I have to say I watched the rop partially bc of your positive reviews and I loved it. I mean I definitely have my qualms with parts of it (Elrondās haircut, female dwarves not having beards) but overall I found it hella enjoyable.
I also love the LoTR movies, and the animated ones, and the books. I did hate the hobbit movies though, which is actually why I didnāt want to watch it originally was because I was worried it would be like them. But Iām glad I decided to watch it in the end.
Also in terms of not being exactly compliant with the lore, I can never remember the lore anyway so it doesnāt really bother me. Itās also a fantasy world, Iām ok with seeing different interpretations of things. The point is to just enjoy watching it *shrugs*.
This is just my opinion but I think like... people saying that the short hair on elves or the beardless dwarven women are taking a minor detail and making a huge mountain out of what would effectively be negligible.
Like, the short hair on the elves does bug me, but mostly that's just because I did like the PJ look better. Not saying one is inherently more correct than the other because Tolkien never said that all elves have waist-length hair, I personally feel that it's a better look is all. Elrond's hair specifically doesn't bother me nearly as much as Finrod's, because the dude's named "great hair" more or less and he's got maybe an inch or two on his scalp and an undercut. Where are my boy's long flowing locks??? He's one of the elves that's specifically described as having very long hair I demand to see the actor in a wig right now. But also again, relatively minor detail for a character that has a collective 5 minutes of screentime in the first season's entire 9 hours.
Like I'm not saying you can't be upset about it, it's just one of those things where I'm like. Does the hair length really matter that much? Compared to everything else?
PJ's Fellowship is literally my favorite movie ever and the trilogy will always always be my comfort food, don't get me wrong. I'd say they're a solid 8-9/10. I think Rings of Power is more like a 7-8/10. I think the Shadow of Mordor/War games are a 6-7/10. The Hobbit trilogy I'd rate a 5-6/10. Maybe even a 4/10 depending on how annoyed I want to be about some things. I appreciate that they are all a return to my favorite franchise ever and what I've devoted frankly embarrassing amounts of my life and hard-earned money towards, and even if I don't like a particular entry it'll still earn a place on my shelf just for having the name "Tolkien" attached to it, but I'm also honest in how much I actually enjoyed them.
Like the Shadow of Mordor/War games were a serious departure from lore (despite people currently astroturfing them and saying that they're lore-compliant, lmao)... Celebrimbor forged the One Ring??? His soul merged with Sauron's??? A human has the ability to be a necromancer??? And a human necromancer has the power to lasso an elf soul and stuff it into a dying human's body??? Shelob is a sexy goth spider lady that has a romantic tryst with Sauron??? Two of the wraiths are twin sisters from Totally Not China??? But even despite that, I found them really fun and enjoyed the story it was trying to tell me, even if some of the lore breaks made me wince.
