Sfdebris.net

Or it might be less of white hat vs black hat affair?

Well its supposed to be original and they picked a really quiet part of the timeline so who knows.

Too soon to say. I'm concerned, because a lot of the recent works I've seen don't really get the underlying nature and tone. Consistency matters, and whether the reader/viewer/player consciously notices it or not, it still matters that it's there and informing the work and how the stories are told.

I don't know enough yet to have feelings yet beyond the slightly hopeful I can get a good show set in Middle-Earth. Maybe New Zealand will be happy to be back in showbiz too.

Agent Vinod wrote:Or it might be less of white hat vs black hat affair?

I really don't think that LotR is the franchise for heavy use of moral relativism/"shades of grey". I mean, its not like all the characters are pure good or evil (see Denethor, Boromir, hell, Gollum). But its the setting that pretty much created the archetypal Dark Lord, not so vaguely based on Lucifer.

Also, to answer the larger question, it only matters if it purports to be in the same continuity as the Jackson films, and references that continuity. Of course, the Jackson films are already stylistically inconsistent, especially when you factor in the over-the-top-buffoonery plus shipping fic approach of the Hobbit films.

There is more than one valid stylistic approach to Tolkien. I don't think Jackson's work should be treated as gospel.

The Romulan Republic wrote:

Agent Vinod wrote:Or it might be less of white hat vs black hat affair?

I really don't think that LotR is the franchise for heavy use of moral relativism/"shades of grey". I mean, its not like all the characters are pure good or evil (see Denethor, Boromir, hell, Gollum). But its the setting that pretty much created the archetypal Dark Lord, not so vaguely based on Lucifer.

Also, to answer the larger question, it only matters if it purports to be in the same continuity as the Jackson films, and references that continuity. Of course, the Jackson films are already stylistically inconsistent, especially when you factor in the over-the-top-buffoonery plus shipping fic approach of the Hobbit films.

There is more than one valid stylistic approach to Tolkien. I don't think Jackson's work should be treated as gospel.

They became evil thanks to magic minus Denethor. There are no grey characters among those we follow, those who turn evil do it because the Ring corrupts them.

Lord of the Rings also had the theme of the common man riding up to overcome evil. It was Samwise Gamgee, Frodo's gardener and friend whose memories of his good simple life in Hobbiton drove him on when Frodo had become exhausted in the end. It was the corruption of power that threatened the world and the ability of Hobbits to resist it that ultimately saved middle Earth.

Unfortunately these themes are often ignored in various derivative media which prefer the conflict between the Men, Elves and Orcs. I dread to think of them trying to do a Game of Thrones style backstab and mutilation roulette in the setting of Middle Earth after the Last Alliance.

If they were to do something Epic I'd love to see it the the ancient past where it was more appropriate. Where the legends of the setting were made. The War of Wrath, we could see Earendil and the Valar fight the armies of Morgoth. Ancalagon the black. Nothing more epic that fighting a literal mountain sized dragon.

Fixer wrote:Lord of the Rings also had the theme of the common man riding up to overcome evil. It was Samwise Gamgee, Frodo's gardener and friend whose memories of his good simple life in Hobbiton drove him on when Frodo had become exhausted in the end. It was the corruption of power that threatened the world and the ability of Hobbits to resist it that ultimately saved middle Earth.

Unfortunately these themes are often ignored in various derivative media which prefer the conflict between the Men, Elves and Orcs. I dread to think of them trying to do a Game of Thrones style backstab and mutilation roulette in the setting of Middle Earth after the Last Alliance.

If they were to do something Epic I'd love to see it the the ancient past where it was more appropriate. Where the legends of the setting were made. The War of Wrath, we could see Earendil and the Valar fight the armies of Morgoth. Ancalagon the black. Nothing more epic that fighting a literal mountain sized dragon.

Make 2 parallel series. One about the good guys, one about the bad. Have the 2 sides duke it out in a season where both series become one.

There's quite a few grey characters in the Silmarillion, although I think one of the reasons that isn't being adapted is that a big chuck of it revolves around a group of Elf kingdoms with long standing gripes with each other fending off monsters invading from the frozen north.

It’s also worth pointing out that LotR is focused on the good guys, so we never really see things from the bad guys perspective. For example, there’s a bit in tTT musing over whether the Haradrim soldiers really are evil, or if they’re conscripts forced to go to war in a far off country (Gondor) by evil masters and would really rather be back home living a quiet life with their families.

Tolkien also didn’t like the notion that Orcs were naturally and all evil, so that’s something ‘grey’ that could be touched on too. In the books, there’s also a bit (don’t recall if it was in the Council of Elrond or in the appendices) where it’s mentioned that all races, except elves, fought on both sides during the Last Alliance, so implicitly there must have been at least some ‘good’ orcs.