I hate calling people "fake fans," I don't think I've done it before except maybe for some Star Wars incels, but there is one particular discourse about The Rings of Power that rubs me the wrong way.
It's people complaining that Gandalf can't be in Middle-Earth in the Second Age, or that the Balrog can't destroy Khazad-dûm before the War of the Last Alliance and things like that, but who at the same time don't see any problem with Elendil and family being alive at the same time as the forging of the rings, they see no problem with the rings being forged (in a short time, not decades) before the building or Barad-dûr, and many more.
In other words, they can't accept that some events from the Third Age are transposed to the Second Age, but they are fine with events and people being moved around within the Second Age. Why? Probably because they have no clue about the Second Age, but somehow, they feel that they have the moral authority to tell writers what they can and can't do about Middle-Earth.
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't expect people watching The Rings of Power to know their Tolkien lore in and out (and I only do because I was a bored teenager once), but if you're going to complain about inconsistencies, know your stuff.
Or shut up.
So yes, the timeline has been all mixed up in the show. Guess what? It's necessary to have a compelling story (Tolkien never wrote the Second Age as a narrative; he just listed a series of events, detailing only a handful.) If you want to respect the chronology exactly, how do you include humans if you center your story around the Elves? Or how do you do the opposite? And if you focus on only one of the groups and not the other, you can't have a complete story; you'll have to have lame exposition dumps, flashbacks with completely different characters with no development, and similar things (that would be actual "bad writing".)
So yes, if you want to watch The Rings of Power, you need to accept that the chronology is all "messed up."
If you can't handle that, may I advise that you stop watching, and more importantly, that you stop complaining about it online and that you use your time to do something positive that makes you happy?
Just saying.
#TVshows #Fandom #Tolkien #TheRingsOfPower #LOTR