Last night's Rings of Power was extravagantly stupid. For those who care about such things, that's hardly news. But there are plenty who prefer to be led by the bridle, so to speak, who judge a satisfying viewing experience by how much money was spent on it, or the context it was placed in by its creators and producers. So I've started thinking more about what Rings of Power means for The Lord of the Rings and the entertainment industry in general.
Recently, Nielson revealed that Rings of Power had more viewers than House of the Dragon. That's not so surprising. Amazon Prime has far more subscribers than HBOMax or HBO--people use Amazon Prime for other things besides streaming services. Rings of Power is PG, and House of the Dragon is adult. Amazon Prime is also much better distributed globally. Where I live in Japan, I find people I talk to have generally never heard of Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings but I've seen some marketing here for Rings of Power and none for House of the Dragon. Rings of Power is fully translated on Japanese Amazon Prime. There is a streaming service here that carries House of the Dragon but I've never met anyone who has it.
So what is this strange thing we call Rings of Power? It hasn't succeeded on the merits of its creative talent. The closest analogy I can think of is the Transformers movies, films on which millions of dollars are spent despite terrible reviews and gradually diminishing box office returns. But Rings of Power was launched in an environment in which the IP had been damaged by an unpopular set of movies--the Hobbit movies--and one in which any financial gains from the project would be irrelevant or difficult to measure. I suppose if it were a series everyone loved, it might have driven up Prime subscriptions a little, but virtually everyone who can afford it already has Amazon Prime. There doesn't seem to be any rational reason for this thing to exist, which led to my theory last week about it being part of a money laundering scheme--that, and the fact that only a fraction of the money reportedly spent on the show is visible onscreen.
I called the show the Spruce Goose of the streaming era and, like Howard Hughes' expensive and ultimately useless vanity project, Rings of Power ultimately seems to be a flex for Jeff Bezos. It's a sign that we more and more live in a world where things are dictated by very wealthy minority as every day presents new stories about some massive franchise or internet service Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk has bought recently. Interestingly, Rings of Power actually reflects this reality. Last night's episode, "Udun", presented a story about ultra rich people swooping in to save the day contrasted with poor people too dumb and hateful to know what's in their best interests--the conclusion of the episode showing a leader of the people I call the hillbilles--because of their distinctive overalls--setting in motion a terrible catastrophe. One could read into it an allegory about how dim-witted poor people are responsible for climate change. In this light, the real competitor for Rings of Power may be Andor, which features poor, working class protagonists fighting against a wealthy ruling class who have little interest in the needs or wants of their social inferiors.
But last night's Rings of Power also introduced a "sympathetic orc" subplot, revealing the disfigured elf in charge of the orcs, Adar, is in fact an orc himself, one of the first of the elves who were twisted by Morgoth to create the orc race. Which of course immediately makes him more interesting than anyone else on the show, in the process also deviating considerably from the kind of story Tolkien sought to tell with the orcs. But not so far from the kind of story Tolkien sought to tell with Gollum, so I'd say it could be fair game, but it's handled very badly. Adar has something like a St. Crispin's Day speech, all but calling the orcs his band of brothers, and his dialogue with Galadriel is about how the orcs are slaves and oppressed people. This would explain why the orcs would attack Sauron or Morgoth but does nothing to explain why he's attacking humans and elves. Galadriel starts to come off as a bloodthirsty tyrant in the dialogue, too, which may have been partially intentional but raises too many questions and inconsistencies. For example, as Galadriel mentions, it was known among the elves that Morgoth captured and twisted elves to create the orcs. Was there ever any discussion of redeeming them? Of rescuing them? What happened to make the elves so firmly set against the idea? If we don't know this, we can't gauge how irrational Galadriel is being.
I'm tempted to say the ultimate effect of The Rings of Power will be to put another nail in the coffin of the Lord of the Rings IP. But it's so disconnected from the actual interests of the audience that it may be an indication of a future media landscape in which the majority of viewers are invited to get what satisfaction they can from the scraps of feasts that the wealthy commission for themselves.
Rings of Power is available on Amazon Prime.
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