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

[Benjamin Olson]

Wow!

That looks awesome! Why did they even bother with the lame Ring Verse trailer if they had all that great looking footage ready?

 

[Older Beholder]

The series of posters for the show look cool...

 

[Maxperson]

That looks awesome! Why did they even bother with the lame Ring Verse trailer if they had all that great looking footage ready?

I was actually pretty disappointed with the look of it.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I was disappointed that it was barely a minute long, when most every other first trailer is around 2 minutes. It just did not show me enough to make any judgement, good or bad.

Also, wow am I sorry that I read the comments on the Twitter thread for the trailer. The amount of hate from purists was horrible. It was so bad I could not tell the ones who hate any change to Tolkien's work from the ones who are actually bigots complaining about it being inclusive.

 

[Akrasia]

I'm really disappointed about the "time compression."
If one is going to make a series with five seasons during the Second Age, that series could easily be broken into two parts covering the following two pivotal periods:

1. The forging of the rings of power, followed by the War of Elves and Sauron (SA 1500-1700).
2. The capture of Sauron by Ar-Pharazôn, the downfall of Númenor, and the War of the Last Alliance (SA 3261-3441).

While no mortal characters (dwarf or human) could carry over from A to B, there are mortal characters who could persist for two centuries throughout both periods (given the long lifespans of Númenoreans and dwarves [just over two centuries, conveniently enough!]). And the persistence of Elrond, Galadriel, Gil-Galad, and Sauron would provide the narrative connection between the two periods.

 

[Akrasia]

Having watched it a few times, I have mixed feelings about the trailer.

The opening scene of Númenor looks amazing. The scene of Lindon (I assume it's Lindon) also looks great. The battle of the elves versus orcs (presumably during the War of the Elves and Sauron) also gets a "thumbs up." And I'm curious to know what it was that the dwarves were breaking (the meteorite?).

But I'm worried about the treatment of Galadriel as a kind of "action hero." That wouldn't be true to her character at all.

And that meteorite -- um, what? It's clearly meant to be something significant given its presence in the trailer (and Gil-Galad [?] looking at it with concern). But it's certainly something that the writers have invented for the series.

Most of the other scenes -- and the voice-over -- seemed a bit "generic high fantasy" in nature.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

Also, wow am I sorry that I read the comments on the Twitter thread for the trailer. The amount of hate from purists was horrible. It was so bad I could not tell the ones who hate any change to Tolkien's work from the ones who are actually bigots complaining about it being inclusive.

I think you can filter them by their reaction to the PJ movies. The bigots-dressed-as-purists that I've seen seem to be using "fidelity to lore" as their main schtick; a lot of them - I won't tout their channels here, as all they want is clicks - have preemptively tried to address accusations of misogyny or racism. They are citing how "faithful" PJ's movies are to the source material, and how the Amazon series is lore-breaking. They are seemingly content to overlook, for example:

1) The Elves at Helm's deep
2) Aragorn decapitating the mouth of Sauron (Aragorn would never violate a truce. He has integrity)
3) Legolas-surfing
4) Gimli-tossing and humour
5) Saruman's untimely death, Arwen-As Glorfindel, Faramir's reaction to Frodo and Sam, the Dead at Pelennor
6) Sauron as a literal giant eyeball etc. etc. etc.

Whereas real Tolkien purists will bitch about this stuff no end, and seem less concerned that there's a black dude playing an Elf or Hobbit.

I enjoyed the PJ movies immensely, but I actually found Aragorn's betrayal of the truce the most egregious of all offenses. I mean, remind me why this guy is supposed to be king again?

 

[Sepulchrave II]

But I'm worried about the treatment of Galadriel as a kind of "action hero." That wouldn't be true to her character at all.

But wouldn't it?

She crossed the Helcaraxë, at least according to one version of the myth. She led troops against the Noldor and in support of the Teleri at Alqualondë.

And:

Her mother-name was Nerwen ('man-maiden'), and she grew to be tall beyond the measure even of the women of the Noldor; she was strong of body, mind, and will, a match for both the loremasters and the athletes of the Eldar in the days of their youth.

And:

In her early youth, she was very willful and of an "Amazon" disposition; and bound up her hair as a crown when taking part in athletic feats.

I don't think that any of the characters in Tolkien's legendarium can really be called "action heroes," but I think that 100% fidelity to lore would be regarded as rather boring by a lot of people.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

It indeed is pretty hard to say much. What visuals we've seen look great. The time compression worries me. I had wished they would mostly just add to the stories from the books, and not so much change them, but the time comprehension indicates that they're doing rather massive rewrites. Also the differing time perspectives of elves and men is rather important aspect, and this is downplaying it. But I remain cautiously optimistic.

 

[Morrus]

Looks pretty good to me. I'd have preferred some more LotR-sinspired music, as that score helped shape the feel of Middle Earth in the movies. I'm not a Tolkien purist, so I don't mind if they make changes (and wouldn't know if they had -- I've never read anything other than The Hobbit and LotR).