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Post by Jason Aiken on Oct 16, 2022 8:37:08 GMT -5
Watched the last episode of the season. I think the series kinda improved in the second half of the season, a little more entertaining, at least. The reveal was obvious, but what can you do? True, but if we saw it coming, you'd think maybe Celebrimborn who is thousands of years old, would be suspicious about how a thirty year old human knows more about forging than he does, and has all the right answers to the problems he's running into. And...Galadriel: Warrior Princess, after hunting her archenemy for hundreds of years she basically goes along with his plan, but adds a third ring into the mix instead, thinking she can outsmart him... Then doesn't tell anyone else he was Sauron. I liked the finale but the writers are really pushing their luck. The cast and set pieces really carried this series.
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Post by johnnypt on Oct 16, 2022 12:00:37 GMT -5
The problem I saw is they’ve made the three elven rings BEFORE they made the other two sets. Is Celebrimbor run into ANOTHER guy who comes up with ideas for rings? Kind of boxed themselves in. With the big guy, even though it’s against what’s in Tolkien, there are a few ways out.
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Post by johnnypt on Oct 16, 2022 18:24:27 GMT -5
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Post by Jason Aiken on Oct 17, 2022 14:55:35 GMT -5
Good episode johnny, nice wrap-up. I liked the Godfather impression.
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Post by Jason Aiken on Dec 15, 2022 21:49:40 GMT -5
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Post by johnnypt on Dec 16, 2022 7:52:07 GMT -5
They also announced a boatload of new cast members and replaced the guy who plays Adar, one of the new characters. I’m not sure why they’re still looking to try and surprise who’s playing who. I think they announced who’s playing Cirdan but it would be nice to know if any additional Tolkien characters will be appearing.” I recognized one name in the new cast members. They’ve mostly done genre work but not exactly well known, which was an issue I mention in the season recap. It looks like despite their opulent spending, it looks like they can’t get any name actors to be involved. Combine this with they’ll mostly be shooting in London on soundstages and it looks like they’re cheaping out.
Charlotte did a decent job on her episodes, don’t know the other two. After reading the Fall of Numenor compilation, season 2 should deal with the first battle of Sauron and the elves and whatever they’re looking to do with Gand…the stranger and the Hobb…Harfoot girl. They can’t blow off the first battle, it ends up leading directly to the downfall.
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Post by Jason Aiken on Dec 16, 2022 18:15:51 GMT -5
I've heard a lot of good things about a fantasy television series called Thunderbolt Fantasy. It's a collaboration between Japanese and Taiwanese studios and uses puppets to tell the story. They recently did a short adaptation of Arthas obtaining Frostmourne and the aftermath from the Warcraft video game series. I think it would be bad ass to see LotR done in this fashion.
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Post by Jason Aiken on Dec 22, 2022 15:01:40 GMT -5
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Post by johnnypt on Dec 22, 2022 16:25:52 GMT -5
Some of their complaints literally can't be addressed. The show is mashing together about half of the Second Age so that's kind of set in stone. Pacing can be adjusted by editing (as I said, naming one episode Adrift doesn't make people feel like you know what you're doing). They're also handcuffed a little by only being able to use the LOTR material. Tolkien's extensive story about Aldarion, all off limits. Their big concern about people not being able to adjust to shifting actors and characters was shown to be a little overblown with House of the Dragon's switch of two main characters mid show. They're changing one actor but no one seems be able to figure out the reason. One of my observations has been the dearth of known actors. When Cynthia Addai Robinson and the guy who played young Ned Stark are your stars, you're a little lacking in star power. They've announced a lot of new cast members for Season 2 and only one name is sort of, kind of familiar. It just makes it appear they can't get anybody good to do it. Even Wheel of Time has a Bond Girl.
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Post by Jason Aiken on Dec 22, 2022 22:25:59 GMT -5
Some of their complaints literally can't be addressed. The show is mashing together about half of the Second Age so that's kind of set in stone. Pacing can be adjusted by editing (as I said, naming one episode Adrift doesn't make people feel like you know what you're doing). They're also handcuffed a little by only being able to use the LOTR material. Tolkien's extensive story about Aldarion, all off limits. Their big concern about people not being able to adjust to shifting actors and characters was shown to be a little overblown with House of the Dragon's switch of two main characters mid show. They're changing one actor but no one seems be able to figure out the reason. One of my observations has been the dearth of known actors. When Cynthia Addai Robinson and the guy who played young Ned Stark are your stars, you're a little lacking in star power. They've announced a lot of new cast members for Season 2 and only one name is sort of, kind of familiar. It just makes it appear they can't get anybody good to do it. Even Wheel of Time has a Bond Girl. Regarding the new actor playing the proto Uruk/proto Orc, the original actor has been cast in Yellowstone: 1923. Either this season or next. Speaking g of which, that's a great franchise
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Post by johnnypt on Dec 23, 2022 6:39:32 GMT -5
He fell up!
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Post by moonlightshadow on Dec 24, 2022 5:18:24 GMT -5
Sigh. As usual the Screenrant article AGAIN implies that fans who are opposed to the random colorblind casting are racists.
That's just so idiotic. Why not cast black and asian people in roles where it makes sense instead of having black and asian people randomly distributed across all the people of Middle Earth?
I swear if those morons make a Conan series we'll see black and asian Cimmerians, Hyperboreans, Picts and Aquilonians.
People who think that is crazy are not racists, the are SANE.
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Post by johnnypt on Dec 24, 2022 10:24:17 GMT -5
Sigh. As usual the Screenrant article AGAIN implies that fans who are opposed to the random colorblind casting are racists. That's just so idiotic. Why not cast black and asian people in roles where it makes sense instead of having black and asian people randomly distributed across all the people of Middle Earth? I swear if those morons make a Conan series we'll see black and asian Cimmerians, Hyperboreans, Picts and Aquilonians. People who think that is crazy are not racists, the are SANE. What makes it frustrating is there are idiots out there who do send those racist things, but they are nowhere near the majority. They give cover to those who want to name call in the other direction. To be honest, they really didn't do it that much in Rings of Power, the cast just makes it appear that way as that seems to be the main focus of their interviews. You could almost make an argument that what they did is close to tokenism (as opposed to Tolkienism ): there's ONE elf, ONE Harfoot, ONE dwarf and ONE Numenorean
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Post by moonlightshadow on Dec 24, 2022 12:52:10 GMT -5
Yes, if the writers had been smart they had used the Haradrim in their story. Tgat way they could have had much MORE black actors in the series. They also could have given all numenorean roles to people of north african/near east descent.
It's NOT the number of non-white actors that is bothering me and many others, it's the randomness of the skin colors in Middle Earth. And it's NOT because we dislike black actors as heroes, it's because it just makes no sense to have mixed races in Middle Earth. But if you dare to raise this issue anywhere but in this forum you'll immediately be called a racist or a MAGA guy or some other BS.
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Post by Jason Aiken on Jan 12, 2023 8:26:23 GMT -5
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