#anti rings of power

[ariminiria]

remember to do your part by giving Amazon's Rings of Power show the Morbius treatment

[middle-earth-mythopoeia]

(source, 11/30/22)

KING

[wanderingwolfwitcher]

[madame-helen]

[hedgehogoftime]

Hi, I'm still angry about Amazon trying to turn Galadriel into a shitty YA romantasy protagonist by making her generic sword girl and taking away her entire backstory as one of the most powerful and revered of the Noldor and Queen of the Sindar and giving her a shitty enemies to lovers relationship with fucking Sauron.

[libertasexmachina]

Tolkien, 1938: FUCK NAZIS. Jewish are very noble and respectful people. I refuse to let my book be sold by nazis.

Some Karen, 2022: Tolkien clearly was antisemitic

[overthinkinglotr]

Some quotes from an article on the environmental impacts of the “most expensive tv series of all time” (and the lotr franchise in general, or what it’s become)— it seems like a ton of Amazon’s unnecessarily bloated budget went to building expensive plastic sets sndndndnd

[light-miracles]

Fans: The worldbuilding is absolutely destroyed. That's not Galadriel. That's not Elrond. Dwarf women should have beards. Elves don't have short hair. Finrod's death was turned into a joke. It's impossible for a hobbit to be called "Elanor". There can't be 2 Durins alive at the same time. Celebrimbor is younger than Galadriel. WHERE IS CELEBORN.

Amazon: OH MY GOD STOP BEING SO RACIST

[punchitmrsulu]

Cause there wasn’t real darkness when he got the inspiration for the books… you know… in WORLD WAR ONE!!!

[silvergifting]

kind of wild how the album, Nightfall in Middle Earth (1998) by the power metal band Blind Guardian, remains a far better depiction of the silmarillion & tolkien’s work in general than a show that am*zon spent well over a billion dollars on!!!

[anipologist]

Does anyone one else remember that terrible Tolkien adaptation called The Lord of the Rings Musical?

It was super weird, very expensive with a moving stage, used almost none of Tolkien’s actual songs and was quickly forgotten…

[the-writing-warg]

I'm baffled by the fact that people don't believe Galadriel was a "strong female character" without being a warrior and that she needs to go on a quest and kill some things to be called as such.

Literally look at this quote about galadriel from Sam in the two towers book :

But perhaps you could call her perilous, because she’s so strong in herself. You, you could dash yourself to pieces on her, like a ship on a rock; or drownd yourself, like a hobbit in a river. But neither rock nor river would be to blame.

You're gonna tell me that isn't a description of a strong character? That Galadriel needs to prove her physical strength?

[wanderingwolfwitcher]

High King Gil-galad: “Galadriel must leave these shores at once for Valinor, lest she court the very evil she was obsessively pursuing more than her own missing husband and bring it down upon us all.”

Elrond: "Agreed."

Galadriel: “Hey guys! I decided to skip Heaven, go for a swim, enjoy an island vacation with this random hot guy I met adrift at sea, encouraged him not to pursue a life of quiet and peaceful isolation, then invaded the Southlands with him and an army and put a crown on his head. Meet my new boyfriend, Satan. What’s for supper?”

[middle-earth-mythopoeia]

No, Amazon’s Rings of Power is not “woke”

It annoys me so much when people complain about Rings of Power being “woke.” First of all, because of the way they overuse the word, woke has become a next-to-meaningless term that can be applied to anything conservatives don’t like. Second, Rings of Power is only progressive in the most surface-level way; underneath that it is in fact extremely regressive. People who whine about Rings of Power being woke are not only annoying, they’re also just plain wrong.

Ever since the casting was announced, right-wing idiots have been shrieking about Black actors being cast in Rings of Power. These trolls have made all kinds of dumb statements about how Middle-earth = Europe, but they seem willfully ignorant of the fact that Europe has never been exclusively white, and there is no reason to exclude people of color from the cast of any Tolkien adaptation. Still, this didn’t make the show progressive in its casting (which was tokenistic) or its writing (which ranges from bad to horrible).

For instance, the only storyline Amazon writers could apparently think of to introduce Arondir was literally him being enslaved. I mean, really? Is that really the best plotline to go with? To be clear, I’m not criticizing the actor, I’m criticizing the writing. In addition, Amazon cast actors of color overwhelmingly in parts invented for the show—rather than as actual Tolkien characters—which more easily allows them to be sidelined by the narrative, and the casting overall was in no way diverse enough. So I find it bizarre that people criticize the show for its so-called wokeness, when very little effort was made from a diversity and inclusion standpoint.

Right-wing nutjobs also threw a fit about Amazon portraying Galadriel as a warrior, to the point where they started calling her “Guyladriel.” They whined about Galadriel being too feminist and too masculine in the show, but that’s the opposite of what happened and betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of Galadriel as a character. First of all, she fought at Alqualondë in one version of the story, so no one should have a problem with her wielding a sword. What IS a problem is everything else about her portrayal.

Amazon’s writers took one of Tolkien’s most interesting characters and stripped her of her power, her authority, her gravitas, her wisdom, and her ambition. They had Gil-galad, her younger cousin, order her around. They had Elendil compare her to his children, even though she’s older than the sun and moon. And they made her a petty, naïve, incompetent brat whose entire first season involves being manipulated by Sauron, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, having a bizarre will-they-won’t-they relationship with him. In addition, Galadriel is canonically tall and strong, and one of her names means “man-maiden,” but they made her short and waif-like instead.

Galadriel in Amazon’s show doesn’t even resemble the character Tolkien wrote—the character named Nerwen, who never trusted Annatar, who certainly never had some creepy Reylo thing with him, who was powerful and wise and authoritative, who had a marvelous gift of insight into the minds of others—not a quippy, rude, annoying idiot who is constantly being controlled by the men around her. I don’t know why anyone would look at Rings of Power and think this portrayal is progressive. It’s actually a failure of imagination: Amazon’s writers literally cannot conceive of a powerful woman even when all of the work of imagining her has been done for them. In addition to the faux-feminist-and-actually-sexist portrayal of Galadriel, Rings of Power is also on the whole weirdly regressive from the standpoint of gender roles and gender expression. Tolkien’s Elves are canonically tall, beautiful, and long-haired, regardless of gender. Tolkien’s Dwarves all have beards. So what did Amazon do? They gave most of their male Elves short hair, while the female Elves still have long hair, and they did away with female Dwarves’ beards. They patted themselves on the back for “letting” Galadriel fight, but don’t show other female warriors—in battle scenes, for instance, why are all the soldiers male? In general, they made their characters adhere to conservative gender roles and gender expression, which is especially glaring because it contradicts what Tolkien actually wrote.

On top of all this, they decided to throw in some anti-Irish stereotypes with a side of classism, just for fun. They had the ragged, dirty, primitive Harfoots speaking in Irish accents, while the regal, ethereal, advanced Elves speak with English accents. None of the actors playing the Harfoots are Irish themselves, to my knowledge, which makes the choice to have them speak this way especially questionable. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea?

All in all, it makes absolutely no fucking sense to criticize Rings of Power for being woke. It may look progressive on the surface because there’s a Black Elf and a woman with a sword, but that’s as far as it goes. The show isn’t particularly diverse to begin with, and it treats its characters of color poorly. Galadriel’s portrayal is disgustingly regressive, as is the show’s overarching take on gender. This is to say nothing of the caliber of the writing in general, which is unsurprisingly low. There is so much to criticize—like the nonsense about mithril, or the fact that Celebrimbor of all people doesn’t understand alloys, or the fact that you can apparently swim across the Sundering Seas now—which makes complaining about the show’s supposed wokeness especially irrational.

I also have to wonder if the people still whining about wokeness know anything about Tolkien’s works. Do they know that the crown of Gondor was based on the crown of the Pharaohs of Egypt? Do they know that Tolkien considered Byzantium the basis for Minas Tirith? Do they know that female warriors already exist in Tolkien’s books? Do they know when they rant about how much they hate “Guyladriel” that Amazon’s portrayal is actually too feminine? Ultimately, people who complain about wokeness in Rings of Power—or any Tolkien adaptation—are just betraying their own idiocy. I honestly think if Tolkien’s books were published now conservatives would scream that they’re woke too.

[nelyos-right-hand]

Before I start, this is about toxic and abusive behavior in Rings of Power that is portrayed positively. I will not get any hate for this because I should be allowed to point out problematic views in a show and people should talk about this.

The thing that bothers me most about Rings of Power is not the terrible plot. It's not the unnecessary love-story between Galadriel and Sauron. It's not the bad costumes or the extremely uninteresting side stories not even the RoP fans themselves care about. It's not even the canon that is burning and breaking all around us.

The greatest problem (in my opinion) is Galadriel herself. Because she's just... extremely unlikeable. Through the entire show, there was nothing that made me sympathetic towards her, that in any way inspired me to like her. And you just can't ignore that because she's literally everywhere. The entire show is about her which makes it impossible to watch, even if you are ready to lower your expectations and ignore minor flaws.

The way she treats everyone around her is just... I don't even have words for it. It's extremely disrespectful and impolite and imposing and... you just don't treat other people like that. Ever. It's extremely obvious that she thinks herself better than everyone else and she shows that to everyone.

And the worst part is that the show portrays that as the "right behavior". No matter what, Galadriel is always right, she always makes the right decisions, and those that see that and listen to her, and let her treat them like that are the "good" people, and those who contradict her or disagree are the "stupid" people.

The best example for that is her conversation with Elrond which we already saw in the trailer. You know, the one where's she's like "you have not seen what I have seen". I always disliked that scene because I didn't like how the show downplayed Elrond's own traumatic past, but the more I think about it, the worse it gets. Because think of the situation:

At first, Elrond (her only friend, so you would think she would bother to treat at least him well, but nope) tries to comfort her, at which she gets mad and tells him she had it harder then him. And this already... He's trying to help her, he is listening to her problems and she just immediately starts insulting him. But it gets even worse. Because Elrond defends himself, he says that he has suffered as well and that he knows what he is talking about, and she's just "nope, I suffered more that you did".

And that's just so wrong in so many ways. Because who does that? Even if she was right (which I don't think she is), who compares trauma like it's a competition?

She is suffering because she lost her family and her home, and so did he. They both lost people they loved and she just tells him that his losses weren't as painful as hers???? That she suffered more when she lost her brother than he did when he lost his?! Just- just imagine that for a second. Imagine you lost family members and then your friend tells you that it wasn't that bad because they what? Lost more? Lived longer? Again: It's Not A Competition!!! And Elrond even defends himself and tells Galadriel that she can't say that because he suffered just as much, but instead of admitting her mistake and apologizing, she just goes on.

And the worst thing is that the show makes it look like Galadriel is right. Galadriel is the hero and since she never makes mistakes, they try to somehow make this behavior look "cool" and "strong". Remember, kids are watching this show. Amazon wanted this to be for the whole family. And kids are gonna see her as a role model. They are gonna think her cool, as every twelve year old thinks a strong warrior who doesn't make mistakes cool. Is that what you want jung teenagers to define as "cool" behaviour? To treat everyone else like garbage and to never admit your mistakes?

Now, both Galadriel and Elrond aren't real, but in real life you can seriously hurt a person like that. And if the only way you can make a person appear "strong" is by making them hurt and downgrade others, then you shouldn't be filming TV shows in the first place.

And this was just one example. I could show you ten more scenes where Galadriel is just as condescending, this was just the one that bothered me the most.

And I don't want anyone telling me that "the show doesn't actually support that kind of behaviour". Yes it does. If the protagonist and hero of the show constantly treats others that way and is not once called out or criticised for it, it supports it. If it doesn't mean to, it should be more clear about it. I don't care whether they might still criticize her for it in season two (unlikely), they should have done it the moment Galadriel started comparing her own losses to those of her only friend in the trailer before the show even came out.

[symphonyofsilence]

So, now, according to TROP, Finrod, in Valinor calls Galadriel 'Galadriel', which is a name given to her by her husband after she goes to Middle-earth and sees him there. the aforementioned husband has not been mentioned in the show so far. instead, Galadriel flirts with an original character and to a lesser extent, with her future son-in-law who is generations younger than her and is apparently her bestie now. (But they don't even mention that Galadriel is Gil-Galad's aunt cuz God forbid she actually has some of the caliber that she canonically had. Nobody listens to her, nobody looks up to her, nobody even calls her "lady".) She doesn't even inform her husband and says goodbye to him when she decides to go to Valinor. She doesn't go to see him when she apparently comes back from years of expedition.

(And Galadriel and Halbrand accidentally hold hands in their sleep in the concept art so make of that what you will.)

Also, Galadriel is the Sindrin form of "Alarariel". The Noldor of Valinor, including Finrod, didn't know Sindarin, a language spoken by the elves of Middle-earth.

Then how should have they shown that this child is Galadriel you might ask? Well, they didn't have any problem showing her with the same shift she was wearing in her childhood flashback when she was grown up! But actually, I say, change that whole scene! The point of the scene was probably Finrod's dialogue about the buoyancy of the stone and holly shit! Was that bad! The dialogues are so trying to be philosophical and epic and end up so cringe!

And apparently, Finrod had sworn to find Sauron?? And Sauron found him first?? And killed him?? After the first age??

And look, there is "breaking lore" and then there is "eliminating the whole Akallabeth" which the show is about.

Finrod dies saving Beren. If Finrod wasn't with Beren in the quest for Silmarils, Beren would have died. (Since Beren managed to get that close to Sauron because of Finrod's shapeshifting arts, he might have died sooner.)

And had Beren died, there would have been no Dior. No Dior, no Elwing. No Elwing, no Elrond and Elros.

Elrond is now in the series, and Elros is the first king of Nomenor, which is the subject of a large part of the series.

And it may seem that this will just eliminate the first king of Numenor. But no. There will be no Numenor at all.

Had Beren died, the Silmaril would not have been taken from Melkor's crown and gone to Doriath. The sons of Fëanor wouldn't attack Doriath. Elwing, who would not exist in this scenario, even if she did, wouldn't have gone to Sirion and would not meet Eärendil, and once again, Elrond and Elros wouldn't exist. But more importantly, the sons of Fëanor wouldn't attack Sirion, and therefore Elving wouldn't throw herself into the sea with the Silmaril, so Earendil wouldn't know that his land was gone and that his children had probably died, and reached his last straw and gone to Valinor to ask for help, and because the Silmaril wasn't with him he wouldn't have managed to reach Valinor.

So Eärendil wouldn't have reached Valinor to ask for help, the War of Wrath wouldn't have happened, Beleriand would still be in Melkor's grasp, and the men wouldn't have helped the Valar during the War of Wrath so the Valar wouldn't create Numenor as a reward for them.

Therefore, a huge part of the series should not exist.

But no, apparently the showrunners thought it was more important to change Finrod's death to motivate Galadriel's absurd plotline, in which the wisest of the Eldar throws herself into the ocean and sidestrokes her way from Valinor to Middle-earth. (Valinor that Galadriel was not allowed to go to in the first place... so the whole point of the scene where Galadriel passes her test by rejecting the ring and succeeds in going to Valinor is lost. After removing the story of Galadriel's ambition and that she had come to Middle-earth to rule a land of her own and spent the Second Age looking for that land, and replacing it with this pointless plotline, removing both Galadriel's arc and the weight of the scene that she rejects the power of the ring.)

Also, apparently, Finrod took the oath of Fëanor. Yes, technically, that wasn't the oath of Fëanor. That causes its own problems but I understand that they didn't have the rights to some things but then THEY SHOULD HAVE LEFT IT ALONE! But a bunch of elves holding their swords out while the narrator is talking about how the Noldor swore to defeat the enemy and went to Middle-earth is alluding to the oath! They knew what they were doing when they added it!

And they could have just added a bunch of elves crossing ice with Galadriel, Finrod, and a dark-haired man in blue leading them?! Show the Noldor coming to Middle-earth, strong Galadriel being a leader, Finrod coming to Middle-earth, and a little cameo of Fingolfin without basically showing Fingolfin if they hadn't had the rights (just like how they showed little ginger children in Valinor probably with Amrod and Amras in mind) and stay true to the lore!

Also, with that hairstyle, show! Finrod looks like a popular but bullying captain of a high school's basketball team who would bully book! Finrod for being a theater nerd.

Oh, and, Celebrimbor apparently doesn't have any relationship with the dwarves before Elrond's arrival.

And Elrond, the heir to the Sindarin throne via Thingol, Noldrin (Gil-Galad's heir) via Turgon, and all the houses of the Edain is not an "elf lord" enough!

And yes! That was important! Cuz Elrond, the heir to any thone that there is, CHOSE instead become a healer, minstrel, linguist, loremaster and basically hotel manager. (I like what Robert Aramayo did with the role though. Elrond, Durin, and Disa were the only characters I liked.)

They keep needlessly going against canon! Not having the rights to this book and that book is not an excuse to willfully go against anything the books say!

And you might say that these go against the books, but are not bad writing.

Well, there is bad writing, too.

Show! Galadriel is SUCH a one-dimensional, unlikable, unrelatable character. All she was during the whole thing was angry and in posession of a dagger. With a single purpose and one thing to do. Making bad decisions while pretending to be wise. And the acting doesn't help it at all.

And jumping from the edge of a sword?! Listen, either your world has rules different from ours, or it's the same and you can't break physical rules in such a world! When you establish swords and people's wrists in your world as something that can be deflected with other swords, you can't say that they can endure (the weight of a person+ their armor)×(the acceleration of that person+ g) AND navigate a distance (r×teta) while enduring this weight to give that person an acceleration!

And you can't make people care about your characters and thus their plotlines with 5 minutes at most for each of them in every episode! There's not enough time for anyone to get invested. They don't have any filler scenes to show their characters and their relationship and make us care about them.

And that going to Valinor scene?!

We KNOW Galadriel wouldn't go to Valinor. So if you're choosing that bold plotline (going against the canon and logic along the way) the focus shouldn't be on whether or not she would go, but HOW she wouldn't go! I guess it was supposed to have the emotional weight of someone rejecting heaven for a cause or a person or something but it didn't work. Cuz we didn't know this show's Galadriel. We didn't know much about her adventures in Middle-earth and her relationship to the land, how she fought for it, who she had there (like...you'd think adding Celeborn and Celebrian would have helped), and her cause, keeping Finrod's oath did not work cause FINROD DIDN'T HAVE SUCH AN OATH!

And there is a LOT OF telling and not showing.

So yeah, to answer the showrunners question "can we make the novel that Tolkien never wrote?", yes, you can. You just did. Tolkien never wrote any of these. And would never.