The all inclusive Lord of the Rings thread

[Ello Sailor]

Burt, you're literally a conspiracy theorist. You wrote the book on rotten brains.

[BurtReynolds]

What conspiracy theory?

[BurtReynolds]

And how did you know I'm writing the book on rotten brains? Who do you work for? Are you a fed?

[dimejinky99]

Does the corruption of random threads with your shitposting not get tiresome?

It does for us

[BurtReynolds]

Shut up, dime. Just popping in to say this sucks, as is my right as an RMerican citizen. I won't belabor the point. You can have your thread back now.

[Bi_3]

Caught up on 3 and 4. While the production design and costume work is vibrant and stunning, I think it's hiding flaws. The writing and directing are... amateur and seem better suited for "basic cable" TV like Xena Warrior Princess than what is essentially a million-dollar-a-minute movie. The world building is flying all over the place and I don't feel anchored to any character yet, and I'm struggling with why Galadrial does what she does and why her behavior is so different than every other Elf presented. And I'm hesitant to say it, but the obviously forced "in group" diversity is getting a bit distracting as well. You would think it would look more like Zion in 'The Matrix' than Bridgerton. I mean there are like 100 harfoots, how much genetic diversity can that population support?

[dimejinky99]

Wasnt aware diversity was a threat to any group or population that had diversity forced upon it


Unless you mean native Americans or Māori or Indians or Palestinians I guess

But in a tv show? What’s your point again? There can be elves and orcs and dragons and dwarves

But no humans with a different ethnic background ? Really?


Take your point about the rest though. Long brooding shots that aren’t actually doing anything yet with dramatic orchestral music and swells pointlessly playing over them was a bit much.

There’s only 2 episodes left and this latest one felt like just filler. Didn’t achieve much apart from two major incoming story points. The rest was beyond fluff

[Bi_3]

Wasnt aware diversity was a threat to any group or population that had diversity forced upon it


Unless you mean native Americans or Māori or Indians or Palestinians I guess

But in a tv show? What’s your point again? There can be elves and orcs and dragons and dwarves

But no humans with a different ethnic background ? Really?


Take your point about the rest though. Long brooding shots that aren’t actually doing anything yet with dramatic orchestral music and swells pointlessly playing over them was a bit much.

There’s only 2 episodes left and this latest one felt like just filler. Didn’t achieve much apart from two major incoming story points. The rest was beyond fluff

There can and should be humans of different backgrounds. It's just strange to see that level of ethnic diversity in such small population groups. Those differences come from environmental pressures and take thousands of years to emerge... but only like two to three generations to erase. So if you have a very small population isolated after a massive war, like the harfoots or southlands villages, there wouldn't be that many people of reproductive age and they would quickly converge into a more homogeneous look, like every other culture anywhere that lacks easy access to international air travel, unless there was like specific and targeted segregated breeding ala show dogs. Or incest. Take Bronwyn, a gorgeous but clearly Middle Eastern actress who somehow has a distinctly SE Asian son in a village of like 50 shacks. Just make them all SE Asian or Syrian or African or Welsh. Obviously not Welsh, no one wants to see that, but you get the idea.

Look at what HoD with the Velaryons, they are strong and developed characters who drive the story alongside their role as positive representation and well integrated into the plot. Or The Matrix which showed exactly what would happen in such a situation by casting so many mixed-race or ethnically ambiguous actors. That makes diversity and representation positive and natural elements of the story, like in the real world, not what might be some kind of screen time quota system.

I'm not saying it's bad, it's just very noticeable in RoP.

[bada]

I've been trying to think of ways the diversity works with the lore. You could maybe assume that when Aulë created the seven dwarf fathers he just made one or two of them with dark skin. I mean why else would a species that lives primary underground in the northern latitudes have dark skin. They were just created that way. Ok I can go with that.

Then it would have to be the same when Ilúvatar created the elves he made some of them with dark skin because the idea that they would adapt that way doesn't make sense. There was no sun just starlight when they awoke, then two lamps that lite the sky then two trees and finally the sun but they live in the north so....they were just made that way I can live with that. The Harfoots are fine they are part of man's lineage. Personally I think Tolkien was going for a Iberian look with the Harfoots but who cares.

Only issue is why is there one black elf and one black dwarf and one black Númenorian. Where are the others? Anyways the show wouldn't be any different if there were all white actors I'm not sure why youtube is so obsessed with the diversity. Show is a slog regardless. It's the least of its issues.

[Ello Sailor]

Representation matters, and if a black elf is enough to take you out of a high fantasy setting due to its believability, you've got a poo brain.

[dimejinky99]

You clearly haven’t read the books Bi

[Bi_3]

You clearly haven’t read the books Bi

Not in 30 years.

[Simple Torture]

We had this copy of The Hobbit in my house when I was a kid, but I never read it.

[daft twat]

We had this copy of The Hobbit in my house when I was a kid, but I never read it.

Is that Ricky Gervais?

[Rangi Guy]

We had this copy of The Hobbit in my house when I was a kid, but I never read it.

Is that Ricky Gervais?

When it first popped up on my feed - I thought it was Sean Astin

[dimejinky99]

Good episode. Things happening finally.

Great to see Elendil wearing his sword. It ends up cutting the ring from saurons hand and belonging to Aragorn. For the noobz

[Ensign9]

Ultimately, this is scratching my fantasy/LOTR itch so I'm satisfied with the show. It ain't perfect, and I see a lot of criticism on the Reddit cesspool about its lack of "stuff" happening and the compressed timeframe, but it's good enough in my eyes. It has a very high bar to clear and is doing a well enough job of it.

[bada]

I do really like the orc design and while I'm not really onboard with sympathetic orcs I do find the fallen elf character sorta interesting. I don't mind the Harfoots but I'm over the stranger "mystery". The Durin/Elrond pair is delightful I should be annoyed by it but I'm not. The new made up origin of mithril and its potential for the elves is ludicrous and unfortunate but whatever. Everything Númenor is awful and it seems pretty obvious who Halbrand is but I guess I could be wrong. It's still a drag but I'm not ready to quit.

[dimejinky99]

I want Halbarad to be Sauron. He’s in the right place but it doesn’t make sense that Galadriel hasn’t figured it out or senses it’s him by now. That said, he fooled all the elves and none of them knew it was him (in canon)
It’s probably him.

[bada]

No your first instinct was right. In the lore when Sauron

Spoiler: show

assumed the Annatar persona he attempted to befriend Gil-galad, Galadriel and Elrond and they told him to shove off. They didn't know who he really was but they didn't trust him. Celebrimbor fell for it.

The show runners are correct Galadriel was described as head strong and ambitious in her "youth" but she was counted among the wise she wasn't an idiot like she is on the show.