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That Italian Guy posted:Tolkien characters have a very greek-mythology, kalos kagathos representation - heroes are canonically good looking and, vice versa, villains wear their moral ugliness on their skin. Best explanation for this I have ever heard.
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Sep 4, 2022 21:53
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Saganlives posted:I felt this too, and is in my mind to its great credit. It's what makes this all feel like high fantasy compared to, say, Game of Thrones' low fantasy. Which is not to say one is better than the other, but high fantasy is not something we typically get to see with this much money behind it, if it all. Speaking of shades of gray, it's nice to have a fantasy show with some vibrancy again. Game of Thrones was so drab in comparison.
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Sep 4, 2022 21:57
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That Italian Guy posted:Tolkien characters have a very greek-mythology, kalos kagathos representation - heroes are canonically good looking and, vice versa, villains wear their moral ugliness on their skin. Wtf no, everyone who adapted his stories for visual media have done that - are we literally memory holing "all that is gold does not glitter" now just because Hollywood wants good-looking protagonists? Nor do I recall any of the Hobbit characters being described in particularly positive visual terms, yet Tolkien practically puts them on a moral pedestal. It's mostly Elves who are described as fantastically beautiful - and they can be real huge shitlords as seen during the first couple of ages! Hell, both Morgoth and Sauron multiple times took forms beautiful to look upon. That was even part of the discourse in this very thread on why starman doesn't fit as Sauron! Corbeau fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Sep 4, 2022 |
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Sep 4, 2022 22:22
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stev posted:I really don't get everyone's problem with the cave troll bit. It was a 20 second action sequence just there to show us that Galadriel does more than walk around etherially and exposit prophetically. I feel like a sizable chunk of people with problems with the sequence probably cheered when Legolas killed the evil elephant kaiju with two arrows.
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Sep 4, 2022 22:24
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For me the snow troll sequence feels just kinds tacked on, like they needed an action scene because they were worried people might get bored. It doesn't add much or take away much apart from causing the other elves to look like fools when they still refuse to follow Galadriel despite proof that the fortress is still active. Trolls aren't natural creatures the way others are. They're artifice made by Morgoth, created monsters. Their mere continued presence belies the darkness that remains in the world. Battling a troll, finding the mark of Sauron and feeling the evil that permeated the fortress is enough for them to justify their excursion into Forodwaith to begin with. But the elves go "nope, this is stupid we're going home" and they take off.
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Sep 4, 2022 22:52
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Everyone posted:Is it just me or does Robert Amarmayo as Elrond look like elven Neil Patrick Harris? Corbeau posted:That was even part of the discourse in this very thread on why starman doesn't fit as Sauron! First two eps as a Tolkien geek and I'll give it a 8–8.5; some janky dialog and weirdly close-up shots of people exchanging dialog, but those establishing shots of ME locales (lookin' at you, Khazad-Dum) were borderline pornographic.
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Sep 4, 2022 22:56
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Upon rewatch, the sweeping shot of that body of water next to the elf watch tower thing was absolutely stunning.
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Sep 4, 2022 23:13
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I remember someone saying “all that glitters is not gold” earlier in the thread in reference to the show’s good looks or something and I was reminded that “all that is not gold does not glitter” was a cheeky inversion of the aphorism Like how the whole story of LotR is to get rid of a magic talisman instead of to seek one out. See also Sam eavesdropping outside the window like in an Edwardian stage farce; or the hero being a weird silly fat little gnome instead of a musclebound armor-clad warrior. It’s a very satirical story in its original context And then you get people trying to respond to or parody Tolkien and it just ends up being the same thing he was poking fun at to begin with Data Graham fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Sep 4, 2022 |
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Sep 4, 2022 23:14
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Mahoning posted:Upon rewatch, the sweeping shot of that body of water next to the elf watch tower thing was absolutely stunning. Yeah the sets and CGI matte paintings are a high point. Unfortunately the costumes and prosthetics and writing are not so hot.
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Sep 4, 2022 23:40
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I'm pretty sure my qt elf character in Baldurs Gate had Elrond's exact hairdo.
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Sep 4, 2022 23:58
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So Amazon gave their best trailer to a sponsor/partner channel and didn't promote it at all. This should have been the final trailer they spread everywhere, it is great Instead they hid it on the Samsung youtube channel for reasons?  https://youtu.be/Y1teNj9pitA This is cool as hell.
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Sep 5, 2022 00:27
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Pioneer42 posted:Bizarre explanation. Is this what non-readers are assuming based on only the info available in the show? No, it’s the same in all stories/movies. It’s the reason that, among other things, elves can walk on snow or scale the elephant things and see things that are beyond the horizon. Torquemada posted:Hmm. Having just refreshed my memory on some of this stuff, it shouldn’t be hidden or disconnected at this point should it? Valinor should be clearly visible from Numenor, which is one of the reasons the Numenoreans thought they’d be able to just invade it and live forever. The ability to physically get in a normal boat and sail to Valinor was lost at the same time as the inundation of Numenor. So what’s with the big curtain opening effect, I wonder. Yeah, the timing may be off but I see no other explanation for the curtain opening effect except that it’s closed off to everyone else. I wonder if that means they’ll skip that storyline in its entirety. rkd_ fucked around with this message at 01:02 on Sep 5, 2022 |
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Sep 5, 2022 00:48
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It looks like the show is going to cram about 3000 years into <20. I expect Numenor to sink but for sundering of the world to skip mention entirely. The way it's been shown Valinor is already a mystical place you have to take a magic portal too. They might skip Sauron going to Numenor and Ar-Pharazon entirely actually. I think we're going to see him come back, forge the rings etc and then we're going to get the Last Alliance war. I reckon they might even make Elendil the King of Numenor.
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Sep 5, 2022 01:33
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Funky See Funky Do posted:It looks like the show is going to cram about 3000 years into <20. I expect Numenor to sink but for sundering of the world to skip mention entirely. The way it's been shown Valinor is already a mystical place you have to take a magic portal too. They have at least 5 seasons to tell their stories, the problem is gonna be finding material, not deciding what to cut. I’ve been kinda figuring the show would finale with the siege of Mount Doom—good conclusion to several storylines and dovetails into the Jackson movies.
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Sep 5, 2022 01:36
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Yeah I can sort of see how they'll do it in one coherent narrative over a matter of decades or years instead of over millennia or centuries. Like GoT did. Compress multiple characters or events into a single one.
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Sep 5, 2022 01:54
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Funky See Funky Do posted:It looks like the show is going to cram about 3000 years into <20. I expect Numenor to sink but for sundering of the world to skip mention entirely. The way it's been shown Valinor is already a mystical place you have to take a magic portal too. The way I see this unfolding, is that in this adaptation Sauron is corrupting the Numenorians and the elves simultaneously. Someone seems to already have planted the idea to the elves that they need bigger forges and that's why the trees in Lindon are starting to show signs of corruption. Raft man seems almost too evil and mysterious and he's heading towards Numenor. Sauron might have even helped the dwarves with their mithril mining too, who knows. At the same time, he's been leaving behind instructions to the orcs to gather in the Southlands to eventually turn it into Mordor.
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Sep 5, 2022 02:10
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drunkill posted:So Amazon gave their best trailer to a sponsor/partner channel and didn't promote it at all. Not a lie. This trailer got me repumped for the series despite seeing the first 2 episodes. Great trailer.
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Sep 5, 2022 02:23
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drunkill posted:So Amazon gave their best trailer to a sponsor/partner channel and didn't promote it at all. I didn't realize it during the episodes but listening to this trailer, my brain immediately made the connection. 
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Sep 5, 2022 02:32
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Durin, my boy.
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Sep 5, 2022 02:46
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Why do all the elves look like Steve Harrington in Stranger Things? It's like they were casting for a live-action version of the rice crispies mascots and then threw them into tolkein-elf clothes at the last second. like the show, i just can't stop thinking of what they're using for hair product to keep those 80's do's up. Zedhe Khoja fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Sep 5, 2022 |
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Sep 5, 2022 03:37
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Yeah, the elf men in particular look off. The actor that plays Gil-galad is… extremely not-Elvish looking.
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Sep 5, 2022 04:03
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Gil-Galad and Celebrimbor are awful castings; no diss on the actor’s performance, but they don’t have the look that fits for playing elves (Elrond kind of works, Galadriel and Arondir do look like they can play elves)
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Sep 5, 2022 04:16
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Enjoyed the second episode a lot even though the plot they came up with to kill time for Galadrial was ridiculous from a lore standpoint. Elrond and Durin were fun to watch and some of the establishing matte shots are amazing. I saw someone suggest the star man could be the mouth of Sauron.
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Sep 5, 2022 04:20
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For all the issues with The Hobbit movies, Lee Pace as Thranduil was magnificent casting.
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Sep 5, 2022 04:20
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The actor that plays Celebrimbor looks too similar to the actor that played Pycelle in Game of Thrones and it throws me off.
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Sep 5, 2022 04:21
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Jerusalem posted:For all the issues with The Hobbit movies, Lee Pace as Thranduil was magnificent casting. A lot of good casting in those films.
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Sep 5, 2022 04:25
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otoh they had muthafuckin crixus and they decided to green screen dem abs
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Sep 5, 2022 04:27
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MixMasterMalaria posted:Enjoyed the second episode a lot even though the plot they came up with to kill time for Galadrial was ridiculous from a lore standpoint. Elrond and Durin were fun to watch and some of the establishing matte shots are amazing. I saw someone suggest the star man could be the mouth of Sauron. Now that we have a better idea of where they are in the timeline and how're they going compress everything to happen right at the end of the second age. I think it really might be Gandalf. I hope it's one of the blue wizards but they only showed the one meteor. If it ends up being Sauron then I'm done. That's just beyond the pale stupid. The Mouth of Sauron is just a regular guy turned rear end in a top hat.
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Sep 5, 2022 04:31
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radlum posted:Gil-Galad and Celebrimbor are awful castings; no diss on the actor’s performance, but they don’t have the look that fits for playing elves (Elrond kind of works, Galadriel and Arondir do look like they can play elves) Gil-Galad gets a pass for the magnificent, regal mullet.
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Sep 5, 2022 04:43
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Jerusalem posted:For all the issues with The Hobbit movies, Lee Pace as Thranduil was magnificent casting. Lee Pace was born to play a Tolkien elf. He's ridiculously tall and pretty.
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Sep 5, 2022 04:50
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Watched the second episode and I'm still digging it well enough so far. I wish they hadn't gone with the drunken Scott Dwarf stereotype and went more with Tolkien's style of Dwarves but a man can't have everything. I do like Princess Disa though. The Hobbit sections have been landing better for me than I would have expected coming into this. I was most interested to see how those would fare since Tolkien didn't write much about the Hobbits of that era Ginette Reno fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Sep 5, 2022 |
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Sep 5, 2022 05:46
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I'm really loving the show, and I'm excited for all the next episodes. The show does copy a lot from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings which is great! But there is one thing that is bothering me, and I don't know if it's just me being too critical or something about the show itself. The cinematography is pretty bland compared to the Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, and even The Hobbit movies. Does anyone else notice this? It makes some scenes drag, since it's visually bland. It's pretty easy to make this comparison the LOTR to Rings of Power since so much of them is the same.
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Sep 5, 2022 06:03
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radlum posted:Gil-Galad and Celebrimbor are awful castings; no diss on the actor’s performance, but they don’t have the look that fits for playing elves (Elrond kind of works, Galadriel and Arondir do look like they can play elves) There seems to be an intentional degree of uniformity between elves and men in this aesthetic of Middle Earth that I don't really like at all. The only one that kinda looks like an elf is Galadriel imo. Elrond just looks like a kid.
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Sep 5, 2022 06:05
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Charles 1998 posted:But there is one thing that is bothering me, and I don't know if it's just me being too critical or something about the show itself. The cinematography is pretty bland compared to the Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, and even The Hobbit movies. Does anyone else notice this? It makes some scenes drag, since it's visually bland. It's pretty easy to make this comparison the LOTR to Rings of Power since so much of them is the same. It's maybe the best-looking TV show ever? It's gorgeous. It looks like a $200 million movie and it should because they spent like $1 billion on it.
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Sep 5, 2022 06:08
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The meteor that flew through the sky visibly had a fairly large flaming tail. It hit the ground with an audible boom. Tom Bombadil is an anagram for Tail-boom or Bomb-load.... you don't think? no...
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Sep 5, 2022 06:14
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BoldFace posted:I didn't realize it during the episodes but listening to this trailer, my brain immediately made the connection. I love this guy. First noticed him in Westworld acting his balls off, and then realized he was Yaxley the loving Death Eater in the Deathly Hallows movies. He does 'gruff arsehole with a grudge' well, and really is there any better description of a King of the Dwarves?
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Sep 5, 2022 06:46
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Eiba posted:It's got a really odd tone I don't quite know the word for. Like kind of cartoony, or a kind of heightened reality. All the crowd scenes with closeups on weird looking people for instance- dwarves and harfoots are going to have weird looking folks in the crowd scenes, but also the humans in that village in Mordor were just as... picturesque. The whole show feels like it's not really going for strict realism, and that threw me off at first, but on reflection I think I can appreciate it. it's a 'legendary' vibe imo
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Sep 5, 2022 07:00
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To be honest, I like the cinematography in the show a bit better thus far. Andrew Lesnie's work was always a bit rough around the edges and rested on heavy DI correction (which also chewed up the grain a bit on the initial release). They tried to fix that up a bit on the first Bluray with not-so-great results, then finally found a good final image on the most recent Bluray re-release... but the lighting is still very stagey much of the time and nothing can fix that. Weathertop in particular has such cheap soundstage lighting. If you just mean camera movement, I get that's an issue of taste. PJ's b-movie horror-influenced camerawork was always a bit hyperactive for me, so I'm okay with the more traditional framing and blocking we have here (Baring some awkward blocking during the troll fight). I know his bold camera moves landed really well with most audiences though. This camera is already much more mobile than most shows can afford, PJ's style likely wouldn't be feasible. Personally, I think they've picked their moves well so far. (We get different directors and cinematographers for the remaining episodes though, so we'll see how this aspect holds up).
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Sep 5, 2022 07:04
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radlum posted:Gil-Galad and Celebrimbor are awful castings; no diss on the actor’s performance, but they don’t have the look that fits for playing elves (Elrond kind of works, Galadriel and Arondir do look like they can play elves) I think that Galadriel is the worst pick, followed by Elrond. Of all the Noldor who remained in ME after the War of the Jewels, Galadriel should be the most mystical one from her years in Valinor, her lineage and the tutelage she received from Melian. Yet she looks like a normal, blonde, human woman with pointy ears. That they could not find an actress with more prominent facial features is baffling. On the positive side: Cruz Córdova as Arondir was a great pick. Hammerstein fucked around with this message at 07:09 on Sep 5, 2022 |
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Sep 5, 2022 07:04
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I like this show despite looking off brand LOTR at times.
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Sep 5, 2022 07:18
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