[+] The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - SPOILERS ALLOWED

[Parmandur]

How did they reconcile it? What's their explanation for how Pharazon got out of the Caves of the Forgotten and crossed back to Middle-Earth after being imprisoned by Eru himself?

If the answer is "They don't explain it," then they didn't reconcile anything with canon; they just goofed. (Or changed canon intentionally.)

Changes are not inherently bad. We'll see what they do here.

 

[ART!]

The more you want to criticize a work for not being what you think it "should be", the more you need to understanding the art form, the artists' intentions, and their methods for that criticism to be actual art criticism and not mere opinion. There's nothing wrong with the latter, of course, but it's too easy to see one's opinion as Very Reasonable And Thoughtful, Yes Indeed.

 

[Maxperson]

Shadows Over Mordor is like 6-7 years old.

I don't know that one.

 

[Ryujin]

Yes and no. For better or worse, the Peter Jackson movies are vastly better known and consumed than the novels are, similar to the relationship between the MCU films and Marvel Comics. I think the adapters are probably making the wise commercial decision to go with what makes the movie audience happy, when they have to choose, rather than the book audience.

And most of the book people are still going to watch, much like my friend who sits beside me at every MCU movie and gripes about all the continuity errors from the comics, and not listening to me tell him it's a parallel universe every. single. time.

That kind of decision is inevitably going to frustrate many of the book fans, in both cases, but when you've got corporations and billionaires looking over your shoulder, not doing the commercially best thing would be very hard.

It's a little easier to hand-wave things in the MCU given that the comics already did the multiple universes thing and what there is now is virtually unrecognizable from what I knew in the '60s/70s/'80s. Still, there's nothing in "Rings of Power" that makes me say, What the f*** are they doing?!!!" It's more a bit of wondering at where they're going.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't know that one.

It's an Open Wprld adventure game where the player is an Anti-Hero rogue Gondorian Ranger fighting a guerilla war inside Mordor. Takes quite a few liberties, but was popular and recent.

 

[MarkB]

It's an Open Wprld adventure game where the player is an Anti-Hero rogue Gondorian Ranger fighting a guerilla war inside Mordor. Takes quite a few liberties, but was popular and recent.

Did you mean Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Shadow of War?

They did have some great story elements, which similarly took creative liberties with the lore. Their interpretation of Celebrimbor and his backstory with Sauron is superbly well done.

EDIT: Also the bits with Gollum are awesome.

 

[Parmandur]

Did you mean Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Shadow of War?

They did have some great story elements, which similarly took creative liberties with the lore. Their interpretation of Celebrimbor and his backstory with Sauron is superbly well done.

EDIT: Also the bits with Gollum are awesome.

Yup, that's it: I only know it by reputation, and that a lot of the Critical Role crew provided voice acting (Liam O'Brian being Gollum, IIRC).

 

[MarkB]

Yup, that's it: I only know it by reputation, and that a lot of the Critical Role crew provided voice acting (Liam O'Brian being Gollum, IIRC).

I played them when they came out. They captured the visual style of the movies very well, especially the orcs, which are made far more than just grunts thanks to the Nemesis system. The first game is excellent, the second suffers from some pacing issues but still has great elements.

The combat is very much in the style of the Batman Arkham games, one-on-many battles with moves that allow for crowd management and building combos to pull off special moves, but there's also a rewarding stealth / ranged system in there too. I enjoyed it back in the day, but when I tried to get into it for a replay recently I found that I no longer have the patience for it.

 

[Zardnaar]

Looking out there a lot of early reviews are kinda negative. Boring and pretentious, badly written etc, glorified fan fuction

It was rough starting out picked up towards the end.

Personally I would have pickedvavskice of time in the second age and develop that. Wouldn't have offended the hardcore Tolkein fans, less muddled pacing etc.

 

[Parmandur]

Wouldn't have offended the hardcore Tolkein fan

Good luck with that, lol.