that was me being incredibly generous!Television The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
that was me being incredibly generous!Your mum looks like Gimli
Your mum lives under Isengard.
I feel that the Sauron predictions here will be wide of the mark. He will come in as an entirely separate being altogether in my opinion.
Spoiler that shit man!
Way to tell us all you'll be playing the role of Sauron
I assumed, from the "your mum" reveals today, that spoilers were out the window!
Bollocks, now Bezos is gonna sue me
Speculation should be spoiler free but there needs to be some sense to it. If your speculating based on a leaked script having tracked cast and character shots for months then its not really speculation. If your speculating based on what has been officially released to date in the tv show exclusively ... I feel like that should be ok. I think i'm going to bail out of this thread till the end of the season and binge watch the show at that point.I assumed, from the "your mum" reveals today, that spoilers were out the window!
Bollocks, now Bezos is gonna sue me
Totally agreed. My speculation is purely on opinion rather than anything that has been revealed online. I do like how the show is keeping us guessing though.
it's shit, isn't it.
I don't really see how your post reveals anything so it didn't bother me at least.
I'm not sure I do to be honest. Theres a massive history and lore nerds will obsess over every detail and the show runners will feed into that. It can be viewed and watched as meteor dude hanging out with the harfoots too though and it'll live or die on the minute to minute telling of that story (which is a bit shaky to date).
The history, the references, the politics and magic are a sideshow. They give the world weight but you need a narrative to make people care. The cliffhangers and mysteries will be resolved with a random contrivance. They're a weak storytelling device.
I heard that a lot of reviewers have seen the whole series bar the last episode so their speculation has spoiler input and is very much part of the zeitgeist. In that sense it's hard to divorce spoilers from speculation, although it's clear they don't know for sure either.
Finally caught up to the series last weekend. Just wanted to be the umpteenth person to throw his two cents in. While I don't think it's as bad as some people are saying, I can also relate with why some people hate it so much.
I'll start with the things I don't like in no particular order
1) The main character, Galadriel, is written to be like an asshole. You cannot relate to her at all. Instead, you become disappointed at the petty stuff she says and does.
2) As a matter of fact, there aren't many likeable characters at all. I think the closest would be Elendil or Nori's friend
3) Lazy storytelling. It's obvious the writers don't give a damn about LOTR. They're not bothered to follow the damn lore and they wouldn't think twice to contrive and force situations and chars to fit with their narrative. No matter how lazy or absurd it is. Case in point, Galadriel swimming across the goddamn ocean. Across the OCEAN. And then somehow bump into the right people while swimming across the ocean, not once, but TWICE. Or how Queen Regent doesn't trust Galadriel so instead of sending Galadriel away asap, she forces Galadriel to stay on the island. Why? Because they writers needed an excuse for them to stay but couldn't be arsed to come up with a better reason.
4) The dialogue is atrocious. That bit about the boat/rock. And then "the sea is always right", "you've NOT seen what I've seen", etc. They try so desperately to be hoity toity and deep. But they failed miserably. All sorts of cringe. With the billions they spent on this show, you'd think they could afford a few million for a literature professor to proof read the damn thing and at least use the right words/phrasing and make the dialogue flow more naturally.
5) Their warg looks like a goddamn chihuahua drank the mutagen from TMNT. Seriously. A billion dollars. For this, folks.
Which is a shame, because there are things to like about it
1) Most of the visuals are good for a tv show
2) The premise is interesting. If they make full use of the potential, I think the show could be good. E.g. Already, there are some potential set pieces they could use with the current premise they have setup. They could write Galadriel blinded by vengeance and causing harm to the people around her. She realises, she is following the bloody path of Feanor and gradually changes her ways to become the Galadriel we all know and love. Another potential set piece is how Harland follows the Aragorn arc and ultimately fails. Complete with emotional attachment from Galadriel blaming herself to sell it. Right now, 3 eps in, kinda hard to tell, although things don't look good. I'm skeptical cause the way they wrote her. She always has to be right. Why? Because reasons.
As of right now, I think the series is a 5/6 out of 10. I've seen worse.
As for all the online rage about the changes, I'm very pragmatic regarding this. Ideally, you should follow the lore. Else, please call it something else. Not LOTR.
However, if you don't follow the lore but you do a damn good job of telling a damn good story, no one is going to complain. Right now, they're doing a poor job of it, so people are complaining. How long this continues, will depend on whether they can turn around the story over the next few episodes.
As for the future, here are some of my predictions
1) Halbrand turns out not to be Sauron.
2) Theo turns out to be Harland's son.
3) Harland or Theo becomes the Witch King of Angmar.
4) Adar isn't Sauron.
5) Sauron won't appear until later. Maybe end of the season or next season.
6) Sauron will be a white guy with blonde hair and blue eyes and dressed in white.
7) The stranger turns out to be Gandalf. Too on the nose? Timeline not in sync? feck it. Writers lack depth and they don't care.
I'll start with the things I don't like in no particular order
1) The main character, Galadriel, is written to be like an asshole. You cannot relate to her at all. Instead, you become disappointed at the petty stuff she says and does.
2) As a matter of fact, there aren't many likeable characters at all. I think the closest would be Elendil or Nori's friend
3) Lazy storytelling. It's obvious the writers don't give a damn about LOTR. They're not bothered to follow the damn lore and they wouldn't think twice to contrive and force situations and chars to fit with their narrative. No matter how lazy or absurd it is. Case in point, Galadriel swimming across the goddamn ocean. Across the OCEAN. And then somehow bump into the right people while swimming across the ocean, not once, but TWICE. Or how Queen Regent doesn't trust Galadriel so instead of sending Galadriel away asap, she forces Galadriel to stay on the island. Why? Because they writers needed an excuse for them to stay but couldn't be arsed to come up with a better reason.
4) The dialogue is atrocious. That bit about the boat/rock. And then "the sea is always right", "you've NOT seen what I've seen", etc. They try so desperately to be hoity toity and deep. But they failed miserably. All sorts of cringe. With the billions they spent on this show, you'd think they could afford a few million for a literature professor to proof read the damn thing and at least use the right words/phrasing and make the dialogue flow more naturally.
5) Their warg looks like a goddamn chihuahua drank the mutagen from TMNT. Seriously. A billion dollars. For this, folks.
Which is a shame, because there are things to like about it
1) Most of the visuals are good for a tv show
2) The premise is interesting. If they make full use of the potential, I think the show could be good. E.g. Already, there are some potential set pieces they could use with the current premise they have setup. They could write Galadriel blinded by vengeance and causing harm to the people around her. She realises, she is following the bloody path of Feanor and gradually changes her ways to become the Galadriel we all know and love. Another potential set piece is how Harland follows the Aragorn arc and ultimately fails. Complete with emotional attachment from Galadriel blaming herself to sell it. Right now, 3 eps in, kinda hard to tell, although things don't look good. I'm skeptical cause the way they wrote her. She always has to be right. Why? Because reasons.
As of right now, I think the series is a 5/6 out of 10. I've seen worse.
As for all the online rage about the changes, I'm very pragmatic regarding this. Ideally, you should follow the lore. Else, please call it something else. Not LOTR.
However, if you don't follow the lore but you do a damn good job of telling a damn good story, no one is going to complain. Right now, they're doing a poor job of it, so people are complaining. How long this continues, will depend on whether they can turn around the story over the next few episodes.
As for the future, here are some of my predictions
1) Halbrand turns out not to be Sauron.
2) Theo turns out to be Harland's son.
3) Harland or Theo becomes the Witch King of Angmar.
4) Adar isn't Sauron.
5) Sauron won't appear until later. Maybe end of the season or next season.
6) Sauron will be a white guy with blonde hair and blue eyes and dressed in white.
7) The stranger turns out to be Gandalf. Too on the nose? Timeline not in sync? feck it. Writers lack depth and they don't care.
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I'm trying to work out the timeline for all this. Presumably they will follow the beats of the book, so if they have 5 series then:
1 is setup
2 is fall of Numenor
3 is forging of the Rings of Power (yes wrong order)
4 is Sauron getting found out and the One Ring
5 is the Last Alliance war
If that's the case then Galadriel won't get back home till series 3 and
Sauron/Halbrand
I know, it is what it is. 100% speculation and as clueless as everyone else on here!
It's already pretty clear this won't follow page by page the Second age that JRR tried to capture. If it did then Galadriel would not have been as involved as she is now. This is very much an "off script" narrative of the rise of Sauron, and one that LOTR nerds should stay well clear of due to unavoidable dissapointment.
And if that is the case, any poster here who have read anything should certainly spoiler these views and state that they have. Fortunately for myself, it's purely a mystery
Your predictions REALLY should be in a spoiler given one can assume you know what happens in the lore.
Most people who watch this won't have read Lord of the Rings, never mind the extended stuff.
Can you spoiler an 80 year old book? It was all in the prologue to the Fellowship of the Ring movie as well.
It’s the new i’m going to guess on a timeline phrase.
What, of course you can spoiler an 80 year old book, if you're discussing a TV series based on that book.
Is that a question or a statement?
whats a question or a statement
I still recall twenty years ago watching that in the cinema.
I always thought that the godfather was the best opening in cinema. But i think this takes it.
I put it on when I feel like a nap.
The showrunners have said from the start that they've condensed the entire timeline to make it consumable as a TV show.
So everything will happen within 100 years I imagine.
I think it's great, you guys are such moaners.
Same. It's enjoyable
Galadriel is REALLY into horse riding.
I'd ride her horse if you catch my drift
This episode was great, I like it now.
Funny that like half the cast of Spartacus is in it. So far I've seen Naevia, Crassus, Barca and Cossutius.
Funny that like half the cast of Spartacus is in it. So far I've seen Naevia, Crassus, Barca and Cossutius.
@horsechoker ??I'd ride her horse if you catch my drift
New Zealand is a small place and they were both filmed there!
I’m enjoying the show too.
Galadriel on the horse though, what the feck was that. The smile
If God existed, this would be the way he spoke.
Episode 3 looked great. The looks they have come up with, clothes, cities, armor, etc., is superb. I'm enjoying the series, although I can't really even tell you what happened in episode 3, but it looked good!
Still my opinion of last weak stands, not bad but also not great and it definitely has pacing issue. 3 Episodes of 8 done and it feels like nothing has really happened yet.
The script is really rough, the acting isn't much better and the CGI leaves a lot to be desired for the most expensive show ever made. It's fine and decent enough to watch, but it does feel like you're watching fan-fiction (which is essentially what it is).
HBO shows really have the writing down to an art. This does feel a level below in that regard. It doesn't have that historic language feel to it like Game of Thrones or the original LOTR trilogy.