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symphonyofsilence · 2 years

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So, now, according to TROP, Finrod, in Valinor calls Galadriel 'Galadriel', which is a name given to her by her husband after she goes to Middle-earth and sees him there. the aforementioned husband has not been mentioned in the show so far. instead, Galadriel flirts with an original character and to a lesser extent, with her future son-in-law who is generations younger than her and is apparently her bestie now. (But they don't even mention that Galadriel is Gil-Galad's aunt cuz God forbid she actually has some of the caliber that she canonically had. Nobody listens to her, nobody looks up to her, nobody even calls her "lady".) She doesn't even inform her husband and says goodbye to him when she decides to go to Valinor. She doesn't go to see him when she apparently comes back from years of expedition.

(And Galadriel and Halbrand accidentally hold hands in their sleep in the concept art so make of that what you will.)

Also, Galadriel is the Sindrin form of "Alarariel". The Noldor of Valinor, including Finrod, didn't know Sindarin, a language spoken by the elves of Middle-earth.

Then how should have they shown that this child is Galadriel you might ask? Well, they didn't have any problem showing her with the same shift she was wearing in her childhood flashback when she was grown up! But actually, I say, change that whole scene! The point of the scene was probably Finrod's dialogue about the buoyancy of the stone and holly shit! Was that bad! The dialogues are so trying to be philosophical and epic and end up so cringe!

And apparently, Finrod had sworn to find Sauron?? And Sauron found him first?? And killed him?? After the first age??

And look, there is "breaking lore" and then there is "eliminating the whole Akallabeth" which the show is about.

Finrod dies saving Beren. If Finrod wasn't with Beren in the quest for Silmarils, Beren would have died. (Since Beren managed to get that close to Sauron because of Finrod's shapeshifting arts, he might have died sooner.)

And had Beren died, there would have been no Dior. No Dior, no Elwing. No Elwing, no Elrond and Elros.

Elrond is now in the series, and Elros is the first king of Nomenor, which is the subject of a large part of the series.

And it may seem that this will just eliminate the first king of Numenor. But no. There will be no Numenor at all.

Had Beren died, the Silmaril would not have been taken from Melkor's crown and gone to Doriath. The sons of Fëanor wouldn't attack Doriath. Elwing, who would not exist in this scenario, even if she did, wouldn't have gone to Sirion and would not meet Eärendil, and once again, Elrond and Elros wouldn't exist. But more importantly, the sons of Fëanor wouldn't attack Sirion, and therefore Elving wouldn't throw herself into the sea with the Silmaril, so Earendil wouldn't know that his land was gone and that his children had probably died, and reached his last straw and gone to Valinor to ask for help, and because the Silmaril wasn't with him he wouldn't have managed to reach Valinor.

So Eärendil wouldn't have reached Valinor to ask for help, the War of Wrath wouldn't have happened, Beleriand would still be in Melkor's grasp, and the men wouldn't have helped the Valar during the War of Wrath so the Valar wouldn't create Numenor as a reward for them.

Therefore, a huge part of the series should not exist.

But no, apparently the showrunners thought it was more important to change Finrod's death to motivate Galadriel's absurd plotline, in which the wisest of the Eldar throws herself into the ocean and sidestrokes her way from Valinor to Middle-earth. (Valinor that Galadriel was not allowed to go to in the first place... so the whole point of the scene where Galadriel passes her test by rejecting the ring and succeeds in going to Valinor is lost. After removing the story of Galadriel's ambition and that she had come to Middle-earth to rule a land of her own and spent the Second Age looking for that land, and replacing it with this pointless plotline, removing both Galadriel's arc and the weight of the scene that she rejects the power of the ring.)

Also, apparently, Finrod took the oath of Fëanor. Yes, technically, that wasn't the oath of Fëanor. That causes its own problems but I understand that they didn't have the rights to some things but then THEY SHOULD HAVE LEFT IT ALONE! But a bunch of elves holding their swords out while the narrator is talking about how the Noldor swore to defeat the enemy and went to Middle-earth is alluding to the oath! They knew what they were doing when they added it!

And they could have just added a bunch of elves crossing ice with Galadriel, Finrod, and a dark-haired man in blue leading them?! Show the Noldor coming to Middle-earth, strong Galadriel being a leader, Finrod coming to Middle-earth, and a little cameo of Fingolfin without basically showing Fingolfin if they hadn't had the rights (just like how they showed little ginger children in Valinor probably with Amrod and Amras in mind) and stay true to the lore!

Also, with that hairstyle, show! Finrod looks like a popular but bullying captain of a high school's basketball team who would bully book! Finrod for being a theater nerd.

Oh, and, Celebrimbor apparently doesn't have any relationship with the dwarves before Elrond's arrival.

And Elrond, the heir to the Sindarin throne via Thingol, Noldrin (Gil-Galad's heir) via Turgon, and all the houses of the Edain is not an "elf lord" enough!

And yes! That was important! Cuz Elrond, the heir to any thone that there is, CHOSE instead become a healer, minstrel, linguist, loremaster and basically hotel manager. (I like what Robert Aramayo did with the role though. Elrond, Durin, and Disa were the only characters I liked.)

They keep needlessly going against canon! Not having the rights to this book and that book is not an excuse to willfully go against anything the books say!

And you might say that these go against the books, but are not bad writing.

Well, there is bad writing, too.

Show! Galadriel is SUCH a one-dimensional, unlikable, unrelatable character. All she was during the whole thing was angry and in posession of a dagger. With a single purpose and one thing to do. Making bad decisions while pretending to be wise. And the acting doesn't help it at all.

And jumping from the edge of a sword?! Listen, either your world has rules different from ours, or it's the same and you can't break physical rules in such a world! When you establish swords and people's wrists in your world as something that can be deflected with other swords, you can't say that they can endure (the weight of a person+ their armor)×(the acceleration of that person+ g) AND navigate a distance (r×teta) while enduring this weight to give that person an acceleration!

And you can't make people care about your characters and thus their plotlines with 5 minutes at most for each of them in every episode! There's not enough time for anyone to get invested. They don't have any filler scenes to show their characters and their relationship and make us care about them.

And that going to Valinor scene?!

We KNOW Galadriel wouldn't go to Valinor. So if you're choosing that bold plotline (going against the canon and logic along the way) the focus shouldn't be on whether or not she would go, but HOW she wouldn't go! I guess it was supposed to have the emotional weight of someone rejecting heaven for a cause or a person or something but it didn't work. Cuz we didn't know this show's Galadriel. We didn't know much about her adventures in Middle-earth and her relationship to the land, how she fought for it, who she had there (like...you'd think adding Celeborn and Celebrian would have helped), and her cause, keeping Finrod's oath did not work cause FINROD DIDN'T HAVE SUCH AN OATH!

And there is a LOT OF telling and not showing.

So yeah, to answer the showrunners question "can we make the novel that Tolkien never wrote?", yes, you can. You just did. Tolkien never wrote any of these. And would never.

#tolkien #silmarillion #lotr #the rings of power #trop #rop #lotr on prime #I pirated it #amazon lotr #galadriel #finrod #celebrimbor #elrond #my two cents #anti rings of power #trop negativity

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elerrinacrownedwithstars · 22 days

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Galadriel in the Rings of Power, Part 1: Warrior of the Plot Hole

Galadriel is perhaps one of the most difficult characters in the legendarium, and I mean difficult in a sense that there are variations as to how her story goes. Tolkien kept developing her tale until the end of his life and his last ideas about her very much contradict his initial thoughts. So what really is canon about Galadriel and what's not? Why do I think her portrayal in ROP is so bad? I would argue there are certain fixed points about her story that cannot really be altered, especially not in the way the show has done, because they actively contradict and/or create problems for how things go down in The Lord of the Rings.

Ever since the first season aired, Galadriel being shown as a warrior has been a controversial topic. I personally think it is a very bad decision, may create plot holes for her later story, and turns her into a completely different character. IMHO it's also misogynistic, as I will argue in this post. However, I shall try to make my arguments deeper than the usual complaint about girlbossification.

I will post my arguments in a few different posts, because that should make the whole much more readable. I will use the tags #anti rop and #anti rings of power for the benefit of those who may want to filter my posts.

I try to confer my thoughts in the most objective and respectful manner possible, and ask the same of those who may wish to challenge my views. If you like Amazon Rings of Power, I have no issue with that; I only take issue with how a character I've loved for over a decade is portrayed in this show.

1. Galadriel as a warrior, as shown in ROP, has little or no basis in canon and it may even create plot holes for The Lord of the Rings.

Galadriel's early history is commonly taken as a defence of the show's portrayal. She is called Nerwen, Man-maiden, and she is tall, strong and athletic. Her intellect is also on par with the loremasters of her people (which interestingly is rarely if ever mentioned by the show or its fans). It is implied - and arguments made in defence of ROP's portrayal stress this too -- that Galadriel in her youth is not like the other women of Noldor and doesn't do feminine things, such as weaving (keep this in mind, it will be important later). The show and the fans stress the line about Galadriel wearing her hair as a crown when she partook in athletic pursuits to such a degree that it's a little bit odd - as if this proved something more than the fact that she is a sportswoman in her youth.

In other words, her being physically strong and athletic does not immediately equal martial inclination, especially when Galadriel's youth, and the time these mentions allude to, is specifically a period of peace in Valinor. So where does this idea come from? Is it because of societal norms that equal physical strength with masculinity, and (toxic) masculinity is connected with aggression and violence? This may be in our society, but why is that norm applicable to an immortal, ethereal race and their society that would have to be in many ways different? I also seem to recall that for the Elves, the difference in strength and physical ability is much lesser between the sexes than for mortals (but please correct me if I'm remembering wrong). Either way, it seems to me like the basis of Galadriel being a warrior hinges on the belief that physical activity and strength equal readiness to aggression and violence. And this is done in a show based on stories by a writer who often lets his male characters be tender with one another and showing their feelings openly: the exact opposite of toxic masculinity.

There are other examples in the legendarium that being athletic doesn't equal martial skill/inclination. Take the character of Aredhel. She is a huntress in Valinor, which probably means that she has skill with bows and spears. Aredhel is an athlete and she is certainly brave, but she is not depicted as a warrior -- and if she were, you would think it would be alluded to during her wanderings in Beleriand. However, she takes guards with her and Maeglin presents himself as her protector when they make for Gondolin, which implies that Aredhel is not a fighter despite being an athlete in her youth.

What about mentions of Galadriel fighting, then? Again, I acknowledge there are different versions of her story. I myself only remember a mention of her fighting at Alqualonde (please let me know if there are other mentions). Some take this as a proof that Galadriel is a warrior, but I would argue that it is not, when you look at the context. At Alqualonde, Fëanor and his supporters attack the Teleri - Galadriel's kin by her mother Eärwen. What does a brave and physically strong person do in a situation where their family and relatives are being attacked? She probably takes up arms to defend them, whether she is martially active or not. Saving a family member's life does not hinge on being a professional fighter. Tolkien also says elsewhere that Elven women did not usually take part in fighting, but they could at need wield arms. Galadriel's kin being slaughtered would be such a need. In other words, this one mention of Galadriel fighting is not evidence of her being an active warrior. Moreover, the show's portrayal seems to hinge - to my knowledge - on these few lines, when the textual evidence of Galadriel being a courtier, politician and a leader is overwhelming. The evidence of her being martially occupied except at utmost need is extremely thin, and so making her a warrior is poor writing and makes you wonder why this change was deemed so necessary by the show's creators.

How does the show portray Galadriel's background before the show? Firstly she is apparently a lonely child who doesn't get along with other children, but gets bullied (for whatever reason) and she lashes out at them violently. The show doesn't establish any particular hobbies or interests, except for a vague pastime of playing with small toy boats (which implies some kind of creativity, but the object itself is nothing that a human child could not make) and fighting with her peers. Apparently, she also adores her brother, who is soon after revealed to die at the hands of Sauron.

Now we come to the First Age. ROP's take on Galadriel appears to be that she is a warrior in the trenches of Beleriand, and her motive is some kind of vengeance against Morgoth for the darkening of Valinor - a generic aim that other Noldor shared, but whether Galadriel has some personal stake is not clear. She doesn't stand out with dreams or hopes or ambitions specific to her. War is apparently the only thing that ever mattered to Galadriel and she is not shown as having any other preoccupations or interests than fighting and hunting for Sauron. Whatever motives she had in canon about ruling a kingdom of her own are absent. And by the show's logic, she would have to be a warrior through this age, because in the start of the first season of ROP she is the commander of the northern armies, and I cannot imagine that role being given to her if she wasn't an experienced fighter by the end of the First Age. And if her initial motive was to fight against Morgoth, then one would expect that she was a member of one of her brothers' companies. Namely Finrod, because he (and avenging him) is her obsession in the show. However, ROP's take on Finrod's role has to be quite different from canon, because Nargothrond was not in the frontlines of Beleriand during his lifetime. If Galadriel in the First Age is specifically concerned with fighting Morgoth, then surely she would not have spent it in a hidden kingdom?

Galadriel is not mentioned as a commander of war like her brothers in the Silmarillion, and neither is she anywhere else to my knowledge. She is not mentioned as taking part in any of the numerous battles of the First Age, in fact she leaves Beleriand before the final showdown. Rather, she is in Doriath with Melian, and at some point betrothed to Celeborn. I would argue that this period is crucial for Galadriel as a character and for who she later becomes.

Doriath ruled by Melian is the blueprint for Lothlórien under Galadriel's leadership. Doriath is the hidden kingdom, the fairest dwelling of the Elves east of the sea, fencing out outsiders and standing up against the Dark Lord. It is ruled by a powerful sorceress whose influence reaches far. The queen of that realm, along with her maidens, is a skilled weaver who fills the halls of Menegroth with wondrous cloths. She is also the giver of lembas to weary travellers, and has the gift of foresight. It is notable that according to The Nature of Middle-earth, Galadriel is one of the key persons in bringing the art of making lembas and the corn required to make back to Middle-earth, and it seems likely that her long stay in the safety of Doriath allowed the new corn and the art of making it into waybread to take root. This would take time and effort that Galadriel the warrior would not have.

In other words, Doriath is where Galadriel learns and combines the skills that she later uses to help the Fellowship, and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that if Frodo and Sam did not have Galadriel's cloaks and lembas, they would not have endured all the way to Orodruin.

If Galadriel spent the First Age fighting Morgoth's hordes, or even as a march warden of Doriath (unlikely, if she was fuelled by vengeance), she did not have time to learn the skills she needs in The Lord of the Rings to help with the quest to destroy the Ring, nor could she have had a role in establishing lembas in Middle-earth. In Doriath she would have learned the Sindarin and Silvan technologies of stealth and survival on a dangerous continent and absorbed enough influence that she too would one day rule a very similar realm. Her model of rulership is so like Melian's that it's hard to believe she would or could have exercised it without spending a long time in Doriath. She also could not have established the new corn or the making of it into lembas if she was constantly away on the battlefield.

One could also argue that the time Galadriel spent in Doriath and her link to Melian make her a viable option as a ruler for the Elves of Lothlórien. She is not just a Noldo who was born and bred in Valinor, she is also blood-related to Kinslayers. Despite this, she is still accepted as a leader by the Silvan elves and what survivors of Doriath lived in the wood. This could only be if she had taken time to learn the ways and culture of the Elves of Middle-earth in Doriath, and did not spend the whole First Age engaged in specifically Noldorin wars.

Obviously, ROP can't use The Silmarillion, but there are still many ways that the script could work around this if the show's creators had bothered to try. Turning Galadriel into a warrior and making it clear she spent the First Age in the trenches actively denies the chance and time she needs to learn the skills that she will eventually use to help the Fellowship and to establish herself as an individual that the Elves of Middle-earth would respect and take as their ruler. You can't have it both ways. Could she have learned these things elsewhere? Perhaps the craft, but not the art and the magic, which Elven artifacts very much are about. Again we come to the fact that Doriath is the blueprint for Lothlórien and her connection to Doriath is what makes her a viable ruler; its exclusion from Galadriel's story creates too big of a problem. Also, what this change of her story actually does is downplay the importance of feminine skills and the time it takes to learn and perfect them. This is one of the many ways the show, and Galadriel's story in it, is misogynistic.

ROP!Galadriel is also portrayed as too consumed by her quest of vengeance, making it unbelievable that she would actually be interested in learning skills that don't have to do with finding Sauron. Moreover, the mentions of Galadriel being athletic and showing masculine traits are also taken from texts that Amazon does not have rights for, so it is contradictory that this bit is used to legitimise her being a warrior, and other parts where her femininity is shown, are refused because they don't fall in the sphere of what Amazon is allowed to use. Again, you can't have it both ways.

Lastly, the change of Galadriel's backstory during the First Age raises questions about Celeborn. If she was busy being a warrior and did not spend any meaningful periods in Doriath, then when and where did she meet her husband? How did she have time to get to know him, and grow to care about him enough to want to marry him? How long were they married before he went missing? If Galadriel is this angry outcast who has a hard time getting along with others, what endeared her to Celeborn and vice versa? Here the show has the problem that will become familiar later on: compressing too many events in too little time. Between the arrival of Noldor in Middle-earth and the end of the First Age, there are less than 600 years. Moreover, according to Elven custom they did not usually marry or have children in times of war and in canon this is the reason Galadriel and Celeborn don't marry during the First Age, even though they live in Doriath away from the frontlines; so how ROP!Galadriel, preoccupied as a warrior and apparently far away from the relative peace of Doriath, could possibly get married at this time? Seemingly, Celeborn is already out of the picture at the start of the Second Age, leaving little to no time for the couple to meet one another, fall in love, get married, live any amount of time in the married state, and Celeborn to go missing.

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That's it for this time. In the next post, I will share my thoughts about ROP!Galadriel's so called war trauma, whether it works in the frame that Tolkien's legendarium provides, and what are its implications considering the timeline and her position as a military officer.

#Galadriel #Tolkien #text #anti rop #anti rings of power

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lyrainbeleriand · 2 years

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Okay, okay, midnight fuckin furious time, the RoP finale, the "made you my queen" saurondriel bullshit, let us talk about how fuckin misogynistic and totally disrespectful to how tolkien portray his female characters.

So. On first look, it actually sounds like Tolkien right? They even use the exact same line from FoTR, right? (instead of the dark lord you would have a queen, stronger than the foundation of the earth bit)

but it is so not. Why? Because RoP galadriel didn't say that line. Sauron fuckin did. In the book, that whole scene of her resist the temptation of the ring is a show of her own ambition, how she fight her own demon, and how she reject that demon and chose true wisdom. But in RoP, it is all the man' wish, it has nothing to do with her, "I alone can see you greatness!" I puke at that line, Amazon i sincerely ask you do you know who galadriel is???? The fairest of the house of finwe, the one with the greatest achievement among the noldor except feanor, the lady of light, and you think she needs sauron to tell her her greatness, her value, her potential??????? Also, in the book, her ambition is to be her own queen, not sauron's queen, i don't need to tell you the big difference between a queen regnant and a queen consort right?????

with this plus the show's beginning with her character's initiative changed from "to rule a land of her own" to literally pointless vengeance for Finrod (hey dude is literally walking peacefully with their father in valinor why would he even need that), the two writers(some context: they are devout mormons.) took away all that made galadriel unique and great, and the approach itself is extremely misogynistic, also the change of the role of being seduced by sauron from Celebrimbor to galadriel, shows that they can't bare the tiniest hint of homosexuality (context again: they are mormons), and the impact of this change kinda make you feel like: omg it's all the woman's fault! If she hasn't stir things up everything will be fine! No? Just me? Really? (ps i don't even want to talk about the female elves maidens whose heads are entirely covered serving in silence)

#anti rop #rop #the rings of power #anti rings of power #amazon!galadriel #anti sautondriel #to see the greatest heroine being trampled like this #i have no words

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brynnmclean · 2 months

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Witnessing anti-ROP folks have weird lore superiority complexes while getting Silmarillion facts wrong will never not be funny, sorry.

#people are so weird about galadriel #also lmao sorry anyone who says valinor 'is where all elves originally come from' isn't an authority on lore like they think they are #i'm quitting these tags before i get ahead of myself #this post will probably be deleted later #i thought i'd blocked all anti rop nonsense from the tag but every day there is more hahahaha #this has been a post

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claremikas · 10 months

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yeah we put your girl in an adaptation made by a greedy capitalist corporation and now she's a girlboss stereotype. yeah she's not allowed to be actually empowered by being a competent political leader but they gave her a sword so the fans are defending it. yeah we can't reverse it, sorry.

#galadriel #anti rings of power #anti rop

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thelandswemadeofpaper · 11 months

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Now, we just need a "We don't talk about Feanor, no, no, no' musical and the Amazon show will be perfect.

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nateofgreat · 24 days

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Okay, okay. While I don't think I'll ever stop coming up with new jokes for how absurd Sauron first disguising himself as Halbrand, getting caught, leaving, and COMING BACK IN A DIFFERENCE DISGUISE TO DO THE SAME THING is. I want to elaborate on why this is such a stupid decision.

1: Man, do they hate book Galadriel.

For all the talk about how they love the books, Galadriel, etc. They've done a heck of a job of reinterpreting basically about her into being something detestable. For those of you who don't know, in the book Galadriel's one of the only ones who was capable of seeing through Sauron's tricks. To the point that Sauron avoided her the entire time he was disguised as Annatar because he knew she'd expose him immediately.

The show has reinterpreted Galadriel's knowledge from being because of her wisdom... to her simply already knowing from how Sauron blew his cover to her earlier. So now she's either withholding that knowledge to save her reputation (our hero) or we're doing the whole "no one believes Galadriel :(" plotline again.

Then there's the way they reinterpreted her speech from being her resisting the ring to her thinking about the time Sauron hit on her.

2: Repetitive

Sauron's seriously just doing the same exact thing he did in the first season with a different disguise.

3: The showrunners said they thought the Annatar plot was dumb, but now they've actually made it dumb.

In the official ROP podcast, the writers Payne and Mckay openly mocked how the Annatar plot was written in the book, saying no one would ever fall for it. The actions of true fans lol.

Now however, they've actually made it stupid and unbelievable.

You see in the book, Annatar approached the elves with a proposed solution to the fading magic of Middle Earth. This led to the forging of the rings under his supervision.

Now, they've changed it so that Sauron first shows up as Halbrand to help them forge the elven rings, thus solving the problem. Then leaves and comes back as Annatar with, I guess, a proposed solution to an already solved problem and nobody sees a problem with this.

In other words, despite laughing at how stupid they think the original is they've gone and actually made it something stupid and unbelievable. Congratulations boys! How's the "book Tolkien never wrote" coming along?

#anti Rings of Power #anti ROP #anti amazon lotr #Rings of Power #rop #rop critical #anti rop Galadriel #anti rop Sauron #Galadriel #anti trop #trop critical #trop negativity

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wanderingwolfwitcher · 2 years

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High King Gil-galad: “Galadriel must leave these shores at once for Valinor, lest she court the very evil she was obsessively pursuing more than her own missing husband and bring it down upon us all.”

Elrond: "Agreed."

Galadriel: “Hey guys! I decided to skip Heaven, go for a swim, enjoy an island vacation with this random hot guy I met adrift at sea, encouraged him not to pursue a life of quiet and peaceful isolation, then invaded the Southlands with him and an army and put a crown on his head. Meet my new boyfriend, Satan. What’s for supper?”

#galadriel #sauron #halbrand #gil galad #rings of power #saurondriel #halbrand x galadriel #galadriel x halbrand #haladriel #halatariel #elrond #sauron x galadriel #galadriel x sauron #anti rop #anti rings of power #womp womp #lol

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anipologist · 2 years

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Ok, I'm watching Rings of Power (in small doses)...first impressions below.

(Part 1)

Valinor is not Heaven anymore than Galadriel or Luthien are the Virgin Mary...does no one understand what subcreation is?

Bullying in Valinor...unlikely as portrayed. The elves are mostly unfallen at this point and most of the issues are between the adults and after Morgoth starts roaming freely spreading lies. Galadriel is also from a high position in society (a princess) she is hardly an outsider.

Noldor elves absolutely delighted in color and jewelry why is everyone wearing sheets? In fact the Noldor in general just loved making stuff...

To everyone that thinks that the mean elf children are her cousins, Artanis is the youngest child of the youngest son of Finwe...even Amrod and Amras are probably a fair bit older than her.

FINROD"S HAIR! I know it's been said before but wow...ugh. Suspension of disbelief shatters every time it shows up...

Also elves died in Middle Earth before they all moved to the undying lands...so yeah they definitely knew what death was. In fact Artanis and Finderato's uncle was among those presumed lost or dead. (He wasn't, but that's a whole story itself)

And yes, I am using Artanis/Nerwen and Findarato/Artafinde/Ingoldo because nobody is speaking Sindarin in Valinor...and Galadriel hasn't met Celeborn yet (and seems unlikely to at this point) so he hasn't given her the name Galadriel.

moving on....

Wow....that is the most heavily redacted account of the Flight of the Noldor ever...

Where do I start?

Artanis spoke out against Feanor and he personally led his people in an attack on her mother's people...on her grandparents! This is something deeply important to her...in some accounts Tolkien actually has her fighting her cousins and uncle in Alqualondë in defense of the Teleri.

This also makes it look like Finrod is swearing Feanor's oath!...there is one image that Tolkien gives of an oath sworn at this time alongside drawn swords and Finrod is another specifically mentioned by name as having opposed it!

(On a side note given that Finrod is later betrayed because of that oath this is rather sick...almost like releasing a bad Tolkien adaption on the anniversary of his death...)

Once again...Finrod and Galadriel along with Fingolfin and many others spent years crossing the Helcaraxë to get to Middle Earth, THEY DID NOT SAIL THERE.

So far the dialogue is consistently atrocious. The landscapes are pretty but feel cgi and the costumes are uninspired...this was the perfect opportunity to go full panoply of ancient kings...and they didn't. I am not seeing "most expensive tv show in history" anywhere.

NB: I fully intend to criticize blatant betrayals of what Tolkien actually wrote. Tolkien has been a huge part of my life and his writing and the world he created has been a light in many dark places. The characters he wrote have made me want to be a better person and seeing them diminished and twisted is just awful.

So yes, I take it somewhat personally when they are maligned and given that the Silm is my favorite of all Tolkien's writing so this hits very close to home.

That being said, I don't blame people for wanting to see Middle Earth again. I desperately wanted this to be good. And I don't blame the actors who were handed once in a lifetime roles and were clearly very let down by the production itself.

SO why do I feel the need to complain? Well, why do people complain about any bad adaption? Nobody thinks people are wrong to criticize the Percy Jackson movies or that Avatar: The Last Airbender movie that no one talks about about....

So no I am not going to attack people who watch it but I am going to plant my flag here and make my stand. Because this is something that means a great deal to me and I hate seeing to ruined.

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