The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Prime)

[Ashasx]

wtf was the scene with Galadriel overpowering four guards and throwing the into the cell? Some CW level stuff.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

wtf was the scene with Galadriel overpowering four guards and throwing the into the cell? Some CW level stuff.

Why you gotta do the Cdub dirty like that?

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Maybe 10 minutes from the end? I just remember them saying that.

Was that Isildur? He mentions "west" which I believe is for the western part of Numenor where those who still believe in friendship with the elves are mainly located.

Originally Posted by Azure

The army they sent was so big Sauron basically didn't fight. So not sure if this is supposed to be it.

It should be too early as in the writings, by that time Pharazon is king, the Rings have been made and Sauron has openly revealed himself.

[Azure]

Yeah, I think this isn't it. The timeline compression will be interesting because in the show Sauron hasn't openly revealed himself, and yet a lot of the things he corrupted in the 2nd age are in motion.

Good point on what Isildur means as 'west.' The faithful are all hanging out in Western Numenor, which is why he might long to go there?

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

wtf was the scene with Galadriel overpowering four guards and throwing the into the cell? Some CW level stuff.

Yeah I didn’t like it. Numenoreans are the top tier race of men. She shouldn’t be able to do that no matter who the elf is.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Azure

Good point on what Isildur means as 'west.' The faithful are all hanging out in Western Numenor, which is why he might long to go there?

Yeah, and Anarion is already there. The series seems to be portraying Elendil's family as split, with the brothers wanting to follow the old ways, Elendil at least publicly loyal to the leaders of Numenor and their anti-elf policies, and the sister seems to be trying to make a life and name for herself in the capital city.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Yeah I didn’t like it. Numenoreans are the top tier race of men. She shouldn’t be able to do that no matter who the elf is.

Elves do some pretty absurd stuff that would make shoving a few guys into a cell seem like a pretty paltry achievement. Still, it was kind of silly. Could have at least shown some fight in them.

[White Out 403]

I really have tried to give this show a couple chances to watch and go back and try over, I just find it irredeemably boring and aimless

[FormerPresJamesTaylor]

Thoughoully enjoying the series, episode four was the best yet.

[Hack&Lube]

I caught up with this show last night and boy I wish there was an 8.1 audio version of it as I want to isolate the music track and mute it. Bear McCreary is difficult for me to get behind in any project he composes. I understand if you might like it, but soundtrack is 50% of what I experience when I watch things.

I absolutely cannot stand how his melodramatic western choir music constantly tries to tell you how you should feel about a scene rather than having the scene and action dictate it for you. Like when you first see the Mines or Numenor, rather than have them looking epic and majestic and sweeping you away from what the character experiences through their eyes, you get generic majestic music to tell you how to feel even before the camera pans to what you see.

The same thing happens with any scenes with emotion or action or bad guys. The buy guy music plays before baddies appear so you know they are bad. You get sappy sad music when something sad is supposed to be happening. And the bombastic swashbuckling action music is droll and infuriating. Rather than accenting and punctuating action beats, it's just repetitive like Bear's usual output. Add to that, it's all generic western orchestral and Gregorian chant material that's overdone in everything he makes, I'm about to watch the rest of the show on mute. Bear McCreary has ruined every show and franchise I have ever watched or played (he's done a lot of videogames too) that has featured him as a composer.

To be fair, I checked out the LoTR trilogy after this as well to see if my memory had failed me and it's very much in the same style, but it's also a little more relaxed and subtle, allowing the viewer to get more out of what's on screen rather than having the music try to dictate it for you.

Aside from that, I'm not a huge fan - I haven't watched the LoTR except for once when they first came out but I know the basic lore regarding the forging of the rings and the old civilizations of Eregion and Numenor from wikipedia curiosity over the years etc. so I am interested to see how they play out. The pacing is a bit odd, with a lot of television show filler of people bantering about that doesn't push forward the story that much so I wished they would better use the time to add more depth to the show as the timeline does seem compressed. Some of the sets look amazing, but other times the CG and greenscreen is obvious. It doesn't feel like a $500M per season show.

[GreenLantern]

I waffle on Galadriel. Some times I really enjoy the character and especially the actress, other times I am just rolling my eyes over her being so one dimensional..

It's like they just cast Strong Woman from South Park in the role.

The male elf who got captured on the other hand does a great job of being the solemn elf but also shows a range of emotions.

And the guy playing Elrond is just knocking it out of the park IMO.

[Timbo]

So far I’m enjoying it, I would like it to pick up somewhat on action and suspense. I’m tempering my expectations.
Hoping it kicks into the boost.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

I waffle on Galadriel. Some times I really enjoy the character and especially the actress, other times I am just rolling my eyes over her being so one dimensional..

It's like they just cast Strong Woman from South Park in the role.

The male elf who got captured on the other hand does a great job of being the solemn elf but also shows a range of emotions.

And the guy playing Elrond is just knocking it out of the park IMO.

Elrond definitely has a great positive energy to him, and he reminds me nothing of Hugo Weaving's characterization - although reports say that his character goes from optimistic to world weary as the events of the series unfold.

I'm happy with Galadriel and if I had to pick a favorite in the series so far, it is her. Her arrogant attitude and portrayal really illustrates exactly why mankind distrusts and even hates the Elden. I think over the course of the series, her arc will quite literally be "bringing her down to earth". Right now, she's just an arrogant Elf who thinks she is higher than everybody else and will stop at nothing to complete her Moby Dick obsession.

[Wastedyouth]

I don't know how anyone can like this.

[Matata]

The problem with modern female action protagonists is that they can only be written as hyper-masculine, flawless characters. They can never be in a situation where a man is superior than them, they're always right and rarely make any kind of a misstep, lest it be interpreted as a smear against all women. I don't have a fundamental problem with that kind of character archetype, but they don't work well as main characters because it's really hard to create any tension around such a perfect character, and it seems any sort of action movie has at least one main character like that and it's been that way for a while now.

[Flabbibulin]

Originally Posted by Wastedyouth

I don't know how anyone can like this.

How can anyone (LOTR and fantasy fans anyway) not like this? I think it is fantastic.

[Hot_Flatus]

Originally Posted by Timbo

So far I’m enjoying it, I would like it to pick up somewhat on action and suspense. I’m tempering my expectations.
Hoping it kicks into the boost.

It has been enjoyable, and certainly has been fun, albeit slow.

I do look at it and wonder how it cost what it cost and took as long to make as it did when there has really been very little to ooh and ahh at in terms of special effects, storyline, or performances by the actors - which have all been okay but nothing amazing.

The part that I don't like, is that it feels like a huge set up is coming for another season and this may lead to very little actually happening this entire season.

[TrentCrimmIndependent]

Mixed bag. Interesting that Galadriel and Elrond switch personalities between now and frodo's timeline. I do wonder how that happens.

[Monahammer]

Originally Posted by TrentCrimmIndependent

Mixed bag. Interesting that Galadriel and Elrond switch personalities between now and frodo's timeline. I do wonder how that happens.

Given that Galadriel seems to be filling the plot points that Elrond was largely responsible for in what little writing Tolkein devoted to this period of time, I don't think that's super interesting and likely you won't receive an answer as to why their personalities reverse later.

[Azure]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

How can anyone (LOTR and fantasy fans anyway) not like this? I think it is fantastic.

Its really interesting seeing the reaction.

From my experience one has to give a TV show time to do some world & story building before you really get hooked. But for some reason with ROP, it seems like people watch and episode or two and tell everyone its a bunch of useless #### that is not worth watching.

I personally think it has been great as well, and it really helps watching the episode breakdowns on Nerd of The Rings or other Youtube channels and they tend to catch a lot more stuff than I do during a first watch.

I also think the show is trying to pay homage to lore, and there are a ton of fascinating little details that are great to see jump out.