Lord of the Rings TV Series Purchased by Amazon

[rhorle]

They instantly drown because they're incapable of holding their breath. Nice touch, that. Having her swim to the surface herself without needing to be resuscitated after drowning for at least 10 seconds and undoubtedly actively taking on water into her lungs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving_reflex

It isn't entirely true that they will instantly drown as the body has reflexes that will prevent breathing for a time. It is true though that the body reaches a point where it will attempt to breath. An Elf of course isn't Human or even from the real world and Tolkien never went this in-depth into their abilities so it is silly to even bring this into a discussion.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

it was an interview with them trying to justify why they made the hobbits-not hobbits into dirty irish people, and why they made all the dwarves have a stereotypical scots accent, they were called out by the Irish Post newspaper.

Hmm can’t say I know enough about the Irish to know what to look for in the case of the hobbits.

The Scottish accent bit seems a bit odd though, dwarfs are obviously scot bashed but complaining just about the accent when they otherwise didn’t really play into actual Scottish stereotypes is weird to me.

[rhorle]

I’d assume if they are pointing towards an interview where they talk about cultural appropriation and stereotyping said interview would give some actual examples though.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/t...bn-well-spent/

I'm guessing it is this article that reads more like an op-ed then an actually controversy. In another article with one of the Harfoot actors he suggested it was meant to invoke a sense of community and used his own life experiences to put it into context. Though I can certainly understand why it may be a touchy subject but I'm not sure it crosses into racist or stereotype.

When I spoke to Sir Lenworth Henry, who plays a harfoot and has no say in the accents either way, he suggested that the Irish inflection is meant to convey a community feel, and that the creative team wanted an “identifiably celtic-rooted dialect” for the harfoots. The harfoots, according to Tolkien lore, were allies of the dwarves, who in the original trilogy and this series have Scottish accents, so perhaps that celtic link informed the decision. In Henry’s estimation, it’s a vibe thing: “[The harfoots] are a nomadic, very earthy, hard-handed, hard-working people,” Henry said. “My dad came to this country and worked with Irish people, and they worked with a lot of Jamaicans and there was a real sense of we're all in this together. And I think [that's the case] with the harfoots.” https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/cultur...-irish-accents

[BigToast]

oh the irony of your moronic assumption is hilarious, please do it more, you gave me a good laugh which i needed today as i'm forced to ingest 4 different types of pain medication to manage one of my health problems, you making a complete fucking muppet out of yourself has made my day, keep it up, i'm sure it makes you look really smart /s.

Now it makes sense. Sorry to hear about your health problems. I am more sorry that you exist to be a miserable troll on this board. Sad.

[Kumorii]

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/t...e-showrunners/

it's this one, though it's behind a paywall.

[InfiniteCharger]

The Tolkien multiverse ship kinda already sailed in 1978 with the animated movies which broke the canon and then again with the Jackson movies and again with shadow of Mordor.

ROP is the 5th different continuity at this point with all Of them being under Tolkien's name/franchise even though he didn’t write them.

Nothing so far has attempted to tell the story of the Second Age. So technically this is the first attempt to do anything with it. Not to mention they don't have the rights to touch anything before or after. And it is because of the way they condensed the story of the 2nd age and changed the events that this becomes the first of any adaptation to set itself up as a completely and fully alternate universe from what Tolkien wrote. The animated version and movies were much closer to the actual story and not trying to wholesale replace it with something different, while the games were focused on smaller time periods where they did tell wholly original stories but at a smaller scale which had little impact on anything else.

[rhorle]

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/t...e-showrunners/

it's this one, though it's behind a paywall.

https://web.archive.org/web/20220913...e-showrunners/

The wayback machine can get past pay walls. This really does feel like manufactured outrage given that the objection is because Harfoots are equated to "filthy rags" and the accent is not used with characters of finer dress. It definitely doesn't feel like the show runners are back tracking or doing anything crazy to respond as the OP of this tangent implied.

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And it is because of the way they condensed the story of the 2nd age and changed the events that this becomes the first of any adaptation to set itself up as a completely and fully alternate universe from what Tolkien wrote.

The Jackson film had changes and some small time skips. The moment any change is made from Tolkien canon it creates a fully alternate universe.

[BeepBoo]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving_reflex

It isn't entirely true that they will instantly drown as the body has reflexes that will prevent breathing for a time. It is true though that the body reaches a point where it will attempt to breath. An Elf of course isn't Human or even from the real world and Tolkien never went this in-depth into their abilities so it is silly to even bring this into a discussion.

Did you even read what this article talks about? It doesn't stop breathing. It alters blood flow, favoring heart and head. In addition, it's mild or non-existent in adults.

"It's pointless to bring up because it's entirely possible for elves to handwave that they don't breathe when unconscious!" Garbage argument. We know they function just like literally every other mammal as far as their biological functions of life, from breathing, to eating, to waste creation. Here's a question: is it better as a writer to look for loopholes to things that were previously assumed or is it better to stick to realism?

I certainly know what *I* consider better writing.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Nothing so far has attempted to tell the story of the Second Age. So technically this is the first attempt to do anything with it. Not to mention they don't have the rights to touch anything before or after. And it is because of the way they condensed the story of the 2nd age and changed the events that this becomes the first of any adaptation to set itself up as a completely and fully alternate universe from what Tolkien wrote. The animated version and movies were much closer to the actual story and not trying to wholesale replace it with something different, while the games were focused on smaller time periods where they did tell wholly original stories but at a smaller scale which had little impact on anything else.

All of the adaptations are a completely and fully alternate universe, there are no goblins singing about whips or goblin town in Tolkien’s universe, nor are there elephant surfing elf's or spiders turning into sexy lady’s. all of these things are in there own little universes that have no connection to each and no connection to Tolkien’s actual canon.

The differences might be in earlier period and telling a different story like shadow of Mordor did but that doesn’t actually have any barring on all of the adaptations being different universes that diverge in a ton of little and big ways from the actual canon.

[InfiniteCharger]

The Jackson film had changes and some small time skips. The moment any change is made from Tolkien canon it creates a fully alternate universe.

The Jackson Film did not make a completely different story with completely different character arcs and events. In doing this for ROP Amazon has set the standard that anybody with rights to Tolkien can do almost whatever they want and thus why I mentioned multiverse. And the core of this is that the Tolkien Estate is now allowing productions that are going so vastly away from the source material whereas before small changes were generally frowned upon but of course allowed. Technically this is a story only inspired by Tolkien and literally not part of the Tolkien canon at all which is what makes it part of a multiverse of 'inspired' Tolkien variants that are not canon at all.

[Triceron]

The Jackson Film did not make a completely different story with completely different character arcs and events. In doing this for ROP Amazon has set the standard that anybody with rights to Tolkien can do almost whatever they want and thus why I mentioned multiverse. And the core of this is that the Tolkien Estate is now allowing productions that are going so vastly away from the source material whereas before small changes were generally frowned upon but of course allowed. Technically this is a story only inspired by Tolkien and literally not part of the Tolkien canon at all which is what makes it part of a multiverse of 'inspired' Tolkien variants that are not canon at all.

The Jackson films don't have to make a 'completely different story' to be considered their own universe and considered to be different from the books. Just like Marvel can make a new reboot of any of the Fox or Sony characters and stories while keeping some things similar, but we know they're not the same. Like even the upcoming Daredevil series will not be based on the Netflix Daredevil character, even though it's the same actor portraying the role.

All adaptations are their own self-contained universes. The Jackson films took many different big and small changes.

Just as RoP is merely inspired by Tolkien and not part of the canon, so are the Jackson films, which includes the Hobbit movies which many people would like to forget about when regarding 'Jackson films'.

And to be fair, the Tolkien Estate had always been strict about what can or can not be deviated from, but they're still liscencing these deals for money and is why we have so many different LOTR media that isn't connected to each other. I mean just taking a look at all the disconnected Video game adaptations or the Games Workshop board games or whatever material elaborates on the origins and depictions of the Nazgul shows that there's plenty of mish-mashed 'Extended Universe' material out there that isn't part of the main canon. RoP is just the latest in a line of 'fan fiction' creations with a liscence for distribution.

[InfiniteCharger]

All of the adaptations are a completely and fully alternate universe, there are no goblins singing about whips or goblin town in Tolkien’s universe, nor are there elephant surfing elf's or spiders turning into sexy lady’s. all of these things are in there own little universes that have no connection to each and no connection to Tolkien’s actual canon.

The differences might be in earlier period and telling a different story like shadow of Mordor did but that doesn’t actually have any barring on all of the adaptations being different universes that diverge in a ton of little and big ways from the actual canon.

I agree that the result would be a sort of multiverse but regardless of whether that is what it winds up being, that still does not mean that is what he wanted. How we got here is due to his death and the details of whatever rights studios are given and how they are exercised. Marvel making alternate versions of characters from different universes is fine because they own those characters and can do whatever they want. Tolkien intended his stories to be fixed in time and space as one single set of events and occurrences, which means not a multiverse.

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The Jackson films don't have to make a 'completely different story' to be considered their own universe and considered to be different from the books. Just like Marvel can make a new reboot of any of the Fox or Sony characters and stories while keeping some things similar, but we know they're not the same. Like even the upcoming Daredevil series will not be based on the Netflix Daredevil character, even though it's the same actor portraying the role.

All adaptations are their own self-contained universes. The Jackson films took many different big and small changes.

Just as RoP is merely inspired by Tolkien and not part of the canon, so are the Jackson films, which includes the Hobbit movies which many people would like to forget about when regarding 'Jackson films'.

Yes, in the sense that any variation is a different continuity that is true, but when we speak of Marvel or DC, multiverses are a part of the overall structure that these stories exist in and characters from different multiverses can even interact with each other. Meaning it was something they developed intentionally as a way to keep characters popular and try new things. That is not what Tolkien envisioned for Lord of the Rings.

So I agree that eventually as time goes on there will be multiple versions of these stories created in film and so forth. And that only is going to happen because of money, not because that is what Tolkien wanted or intended. The issue is how different in scope and character these productions wind up being from the source material. Jackson openly stated he wanted to stick as close to Tolkien as possible. Amazon has stated right up front that they were making up their own story only loosely based on what Tolkien wrote. And that is the difference.

At the end of the day, if the Tolkien Estate were smart, they would have approached a studio to make an 'official' adaptation of the 2nd age with full rights to the Simarillion and other works that is considered as canon. Because the events of the ages prior to the 3rd age are mostly only written about in a summary format with additional notes and letters here and there. That would be the easiest way to guarantee some kind of consistency in terms of the overall narrative and characters. But they didn't, so it is what it is.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

I agree that the result would be a sort of multiverse but regardless of whether that is what it winds up being, that still does not mean that is what he wanted. How we got here is due to his death and the details of whatever rights studios are given and how they are exercised. Marvel making alternate versions of characters from different universes is fine because they own those characters and can do whatever they want. Tolkien intended his stories to be fixed in time and space as one single set of events and occurrences, which means not a multiverse.

Sure I can agree that Tolkien didn’t like the idea of a multiverse but even when he was alive he started building the path for one when he okayed a movie even though he later wrote that whole letter about it and it never came about in his life time.

As to the modern day though the multiverse ship sailed in the 80’s and it’s only gotten further out to sea with every new adaption, the chances of it coming back to port is non existent.

[Triceron]

Yes, in the sense that any variation is a different continuity that is true, but when we speak of Marvel or DC, multiverses are a part of the overall structure that these stories exist in and characters from different multiverses can even interact with each other. Meaning it was something they developed intentionally as a way to keep characters popular and try new things. That is not what Tolkien envisioned for Lord of the Rings.

It doesn't really matter what he envisioned for LOTR, we have to accept that this is a brand that has been in the hands of many different creatives and there is no one key visionary holding it together. Any visual medium will merely be an adaptation of the works, and never going to be a canonical continuation.

Same can be said of Star Wars and its relations to George Lucas. Lucas never intended there to be branching 'timelines', but that's pretty much what happened with the novels and games taking the story well past what he originally made for the films. And they had to archive that all as a part of the 'Legends' brand just to try and recontextualize canon. And even then, the current canon is quite fucked up by the Sequel trilogy and all its associated products. The only good thing is that there are certain creatives like Filoni who are keen on keeping certain things canonical, and bridge explanations between things that might have strayed too far from the source.

We don't really have a multimedia visionary for Tolkien's work, considering most Tolkien experts are the likes of historians and curators who would not seek to expand on the material at all. And frankly, Peter Jackson happens to be one of the only creatives people trust, but some of that good faith also got squandered with the Hobbit films so it's hard to say. Would Peter Jackson's Rings of Power been that much more better than what we have now? I think it's just the Hobbit all over again since we're dealing with adding new material to 'fill in the gaps', and arguably that was some of the worst part of the Hobbit films.

[rhorle]

Did you even read what this article talks about? It doesn't stop breathing. It alters blood flow, favoring heart and head. In addition, it's mild or non-existent in adults.

Yes, I did. Dry drowning uses that a part of that "diving reflex" to cause a laryngospasm that seals the airway. It is possible for that to happen which would mean an unconscious person wouldn't be breathing in water. It is also why a person can drown after they are out of the water.

Saying that Elves in Tolkiens work are not a genetic copy of Humans in the real world is not a garbage argument. The garbage argument is using real world human genetics and abilities to argue for why an elf is required to function the same way. Your own dismissal of a realistic way shows that you are just grasping at straws of an argument. It also questions your ability to spot better writing if you dismiss anything you don't like as "bad" rather then being able to separate "I don't like it" from "It is bad writing.

Remember we have a man falling from the sky without dying. Subjectively using realism to hate on the show is silly. It is meant to be fiction.

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The Jackson Film did not make a completely different story with completely different character arcs and events.

It did. It makes introduced different character roles, excluded others, skipped some, and did whatever it needed to in order to make an adaptation that Mr. Jackson was happy with. You can't just dismiss those changes to canon simply because you like it. Well you can but it shows the hypocrisy in your statements.

Anybody with the rights to making a Tolkien product has already been allowed to create a "multiverse". You act as if Amazon is the first company to produce something that diverges from Tolkien-canon. The Lego video games created another universe. War in the North. Lord of the Rings Online. Shadow of War and Shadow of Mordor. And more that I haven't listed.

All you keep doing is how you are selectively applying arguments to single out Amazon while ignoring any other case where your argument applies. That is hatred for the sake of hatred.

[Triceron]

Remember we have a man falling from the sky without dying. Subjectively using realism to hate on the show is silly. It is meant to be fiction.

It still needs to establish and stick to internal rules otherwise it breaks its own suspension of disbelief.

Just saying it's fiction doesn't mean they could have an Elf suddenly fly and pretend that it's a completely normal thing in the universe because 'it's meant to fiction and Elves aren't real'. There are still rules and boundaries at play. It's more a matter of how they choose to establish them, and how far they push it before it gets too unbelievable.

[bledgor]

It still needs to establish and stick to internal rules otherwise it breaks its own suspension of disbelief.

Just saying it's fiction doesn't mean they could have an Elf suddenly fly and pretend that it's a completely normal thing in the universe because 'it's meant to fiction and Elves aren't real'. There are still rules and boundaries at play. It's more a matter of how they choose to establish them, and how far they push it before it gets too unbelievable.

Don't give them any ideals now, or we will have flying Galadriel who shots fireballs out of her eyes and bolts of lightning from her arse before we know it. Least then she would be closer in height at 7 feet tall.

[rhorle]

It still needs to establish and stick to internal rules otherwise it breaks its own suspension of disbelief.

Sigh. Indicate where Tolkien created internal rules to cover this? As I said in a earlier response Tolkien never went in-depth into the capabilities of elves. Based on the real world it is possible for a submerged unconscious person to not have water in their lungs once brought back up to the surface. Saying it is fiction does mean that an elf could suddenly fly because those internal rules you brought up are created by the author.

The amusing part is the mother of Elrond did develop the ability to fly so she could visit his father. It was of course in the form of shape shifting into a bird but it is still an example of Tolkien "breaking internal rules" to fit the narrative he wanted to tell. An elf couldn't fly so he made a reason that allowed her to.

[Kumorii]

It still needs to establish and stick to internal rules otherwise it breaks its own suspension of disbelief.

Just saying it's fiction doesn't mean they could have an Elf suddenly fly and pretend that it's a completely normal thing in the universe because 'it's meant to fiction and Elves aren't real'. There are still rules and boundaries at play. It's more a matter of how they choose to establish them, and how far they push it before it gets too unbelievable.

to add to this:

Usually our world and our references is the fall back when things aren't mentioned.
There's a reason why people point to the ears when describing elfs, and then use adjectives such as "beautiful" to explain the rest because it's assumed that the rest is that of a human. If fiction doesn't specify characteristics or traits or just about anything on how anything works, the fall back should be reality... not "welp, anything goes".

If the show wants to add traits such as their breathing underwater (ridiculous thing to argue about btw) is different to humans they need to establish that or address it.
Fact is they didn't, so the fall back is the same as humans.

[rhorle]

If the show wants to add traits such as their breathing underwater (ridiculous thing to argue about btw) is different to humans they need to establish that or address it. Fact is they didn't, so the fall back is the same as humans.

Again. It is possible for an unconscious person to not have water in their lungs after being submerged. If you take this to mean breathing underwater that is your fault and is not actually something the show or myself is representing. So according to your own fall back the scene is perfectly fine yet I'm sure you'll find some way to shirk that conclusion.