Things About LOTF 2026 I Didn’t Like
🚨I would like to point out that this isn’t hate towards the child actors I think they did an amazing job and I wouldn’t say anyone’s acting was bad (please don’t kill me)🚨
1~ Why does Piggy have a name? It takes a lot from the ambiguity and the entire point of his character, it honestly just felt like an attempt to make us like him more which felt unnecessary because David portrayed him as very likeable. Similarly, the prolonging of his death also took away from the suddenness of the plot which shows just how quick the island and the boys change, it’s the sudden realisation that the last real voice of reason, peace and innocence is gone.
2~ Ralph’s entire character becoming ‘2D’ A large part of Ralph’s character is how he is one of the better boys however, he too has his flaws such as his role in Simon’s death and he’s much meaner to Piggy in the book, the series made it feel like he became overly nice so that the audience could have a clear ‘you should like him’ role, the meanest thing Ralph’s really does is expose Piggy’s name but even then he apologises quickly after so it’s almost like there was no point. They dumb him down even more by changing his and Piggy’s lines after Simon's death by having Ralph’s making excuses and not properly accepting responsibility when this was a key turning point in his character.
3~ Simon becoming Jack Thorne’s own character/self insert. He has repeatedly said how he saw himself in Simon which wasn’t an issue in itself, just rather how key details in Simon are absent from the show such as his connection to nature and his infamous line about the beast, in the book, Simon did almost as much as Piggy where as in the series he was whittled down to just a quiet boy who is referenced to be queer (which obvious isn’t an issue it’s just that the word queer in the book had a different meaning it has today.)
4~Roger mischaracterisation. Roger is meant to be quiet and creepy, in the show he almost gives off a slightly quieter Jack. Roger was purposefully written to be the most ‘evil’ on the island, this version made him to ‘normal’ in the sense that you wouldn’t be able to tell he is actually as bad as he is shown to be, for example, Roger took pride in killing the pig and even took joy out of essentially molesting the pig by putting his spear up her rear. This isn’t me saying you can’t like the complexity of his character either, just rather how Roger isn’t the same character in the series as he is in the books.
5~ Jack’s home life. This isn’t necessarily something I think is bad, just that it takes away from his initial evil. It’s become common to have bad guys having a back story rather than just inherently bad. Jack’s home-life isn’t mentioned in the book however, based on the themes present in the book it’s more likely how the boys were raised in society rather than just their homes. You aren’t meant to feel bad for Jack in the book where as the more empathetic view in the series removes the impact of his character.
6~ Carrying on the theme of Jack, his relationship with Simon (Jimon), there is very few times when the characters even interact in the book, the most Jack feels for Simon is a slight bit of guilt once he’s killed but even then he is too far gone to realise his actions. It felt like the purpose was for us to feel bad for Jack by giving him a secret friend, which didn’t seem necessary for the plot or even like Jack as a character. Again it low-key just felt like fanfiction.
7~The ending. At the end of the book all the boys are crying, I appreciate this isn’t the same in the movies and it’s just Ralph, but, the ending felt underwhelming and like it dragged. There wasn’t this final desperation to remain true to any morals Ralph had instead, he gave up by essentially asking Jack to come find him. Carrying on the lack of emotions some of the boys had made it feel like the final realisation of their lost innocence and the consequences of society was lost, it more just felt like ‘yep that’s it done!’ rather than the emotional scene it should have been.
8~ The flint. The whole point of Piggy’s specs is that is the only way to get fire, which is why Piggy initially holds some level of importance. By introducing the fact that Simon had flint made it unnecessary for the boys to later steal Piggy’s glasses if there was more than one way of getting fire, which Jack knows as Simon showed him the flint, which continues to strip away Piggy’s importance.
9~More ensemble! The ensemble boys were mainly just used for a close up to highlight before and after savagery kicks in, something I think the 1990’s movie did really well was showing more relationships than just your primary characters. I really enjoyed the ensemble though and wish we saw more of them especially with the 4 hours of screen time that the show had available.
10~ The downplay of violence. Obvious nowadays child actors can’t do scenes that were in the 1963 and 1990 movie, but from what we see, there’s a lack of violence with the progression of savagery. I’m not saying I particularly wanted to see the boys whipped and get punished etc, but the only real violence we saw was the deaths, slightly in the separation of SamnEric and a few fight scenes. Jack is the embodiment of a dictator but from the image created of Jack’s camp he doesn’t seem all to different from Ralph’s camp (in the book Jack’s camp being more dystopian and evil) and with the lack of consequence I could see a lot of the older boys helping Ralph in the end as Jack doesn’t really seem to have the same tyrannical rule.