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Notes -
So, I watched the first two episodes of the Rings of Power -- and it wasn't that bad.
For the record, I thought Wheel of Time was pretty horrible, and while it was far from the only problem, the woke aspects (forced diversity, all men have to suck, all women have to rock) was definitely a big part of the issue. RoP has some forced diversity as well, but it's somehow not as bad. The black elf is one of the few elves who actually seems attractive and somehow beyond human -- the others come across as Roman Senator types.
Galadriel is a Mary Sue, but I guess she is in the books too. We'll see how her story develops.
I'm not happy with the proto-hobbits, and of course, the one who pushes the rules and is clever and daring is a woman, but that's mostly okay.
Dwarves -- well, of course the woman gives wise council to her buffoon husband, but it was still fairly well done I thought.
The visuals were great, and you did somehow get a sense of fleshed out, interesting and complex world. I'm very cautiously optimistic. Miles and miles ahead of Wheel of Time.
For the record, I'm /u/The-WideningGyre on reddit, but felt like grabbing one of the more common usernames I use on the new Motte.
I'm really disappointed by the weird groupthink shitshow I feel like 'normal' reddit has become, so I will do what I can to support this new Motte. Thanks /u/ZorbaTHut and other creators!
I heard an interesting take on this. She is a universally loved character in the books and movies. Some say that RoP is changing her characterization into a standard victim narrative so that they can show her overcoming her oppression. People seem very offended by this since she’s coming off like a huge bitch in the first few episodes. Some sort of character assassination to further the modern feminist narrative.
What do you think?
The showrunners are woefully inexperienced so yeah, going for easily understood, largest audience engagement plot and motivations. "This is Galadriel. She is really important. This is why she is important. She is on a vengeance quest to get revenge for her dead brother. This is why she is going out fighting orcs and trolls".
They're also stuck in that they don't have the rights to Second Age material so they can't show her as the pupil of Melian or married to Celeborn or any of that. So they have to spin up a story of Warrior Princess Galadriel out of what material they have, and to make it easily digested by a general audience (because they can't survive just by getting the hardcore fans, they need as many people watching as possible to buy subscriptions to make Prime streaming succeed) they have to use well-worn stories like 'revenge quests'. Galadriel isn't Galadriel, that complex mix of Noldorin pride and belief in their own intelligence and ability, and slowly growing repentance for the decisions she made and how the entire return to Middle-earth by the Noldor was tainted by Feanor's mad quest for vengeance - she's Girl Power Heroine.
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