Lord of the Rings TV Series Purchased by Amazon

[Varodoc]

Well, does iconic really mean anything other than 'widely recognized'?

At this point with so much controversy surrounding RoP and with so many people having seen the trailers, the Black Elf and Black Dwarf will also be iconic to Rings of Power, regardless of how important they are to the story or how much screentime they have. Like, they're practically front and center in a lot of the promotional material and in the interviews, and the show isn't even out yet.

Yes, they're iconic for all the wrong reasons.

[AcidicSyn]

Well, does iconic really mean anything other than 'widely recognized'?


At this point with so much controversy surrounding RoP and with so many people having seen the trailers, the Black Elf and Black Dwarf will also be iconic to Rings of Power, regardless of how important they are to the story or how much screentime they have. Like, they're practically front and center in a lot of the promotional material and in the interviews, and the show isn't even out yet. Name the top 3 'iconic' people from Rings of Power right now, and it'd be Galadriel, the black Elf dude and the black Dwarf lady.

I think a distinction has to be made between currently in the spotlight and actually being iconic.

Legolas (the character from the books, not necessarily bloom as legolas, though there is an argument to be made that he was iconic in the role) launched an entire archetype of character in fiction. When you look up the "Stereotypical wood elf", the description is basically legolas. (Insert the stuff about tolkien popularizing taller elves that I know I don't need to patronize you with here, but my point is that over time, legolas became the sort of yardstick for what a wood elf is)

Where as these actors are currently in the limelight, it would be too early to consider any of them iconic, at minimum the show has to come out first. Though Disa does stand out.

[Hypasonic]

Really looking forward to this show, this and the game of thrones one. Hope they haven't gone full woke though and stay true to the lore/story of the shows.

[AcidicSyn]

Really looking forward to this show, this and the game of thrones one. Hope they haven't gone full woke though and stay true to the lore/story of the shows.

House of the Dragon does have some injections of creativity that were not present in the book, but they're minor (so far).

The biggest offender in Rings of Power that I can see so far is they appear to be hyper-compressing the events of the second age.

[Ivanstone]

If you don't think he's iconic, that's your problem.

He's so iconic they inserted him in The Hobbits. And if you watch Youtube reactions to the Desolation of Smaug trailer, people absolutely went crazy when they saw Legolas again.

A character doesn't need to be important to the story or have a lot of screentime to be iconic, they only need to look and act badass, and Legolas most certainly did.

Nevermind the fact that Legolas was very important to the story. Every character in the Fellowship of the Ring played a key role in the story. Legolas literally saved Aragorn at Helm's Deep, without him giving Aragorn a rope, the future king of Gondor would have died brutally. I do wonder if this thread watched the LOTR movies at all. People here literally had the sheer gall to say that Sauron, the titular "Lord of the Rings", is not iconic. The sheer disrespect of this thread is amazing.

Legolas could’ve been replaced with a red shirt. Why couldn’t some other random Elf/Human/Dwarf/etc done the exact same thing?

Sauron is very iconic. He doesn’t have much personality to him but he is a constant state of oppression that hangs over the entire series.

Orlando Bloom was having a moment. He’s a handsome actor who’d done capable work in two beloved film franchises. No wonder they wanted to insert him into The Hobbit despite having nothing to do with the story. Replace him with somebody more generic and no one would’ve noticed.

[Hypasonic]

House of the Dragon does have some injections of creativity that were not present in the book, but they're minor (so far).

The biggest offender in Rings of Power that I can see so far is they appear to be hyper-compressing the events of the second age.

Sounds good. LOTR was (is) one of the best movie series I've ever seen, I heard this series is supposed to be one of the most expensive shows ever made? So I'm expecting great things!

[Triceron]

Yes, they're iconic for all the wrong reasons.

Legolas literally has no character development in the movies, and isn't really interesting once you really break down him down. It's not like he's well known for being well acted or having character depth. He's most well known for being a charming, badass pretty boy that is practically a Gary Stu, and I don't know if that's any better, really. I mean, Legolas is also iconic in the movies, and I don't know what reasons there would be that I could point to say 'this is the right way'.

Cuz his appearance in the Hobbit prolly shouldn't have been as forgettable as it ended up being.

[Khaza-R]

Hoping for good things from this show but anticipating it being underwhelming.

Perhaps I've become too jaded, but I find very likely that modern writers will forget to tell Tolkien's story and try to make it their own. I think the temptation of leaving their mark on something is greater than trying to be truthful the spirit of another author's work. But I suppose we will see.

[Xath]

House of the Dragon does have some injections of creativity that were not present in the book, but they're minor (so far).

The biggest offender in Rings of Power that I can see so far is they appear to be hyper-compressing the events of the second age.

Also completely changing Tar-Míriel's Tragedy and likely modernizing it aka removing the tragedy. Not really impressed with that casting either since the age is way off if they aren't making a massive change.

[tikcol]

So many inconsistencies and cheesy one liners. Wrap it all up through to the end with that loathsome song. Another Rings of Power trailer.

Someone please soothe Galadriel's storm.

Why is everyone saying that dude in the ancient grey bath towel is Gandalf? Did they also put him in middle-earth 1000 years early?

[Rennadrel]

What a nonsense argument lmao, so following your logic Sauron isn't an iconic villain because he only had 1 spoken line in the entire trilogy and barely any appearance.

Spoilers for Rings of Power: Legolas, played by Orlando Bloom, will still be more iconic than the entire cast of this show.

What was really disgusting was that article from The Guardian the other day trying to run defense for this shows cast by shitting on the trilogy cast. Like, no one cast for this show is someone of note. LOTR had two of the greats to ever grace the stage and screen in Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Christopher Lee, not to mention established great actors like Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies and Hugo Weaving, all fantastic and award winning or award nominated actors and actresses well before the first film came out. And the films established the careers of people like Viggo Mortensen and Andy Serkis. That the media is so willingly attacking the people who helped make the franchise the household name that it has become in films, is pretty pedantic, just because the cast are all white people.

[Xath]

What was really disgusting was that article from The Guardian the other day trying to run defense for this shows cast by shitting on the trilogy cast. Like, no one cast for this show is someone of note. LOTR had two of the greats to ever grace the stage and screen in Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Christopher Lee, not to mention established great actors like Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Cate Blanchett, John Rhys-Davies and Hugo Weaving, all fantastic and award winning or award nominated actors and actresses well before the first film came out. And the films established the careers of people like Viggo Mortensen and Andy Serkis. That the media is so willingly attacking the people who helped make the franchise the household name that it has become in films, is pretty pedantic, just because the cast are all white people.

Not to mention Elijah Wood. There is a reason the guardian doesn't allow comments on their articles.

[Kumorii]

So many inconsistencies and cheesy one liners. Wrap it all up through to the end with that loathsome song. Another Rings of Power trailer.

Someone please soothe Galadriel's storm.

Why is everyone saying that dude in the ancient grey bath towel is Gandalf? Did they also put him in middle-earth 1000 years early?

Considering they condensed the lore so much and even lied about hobbits to put them in the show.
Why wouldn't they have Gandalf in it? It will attract some wows because we know gandalf!

[Zoibert the Bear]

The last trailer was absolute utter shit. What little hope I had for a decent show is gone.

What the fuck was that song?

[Rennadrel]

The last trailer was absolute utter shit. What little hope I had for a decent show is gone.

What the fuck was that song?

Howard Shore was probably too expensive for their fanfic. But that's not a surprise considering how much else looks cheap and lazy in the show.

[s_bushido]

Howard Shore was probably too expensive for their fanfic. But that's not a surprise considering how much else looks cheap and lazy in the show.

Awkward. I guess talking out of your ass on the internet is harder than it seems.

[Radeghost]

I just don't like the casting choices. I don't like elves and dwarves being mixed. Elves are always fairy in fantasy and have that sort of 'glow' attached to them in LotR. Dwarves should be pale considering where they live.
Middle-Earth isn't multicultural, it's not XXI century Earth, or New York, or 2022 London, it's fantasy with an established world consisting of various races and skin colors. Doesn't make sense to make it all mixed up. That's a weird American fetish to make everything look like their multicultural cauldron.

It's really tiring that by having an opinion like this makes you racist in eyes of some Amazon boot lickers. Okay, I get it, you just want everyone to mindlessly consume the media and be blind to casting choices. But we simply aren't. I don't remember boycotting Nick Fury being race swapped. I don't remember boycotting Morpheus in the Matrix being black, I don't remember boycotting Blade or anything else. If despite all of this, you think there's some racist agenda among the viewers, you're just blind.

In House of the Dragon I didn't really like that Velaryons are potrayed by black actors, because they should be looking just like Targaryens, but the character design is done so amazingly well I simply had no choice but to fall in love with that. Meanwhile in RoP the char design looks like they were taken straight from some ghetto

Awkward. I guess talking out of your ass on the internet is harder than it seems.

Only opening music tho

[Varodoc]

Also, elves in Middle Earth were always depicted with long, flowing hair, but for some reason this show decided that elves should have short hair. Elves with short hair are so fucking ugly and break a staple of Middle Earth: elves have long hair, period.

It's cringe how this show is trying so hard to be unique, special, and unprecedented.

[Adamas102]

Middle-Earth isn't multicultural, it's not XXI century Earth, or New York, or 2022 London, it's fantasy with an established world consisting of various races and skin colors. Doesn't make sense to make it all mixed up. That's a weird American fetish to make everything look like their multicultural cauldron.

The thing you people never seem to be able to grasp is that skin color and culture are two very different things. Dark skinned dwarves and light skinned dwarves are NOT multicultural. They’re just dwarves. Period.

The cast of the Peter Jackson movies was pretty multicultural. You had predominately American, British, Australian, and New Zealand actors all together playing humans, elves, and hobbits, but of course that didn’t seem to bother anyone. They weren’t playing American hobbits and English hobbits. They were just hobbits. In this show the cast is predominately British, but of course people with racialist views see dark skinned people as too different to fit in.

The issue is that you’re so conditioned to see skin color as such a differentiating factor when it’s really no different than something like hair color or eye color. In the real world all those variations happened the same way: with gene mutations that tweaked the amount of melanin production in the associated body part. The only reason skin color is seen differently in our world is because of thousands of years of people using it as a measure of superiority or inferiority. None of that has to apply to a fantasy world.

[Kumorii]

Also, elves in Middle Earth were always depicted with long, flowing hair, but for some reason this show decided that elves should have short hair. Elves with short hair are so fucking ugly and break a staple of Middle Earth: elves have long hair, period.

It's cringe how this show is trying so hard to be unique, special, and unprecedented.

The male elves... mostly Elrond and Celebrimbor look like they would be dwarves, just shaven. It's amazing how long straight hair is important to the elf look. People often think it's the ears, but those are often covered. The short hair really makes them not look like elves.

The show is trying to be different because of difference sakes, which is an odd take and is rarely important.