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

#641

Post by atq2119 » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 7:53 PM UTC

nicolas_t wrote: post #279

SSLy wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what's wrong with the foundation btw?

It's jarringly different from the books. Names are the same and a very few elements are similar but it's really something completely different. In Asimov's work, psychohistory is not about specific heroes or great people changing things but more about the inexorable trend leading to certain outcomes. The repeated sci-fi action scenes don't really match with the original work. That said, it's not a bad show if you wat…

So far, I prefer Foundation the series over the original Asimov book.

The book has an interesting philosophical idea (psychohistory), but just doesn't work as a story. It feels too much like a disjointed sequence of deus ex machinas. (To be fair, I've read some other stuff from Asimov's Foundation series that did work as a story.)

The TV series tells a pretty compelling story and mostly does so quite well. Of course, by far the best aspect (the genetic dynasty) isn't even part of the book at all. So yeah, it's not a faithful adaptation, but it is a better story. The only thing I'm doubtful of is whether they can keep it up. Spanning millenia in this format feels sort of impossible (except perhaps as an anthology series). How often is somebody just going to cryo-sleep for centuries and ending up in just the right place without it getting the same feeling of contrived deus ex machina as in the original book?

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

#642

Post by pvaldes » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 7:59 PM UTC

tomohawk wrote: post #128

The bee nailed the review: https://babylonbee.com/news/rings-of-power-review-game-of-th... but the trailer did make it seem compelling https://babylonbee.com/news/exclusive-scene-from-the-rings-o...

The squirrel killed me. I can't breath, LOL...

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

#643

Post by Fnoord » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 8:05 PM UTC

peoplefromibiza wrote: post #563

Fnoord wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the casted person was the best choice? Ian McKellen was an excellent choice for the role of Gandalf. Whether the same is true for other actors and roles depends on a case by case scenario. I couldn't care less about his skin colour. We in the West allowed foreigners and people of colour into our culture. We deal with it by being inclusive in 2022. Deal with it, simple as that. You don't like it, you don't wat…

> Ian McKellen was an excellent choice for the role of Gandalf But would be completely wrong in the role of Django. And Samuel L Jackson would make for a not so good Magneto. > you don't watch it. I hope I can still comment on the matter...

I don't know if that person would be right or wrong for that role since I don't know enough about acting in that sense. I envision myself being a terrible caster (but not on this specific matter).

It appears you believe skin color isn't compatible with a role, but I don't care about it; I only care about the actor's performance, and if the actor's skin is incompatible with the script we make it compatible. Either we change the skin color, or the script.

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

#644

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 8:10 PM UTC

satyrnein wrote: post #636

dudul wrote: post #575

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you name 10? I'm actually asking in good faith because I can't recall any "to white" race swapping in the past few years. All the ones I can think of were Ann Boleyn, the little mermaid, the coming beauty and the beast, the recent terrible resident evil, etc.

A current example is the movie Bullet Train, where Brad Pitt plays a character originally written as Japanese. But there are plenty of others, if you search for "whitewashing in movies" you can find lists.

[deleted]

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

#645

Post by saghm » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 8:14 PM UTC

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…

> A common counter argument is, well you can suspend your disbelief and imagine a dragon, so why is a diverse community in a small village not ok? It just feels less immersive. Yes, I can go along with it - but I'm not sure it works. It feels like the modern world superimposed in a fantasy setting. I'd prefer to be sent to an alien world.

I think it might be worth thinking about whether this is actually "European fantasty" or just "fantasy" that you're used to as thinking of European. For a thought experiment, imagine a young adult today who has never consumed any sort of fictional media (novels, movies, etc.), but otherwise has the same education in terms of non-fictional things (math, science, history, etc.) that you might expect. If you showed them two portrayals of a Lord of the Rings setting that were identical except for one using only fair-skinned, European-ancestry actors, and the other with the type of "diverse" casting that you're describing, would the latter seem somehow less believable? I'm not convinced that someone who hadn't already been primed to expect fair skinned, European-ancestry actors in fantasy due to having already consumed decades of content with that sort of casting would somehow find that more "accurate" in a world full of elves and dwarves and orcs and other fictional races alongside humans. In a vacuum, I don't think there's really any sort of tension between elements of traditional "European fantasy" (dragons, wizards, sword fights, etc.) and diversity when set somewhere that pretty clearly is not supposed to be set in medieval Europe (or really at anywhere at all in the history of Earth); insisting that some small subset of the lore happening to resemble European fantasy somehow implies that the entire fictional world has to demographically resemble medieval Europe seems like much more of an imposition of external cultural expectations than casting diverse actors is.

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

#646

Post by sudosysgen » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 8:16 PM UTC

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…

You really really didn't think this through. While they live deep underground and don't need to protect from UV light, they also don't need to have white skin to let in sunlight for vitamin synthesis.

In the real world, skin didn't get paler simply because there wasn't enough UV. It got paler because less sunlight meant that darker skin couldn't absorb enough light for synthesis. If this wasn't case, our skins would still be dark.

So there is absolutely 1000% no reason at all why their skin would be any specific color. Dark or white, all are justifiable.

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

#647

Post by andrepd » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 8:16 PM UTC

ratsmack wrote: post #457

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…

>European fantasy stories European history should be portrayed accurately, be it fantasy or reality. It seems that those that shout loudest about cultural appropriation are the first to glorify cultural appropriation when it suites their world view.

> European history should be portrayed accurately

Yes, it's important that the Second Age is portrayed in historically accurate fashion.

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

#648

Post by Evenjos » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 8:17 PM UTC

pseudo0 wrote: post #38

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

It seems kind of weird to characterize Tolkien fans being interested in a new, high-profile Lord of the Rings show as "brigading". Of course the people with the biggest emotional connection and interest in a franchise will be the ones most active in reviewing, creating YouTube videos, and discussing it online. I think the better question is why so many established sci-fi and franchises seem to be alienating their cor…

Major studios are terrified of taking a risk on an unknown IP. That's why they keep snatching up IPs with established audiences. I can't wait until that attitude changes. There are plenty of small, unknown authors who wrote excellent series.

And then the studios are approaching each adaptation as a committee instead of as a visionary. It's writing-by-committee instead of writing as an individual.

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

#649

Post by onepunchedman » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 8:20 PM UTC

maxk42 wrote: post #570

onepunchedman wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say European, except for the fact that Tolkien wrote the story, what part of the show thus far has given you an explicit European feel? Did the Harfoots resemble British subjects, or do the race of men have to be from the European continent because of their skin color? Which city did Lindon look like? If we're already in a fantasy setting, why is there such a focus on relating the setting of the fantasy to o…

> When you say European, except for the fact that Tolkien wrote the story, what part of the show thus far has given you an explicit European feel? "Middle Earth" was an old phrase used to refer to Western Europe in several Scandinavian languages. Tolkien, being a linguist, would have known this and chosen that turn of phrase deliberately.

You are missing my argument completely. What I'm saying is that yes, Tolkien may have envisioned Middle Earth as proto-European fantasy, but when you're arguing for "historical accuracy", you can't pick and choose. You're arguing about skin color as if a) no people of color lived in Europe at the time, and b) you're completely avoiding touching on the origin of Tolkien's evil races and nations, and in particular orcs. If hobbits, men, and elves need to be white, then orcs necessarily need to be black and brown people, no? They need to be uncivilised brutes who only want to destroy with no mind of their own? That is a simplified depiction of Tolkien's works, but do you think that those prejudices hold, or that they should be depicted in modern media? If yes, then you are a bigot and a racist, and if no, it's WEIRD how the inclusion of people of color is where you're putting your foot down.

PS: read "you" as in the collective you, not you specifically.

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

#650

Post by onepunchedman » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 8:21 PM UTC

irrational wrote: post #599

onepunchedman wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you say European, except for the fact that Tolkien wrote the story, what part of the show thus far has given you an explicit European feel? Did the Harfoots resemble British subjects, or do the race of men have to be from the European continent because of their skin color? Which city did Lindon look like? If we're already in a fantasy setting, why is there such a focus on relating the setting of the fantasy to o…

Wasn’t the whole point of Lord of the Rings to provide a (made-up) mythology for Great Britain? Middle Earth is ancient Great Britain (or maybe ancient NW Europe) according to Tolkien.

You're not at all touching on my argument. Read my reply to maxk42.