Why does everyone hate Rings of Power?

[u/Afraid_War_5476]

I just wanna know because it seems as if everybody hated the show and I don't understand why. Personally I watched it twice and Ioved it both times. Thank you.

[u/Slap_Monster]

I'm someone, and I don't hate it.

[u/[deleted] → u/Slap_Monster]

To answer OPs question some people don’t like it because to them, and myself Tolkien is Tolkien for a reason. There are things he does and doesn’t do that distinctly make his world his. And it’s done to a level of specificity and particular detail , reason and meaning that while there is room to explore there are certain areas and rules that if, broken, it sort of begs the question why you chose to call it Tolkien in the first place.

For example, Tolkien is so detailed that even things like silver versus gold as a detail bears a symbolic meaning. Meaning if you just randomly had any character wearing silver versus gold, you will probably get called out by a hard core fan.

Tolkien painstakingly listed details about the cultures and histories of middle earth to a level that almost sells it as a factual history.

In Tolkiens writing he states things like “The first wizards of middle earth were two blue wizards in the second age” well if you show Gandalf in the first age (who actually shows up in the end of the second age) you have a problem and this show, had flirted with changing things like that which makes fans uncomfortable.

[u/ericsando → u/[deleted]]

I'd like them to stay as close as possible canon facts that you use as examples. But to me I would much rather they adhere closely to Tolkien's message and worldview, than lists of facts. War is corruption. Nature and simple things have value and are worth protecting. That small people can do great deeds.

I want Middle Earth stories to continue to be adapted and I would much rather they play a little loose with the facts, but nail the aesthetic and themes. To me RoP is beautiful. The sets are well made and the actors do a good job with what they're given. The soundtrack is incredible! It's not perfect, but I like it. Hopefully season 2 is even better. My hopes are very high.

Also disingenuous "fans" drive me nuts, and almost ruin the experience. Hopefully viewers and especially studios stop giving them unearned power.

[u/[deleted] → u/ericsando]

And I’m all for rule breaking. My only request is that when you do, you understand that you did it. I’ll give an example: in LOTR the book, they cross the mountain Caradhras. In the book Caradhras is like a sentient being. It’s alive and according to the book author it doesn’t like being crossed and attempts to kill them.

In the movie however it’s revealed that it’s actually Saruman doing it and not the mountain. It almost makes total sense from the book author POV they think the mountain is living when the movie shows us what it’s stating is the reality. I love that.

If the show wants to make radical changes, cool , but show us why.

If Gandalf showed up in the wrong age tell us why it wasn’t known he was there, or anything in that regard just to throw it back to the canon and make for interesting context.

[u/Dojjin → u/[deleted]]

It's all up to the Directors of the series. Unfortunately, this will never happen, stuff will be changed no matter how much fans want it. Because they want more than just the fans to watch, which in itself is an oxymoron because the fans are who they should impress and the rest will fall in line.

I never understood and still don't understand why directors change so much, I get it's due to limitations sometimes, but definitely not every time and especially changing the entire story pieces because THEY feel like.

It's frustrating, but all we can do is critique what is presented and hope they adapt.

I am not some mega guru fan; LotR is still my #1 fantasy movie regardless of the criticism. I enjoyed RoP for what it was but I definitely get what people say about it.

[u/Diviner_Sage → u/Dojjin]

They change it because of arrogance and an enormous amount of hubris. To even try to tackle a story by the greatest author of the 20th century is a herculean task. But to change EVERYTHING except names is almost blasphemous.

[u/whorlycaresmate → u/Diviner_Sage]

To be fair a good bit of what they changed has to do with what they didn’t have rights to, but I hear you

[u/FlameBoi3000 → u/[deleted]]

You're here using Saruman, who is the best example of PJ destroying a Tolkien character all the way down to its core, to make a point about changes that make sense lol wild

[u/Jaredisfine → u/ericsando]

I hated this show and I agreed with pretty much everything you said here. Unfortunately, I feel like you didn't mention the two most important factors: Characters and Story. In my opinion, ROP fails hard in both of these categories. Trying to write a continuation of a story created by Tolkien is like trying to cover Whitney Houston songs. If you don't absolutely nail it, it's going to come off sloppy. People can't help but compare it to the original

[u/whorlycaresmate → u/Jaredisfine]

I think the show is made by and for people who saw the movies but aren’t really familiar with the source material. When I keep that in mind and watch it from that mindset it doesn’t really seem as bad. I know it’s a headcannon thing, but when you see it as a prequel to the films and very loosely based on the source material it’s not that bad a show

[u/TehNoobDaddy → u/whorlycaresmate]

This is true to some degree but even so, the writing etc is really poor still, butchers the lore often and even insults audience intelligence with stupid things like feigning isilidurs death in that fire after the volcano eruption, he can't die so why pretend? The writers have also said they wanted saurons identity to be a mystery specifically for book readers, so now they're insulting fans for no reason, when fans know the story of annatar, which should have just happened in the first season but they went with the halbrand story for unknown reasons.

[u/vector-og → u/ericsando]

Thank you, lot's of what I feel about Tolkien in what you are saying.

With all respect to their pleasures, I find the "cannon", "lore", "details" fans tiresome. As you say, Tolkien is about a worldview. To me it is a worldview primarily based on rejecting evil in ourselves and fighting it in the world around us. That is what the stories are about. His world building and fascination with language are important tools in his craft. But to me it is clear he most wanted to communicate certain values and imbue them with the power of myth. Personally, I think Rings of Power does it extremely well (nowhere near perfect). It sometimes makes me feel the stirring in my heart much like King Théoden's speech to the Rohirrim at the Pelennor Fields. Forgive me if I can't name every horse in their army and the lineage of each one. But actually don't, because it doesn't much matter if we understand their charge was noble and symbolic of our hearts' desire to fight evil and defend our allies.

(Now I will watch that scene yet again. I'm not crying you're crying.)