# Amazon Lord of the Rings series; The Rings of Power **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** middle-earth, amazon-prime, tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [March 3, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497 "2019-03-03T20:01:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 69
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1363 "2022-10-18T02:43:33Z")
Doubling back. In retrospect Gil-galad was correct and wise in trying to send Galadriel back to paradise, fearing that her pursuit wound cause what she feared. Or some line to that effect. How the hell did he know or even suspect that? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1364 "2022-10-18T04:18:50Z")
We’re re-watching to enjoy the foreshadowing. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1365 "2022-10-18T06:51:32Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Keep in mind that a good number of those low scores have been psoted by people whose primary complaint about the show is that there are black people in it. How do you know that? That is not a complaint that I’ve heard in person nor read on the various media feedback from the viewers, even those who really dislike it. I’ve just read through the loads of the Rotten Tomatoes low scores and that isn’t mentioned. It seems to be the standard accusation against people who really don’t like it though. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1366 "2022-10-18T07:32:24Z")
For what it’s worth, here’s an article about how the show is being rated on Amazon itself. > **[Amazon Has Turned ‘Rings Of Power’ Star Ratings Back On, Here’s How Fans Are...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2022/09/10/amazon-has-turned-rings-of-power-star-ratings-back-on-heres-how-fans-are-scoring-it/)** > > In a somewhat unprecedented move seemingly designed to protect its most valuable media property, Amazon shut off the ability to rate Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon itself, when normally, it’s standard for every show, Amazon original... > Most of the 1 star reviews you can see are focused on the show not being faithful to Tolkien’s source material, and I am not seeing any of the “dwarves and elves shouldn’t be black” type pushback we’ve seen on the internet about the show. I assume it’s possible that outright racist/sexist reviews are policed and deleted, leaving the ones that are more about the substance of the show, the characters, the writing, and the supposed lack of faithfulness to Tolkiens’ work. I saw one review that spent a whole paragraph on how the elves shouldn’t have short hair. People have lots of thoughts. The racism against the show is real, it’s [all over social media](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/lord-of-the-rings-rings-of-power-racist-backlash-1235211341/). But I don’t believe those people are giving the show bad reviews. I don’t think they are bothering to review it at all, they just malign it in tweets and social media site posts. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1367 "2022-10-18T08:07:24Z")
That’s much more in line with my own experiences of those who have seen it. I don’t consume social media so don’t see any of the other stuff but seeing as I don’t think a trawl of social media is ever going to give you a balanced view of actual opinion, I don’t think I’m missing out on much. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1368 "2022-10-18T08:54:47Z")
Amazon’s prime directive (pun intended) is to spotlight only the reviews that show how wonderfully received and popular the show has been. Along with that, the producers make ludicrous claims that “Sauron is just like Satan from Milton’s Paradise Lost!” and he will be “Tony Soprano and Walter White” in the second season. Online rags like Hollywood Reporter write articles that “RoP surpasses PJ’s LotR in some ways like how characters of different sizes are depicted in scenes together” while ignoring how diminutive Galadriel looks in almost _every_ interaction with any character throughout the first eight episodes. ‘Those who feel like there was not enough canon in the first season - in the second season we are giving it to them’ (not gonna look up the producer’s actual wording). IMHO it’s far too late to salvage this truly horrible show. Sure, write me off as a Tolkien Lore-ist yet I was ready to like this show. The show ran roughshod over major plot points and tone that no further episodes can ever recover from. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1369 "2022-10-18T20:54:24Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I don’t think so. The Hobbit movies were full of annoying filler. The problem with RoP isn’t too much, it’s too little. Too little character development, too little drama. That’s why the last one was the best in season one. I agree. The show is solidly mediocre. My likes and dislikes: Likes: 1. The cast. No complaints. 2. The visuals. The settings, Numenor, Eregion, the armor, the jeweled daggers, etc., like it all Dislikes: 1. The Harfoots. They’re boring and they need to wash their faces. 2. The story is waaaaaay underwritten. Too little happens way too slowly. 3. The dialogue can be very cringey. For example, in the season finale, which was my favorite episode, almost every line of dialogue was badly written, and worst of all were Halbrand’s lines. The sequences of his “helping” Celebrimbor were sooooo clunky. Ugh. Compare another show I’m watching right now, _House of Dragons_ which is similar in a lot of ways in that it adapts source material that is not in traditional narrative fiction form. In one case it’s a bunch of reference material. In another case it’s a fictional history book. Very close. I’m House of Dragons they’ve managed to create at least some level of entertaining drama. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1370 "2022-10-19T01:46:14Z")
Slight nitpick: It’s “House of the Dragon” ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1371 "2022-10-19T02:00:59Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Keep in mind that a good number of those low scores have been psoted by people whose primary complaint about the show is that there are black people in it. Yep, because it is “woke”. > [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > How do you know that? I read a good number of the 1 star reviews on Amazon. Before some of us reported them, a LOT of one star reviews were complaining about blacks and the show being “woke”. Amazon has removed most of them, then took away the one star option, then brought it back. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1372 "2022-10-19T03:33:53Z")
And the funny thing is that the racial diversity of the cast has had absolutely no impact on the show. There are enough black characters randomly scattered about that the race of the characters means nothing at all. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1373 "2022-10-19T06:58:23Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I read a good number of the 1 star reviews on Amazon. Before some of us reported them, a LOT of one star reviews were complaining about blacks and the show being “woke”. Amazon has removed most of them, then took away the one star option, then brought it back. I was referring to the low scores that are there on the various (non-amazon) review sites right now. The vast majority of which have nothing to do with race or wokeness as the primary complaint. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1374 "2022-10-19T11:55:02Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > There are enough black characters randomly scattered about that the race of the characters means nothing at all. The “race of the characters” is dwarf, elf, human, etc. Are we supposed to think of the characters as being of different races just because the actors playing them have different color skin or features that we associate with different races in our world? ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1375 "2022-10-19T11:56:49Z")
Sorry, yeah, i typed that wrong. It was late at night. The race of the actors means nothing. The race of the character: elf, dwarf, half elf, orc, harfoot… is of course central to the story. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1376 "2022-10-19T12:12:03Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > They’re boring and they need to wash their faces. They _want_ to have a boring life, but I wouldn’t say that they are boring. And dirty faces makes sense in their environment, given the lack of permanent homes and running water. What always gets me, though is when people in such an environment have perfect teeth. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1377 "2022-10-19T12:17:48Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > What always gets me, though is when people in such an environment have perfect teeth. From a practical standpoint, most people photogenic enough to become TV/film actors have good teeth, and dental prosthetics can make it hard to talk or emote properly. I had to have my top teeth removed about a decade ago, and though I had dentures at first, I chose to stop wearing them because they made me talk with a lisp. People in those societies also ate a lot less sugar than we do. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1378 "2022-10-19T12:19:25Z")
I know, it just always brings me out of a story a bit to see pre industrial civilizations with such excellent dental care. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1379 "2022-10-19T12:28:40Z")
That doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is that everyone’s hair is perfect. That’s actually not a complaint i have with this show, but it bothers me all the time in this kind of show. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1380 "2022-10-19T12:54:20Z")
I think having all the cast have messy hair would be a continuity nightmare. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1381 "2022-10-19T13:12:31Z")
you don’t think it’s a continuity issue if a character just battled and at the end, her hair is still perfectly coifed? Because that just doesn’t happen in real life. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1382 "2022-10-19T13:19:18Z")
Well, when you have a gold and silver woven into your hair, I’m sure it falls back in the place much more easily. 😉 > **[Galadriel Actress Morfydd Clark Describes The Bling She Got To Wear For...](https://www.looper.com/1011585/galadriel-actress-morfydd-clark-describes-the-bling-she-got-to-wear-for-amazons-rings-of-power-exclusive/)** > > Galadriel is a fierce warrior in "The Rings of Power," and in an exclusive interview, Morfydd Clark explains the incredible detail that went into her hair. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497.md?page=68) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497.md?page=70)