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IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

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

#491

Post by 3nd0rph1n »

sensanaty wrote: post #479
wodenokoto wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the human race can, in real life, have black and white people, but the made up species of dwarfes and elves can’t?

How do black dwarves make sense? Their entire species lives deep underground and never sees the light of day, so they don't need to evolve to protect their skin from UV rays. It's not like humans randomly became black or white, skin color is a result of thousands of years of evolution because of our surroundings. If you're going to apply the real world here, then you have to admit that black skinned dwarves make no s…

> How do black dwarves make sense? Their entire species lives deep underground and never sees the light of day, so they don't need to evolve to protect their skin from UV rays.

This is EXACTLY my issue with the show. This kind of forced diversity fuccs up the lore and detaches me from the depicted universe. At least make them all of the same skin color so it is coherent.

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

#492

Post by hoseja »

joemazerino wrote: post #371
farleykr wrote: post #61

My issue with the show has nothing to do with the “woke” stuff mentioned here. I don’t like it because none of the heroes are likable. All of them have some form of sticking it to the man and doing what they want as their story line. True heroes are self-sacrificial and reluctant. Contrast Galadriel who acts like a self righteous dickhead with Aragorn who was reluctant to accept his calling spent and three movies pro…

It actually is the point. Wokeism cannot create likeable characters or plotlines.

Watch the recent Sandman. Perhaps it's because the source material was already very woke before it was everywhere and the adaptation is very faithful, but the series is quite good.

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

#493

Post by HarHarVeryFunny »

elorant wrote: post #405
HarHarVeryFunny wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, but the DVD vs post-DVD part of it doesn't make sense without more explanation or numbers attached. In the DVD era most people didn't buy expensive DVDs - they rented them from Blockbuster (then later Netflix) just as they had done before on VHS. In the post-DVD era there is still plenty of money coming after the theatrical release in the form of money from streaming services. How does this source of rev…

What I take from what he said is that the shelf life of movies has shortened. You either make it in the first couple of weeks, or you’re bust. While with the dvds the movie stayed relevant for much longer which could result in a reduced budget for marketing.

The reduced shelf life part of it - you need to make money from the theatrical release, not after - certainly seems to be what he is saying, but it's not clear why that is the case.

If the studio makes more money from ticket sale revenue sharing, than from streaming (or previously DVD rental), then why are they now rushing to streaming so quickly?

To speculate:

Blockbuster used to be utterly dominant in the VHS/DVD rental era, and there would be prominently displayed in-store advertising of what in-theatre movies were coming to DVD/Rental soon, as well as the new releases getting their own section in the store. Perhaps in-store DVD rental therefore created it's own marketing and extended shelf life, as opposed to online streaming rental where the customer likely already knows what they are looking for a opposed to being influenced by "coming-soon and newly-released" in-store marketing.

The lack of variety of movies in the US, to which Damon is responding, is also at least in part because there is, for whatever reason, no culture of arts cinemas here. The whole industry is geared up for the economics of large budget movies and the de-risking that involves.

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

#494

Post by ratsmack »

dktokyo wrote: post #420
peoplefromibiza wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> White skin is associated with purity, darker skin with corruption it's the oldest metaphor in the world it's light vs darkness, like white magic and black magic. Heaven is light, hell is darkness. Nobody sees "the dark at the end of the tunnel". The idea that black people mean evil and white people mean virtue is a stretch of the modern thinking, by the same people that believe that blacklist comes from black peopl…

The Borg are all races and Romulans, though majority portrayed as white, likely have multiple skin tones the same way the Vulcans do. Though the idea they purged different skin tones at some point fits with their overall narrative. All the Dominion races were white, more or less. The Changelings have a whole meta commentary going for them.

People see what they want to see and are offended by perceptions driven by their own biases, even in cases where no offense is portrayed or intended.

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

#495

Post by Georgelemental »

karmakurtisaani wrote: post #377
BrainVirus wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are grumpy because Amazon gutted LotR universe, made it an empty vessel for their political ideology and now refuse to deal with well-earned criticism in an honest fashion.

It's so sweet you think a corporation like Amazon has a political ideology other than making as much money as ever possible.

Making as much money as possible requires being on good terms with the local ruling regime and adopting its ideology. That way your politician friends will ignore your misdeeds while going after your competitors. Hence rainbow flags everywhere, except for the Middle East branch

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

#496

Post by satyrnein »

SunlightEdge wrote: post #442

To be maybe controversial... I'm still thinking about it, but I do wonder if diverse casting works in European fantasy stories. The problem I have is that it generally pulls me out of the experience/ makes it less immersive. I welcome diverse castings in modern shows (though we don't need every show to follow a template 'diverse' casting). A common counter argument is, well you can suspend your disbelief and imagine…

Is this theoretical, or are you saying this actually happened? I haven't seen this latest show, but for example I had no problems with nonwhite characters in The Witcher. What is a European fantasy show anyway, it's not like they take place in literal Europe?

Somehow nobody complains about loss of immersion when characters are changed to white, which happens 100x more often.

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

#497

Post by some_random »

farleykr wrote: post #61

My issue with the show has nothing to do with the “woke” stuff mentioned here. I don’t like it because none of the heroes are likable. All of them have some form of sticking it to the man and doing what they want as their story line. True heroes are self-sacrificial and reluctant. Contrast Galadriel who acts like a self righteous dickhead with Aragorn who was reluctant to accept his calling spent and three movies pro…

I really think that the "woke" thing is bullshit, most of the people who don't like XYZ piece of media aren't actually sexist/racist/whatever but are painted in that light to deflect criticism.

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

#498

Post by legulere »

concordDance wrote: post #289
kthejoker2 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean ... she's a fairy, not a human .. what does her skin have to do with the time period or place in which she appeared? And there's literally zero reason to insist that Collodi's description is the only way a fairy character can be portrayed in a staged version of his book. The real problem is getting upset over the skin color of the actors and actresses playing fairies (or stormtroopers or elves or angels or for…

Actors should be a good match for the role they play. That includes accent, build, height, sex, attractiveness, characterization (Will Smith couldn't play Sauron) and skin colour.

That really depends if those attributes are an important part of the character, how well the actor can fake those (e.g. Hugh Laurie without British accent in house md), and what you want to achieve. Jesus for instance most likely had a bit darker skin, but it makes sense to make him more similar to your target audience, so people can better identify with him.

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

#499

Post by krapp »

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #396
krapp wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately that's really how Tolkien's mythology tends to work. White skin is associated with purity, darker skin with corruption and evil (or at least, between the two, "civilized" and "uncivilized".) It's a trope that's carried on into sci-fi (particularly Star Trek, where the more animalistic or violent races also tend to be darker - see the Klingons who get portrayed as darker-skinned and more aggressive with…

> White skin is associated with purity, darker skin with corruption it's the oldest metaphor in the world it's light vs darkness, like white magic and black magic. Heaven is light, hell is darkness. Nobody sees "the dark at the end of the tunnel". The idea that black people mean evil and white people mean virtue is a stretch of the modern thinking, by the same people that believe that blacklist comes from black peopl…

>it's the oldest metaphor in the world >it's light vs darkness, like white magic and black magic. >Heaven is light, hell is darkness. >Nobody sees "the dark at the end of the tunnel".

You seem to have confused "the world" for "Christian Europe." There are plenty of cultures in which these metaphors are reversed, or don't exist at all.

And the only referent that is relevant to this specific conversation is that of Tolkien, who himself described orcs thusly:

    squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types."
He's clearly not drawing entirely from "universal" metaphors of "light" and "darkness." And even if he were, mapping that to race is still ignorant and worth calling out.

>Borgs, arguably the most dangerous species in the series, are white

I wasn't talking about simply being dangerous, since in context even the Pakleds are dangerous (speaking of problamatic portrayals) so much as presenting depictions of animistic or "savage" behavior that hearkens to outdated racialist stereotypes of non-white cultures. The Borg are essentially a force of nature, so not relevant in that regard.

Fair point about the Romulans and Cardassians, although they're clearly metaphors for Colonial Europeans and Nazis respectively, and both are presented as clearly "civilized" in their behavior. Klingons drink blood wine, Cardassians drink kanar. The implications are still there.

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

#500

Post by incanus77 »

SunlightEdge wrote: post #442

To be maybe controversial... I'm still thinking about it, but I do wonder if diverse casting works in European fantasy stories. The problem I have is that it generally pulls me out of the experience/ makes it less immersive. I welcome diverse castings in modern shows (though we don't need every show to follow a template 'diverse' casting). A common counter argument is, well you can suspend your disbelief and imagine…

To engage on this in good faith — I am a longtime Tolkien fan and my gut reaction is to sometimes agree when seeing such casting. But: I am white and have benefitted from a lifetime of seeing myself in entertainment and being the “default” race. When I was a kid, the images of people that I conjured in my head were all white. Which interestingly were confirmed by most Tolkien art. However, certain times I’d see art from non-white cultures (Tolkien is very widely translated) and for someone, at the very least the artist, these depictions rang true and were a source of inspiration and connection. I’m glad to see diversity in casting on a show that hopes for worldwide viewership.
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