As someone who has grown up with the Lord of the Rings franchise I was equally ecstatic and afraid for the airing of The Rings of Power. To start off the series is not based off of The Silmarillion or any book of Tolkien’s. Amazon simply bought the rights to The Lord of Rings franchise meaning they are able to make this show and many others based off of nothing that is canon from the series. This has already caused much discourse amongst avid fans. Personally this fact and the thought of what could become of this series sent chills down my spine. The Hobbit being split into three different movies was already hard enough to go through. As to be expected I was not the only fan who felt this way. Avid fans of the franchise started leaving gutting reviews on the Amazon Prime Video website. The discourse in the reviews became so intense that amazon turned off the review feature just for The Rings of Power. However, I started watching the show without looking up any other opinions of the show because I wanted to go into it with an open mind. Also there was no point in looking up the background of the show because I knew deep down that no horrible rumors or angry fan comments would stop me from watching the show. 

I am glad I did not oversaturate my thoughts with the opinions of others because overall I enjoyed the show. It had the familiarity of The Lord of the Rings franchise I love with its mythical aesthetic and well known character names from the other movies. One gripe I share with the avid fans is that Galadriel was stressed to be a swordless peaceful sorceress, but in this series she is a bloodthirsty warrior on a hunt to avenge her brother. On one hand making a prominent female character a warrior is a cheap wannabe feminist cop out, but on the other hand if done right watching Galadriel’s character develop from blood thirsty to swordless would be rather thrilling to watch. I do not have high hopes that this character development will be executed well not because of anything that was said during the first episode, but because of the previous history I have with fantasy shows. However, if I just look at The Lord of the Rings franchise’s character developments in the past I have high hopes. The romance between Kili and Tauriel cannot be found anywhere in The Hobbit book and the relationship was completely made up by the director of The Hobbit movies by Peter Jackson. The couple’s love story was so captivating that it made Kili’s death scene even sadder when Tauriel started ranting about how love is bad to Thranduil. Not only did this monologue continue the mourning process of the death of a well loved character it also gave Thranduil a chance to reveal some of his background as he comforted her. Therefore, it appears that new characters and motives are added onto reinterpretations of The Lord of the Rings franchise to bring a new perspective. Nonetheless I doubt that Amazon has pure intentions for The Rings of Power.