After a season of The Rings Of Power

 No, I didn't really appreciate it. And yes, I saw every episode hoping to find some good bits. Most of the time, I fell asleep and had to rewatch the episode. Anyway, now it's over. Time to take stock.

The fact that The Rings of Power is a betrayal of Tolkien's vision is obvious, but sadly it's not the worst thing about this series. Starting with the politically correct: Amazon had plenty of opportunity for the inclusion of races other than white people because races, in fact, do exist in Tolkien's legendarium (and the Hobbits are, in part, brown-skinned). But the diversity casting in the series brings the American melting pot to the earth of European medieval origin, which is the base of Tolkien's books (now, this is cultural appropriation, isn't it?).

Cheap plot tricks or outright follies are further disasters, as the Elves need Mithril to survive; whole Orc armies come out of nowhere despite the fact Galadriel has tried to find them year after year; Galadriel jumps off the ship to swim back to Middle Earth...

But... the worst problem is that the screenwriters don't even try to follow Tolkien's vision. The Rings of Power is just another Hollywood fantasy series and not a good one at that: it lacks a powerful impulse, a good motivation. The Rings of Power can't be based on Tolkien's books because there are strong limitations by the Tolkien Estate, and it shows. Besides having a vague resemblance to Middle Earth, the series is slow and dull. Tolkien's narrative skill isn't there, and things happen casually (Arondir being left to go free... why him, the most dangerous and competent of the prisoners?).

Then we have Galadriel as an insufferable angry woman. Many have criticized her for being a warrior, but in Tolkien's work, she was. But her willingness to torture for information (although, in the end, she doesn't do that)? I can't imagine this lack of wisdom in a centuries-old person. Moreover, Galadriel was a warrior in the Legendarium, so it's not inappropriate to see her carrying weapons. But in the Amazon series, being a warrior seems all she can be. In Tolkien's works, female power does exist, as I've tried to explain in my book. But it's another kind of power.

Will the screenwriters understand that?