I watched the first two episodes last night. It wasn’t as bad as I feared.
My knowledge of the Silmarilion (on which this series is allegedly based) is not nearly as good as my knowledge of The Lord of the Rings (which I’ve read at least ten times, and probably more). So I don’t want to be too strict about things, but a few stood out, which I’ll get to in a minute.
First, I pity the people who have to pick the actors. Regular movies — ordinary movies — already have the most glamorous, beautiful people they can find. The Rings of Power will probably involve Numenoreans, who are a cut above normal men, and elves, who are supposed to be so beautiful that they impress the Numenoreans. I don’t know how you live up to that expectation.
If you think about the kind of world Tolkien lived in, a man might see a particularly beautiful woman every once in a while. If there was a really gorgeous woman in a town five miles away, it was worth the walk just to get a glimpse of her — fully clothed and everything.
We’re absolutely surrounded by beautiful people. In that environment, how do you make a woman who is so gorgeous that she makes you forget to breathe? That’s how beautiful these people are supposed to be.
I’m not trying to diminish any of the actors and actresses in the show. Morfydd Clark, who plays Galadriel, is a beautiful woman. But she’s not possibly going to live up to the hype that would seem to be appropriate.
Speaking of Galadriel, I don’t recall (and I tend to doubt) that Galadriel was some sort of fierce warrior princess. Maybe, but I suspect that’s more from the woke agenda than from Tolkien. And it’s not just Galadriel. The show goes out of its way to make most of the brave characters women. It’s annoying.
There certainly were no Hobbits back in those days, but Hobbits are appealing characters, so they try to get around that by using Hobbit-like Harfoots. I don’t know if there were Harfoots back then, but we do know that Smeagol was pretty old, so something Hobbit-like goes back at least a little ways. I’m not going to worry about that too much.
I suspect that the best way to enjoy this show will be to consider it fan fiction, and not to expect it to be faithful to the books. In other words, it’s a Tolkien-like world, riffing on Tolkien-like themes, but don’t expect it to be the actual story Tolkien told. With that expectation, it might be fun to watch, provided it doesn’t get too woke, in which case I’m tuning out.
Finally someone who gets it with Morfydd Galadriel. Morfydd Clark is unquestionably a beautiful woman, but she just doesn’t have that unearthly, “can’t be unaffected by the fact that you’re in the presence of someone with exceptional physical beauty” air that Galadriel should have. Cate Blanchett, while being an ordinary human herself, managed to pull it off, probably because her style of beauty is somewhat unconventional. Same with Liv Tyler, who isn’t even IMO the most physically “perfect” brunette in Hollywood, but she’s the *right* kind of beautiful. Morfydd is just too girl-next-door, albeit in an unusually great neighborhood. I had the same reaction to the girl they got to play Fleur in the Harry Potter movies. Unquestionably very pretty, but not someone you could easily imagine, even with some suspension of disbelief, causing males to lose their wits every time she came within range.
I’ve tried to explain this sense I had in Tolkien groups, and people think I’m dogging on Morfydd’s looks, which I’m certainly not.
All that said, Cate Blanchett types don’t grow on trees and the number of astonishingly beautiful women who can act and are available and affordable for such a project is surely limited. So I’m not really blaming anyone, just saying, I share the “that’s not Galadriel” feeling.
Is it possible they are intentionally trying to get away from the idea of the super-fantastic beauty? I.e., that’s a patriarchal construct, blah blah ….
QUOTE: I’m not trying to diminish any of the actors and actresses in the show. Morfydd Clark, who plays Galadriel, is a beautiful woman. But she’s not possibly going to live up to the hype that would seem to be appropriate.
I confess my point is tangential but it crossed my thoughts as I was reading this post. As the expression goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So, it causes me to wonder who gets to decide what is beautiful enough to live up to the hype…since different people/cultures evaluate beauty differently? I wonder if some would look at the character and say the actress fits “their” expectation of beauty.
As well, how does one evaluate what is beautiful enough? Is it…you know it when you see it?
Quite obviously, beautiful individuals participate in the Form of the Beautiful.
Of course, Plato addressed that long ago!
Beauty may be in the eyes of the beholder to some extent, but there are women who can walk into a room and make all the clocks stop. Morfydd Clark is not one of those women, although she is very attractive.
Agreed…some women have the power you describe. Yet, different people have different views as to what constitutes “clock-stopping” beauty. For example, some may consider Morfydd Clark as “clock-stopping” beautiful but you and others don’t…so who’s right? What’s the standard that clearly demarcates what is “clock-stopping” beauty from mere beauty?
If it’s….”you know it when you see it”…doesn’t that take us back to…”beauty is in the eye of the beholder”?
I am not one to cite clichés, but in this case I cannot help but thinking: “Beauty is only skin deep.” Maybe it is a bad idea to place a high value on the looks of an individual. Of course we are going to find some people exceptionally good-looking, but maybe we should settle for “pretty, but no big deal” (or “handsome, but so what?”). Otherwise one runs the risk of cultivating a delusion.
Agreed, putting too much stock in external beauty is shallow and generally unnecessary. Yet, in creating a show that attempts to effectively depict a character, it might have some significance.
Not to put words in Crowhill’s mouth, but it seems he’s referencing aligning the intended perception of a character’s beauty to the beauty of an actress portraying the character. If so, how does one assess if a given actress meets or misses the character’s intended beauty…especially given people assess beauty differently?