The Lord of the Rings fandom was mostly cautiously optimistic when news broke that Rings of Power will be made. Now, The Lord of the Rings fandom is a particularly fussy one; I remember Peter Jackson’s trilogy getting a frosty reception, which, fortunately in the end, became celebrated.

But when first-look photos were released … Rings of Power received a toxic reception on a level I’ve not seen before. Especially on Youtube. This has mostly to do with some Youtube channels that are “anti-woke”, and who often see female lead characters in a misogynistic light. They picked apart everything about Galadriel, called the actress names that I wouldn’t want to mention here. They were also very hung about the racial diversity of the Rings of Power.

Now, I’m Chinese from Malaysia. I’m a minority, mind you. However, I did find the diversity of the show forced and not very natural as per the way Tolkien set it up. I wondered why they didn’t want to include the Haradrim and Easterlings, instead of doing this?

But anyway, anyone that criticises the diversity of the cast gets instantly slapped with the racist label, so, yeah, I’m not going to do this on Twitter/Mastodon right now.

Still, it’s a small issue for me. The biggest issue, really is how badly the story flows. The first episode was too slow, and I have a hard time trying to focus because there are just so many characters.

Anyway, I think I was somehow influenced by the negativity; I refused to even give the show a chance at one point. But now I think that’s terribly unfair — I should form my opinion of the show after watching it, not after hearing what others are saying about it.

So here I am, giving this show a chance.

First episode … I hope this gets better

Watched the first episode of Rings of Power and I’m just not impressed. This is sad because they got some things really right. For one, the aesthetics of the world is spot on. The soundtrack is lovely and Elrond, I like him almost immediately.

I’ve heard a lot about how Rings of Power played fast and loose with the lore, and frankly, it was distracting. There were moments when I just got pulled out of the show to wonder, “Wait, isn’t this wrong?”

But honestly, I don’t mind that they had not stuck faithfully to the lore, but the problem is the storytelling, and it was apparent even in the first episode. Uneven, lots of unnecessary tangents and a very unlikeable protagonist 😅 Galadriel, your teenage phase is not very pleasant! (And I know she’s not a teen but she sure behaves like one lol.)

I’ll give it a few more episodes but I don’t think it’ll improve for me.

Second episode, and I have an epiphany

I try to make myself watch another episode of Rings, but I almost inevitably choose to watch The Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty, Who Rules the World and Fear the Walking Dead instead. When I realised that I don’t even remember what happened in the second episode, I realised the writing was on the wall.

Rings of Power isn’t terrible per se. The worst film I’ve ever, ever watched was Adam Sandler’s You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, which my friends made me watch till the bitter end because it was hilarious to see my wince. It’s nowhere near there; it was a passable fantasy series. Passable in the sense that it is a very pale shadow of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings series. Something to watch when there’s nothing to watch on a slow Sunday afternoon.

Here’s the problem, there are far too many great things to watch these days. There’s the much praised The Last of Us and the Korean and Chinese dramas like Nirvana in Fire and Love like the Galaxy waiting for me. If you have limited time would you choose to spend it on critically-acclaimed shows which have far more appeal to you … or would you give a passable fantasy series that barely kept your attention in the first episode?

I may give it another episode but that will be in the distant future. But for now, I’ll have to bid Rings of Power adieu.