re: If you had to bet your next paycheck, which character is Sauron?

I think he's probably already in Celebrimbor's camp, and we likely haven't seen him onscreen as yet.

For the sake of keeping lore intact with the show:

Celebrimbor already has a plan for a forge, and I suspect Celebrimbor is the source of Gil Galad's counsel. GG is going with what his genius craftsman is telling him.

Annatar is probably collaborating already on nice things, convincing Celeborn that he's correct. He's skewing and twisting the info, to make things look a bit more desperate, creating both the crisis and the cure. Because, of course, he wants the cure. Elves make their Rings, he makes his and controls theirs with it.

Then don't watch it, it's that simple.

There's plenty of shows I haven't watched a single episode of.

I don't think you're going to convince Amazon of anything bitching on this site.

I didn't realize it was an either/or proposition for watching those shows
If it is, maybe nerdrotic is on HBO's tab? Otherwise, what's so woke about ROP, that it trumps similarly diverse casting by HOTD, with blatant homosexuality, pedophilia, and incest mixed in? Or is that more aligned with your worldview?

BTW, good for you cancelling Prime, honestly. Their free 2 day shipping has lagged off, and it seems like you can often find goods as cheap on walmart.com. But I hope you factored in losing Thursday Night Football, when you dropped it. That, and using Amazon Pay options on affiliated sites.

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That's not the case for Tolkien. You asking 'what's woke ' about this show tells me you don't understand Tolkien, what defines 'woke', or both.

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How long have you been a Tolkien fan, may I ask?

I've been reading his works for over 4 decades. Long before PJ's project made it mainstream. I read the Simarillion before Star Wars had a sequel in theaters. I've reread LOTR, The Hobbit, and the Silmarillion a lot of times over the years.
I feel comfortable that I have a fair understanding and appreciation of the man's works. I'm not in the mood to play "who's the deeper nerd", or "who can recite what parts of the Silmarillion are direct works of JRR, and what are edited by Christopher to better fit together".

There are many differences between the texts and the movies. I recognized a bunch on first viewing. It's not for me to say that should ruin anything for anyone else, or whether it was an acceptable alteration for brevity's sake. But I've listed before, the actual spirit of Theoden's, Faramir's, and Denethor's characters are different from the books, to the films. Much of Merry's character has been diluted, or even deleted.

shite happens in adaptations. You choose on your own to accept, or reject. We haven't even seen where this series is going, they're still building. I'm going to keep watching, and make the call for myself. If you're out, that's your call. All most of us ask, is you at least show people on this board the respect to let them watch for themselves, and discuss with like-minded individuals.

Peace

I knew the full story, loved the full story. I read the books to my then-fiancé, with a bottle of wine, cheese and baguettes in our apartment in bed (sometimes lying on a picnic blanket in a field on a nice day). Maybe a chapter a night. Seemed like a goofy silly thing to do, trying to be romantic, I guess .
First night, chapter one of the Hobbit, she fell in love with the books. She picked the book up for chapter 2 the next night, and said "storytime"

We finished, and were married with an infant, by the time the movies were nearing release.

I, like everyone else, was blown away by Fellowship. I knew they were making a trilogy, so I knew/expected the pace to be like it was.
I feared/suspected, like a lot of fans, that it was going to be campy and "fun", like Star Wars. That it wouldn't capture the deeper serious nature, the humanistic drama, and focus on action. And I didn't think the action and visuals would be better than, say, a Conan movie. Which is to say, ok, but not epic.

I missed Merry's leadership in the Conspiracy, the Old Forest and Bombadil, the Barrow Downs; but I understood why it was cut. Time and narrowing the storyline. What they kept was plenty enough, and they nailed it. Wonder at the right times, dread at the right times. So glad they went with Viggo over Stuart Townsend for Strider, hugely impressed with McKellen's Gandalf. Bean was great, although I thought Boromir would have been bigger physically. He was supposed to be stouter, but not as tall, as Aragorn. Remember the description of the hobbits marveling at his strength, as he plowed through the snow on Caradhras. But, Bean was great in his portrayal, I never doubted his ability as a brawler.

I think my impression was "wow, they fricking did it". LOTR was, at that time, a cult classic, in a niche genre, not taken seriously mainstream. And they were making a cinematic masterpiece.

I thought TT stumbled a bit; was never that impressed with the Wargs. I wanted wolves, not hyenas. Really didn't care for Faramir's alteration, although it looked cool. A Saving Private Ryan war scene in Osgiliath. Basically, any time he actively strayed from the tale (not cutting parts, but making stuff up), it jarred me a bit. Theoden's reversal was irritating, because in my mind I kept saying "NO, he didn't say that, he said THIS". And the Elves coming to Helm's Deep was kinda eye-rolling, to be honest.

I thought some of the effects were bad after Fellowship; didn't care for how the dead looked, either in the Dead Marshes, or with The Dead. Disliked how they used them on the battle at Minas Tirith. I still wish they would have stayed with the host of Rohan, and the sudden addition of Aragorn's forces from Pellargir combining with the army of Minas Tirith, taking the field on their own.

Denethor was a complete disappointment, I wanted him to be a grim and defeated, but still noble, version of Aragorn, as written.

But yeah, Fellowship- that was amazing. Completely captured the tone I had imagined. Went from idyllic blissful ignorance of the Shire, to a dark and deadly world.

And don't take my criticism of the others as saying they were bad, they were still very, very good.

I like hearing that perspective.

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Really didn't care for Faramir's alteration, although it looked cool.

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And the Elves coming to Helm's Deep was kinda eye-rolling, to be honest.

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Even though I was only 13, I remember thinking this as well in the theaters. My best friend and I had a problem with this, but the extended edition I think makes Faramir a little more forgivable and the Osgiliath scene should have been removed from the theatrical cut.

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I thought some of the effects were bad after Fellowship; didn't care for how the dead looked, either in the Dead Marshes, or with The Dead. Disliked how they used them on the battle at Minas Tirith. I still wish they would have stayed with the host of Rohan, and the sudden addition of Aragorn's forces from Pellargir combining with the army of Minas Tirith, taking the field on their own.

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While the Return of the King is great, I and my friend mostly remember being disappointed they didn’t include the Scouring of the Shire in the Extended Edition although we understood why. I really wish Jackson and the studio had known beforehand how successful the Extended Editions would be, because I really think they would have filmed it then.

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Canceling my Prime membership was for that. Even told them so specifically.

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If you want to stop people from making crappy shows, this is how you do your part. So I'll give you props for that.

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By just compare the ratings & buzz between HotD & Rings of Prime.

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If you are mad about race swaps in RoP o boy I have something to tell you about HotD.

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Finally, the swaps in RoP are meaningless & random. As has been explained several times over now.

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While not wanting to rehash or start this over again , I'm ok with the couple of black actors/actresses cast, for several reasons.

Looking offhand, there are 4. 3 are non-canon, meaning they are made up for the show. Arondir, Nissa, ol' harfoot leader. This means they are not named entities, so you are not altering a known character. Galadriel remains a beautiful blonde, Elendil is a dead ringer for Aragorn, Dwarven males remain stumpy thick dudes with big-arse beards and aren't quite as naturally attractive as Elves, etc. Gil Galad is a definite Noldor, tall, regal, long dark hair.

This isn't to say those added characters can't exist, they don't go down in history, that's all. There's about 20 or so names that do, so there's a ton of room for 'new" folk, as long as they aren't the pivotal points at the end.
And I think those actors got the job on their acting skills. Arondir is a damn good character, dude is doing a good job. He's going to be forgotten to history, but that doesn't mean he has to be a shlep, and he isn't (same as Halbrand). Nissa is likeable. Ol' man Harfoot dude is believable.

Miriel... she's also doing a good job, and they're not making her culturally different. She's darker skinned, with straight dark hair. And like Arondir's actor, I don't think she's straight black anyway.
And more to the point, she might be a known character, but she's not central to the books.

It's not like they took any of the core characters and swapped them. It doesn't bother me.

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My money is on Gil Galad.
He's an elf. Check

Seems shady. Check

He is very close to Celebrimbor and has instructed him to create the forge. Check

He is EXTREMELY persuasive, he persuaded Elrond to give up his sworn oath to Durin about finding the Mithril after seemingly inventing this lie about the Elves needing the Mithril it or perishing, he commanded Galadriel to leave to the Undying Lands maybe to try and get rid of her.
Check, Check, and Check.

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Interesting. And very telling points.
He also seems to have an almost physical association to the disease afflicting or possessing the tree. An unholy laying on of hands or mind. The depth and extent of the tree’s corruption mirroring his own.

Remember Samwise reciting the Fall of Gil-galad before he, Frodo, Merry, Pippin, and Strider reached Weathertop? He didn’t want finish it out of fear of where it led…

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Gil-galad was an Elven-king.
Of him the harpers sadly sing;
the last whose realm was fair and free between the Mountains and the Sea.

His sword was long, his lance was keen.
His shining helm afar was seen;
the countless stars of heaven's field
were mirrored in his silver shield.

But long ago he rode away,
and where he dwelleth none can say;
for into darkness fell his star
in Mordor where the shadows are.

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It's Halbrand. Did we not know that already? There are people who've seen the entire season.

It's Halbrand. This show is boring and stupid anyway. The characters are shallow and awful, and they are what's driving this show. There's just no reason to give a frick about anyone or anything that is happening on this show.