• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - Season 1

Melon Husk

Member
You can say what you want about RoP, but it's creating more discussion than HoD.

Ep 5- Am I crazy to think that Galadriel and Halbrand's personalities should be swapped?! Halbrand is behaving the way I expect Galadriel to behave, and vice versa.
 

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
I'm enjoying it so far, its not fucking amazing but it is still more Tolkien. I'm really hoping they are building up to an impressive set-piece battle though because it's been pretty small scale in that regard and they need a huge battle to make this feel more like a battle for middle earth rather than a battle for a couple of hamlets.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
You can say what you want about RoP, but it's creating more discussion than HoD.

Ep 5- Am I crazy to think that Galadriel and Halbrand's personalities should be swapped?! Halbrand is behaving the way I expect Galadriel to behave, and vice versa.
I think it’s due to HotD being absolutely fantastic so far. Not much to argue about vs lots of questionable decisions made to what amounts to modern Shakespeare in literary works.
 
Last edited:

killatopak

Gold Member
I think it’s due to HotD being absolutely fantastic so far. Not much to argue about vs lots of questionable decisions made to what amounts to modern Shakespeare in literary works.
Is it really that good? Can I watch it as someone who only watched up to season 5 of GoT?
 

Kimahri

Banned
Is it really that good? Can I watch it as someone who only watched up to season 5 of GoT?

I like it better than even the best of GoT. It has shocked me how fucking fantastic it is. I was prepared to hate it, but the oposite happened.

RoP is getting more discussion because people talk about how shit it is. But people definitely talk about HotD too. Viewership is rising by 3-4 % for each episode. It's clearly getting the positive word of mouth treatment.
 
Genuinely baffled by the levels of vitriol about this show.

It’s… okay. Not all that good, but not *that* bad, when you get right down to it. The story is going nowhere fast, and the characterisations are poor… but it’s not Netflix Resident Evil.

I swear, I could create a thread about whether the colour beige in nice or not, and it would descend into a slanging match.
I disagree - the show is not okay. It is very bad actually. I’ll gladly debate you on what you think is good about this show.
 

Batiman

Banned
I disagree - the show is not okay. It is very bad actually. I’ll gladly debate you on what you think is good about this show.
If you go into any show with the intention of “hate watching” there will always be stuff to criticize. It’s also easy to state your opinions as facts.

Game of thrones to me is the goat fantasy show and probably one of my favourite shows ever. I could rip it apart as well if I watched with the intention of looking for every issue. Hard to take someone’s criticism seriously when they admit to “hate watching”. Still can’t believe that’s a thing tbh
 

NecrosaroIII

Ultimate DQ Fan
I'm having a lot of fun with it. im a long time Tolkien fan, and there are things that bother me (the thing im side-eyeing the most is the mithril origin story from the last episode). I'm not fond of the prospect of The Stranger being eventually being Gandalf, though I'd rather he be Gandalf, than say Sauron. But I've been mostly having fun. I love Elendil. I like Arondil. And I love how adept they're playing Pharazon. He's going to be a lot of fun later on.

You can knit pick things for sure, but it's probably not good for your mental health if you're going to do that. You should spend time on things you enjoy instead of things you don't enjoy.

A lot of overblown stuff I've seen like "The Harfoots are cruel and evil" or "Numenor is supposed to have the greatest navy why are they only sending 3 ships". Eh, these things don't matter too much to me.
 
If you go into any show with the intention of “hate watching” there will always be stuff to criticize. It’s also easy to state your opinions as facts.

Game of thrones to me is the goat fantasy show and probably one of my favourite shows ever. I could rip it apart as well if I watched with the intention of looking for every issue. Hard to take someone’s criticism seriously when they admit to “hate watching”. Still can’t believe that’s a thing tbh
Multiple reasons:

1. Nothing else to watch.

2. I am still a Tolkien and want to catch up on Tolkien-esque imagery where I can get them even though it is about 2 seconds per episodes.

3. I’m watching it for comedy purposes. Not from the show but the videos made out of it. I already said that this show introduced me to Friday Night Tights.

And ok, let’s see you rip into GoT’s first episode.
 
I'm having a lot of fun with it. im a long time Tolkien fan, and there are things that bother me (the thing im side-eyeing the most is the mithril origin story from the last episode). I'm not fond of the prospect of The Stranger being eventually being Gandalf, though I'd rather he be Gandalf, than say Sauron. But I've been mostly having fun. I love Elendil. I like Arondil. And I love how adept they're playing Pharazon. He's going to be a lot of fun later on.

You can knit pick things for sure, but it's probably not good for your mental health if you're going to do that. You should spend time on things you enjoy instead of things you don't enjoy.

A lot of overblown stuff I've seen like "The Harfoots are cruel and evil" or "Numenor is supposed to have the greatest navy why are they only sending 3 ships". Eh, these things don't matter too much to me.
Guys, talking about the poor writing, poor acting, poor costumes, poor pacing is now nitpicking.

Seriously man, get a grip - “the harfoots are evil” lines are making fun of how bad conceptually this group is. That’s just you trying to ignore all the bad writing about the harfoots.

And the second bit is about the lore, it doesn’t matter to you but it matters to a lot of people.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
RoP isn't bad for me, so much as just aggressively mediocre. I question almost every creative choice theyve made other than maybe anything with a dwarf on screen.

So it's kinda like complaining about brisket* in New York after you've lived in Texas. The brisket ain't necessarily BAD, most times, it's just, you know, not real Texan brisket!

*feel free to substitute bagels, pizza, BBQ, wine, or glory hole experiences as appropriate for your location :p
 

Batiman

Banned
Guys, talking about the poor writing, poor acting, poor costumes, poor pacing is now nitpicking.

Seriously man, get a grip - “the harfoots are evil” lines are making fun of how bad conceptually this group is. That’s just you trying to ignore all the bad writing about the harfoots.

And the second bit is about the lore, it doesn’t matter to you but it matters to a lot of people.
Writing is debatable. What’s wrong with the acting and costumes? I think most of the actors are doing a pretty good job. Costumes look great. Especially the dwarves. Not really a fan of the numenor costumes and gowns though. Numenor itself looks too clean to me. Most of my issues with the show come from the numenor sets.

And episode 1 of game of thrones s almost flawless to me so I won’t be shitting on it. Some of the actors aren’t great in GOT either but the majority are amazing.

The one issue I have with GOT was the whole Dothraki storyline. To me the acting from Daenerys and viserys weren’t on par with the rest of the cast. Sort of made that side of the story look cheaply made compared to the Westeros side. Emilia Clarke grew on me over time though
 
Last edited:
Writing is debatable. What’s wrong with the acting and costumes? I think most of the actors are doing a pretty good job. Costumes look great. Especially the dwarves. Not really a fan of the numenor costumes and gowns though. Numenor itself looks too clean to me. Most of my issues with the show come from the numenor sets.

And episode 1 of game of thrones s almost flawless to me so I won’t be shitting on it. Some of the actors aren’t great in GOT either but the majority are amazing.

The one issue I have with GOT was the whole Dothraki storyline. To me the acting from Daenerys and viserys weren’t on par with the rest of the cast. Sort of made that side of the story look cheaply made compared to the Westeros side. Emilia Clarke grew on me over time though
Writing is debatable but no one who thinks this show is good wants to talk about the writing it seems.

The acting, you are right with regards to some characters but definitely wrong with regards to others. Like the acting for Galadriel is bad with very poor range of emotions and very monotonous. There are some line deliveries that feel that they only had one take of and were worthy of some amateur theatre troop. Some acting are just straight out of CW namely Isildur and his cohort. It doesn’t help that the actors are given terrible dialogue and no character motivation to work with.

Costumes look great if you were at comic convention in a small time I suppose. I’ve already posted a picture of Elendil from LotR vs RoP as an example. The armour design and build quality of both the Numenorians and the Elves look like shit. Also, Gil-Galad looks like a mix of Golddust and Xerxes. Both the southlands people and the harfoots look like they were told to bring their own old clothes since this show is running on a tight budget. The dwarves are dressed in generic garbs, not really seeing anything that stands out. But the Dwarven guards were actually bad - compare that to the 7 dwarves’ costumes in the first scene in Fellowship. Also, notice how the same pattern is used in multiple costumes - Halbrand’s armour, the dwarf guards armour, the Numenorians’ armour. It’s like printed from the same 3D printer.
 

QSD

Member
True. The orcs cared more about that mortally wounded one of their own than the Harfoots were shown to care about the guy with the injured foot and his entire family.
IMHO this is meant to depict the harshness of a nomadic lifestyle. I once saw a pretty old BBC documentary about "the dawn of civilization", in the first episode they showed the life of some of the last primitive nomadic-living people on earth, migrating along with their livestock from grazing ground to grazing ground with the seasons. There was one scene (which I found pretty shocking at the time) where the tribe have to cross a river and anyone who was to weak or old to cross at the best wading place, was basically left on the far bank to die.

So basically this 'leave behind those who are to weak or injured' is at least somewhat normal for primitive nomadic people
 

ADiTAR

ידע זה כוח
IMHO this is meant to depict the harshness of a nomadic lifestyle. I once saw a pretty old BBC documentary about "the dawn of civilization", in the first episode they showed the life of some of the last primitive nomadic-living people on earth, migrating along with their livestock from grazing ground to grazing ground with the seasons. There was one scene (which I found pretty shocking at the time) where the tribe have to cross a river and anyone who was to weak or old to cross at the best wading place, was basically left on the far bank to die.

So basically this 'leave behind those who are to weak or injured' is at least somewhat normal for primitive nomadic people
That would be totally fine, if they didn't sing "Nobody goes off-trail and nobody walks alone".
 

QSD

Member
That would be totally fine, if they didn't sing "Nobody goes off-trail and nobody walks alone".
LOL nobody *walks* alone, but if you're too injured to walk, the song says nothing about dying alone ;-)

Numenor itself looks too clean to me. Most of my issues with the show come from the numenor sets.
Yeah for Numenor they have to kind of hold a middle ground between a kind of utopia (which is what it's described as by tolkien IIRC) and an actual place that people live in in the middle ages. It should look a lot dirtier and more lived in but that would make it look too much like Gondor, which is supposed to be an inferior copy of Numenor IIRC
 

Batiman

Banned
LOL nobody *walks* alone, but if you're too injured to walk, the song says nothing about dying alone ;-)


Yeah for Numenor they have to kind of hold a middle ground between a kind of utopia (which is what it's described as by tolkien IIRC) and an actual place that people live in in the middle ages. It should look a lot dirtier and more lived in but that would make it look too much like Gondor, which is supposed to be an inferior copy of Numenor IIRC
Ya I know what you mean. Wish there was a way to make them look all fancy and clean without making it look to much like actors just threw on perfect freshly made set costumes. Should’ve been somewhere in between. Besides numenor I think everyone else looks great.
 
Last edited:

jason10mm

Gold Member
Ya I’ll agree on that. Song just doesn’t fit there at all. That was stupid
Or even better, have a lot of the other Harfoots walk by with little gifts or saying good-bye because they KNOW that family isn't gonna make it. ANY empathy from those little book following sociopaths would be nice.

I fully expect that family to walk over a hill and see the ENTIRE CLAN slaughtered at some point.
 

Wildebeest

Member
I simply do not think it is trashy, I think it is excellent. I'm deeply curious as to why so many people HATE this show. I mean HATE. I have never seen people hate a show like this. I think it is all from social media manufactured outrage, but perhaps I'm wrong. But something this manufactured and unnatural likely has some machine learning algorithm backing (aka youtubers and twitters getting a ton of juice from hating on this show).
None of that manufactured outrage works unless people are already discontent for some reason. This show is just slower and more boring than treebeard and hits bum note after bum note. Some people, who love the world, can mine it for what they think are the good parts, but most will look more at what it is overall.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Ya I know what you mean. Wish there was a way to make them look all fancy and clean without making it look to much like actors just threw on perfect freshly made set costumes. Should’ve been somewhere in between
The key here, for film, is layered or textured fabric that gets beaten with wire brushes to get a little frayed and thinned.

So look at HotD costumes. See how they almost NEVER have large cuts of plain cloth, it looks really cheap on camera. They use a lot of very intricately patterned cloth instead. And if they do use large plain cuts, they "wear in" a lot of the clothes by fraying the edges, wearing out the color over the knees or elbows, etc. Makes it look like a well cared for but worn outfit. Look at Ser Coles padded armor in the courtyard scene. It's dirty and sweat stained, not bright white. EXCELLENT attention to detail.
 

Batiman

Banned
Or even better, have a lot of the other Harfoots walk by with little gifts or saying good-bye because they KNOW that family isn't gonna make it. ANY empathy from those little book following sociopaths would be nice.

I fully expect that family to walk over a hill and see the ENTIRE CLAN slaughtered at some point.
Don’t worry. The leader( black hobbit) time is coming soon. He’s getting old and peeps are gonna be quick to bounce on him lol.

But really, Is it that hard to wagon a hobbit? If it’s one or two injured, just share the load ( pun intended ). Assholes

Also hobbits are usually pussies looking out for themselves besides the protagonist. Even in lord of the rings buddy took a 2 second look at the black rider and ratted out Bilbo lol.
 
Last edited:

BadBurger

Many “Whelps”! Handle It!
Or even better, have a lot of the other Harfoots walk by with little gifts or saying good-bye because they KNOW that family isn't gonna make it. ANY empathy from those little book following sociopaths would be nice.

I fully expect that family to walk over a hill and see the ENTIRE CLAN slaughtered at some point.

I doubt any of these writers have even heard of gift mathoms or realize that hobbits pride themselves on their ability to give gifts.

If they kill off the vast majority of Harfoots in some horrific event I wouldn't bat an eye. What started out as a potentially fascinating exploration into the ascendants of the hobbits that seemed to be focused on exploring why hobbits act as hobbits do in the third age descended into banal blather within one single episode. They're just now a uselessly slow plot point attempting to rope along viewers week-to-week to find out if this guy is Gandalf or not.
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Don’t worry. The leader( black hobbit) time is coming soon. He’s getting old and peeps are gonna be quick to bounce on him lol.

But really, Is it that hard to wagon a hobbit? If it’s one or two injured, just share the load ( pun intended ). Assholes
I get what they are trying to do. Like a poster mentioned above, it was a manufactured crisis so the Stranger or whatshisname would have to help. But it was sloppy and needlessly thoughtless, 'bout what I've come to expect from this creative team. Might as well have had the girl wander off of a morn looking for butterflies and miss the departure, least then you'd still feel some sympathy for the rest o'the lot.
 

QSD

Member
None of that manufactured outrage works unless people are already discontent for some reason. This show is just slower and more boring than treebeard and hits bum note after bum note.

LOL a couple of pages ago I was arguing how the Peter Jackson movies did Treebeard dirty and look here! Treebeard is not boring, this entophobia will not stand!
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
LOL a couple of pages ago I was arguing how the Peter Jackson movies did Treebeard dirty and look here! Treebeard is not boring, this entophobia will not stand!
Stanning for the ents won't get an entwife (entmaiden?) to sleep with you :p


oh christ do NOT search "entwife" with safe search off. F'n rule 34ers!
 
Last edited:

Wildebeest

Member
LOL a couple of pages ago I was arguing how the Peter Jackson movies did Treebeard dirty and look here! Treebeard is not boring, this entophobia will not stand!
One thing I'll hand to the tree is that he doesn't take constant breaks to sit down and sing about gold.
 
  • Like
Reactions: QSD

Ulysses 31

Member
Don’t worry. The leader( black hobbit) time is coming soon. He’s getting old and peeps are gonna be quick to bounce on him lol.

But really, Is it that hard to wagon a hobbit? If it’s one or two injured, just share the load ( pun intended ). Assholes

Also hobbits are usually pussies looking out for themselves besides the protagonist. Even in lord of the rings buddy took a 2 second look at the black rider and ratted out Bilbo lol.
What makes it worse is that the guy got hurt helping with whatever entertaining the town where they read out the names of those who didn't make(almost in a trollish way I might add) and not while he was wondering off doing some personal things. And you can also see Harfoots being smiley and jolly when they're moving away from that family...



In that long breakdown there were also signs that the Harfoots ate their fallen... 👀
 
Last edited:

QSD

Member
Stanning for the ents won't get an entwife (entmaiden?) to sleep with you :p


oh christ do NOT search "entwife" with safe search off. F'n rule 34ers!
My lust for entmaidens is undiminished I fear, for they are nigh the only maidens that can comfortably accomodate my gaf-sized manhood

Poor Treebeard though, close to the world's first sentient being and he's also the world's first incel. Such is fate.

Who hates the Ents. If you hate the ents then you need a kick in the berries.
Kick in the goldberries no less
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
My lust for entmaidens is undiminished I fear, for they are nigh the only maidens that can comfortably accomodate my gaf-sized manhood

Poor Treebeard though, close to the world's first sentient being and he's also the world's first incel. Such is fate.


Kick in the goldberries no less
Do you like the bushes trimmed or all naturale?
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Galadriel is a babe tho guys. We can agree on that right?
No doubt


wud58zM.jpg
 

ikbalCO

Member
Thank god they are leaving numenor next episode so that show can pick up some pace.

The first episode really sold me on this but it has turned into a slog after that.

Please, no more table talks ok you guys.

Thanks.
 

QSD

Member
But how mad does she get if you misspell her name in a text the morning after??.

"Last night was great morfred, I hope to see you again."

YOU HAVE BEEN BLOCKED.
Dude that's not a misspell, that's a completely different elf

Morfred's a Sindar too, where are your standards?
 

pramod

Banned
Did they ever explain why the Harfoots are nomadic? They dont seem to have livestock, so do they consume all the berries in one area and have to travel hundreds of miles to find another berry forest?
 
I am simply curious as to why people hate this show at a level where people are going through it frame-by-frame looking for flaws. That strikes me as very unnatural and highly destructive behavior and I find it interesting at a psychological level, beyond even this show. My theory is that there are algorithms behind this, but I could be wrong.
Because we wanted it to be good. But it turned out to be bad because Amazon decided to be woke instead of focusing on making a good show.

I could ask the same question of people hyping this show. Why are you hyping such a bad show? To balance out the criticism?
 
Top Bottom