A Philosopher Reviews "The Rings of Power"

I was reading comments under an Amazon Prime trailer for The Rings of Power and came across this gem by someone named Anil: “It began with the forging of the great films. Threads were given by Tolkien, immortal, wisest and fairest of all beings. Rights were granted to Jackson, great miner and craftsman of the mountains of lore. And nine, nine hours were gifted to the race of men, who above all else, desire quality. But they were all of them deceived, for another show was made. In the land of Amazon, in the fires of Mount Prime, the Dark Lord Bezos forged in secret a master flop. And into this show he poured his money, his greed and his will to dominate all film. One show to ruin them all.” Edit: I hope Netflix takes note of how badly Rings of Power did and keeps close to the original Narnia story.

I've always known there was some great Christian subtext hidden throughout Tolkien's works, but I could never quite put my finger on what it was. Hearing you talk about how the whole story is basically not a story of Hero vs Villain but rather of God's devine providence vs Evil finally made me consciously realize what I've subconsciously known all along. Thank you so much for this video!

I would love to see more "philosophy of" as portrayed in fiction, especially Tolkien and Lewis, but also covering stuff that's further afield.

I genuinely laughed out loud when you said that the show is about Galadriel wanting to speak to the manager xD Thanks great video chief

Interesting how IP repeats the refrain "They wanted to make a name for themselves," that's what is said in Genesis about those who built the tower of babel. I'm so grateful that he took the time to really break down how this thing went south, which most of us who love Tolkien figured it would. I couldn't stand watching something Amazon had concocted to make another buck for themselves and so join those who express gratitude to Michael for doing it for us.

Tolkien always intended to write Galadriel as an obnoxious, sanctimonious, sword-slashing dragon-lady, he just didn’t have the technology to write her that way back in the Forties and Fifties.

I think Sam Gamgee was one of the most 'powerful'. He was able to take the ring from Frodo when Frodo was captured by the Orcs, but he was able to give it back to Frodo when he had to. Even Galadriel and Gandalf didn't dare to take the ring even for a moment. Sam was the most simple, loving, faithful and humble, the ring would not have not got to mount doom if not for Sam.

It’s nice to see you taking a break from apologetics and talk about something else. Thanks for your work on This channel!

In the case of Beren and Luthien but esp. in the case of Frodo, we can see that for Tolkien there was this thing which can be called " intention above acomplishment ". A hero can be saved by providence not becouse he saves the world by his own valor or power but becouse he tried to save it serving without any consideration for his own sake but with all humility.

"These elves look more like Vulcans from Star Trek" Thank you! I thought they looked wrong and always thought they looked more like something else but couldn't quite put my finger on it. "Star Trek Vulcans" describes them perfectly!

When you see galadriel being tempted by the ring in fellowship, its a terrifying moment because even this being, who for all information at that moment, is more powerful and divine than gandalf and elrond, shows you how tempting and corrupting rhe one ring genuinely is. Now Frodo has to hike that badboy all the way to mordor! This galadriel would take the ring, no questions asked and probably do horrible things with it because shes a girl boss and doesn't need no man telling her what to do.

You know a show is bad when it breaks a man to the point he goes out of his way to review the show despite not being a movie reviewer.

From Philosophy enjoyer to Philosopher. Congratulations IP.

The show runners can’t rise above their own world view, no one can. They think they love Tolkien but their world view consists of “diversity is our strength”, “girl power” and “live your truth”. The show was never going to rise above that to Tolkien’s Catholic faith centered world view. Really enjoyed this stream. More content like this would be cool.

21:00 the show runners thought they were clever trying to misdirect the audience about who sauron is with other characters. They're geniuses in their own minds.

I’ve read LOTR three times. Once when I was a clueless cradle Catholic, once when I was an edgy self-proclaimed atheist and just this past spring, out loud to my children, after coming back to the faith due to familiarizing myself with Catholic philosophy. This last read through was by far the most insightful. Like you said, I was one of those people in love with his fantasy world but didn’t quite understand much of it. I don’t know if this was intentional or not but it felt like the all of the rings of power were metaphorical representations of various world views (circular, based on power, etc) and the one ring was relativism (one ring to rule them all) but since the Hobbits were without a “ring of power” and were humble and salt of the earth and closest to God by being in harmony with objective reality, they were able to greatly aid in defeating Sauron, aka relativism, aka the übermensch.

You mentioned the elves having short hair, but I think it actually goes deeper in showing how much the show runners fundamentally do not understand Tolkien or his philosophy. Treating the long hair of the elves like it is some kind of fad or personal style choice completely ignores its historical context and symbolism. Long hair has always been closely associated with beauty and divinity throughout history. Angels, for example, are almost always depicted with long hair. Long hair in women is a symbol of beauty. In the Bible, Samson never cut his hair because he took a Nazirite vow of sanctity—his long hair was a sacred symbol of his closeness to God. It is important for Tolkien’s Elves to have long hair because it visually conveys their semi-divine status in Middle Earth. Tolkien understood that through beauty we experience the divine. The Elves are higher beings, immortals…they are closer to angels than men in Tolkien’s world. Their long hair is the embodiment of their beauty and divinity. Tolkien even explores this idea in several places, most especially with Galadriel, who’s hair was described as reflecting the light of the Two Trees of Valinor. However, to McKay and Payne, long hair is simply a trendy elf hairstyle in the Third Age. They are fools.

When you stated the line about his world being more real than real with swords that were more swords than our swords, I was put more in mind of C.S. Lewis and the Chrinicles of Narnia than any philospher.

“Evil cannot create anything new, they can only corrupt and ruin what good forces have invented or made.”- J.R.R. Tolkien

I read all four books when I was a kid, and now this video is making me want to read them again. I wasn’t able to appreciate the story as I should!