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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 3, 2022

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Definitely part of the problem. They needed to make parts of the show noticeably different from Tolkien's work to show that they weren't using material the didn't have the rights to.

I imagine that they had to run major creative decisions by lawyers. That doesn't help the writing.

Thing is, they dropped fleeting hints in that only viewers who knew the lore would get and which would go right over the casual viewers' heads, but since they hadn't the rights to expand on that material, they never explained it.

So that made the starting episodes confusing and boring (nothing happens) for the casual audience while annoying the fans who do know what is going on (anyone else chuckle darkly at the opening episode CGI Elven fleet sailing off to Middle-earth in pursuit of Morgoth?)

Pick what you are gonna do, and stick to it. If you can't legally write about Morgoth or Valinor, don't introduce them. And stop copying the movies.