re: Rings of Power: Season 2. Where are you?

quote:

---

I think they seriously thought that they had Game of Thrones on their hands but it turned to be horse apples.

---

They did have GoT on their hands - until they went all SJW and completely fricked it up. Only a college-educated liberal could take Tolkien's material and turn it into a flop.

I thought at the time, and still believe- the only way you do a "Rings of Power" story any real justice, is a semi-anthology style.
You set each episode at least 100 yrs apart.

You can keep the Elves and Sauron cast the whole series, as they are immortal. Dwarves get 2 episodes. Maybe 3 if you're looking at a Durin in Moria. Men are extras, and even the Numenorean kings will be 1-off cameo appearances.

I say that, but you could do a couple 2-3 episode runs, mini tales. Clearly, you do a run with Sauron surrendering to Numenor, and stay with his story there until the fall. And you also tighten up the time frame for the Last Alliance, although to be fair they besieged Mordor for 70 years before the final battle.

But the earlier episodes should have been singular stories, highlighting major events of the 2nd Age. The founding of Numenor, the consolidation of Elves in Lindon after the War of Wrath and the destruction of Beleriand.
The founding and rise of Eregion. The fortification of Mordor. A couple examinations of the Dwarves in Moria. An episode or 2 showing both Thranduil over in Greenwood, and the Elves of Lorien.
A couple episodes showing the "godless" civilizations of Men in the East, under the sway of Melkor/Sauron. With Sauron holding power originally out there, maybe as an advisor, or high priest of Melkor. Show how he holds sway even after he leaves for Mordor.

Have cutscenes in each episode, going to Numenor and showing it's growth from each prior... you need different actors for this, but like I said you can have cameos of known guys for the kings.

That would have highlighted the immortality of the Elves (and Sauron), which to me would have been a big plus.

I think it would have worked much better, and I also think if you kept the primary focus on the conflict between the Elves and Sauron, it would have sold well too.

We are all just praying to based god they don't torpedo Fallout

quote:

---

My biggest concern is scale. These battles should not be packs of a couple dozen, they should be full armies. If you give me that, I will stay engaged.

---

After S1 (37% completion rate in the U.S.), I seriously doubt they spent big on special effects and CGI.

quote:

---

Even in the smaller crowd shots there’s double CGI people sprinkled throughout… it’s hilariously obvious & bad. For a billion dollar series

---

didn't notice that. Which scenes are those?

And given the option, I'd rather a Massive™ CGI host, than the approximately 30 Numenoreans we saw attack the Orcs last season. Again, my interest at this point is about scale, since 1:1 correlation is out of the question. These battles are supposed to be between armies, not the fantasy equivalent of street gangs.
As stated in LOTR (the books), the entire force under Aragorn (7000, roughly) that go to the gates of Mordor were less than the vanguard of Elendil's army. I think Elrond comments on stuff like that, too. These battles are supposed to be large, not skirmishes.

Check when the girl boss was rousing the villagers or in Numenor when they’re in the square talking about how the *knife ears want to take their jobs.

*Totally Tolkien, by the way.

quote:

---

I didn't think the crowds were big enough to warrant CGI extras.

---

Welp, you'd be wrong.

Laughably bad cut & paste job in Rings of Power

Remember, this is a BILLION dollar show.


* And I was right. It was the girl-boss scene. Some folks show up 4x in the same crowd shot.

quote:

---

I didn't think the crowds were big enough to warrant CGI extras.



Welp, you'd be wrong.

Laughably bad cut & paste job in Rings of Power

---

Ok, the guy says "laughably bad" on youtube. But I sat and looked at that stillshot awhile, and while there's a lot of people dressed similarly, I didn't spot the duplicates until he started highlighting it. I was looking at the guy with the open shirt showing his pecs, but the shirt looks different (it's tucked in once, hanging out in another).

You don't notice that unless you're sitting there STARING, trying to find something. And I'm willing to bet if you do that to anything, you will find an issue.

On the other hand, it does go to show where movies and TV is headed. That's about 50 or so people at the most, certainly enough to grab some extras to stand around and go "yeah" to a speech. If it's cheaper to CGI them in during post-production, it's definitely going to happen a lot more.

They were able to flip and change the sizes of the people as well. And place entire groups in different positions.


But the one older guy literally standing next to himself...

FFS, if it wasn't the Party City level armor they used, or the ridiculous fight scenes, now it's this.

My favorite as well. You made it farther than me. I saw the casting and pretty much knew where it was headed from there. I drank to much one night and tried the first episode and made it 10 mins and turned it off in disgust. Robert Jordan deserved so much better.