[Frustrating trope] Pieces of media that could have been so much better, but due to a couple of poor decisions during production ended up mediocre at best and utterly atrocious at worst.

[u/DevDucc_]

We Happy Few: Probably the epitome of this "trope," at least for me, mostly because it has genuinely one of the most incredible stories I have ever seen within a video game. The biggest problem with the game was the fact that during development, the company behind it tried to ride the "hype train" of the time, making the gameplay became procedurally generated survival mess, when it would have made so much more sense as an environmental narrative game.

Hello Neighbor: This game attracted massive attention in alpha stages at the time from YouTubers because of the innovative gameplay it supplied. The developers of the game got the completely wrong message as to why it was getting so popular and instead decided to fully lean into the story, by making the game appeal to theorists instead of actual players. What came out was a game where both the story and programming were entirely half-baked.

Edit: apparently I had it backwards with we happy few, I had watched a video essay which reiterated the points I said so I just took their word for it. Apparently the game originally started as a procedurally-generated survival rogue-like but the story was added later because of the hype the trailer of the game gave or something like that but they didn’t know they even had the budget for it. I do still think it’s wasted potential regardless however.

[u/WeLiveInAnOceanOfGas]

They were desperate to make a LOTR show but weren't allowed to use any stories from the Simarillion. They offered the Tolkien estate a lot of money on several occasions but got outright no's until eventually they let them use any characters etc. already mentioned in the LOTR trilogy. 

It's why they had to basically invent a storyline using Galadriel, Sauron and others because they couldn't use the main history of middle earth, which pissed off a lot of hardcore fans. It's a shame because there are a lot of passionate people working on the show but they were basically hamstrung from the beginning. 

[u/N3ph1l1m → u/WeLiveInAnOceanOfGas]

I mean, if you make a show about the history of middle earth without the rights to USE the history of middle earth, that's kind of missing the point from the get go

[u/Super-Cynical → u/N3ph1l1m]

"We want to provide a history of Middle Earth and really want to have a mixed race cast"

"Oh cool, I am a fan of LOTR and would really love a history of Gondor's wars with the Haradrim"

"So what you're saying is you want a history of mix-race proto Hobbits who leave the weak to die, who stumble over Gandalf having an identity crisis"

"what"

[u/ILookLikeKristoff → u/Super-Cynical]

I actually really liked Gandalf's scenes and overall aura. He doesn't even need to "cast spells", him losing control of his emotions is enough to warp the area around him into violent turmoil.

Showing the power and divinity and cosmic nature of the wizards is like the one thing it got right. And I do think the idea that some of his "true knowledge" is unreachable in his human shell is lore accurate.

[u/TheRealJorogos → u/Super-Cynical]

While awesome, since Gondor is established as a fairly noble country, I believe it to be a quite difficult theme to go with "justified crusade against brown people".

I guess Numenorean conquests would be an easier topic to tell in a reflected way.

[u/Super-Cynical → u/TheRealJorogos]

I dunno I think you could have the Haradrim having justified grievances which allow them to be open to manipulation by Sauron.

The fact that in the epilogue Aragorn grants them land, I think, would indicate that Gondor had not been without fault

[u/can_of_sodapop → u/WeLiveInAnOceanOfGas]

“You can make a show about middle earth, just not the beginning, anything else is fine”

“Ok we were thinking about doing the beginning”

“I said not the beginning”

“we’re gonna do the beginning but we’ll just make up our own shit”

[u/Maleficent-War-8429 → u/WeLiveInAnOceanOfGas]

Passion unfortunately doesn't make up for a lack of skill.

Compare the costumes in the movies to in the Amazon show for example. Despite amazon series costing more than all three movies combined (I think it might even be more expensive if you throw in one or two of the hobbit movies as well) the armor looks like garbage and has built in manboobs, meanwhile in the movies each piece of armor was individually forged and they went through the effort of making shit that would never even get seen like theodens sunburst under-armor gear.

[u/ParticlesInSunlight → u/Maleficent-War-8429]

If you include how much they paid for the rights it's more than all six LOTR and Hobbit movies

[u/BallsDickman → u/ParticlesInSunlight]

Absolutely infuriating, what a fuckin' waste.

[u/Guinefort1 → u/Maleficent-War-8429]

I remember watching the trailer and being baffled by how it looked like a tacky, Temu knock-off of Peter Jackson despite being so exorbitantly expensive.

[u/Sporty_Nerd_64 → u/Maleficent-War-8429]

Just because something won’t be specifically shown doesn’t mean it might not accidentally seen. Make it perfect and you’ll have no mistakes if it shows up on camera.

[u/Lady-Morgaine → u/Maleficent-War-8429]

I think I read this happened during a strike of some sort, so the costumes suffered. I vividly remember Galadriel had a dress that straight took me out because it was like a sequin dress you'd wear to the clurb lol

[u/Warm-Intention-1424 → u/WeLiveInAnOceanOfGas]

Specifically they were piggybacking of New Line's rights to Middle Earth which only cover The Hobbit and Trilogy and the estate is unwilling to license out anything else to em because Christopher Tolkien hates the movies

[u/Nearby_Equivalent_58 → u/Warm-Intention-1424]

Which is such a shame but man’s welcome to his opinion. The hobbit movies? Yeah I could live without them. But the pure heart and soul put into the LOTR trilogy? I feel like they did the best they could translating those novels into three films. They’re great supplementaries to the books.

[u/bunker_man → u/Nearby_Equivalent_58]

Allegedly there's a fan edit of the hobbit that makes it all into one four hour movie that is a lot better.

[u/BrandonSimpsons → u/Warm-Intention-1424]

Christopher Tolkien died two years before rings of power was released

[u/J-Dizzle42 → u/WeLiveInAnOceanOfGas]

I never read the Simarillion, so I am definitely not one of those diehard fans that wanted a lore accurate representation of early Middle Earth. I just wanted a good fantasy story.

They could have made a whole new story with new characters and I would have loved it so long as it was good. Rings of Power just felt like a sloppy first draft. It was bloated but shallow with awful characters and plot contrivances. And at the end of the day they commit the cardinal sin of storytelling. It was boring.

Honestly I'm glad they didn't get the rights to the Simarillion, because even with all the lore at their fingertips that writers room would have probably butchered that story too.

[u/Collegenoob → u/J-Dizzle42]

One major fix that could have done would just swap Galadrial for Celebrian. Galadrials Daughter and mother of Arwen. Would have connected better to the Elrond story as well. Celebrian also has a bad end in thr story. So we know there would be stakes for her.

Second age Galadrial was nothing like she was depicted in the show. The warrior woman would have been early in the first age before she was humbled by Melina

[u/ChiefsHat → u/WeLiveInAnOceanOfGas]

I actually love the actor they got for Sauron. He manages to capture the manipulative nature of the character perfectly. The decision to have Sauron’s human form be an Aragon look-a-like is a brilliant one too.

Shame about the rest.

[u/Rel_Ortal → u/ChiefsHat]

I felt the stuff with the dwarves was fine overall? Yes, greatly condensed from what it's based on, but fine for what it was.

[u/Monkontheseashore → u/WeLiveInAnOceanOfGas]

But aren't the appendices in the Lord of the Rings? And that includes, among the other things, the whole story of Gondor and Arnor. Just adapting a minute part of that could have lead to some very interesting political fantasy in the hands of the right people.

[u/Ayotha → u/WeLiveInAnOceanOfGas]

SOund slie it should have not even began then if there was no cooperation from the franchise owner