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[SPOILERS] Rings of Power: Ah, Mithril, that's the good stuff!


Corvinus85

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Celeborn has probably been imprisoned for a long time, or maybe stuck on an island somewhere after the drowning of Beleriand.  If he's in a dungeon, wouldn't be surprised if it's Dol Guldur, and Anarion is now there too.

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GRRM has done tons of interviews where he said he wanted to write fantasy with more moral ambiguity than Tolkien’s characters. Does anyone have a series they’d recommend that’s somewhere in between? As in, with characters who aren’t fully good or evil, but without the same level of misery porn as ASOIAF?

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51 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

GRRM has done tons of interviews where he said he wanted to write fantasy with more moral ambiguity than Tolkien’s characters. Does anyone have a series they’d recommend that’s somewhere in between? As in, with characters who aren’t fully good or evil, but without the same level of misery porn as ASOIAF?

ASOIF IS the "somewhere in between". The misery porn is Joe Abercrombie.

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Memory, Sorrow and Thorn? Tad Williams manages Tolkien's sense of wonder (and long, long descriptions of fields, forests and castles) and though there are certainly heroes and bad guys, there's plenty of grey in the middle. The pacing is certainly not for everyone, though. It's very, well.... measured.

Daniel Abraham is absolutely superb at creating lead characters who aren't good guys but aren't bad guys either, as it were. His series are still fascinating without being quite as world-spanning epic styled as the two authors you mentioned, but I think he best fits your idea of modern, flawed characters who you can still root for/against - sometimes over the course of just one chapter.

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2 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

GRRM has done tons of interviews where he said he wanted to write fantasy with more moral ambiguity than Tolkien’s characters. Does anyone have a series they’d recommend that’s somewhere in between? As in, with characters who aren’t fully good or evil, but without the same level of misery porn as ASOIAF?

Dune, but it's Science Fiction, not Fantasy.

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1 hour ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Ok, but there are other fantasy series out there. I’m guessing there are some that are between GRRM and Tolkien.

Technically the Wheel of Time is in between. And has less misery porn.

Also The Gentleman Bastard series by Scott Lynch which is ongoing.

But this is the Entertainment thread. I can't think of a fantasy show that is not an adaptation except for Carnival Row which will likely not continue.

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You know, I actually didn't hate this episode. Indeed, I even kind of enjoyed it. Last week, the incompetence was really frustrating to behold, but now we were back to the BBC fantasy level quality that is this show's peak. Lot's of dumb stuff that happens, but it was presented with enough panache to accept it and then move on.

I also really liked the opening of the episode. It beggars belief that anyone is still alive, but I felt like that the heavily orange ash scenes in the beginning was one of the best scenes this show has had so far. I also liked all the scenes with the dwarfs (weird how that is probably the most competent plot line, despite the inclusion of the entirely insane Mithril idea). 

 

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I haven't watched the latest yet but I'm curious was this Glorfindel person you guys mentioned in the movies at all? I had the impression the movies were pretty faithful adaptations but I have no idea who this important sounding character is. 

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6 hours ago, Argonath Diver said:

Daniel Abraham is absolutely superb at creating lead characters who aren't good guys but aren't bad guys either, as it were. His series are still fascinating without being quite as world-spanning epic styled as the two authors you mentioned, but I think he best fits your idea of modern, flawed characters who you can still root for/against - sometimes over the course of just one chapter.

Seconding the recommendation for Dan, he's fantastic and definitely between asoiaf and Tolkein on this spectrum.

1 hour ago, RumHam said:

I haven't watched the latest yet but I'm curious was this Glorfindel person you guys mentioned in the movies at all? I had the impression the movies were pretty faithful adaptations but I have no idea who this important sounding character is. 

No he wasn't. His role was replaced by Arwen getting Frodo from Weathertop to Rivendell and calling the river on the Nazgul.

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1 hour ago, RumHam said:

I haven't watched the latest yet but I'm curious was this Glorfindel person you guys mentioned in the movies at all? I had the impression the movies were pretty faithful adaptations but I have no idea who this important sounding character is. 

Nope. Arwen took his role in Fellowship, when she takes the dying Frodo, chased by the Ringwraiths, to Rivendell. Glorfindel did that in the book. Glorfindel is a powerful Elf lord.

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I've enjoyed the show overall and I loved episode 6. But I was disappointed by this one. It felt very slow paced at a time the action should be picking up, hit too many old plot beats over and over (Durin vs. his dad over mithril, the stranger doing something that makes everyone suspicious at first, etc...), and relied too much on drawn out false tension. Show, nobody believes you'll kill Bronwyn/Isildur/anyone off screen, so don't try to convince the audience you have.

I enjoy the harfoots, but it'd also be good to have more stakes in their plotline at this point. Demonic Eminem doesn't count. He feels very random and the scenes with him were just bizarrely edited together. 

But, Durin and Elrond are still great, and I enjoyed the Galadriel scenes. Fingers crossed for a satisfying and explosive finale.

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1 hour ago, Cashless Society said:

What are the odds that Celeborn shows up in the next episode and reunites with Galadriel, with Halbrand in tow?

A friend of mine has the theory that Arwen is actually Sauron’s granddaughter because that worked out so well for Star Wars. 

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3 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

I wonder what the Harfoots greater story will be going forward? As I said before, there is no Middle Earth without Hobbits, they are the crown jewel of the franchise and what draws people in the most. But I’m unsure right now what their purpose in this story will be.

Not for everyone I would imagine. I personally dislike them. Give me the elves, Rohirim, Men of Numénor/etc. every day of the week over the hobbits.

Although I have to admit, that's based on everything available in print and previous adaptations I have seen. The Harfoots are weirdly inoffensive in the grand scheme of RoP.

2 hours ago, slant said:

Celeborn cannot be dead! He is alive in Lorien an age later. 

They are clearly going to bring him back into the story later on. It's terribly stupid and incompetent of the writers to only mention that character for the first time at this point in the season, but I wouldn't fret about it.

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I’ve always considered the hobbits as the R2D2 and CP30 of middle Earth. A way to see the wider world and big story through the eyes of the Everyman. Maybe that is a flaw of RoP so far, the Harfoots are just off having their own story and it’s taking a long time to connect them up, and we aren’t really seeing the world from their perspective either, we are on the outside looking in. 

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