The Rings of Power's STUPID Change to Tolkien's Volcano

Not unexpectedly, Amazon's showrunners thought they could write Tolkien's world better than Tolkien. That's how we ended up with insta-Mordor... just add water!

#tolkien #lordoftherings #ringsofpower

[davidplowman]

The people of Pompeii are like, wait, all I had to do was close my eyes?

[FishOn-kj]

"if the little things don't add up, the big things collapses" - ROP in a nutshell, well said

[mrcat]

The best part of that article is the next paragraph where the professor from Syracuse University destroys the showrunner’s scenario:

“The professor did question our vaguely described scenario, wondering how anybody could dig a tunnel to a magma chamber when they tend to be at least two kilometers below the Earth’s surface.”

[frankvandorp]

I still don't know how the cow got poisoned BTW. The orcs dug trenches, they didn't poison wells. The cow was just a plot device to get discount Legolas and the florist to the burned village.

[haleyschreiter]

What irks me so much is that they seem to genuinely believe that they have a profound understanding of Tolkien's works, and that somehow justifies them recklessly changing it.

[TallisKeeton]

All they can imagine in their pathological imagination
is
- changing what is simply natural enviroment (like simple volcano) into industrial (machinery),
- what is universal fairytale needs to be changing into modern politics allegory,
- what is spiritual needs to be changing into simply natural, or even mundane,
- what is superhuman needs to be changing into regular modern human.
So sad :(

[CLBOO]

Try saying that to Tolkien's face, "I wrote a book you never wrote and I made it better"

[okami-chan]

The showrunners hate the idea of how Tolkien created the volcano; so they made their own idea for it and it's highly ridiculous.

They are like Morgoth, these people don't understand what makes Middle-Earth amazing so they went out of their way trying to destroy it just to make their own version of it; by ignoring the lores and created it in their own image.

[bjornh]

The showrunners' understanding of geology is on the same level as their understanding of pre-industrial demographics and rural life.

[vana.johnson]

The Showrunners created Cow's that had Licorice milk in it's udders. VampOrcs digging trenches to make a Volcanic eruption that spreads Cheetos over the land.
Yeah definitely the book they wrote. So when they said "back to the books, back to the books". It was from their book Circlets of Prime:Bands of Impotency.

[estel]

'Back to the books. Back to the books.' -Nobody, ever

[shinian]

Did the volcano really suck? Or did it... blow?

I'll see myself out

[kathleenhensley]

May I tell you a little story? I started writing a novel (I'm going to try to finish it now i am retired.) in it, A kingdom invades their northern neighbor. The main fortress of the Northern kingdom, where the king lives, is nearly in the middle of the kingdom. The invasion is to his south - many miles. I loved the idea of fires to inform him of the invasion (and the siege on one larger castles of the border.) .. but There is NO Great mountain range that far south. I tried to calculate how fast messengers could reach his castle. I've researched all ancient styles of communication. I've thought of pigeons. (ie World war I armies used Pigeons extensively) That was one of the great problems for large kingdoms in ancient times - knowing what was happening and win. Tolkien, brilliant man he was, solved it with his usual elegance. They could lose a war by not knowing they were IN a war. Look up the history of the invasion the Germanic tribes, circa 410AD. One of the things that caused the decline of Roman empire is they didn't know the Rhine river had frozen hard enough that Germans were walking over it, not immediately. The king must know the invasion has begun. He must rally his army and defend the kingdom. I'm still speculating how large the kingdom should be. One of the decisions I still must make. I would love to have a real map maker drawn my world properly ... I am no artist. I also looked up how long it would take early boats to travel from France to What would be China if it was Our world. I want it to feel true. Yes, its a fantasy, but people have to feel that even a fantasy has foundations. If the foundations feel true, the story will feel true, no matter how absurd some aspects of it, are.
Tolkien was a MASTER of story telling and world building.

[pjjordan]

"Give me the meat, and give it to me raw"

[christopherdrekr]

What i want to know is what did they do with all the soil ?

[SCP--A_CLASS-EUCLID]

"Evil cannot create, just turn everything into shite" Donald Tolkien.

[KleinKore]

Now I know the authors never explored the world. I know how switzerland looks. Its 200km from here.
I really did not think about switzerland watching the "Southlands"

oh heavens

[Ka_T_ya]

They directly called the story of Annatar “ stupid “ that’s why they created “ Halbrand” ( in their rop podcast). So no surprise ….

[clogs]

I rather think that Adar, probably the most intelligent and interesting character in RoP, would’ve tried to create a better place than Mordor for his people to live. No wonder the orcs turned really nasty.

[MrChristophSteininge]

It always struck me as odd that these lands in which everything playes out are so empty. The journey in The Hobbit goes through largely uninhabited land. Nowhere is the agricultural development a civilisation needs. And even orcs need to eat something. What do the elves in Rivendell eat? There are no fields around it. It is my belief that Tolkien omittet that aspect of world building intentionally. In the story it is said that Saruman imported tobacco for his pipe from the Shire. Who were the traders who effectuated this trade? We are not told, but it doubtlessly was transported over the Greenway from Sarnford over Tharbad through the Dunland. The witchking of Angmar destroyed the civilisation of Eriador so badly that no human habitation was left. No farms, no steadings no nothing. But Minhiriath and Enedwaith were just as empty. This is the expression of the fact that Sauron was winning, and the belief of the orc leaders that the era of humans was at an end was founded in reality. Gondor and Rohan were the last remnants of human lands apart from isolated communities like Dal or Esgaroth. This isolation and the sense of decay and loss even in the settled lands made the story of Lord of the Rings so poignant. In the second age, the one depicted in the Amazon show the lands were much more settled. Gondor was very large and populous, stretching down to Umbar. There were kings in Osgiliath and it was a great metropolis. In Rhun there were tribe lands with large herds of aurochs. Somehow this was omitted in the show and I wonder why. Mordor had a string of forts and they were manned by gondorians and all were looking inward towards the inland of Mordor to watch over the dark land.