Lord of the Rings Ongoing Discussion

[Legoman123]

Just now, RichardGoring said:

And look at how that turned out. A few FB sets, but mostly sticking with the original HP movies. So they could happily leverage RoP for the media tie-in and still produce mostly PJ movie-based sets.

Exactly what I'm thinking.

Just now, Atrius Kain said:

Rings of Power is the most watched Amazon series ever. The show is a hit, those bad reviews are from bots and trolls.

It's Brough LOTR right back into the public eye again.  Even if it's adults watching this and their kids are watching with them they will soon watch LOTR as well, similar to SW because no matter what trilogy of SW you are Brough up with once you know about it you will watch the other six movies. 

[MAB]

There is a difference in that Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter are owned by the same company so much easier where one of them gets many sets and the other far fewer.

[Altair1]

1 hour ago, Atrius Kain said:

Rings of Power is the most watched Amazon series ever. The show is a hit, those bad reviews are from bots and trolls.

Bots and trolls only cannot explain such a low score. The show may well be the most watched Amazon series (which makes sense given how much people were looking forward to it), it is still a disappointment to many. I personally question the casting in particular: most characters of RoP really lack charisma and empathy (it is striking when you compare with the stellar cast of the LOTR trilogy).

[th0r1n]

4 hours ago, Atrius Kain said:

Rings of Power is the most watched Amazon series ever. The show is a hit, those bad reviews are from bots and trolls.

Given the amount of money Amazon clearly spent on pre publicity, I wouldn’t be surprised if in the first few weeks it was their most watched series ever. 

I’m certainly not a bot. Nor am I a troll. Just a fan. I gave it a negative review. Not because it had a diverse cast and centered women in the narrative, frankly they were it’s only strengths. It was everything else that was just abysmal.

I really hope we do get more LOTR themed Lego. I’m desperate to see the D2C set due out in March. I’ve already purchased all the recent LOTR Brickheadz. For obvious reasons if TLG bring out RoP themed Lego I will not be purchasing same.

[natesroom]

17 minutes ago, th0r1n said:

Given the amount of money Amazon clearly spent on pre publicity, I wouldn’t be surprised if in the first few weeks it was their most watched series ever. 

I’m certainly not a bot. Nor am I a troll. Just a fan. I gave it a negative review. Not because it had a diverse cast and centered women in the narrative, frankly they were it’s only strengths. It was everything else that was just abysmal.

I really hope we do get more LOTR themed Lego. I’m desperate to see the D2C set due out in March. I’ve already purchased all the recent LOTR Brickheadz. For obvious reasons if TLG bring out RoP themed Lego I will not be purchasing same.

Amen... not a bot or a troll. A few months before RoP... the Wheel of time was Amazons most watched show ever, and that pile of poo was so bad. Whats even maddening about that garbage is the first 3 episodes were actually decent enough to make me hope even with all the changes, and then it just went downhill like an avalanche after that. RINGS of Power was horse****

[MAB]

46 minutes ago, th0r1n said:

I’m certainly not a bot. Nor am I a troll. Just a fan. I gave it a negative review. Not because it had a diverse cast and centered women in the narrative, frankly they were it’s only strengths. It was everything else that was just abysmal.

I was very keen to watch it when advertised, but only recently started, as I had netflix and had other series to finish watching first.

I think part of it is watching in your own home compared to the cinema. I started watching RoP and got bored and started using my phone or tablet to play a game or look things up. I left it a week, then started again but made sure I had no other distractions. If I had paid to see something in a cinema, I wouldn't have been as distracted. That said, it is still pretty boring and very slow. It makes The Hobbit movies look like a work of genius. It does feel like I am watching a slow drawn out TV series as compared to watching a film trilogy, even though overall timing is about the same for both.

I think Galadriel is one of the best characters in it so far, although I quite like Durin too. Some of the dialogue is terrible though. And so far I'm not a fan of the harfoots, especially their dodgy Irish accents.

 

 

[mtrsteve]

I had mixed feelings about RoP. Neither a masterpiece nor a steaming pile of you know what IMHO.

I was able to look past the harfoot accents as I quite liked their dialog and story line. 

I actually liked the slower paced parts of the story best. My issue was they would alternate between slow development and fast travel in a jarring way, and way too many plots of convenience like the Numenoreans just charging into the right little village in Mordor etc.

The dialog was probably the weakest part for me though. Incredibly hit and miss. Quite evident when parts came more directly from Tolkien's pen versus not. 

Now, the visual effects? Absolutely top notch. Visually stunning series at every turn.

 

Just now, mtrsteve said:

I had mixed feelings about RoP. Neither a masterpiece nor a steaming pile of you know what IMHO.

I was able to look past the harfoot accents as I quite liked their dialog and story line. 

I actually liked the slower paced parts of the story best. My issue was they would alternate between slow development and fast travel in a jarring way, and way too many plots of convenience like the Numenoreans just charging into the right little village in Mordor etc.

The dialog was probably the weakest part for me though. Incredibly hit and miss. Quite evident when parts came more directly from Tolkien's pen versus not. 

Now, the visual effects? Absolutely top notch. Visually stunning series at every turn.

 

To bring it back on topic, I've said before I think it does provide some good fodder for Lego sets. Celebrimbors forge, a lively Moria, our friendly neighborhood Balrog included...

And as an admitted minifig junkie, there is lots to salivate over.

[Balrogofmorgoth]

A lot of people who have opinions on RoP don’t know that much about the lore, so I ignore most opinions. Some things about it were incredible and some things about it were terrible. It’s certainly not black and white. It’s not complete garbage like a lot of the internet would have you believe, but it’s also not completely good. Some aspects are great, some aspects truly are garbage. But that doesn’t make it one or the other as a whole. Speaking as someone who is about as far into Tolkien lore as you can get.

[mtrsteve]

1 hour ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

A lot of people who have opinions on RoP don’t know that much about the lore, so I ignore most opinions. Some things about it were incredible and some things about it were terrible. It’s certainly not black and white. It’s not complete garbage like a lot of the internet would have you believe, but it’s also not completely good. Some aspects are great, some aspects truly are garbage. But that doesn’t make it one or the other as a whole. Speaking as someone who is about as far into Tolkien lore as you can get.

I think if you are a lore junkie you probably have to approach RoP as only semi-canonical if you want to enjoy it at all.

[RichardGoring]

1 hour ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

It’s certainly not black and white. It’s not complete garbage like a lot of the internet would have you believe, but it’s also not completely good. Some aspects are great, some aspects truly are garbage. But that doesn’t make it one or the other as a whole.

This sums up the entire Internet and every person's opinion in the world, to be honest.

I've not watched it, but would like to try at some point. I did see a few episodes of Wheel of Time - having never heard of it before, and not read any books - and was disappointed by that. It felt like they had taken LOTR and changed the characters slightly. It kind of felt lazy. But my understanding is that the books are far better and original. So a shame that the TV show was implemented poorly.

All of that said, I can see potential for excellent LEGO sets in all of these kinds of big budget fantasy TV shows. Just because the program isn't great, doesn't mean you can't have excellent sets from it. It gives LEGO the media tie-in that they clearly think they need to be able to produce fantasy sets that can be very easily tweaked/MOCd into anything you like. So I'm hopeful we'll get more.

[ForgedInLego]

I don't have any concrete stats on how ROP did, but I do happen to know that Amazon was willing to pay focus group participants $150 to watch each episodes as it came out and take a survey on it starting around September 13th. Doesn't exactly bode well for Amazon's expectations vs how it performed. Never seen anything similar for any other Amazon show.

[Balrogofmorgoth]

1 hour ago, mtrsteve said:

I think if you are a lore junkie you probably have to approach RoP as only semi-canonical if you want to enjoy it at all.

I mean technically even the Peter Jackson films are semi-canonical, or exist as their own individual canon, since they still deviate from the texts. Only the books are hard Tolkien canon unless they make a film or show that is an exact match which will never happen. But the same goes for any adaptation of any book. Which is one reason why (even though some aspects of the show bothered me a lot) I don’t let myself get so worked up about the aspects of Rings of Power that didn’t work. I’ll always have the books, so I can still enjoy the ride and then go back and read the real version

[hoppa]

3 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

This sums up the entire Internet and every person's opinion in the world, to be honest.

I've not watched it, but would like to try at some point. I did see a few episodes of Wheel of Time - having never heard of it before, and not read any books - and was disappointed by that. It felt like they had taken LOTR and changed the characters slightly. It kind of felt lazy. But my understanding is that the books are far better and original. So a shame that the TV show was implemented poorly.

To be fair the first book is a bit like that anyway. Quite generic fantasy in the sense that small town people learn about something big and have to run or journey into the wider world, getting educated along the way. It really finds its own stride in the later books (not that I am saying the first one is bad, but I'd say you got the vibe of the first book /episodes right.)

[SirBlake]

It may feel like “generic fantasy”, but only because LotR is the template from which most fantasy books/stories were written.

It’s fair to prefer either the books or films based on your own preference. I’ve read the books more than once, I’ve seen the movies many, many times. The movies are much more accessible than the books to me, and Tolkien was a master of many things, but some of those things included dispersing tension before it has a chance to build and under-describing action. Obviously, two of Jackson’s strengths. 
 

Both great in their own ways, but I personally view the movies as darn-near perfect. I’ve read fantasy books that I think are technically better than LotR books in many ways, but it has earned respect for being the progenitor of fantasy as a genre. 

[Wardancer]

If the new Galadriel is made into a minifig, it might actually make me punch her in the face. 

[zoth33]

Just my opinion here but ROP was terrible.  The acting was really bad except for maybe Elrond and Durin.  Galadriel was unbearable to watch for my own liking.  The fight scenes were choreographed badly.  There were to many plot holes and not enough explanation of story lines.  Plus there was no real sense of time and space in the show.  There was a lot of bad things in the show it did have some good visuals though.  I just think it really missed the mark on a lot of things and won't go into great detail here as that would take forever to explain.  Jackson's films aren't perfect either they left out some things and put things in.  My main gripe with the films was how they cut Gondors mighty armies down so much in ROTK that they looked so weak.  All that being said ROP just didn't feel like middle earth to me.  If Lego does ROP sets I really hope they also do some from the original trilogy and the Hobbit.  Hopefully we do get some more Middle Earth sets soon.  

 

13 minutes ago, Wardancer said:

If the new Galadriel is made into a minifig, it might actually make me punch her in the face. 

That's great.  She really was unbearable to watch.  With that being said fantasy has really been bad this year with ROP, Willow and the Witcher Blood Origin.  The Witcher Blood Origin might be one of the worst shows I've ever seen and Willow isn't far behind with ROP right there with them.  I really hope the Dungeons and Dragons movie is better but I won't hold my breath.  So far DOTA dragons blood and other Anime have been way better than any of the live action stuff.   The only live action i've liked this year was House of the Dragon.   

Edited January 10, 2023 by zoth33

[BrickBob Studpants]

Personally, I wouldn't mind sets based on ROP, but I'd definitely prefer more LOTR and Hobbit sets.

I thought season 1 was pretty decent, but a few things bothered me quite a bit:

• Some characters felt pretty pointless, like Kemen. I suppose he will factor in in later seasons, but they still could've done more with him
• The whole Mithril story. WHAT?
• Inconsistencies with LOTR, like

 the fact the Balrog was awoken NOT because of greed. What happened to the "they dug too greedily" thing?! Or does the Balrog go back to sleep?

The fact that the creation of 

Mordor

was initiated by

just some random old geezer

Still not sure how to feel about the identity of Sauron.

I sincerely hope they explain how Galadriel just randomly met Sauron in the middle of nowhere  Otherwise that's the biggest copout in TV history!!

[Balrogofmorgoth]

I would certainly be happy with sets based on RoP, but not at the cost of sets based on LOTR 

[zoth33]

27 minutes ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Personally, I wouldn't mind sets based on ROP, but I'd definitely prefer more LOTR and Hobbit sets.

I thought season 1 was pretty decent, but a few things bothered me quite a bit:

• Some characters felt pretty pointless, like Kemen. I suppose he will factor in in later seasons, but they still could've done more with him
• The whole Mithril story. WHAT?
• Inconsistencies with LOTR, like

  Reveal hidden contents

 the fact the Balrog was awoken NOT because of greed. What happened to the "they dug too greedily" thing?! Or does the Balrog go back to sleep?

The fact that the creation of 

  Reveal hidden contents

Mordor

was initiated by

  Reveal hidden contents

just some random old geezer

Still not sure how to feel about the identity of Sauron.

  Reveal hidden contents

I sincerely hope they explain how Galadriel just randomly met Sauron in the middle of nowhere  Otherwise that's the biggest copout in TV history!!

Yeah like I said I could write a book with all the weird decisions they made.  

 

As for the identity of Sauron

Spoiler

I don't think they have the rights to Annatar and his storyline.  So that is possibly why they came up with this lame story of who is Sauron 

Also the Mordor reveal was so weak.  

The fact that Galadriel survives the blast and just lets everyone scream and die as she walks around dumbfounded just pissed me off.  She's thousands of years old at this point and the show made her feel like an entitled elitist at times and like a spoiled brat at others.  

The only setting that felt like middle earth was the dwarven city.  

 

[Brickroll]

1 hour ago, Wardancer said:

If the new Galadriel is made into a minifig, it might actually make me punch her in the face. 

Like....the minifigure?

[Shroffy123]

1 hour ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

Personally, I wouldn't mind sets based on ROP, but I'd definitely prefer more LOTR and Hobbit sets.

I thought season 1 was pretty decent, but a few things bothered me quite a bit:

• Some characters felt pretty pointless, like Kemen. I suppose he will factor in in later seasons, but they still could've done more with him
• The whole Mithril story. WHAT?
• Inconsistencies with LOTR, like

  Hide contents

 the fact the Balrog was awoken NOT because of greed. What happened to the "they dug too greedily" thing?! Or does the Balrog go back to sleep?

The fact that the creation of 

  Hide contents

Mordor

was initiated by

  Hide contents

just some random old geezer

Still not sure how to feel about the identity of Sauron.

  Hide contents

I sincerely hope they explain how Galadriel just randomly met Sauron in the middle of nowhere  Otherwise that's the biggest copout in TV history!!

Tolkien doesn't mention Balrogs in the second age. So I'm guessing showrunmers are using their artistic liberties there. In the third age, it is the dwarves that were too greedy, and dug too deep, thus awaken the Balrog in moria. 

[zoth33]

22 minutes ago, Shroffy123 said:

Tolkien doesn't mention Balrogs in the second age. So I'm guessing showrunmers are using their artistic liberties there. In the third age, it is the dwarves that were too greedy, and dug too deep, thus awaken the Balrog in moria. 

To be honest they took a lot of liberties as a whole and even said so in interviews to the point of saying that since Tolkien didn't say it doesn't mean it didn't happen.  That's basically how they have explained everything that's not in the written material.  

[Balrogofmorgoth]

2 hours ago, zoth33 said:

Just my opinion here but ROP was terrible.  The acting was really bad except for maybe Elrond and Durin.  Galadriel was unbearable to watch for my own liking.  The fight scenes were choreographed badly.  There were to many plot holes and not enough explanation of story lines.  Plus there was no real sense of time and space in the show.  There was a lot of bad things in the show it did have some good visuals though.  I just think it really missed the mark on a lot of things and won't go into great detail here as that would take forever to explain.  Jackson's films aren't perfect either they left out some things and put things in.  My main gripe with the films was how they cut Gondors mighty armies down so much in ROTK that they looked so weak.  All that being said ROP just didn't feel like middle earth to me.  If Lego does ROP sets I really hope they also do some from the original trilogy and the Hobbit.  Hopefully we do get some more Middle Earth sets soon.  

 

That's great.  She really was unbearable to watch.  With that being said fantasy has really been bad this year with ROP, Willow and the Witcher Blood Origin.  The Witcher Blood Origin might be one of the worst shows I've ever seen and Willow isn't far behind with ROP right there with them.  I really hope the Dungeons and Dragons movie is better but I won't hold my breath.  So far DOTA dragons blood and other Anime have been way better than any of the live action stuff.   The only live action i've liked this year was House of the Dragon.   

Even in the books, Gondor wasn’t exactly in its glory days. I think the missing element was Dol Amroth. Prince Imrahil and the Swan Knights would have certainly added some regality and might to Gondor in the film. 

[zoth33]

2 minutes ago, Balrogofmorgoth said:

Even in the books, Gondor wasn’t exactly in its glory days. I think the missing element was Dol Amroth. Prince Imrahil and the Swan Knights would have certainly added some regality and might to Gondor in the film. 

No Gondor wasn't in it's glory days but still not neutered like they were in the film and I'm only assuming he had to do that because he didn't have the budget or time for practical effects to do it justice so he added the army of the dead killing everyone.  

I think that's also why they didn't include Tom Bombadil and the Barrow wights as that would have made the first movie extremely long.  I know they have to remove some things and add others to translate it to the big screen.  

I still feel like the LOTR and Hobbit trilogies immersed us into Middle Earth way better than ROP did.  The music, settings, visuals all were better even though the Hobbit was highly flawed it still felt like Middle earth.  

I really hope lego does give us some Gondor scenes and figs this time if they are continuing the license.  

[BrickBob Studpants]

6 hours ago, zoth33 said:

I think that's also why they didn't include Tom Bombadil and the Barrow wights as that would have made the first movie extremely long.

I will never understand why Tolkien decided to undermine the power of the One Ring and thus the urgency of the plot by having one of the first characters our heroes meet be immune to the ring’s influence  

The ring is so evil not even the mighty Gandalf dare touch it out of fear of being corrupted! Next scene: Dancing singing forest dweller deity (?) in yellow boots is immune to it. Not so bad after all, that smelly old ring, eh?

Tom as a character is fine I guess, but his placement in the story makes no narrative sense to me, especially since he never shows up again.

7 hours ago, Shroffy123 said:

Tolkien doesn't mention Balrogs in the second age. So I'm guessing showrunmers are using their artistic liberties there. In the third age, it is the dwarves that were too greedy, and dug too deep, thus awaken the Balrog in moria. 

That’s the problem: the Balrog in the show is the Balrog in Moria, aka Durin’s Bane. Unless it’s awoken twice, they will likely move the destruction of Khazad-Dûm from the Third to the Second Age. That by itself doesn’t bother me, but its awakening should be triggered by the dwarves’ increased greed after receiving the rings, not by

 

their kindness and willingness to save the elves

.

Also, the great elven smith Celebrimbor doesn’t know what an alloy is?! That scene could’ve been written better

Edited January 11, 2023 by BrickBob Studpants