The Rings of Power is a good show, in average, and it is good to have more shows of fantasy!!!!!! Enjoy!

 It is tough talking about anything "Tolkien", pretty much as it is a headache discussing Star Wars, MCU, or anything that has canon, non canon, a lot of lore and hordes of fans who really, really take it to the hearts, as in extreme?

You say one thing they don´t agree, you might have hordes of peasants at your door, with pitchforks and torches, out for blood!

Let me get started by saying that it is a total non sense pitting A Song Of Ice And Fire fandom against LoTR, or let me rephrase it, House of the Dragon vs The Rings of Power. Although they both fall on the fantasy genres, they are completely different beasts, you can´t make straight comparisons. They do not compete for a fact, and one can enjoy both shows equaly. Or one can dislike them both, whatever!   

Right off the bat I loved the opening sequence of Rings of Power, because it reminded me of the first part of The Silmarillion, of the song of the Illuvatar, and the creation of all things. It felt lyrical, with a respectful undertone. Loved it. I know that lots of people did not catch the reference at first, and thought the opening too abstract. I really liked it myself.

I think the writers are quite courageous to write a story that is not straight out of the books: they use the lore, they use many characters, some events, but they chose to run away with them and get creative. It is risky, bold, and I think that they did not do anything disrespectful to the original works. 

What surprised me was that they placed such a wasp´s nest in the hands of not very experienced showrunners, and they did it with a massive budget, like, if we fail, we fail with style, it makes no sense!

These are not movies, but the episodes are pretty long. Yup, they are. Why? Different plot lines have to be moved so they can converge. But after half of the season, we still don´t know its meeting point, it is not building to a climax, so we can breathe and then get a cliffhanger, perhaps. Nope, it is still loose. And since The Rings of Power comes after two Peter Jackson´s trilogies, it simply can not let go of all of that aesthetics, so the pacing is often ponderous, to avoid the word sluggish. It is sluggish with a sheen.

Good versus evil is still the theme. Galadriel is a female character, but she could have been a male character, for in the series you don´t have that thing that annoyed me in Tolkien´s books : it is a boy´s world, and a white boy´s world.

The show is made by people who see the Elves, Dwarves and Humans as categories that can have individuals of different colors, shapes - within the specs of the categories - eyes, heights... and women and men can both be powerful and exercise leadership. So far, it is not a battle of genders, but of good versus evil, or order against chaos, or purity against corruption, which is very in line with the Tolkienverse. When some character goes gray, it eventually has to choose whether it will be good or bad, and that is an arch in itself.

We´ve also been introduced to a new concept in the Tolkienverse, that orcs, for instance, may have feelings, that they have a sense of individuality that includes an ideal of happiness, of fulfillment, that exists also in creatures of goodness. Even though they manifest it differently, they do show loyalty and some semblance of affection among their kind. Some, the Uruk, created first by Sauron from elven stock, were fearsome warriors.

Are they less worthy of life than any other of the three species? Galadriel calls them a mistake, a mockery of the true creation, however, once they´ve came to being, weren´t they entitled to their lives, just like everyone else? If Morgoth introduced a dissonance in the first song that created all darkness, and therefore allowed the existance of Orcs, Goblins, wargs, and other creatures, he could have been stopped by The One, Eru, the greatest of all, yet he wasn´t.

This is where anyone could discuss Tolkien´s own instance in the nature of good and evil, and in the nature of God itself. 

Young Galadriel is fiery and fierce, driven by revenge, and sadness over the loss of her brother. She is also proud and strong, and ressents that no one seems to be listening to her warnings of the evil that looms ever closer. Little does she know that other Elves can sense that evil, but they have more urgent problems to solve, which involves the life force of the Elven race, and their own survival. You can´t fight if you are not alive, right?

Elrond is the one that ends up in charge of solving the lack of battery for the Elven race. His bestie, a Dwarf prince under a ruling Dwarf King lets him into a secret, a metal with wonderful properties, which can even be eaten and restore the energy of the Elves, Mithril. Of course the Elf King was already aware of such possibility and wanted Elrond to mediate the acquisition of such metal, but negotiating with Dwarves is not easy.

Unline Elves and Men, Dwarves are not children of the Illuvatar, but were made by Aule, and ainur. It is as if they were not made by the One God, or by the God of Creation, but by a lesser God, a smith, a good whose love of crafting drove him to create his own children. Since he was not allowed to create life, Illuvatar or Eru adopted the Dwarves as a third species, which emerged later than his own children.

Dwarves are miners, and have deep love and respect for the underground. Although they are not easily swayed to evil, they might not be easily swayed to good either, and tend to see things according to their own interest. They live in vaulted halls and tunnels, so their vision is also narrow, so to speak. Rather than evil they tend to turn greedy and selfish. Well, they are not that different from men, are they? And Elves are selfish too, they´re only feel so entitled that they dictate what is right and wrong.

Elves are considered a pain in the back by everyone in the Rings of Power. Nobody likes them. Proud, conceited, self absorbed, prejudiced against anything that is not Elven, they usually hold a I am holier than you atitude towards everyone, and that it is not just annoying, that in unnerving.  Elves are mortal in the sense that they can be killed, but they can live long lives, very long lives, if no one kills them. For them, Dwarves have short lives, and human lives are fleeting little things, that pass by with the blink of an eye.

 

Elves are quasi perfect to the human eye, so many racists thought that an afro caribbean man playing an Elf was a deep offense. Again, this old school fantasy was written by white men who had little cultural litteracy out of White-World. I am sure if Tolkien was alive today, he would have been much more open to diversity.

Again, this is not a series that concerns itself with society and culture, but with philosophy, IMHO. Good vs Evil.When Galadriel becomes obssessed with revenge at all costs, does not she open a door to evil inside of herself? Whenever a character indulges in destructive feelings and actions, isn´t it an evil character?

I disagree with those who claim that The Rings of Power is a let down, and I also disagree with those who praise it as a groundbreaking achievemente. It is both, and it is neither. It is a very good show from a streaming company which decided to take several risks adaptating the works of one of the most worshiped fantasy authors, JRR Tolkien, and we should be glad for that.