A Beautiful Mess | Rings of Power BINGE Season 1 

As a huge Tolkien fan who doesn’t mind specific lore changes as long as they stay faithful to the original themes… I absolutely loved RoP. The hate bandwagon is extremely tiresome.

I disagree with the acting. I think almost every character did a wonderful job tbh. I cannot wait for season 2 🎉

I love the show and have rewatched it multiple times. It has some flaws, yeah, but it’s just the first part of a five season story. Some things that didn’t make a lot of sense in season 1 will probably pay off later. Looking forward to season 2!

This show should be named “Rings of Forking With You”

Just a single line in The Two Towers mentions that Orcs were originally Elves who fell to darkness. I think they call Adar (Benjin Stark) "Father" because he created them, or some such

I love this show, forget the hate. Elrond and Durin are my favorite, especially with Durins wife to knock that energy into the ceiling. Every scene with them is amazing. Galadriel's portrayal I feel like was a very good way to show how even Venerated beings like herself and other elves or even the Maiar (from which Gandalf, Saruman, and Balrogs are all related to) can be susceptible to evil influence and desires, usually under the guise of wanting to Control lesser beings for purpose of Peace, as opposed to leaving them to their own devices. Galadriel is a good example of the grey moral area being muddied out. She grew up in Purity, never knowing Evil. Then Evil came and literally snuffed the lights out on her homeland, and killed her family along with countless others. Her desire to Destroy that evil is not that too dissimilar to Evils desire to Destory what is Good and Pure. Even in the original trilogy it was shown when she was tempted by the Ring. She knew enough to know what would happen to her, she would become Evil, but ultimately her selfish desires to keep Elvendom forever existent on Middle Earth would do way more harm than good, and ultimately just be as Evil, except maybe with Feminine energy.

I think this show has potential. Some of my favourite shows had 1st seasons that were just OK like The Office, Parks and Rec, even The Simpsons took a few seasons until they hit their stride. This show seems to get a lot of hate from over zealous Tolkien purists, people who automatically think big budget automatically means better quality and of course your closet racists whining about the skin tone of some casting choices. I'm definitely going to watch season 2 and hope it gets the chance to find it's rather large and hairy feet

If sailing to Valinor was just as simple as sailing across the sea, how would you gatekeep that indeed? In fact, at this point Elves had exploited this fact both to and from Valinor much to the dismay of the Valar and the ensuing wars, although Melkor was generally the underlying cause for those. Thus Eru literally removed Valinor from Arda (Earth) and set up a sort of interdimensional magical waterway which you had to sail through that didn't follow the curvature of the newly spherically shaped Arda (previous to this it was flat), but instead just went straight into "space"; but again, it was an interdimensional magical waterway, so it's not like Valinor was some celestial body close to Arda, at least it's strongly implied that Valinor is more or less in another dimension that you have to cross over to via this waterway. It's heavily inspired by the rainbow bridge Bifrost from Norse mythology, which was the only way to get from Midgard (the Norse equivalent of Earth, not just Middle-earth, despite the name similarity) to Asgard (the dwelling place of the primary Norse pantheon of gods, the Æsir, more or less equivalent to Valinor and the Valar respectively).

Sorry, can’t help you with the characters I’m watching along with you for the first time. This type of fantasy is not my cup of tea but I’m watching all the same. Kudos to you for bringing me along.

I personnaly liked it. I love middle earth and I'm a big fan. I'm not the kind of fan that gets offended by the creative liberties the show runners did. With that said, one thing did bug me. If you're going to go inclucive by casting an actor and actress of color to play an elf and a dwarf main characters, cast more poc background extras of the same fantasy race, so that they don't look out of place. (and it doesn't count if they are wearing full face helmets)

I enjoyed it. Could've been better. But definitely enjoyable. Also it was gorgeous

I really enjoyed this show a lot. Liked it more than The Hobbit movies, but less than the LOTR trilogy.

*I have had many names.* 🔥👁🔥

I started watching this when it first came out and had a hard time getting into it. It’s much more fun watching it with you.

I really enjoyed this show despite the obvious flaws. It has great potential for season 2. At the end of episode 6, when the volcano explodes, you really cannot outrun that on foot. Galadrial accepted fate, even though she lived.

"Majestic disaster" That earned a thumbs up.

To be fair, the kind of being Sauron is (Maia) the same kind of being that Gandalf is, Adar easily could have killed him (his body) because they are spirits in true form and can't really be killed. All he would have had to do to have the stuff between "Halbrand" and Adar make sense in to have him have come back in a different looking body than Adar "killed" him in. In essence it would be the same thing as Gandalf the Grey dying in the fight with the Balrog and coming back as Gandalf the White. Edit: In addition I'm not sure I would characterize Isildur as having "gone evil" unless you are also going to characterize Frodo as having gone evil as well since he also tried to not throw the ring into mount doom when he actually got there. Isildur is just a flawed man just like basically any other character in LotR. ALSO actors in interviews have talked about already being in shooting for season 2 so at minimum Season 2 is coming. As someone who has spent a long long time with Tolkien's books I feel like there are some broad strokes that it does well and some subtle things (Celebrimbor, "I think those were my words?" acting kinda like when Bilbo was under the sway of the ring before he left it to Frodo was a nice subtlety) The biggest problem is they have rights to LOTR, The Hobbit, and the appendicies but NOT the Silmarillion(or any of the other parts of the Legendarium). So they can't outright mention events that happen in that book unless they are also in the other stuff they do have the rights to. and that is a problem because a LOT of the history of the are they are telling us about is in the Silmarillion. SO I feel like they are giving us what could be called equitable storylines. For example the "remorse" Sauron shows for his past is something that is actually referenced in the Silmarillion but in a vastly different context. (and in that context it was mostly about him being afraid of what the Valar might to to him rather than having any true remorse, which actually mirrors his manipulative half-remorse here pretty well) so they can use "themes" as long as they don't directly reference the books they don't have access to.

Since you guys didn't recognize Nazanin Boniadi it's safe to assume you two never watched Counterpart and I highly recommend it... a great 2 seasons series with J.K. Simmons...

Númenor was a magnificent island kingdom of Men, raised from the sea by the Valar themselves as a reward to the Edain, the Men who lived with the Elves previously and fought alongside them against Morgoth. You probably remember it mentioned from when Eowyn is talking to Aragorn about his heritage when finding out he is so much older than he appears: *_«You are one of the Dúnedain. A descendant of Númenor, blessed with long life. It was said that your race had passed into legend.»_*

The Harfoots are kind of evil. They leave behind to die anyone of their people they don't think can help them anymore. And then, when they remember them they laugh at how they died, even when some of their family is still alive to hear them do it.

Are you guys doing season 2 of Sense8 soon?

I agree that the Blacksmith hottie is a badass Boss, but is it strange she is dressed like no one else in the entire season?

Why go into something already judging it on what other people have said, makes no sense. The pacing of the show is a bit off (takes a while to get going) but i've loved it, i think its one of those where a minority of shouty internet people started hating on it and it became one of those cool things to hate on.

Yes, we are rare

I like the show❤❤

I was shocked when I learned the actress who plays Nori is 22! I thought she was a teenager

11:54 hehe

Hope you enjoy

Are you wearing knuckle-dusters on your left hand?

i like the season, it is ok. 6/10. sad, there was so more potential.

I enjoyed watching the snippets with commentary with you, as for the show itself it drove me nuts. Was my most anticipated show besides The Sandman (definately worth your time to watch by the way, was excellent) but the execussion of Rings of Power was so poor. The 2 driving forces behind the plots made no sense. In LOTR lore Elves get reincarnated in Valanor her dead brother and her suppossidly dead husband are alive in the place she refussed to goto in episode 1. And what's randomly killing the immortal Elves? When the show bought it up I assumed it was a going to be a lie spun by Anatar/Sauran to trick the Elves into making the rings but turns out no, it's just a mystery disease that they somehow know the timeframe of and that mythril mysteriously cures it I spent the whole show asking other than moving the plot forward why would anyone do that? Why did Elrond randomly decide to spy on Duran for no reason? for that matter if the Mythril is so important why wasn't Elrond asked to spy on the drawves to find out about it rather then just leaving it to chance? Why did Sauron carve a map to the future site of Mordor into the corpse of a dead elf. Those and 100 other things just made me want to bang my head againt the wall watching it. Just seems to be lazy writing and is so frustrating because Amazon won't let go of the rights anytime soon so there's not likely to be another adaptation in my lifetime. Unless the estate sell the rights to the Silmirilian to someone else, which I hope happens then there is at least a chance of a decent adaptation down the line. Or if this show dose some serious course correction in the new series.

It took a little while to get really going, but it got better. Numenor: As you can see more is explained, but yes, Aragorn's ancestors are Elendil and Isildur. In the end, I enjoyed it, and I think I will watch again to catch more of the clues laid out. As it turned out, one of my suspicions in the beginning was right, the other one took much longer to figure out. Do not forget that this is the first season, and first seasons are generally not the best. Looking forward, hoping for more seasons. I ended up with a 7/10 rating.for this season.

Moria and Dol Guldur are two very different places.

She is very pretty, is she really that short? Oh! 9:05 and she is smart!

The Gandalf hints are almost certainly a fake-out. It's way too early for Gandalf to be in Middle Earth, and it's mentioned multiple times in Tolkien's writings that Rhun was one of the few places to which Gandalf never went. It would make more sense if he were a blue wizard, who showed up in the second age and went into the east

I barely made it through episode 1, I must admit (which makes me sad, but I simply couldn't divorce it sufficiently from the source material in my heart), but sharing the journey with you guys is fun. :)

As a big Lord of the Rings fan and having read The Silmarillion I don't much care for how they depict characters and how they act but I am not going to hate on people for liking what they like. I just wish the Show Runners seemed to have more respect for the source material and paid closer attention. Hope you guys Enjoy and as always enjoy all the sassy comments.

I should have just watched this instead of the 8 episodes of this show. it was a bit slow, nothing seemed to happen til maybe episode 4? I dunno compared to HOTD this is super boring.

Okay so with this show, Amazon has only bought a certain portions of the IP rights. So basically, Amazon has the IP rights to the LOTRs Appendices (and I think the Hobbit book, I think, I'll have to double check) that contains the 2nd, 3nd, and 4th Age. But summaries of its history and important events to what Tolkien has written within his lore of Middle-Earth within those Ages. Tolkien also in a way had various documents about the Silmarillion (aka the early beginnings far beyond Middle-Earth, the First Dark Lord, early Elves, and so on) that encompasses the 1st and 2nd Age in great detail and a bit of early beginnings of the 3rd Age. To which Amazon and the showrunners don't have the rights to use the Silmarillion materials and therefore there are certain places, lores, and specific names that they're not allow to use. Hartfoots are indeed Hobbits. Hobbits as a whole has 3 different species and Hartfoots is one of the three. And in the show, they're not allow to use the name Hobbits because of yeah...IP rights. The dude who is supposedly appears to be Gandalf, shouldn't be Gandalf at all. Cause Wizards like him weren't really in the 2nd Age, but in the 3rd Age. Then there is their Sauron. In Tolkien's work, Sauron did go by a different name, but again, the show hasn't been given the permission to use that name though which is why he's called Halbrand in the show instead. There are more I can give examples of how I think this show in a way find a loophole to use certain terms and characters without not fully infringing the IP rights. And I think that is where most hardcore Tolkien fans and Tolkien Scholars are heavily set on how this show really wasn't respecting Tolkien's life work (it really was his life work and something he created the world of Middle-Earth for 30 plus years or more until his death) and the source materials it contains. As for me...I think the writing in the show was not that great. Which therefore hinders on all the actors' line deliveries and performance as poor or meh. There were a lot of whys and mysterious boxes that I honestly got irritated and illogical character motivations. You're right on about this Galdrieal, I just don't like her at all and she felt mostly like a mary sue to me. I'll say I did like the score in the show. I wish it was used in a different show though. Visually....yeah I'll say the establishing shots were gorgeous and only the establishing shots, for sure. Because when there are scenes of characters talking, I couldn't help but see how it all looks like they're on a cheap set (but the locations were shot in New Zealand). Style over substance isn't going to last long for his show or for any show. And Amazon has said they're committed for this show to have 5 seasons. As for the budget of this show..........60 million....per episode. Yeah. A lot. I do think this show is going to be a mix bag overall. Anyway, I enjoyed ya'lls reactions and have a good day.

That’s not Gandalf 🙄 …they were 2 important blue wizards in the second age…..Gandalf arrived in the third age not only that we had Gandalf in the lord of the rings and the hobbits

I dont think you can set yourself ablaze and dip yourself in glitter on RU-vid. Twitch, perhaps?

Hate the show, love your reaction anyway

Isuldur same name different guy. It's to soon for that one from LOTRs

I don't hate it, I don't love it. I'm very mixed on this show. There are a lot of positives for me, and negatives. There is nothing in canon about elf hair only being long. 😆 The show did change some things from canon, and some of those choices weren't my favorite, but hair was not one of them. And the skin color objections just ugly from the haters. Some Hobbits having dark skin IS canon (literally chestnut) but the haters still object which shows what their hate is really about. My favorite parts are anything Durin and Elrond. The Harfoots are adorable. But the Stranger is a pretty big lore break if it really is Gandalf (He'd have arrived thousands of years too early). Set and location design is gorgeous. The Sauron Mordor, Galadriel story... meh. The timeline has been bent all over the place. Numenor is where Aragorn's Ancestors are from. Oh skip setting yourself ablaze, but I think fans of the channel would love to see the glittering gold part. 😁

show was so disappointing. they had everything going for them but then put amateurs in charge of running the show. the most telling aspect of this is that they bought the rights to the LOTR, hobbit, and appendices, but not to the Silmarillion, which is what the story of the second age (this show) is all about.

I think the Tolkien family chose wrong when they chose Amazon over HBO.

Amazon loves you and people like you both who don't even know a thing about the lore - not even a tiny bit. the dude that missing isn't dead, he's the one that cuts off Sauron's hand. Check the Peter Jackson's film. anyways good luck with you channel and a thumbs up for effort.