I'll still never forgive him for Tom Bombadil

@@CoinSlotKitty or the battle of the shire

my only gripes were the lack of "The Grey Host" , Theoden's Funeral, Elrond's twin sons, more Gil-Galad & Glorfindel (though I was glad to see more Arwen) & some of Frodo and Aragorn's character traits

Many of Peter Jackson's changes can be forgiven when you notice that Douglas Adams rewrote "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" each time it was re-imagined for different media (radio, books, television, movie). The tense scene in the hagunemnon (sp?) admiral's spacecraft really only works in radio, as sounds evoke the sorts of transformations that cannot be adequately described with words, so it is changed to the sun diving spacecraft for a Disaster Area concert for the books and TV series. Frodo stabbing the cave troll's foot, causing it to run away before it even fully enters the chamber, is interesting as written, but bad visually.

To be fair, his changes did not impact the story or the characters (their motivation and drive). Yes, Tom Bombadil was removed, for example... but he was a filler in the story. Yes, he was interesting, mysterious - but look at the story of LotR, what did Tom actually change or set the course for? Nothing. He was a toy that Tolkien saw his son play with and decided to put in a story. Nothing changes for any character that he is not in there. Jackson's changes were mostly like that - either changes to the filler or in order to build up a character that is already there and has some impact. Like removing Glorfindel (who is a legendary elf lord - but has no impact to the story what so ever) and giving his "episode" to Arwen who then grows from elf maiden siting and looking pretty to brave and capable woman, fit for our king. And mind you, she did that without sacrificing her femininity. Compare that to what RoP did - they do a story about the Second Age where travel to Valinor is special and done via sky va-jay-jay. Seems like cosmetic change, right? Wrong! It obliterates the entire Second Age and every single character. Travel to Valinor was, at the time, not magical - anyone could go. People of Numenor even saw the edges of Valinor from their island, on a good day. And in the end, they invaded it in a quest for immortality. That is when Valars and Eru himself intervene, sink the island and literally reshape the world. If you have it already reshaped in the Second Age, you don't have the Numenor plot, you don't get the Faithful and Gondor and Arnor, elven returns to Valinor get a different tone completely, everything and everyone changes - literally the world is reshaped and separated. And that is the difference between Jackson's changes to the lore and RoP's changes. If anyone dares to say that they are in principle similar and if you complain about RoP you should not like LotR film trilogy either, just mention this little "detail". Also, Tolkien's characters carry a moral message. The entire thing with Galadriel is repentance for her past sins - she explicitly does that by NOT talking up arms and playing soldier for ages. When you do a complete 180 on her like this, the entire reason for her existing in the story is lost. And, as Nerd Cookie said, her brother, who is a pivotal part of the most important and beloved story in the entire Legendarium - completely pointless. His job was to say something about a rock and then die. FFS, he is the connection, sacrifice and love between Elves and Men that laster for thousands of years! The Ring of Barahir on Aragorn's hand... I can't even continue anymore. Bastardization might be a mild word.

Amen Adam, amen!! I watched the first episode and quickly added the show to my 'blocked' list. Some of the reviews are MUCH more disturbing...

No not Adam, the show is good and very entertaining. Beside Lord of Rings isn't a straight adaptation.

Haha, you say harsh and scathing and I say "omg she's so nice!" 😏👍🏻

@@pcdosgirl SHE is nice. It is what she's reviewing that set me off.

@@J0hnnieP oh yeah, she's a gem. I suppose for her this is quite scalding. I just couldn't have written a review without some cussing 😏👍🏻 She's like the safe-for-work version. Even her voice remains serene. When I watched the first 2 epis last night, my neighbors were aware something was up.

Me too. But for Arween help Frodo, i understan. People can easy drunk if too many caracter. And its a incocent method for presented Arwen.

This is interesting because according to Tolkien's son, he felt the movies were not accurate and betrayed the heart of the writings and thus turned the movies into just another action movie. The fact that the show has two episodes and seeks to cover what will probably be a few years out of hundreds between main events I feel is lost on a number of people. Ultimately because of the lord of the rings movies, most likely the estate is not interested in allowing direct adaptations of core events and better serve the author's desire for people to build around them but not interpret them.

#4 from your list was the only one that truly bothered me. All the rest just seemed like reasonable alterations Jackson made because you can't make a 1:1 adaptation of a movie into a book or a book into a movie. You need to make adjustments for the different media. I can understand how #1 can bother you and other fans but #1 is still very forgivable, even acceptable. Jackson wanted to give Aragorn a character arch and I think it worked rather well because movie Aragorn was such a brilliant and noble character. Movie Aragorn really did capture the spirit of book Aragon. The perfect "knight in shinning armor". I think this is a good example of how to add a character arch into a book-to-movie adaptation. Galadriel from TRoP is a bad example of how to add character arch.

You can subscribe multiple times ... just be sure to do it an odd number of times. ;)

Remember when they said Elrond wasn't allowed to that meeting because it was for Elf Lords only? So he's not even an Elf Lord in ROP. Disgraceful...

The details is what annoys me the most because they are little things that have no good reason to be changed and were. Then the actors and showrunners etc open their mouths to say how much they love Tolkien and are fans of his work...yea sure it really shows. Liars.

💯💯

@@NerdCookies when Elrond is not an Elf Lord of highest rank Amazon could basterize the Beren-Luthien story by having Elrond jump through hoops to proove he is worthy of marrying Galadriel's daughter Celebrian. But as she isn't in the Appendix she will not pop up in this product.

Its the little details like lighting, sounds, hand motions that make a story beautiful and believable. Jackson didn't have to have that conversation between Gandalf and Elrond in Elrond's library, but seeing the shelves full of manuscripts, desks, quills .. adding little details, tells the story more than hours of exposition.

they couldn't do rings of power without acceptance by the estate.

@@bradleywhite6815 Agreed, but it also wouldn't be the first time someone signed to a contract that gives one party room to do things the other party could not foresee, especially if after making promises they didn't intend to keep (or at least skirt a lot). But this is besides the point, in the end, we can only hope those who get the rights are good custodians, even if they make changes and departures from the source material... even so, if the departures are considerable, one might hope it could stand on it's own if the plot and acting were still compelling. I am not feeling it is ATM.

They bought the right not snatched

"It's about snatching a franchise away from an estate for unrestricted and unhindered merchandising opportunities, while the original author can no longer defend his works and the current fan base be damned (those who which, made this opportunity even possible)." This applies to almost every major recent adaptation. This is Hollywood writ large for the last decade, and into the foreseeable future.

How far the apples have fallen from the tree

It's always the third generation that squanders the family fortune and ruins their legacy.

Nothing baffling here. It's always about one thing: $$$

Indeed. Tolkien always denounced capitalism, globalization and the politically rotten. And knowing that one of the avatars, and his henchmen, of these three things have control over his works would can do Tolkien is turning in his grave.

Luckily there are many other KZfaqr, who make great videos about the show. Look at: "Nerdrotic", "The one ring", "Vara Dark - Dark Titan Enterprises", Ryan Kinel", "Knightswatch" and so on. Tolkin untangled made great videos, how the show should have been written.

Every video i see is ragging on this show. Which KZfaqrs are you following?

Wow you saw more than 2 epsiodes? The storie so far is not even at the beginne. And to be honst so far its the same lvl than the first 2 houers of the first Movie.

@@anno-fw7xn So incredibly dishonest and untrue. We would be seeing Gandalf fall to the balrog around this time in Fellowship

@@anno-fw7xn In a TV show, it's not a good thing that the story hasn't properly begun in the first two episodes. The pilot is meant to hook the viewer. What am I meant to be excited about? The elves and dwarfs are building something, there's a silly forbidden elf/human romance, a Hobbit-like girl wants to go on an adventure someday, and Galadriel is on a revenge quest. The first 2 hours of Fellowship had an amazing prologue setting up Sauron and the one ring, a call to action for several characters, terrifying enemies, and a wonderful sense of adventure. In Rings of Power, Galadriel is already on her quest. It doesn't have a proper beginning. All that is established is that Galadriel is aware of a threat that the other elves aren't (even though the elves have been occupying vast lands to make sure the threat doesn't come back?). Obviously she will be proven right, which makes the other elves look stupid. The main character should grow into their abilities. From the start, Galadriel is outclimbing, outfighting, outwitting the wisest elves. Where is her room for growth? You could argue that she gets some of her elf companions killed but that is glossed over, plus they seemed weak and cowardly for wanting to go home. In the troll fight, it even seemed like she waited for several of the elves to die/get injured before she made her grand entrance, showing her to be a poor leader - except there are no consequences for this. She could hardly care. Basically, she's already very powerful and hasn't made any mistakes or shown character flaws. Even jumping off the boat - which seems foolish - turns out fine. Her revenge mission is portrayed as only noble - not an obsession which will make her do immoral things in order to accomplish. There's some opportunity for that, I just think the show is so in love with her that they won't have her make any significant character-building blunders during her quest, and any failures will be the fault of others not listening to her or helping her. She's too pure, too wooden, doesn't feel like a complex character. They had two episodes to give me a reason to want her to accomplish her goal, and I don't find her compelling or likable. Contrast that to the hobbits and the fellowship in the first movie. I was concerned for them at many points. With new Galadriel, I feel like she will always come out on top and that's the most boring thing to watch.

This is fanfiction, without the fan....

apparently that male elf played by kip Chapman has the name rian, which means "queen" in Sindarin... (Celebrian//Silver-Queen). They really did just wait until John and Christopher died to abuse their work... Then release it on the anniversary of JRRTs death.

@@fakename2926 corporate fiction

@@fakename2926 it’s the opposite: it’s hate fiction.

So painful I could not STOMACH the thought of watching episode 2.

After 15min i turned it off,it is just dumb and shallow..

I wouldn't watch it if someone gave it to me. I feel the same way you do. I value my own mental images of Tolkien's work. Don't feed garbage to your imagination.

I won't even bother even though my roommate has a prime accnt on the tele.

I watched it and it's heart breadingly terrible. I can't believe the sheer fucking hubris these Hollywood nitwits have in vandalizing our precious lore. The overarching theme in every storyline is women are smarter than men; and people of color are more honorable than plain old white people. I know we're all sick of the identity politics, but that's really the take away. Elrond is weak, and a politician- because you know the average person holds politicians in high esteem these days. Celebrimbor is just some uninspiring old dude. The elves are different than men only in that they have pointy ears, and Amazon goes to lengths to tell us this. It's a dumpster fire and it breaks my heart; like watching the forest where you played in your childhood being torched by arsonists. Tolkien had so many strong female characters, how is it that feminist Hollywood can make women and men so unlikeable? They make the men weak, petty and contemptuous, and then make the women behave like how they think a strong man would, but somehow fuck that up too... I dunno man. Such wanton destruction...

Na, that was crap! Didn't have a single strong woman in it, no mention of skin colour or a man behaving poorly and representing the patriarchy. Tolkien had it all wrong.

And these "showrunners" think they can do better than that... these are sad time, but Tolkien's genius will survive.

Thank you! That means a lot to me. ❤

from elven king to human yokel

Me, here. Never having read the books. Seems like a decent show to me. But I understand where all of you are coming from. My first fantasy book was the Sword of Shannara. Made me a nerd. Show was dog shit. So, I get the hate

@@v2plus4 If you enjoy the show, that’s great, I don’t want to spoil your enjoyment of it. If you choose to read LOTR and the Silmarillion, you’ll see that TROP is only giving you the tip of the iceberg.

@@guardduvie And you won't like how they're giving it to you, either.

When it comes to racism bit, just say "yeah? What are you gonna do about it?"

You have to take care when you talk about Galadriel. Because Tolkien evolve her caracter during his life and make some variation on her narrative. In one version, she participate in the rebellion against the Valar, following Feanor, and in another she figth against Feanor to defend Aqualonde. In the first version she went to Middle Earth for revenge. But not for the death of his brother. And if it was for revenge of the death of his brother, she was already in Middle Earth when it happens. And we don't have a lot of text for her time in the Second Age. She was against Sauron for sure. She was in Eregion,. More curious to know if Celeborn will be there.

@@zengagnon Central to what we know of Galadriel is her desire to rule a place of her own, and she knew that place was in Middle Earth. Her pride was her potential downfall, but in refusing the one ring, she overcame that and was rewarded for not giving in to temptation.

@@zengagnon What? Do you mind if you made some sense?

@@majscrap2629 People often have made their opinion of Galadriel from the PJ movie. When you take all the texts wrote by Tolkien, its more difficult to have a precise idea of who she was and what she done.

The Show writers had audacity to believe they were able to create a better story than Tolkien. Lord of Rings sold something like 60 million copies the show writers even fired the Lore scholar on set. Making Galadriel a unlikable Mary Sue makes me so mad she was great character they destroyed her😔

It's an adaptation. To call it anything else is off the mark.

Please remember the show is BASED on Tolkien's books. IT is NOT his work, nor has Tolkien had any input into this (dead since 1973) The LOTR movies were an ADAPTATION of his books. Those movies are legit. The Rings of Power are BASED on Tolkien's books. They are NOT legit. The word BASED is stating it is in that realm, BUT NOT an ADAPTATION of his work. Some movies state from the start that this is BASED on true events, but more likely the writers did not get all facts and made some characters fictional to work the script plot. Many war movies and true crime movies do this a lot. Amazon has stated this is NOT Tolkien's work nor is it an adaption of his work. Its just Americanized fiction based on Tolkien's books. Don't take this as cannon.

Sounds like what was done with Wheel of Time. Scrounge the source for Names and toss everything else

even the fan made films born of hope and hunt for gollum are way better than this devilry

If there is one franchise that shouldn't become like Marvel its LOTR. Its the antithesis of Marvel.

The marvel treatment started with the hobbit trilogy. This is the first end result.

@@Interrobang212 you can't blame the hobbit trilogy for this. THIS dumpster fire is Amazon wanting its own massively successful book to TV adaption, like game of thrones, but hiring inept writers to create it.

Sorry I missed this super thanks. Thank you for the support!

In effect. While in the Galadriel-Elrond-Celebrimbor trio, she is the oldest .... in Tolkien.

Then why make a series with no rights of the books in the first place? It’s the same thing happen with game of thrones in the last two seasons. When George R. R. Martin didn’t published his book winds of winter on time. So, the production had to make their own story and messed it up big time. I believe Amazon did this big fiasco as cash grab to lure non tolkiens fans.

​@@nathanielforsyte2687 So far TROP has been a huge "crash drain" for Amazon. Who knows if it will ever generate a profit, and how much cash will actually be grabbed. But let's say it is financially successful. Is that bad? That means people ended up watching it, and liked it enough to keep watching. That's not what I predict, but stranger things have happened.

@@JohnDoe4321 rings of power is to big to fail because Amazon spend almost a half of billion dollars to produce it. So they need this series to be successful or be the biggest bomb ever. Do I want this to fail? No, because if this fails any studios will not produce any of Tolkien’s works in the future if Tolkien estate sell the rights.

I disagree. If what you said were true (and I agree it is in part), then they would create a whole separate and original franchise of their own to tell the tales the want to tell. What they have done instead is coopt an existing, beloved franchise to hijack its built-in fanbase to force-feed their propagandistic ideals and revisionist history to. They ARE the evil that cannot create; only corrupt, and they do so with an evil purpose.

@Troy Pacelli I don’t know if you’ll read this but your message arrived in email but I cannot see it in the comments. It lists a reply but does not show it. Please reply if you read this. I agree with you in practice. Ignoring the lore is the same as subverting it. It’s semantics. Also, their lore is f’ing boring. A proper dual between elves and dwarfs would involve creation of objects of beauty. They wouldn’t smash rocks like a couple of cavemen. They would craft armor or create a beautiful necklace.

@@davidplowman6149 Yeah, I see the whole thread. IDK why it's hold you up. I've seen that happen before because ... I guess YT is just weird. Yeah, I think we're on the same page.

Sounds like an AI text to speech though

It couldn't have happened while he was alive. It could only happen after Christopher died and the greedy, ambivalent third generation got their hands on it that they could sell off the baby.

That really confused me, out of all the dwarves, Celebrimbor was the one they most liked, because he understood their love for crafting. He was friends with the greatest dwarven craftsman to ever exist at the time. Makes zero sense.

@@tyranitar6366 agreed 😃👍