The anime cartoon is anime(animation), but that danoiel green that is not the one that australian and sus, is right about bladerunn 2049 being better, and futurama nailed the ending, whyyy.
Unpopular opinion:I personally feel that Marvel studios is throwing in too much Marvel,like movies and tv shows, and we are being force fed into it. It’s impossible to imagine that after this generation passes on, the legacy that gonna be left behind is every single brain cell we’ve wasted on nothing but anything Marvel-related during the end of our lives, and we could be partly responsible for that. One could argue that THAT is just global capitalism and global consumers, only Marvel comics didn’t invent that but rather has been in a weird relationship with it, as we have been having a weird relationship with Marvel. It’s like a contract that says “You will buy or watch something or anything of quality and of a marketing brand that has the Marvel title slapped on it.” But that contract should be terminated. It’s like if a company keeps throwing in so much merchandise at you that you only have so much space and you have so much money. It’s like they’re going “Oh no. Don’t stop watching. Look, we’re throwing so much more Marvel movies and tv shows and perhaps a thousand more”, and you’re like “Please, that’s enough. I just wanna go to sleep now.” The same thing could be said abou Disney+ also. If fans feel like they have to get or see anything Marvel studios puts out, like as an obligation, it’s like chasing the dragon or being a meth addict. It’s like you could say that someone got you addicted to drugs, but by the end of the day, you realize that you chose to stick the friggin’ needle in your arm, while at the same time, you realize that Marvel studios is that drug dealer that manipulated you into taking those drugs. Any comments?
Making Rings of Power for all audiences seems very much like a soundbyte rather than saying anything of substance. You will never make a show that appeals to everyone and if you try you risk just making something that no one really hates but no one really loves either. Also it's interesting to compare this take with what Peter Jackson said about that LoTR movies that he was trying to make something he thought Tolkien would like.
@@CM-ss5pe iirc there was something like when they sold the rights to amazon they made them agree that thete wont be nudity and stuff but might be remembering wrong. So id say its probably because tolkien estate that they arent going GoT route and not any decision on amazons part lol
Daniel looks so natural with a gun. He's clearly experienced. Probably from his time in the Great Goblin War. I'm sorry if that's a touchy subject for you, Daniel.
@@bakthihapuarachchi3447 It deserves to have more general awareness. Breast Cancer gets a month. But Goblin PTSD? Most people just assume they can handle it. They're goblins. But I think goblins are people too.
To me it looks like a scaled down replica of a Desert Eagle. I hope it is. It is funny to me to see a comically oversized pistol be made into an equally comically small one.
I have to say, the LOTR we have seen so far is HEAVILY inaccurate to Tolkien lore which I find annoying. I am not talking about skin. But I am talking about different details. Elrond having blonde hair Galandriel being a warrior in shining armor The dwarf princess not having a beard and wearing very "traditional" female clothing Etc etc etc
I feel this as well. im rereading the Silmarillion and am just blown away at the detailed account of like, how everything happened. It feels wrong that they feel the need to change things that were so masterfully put together in the first place.
Wait that's supposed to be elrond? I just assumed it was Gil-Galad Edit: It is Gil-Galad Elronds actor does have brown hair he just looks really young.
It’s crazy they’d risk ruining Futurama’s legacy, 1 by bringing it back, 2 by using Bender and then not even paying the original VA to come back. DiMaggio’s a legend, the fact they thought they could get away with not paying him fairly is baffling
I wasn't even a little bit happy when I saw Futurama was coming back. I grew up with Futurama on Adult Swim and could recite every episode by heart when I was a teenager, but you eventually have to let things go and move on. The constant reboots of everything are a plague.
If the show is anything like the trailer in terms of how it looks - as in costuming, envoirment and stuff - it proves more than anything I´ve ever seen that more money doesn´t mean it will look good. Not that it looks bad per se, but it just looks too clean to the point of it almost looking fake. It´s the same problem I had had with the Wheel of Time show (among others); costumes and sets doesn´t look like a part of the world. The costumes looks like costumes and the sets look like sets made of unfinished and unpolished cgi. It´s immersion breaking. Game of Thrones always had this going for it even when the writing fell off a cliff in the last seasons - it always felt real. Clothes look worn, castles and hosues looked like they´ve been there for hundreds of years and the world feels lived in. Amazon is already spending almost as much on a show that has not even aired yet, as HBO did on 7 or 8 seasons of GoT. Yet they can´t even come close to the same level of visual quality?
Yeah, it looks like they are trying to modernize the franchise... But why? Now, Ive got no problem with the cast choices, but why are they trying to make LOTR look like any other mid budget fantasy series, considering they have the budget for practical effects? Even if they don't want to follow Peter Jackson's style, you think they would at least try to make the show stand out, considering that it has huge expectations
I enjoy the Wheel of Time by its own standards of bright colors and clean lines. Not everything has to be fruity GoT. I like that differentiation. The colors in the RoP look nice. Not as impressive as WoT bright colors that I enjoy and not at all Middle Earthy. I hesitate to try compare it to LotR trilogy. As that was Luke trying compare the SW OT to the prequels. The Hobbit trilogy was overly CGI though.
A big part is just knowing the right people in the industry, knowing who is good at their jobs. That comes with experience of working in the industry which Amazon does not have. Having all the money in the world means nothing if you aren’t hiring the right people.
I find it super funny how this isn't something that bothers people when Wheel of Time series is the case, but it does about this one and few others in particular lol ....the quality of both shows looks to be roughly the same, a pathetic excuse of a "visual interpretation" of a work that clearly goes way beyond heads of those who are financing either of these projects.
3:41 Fact Check: The War of the Rohirrim isn’t being made by Amazon, Warner Bros is doing it, it’s going to be visually connect to PJ’s work. I have more hope for that film than what Amazon’s doing now.
@Circa2001 idk man, Kenji was the shit 2 decades ago, but since then he hasn't made anything too noteworthy. We'll have to see if he can still produce a story of good quality i guess.
As much as I wish for another good Tolkien adaptation, I have my severe doubts when it comes to this series. I don’t trust a massive company buying the rights to a massively poplar franchise. I have the sneaking suspicion that who ever are behind this project just want to have ‘Their own game of thrones.” Cash- cow they can milk to no end. In the last few years it has become awfully apparent to me that big businesses don’t care about stories. Especially complex ones. At this point I think it is too early to say anything about it anyway, but my hopes are not too high.
It is early, but there are numerous red flags flying proudly in the air. 1. The Wheel of Time series 2. The showrunners are literal nobodies with zero notable experience behind them 3. The Wheel of Time series 4. They fired their Tolkien expert and replaced him with yet another nobody fresh graduate that calls herself the Bitch Queen of Angmar 5. The Wheel of Time series 6. They have displayed absolute lack of interest in maintaining the canon when they talked about their plans for Isildur and his family, Galadriel, hobbits etc. 7. The Wheel of Time series 8. The Vanity Fair teasers that have shown us non-Tolkien dwarf woman 9. THE WHEEL OF TIME SERIES 10. It's fucking Amazon
I feel like I could trust hbo with it. It seems like they care more about the quality of their products than other studios. I did also see a recent reddit post explaining why they looks better. Even with the end of GoT being extremely trash, it wasn't hbo's fault. They were willing to put the money into it but D&D didn't want to do more.
@@brandog1391 The end of GOT wasn't even trash, it was just rushed. After seeing WOT with its complete book series and enormous budget, Season 8 looks like a masterpiece against WOT and The rings of power.
Ever since I found out that someone who calls themselves 'The Bitch Queen of Angmar' replaced a Tolkien scholar at Amazon my excitement for the show dropped into the abyss. Apparently she's not even a literally scholar. But an undergrad in ethics.
Step one Wait for Christopher tolkien to die Step two Replace the wise but inconveniently old white guy by an abrasive way out of it's league "yes kid" with an unrelated field of study that seems to tweet about her weight most of the time Step 3 Shaming everyone criticizing the show by extracting truly disgusting racist comments to misrepresent the huge swathe of normal people who just wanted to have a faithful adaptation
@@mat3714 Truly. It seems disgustingly convenient that everything is going 'Contemporary post modern political deconstruction mode' almost the very second Christopher Tolkien died. I might anger some people when I say this but I don't care or mind if there are POC elves or Dwarves. As long as there is an explanation to how they are different from the ones we've grown accustomed to. Like the Avari or Laiquendi. The thing I don't like and that I hate with certain fantasy is throwing anthropology straight out the window. Unless an outside force moved huge numbers of people out of their homes (like famine, slavery, war, etc), people don't relocate across continents. People don't look like Danes or Swedes if they live in subsaharan environments. Humans (and presumably Elves) evolve in order to survive. So in terms of inherent logical consistency in worldbuilding, you can't have 'Random subsaharan gentleman' in the middle of Viking country 'Just because'. And it is this prioritizing of adapting for a 'modern audience' over authenticity that rubs me the wrong way. Can't we explore more of middle earth and have interesting POC actors portray interesting and heroic characters from Harad, Rhun or the Far east? People who maybe broke away from Saurons influence by divine providence?
@@benjaminjane93 my exact sentiment. Tolkien was a linguist and an historian. You can't model an early middle age inspired society on a multi ethnic society , homogeneous regions with a few mixed points of contacts is the only logical outcome but they won't. Southeast regions is full of possibilities for adequate representation and i do believe it's also logical because it works, it increases involvement when you can identify with any protagonist and it undoubtedly helps if he/she looks like you do but they won't, they'll go for the easy realignment of known characters to maximize normies interest and minimize development cost and time.
Anyone who calls herself "The Bitch Queen of Angmar" doesn't deserve to be called any kind of scholar. Does she think people will listen to her opinion with a stupid name like that?
Don't know how I feel about making Rings of Power for all audiences. In an attempt to please everyone it could please no one. Feels like it will lose something that was crucial from the world Tolkien actually created.
"Making Rings of Power for all audiences" by retconning the established races and stories to fill an "all audiences" checkbox will turn into a fiasco. *IF* the production team wants to take underused elements of the Tolkien lore of the Second and Third Ages, e.g. Umbar, Rhun, Harad, the Blue Wizards, etc., and create good stories around them to meet that "all audiences" criteria, it might be a good watch.
@@BWinced yep it never ends well when you're stepping away from the sorce. And make big changes. Amazon could have explored the races of middle earth we've never seen before.
All audience include people of color right? BUT there are black youtubers that are pissed off now because of the inclusion of a black elf with buzz cut and black dwarf with no beard.
@@brainderp808 they did not race swap the dwarf. In the lore there are 7 different clans so far we have seen only one of these clans (longbeard/durin) on TV. Also this is playing more than two millenials before the LotR. Maybe there will be an explantation why she doesn't have a beard, maybe not.But to say they race swaped her? What is your reasoning that black people do not exist in the whole of the Lord of the rings world? Because if black dwarf can't exist, than black human also can't exist in this world (all living things were made by the gods, so why would one decide to "make" black humans). And before you claim that the climate is the reason, and that it would be unrealistic: The gods made ALL living beings, so one the whole world, not just one continent. So either the whole world has moderate Temperatur (highly unrealistic) or some where it's warmer and black dwarves exists. And if they could exist and you say, they would be at middle earth (because of climate) may i remind you that for example the elves migrated to middle earth? They changed their location.
Non-book fan of LOTRs here and I found the trailer dull. Seriously, outside the one shot of a Dwarf I wouldn't have been guessed it would be LOTRs. Heck, it looked more like Narnia or D&D. So this series is a hard pass for me. And on the subject of Amazon, after watching Wheel of Time(never read the books) I didn't like what I saw and I am skeptical to really check out any of their original offerings in fantasy. I'll stick with Mushoku Tensei/ Arcane for modern Fantasy adaptations. But that's just me.
It was an awful trailer mainly because it wasn't a trailer...it was barely a character introduction teaser without any attempt to tell us who those characters are
They won't put out a proper trailer that actually shows anything significant until about 3ish months before the show comes out. It's still way too early in post-production for a proper trailer they basically just grabbed some random, mostly finished shots and threw together a montage to begin grabbing people's attention.
This Blondhobbit purpose of existence is to backup Amazon't trash productions. Hobbit trilogy was huge step back in the wrong direction with overusage of cheap CGI, but it somehow managed to remain faithful to Tolkien's work. There were many cool scenes. This Amazon's attempt is simply mockery to Tolkien and there is no way a real Tolkien fan would like it. I hope you get the nice paycheck from Amazon you earned it dear Daniel Greene.
Lmaoo so true. It really breaks my heart to see so many of these influencers praising all the shit that goes against the thing they are so passionate about. There are still some that I'm holding out hope will remain faithful, like the Nerd of the Rings, who is currently getting a lot of hate for being neutral about the show. I totally agree with the hobbit movies, they really weren't that terrible. Sure the CGI was awful most of the time (Smaug did look great though, and Gollum looked mostly the same as in LOTR) and I hated the Tauriel story and unfortunately Legolas was just too arrogant and snobby for me, but the good stuff was great. Bilbo was awesome, Gandalf was amazing, the dwarves were great, and the Riddles in the Dark scene was nearly EXACTLY the same as the book besides it not being pitch black. There's a difference between a mediocre movie, and a show that is spitting in the face of Tolkien and the fans. As a movie, the hobbit isn't the best or the worst. As an adaptation, it's pretty decent.
The problem I had with the Rings of Power trailer is that I didn't realize it was Lord of the Rings until the title card appeared. It had none of the grand sweeping shots of locations that Lord of the Rings has, and instead felt more like any other fantasy adaptation rather than THE franchise that had such an astounding trilogy that holds up after two decades
None? It has at least 3 sweeping shots of locations... the Forodwaith, Numenor, the plains where the nomadic hunters are. For a teaser i think they did a good job of having basically a shot for each storyline/location the show will feature. I don't doubt the full trailer/show will have a lot more environment shots if that's what you're after, why film in NZ otherwise lol (except the tax rebate, which they didn't think was good enough apparently).
@@thesecondislander there was a single shot of numenor that didn't nearly have the grand scope we've come to expect with this franchise. i do agree that it is just a teaser so hopefully the main trailer will be grander, but for now, it feels lackluster and pure cgi
Y'all really need to start analyzing this from a Tolkien POV and not a Peter Jackson POV. This is Tolkien's world. I'm not saying the trailer felt like Tolkien's world (too short to tell), but y'all need to realize that PJ's version is not the only way to depict it. Countless artists have been doing it and there are room for other perspectives.
@@brooksboy78 not saying it has to be a carbon copy of Peter Jackson's version, but I felt like I was watching a video game trailer, not something for an epic/high fantasy TV show. It felt lacking, the huge high fantasy setting that middle earth is should be grander than that trailer showed in my opinion
You know how trailers are supposed to make you hype? Well The Rings Of Power teaser did the exact opposite, I think House Of The Dragon is gonna the better fantasy show
Did anyone else have a problem with Galadriel climbing while wearing iron gauntlets and holding onto a steel dagger? It seems . . . slippery. Or is it just me?
Definitely... but hold on, there may be an explanation! Is this the same movie continuity where Legolas hopped up a stair of falling bricks Mario-style? If so, climbing in metal armour sounds legit :|
Right now I feel like The Rings of Power is going to be one of those things I would enjoy way more if it was allowed to be its own thing instead of being forced to be part of a famous franchise.
LOTR fans are not like WoT fans I think. WoT fans are so depraved for an adaptation they'll make excuses for the horrible writing in the show. LOTR already has a very successful adaptation and they'll be much more harsh. This is just my opinion though. Who knows.
Dove'andi Se Torya Sagain Yup. The Peter Jackson films are timeless works of art in my eyes. Films that 100 years from now, folks will still watch. They have their problems, but what they did for Fantasy and on their own merits cannot be overstated. Plus, spending a billion dollars(five seasons) and putting it in the hands of two new writers is insane. At least Peter Jackson had good hits with movies before LOTRs. Unless, these two are like the Russo Brothers who have done good work before through TV, why even take the risk? Why not get someone experienced and proven?
I think your right as a WOT fan for over 28yrs i was very willing to make allowances to the series,unfortunately the changes went far beyond what even i could accept....as a Tolkien fan for over 50+yrs my sh*tometer is much higher especially with Jacksons LOTR films so this new series is likely to be judged VERY harshly by most fans...
@@chelsbells27 You know what is racist? Tokenism. It seems like we are accepting that as "inclusive", though, instead of insisting on realistic and meaningful inclusivity. Calling anyone who points out that there are no black elves in Tolkien's lore as racist is really missing the point.
Let’s all remember Daniel’s WoT reviews and ask ourselves question - will he be honest if show would be bad? It cannot be worse than WoT, because they do not have whole pre-written incredible detailed story to change and ruin, only parts of Silmarillion they can touch and invent something in between… But still… I really cannot express how my trust in Greene was damaged by that. I can understand his position on Rowling, even if I do not share it, but praising objectively bad product was a step over board.
"not trying to Gam of Thones-ify Middle Earth"... Bezos literally wants his own game of thrones. They hired an intimacy coordinator. Also, was the origional trilogy NOT for everyone? Could have tooled me, with the awards from critics and praise from viewers
Because the more I love a book series, the more I require accuracy and verisimilitude, I get the feeling that the Rings of Power is not for me. The Hobbit was the first fantasy book that I read as a child and The Lord of the Rings is the only series I read every year. After what Amazon did with Wheel of Time, my second favorite fantasy series, I don't have much faith in first time showrunners. All of the, ""we go back to the source material," quotes on social media ring hollow unless you actually use the source material for something other than a guide for what not to do. At the other end of the spectrum, I have not read the Witcher series and really like that show. Perhaps there are times when it pays not to have read the series first, but that is also an indictment of the adaptation all on its own.
@@iaxandthemoon2471 I was not a huge fan. I thought the cast was great and I loved Bilbo’s Home speech at the end of the first movie. I also thought Cumberbatch did a good job voicing Smaug, but all the added parallels to the LotR were atrocious. The dwarf/elf love triangle was ridiculous, the orc and Dwarf history was changed for inexplicable reasons, and the trilogy should have been a double feature or a stand alone movie. The CGI was bad, the addition of Legolas and Tauriel were unnecessary, and weird flirty bits between Galadriel and Gandalf were off putting. So, I liked bits of the trilogy, but was disappointed with most of it.
I heard the voice over in LOTR trailer mirrors the trailers for newer Star Wars movies. They pretty much copy and pasted the words. So it’s got me concerned.
Daniel always seems to think that the footage will be touched up between the trailer and release, but I feel like with a teaser trailer they would have really polished it beforehand. Maybe for movies, but Wot didn’t change at all from the trailer.
I'm not a movie guy, but in gaming 90% of the time the game looks _worse_ at release than it did in the trailer. Most people are too dumb to wait for reviews, they'll pay for something because the trailer looked cool and then get disappointed when the product doesn't meet their expectations.
Well in this specific case it's worth noting that the show still has 7 whole months of post-production before the show is ready to release, and it's not like they're just sitting on the show for those 7 months if it was in a completed state now. Time will tell tho.
@@mazrimtaim3107 Games are different. Game trailers are often (usually?) just rendered videos that don't use game assets because the game is nowhere near finished when they need a trailer, and likely still won't be finished until a year after the release date.
My biggest worry for the Power Of The Rings is it’ll try and be too much like the popular fantasy shows right now like Witcher and GOT (barely call GOT fantasy but heyo) I just want this epic fantasy feel cause I’m sick of dark fantasy
see, I'm not sick of dark fantasy, I LOVE it. And just because it doesn't have Hobbits and Wizards GoT absolutely is Fantasy. Dark/Pulp Fantasy and High Fantasy can exist in the same Universe without harm. I still absolutely agree that they should not try to be like Witcher and GoT because it simply isn't. There is a reason why LotR is so successful for almost a century now, don't try to make it into something else it just isn't! But judging from or username you can still enjoy The Legend of Vox Machina if The Power Of The Rings is crap ;)
@@BoredMarcus the difference is GoT was written as a darker fantasy as LOTR was not. So to adapt it to a darker theme just comes across as trying to rip off GoT. Not saying they will do that but I thinks that's what the op meant in his comment.
i definitely get your point - they shouldnt try to make lord of the rings dark the way game of thrones is dark, - they are two very different types of fantasy. but i dont see anything to make me think that they are doing that so far. at least in terms of that aspect it looks like it will fit more in the same place where the peter jackson films are in terms of how dark it will be
The Showrunners have said they aren't trying to make a show that's as gorey or explicit as GoT or Witcher, and on Amazon Rings of Power is rated PG-14 which is another good sign in that regard.
As a black person who actually loves fantasy (thanks, in part to many of your videos and recommendations) and has read LOTR and the hobbit, I hate this tokenism and identity politics. They could have easily used the Haradrim characters (a race of black people who are warriors, pirates, merchants and sailors) that Tolkien created in the amazon show if they wanted more racial diversity but I guess race-swapping dwarves, elves and hobbits is more appropriate........Just more insulting tokenism and mockery to actual black people who like fantasy and all it does is inspire more vitriol towards genuinely good diverse characters.
This guy is looking for a paycheck from Netflix. Wheel of time first and now this. Does the lore need revision to be a better story? Or does it need a revision to appease a mindset? I grew up with WOT and LOTR. It sucks be so disillusioned that when you see a large media company decide to make a show/movie about something you love that you go in thinking that this is going to suck rather then being excited.
This push from Amazon to buy the LOTR property as a whole gives me Disney buying Lucasfilm flashbacks.... and we all know how that ended My running theory is that the strategy of this studios goes like this: they acquire a massive IP with a big fanbase. They start by making one, big budget project (I.E. The force awakes, The Witcher, Wheel of Time), give it a big marketing push showing that they plan to go all in on the property. Also, most probably a promise to make it a multimedia cinematic/shared universe of some kind. But... they don't realy look at it as a possibility to create art, but rather a product with a really good prospect for profit. So by the time the first project is out, the studio has already greenlit another 2 or three projects of the same universe (The Witcher anime, LOTR anime, Star Wars spin-offs) because they know the first one is gonna be succesfull either way. And so, they run on the property for 3 years give or take until it's burnt out or shows it has potential for another 3 years and then they move away and try something else. I know it might sound a bit overly negative - and who knows, maybe the people doing the LOTR show might end up making something good! But history does tend to repeat itself, so let's be cautionary and not give full trust to another big corporation to do something different when others have already done it and doing so have driven other franchises with potential into the ground.
The last time I played a LoTR video game, it was the one with the special sword controller. Which my friend's younger brother attacked me (in person) for so he could play the game. That was the first time I've brawled over a sword, but not the last.
I had such low expectations when it came to The Rings of Power way before the teaser dropped on Sunday. From everything we heard about the show since it was announced that Amazon got the rights to it, I was extremely skeptical of the show’s quality, motivation, and the direction behind the changes being made to the lore. After seeing the first bit of footage from the actual show and the promotional materials that came out last week, needless to say I’m unimpressed and fairly upset with how this show is looking. The show-runners are clearly more interested with pushing this modernized amalgamation of Tolkien’s legendarium than they are to being respectful and actually sticking to the lore. It cannot be stressed enough that Tolkien wrote these works to be a new mythology for England. Not the British people (which is the national identity), but rather for the English people (which is the racial identity). Meaning Anglo-Saxon. Meaning of European descent. Meaning white. Middle Earth shouldn’t be a reflection of today’s day and age, as the show-runners put it, because it was never intended of the author to be anything but a mythology for the English people. This forced diversity is such an obvious, pathetic attempt to bastardize and vandalize Tolkien’s legendarium. I understand Rhun and Harad exist in his world, but those places are NEVER the focus of the story and are almost always on the periphery with little to no named characters with any real significance to the stories. And I would never in a million years say that if you are a person of color you cannot enjoy and appreciate Tolkien’s work. Please, love Tolkien with all your heart! I truly mean that. But I would never want to insert myself into a clearly Asian-inspired story like Avatar The Last Airbender, or The Green Bone Saga, or most anime series like One Piece (by the way, all three of these properties are getting live action adaptations fairly soon and you see pretty much nobody complaining about the lack of white people in those). You also don’t see people complaining about the lack of diversity in African-inspired stories like Children of Blood and Bone (also getting an adaptation), or the Burning Series by Evan Winter, or Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James. I just find it so hypocritical of people when the say they want diversity but only when it comes to properties clearly European-inspired like Tolkien’s work and not with other properties that are not white. If you disagree with what I said, I would love to have a discussion. This is far from the only problem I have with Amazon’s LOTR, but the “modern lens” they are putting on this work is absolutely the one I take the biggest issue with.
I felt like with the history of Numenor the American self proclaimed "left" had it served on a silver plate to make colonialism a major plotpoint and discuss it in a meaningful way. The silmarillion definitely mentioned how the Numenoreans conquered lands all around without respect to native populations, whose struggle could be presented to the viewer, making the story more nuanced while offering a possibility to meaningfully include various minority actors without violating lore. They could have framed this whole story as the Numenoreans succumbing to greed in the form of imperialism, ultimately triggering their downfall with hardly any deviation from established lore. On a side note, there could have been bearded female dwarves messing with gender stereotypes. Instead they went for ye olde ethnicity-switcheroo, messing up the entire lore instead of actually moving the focus onto minorities that are already established or could easily be introduced without contradicting basic lore. It's just so plain to see that american media companies use this shit as a way to hide the fact that they don't want to actually produce media about minorities.
@@_koeriwurst9959 I definitely disagree the American companies don’t want to produce media based on minorities. As I said previously, properties like Children of Blood and Bone, the Green Bone Saga, and Avatar the Last Airbender are getting adaptations that a lot of people are very excited about. I certainly am! And then there are companies like Marvel creating things like Black Panther, Shang Chi, and Eternals which were clearly marketed for it’s diversity quotas. Even Disney is making efforts to produce more media for POCs like Encanto, Coco, the live action Mulan, Soul, Raya the Last Dragon, and Turning Red. There is clearly a push to make more media based on stories of other cultures that are not white, which is totally cool! I’m actually pretty excited for more media like this. I just don’t want that to encroach on media like LOTR just for the sake of diversity. I’m not sure what you meant when you said that American media companies don’t want to produce more media for minorities, because they clearly do.
Have you forgotten that natural migration exist? Even the elves were not "born"/"created" in middle earth. And saying it's "forced diversity" bc you have seen one or two non-white people without any context - and than saying it "bastardize and vandalize Tolkien’s legendarium" ??? Thats quite telling. Because we all know that the main message of all of Tolkiens work is "hey look we have white people that are based on anglo-saxons" "and there skin color is very important to the story" And while we're at "bastardize and vandalize Tolkien’s legendarium" - Tolkien work has only a handful of female characters, and of them only a small percentage has an important role (which is a assume based on the fact that woman in historic angland and very few to no rigths - bc tolkien sticks to the facts you know) - are Woman also a problem in the new adaptation? So far we have seen a few of them (and also there hair is uncoverd? which, sticking to traditionell England, is improper and totally not realistic) And why do they even film in New Zealand? Thats thousand of miles away from england... And the natives of New Zealand aren't even white!!!!
Agreed, Tolkien's creation looked to the past, never to the future, Tolkien was creating a mythology for England, inspired by the North sagas he read, which themselves were created by NORDIC people in the early middle ages. To try to modernize LOTR is to miss such a basic level of understanding why Tolkien start his world, and a flat out betrayal of it. PS: Tolkien personally hated the industrialization of the modern world and we could easily infere that he would DISPISE of the world has become. So to modernize his work, can be seen as even a personal hit towards him.
@@iaxandthemoon2471 Yeah, I get that natural migration exists. That’s why in modern times you have a massive influx of people of color that now live in England and all over the UK. But Tolkien’s legendarium doesn’t take place during modern times; it takes place during an ancient, pre-historical England to tell a new mythology for the white, Anglo-Saxon, European-descended, English people. And it’s not just “one of two non-white people”. Sure, that’s the only ones we see in this trailer, but the Harfoots are being made to be the black variation of Hobbits and there will be plenty of other diversity hires across the elves, dwarves and probably human characters as well. The elves in particular are repeatedly mentioned as having a fair complexion in the books, and there is no way that a dwarf who spends that much time underground away from the Sun would have that dark of a skin pigment. Plus, he based the elves and dwarves on Nordic mythology. And I think I did provide context when I said that the show-runners and writers themselves flat out said in an interview that one of their main goals was to put a modern, diverse lens on this show to have “what the world really looks like”. If you don’t believe me, go look it up. I’m not making this up, they actually said that. And thank you for totally straw-manning my arguments; I never said that was Tolkien’s message when creating his legendarium. I actually said that Tolkien created these stories to be a new mythology for the English, Anglo-Saxon people. It just makes sense that all the major characters we see would be white and fair of skin. For your question on women…..no, they aren’t a problem. I never said that they were. There are plenty of amazing female characters in the legendarium (Arwen, Eowyn, Galadriel, Luthíen, etc.) and they are very important to the story. Although, it is incredibly bizarre and disrespectful to the lore to have Galadriel look and feel totally unlike her character by putting her in battle armor and being the head of the Northern Army. She never partook in any battles during the Second Age and she was certainly not the leader of any army ever. They are ruining core, fundamental aspects of Galadriel’s character for woke, modernized purposes. So once again, that is a complete bastardization of Tolkien’s work. And by the way, Tolkien took a lot of influence from Norse, Greek, and Celtic mythology, where there were female characters that were in a similar vain to characters like Galadriel, Arwen, etc. Mythological figures such as Freya, Athena, and Rhiannon informed a lot of what Tolkien’s female characters were. I never said this was English history; I said this was a new mythology for England, and clearly fantasy besides that. Also, for what it’s worth not all women in medieval England had to keep their hair covered, but that really has nothing to do with my point so I’m not sure why you brought it up. Some clarification would be nice. They filmed in New Zealand because New Zealand was not as modernized as England was at the time of filming and the landscape fit well with the story. I get the point you’re trying to make, but first of all I wasn’t talking about the Peter Jackson movies so I’m not sure why we’re talking about them. Second, because Lord of the Rings takes place in an ancient, long forgotten era of what would be today modern England, the landscape would probably look very different to what modern England looks like. But again, we’re not talking about the Jackson movies so I don’t get why you felt the need to bring that up.
Some people writing the Rings of Power off just based on 1 minute of footage was kinda expected. I'm still waiting for more, but I have low expectations.
Hope LOTR doesn’t suck like WOT. I read the WOT series back when I first heard they were going to make a series. That was a mistake. I’ll skip on reading Silmarillion so I’m less likely to be disappointed.
Representation matters but what annoys me most is the superficial diversity in these shows. Being Indian myself, they would never make an Indian elf, Latino dwarf, East Asian hobbit. They just race swap characters to black and call it a day, which then leads to more racism towards black people. If they want diversity (as unnecessary as it is, in this particular story), then make it actually diverse. It's just pure tokenism. The Witcher has the same problem.Also, female dwarves have beards lol smh
This is the problem with millennials who shy away from actual reading and lean so heavily into the movies- don't get me wrong, the movies are brilliant- but there is far more to Middle Earth than Hobbits, especially during the previous Ages where they aren't involved at all. Millennial obsession with Woke inclusion and the belief that they "own" the story when it's fans go back 70 years- entire generations share this love and we have the right to an equal opinion in this argument- something that needs to be taken onboard. Many of you are too excited seeing ANY colour- and not really looking at where its placed and it's importance, when tokenism is even worse!!! I'm mixed and British- but I expect black actors to be properly cast in roles and plots that have real teeth- but I will not accept them when they're only included to provide shock and controversy and relegated to tokenism- as they have in this horror show! Sir Lenny's been uncle-tom-ed into a made-up bit-part when he could've been used to greater effect- he could have played King Khamul the Easterling, a Ringbearer, telling his fall to becoming a Wraith, for example. An actual Tolkien plot with real drama! No one took issue with colour in Game of Thrones when it was used to tell stories in Dorne and across the Narrow Sea. That made sense! Yet Amazon chose to mis-cast in all the wrong places- and that I have issue with!! Story lines for Harad, Khand and Rhun (stories not yet told) would have been far more interesting, and could've involved the Blue Wizards- but now we'll never know... Amazon screwed the pooch, murdered Tolkien for laughs- and to add insult to injury- have chosen to air this on the anniversary of Tolkien's death- what a slap!!!!
The story was already approachable to all audiences as it was a well written one, with fleshed out characters and cultures. The characters dont have to look like you or have your sexual tendencies in order for you to appreciate the work or love the story. Amazon/Hollywood is trash in this regard.
There are many people of many different races who love Tolkien. Not because of the skin color of the characters, because flash news it's actually possible to relate to a character who doesn't have the same pigmentation as you, but because it's a great story that with a lot of detailed lore and beautiful meaning to it. I agree that Hollywood sucks in that way, they just can't see past skin color and gender.
The comments made by the showrunners about this show 'being for everyone' had nothing to do with the idea that is was appropriate for all family members, it was being used as some weak attempt to justify the racial considerations seen in the casting. While there are countless things wrong with that perspective, undoubtedly the worst is the idea that people are only capable of enjoying a good story, only capable of recognizing and appreciating themes and only capable of empathizing with the tragedy and nobility of characters is IF they share the same skin color, which is patently absurd. This series has been translated into over 40 languages and has been beloved around the world by MANY cultures and races for decades. Acting as if people can only understand and enjoy something if they see people of their own color in it is insulting. Moreover, the idea that this somehow opens up new audiences is equally absurd. No one who has had little interest in Tolkien's work is suddenly going to embrace it because one or two random characters has changed their skin color. No one is clamoring for 'representation' in Lord of the Rings - rather, we're having it forced in and then we're being told that's what we wanted (which is code for 'that's what we ~should~ have wanted'). One thing that Wheel of Time has already proven to us is that when political and social agendas like this are given the priority over any love or respect for the source material (or for the millions of fans whom have loved and respected it for decades), you can count on a great many more important aspects of it to be readily disregarded... and the trailer alone already shows us many more instances of that disregard.
Re: Approachable to all audiences/showrunner says x It's difficult to see how you can judge that from a teaser trailer, they're not known for showing the more gruesome/adult material & nothing that a showrunner says can be taken at face value (they're going to say what sounds best at the time).
For what it's worth the show is rated PG-14 on Amazon Prime, less than Wheel of Times PG-16 rating and that had at most a single man butt and some copious amounts of blood. I'd be surprised if we see any nudity whatsoever, even censored. I do expect a fair amount of blood and violence in the vein of the PJ movies, maybe some beheadings or dismemberment but not especially gruesome and not too much blood.
Blade Runner had so many different cuts because of studio interference. Everyone seems to agree that the Final Cut is the best one. Also, I think the best take is that it should be ambiguous as to whether Deckard is a replicant or not since that kinda speaks to the whole point of the story.
Can we collectively decide on ways on describing scandals that don't just stick "Gate" on the end? I mean, is being a little less uncreative too much to ask. I just roll my eyes now when a scandal with that suffix is declared, not really the intended reaction to such news.
They need to walk the line between adult and child friendly! That’s how the LotRs trilogy was so successful. It was gritty, emotional, and didn’t dumb itself down. This show must assume it’s audience is smart and just give us the world and it’s great characters and epic story. It doesn’t have to be GoTs adult to be adult, and able to be watched by everyone, if that makes sense.
For the Star Wars news, I have long said amongst my friend group, I really want to see Star Wars content around rebuilding the Jedi Order, so I am really excited for this news.
I’ve been really frustrated with the treatment of the Jedi in recent Star Wars material. The odd Jedi deciding the order isn’t for them or flaws of the order being brought out in bad situations works and is impactful. But every single force sensitive choosing not to be a Jedi and the Order being so obviously flawed that everyone should see it isn’t nuance it is tiring. So excited to see Jedi come back and be Jedi for a bit basically 😂
@@ducky36F I love the world building around Jedi, and hope they make the order fix some of their past mistakes while staying true to their core beliefs.
The trailer on Amazon prime has Never made me so proud of a comment section before. How United it is in defending Tolkien’s legacy. About 45000 people quoting Tolkien and I don’t believe it’s bots for a second. I don’t understand how Daniel is actually defending Amazon for what they’re doing to Tolkien. Where’s the passion you’ve shown for so many books?
Mr. Greene. You could make the fantasy news a weekly podcast. I'd love to listen to it while on my way to work, or on the move. Another thing, did you get introduced yet to Wizards, Warriors and Words? It's a cool podcast for fantasy and sci-fi fans that want to write, and i'd be curious to see what you think of it.
So I really like Daniel's style and energy but has anybody else notice that nowadays anytime a UA-camr says just a mild point of critic they always follow with "you guys call me negative and I am sorry but...." Like just saying a minor point makes them the most cynical bastard. Like all of the content they do is all positive you are nowhere near a cynic. So do they do it just because UA-cam has to be all Positivity no negative space any bad point is a no-no.
My top news of today was Megamind getting a sequel. I feel like it is so underrated that didn't even pop up in my social media or recomended news. I'm glad they are doing it and I am hoping it will be as good as the first one.
Re: The Cliff Scene Apparently it was actually shot practically, as one of the leaked set photos (from over a fence) shows the cliff set-up with the lift the camera was on. Maybe it was over-processed in post or they put the actress’ face onto the stunt-woman, but it wasn’t all CGI.
Most "fans" don't have the technical acumen to tell if something is good CGI, bad CGI, or just a guy in a rubber mask. Their value judgements are largely reliant on whether or not they like the company that made the show.
I have to say... The CGI employed by Amazon looks cheap compared to what Industrial Light & Magic has been churning out. I dare say the CGI used in the Star Wars Prequels and Harry Potter movies looks far better than what they've used in Wheel of Time.
Oh, how I wish no one would touch Tolkien again after the LotR trilogy. That was truly great because it was the fervent passion project of true fans and artists and that is what made every piece of it so masterful. It’s not perfect, I have my gripes, but you know it was made by people who cared and it just feels 100% authentic. The problem with The Hobbit (which had some great moments and elements) was that it was a studio driven cash-grab, and nothing I have heard or seen about this has suggested it will be any different. But hey, they’ve got lazily-shoehorned diversity and feminism going for them! Couldn’t have actually included other cultures of men or cool female characters, we’ve got to twist what is already there, cause as Gpa Tolkien wisely said, evil can only corrupt. Look, it’s so obvious we didn’t get anything from that teaser that we haven’t already seen because that’s all they’ve got going for them, political points and semi-decent visuals.
It will be interesting to find out how blatant their political agenda is. For me personally, that could make or break the show. From what I've read already, I'm warming up a big ol cringe. Completely agreed regarding your feelings on the OG Trilogy vs The Hobbit!
on just a complete visual note. Have you changed your lighting set up? I feel like you have and I'm liking it, you looked less washed out (it's the only way I could discribe it not saying your lighting washed you out before).
I’m surprised you weren’t more critical of the disregard for Tolkien’s work in the new series. I’d be curious to hear why you believe lore and canon don’t matter here.
Me too! I was expecting your opinion on black dwarves and elves. The weird hair style the elf has... I'm not against any people playing roles in the show but it has to make sense. For example.. dwarves live underground.. what's the story with giving that particular actor that role.. surely they could have given her a human role and had her as a traveler. And where is her beard? It might not sound like much but small things matter.. just stay true to Tolkien's work and everyone will be happy. We don't watch movies or TV to immerse ourselves in modern day political correctness... We watch these shows to switch off from reality for a bit and enjoy the fantasy!
How is it heartwarming to ignore 4 billion red flags? It's somewhat concerning how so many people don't notice all of these red flags. It's like Amazon stuck them in our faces and is mad that we noticed them.
How did we went from knowing that an american version of Akira should stay with asian characters but when we talk about tolkien we just throw all the lore out of the ship? beardless female dwarfs or shiny armored Galandriel is just as americanizing it as making Kaneda or Goku an american high schooler.
Theyre very different though. One is based on realism...the setting for Akira is Neo-Tokyo and it only makes sense that the characters are Japanese. The other is based on high fantasy. As such, theres nothing real tethering the imagination of the producers/directors. Noone really cares that about bearded or beardless female dwarves.
In what way does shiny armored Galandriel conflict with the lore in the slightest? You think the most badass person alive in that time period didn't dress the part when she went into battle?
*sigh* I mean, I hope other people enjoy it, I guess, but now also having the Jedi Academy/New Jedi Order era (especially with the Skywalkers all killed off) overwritten by Disney is gonna hurt.
On the topic of Lord of the Rings games i'm a big fan of Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings lineup. It is what got me into table top games and miniature painting. While it is expensive, it is so much fun and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to get into tabletop/mini painting since the models are easier to assemble than some of GW's other offerings.
On the topic of LOTR videogames - I don't know about the mobile stuff, but have you played Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War? Because they sure as hell were at the opposite end of disappointing for me. Shadow of War especially, loved that one - the first one was already pretty good imo, but damn, SoW absolutely blew my mind.
While I'm really quite progressive and would love to see many more minorities being represented, centered, respected, celebbrated in both fiction and non-fiction alike, I do agree somewhat with those hateful/hurt people that don't like what's happening here. Sometimes the lore is outright changed and not at all inconsequential but 'counter' to what it was. While I'm not a big Tolkien-fan, I'm always annoyed when something is changed without good reason, even worse in cases of history: a great story and a change to educate? Nah, let's change something because it might sell more tickets. I hate that. All this does is needlessly antagonise those people, while I don't think it would really help the marginalized minorities, I think. Especially because you're radicalizing those people that are often called alt-rigth or reactionary but aren't encessarily...adn calling them this while makeing those choices, only pushes them there. Meanwhile, there's so many things you could eb doing to actually represent, center, respect, and celebbrate minorities (especially ethnic). Make new stories tailored to them! (Like Sense8 or Moonlight?) Or use history and mythology. Haven't we seen enough WW2, Crusade, and Thror stories? What about a story about how Ashoka the Great of the Maurya dynasty changed so immensely? What about Shaka Zulu's endeavors or Aboriginal mythology? Or the make a miniseries with the stories Anansi!? Soooo much to do, but no. Let's do the thing some placebo stuff that enrages some.
Hateful? Here's the thing: all that crap is being added/adjusted to this story to create "a diverse message" in the Tolkien universe WHEN THERE ALREADY IS ONE. The man literally created cultures and languages for these tales. Are there necessarily a bunch of Asian or African people running around in his stories? No, but they weren't written as such. And that's completely okay. Ffs! Can you imagine the outrage if one were to take some kind of African mythological character, do a race swap, then put it up on the screen while defending it due to "diversity" and "inclusion"? Our differences as people are NOT strictly skin deep. I seriously hope that the apparent butchering of these stories, and the subsequent backlash, wakes the idiots up that adapt these stories. You're never going to please everyone... But when your only move involves repeated pandering to audiences as well as a complete inability to accept viewpoints that differ from your own, you don't win friends. Nothing is endearing, nothing is sacred. It's like being handed a caramel apple at a fair you visit yearly, finding out its under new management, then finally taking a bite and realizing it was rotten at its core. You just end up wondering what the point of it was, while probably feeling a bit upset.
@@johnbunceiii2668 I don't actually think that most of those people are hateful (there are hateful people everywhere, so I'm saying I don't think it's a unique or especially common trait amongst that group), but I do think there are lots of people who have little patience for that sort of critique or for people from that group. So, even if you'd be concinved that they're a hateful bunch...what's happening is neither helpful in terms of disswaying them nor in terms of what you actually say you're concerned for - representation and lessening racism. I agree with you that the sentiments would be outrage if you'd choose a white actor for a black character (be it historical or mythilogical), but the context is a bit different: black people have actually been needlessly swapped out ebfore, while the same can't be said about white people. Certainly not in a similar degree. But what's worse about this: you too are falling in their trap! You don't even need to result to that (especially not because of that real discrepancy), because you're then on the defensive while they could simply agree with you when you say: give black people actually black histories and mythologies and fantasies to play in and let's keep adaptations of existing work/history/mythology also faithful. Now everyone loses and we're only increasing dislike of each others sides.
Guys, can anyone explain to me why the hell was Game of Thrones arguably the best and most popular show of all time and all these new fantasy shows are trying to hard to get away from it? Shouldn't you do something like, that worked like nothing before, why not go the same route? The movies were closer to GOT than this show looks to be and thats just wrong... When something works you don't go doing the opposite just because.. people loved the movies and got for reason, and people hated WOT for trying so hard to run from got and LOTR movies, that they messed it all up
1) Because GoT ended really poorly in most people's minds, and it left a bad aftertaste. 2) Because GoT is also a seriously misantropic story that has a tone that is fundamentally unsuited for most fantasy stories. How were the Peter Jackson movies even slightly like Game Of Thrones? And judging from the 60 seconds of screentime we have seen, how exactly is the Amazon show not like the Peter Jackson movies?
I'd be glad if they made a new Star Wars centered on the Jedi. They're my favorite part and I'm sad we didn't get to see more of them in the sequel trilogy.
@@annaroselarsen4218 and im not like shitting on the witcher or star wars no i love them especially the wither all of it buuuut the amazon show feels like who cares about those virgin fans lets grap the money and lets goo and if the dont like it we are gonna call them racist and sexist you know what i mean?
Damn editing software made that red screen. So sorry about that.
Check out campfire today: www.campfirewriting.com/write/for-novelists?DG_Q1_22
Is the anime lotr a movie or show I thought the announcement said movie like for theaters which would be an odd choice
The anime cartoon is anime(animation), but that danoiel green that is not the one that australian and sus, is right about bladerunn 2049 being better, and futurama nailed the ending, whyyy.
Snazzy suit jacket!
Unpopular opinion:I personally feel that Marvel studios is throwing in too much Marvel,like movies and tv shows, and we are being force fed into it. It’s impossible to imagine that after this generation passes on, the legacy that gonna be left behind is every single brain cell we’ve wasted on nothing but anything Marvel-related during the end of our lives, and we could be partly responsible for that. One could argue that THAT is just global capitalism and global consumers, only Marvel comics didn’t invent that but rather has been in a weird relationship with it, as we have been having a weird relationship with Marvel. It’s like a contract that says “You will buy or watch something or anything of quality and of a marketing brand that has the Marvel title slapped on it.” But that contract should be terminated. It’s like if a company keeps throwing in so much merchandise at you that you only have so much space and you have so much money. It’s like they’re going “Oh no. Don’t stop watching. Look, we’re throwing so much more Marvel movies and tv shows and perhaps a thousand more”, and you’re like “Please, that’s enough. I just wanna go to sleep now.” The same thing could be said abou Disney+ also. If fans feel like they have to get or see anything Marvel studios puts out, like as an obligation, it’s like chasing the dragon or being a meth addict. It’s like you could say that someone got you addicted to drugs, but by the end of the day, you realize that you chose to stick the friggin’ needle in your arm, while at the same time, you realize that Marvel studios is that drug dealer that manipulated you into taking those drugs.
Any comments?
The Jeff Bezos cameo call-out was hilarious. Thanks for keeping the fantasy news flowing!
Making Rings of Power for all audiences seems very much like a soundbyte rather than saying anything of substance. You will never make a show that appeals to everyone and if you try you risk just making something that no one really hates but no one really loves either. Also it's interesting to compare this take with what Peter Jackson said about that LoTR movies that he was trying to make something he thought Tolkien would like.
Absolutely.
Agreed
It's at least a positive thing that "for all audiences" includes children, so no GoT-style dark themes nor nudity will be present, which is good.
@@CM-ss5pe iirc there was something like when they sold the rights to amazon they made them agree that thete wont be nudity and stuff but might be remembering wrong. So id say its probably because tolkien estate that they arent going GoT route and not any decision on amazons part lol
@@CM-ss5pe i mean the show is rated TV-14 and can be seen on the main menu screen in prime video. You dont even need to be subbed to it to see it.
Daniel looks so natural with a gun. He's clearly experienced. Probably from his time in the Great Goblin War.
I'm sorry if that's a touchy subject for you, Daniel.
Goblin PTSD is real
@@bakthihapuarachchi3447 It deserves to have more general awareness. Breast Cancer gets a month. But Goblin PTSD? Most people just assume they can handle it. They're goblins. But I think goblins are people too.
It’s properly goblin-sized too.
To me it looks like a scaled down replica of a Desert Eagle. I hope it is. It is funny to me to see a comically oversized pistol be made into an equally comically small one.
I have to say, the LOTR we have seen so far is HEAVILY inaccurate to Tolkien lore which I find annoying.
I am not talking about skin.
But I am talking about different details.
Elrond having blonde hair
Galandriel being a warrior in shining armor
The dwarf princess not having a beard and wearing very "traditional" female clothing
Etc etc etc
I feel this as well. im rereading the Silmarillion and am just blown away at the detailed account of like, how everything happened. It feels wrong that they feel the need to change things that were so masterfully put together in the first place.
Wait that's supposed to be elrond? I just assumed it was Gil-Galad Edit: It is Gil-Galad Elronds actor does have brown hair he just looks really young.
Idk bro i think everyone can do without the bearded dwarf princess 🤣
@@LawFerryAC Still just a sign that they aren't taking it seriously.
@@LawFerryAC Nah, it'd be a major draw. What other show has a bearded dwarf princess? 🧐
It’s crazy they’d risk ruining Futurama’s legacy, 1 by bringing it back, 2 by using Bender and then not even paying the original VA to come back. DiMaggio’s a legend, the fact they thought they could get away with not paying him fairly is baffling
I wasn't even a little bit happy when I saw Futurama was coming back. I grew up with Futurama on Adult Swim and could recite every episode by heart when I was a teenager, but you eventually have to let things go and move on. The constant reboots of everything are a plague.
This is the third revival. Its legacy is secure, this won't affect it at all.
I think Mark Hamill taking the role would have been unlikely to begin with, as I'm pretty sure he'd command a much higher salary than DiMaggio.
If the show is anything like the trailer in terms of how it looks - as in costuming, envoirment and stuff - it proves more than anything I´ve ever seen that more money doesn´t mean it will look good. Not that it looks bad per se, but it just looks too clean to the point of it almost looking fake. It´s the same problem I had had with the Wheel of Time show (among others); costumes and sets doesn´t look like a part of the world. The costumes looks like costumes and the sets look like sets made of unfinished and unpolished cgi. It´s immersion breaking.
Game of Thrones always had this going for it even when the writing fell off a cliff in the last seasons - it always felt real. Clothes look worn, castles and hosues looked like they´ve been there for hundreds of years and the world feels lived in. Amazon is already spending almost as much on a show that has not even aired yet, as HBO did on 7 or 8 seasons of GoT. Yet they can´t even come close to the same level of visual quality?
Yeah, it looks like they are trying to modernize the franchise... But why? Now, Ive got no problem with the cast choices, but why are they trying to make LOTR look like any other mid budget fantasy series, considering they have the budget for practical effects? Even if they don't want to follow Peter Jackson's style, you think they would at least try to make the show stand out, considering that it has huge expectations
I enjoy the Wheel of Time by its own standards of bright colors and clean lines. Not everything has to be fruity GoT. I like that differentiation. The colors in the RoP look nice. Not as impressive as WoT bright colors that I enjoy and not at all Middle Earthy. I hesitate to try compare it to LotR trilogy. As that was Luke trying compare the SW OT to the prequels. The Hobbit trilogy was overly CGI though.
A big part is just knowing the right people in the industry, knowing who is good at their jobs. That comes with experience of working in the industry which Amazon does not have. Having all the money in the world means nothing if you aren’t hiring the right people.
That might have been what turned me off the show. I think the aesthetic they went for just came off really really fake
I find it super funny how this isn't something that bothers people when Wheel of Time series is the case, but it does about this one and few others in particular lol ....the quality of both shows looks to be roughly the same, a pathetic excuse of a "visual interpretation" of a work that clearly goes way beyond heads of those who are financing either of these projects.
3:41 Fact Check: The War of the Rohirrim isn’t being made by Amazon, Warner Bros is doing it, it’s going to be visually connect to PJ’s work. I have more hope for that film than what Amazon’s doing now.
@Circa2001 That's sounds quite good, actually.
@Circa2001
The good news is that it will be made by a Japanese anime guy and not some western activist dude :))
@Circa2001 idk man, Kenji was the shit 2 decades ago, but since then he hasn't made anything too noteworthy. We'll have to see if he can still produce a story of good quality i guess.
As much as I wish for another good Tolkien adaptation, I have my severe doubts when it comes to this series. I don’t trust a massive company buying the rights to a massively poplar franchise.
I have the sneaking suspicion that who ever are behind this project just want to have ‘Their own game of thrones.” Cash- cow they can milk to no end.
In the last few years it has become awfully apparent to me that big businesses don’t care about stories. Especially complex ones.
At this point I think it is too early to say anything about it anyway, but my hopes are not too high.
It is early, but there are numerous red flags flying proudly in the air.
1. The Wheel of Time series
2. The showrunners are literal nobodies with zero notable experience behind them
3. The Wheel of Time series
4. They fired their Tolkien expert and replaced him with yet another nobody fresh graduate that calls herself the Bitch Queen of Angmar
5. The Wheel of Time series
6. They have displayed absolute lack of interest in maintaining the canon when they talked about their plans for Isildur and his family, Galadriel, hobbits etc.
7. The Wheel of Time series
8. The Vanity Fair teasers that have shown us non-Tolkien dwarf woman
9. THE WHEEL OF TIME SERIES
10. It's fucking Amazon
@@harambe4267 Valid points. and then there is the Wheel of Time series.
I feel like I could trust hbo with it. It seems like they care more about the quality of their products than other studios. I did also see a recent reddit post explaining why they looks better.
Even with the end of GoT being extremely trash, it wasn't hbo's fault. They were willing to put the money into it but D&D didn't want to do more.
@@brandog1391 The end of GOT wasn't even trash, it was just rushed. After seeing WOT with its complete book series and enormous budget, Season 8 looks like a masterpiece against WOT and The rings of power.
@@harambe4267 9 and 10 home run!
Ever since I found out that someone who calls themselves 'The Bitch Queen of Angmar' replaced a Tolkien scholar at Amazon my excitement for the show dropped into the abyss.
Apparently she's not even a literally scholar. But an undergrad in ethics.
Step one
Wait for Christopher tolkien to die
Step two
Replace the wise but inconveniently old white guy by an abrasive way out of it's league "yes kid" with an unrelated field of study that seems to tweet about her weight most of the time
Step 3
Shaming everyone criticizing the show by extracting truly disgusting racist comments to misrepresent the huge swathe of normal people who just wanted to have a faithful adaptation
@@mat3714 Truly. It seems disgustingly convenient that everything is going 'Contemporary post modern political deconstruction mode' almost the very second Christopher Tolkien died.
I might anger some people when I say this but I don't care or mind if there are POC elves or Dwarves. As long as there is an explanation to how they are different from the ones we've grown accustomed to. Like the Avari or Laiquendi. The thing I don't like and that I hate with certain fantasy is throwing anthropology straight out the window.
Unless an outside force moved huge numbers of people out of their homes (like famine, slavery, war, etc), people don't relocate across continents. People don't look like Danes or Swedes if they live in subsaharan environments. Humans (and presumably Elves) evolve in order to survive.
So in terms of inherent logical consistency in worldbuilding, you can't have 'Random subsaharan gentleman' in the middle of Viking country 'Just because'. And it is this prioritizing of adapting for a 'modern audience' over authenticity that rubs me the wrong way. Can't we explore more of middle earth and have interesting POC actors portray interesting and heroic characters from Harad, Rhun or the Far east? People who maybe broke away from Saurons influence by divine providence?
@@benjaminjane93 my exact sentiment. Tolkien was a linguist and an historian. You can't model an early middle age inspired society on a multi ethnic society , homogeneous regions with a few mixed points of contacts is the only logical outcome but they won't.
Southeast regions is full of possibilities for adequate representation and i do believe it's also logical because it works, it increases involvement when you can identify with any protagonist and it undoubtedly helps if he/she looks like you do but they won't, they'll go for the easy realignment of known characters to maximize normies interest and minimize development cost and time.
Anyone who calls herself "The Bitch Queen of Angmar" doesn't deserve to be called any kind of scholar. Does she think people will listen to her opinion with a stupid name like that?
- Tolkien fandom stands alone.
- Not alone. Fandoms!
- To the king!
Don't know how I feel about making Rings of Power for all audiences. In an attempt to please everyone it could please no one. Feels like it will lose something that was crucial from the world Tolkien actually created.
"Making Rings of Power for all audiences" by retconning the established races and stories to fill an "all audiences" checkbox will turn into a fiasco. *IF* the production team wants to take underused elements of the Tolkien lore of the Second and Third Ages, e.g. Umbar, Rhun, Harad, the Blue Wizards, etc., and create good stories around them to meet that "all audiences" criteria, it might be a good watch.
@@BWinced yep it never ends well when you're stepping away from the sorce. And make big changes. Amazon could have explored the races of middle earth we've never seen before.
All audience include people of color right? BUT there are black youtubers that are pissed off now because of the inclusion of a black elf with buzz cut and black dwarf with no beard.
@@brainderp808 they did not race swap the dwarf. In the lore there are 7 different clans so far we have seen only one of these clans (longbeard/durin) on TV. Also this is playing more than two millenials before the LotR. Maybe there will be an explantation why she doesn't have a beard, maybe not.But to say they race swaped her? What is your reasoning that black people do not exist in the whole of the Lord of the rings world? Because if black dwarf can't exist, than black human also can't exist in this world (all living things were made by the gods, so why would one decide to "make" black humans). And before you claim that the climate is the reason, and that it would be unrealistic: The gods made ALL living beings, so one the whole world, not just one continent. So either the whole world has moderate Temperatur (highly unrealistic) or some where it's warmer and black dwarves exists. And if they could exist and you say, they would be at middle earth (because of climate) may i remind you that for example the elves migrated to middle earth? They changed their location.
@@makoygaara what does the lack of beard or a buzzcut to do with their skin colour?
Non-book fan of LOTRs here and I found the trailer dull. Seriously, outside the one shot of a Dwarf I wouldn't have been guessed it would be LOTRs. Heck, it looked more like Narnia or D&D. So this series is a hard pass for me. And on the subject of Amazon, after watching Wheel of Time(never read the books) I didn't like what I saw and I am skeptical to really check out any of their original offerings in fantasy. I'll stick with Mushoku Tensei/ Arcane for modern Fantasy adaptations. But that's just me.
It was an awful trailer mainly because it wasn't a trailer...it was barely a character introduction teaser without any attempt to tell us who those characters are
It looks like a trailer for an Assassin's Creed game.
I definitely agree, when I saw the trailer I didn't even realize it was Lord of the Rings until the title card appeared
They won't put out a proper trailer that actually shows anything significant until about 3ish months before the show comes out. It's still way too early in post-production for a proper trailer they basically just grabbed some random, mostly finished shots and threw together a montage to begin grabbing people's attention.
This Blondhobbit purpose of existence is to backup Amazon't trash productions. Hobbit trilogy was huge step back in the wrong direction with overusage of cheap CGI, but it somehow managed to remain faithful to Tolkien's work. There were many cool scenes. This Amazon's attempt is simply mockery to Tolkien and there is no way a real Tolkien fan would like it. I hope you get the nice paycheck from Amazon you earned it dear Daniel Greene.
Lmaoo so true. It really breaks my heart to see so many of these influencers praising all the shit that goes against the thing they are so passionate about. There are still some that I'm holding out hope will remain faithful, like the Nerd of the Rings, who is currently getting a lot of hate for being neutral about the show. I totally agree with the hobbit movies, they really weren't that terrible. Sure the CGI was awful most of the time (Smaug did look great though, and Gollum looked mostly the same as in LOTR) and I hated the Tauriel story and unfortunately Legolas was just too arrogant and snobby for me, but the good stuff was great. Bilbo was awesome, Gandalf was amazing, the dwarves were great, and the Riddles in the Dark scene was nearly EXACTLY the same as the book besides it not being pitch black. There's a difference between a mediocre movie, and a show that is spitting in the face of Tolkien and the fans. As a movie, the hobbit isn't the best or the worst. As an adaptation, it's pretty decent.
The problem I had with the Rings of Power trailer is that I didn't realize it was Lord of the Rings until the title card appeared. It had none of the grand sweeping shots of locations that Lord of the Rings has, and instead felt more like any other fantasy adaptation rather than THE franchise that had such an astounding trilogy that holds up after two decades
None? It has at least 3 sweeping shots of locations... the Forodwaith, Numenor, the plains where the nomadic hunters are. For a teaser i think they did a good job of having basically a shot for each storyline/location the show will feature. I don't doubt the full trailer/show will have a lot more environment shots if that's what you're after, why film in NZ otherwise lol (except the tax rebate, which they didn't think was good enough apparently).
Loaded with CGI.
@@thesecondislander there was a single shot of numenor that didn't nearly have the grand scope we've come to expect with this franchise. i do agree that it is just a teaser so hopefully the main trailer will be grander, but for now, it feels lackluster and pure cgi
Y'all really need to start analyzing this from a Tolkien POV and not a Peter Jackson POV. This is Tolkien's world. I'm not saying the trailer felt like Tolkien's world (too short to tell), but y'all need to realize that PJ's version is not the only way to depict it. Countless artists have been doing it and there are room for other perspectives.
@@brooksboy78 not saying it has to be a carbon copy of Peter Jackson's version, but I felt like I was watching a video game trailer, not something for an epic/high fantasy TV show. It felt lacking, the huge high fantasy setting that middle earth is should be grander than that trailer showed in my opinion
You know how trailers are supposed to make you hype? Well The Rings Of Power teaser did the exact opposite, I think House Of The Dragon is gonna the better fantasy show
Did anyone else have a problem with Galadriel climbing while wearing iron gauntlets and holding onto a steel dagger? It seems . . . slippery. Or is it just me?
Definitely... but hold on, there may be an explanation! Is this the same movie continuity where Legolas hopped up a stair of falling bricks Mario-style? If so, climbing in metal armour sounds legit :|
Right now I feel like The Rings of Power is going to be one of those things I would enjoy way more if it was allowed to be its own thing instead of being forced to be part of a famous franchise.
LOTR fans are not like WoT fans I think. WoT fans are so depraved for an adaptation they'll make excuses for the horrible writing in the show. LOTR already has a very successful adaptation and they'll be much more harsh. This is just my opinion though. Who knows.
Dove'andi Se Torya Sagain Yup. The Peter Jackson films are timeless works of art in my eyes. Films that 100 years from now, folks will still watch. They have their problems, but what they did for Fantasy and on their own merits cannot be overstated. Plus, spending a billion dollars(five seasons) and putting it in the hands of two new writers is insane. At least Peter Jackson had good hits with movies before LOTRs. Unless, these two are like the Russo Brothers who have done good work before through TV, why even take the risk? Why not get someone experienced and proven?
That’s fine if they are more critical, I could do without the racism though!
@@chelsbells27 where was the racism
I think your right as a WOT fan for over 28yrs i was very willing to make allowances to the series,unfortunately the changes went far beyond what even i could accept....as a Tolkien fan for over 50+yrs my sh*tometer is much higher especially with Jacksons LOTR films so this new series is likely to be judged VERY harshly by most fans...
@@chelsbells27 You know what is racist? Tokenism. It seems like we are accepting that as "inclusive", though, instead of insisting on realistic and meaningful inclusivity. Calling anyone who points out that there are no black elves in Tolkien's lore as racist is really missing the point.
"Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt or ruin what good forces have invented or made." J.R.R. Tolkien
WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM IS NOT PRODUCED BY AMAZON! It's from new line and warner bros!!
Let’s all remember Daniel’s WoT reviews and ask ourselves question - will he be honest if show would be bad? It cannot be worse than WoT, because they do not have whole pre-written incredible detailed story to change and ruin, only parts of Silmarillion they can touch and invent something in between…
But still… I really cannot express how my trust in Greene was damaged by that. I can understand his position on Rowling, even if I do not share it, but praising objectively bad product was a step over board.
"not trying to Gam of Thones-ify Middle Earth"... Bezos literally wants his own game of thrones. They hired an intimacy coordinator.
Also, was the origional trilogy NOT for everyone? Could have tooled me, with the awards from critics and praise from viewers
My problem is that it looks more like Narnia than LotR
Because the more I love a book series, the more I require accuracy and verisimilitude, I get the feeling that the Rings of Power is not for me. The Hobbit was the first fantasy book that I read as a child and The Lord of the Rings is the only series I read every year. After what Amazon did with Wheel of Time, my second favorite fantasy series, I don't have much faith in first time showrunners. All of the, ""we go back to the source material," quotes on social media ring hollow unless you actually use the source material for something other than a guide for what not to do.
At the other end of the spectrum, I have not read the Witcher series and really like that show. Perhaps there are times when it pays not to have read the series first, but that is also an indictment of the adaptation all on its own.
So you hated the hobbit?
@@iaxandthemoon2471 I was not a huge fan. I thought the cast was great and I loved Bilbo’s Home speech at the end of the first movie. I also thought Cumberbatch did a good job voicing Smaug, but all the added parallels to the LotR were atrocious. The dwarf/elf love triangle was ridiculous, the orc and Dwarf history was changed for inexplicable reasons, and the trilogy should have been a double feature or a stand alone movie. The CGI was bad, the addition of Legolas and Tauriel were unnecessary, and weird flirty bits between Galadriel and Gandalf were off putting. So, I liked bits of the trilogy, but was disappointed with most of it.
I heard the voice over in LOTR trailer mirrors the trailers for newer Star Wars movies. They pretty much copy and pasted the words. So it’s got me concerned.
Daniel always seems to think that the footage will be touched up between the trailer and release, but I feel like with a teaser trailer they would have really polished it beforehand. Maybe for movies, but Wot didn’t change at all from the trailer.
I'm not a movie guy, but in gaming 90% of the time the game looks _worse_ at release than it did in the trailer. Most people are too dumb to wait for reviews, they'll pay for something because the trailer looked cool and then get disappointed when the product doesn't meet their expectations.
@@mazrimtaim3107 yeah. Fair enough. I’d say that’s definitely an expectation in the gaming world
Well in this specific case it's worth noting that the show still has 7 whole months of post-production before the show is ready to release, and it's not like they're just sitting on the show for those 7 months if it was in a completed state now. Time will tell tho.
@@mazrimtaim3107
Games are different. Game trailers are often (usually?) just rendered videos that don't use game assets because the game is nowhere near finished when they need a trailer, and likely still won't be finished until a year after the release date.
My biggest worry for the Power Of The Rings is it’ll try and be too much like the popular fantasy shows right now like Witcher and GOT (barely call GOT fantasy but heyo) I just want this epic fantasy feel cause I’m sick of dark fantasy
see, I'm not sick of dark fantasy, I LOVE it. And just because it doesn't have Hobbits and Wizards GoT absolutely is Fantasy. Dark/Pulp Fantasy and High Fantasy can exist in the same Universe without harm.
I still absolutely agree that they should not try to be like Witcher and GoT because it simply isn't. There is a reason why LotR is so successful for almost a century now, don't try to make it into something else it just isn't! But judging from or username you can still enjoy The Legend of Vox Machina if The Power Of The Rings is crap ;)
@@BoredMarcus the difference is GoT was written as a darker fantasy as LOTR was not. So to adapt it to a darker theme just comes across as trying to rip off GoT. Not saying they will do that but I thinks that's what the op meant in his comment.
i definitely get your point - they shouldnt try to make lord of the rings dark the way game of thrones is dark, - they are two very different types of fantasy. but i dont see anything to make me think that they are doing that so far. at least in terms of that aspect it looks like it will fit more in the same place where the peter jackson films are in terms of how dark it will be
The Showrunners have said they aren't trying to make a show that's as gorey or explicit as GoT or Witcher, and on Amazon Rings of Power is rated PG-14 which is another good sign in that regard.
As a black person who actually loves fantasy (thanks, in part to many of your videos and recommendations) and has read LOTR and the hobbit, I hate this tokenism and identity politics. They could have easily used the Haradrim characters (a race of black people who are warriors, pirates, merchants and sailors) that Tolkien created in the amazon show if they wanted more racial diversity but I guess race-swapping dwarves, elves and hobbits is more appropriate........Just more insulting tokenism and mockery to actual black people who like fantasy and all it does is inspire more vitriol towards genuinely good diverse characters.
Also on fantasy news: Today is the release date of Moon WItch Spider King and Age of Ash.
Felt great to put those on the shelves this morning at work. Just looking at it before today was exciting, high hopes for it and it's eventual sequels
This guy is looking for a paycheck from Netflix. Wheel of time first and now this. Does the lore need revision to be a better story? Or does it need a revision to appease a mindset? I grew up with WOT and LOTR. It sucks be so disillusioned that when you see a large media company decide to make a show/movie about something you love that you go in thinking that this is going to suck rather then being excited.
This push from Amazon to buy the LOTR property as a whole gives me Disney buying Lucasfilm flashbacks.... and we all know how that ended
My running theory is that the strategy of this studios goes like this: they acquire a massive IP with a big fanbase. They start by making one, big budget project (I.E. The force awakes, The Witcher, Wheel of Time), give it a big marketing push showing that they plan to go all in on the property. Also, most probably a promise to make it a multimedia cinematic/shared universe of some kind.
But... they don't realy look at it as a possibility to create art, but rather a product with a really good prospect for profit. So by the time the first project is out, the studio has already greenlit another 2 or three projects of the same universe (The Witcher anime, LOTR anime, Star Wars spin-offs) because they know the first one is gonna be succesfull either way. And so, they run on the property for 3 years give or take until it's burnt out or shows it has potential for another 3 years and then they move away and try something else.
I know it might sound a bit overly negative - and who knows, maybe the people doing the LOTR show might end up making something good! But history does tend to repeat itself, so let's be cautionary and not give full trust to another big corporation to do something different when others have already done it and doing so have driven other franchises with potential into the ground.
I mean they are companies. They are completely profit driven. They never cared about art. They're whole purpose is to exist and make money.
@@angela_merkeI 100% agree, it's just that I think most people don't get that 😂
@@ianfleischer3532 Maybe first Star Wars and Empire was about art since RotJ it was all about selling toys
The last time I played a LoTR video game, it was the one with the special sword controller. Which my friend's younger brother attacked me (in person) for so he could play the game. That was the first time I've brawled over a sword, but not the last.
I’m more hyped about Campfire than about Rings of Power now.
So you're saying we should start a petition for the removal of Rafe from all creative control of WoT? Power to the Fans? ;)
Rings of power will flop harder than Cyberpunk
I had such low expectations when it came to The Rings of Power way before the teaser dropped on Sunday. From everything we heard about the show since it was announced that Amazon got the rights to it, I was extremely skeptical of the show’s quality, motivation, and the direction behind the changes being made to the lore. After seeing the first bit of footage from the actual show and the promotional materials that came out last week, needless to say I’m unimpressed and fairly upset with how this show is looking.
The show-runners are clearly more interested with pushing this modernized amalgamation of Tolkien’s legendarium than they are to being respectful and actually sticking to the lore. It cannot be stressed enough that Tolkien wrote these works to be a new mythology for England. Not the British people (which is the national identity), but rather for the English people (which is the racial identity). Meaning Anglo-Saxon. Meaning of European descent. Meaning white. Middle Earth shouldn’t be a reflection of today’s day and age, as the show-runners put it, because it was never intended of the author to be anything but a mythology for the English people. This forced diversity is such an obvious, pathetic attempt to bastardize and vandalize Tolkien’s legendarium. I understand Rhun and Harad exist in his world, but those places are NEVER the focus of the story and are almost always on the periphery with little to no named characters with any real significance to the stories.
And I would never in a million years say that if you are a person of color you cannot enjoy and appreciate Tolkien’s work. Please, love Tolkien with all your heart! I truly mean that. But I would never want to insert myself into a clearly Asian-inspired story like Avatar The Last Airbender, or The Green Bone Saga, or most anime series like One Piece (by the way, all three of these properties are getting live action adaptations fairly soon and you see pretty much nobody complaining about the lack of white people in those). You also don’t see people complaining about the lack of diversity in African-inspired stories like Children of Blood and Bone (also getting an adaptation), or the Burning Series by Evan Winter, or Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James. I just find it so hypocritical of people when the say they want diversity but only when it comes to properties clearly European-inspired like Tolkien’s work and not with other properties that are not white.
If you disagree with what I said, I would love to have a discussion. This is far from the only problem I have with Amazon’s LOTR, but the “modern lens” they are putting on this work is absolutely the one I take the biggest issue with.
I felt like with the history of Numenor the American self proclaimed "left" had it served on a silver plate to make colonialism a major plotpoint and discuss it in a meaningful way. The silmarillion definitely mentioned how the Numenoreans conquered lands all around without respect to native populations, whose struggle could be presented to the viewer, making the story more nuanced while offering a possibility to meaningfully include various minority actors without violating lore. They could have framed this whole story as the Numenoreans succumbing to greed in the form of imperialism, ultimately triggering their downfall with hardly any deviation from established lore. On a side note, there could have been bearded female dwarves messing with gender stereotypes.
Instead they went for ye olde ethnicity-switcheroo, messing up the entire lore instead of actually moving the focus onto minorities that are already established or could easily be introduced without contradicting basic lore.
It's just so plain to see that american media companies use this shit as a way to hide the fact that they don't want to actually produce media about minorities.
@@_koeriwurst9959 I definitely disagree the American companies don’t want to produce media based on minorities. As I said previously, properties like Children of Blood and Bone, the Green Bone Saga, and Avatar the Last Airbender are getting adaptations that a lot of people are very excited about. I certainly am! And then there are companies like Marvel creating things like Black Panther, Shang Chi, and Eternals which were clearly marketed for it’s diversity quotas. Even Disney is making efforts to produce more media for POCs like Encanto, Coco, the live action Mulan, Soul, Raya the Last Dragon, and Turning Red. There is clearly a push to make more media based on stories of other cultures that are not white, which is totally cool! I’m actually pretty excited for more media like this. I just don’t want that to encroach on media like LOTR just for the sake of diversity. I’m not sure what you meant when you said that American media companies don’t want to produce more media for minorities, because they clearly do.
Have you forgotten that natural migration exist? Even the elves were not "born"/"created" in middle earth. And saying it's "forced diversity" bc you have seen one or two non-white people without any context - and than saying it "bastardize and vandalize Tolkien’s legendarium" ??? Thats quite telling. Because we all know that the main message of all of Tolkiens work is "hey look we have white people that are based on anglo-saxons" "and there skin color is very important to the story"
And while we're at "bastardize and vandalize Tolkien’s legendarium" - Tolkien work has only a handful of female characters, and of them only a small percentage has an important role (which is a assume based on the fact that woman in historic angland and very few to no rigths - bc tolkien sticks to the facts you know) - are Woman also a problem in the new adaptation? So far we have seen a few of them (and also there hair is uncoverd? which, sticking to traditionell England, is improper and totally not realistic)
And why do they even film in New Zealand? Thats thousand of miles away from england... And the natives of New Zealand aren't even white!!!!
Agreed, Tolkien's creation looked to the past, never to the future, Tolkien was creating a mythology for England, inspired by the North sagas he read, which themselves were created by NORDIC people in the early middle ages.
To try to modernize LOTR is to miss such a basic level of understanding why Tolkien start his world, and a flat out betrayal of it.
PS: Tolkien personally hated the industrialization of the modern world and we could easily infere that he would DISPISE of the world has become. So to modernize his work, can be seen as even a personal hit towards him.
@@iaxandthemoon2471 Yeah, I get that natural migration exists. That’s why in modern times you have a massive influx of people of color that now live in England and all over the UK. But Tolkien’s legendarium doesn’t take place during modern times; it takes place during an ancient, pre-historical England to tell a new mythology for the white, Anglo-Saxon, European-descended, English people. And it’s not just “one of two non-white people”. Sure, that’s the only ones we see in this trailer, but the Harfoots are being made to be the black variation of Hobbits and there will be plenty of other diversity hires across the elves, dwarves and probably human characters as well. The elves in particular are repeatedly mentioned as having a fair complexion in the books, and there is no way that a dwarf who spends that much time underground away from the Sun would have that dark of a skin pigment. Plus, he based the elves and dwarves on Nordic mythology. And I think I did provide context when I said that the show-runners and writers themselves flat out said in an interview that one of their main goals was to put a modern, diverse lens on this show to have “what the world really looks like”. If you don’t believe me, go look it up. I’m not making this up, they actually said that. And thank you for totally straw-manning my arguments; I never said that was Tolkien’s message when creating his legendarium. I actually said that Tolkien created these stories to be a new mythology for the English, Anglo-Saxon people. It just makes sense that all the major characters we see would be white and fair of skin.
For your question on women…..no, they aren’t a problem. I never said that they were. There are plenty of amazing female characters in the legendarium (Arwen, Eowyn, Galadriel, Luthíen, etc.) and they are very important to the story. Although, it is incredibly bizarre and disrespectful to the lore to have Galadriel look and feel totally unlike her character by putting her in battle armor and being the head of the Northern Army. She never partook in any battles during the Second Age and she was certainly not the leader of any army ever. They are ruining core, fundamental aspects of Galadriel’s character for woke, modernized purposes. So once again, that is a complete bastardization of Tolkien’s work. And by the way, Tolkien took a lot of influence from Norse, Greek, and Celtic mythology, where there were female characters that were in a similar vain to characters like Galadriel, Arwen, etc. Mythological figures such as Freya, Athena, and Rhiannon informed a lot of what Tolkien’s female characters were. I never said this was English history; I said this was a new mythology for England, and clearly fantasy besides that. Also, for what it’s worth not all women in medieval England had to keep their hair covered, but that really has nothing to do with my point so I’m not sure why you brought it up. Some clarification would be nice.
They filmed in New Zealand because New Zealand was not as modernized as England was at the time of filming and the landscape fit well with the story. I get the point you’re trying to make, but first of all I wasn’t talking about the Peter Jackson movies so I’m not sure why we’re talking about them. Second, because Lord of the Rings takes place in an ancient, long forgotten era of what would be today modern England, the landscape would probably look very different to what modern England looks like. But again, we’re not talking about the Jackson movies so I don’t get why you felt the need to bring that up.
Some people writing the Rings of Power off just based on 1 minute of footage was kinda expected. I'm still waiting for more, but I have low expectations.
the full minute isnt even needed...as soon as they show a female clean shaven dwarf you instantly know how much they respect the lore.
@@silusnode I agree with the beardless female dwarf complaint. I'm still waiting for more though.
Hope LOTR doesn’t suck like WOT. I read the WOT series back when I first heard they were going to make a series. That was a mistake. I’ll skip on reading Silmarillion so I’m less likely to be disappointed.
Or just read the Silmarillion and skip on this unfaithful garbage show
@@mazrimtaim3107 good point.
Representation matters but what annoys me most is the superficial diversity in these shows. Being Indian myself, they would never make an Indian elf, Latino dwarf, East Asian hobbit. They just race swap characters to black and call it a day, which then leads to more racism towards black people. If they want diversity (as unnecessary as it is, in this particular story), then make it actually diverse. It's just pure tokenism. The Witcher has the same problem.Also, female dwarves have beards lol smh
This is the problem with millennials who shy away from actual reading and lean so heavily into the movies- don't get me wrong, the movies are brilliant- but there is far more to Middle Earth than Hobbits, especially during the previous Ages where they aren't involved at all. Millennial obsession with Woke inclusion and the belief that they "own" the story when it's fans go back 70 years- entire generations share this love and we have the right to an equal opinion in this argument- something that needs to be taken onboard.
Many of you are too excited seeing ANY colour- and not really looking at where its placed and it's importance, when tokenism is even worse!!!
I'm mixed and British- but I expect black actors to be properly cast in roles and plots that have real teeth- but I will not accept them when they're only included to provide shock and controversy and relegated to tokenism- as they have in this horror show! Sir Lenny's been uncle-tom-ed into a made-up bit-part when he could've been used to greater effect- he could have played King Khamul the Easterling, a Ringbearer, telling his fall to becoming a Wraith, for example. An actual Tolkien plot with real drama! No one took issue with colour in Game of Thrones when it was used to tell stories in Dorne and across the Narrow Sea. That made sense! Yet Amazon chose to mis-cast in all the wrong places- and that I have issue with!! Story lines for Harad, Khand and Rhun (stories not yet told) would have been far more interesting, and could've involved the Blue Wizards- but now we'll never know... Amazon screwed the pooch, murdered Tolkien for laughs- and to add insult to injury- have chosen to air this on the anniversary of Tolkien's death- what a slap!!!!
Amen
Tolkien’s legendarium isn’t “a franchise”, it’s a legendarium.
The story was already approachable to all audiences as it was a well written one, with fleshed out characters and cultures. The characters dont have to look like you or have your sexual tendencies in order for you to appreciate the work or love the story. Amazon/Hollywood is trash in this regard.
There are many people of many different races who love Tolkien. Not because of the skin color of the characters, because flash news it's actually possible to relate to a character who doesn't have the same pigmentation as you, but because it's a great story that with a lot of detailed lore and beautiful meaning to it. I agree that Hollywood sucks in that way, they just can't see past skin color and gender.
The comments made by the showrunners about this show 'being for everyone' had nothing to do with the idea that is was appropriate for all family members, it was being used as some weak attempt to justify the racial considerations seen in the casting. While there are countless things wrong with that perspective, undoubtedly the worst is the idea that people are only capable of enjoying a good story, only capable of recognizing and appreciating themes and only capable of empathizing with the tragedy and nobility of characters is IF they share the same skin color, which is patently absurd. This series has been translated into over 40 languages and has been beloved around the world by MANY cultures and races for decades. Acting as if people can only understand and enjoy something if they see people of their own color in it is insulting. Moreover, the idea that this somehow opens up new audiences is equally absurd. No one who has had little interest in Tolkien's work is suddenly going to embrace it because one or two random characters has changed their skin color. No one is clamoring for 'representation' in Lord of the Rings - rather, we're having it forced in and then we're being told that's what we wanted (which is code for 'that's what we ~should~ have wanted'). One thing that Wheel of Time has already proven to us is that when political and social agendas like this are given the priority over any love or respect for the source material (or for the millions of fans whom have loved and respected it for decades), you can count on a great many more important aspects of it to be readily disregarded... and the trailer alone already shows us many more instances of that disregard.
Re: Approachable to all audiences/showrunner says x
It's difficult to see how you can judge that from a teaser trailer, they're not known for showing the more gruesome/adult material & nothing that a showrunner says can be taken at face value (they're going to say what sounds best at the time).
For what it's worth the show is rated PG-14 on Amazon Prime, less than Wheel of Times PG-16 rating and that had at most a single man butt and some copious amounts of blood.
I'd be surprised if we see any nudity whatsoever, even censored. I do expect a fair amount of blood and violence in the vein of the PJ movies, maybe some beheadings or dismemberment but not especially gruesome and not too much blood.
@@tyronewestonson4806 That's the thing, I wouldn't call the PJ films for all audiences.
@@pedanticperson1149 Fair enough, to each his own
Name checks out at least 😂😜
I was waiting for your take on this Rings of power trailer!! waiting for you, daniel :P
Blade Runner had so many different cuts because of studio interference. Everyone seems to agree that the Final Cut is the best one. Also, I think the best take is that it should be ambiguous as to whether Deckard is a replicant or not since that kinda speaks to the whole point of the story.
Can we collectively decide on ways on describing scandals that don't just stick "Gate" on the end? I mean, is being a little less uncreative too much to ask. I just roll my eyes now when a scandal with that suffix is declared, not really the intended reaction to such news.
They need to walk the line between adult and child friendly! That’s how the LotRs trilogy was so successful. It was gritty, emotional, and didn’t dumb itself down.
This show must assume it’s audience is smart and just give us the world and it’s great characters and epic story. It doesn’t have to be GoTs adult to be adult, and able to be watched by everyone, if that makes sense.
For the Star Wars news, I have long said amongst my friend group, I really want to see Star Wars content around rebuilding the Jedi Order, so I am really excited for this news.
I’ve been really frustrated with the treatment of the Jedi in recent Star Wars material. The odd Jedi deciding the order isn’t for them or flaws of the order being brought out in bad situations works and is impactful. But every single force sensitive choosing not to be a Jedi and the Order being so obviously flawed that everyone should see it isn’t nuance it is tiring. So excited to see Jedi come back and be Jedi for a bit basically 😂
@@ducky36F I love the world building around Jedi, and hope they make the order fix some of their past mistakes while staying true to their core beliefs.
Between WoT, this, and expanse ending. I will cancel amazon prime. Will miss out on The Boys, but sacrifices must be made.
The trailer on Amazon prime has Never made me so proud of a comment section before. How United it is in defending Tolkien’s legacy. About 45000 people quoting Tolkien and I don’t believe it’s bots for a second. I don’t understand how Daniel is actually defending Amazon for what they’re doing to Tolkien. Where’s the passion you’ve shown for so many books?
y'all goofy
If only they had bothered to share an actual quote from Tolkien and not an awkward copypasta they found online.
@@randtherin5749 Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made.
@@MaryaHach This
@@jamesford2192 This isn't a quote from Tolkien, so stop using it!!
Mr. Greene. You could make the fantasy news a weekly podcast. I'd love to listen to it while on my way to work, or on the move. Another thing, did you get introduced yet to Wizards, Warriors and Words? It's a cool podcast for fantasy and sci-fi fans that want to write, and i'd be curious to see what you think of it.
4:46 - You said the words, so I am now creating a "fantasy dystopia" in my head.
So I really like Daniel's style and energy but has anybody else notice that nowadays anytime a UA-camr says just a mild point of critic they always follow with "you guys call me negative and I am sorry but...." Like just saying a minor point makes them the most cynical bastard. Like all of the content they do is all positive you are nowhere near a cynic. So do they do it just because UA-cam has to be all Positivity no negative space any bad point is a no-no.
War of the Rohirim is NOT being produced by Amazon, it's WB
Considering what they did to WoT, I'm not getting my hopes up.
My top news of today was Megamind getting a sequel. I feel like it is so underrated that didn't even pop up in my social media or recomended news. I'm glad they are doing it and I am hoping it will be as good as the first one.
I reserve judgment, but it does seem like another check box development. Just hope it doesn’t show misandry like WoT.
Re: The Cliff Scene
Apparently it was actually shot practically, as one of the leaked set photos (from over a fence) shows the cliff set-up with the lift the camera was on. Maybe it was over-processed in post or they put the actress’ face onto the stunt-woman, but it wasn’t all CGI.
Most "fans" don't have the technical acumen to tell if something is good CGI, bad CGI, or just a guy in a rubber mask. Their value judgements are largely reliant on whether or not they like the company that made the show.
I have to say... The CGI employed by Amazon looks cheap compared to what Industrial Light & Magic has been churning out. I dare say the CGI used in the Star Wars Prequels and Harry Potter movies looks far better than what they've used in Wheel of Time.
10s into the LOTR trailer I assumed it was for a new Peter Pan and that I had just clicked the wrong link.
Evil can not create anything new, it can only distort and destroy what good forces have invented or created. J.R.R Tolkien
BTW: The One Ring tabletop RPG is beautiful and atmospheric and amazing. So damned good
The vanity fair article determined you need to rethink this news on lotr
What camera do you use?
Oh, how I wish no one would touch Tolkien again after the LotR trilogy. That was truly great because it was the fervent passion project of true fans and artists and that is what made every piece of it so masterful. It’s not perfect, I have my gripes, but you know it was made by people who cared and it just feels 100% authentic. The problem with The Hobbit (which had some great moments and elements) was that it was a studio driven cash-grab, and nothing I have heard or seen about this has suggested it will be any different. But hey, they’ve got lazily-shoehorned diversity and feminism going for them! Couldn’t have actually included other cultures of men or cool female characters, we’ve got to twist what is already there, cause as Gpa Tolkien wisely said, evil can only corrupt. Look, it’s so obvious we didn’t get anything from that teaser that we haven’t already seen because that’s all they’ve got going for them, political points and semi-decent visuals.
It will be interesting to find out how blatant their political agenda is. For me personally, that could make or break the show. From what I've read already, I'm warming up a big ol cringe. Completely agreed regarding your feelings on the OG Trilogy vs The Hobbit!
Jackson should’ve never been allowed to make his movies.
@@ryancruz1876 Well thankfully he did, those movies have practically saved my life.
At least we still have the movies and books available. After the show comes out we can just ignore it and go back to nerding peacefully.
The SW Prequels got much love after the SW Sequels.... I expect the came to happen with the Hobbit trilogy, after this comes out.
It looking like the hobbit instead of lord of the rings is exactly what was wrong with the trailer for me.
1:49 I too was surprised they put Bezos in the trailer
on just a complete visual note. Have you changed your lighting set up? I feel like you have and I'm liking it, you looked less washed out (it's the only way I could discribe it not saying your lighting washed you out before).
from Raised by wolves, I am absolutely convinced, contrary to how Daniel put it, Ridley scot has certainly "completely lost it".
5:13 False Asendent is good! So happy to see it getting love 🥰 I remember looking forward to the chapter drops on that
I’m surprised you weren’t more critical of the disregard for Tolkien’s work in the new series. I’d be curious to hear why you believe lore and canon don’t matter here.
Me too! I was expecting your opinion on black dwarves and elves. The weird hair style the elf has... I'm not against any people playing roles in the show but it has to make sense. For example.. dwarves live underground.. what's the story with giving that particular actor that role.. surely they could have given her a human role and had her as a traveler. And where is her beard? It might not sound like much but small things matter.. just stay true to Tolkien's work and everyone will be happy. We don't watch movies or TV to immerse ourselves in modern day political correctness... We watch these shows to switch off from reality for a bit and enjoy the fantasy!
That intro lololo🌊🌊
Daniel’s ability to remain optimistic about the Lord of the rings show despite all 4 billion of the red flags is honestly heartwarming.
How is it heartwarming to ignore 4 billion red flags? It's somewhat concerning how so many people don't notice all of these red flags. It's like Amazon stuck them in our faces and is mad that we noticed them.
Suit top and Pajama bottoms is totally the professional look of the mid 21st century. Thank you Zoom.
Your channel is probably the only channel where I will actually sit through your ad reads.
Not seeing any Vox Machina in fantasy news is odd. Its a huge fantasy news story. I dont understand.
dude the sponser time scene is so inspired by captured in words.
They didn't purchase the rights to the Second Age though or the Silmarillion... which is part of the issue
The most laughable criticism is that it looks “bad” and “cheap”. You can say many things about that trailer but it didn’t look cheap.
💯
How did we went from knowing that an american version of Akira should stay with asian characters but when we talk about tolkien we just throw all the lore out of the ship? beardless female dwarfs or shiny armored Galandriel is just as americanizing it as making Kaneda or Goku an american high schooler.
Theyre very different though.
One is based on realism...the setting for Akira is Neo-Tokyo and it only makes sense that the characters are Japanese.
The other is based on high fantasy. As such, theres nothing real tethering the imagination of the producers/directors.
Noone really cares that about bearded or beardless female dwarves.
In what way does shiny armored Galandriel conflict with the lore in the slightest? You think the most badass person alive in that time period didn't dress the part when she went into battle?
@@Carabas72 She didn't go into battle though. That's not what she does. Read the Silmarillion.
I swear if they make a lotr cinematic universe I’ll just ragequit the world.
Please for the love of anything good and holy give the rights to make games to Creative Assembly. We need a LoTR Total War!
Great stuff, but you really scared me with the cut ins of late night recording. I thought my headphones came out or something lol
*sigh* I mean, I hope other people enjoy it, I guess, but now also having the Jedi Academy/New Jedi Order era (especially with the Skywalkers all killed off) overwritten by Disney is gonna hurt.
On the topic of Lord of the Rings games i'm a big fan of Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings lineup. It is what got me into table top games and miniature painting. While it is expensive, it is so much fun and I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to get into tabletop/mini painting since the models are easier to assemble than some of GW's other offerings.
On the topic of LOTR videogames - I don't know about the mobile stuff, but have you played Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War? Because they sure as hell were at the opposite end of disappointing for me. Shadow of War especially, loved that one - the first one was already pretty good imo, but damn, SoW absolutely blew my mind.
SoM had better fighting imo but I love having allies to fight with you in SoW. Both games kick ass
While I'm really quite progressive and would love to see many more minorities being represented, centered, respected, celebbrated in both fiction and non-fiction alike, I do agree somewhat with those hateful/hurt people that don't like what's happening here. Sometimes the lore is outright changed and not at all inconsequential but 'counter' to what it was.
While I'm not a big Tolkien-fan, I'm always annoyed when something is changed without good reason, even worse in cases of history: a great story and a change to educate? Nah, let's change something because it might sell more tickets. I hate that. All this does is needlessly antagonise those people, while I don't think it would really help the marginalized minorities, I think. Especially because you're radicalizing those people that are often called alt-rigth or reactionary but aren't encessarily...adn calling them this while makeing those choices, only pushes them there.
Meanwhile, there's so many things you could eb doing to actually represent, center, respect, and celebbrate minorities (especially ethnic). Make new stories tailored to them! (Like Sense8 or Moonlight?) Or use history and mythology. Haven't we seen enough WW2, Crusade, and Thror stories? What about a story about how Ashoka the Great of the Maurya dynasty changed so immensely? What about Shaka Zulu's endeavors or Aboriginal mythology? Or the make a miniseries with the stories Anansi!?
Soooo much to do, but no. Let's do the thing some placebo stuff that enrages some.
Hateful?
Here's the thing: all that crap is being added/adjusted to this story to create "a diverse message" in the Tolkien universe WHEN THERE ALREADY IS ONE. The man literally created cultures and languages for these tales. Are there necessarily a bunch of Asian or African people running around in his stories? No, but they weren't written as such. And that's completely okay.
Ffs! Can you imagine the outrage if one were to take some kind of African mythological character, do a race swap, then put it up on the screen while defending it due to "diversity" and "inclusion"? Our differences as people are NOT strictly skin deep. I seriously hope that the apparent butchering of these stories, and the subsequent backlash, wakes the idiots up that adapt these stories. You're never going to please everyone... But when your only move involves repeated pandering to audiences as well as a complete inability to accept viewpoints that differ from your own, you don't win friends. Nothing is endearing, nothing is sacred.
It's like being handed a caramel apple at a fair you visit yearly, finding out its under new management, then finally taking a bite and realizing it was rotten at its core. You just end up wondering what the point of it was, while probably feeling a bit upset.
@@johnbunceiii2668 I don't actually think that most of those people are hateful (there are hateful people everywhere, so I'm saying I don't think it's a unique or especially common trait amongst that group), but I do think there are lots of people who have little patience for that sort of critique or for people from that group. So, even if you'd be concinved that they're a hateful bunch...what's happening is neither helpful in terms of disswaying them nor in terms of what you actually say you're concerned for - representation and lessening racism.
I agree with you that the sentiments would be outrage if you'd choose a white actor for a black character (be it historical or mythilogical), but the context is a bit different: black people have actually been needlessly swapped out ebfore, while the same can't be said about white people. Certainly not in a similar degree. But what's worse about this: you too are falling in their trap! You don't even need to result to that (especially not because of that real discrepancy), because you're then on the defensive while they could simply agree with you when you say: give black people actually black histories and mythologies and fantasies to play in and let's keep adaptations of existing work/history/mythology also faithful.
Now everyone loses and we're only increasing dislike of each others sides.
Lots of crazy news today! Thanks for always updating us Daniel
It IS going to be a GoT thing. Jeff Bezos wanted a GoT.
Guys, can anyone explain to me why the hell was Game of Thrones arguably the best and most popular show of all time and all these new fantasy shows are trying to hard to get away from it? Shouldn't you do something like, that worked like nothing before, why not go the same route? The movies were closer to GOT than this show looks to be and thats just wrong... When something works you don't go doing the opposite just because.. people loved the movies and got for reason, and people hated WOT for trying so hard to run from got and LOTR movies, that they messed it all up
1) Because GoT ended really poorly in most people's minds, and it left a bad aftertaste.
2) Because GoT is also a seriously misantropic story that has a tone that is fundamentally unsuited for most fantasy stories.
How were the Peter Jackson movies even slightly like Game Of Thrones?
And judging from the 60 seconds of screentime we have seen, how exactly is the Amazon show not like the Peter Jackson movies?
Will u do more book shelf roasting?
12:56 Real unpopular opinion, but if it wasn't for the minions, Despicable Me would be considered an underrated classic the same as Megamind.
I'd be glad if they made a new Star Wars centered on the Jedi. They're my favorite part and I'm sad we didn't get to see more of them in the sequel trilogy.
Loved the Bezos diss. Stay you, Goblin.
MEGAMIND 2!?!?!? YESSSS!!!! I don’t know why they haven’t done it a long time ago!
I won the Stabby Award for best review of a book! I wasn't expecting it and then it happened and it's so cool! I can't wait to get my shiny dagger!!!
Link please.
Wow the new lord game of the Witcher war's looks great
Lol yes
@@annaroselarsen4218 and im not like shitting on the witcher or star wars no i love them especially the wither all of it buuuut the amazon show feels like who cares about those virgin fans lets grap the money and lets goo and if the dont like it we are gonna call them racist and sexist you know what i mean?
Microsoft should directly contrast Disney. Immediately pay the artist.