The Lord of the Rings

spronk said:

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this joke doesnt need a punchline

phisey said:

I was holding out hope for it. No idea why since they splurged so much money on WoT and got nothing but hot garbage. Curious what the budget for this show is in comparison.

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They're over budget already. It was 250m per season budgeted by Amazon. That was the initial budget Amazon was comfortable with. 250m on licensing so it would have been 750m for 2 seasons + license. Two seasons were planned from Day 1.

They're closing in on 650m now on Season One. Very far over budget according to the New Zealand interior ministry which has to track official spending due to tax rebates.

They struck a private tax deal with the NZ government.

A billion cash with that cast? That's corporate malfeasance dressed up as social justice.

the set pieces/CGI must be absolutely fucking insane for the budget to be that high. i have zero hope for this series as well as Halo.

It all depends on the execution. If the acting is good no one will care in the end if a few characters are black. Like the last Mad Max movie had 'feminist' elements in it but the movie was good and that aspect of it wasn't done like an after school special or lecture. If you believe in the characters & there's good writing/acting then this will be much ado about nothing. But it's Amazon so it's a big if.

New Zealand had a lot to do with running the budget up.

Filming for the first season took place in New Zealand, where the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies were made, from February 2020 to August 2021, with a production break of several months during that time due to the COVID-19 pandemic

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NZ is/was a zero-tolerance COVID country and the Fort Knox of this pandemic. The production shutdown costs primarily, but also testing requirements, monitoring, the insurance carriers demands for safety, plus hazard insurance for the actors. If they waited a full year, but apparently this couldn't wait. They shot the series at the worst possible time in the worst possible country.

Like I said, it's all in the execution. None of us have seen it yet so no one knows. It could be a complete disaster or it could be pretty good. Are the actors good who just happen to be black or did they elevate mediocre actors for 'wokeness'?

Big Phoenix said:

LOTR and the mythology(in case you dont know, elves trolls hobbits etc. are all germanic/central European mythos) its based on is pretty damn well understood to not contain black hobbits or elves. Theres zero reason at all for them to be a thing in LOTR.

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While this may be true, we know thats not allowed in 2022. The left is trying so hard to rewrite history.

If they needed color, they should have gone with the Rankin Bass elves.

Big Phoenix said:

You missed the point.

LOTR and the mythology(in case you dont know, elves trolls hobbits etc. are all germanic/central European mythos) its based on is pretty damn well understood to not contain black hobbits or elves. Theres zero reason at all for them to be a thing in LOTR.

Mad Max universe has no where near the level of established lore to say a stereotypical story of a strong man hoarding women which perfectly fits the universe of Mad Max is out of place.

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Trust me I've read more Tolkien than you have. I know it was originally meant as England's version of mythology/pre-history. But he expanded on it more and more with the writings that would later become The Silmarillion. It's still mostly European-centric but it morphed into more of a world mythology that literally starts in heaven (Ainulindale) with god (Eru), angels (Ainur), the devil (Melkor), and the creation of the world (Arda). He added people that aren't European like the Haradrim. It's a little bit of a stretch to have black hobbits, but not a gigantic one. There were already a handful of different kinds of hobbits (Harfoots, Stoors, etc.).

Is there going to be way more swashbuckling than in Tolkien's writings? Yes, but it was the same for the Jackson movies. That's why most fans still prefer Fellowship to the others. Galadriel in armor is dumb but it wouldn't ruin the series for me. The problem is Tolkien didn't write very much about the second age in terms of traditional narrative, it's mostly just statements of fact and timelines; like in a history book. Galadriel is one of the few that sees through Annatar and is skeptical about the forging of the rings.

The wild amazonian wood elf thing is mostly a game thing, like elderscrolls or somesuch. Legolas is from the woodland realm but his father is high elven.

Dark elves are mentioned but these are just elves that awoke at the same time as the others, far in the east, that never made the journey over to Valinor. The ones that did travel west became great in crafts of all sorts with the gods to consult and likely had a decently high level of technology and magic.

Middle earth itself is corrupted. Morgoth poured a bit of himself into it the way Sauron did with the ring. Just living there does have an effect over time, and these are long lived people.

Kharzette said:

The wild amazonian wood elf thing is mostly a game thing, like elderscrolls or somesuch. Legolas is from the woodland realm but his father is high elven.

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He isn't.

There's 3 types of elves in the story.

1) Never went to Valinor (Teleri)
2) Went to Valinor and stayed there (Vanyar)
3) Went to Valinor but came back to war with Morgoth for the Silmarils (Noldor)

Legolas's family and Galadriel's husband are of the Teleri who went to Beleriand and saw the Silmarils (Sindar), most of the others in Mirkwood and maybe Lothlorien are Teleri who never went to Beleriand and saw the Silmarils (Nandor). So they are different types of "Wood Elves".

Elrond and the dark haired Rivendell elves are Noldor which I guess would be "High Elves". Galadriel is half Noldor half Vanyar, which is why she's the only one with golden hair.

They spent a billion dollars on this thing

Galadriel is in full plate armor. They want to be Game of Thrones so bad for some reason.

That's a strange list, I mean I recognize the names. I had to look as I don't trust my memory, Galadriel was born in Tirion on Valinor. Her mum was Teleri but I remember them as the elves that lived on the coast and built ships?

Anyway you are correct about Thranduil. He was born in Doriath.