The main issue with this show is people like Malcolm McMillan, the writer of this article, writing negative clickbait articles like this one that simply have no merit. The very first paragraph talks about an "existing story". That's already a false assumption as there is no such thing. Silmarillon does not even describe Celeborn in any details that could be used for TV, so the studio can fill that in any way they want.
Hell, Silmarillon doesn't describe a lot of things, it's not a story.
I love the show because the content it is based on leaves soo much open to be filled in to actually create the story. And I haven't actually seen any deviation from the material it is based on.
But the internet doesn't work like that and Tom's can make more money going with the negativity around this show, the negativity has gone viral unfortunately.
Yeah I was surprised Tom's guide had a review, enough to click. Holy cow does this failure at critique show a clear lack of respect for Tolkien and a lack of knowledge of his work. The show is not "throwing out" Tolkein Canon. Let's pretend this toxicity is a good faith critique.
The master linguist was inspired by the shifts in histories, myths and language - which was his dayjob. To a degree that if you don't know Thorongil's identity you miss out completely on a puzzle in the Appendices for ROTK; lovely Easter Eggs abound. To illustrate, if you know Varda is Elbereth, FOTR has deeper meaning - intentionally! Primary documents have these kinds of mysteries, and he was well aware that translators massage meaning to serve the story.
Which means, The Red Book of West March, is intentionally, not entirely accurate - it's a recollection. The Hobbit's revision was a plot point, and these are the in-canon justifications!
IRL, though, there's another aspect that fans of the lore know - the only definitive works are the Hobbit and the LOTR! There's a reason people interested in the deep lore are encouraged to start with unfinished tales - everything published after his death was in the drafting stages. Christopher Tolkein did his best by his father's revisions. Professor Tolkein's letters, drafts, and notes are an indication of his
thought process. He admits he doesn't know everything about the blue wizards in 211, but then later he notes that their names are Alatar and Pallando, or Morinehtar and Rómestámo. There is much more than has been released by the Tolkein estate as published works.
As we famously know with Galadrial and Celeborn, Tolkein changed his mind! He was still revising and drafting before he died. Things such as as when the Wizards Arrive being either 3A 1000 in Unfinished Tales, or now 2A 1600 in People's of Middle Earth, indicate how fluid the canon is. Tolkein's work is not ex cathedra. It's incomplete, there are gaps and unanswered mysteries. Like the primary documents it emulates, the source material contains conjecture, partial truths, and what we have was meant to be in service to the epic story that is LOTR.
This brings me to canon, which is not being destroyed, and continuity. Let move from the Author to the Showrunners maligned here.
Reread that Hollywood Reporter article again. Amazon underbid Netflix, and the Tolkein Estate went with their pitch. Why? Amazon promised not an adaptation, but a relationship. That relationship is why even though they are not explicitly adapting the Simarillion canon - it's still keeping in continuity with it.
The holders of those rights is still the Tolkein Estate and they will determine if Amazon breaks their deal. According to Tom Shippey, The estate refused to let them set the show at any other point than the second Age, and insisted the main shape of the plot is not altered. Which begs the question... How much of this is the Showrunners?
For all we know, there is a half finished epic poem written in Quenya and Common. In it, Glofindel and Durin's Bane fight on top of Caradhras, as a possible, but eventually abandoned, origin for Mithril. The Showrunners received access we can only imagine, and that's the kind of cool thing you find in archives. I trust the Tolkein Estate to weild their relationship, as they did with New Line and Warner Bros.
Though it's not an adaptation of the Akallabeth, that doesn't mean they can't show the fall of Numenor. There is absolutely no reason the estate wouldn't let an event that happens in the second Age be present in the show. Of course, we're going to see the professor's Atlantis analog sink, what's interesting is how it happens!
Here's where this review sent me on this path though - the sheer lack of depth perception on Galadriel's character. She is not 7,188 years old yet! Not could she be a powerful elven ruler commanding a ring of power? Unforged, the rings are. Lórien is ruled by Amdír. This is a prequel problem - you're seeing how the character develops to become that person. Even Elves shift slowly, though here it is accelerated to serve the story.
Pay attention to Galadriel's subtleties! She is not one-dimensional, concealing depths. The mystery of where is Celeborn (for I much desire to see him) is 100% tied to why she can't go to Valinor in the second Age.
Tolkein doesn't have a definitive canon answer for why Galadriel doesn't go. Either she isn't pardoned for her rebellion until the test of the Ring, or... she chooses to stay, rejecting the pardon. Why? Here we have the devotion to her brother, dead after a duel with a werewolf in canon. His vow is the Public Duty angle to her quest, but the personal, hidden, subtle angle this information reveals is that her husband is only presumed dead!
That is what puzzles her peers. Why not go to Valinor to be reunited with her love? The effects and cinematography show the subtle influence of the Valar, and we see her reject their offer to meet canon. Why return?
Well, Elves mate for life, indeed! That is why it feels wrong for her to go to Valinor - She doesn't know that her husband is dead! She never agreed to go because she literally can't move on - it nags at her. Who might know what Morgoth did with him? His leiutenant, the person she's hunting - Sauron. Celeborn is as dead as Isildur.
Love is the only thing that could bring an elf to abandon the sea and return to Middle Earth. This enhances and explains canon, creating a solution the Author couldn't resolve and kept trying to, up to his death. It slots in perfectly with what is known, and the themes in canon; that love can be magic strong enough to wrestle a simaril from the hand of the enemy itself.
The hole in this, canonically, is Celebrían, their daughter who marries Elrond... Early in the third age. Does that break canon? Yes, but it doesn't break continuity. Whether she is yet to be born, or we have yet to see her, Celebrían's absence does change the shape of the Second Age.
Lastly, enough of the willful ignorance about what this show is about. They are absolutely trying to tell a complete story, across five seasons.
A story that is famously unadaptable, according to the author. Recognize that there is no way to plot a show that starts here, and ends with the Last Alliance of Men and Elves. To follow the timeline properly. ~3,000 years in 60 episodes would be incomprehensible as a narrative. Only the Elves stay alive, but the Men die in two episodes, Halflings three, Dwarves in four, and Numenorians in 8. Killing their darlings would not improve the show. Durin IV and VI being combined into one character doesn't destroy their book versions. It makes the narrative comprehensible to serve the story being told.
Could the pacing be better? Maybe, though that seems deliberate to keep the suspense of who is Sauron disguised as. Are there aspects that needed better execution? That's always the case in art. Is it absolutely worth it for the hauntingly beautiful plea Disa sang directly to the mountain? It would have moved Illuvatar's heart.
The show is not a complete work. This is the first act of five, and it's all setup. The peices are falling into place, but to give up now, barely into the journey? That speaks of a desire to find a reason to stop.
Not everyone has the fortitude to kill their expectations when what you receive isn't what you thought it would be. You don't have to keep watching if you decide not to, either. Please though, do not impose your decision not to watch on others.
Revising, I'm half certain this Denethor level of despair is intended to provoke Tolkein fans like this. To jump universes, it can fun to clutch your pearls and bemoan that this slave boy could never become Darth Vader and the Phantom Menace destroys the Dark Lord of the Sith's Character. Give it time.
After all, this situation is not Disney's Lucasfilm and Amazon does not own the Tolkein estate. Armed with knowledge of canon, you have a map of where they are going in continuity.
Sure, the map doesn't match the territory, and there are things unexpected but there. Yet it's still the road, and still going forever, on and on.
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