Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Fair point.

Doesn't help too that, the discourse surrounding this show became politically charged pretty much out the gate. So criticism has to be done very carefully, and most people just don't want to bother with the potential landmine.

I'd also point out that, as time passes, it becomes more and more obvious that while Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings wasn't a good adaptation, the story (both plot, and characters), and cinematography still hold up. Compared to those, RoP is essentially the equivalent of a first year's film project if they were given a budget of ~60 million per episode.

[Postmania]

I mean people think the current slew of Marvel shows/movies are well-done, and well written. It's more likely that the bar is just bordering on non-existent anymore.

I think sone of them have some strong points. Absolutely none of it s visual related though lol

[Cleric of Hell’s Brigade]

Queen Elizabeth has passed.

[Sharpandpointies]

-Galadriel, in this, is such a far cry from the gentle, powerful, ethereal elf we see in LotR that it is hard to see how she will evolve into that. I know in the books she did fight, on occasion, and did lead elves in fights, but this hardened, burdened Elf we see here is not Galadriel as we know her. It could be interesting to see her evolve into Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel (and the actress is fine in the role), but as of now it’s hard to see the two characters as the same person yet.

There is a whole lot wrong with Galadriel and her character on this show. I'm not going to touch on 'her whacking things with a sword' because we don't have a whole lot on 'what Galadriel does when she fights, at least back when', other than 'she was super-athletic and used to beat all kinds of male Noldor and even Vanyar Eldar (!!!) in athletic contests back in the day'. I'm pretty cool with her being some kind of super-fighter as well, despite that never really being shown in the books.

But her motivation for staying in Middle Earth in the show basically ignores one of the most important things about her character (and her fatal flaw) and her character development, something that Jackson did get correct even if she went plutonium in that scene. The history of the character is messed up. She's not married, and there's no mention of Celeborn anywhere (presumably to have some romance potential later? Or maybe with a DIFFERENT character? Which fundamentally misunderstands Elves, but then the show basically fundamentally misunderstands Elves from the get-go, right from the first scene where we see a bunch of Eldar children bullying and mocking another Eldar child - basically, the show clearly feels that 'Elves are immortal humans with pointy ears and posh accents'. Also, why do so many Noldor have blond hair? Ugh. Nit-pick annoyance).

Even her recounting of 'Elves against Morgoth' is dead wrong in terms of motivation and what actually happened. 'We resisted.' Well, stirring words and delivery, but no, the Noldor left Valinor and the Valar for reasons including 'Get our awesome Jewels back' and 'we're just tired of living under your rules, Valar'. Noldor with whom you were allied murdered a shit-ton of Teleri Eldar and stole their ships (completely ignored in the show) and you remained allied with them after that (and didn't consider 'maybe this isn't the best thing for us to be doing?'). And you, Galadriel, went to Middle Earth because it seemed like a cool place to explore and (more importantly) to be top dog and carve out a kingdom of your own.

Yep, she left Valinor because she wanted to be a queen, and that was impossible when living with the Valar. Hard to consider yourself #1, even among your own people, when you're living with angels and archangels.

I mean, in-canon Galadriel really, really didn't like Fëanor and certainly did not go to Beleriand to help him get back his damned jewels or take revenge for his dad, but she had her own selfish, prideful reasons that had nothing to do with 'defend us against Morgoth' (not really a problem due to the Valar setting up their defenses after Melkor and Ungoliant took out the Trees) or 'take revenge for the Trees' (which was...like, nobody's reason for going).

So the show has really made a dog's breakfast of Galadriel, whose similarity to the original, deeply flawed character may be summed up as 'Blond Elf-woman named Galadriel who happens to have a brother named Finrod. Who died. No, not like that.' Edit: she's also too darned short.

^_^

I totally agree that it's pretty cool having Elrond and Galadriel being friends, and it makes perfect sense since at that time they do have people in common in their backstories (in the original canon, anyway).

[Sharpandpointies]

Queen Elizabeth has passed.

Ooof.

Well, that's going to create some instability in England, as Nik noted.

[Sharpandpointies]

Doesn't help too that, the discourse surrounding this show became politically charged pretty much out the gate. So criticism has to be done very carefully, and most people just don't want to bother with the potential landmine.

Also a fair point.

I'd also point out that, as time passes, it becomes more and more obvious that while Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings wasn't a good adaptation, the story (both plot, and characters), and cinematography still hold up. Compared to those, RoP is essentially the equivalent of a first year's film project if they were given a budget of ~60 million per episode.

So far, this is my feeling. Could it get better? Sure. But if the first episode of 60 million bucks is a brutal slog for me and really turns me off, I feel they've not done a good job. You're supposed to catch people with the first episode (it's possibly the most important episode for a show!), not make them say 'maybe the other ones will be better.'

[Iron_Twister]

Always fun watching Todoroki fight. . His stuff tends to be pretty clean-looking.

Yeah. I think by the time of the next film coming out tomorrow, apparently taking place a few years after The Worst, Todoroki is called the strongest in Oya. You know, so mad props to the guy.

[Sharpandpointies]

Yeah. I think by the time of the next film coming out tomorrow, apparently taking place a few years after The Worst, Todoroki is called the strongest in Oya. You know, so mad props to the guy.

Guy could basically fight Murayama to a standstill edit: on a bad day for Murayama. So yeah, I can see that.

[Nik Hasta]

Queen dead, country beginning to gear up to go fully insane.

[Sharpandpointies]

Queen dead, country beginning to gear up to go fully insane.

Stay safe, Nik and Beadle!

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

I think sone of them have some strong points. Absolutely none of it s visual related though lol

Strongest point for me in any Marvel show, post Infinity War; is when the show ends.

[Nik Hasta]

Stay safe, Nik and Beadle!

Fortunately incessant coverage lionising a dead nonogenarian billionaire is seldom fatal. It will just be exceedingly irritating and our media landscape will be even more of a garbage fire than it usually is.

[Sharpandpointies]

Fortunately incessant coverage lionising a dead nonogenarian billionaire is seldom fatal. It will just be exceedingly irritating and our media landscape will be even more of a garbage fire than it usually is.

OK, that’s better than I feared (riots, etc).

[Iron_Twister]

Well...This is quite the day. This will probably be on the news constantly.

[Postmania]

Strongest point for me in any Marvel show, post Infinity War; is when the show ends.

I actually like most of the shows but I’m tired of having to watch them and everything MCU puts out as homework at this point