the ground. The hobbit on the other hand was ...all wrong....the first hour of the first movie was the only one who got it right. Id really love a fantasy series that was a slow long moody journey focused on storytelling.

This wont be it..its already going to have sex and nudity and be GoT.

I want to be excited but......well lets see how fast they try to fill quotas.

 

[Saruhashi]

Tolkeins books were filled with slow story telling, longing and nostalgia. Despite what people say ..THIS can be adapted to screens.....but it wont..im inclined to believe ever.

PJ's movies were good but mainly for the fact that they ever got off the ground. The hobbit on the other hand was ...all wrong....the first hour of the first movie was the only one who got it right. Id really love a fantasy series that was a slow long moody journey focused on storytelling.

This wont be it..its already going to have sex and nudity and be GoT.

I want to be excited but......well lets see how fast they try to fill quotas.

Yeah, I think the PJ movies were made in a time where everything just seemed to be getting turned into a movie and we hadn't yet gotten down to scraping the bottom of the barrel. Despite numerous missteps, I think the movies were pretty good.

However, I don't think they really capture the essence of the books at all.
They are more like a brief summary with the action parts padded out in great detail.

Like the battle of Helm's Deep is maybe 8 or 9 pages in the book.
I think it's like a 45 minute scene in the movies?

Anyway, I think the difference is that the books really engage with the reader's imagination while the movies actually leave nothing to the imagination.

I think something like this is basically just trying to use the "Lord of the Rings" branding to make some money.
It's kind of sad that this is where we are at with creative storytelling.
Not coming up with new things but rather sticking a recognizable label on things that might otherwise be seen as a bit crap.

I have basically no hope for the Amazon series at all.

 

[Kev Kev]

Tolkeins books were filled with slow story telling, longing and nostalgia. Despite what people say ..THIS can be adapted to screens.....but it wont..im inclined to believe ever.

PJ's movies were good but mainly for the fact that they ever got off the ground. The hobbit on the other hand was ...all wrong....the first hour of the first movie was the only one who got it right. Id really love a fantasy series that was a slow long moody journey focused on storytelling.

This wont be it..its already going to have sex and nudity and be GoT.

I want to be excited but......well lets see how fast they try to fill quotas.

As someone who has read all the books and kind of agrees with you..... just try to enjoy it man. It’s not going to be very faithful, and it will likely disappoint you if you’re still holding onto hope for that. It’ll be it’s own thing that (hopefully) follows the overall story arc of the second age, and should be a lot of fun. Stay away from all the pre release hype, don’t read the reviews, don’t re-read the books prior to release ... just go into blind and open minded, and try to enjoy it for whatever it is. I mean, I’m still floored that we are getting a TV series set in the second age at all! I just think if you go into wanting to be entertained, then you’ll probably have a better time than if you go into looking for accuracy and proper tone.

 

[AJUMP23]

I thought I read somewhere that the Tolkien estate signed Amazon to a pretty tight contract when it came to story and their ability to deviate from the main thread. I read that they tried to make sure they could not deviate from the story. This gave me hope.

 

[SirKicksalot]

This article says there's a pattern of creative disarray. Strange things indeed, but they're also deep into filming and simultaneous post-production by now (they're contractually obligated to deliver episodes and Weta needs the work).

 

[OmegaSupreme]

I really hope they dont try and "adult" it up with sex and violence. It's not Tolkien. Any more on that rumor?

 

[Hatemachine]

Stupid question but are there black people in middle earth? I don't recall any from the LOTR trilogy. Maybe the guys from the south who allied with Sauron at the end but they seemed more Spanish than black.

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

Yes. The men of Numenor blow the fuck out of Sauron and take him prisoner. He corrupts the king and manipulates him to attack the continent where elves and demigods live, in search of the secret of immortality. God gets mad and destroys the invading armada and sinks their house lol. Few survive, including Aragorn's ancestors. Sauron manages to return to Middle-Earth and 20 years later the prologue happens.
The continent of the elves is taken out of the world, which is made round and has some new lands are added. A normal ship going West would now circle the planet but Elves can still reach the continent by metaphysical means. That's where they're going during LOTR. It's an equivalent of Heaven. VIPs like Frodo, Bilbo, Gimli and Sam are also allowed to go there before their death.

This is almost as dumb as the LOTR movie trilogy's story. Holy shit.

 

[Red Rackham's Revenge]

......

If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to upset people.

 

[ArtemisClydeFrog]

If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were trying to upset people.

Just because you're upset doesn't make it less correct. Cringe dialog, garbage story, embarrassing characters. The soundtrack fucking slaps and I still watch it because they're pretty chill movies.

 

[showernota]

Just because you're upset doesn't make it less correct. Cringe dialog, garbage story, embarrassing characters. The soundtrack fucking slaps and I still watch it because they're pretty chill movies.

Would you compare them to say...Rogue One?