The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series

Was hoping for something more nuanced than 'oh it will be the end of EVERYTHING'

The Hobbits Take Manhattan

Not impressed at all. Looks expensive and cheap at the same time. That Galadriel repeated line is terrible.

At least we'll finally find out how Galadriel became Spider-man.

Reading up on Númenor this morning, and I think my Tolkien cosmology must be rusty - the world is literally unflattened during the fall of Númenor?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Downfall_of_N%C3%BAmenor.svg/1024px-Downfall_of_N%C3%BAmenor.svg.png

Yup, exactly that.

the tolkien nerd in me can't quite comprehend the fact that sauron's return and the fall of numenor are happening at the same time in the show, when thousands of years should separate those stories

This was brought up in the Vanity Fair articles six months back. Basically they're doing some sort of compression of history which, adaptations happen. There was ALMOST a hint that maybe the first episode is a scene-setter set further back in the Second Age but we won't know until we see things.

I mean, would I like them to start with, say, the story of Aldarion and Erendis, which is an absolutely wonderful and very striking small-scale domestic drama that still portends Numenor's eventual doom millennia in the past? Absolutely. But guess what they don't have the rights to!

they seem to have akallabeth, but not the silmarillion. not sure how that works

They don't even have that! Just the redacted version in the LOTR appendices -- ALL they have specifically are the appendices.

Looking forward to three episodes on the Shire calendar.

HRM.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYnQDsaxHZU

Random question for Ned. Do you know if there's any information about Thuringwethil outside of The Silmarillion? Her brief appearance in that book is intriguing.

I just love the name: Woman of Secret Shadow.

I’m trying to remember her appearances in general over his various drafts and rewrites — pretty light in all, but I might be missing a story. Will have to check!

Found it funny that they apparently wanted to film the first season in Wellington, but had to choose Auckland instead, since Cameron was filming his "Avatar"s in Wellington. Dibs!

Would have been great if they filmed this in the Malibu hills, like M*A*S*H.

Am I right that the Lord of the Rings prequel will be on TV the same time as the Game of Thrones prequel? They should have a crossover event.

Yeah the GoT one lands a couple of weeks before this series

For our latest podcast episode we had some thoughts on these trailers. They are not entirely pleased thoughts.

https://www.megaphonic.fm/bythebywater/41

*scratches head* This is not a good trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8UAUAuKNcU

Lot of Acting going on there

Some lovely visuals. But my frowning at this just keeps increasing. Guess we'll all find out next week!

if they were jut gonna get rights to ancillary things, they should have just made a show that ripped off LOTR

like King of the Discs

God it looks so dull

dialog is crushingly bad

it reminds me of the 2001 direct to video movie of Final Fantasy, so lifeless & bland

Wing Commander movie

Not impressed at all. Looks expensive and cheap at the same time. That Galadriel repeated line is terrible.

― Am I doomposting? I would say you’re not doomposting enough. (PBKR), Thursday, July 14, 2022 12:36 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

Any thoughts on the score? Most of the themes are very good (Numenor, Elrond) to instant classic (Galadriel), although the instrumentation is not as inventive as in the original films.

Still optimistic for the first episodes!

I've heard the score. Bland and I do not agree with your instant classic choice.

Or the very good ones either! The vast majority of the pieces consist of slow start/choir/BIG CRESCENDO ending lather-rinse-repeat.

yeah honestly nothing about it so far bodes terribly well

first ep is about cancel culture

Or the very good ones either! The vast majority of the pieces consist of slow start/choir/BIG CRESCENDO ending lather-rinse-repeat.

I salute your patience. I got through a listen the other day and was very bored and distracted with it by the closing hour. Doubtless exposure via the show will let things settle in some but there's nothing truly remarkable out of the gate -- and as you noted, nowhere near the level of instrumentation inspiration that Shore brought. There's literally not a single musical moment as suddenly thrilling and memorable as that hardringar melody that's the core of the Rohan theme, for instance. (Also I'm convinced McCreary thinks that choirs were used on nearly every single piece Shore created, which is so not the case!)

The most memorable moment in this new score is the interesting plot-driven one where the Dwarves 'sing' to know the rocks and where to mine; it's a great touch and Sophia Nomvete pulls off something Lisa Gerrardish in the resultant track. But man does it ever stand out as a result.

I listened to that, and then I let it play, so I listened to the next track. I understand there's Irish hobbits, now, Father?

Faith and begorrah

Oh mccreary ended up scoring this? Zzzzzzz

Bear McCreary scores a million things.

Hit show is called "The Bear."

One of the lead characters on "Reservation Dogs" is named Bear.

Hmm ...

Wake me when OpenAI is good enough where I can type "Silmarillion into a miniseries" and it generates something better than this. I bet it'll only take a few years.

Trailer saved me a lot of time.

I mean...

https://i.imgur.com/6RCKph7.png

I did a quick glance (I want to stay spoiler-free), but most people here seem to be enthusiastic about the EPIC SCALE and visuals. Not a lot of talk about the story or dialogue, but did I mention the EPIC SCALE?

https://www.theonering.net/torwp/2022/08/23/114542-first-impressions-of-the-rings-of-power-as-social-media-embargo-lifts/

"Don't worry, it's nothing like The Silmarillion!"

Really, really fun. I remember buying the Silmarillion as a schoolboy when it was published and it very much not being the prequel I was hoping for. This is the sort of thing I wanted to experience back then. I'll watch the whole series when it drops, with enthusiasm. https://t.co/eEcGJvCOjk

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 24, 2022

Such epic much wow

Gaiman gonna kiss their ass so that Amazon gives him some of that cash after Netflix cancels "Sandman."

ha i thought the same thing

a positive review emerges

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-1234579403/

Was wondering when the embargo would finally lift.

a negative review emerges

https://www.washingtonpost.com/tv/2022/08/31/lord-rings-tv-show-review/

lol

Is there a double or triple episode drop this weekend or will it be just one a week?