i disagree but i can also see where you’re coming from. so don’t take this as an attack. just my 2 cents.
i actually think the BBC show was very empathetic towards ralph, and the only decision i actually disagree with is giving his reaction to simon’s death to piggy. THAT BEING SAID… i get why they did it.
every episode was dedicated to one of the protagonists/the antagonist, and ralph’s was last. this meant we didn’t actually get to know ralph or the inner workings of his mind until his episode. thorne added more violence against ralph to build empathy for a kid we didn’t really know yet then packed an emotional punch by revealing to us his home life, his isolation, and the lengths he would go to for his friends.
actually, extending piggy’s death scene really worked because it showed us just how determined and kind ralph really is, while strengthening a bond without the narration of the book.
in the novel, ralph is (i say lovingly) the protagonist equivalent of white bread — he is your typical early 20th century adventure novel kid thrust into a dark situation. this works on paper, because the book is deeply allegorical. on screen, however, that is boring and doesn’t work. you can’t have a tv show where every character is just an allegory because that only works when you have the constant narration of a novel. 2026 handed us a real kid, so they upped his stakes and kept us holding on until the end. in my opinion, it worked much better for the flow of a miniseries simply because of the format we are now in.
+++ in a version of LOTF where every kid is humanised rather than only an allegory (which is the right decision for TV), you get a more empathetic jack by default. making him beat ralph senseless multiple times……. makes him less favourable and ralph more so.
i didn’t agree with every decision made by BBC LOTF to be clear. but i will say i respect them. and i understand most of them. i think the hate is a bit forced on this show
