There are many people who do not understand why so many people are posting so much “Negativity” to these “teasers” So if you truly wish to know. Then continue reading. I will be citing Prof Tolkien’s own words from his letters. If I have made any errors in this please feel free to reply where the error is and cite the source to verify it is incorrect.
Let us start with this; Directly from Amazon.
Weber praised The Rings of Power’s multicultural cast by referring to Sophia Nomvete’s portrayal of the dwarf Disa. “It felt only natural to us that an adaptation of Tolkien’s work would reflect what the world actually looks like,” she said. Nomvete is the first woman of color to play a dwarf in The Lord of the Rings.” – Lindsey Weber, E.P. Amazon’s LOTR Series, Vanity Fair (Feb. 2022).
In letter 210 to Forrest Ackerman, about the LOTR unmade film “The canons of narrative in any medium cannot be wholly different; and the failure of poor films is often precisely in exaggeration, and in the intrusion of unwarranted matter owing to not perceiving where the core of the original lies.”
But then we have these “teasers” and in them we see:
Black dwarfs
Female dwarfs without beards
Black queen Tar-Miriel
Black Elves
And we know they are adding Female Orcs.
Prof Tolkien was very was clear, he did not want people to remodel his world and where it’s drew upon for its source material. In letter 131 he is clear that his stories were of England specifically ancient England. With some sources certainly from Scandinavian and Germanic. Amazon has Inserted Racial diversity in to the casting. Which is a complete violation of his Cannon.
Letter 131: It should possess the tone and quality that I desired, somewhat cool and clear, be redolent of our ‘air’ (the clime and soil of the North West, meaning Britain and the hither parts of Europe: not Italy or the Aegean, still less the East)
As you can see there should be NO black dwarfs (let alone a female dwarf without a beard) “as they were indistinguishable from male dwarfs”. From “The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A, “Durin’s Folk” also fully flushed out in Peter Jacksons LOTR. Furthermore, in Letter 188 he stated: “I wish to avoid a repetition of my experience with the Swedish translation of The Hobbit. I discovered that this had taken unwarranted liberties with the text and other details, without consultation or approval”
Queen Tar-Miriel as described by Prof Tolkien; ” Tar-Miriel the Queen, fairer than silver or ivory or pearls.” – The Silmarillion.
Ok now lest go on to Lady Galadriel. Warrior Galadriel, nope no way, In Professor Tolkien’s works the only time we ever know she fought was in the First Kinslaying. Yet in the trailer we see her all decked out in Armor and a Sword even a Scottish Highlander would have a hard time yielding let alone a woman. The trailers look like a rip off of Game of Thrones party north of the wall.
This is speculative on my part, but seems from the trailers we are going to get Battles, and probably for the pure spectacle of battle with Galadriel and Probably Tar-Miriel leading the charge. This is what Tolkien said about that: Again, from the 1958 Letter #210 “He has cut the parts of the story upon which its characteristic and peculiar tone principally depends, showing a preference for fights; and he has made no serious attempt to represent the heart of the tale adequately”
The Lady Galadriel did not fight in any First age Battles: “She had no role in the major wars of the First Age, believing that defeating Morgoth was beyond the power of the Eldar; when Morgoth was defeated by the coming of the Valar out of the West she, having played no part in the earlier Kinslaying, was offered safe return to Valinor. However, she chose not to leave Middle-earth, and was the only leader of the Ñoldor exiles to remain after the First Age.” = The Silmarillion, Quenta Silmarillion, Chapter XXIV: “Of the Voyage of Eärendil and the War of Wrath”
And then we have her and Elrond’s conversation. There is NO WAY he would ever talk to her that way. First, she is his Mother-in-law and Second, she is as powerful (speculatively more powerful) than Sauron who did fear her as his rival, she has been alive far longer than He (Elrond) being of the “Legendarium” YT 1362 where Elrond was born First age FA 532. That conversation I have heard from kids (yes you did, no you didn’t, yes you did, no you didn’t.) come on that was bad writing and directing to ever let that in a show, but then to rip of Disney’s “Kill the past.”
She would actually not even need a sword, as she had <Nenya> Forged 1500 of the Second age “Conscious of Sauron’s power, and wishing to thwart it, she did not use the powers of her ring as long as the One Ring was in Sauron’s hands. However, during the Third Age, when the One Ring was lost, she put it to good use protecting the borders of her realm, for the powers of her ring were protection, preservation, and concealment from evil. = Unfinished Tales, Part Two, Chapter IV: “The History of Galadriel and Celeborn”
Despite any wishes or wants, there is nothing in the works of Tolkien showing her fighting in battles in the Second Age either. She certainly would not need a Sword having in her possession Nenya. And there is Nothing in the timeline of the Second Age prior to Nenya being forged that would give Cannon to her fighting.
Yet I am also compelled to point out he did not Like a “DARK Outlooks” and Battles and Wars or even dark stories he was against. In letter 64 “I sometimes feel appalled at the thought of the sum total of human misery all over the world at the present moment: the millions parted, fretting, wasting in unprofitable days — quite apart from torture, pain, death, bereavement injustice. If anguish were visible, almost the whole of this benighted planet would be enveloped in a dense dark vapour, shrouded from the amazed vision of the heavens!”
The show runners, themselves and directors. Another of his complaints is from in Letter 190, where expresses his feeling on how he would feel, even in the hands of a “competent person” yet in the case of Amazon’s Show Runners resumes are sparse at best. Did Amazon assigned two people to run the show who have no credentials to “remodel” his works to their “fancy.” Letter 190: In principle I object as strongly as is possible to the ‘translation’ of the nomenclature at all (even by a competent person). I wonder why a translator should think himself called on or entitled to do any such thing. That this is an ‘imaginary’ world does not give him any right to remodel it according to his fancy.
Again, I point out the first point By Amazon: “It felt only natural to us that an adaptation of Tolkien’s work would reflect what the world actually looks like.” Amazon and clearly the Show runners are going against what Tolkien himself would have never approved of.
I would be remise if I did not also point out, that they had working for them Tom Shippey, one of the most Knowledgeable Tolkien scholars, until they fired him. Their reasoning by reports was he broke his NDA in an interview. However, more and more sources are stating, this it was because Shippey was protesting what was being done “polluting the lore.” <Source>= Bounding in to Comics.
Poor Production issues just in these teasers are glaring. Boob Armor and even T-SHIRT Armor” ON Tar-Miriel <yes, my friends you can clearly see T-shirt printed armor.> With a budget of over 500 million with projections having it as high as a Billion and that is what Amazon is giving us?
We also have Galadriel in what makes her look like she jumped in to a Giant bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos. “Harfoots”, or as I like to call them Penguin People because clearly, they cannot walk in those prosthetic feet. How was it we had the Hobbits with their feet having no problems even Charging in to Battle running. Yet these show runners and editors allow Penguins to be seen on film.
So when Amazon and its schills in the media try to use their typical “Ist and Isms and phobias” to try tell people everyone pointing out the glowing flaws are wrong, or why they are so mad about this, do not be fooled by their excuses and lies. You can simply type in the search menu above (Prime Video, and pick a country) you will see the truth, in the downvotes.
Yes you can actually see a representation of them, because as with comments it appears Dislikes keep disappearing as well. But to see them just get the <Google Chrome Extension called> “Return YouTube Dislike” As of the time of this post the current numbers for Prime Video USA is 250,481 Dislikes and 65,266 likes.
Amazon angered the wrong fan base….. One that loves the works of Prof Tolkien. The truly sad part is, they have all the works of Prof Tolkien, and all they needed to do was STICK TO THEM. Instead, they hired people lacking the skill and knowledge to pull this off, and then decided to go with against all the wishes of Tolkien, and clearly an Enormous Number of his fans. You only need to get the Google Chrome Extension to see the Dislikes again to see that is true.
Fans as it appears by Many other Dislike to Like ration on this video are not happy with Amazons handling of Prof Tolkien’s works. But also, if you search videos on social media platforms and even now showing in print the distain for what Amazon is doing.
It is not because any excuses Amazon or the Schill media will try and say, as it Transends race, creed, color, wealth, religion, sex or politics. It is because the fans are sick and tired of Production companies inserting Their political and social agenda in to the works and cannon of beloved stories and properties. They may buy them and then say it is their property, but it is not. It is OUR Property, all they have is the rights to tell the story as written within cannon source.
The saddest part of this, maybe more so than others, they have all the finished works to draw from, they have many people they could have brought in (had probably the best but fired him) to make sure they told the story as Prof Tolkien would have wanted. They even had his letters on what he would not have wanted.
Yet they just had to bring in the {Check the Boxes crew} They had to have Diversity and Inclusion and I am certain we will have other Political messages of todays world, they as much as said so.
When I first heard about Amazon acquiring the rights to make this, my initial thoughts were of the great stories that could be told. I had high hopes that this could surpass Peter Jacksons Lord of the Rings, that this would have a budget that would make Tolkien’s world come to life and I again like when I was a child seeing the Animated Hobbit 45+ years ago I had daydreams of Middle Earth and was happy that I would have something to share with Family and Friends we loved.
But then the stories of what Amazon was doing started to circulate, then the articles with their own words and finally these teasers. This is NOT and CANNOT be the world of Prof J.R.R. Tolkien, not when Amazon admits they are making it for “Today’s world” and the violation of Tolkien’s words and wishes are so clear. Had Amazon wanted to make a Fantasy adventure, they have the money for it. There is no need or reason to destroy the works of the Great Professor.
I leave you with letter 210: “I do earnestly hope that in the assignment of actual speeches to the characters they will be represented as I have presented them: in style and sentiment. I should resent perversion of the characters (and do resent it, so far as it appears in this sketch) even more than the spoiling of the plot and scenery”
This is what all Movies or TV Series should aspire to be like, This was great story with characters who were flawed and human they made mistakes some died some lived.
It did not have any Agenda Politics, No ticking the boxes for race, color, sex and certainly no Mary-sue. Take note Hollywood, without those things we got a great story that took us away from reality and invested us in all of them, because of who they were, not what we had shoved down our throat by you.
I do not want to spoil it, any of it, but I laughed and cried even in this final season, I was surprised by things that happened. It had redemption, it had finality and it wrapped up the story lines even if some of them tore our heart out while others made us smile with pleasure and joy.
I will say this, The final scene you had better have some tissue near by because your house I am sure is full of onions when it happens. This is the ending Game of Thrones could and should have done. It was the true definition of “Bitter Sweet”
The season overall was a 9.9 only missing a perfect 10 because of S5-E1 it was a 9.0…. I watched it now twice letting it sink in fully. Giving anything a 10 is hard almost impossible, but episodes 2 through 10 were PERFECT 10’s for me.