I Must Be Racist

I confess: I watched the first two episodes of Rings of Power. And, yeah; I have an opinion. Which Amazon won’t let me post.

If You Think Rings of Prime Is Bad, You’re Racist
Or so say the shills for Amazon. If they were bending over any more to justify the bad reviews, they would break their backs. ‘Painful To Watch’: Viewers Hate ‘Lord Of The Rings: Rings Of Power,’ Which Critics Insist Is Another Example Of Racism

I’d been warned that RoP had littel do with anyting Tolkien actually wrote, aside from using some character and place names. With that in mind, I decided to watch it, on two levels.

Level 1: Forget Tolkien. Just watch it as sone generic video attempt at high fantasy, on its own standalone merits (this was my default mode).

Results: Meh. Not very interesting. Does not engage. So far, I’ve two characters even vaguely interesting (and neither is Galadriel, Elrond, or anyone else who appear whose names appeared in Tolkien’s works).

I might watch another episode. I am curious as to where they plan to go with “The Stranger” (i.e.- what misplaced character name will he turn out to be).

Level 2: I try to keep this one at the back of my mind, and just take mental notes. It ain’t easy.

In this mode, I’m trying to reconcile this… whatever with what Tolkien actually wrote in the LOTR notes and the Silmarillion.

When you realize that Tolkien somhow forgot to ever mention that Galadriel, enchantress of the wood, actually spent more than an Age as a superhero warrior princess fighting Sauron single-handedly because no one else believes in Sauron…

It goes downhill from there. Kinda. I’m withholding judgement on young prince Durin, because Tolkien did suggest that Durin might’ve reincarnated, and the name got reused at least once; maybe it’s really one of those Durins.

I hope Elrond, who should be pushing 1,000 years of age at this point, does a lot of growing up in his next several thousand years, in time for the events of LOTR. Because the RoP Elrond needs repeated bitch-slapping. Perhaps Hugo Weaving would like to do the honors.

The issue of The Stranger is one of morbid curiosity, a weirdly fascinating train wreck. I don’t subscribe to any particular theory as to who he may be… because the writers have made such a hash of Tolkien’s stories that there’s no point in trying to forecast rthe results of their mushroom-addled “creativity.”

Some folks think he’ll be an Istari, maybe even Mithrandir. I could see the RoP crew deciding they need to bring them/him in about three thousand years before Tolkien said they showed up. I mean, they introduced the hobbits three thousand years early.

Others think it’s Sauron. Again, can’t rule it out. Even though the RoP plot already has Sauron active down south.

So I’ll probably attempt one more episode. Two, if I’m really bored. But barring a miracle, I can’t see bothering with more.