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Well, it's mediocre fantasy with names replaced by names from Tolkien. Basically, it's merch, not story.

I am honestly delighted that Sharkey blew a bunch of money, cranked out garbage, and hasn't profitted off of it myself.

So glad the Iain M Banks estate turned Amazon down.

"Nazgûl bureaucrats" god that was perfect.

Not all of us jumped on the atheist ship (which also has it's own myths). Tolkien said that he wanted to create a mythology of England, because there wasn't any existing mythology that was specific and autochthonous to England. The Arthurian stuff doesn't count because it is Celtic, and the old Germanic stuff doesn't count because it grew up in Scandanavia. He said he wanted something specific to the English soil. Sadly, most people don't understand his purpose, goal, or intent. As for me, I think mythology is valuable because it creates culture, community, and a shared zeitgeist. Take that away, and people have less in common with eachother, and less to talk about. I think this is the reason why the corporate entertainment (which are all globalists) deliberately deface all these works.

Hollywood's attitude to franchises like Harry Potter and LOTR is like the curator of the Louvre walking down the halls, looking at the priceless paintings and wondering out loud: "People love the Mona Lisa. We should have someone paint a few more and put them up. Then more people will come to our museum."

Eowyn is LOTRs strrongest female character.

I hope Galadriel fights another volcano in season two. She got out of that with barely a scratch. I fully expect her to slay enemies with lightning bolts from her arise while telling the warriors of Numenor they can't fight and she don't need no man. On the plus side, if we wrap some copper wire around the corpse of Tolkien and hook him up to an electrical grid, we will have energy for a thousand years because he will be spinning in his grave from what these hack writers have done with his world.

The Hobbit was an utter failure too, they turned Smaug into a wyvern and tacked on the whole elf / dwarf love story .

"The sea is always right!" Just. Epic.

''Angry nerd bro's'' Thats some next level gaslighting.👏

Colonel Kurtz: the Horror, the horror...

I mean....Tolkien himself understood that Lotr sequel wouldn't be the same.....that's why he abandoned The New Shadow story :)...you just can't overdo it....but regarding the 'forced diversity' it's pushed by these exact corporates who think they are earning some points with that or seeking that mythical 'global audience' and in the end they commit worse crimes of cultural appropriation...because as much as they don't want to believe...some works are rooted in real world cultures....The Lord of the Rings owes much to European cutlural sphere...it is based on it...that's why you will never have Lotr be 'global' because it's not....Lotr doesn't care for Asian or African cultural spheres...it explores the European one! That's where the interests of the author were. And he crafted unique world drawing from those inspirations.

LOTR is European myth, rooted in history, culture and yes, RayCe. But we can't talk about that.

Not even The Hobbit triology, and that was PJ, is REAL Tolkien.

I've said for a while that Rings of Power felt like a high budget fan film ...

Dismissing all the, what you called, "nerd bros" critics to just getting angry at the black actress is pretty disingenuous and condescending imo. No wonder you could destroy that strawman in 30 seconds.

A friend of mine is VERY upset that Glorfindel was left out. For that is the best ... "character" in LotR. So there is always somebody with a strong opinion on certain elements of the story.

This is brilliant. Existentialism is the only way to transcend nihilism, and the core of existentialism is taking responsibility for building your own meaning in a meaningless universe. I don't "believe in" Tolkien's world in the ordinary sense of religion or myth. I choose to make it part of my perrsonal narrative because doing so makes me better, stronger, and happier.

What's wrong with yoga? :)

Great video as usual. love the new "out and about" Damo. We get a view of Bali as a bonus!

Corporate power is depicted artistically in the LOTR

When I was a fan in the Seventies Hard SF from the ikes of Heinlein & Niven & Pohl was suddenly overtaken by a wave of Fantasy & Sword and Sorcery you mentioned. Not that a lot of writers didn't pick up on it like Zelazny and Piers, but the drift to franchise and maps of the realm is reaching its postmodern frame now.

*my therapist* "Bezosauron isn't real. He can't hurt you." *this video - BEZOSAURON*

'Gollum and his shitty e-commerce site' Perfect

I think the common view of myth/fiction, as being a tool or a means to generate this intangible and ephemeral "meaning" we speak of... is missing the point. It also becomes the most common dismissal of the power of the mind and the existentially challenging nature of it's potential. I've heard many a time "myth/stories/religions/philosophy is all just a coping mechanism to provide meaning. A true realist doesn't use any of these, because he doesn't seek meaning". Again I think this entirely misses the point. What fiction/myth allow us to do is to take a step back and allow our intuition to run rampant, from an objective distance. They are not simply to give us meaning, which may be a by-product. They are to go further than reason can go alone, both in understanding and in bodily potential. Reason isn't what got Wim Hof to push the human body to levels we called "miraculous" and "super-human" before realizing he was normal upon scientific testing. Intuition is a super power and it's what we have slowly but steadily removed ourselves from - both willfully and as an unavoidable consequence of progression - as humankind has become more and more intellectual. I believe religion/myth/faith has always been a crude attempt to access that lost potential which we have yet to replace with reason. It sure seems like hubris to create stories and to "believe" them... or to truly "believe" anything at all for that matter. But it also seems like hubris (and faith based mysticism) to imagine that our monkeybrain's intellectual capacity has infinite potential, while seeing the "limited/subjective/inaccurate" potential of intuition as a given. You could say living "without myth/belief" is a level of freedom that is too scary for weak people, or you could say, that having to make a real choice on what to believe outside of the training wheels of 1+1=2, is a level of freedom that is too scary for weak people.

Great video. The fly that keeps bothering you, also a great touch. A symbol for the decay of corporate media franchise.

Even fakes can tell a good yarn. Blade Runner 2049. However Amazon Basics LoTRs does not really satisfy that criteria.

Thank you for pointing this out, the Rings of Power is truly nothing more than 'Fake Tolkien'...also known as 'fan fiction'.

The whole thing is a grotesque farce, but it's Finrod screaming and crying like a little girl that makes me want to track them down and make them pay.

Thing is Amazon doesnt have the rights to Silmarilion - nobody does and nobody will have until 2043. They can only use the names and the setting, NOT the story as it was written. This is what most people shitting on the show dont understand. Now casting is IMO horrible, and they made some really bad choices telling the story, but its not like they can follow a book to the letter like they could with LOTR movies.

The Rings of Power are hatred of Tolkien’s work. Guyadriel is a joke and the show runners are talentless hacks who had wokeify Tolkien. This is what happens when a billionaire who resembles Doctor Evil from Austin Powers creates a studio to impress 20 something girl friend. You get great writing going in and absolute rubbish coming out. Tolkien’s heirs after Christopher who acted as gate keeper for his father’s work certainly appear greedy and well whatever…

The point on world building seems very relevant to gaming, where the map becomes the basis for the player's exploration of the world on various quests, etc. Has the popularity of gaming played a role in developing a culture that overvalues world building? Are there any games that express and explore themes and myths as richly as LotR?

I know they don't understand it, but they are Saruman. One of these days, their staff will be broken.

Sorry bro, Eowyn was the LotR’s strongest female character. This movie version of Arwen overshadowed Eowyn.

My first experience of Damien Walter. What a marvellous introduction. EXCELLENT video essay.

I had totally forgotten The Rings of Power show (having never seen it). I found what Peter Jackson did to LOTR bad enough (though I thought the movies were good overall) with the changes he made on the story. To this day, I find it hard watching The Two Towers (2nd movie); Elves in Helms Deep, Aragon's doubt journey after falling in the water and Faramir's fall from grace. The thought of watching Rings of Power is vomit inducing.

Video admonishing the commercialisation of Tolkien by Amazon.... Then unironically says: "one ring to rule them all and on their birthday, gentle band them"

the most sincere for of flattery is imitation and seemingly quite lucrative

I’ve watched this video 3 times(it’s only been up 15 hrs) because he makes talking about SF so dramatic and interesting asf.

While a lot of the adaptation decisions in the films were good decisions, the ford was a huge downgrade from the book. No problems with Arwen swaping for Glorfindel, but taking away the moment when Frodo confronted all 9 Nazgul and told them off was an even bigger blow than taking away his nearly stabbing the Witch King on Weathertop before getting the counter stab.

My favorite thing about the lord of the rings is that every part of the journeys that would have otherwise been mundane were beautified with a deep reverence towards the environment, the trees in particular. There's a life and a seeming consciousness even to the trees that aren't ents.

The Shadow that bred them can only mock, it cannot make: not real things of its own.

Amazing video. The only thing that could've improved it would've been a background score of Chad Kroger Enya cover songs.

Sure, I'm a lady of logic and science. I have a horseshoe upside down over my apartment door to keep the luck in and the fairies out, but I am .... very uhhh logical. mumblemumblepeopleneedstories Rings of Power is an empty sheel. Thank you.

Great vid. Love the thematic settings too.

Ich schätze deine Analysen immer sehr und finde, dass du einen Nerv triffst mit der Kritik am Franchise und Medienkonzernen. Auch dass du philosophische und politische Denker:innen mit hineinbringst, ist eine Bereicherung, auch wenn es seine Grenzen hatte bei der marxistischen Analyse von Endor (z.B. die Idee des Lumpenproletariats, was jedoch auch eine komplexe und kontroverse Diskussion innerhalb marxistischer Theorien ist). Gerne mehr in die Richtung wie bisher!

"dark satanic CGI mills" literally now AIs

Really enjoyed this video, so many interesting ideas well articulated. Thank you .

To be fair, Jackson’s LOTR is the original fake Tolkien. Not because of swapping out a tertiary character or cutting Bombadil…. But because Jackson/New Line capitulated to the lowest common denominator audience with primary themes of courage against great odds and fellowship/loyalty…. and completely avoided the harder, primary Tolkien themes of death, the pursuit of deathlessness, the absolute beauty in the initial creation of the world while it continually diminishes and fades, and the ongoing battle against evil/corruption- its inherited legacy starting with the epic struggles between the Valar/Maiar , and progression and diminishing in glory over time: first age battles bigger than second age battles and so on…. all culminating in the far smaller, more personal battle in the scouring of the Shire…. These are themes too hard for most contemporary audiences to stomach… so Jackson and his team removed them either willfully or out of ignorance, choosing for the more broad appeal of generic, shallow platitudes…. Leaving Christopher Tolkien THOROUGHLY unhappy with what Jackson did.

Great video. An interesting thing about the "reactionary feudalist" claims, is that they miss the point a little bit. Yes, Tolkien wanted a return to the natural heirarchy of things, but in the same way that Robin Hood did and (sometimes) does. LoTR is a post apocalyptic story where the feudal leaders have abandoned their obligatuions to the people in favour of blind tradition or personal glory. The return of the king is not just an event, it is a symbol. Aragorn represents the return to a KIng worthy of the name, who rules justly, and without concern for personal glory and power. He is glorious because he is good, not the other way round. He is willing to die for the common folk (hobbits) to succeed in their mission, over and over again he risks himself. The Return of The KING (capitalised for intention) is teh return to a system where the ruler rules on behalf of the ruled, not on behalf of themself. As I said, like Robin Hood, especially the earliest stories, where there is a deep longing for the deposition of the villain king (John nowadays, but not always), but not to replace it with a republic or commune or anything, but for a return to a king who is just, noble, and a protector of the people and the peace (nowadays usually Richard, but in earlier stories Edward or Henry 1 and 2).

I have never heard a better explanation for the exploitation of J.R.R. Tolkien than what this video expresses. Damien has said exactly what I have been thinking. It makes me so sad to see what is being done with this beloved man’s work.

When discussing the myths that replaced God, you forgot about the latest myth - the postmodern myth of deconstructing everything, like gender, for example. The myth of saviour of humanity, trying to find more and more oppressed groups that need a saviour. Probably because you strongly believe in those myths and think of them as noble endeavors.

Wow, that was great, Damian! Thank you.

Hello Damien, I have a question regarding the Gentlebands. Do they do them for women? And which band would you recommend for a fearless warrior woman?

This is a very well formulated critique, sir! But from what I can tell, those "angry nerd-bros of KZfaq" would agree with almost everything you said in this video. Sometimes we know something is wrong but we can't really describe it because not everyone has the academic language to express or to analyze the "true root of the problem" as you clearly do. Instead, they provide their critique in whatever way they can. The reason those KZfaqrs are popular is because they are quite obviously sincere in their dismay at being forced to watch every single worthwhile work of fiction being turned into McDonald's. I think we need people of all types to voice their concerns about these things and I see no reason for you and those KZfaqrs to bicker over details when you are so clearly speaking with the same voice.

Thank you Damien! Love this video - keep up the great work!

Lol, your thumbnail.. I'm dying 😂

Wow! Just, wow! That's the most insightful rant I've heard in quite a while.

Love your work! You’ve opened my mind to modern myth and I’m rereading all my old favorites with a new framework. Thank you.

The Wheel of Tedium. 😂👍🏼

It's not just bad Tolkien, it's bad fantasy.

That ad placement was perfect.

this rant pretty much sums it up perfectly. Butchered Tolkin's world

Incredible video, so glad I found this!

I remember hearing this adaption was coming out and read one of the writers in an interview saying "in the first series we will see a young Aragorn..." and I immediately got angry at the idea that they'd be trying to milk the films and in order to do so skip past everything from The Silmarillion which is full to the brim with fantasy epics just waiting to be brought to life with room for expansion etc. Nope..young Aragon.... I haven't seen The Rings Of Power as I know it would just annoy me. I'll watch this review though..

Amazon just has to lean in to Galadriel as a Nazi personally responsible for the whole disaster of the Second Age. Then Tolkien's whole arc from first to Fourth Age is her character arc personally. And she had all the extremes.

Wow, this is such a deep video. Like the books, it will require more than read to digest. Also, thank you for your trip Mordor to bring us this excellent content. Hopefully, the orcs were not too troublesome.

i'm probably off topic here, but aren't super heroes about maximum super heroism but without the myth? minus those instances when the myth is theme.

Myth sustains us, always have, always will! Thank you!👍👍👍

ROP is LOTR in name only

Evil can’t create. It can only destroy.

I think switching Glorfindel for Arwen was a bad idea and also I can't watch the LOTR trilogy because of the Moria action sequences and skateboarding and also weapon and armour choices.

How is yoga a myth? I know people who go to these "stretching classes," and it gave us one of science's greatest gifts: yoga pants. (please realize this is a joke)

I despised the switch out of Glorfindel! He was considered the most powerful elf in all of Middle-Earth and was my favorite character. I hated the movies.... But probably because I loved the books so much and read them an embarrassing number of times. I even had a blown up laminated map of middle-earth on the wall of my bedroom.

I loved the books so much I couldn't finish watching the series. Viewers who have no knowledge might fare better. As a stand alone piece of fiction, it had some beautiful visuals. The writing, the story, was plain bad.

Left out the people learning Quenya. :D

Fictionalized fiction creating fiction. Meaning that generations reinterpret the source material. Star wars? Etc.... Fantasy and fiction everyone should just chill out. If you love the books like I do, movies dont bother me or shows.

But...didn't Tolkien say he hoped others would expand his mythology?

The way to win is to ignore it... I have been boycotting all the various "sequels," "Spinoffs," "prequels" of Marvel, Star Wars, Raiders, and indeed this as well. I just don't care.

I so wanted to like The Rings of Power but the pacing just left me in shambles. I found myself trying to stay interested, but in the end I found myself watching it out of spite. I've discovered fakes that were at the very least full of well-intentioned crap, but that show itself was _fasler than vows made in wine_ , and empty of talent. I expected it to be at worst a *hot mess* but littered with some notable flourishes worth mentioning, though that was not the case. It ended up being such a slog to sit through, as I truly felt like I was wasting valuable time I could have spent elsewhere. Great video though! I really liked the visual style and storytelling aspect of it.

I don't really care about Lord of the Rings, but I am offended by your dismissal of Nickelback.

Ideology and religiosity share space in human consciousness, or "mind". I'd say Tolkien was more reactionary as opposed to conservative. He wasn't a citizen so much as a loyal subject of the Crown rendering his duty. A conservative is a liberal and believes in the Enlightenment and its teachings. That black dwarf actress shot her big mouth off about utter nonsense and that's why she drew so much fire.

A Blake ref always a nice rhetorical touch

Why were the youtubers wrong for calling out Dwarves and Elves of color? They were postulating that it was done "because diversity" and cited the letter where Tolkien states that this was a myth for England, that elves are "fair skinned" and on and on. They were not saying that there were not elves and dwarves and men of dark skin in the mythos - just that they could not have been there and then. I never really heard an argument that that wasn't so, only that anyone that called it out was a r'cist. So that Damien can debunk all that in less than 30 seconds to destroy it, I was genuinely intrigued.

I’m sure he wrote the original books for no payment. 😂

Masterfully well said.

I'm curious how many different adaptations or sequels of books to film get extra strong criticism because of their branding and their title. Many of these disappointments would be passable as standalone films with generic titles and copywrite safe proper nouns, but people hold extra scorn for them because by their title they are placed as equal to the great properties of the past which are elevated by nostalgia and the allure of the elite hipsters mindset.

"You don't know anyone who thinks switching out Lord Glorfindel for Lady Arwen was a bad idea." Well you do now. Me. I think that. Glorfindel is brilliant. Anyone who'd read the books, ALL the books, would've been looking forward to a bit of Glorf. Okay, he doesn't do that much in FotR but no reason to replace him, especially if you are keeping his scene in the film. Tom Bombadil, Farmer Maggot, Fatty Bolger, I get them being cut (though sad),

Been loving your videos, but lately haven’t been loving the new tracking camera. It’s neat, but it tracks every move you make which means a lot of camera movement. The tracking should allow for some tolerance in movement of the subject so that it’s a bit more natural. That’s the biggest downfall of that tech. Mac OS is guilty of it too with theirs, it makes it hard to continue watching when individuals have that feature enabled in video conferences. If at all possible can you please tone-down the subject tracking sensitivity on your new camera? I would love you for it. Otherwise, I’ve been enjoying your content!

Good video but Yoga is not new age pseudoscience, it's a five-thousand-year-old spiritual tradition that's deeply intertwined with the cultural identity of hundreds of millions of people in South Asia. The physical exercises that most westerners think of as 'Yoga' are just one part of it. Yogic scriptures contain deep philosophical wisdom for those willing to look.

"arwen is lord of the rings strongest female character." um, no

As much as I like Glorfindel, you could swap any Elf Lord in and arrive at the same result. My issue with Arwen's role in the Fellowship movie is that they didn't just give her Glorfindel's role, they gave her one of _Frodo's_ most epic moments.

This essay is a great example of Damien at his best. Half the time I don't agree with him, but it's always a dizzying intellectual ride.

Thank you.

I'm still loving the juxtaposition of Hitler and Stalin with Taylor Swift. F*cking BRAVO, sir!

Arwen for Glorfindel, no!

Here, here!! So true and Well said! There are many “products” that are also works of art and love… but to turn a work of art and love into a mere product is a shameful tragedy. The Rings of Power has little more resemblance to the LOTR as action figures of Aragorn and Gandalf. and the action figures are more fun!

Zombie franchises are sadly inevitable. Corporations squeeze and bleed out all of the passionate and creative staff, because passion can only help you put up with shit work conditions for so long (or the rights simply change hands). At some point these franchises simply become marketing vehicles. We see this happening with film and game franchises too. The original Bungie team that made Halo so great eventually bled all of their good staff and were replaced with well intentioned but less creatively interesting people who never get the opportunity to take risks and innovate due to new corporate interests breathing down their necks. Personally I think the only sensible thing is to accept this and move on. The old media is still great, and every once in awhile the stars will align and another great work will be made both because of and in spite of the corporate machine.