Is it bad for WOT if LOTR is a huge success?

[MasterAblar]

5 hours ago, bringbackthomsmoustache said:

In the flashback at the start showing the 3 rings for the elves - and I think again at the end on the ship taking the ring bearers from middle earth.

Yeah you just don’t really get a good look at him I think. Believe he’s actually supposed to have a beard.

[templar7]

On 10/23/2022 at 8:45 AM, DojoToad said:

I didn’t have a problem with her age. But that none of the elves looked distinctly different from the humans with the exception of the ears. They just weren’t ’pretty’ enough. They didn’t have the grace. Whatever Jackson did in LotR, it was missing in RoP. 

100%!! You nailed that. I think that's more in line with my issue. Like Celibrimbor looking like a high school geography teacher and Gil Galad, like Galadriel's uncle.. or something to that effect.

I agree man, the whole nuance of "The Eldar" and what they were in respect to the rest of the races of middle earth seemed to have been ignored.  The only elves that really look the part are Arondir and Gil Galad.

[Scarloc99]

On 9/12/2022 at 2:31 PM, mogi68 said:

I'm having a hard time overlooking all the issues with the timeline in this show. Isildur is alive and the rings haven't even been forged yet? What? In the text he's born like 1600 years after the One Ring is made.

 

It's as much of a mess lore-wise as WOT season 1 was. Probably worse

Thank you this was my biggest issue, tine compression, Isildur will now be alive for the entirety of Sauron’s first war which makes his refusal to destroy the ring just weird. He will have litterly experienced all of Sauron’s atrocities first hand. 

[Scarloc99]

On 9/14/2022 at 1:32 PM, JyP said:

I guess from WoT point of view you would have Age of Legends being somewhat 10 years ago right from the first episode 🤪

 

I wonder how Isamov's Foundation series got adapted ? As it's kind of the same problem, with novels going on during many millenia

Foundation was done with time jumps, it was actually handled really well. 

[Scarloc99]

My biggest issue was the time compression, If it goes the way I anticipate we will see Mithril be discovered, and then the Balrog destroy the mine all in the space of 1 dwarven generation. 
 

There are so many ways the writers could have been clever with the story and told it over a wider time period. Instead we are going to have the fall of Numenor be over the space of what, 50 years, Gondor will be built in the blink of an eye, you can forge 3 rings of power in a month from Gavin no idea such a thing was possible. In the books many lesser rings are forged first before the “Rings of power”. 
 

Oh and the constant “who is Sauron” was almost as bad as “who is the dragon”. In the end turns out Galadrial was the one who gave him his ability, without realizing, that was just silly. 
 

But yes Time Compression, at least have Isildur as a baby, that gives you 3-400 years to play with. 

[templar7]

On 10/23/2022 at 3:58 PM, MasterAblar said:

Having a lot of tall and slender actors play elves also helps.

Another great point! Elrond should tower over Durin and Galadriel should be at least the same stature as the Numenorians.

[templar7]

On 10/24/2022 at 6:42 PM, DojoToad said:

On 10/24/2022 at 5:57 PM, AdamA said:

I still waver with the Harfoot storyline. On the one hand, I thought the relationship between Nori and the Stranger was more touching than any of the other ones shown so far, and they made a nice worldbuilding touch with a fairly interesting culture. On the other hand, what is supposed to be the point of this? It feels like a completely disconnected plot that has nothing to do with the forging of the rings or the eventual last alliance of elves and men this is supposed to be leading toward. The analogy to setting a subplot in Shara seems apt. That could be done well, but why? It's just including a different show in a show for no reason, or in this case, it feels like writing by focus group, that some marketing suits told them the appeal would be broader if it included hobbits and wizards. The time could have been spent actually developing the Southlanders. I don't think this was their intention, but to me, the most interesting characters so far are Sauron and the head Orc Adar. I get trying to gray things up a bit, but do you want people to be rooting for your villains? But if you make the Numenoreans and Southlanders all jackasses or bland, uninteresting archetypes, Galadriel a genocidal maniac, the other elves except Gil Galad idiots and Gil Galad is barely in the show, who else are we supposed to care about?

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I figure that they were trying to build in why Gandalf was so fond of hobbits.  Thought they spent too much time on it, but that is what I came up with...

I agree, but i still bump up against it. The Silmarillion in my head keeps telling me that Gandalf came by ship and long years after the forging of the rings.... But I see your point.

[templar7]

On 10/24/2022 at 5:57 PM, AdamA said:

Morfydd Clark is actually 33, the same age as Cate Blanchett in 2002. They kind of got at least that right in the sense that elves shouldn't age once they're past elf puberty. Of course, they go and squander that with having Celebrimbor look so visibly older than the other elves and Robert Aramayo looking truly like a kid compared to Hugo Weaving, who was already in his 40s when Fellowship was filmed.

Very surprised by her actual age there... She still looks 19 though... to me anyway. I guess Cate just had and elegance to her. 

Your point on Celebrimbor is spot on!

[Sabio]

I wonder if it's an advantage to not have access to the whole lore of the series you're making.  Rafe has access to the whole WOT lore and world and people expect it to stay true all the time.  Where with the LOTR series they mostly have to use obscure source material and make a lot up.  

[DojoToad]

12 hours ago, Sabio said:

I wonder if it's an advantage to not have access to the whole lore of the series you're making.  Rafe has access to the whole WOT lore and world and people expect it to stay true all the time.  Where with the LOTR series they mostly have to use obscure source material and make a lot up.  

Depends on the showrunner.  I imagine some people expected it to remain true, whereas others expected it to change to due moving from book to screen - adaptation.  I think changes are fine as long as they improve on the source material.

 

Having very little source material depends on the creativity of the showrunner and the team.  Stay in line with what little material there is but take a free hand and create because there is little source material.

[templar7]

On 10/22/2022 at 10:16 PM, Harldin said:

On 10/22/2022 at 9:34 PM, templar7 said:

What a great perspective. I agree from a non readers point of view. 

As a fully read Tolkien and RJ fan, as I'm sure you are as well, RoP changed way too much. I think it's a problem of only having the appendices to work with though.  

Like what is Galadriel doing taking orders from Gil Gallad... Gandalf and the Istari came to middle earth by ship, and long after the rings were forged as Cirdan gave one to Him and the other to Galadriel. And the Numenorians should have had numerous settlements in middle earth by this time. 

Buy comparison WoT stayed much tighter to the source. 

Not yet convinced that the Istari is Gandolf or that we will ever know who it is, we may be left guessing with the Stranger and he may just leave Middle Earth at the end of the series, without giving a known name. 

That's possible. But wouldn't that be even more confusing to us students of the story and newbies? There were only 5 Wizards (Istari), White, Blue, Brown and two Blue... I admit I can't remember when exactly Radagast and the two Blue arrived in Middle Earth but I'm sure it was after Dagorlad. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I could digest it easier if they made him a Blue... In fact that would be kind of cool as Tolkien never expanded their story or names.

I'm just such a nerd with this stuff. lol

[bringbackthomsmoustache]

3 hours ago, templar7 said:

There were only 5 Wizards (Istari), White, Blue, Brown and two Blue...

I think you mean white, grey, brown and two blue?  You did ask to be corrected if you were wrong (although I consider that to be an open invitation on any post),😀

[templar7]

23 hours ago, bringbackthomsmoustache said:

On 10/30/2022 at 11:52 PM, templar7 said:

There were only 5 Wizards (Istari), White, Blue, Brown and two Blue...

I think you mean white, grey, brown and two blue?  You did ask to be corrected if you were wrong (although I consider that to be an open invitation on any post),

Yup, that is indeed what I meant. Thanks for the correction mate.

[Kalessin]

Well, I've watched a pretty faithful TV series (BBC) adaption of the Narnia Chronicles, and I've watched the (interrupted) series which isn't quite as word-for-word faithful, and the not-so-faithful adaption wins hands down.

 

On quite the other hand (or paw), I've endured (with rage) the TV miniseries adaption of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy, and it was painful in the extreme. I fully endorse her outrage at the liberties that were taken with its central characters and actions.

 

And I've seen both the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy TV series (BBC) and the film of the same, and for once, they have managed to get both right. But then, the TV series wasn't a faithful adaption of either the books or the radio series. And the books weren't a faithful adaption of the radio series either.

 

As long as neither the WOT or the ROP violate character development or history as badly as the Earthsea miniseries, I'm fine.

[Blackbyrd]

I give Wot a very slight edge critically speaking over RoP despite the fact RIngs definitely had the edge in aesthetics. However, that may well be in favor of WoT. Anyone who watches the first season of Rings of Power could very well be interested in other such offerings.

 

WoT did actually have a few distinct set of visual moments I hope they keep up so that they don't fall into either the RoP or HoD aesthetic.

Edited November 2, 2022 by Blackbyrd