r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Chill0000 • Aug 21 '26

Hated Tropes [HATED] Adaptations done intentionally without help from the source

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Halo TV show: Before the show came out, the writers were praising their decision to not look to the games for inspiration when making the show

God Of War TV show: Chris Judge, the actor of Kratos in the games from 2018-Now, spoke up about his dislike on the show not hiring anyone who worked on any of the previous games. One of the original creators of Kratos also spoke up about them not having faith in the adaptation.

Supergirl 2026 film: the director for the film not only said he decided to not read Woman Of Tomorrow, the comic the film is adapting, because he wanted to do his own thing, he also didn’t look at comic art for inspiration to design Lobo and instead used an AI image generator to design Lobo’s look for the film

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401

u/B-Z_B-S Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26

Rings of Power.

They had the rights to the Lord of the Rings, but not the Silmarillion, so they had to deliberately get things wrong where they could only have gotten the knowledge from the Silmarillion to avoid copyright infringement.

204

u/Boarderdudeman Aug 21 '26

I havent seen it, but this seems like a nightmare from the writers perspective. Squeezed by both sides.

49

u/CaptainMikul Aug 21 '26

I watched half of season 1, unfortunately I just found it boring.

Production was good, actors were good, and for a while it really captured the "Lord Of The Rings Vibe".

But you could almost feel the writers having to thread that needle. Everything just felt slightly off, slightly forced, like someone shaved the magic off LOTR because, well, they didn't have the rights to it.

9

u/Otterable Aug 21 '26

someone shaved the magic off LOTR because, well, they didn't have the rights to it.

As a massive LotR fan, the rights are not the actual issue with the show. That's just a salient excuse that gets latched onto by people who haven't actually read the Silmarillion. Even with all the rights the show would still be bad.

The reality is the writing is just poorly done and the creative changes they made especially the introduction of the Harfoots do not create a compelling narrative, or in the case of the harfoots actively take away from their ability to create one. On a closer watch, you can see a legitimately deep understanding of the lore by the creators, but the thing that matters most in TV is the plot, and they needed to create one to dramatize and compact the era they were telling a story about and it fell completely flat.

6

u/pocketbutter Aug 21 '26

Having finished season 1, I can tell you: a lot of the writing quality was sacrificed in favor of setting up for a twist at the end. I’m not saying it justifies it, but just that some of the choices make more sense once you’re aware of it.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26

[deleted]

5

u/CaptainMikul Aug 21 '26

I don't tend to do cost benefit analysis whilst watching a TV show about elves and goblins.

1

u/arandompurpose Aug 21 '26

It's hit or miss like the actors are great, the orc make up is awesome, the set pieces are well done; It can just be a bit slow at times and if you are particularly precious of the Simarillion that might paint your judgement as it makes some choices for sure. Still, I enjoyed it for the most part and it has enough going for it for me to continue to watch. 

1

u/OldForestDweller Aug 22 '26

The Silmarillion is primarily about the First Age, while the show is about the Second. The truth is that Tolkien wrote very few details about the Second Age because it was meant to be a bridge between the First and Third. Because of this, there is a lot left open that Amazon has filled in with their own ideas. Many of those ideas have been rather odd, but they have the most difficult job possible when it comes to adapting Tolkien's works.

104

u/One-Two-Gobbledeedoo Aug 21 '26

RoP is genuinely one of the most infuriating things I've ever come across. Like, if you don't have the rights for shit, then don't make it.

Everyone would've been a lot more understanding if they just...made a series about the things that weren't literally canon history. Like what if they made a series about the Blue Wizards or something. It would be treated as non-canon by many people, but at least it would be an interesting what-if instead of whatever the hell Galadriel was up to in that show.

35

u/FelixEylie Aug 21 '26

Or an entirely grounded series without such prominent characters (something like Rohan anime).

9

u/_Star_Princess_ Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26

I would genuinely watch a series of just some nobody exploring middle earth and his low stakes adventures just as an excuse to see the environments.

5

u/One-Two-Gobbledeedoo Aug 21 '26

It also gives us time to explore places that aren't touched on by the movies but are in the books like the Barrow Downs, Tom Bombadil's place, Dol Amroth, and the Old Forest.

3

u/Lonely_Nebula_9438 Aug 21 '26

The Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor/War games are like comically non-canonical but they’re an actually enjoyable experience, they’re fun games with cool mechanics and they show off less seen locales. 

1

u/One-Two-Gobbledeedoo Aug 22 '26

Arguably, War in the North too. I sunk an embarassing amount of time for those games and even though they're obviously non-canon (like no shit they're no second One Ring), they're some of the best gaming experience I've ever had.

The lesson is you don't have to make something faithful to the original, just don't be shit at writing like RoP lol

47

u/violetcassie Aug 21 '26

Only good thing about that show was the friendship between Durin IV and Elrond and MAYBE the design of Numenor that has a clear lineage to PJ's Gondor (but that turns it into memberberries for a project that is entirely unrelated to this thing passing itself off as a prequel). Everything else is My Immortal-level fanfiction.

18

u/FelixEylie Aug 21 '26

Yes, reimagining of Numenor as Byzantium was good. And the rest... I couldn't stand child Galadriel being bullied by fellow Elves at the beginning. They shouldn't be perfect but not in such a human way.

4

u/pocketbutter Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26

I LOVED all the dwarf stuff, I’ll give it credit there. I was always so engaged when Durin was on screen.

3

u/Trigonal_Planar Aug 21 '26

I liked the S2 fall of Celebrimbor arc where Sauron slowly tempts him into going more and more off the rails. That was good. About the only good part of the season though.  

1

u/Omegastar19 Aug 21 '26

Only good thing about that show was the friendship between Durin IV and Elrond and MAYBE the design of Numenor that has a clear lineage to PJ's Gondor?

Also this sequence.

-11

u/No_Walk_Town Aug 21 '26

Everything else is My Immortal-level fanfiction.

I mean, how is that different from Jackson's terrible writing? 

25

u/rognvald1066 Aug 21 '26

Wait, I never knew they didn't have the rights to the Silmarillion. Why bother trying to make this at all, then? That's suicidal.

13

u/violetcassie Aug 21 '26

Sil doesn't even really cover the Second Age all that much but they still pulled batshit things out of their ass like "mithril is from a tree with a silmaril in it that got fought over by an elf and a balrog and the roots turned into mithril because MAGIC"

10

u/FeanorEvades Aug 21 '26

Don't forget the magical broken sword that has a magical keyhole in a random wall that it can unlock that explodes a volcano

9

u/violetcassie Aug 21 '26

Or "when Sauron's body gets killed he comes back as the Meat Monster from Stranger Things 3" or "elves need mithril or they'll just fuckin' die"

9

u/FeanorEvades Aug 21 '26

How about the part where Galadriel jumps off a boat in the middle of the ocean

And somehow doesn’t die but gets picked up by Hottie McSauron pulling a Castaway

3

u/Anthyrion Aug 21 '26

But we haven't seen, what she has seen!

By the way... did anyone saw anything from those "Superfans", Amazon hired to "promote" this show after it came out? 😅

-6

u/No_Walk_Town Aug 21 '26

How about the part where Aragorn gets carried off by wargs then spends an hour of screentime whining about how weak humans are, then Gimli farts and drools on himself? Oh, wait, sorry, that's something else.

Seriously, though, every time someone screeches about RoP while praising Jackson's fanfiction slop, they just tell on themselves. Like, guys, we can all see the real reason you're so upset.

6

u/FeanorEvades Aug 21 '26

Jackson’s films are flawed, but the spirit of them is intact.

Do I think they would be better if meat wasn’t back on the menu? Yes, obviously. Do I think they would be better if Gimli was the honorable dwarf from the books and not the irreverent comic relief Jackson made him? Of course I do. Do I think it enhanced the movie to have Eowyn make a horrific stew that Aragorn has to spit on the ground? Not at all.

But Jackson’s “fanfiction” is at least grounded in the same core messaging and emotional payoffs.

Rings of Power doesn’t really have anything to say in any reflection of the source material.

1

u/No_Walk_Town Aug 22 '26

But Jackson’s “fanfiction” is at least grounded in the same core messaging and emotional payoffs.

It's not. You know that it's not. You are lying to yourself.

"Grounded" to you is when the cast is 100% white. "Emotional payoff" for you is when you get to see white people massacre brown people.

Rings of Power doesn’t really have anything to say in any reflection of the source material.

"Nothing to say" is when you have to see black people on your TV.

You're literally just sitting here arguing that fanfiction is cool and good when white people do it, and "nothing to say" when a single non-white person steps onto screen. Be honest. You can lie to yourself but literally everyone else sees what you're doing here.

2

u/FeanorEvades Aug 22 '26

You don’t know me.

I’m sure life has been hard for you, and I’m sorry. Genuinely. But it doesn’t seem like you’re interested in an actual discussion about the storytelling in both properties. All you seem to care about is unleashing whatever pent up rage you have about social injustices against me. If that’s what you need, I’ll listen. Get it all out, if it helps.

If you want to actually have a two-way conversation about it, I’d be happy to oblige. But right now it feels like you just want to berate me without caring if I actually deserve it or not.

3

u/Termineator Aug 21 '26

Because it was either RoP or a trilogy remake. Amazon came with the better idea

0

u/No_Walk_Town Aug 21 '26

Someone that actually read and liked the LotR books making a faithful adaptation would have been pretty amazing, actually. 

4

u/DaVirus Aug 21 '26

People forget what Tolkien was trying to achieve with LoTR. He wanted to create a western mythology. It is supposed to be adapted forever.

How many Hercules movies are there? How many Troy's? Odysseys?

LOTR should have new adaptations for new generations all the time.

1

u/OldForestDweller Aug 21 '26

Because Redditors don't know what's covered by Tolkien's books. The Silmarillion is primarily about the First Age, not the Second.

16

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/OldForestDweller Aug 21 '26

LotR/Hobbit rights were what was for sale, and Amazon bid for them knowing that. Amazon's idea was to adapt the Second Age from those rights, and the Estate liked the idea. The Silmarillion is primarily about the First Age, so often when people talk about it in this context, they actually do not understand what these books are about.

1

u/Z0idberg_MD Aug 21 '26

People are so misinformed on this. The show literally can’t to LOTR novel and can’t do the Silmarillion.

They have no choice to do their own thing because the Tolkien estate wouldn’t let them do their thing.

3

u/rolyfuckingdiscopoly Aug 21 '26

I appreciate Tolkiens estate respecting and protecting the legacy of that story.

-1

u/ReadingRainbowRocket Aug 21 '26

Uh, I don't. I can't bring myself to be upset at their actions 'cause I don't really care. But kinda weird take to be "proud" of people who inherited fabulous wealth refusing to allow the products of someone else's creation to live on creatively when there's a huge demand for it.

1

u/OldForestDweller Aug 21 '26

Tolkien himself sold the rights to his books, and he took a bigger paycheck for less control, which is how the movies were made. His son famously hated those movies. The same son also greenlit Amazon's project, but many fans would have you believe the opposite. People get a bit too worked up about all this.

1

u/rolyfuckingdiscopoly Aug 22 '26

It’s kinda funny to me that you quoted a word, with quotation marks, that I didn’t use. I don’t know that I’m PROUD of them. But I do appreciate it.

Mr Tolkien was pretty serious about who could and could not make adaptations of his work, and I appreciate his estate honoring that. But we are all allowed to have our own opinions about it, whether or not they seem weird to others.

1

u/ReadingRainbowRocket Aug 22 '26

I was not putting words in your mouth.

You've never heard someone use air quotes to emphasize something as a paraphrase or to make a point?

I don't actually have a strong opinion either way, but I wasn't quoting/misquoting you. It's a perfectly normal and acceptable thing to to do grammatically/rhetorically.

The linguistic term is scare quotes..

1

u/rolyfuckingdiscopoly Aug 22 '26

Huh. I thought scare quotes were used to indicate you don’t think something, or are being sarcastic/doubtful. I have not (to my knowledge) encountered them as a way to paraphrase a singular word. Although I guess I wouldn’t necessarily know, and have potentially assumed irony or doubt incorrectly.

Cheers in any case!

1

u/rolyfuckingdiscopoly Aug 23 '26

Just as an aside, remember when the Beatles wanted to do LOTR and homie was like “uh no please do not” 😂

1

u/ReadingRainbowRocket Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

No, because I'm old in my mid-30s, but not old enough to remember that. As an Aside, is Star Wars Christmas special so bad it's a must watch? Or so bad that it can't be enjoyed even as an entertaining train wreck?

Also as an aside, I knew the linguistic convention for scare quotes as I used them, and I knew the term scare quotes, but I didn't actually know it was the term for what I was doing until I googled and got to be haughty correcting you ;)

1

u/rolyfuckingdiscopoly Aug 23 '26

I’m also not old enough to remember it actually (we are similar ages), but I think it’s hilarious. The idea of John Lennon vacillating between all the main characters is so funny. May or may not be true, because stories gore in the telling, but it’s funny in any case.

Re Star Wars, I have asked this question and been told “not fun to watch,” but I kind of don’t believe it? It seems like it’s gotta be in “so bad it must be good” territory, if anything is.

You were a very successful haughty instructor! People love being haughty about things they just connected together. (I mean I know I do 😂).

0

u/OldForestDweller Aug 21 '26

Ironically, your comment seems to be a bit misinformed as well. They can do the novel, that's what they have the rights to. They decided it would be more interesting to not adapt the main story from the novel again.

1

u/Z0idberg_MD Aug 21 '26

Love the overconfidence:
Adaptation constraint: Their high-profile series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, is legally restricted to the Second Age timeline outlined in the appendices, **meaning they cannot directly retell the main Third-Age events of Frodo or Bilbo's core novels. [1, 2, 3]**

0

u/OldForestDweller Aug 21 '26

Whatever you're quoting is actually incorrect. In fact, Amazon had already purchased the rights from the Tolkien Estate before they decided to depict the Second Age stories. Amazon has essentially the same rights for TV that Embracer owns for movies, which are for two books: The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. It is not constrained by a fictional time period within the story.

1

u/Z0idberg_MD Aug 21 '26

I literally provided sources. You could probably do the same if you’re going to dispute them.

Here’s another:

Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey, who is supervising the show’s development, told German fansite Deutsche Tolkien that the estate has refused to allow the series to be set during any period other than the Second Age of Middle-earth. This means Amazon’s adaptation will not cross over at all with events from the Third Age, which were dramatised in Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning trilogy in which the hobbit Frodo Baggins journeys to destroy the One Ring.

You are just straight up wrong. I mean it’s kind of understandable as it might be confusing reading that they have the license to the main novels, but the details of the agreement itself prevents them from covering events in that particular age.

So basically any details in the main novels that relate to the second age they can use. But frodo, Sam and the fellowship? Nope.

1

u/OldForestDweller Aug 21 '26

This has been known for many years. You are misunderstanding, though Tolkien adaptation rights has been confusing to many, as you originally pointed out. From the showrunners' interview with Variety in 2022:

So what did Amazon buy? “We have the rights solely to The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, the appendices, and The Hobbit,” Payne says. “And that is it. We do not have the rights to The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth, or any of those other books.” That takes a huge chunk of lore off the table and has left Tolkien fans wondering how this duo plans to tell a Second Age story without access to those materials. “There’s a version of everything we need for the Second Age in the books we have the rights to,” McKay says. “As long as we’re painting within those lines and not egregiously contradicting something we don’t have the rights to, there’s a lot of leeway and room to dramatize and tell some of the best stories that [Tolkien] ever came up with.”

Shippey was speaking about the First Age in the original interview that the article you linked to was pulling from. Though he started by saying "third" in his answer, perhaps a mistake and the reason Empire got that wrong. As Shippey explained in that answer, the Estate still controls rights to all First Age stories, so they cannot be adapted. Another element here is that Warner Bros./HBO proposed to the Estate another adaptation of the main story from LotR, which they did not like, and they do not want Amazon to do that either. However, Amazon still owns rights to the entire book (as well as The Hobbit), which is why they have adapted elements from the prologue and even some small parts of the main story into the show. And, of course, this includes the Appendices in LotR, but not exclusively. There are a lot of wrong ideas about these rights, and "Amazon only owns rights to the LotR Appendices" or "Amazon only owns rights to the Second Age" are actually both incorrect as well.

1

u/Z0idberg_MD Aug 22 '26

I respect your gumption, but ignoring how NOTHING in the variety article rebuts the idea that while they have the rights to the novels, there is an “age” restriction”, the hilarious thing is the full interview you listed absolutely contradicts your argument:

> The First and Third Ages are “off-limits”, you can’t have the First Age. Events could be mentioned at the most if they explain the events of the Second Age

With a description below this direct quote section:

> The Tolkien Estate holds the rights to events in the First Age. The rights to the events in The** **Hobbit and in The Lord of the Rings, i.e. in the Third Age, lie with Middle-earth Enterprises and not with Amazon Studios. Whether and to what extent Amazon is conducting or has conducted negotiations with Middle-earth Enterprises is not known.

1

u/OldForestDweller Aug 22 '26

There is something here that we are getting stuck on. Amazon does have the rights to the entirety of the two books (LotR and The Hobbit), as I said, but they intentionally did not want to tell the main stories from them, which is why the Estate went with their bid. For example, the bid from Warner Bros. proposed an adaptation of the main story from LotR (just like the PJ movies). This is permitted under the rights that the Estate sold. However, the Estate preferred not to do that, which is one of the reasons they chose Amazon instead. (Another reason is that Amazon agreed to give the Estate some control over the project.) Also, that second part you quoted above is plain wrong. Middle-earth Enterprises (which is now owned by Embracer) owns movie rights. What the Estate licensed to Amazon are the same rights, but for TV. (Embracer also owns rights for games and merchandise that Amazon does not own.)

5

u/vigouge Aug 21 '26

This doesn't even remotely fit and that fact that you think it does should make everyone seriously question your knowledge on the show and this topic. They're adapting what they have the rights to, they have multiple Tolkien scholars on board for lore references.

You might not like the choices they made, but they're not ignoring the source.

1

u/Jim_skywalker Aug 21 '26

Didn’t they explicitly say they were making changes to “fix Tolkien’s racism”?

6

u/vigouge Aug 21 '26

I don't believe that they said that. There's no plot that involves discrimination except maybe Adar having in the past rebelled against Sauron because Saurons cruelty to orcs. Otherwise it's just a case of "here's a character who just happened to be played by a black actor." And even then, there's only a handful of non white actors who have important parts.

Ultimately people just hate that black people were cast in race blind parts.

2

u/Shard-of-Adonalsium Aug 21 '26

I just disliked that Arondir was one of the only black elves we saw, which makes him feel out of place. I think the actor did great in the role, but there should have been more background elves that weren't lily white.

26

u/PhinsFan17 Aug 21 '26

As someone who actually enjoys this show, I am not going to defend it. I'm sick and tired of defending media I enjoy from the Reddit horde. I've wasted too much of my time doing that.

I will only say this. The Tolkien Estate was shopping for a buyer. They heard a ton of pitches. Netflix wanted to make a Middle-Earth MCU where everyone got their own movie with a big team up. HBO just wanted to straight up remake the movies. Amazon was the only party that had an original idea and promised the estate a seat at the table and some creative control.

You were going to get some kind of new LOTR content. It was going to happen. Be glad it was this and not something you'd have hated even more. Be angry at the Tolkien Estate for net selling the rights to the Silmarillion.

The show is also totally fine. But like I said, I am done defending media I like from strangers on the Internet.

18

u/NailusHunter Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26

Man, I get it, you enjoy the show. But let’s be real, it’s still slop media dressed up with a Tolkien skin. You’re out here writing about Amazon’s pitch meetings like that somehow redeems the end product. Netflix wanted a Middle-Earth MCU, HBO wanted a remake, Amazon gave us corporate fanfiction with a shiny budget. Cool, it’s the least worst option, but that doesn’t magically make it good.

You don’t have to defend it, but don’t act like people are crazy for calling it mid or boring.The movies and the books are among the best fantasy media ever created, so obviously anything that doesn’t reach that level will be considered mid and that’s exactly what the show is ,it needed to be amazing but the show ended as just "fine", At the end of the day, you’re just vibing with slop, and that’s fine , I mean I did enjoyed the Hobbit so... NVM

11

u/Thelostsoulinkorea Aug 21 '26

The armour and most of the locations alone made the show shit. Add in the terrible changes and it was a horrendous cheap looking show that cost millions!

-9

u/No_Walk_Town Aug 21 '26

a horrendous cheap looking show

That didn't stop Jackson's movies from raking in piles of cash, though.

2

u/Thelostsoulinkorea Aug 21 '26

What? The OG lord of the Rings movies are amazing looking. The armour is great looking as well in them. The hobbit does look worse though.

-1

u/No_Walk_Town Aug 22 '26

What? The OG lord of the Rings movies are amazing looking.

So many shots are obviously and blatantly on cheap-looking sound stages. Having tall dudes pretending to be short looks cheap. Melodramatic cheap looking slow-mo. I mean, come on, you're lying to yourself if you think those movies look good.

The armour is great looking as well in them.

It's okay. I mean, you do get shit like Gandalf having early 2000's emo sweatshirt sleeves with little thumb holes like a girl shopping at Hot Topic. The weapon design is laughable. It's overall pretty bad.

Add in the terrible changes

Come on, you're being completely dishonest if you think Jackson's changes weren't terrible. He bloats the movie's run-time with unnecessary jokes, quippy one-liners, hyper macho posturing, cheap-looking fights. I mean, you know that in the book Theoden literally just kinda stretched his back, right?

Jackson added an entirely pointless, stupid, and cheap looking fight scene where Gandalf beat the shit out of Theoden instead. Come on, you are bullshitting yourself if you think anything in RoP is as stupid as that shit. You are a liar.

Just admit you hated that there were non-white people in RoP and it infuriated you to see them on your TV. You're not fooling anyone, we all know that's what really upsets you.

2

u/ReadingRainbowRocket Aug 21 '26

Way better than The Hobbit movies. I enjoyed a lot of it. Not amazing, but pretty good, and I think if it weren't for die-hard fans upset about the canon, it may not have been a hit, but I don't think it would have the same taint its perceived to have now.

3

u/Blazured Aug 21 '26

Yeah tbh the show isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The internet made it sound like it was going to be awful so I didn't pick it up until season 2 and I was pleasantly surprised.

0

u/TrueKyragos Aug 21 '26

It's seen as bad because it's supposed to be Tolkien and come within his mythos, a well-established one at that. If it was completely independent, I'm sure it would have been received far better, as something at least enjoyed by most.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '26

[deleted]

1

u/TrueKyragos Aug 21 '26

It's not a self-contained story, though. Characters and events of the First Age have an impact on what come after, and some characters are even still alive. Likewise when it comes to the Second and Third Ages. That's what a mythos is here, a whole interconnected universe and story. And there was a bit more than an outline, though certainly much less than for the First Age indeed.

8

u/Blazured Aug 21 '26

Yeah see that's the sort of complaints I heard before I watched it. I expected a nonsense show. But then Celebrimbor's storyline of being manipulated by Sauron into forging the rings in season 2 was incredibly engaging.

I feel there's tons of people online who are hating on this show but not actually watching it. I gave it a fair chance and was honestly surprised by how much I liked it.

3

u/No_Walk_Town Aug 21 '26

it's supposed to be Tolkien and come within his mythos,

I mean, that didn't stop Jackson's movies from making a ton of cash.

1

u/TrueKyragos Aug 21 '26

But he did have the rights and made use of them. Nothing wrong with that. Rings of Power doesn't. Coming after the movies were made didn't help either.

2

u/No_Walk_Town Aug 22 '26

But he did have the rights and made use of them.

Did he? His movies shit all over the source material, so did he really "make use" of the rights to those books? Shitting all over it so nobody else gets a chance to make an actually decent version of the story isn't "making use" of something - it's destroying it because you didn't get what you wanted like a child throwing a tantrum.

0

u/Silly_Double408 Aug 21 '26

because its indefenseable and your tired of losing? I get it.

1

u/Elavia_ Aug 21 '26

Probably gonna get lynched for this, but I find the RoP lore more interesting than the original.

1

u/MisterTamborineMan Aug 21 '26

I wasn't really a fan of the show, but I do understand how tiring it can be to be on the less popular side of an internet argument.

5

u/Magcargo64 Aug 21 '26

See, I really really love this show. The Numenor plotline drags, but everything else is wonderful and honestly gives me more of the mythical, musical vibe of reading the books than PJ’s trilogy, which get a bit “2000s action blockbuster” at times.

The casting is brilliant, Charlie Vickers is amazing as Halbrand / Sauron / Annatar. His scenes with Charles Edwards’ Celebrimbor in S2 are among the most beautiful crafted, visually gorgeous, and emotional resonant scenes in any Tolkien adaptation.

The illusion scene with Galadriel and Halbrand in the S1 finale is another highlight, and feels very very Tolkien. As is any scene with Durin and Disa. Or Durin and Elrond. Both pairings have really good chemistry.

And it’s clear how much love the showrunners and writers have for the source material, they always hide really quite deep cut Easter eggs, and again the casting choices speak for themselves. I think all the changes they make are really for the better and help them to tell a more cohesive story. Very much look forward to season 3.

2

u/Raguleader Aug 21 '26

For an example that was better received by audiences, Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films were made without any input from the author of the source material.

https://giphy.com/gifs/TcdpZwYDPlWXC

2

u/OldForestDweller Aug 21 '26

Ironically, Rings of Power did receive input from the Tolkien Estate. So this is a really bad example of this trope.

2

u/Tall_Opportunity_521 Aug 21 '26

Apparently this season we are getting an good orc that writes poetry... Its also being dumped over 3 weeks. 4 episodes the first week, 2 and 2 after that.

2

u/ReadingRainbowRocket Aug 21 '26

I liked it infinitely more than The Hobbit movies, but that's a very low bar.

It's not amazing, but the hate wildly overstates how bad it is.

"Not matching source material" isn't an automatically bad thing, but for soooooo many people it's one of their biggest (though not only, I acknowledge) complaints.

2

u/OldForestDweller Aug 21 '26

Really bad example of this. It's actually the only Tolkien adaptation so far that had input from the Tolkien Estate.

2

u/ohyouknowjustsomeguy Aug 21 '26

Lot of forced hate on that show. Last season exemple: Galadriel and Elrond kiss. Out of context, they go fucking wild with the hate.

The show is good. They do what they can with what little there is written about it.

And haters fan gotta chill. It's an ADAPTATION. Its meant for the wider audience. Not some dude here and there.

Im a big fan of Tolkien and im able to just ignore part i dont like

3

u/aibrony Aug 21 '26

I don't think the issue is even the lack of rights for Silmarillion. RoP takes place during Second Age, and there's a clear timeline and history of it in LOTR appendices.

But instead of following the history of Middle Earth, show runners decided to throw everything together in unholy soup.

The show could have been about Sauron rising to power from the ashes, elves establishing their realms and Sauron tricking them(season 1). Numenorians in the hight of their power and doing good deeds as rest of Middle Earth is consumed by war (season 2). Numenor getting drunk of their power, establishing collonies and ruling over "lower" people in the continent (season 3). Numenor becoming increasingly corrupted and divided, ending with Sauron guiding Ar-Pharazon to go fight Valar and fall of Numenor (season 4). And finally remaining faithful Dunedain must ally with elves to defeat Sauron and his minions (season 5).

But no! The show runners know better than Tolkien himself. They had the whole thing placed ready to use, but they ignored it, just taking names of the character in the show.

3

u/CosmicLuci Aug 21 '26

Not to mention making Galadriel a short young swordfighter who no one really respects instead of the fairly ancient tall powerful sorceress elvish queen that she should’ve been by that time. And entirely scrapping Celeborn.

3

u/NewSuperTrios Aug 21 '26

at least they knew they were screwed instead of just fucking around and finding out

1

u/Z0idberg_MD Aug 21 '26

They don’t have the rights to LOTR. They have the rights to the appendices only.

1

u/MagnusRottcodd Aug 21 '26

This series taught me so many useful things.

Like that you can face tank a pyroclastic cloud no problem.

1

u/No_Walk_Town Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26

The original LotR movies are a better example because they did have the rights to the books but chose to bloat the movies with a bunch of terribly written fanfiction and quippy one-liner jokes, shitting all over the books.

Seriously, every single character is butchered, turned into a cheap action movie cliche flailing around cracking stupid jokes. Those movies are just really badly written slop.

The biggest difference between Jackson's movies and RoP isn't just that Jackson pandered to the widest possible audience he could to squeeze as much cash out of the IP that he could, so you'll get tons of people insisting that, because they made money, they must be good!

RoP didn't pander as hard to that demographic, so you don't get the same screeching hoards defending RoP that you get for Jackson.

0

u/TrueKyragos Aug 21 '26

Adapting some notes of the appendices, which are largely expanded in the Silmarillion, while not having the rights to adapt the latter one and hence not being authorised to be too close to it. That's certainly a unique choice...

-1

u/kaian-a-coel Aug 21 '26

They have the rights to more things than you think, they just choose not to use it.