With Amazon’s ramp up in marketing surrounding the new Lord of the Rings series The Rings
of Power most recently facilitated by a flurry of news released from San Diego Comic Con,
potential viewers have gotten the chance to see more from the show and to get a better
feel for the studio’s and showrunner’s take on Middle Earth.
While I’m sure many are still excited about the Rings of Power after having seen or even
in getting to attend Comic Con, after watching the latest trailers and one particular panel
with the showrunners J.D.
Payne and Patrick McKay, I’m left feeling much more pessimistic about the show than
I ever have before.
So in this video I’d like to talk about the primary reasons for my pessimism regarding
the show as well as a few elements from the series that I am still genuinely looking forward
to.
Previously on the channel, I’ve cited my concerns with some critical factors influencing
the development of this series, namely with the revelation that Amazon does not have the
rights to the most significant Second Age writings of Tolkien, primarily those found
in the Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales.
I’ve also expressed my disappointment after discovering that the showrunners J.D.
Payne and Patrick McKay have chosen to compress the timeline of the second age.
As the Vanity Fair article that released this information put it, quote “Payne and McKay
have compressed events into a single point in time.
It is their biggest deviation from the text, and they know it’s a big swing.”
Add to this the fact that the showrunners also cited the following as a driving question
behind the production.
Quote “Can we come up with the novel Tolkien never wrote and do it as the mega-event series
that could only happen now?”
After I got over my initial astonishment of the sheer hubris it would take to think they
could make the novel Tolkien never wrote, I initially felt it was accurate to label
this series as nothing more than fan-fiction.
That being said, I must say that there is such a thing as good fan fiction, if it's
made carefully and with the proper reverence to the author.
As such, had this been the path that Amazon took with their series, many fans could have
felt free to either take it or leave it as a part of their head canon, depending on whether
or not they felt the show was sufficiently Tolkienian.
However, instead of taking this approach to tell a new story, the showrunners alternatively
have decided to depict several major canonical events of the second age in their series and
to combine these events into a single point in time to create their quote “Mega Event
series”.
And now, given the additional details that have been revealed about the story changes
being made for this series, instead of classifying it as fan-fiction as I had previously, I would
now tend to describe the Rings of Power as something similar to Marvel’s “What If?”
series.
As has been the case since I first learned of it, the time compression decision is by
far the biggest problem I continue to have with this show.
By choosing this route, they’ve made it impossible for many fans of Tolkien’s Second
Age stories, including myself, to consider Amazon’s addition to Middle Earth as anything
more than a “What If” scenario.
I’m also assuming that in naming the series what they have that the forging of the rings
of power will be a significant part of the show’s arc.
In canon, the forging of the greater 16 rings takes place around the year 1500 of the second
age with Sauron’s corruption of the elves taking place hundreds of years prior to that.
However, a few of the major canonical characters Amazon has chosen to include in their series
are only born in the later years of the Second Age around the time of the Fall of Numenor,
another significant event that the showrunners wish to depict.
The primary reason given for this giant deviation from Tolkien’s writing is another major
problem that I have with the showrunners’ and by extension the studio’s approach in
general.
In the interview with Vanity Fair, Showrunner JD Payne attempts to explain this decision
saying quote “If you are true to the exact letter of the law, you are going to be telling
a story in which your human characters are dying off every season because you’re jumping
200 years in time, and then you’re not meeting really big, important canon characters until
season four.
Look, there might be some fans who want us to do a documentary of Middle-earth, but we’re
going to tell one story that unites all these things.”
This reason given by JD Payne for the time compression decision is the most baffling
to me.
The mortality of man is a significant factor not only in the fall of Numenor but also in
many other stories told in Middle Earth in general.
So the fact that the showrunners simply don’t want to bother with recasting human characters
as needed indicates their tendency to favor the convenient and easy path over the more
challenging yet faithful one.
And I really don’t understand the second half of his reasoning, specifically that you
couldn’t meet really big, important canon characters until season four.
I’ll admit that this largely depends on what they classify as an important canon character.
However, I fail to see how the depiction of any one of the major events of the second
age would not inherently contain at least a couple of these important figures.
Needless to say, the flimsy nature of the showrunners’ excuses for their approach
to the show after the release of the Vanity Fair article had me feeling quite negative.
These feelings were only compounded with what I heard from the showrunners in the Rings
of Power Hall H Comic Con panel hosted by Stephen Colbert.
When asked about whether the series was always meant to be set in the second age, within
Payne’s reply he stated that “Amazon had bought the rights to basically 10,000 years
of Middle Earth history” Given what we know about the rights Amazon has, I found this
statement to be quite deceptive and misleading.
His words in of themselves lead one to believe that Amazon has the rights to the stories
told in those 10,000 years.
However as mentioned previously they do not have those rights.
Another misleading statement from Payne came later when he cited the fact that they had
gotten to work with esteemed Tolkien Scholar Tom Shippey during the production of the show.
While it’s true that Shippey was initially brought in to consult on the show, his exit
from the project has been well documented.
Admittedly, I have no knowledge of what all happened to facilitate his exit.
However, based on Shippey’s original comments regarding the requirements for the series,
namely that it would have to stay within the main shape of the second age, compared to
the direction they have now taken this series, I tend to personally believe that the two
sides did not see eye to eye.
Needless to say, the fact that Payne name dropped Tom Shippey in particular, without
naming any other experts feels like another intentional misdirect in an attempt to quash
that particular controversy.
I also found myself dismayed at a few of Patrick McKay’s comments in this panel as well.
Particularly when he said that in making the series they didn’t want to do a side thing
or a spinoff or the origin story of something else, they instead wanted to find a “huge
Tolkienian MEGA-EPIC.”
After hearing this comment I couldn’t help but feel a sense of tremendous greed emanating
from the showrunners.
Not willing to be content with the telling of one event in the timeframe and setting
that Tolkien intended, they instead wanted to adapt it all.
In order to accomplish this of course, time-compression would be their chosen vehicle.
This sense of greediness with the story continued to be reinforced as the panel continued.
In particular, I found one of Payne’s comments the most upsetting.
In his response to a question from Colbert regarding the inclusion of a Hobbit storyline
in the Second Age, Payne vehemently pushed back against the notion that Harfoots and
Hobbits were one and the same, saying quote “...because it’s actually not technically
a Hobbit story, it's a Harfoot story… and so Tolkien doesn’t say anything about Harfoots
not having done anything amazing in the Second Age.
He says that Hobbits before the Third Age didn’t do anything impressive.
So we felt we had license there to go ahead and tell a good Harfoot story.”
From this I have to say that I find it quite disturbing how someone could arrive at this
understanding from what is clearly laid out about Hobbits in the prologue of Tolkien’s
Fellowship of the Ring.
There it is plainly stated that Harfoots along with Fallowhides and Stoors are three BREEDS
OF HOBBIT.
In fact shortly after this, in describing the Fallohides Tolkien stated that they were
more friendly with Elves than the other Hobbits were.
From this I can definitely and demonstrably state that there can be no separation of these
three breeds from their umbrella classification as Hobbits.
While on its face this may seem trivial, it once again paints a negative light on the
true intentions of the showrunners.
Payne’s attempt to separate Harfoots from Hobbits even though Tolkien clearly indicated
they are the same, to me only comes across as deceitful, disingenuous and insincere.
In essence, they want to have their cake and eat it too in what comes off as a gluttonous
approach to telling stories in Middle Earth.
Overall, the fact that these are the hands into which the rights ofTolkien’s writings
have fallen is the primary reason I remain doubtful that I will be able to enjoy this
series as a whole.
Now here at the end I want to make clear that I don’t hold anything against anyone who
is still looking forward to this show or toward anyone who holds a different view.
These are my own personal opinions and because I have covered both this Amazon series and
Middle Earth content in the past, I have heard from several commenters who want to hear my
opinion.
All this being said, I still am looking forward to a few isolated elements that will come
from this show.
Specifically I’m excited to see any work which WETA studios or WETA digital has been
involved with as I’ve consistently been impressed with their work on this property
in the past.
The same can be said for the amazing work of John Howe who is also involved.
Also I feel it was a great decision for the studio to hire Bear Mcreary as I’ve thoroughly
enjoyed the music he has made and the work he has done on other series such as Battlestar
Galactica.
All this being said, my mindset moving forward is the same I’ve had to take with many of
my other fandoms, and it's one of compartmentalization.
This is something I’ve gotten used to doing as a lifelong fan of various science fiction
and fantasy properties.
For instance, while I love Dune, I dislike many aspects of David Lynch’s 1984 adaptation
and large swath’s of Brian Herbert’s extended universe books.
And while I’m extremely put off by what Disney has done to the Star Wars franchise,
I’ll still allow myself to feel optimistic about certain projects and I even have thoroughly
enjoyed Star Wars shows from Disney like the Mandalorian.
Likewise with Rings of Power, I’m determined to pick out and savor those few elements from
the series that I still anticipate I’ll enjoy, and then I’ll readily dismiss and
disregard the more unfaithful elements of the show that stand out and really bother
me as a fan of Tolkien’s work.
I also very much look forward to continuing my dives into the lore of Middle Earth regardless
of how this Amazon’s series turns out.
Anyways, if you’ve listened this long I want to thank you for hearing me out in this
rant.
While I try to focus on the aspects of science fiction and fantasy properties I enjoy, it’s
often quite therapeutic to express my frustrations as well.
And I’m also curious to know what you think about this series.
Are you looking forward to the Rings of Power or do you have similar concerns?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below.
I hope you enjoyed this video, leave a like if you did and be sure to subscribe for more
Lord of the Rings and other sci fi and fantasy news and lore.
Thank you all so much for your support and as always, have a very nerdy day.