The actor playing Galadriel now is older than the one playing Elrond. Compare that to LotR where Cate Blanchett is 9 years younger than Hugo Weaving. Obviously for creatures that live such long life spans it’s not easy showing that on screen.
Spare me your fake outrage. I addressed exactly what you said was needed to make a fantasy world “grounded”. Your opinion comes from ignorance and prejudice. And of course all you could must up was a deflection.
I am doubting its any. But it depends on how much they are going to change. Radagast arrived with Sauron, Gandalf arrived on his own, but I think they all arrived to middle earth by boat. I don't remember anythign about comets. :P
could be an entirely new Ainur :P
Was the cast a big complaint? I thought the cast was actually one of the less issues about the show. Everything else around it sucked lol. With that said, there were a few casting choices that kind of irked me. But that's just my expectations verses the reality :P
Last edited by Orby; 2022-09-04 at 12:59 PM.
I love Warcraft, I dislike WoW
Unsubbed since January 2021, now a Warcraft fan from a distance
Interesting. I didn't know the moderators of the forum where allowed to post like this and show their preference.
As a person from the community you are trying to protect, we don't need your protection.
As far as HoD, there may have been comments about it, but you'll notice they all stopped. Why is that? Why aren't people upset about that show vs this one? Could it be that HBO did its diversity well and didn't sacrifice their story for it? That they focused on making a good show with a good story first?
This does explain a lot about this forum though.
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There were so, so many things on that wall.
Well it got out early who was going to be in the first season and Elayne was clearly omitted. So it was clear from the get go that they were going to intentionally omit one of Rand's love interests from the get go. The main cast is generally OK but I'm not sure why they cast a black dude to play Padan Fain, only to neuter his entire story arc alongside Mat's, as it doesn't really give him an opportunity to show his chops and that story is a pivotal part of Mat's development as a character.
Game of Thrones is WAAAAAAY more popular than LOTR. There is a reason Amazon wanted "their own Game of Thrones".
HoD should be getting review bombed (if that is what is actually happening) way more than LOTR if what you're implying is true, but it isn't.
WoT was protected pretty hard too by media and review sites, it simply didn't get as much press.
There is absolutely nothing different between how these characters are handled in both shows. They simply exist and that’s it.
The fact that there are more vocal people who consider themselves fans of Tolkien’s works making a big deal about these castings (though the man would be rolling over in his grave if he could see all the racialist, white-centric bullshit these supposed “fans” are spouting about his works) has nothing to do with the show itself.
Last edited by Adamas102; 2022-09-04 at 01:14 PM.
I loved the actor they got to play Padan Fain and thought he did a fantastic job. I didn't like how they changed his story in Fal Dara, and not seeing his desperation and corruption through the first book as he trails the boys, but the actor I felt was really good. I blame the writers for the changes to him, but by Fal Dara the show didn't resemble the book at all, so changing him too was just a drop in the bucket.
Elayne, well they took out all of Caemyln because it was too expensive to make another city (I mean their Tar Valon was so embarrassing that I can't imagine them trying to do 2 cities), so I guess not having her made sense for that. Caemyln was basically a focus on Rand, so not having it or Elayne when Rand wasn't the focus of the show does make a sad sorta sense.
I imagine the LOTR writers were surprised how much backlash they got from character changes when they probably saw the time period they were writing as fertile ground for "make up whatever you want because you don't have a book to judge it against"
Someone's very touchy, because I am not calling anyone racist who has legit criticism. In fact I have seen some negative reviews here that are completely valid. Although I have questions about the spammer on the previous page. That guy looks sus. And look even your opinions I respect it, I agree with your sentiment, about its basis and setting of middle-earth that's a legit criticism, even if I disagree with it, but for myself I just do not care about the skin colour as much as some. MY big issue is peoples' hyper fixation on that alone and not on the quality of the work. I for one, as mentioned, LOVED Sophia Nomvete role as Princess Disa in the show, and while yes the sight of a black female dwarf is very new her performance made me feel like it didn't matter.
The problem comes down to if them being a different skin colour affects your ability to enjoy the story, the acting, the sound, the cinematography, the visuals, if the answer is 'it does' then yes you may have a problem.
Food for thought though Tolkien specifically stated that Gondorians were culturally Egyptian in some ways, while their religion was very Hebrew (or is that Hebraic? I cannot remember) would we be so offended to have Gondorians be darker skinned because of this or even mixed?
My biggest complain about Padan Fain was that he looked too swarve, and not as weaselly as I imagined. :P
Last edited by Orby; 2022-09-04 at 01:40 PM.
I love Warcraft, I dislike WoW
Unsubbed since January 2021, now a Warcraft fan from a distance
GoT is only more popular because of recency bias, LOTR set the table for GoT to be successful as a TV series. But it's still the best selling book series in history, ASoIF isn't even in the same ballpark. Tolkien's work has also been immortalized in music as well. GoT will never have the long lasting cultural impact that LOTR has had and you'd be a fool to think so. His works are used as literary studies as well, which is something George R.R Martin will never have with his work.
Thank god demonicessa is gone, was too busy trying to not see the eye cancer to think about blocking..
Omg I just remembered this came out and watched the first two episodes. This series is definitely scratching an itch for me. I love seeing all the artwork that relates to elves and dwarves and their civilization. I'm looking forward to seeing Galadriel in action and the creation of the special forge thing and the rings of power!
Last edited by PC2; 2022-09-04 at 03:37 PM.
That's not what he did at all. Not only did he abandon the idea of Middle-earth being a mythology for England early on (back when he was dabbling with the idea of time-traveling Saxon sailors), he specifically set his stories in a PRE-historic time on earth (knowing full well that the setting would never align with any actual geographical or historical reality). Trying to bring up historical documents is completely missing the point of what Tolkien was trying to do.
Additionally, if you want to take the stretch of time that Tolkien put forth (setting the first and second ages roughly 18,000-6,000 years ago), that places much of these stories in a time before white skin was even prevalent across Europe.
What does Africa have to do with anything? The actors in this show are British, not African. The fact that you can't help but deny them their identity as people born and raised in Europe is extremely problematic. Do you think people born in England with dark skin should never be allowed to participate in any sort of historical performances centered on the country of their birth? Can people with dark skin just never truly be European?
See, this is the racist mentality that is on full view in this thread that you so casually want to brush under the rug. The idea that things like culture and history need to be kept "pure" in terms of skin color.