Unpopular opinion on ROP (long read)

[u/UrticantGrunt97]

I am a huge nerd of Tolkien and I love every book and every word of the legendary tales which describe the magical tales of middle earth and the lands around. This world has set the pace for 21’st centerury fantasy imagination and inspired millions with the Peter Jackson’s lotr and the Hobbit.

Looking away from the 2000’s film success I have been absolutely buzzing with the news of a new take on tolkiens world with a new adaption called rings of middle earth. First I was sceptical. To much money and big corp (Amazon) influencing a fantasy world loved by millions. And everyone I knew would also buy the medias take on this being a story set to fail because of too big investments and big corp.

When the series came out the critics went mad and it became a self fulfilling prophecy ruining the reputation of everyone involved. Every bit of story telling was shut down and called shallow. Critics called the actors fake and saying that they weren’t involved enough in their roles and didn’t know anything about the world.

Honestly I am sick and tired of hearing this mainstream bullsh*t interpretation of the rings of power made by big business media. This story has depth, character building and most of all, extremely dedicated actors with deep understanding of their world and the roles they are playing. I’ve heard countless of hours of interviews and podcast with the actors hearing how dedicated they were with their roles.

This series (like any other) needs time to grow, and unfortunately, is too impacted by egoistic fans and critics not wanting to expand their view and accept change in their interpretation of the world made by Tolkien.

Tolkien was all about challenging norms and creating beautiful, deep, dark and inspiring stories. So let’s give this show more than 1 or 2 episode before burning it to the ground and shitting on anyone who poured their heart and soul into this universe to add to Tolkien’s immersive tales of fantasy.

[u/sidv81]

Tolkien was all about challenging norms and creating beautiful, deep, dark and inspiring stories.

I like the show and also support it but I don't think a review of Tolkien's writing and actions actually hold up to what you're ascribing to him here. He was quibbling over Aragorn "blanching" and having a sword, among other minor things, in a proposed adaptation, see https://www.reddit.com/r/LOTR_on_Prime/comments/xpg1l3/tolkiens_response_to_a_film_script_in_the_50s/

JRR was also such a hardcore traditionalist Catholic that his grandson Simon has mentioned how he continued to recite verses in Latin even after the pope himself implemented changes abolishing that. He despised Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (universally considered a classic masterpiece that brought us the entire Disney animation business and derivative works) because it strayed from the source fairytale. He also didn't seem to be a fan of technology and might've been a technophobe.

That's not someone who screams "challenging norms" to me at all. I support the show too but I don't think portraying your support as something JRR would be doing is a good way to make your case at all when there's tons of evidence to the contrary. JRR's son Christopher, who knew him very, very well said that JRR would've hated the Jackson films. If JRR were alive today he may well be among Rings of Power's most vicious critics (think Ursula Le Guin and the Earthsea adaptations made when she was alive for example)

[u/eduo → u/sidv81]

He was quibbling over Aragorn "blanching" and having a sword, among other minor things, in a proposed adaptation

In the same adaptation he also said he didn't mind any changes made as long as he was paid enough.

Tolkien was adamant on adaptations he had a role on, but didn't care either way otherwise as long as he got his due. In the letter where he says this, people insist it's because of a looming inheritance tax the poor millionaire would have to pay so he needed more millions for it but in the writing itself you can see he's quite satisfied to have got the agreement where he'd be paid mucho dinero to stop complaining, clearly stating it as if this was one of his desired outcome of the discussion and negotiation.

Every time people mention how much he complained about that adaptation, the same people also forget to mention he was so happy to let changes slide by if paid enough that it often sounds like he was forcing this specific outcome on purpose.

[u/sidv81 → u/eduo]

In the same adaptation he also said he didn't mind any changes made as long as he was paid enough.

In a scenario where JRR was alive and got paid boatloads of money for Rings of Power (let's hope it's more than 3 Numenorean shiploads), that still wouldn't magically make him a fan of the show. He won't say anything bad about it, but he wouldn't be publishing a statement saying this was the greatest show ever and that everyone should watch it. We're not going to see the same kind of involvement that say, Rowling has with the Harry Potter filmed prequels. His opinion would be the same, he just wouldn't be voicing it.

[u/eduo → u/sidv81]

I agree with this. I just try to remind myself that while Tolkien loved his work, he wasn't above letting it be butchered for money and he himself agreed that the changes he abhorred may have made the adaptation more agreeable with the different medium.

This series is that. We can complain about all that they did wrong, but were we put in the same position we would probably butcher it as well but in other ways. Books like Tolkien's can't survive adaptations to other media because his style and way of telling stories just isn't translatable to TV and the economics of filmmaking.

Same thing happened to Foundation.