Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Coming out later this year. To be honest, I don't like the look of it. It looks like a Marvel film, which just doesn't seem right for the world of Tolkien. A few of the shots look like they're from video game cut scenes with the amount of CGI used. I don't know how they've spent so much on it while making it still look tacky.

I'll probably still watch it through while being annoyed at it at the same time.

 

Hmm. Been buzzing about this but have to agree in regards to the trailer. It's made me less excited for the show.

 

Hard to tell with teasers but I'm definitely intrigued.

 

What the * is going on with the comments in that video?

 

A bunch of incels complaining that there's going to be diverse acting castings, basically. Various users of a few websites are doing it as a protest because in their words, they don't want 'wokeness' ruining LOTR.

 

There's definitely that element. It's hard to have any nuanced conversation about it, because there's one side who find it abhorrent that there's a brown person going to be in a Tolkien adaptation, and then there's those who almost instinctively praise the series unabashedly in response to it.

I couldn't care what colour the cast are, but I'm a bit of a Tolkien purist and this just seems a little distant from his vision. Though, I have to take into account it is an adaptation and thus doesn't necessarily need to be his words directly projected on screen as he intended them, but I still feel this is too much.

 

Sums it up for me.

 

Ill give it a go, who the * cares who is casted, lol, this world man.

 

Not a massive fan of the trailer, but I’ll always give media from a Tolkien world a go. Would be cool to have something a bit more mature than the original films, but maybe that’s doing then a disservice.

Not fussed on the colour of the cast in the least tbh. I never even thought Tolkien’s world was entirely white.

 

Same, looks cheap and *.

 

I thought there would be a darker feel to it. Not willing to dismiss it yet, but it wasn’t a very informative trailer. Nothing about the actual story.

 

Creepy as *.

 

Looks class from that trailer IMO, been buzzing for this for some time. Fired through LOTR & The Hobbit over the past few weeks.

Also a lot of weirdos in that comment section.

 

I am curious as to if this is a prequel series related to Jackson's films or if it is an entirely new take on Tolkien's world set in the 2nd age?

Not too fussed about the "outrage" stuff going about. Plenty of scope in Tolkiens world to accommodate people of colour and gender. Just hoping to get to see the fall of Númenor and "beautiful" Sauron backstabbing the elves lol

 

I think they've took a few liberties, like with The Hobbits. I'm pretty sure based on all Tolkien works about the second age they're not even mentioned, so any inclusion is thus fabricated.

I'm just scared it's going to be a bit too Marvel like, too generic. From the trailer, I think they've ripped the * out of the CGI as well.

People bemoaning the inclusion of PoC evidently don't know Tolkien's positions on race, Nazis, anti-Semitism, and colonialism.

 

On Colonialism

"I know nothing about British or American imperialism in the Far East that does not fill me with regret and disgust." Tolkien —
1945 Letter

On apartheid

"I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White."

Valedictory Address to the University of Oxford, reprinted in "The Monsters and the Critics" by Christopher Tolkien (2006), p.

"I have spent most of my life, since I was your age, studying Germanic matters (in the general sense that includes England and Scandinavia). There is a great deal more force (and truth) than ignorant people imagine in the ‘Germanic’ ideal. I was much attracted by it as an undergraduate (when Hitler was, I suppose, dabbling in paint, and had not heard of it), in reaction against the ‘Classics’. You have to understand the good in things, to detect the real evil. But no one ever calls on me to ‘broadcast’, or do a postscript! Yet I suppose I know better than most what is the truth about this ‘Nordic’ nonsense. Anyway, I have in this War a burning private grudge – which would probably make me a better soldier at 49 than I was at 22: against that ruddy little ignoramus Adolf Hitler (for the odd thing about demonic inspiration and impetus is that it in no way enhances the purely intellectual stature: it chiefly affects the mere will). Ruining, perverting, misapplying, and making for ever accursed, that noble northern spirit, a supreme contribution to Europe, which I have ever loved, and tried to present in its true light. Nowhere, incidentally, was it nobler than in England, nor more early sanctified and Christianized." …. (Letter No. 45, dated 9 June 1941)

1938 letter response to Nazis questioning him on whether he was Aryan or Jewish

"Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject — which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.

Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its sustainability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung."

 

Tbh I didn't mind the liberties taken for example with The Hobbit films. I thought adding the character of Tauriel was a good idea but wasted on a silly love story and there were a few poc in Laketown which I wouldn't mind if they had bigger roles instead of that generic weasel council guy. There is a lot of the world to play with and if done well can make for an engaging show.

Just looking forward to diving into the world again but I get your point. If it gets too Marvel-esque it might end up silly. Can't wait to see peak power Sauron though.

 

I hope I can see past the CGI. I preferred the FOTR over TTT and ROTK, predominantly because the CGI got heavier and heavier throughout the trilogy. Tolkien's world comes across as very raw & very real, despite being fantasy. I think anything on screen that's too artificial robs it of that magic, but that's just me.

 

What’s everyone’s thoughts on the more recent trailers? I thought most of the teasers again made it look a bit meh, but the latest one has made me slightly more optimistic.



The number of comments on there being black actors in it is laughably pathetic though. Racism is still alive and well.