Amazon series:reactions and thoughts (Spoiler alert!)

Ilana Mushin said:
This discussion has moved way past your original point about Hawley’s quote about ‘perfect’ third age Elves. I don’t see the length of time it might take a team of mortal or immortal seamsters a big deal for what they are trying to depict about the different cultures.
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How? If the show shows human royal clothes as more advanced and sophisticated than elvish royal clothes then it automatically shows elvish royal clothes as more primitive than human royal clothes - which corresponds with the cited statement of "elves being less perfect in the 2nd age than in the 3rd" and on a lower stage of "evolution" than in the assumed future - which all goes against anything Tolkien stated about elvish culture.

Elves have not time constraints, as such they can affort to make anything "perfect".
 
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As the show is made by humans, it is always going to be a challenge to represent Elven culture, especially Elves who are more effectual. I said already that I think this was the weakest culture to be represented in my view. But in watching the show I’m not feeling that the Numenoreans are superior to the High Elves in their garments and jewellery. The elves clothes do feel more like they put their love of things into what they make whereas Miriels cloggers come across to me as ‘mighty’ and grand.
 
I guess we can agree to disagree about whether this means the show makers completely misunderstand the Elves and the ring of power. They’ve only begun to tell that story so I still feel that while there are some plot points (like the mightily story) that don’t seem right, I do see enough to make me feel that they do understand Tolkien’s elves but haven’t always succeeded in translating that to the screen - and I’m goin with ‘if something doesn’t seem right it probably isn’t and this is a deliberate part of their storytelling approach.’ Time will tell…
 
Ilana Mushin said:
They’ve only begun to tell that story so I still feel that while there are some plot points (like the mightily story) that don’t seem right, I do see enough to make me feel that they do understand Tolkien’s elves but haven’t always succeeded in translating that to the screen -
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This is what I thought so far - that the elves in RoP feeling unelvish is an "artefact" of not getting the intended result right [there are several such places - like e.g. proposing that Sauron has already died at the beginning of the show - why would any immortal elf who lives for millenia himself ever propose that? Assuming Sauron being mortal is a strange thing as mortal is not default for elves - still the show makes it feel like it were. That is a big problem in the show: making elvish problems, outlooks, attitudes towards the passing of time seem to follow a "mortal default" - why? RoP's elves think like mortals, react like mortals, plan like mortals, overlook things like mortals - why that? In Tolkien elves sometimes even fail because they do not think like mortals - as such their problem is their lack of a certain"elasticity" to be able to adapt to changing circumstances - which elves have trouble to accept - and their reluctance to try a new approach - but for sure they do no act like mortals] - but the explanation provided by the costume designer makes it seem deliberate - which is 10 x so worrysome - and explains why RoP's elves feel just like humans with pointy ears and not like elves...
 
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For the record, Gil-galad's costume has gold thread embroidery as well as pearl beads on it. It looks simpler than it is, essentially. There are hi-res photos available. I do not take issue with the skill of the stitchers who made the costume, but rather with many of the choices made by the costume designer. Taking fantasy seriously is hardly typical, so I am grateful the designs didn't fall too much into whimsy or overlyl fanciful...but overall the effect is disappointing, not awe-inspiring.

If you want elven outfits...I have friends who have done a better job creating original design elven costumes.

But it's not just a matter of comparison to the Jackson films. Here's an image showing the character design of Thranduil from the new Gollum game:

1689135923517.png

This is a FAR more interesting color palette than 'kings wear gold'
 
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MithLuin said:
For the record, Gil-galad's costume has gold thread embroidery as well as pearl beads on it. It looks simpler than it is, essentially. There are hi-res photos available. I do not take issue with the skill of the stitchers who made the costume, but rather with many of the choices made by the costume designer. Taking fantasy seriously is hardly typical, so I am grateful the designs didn't fall too much into whimsy or overlyl fanciful...but overall the effect is disappointing, not awe-inspiring.

If you want elven outfits...I have friends who have done a better job creating original design elven costumes.

But it's not just a matter of comparison to the Jackson films. Here's an image showing the character design of Thranduil from the new Gollum game:

View attachment 5138

This is a FAR more interesting color palette than 'kings wear gold'
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This for sure is multilayered - and the sheerness of the tranluscent layer shows off the skill of an assumed weaver. And while elves are stronger than humans it still seems difficult to wear. But I like fern trim - altogether there are some very elvish ideas and it looks too impractical for a human to attempt to wear it - which is good. But I would put far more embroidery on it as this a very individualistic manual art which I would assume elves being very into.

1689138193242.png
 
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This would actully make sense and not contradict the timeline and everything Tolkien wrote about the character, cicumstances, gifts and life of Galadriel:


"I knew that I was playing some sort of elf. I knew it was in the Second Age. Me and my sister were reading through it all, and I was thinking I was Celebrían, her daughter, because I don't think I could fathom that it would be Galadriel," Clark said, potentially giving away a massive spoiler about the show's future plans.

Read More: https://www.looper.com/992986/morfy...-character-we-may-meet-in-the-rings-of-power/

Celebrían was in the perfect position to be played as young adult, naive, unexperienced and still unbalanced elf-maiden...
 
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