P&CE Discussion of Tolkien, LOTR, Silmarillion, and Amazon’s Expensive Commercial Attempt at Fanfic

I'm just hopeful to get the backstory behind the name Gryffindor

 

The last time I read any Tolkien was over 4 decades ago and nothing I'm seeing makes me think I should revisit that.

 

Used to love beating Tolkien-reading, D&D-playing, math team geeks in chess.

Watership Down was as close as I got to fantasy novels with their own language. Loved that book.

 

The production value of House of Dragon -- which I think is fair to say is a direct competitor -- is much higher. So either this show isn't *that* expensive, or Amazon somehow isn't properly showing off the money that it has spent.

 

This thread is evidence that we definitely need...more trolls!

Crossover is just another word for lack of ideas
Maybe what we need are more trolls under the bridge
Will the metalheads finally learn something?
Will the punks throw away their education?

 

Love that book. My vote for greatest story every written.

When I was in the Air Force, one of my additional duties was as the Project Warrior officer. I was stationed at Dover AFB, home of the C-5, and being in the cargo business, we had a real world job and little time to play war. Project Warrior was an initiative to help us become more martial. So I organized a war games club, helped build an obstacle course, have a real-world lazer tag setting, etc. And I created a book list with all the standards: Art of War, Sir John Hackett's World War III, John Keegan's Face of Battle.... and.... Watership Down. Got a lot of blow back from that last selection. But my point was that Hazel is the greatest leader in literature simply because he takes responsibility all the time. He never passes the buck. He'll do whatever it takes to accomplish the goal and he'll be as creative as he has to be.

 

I was a Tolkien-reading, D&D playing, forensics-team geek. Everybody whoops my ass in chess. I let those guys crow and brag about their chess and then I kick their ass in backgammon, an even older game than chess.

 

Am I the only one that finds The Princess Bride to be much more enjoyable than any of the LOTR/Hobbit movies?

*ducks*

 

I don't see how a person could conceive such an opinion.

 

The Hobbit movies are awful. So far, this new LOTR spin-off hasn't been much, but it's sure better than any of those Hobbit thingys.

 

No. The Princess Bride is awesome in its own right and not really comparable.

I think Lord of the Rings is stunningly great. Haven't seen a Hobbit movie.

 

I've never seen either. And don't care that I haven't.

 

We wanted to understand why Critical Race Theory was being taught in Middle Earth schools. So we talked to three Orcs at a Panera Bread in Mordor.

— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) September 6, 2022

 

The Hobbit animation movie is better than Jackson's trilogy

 

Bactrian rep, a more basic person would’ve gone with a dromedary.

 

This new show has very little to do with anything Tolkien wrote, like the thread title indicates it’s full on fan fiction (very) loosely based in the world Tolkien created/channeled. And the creators pretty much admit it, they’re very limited as far as which of Tolkien’s works they have the rights to and they already said they’re condensing hundreds (or thousands?) of years of history into a shorter timeline.

All that said I’m kinda enjoying it, though as has been pointed out the dialogue is horrific.

 

It’s totally a better movie. The Hobbit series sucks and LOTR is enjoyable but overrated.

But Princess Bride is damn near perfect.

 

Wait, what? Rings has much better production values.
You can definitely see the money. Harfoots' village, Tirharad (which had a very Skyrim feel to me).
Whereas until the third episode of House, which had the battle on the Step Stones and the Royal Hunt, I wondered where the money was going to, other than Dragon CGI. Lots of very straight-forward scenes (setting/staging/number of extras) in basic sets like the small council room or the King's chambers. Lots of two-shots as well.
Even the tourney in the first episode wasn't that much more impressive than the tourney in the first season of Game of Thrones, even though the budget is huge compared to what they spent back then.

I would say that the one boon that Rings definitely has going for it is that it's obviously an expensive show.