Quote from the man himself Peter Jackson: 'We made a promise to ourselves at the beginning of the process that we weren't going to put any of our own politics, our own messages or our own themes into these movies. What we were trying to do was to analyze what was important to Tolkien and to try to honor that. In a way, we were trying to make these films for him, not for ourselves.'

The Writing in this show really feels like when you're struggling to meet the word count on an essay and start making stuff up to sound intelligent.

Galadriel feels like an angry girlfriend, who is passive aggressive all the time, because you did something wrong without telling you what you did.

When I was younger, I wouldn't have understood why the Tolkien estate was so possessive of the source material, even to the point of belittling Peter Jackson's trilogy, which was about as much of a love letter to a book as Hollywood could ever make.... Now, I understand completely.

This show is the result of hiring your entire crew and cast based on skin color, who they sleep with, and who they voted for. NOT for any actual TALENT.

Also, the troll fight in LOTR, Aragorn gets knocked out, Boromir gets his bell rung when thrown against the wall. No one is invincible.

When Galadriel saw the rings and said "Impressive, very nice, let's see Paul Allen's ring" i literally started crying. As if Tolkien himself wrote this masterpiece

It is telling they had to wait til Chris died. That man was the definition of what it means to be a son. To carry a legacy. No amount of money can replicate it.

I heard that earths rotation has slowed due to Tolkien spinning so fast in his grave

It's almost hilarious how the father of Fantasy, the lore, the everything the billion dollars... And THIS is what they come up with

This show's dialogue is on the level of, "My dog stepped on a bee."

That moment when Guyladriel held Excalibur aloft and yelled "For Narnia" was so inspiring.

Modern Writing: "Diversity for diversity sake trumps authenticity." So glad I cancelled streaming services and that Drinker et al is watching all these shitshows to spare us.

To quote the Drinker, if the Hobbit trilogy killed LOTR as a franchise, then Rings of Power bent its corpse over a table using the teddy bear from his Doctor Who analogy.

Most irritating thing was in episode 2 when she’s in the water, the sword/dagger keeps disappearing and reappearing when necessary for the plot

Lmao 🤣 Halbrand: "You ever thought of just being a giant eye?" Galadriel: "What?" Halbrand:"Nothing...nevermind..."

That whole snow troll fight felt like an God Of War Quick time event kill.

Sickening that Amazon is playing the racist card just to avoid negative press and push back against criticism

At this point, if you are a writer of anything these days, every paragraph you should stop and ask yourself "what would the Drinker think?"

I saw the photo of Dominic Monaghan, Elijah Wood, and Billy Boyd wearing the diversity shirts, and I just burst out laughing at Billy Boyd’s and Elijah Woods’s expressions, they just looked so dead inside. All three looked like they were being held at guиpoint. I feel bad for laughing but the looks on their faces combined with their body language just sent me.

Soulless Corporation to fans: You suck!!! Your source material sucks!!!! We’re going to retcon it!!!! Don’t watch it!!!! *Fans don’t watch the show/movie* Also Soulless Corporation to fans: How could you ruin our story?

Love how it automatically plays this show if you fall asleep while watching something else on Amazon. I saw on my account it had been watched, but no one here watched it, Amazon is desperate.

“Mom, can we get Elrond?” “We have Elrond at home.”

Another factor about the comparison of the cave troll scene in FoTR to the Snow Troll scene in RoP that i think is compelling is there is even some degree of empathy and sadness felt towards the cave troll itself when it is fighting and finally dies. In it's saddened wide eyed facial expressions, its groans and it's slow staggering death, you almost feel like this is a simple tormented creature fighting more out of panic and fear, almost akin to bulls in a Spanish bullfighting arena...An additional plus to this type of portrayal of a simple cave troll also helps with the suspension of disbelief as it makes you forgive any bad special effects by the nature of the beasts behaviour and character on screen. So what i am alluding to is how Peter Jacksons crews' consideration to filmaking is all encompassing in it's character portrayals. It's not just using creatures on screne as a stepping stone in an action scene but as an ACTUAL CHARACTER. Where as the snow troll in RoP is exactly what soooooo many things are used for in films and tv now. A bland CGI tool used to convey a minor plot point or an undeveloped plot contrivance with the minimal amount of effort and consideration. My final point is that I FELT something towards the cave troll in FoTR, Yet i felt NOTHING towards the snow troll in RoP.

The really weird thing, though, is that apparently Sauron's *thing* is to brand a map of the place he's planning to build his kingdom into his enemies. What in the video game logic is this?

The show is 100% soulless, and it is so because it was made for corporate greed rather than love of the creator, the material and what it stands for. This show is horribly written with unlikable smug main characters, unlikable cardboard secondary characters, and unlikable already established characters who were changed to fit what the "writers" THOUGHT they should be like instead of what they ARE. It isn't going to change that sometimes the CGI is absolutely breathtaking, and other times it looks like it's made from CG work from the 2000s. The dialogue sounds like it was written by some high school student who barely passed AP philosophy who thinks they can spin prose to mimic Tolkien's words, but in actuality, what they write is as deep as a puddle. And the ALLEGORY!!! The allegory that's littered throughout its entirety that's as subtle as a flying brick. I just....

The dynamic they tried setting up between Elrond and Galadriel is weird also for another reason. In the lore, that thing Amazon didn't bother with, Galadriel is Elrond's Mother-in-Law...not his "friend."

This is what happens when you hire writers based on checking diversity boxes instead of actual merit.

Amazon is basically taking the Ghostbuster 2016 route Remember when instead of admitting they made a bad product Ghostbuster crew simply resorted to attacking the fanbase? Yeah, that turned out great.

Rocks sink because they look down. Ships float because they look up... okay. The same wind that seeks to put out a fire may also spread the flame... who the fuck uses wind to put out a fire? We need to put this flame out. Quick, throw some wind on it.

The obsession with REPRESENTION is baffling to me. I grew up in the 70's and 80's. There were lots of fantasy/ adventure movies for kids in that time. Most of them had a young boy as the central character. I never once thought "I can't enjoy this because it's not a girl" or "I guess only boys can do these things". I just watched them obsessively and loved them! Amazon is more interested in self-congratulation than a good storyline and that's why this show will not ever be as loved as the Peter Jackson trilogy.

Holy shit. The Little Platoon hit the NAIL ON THE HEAD with the problem of diversity in today's shows and movies. So well said

I didn’t expect Tyrone Magnus, but nice to see him here

RoP writers being interviewed by Amazon : "What do you mean? How dare you say our writing samples are terrible! Don't you know that expecting writers to be good is gatekeeping?"

My favorite line is actually from the first episode where Galadriel wonders, "What would I be without my sword?" or something to that effect. All I could think when I heard that was, "Well, you'd be Galadriel".

I forget who said it, but... who wanted short haired 60 year old frumpy elves? What an odd creative decision. There may be people who don't mind, but there are people who want the long haired ones, people who expect it, people who hate the short haired elves, but... who was asking for this portrayal of elves? Was ANYONE AT ALL hoping for this depiction? Why? Why?? WHYYYYY?

This show comes across as one of quite possibly the most miserable television experiences of all time. I'm glad I'm not watching it.

You could replace the words, "Rings of Power", in the title of this video with, "Almost every show made by big companies".

I miss the kid I was walking into the theater to watch The Fellowship for the first time. I haven’t experienced that sense of wonder in a film in 20 years.

Actually, if you watch the troll scene and count the elves, you will find that they gained elves between scenes. Not only did nobody die, but some more elves joined.

But now thanks to rings of power I understand why the titanic sank it was to busy looking up to see the giant iceberg infront of it

Shield me from criticism how? With your skin color or your gender? Only a wretched fool could not see through such a blatant deception

Back after the original trilogy came out, there was a whole slew of young storywriters who wanted to write just like Tolkien, which led to stilted dialogue and sayings meant to sound wise but were actually stupid or made no sense. Hearing dialogue samples from this show brings back bad memories of those wannabe Tolkiens.

“I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history - true or feigned- with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.” J.R.R Tolkien (Fellowship of the Ring)

What the little platoon said about reverse gate keeping is so true, these people have come in and taken over franchises like marvel Star Wars lotr etc and have just kicked everyone out and then invited back in the people they want, the amount of marvel & lotr pages I get into arguments on and having to explain myself to someone that’s just there for the politics is incredibly annoying.

As for the forced diversity in Rings of Power, the intent behind it may be ideological in nature sure. Especially given the marketing largely indicates that there’s a political motivation behind these changes and additions. I also think Amazon, as well as other corporations, are following guidelines set by the Academy. Remember the new guidelines set by BAFTA, where they state any movie of TV show that wants to submit itself for consideration must abide by strict diversity quotas? Rings of Power, House of the Dragon etc. They just want accolades.

My father read me The Hobbit when I was 5. Tolkien has been a part of my life all my life. I'm not watching Rings of Power for one simple reason...its not Tolkien. And I refuse to call Hobbits "harfoots" or whatever. Thats just dumb.

I could be incorrectly remembering, but wasn't Sauron frightened of coming across Galadriel during this period of time because he believed she would see straight through his deception?

Let me sum up the dialog of this series in one scene. Galadriel is complaining about being a prisoner in Numenor. She treatens to kill Elendir if not released... 30 seconds later... LITERALY 30 SECONDS LATER!! she is riding and smiling the biggest smile ever, with Elendir.. I didnt know if i should cry or burst out in laughter, so i decided to turn off the TV.

The scene were Galadriel says: "Nanomachines son", then turns purple and punches Voldemort into the face was awesome, brilliant writing by tolkien.

I'm so happy that Grey Worm became an elf, I was worried for him after his queen went bonkers and his girl died.

It never really occurred to me that hiring a very diverse cast for your film/TV programme might be perceived as a cynical way of defending yourself against general criticism of your product.

“With great investment comes great responsibility”

I like how Elrond and the smith casually stroll to the Dwarven city. Is it really within walking distance of the Elven Capital? No horses? No weapons? Yes the racism defense has been used too many times. And when a product leads with it, they know their show is shit. Their internal viewing was negative, so they are attempting to make their turd float.

Love how Tyrone is just sitting there and soaking in the energy.

Just watched the third episode and my god I’ve never seen something so poorly directed and written. I found myself laughing and dying from cringe through every minute of that episode.

They had one of the best books in modern history. They also had +50 years of visual art from so many artists you could fill a museum. They also had a whole trilogy of movies and several other, older adaptation for reference of what works and what doesn't. With all these ingredients: HOW COULD THEY EFF THIS UP SO MUCH!

Ironically, putting so much focus on how *diverse* their cast is and not on the quality of the writing leads us to judge the characters not by the content of their character, but the color of their skin

Something I noticed about the show was there is almost no moments without music punctuating the show. It’s absolutely filled with music to help guide our emotions

Just finished all 3 episodes (for the 2nd time). My absolute favorite part of the whole series so far is when Elrond thinks he and his friends are pulling Galadriel out of the well, but when the bucket reaches the top it’s only holding Elrond’s high school letter jacket. Then Elrond screams angrily down the well: “Galadriel! You Goonie!!!”

Ahhh but what also floats? Bread, Apples, very small rocks cider gravy A duck!!!!

There are some good lines littered throughout, only to be completely devaluated when the bad lines come. My biggest issues is with Galadriel’s like-ability. All her group wanted to go to back, she pressed forward at the expense of her company and didnt even seem to care a bit. Blinded by revenge…

I'm really enjoying this time of 4K restorations of older/classic movies. It's such a joy to rediscover movies that I've seen many times, and some for the first time, with a new digital print that shines. It's like getting a supply of new movies that you know are actually worth watching, rather than being constantly disappointed by actual new movies that barely punch above mediocre. Of course there are exceptions, but they are few and far between.

Kelabrimbor should have been more like his depiction in the Shadow of Mordor games.

Worst of all is now that it came out is divided the public even more. Everyone is calling everyone acists Actors now jumped into the bandwagon, as they usually do. Billionaires talking out of their golden thrones And now I realize the race swapping was the least of the problems on this show

Amazon Prime ratings are finally up - They are slowly deleting low ratings (Gone down by over 100 since they first appeared and rating going up, 1stars going down)

I'm still insulted by Amazon casting humans to race appropriate elves, dwarves, hobbits, and wizards.

8:46 "Did you ever want to be a giant eye?" - I spit out my drink

Hell yeah, have Tyrone back for sure guys. This was an amazing session 👏

There is something shady going on with the IMDB scores for it. Looks like they pulled loads of bad reviews to me. Is there any independent review sites left?

"The Sea is always right" best line ive EVER heard....

Other than being stunning and brave, this show accomplished the impossible for me: it made me genuinely sympathize with Morgoth and Sauron. Elves are insufferable, arrogant, and utterly incompetent. Dwarves didn't care for anyone but themselves, and Durin acts like a jilted soyboy whose boyfriend forgot to text him back. Hobbits are disgusting cold-blooded savages who do unspeakable things to their own people. The Numenoreans, "best of mankind," are just a bunch of close-minded xenophobes. Morgoth, I apologize, you were right all along. Sauron, you go boss!!! Take them out! Take them all out!!!

Turning what is basically the Simarillion into a virtue signalling diversity fest is unforgivable.

Now people are actually going to start saying that the Hobbit trilogy was secretly brilliant all along because of how bad this show is. Thanks Amazon.

Amazon's Galadriel is like someone made an elven barbarian in D&D and decided to use Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma as dump stats to maximise Strenght so that she can one shot trolls with a sword.

RINGS OF POWER end credits: “This production contains dialogue, characters, and places that were inspired by, though not contained in, the original source material.” What more proof is needed? Tolkien's works have surpassed 600 million in sales worldwide... The only author who ever made God worried would catch up to His writings... The hubris. The supreme arrogance. The unmitigated self-delusion that Amazon could better their source material instead of just faithfully representing it for us...

This is why you cast POC, so when someone calls you out for your shit writing you can call them racist and then the people who don't watch your show can retweet your "epic slam"

Wow, The Little Platoon knows how to articalute himself quite well. Good points 👍

We have become so shallow and superficial as a society that we force the idea that someone can only "identify" with a character if they're of the same color, gender or sexual orientation. It's like they took "if you can see it, you can be it" and stripped out any underlying meaning.

When Galadriel said "Y'know what I think? Don't really matter what I think. Once that first bullet goes past your head, politics and all that sh*t just goes right out the window." I knew it was going to be memorable. When she saved Orlando Bloom when he fell out of that chopper: brilliant. She would never fall out of that chopper and for that, I thank her for her service.

The highfalutin dialogue (the boat, rock metaphor) is horrendous. I did like episode 3 because they show Numenor.

The show exists to push “the message”.

In regards to the writing, I feel like I can say as someone who writes for a living that part of the issue is that the people controlling the purse strings of most any project very rarely have strong concepts of character, narrative, and setting. They are like people who watch a sport but have very little idea about the fundamentals or even the objectives of the sport, so they are only there for the spectacle. As such they are quick to pick up writers who will promise them a crude simulacrum of the spectacle without much care for what actually makes the spectacle worthwhile. Just one writer's take on this.

The Little Platoon makes so much sense

Jackson's LOTR did a great job of introducing characters using food, drink and music, RoP seems to be more focused on CGI and politics

Re: the boat versus rock story: it's a sophomoric attempt by a writer at setting up a payoff. Admit it, we all knew that's what that dialog was when it was spoken. It might have worked better for her entire character arc for Finrod to chastise her for turning to quick violence. At least the eventual longer-term payoff for that conversation could be her abandoning her warrior ways to adopt the lifestyle she's living when we meet her in LoTR. But the writers of this series cannot see past points A to B *inside an episode*.

After bingeing most of your vids in about a week, I came to genuinely respect your passion for storytelling and knowledge of how it should be done. I agree with your emphasis on well-written, believable characters that you can enjoy going on a journey with. I absorbed the work of many critics, but your work touched me the most. Under your hilarious outward persona, you deeply care about the art. The deepest, most fundamental aspects of your criticism have inspired me to finally do something. Something I knew I wasn’t ready for when I first imagined it. For the last 20 years, I have written roughly 1 million words for friends and family, with the simple purpose of earning adequate skill at storytelling. I honed my writing, and even ultimately benefited from deep, painful personal struggles, so that I could finally tell a specific short story. It complements and builds up one of your favorite films. And, incidentally, it also showcases many examples of genuine masculinity displayed in a variety of ways. Further, I feel it sets a very high bar for what respectful, quality “fanfiction” should strive to be. Upholding a beloved work. Understanding it, valuing it, and forgiving any supposed flaws. Contributing a modest addition to someone else’s great legacy. Underscoring and deepening the arc of an already beloved character. Teaching the same positive lessons with the same noble themes, in a slightly different way. Honoring the work, the creator of that work, and all those who have come to love it for what it is. I strove to keep it focused, purposeful, limiting it to just 22,000 words. It may not be perfect, but it certainly tries to be. I hope you will consider giving it a read. Based on what you’ve shown everyone of your true self (behind your hilarious outward persona), I believe you will approve of these efforts. You may be uplifted and proud for having put forth the time to read it. And you will then enjoy going back to watch your favorite trilogy yet again, perhaps getting even more out of the experience. The tale is humbly posted, amidst countless others, on fanfiction.net, under the title “The Children of Rohan,” by WillDreamer.

Love the part when Galadriel says to Frodo “Every day, I come by your house and I pick you up. And we go out. We have a few drinks and a few laughs, and it’s great. But you know what the best part of my day is? For about 10 seconds, from when I pull up to the curb and when I get to your door, ’cause I think maybe I’ll get up there and I’ll knock on the door and you won’t be there. No goodbye. No see you later. No nothing. You just left. I don’t know much, but I know that.” Brings me to tears every time.

You know its bad when torrent pirates refuses to download and watch it for free.

The orc fight scene was where I left it. My racist for some reason self couldn't take it any more.

I love watching these chats and the drinkers channel. I learn a huge amount of what NOT to do in the comic books I write and draw. Thanks for the great advice!

I am grateful as heck for all the controversy surrounding this show--especially in videos like this one!--because it reminds me that my personal "gold standard" will always be the books (though I remain a big fan of the Peter Jackson LotR films, as they were my gateway to Tolkien). My annual Tolkien read will start soon, so I am enjoying your videos even more than usual right now. Thank you and keep 'em coming!

"not Sauron" is not Sauron, I think he's going to become a Nazghul at some point. He's negative Aragorn, where his arc ends in corruption instead of heroism

Not one editor heard the script and said "what the hell are they saying?" I bet even Shakespeare would shake his head in confusion when he reads this script.

In the 90s and 2000s as a kid and even in the 2010s I've ever really heard of a show or movie attacking the fans. There may have been but it's tantamount to corporate suicide. Now it's so normalized and they re even proud of it to a degree all in the name of identity politics. Screw the art of story telling. Truly this is a little dark age for the film industry.

Just to put it out there somewhere - as there have been so many fables lately about this and I thought I remembered something from way back, so I looked it up: From the LotR Prologue: „… Hobbits had already become divided into three somewhat different breeds: Harfoots, Stoors, and Fallohides. The Harfoots were browner of skin, smaller and shorter … beardless and bootless; … most normal and representative variety of Hobbit, and far most numerous. … most inclined to settle in one place, and longest preserved their ancestral habit of living in tunnels and holes.“

The funny thing is that there were PoC in the Lotr. They were just “baddies” lol They could have expanded on them and made these cultures like the Easterling and Southrons more “human” and show why they are fighting for Sauron. Why are they seen as evil? Is it just the perspective of our narrator? But no we have tokenized Arondir, the ONLY COLORED ELF while they keep the rest of the elves white. Like COME ON Numenor as a “multi-cultural” society makes sense because it’s a fucking empire. But their dirty man society they have in East-Mordor makes no fucking sense. They would not have been some white far north English people. They’re described similar to those of the near East in the books and I would have loved to have seen that expanded and fleshed out, maybe even some original characters who make that demonized society more fleshed out.

Att: Mr Bezos... - This is not Tolkien... - Why have you made a show that is not Tolkien? Riddle me this… - If Amazon can't use Hobbits within the parameters of their licensed rights, why are they using Harfoots? HARFOOTS ARE HOBBITS! Hobbits we’re not in the 2nd age… - For reference; Types of Hobbits; Harfoots / Stoors / Fallohides - Why have they straight up gender swapped Frodo and Sam for easy viewer familiarity points? - Why, if the Harfoots are a clan that live along the same river in a single camp are they so racially diverse with no in universe logical explanation? This makes no sense, why not use some in lore logic and have racially diverse characters from Harad or Kand or some such? Not too difficult to work out that actual canon and in lore diversity could be worked into a £1billion show without the clunky, message pushing pish that the writers sloppily hammed in, as on the nose as it can get in 2022... - Why is Galadriel like Trinity from the Matrix? - Why at £58m per episode does it look cheaper aesthetically than House of the Dragon at £10m per episode? (This is coming from someone who was a GOT fan and got left heartbroken by the season 6,7 & 8 dip in character logic and quality of story telling) - Why are some shots so obviously green screen with the wind simulators and lighting clearly off point from reference? - Why is there so much Bokeh in the shots, when to have less of a hard time getting the public to accept this tripe as canon, they should have eased towards the visual filmic style of the previously seen adaptations? - Why do the elves have short hair and wear maternity clothes? - Why don't the women Dwarves have beards? - Why have they copy / pasted EXACT lines of dialogue from The Lord Of The Rings if not to subliminally give out nostalgia cookies to unsuspecting viewers? - Why is there no plot? - Why is there racial diversity within Elves who are described by Tolkien as "Fair skinned"? - Why are all the white males either dumbasses with low IQ or have an evil agenda? - Why were the show runners allowed to adapt such treasured works and turn it into a wokefest laughing stock of modern entertainment? - Why is the writing and dialogue so cringeworthy? - Why we're the actors run up promo spots talking about the diversity of the world being "updated" with a “redress of balance” rather than talking about the story, narrative, canon, plot lines, books the series is based on or the author, you know, J R R Tolkien? - Why was the casting director hired at all? I look forward to your comments, Mr Essex P.S. Genuinely deeply saddened by such a waste of an opportunity. What a show this could have been… P.P.S House Of The Dragon race swapped a main character and nobody made a sound because the show is half decent, the actor who plays him is on form and within the lore of the series it’s a diverse fictional continent so MAKES SENSE 🤯 Stop changing establish characters and IPs because they are easy to monetize audiences and start making new decent shit!

Cirdan is the only Elf that's mentioned as looking old, and that was at the Grey Havens, at the end of LOTR and Cirdan was probably the oldest Elf still living in Middle Earth.

Possible talking point for your next stream; how the mob cries when fridging is used on a female character, but if a male character is fridged to motivate a female character (Galadriel in this case) it's completely fine