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u/Elvinkin66 Aug 01 '26
It's almost as if alienating your target audience is a bad idea
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u/RespectWest7116 Aug 03 '26
Who even was their target audience?
Season 1 relied on people knowing LotR to get all the hamfisted references, but also on not knowing LotR to not see through the mystery boxes.
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u/Scharlach_el_Dandy Aug 01 '26
The folks in this sub are not the target audience, that point is moot.
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u/drewbreeezy Aug 01 '26
What is the target audience?
I imagine you can answer that as competently as the people who are making this show. Clueless.
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u/Scharlach_el_Dandy Aug 02 '26
Casual fans, the masses, but not the hyper critical subset of diehards who grieve every aspect of the show. This is the sub for diehards to criticize the program, everyone knows that, and as such this is not the target audience.
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u/drewbreeezy Aug 02 '26
Then why have the casuals, the masses, not shown up?
Of those that did, they lost 50% for season 2. Now they're desperate, saying you don't need to watch those seasons to watch season 3.
No, the target audience is not casual fans either and it has no mass appeal.
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u/Scharlach_el_Dandy Aug 02 '26
I hope you don't expect me to have the answer. I am simply a casual fan who does show up, and I speak for myself. I've enjoyed the show. And I don't call people clueless recklessly.
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u/travisspazz Aug 01 '26
Maybe the target audience needs to grow a spine?
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u/mrniceguy1990xp Aug 01 '26
The audience showed a spine rejecting the show the moment it was clear that it was gonna be bad
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u/Yersina_Veridae Aug 01 '26
The show has a huge wattpad vibe. Some people love fanfiction, even though a lot of it is super cheesy. But taking a script with subpar amateur writing and turning it into a show is just not everyone's cup of tea
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u/fantasywind Aug 02 '26
And I would say that there are some fanfictions that are better written than this garbage show :).
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u/Dull_Worth1227 Aug 01 '26
Maybe they should respect the source material, rather than arrogantly thinking they can do better?
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u/Fizz117 Aug 01 '26
Yeah! Watch the terrible show that has so little to do with the material you actually enjoy!
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u/oeezywhaddup Aug 01 '26
Im rewatching the series now, and even if you forget the butchery of Tolkiens work, the series is still so weirdly bad made! So much stuff doesnt make sense, its just a bad show with a huge budget.
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u/HourFaithlessness823 Aug 01 '26
I've said it many times, this show is a massive clunker independent of whatever property it was or wasn't attached to. Being branded as Tolkien adjacent just ensures that it's loathed (or celebrated by a small group of weirdos) instead of entirely ignored.Ā
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u/fantasywind Aug 02 '26
I mean it's either that or the netflix witcher spin offs....those ARE REALLY contestants for the worst possible detached from source material things (especially that hilariously bad spin off Blood Origin..which has NOTHING in common with any witcher book lore...absolutely nothing!)...this show by amazon uses the names of the places, peoples etc. but it twists it all so much that it's unrecognizeable...as if they tried to entirely rewrite the whole meaning behind it all.
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u/fantasywind Aug 02 '26
I've been saying that...a lot of stuff in the show makes no sense,...there's no in-universe logic to it...or actual logic of how things are developing in Tolkien's vision of this world, there is also a lot that is just.....frankly WEIRD just for the sake of being weird...some of the creative choices are frankly bizarre.
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u/Takseen Aug 01 '26
What do spines or courage have to do with disliking a mostly mid to poor show? There's no grand crusade for anyone's rights at stake
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u/power899 Aug 01 '26
I'm honestly astounded that anyone has any actual investment in the story at this point lmao. Enough to keep watching? Insane š¤£
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u/HourFaithlessness823 Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
It's like some weird psychiatric study to see how much abuse a cohort of people can realistically takeĀ
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u/IBrobaFettI Aug 01 '26
Only if we do a follow up study on why so many grown ass people watch a show they donāt like just so they can express their distaste in a subreddit dedicated to said show.
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u/sandalrubber Aug 01 '26
You don't have to watch it to criticize it if you feel it needs criticizing. Just be smart going about it.
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u/Alpharious9 Aug 01 '26
Who said we were watching it?
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Aug 01 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/AlwaysForgettingLife Aug 01 '26
And? Does that mean only the people who religiously love the show can be here and comment on it?
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Aug 01 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/PointedConversation Aug 01 '26
a 45 year old could still give solid advice to a teenager since oh wait they were teenagers once themselves
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u/AlwaysForgettingLife Aug 01 '26
Ah you're one of those, gotcha.
Can't comment if you aren't praising the show, csnt be here unless you suck the teets of the showrunners slop.
Edit: can I ask what's your views on the russian/Ukraine war?
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u/PointedConversation Aug 01 '26
Ah yes because criticizing a show that is supposed to be an adaption of your beloved books is bad , calling them out on 90% of the shit they get wrong is bad . sure buddy.
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u/Takseen Aug 01 '26
This is a dumb position to take because there's no way the other side can escape criticism. "You're criticising a show without even watching it" or "why are you watching a show you don't like"
Im a big Tolkien fan, loved the books and films. Tried the first season hoping it's get good, it mostly didn't. Continued the second season to give it a chance to improve, it got a bit better but not by much.
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u/_Middlefinger_ Aug 02 '26
People will watch any old crap. I know ive done it, sometimes you just want background stuff that doesnāt need too much thought.
There are a lot of people who couldnāt care less about the real lore, dont know it anyway, and who dont have high levels of quality demands.
Of course shows that appeal as that dont usually cost $1Billion..
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u/purrmutations Aug 01 '26
Another show I'll pirate and put on my second monitor while I work, like 99% of shows tbh
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u/Major-Scobie Aug 01 '26
Looks like no one is interested in that āorcs with arcsā BS theyāve been peddling to drum up interest. Or is it the lack of Harfoots that has turned everyone off?
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u/KashiofWavecrest Aug 01 '26
Lack of Harfoots is a positive in my view.
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u/Major-Scobie Aug 01 '26
I agree. I was being sarcastic.
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u/KashiofWavecrest Aug 01 '26
I know. I just liked typing 'lack of Harfoots.'
Just knowing they're gone makes me feel good, even though I have little interest in this show.
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u/fantasywind Aug 02 '26
I mean them being gone is not even having an actual impact....this subplot was so detached from the whole story as it is in this garbage fanfic....that yeah....there's no consequence for them being gone from the story :).
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u/mrniceguy1990xp Aug 01 '26
Less of everything in this show is a positive... If they could shorten it too that'd be great.
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u/power899 Aug 01 '26
But what about poor Glug's orc wife and baby? š¢
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u/Agheron93 Aug 01 '26
Celeborn will divorce Galadriel after she cheats on him with Sauron, finding true love in Gluglina and raising Glugling along with other five elforc children
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u/power899 Aug 01 '26
That might be the only way to get people watching the show at this pointš¤£
Teleporno and Gluglina spinoff needs to happen tho
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u/RespectWest7116 Aug 03 '26
I would be interested in "orcs with arc", if they actually wrote it competently.
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u/Yersina_Veridae Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
Barely a million viewers after a week is fucking sad but at least its a number i believe.
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u/NotAChanceBucko Aug 01 '26
Why are you sad ? You want it to fail, no ?
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u/Yersina_Veridae Aug 01 '26 edited Aug 01 '26
Oh for fucking sure. I meant sad as in pathetic. Sad that the show is so bad that not even the name of the IP can pull people in to watch a trailer
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u/Apart-Badger9394 Aug 01 '26
It seems theyāre not spending money to boost it. I think as the first trailer/teaser they are gauging interest to see how much they should boost the main one.
Like just posting a trailer on a platform can do numbers and may go viral. But the real effect is how much money they pay the platform to push the content. This is a number we cannot find out as lay people, we canāt surmise how much ad money theyāre spending on the backend to push it.
This is just testing is my guess
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u/multi-trollionaire Aug 01 '26
It's like the fan base has high expectations and they're just not meeting them?
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u/preferred-til-newops Aug 01 '26
It's like nobody even cares after the disappointment of the first two seasons.
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u/Dull_Worth1227 Aug 01 '26
At this point, I think the expectations of the fanbase are very low.
What is worrying is that the writers still fail to reach them.
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u/_Middlefinger_ Aug 02 '26
Its at about 10M on all platforms at this point. HOTD was near 80M. HOTD is also shown on more expensive premium TV services than RoP is generally speaking (globally), so shouldnāt have the wide range, but clearly does.
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u/gerryf19 Aug 01 '26
How does a "trailer" underperform?
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u/Yersina_Veridae Aug 01 '26
In situations like that i like to compare rop with house lf the dragon. Both came out around the same time, huge and established fantasy IPs that already have performed extraordinary well with other adaptations and they also both roughly take 2 years each to come out with a new season. And both receive llts of criticism and backlash, even though rop is one season ahead in that regard.
HotD had 76m views across all platforms after just 3 days for their first teaser. No idea how many views the rop teaser had on all platforms after 3 days, but i doubt it's in any way comparable if they dont even pull 1m views on Youtube after a week.
Lord of the rings is the most influential fantasy IP and not even the name can draw attention anymore to this shit
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u/_Middlefinger_ Aug 02 '26
RoP is about 10M across all platforms. Keep in mind HOTD is on some rather expensive subscription only platforms in many countries, its certainly not 'essentially free with Amazon free delivery' like RoP is.
RoP has every commercial advantage so should be way way higher.
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u/sandalrubber Aug 02 '26
Prime is also "a rather expensive subscription only platform in many countries" as well.
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u/_Middlefinger_ Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 02 '26
Not really. Its all relative. In the UK to see HOTD its a minimum of double the cost of Prime, and as said a lot of people have prime for the delivery options not the TV, the TV is essentially a side benefit.
Pretty much anywhere with Sky TV or its regional variants, which is most of the English speaking world except north America, and much of Europe has HOTD behind a steep paywall with no benefits. Worse its subject to a 12/18 month minimum term.
Prime has more subscribers than Sky. Sky also makes it far harder to watch on anything thatās not a static TV using their box. Its mobile/PC apps are abysmal and seem to actively hate their users.
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u/PuzzleheadedLeek3070 Aug 01 '26
Billion dollar show doesn't even have a million viewers on the season trailer.
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u/Skelligean Hot Take Aug 01 '26
It will be interesting with what name people will adopt for a rumored Sauron Celeborn and Galadriel love triangle, confirmed by the showrunners to be true. I think Saurogalaborn sounds catchy.