** G’day guys – we had some issues with the first upload that have now been rectified. **
I’ve never seen a fandom battle on a scale like this. Fitting given the love people have for Tolkien and set against the backdrop of the rise of corporate entertainment.
The road to the premier of Rings of Power is paved with intrigue, courage, betrayal and greed.
Join us as we take a look at the build up to the premier of the ROP, while I offer my salty criticism for good measure.
Also thanks to all the YouTube parties for their content, in no particular order: Just Some Guy, The Critical Drinker, Nerdrotic, Geeks & Gamers, Disparu, RK Outpost and all those featured in the review montage. There is evidently no shortage of love for Tolkien and Peter Jackson.
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For Tolkien
Well at least most fans can agree on rings of power was only bad fanfiction and should be ignored as we have the old but superior lord of the rings movies and the books
It almost doesn't feel like an hour and thirteen minutes. Excellent work Jellyfish!
There is certainly a pattern when a studio starts attacking fans for their shoddy products. No, the assholes don't deserve the time of the day, but like. Something attracted fans to the franchise. What exactly is there to gain going tossing it aside and changing things?
It's also really funny how that one interview was like "Women. Yes. Black Women." as if "I am no Man" isn't one of the film's most iconic moments.
I never thought i would fight besides a causal Fan but I'm happy to call you a friend
excellent synopsis of this disaster
Absolutely excellent video!!!!
Sub-a-dub-dubbed 🖖
"Despite his seeming personal issues, he had a sense of what would sell"
I'm not convinced that he was guilty of any misconduct at all — me2 devolved very quickly into a way to fire white guys who knew what they were doing (whether they were guilty or not) and replace them with activists.
very sound over-view. great work!
@1:51 Yes true, but I fear that Bezos is committed to The Desolation of Tolkien, but it seems the fandom is prepared to wage The Battle of the Five Seasons to the bitter end.
I was able to endure for almost 3 episodes. But for one okay scene there was piles and piles and piles of cringe, stupidity and bad writing.
Yeah….the battle scene definitely feels very apt description of the s*tstorm that is currently happening with the franchise :). But guess what, they may call me racist all they want, because I'm oppposing casting choices, whatever 🙂 let's face it it's just another attempt at hijacking the franchise for the agendas, all the race swaps, the 'politically correct' 'color blind' casting and inlcusive bullshit yadda yadda yadda, at this point being accused of racism is basically a badge of honor :), jokes aside I'm not only opposing the race swaps to give token black presence in general the forced diversity problem is larger than that, they cannot depict the culture, race or ethnicity in any way that makes sense or lies within the worldbuilding, let's face it people THERE ARE NO BLACK DWARVES OR ELVES in Tolkien lore simple as that, they should JUST DEAL WITH IT, and if they don't like that they should go to other fantasy universe or make their own! IF they really wanted that diversity to have the black people in Arda, (term for entirety of Tolkien's world basically) or specifically black people in Middle-earth continent,…they should have used the fucking lore correctly…they would then have the HARADRIM culture to explore! The ACTUAL dark-skinned peoples of the south, so there was room for that IF they followed the lore and depicted the other cultures within this fictional world, but NOPE they NEED to race swap specifically white peoples making all the cultures and races into diverse multiracial, crowd (even asian extras mixed in) the white Elves, white Dwarves and white Numenoreans,…all get race swap admixture of all ethnic backgrounds for some reason even though each culture, group is often so vastly different and insular, so we end up with some sort of weird New York city style melting pot, we have multidiverse even the smallest communities and tribes in the middle of nowhere! This aspect makes absolutely NO SENSE! In any case for some context I am also against hte casting choice for Celebrimbor…and the actor was old white guy 🙂 simply put he doesn't fit the role appearance wise he would never pass for a Tolkien elf :)…at best he could only pose for playing Cirdan Shipwright THE OLDEST elf alive so he could have shown signs of age…but not elf-lord Celebrimbor who should be younger and attractive like Elves usually are. Any Tolkien fan worth their salt will know at least some lore and can easily spot all the differences, changes and alterations in the Amazon tv show. The very presence of the Hobbits in the show is stretching a lot (not to mention how they were portrayed were also heavily lore inaccurate).
When you have such a rich and in depth world and you just carelessly do things, altering the very core of worldbuilding, fundamentally changing the events, chronology, misinterpreting characters basically making their own versions that only borrow or steal the name of the character that is known from the Tolkien texts…then obviously we have a problem :). Hell the same thing happened with the Witcher on netflix, great books and they too ditched so much of the book story to make their own fanfictiony stuff in the tv show! So is the problem with the Rings of Power of Amazon focusing on irrelevant stuff that the writers invented…sure adaptations and all that yadda yadda, BUT one can't do it carelessly just because some stuff needs to be added doesn't mean that they can come up with the worst bullshit possible and call it a day! The show is monumental disaster and it's quality of writing is ABYSMAL! The show is just bad even on it's own but connected to Tolkien world it's atrociously bad! The race thing is really REALLY annoying considering that the cultural influences of Tolkien are completely disrespected, and he wrote a simply put European centric story, a tale using the inspirations of real world Europan folklore, mythology, etc. If they at least tried to make it work within the lore, they could have used the Haradrim and what little we know of them to good effect, inventing Haradrim characters be it good or bad no matter, and then nobody would have any problem because it would work within the context of the world! Nobody would bat an eye if Ismel Cruz Cordova played a young Haradrim warrior, Cynthia Addai his girlfriend, Lenny Henry his old father and tribal chief, Sophia Nomvete…some vilage witch or something 🙂 it would work within context of lore for one could use for the subplot actual lore information like the 'white Numenorean colonialism' have the more exotic places like Harad be focused more on exploring the other culture, having the numenorean colony on the shores of Harad (basically African-esque land), like Umbar as one of the plot relevant locations, a colony of white people civilization that enslaves, colonizes and deals with natives, there would be oppression, economic exploitation themes to explore etc. all within Tolkien's critique of imperialism with Second Age Numenor being one such colonial empire!
"Moreover, after Minastir the Kings became greedy of wealth and power. At first the Númenoreans had come to Middle-earth as teachers and friends of lesser Men afflicted by Sauron; but now their havens became fortresses, holding wide coastlands in subjection. Atanamir and his successors levied heavy tribute, and the ships of the Númenoreans returned laden with spoil."
The Return of the King, LoTR Appendix A, Annals of the Kings and Rulers: Númenor
This is all within the lore! They could have crafted some amazing storyline but NOPE the stupidity of modern times swallowed this and we got the tokenized race swapped roles of previously white folk given to the actors that cannot shut up about their skin color and presence in the story being revolutionary! I don't know why are they so satisfied with roles of race swapped white folk. Tar-Miriel the queen fo the Numenoreans described in Tolkien works (in the Silmarillion which is outside of the Amazon licensign rights 🙂 still they completely race swap the character just because)
"… Tar-Míriel the Queen, fairer than silver or ivory or pearls. " Numenoreans ARE white that's the thing, they are ethnically descendants of Edain, the northern tribes of Men!!
A lot of things would have been solved with adherence to lore, they would have their diversity quotas and still be more faithful! Win win situation but no they are never satisfied! They MUST do their own thing instead of using the material they already got from a much wiser and better creator…TOLKIEN himself!
The comment about the round cart wheels being like the round hobbit doors…is one of the most insane, ridiculous things I've ever heard 🙂 and that's saying much haha. I mean the Harfoots, aside from the fact that this clan of early Hobbits is described as one of the three clans (still in Third Age mostly) others being Fallohides and Stoors, the Harfoots were actually per Tolkien lore THE hole builders :).
"Before the crossing of the mountains the Hobbits had already become divided into three somewhat different breeds: Harfoots, Stoors, and Fallohides. The Harfoots were browner of skin, smaller, and shorter, and they were beardless and bootless; their hands and feet were neat and nimble; and they preferred highlands and hillsides. The Stoors were broader, heavier in build; their feet and hands were larger, and they preferred flat lands and riversides. The Fallohides were fairer of skin and also of hair, and they were taller and slimmer than the others; they were lovers of trees and of woodlands.
The Harfoots had much to do with Dwarves in ancient times, and long lived in the foothills of the mountains. They moved westward early, and roamed over Eriador as far as Weathertop while the others were still in the Wilderland. They were the most normal and representative variety of Hobbit, and far the most numerous. They were the most inclined to settle in one place, and longest preserved their ancestral habit of living in tunnels and holes." Lotr prologue
The Harfoots being "browner of skin" also does not denote African ancestry especially since they would be more rather like the mediterranean-like olive skinned or at best middle eastern for sure as they also in-universe came from the EAST, all the hobbit peoples migrated from the East, the Fallohides were the northern branch so paler of skin and fairer of hair (basically what one would expect) and so on and they were the first to build hobbit holes :).
" Hobbit was the name usually applied by the Shire-folk to all their kind. Men called them Halflings and the Elves Periannath. The origin of the word hobbit was by most forgotten. It seems, however, to have been at first a name given to the Harfoots by the Fallohides and Stoors, and to be a worn-down form of a word preserved more fully in Rohan: holbytla 'hole-builder'." Lotr appendix F
So the Harfoots are "more inclined to settle" so no nomadic cart drivers (err not even drivers…they PULL them without the beasts of burden even haha so stupid :)) BUT they also DIG HOLES TO LIVE IN 🙂 and the holes surprise surprise ARE ROUND :).
As for the cultural influences the fragment of Tolkien letter says it best:
"I have always with me: the sensibility to linguistic pattern which affects me emotionally like colour or music; and the passionate love of growing things; and the deep response to legends (for lack of a better word) that have what I would call the North-western temper and temperature. In any case if you want to write a tale of this sort you must consult your roots, and a man of the North-west of the Old World will set his heart and the action of his tale in an imaginary world of that air, and that situation: with the Shoreless Sea of his innumerable ancestors to the West, and the endless lands (out of which enemies mostly come) to the East. Though, in addition, his heart may remember, even if he has been cut off from all oral tradition, the rumour all along the coasts of the Men out of the Sea."
–Letter to W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955
Throughout the whole thing is the unmistakable touch of amateurism.
My heart sank when I heard Tom Shippey was out of the RoP .
This is hands down the best synopsis of where it all went wrong
What an appalling failure
Well put together and voiced!
Being fisted with a cactus is less painful then those interviews with the ROP members..
Looking forward to seeing more long form content