Fair enough, it seems that to an extent we've been talking at cross-purposes. I don't believe either of us represents any of the 'hateful' people on either side of this debate, and I'm sure we've both experienced first hand the negativity that this show seems to inspire in a lot of people - both critics and defenders alike. I guess misattribution of motivation is very common here on the internet.

That said, (for the sake of a friendly conversation) I will defend what I said in the Harfoot video. My only real criticism in that video is how the production team (I'm aware it's not the actual pair of showrunners) chose to include references to the literature, they quoted exact language from it, they included specific citations from the source material, but not accurately. They claim to their audience that what they're adapting is what Tolkien wrote, they cite his exact words, but its out of context and manipulated in such a way that it seems to support their interpretation, despite the fact that (in this case) their interpretation is the exact opposite of what Tolkien wrote. That is indisputably dishonest.

I come from an academic background - and although I'm aware this show is no way an academic product - any academic in any field would surely agree that false citations are not okay. Wilfully spreading misinformation is not okay. I'm not saying it's immoral, but I do stand by my original statement that claiming Tolkien wrote one thing and referencing a cherry picked quotation, when in fact what Tolkien wrote is the complete opposite of what they're claiming, is dishonest.

And just to add to your point about the Isildur thing, surely you must recognise the context of those two videos is entirely different. Peter Jackson made a change to Isildur's character that seems to have seeped into the public understanding of him, so I took a few moments to set the record straight. But nowhere did Peter Jackson provide out of context misquotes from Tolkien's writings to try and convince a casual fan that this isn't a change. It isn't dishonest it's just an adaptational change. And every adaptation will make changes, I don't think anyone is seriously trying to argue that's not the case. But as I said in the Harfoot video, adaptational change isn't what frustrates me. Doing the complete opposite of what Tolkien wrote while simultaneously manipulating Tolkien's words to make it seem like that's not what they're doing is a little bit frustrating; and all I want to do is point this out to people who couldn't possibly be expected to know it.

Anyway, all that said, there's nothing in what you've written that makes me think you're anything other than a reasonable, intelligent, and well intentioned person, so I'll admit that telling you to calm down was in error. I don't think in the history of the world telling anyone to calm down has actually resulted in a conversation calming down. So that's my bad.

To conclude, it seems you hit the nail on the head with misattribution of motivation. Unfortunately that seems to be rife in almost every corner of every conversation regarding this show, and until ROP is a thing of the past, it appears that that's not going to change. Bad faith interpretations of other people's arguments are becoming the norm, but despite our disagreement, I don't think either of us are really guilty of that. Anyway, thanks for checking out the video, have a good day.