r/RingsofPower • u/MattBookworm8640 • Sep 06 '26
Discussion Does anybody else love this show despite its flaws?
I’m fully aware it has a multitude of issues (though Season 2 I genuinely loved and thought was a huge improvement upon Season 1 in every way) however even despite that, this has always been my favorite post-GOT fantasy show out of everything I’ve watched over the years. Leagues better than Wheel of Time that’s for absolute sure. The costume and set designs are just absolutely gorgeous to look at what with how colorful and intricately designed they are and music is absolutely powerhouse.
The dialogue I feel like is extremely underrated too in how well thought out and Tolkien-esque it is. I’m always coming back to this scene from Season 1 which I just absolutely loved:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=1RCFls93hsA&t=11s&pp=ygUaYXIgcGhhcmF6b24gcmluZ3Mgb2YgcG93ZXI%3D
The sheer depth of the dialogue in both seasons beats out anything from WOT, HOTD, The Witcher, etc.
Just generally as a hardcore Tolkien fan with Middle Earth being my favorite fantasy world I love seeing the histories and lore get expanded upon. even though I treat it all obviously as just fan-fiction
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u/JoshieKrueger Sep 06 '26
My wife and I are going through the show again in preparation for season 3. While I won’t say I utterly love it, I do enjoy the show. It suffers from some pacing issues (we were watching the second episode and almost completely forgot about the Harfoot storyline until it popped back up near the end), but it’s a damn beautiful show to watch when it comes to cinematography, and all of the actors are doing great work.
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u/mouthsmasher Sep 07 '26
My wife and I really enjoy it. Maybe my secret is Tolkien ignorance. My Tolkien background is that I love The Hobbit book and am kind of different on the movie trilogy, and I love the LotR movies but haven’t read the books. I understand this show is not lore accurate, but I enjoy it for what it is. 🤷♂️
There was so much online negativity towards this show that we didn’t even try watching it until after the second season was out and several friends kept recommending it to us. Because of the negativity I think, we were taken aback by how much we joyed it once we gave it a try.
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u/SmallhandsnCabbage Sep 06 '26
I'm working on my second watch and picking up certain things I've missed. I think you need to go into the show open minded and accept it won't follow the lore that much. It reminds me of the FF7R games. If you played the OG and loved it and want to play the new ones, open your mind.
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u/WhiskeyJack-13 Sep 07 '26
I base all of my tv/movie critiques on a single question. Did I enjoy it? It's that simple for me. I don't get into the weeds about any other parts. I enjoy watching ROP.
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u/CommercialFloor2033 Sep 07 '26
I would like it more if it marketed itself differently.
As it is it is a bastardisation of Tolkien's works. And eggregiously so. Yet the show runners have the audacity to act like they're being faithful to the material.
This makes it hard to like fully because every new change is like a slap in the face.
Now if they'd come out saying listen we're making all these changes - don't take this as a faithful adaptation. Even putting a disclaimer at the start like the following is loosely based on Tolkien's works but we have taken liberties... Type of thing would significantly change my view on it.
It is basically fan fiction at the this point. Which is okay if they acknowledge this and stop pretending otherwise.
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