okay so my original plan for this chapter was to do a rant abt arwen x eowyn and lothiriel x eowyn and basically who i ship her with but my inspiration said ✌
so instead in honor of the second trailer for rings of power just coming out
(here it is for reference:)
and bc there's less than two months until it comes out..... y'all get this chapter and i promise the eowyn chapter will be next
i will be talking abt this trailer at the end of the chapter bc yes ik ik its very perspective changing but first i have a few points to make
anyways in this one imma be narrowing down the MAIN THREE THINGS that really bother me and stop me from being optimistic about rings of power
bc in the first chapter i did on the show (we NEED to talk abt the lotr show) i mainly talked abt things that were IN THE TRAILER meaning visual reps, and like general plot things abt the show bc what else could i rly talk abt when we knew so little abt it at the time
now we have new promo pics, new casting info, obviously a second trailer and etc etc and i have THOUGHTS
so essentially this is gonna be a more like "generally this is why it's not gonna be great' chapter than a full on critique of the trailer and also this one is more lore centered
i will be revisiting all the points i make in this chapter in september once the show comes out and i can see if i was wrong abt anything i said here bc obviously as soon as the first episode is out im gonna do a rant abt it
ALSO there is some very exciting news relating to my 25K word lotr fic at the end of this chapter!!
alright that's it let's go
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1) celebrimbor
please enjoy this meme i made to try and harness the deep unbridled rage the casting for celebrimbor incites in me:
LIKE SHDHKSFADFLASDGFSDFJKSDHGKADADGHSLFGKFLL
THIS INCITES A INTENSE PRIMORDIAL FURY INSIDE ME
AMAZON YOU HAVE SOME GODDAMN EXPLAINING TO DO
so the guy on the LEFT is what celebrimbor looked like in the LORE
the guy on the left aka the mf pictured below is how amazon chose to cast him
THIS IS NOT CELEBRIMBOR
THIS IS NOT THE MF WHO FORGED ALL THE 19 FREAKING RINGS OF FREAKING POWER
YOUR SHOW WOULDNT EVEN EXIST W/O THIS MANS ITS LITERALLY CALLED 'RINGS OF POWER' AND HE FORGED THOSE GODDAMN RINGS AND THIS IS YOUR CASTING FOR HIM????????
no. absolutely not.
like the lore??? NOT CONSULTED, NOT EVEN GLANCED AT.
WHY WOULD YOU CAST. A FIFTY TWO YEAR OLD GINGER. TO PLAY. A GODDAMN. ELF.
look, i try not to get too worked up abt casting shi for rings of power bc that's the main thing the fanboys are coming after (eg the galadriel casting) and i understand its not the actor's fault im sure he's great but this is just not his role---
---and i really do think we should be scrutinizing lore portrayal rather than casting for rings of power but THIS????? UNACCEPTABLE.
2) the fourth union
so i genuinely had to scroll thru my lotr things ive been thinking abt and my other rings of power chapters to make sure i havent talked abt this before and its so weird that i havent??
like im so passionate abt this and it's 100% gonna heavily influence my thoughts and feelings on the show when the first episode comes out in september, and when i say influence i don't mean that positively
i FREAKING HATE this specific plot choice for rings of power. like i just--- KSHASDHAJGAKGFKAGFAFKASGFKJGAKFGAKFGJDGFJG
ANWAYS
so this is rings of power's main couple, bronwyn and arondir. she's a mortal, he's an elf and they're in love basically.
and the thing is they're both great characters separately, like bronwyn's this village leader or smth which like gaslight gatekeep girlboss, and arondir is the first latino elf EVER, which I LOVE
LIKE REPRESENTATION DIVERSITY YES YES YES THIS IS PERFECT I LOVE THAT
but there's one tiny little itty bitty totally inconsequential almost non existent mini lil problem
THERE'S ONLY SUPPOSED TO BE
THREE
GODDAMN
UNIONS
BETWEEN THE ELDAR
AND THE EDAIN
beren and luthien
idril and tuor
aragorn and arwen
THAT'S IT
THERE'S NO FOURTH ONE
SO BRONWYN AND ARONDIR = NON EXISTENT = BREAKING THE GODDAMN LORE
"oH bUt iTs nOt eVeN tHaT bIg oF a dEaL tHouGh--"
"There were three unions of the Eldar and the Edain: Luthien and Beren; Idril and Tuor; Arwen and Aragorn. By the last the long sundered branches of the Half-elven were reunited and their line was restored."
that's a quote from the GODDAMN APPENDICES
it goes on to list the details of the unions and why they are, in fact, A BIG FREAKING DEAL
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY is that im staring at my copy of rotk and the appendices RN and it literally says that in the SECOND FREAKING PARAGRAPH of the appendices.
there's the annals (three paragraphs), one paragraph introducing numenor and then BOOM. THREE UNIONS.
ITS LIKE ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS IT SAYS IN THE APPENDICES AND FOR IT TO BE SO BLATANTLY DISREGARDED IN RINGS OF POWER!?!??!?!? LIKE WHY JUST WHY
and the main thing is it's so UNNECESSARY.
like i understand that every single movie/tv show has to have a romantic subplot. cool cool cool, you could have had that WITHOUT going so intensely against the lore.
if you like really really needed that forbidden love trope for WHATEVER REASON, you could have had it without breaking the lore!!!
like, you could have done a king/commoner or like princess/peasant relationship, go for romeo and juliette vibes and do rival families, WHATEVER.
THERE WAS NO REASON TO DO A MORTAL/ELF RELATIONSHIP. It's like they're LOOKING for an excuse to go against the lore!!!
not to mention that there's already been a forbidden love mortal/immortal relationship in every single peter jackson lotr related movie ever, (aragorn and arwen in the og trilogy, kili and tauriel in the hobbit trilogy) and didnt amazon LITERALLY SAY they wanted to distance themselves from peter jackson's version of lotr?? SO WHY ARE THEY REPEATING WHAT HE DID?!??!
arondir and bronwyn are such good characters and it breaks my heart that they're gonna be used as nothing more than a plot device in a flat relationship.
3) lindon
so this is the elven-capital Lindon, as portrayed in rings of power, i screenshotted this from the new trailer, ur welcome
AND ITS BEAUTIFUL DONT GET ME WRONG IT LOOKS GREAT
butttttttttt is it accurate to the lore.....??? ehhhhhhhh not really.
i'm not the first to comment on this and i definitely won't be the last, and i won't say i caught this at the beginning like some ppl did bc no, i only recently became aware of what im abt to talk abt but it bothers me A LOT.
basically, it's amazon taking the portrayal of the elves, specifically in the second age, and adding a SHITTON more hippie culture.
AND WHAT I MEAN BY THAT is that amazon has this mentality for rings of power that's like elves = forests, forests = elves that's it, elves do not equal human civilization, they basically run around in the forest and like breathe deeply all day
WHICH IS SO NOT TRUE
like elves had their peak in the second age, everyone agrees on that. first age was the age of the valar, second was the age of the elves, third was the war and the divided age, fourth was the age of men. PERIOD.
SO LINDON WOULD NOT HAVE LOOKED LIKE THAT.
elves lived in freaking stone ass cities!!!!!! ESPECIALLY in the second age!!! Gondolin and Lindon are only two examples out of dozens.
so this, (ignore the title look at the city) which is amazon's portrayal of numenor, would actually be a more accurate depiction of what LINDON would have looked like.
so, bottom line, all the promo pics and images in the trailer showing elves in the trees, elves in nature, elves and trees, did i mention TREES??? ....are not super accurate. especially not during the second age when elven civilization was at its peak.
4) conclusion i guess???
alright so those are my main three things that i could talk abt for hours abt rings of power!!! i hope all that made sense, lmk if it didnt
but now that that's out of the way i wanna talk abt the new trailer!!!!!
so i'm assuming if ur here, you've seen it, since it's at the beginning of this chapter and YEAH. YEAH. SAME BESTIE SAME IM HAVING THE SAME REACTION.
so i feel like the fandom is just universally thinking the same thing abt the new trailer which is: why is it kinda................. good???
i was NOT expecting that. AT ALL.
THE VISUALS??? STUNNING. STUNNING.
the vibes which i said b4 were off are still not PERFECT but it's definitely an improvement!!!
obviously there's still some things i'm not cool with like why is there a meteor?? does that have something to do with morgoth??? w sauron??? that's a thing that could be terrible or could be great in the show, so we'll have to see
as i've said lindon in a no from me but basically all the other geography looks SO much better than in the first trailer
obviously im still worried abt lore portrayal, writing, etc..... the three things i just listed are my main, as i've said before
BUT THAT "you have not seen what i have seen" scene w young galadriel in the trailer?!?!?!?!
SCREAMING SOBBING DYING SIMPING SIMPING DID I MENTION SIMPING MOTHER APOLOGIES MOTHER APOLOGIES MOTHER???????
yeah i'm very excited for morfydd clark as young galadriel if you couldn't tell
overall - i have new hope!!!!!!
***
alright that's it!!!
i'm two days late with this chapter but IN MY DEFENSE I JUST FINISHED A 30K WORD LOTR FIC
yeah so i mentioned this last chapter and i'm finally ready to tell you all the details!!!!
so i was gonna finish it july 5th, ended up actually finishing it july 7th and edits and formatting were done by july 10th
.......and it's sitting pretty at 30,894 words
so it's been posted on ao3 for 4 days now and it's been getting a lot more support than i thought??? the ao3 algorithm is VERY different from the wattpad algorithm in terms of views
the title isssssssssssssssss..... LIGHTLESS!!!
here's the summary and pics of my main character:
Datha, daughter of Dathos, rode into Pelennor fields with a heavy heart and heavier thoughts.
When the love of her life, Calypso, daughter of Calydas, is killed in battle, that weight becomes a part of her.
Datha must learn to navigate life without the one who tethered her to it, and in doing so, take up the White Mantle of Galadriel and become the elven sorceress she was always trained to be.
Datha has demons; both literal and figurative.
Who will win this fight? The Witch-King of Angmar who tormented Datha, her future stuck in Middle-Earth while the other elves sail to Valinor, the pressing grief of Calypso's absence, or the promise of Mandos's Halls and the end of this War ahead?
that's her pre and post her soulmate dying <3
anyways my fic has aralas and frosam as well as my ocs!! link in the comments!!!
alright that's IT it now.
out ✨