Watched the first episode last night. It was OK but the dialogue did feel very stilted - lots of speechifying in cod Shakespearian verse.
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Just saw the 4th episode of the rings of power , I can say that it finally seems to be watchable. Now I have no clue as to why they chose to have galadriel as a character there but I do think it is turning out to be a slow burn.
Doesnāt help that I know the stories about middle earth, silmarillion inside and out but this one episode is good , the liberties with the canon notwithstanding
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And If they were to try and make something of a series out of middle Earth , I would rather they make it out of gondolin etc.
Thereās so much material in the silmarillion which can make for a really engrossing series which can put game of thrones to shame.
Even the source material in this has enough if itās properly used
I had my first āseriously?, Cāmonā moment this week with the orc chase through the woods. So many silly things about it that were designed to just make it look good on your screen, but only if you donāt think about the stupidity of any of it.
I think thatās a decision they have made with the Elves, which I think makes sense but can understand it not coming across well if not done well.
The Tolkein estate wont sell the rights to the Silmarilion or other works. What Amazon bought was the rights to do a TV adaptation of the main two books. That includes the timeline of the history of middle earth publoshed as an Appendix in LotR, but none of the details of it that are published in the works they didnt get the rights to (such as Gondolin). As so little of the details of the second age are written about in any source, that gives them the ability to fill in the gaps without there much in the way of Canon they donāt have the rights to adapt or include.
It wont work for a lot of fans because that means it isnt an adaptation and more of an āinspired byā, but theyāve got enough guideposts from the timeline to tell a really good story if they can get it right. You can see already how they are playing with the timeline by squashing the last 1000 years of so on Neumonor into the lifespan of the human characters. I know that will piss off a lot of fans but I think in terms of a TV adaptation its a story telling decision that makes sense.
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Think I might skip House of Dragons and Rings of Power and just go all in on Willlow.
House of the Dragon just got very very good. Quite poignant today.
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Thereās a lot to nitpick on though. I agre that they needed to squash the timeline of numenor.
Just felt that the writing could have been a lot better. For all intents pharazon was a cousin of miriel who usurped the throne by marrying her after the deafh of the king.
And like I said , fail to understand why galadriel needed to get this prominence.
I would think that the death of Christopher Tolkien would have changed things.
There are so many stories in silmarillion that can be toldā¦ And ones which have many nuanced characters as wellā¦ Feanor being only one exampleā¦
Fall of gondolin
The story of Turin
Beren and Luthien
Kingslaying
You can easily make a multi season stories out of this which can in all probability beat GOT
The Mary Sue effect?
Or rather the need to show a strong female character.
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You left out the best two
Fingolfin vs Morgoth
War of Wrath
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The aftermath of fingolfin vs morgoth and the continuation of the cousins stories of tuor and Turin in itself enough for a dark AF series. And add beren and luthien stories and how everything comes together.
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Too dark, would be even darker than The Handmaidenās Tale.
The audience is used to dark fantasy fiction anyway with GOT
Not the sameā¦you know thereās redemption coming in GoT.
Even after defeating Morgoth, the damage is so great that the Elves are pretty much finished and half the bloody continent sinks.
Thatās next level darkness
The Red Wedding is nothing compared to some of the shit that goes down in The Silmarillion
Can just end it at earendil finally getting the valar over and winning without showing the aftermath
The show can be hard to follow for those who donāt know LOTR very well. I think itās very good but understand that for you laymen it can be a bit complicated.
Iāve watched LOTR all the way through at least four or five times so that helps a lot. 
Same here with the addendum that Iāve read LOTR all the way through umpteen times along with Silmarillion and also the other Tolkien books including this one
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Iām absolutely loving Rings of Power. But I suspect Iām perfectly placed for it, being enough into Lord of the Rings to be able to anticipate some of where the threads mights be going and recognise some of the backstory, but nowhere near a nerd enough to get offended at the series playing a bit loose with some of the timelines and characters (which the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings did as well, and no-one seemed to mind).
Iām also not racist or sexist, so the black elves and badass Galadriel donāt bother me either, which is a bonus.
I love how theyāve made the orcs genuinely terrifying, as they sort of just turned into fodder in the films. Even if they are a bit easy to hide behind walls and down wells from.
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