I watched the first ep, dcp; thought it was pretty but I'm too familiar with the text, and keep getting tripped up by the choices they are making.

Things like: Elrond was highly regarded for his family connections and wouldn't have been left out of a meeting for racist reasons. By this point in the canon timeline, Galadriel has fucked off east with Celeborn, who we haven't even met yet? The kingdom of Lindon would not have sent soldiers all the way to Mordor to oversee human villagers in case they still support Sauron. That was not a thing. The High King of the Noldor did not dictate who got to go to the Undying Lands: only the Valar could do that. Finrod died in Sauron's dungeons, eaten alive by werewolves, while trying to help Beren and Luthien steal a Silmaril.

I think I have to treat the show as an AU: there's too much they legally cannot talk about (anything about the Silmarils or the Exile of the Noldor, etc etc), and they are compressing the timeline of what they can talk about in order to up the dramatic quotient.

I hope it's good! I want to like it! But I am concerned.

I knew the bonus Sandman would be Dream of a Thousand Cats, but I did *not* know about Calliope. That was a rough watch.

I think I have to treat the show as an AU: there's too much they legally cannot talk about (anything about the Silmarils or the Exile of the Noldor, etc etc), and they are compressing the timeline of what they can talk about in order to up the dramatic quotient.

Yeah, they're trying to piece together a narrative out of the appendices/some unpublished notes maybe but explicitly NOT the Silmarillion, which is a rough spot to be in.

On the one hand I don't remember the Silmarillion well enough to be bothered by specific details like that, OTOH it's also been long enough since I've watched an epic fantasy where I didn't know all the names and places in advance that I'm finding it hard to keep track of who & where everyone is. (The last show I watched with this level of pre-existing material ignorance was The Witcher, and I still have no idea what any of the countries or 90% of those characters are called because my brain just has them all filed under "fantasy name, will pronounce later")

I'm finding it hard to keep track of who & where everyone is

Definitely a problem: I didn't realize that Bronwyn & Arondir were in what later becomes Mordor!

My sister insists that I watch the show with her so I can hit pause and explain things for her. Her fiance fell asleep 10 minutes into Ep 1. :D

I didn't realize that Bronwyn & Arondir were in what later becomes Mordor!

I sort of assumed that based on context clues (definitely something very evil in the groundwater or whatever!) but yeah, I could really use a Second-to-Third Age translation guide.

I didn't realize that Bronwyn & Arondir were in what later becomes Mordor!

Was it? That didn't occur to me. I thought it was Rhûn, or perhaps Dorwinion.

ETA: Whooops! Looks like you were right. Ep. 3 gave us a nice pan of the map.

Finally saw eps 2 & 3 of RoP; liked them more. Definitely more AU -- for instance, Elendil has a daughter (of which I thoroughly approve!). I like the weird responses to Galadriel in Numenor, although frankly as an Eldar, she should look way less bedraggled. That's the whole point of being from Valinor, isn't it?

I liked both Miriel and Disa, as well. Didn't love the weird rock contest with Durin, but I did appreciate the explanation for his anger at Elrond. That made a lot of sense.

Still struggling with the short hair on the male Elves. WTF, this looks ridiculous.

LotR: TRoP

I wonder whether Eärien will end up being the primary architect for Gondor.

ooh, that's a cool idea, dcp!

Willow series trailer: [link]

I didn't realize how much I wanted this. I'm actually more excited for this than any of the upcoming Marvel or Star Wars stuff (though Tales of the Jedi with pre-Sith Dooku looks interesting.)