Hey there! Thanks for stopping by today! This week we are hitting up a whimsical and nerdy topic, Lord of the Rings vs Harry Potter. We will discuss all aspects of the books and movies, or at least as many as we can imagine. We will dive into character development, world building, and the difference between the two fantasy genres! The conversation came up at a perfect time, as I have just finished watching the two cinematic trilogies based on J. R. R. Tolkien's novels Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and then the new Amazon Prime series The Rings of Power.
Unfortunately, I have not connected with anyone else who has seen the series. I really want to share my opinion on some things without spoiling it – I really dislike spoilers of any kind!. I don’t even like reading synopses for books, shows and movies because oftentimes, I get stuck on what I read or what I thought I read, which leads to misconceptions. Therefore, taking that into consideration, and respecting any readers who do not want to be spoiled, I will be as obtuse as possible.
First of all, there are a lot of characters, similar to Game of Thrones, and the dramatization of each character unfolds in short turns as the plot goes along. The characters seem unrelated to each other at first, as they are scattered in different locations, each with their own side stories. Some characters are developed further with back stories, allowing you to take a peek into their past. I am sure that they will all start to come together as the plot develops. The cast chosen for these characters are so diverse. They chose to be inclusive in the telling of the stories of Middle Earth this time, and chose people of all colors, age, and gender. Many of the main characters are females, and that is just really refreshing!
Unlike Game of Thrones, the story is clean with a TV-14 rating only due to violence. There are none of the ‘HBO-esq’ provocative scenes that many shows are known for having. There is a romantic plot that will hopefully blossom. That was one thing that I appreciated more in the series. I felt that in all three of the books, there was a greatly missed opportunity to build on the romance between Aragorn and Arwen. I understand that J. R. R. Tolkien is not a romance novelist, but I like a story with equal action, humor, drama and romantic plot
Although I enjoyed The Rings of Power, it was a slow burn. I went into this almost blind. I had only read and seen the trilogies. I have not read any other works by J. R. R. Tolkien yet. I was unsure what the series would be about other than the rings, which were loosely explained in The Fellowship of the Ring, the first book of the trilogy written after The Hobbit. When watching the first episode, I was familiar with some of the characters by name, but unfamiliar with the specific time and setting. Although I am very confident in my knowledge of the contents in the map presented in the trilogy, I was having a hard time grasping where the characters were located on said map, and when they existed in relevance to the other tales of Middle Earth. Although it took a few episodes for me to latch on and stop trying to compare the series to the movies, I finally started to enjoy the storyline as the plot thickened. Then I was hooked, and each episode left me wanting more. The whole time, I was like “when are we getting to ‘the rings’ though?” So long as Amazon keeps renewing for another season, I am anticipating this being a long drawn out series, and I am 100% A-OK with that.
Have you seen The Rings of Power? What were your thoughts? I would love to know, but remember no spoilers please for our other readers (AKA Cindy and Amber), because they have not watched it yet.
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