How To Make Boring Characters — Rings of Power

I think the main reason why rings of power was such a disaster of a show is not what people are saying it is yes the show was slowly paced the dialogue was stiff and awkward and of course the law was disrespected all of those things matter but I disagree with the people saying that the main reasons why this show flopped instead I think the real reason why is because they failed to get us to care about their characters the entire cast of rings of Power with some small concessions is really quite boring we can't relate to them we don't care if they succeed or fail in fact so many people were so apathetic as to whether or not these people live or die I've never seen so many people say they've been rooting so hard for a villain to win the story you can tell the show when has failed miserably in this respect because again and again the show is coaxing you into caring oh no Lenny Henry just got stabbed and we hear the music swell and he says these dramatic final words about seeing the sunrise one last time and you the viewer just feel empty and you watch Dead face and you're definitely not crying because for some reason you just don't give a damn if this guy dies or not we need to be invested before you can pull off payoffs like this that is a truth that the showrunner seem to be oblivious of and they showcase that many dozens of times throughout the rings of power the One Shining Light in this the one time they got things right in the carriage department and actually spent time fleshing things out was the friendship between elrond and durian and it just so happened that for many people their friendship was the highlight of the whole show the point I'm making and why I firmly believe it's the character front that's the most damning failing here is the importance of different elements of a story Pace character World building they vary tremendously based on the kind of story you're telling you simply don't need great characters for sure short stories to be good ones shows like love death and robots prove that one in Spades however if you're telling a long story such as an epic fantasy TV show like House of the dragon or rings of power you will find that your audience can ensure the occasional shoddy subplot or shaky World building I've seen that happen lots of times what the audience can't enjoy are bad characters ones who are borderline Mary Sue's like Galadriel and who's his face who's the Sailor and what's his face the Elven Archer whose name for the life of me I can't remember but let's be fair you can't remember this guy's name either can you um when you're making a TV show with an overarching story it's the characters we've fallen in love with the ones we fear the worst might happen to and hope the best for I think that's the thing above all else that keeps a fandom engaged in the long term wanting to come back for episode after episode new season after new season instead of trying to achieve that this show puts a great deal of effort into building these JJ Abram style mystery boxes what's in this mysterious glowy box who is this strange woman who is Sauron is this guy Sauron is he or is he this is a mistake that Amazon has made twice now they did it by building this big mystery of who is the dragon reborn in The Wheel of Time a mystery that the original books did not have whatsoever and they made this mistake again with the rings of power these showrunners are falling for a storytelling trap that good writers have been fully aware of for decades now there's a reason why in Pulp Fiction Tarantino never let us know what was in the briefcase because these sorts of mystery boxes sure they can be cool and make for fun reveals they're also never the main reason why we stay invested in a store story in fact Tarantino poked fun at the audience's expectations here by never letting us know the contents of this mystery box and it still makes for a great film nonetheless pardon my French but if you do any long-form story it doesn't matter how many billions you sink into it if nobody gets invested in your characters your show is [ __ ] um and where better to break it down than by looking at Galadriel the person who's practically the protagonist of the Rings of power and a character that totally failed to resonate with her audience truth is many are complaining that Galadriel is simply too unlikable but I don't think this is as much of a problem as people are saying it is because you don't need a character to be likable in order for us to be compelled by them think Daniel Plainview Walter White Jordan Belfort or Derek from American History X I'm not saying that Galadriel should have been this kind of character but I'm pointing out that unlikability is not a damning trait for a protagonist to have as those very well received prior examples do prove what I absolutely would say is a problem is when there's a dissonance between what the craters set out to do and what they actually achieved like all of those aforementioned characters the creators knew full well they were writing unlikable [ __ ] and they had no Illusions about it playing into their unlikability with intention this is pure speculation from me I don't exactly have any evidence backing this up but I don't think the same can be said for the rings of power hour because they seem to be out to make this Sarah connor-esque badass female Soldier but fell flat on their faces and ended up creating an intensely unlikable person who doesn't have anything redeeming about her you know except for the fact she's really really good with the sword and can swim better than Michael Phelps neither of which however can be called personality traits it's really quite interesting with all of those unlikable characters I mentioned how every last one of them gets their comeuppance in the end betraying I think that deep down we follow these hateful protagonists because we want to see them Crash and Burn we love it when these characters get their comeuppance this definitely didn't happen to Galadriel in fact she's a Brash violent unsympathetic dick who is a really quite nasty person to most people she meets yet everyone she meets comes to really like her in the end except for this one guy right here but then again he is a bigot who is racist against elves look even Sauron the Dark Lord comes to really quite like Galadriel in the end offering her a place by his side I do hate to say it but collateral is really ticking off a dangerous number of boxes on the Mary Sue checklist and also before we crack on to the next bit there are quite a few kinds of videos that don't fit well here on YouTube videos I'd love to make but can't because they're the sort the algorithm suppresses in fact this is such a big problem that me and hundreds of other creators have come together to build a new site called nebula and if you go there you'll find an exclusive video essay By Me on World building in video games and why game makers have an unfair advantage over Movie Makers when it comes to building a gripping World hello future me has also got a nebular exclusive series on becoming a better writer and Lindsay Ellis just returned from her Hiatus and released a 50-minute breakdown of The Lord of the Rings movies and how loyal they actually are as adaptations which is very relevant to this videos topic like all of those videos I just mentioned and many more exclusives you can watch them right now on nebula there you'll get no ads whatsoever exclusive videos be directly supporting me and making more of these videos and what really sweetens the deal here is how we've partnered up with curiosity stream the sponsor of today's video who have thousands of high quality documentaries some narrated by David Attenborough which I really enjoyed and we're doing a two-for-one subscription it means if you click my link in the description you'll get both of these streaming sites for the price of one meaning it's 14.79 a year for both this price is so low for the value you're getting out of it it's ridiculous and if all this sounds good to you do click my link in the description and join up today and with curiosity stream I'd recommend you start off with Sherlock Holmes against Conan Doyle it's a breakdown of how the iconic character was created and I found this documentary really quite fascinating and with nebula I'd recommended that aside from my video video of course you check out Lindsay Ellis's new essay on Lord of the Rings as she did a great job breaking down how well and poorly Peter Jackson actually adapted to the original books again if all of this sounds good to you do click that link in the description and get these two great streaming services today anyway back to it with Galadriel it seems the craters were out to make a compelling protagonist it just so happens that they failed in this regard um how could they have done better then the thing is is if you go around and ask like any halfway decent writer they could easily rattle off 10 different ways you can make any character compelling you can give them a highly relatable motivation a compelling character Arc you can give them a relationship they have with another character in which we get invested um Sams and Frodo's relationship in the original trilogy is a perfect example of this uh you could give them an old wound they got before the story kicked off and they're really struggling with managing this internal wound of theirs throughout the whole story there are lots lots of ways you can get us to Care it just so happens that out of the many techniques that exist they employed exactly none of them with Galadriel firstly what is the most essential thing to get right with any character well it's their motivation of course and let's look at hers in the rings of power Galadriel has spent the past hundred years and the entire series out to hunt down Sauron but here's a good question why does galatriel want to stop him go on why what is her reason it's never actually established in episode 1 it said that her brother died in the big war with morgoth but while this could be good enough if written a tad differently in the show as it stands it is not because her brother was killed by Orcs under the command of morgoth Sauron was only very tangentially related to his death it's not like Sauron killed the dude with his bare hands or anything but sure this is a way of letting us know this all talk Galadriel a lesson it means she knows how dangerous Orcs can be and fully respects how much of a threat they in all of these dark Lords are fair enough that's firmly established but again this comes back to that same old question why does Galadriel want to defeat Sauron reading between the lines the answer seems to be that she doesn't like evil very much and wants to stop the forces of evil because evil is bad but the thing is while that is a motivation that makes a sort of sense it at the very least prevents her from feeling that she has no reason at all for doing what she does it's nowhere near enough to tug on our heartstrings and get us to really want her to succeed to relate to her uh give me one minute and I'll flesh this out and think of something slightly better I hear in the law Galadriel had a husband and a daughter at the time this show takes place which is something that they show entirely ignored well why not just add that into her character have it so in episode 1 we have a flashback to Galadriel on the battlefield against morgoth it's horrible and very traumatizing then jump to the second age where she's now got a husband and a daughter she wakes up one night still struggling with nightmares of a war that even after hundreds of years have not gone away but we see her being truly happy with her husband and daughter both of whom she loves deeply oh isn't that nice very nice very sweet then Wham a a tiny clue a tangible clue that Sauron is alive reaches Galadriel perhaps a long-lost relic once known to belong to Sauron or a peasant is brought to the elves saying his village was ransacked by Orcs all of whom wore the mark of Sauron it could be anything but after this she goes up to the Elven leaders and says guys no one ever conclusively killed Sauron and these clues mean that Sauron simply must be alive Gathering his strength we've got to find him and strike now before we have another war on her hands and the Big King is all like yeah it's it's possible he's still around but this isn't enough to go on well we'll just wait for more information corroborating his existence but we'll do something then but until then we're sitting on our backsides and doing absolutely bugger rule uh then galadral goes back to her family and sees her daughter frolicking about or something and it's when she sees her daughter and has a sort of mini flashback to again that horrible war with morgoth that's what compels her to defy her King and Hunt Sauron for one simple reason because because the war against morgoth was the single most horrendous thing she has ever gone through and she wants to ensure that her daughter never has to go through the same Horrors she did like oh my God like her character is now way more compelling than she used to be because we've actually given her a relatable fleshed out motivation and again this is a fairly simple change that could have been implemented and we could have still kept the same overall plot and Story the truth is any decent writer knows the importance of giving the protagonist something they care deeply about because when you do that it makes us care too collateral in the show just wanting to stop Sauron for the vaguely eluded reasons of evil Bad therefore evil Must Be Stopped while making a sort of sense is simply not enough to get us to Care imagine if we saw John Wick out to kill a guy but we had no clue why sure the fight scenes would still look cool but we aren't engaged with this story but suddenly if you start the story with said guy killing Jon's dog justifying your revenge Quest suddenly We Care a ton this really is a writing cheat code and it's a surprisingly effective one give a character something they care deeply about then have the thing they care about being threatened in some way justifying the journey they take in the story it's a very quick and easy way to get the audience invested in a character's Journey but In fairness Galadriel is not a textbook Mary Sue she's not because there are some Mary Sue criteria that she doesn't tick off in episode 5 for example Galadriel is finally given an amount of character depth when this happens why do you keep fighting because I cannot stop the company I led mutinied against me my closest friend conspired with the King to Exile me and each of them acted as they did because I believe they could no longer distinguish me from the evil I was fighting hey finally Galadriel finally has a degree of depth to her it only took us five episodes the story is already 63 over by this point but at least it's something basically she's been irreparably damaged by War so much so she's as evil as the foe she fights all right gotcha this feels closely related to uh something many soldiers all over the world struggle with it's easy to turn a civilian into a soldier but how do you turn a soldier back into a civilian some veterans really struggle with that many of them turn into dark cynical bastards after doing and witnessing many horrendous things this is now a thing the writers can work with to really flesh her out and make her a compelling character in the remaining episodes there's only three of them mind you so we've got to make them count will we see her have PTSD from hundreds of years of feral Warfare like many veterans do and this PTSD means she's irritable and is incapable of getting a good night's sleep no okay will we have her maybe she's got a crush on someone but she's terrified of taking the first step of even saying hello because she's afraid she'd never be able to adapt to the civilian way of life and be the partner she feels her love interest deserves play that right and that could really tug on people's heartstrings and uh uh oh oh the show doesn't do that one either um as it turns out aside from a single speech she gives to a captive bad guy in episode 6 this wound of hers this supposed wound of hers never manifests in the story in any meaningful way that is simply not good writing never throw ideas like this into your story then do practically nothing to explore them but all right uh it's never about the idea it's all about the execution so how could we take that very idea they introduced and do a better execution of it well um what if in episode 1 she's invited to an Elven party after coming back from her big Expedition but when she she begrudgingly arrived she's so stiff it's so worked up and is so easily on edge that no one is enjoying her company and she's not enjoying theirs then elrond sees her old pal Galadriel who they were great friends with before the war so he sneaks up on her to put his hands over her eyes or something and to do something playful but when she hears him coming she grabs him by the collar throws him to the ground and puts a dagger to his throat giving those evil snarl on her face as every other elf in the party just looks at her with horror and then galadral sees the fear in elrond's face has a moment of horrible self-realization seeing herself for the monster she is so she drops the knife and runs away barely holding her composure cringing from all of the embarrassment like that sounds like a fairly fun scene but did we get that or anything even remotely close to that no we didn't get that one either I don't know about you but what do you feel be the most compelling way to demonstrate that Galadriel is struggling with this wound doing that scene I just suggested in episode 1 or having her verbally just say it aloud in episode 5 which one would be the best way to execute this good writers never have characters verbally say these things that is the laziest way to do it you can't just have your characters announce how they feel that makes me feel angry good writers will instead let this terrible flaw or wound of theirs be highly relevant time and time again throughout the entire story from start to end they'll have it demonstrated so well explored so thoroughly that there is never a need to give this on the nose Exposition because by merely seeing the characters struggling and suffering through their daily life we can tell very clearly what ails them gladrill is also super boring because she is very much one note meaning she is always tenacious she never has a dark knight of the Soul where her wants and beliefs as a person are truly tested like a Advantage she is sent on that ship to the undying lands and then she nopes on out at the last second but I'd argue her internal struggle wasn't fleshed out well enough in that scene to render her a great character in it and that from what I can tell is the only moment the entire show were her faiths and wants and beliefs are challenged in any kind of way even in the end when Sauron gives her the cliche villain speech of join me and together we shall rule the galaxy I mean uh join me and together we shall rule Middle Earth she is never seriously tempted and immediately adamantly tells him to bugger off and sure this is a choice that is consistent with her character but rejecting the Dark Lord's offer is also a very boring thing for a fantasy protagonist to do it plays right into the cliche one of these days we're gonna get a story where the villain says the the old join me speech and then the hero actually says yeah all right yeah it sounds like a good idea actually and then he joins the villain's side like one day I will get the story that breaks that cliche I look forward to seeing it but another reason why we just don't care about her is how there is no real internal struggle going on she doesn't have anything that could conceivably be called an ark now I'd never say protagonist a must have an ark otherwise they'll be boring but when you're writing a protagonist you've got to give us a reason to want to carry on watching them a reason to care this can be them having an arc or anything else we just need a reason they just so happen to never give us one with Galadriel there's also another problem that's Loosely related to this on why we just don't give much for damn about galantriel's character because how can we be invested in a person who makes absolutely nonsensical choices that completely go against the motivation she seemingly has look at me I'm gladriel I will scour every corner of Middle Earth and do so for hundreds of years is in the name of finding Sauron and killing him I will even leave my own Squad mates behind to die because I loathe Sauron just that much two weeks later what's this I know who Sauron is he's been under my nose this entire time and worse he's been whispering at killer brimbo's ear corrupting the magical artifacts upon which the fate of my entire species rests killer brimble hasn't yet made the Rings too so if I let him know now that Sauron manipulated him that he actually wanted him to make these rings in the way he's about to we can stop the process immediately and carefully study them and figure out how exactly sound corrupted them how we can reverse his corruption and we can also deduce what his grand plan is and then we can use that knowledge to defeat Sauron once and for all but nah let's not bother am no grass and why am I not letting Keller brimble know this incredibly Vital Information oh dumb because reasons and also seeing as I just learned this dude is Sauron should I let the king know so we can summon a force and Hunt Sauron down and kill him as he leaves the city not like James Norrington at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean I'm gonna say well I think we can afford to give him one day's Head Start and sit back allowing sauron's Escape why am I doing that to my Arch Enemy because oh reasons I I guess I cannot for the life of me think of a more basic writing mistake when you give a character a motivation make sure everything they do lines up with that motivation or annoying cynical British YouTubers will rub it in your face for people's Amusement uh enough said but let's look at elrond and while he is not as bad as Galadriel I'd argue that he's still not a very well written character I think the guy's performance was actually quite good honestly the actor couldn't have done a better job it's just a shave he was given so little to work with now as I said earlier his relationship with jiren it really is one of the strong points of the show it's one of the very few times the show did things right lots of people cared about their relationship and that's for several reasons firstly if they're very basic but these two characters truly care about one another and the degree to which they care for each other is fully explored and depicted in the show we never see Galadriel care about anyone or anything she just just about tolerates hell Bran's existence as he plods along beside her but that's really it for her their relationship also has conflict and progression they start off very hostile jiren is rightfully angsty at elrond for neglecting him for a good 20 years of his life and then they grow more friendly as their wounds heal while it's pretty hard to disagree with the statement that this right here is the best written part of the show nonetheless elrond's character was still not as engaging as he really should have been I reckon from what I can tell elron's character sort of Falls flat for three different reasons firstly his motivations aren't fleshed out enough secondly he doesn't struggle enough and thirdly he hardly has any flaws now let's break down why firstly elrond has practically no character flaws he's wise he's clever he's great at smashing rocks he's more or less a perfect man with the only thing he does that's indicative of a character flaw is how we neglected his old friend durian for many years this hints at the idea that elrond has poor empathy for those around him although even that was poorly fleshed out and never fully realized as a floor of his the show says he neglected Duren for many years but it also never actually lets us know precisely why he did that and that's a missed opportunity for juicy character development if I've ever seen one and I appreciate that elves have lived for many thousands of years so have had a lot of time to do self-improvement nonetheless I really do think that that's a cop-out to this problem because storytelling is all about characters overcoming flaws and their internal demons you deprive a character of any negative quirks congratulations now they're ever so slightly more boring as a character and I'm just gonna say it just because a character is an elf that doesn't mean they must be boring secondly he doesn't struggle in and as an aside he's also fairly passive as a character too with the three exceptions of him struggling to beat durian in a rock smashing contest when Duran shouts at him in a couple scenes and when Duran's father finds the mining and shuts the operation down with those notable exceptions elrond never struggles in this eight hour long story there's no real suspense around what he's doing no real tension hardly any conflict around his plot or at the very least nowhere near as much as there very easily could have been a great example is when he Reveals His secret purpose to durin that he lied to him that he was really here to get his mithril the one thing that Duren seemed to be afraid that elrond might do then durian turns around and instead of confronting him and being really quite betrayed says yeah all right don't really care that you manipulated me you can have it all then made the many beats we got such as those are right for 10 compelling confrontations that make for great TV and it was a potential that routinely went unrealized when elrond has his apprenticeship with Keller brimble he never struggles to please him at no point does he face any kind of difficulty when working with him almost every scene he shares with the guy is conflict-free the crying shame is that it would have been quite easy to write it in so elrond is really getting on his nerves and to make Keller brimbor one whisker away from firing elrond and replacing him I appreciate that not every scene needs to have conflict and that's fair enough but there comes a point where a story has so little conflict whether suspense is so low that it becomes detrimental conflict is the lifeblood of story and this show wasted many many easy opportunities to inject some into elrons he's also a fairly passive character time and time again other people do all of the work for elrond as he just sits there like a lemon uh when the mithril is being mined elrond just stands there watching as durin does all of the hard work and durian is the only one thrusted into danger when there's a cave in when the king says the elves aren't getting none of our mithril durian does practically all of the hard work in trying to convince him to change his mind while elrond again just stands there like a lemon as passive as can be you want to ER on the side of having an active protagonist over a passive one this is for several reasons but what I think is the biggest one is when a character's active it means they're making many many choices over the course of the story and when a character makes choices it demonstrates the flaws of their character their dreams their wounds and I'd argue characters making choices is the best tool for characterization that exists nothing demonstrates a character's aspects better than the choices they make in a story and elrond made very very few choices in this show it was mostly people telling him what to do then he just does it or giving things to him with absolutely no struggle required on elrond's part case in point there was a moment in episode one when elron speaking to the king and then this happens are you acquainted with the work of Lord Keller brimbor the greatest of Elven Smiths of course I've admired as Artistry since I was a child when I saw him say this I paused the show with excitement to think it through and my immediate reaction was more or less oh my God this is perfect this is a fantastic thing to build a story around you've just established that elrond deeply admires kellebrimbo and secretly dreams of being his apprentice and then you show him struggling so very very hard to attain his lifelong dream of gaining this position oh my God this is going to be wonderful just wonderful as elrond's Main plot for season one that's at least what I thought at the time then I resumed the clip and this happened why do you ask he is about to embark on a new project one of singular importance and we've decided that you will be working with him but I'll allow you to explain the details Lord Keller brimboard no what did you do you Maniacs you poops do you even understand what you just did like this idea has all of the ingredients you need to make a wonderful protagonist every ingredient you could possibly want was here ripe for the picking instead you introduced the idea that he's elrond's hero and in the same scene literally 10 seconds later you have him effortlessly gain an apprenticeship under the guy he worships this is such a waste of Storytelling potential it's unbelievable here's what I reckon episode 1 really should have been they clearly established that elrond has a deep longing in his life he's working a job that's quite dull and not challenging him he's just feeling quite dead inside as he's transcribing a scroll or something tedious but then he overheares that Caleb rimbo his hero is in town working on his new top secret project and elrond finally has a spark in his eye as he sees an opportunity to throw aside his doll job in administration and live his secret dream of being a master Craftsman to make things of beauty so elrond all excitedly tells his friends and family tomorrow I'm gonna ask Keller brimbor if I can be his Apprentice what do you guys think and they all say well that's wonderful darling but you've got to have realistic goals killer brimble hasn't taken an apprentice in 150 years he's hardly gonna take someone now and if he did it wouldn't be you all of a sudden we couldn't care more about elrond's Journey because he actually has relatable wants and dreams right from the word go which is something no character in the show can boast so elrond disheartened by the words of his friends and family bats their doubts away and tries to call Keller brimble but the man says no I don't want an apprentice I have zero interest like it's far too time consuming and I'm far too busy and elrond reacts like he's been punched in the gut and he goes back home deflated and defeated but then he sees his sword he made a while back realizing it's proof of his skill like why didn't I bring it the first time I'm such an idiot he thinks so he tries again in a later scene and in a time where it's inappropriate in a way that breaks social customs and tradition much to the Judgment of his peers all of whom are watching him do this and he tries to convince Keller brimble again saying that he won't be a nuisance he has plenty of experience with a forge and look he even made the saw last winter what do you think but then killer brimble takes the sword looks at it and size picking out the most unnoticeable nitpicks on why it's actually a rather flawed sword it's good enough to kill a law but it's certainly not something one would brag about despite the fact it looks quite beautiful to us as an audience to kill a brimble and his highly refined eye it's a rather mediocre sword so he rejects elrond again saying nope sorry you don't have the skill or experience to be my apprentice and then we see elrond's heart break even more as his all-time hero rejects him for a second time and even worse he gets turned down in front of a whole crowd in front of his friends and family validating their doubts of him in front of the boss of his current job even the king is there to witness killer brimble both rejects him and give a scathing critique of the sword that he was rather proud of and so elrond throws the sword away and just falls into a depression his lifelong dream is over he goes back to work in his dull dull job and my God does he feel low and then what if his friends or family gives him a word of encouragement an insightful Word of Wisdom of what Keller brimble is truly looking for in an apprentice and that gives him a burst of inspiration and he comes up with this crazy new plan to not make something dull like a sword but a really creative Contraption but Keller brimble is about to leave town and the window is closing so he works his socks off for weeks the deadline looming getting closer and closer and he presents it to the man at the very last second as he's leaving the town's Gates and Keller brimble immediately sets off with a great number of critiques this could be better and you chose the wrong material for this part steel would have been a superior choice and he goes on and on pointing out its flaws and again we see elrond's happiness die but then kellebrimble says but it is creative and the design has potential and he Sighs and says all right one week you have one week as my apprentice and if I like you I'll take you on another one bursts out with happiness we have this major victory moment for him but Kellerman says very sternly but you're on thin ice you've got to prove yourself over the next week because I'll be showing you the door otherwise I have very high standards from what I expect from you and then elrond learns of the mysterious Rings Kellerman was working on his mysterious Masterwork and from here we practically get the same plot only now it works so much better Keller brimble says he just doesn't have the manpower to get his Masterpiece done in time he needs this Grand one-of-a-kind Forge built in order to realize his designs but he's on a deadline he couldn't possibly get it built in time and then elron proposes to Keller brimble that the dwarves would be perfectly suited for this kind of work are you sure ask Keller brimble that this isn't the kind of job I imagine them being terribly suited for and elrond enthusiastically insists that the dwarves couldn't be more perfect he oversells them to Helen Back and so when they both go to the dwarves and he gets shunned by the doorman and then he turns to see Keller brimble looking at him very unimpressed there's so much more tension now and then later when he speaks to Duran and it goes badly as tensions rise and durian shouts at him all the while killer Brimmer is there just giving him this dry unimpressed look there is so much tension now this is suddenly quite good TV because now elronda actually has Stakes there is actual suspense around him for once he's a whisker away from losing his dream apprenticeship he's worked so hard to attain and one wrong word if he offends durian if he doesn't impress his very demanding Master he loses his dream and it's all over like we could have had that be episode 1 of the Rings of power like that is the potential this idea had but no instead we rushed over elrond seeking his dream job in the space of literally really 20 seconds in the show the thing is the rewrite I just laid out is practically the same as what was in the show it's just way more fleshed out we still go along and include durian and all that mithril but look how compelling elrons now is as a character but why does that idea work well elrond now has a highly relatable motivation to escape his hum drum daily life and live his dream that is something that everyone everywhere can relate to on some level he now has a dark knight of the Soul where his resolve is truly tested this is something he and Galadriel never had in the show there are also now very clear Stakes of him losing his apprenticeship meaning the suspense and conflict and tension is way higher for it and correspondingly he has to be very active struggling tremendously in order to not lose the thing he cares about most this plot has everything you need that's why elrond ticks me off he wasn't a terrible character but he was a terrible waste of potential with just a few tweaks he could have been a thoroughly engaging protagonist but if you're looking for more Lord of the Rings content Lindsay Ellis just came back from her Hiatus and released a great 50-minute breakdown of how well the Lord of the Rings films adapted the original books and if you want to watch that as well as my nebular exclusive video essay on World building all you've got to do is click my link in the description and you'll get to watch them both immediately on nebula plus you'll get free access to curiosity stream in this two-for-one deal it's only 14.79 a year for both like it's so cheap it's ridiculous but anyway thanks for watching click my link in the description and I'll see you guys next time on the closer look

Channel: The Closer Look

Views: 495,719

Keywords: rings of power, the rings of power, the rings, power, rings, lord of the rings, fantasy, writing, creative writing, how to, write, characters, the closer look, the closer, closer look, video essay, video, essay, galadriel, review, amazon

Id: VtZH5q2ptM0

Length: 38min 29sec (2309 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 22 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/aran_chithlum]

When he is listing the ways to make a likeable character, one thing that he mentions is to give them a pre-existing wound that they're dealing with. I think that's what the writers were doing with the death of Finrod, but it doesn't really work out because of the reasons that the video points out.

It's just kind of weird, because Finrod really had a 1v1 battle with Sauron, then died at the hands of Sauron's warg. Could the writers not have stuck closer to that, because that seems more compelling. Or have the orcs that captured and tormented Galadriel's daughter Celebrian under the direct command of Sauron.

[u/Elvinkin66]

Seriously how can you turn a character like Galadriel into a psychopathic jerk like how RoP did