IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power • Hacker News Board

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#381

Post by thom » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:10 PM UTC

canuckintime wrote: post #366

thom wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only way to faithfully film the book would be to make some sort of anthology series, and I don't think that format works well for big-budget prestige drama. As I've said elsewhere, might have been better to start with Prelude to Foundation, perhaps.

> The only way to faithfully film the book would be to make some sort of anthology series, and I don't think that format works well for big-budget prestige drama. It wouldn’t work on traditional TV but this is streaming on AppleTV. Budget was not a barrier AND ‘ratings’ don’t really matter for Apple either. That was the best opportunity during the period of PeakTV to just do what works artistically best for the adapt…

Well, there's still a chance that someone does the Elijah Bailey books separately, perhaps.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#382

Post by peoplefromibiza » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:11 PM UTC

DSMan195276 wrote: post #365

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What difference does it make if they cast another non-Italian actor to play a role? Who said anything about being Italian? I've only quoted the author words (Collodi) The fairy is pale white not because she is a white person, but because she's pure. Pale white skin is not an Italian trait, so I don't understand what Italianness has to do with anything. If anything, the fact that she is pale white makes her obviousl…

> The fairy is pale white not because she is a white person, but because she's pure. Right, because of all of parts of the story that have been changed, _this_ is the part that must be kept - using white skin to equate to purity. Do you agree that in our modern diverse society a black woman can be used to represent "purity"? Because if you do, then surly we can keep the author's original intent without tying it to sk…

> Right, because of all of parts of the story that have been changed, _this_ is the part that must be kept - using white skin to equate to purity.

And maybe the blue hair too, given she's named after her blue hair.

> Do you agree that in our modern diverse society a black woman can be used to represent "purity"?

Do you agree that for white here we mean white the colour, not the pink skin tone, which is inhuman? I am not white like Swedish people are, certainly not like the blue fairy.

It's mythology, it's not literal, you are taking it literally, only zealots do that.

Do you know that in African mythology fairies are white too?

Yumboes (they resemble European fairies) are the spirits of the dead and, like many supernatural beings in African beliefs, they are completely of a pearly-white colour

Did it ever occured to you that western mythology was made by westerners and it is silly to try to bend it to reflect USA of today, while they could use non western mythologies and finally show other cultures respect, but probably American studios can't do that, because they wanna make money and not really respect diversity?

Why take an 1883 Italian book to show a black fairy?

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#383

Post by the_lonely_road » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:11 PM UTC

farleykr wrote: post #99

isbvhodnvemrwvn wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you think that 2 episodes is a bit too little to judge the entire series like that? The show covers A LOT more time than LOtR did, there's plenty of space for character development. Galadriel was not exactly likeable when she participated in the first kinslaying, or when she ran away from the war of wrath.

I am not opposed to that being her prospective character arc but she’s not portrayed that way. There’s nothing to make us like her and from the storytelling and craft perspective there should be. We should at least see her questioning herself. She’s not presented as a cautionary tale. She’s presented as a strong woman who has to deal with domineering men. Even that would be a compelling story line. But again we don’t…

Isn’t this just because we, the viewers, know that she is right given the whole Sauron is the big bad in Lord of the Rings? We are suppose to appreciate her focus and refusal to give up given that we know she will be ultimately vindicated.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#384

Post by tpmx » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:12 PM UTC

elorant wrote: post #180

Well, we live in the age where the story hardly matters. I saw Top Gun the other day, and was shocked at how bad it was. The aerial stuff was superb, but everything else looked so amateurish. Acting was hideous, the story was so predictable and boring there was hardly any substance to the film. And yet it got an 8,5 rating at imdb.

I mean, it is quite impressive that Tom Cruise looked like that when he was 59. (He's 60 now.)

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#385

Post by betwixthewires » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:12 PM UTC

Of course. Is anyone surprised?

This is not a "owned by amazon fuck bezos" comment. All review sites are bogus. All review numbers are bogus. YouTube like/dislike ratios, reddit vote counts, it's all bogus. You can't rely on anyone else telling you whether you should like something or not. That shortcut is gone forever. People will game it in an effort to game your life.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#386

Post by auggierose » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:14 PM UTC

matwood wrote: post #311

auggierose wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watched only the first episode of Dragons, but I am not convinced. What is the point of this show? We know that the real fight between dead and living is happening 200 years later. We know that all of the dragons will be dead at some point. The characters itself are pretty boring, compared to what Thrones had to offer. It is technically well made, but it is boring.

For me, I like the political intrigue. It's also a reminder that the quest for power is never ending, and even when one wins, it's never lasting. But, to your point, it's not that dissimilar from other quest for power dramas. I told a friend the new GoT is a bit like Succession with dragons. The quest for power is part of the human condition, which is why I think so many enjoy the stories in whatever form they are to…

I really like Succession, but sorry, Dragons is nothing like that. There is no political intrigue, just people in costumes making fairly obvious moves.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#387

Post by brobinson » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:14 PM UTC

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #228

keepper wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Another example is the new Disney's Pinocchio, were the Blue Fairy is portrait by a black woman. The problem is not that she is black of course. but that the original story is set in Italy, Tuscany, mid 1800, were no black woman was ever seen It’s quite clear that that is YOUR problem. It’s funny when people like yourself claim “I’m not X” while then clear laying the case. And for the récord, i hope you open up a ge…

> It’s quite clear that that is YOUR problem. It’s funny when people like yourself claim “I’m not X” while then clear laying the case. if you don't see a problem in changing someone else's literature and culture (I am Italian and have read Pinocchio since I was a kid) than you probably don't know what respect for different cultures is. I would never think of a movie were Kunta Kinte is Dutch and is portrait by Chris…

>He was black.

A quick search shows results saying his ancestors were all from northern Africa and the Middle East. He doesn't even look black in various busts/statues depicting him. He definitely looks north African. I'm pretty into Roman history, and this is the first time I've ever encountered someone suggesting there was a "black" (in the modern sense of the word) emperor.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#388

Post by chrisseaton » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:15 PM UTC

farleykr wrote: post #148

chrisseaton wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My beef is that there isn't much in terms of character development. In just two episodes? Yeah there won’t be.

Story tellers need to do their job to give us compelling characters. We don’t owe them watching an unspecified number of episodes - hours of screen time - to give them a chance to give us something to like about the characters. I liked every character in the LotR trilogy within five minutes of their introduction.

> We don’t owe them watching an unspecified number of episodes - hours of screen time - to give them a chance to give us something to like about the characters.

Nobody thinks you owe the authors anything - of course you don’t have to watch it at all.

But if you wanted to try it how few episodes or chapters are you will to give a creative work time to reach a character development?

What's the point of a character development in the first couple of episodes or chapters? That's just churn - they aren't genuinely developing in that time because you won't have given them any time to establish something to develop from. And where do they go from there? Just keep having major developments every episode? That'd be exhausting.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#389

Post by varajelle » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:15 PM UTC

cr__ wrote: post #339

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Contrast Galadriel who acts like a self righteous dickhead with Aragorn who was reluctant to accept his calling spent and three movies proving himself to be worthy of honor and love You mean three books, right? The difference here is that Aragorn was written by Tolkien, this show wasn't and has completely betrayed the original material. Race or gender swaps are not a big issue, but they become one if the purpose is…

I don’t think any fairies were ever seen in Tuscany either

A fairy that makes puppets alive. OK!

A black woman in Italy: Impossible! Unbelievable!

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#390

Post by Cpoll » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 2:15 PM UTC

danaris wrote: post #357

Cpoll wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In other words, ignore the writer's understanding of and intent for for the character because they didn't put it in the right book?

Tolkien's intent for Galadriel as she appears in Lord of the Rings is exactly what appears in Lord of the Rings. The Silmarillion was his unfinished writings . I don't recall whether he had any intention to ever publish it, but certainly, he did not make strong efforts to do so. His son Christopher had to make a monumental effort to take the various disparate scraps and versions of stories to put them together into w…

> To say that Tolkien "intended" for Galadriel to present, in Lord of the Rings, any of the traits one would associate with a kinslaying ruthless warleader

For the record, I'm not in this camp. I think it's fair to debate whether Galadriel participated and/or was culpable in that (as other threads have).

I'm just arguing (perhaps specifically in Tolkien's case) that LotR sits inside the "legendarium" and can't be properly interpreted in a void. I don't feel that the Silmarillion stories were so unfinished that they don't reveal truths about the characters, that Tolkien must have already held when writing LotR.

But now in retrospect, I'm probably glorifying Tolkien a bit too much. It's normal for authors to change their minds about their characters, and it's normal for people reinterpreting those works to sometimes ignore those changes of mind. (It's also normal for fans to dislike those reinterpretations when it clashes with their understanding of the characters).