Lord of The Rings: Rings Of Power Is Off To A Good Start
In all the talk about "woke" entertainment these days, I've heard people talk about why The Lord of The Rings: Rings of Power was going to be bad and woke. Rather than listen to what everybody else was saying, I wanted to see this for myself. I'm a big fan of JRR Tolkien and his writings on Middle Earth, so I had an interest in seeing this part of the history being told on the screen. I simply wanted to be entertained, and I was.
Amazon Prime paid big bucks to have the rights to make this series, and the only source material they are allowed to use is The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Therefore, any history that they refer to can only be referred to from those books.
Throughout The Lord of The Rings, the characters tell stories about ancient history, and there's also the appendices in the back of The Return of The King. That's basically what the writers had to work with. They can't touch The Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales or any of The History of Middle Earth books that Christopher Tolkien created with his father's notes.
When you're working with a timeline, but not an actual story narrative, that frees you up to be creative. A good writer will understand the spirit of the work and not go overboard. While some creative liberties were taken, I don't think anything that was done in this series damages the history prior to when The Hobbit takes place.
I think they did a really good job with this story, and they had to know they were going to get critical responses from some of the hardcore Tolkien "purists" among the viewers. Some of those people actually like it, while others refuse to give it a chance.
First of all, I'll just say that if you like it or you don't like it, you're right. Opinion is subjective, and we all have our own tastes. Therefore, if you don't like this series, you're right. If you do like this series, you're also right. However, I would take issue with people who would call this series woke and dismiss it just on that label.
The reason for the woke label is because people claim that modern day politics and clicking off racial and sexual orientation check boxes is being done to pander to people who aren't really fans of the work. In this case, there were black characters. There were black elves and black hobbits. There were strong female characters, and I don't have a problem with any of them. The story simply had to get from Point A to Point B.
What they're covering in this story is the discussions that led to the creation of the Rings of Power. They're also talking about the rise of Sauron as he became The Dark Lord. They also threw in the Introduction of Gandalf to Middle Earth. As I'm going to be critiquing certain things about this season, if you haven't watched this yet, you may not want to read any further.
I will say this series tells a good story of what was going on in Numenor during that particular time. We see some of the struggle the elves are having. We get to see the dwarves, which I think was a highlight of the season. We also see hobbits, which some people are going to take issue with. They're going to claim that hobbits weren't around during this time.
Basic Thoughts On The Season
I'll address the hobbits, because some might even question why they needed to be inserted into this story. I was curious myself, but I like the way they handled it. The hobbits were basically around so that they could introduce Gandalf to Middle Earth. Some are going to say this is too early for Gandalf or the hobbits. This is the Harfoot tribe of the hobbits, and they were known to migrate back and forth during different times of the year. This is prior to the hobbits settling into The Shire.
My view on the subject is that nobody can know for sure exactly when the hobbits came into being in Middle Earth. That's the beauty of these creatures. Sauron didn't even realize they existed, and that's why they were able to keep The One Ring in The Shire for so long and ultimately send hobbits to Mount Doom to destroy it. He didn't realize what was going on until it was too late. He basically dismissed the hobbits as insignificant, but they led to his ultimate demise.
Gandalf the wizard always had an interest in the hobbits. He always kept an eye on them to make sure they were safe, and he was always looking for one or two good hobbits to go on adventures with him. It makes perfect sense that they would introduce him in this way, and I don't think it takes away from the narrative.
When he gets there, he doesn't even know who he is, and it's one of the hobbits who shows him who he is. I like this part of the story, because it's not being made out to be bigger in the sense of the big Middle Earth picture. The hobbits are basically trying to exist under the radar at this time, and that makes sense.
The elves are fighting the orcs. Tensions are rising in Numenor from the humans towards the elves. These things are happening. All the hobbits would be doing is trying to survive. The fact that Gandalf would appear as some giant who played with fire just makes it an interesting thing that the hobbits dealt with. I also have to say that I like the characters among the hobbits and their leader. Yeah, a black hobbit, but he was a wise character and I liked him.
Let's talk about Galadriel, Warrior Princess. If I have a nitpick, it's that they made her the tough warrior leader of the elves. However, I'll point out that we don't hear a lot from Galadriel in the stories prior to Lord of The Rings. She was kind of the wise maiden of her people by then, and maybe the years did that to her.
At the time of this part of the story, maybe she had a little bit more warrior in her. Yeah, somebody is going to take issue with my view here, but I don't care. I could do without it, but it doesn't take me out of the story in the least. I accept the fact that Galadriel could be this type of character at this point in the story.
Numenor was about ready to fall, and that's something we're going to see in the future of this series. We see some of the tensions going on there between the humans and the elves. The humans, at least part of their people, are jealous of the fact that the elves get to visit Valinor, but humans are not allowed. This jealousy is going to be played against the humans as the story unfolds. I liked this part of the story, so I'm not complaining about it. Everything advanced pretty well from here to the end of the first season.
The elves are fighting the orcs, and it's a struggle. I liked the elven warrior, who seemed to persevere through great challenges. I'm not bothered that the actor is black as he performed his role well. They also find an artifact that Sauron wants to get his hands on. Unfortunately, he does, and this leads to where the series ends. Get ready for the big battle to unfold next season. There were were some good fighting scenes here, and we see some of the suffering and destruction the people had to endure.
I think even the critics of this series enjoyed the dwarves. We get to see Durin and his people. His son has a relationship with Elrond that goes back many years, and we have Elrond asking a favor of him. Durin is initially unhappy because there had been so many years between the last time they saw each other and then, but their friendship rekindles. I think that the scenes with the dwarves were well acted and were very Tolkienrsque. I think even he would approve of that part of it, even if he were critical of everything else.
Lord of The Rings: The Rings of Power cost Amazon Prime quite a bit of money to make, but it is visually appealing. It was pretty well written, considering they had to create dialogue based on passages in books that only briefly describe things. They had to take the story from this point to that point without being able to see or use Tokien's complete work on the subject.
They've done all right, and so far I think this series fits right alongside the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit as some of the ancient history. I like where they're starting, and I hope they get to a good destination point that we can be satisfied with.
I understand people being unhappy with woke entertainment, especially given the fact that some of our beloved franchises have been turned on their heads. I understand people being skeptical, but I think this series deserves a chance. At least at this point, they've done a good job in my opinion.
They may have taken a few creative liberties that might not be agreeable to some, but overall they're giving respect to Middle Earth and the work of JRR Tolkien. I would hope people who might be skeptical would at least give this a shot before dismissing it entirely.
