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"Evil cannot create. It can only distort that which is good"- Tolkien ( we all know this will be a massive abomination)

The Lord of the Rings has no nudity. The Lord of the Rings needs no nudity.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said the fans. “So do I,” said the drinker, “and so do all who live to see such times.

Lord of the Rings is “High Fantasy”. It focuses on virtue, heroism, and other moral principles. Game of Thrones is of the “Low Fantasy” genre and focuses on grit and more human impulses than ideals. Not to say one is a better genre than the other, but to try to adapt one into the other is idiotic at best.

With Christopher's passing, there is no longer anyone to protect Tolkien's legacy from being butchered

The Fan base: "Throw it into the fire!" Corporations: "No"

"Tolkien's old-fashioned wholesome idealistic view doesn't fit in particularly well to today's weird nihilistic postmodern creative wasteland where nothing is right or wrong, nobody is good or evil, and nothing we do means anything" ... this resume all the problems with what ROP propose.

"If this show follows the current trend, it'll probably paint Sauron as the misunderstood hero." The Critical Drinker foreshadowing Rings of Power. And I still can't believe they did that.

I’m black and I really don’t want to see them make it “diverse” bc this is European lore.

U forgot the biggest reason it will suck: they fired Tolkien expert Tom Shippey from the production. He worked on PJs trilogy and was going to work on this but was given the boot by Amazon, probably after he protested the inclusion of black elves or something

Amazon: (makes woke LOTR for $1 bil) Original LOTR movies: Look what they need to mimic a fraction of our power.

Lol, Lord of the Rings trilogy isn't just one of the best book-adapted films to have ever been made. It's arguably one of the greatest trilogies/individual movies ever made. Period.

New LotR show: "Sire, the orcs are at the gates!" "Well don't be racist... Let them in!"

As far as I’m concerned, the extended cut of LOTR is the only cut of LOTR

There was an old rule in the movie business: If the story is good then the movie will be good, so you had to find a good story and try to make a movie out of it. Now instead you are supposed to hire a diverse cast (no matter how good or bad, just diverse) and see what story you have to mutilate to make it fit with that cast. And that's how you get that... thing.

Judging by how Amazon slaughtered Robert Jordan's Wheel Of Time book series, I expect nothing but a "woke" disaster.

"All Sauron wanted was to marry his gay lover." -- This new show, probably

Sauron watched his mom get pushed off a cliff by hobbits.

No matter what happens, we have LOTR Trilogy, and I'll watch this again and again till I'm old to live. It's just sad that no movies up to this day comes close to how good these piece of art is.

"Yeah, romantic relationships were still a thing" Proceeds to show Gimli and Legolas. Good one, that got me cracking up.

As much as I love boobs, they just don’t belong in Tolkien’s stuff.

Nobody wants to see Gandalf the Fabulous pull the One Ring off his “wizard’s staff” and offer it to a woman with a lecture on how “the hearts of men are too easily corrupted,” especially anyone who remembers Galadriel’s speech of how she’d be corrupted.

"Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made" ~Tolkien

The images Amazon recently released look pretty telling. Prepare for disappointment if you even vaguely care about the lore/world Tolkien painstakingly crafted.

"I also suspect that Tolkien's old-fashioned, wholesome, idealistic view on good versus evil doesn't factor in particularly well to today's weird, nihilistic, post-modern creative wasteland where nothing is right or wrong, nobody is good or evil, and nothing we do means anything." You couldn't have taken the pulse of today's storytelling any better than that.

There is no curse in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of men for this treachery.

Amazing and very accurate commentary on the corruption of movies nowadays. I’m so glad there are still people that understand the importance of good stories with good morals that don’t need sex and grittiness to be “good.” I really hope Bezos doesn’t go through with this.

Amazon doesn't even have the rights on the Silmarillion... they are working based on the Appendices on LOTR

Best case scenario: Amazon's show sucks and becomes forgotten and obscure, and the Peter Jackson trilogy remains what everyone remembers.

*Bezos is as trustworthy a steward to Tolkien’s legacy as Denathor was to Gondor’s.* Oddly, this is exactly Tolkien’s whole message: everything is getting worse, the pursuit of power and machines destroy the beauty of a quiet life.

im back here. 7 months ago i thought u might be wrong. 7months later u nailed it. Woke of the ring series is 100% official and ruined thanks to amazon

There's seven houses of the dwarves after the seven fathers. Longbeards, Firebeards and Broadbeams (the three lineages we read about in the Silmarillion, Hobbit and Lord of the Rings), but there were also Ironfists, Stonefoots, Stiffbeards and... Blacklocks. Those four houses were off in the far east and south, beyond the West. We know Far Harad men had darker skin. I liked those exotic, distant armies in bronze arriving. It made the world feel naturally diverse like the world was in the middle ages, far-flung peoples with wildly different appearances and cultures. But here we just have a dark-skinned dwarf princess, apparently dropped into the Longbeard line of Durin. Why? If they wanted a dwarf with dark skin just draw them from these distant houses we never saw otherwise. However I doubt they've done that. Now maybe she is from a distant realm and this is a political marriage, but I doubt they had that sort of creativity. After all, they fired their best Tolkien expert and replaced him with a PhD in Kool-Aide.

Betcha didn't know Celebrimbor learned everything he knows from his flawless and overbearing Haradric girlfriend.

Lord of the rings, literally the most diverse movies ever made. Elves, humans, dwarves, wizards, hobbits, orcs, etc. Maybe their skin isn't a different color, but who cares? Diversity isn't just about skin.

You know, I always wonder what people that scream for “more diversity in media so that I feel represented” think white people feel like when consuming media. I am a white straight female. I never, ever in my life identified with a character just because they were also white straight females. In Harry Potter I identified most with Harry because he has many flaws I recognize in myself but overall is a good kid. Faramir is my favorite character in lotr because how could you not like him?! And I loved Cersei in GoT because she made a good villain but dear god I hope I’m nothing like her. And even if all of these characters were black, gay or whatever I wouldn’t care because it wouldn’t change the fact that they are great fictional characters. So can we please stop this inclusivity BS (especially when it disrespects the source material) because in good storytelling there is much more to a great character than just race, gender and sexuality.

I'm Middle-eastern and as a hobby, I love studying history, other cultures, and other mythologies like Norse and Greek including my own mix of Egyptian, Persian, and Turkish background I loved LOTR because it was a beautiful fantasy story based on Western Mythyolgy and History and I like it that way. It told of hope, courage, friendship, and brotherhood, all universal human values. I will be very disappointed if the essence of that story is altered or distorted to suit a political or social agenda. Liking other cultures' stories, histories, or myths is not a crime. We are created differently and only by learning and knowing and then respecting each other can we live peacefully together.

Bezos: "I want Lord of the Rings to be the next Game of Thrones" The multiple levels of stupidity contained in that short thought makes my head hurt and I think I need to lie down just from hearing it.

Too bad the Tolkien Estate couldn't shut this project down after Christopher's passing. Lord of the Rings doesn't need nudity Wasn't expecting this many likes. Thank you

Watching this after Amazon LOTR trailer dropped… this aged very well.

The new Amazon series is going to make the Hobbit seem like a masterpiece. Calling it now.

"Unless you're one of those mad lads who went for the 11-hour version." Oh, you mean the only version?

"Intimacy Coordinator" sounds like something that a Hollywood producer would make up because professional groomer just doesn't look great on paper.

I will NOT NOT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT be watching any revision, remake, reboot or generally disgusting cash grab. The real LOTR was made by people who loved the books and wanted to preserve it as best they could. The Hobbit was a huge mistake.

“… it will probably paint Sauron as the misunderstood hero.” Damn this aged well… sadly. :(

"There's wokeness in the world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting against."

Another reason why LOTR is so good is because it was filmed at the exact right time, beginning of 2000s was perfect for it. Technology just good enough for all the insane things you need a computer for (ntm Gollum) without overusing the effects (like they did in hobbit), and not mixed with any politics like it would be today.

jeeze, this guys opinions are so damn refreshing in this day and age. he speaks the truth even though its technically not allowed in this day and age of political correctness, censorship and social justice warriors. also, i was a big fan of the lord of the rings and hobbit books as a kid. then as a teen i watched the lord of the rings movies and they were fantastic. i probably fell asleep watching the hobbit movies though. i do not want to see a modern take on lord of the rings. not at all.

The Critical Drinker : This is the most brutally honest movie review channel I’ve ever seen. You were born to do this lol

Literally nothing related to modern movies matters anymore. Might as well buy up all the Blu-ray’s you can, disconnect the internet, and spend the rest of your life watching what has already been made. You’d probably be happier.

The issue with wanting to emulate Game of Thrones is that Martin set out to subvert genre expectations with his work (which sometimes worked, and sometimes fell pretty flat). Tolkien's books, on the other hand, formed the defining works of that very same genre - it literally _set_ those expectations in the first place.

"It'll probably paint Sauron as the misunderstood hero." If only he knew.

When you described the show as a "weird, nihilistic, post-modern creative wasteland," I subscribed.

"Don't believe them, don't trust them. Let them die." -Captain Kirk.

Tolkien explicitly wrote Lord of the Rings as an Anglo-Saxon myth. He flat out said it.

This has aged like fine wine.

Intimacy coordinators are actually becoming pretty common in Hollywood - they're basically the director for the sex scenes, just like a fight choreographer does the fights. A lot of directors would just say "idk, just go at it and we'll film you," which is a waste of a lot of time that often leaves actors feeling uncomfortable and produces not-very-good footage. An intimacy coordinator is a great thing to have if you're going to have sex scenes in your series! ...which is all moot because, like you said, why on earth do we need sex scenes in LOTR.

Sex scenes and nudity? In an adaption of Tolkien's works? Tolkien would be rolling in his grave.

Bezos is literally proposing basing a Tolkien property on a self-described “anti-Tolkien” property.

"Evil cannot create, only corrupt." -- Tolkien

Excuse my English, I'm German. I usually like your statements and see my opinions being reflected in your videos - sometimes better than I would have expressed them by myself. I also share your concern about the upcoming Amazon 'Lore of the Rings'-Series. What I can't share is your understatement of the Silmarillion as not exactly a page-turner. To put it in a pathos, the Silmarillion is the mother of lore and the bible of fantasy - or maybe the Edda of Tolkien. It answers more questions I had, when I read The Lord Of The Rings for the first time or also after the well-interpreted Jackson-adaptation. It makes The Lord Of The Rings so powerful, even if it's an anticlimatic evolution of the whole lore. Wars so destructive, that they erased a big part of Middle Earth from the map, elves and humans so powerful, that they messed with gods and that one story, that contains everything, a fantasy heart ever dreamed of - Beren and Luthien... the Silmarillion would give a lifetime of cinematic entertainment as it took a lifetime for the father of fantasy to develop and discuss. May it not be hobbited...

Amazon is Denethor and Tolkien's legacy is that tomato.

"What can men do against such reckless hate?" -King Theoden

We haven't thanked Peter Jackson and the producers of the original trilogy enough that they made the trilogy way before the wokeness (the actual darkness) started. Imagine if LOTR movies were scheduled for production now. I don't even want to think about it. I'll be crying in a corner, holding to the books.

You came close to calling it on Sauron as the 'misunderstood hero'.

"Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisioned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we’re partisans of liberty, then it’s our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can" - J.R.R. Tolkien

"There is not now upon Earth any place abiding where the memory of a time without evil is preserved."

"The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real new things of its own." - Frodo Baggins in the 'LoTR' The Return of the King, page 190. "But trolls are only counterfeits, made by the enemy in the Great Darkness, in mockery... as Orcs were of Elves." Treebeard in 'LoTR' The Two Towers, page 474

7 months later... spot on

The first sex scene we get, I'm turning the show off and not coming back. I'm not a prude. The sex scenes were integral to Game of Thrones because of the kind of themes and tone that GRRM wanted to explore. They just don't fit at all in Tolkien's universe and the idea of inserting them is, quite frankly, deeply offensive to the man's legacy.

"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world." _-Thorin Oakenshield, The Hobbit._ I would add that if more of us valued good writing, respecting lore/fans, and kindness over fake toxic wokeness, it would be a merrier world.

Now we know it's not as bad as we feared. It's worse.

“[this show] will probably paint Sauron as the misunderstood hero”. How prophetic!

"Cancel culture" and "Misunderstood villains" existing at the same time is some sort of sick irony...

Some of the nitpicking SJW's on Twitter you mentioned seem to completely miss the fact that Tolkien DID have "inclusivity." Just not in the way they're used to seeing it. He didn't shoehorn it in. He didn't superficially virtue signal by compromising the integrity of the story just to make a point. He introduced real, deep moral principles of self-sacrifice, loving your fellow man and not judging them by the face they wore while having it make sense within the world he created. Some examples: -Frodo chose not to judge Gollum who made choices he didn't agree with. Instead he approached him with an attitude of understanding to see if he could help him. -Eowyn, the only strong female warrior I ever need screaming "I am no man" as she stabs the Witch King in the face. -Aragorn and Arwen having a strong, wholesome inter-racial human/elf relationship that overcame all obstacles. Likewise Beren and Luthien in the Silmarillion. -Speaking of Luthien, she confronted Tolkien's version of Satan a.k.a. Morgoth face-to-face, unarmed, in order to save Beren. Talk about "strong female character" vibes. -Frodo and Sam, as hobbits, were a race that were constantly looked down on (literally and figuratively). Yet their bravery was greater than their perceived weakeness and they saved Middle Earth. -And last, but absolutely not least, *Legolas and Gimli had a whole freaking three book long story arc on brotherhood transcending racial divides.* No, he did not stuff in a "token ethnic/nebulous sexuality character" into the world of Middle Earth in order to make a political point in our reality. It is a fantasy story. Instead he had Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves and Humans, with each even having their own multiple different ethnicities, cultures, languages and histories within them. All living on the same earth trying to understand each other. People who could all choose to do evil or good, no matter the race. With heroes coming through physical, mental and emotional obstacles to do the right thing. And that even if you do fall, you can come back to the right path as long as you choose to.

This video aged like fine wine

"Sir, the Uruk Hai are graping our women and children!" "Dont be a bigot that's their custom for saying a friendly hello!"

"'Your movie stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail, to the ruin of all." Thank God the LOTR trilogy was made when it was.

This aged beautifully

You called it, The Critical Drinker!! Sauron is a misunderstood hero in The Rings of Power. You called it, sir! 😮

Amazon wants everything to be "blockbuster success". That's why nothing of theirs ever is. Games, shows, nor movies they make will ever reach that point with that mentality. Not without putting passion and talent above chasing success.

It's depressing to think 90% of good movies were made before 2010 and we're probably never getting an epic fantasy tale like LOTR again.

“It’ll probably paint Sauron as the misunderstood hero” 😂😂😂

“Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt. And only ruin what good forces have invented or made.” - J. R. R. Tolkien

This is yet another example of why I only watch “older” movies and shows. Now, excuse me while I go rewatch the extended editions to wash this incoming train wreck from my memory bank.

"Why does it hurt so much?" "Because it was real". Future dialogue we can expect, and how I feel.

This will be the biggest first season flop in history.

Vanity Fair’s article dropped and holy elven shite it’s every bit as woke and cringy and we’ve feared my friends. Laughable 🤣🤣

Plot twist: Sauron is now a female protagonist escaping the bonds of Men.

I really like the Silmarillion, but I also like reading actual sagas, legends, mythology and ancient poetry. If you open it expecting to read a normal novel, it'll be a confusing disappointment. But if you're into this type of literature, it's a treasure trove of fantasy.

Revisiting this video after well over a year is pure joy!

This was so spot on. How prophetic.

"nothing ever dampens your spirits, Sam" "That new show might"

There has been an “Orcs are racist” article all ready written.

How prophetic this was.

Surprisingly accurate considering that you did this month before the trailer came out. XD

"Men are weak" is about to be given a whole new meaning. Thankfully. The 11 hours trilogy and the books are still there to be enjoyed, untarnished by the failures of lesser people.

The sad thing is that Bezos created Amazon as an online book store originally. You'd think he'd have read one of the most significant fantasy novels ever written.

After what Amazon did to Wheel of Time I shudder to think about what a shitshow this will be

Silmarillion is a singular masterpiece. Archaic language is perfect for the lore. Drinker: YOU try and write in that style and you’ll soon realize how friggin hard it is and how brilliant Tolkien was to do it properly. Beren & Luthien is one of THE best stories he ever wrote. Your comments are usually spot on, but your dismissal of Silmarillion is just wrong.