The Serie The Rings of Powerof Prime Video, an uneven first season is about to end. Despite his amazing visual section, the production has been criticized for its lack of adherence to JRR Tolkien’s mythology. Also, for its errors of coherence, continuity and narrative logic. Will he be able to overcome them with just one chapter to go?
It is a series of drawbacks that affect not only the solidity of the central approach to production. Also to the construction of a larger universe, on which its already imminent second season depends. The plot, which attempts to encompass Tolkien’s Second Age of Narratives, ran into the downside of the vastness of the available material. Also, with the need to reinvent, rewrite and, in some cases, directly add unpublished information to the central story of the production.
But apart from that, the script must structure a coherent story for events that take place millennia apart. Tolkien used the time to create a sense of his mythology in larger circumstances in his stories. So, a large number of the events that take place in The Second Age belongs to the field of speculation, without being deepened in any British text.
So, The Rings of Power, the first work set — not adapted — in the world of classic fantasy works, crosses several complicated layers. The hardest, several of which link their condition as a reflection of a larger mythology, but also real problems of internal logic.
The Rings of Power is the new phenomenon that everyone is talking about and that you can not miss
Galadriel, a complicated character with a confusing past
The story of The Rings of Power uses the figure of Galadriel to set the tone, rhythm and timeline of the events it narrates. It is through her that the plot raises the common thread of events and how evil is perceived in Valinor and Middle-earth. The Lady Elf is an exceptional witness of the first confrontation against Morgoth, also of the influence of the elves on the continent.
However, the circumstance puts the script at a difficult point. The character is one of those who underwent several consecutive rewritings by Tolkien himself.. The reason? After analyzing Galadriel in the trilogy The Lord of the rings and give him a specific preponderance, Tolkien considered his figure from another point of view.
The rewriting of the personality, relevance and power of the character, created some contradictions of context in his story. But, in addition, he left blank many of the points that link the Elf Lady with the rest of the stories written by the British. some of which The Rings of Power try to fill in new information or seemingly novel plot twists.
The first contradictions The Rings of Power
that the script of The Rings of Power travel through Middle-earth by means of Galadriel implies that several of those dissimilar versions will collide sooner or later. In the plot, the figure of him could move in several different scenarios. Is it the powerful creature with warlike leadership that makes the plot? Is she the lady of Lothlórien, visible head of a relevant kingdom? The mysterious presence she lent aid to Gandalf?
For now, the series focused on the elf’s youth, under the premise that she will mature as she progresses. The Rings of Power. But the inconsistent information is already notorious. In the seventh chapter, Galadriel revealed that Celeborn, her husband in Tolkien’s mythology, had died. Despite the fact that the argument suggests that she may only be missing, the event impacts the future.
If the series posits that Galadriel seeks revenge for her brother’s death, shouldn’t she feel the same need for her partner’s? More complicated still, how will the series include a pivotal character who defines Galadriel in several of her larger tales? The small but important contradiction makes the Elf Lady’s motivations unclear.. So much so that the context that surrounds her and her future motivations are questionable. A point that could directly affect the thematic unit of the series.
The Rings of Power and the chronological question
Tolkien used the time between events to create legends. In other words, to build a context on major events of enormous magnitude that are often questioned. A cunning device that allows the lessons of the past to be forgotten or, at least, can be ignored in certain circumstances.
So the existence of a Númenor ally of the elves is incomprehensible to its younger inhabitants. At the same time, the memory of the battle against Morgoth is unclear and imprecise. The circumstance of the chronological passage in Tolkien is of fundamental importance. In essence, because it gives a sense of full scope to creation myths, oral histories and all the rich history that sustains the work of the British.
In a singular narrative decision, the screenwriters of The Rings of Power They decided to synthesize a series of facts of crucial importance from the time proximity. The forging of the rings, the fall of Númenor, the so-called Bane of Durin. All are events that in Tolkien’s work keep an enormous temporal distance. Which allows them to become legends and, later, historical lessons that are forgotten. But the series suggests that they will happen — and, in fact, do happen — very close to each other. Which dissolves the effect.
The contradictions continue to the detriment of the depth of the story
The version can be justified within the dynamics of The Rings of Power. But the same characters are responsible for emphasizing the passage of entire eras, which means that the narrative contradicts itself. The queen regent Miriel speaks of her about her ancestors, her alliance with the elves and, after her, “the forgetting of old traditions”.
All in the context of millennia of elapsed time. Ditto Galadriel, who insists over and over again that he could devote “another age” to searching for Sauron and his orcs. So at least the series retains some Tolkian sense of time.
But, by temporarily compressing distant events, the resource loses its effectiveness. There are no forgotten lessons, but ignored facts, which transform the characters as a result of their mistakes and not their actions. A crack that will turn a good part of the map of future situations into complicated misunderstandings with lasting consequences. A harsh contradiction for the British mythology, which explores goodness from the condition of ideal actions.
A season that does not finish focusing
The writers of The Rings of Power they made the decision to build a seasonal conflict that, at the same time, is divided into three. On the one hand, the consequences of Durin III’s decision on the town of Lindon. To another, the identity of the mysterious man who fell from the stars.
But until now, the most complex of the enigmas of the script is the identity of Sauron. Just the point where The Rings of Power it could lose any solidity if the answer is obvious — as it seems to be — or a game of allusions without much support. At the moment, everything seems to indicate that Halbrand, the mysterious and convenient king of the southern lands, is the disguise of the Dark Lord.
The eventuality would lead the series to place him in Lindon by the end of the season, near or in collaboration with Celebrimbor. At the same time, with favorable relations with Númenor. Which would make Halbrand the center of two main stories that should coexist in the same space and setting.
The unanswered questions of The Rings of Power
But both Sauron’s manipulation of the men of Númenor — which caused the destruction of the Isle — and the forging of the Ring are disparate events. Not because of origin — both meditate on evil — but because they change the configuration of power in Middle-earth.
Do the writers intend for the fall of the western people and the creation of the rings to take place at the same time? If so, the narrow margin would make Halbrand an excuse for a fast-paced run through opposing scenarios.. With what motivation? It is still not very clear.
Try Amazon Prime Video totally free for 30 days and enjoy the complete catalog of the platform without limits. Just by signing up you will have instant access to the best movies and series, as well as free shipping on amazon and other advantages.
Even worse would be if the big reveal is that Sauron isn’t any of the suspected characters. That would convert to The Rings of Power in a sustained guessing game on clues without relevance to the future plot. A complicated error, with a second season right now underway.