Kevin's Watch

I literally groaned when watched enough to understand what the focus of the story would be.
You have a massive sandbox with which to craft an original, compelling story in the universe of Tolkien and all you can come up with is a prequel story centered around a main character whose fate is already decided.
Why are we doing the Sauron thing...again...why?
It's like the Rise of Skywalker. "Guys were losing our audience. Our first two movies are stupid and the fans are starting to revolt. What the hell are we going to do? I know, bring back the Emperor. Bring back Palatine. That'll put butts back in the seats. Great idea!"

The showrunners must be convinced that we won't pay any attention to their story unless they include familiar characters. I may stop watching because of the familiar, the known, the predictable.

That's lazy as hell. And it's boring so far anyway.

I'm disappointed.

IMHO

Zarathustra wrote:Spoilers for people who don’t know why boats float: it isn’t because they seek the light. Jesus. I disagree HLT, I thought this was the epitome of cheesy, stupid writing. I’ve argued with some on FB who said I just didn’t get the symbolism, but when it’s revealed what was whispered (dumb: why whisper the crucial point? There was no one around to hear except the audience), she was literally in the water trying to float. So it was just a helpful hint to be taken literally, not symbolism. And literally, it’s ridiculous. Young Galadriel is so dumb she can’t tell up from down? Sparkles on the water confuse her so bad she can’t tell if they are the sun in the sky? How exactly does “touching the darkness� clear up this distinction between reflected light and direct light? Do boats need to touch darkness to make this distinction? When she’s in the water, she turns away from the light of Valinor, so wouldn’t this (symbolically) mean she should sink? I honestly think it’s the dumbest metaphor I’ve ever seen.

"Well obviously it's not meant to be taken literally It refers to any manufacturers of dairy products."

I thought it was cute!

Zarathustra wrote:Spoilers for people who don’t know why boats float: it isn’t because they seek the light.

The GF basically said exactly the same thing in that scene.

Yeah, I didn't hate it, probably because I'm much less familiar with this part of the story than with The Hobbit and LoTR. But I wasn't much impressed either.

However, as a non-superfan of Tolkein, it was kinda nice to be able to be like "Oh, Gil-Galad" and "Oh, Celebrimbor...I recognise their place in the story."

(Didn't think much of young Elrond's casting, but only because of lack of resemblance to Hugo Weaving who is unfortunately now Elrond for evermore.)

--A

+JMJ+

Lookin' forward to watchin' this. Though I'm kinda holdin' off 'til the initial crush of hot-takes subsides a bit.

I honestly thought there would be more discussion here on this show, given the amount of anticipation.

Episode three was better, allowing Galadriel's story to settle down to one place. Numenor was gorgeous and well done. The actors here were great. The dialogue, however, was as bad as ever. Galadriel acted hostile, arrogant, and petulant. Unlikable. Her ability to figure out Sauron's plan from one scroll was painfully stupid, especially when you consider that Sauron has been broadcasting his big plan by branding his victims with a freaking map to his secret lair. Oh my god, that's dumb. I thought he was supposed to be cunning! And, of course, Galadriel figures out Halbrand's secret past with another scroll. Why have a story when you can just have a series of plot devices?

Then there's, "The sea is always right!" Not only did it sound weird and lame when the Numenorian cadets all shouted it, but it was obviously invented just so Elendil could have his one-liner a few scenes later. I guarantee we'll never hear it again, just like we won't hear about what makes boats float, even though we're currently on an island kingdom known for its navy, when it might be natural for such things to come up.

Why would orcs capture such badass fighters as the Elves just to have cheap labor, when the Elves were leaving and didn't know about the orcs, and the orcs could have just used their own soldiers (that's who usually digs holes and such for armies), or all the helpless nonwarrior humans in the area? Just let the Elves leave, kill this one who knows about you, and dig your hole in a way that makes more sense. Of course, none of this will be explained (how the Elves were captured or why), because this show is just stitched together scenes, not a story. It's a tour of middle earth with some badly written characters along the way.

I've seen more discussion about the show over on the Discord.

I turned it off 10 minutes into episode 3; when after the ship arrived in port they mentioned who they had to notify. A character who in Tolkien's outline of the second age doesn't appear until well after the rings are forged, near the end of the age. I have the feeling that the creators took everything from Tolkien's outline and threw it into a blender.

Shouldn't have expected otherwise since the title series is The Rings of Power, but that is the less interesting tale of the second age, imo, since that story isn't resolved until the end of the third age. The story of Numenor is to me far more interesting but it already has been compressed out of shape three episodes in. I would have liked to see some evolution of that story line first, but alas.

I may come back to watching it, but I'm not ready to yet.

I watched to the end of Episode 3 but GAH.. not good. Sadly I want so much to like this and keep hoping the next episode will turn it around... so far not.

I don't know much about the Second Age, so I won't notice any errors. Haven't started it yet, but I don't expect to be as disappointed as everybody else.

I find it very enjoyable and very compelling. Of course, I don't say that aloud too much.

Episode 4 was better. I hope this trend continues!

Agreed. I watched it last night and the character development is finally falling into place and the story they are trying to tell is gel'ing.

This was pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhmiXk3PXQ8