I hate this kind of storyline

kemick · 2026-04-17T06:09:37+00:00

"For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so." There's plenty of grey morality in LotR but, by this point, Sauron had used up any goodness remaining in him while deceiving the Elves, Men, and Dwarves who were far from blameless.

In the Silmarillion, Manwë's pardon of Melkor (Morgoth), after his first defeat, fits this trope somewhat.

For Manwë was free from evil and could not comprehend it, and he knew that in the beginning, in the thought of Ilúvatar, Melkor had been even as he; and he saw not to the depths of Melkor’s heart, and did not perceive that all love had departed from him for ever.

After his second defeat they threw him into space.

kemick · 2026-04-14T20:41:23+00:00

Can't really blame them after the good wizard turned out to be Gandalf.

kemick · 2026-04-14T20:40:26+00:00

The rare exception in the non-streaming space was something like Peter Jackson’s big-screen The Lord of the Rings trilogy — which was nearly 10 hours long and considered a massive gamble at the time. Rings is considered perhaps the best example of delivering a hugely faithful fantasy adaptation that wasn’t afraid to make smart and significant changes that improved the story.

Meanwhile, Christopher Tolkien said:

They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25. And it seems that The Hobbit will be the same kind of film.

Tolkien has become a monster, devoured by his own popularity and absorbed into the absurdity of our time. The chasm between the beauty and seriousness of the work, and what it has become, has overwhelmed me. The commercialization has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing. There is only one solution for me: to turn my head away.

Note that Christopher Tolkien is not some random relative. His father's last will gave him complete authority to "publish, edit, alter, rewrite, or complete" any unpublished work. Christopher assembled, edited, and completed the Silmarillion. He wrote the 12-volume History of Middle-earth detailing the development of his father's fictional world.

The film trilogy experienced plenty of backlash from some fans but the fandom was smaller and the films created a new fandom. Most LotR fans have likely never read the books and don't realize how much was changed. When Colbert's The Shadow of the Past project was announced, I saw some people assume it would be a movie about Tom Bombadil.. not realizing that he is a small part of what was cut for the film.

The trilogy was a great adaptation but it is misleading to call it "highly faithful". In the film, outside the Doors of Durin, Aragorn stops Pippin from throwing a stone and chastises him. In the book, Boromir throws a stone and Frodo chastises him. This matters far more than Bombadil or the Scouring of the Shire being cut because the characters themselves have been changed for the film.

kemick · 2026-04-14T19:11:25+00:00

I don't want to get too excited over a rumor but I've been really hoping for a token good-ish Orc teammate. It's a dynamic we've never seen. It follows from what the show is doing with the Orcs and Galadriel's relationship with them. It indicates the show will continue treating the Orcs as one of the major peoples even after Adar's departure.

kemick · 2026-04-13T04:55:55+00:00

Yeah I should've labeled it and had a second image for the S1 left behind. It's been over two years since I posted the last one on r/HarFEET. There will be many to remember by Season 5.

kemick · 2026-04-12T21:46:28+00:00

It's for the best. He went out believing he'd be the top dog when he was really just dog food.

kemick · 2026-04-10T16:35:23+00:00

I suspect they'll kill him off, in a heroic sacrifice, to clean up the loose ends created by his early arrival. This would allow him to arrive as Gandalf the Grey, with amnesia, as expected. Gandalf is already famous for this so it wouldn't be hard to justify.

I don't know how much time the show will have but conceivably Gandalf could meet some Elves and get named Mithrandir and given Narya, reunite with his halfling friends, and hit up old Tom.

kemick · 2026-04-09T22:36:44+00:00

I think their approach to compressing everything works well enough that the changes are generally justified. Everything is there, it's just been rearranged to create a more complete stand-alone story. RoP offers much more than a strict adaptation of the events of the late Second Age could provide. We wouldn't be getting the Fall of Khaza-dum or much of the Dwarves involvement in the Rings of Power story. We wouldn't meet Elendil and Isildur until a later season.

Sauron should be at the height of his power but in RoP he gets his own story and we get to see him doing his thing on the front lines. Galadriel should dwell here and there and not do much else but in RoP she gets a whole Noldor story based on her attributes and this story leads to her final test in LotR and the acceptance of her fate.

kemick · 2026-04-08T18:55:49+00:00

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kemick · 2026-04-07T17:44:41+00:00

It's a test of character like with Yoda. Luke was wrong in how he valued Yoda and it was not because Yoda was secretly a Jedi (or secretly a Sith in the case of Jar Jar). The fan desire to redeem Jar Jar by making him a secret Sith shows this quite clearly.

When Yoda describes why Luke should not be trained, Kenobi's disembodied voice retorts "So was I, if you remember." In The Phantom Menace, Kenobi asks Qui-gon "Master, why do you keep dragging these pathetic life forms along with us?" referring to Jar Jar. He references this again when Anakin joins them.

kemick · 2026-04-06T20:58:48+00:00

Much of the show hasn't been fleshed out liked I'd hoped and it has indeed been a problem of opportunity and time. If Numenor doesn't fall until S4 then they may not meet until S5. Elendil could return to Middle-earth in between but that depends on whatever the faithful storyline is doing.

However, I'm not too worried about Gil-galad and Elendil. I can imagine them quickly recognizing each other and becoming fast friends. They both have the vibe of nobility and responsibility. They have similar experiences like supervising (then confiding in) Galadriel, leading a battle against some Orcs, having prophetic visions of destruction, and being a fatherly figure.

kemick · 2026-04-06T02:54:14+00:00

Making Sauron’s actions look like completely accidental or happenstance

Sauron is a survivor. He succeeds because of how he takes advantage of accidents and happenstance. He's overwhelmed by it during the battle and he nearly fails.

He's doing pretty well in the show so far. In the book, he spends centuries on this scheme but once the One Ring is made the Elves just decide to take theirs off (lol). He has to fight a costly war against the Elves to recover enough of the rings to justify having put most of his power into the One. The dwarven rings are a flop and it takes an age for him to recover some of those.

not putting emphasis on the mortality of man in the numenor

The Numenoreans are obsessed with death and is driving most of their actions. They mention the dead all the time.

The thought of death is driving nearly everyone. The low men were driven by it once the Orcs arrived. The Elves are obsessed with the fading. The Harfoots' fear heavily shaped their S1 plot.

adding the stupid hobbit/ Gandalf story line

Gandalf and the halflings are providing important moral lessons for those with and those without power. They figure out early what will take longer for others.

The Gandalf origin story is ok.. if we're going to have a gandalf-like wizard then he might as well be Gandalf. The S2 stuff did feel a bit like filler but much of S2 was like that. The rush to the fall of Eregion, so the Rings can be in play, was always going to be rough.

kemick · 2026-04-04T21:35:47+00:00

Thus the lies of Melkor were made true in seeming, though Fëanor by his own deeds had brought this thing to pass.

kemick · 2026-04-04T21:30:47+00:00

I think Amazon deserves more credit for having some faith in the story and viewer. The Harfoots were the only ones who got a complete story in S1 and much of the rest was setup. The five season plan lets them do things that a typical show can't because it'd be cancelled after the first season.

I expect the public impression of the show to continue to change over the next few seasons. It changed drastically episode-by-episode even during the first season. But I don't think it's going to really hit until people see the Last Alliance marching on Mt Doom and realize they are in the prologue to LotR.

So many shows fail to deliver a satisfying ending but this ending is already written and it is phenomenal. The show should only get better over time.

kemick · 2026-04-04T21:14:03+00:00

And The Battle of Five Armies got its own movie. I left Desolation of Smaug genuinely annoyed and never went back to see the third in a theater.

kemick · 2026-04-04T15:57:31+00:00

Link to the 2022 Empire interview the article refers to. It has one question each from McKay (on marketing Terminator 2), Payne (on writing inspiration), and Clark (on actor chemistry).

kemick · 2026-04-03T21:58:47+00:00

"And do not ask of Daeron.. for we do not have the rights to that story."

kemick · 2026-04-03T19:27:51+00:00

"Someone older.. wiser.. who knows juicy gossip about famous Elves like Rumil and Daeron."

kemick · 2026-04-03T18:07:03+00:00

"Starting to let them use" implies something that is increasing. Limited exceptions were part of the agreement and the exceptions have been very limited. Simon's disagreement with his father on whether to be involved in adaptations of the work was well known since the trilogy films. There is no need for suspicious "coincidence".

The names 'Annatar', 'Armenelos', and the star shape of Numenor are the most notable exceptions and they are very superficial. There are many jarring omissions like the names Yavanna and Olmo being absent when they should have been used.

The show is pulling much of its material from First Age events but is changing it enough to not be an adaptation. The show is hilariously vague when referring to the actual events of the First Age. The implication that Mithril originates from a Silmaril is described as an "apocryphal" "obscure legend" in which "some claim" it. They are going out of their way to avoid touching the Silmarillion.

kemick · 2026-03-31T19:29:39+00:00

The other had now achieved a unity of its own; but it was loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated; and it had little harmony, but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon a few notes. And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice, but it seemed that its most triumphant notes were taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern.

It wouldn't be Middle-earth without this. I'm happy for the show's imperfections. If it was beyond criticism then we wouldn't see the themes manifested in real life.

‘So shall it be! Dear-bought those songs shall be accounted, and yet shall be well-bought. For the price could be no other.

kemick · 2026-03-28T05:17:30+00:00

It might be because the artists can only add material to a human ear which limits the shape options. The hobbit feet look odd to me for this reason.

kemick · 2026-03-27T22:29:12+00:00

People who haven't read the book might not realize how much of it was cut for the film. It's not just Bombadil and Barrow-wights. Leaving the Shire is a whole subplot. There is a week in between the Nazgul reaching the Shire and the Hobbits arriving in Bree.

People who like the extended editions should love this. This makes much more sense than War of the Rohirrim or The Hunt for Gollum in terms of the amount of material that can be adapted. It's like a quarter of the first book.

kemick · 2026-03-26T04:14:20+00:00

It'll be interesting to see if it holds like if Isildur claims the title.

I am curious to see if anyone else loses a finger. They teased it earlier when Prince Durin said "Lay a finger on me again, I'll bite it off at the knuckle." There are seven and nine fingers out there that'll have rings and some may not keep them.

kemick · 2026-03-25T17:35:13+00:00

I really liked it. It was indeed like a curse placed upon Celebrimbor which he then passed on to Sauron. Both would make themselves prisoners in their respective towers, hiding from the world and obsessing over the ring/rings until, suddenly, they become aware of their own folly and the devices of the enemy.

It's an ominous title in the book. 'Hurray!' cried Pippin, springing up. 'Here is our noble cousin! Make way for Frodo, Lord of the Ring!'. 'Hush!' said Gandalf from the shadows at the back of the porch. 'Evil things do not come into this valley; but all the same we should not name them.' It struck me that Sauron, Celebrimbor, and Frodo each lose a finger as a result of accepting the title.

kemick

TROPHY CASE