The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Amazon Prime Video - September 2, 2022

[Asta]

I really want to read the books however I've never been a big reader. To be honest I find reading quite a task. I'm definitely missing out.

I haven't read a fiction book in years. It's not something I make time for any more, because I'm drawn to films, series, and whatever's happening on the net.

The first time I read LOTR, when I was a child, I made notes as I went to keep track of Frodo's journey. To me Tolkien was the father of fantasy, and of Dungeons and Dragons. At the time my favourite role-playing game was Iron Crown Enterprises' Middle-earth.

Now I guess the honour probably belongs to Robert E. Howard, and his books were evocative too.

 

[chrisstbh]

I really want to read the books however I've never been a big reader. To be honest I find reading quite a task. I'm definitely missing out.

Monkey brain need visual stimulation

 

[ScoutingForToys]

I haven't read a fiction book in years. It's not something I make time for any more, because I'm drawn to films, series, and whatever's happening on the net.

The first time I read LOTR, when I was a child, I made notes as I went to keep track of Frodo's journey. To me Tolkien was the father of fantasy, and of Dungeons and Dragons. At the time my favourite role-playing game was Iron Crown Enterprises' Middle-earth.

Now I guess the honour probably belongs to Robert E. Howard, and his books were evocative too.

Love this post.
Yes, similar childhood experience.
I loved to read fantasy novels, play old table top fantasy games, the adventure books (Fighting Fantasy) and Tolkien.
How it all traced back to him and his work in turn tracing back to old folklore and myths of Britain and Europe.

 

[greygoose]

Monkey brain need visual stimulation

Yes definitely. All about the visuals.

 

[Asta]

Love this post.
Yes, similar childhood experience.
I loved to read fantasy novels, play old table top fantasy games, the adventure books (Fighting Fantasy) and Tolkien.
How it all traced back to him and his work in turn tracing back to old folklore and myths of Britain and Europe.

I did my final A-Level thesis on Tolkien, purely because one of my English teachers hated fantasy with a passion, and couldn't see any value in it. She also said I was bound for a 'red brick' university. Well, I went to one built mostly of stone, and got top marks there too.

I loved the Fighting Fantasy books. Still have a collection of them.

I still have all my old D&D books, and those of a few other systems too - including Indiana Jones, and mass of West End Games' Star Wars.

 

[greygoose]

I haven't read a fiction book in years. It's not something I make time for any more, because I'm drawn to films, series, and whatever's happening on the net.

The first time I read LOTR, when I was a child, I made notes as I went to keep track of Frodo's journey. To me Tolkien was the father of fantasy, and of Dungeons and Dragons. At the time my favourite role-playing game was Iron Crown Enterprises' Middle-earth.

Now I guess the honour probably belongs to Robert E. Howard, and his books were evocative too.

Did your notes look anything like how Frodo's journey map looked in the films?

 

[Asta]

Did your notes look anything like how Frodo's journey map looked in the films?

I can't remember what that looked like, but mine ended up like a diary on scores of little loose notepad papers. I probably still have it somewhere. I was obsessed with the journey, and I still love journeys in series and films.

So obsessed and wanting to visualise it properly I bought this book at the time:

 

[greygoose]

I can't remember what that looked like, but mine ended up like a diary on scores of little loose notepad papers. I probably still have it somewhere. I was obsessed with the journey, and I still love journeys in series and films.

So obsessed and wanting to visualise it properly I bought this book at the time:

View attachment 557622

Looks fantastic! Take it it's not something you can buy now?

 

[Asta]

Looks fantastic! Take it it's not something you can buy now?

When I was looking for a good photo of the cover, one of the links was for Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Journeys-Frodo-Barbara-Strachey/dp/0345296338

Expensive now though.

 

[greygoose]

When I was looking for a good photo of the cover, one of the links was for Amazon:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Journeys-Frodo-Barbara-Strachey/dp/0345296338

Expensive now though.

Very.

 

[Sassafras]

I'm not really a book guy, so I guess my POV on things is slightly different. For me LOTR is the movies, not the books.

Not The Hobbit though, **** The Hobbit.

Opposite. Like the Hobbit movies better except for the elf overload/romance BS; but the dwarves/Laketown/Smaug/environments/Bilbo/Thranduil/Beorn blow me away.

LOTR I like, but for me there's issues like the Faramir thing and the Arwen overload.

Amazon's got a hard job - IMO one of the Hobbit fails was Jackson working too hard to tie back to LOTR, instead of focusing on the North, dwarves, Beorn. IMO Mandalorian is sliding into too much nostalgia too.

So I hope Amazon goes the direction of "new" vs. a whole bunch of nostalgia attempts. Less is more. It's impossible, and would be stupid to ignore Jackson's work completely. But Amazon doesn't need to try to completely imitate Jackson either - and I wasn't always happy with Jackson's choices anyway. Also there's a chance to see characters like Tom Bombadil - for whatever reason - that have never been on screen before.

My other concern was I've always liked WETA's aesthetics and design; from Erebor to Rivendell to Mirkwood to Mordor etc. WETA always seems to due a stellar job with created worlds. I hope Amazon's aesthetics are as good.

 

[lordnastrond]

I am extraordinarily excited for this series - very excited to see how they adapt the character of Sauron/Mairon/Annatar.
At this point in his history Sauron is more of a character than just a force of sheer malevolence, at the beginning of the Second Age he genuinely wishes to redeem his evil actions under Morgoth.... unfortunately the methods for doing so in his mind is by exerting his will over Middle-Earth as its "benevolent" guardian - being arguably the last of the great powers left in the world following the War of Wrath (or at least the mightiest of those who still actively play a role in the lives of the Children) he sees it as his duty to assume this role. However this desire for power in order to do "good" and bring about "order" of course naturally becomes corrupted and becomes a desire for power for its own sake and so he eventually resumes his previous evil means and aims - eventually becoming a satanic evil second only to his old master.
This is definitely going to be epic in scope, the picture of the two trees really has me hopeful that this series is really going to engage with the mythology of Tolkien and we might see different formative events for both the world and the characters of the Second Age from earlier ages - we may end up seeing the Music of the Ainur, Morgoth, the War of Wrath and the sinking of Beleriand, Feanor and the Simarils; frankly this is going to bring a whole new level of Tolkien's world to a broader audience and I couldn't be happier.

I see no reason to pre-judge the series or dismiss it for no real reason, least of all for some silly aversion to some diversity in the casting, especially given that there genuinely seems to be good basis for these inclusions, also note that Tolkien himself was no racist and his themes are universal, and also lets not forget that the genre is fantasy, if we can accept stories about fallen angels and dragons, why draw the line at some of those characters being black? It seems like a pretty arbitrary point to become outraged by.

 

[BagginsOfBagEnd]

Yeah I'm looking forward to it too and will be giving it a go...I've no issue with diverse castings and strong female characters etc if they are pivotal to the story (as opposed to just being there for general box ticking etc). If, it doesn't appeal to me, so be it as regardless to whatever it's like, I'll always have the films and the books (which nothing can touch IMO) and this series absolutely won't tarnish them in any way for me.

 

[Knightstalker]

I did my final A-Level thesis on Tolkien, purely because one of my English teachers hated fantasy with a passion, and couldn't see any value in it. She also said I was bound for a 'red brick' university. Well, I went to one built mostly of stone, and got top marks there too.

I loved the Fighting Fantasy books. Still have a collection of them.

I still have all my old D&D books, and those of a few other systems too - including Indiana Jones, and mass of West End Games' Star Wars.

Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. Now you’re talking. They were my first real introduction to role playing and fantasy games. So many great memories; Citadel of Chaos, Death Trap Dungeon, Caverns of the Snow Witch, Forest of Doom and of course the epic Sorcery series. So damn good, still have them all on my bookshelf.

 

[Asta]

Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. Now you’re talking. They were my first real introduction to role playing and fantasy games. So many great memories; Citadel of Chaos, Death Trap Dungeon, Caverns of the Snow Witch, Forest of Doom and of course the epic Sorcery series. So damn good, still have them all on my bookshelf.

Where it all began:

So much nostalgia just thinking about them.

 

[Candlelight]

Indeed. They may have been described as having "darker skin" but not being a mixed group of multiple ethnicities and does "darker skin" mean Lenny Henry?

Frankly I just don't have any faith in modern writers to adapt Tolkiens work. Especially when some of the earliest details about the show are centered around how diverse the cast is and assuring us there's strong female characters. It's all a bit of a red flag to me. I'd just rather sit it out.

I share your feelings. I will still watch it. but I really doubt it will be good. specially in current era. there are a lot of things in the books that would be considered "problematic and offensive" for today's audiences to begin with. so that's a problem for amazon to do a good adaptation without offending anyone. even the lord of the rings movies have their share of "problematic" stuff that wouldn't fly today.
I can't have too much faith on this project.

I'm not really a book guy, so I guess my POV on things is slightly different. For me LOTR is the movies, not the books.

Not The Hobbit though, **** The Hobbit.

I wonder how much of the hobbit being so bad was the fault of Guillermo del Toro. I wonder if the reason the movies are so bad is because of the templates he left off.

I really want to read the books however I've never been a big reader. To be honest I find reading quite a task. I'm definitely missing out.

books on tape are a lifesaver. that's how I always do it. sit back and relax to a good book on tape.

 

[chrisstbh]

 

[The Clown Prince of Crime]

It's a show about hands.

 

[dukefett]

They couldn't even list some names? I haven't paid much attention to this show at all, so not sure who to expect to show up.

 

[ironwez20]

So it’s a show about people who don’t wash there hands apparently