Wannabe

A wannabe artist/writer enthralled with fantasy and Middle Earth. I am also a book dragon (not worm, dragon).

[darklordsauron]

Spread this over the internet with no context, please. Save it as your profile picture. Do anything. Redraw it.

[great-gabby-art]

[darklordsauron]

Food is scarce in the deep...

A quick illustration of a jellyfish mermaid.

[darklordsauron]

Food is scarce in the deep...

A quick illustration of a jellyfish mermaid.

[darklordsauron]

THAT'S IT, I AM DONE WITH RINGS OF POWER.

[darklordsauron]

Last things about ROP (before the final episode(s))

Not gonna lie, I expected a lot worse. It is still awful in my opinion (because I am a die hard book fan, not a racist or sexist idiot) but, there are some qualities to the show that is not bad.

It is over-dramatic when it should not be. When Arondir was taken to be a slave for the orcs and they try to escape this one elf dies. The show goes into slow motion, the music becomes tragic ect. but we have known this character for a few scenes in two episodes where he barely talks. They had no reason to make this scene so dramatic as I had no feeling towards this character. Whether he died or lived means nothing to me. If they killed Arondir however, I would have been shocked and his death would have added more drama to the show that actually adds weight (character development wise) to the characters.

The amount of clichés in this show is nauseating. Nori, Bronwyn, Arondir and Galadriel are tropes you can find in every fantasy series. Nori- The chosen one who nobody really understands, Bronwyn- The hardworking single mother who cares about everything and everyone while still being stern, Arondir- The stoic warrior who has a soft spot for only one woman and Galadriel- The war hardened warrior who cannot think of anything anymore except revenge but they learn to be more understanding. Tropes that can make anybody yawn in other words. I will not be discussing Bridie Sisson's character as that will just open can of worms.

There are a few characters in this show that gives it their all and they are my favorite. For example Disa and Durin, the best characters. They are energetic and delights to have on screen. I wish we had a show just about them. Adar is so cool and I want him to murder everyone, if they make him Sauron, the witch-king, a nazgul I will have no complaints (I am fairly certain he is just going to be an OC but still, he is just so cool he can be anything). Tar-Miriel has this royal and snobbish attitude I adore as well as Celebrimbor (man may not look the part but he plays a Fëanorian so damn well).

The dialogue in ROP is robotic and sometimes just plain weird. Galadriel's OC brother (why did she need an OC brother in the first place, she has enough already) says this weird quote about rocks and ships and it is supposed to thought provoking but, I was sitting there like- '...huh?!' My friend who actually likes this show even said that that line was stupid. Also, when the humans help Galadriel when she was swimming back to Middle Earth, they call her a liar after she said something that cannot be a lie or the truth. The writing does get better as the show goes on but, the robotic-ness of the dialogue stays.

The VFX and CGI are bloody, drop dead gorgeous. They deserve an award for the set designs/best special effects or something because the locations and sets of this show are masterpieces.

Sadly the same cannot be said for the wardrobes... They suck, the material is cheap and they do not fit the characters in any good way. There is a strange phenomenon with this show; sometimes a character comes out wearing something that actually looks nice and cool but, the rest of the characters wear clothes I believe they found in the darkest vaults of Amazon. I have seen cosplayers with better wardrobes.

The props are competent and some look awesome! I would buy a few of these and hang them up on my wall because they are beautiful to say the least.

This show did not meet my bad expectations but, it also does not fall into the good category. Perhaps season 2 will bring it some redemption? (Fingers crossed it does).

For fun, here are my top 5 favorite and most hated characters-

Favorite

Disa

Durin

Elrond

Adar

Tar-Miriel or Gil-Galad

Hated

Nori

Arondir

Theo

Bronwyn

Galadriel

That is all I have to say. All in all not a completely bad show but definitely not worthy of Tolkien.

4/10

[bestboy-huan]

The girlboss-ification of Galadriel bothers me so much. In the books, in Tolkien’s works, Galadriel is a powerful political leader, even by the second age. She is a princess of the Noldor, the daughter of Finarfin. She is proud and respected.

In the Rings of Power, she is nothing more than a bitter commander in Gil-Galad’s army. She can’t even control her own subordinates. (They call her “Commandeer Galadriel” not “Lady Galadriel”!) She is ignored by Gil-Galad and condescended to by Elrond, she is dismissed and rebuked. She has no influence and no status of her own. So far in the show, her motivation is just vengeance and her own trauma, there is no greater consideration of the fate of Middle-Earth, no political aspirations, no nothing. Her identity becomes one of being Finrod’s little sister, not a leader of her own.

In the Unfinished Tales, there are many inconsistencies in Galadriel’s history, but none of them suggest this powerlessness and this humiliation.

I don’t care if they make her out to be a warrior or not, I don’t care if she leads people into battle or not, I do care about her political power.

They say they are centering female characters, which would be great, except they are disempowering her. I would much rather see a woman in a position of influence and respect, than one who is good with a sword. This is Galadriel, who refused Feanor, one of the greatest elves of all time, when he asked for a strand of her hair, and in Rings of Power she becomes a cast-away who is thrown around, ignored, and manhandled by those around her.

I understand the need to have room for character development and growth, but this is not that. It’s such a performative attempt at feminism, she is a classic 2010 female protagonist. One who is good at fighting, who is the underdog, who doesn’t allow herself to be kind or gentle or have emotional vulnerability, because the writers forgot what female empowerment actually looks like. A woman with dignity and political power is so much more important than a woman who can carry a sword.

[gffa]

My problem with Rings of Power’s opening episode is that it is nowhere near strong enough to overcome its most fundamental obstacle:  It doesn’t have the rights to The Silmarillion, HoME, LaCE, Unfinished Tales, etc., so it cannot reference those events but it wants to tell stories based on those events anyway.  So what you end up with is this story that can vaguely gesture in the direction of the Kinslaying and the Feanorians, but it can’t actually tell you about those events.  It can gesture in the general direction of the political structure of the First Age, but it can’t actually tell the story of the characters’ relationships with each other. So you’re left with vague, unspecific events instead, you’re left with the show trying to give gravitas to Galadriel’s campaign against the Enemy, but you can’t fill in the details, they don’t even say Finrod’s name, they can’t reference anything more than “and then the Elves went to war”, like, that is the flattest version of those events that you could possibly give! It’s not that there’s not sparks of something really lovely in the show, I actually genuinely enjoy Elrond’s character, there’s a warmth and earnestness to him that wasn’t conveyed in the trailers or character descriptions, where yes he’s young but you can see the person he’ll grow into being.  But I spent the entire first episode feeling like something was missing and it really slapped me in the face when Gil-galad asks if he knows Celebrimbor and my mind was immediately like, “I mean, Celebrimbor is Curufin’s son, pretty sure Elrond would be aware of him, yes??” but none of that can be in the show, just that Elrond’s aware of him as an artist.  That lack of touching on the connection there made me realize that, so far, nothing in the story has shown us that Elrond is anything more than just some random Elf. That’s my problem with the show!  You can get away with it by the time of the Third Age, because Elrond is the head of Rivendell, he’s thousands of years old, there are very few Elves left, you can feel his importance to the history of the world.  But when he’s younger, you can’t lean on that, the only things we know about his background are that he’s not an Elf-Lord, he’s Gil-galad’s herald, and he’s Galadriel’s friend.  There’s nothing about how Elrond is Thingol’s heir.  Or what that means.  There’s nothing about how he’s descended from Finwe as well and is a prime candidate for king of the Noldor, after Gil-galad.  There’s nothing about his connection to the Feanorians.  To Elwing and Earendil. Then there’s Galadriel, who the show does all right with, when they shift her inability to go home/the refusal to turn back from when she first crossed over to Middle-earth to her inability to let go of the fight against Sauron, and I can see some potential in that, that they’re working as an adaptation as best they can, since they can’t reference the events that her source material was built on.  But when she was speaking with Elrond over the memorials, all I could think about was how these characters felt like a half-finished story.  Celebrian doesn’t exist yet, so that connection isn’t there.  This Finrod didn’t die to save Beren, so there’s no sense of, “Oh, had Finrod not sacrificed himself, Elrond wouldn’t be here.”  And there’s too little that takes the place of it to fill it in with another story, just that Galadriel’s seen things.  Worse things than anyone else.  Things.  Stuff.  She’s seen some shit. Maybe, as the show goes on (I could only finish the first episode before I fell asleep), it’ll do its best to reference these things as much as it can, but it can never overcome its fundamental problem: It’s trying to tell a story about events that it cannot reference and it’s not a strong enough show to overcome that with what it can tell us.

[meltingangels]

[darklordsauron]

I WATCHED THE RINGS OF POWER EPISODE 2 (illegally) SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO (PART 2):

IT IS ACTUALLY BETTER THAN EPISODE 1 BUT NOT BY A LOT.

As always a list of bad things and good things (which expanded a bit).

BAD THINGS-

Nori (the Harfoot we follow) seems to suffer from chosen one syndrome because she uses the typical line 'he fell here for a reason.' She thinks she is important but she is just annoying.

Her friend Poppy is just the plain comic relief and is also annoying. Like they just saw the 'stranger' (who probably is one of the Isitari) plummet to the ground and when Nori nears him, they start cracking up jokes. (Hobbits are jokey creatures but when things are serious they adjust themselves to the situation).

The stranger must be an Isitari because he sends fireflies into the air the same way Gandalf does with moths. If he is, it furthers Amazon's disrespect towards the source material because the Isitari made their appearance later in the second age in a different manner.

Once again I am forced to peck on Galadriel. This elleth (whom is shorter than the humans because Amazon has no respect for the source material) almost swam the whole stretch of the ocean between Valinor and 'Middle Earth' until she hitchhikes with knock-off Aragorn (Whom I think is Sauron).

There was a group of humans who rescued her, they're not important but yeah, their dialog is written with tragic stupidity. They call Galadriel a liar even though she said nothing that could be considered a truth or a lie. (Shows the limited capacity of the writers' brains).

Arondir (I rembered his name, yay!) is like the Amazon Spock/Legolas. Still a very 2D character along with his cliché girlfriend, Bronwyn.

On the subject of Bronwyn, she needs to get a babysitter or something for her son, Theo (something along those lines), cause boy gets himself in tons of trouble and he has some anger issues (plus he is a thief). I call it here first, Sauron is going to make him his disciple or something because he has the dark sword.

More non-Tolkien beasts are introduced. Most prominent of which is a dinosaur looking thing in the ocean.

The prop hammers the dwarf prince Durin uses when challenging Elrond is so obviously plastic and light. Even the actors can't make them look heavy or made of metal.

And why do the humans hate the elves? I know in the books they don't really trust or like each other but they were not outright enemies.

Still no respect for the source material or the legend, J.R.R Tolkien.

GOOD THINGS-

Kazad-dum looks absolutely gorgeous. The CGI is better in the second episode compared to the first. Well done on this.

Elrond, despite his awful haircut and his costumes for this episode sucking, develops personality in this episode and actually makes it into being a likeable character. Canonically, according to the books, he should be more modest (and definitely not politically ambitious).

Durin and Disa, despite her lack of beard, is the best and I will die for them. They truly capture the Dwarven spirit we are used to from Gimli and the company of Thorin Oakenshield. Disa is by far my favourite character as she has spunk and personality, which I believe all Dwarven women have.

Celebrimbor, despite looking older than his ancient, great-aunt Galadriel, plays his character rather coolly. He has this pompous but still lordly air around him that I can respect.

The orcs design is phenomenal. I can see where most of the budget went.

Now comes something I never hoped to address, fandom issues. Guys wether you hate ROP or like it. That's your opinion. Don't bully or judge someone based on this trivial matter. (I have noticed that some of the people who are more loyal towards the books dislike the show, and some of the people who fancy the movies more like the show.) If you like it, like it. If you don't like, then don't like it. Either way, no hate intended. This is just my opinion.

I have to admit my criticism over the first episode was harsh but as a die hard fan, they kind of deserved it (it's not like they're going to see my post anyway.)

Okay. That's all I have to say. See you again for episode 3.

[darklordsauron]

I WATCHED THE FIRST EPISODE OF RINGS OF POWER (illegally) SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO:

I will list all the bad things and the good things of the first episode. Fair warning, I am right and those articles which calls this piece of steaming shit a masterpiece is wrong.

BAD THINGS-

The acting is sub par and so uncaring that it literally didn't feel like a real, just under a billion dollar, fantasy show based off of the legendary writing of J.R.R Tolkien.(Rest in peace, you deserve the world.)

Galadriel is a Mary-Sue (the perfect person. Everybody wants to be her, she is so 'cool' Rawr XD Uwu) and she is short despite being described in the books as taller than most elvish women and almost half of elvish men.

Elrond seems to have a crush on her and that just makes me nauseated.

Galadriel, if I should even call her that, wears the fëanorian star on every wardrobe item she owns it seems.

Actually, all the elves are the same height or even under it when compared to the humans.

The music sounds more like Game of Thrones than anything even remotely associated with LOTR.

The costume design in terrible. The material is cheap and plastic, they don't even try to conceal it. In one scene you can see that one of the background characters is wearing a black T-shirt underneath the clothes.

They barely say any of the characters' names (except Galadriel, which they repeat almost constantly). I had to google their names.

Brondir is the edgy warrior who is in love with the single mother (already forgot her name) who tries to help everyone around her.

The Harfoots, I also forgot all of their names, are the Hobbits of the second age and I hate the other main character whom comes from them. She is the relatable, clumsy character who is super curious. In other words, the most over used and predictable trope in all of film history.

They bring in new monsters/creatures that Tolkien never, ever wrote about. They probably needed these cliches to make the first episode more interesting.

The CGI sucks especially when Galadriel is climbing the glacier, icy, mounting thingy. The water is jelly and a piece of Valinor's sky literally clips out if you look really closely.

They jump locations every two minutes which gave me a headache and somehow the series is both fast and slow...AT THE SAME TIME!

There is really no heart in it. The entire thing was apathetic and simply lacked soul (because they sold their souls for money).

GOOD THINGS-

Gil-galad, his character actually looks canon and the actor is putting his heart into the performance thus making him the best.

The make-up of the orcs is simply beautiful. If only the rest of the series was.

Any scene with Sauron and the mentions of Morgoth is cool as it feels as if they have actual power in the otherwise boring show.

So far it sucks (no surprise there). I wanted to break my TV simply because their disrespect towards the source material is so obvious. Tomorrow my brain will have recovered enough to watch episode 2: Shit becomes shitier.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[vildo]

[lotronprimesucks]

Amazon’s casting choices don’t reflect the true racial diversity in Tolkien’s works and are focused on tokenism over real efforts to tackle the flaws in the text and make an inclusive vision of Arda

Amazon’s one major POC actress is playing a role that canonically involves her throne and her power being stolen from her by a genocidal colonizer who wants to exterminate the religious minority she’s part of

Amazon fired their Tolkien consultant and their unsafe set conditions caused the injuries of stuntpeople

Amazon as a company is unethical, directly opposed to progressive causes, and openly emotionally manipulating viewers to get them to watch the show

Amazon has done more real harm to actual people of color and other marginalized groups than their efforts to include nonwhite actors in relatively small or stereotypical roles can address

Amazon’s promotional materials for this show treat fans of color as props to further their agenda

REPOST THIS ANYWHERE YOU LIKE AS OFTEN AS YOU LIKE.

[middle-earth-mythopoeia]

Please share and repost this anywhere you want.

[darklordsauron]

We have to do this. Tolkien never would've wanted such a blood sucking, rights fucking company to recreate his work! PRETEND IT DOESN'T EXIST!

[darklordsauron]

First time trying digital art.

Hi! This is one of my first thing drawn digitally and I am super proud of this one so I decided to share it!

[thranduilofsmirkwood]

Silm Memes

The Silmarillion Memes

[smilingdawn]

it's just so funny how after so many teasers, trailer, posters, photoshoots, behind-the-scene photos, and interviews- there has not been a single promotion for celeborn