Very good, but you made me chuckle as I imagined your blood pressure rising from 'Crybabies' to peaking at 'Leftie-Libtard Snowflakes'. I got hooked on REH by the Lancer paperbacks and have been disappointed in most things Conan-related ever since. I do like things like your 'Blood and Thunder' book.
RoP episode 1 was worth the time just to see Galadriel kill the ice troll. Too bad they didn't get to forge on northward and fight more trolls and such.
I don't like the Fantasy genre at all. Just not my bag. That said, you write darned interesting stuff about it. Thank you! I just watched SAMARITAN a couple nights ago and thought it to be fairly good, but like you, there was stuff coming down the pike you could see way early. Biggest gripe on the whole movie was that the bad guy's reasons for what they were doing was not well defined and seemed to fill the "we need a crazy bad guy" slot.
Great newsletter and darn sorry you were in FB Jail. Lemme know if that happens again and I'll try to smuggle in a file baked in a cake, as called for by ancient tradition.
I wrote a longish review on FB, but I'll share two relevant paragraphs with you to show my reaction. First, criticism canon accuracy aside: My main complaint is the writing isn’t very good. Now they do have a problem with these first episodes in that they have to set everything up for people who haven’t read the Legendarium. That said, some of the dialog is rather bad and rather tone deaf. Pacing is a problem at times. I think there’s only 8 episodes in the first season, and with two down, I’m worried about the development of the story. Maybe they should have channeled some of that production budget into better writing.
Next, addressing the canon problem: From an accuracy viewpoint regarding Tolkien’s Legendarium. There’s very very little. So far it seems like fan fic, vaguely “inspired” by the Second Age, with the fan fic author's own very personal interpretation. Now granted, the producers have a major problem. They can’t use anything from the published Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales. Only what’s mentioned in Lord of the Rings or the appendices. Blame for that squarely rests with the Tolkien estate, which seems that, despite Christopher Tolkien’s death, they’ve still decided not to let any of the other works be touched. However, one has to wonder how smart it is to attempt to adapt something but you can’t mention so much integral material. It’s like deciding to do a Star Wars movie, but you can’t use Jedi, Sith, light sabers, the Emperor, the Senate, or annoying characters designed mainly for merchandising. The result isn’t really Star Wars. Same with Rings of Power.
My bottom line is I found it entertaining so far and will watch more. Do I grit my teeth often? Yes. Am I happy with the adaptation? No. Are there things I like, including some MUS (Made up Stuff)? Yes.
The one thing that always makes me laught like hell when it comes to Tolkien and what society made of it is the fact of all the twisted truth, all the glamourised myth surrounding him and his work.
People complain about apadtations stealing "his" ideas or not sticking to the "original Tolkien" lore.
Tolkien was a bad writer in terms of writting and he stole at least 50% of everything that is LotR from all over Europe.
Do you know why Professor Tolkien was so obssesed with dead languages?
He had a speech impediment and could't speak his own language straight. Bullied school boy and stuff.
The so called Tolkien fans, have to say that because I had great conversations with Tolkien fans who acknowledge his patchwork of stolen fragments from all over the place and were actually thankfull if you could point out new sources that Tolkien copied from because they made a difference between the actual work and their taste but the "so called Tolkien fans" know crap about nothing and still believe it all came from Tolkiens "genius" imagination. My ass, and I'm talking about the ass that dances in his den on two legs, a pillow in his mouth and a boner to break moutains. Want me to post a photo?
All of this Tolkien glorification is just mambojambo to me.
PS: If you are interested to read one of Tolkiens main inspiration and still read a very phenomenal book I recommand "A battle for Rom" by Felix Dahn. That's were Tolkien with various other elements like Thederich of Ravenna ... oh wait, no, thats the original, I ment Theoden of Rohann, took the term Elben as a human-halfgod like creature from.
"A battle of Rom" summs up the scientific work of scholar Felix Dahn and his findings on the rule of the Eastern Goths in Italy. That book was written ten years before Tolkien was BORN.
“Crom is our local nature spirit. He roots for us and urges us not to give up!” -Conan the Adventurer, animated series
Ha!
Very good, but you made me chuckle as I imagined your blood pressure rising from 'Crybabies' to peaking at 'Leftie-Libtard Snowflakes'. I got hooked on REH by the Lancer paperbacks and have been disappointed in most things Conan-related ever since. I do like things like your 'Blood and Thunder' book.
RoP episode 1 was worth the time just to see Galadriel kill the ice troll. Too bad they didn't get to forge on northward and fight more trolls and such.
“Village of the Damned fan gathering”…for the win.
You might appreciate this Dork Tower thread of Tolkien deciding to adopt his weekly Inklings RPG into a novel.
First comic here: http://www.dorktower.com/2012/06/18/novel-game/
I don't like the Fantasy genre at all. Just not my bag. That said, you write darned interesting stuff about it. Thank you! I just watched SAMARITAN a couple nights ago and thought it to be fairly good, but like you, there was stuff coming down the pike you could see way early. Biggest gripe on the whole movie was that the bad guy's reasons for what they were doing was not well defined and seemed to fill the "we need a crazy bad guy" slot.
Great newsletter and darn sorry you were in FB Jail. Lemme know if that happens again and I'll try to smuggle in a file baked in a cake, as called for by ancient tradition.
Glad I signed up for the email newsletter!
I wrote a longish review on FB, but I'll share two relevant paragraphs with you to show my reaction. First, criticism canon accuracy aside: My main complaint is the writing isn’t very good. Now they do have a problem with these first episodes in that they have to set everything up for people who haven’t read the Legendarium. That said, some of the dialog is rather bad and rather tone deaf. Pacing is a problem at times. I think there’s only 8 episodes in the first season, and with two down, I’m worried about the development of the story. Maybe they should have channeled some of that production budget into better writing.
Next, addressing the canon problem: From an accuracy viewpoint regarding Tolkien’s Legendarium. There’s very very little. So far it seems like fan fic, vaguely “inspired” by the Second Age, with the fan fic author's own very personal interpretation. Now granted, the producers have a major problem. They can’t use anything from the published Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales. Only what’s mentioned in Lord of the Rings or the appendices. Blame for that squarely rests with the Tolkien estate, which seems that, despite Christopher Tolkien’s death, they’ve still decided not to let any of the other works be touched. However, one has to wonder how smart it is to attempt to adapt something but you can’t mention so much integral material. It’s like deciding to do a Star Wars movie, but you can’t use Jedi, Sith, light sabers, the Emperor, the Senate, or annoying characters designed mainly for merchandising. The result isn’t really Star Wars. Same with Rings of Power.
My bottom line is I found it entertaining so far and will watch more. Do I grit my teeth often? Yes. Am I happy with the adaptation? No. Are there things I like, including some MUS (Made up Stuff)? Yes.
The one thing that always makes me laught like hell when it comes to Tolkien and what society made of it is the fact of all the twisted truth, all the glamourised myth surrounding him and his work.
People complain about apadtations stealing "his" ideas or not sticking to the "original Tolkien" lore.
Tolkien was a bad writer in terms of writting and he stole at least 50% of everything that is LotR from all over Europe.
Do you know why Professor Tolkien was so obssesed with dead languages?
He had a speech impediment and could't speak his own language straight. Bullied school boy and stuff.
The so called Tolkien fans, have to say that because I had great conversations with Tolkien fans who acknowledge his patchwork of stolen fragments from all over the place and were actually thankfull if you could point out new sources that Tolkien copied from because they made a difference between the actual work and their taste but the "so called Tolkien fans" know crap about nothing and still believe it all came from Tolkiens "genius" imagination. My ass, and I'm talking about the ass that dances in his den on two legs, a pillow in his mouth and a boner to break moutains. Want me to post a photo?
All of this Tolkien glorification is just mambojambo to me.
PS: If you are interested to read one of Tolkiens main inspiration and still read a very phenomenal book I recommand "A battle for Rom" by Felix Dahn. That's were Tolkien with various other elements like Thederich of Ravenna ... oh wait, no, thats the original, I ment Theoden of Rohann, took the term Elben as a human-halfgod like creature from.
"A battle of Rom" summs up the scientific work of scholar Felix Dahn and his findings on the rule of the Eastern Goths in Italy. That book was written ten years before Tolkien was BORN.
Off to new adventures.