That’s true of most things, including PJ’s LotR.

A lot of the dislike of RoP on this site and elsewhere involves lack of fidelity to the original text. That’s fair enough: we all have different tolerances of such changes. No one’s feelings are wrong – it’s a matter of personal preference. But, I could ask - what text? – because the Second Age material to which Amazon has the rights is pretty scant. I could ask – which text? – because Tolkien wrote a lot of stuff in his later years that contradicts published material, for instance, warrior Galadriel. Are Tolkien’s writings only canon if he or his son managed to get them published? Regardless, McKay and Payne seem to be drawing some inspiration from that material.

Further, it isn’t enough to say that something wasn’t that way in the book and therefore it’s bad. It might be awful but not just because it’s changed. An adaptation is a story being told in a different medium, for a different audience. The adapters may feel that changes have to be made to elements of the story to make it work in its new environment. Here, Tolkien’s world, its peoples and events are going to be slightly to very much altered after passing through the minds of the many other artists involved in the production.

Michelle, you and I often seem to see things about RoP in a similar way. It’s interesting to me to look at your list of deficiencies and see where I’m of the same mind.

Sauron’s disintegration into evil black goo and restoration into something that looks like a man was a bit silly but worked for me, making it very clear that Sauron is, in fact, not a man of any sort but a supernatural entity and very hard to destroy. But where was that boat going?

I think that the necessary groundwork has been laid for the Numenor story, and now that the weighty Annatar-Celebrimbor and the forging of the Rings chapter is finished, Numenor can come into its own over the next couple of seasons.

The creation of Mordor was unlikely, especially if the volcano has to then continuously spew sun-obscuring vapours for millennia to come.

Don’t get the smallness of the Southlands.

I’ve enjoyed pretty much all of the Stranger and Harfoots’ arc. I wish the Stranger wasn’t Gandalf but it doesn’t really change the story we’re seeing. Apparently, the writers were inspired by an undeveloped idea of Tolkien’s that Gandalf had visited M-e before the Third Age.

It seems to me that Poppy was originally intended to join the rest of the Harfoots in Season 2 obscurity, but minds were changed. The only way for her to join the quest was to follow Nori and the Stranger, however cutesy it turned out. I really like Poppy and the relationship between her and Nori, so I’m glad. I hope we meet the Fallohides next season. Maybe we’ll see all three groups settle down in the Shire. I know, timeline heresy!

I don’t disagree that Benjamin Walker had been rather wooden as Gil-galad but feel he’s better in Season 2. He also has a great, kingly screen presence and is pretty impressive wielding Aeglos. There was an interview on Rings and Realms with Walker in which he talks at length about Tolkien. He’s another who knows his stuff, thinks about it and apparently loves talking about it.

I do think that the Pelargir story has been dragged down by the abysmal acting and lack of screen presence of the actor playing Theo. Now that Bronwyn, Arondir and Isildur are gone, I couldn’t care less. Maybe the incredibly annoying Kemen and the Ents will liven things up. On that note, I think we’ve agreed before that both Kemen and Earien seemed pretty useless in Season 1 but now, as their characters actually have something significant to do, their acting has improved immensely.