An adaption suggests usage of existing material. Rings of Power uses a base outline, and lampshades that most of it is original.
Yes, here is the
existing material that was
adapted from The Tale of Years:
1200
Sauron endeavours to seduce the Eldar. ... the smiths of Eregion are won over. ...
c. 1500
The Elven-smiths instructed by Sauron reach the height of their skill. They begin the forging of the Rings of Power.
c. 1590
The Three Rings are completed in Eregion.
The introduction of original material into an adaptation (especially into the adaptation of that first sentence which encompasses the majority of the season) doesn't mean that existing source material hasn't been adapted. Season one of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" is an adaptation and a re-telling of this story, written by J.R.R. Tolkien, as it says on the tin.
It says that the narrative is“inspired by, though not contained in, the original source material." I.e., not an adaptation per se. I think thr creators have been very upfront about what the show is.
I've now had a look at the disclaimer. It flashes by so quickly in the end credits that it's not easy to get it to pause at just the right moment so that it can be read. I'd say that hardly puts it "up front". It also doesn't say what you've purported. Here's the full text:
This production contains dialogue, characters, and places that were inspired by, though not contained in, the original source material.
So not the whole narrative, but certain individual lines of dialogue, characters like Nori and Adar, and places like Tirharad, were not present in the source material written by Tolkien but are the inventions of the writers of the show as distinct from certain lines of dialogue, characters like Galadriel, Elrond, and Sauron, and places like Lindon, Númenor, Eregion, Moria, and Mordor that are present in the source material that has been adapted which have also been used. That's what it says -- that not everything in the show is contained in the source material -- that there has been some invention which is part of the act of adaptation.
The Hobbit is a story that had been successfully adapted in 90 minutes (by Rankin Bass). I think that could be expanded to 3 hours to get all angles of the story in one film. More than three hours requires padding. The Hobbit's page count is mostly scenery description and running commentary from the Narrator: the plot is very short in fact. To stretch the story to 8, let alone 16 hours would require massive invention, which I donsee working as well as Rings of Power because the story isn't big enough to contain it (unlike the critical outline of the Second Age events). The Lord of the Rings, however, I think would work in Five Seasons, because it is a monstrously larger story.
The Rankin/Bass Hobbit is mostly beautifully done, but I think its pacing is entirely too fast for episodic television. It hits most of the major plot points but leaves out many details, including the entirety of Chapter 7: Queer Lodgings (where Bilbo and Company stay at the house of Beorn) and, more importantly, the events surrounding Bilbo's finding and delivering the Arkenstone to Bard. The show I'm imagining would include all of those omitted details, told at a leisurely pace with lots of room for attention to scenery and atmosphere. Elements such as the Battle of Greenfields and Gollum's childhood memories would be given full treatment. By page count alone, The Hobbit is around a quarter the length of the LotR, so I don't think two seasons is much of a stretch if LotR could be turned into five. (I'd argue for six.)
Yeah, that's all pretty standard TV show stuff at this point, basically to be expected. Honestly a lot less of that here than normal.
Well. I think it's an approach that results in a story where events occur that make no sense. I mean, why does Gandalf land in a crater that looks like the Eye of Sauron? That's just weird.
