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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - Amazon Prime


Michael Knight

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4 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

In responses to some discussions with Neil Gaiman about race (some trolls were claiming hobbits only tanned), somebody posted some relevant pages that mentioned Harfoots were somewhat well-traveled and even hung out with dwarves.  This could be setting up one of Bilbo’s/Frodo’s ancestors as being a wondering/wandering type, so of course Frodo and Bilbo would have that trait.  My guess is we won’t see the actual Shire either, but maybe the beginnings of it.

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I'm not going to beat a dead horse, but the whole skin color thing in fantasy novels/movies that people here, and elsewhere, bitch about is fucking annoying and only goes to show their own limited world view. This is especially the case when real, actual science based on DNA research shows that Europeans had much darker skin in ages past. Also, given the thousands-of-years timeline we're talking about with Tolkien's world, changes in skin color are not just possible but also probable.

I present you all "Cheddar Man," the 10,000 year-old, and oldest almost complete remains ever found in Britain.

Spoiler

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The genome analysis was conducted by researchers at London’s Natural History Museum, who extracted DNA from Cheddar man's inner ear bone, located at the base of the skull. Experts at the University College of London then used the DNA information to create a facial reconstruction of Cheddar Man, rendering his dark complexion, deep brown hair, and light eyes in life-like detail. The research and remodeling process will be chronicled in an upcoming documentary, The First Brit: Secrets of the 10,000 year old man, which will air on the UK’s Channel 4.

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But the new discovery suggests that light skin evolved in European populations much later than is commonly believed. “People define themselves by which country they’re from, and they assume that their ancestors were just like them,” Alfons Kennis, who worked on the reconstruction, tells New Scientist. “And then suddenly new research shows that we used to be a totally different people with a different genetic makeup.”

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But humans did not uniformly develop light skin when they reached the colder regions of Europe. In 2015, for example, a study of ancient DNA found that while individuals in northern Europe had pale skin, hair and eyes around 8,500 years ago, humans in the regions of Spain, Luxembourg and Hungary likely had dark skin. Genes for light skin may have only become widespread in Britain around 6,000 years ago, when farmers from the Middle East migrated to the region and began to reproduce with indigenous populations, according to the BBC’s Rincon.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-briton-had-dark-skin-and-light-eyes-dna-analysis-shows-180968097/

 

I'm going to let this dog lie now and won't bring it up again, but those who complain about racially ambiguous, or multi-ethnic peoples, cohabitating the same place are ignoring well-established trade routes that have existed throughout history or are ignorant of their own genetic pasts and are simply falling back on a reflection of their own selves and assuming the same existed in the past.

Not another peep from me about this tangential topic other than to say "Shit changes, yo."

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That’s completely untrue. The only men presented with the opportunity for cowardice are Galadriel’s soldiers who followed her for hundreds of years and fought with her, the elf that goes into the orc tunnel, and Elrond who challenges the prince to the hammering contest. None of those acts were cowardice. 
aside from that, the men that ignore the warnings of the orcs. That’s not cowardice. They certainly weren’t scared and ready to run away at the first talk of orcs. 
where is this cowardice?

who are the jerks supposed to be?  
 

and-how nice is Galadriel so far?

Edited by Pato del Muerto
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Great start. Kneejerk first impressions is wow, this really exceeded my expectations. IIRC there was that Superbowl spot that we all thought looked kinda cheap and corny? That's not the case at all. You can see the money on the screen, as the saying goes. The production values are high. Looks like a lot of thought and care went into the details.  Aesthetically, it's nice to look at. Some really beautiful shots sprinkled throughout.

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On 9/3/2022 at 6:56 AM, bernorange said:

Actor playing Elrond acts well, but looks so much like Willem Defoe that it's borderline breaking my immersion when I watch.  I realize that a young Hugo Weaving is likely an impossible ask, but my mind struggles to reconcile the difference.

 

On 9/4/2022 at 8:27 PM, Radical Larry said:


I see a young Ned Stark.

Maybe you were referencing this... because it is the same actor who played young Ned Stark.

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5 hours ago, F250 said:

 

Old man brain.   “Why can’t we have the books and films of my youth where every single hero was a male and every female was an hopelessly emotional and inept creature?  This one example of a strong female rustle’s my jimmies and gives me a sad!!!!” 

Edit: meaning Elon, not F250. 

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On 9/2/2022 at 9:04 AM, bolverk said:

Thanks, I'll check it out after watching Ep 2 tonight. 

One piece of fan fic speculation:

  Hide contents

From the zooming around last night, it looks like the place where the elf warrior has the hots for the hot healer (not familiar enough with character names) might be Mordor in the LOTR timeline. There's a scene where the elf and his captain are at the top of a very tall tower overlooking a valley. Might that be where the Dark Tower is eventually built?

 

As I recall, the Southrens were on team Sauron. 

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59 minutes ago, High Plains Drifter said:

shut the fuck up elon, nobody gives a fuck what you think

52 minutes ago, F250 said:

Elon is an edgelord of course he is trying to stir shit up online. I doubt if he even watched the show.

He was bitching at Neil Gaiman about it for some reason, even though Neil had nothing to do with it, and Neil started offering advice on how to buy Twitter.  It was hilarious.  

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16 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

There’s a movie in which she has a lesbian sex scene. Took a quick intermission from rings of power to discover, and watch, that. 

 

13 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

And does this movie have a title?

It was a show called Counterpart. Also on Amazon Prime.

The lesbian scene was early on in Season 1. Towards the end of S2, she was handcuffed wearing just a sweater and panties.

 

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the arguments around race/ethnicity of actors in media portrayals always seem sooo tortuous and belabored.

all that's supposed to matter is 1. what did the author intend (implied = what does the audience expect) 2. does deviation from that distract the source material

historicity is irrelevant when talking about a purely fictional world. 

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Have been talking to friends who are watching it, ahead of the next episode, and it’s a small sample size, half-dozen people, but four of us are most interested in Arondir hunting down the orcs.  So it’s a good thing Amazon didn’t survey us for what the show should be, because it’d be hours of him hunting down and killing orcs.

And all of us are glad as hell that they spent the time and money on a lot of practical effects, including the orc makeup/prosthetics, because they could have easily CGI’ed a lot more.

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10 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Brandon Sanderson and Dan Wells spent a decent chunk of time discussing it,  this is a podcast, so you can have it on in the background.

Dan loved it.  Brandon liked it.  If you want an in-depth discussion from some guys who have written a little fantasy here and there, this might be worth a listen.

 

Are the Sanderson mistborn books good?

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I'm pretty happy with the mix of practical and CGI in the film industry lately.  Top Gun 2 obviously.  I also think the Volume type technology has probably helped change FX budgets lately to where they can go back to spending more time on the practical stuff.  I completely made that up, but it kinda makes sense to me.

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11 minutes ago, Post Oak said:

Are the Sanderson mistborn books good?

I’ve been debating getting into them.  It feels like Wheel of Time - they are epic, and friends who like them, really really like them.  I’ve watched Sanderson’s YouTube channel where he talks about how he writes, etc., so I’ve been curious.

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20 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

I'm pretty happy with the mix of practical and CGI in the film industry lately.  Top Gun 2 obviously.  I also think the Volume type technology has probably helped change FX budgets lately to where they can go back to spending more time on the practical stuff.  I completely made that up, but it kinda makes sense to me.

I’ve wondered if some of it is because shitty CGI falls apart when watched on 4K TVs, and so they are willing to change it up.

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Have been talking to friends who are watching it, ahead of the next episode, and it’s a small sample size, half-dozen people, but four of us are most interested in Arondir hunting down the orcs.  So it’s a good thing Amazon didn’t survey us for what the show should be, because it’d be hours of him hunting down and killing orcs.
And all of us are glad as hell that they spent the time and money on a lot of practical effects, including the orc makeup/prosthetics, because they could have easily CGI’ed a lot more.

That scene of him squeezing through the cave kicked my claustrophobia in to “ludicrous speed”.
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