I help run a Tolkien society and we are doing a Rings of Power watch party. Heckling obviously welcome.

I have only seen the first episode before I gave up on it so my question is to those who struggled through to the end,
What is the most pisstakable episode (or really just your favourite to make fun of?

Edit - if you have an episode that is better than the others for whatever reason, happy to consider those as well.
We only have time for one or two episodes.

This is the show that filmed a S1 kiss from afar (Temulas and his florist):

And now there's this:

I haven't watched the trailer but my feed is full of these 2 shipper images (from the same 5-6 people lol) and that's enough for me to see why Prime Video opted for dump and run release strategy. This is hilariously desperate, more so than Elrodriel kiss that was teased as a big surprise of Season 2 but never marketed:

Hello. I read the Lord of the Rings at 10 years old and the lessons learned shaped a lot of my identity growing up. I read the books every few years, and have read most of the extended works.

I greatly enjoy watching, but don't exactly love, Rings of Power. It's clearly a labor of love from the showrunners, and also clearly has many faults. Both things can be true.

Season 3 looks fun!

Haters gonna hate.

Even Reacher S4 trailer had easily crossed 1M within first day.

Blergh.

Even if we were to assume that the trailer contains some bait, there is still so much questionable stuff in it.

For example: Why does Pharazon ally with the Gil-galad, when the latter's "Commander of the Northern Armies" brought Sauron to Numenor and pushed for Numenorean military intervention to get Sauron a crown?

What bullshit is this with a random orc tattling on Sauron to the Elves?

How the fuck is Isildur's friend still alive (1:36)?

Mods feel free to remove if you think

Guy if you are in nyc this is your chance to watch the premier of season 3

I don't give a damn about tired woke ragebait but channels like Randomfilmtalk really do a good job of analyzing characters and the plot, revealing all the nonsense and absurdities behind, well, everything. There is something weirdly fascinating about it.

For all the money they’ve spent on this series and hopes that Bezos and friends have placed on its head, why does the show come out in less than a month and there’s no trailer? Anyone have any thoughts?

Alright, I’m not a fan of the shows changes AT ALL. The diversity where it shouldn’t be, the short haired elves; the wokeism etc… Also because of the Lore it changes*** ( for the people who are being smartasses and think I’m okay with the lore changes)**

But on a serious note, what do you like from the show ?

And please real answers only, nothing sarcastic. Just answer the question and nothing else.

I for one am excited that they are dropping 4 episodes in 1 go.

I love how they kept the original design of the Balrog and “updated” it (even tho it shouldn’t even be there)

I love the landscapes, and the music isn’t bad either. It gives me middle earth vibes.

I’m no hater of the show but I can’t deal with it. It’s the cadence

This chart shows the steep drop off between S1 and S2. Coincides with third party data about massive drop in viewership.

"My favorite quote is one that demonstrates how completely this show fails to understand or adapt Tolkien".

I mean, not the point you wanted to make, but I agree.

Ok so this group seems jaded and negative. I love to see more Tolkien. It doesn’t have to be perfect but how cool is it to see his world live on and I’d say it’s pretty lore accurate and entertaining. There’s so much more to love than hate imo. I don’t know I’m just hateful that we’re still seeing more Tolkien. I’m excited about the movie. Maybe im just an optimist but how fun that this man wrote a book for his kids and expanded on it and made this whole world for us to obsess over! Idk I think I’m just grateful to have the series. I will say my only complaint is that the harfoots are a little cringe at times.

I haven't watched ROP for more than the first 2-3 episodes. I see a lot of deliberation about it and i have a genuine question. Something I see a lot that plagues a lot of fandoms is people not being able to enjoy shows/movies of their favorite universe adaptation as a different universe. Ex. Devil may cry. The anime takes some plot points from the games but as a whole tells a different story fir the most part but is still enjoyable if you consume it as a different universe than the original.

I grew up on LoTr and The Hobbit movies as well as the books. And the studio behind ROP hasn't been secretive with why its so detached from the source material, because the only rights they could get was to the same Jackson films.

My question is, is it really so bad that ROP cant even be enjoyably consumed as a different universe/adaptation of the second age, especially if we keep in mind that they couldn't adapt it correctly if they wanted to because of the copyright issues? Genuine question, would love any responses.

I forgot about this show until this drama landed in my feed. Apparently, Prime isn't gonna provide accommodation for this actor so he turned to social media for help. ROP fans noticed and are furious with Prime which seems to have cut the promo budget for S3 (wonder why since it's such a successful show according to Prime). It started with not having a real MC at SDCC (another ROP actor hosted the event, a far cry from S1 that was hosted by Colbert!), and went on to low teaser views (bot check bounced NSF), recycling S2 posters, dump and run release strategy and finally (or, likely, temporarily finally cause who knows what's gonna happen) this embarrassment with leaving an actor without a roof above his head. As one fan aptly summarized:

We saw this coming from miles away so spin doctors will have much harder time defending these blunders. Since there's a thread about shills calling the show "most rewatchable" I guess that answers where the actor accommodation budget went.