Real Reason Tolkien Fans Hate Rings of Power Is Surprisingly Biased If You Think About It
Bear with us for a second there.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s first season was so controversial many Tolkien fans still believe that the “Lord of the Rings” part in its title is not something the Amazon series actually deserves.
While not being based on some particular Tolkien works, The Rings of Power still inflicted a lot of anger from the Middle-earth admirers who still believe that Prime Video ‘s endeavor is insulting to Tolkien’s legacy.
Still, there are many people who believe that the case is somewhat different, and it’s not about The Rings of Power being bad. It’s about the fact that The Rings of Power is not Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Because the iconic three movies enjoy so much fan admiration, it seems that every other project is doomed to failure and hate, even if it is directed by Jackson himself. The Hobbit is a great example here: despite being a commercial success, it was blasted by LotR fans for being a “cash grab” and a way to “milk” the legendary Middle-earth universe.
According to such fans, The Rings of Power is simply yet another step in that direction, being nothing short of an “expensive filler that’s making questionable changes like how mithril works or how the line of [Durin] works” which “makes no sense.”
However, there is a different opinion. Exactly because the original trilogy was so perfect in every sense, not only The Hobbit, but also The Rings of Power suffers from simply not living up to the high bar. But it doesn’t mean that either The Hobbit or The Rings of Power is a failure.
After all, despite all the criticism The Rings of Power faced, we have a second season in the works, and it’s still Amazon’s most expensive project. Each season is estimated to enjoy the budget of around $100-150 million, and it’s not like anyone would spend that amount of money on something that is ultimately a failure.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the scores are very split: while critics give The Rings of Power 83% on Tomatometer, the average audience score is as low as 38%. Well, we’ll have to wait and see if the upcoming second season will be able to change the situation.
