I'm the opposite. It's embarrassing to it, but my mind was totally closed off to it and I had decided that I disliked it when the first trailer came out because YouTubers said it would be bad (not my finest moment). I didn't watch it until a month after it first aired when my brother told me to stop being stupid and give it a go. 5 hours later, I had caught up and was looking forward to the next episode. I have since watched it through about 4 times.

It's not flawless, but I enjoyed the plot, loved the settings (the Elven cities are beautiful as was Kazadum though it was sad seeing it at its prime knowing what Moria will have become by the 3rd age). The acting was solid (for the most part), and while I would have preferred elves to have their Tolkein long hair, I wasn't going to rage quit over it.

I also wasn't going to rage quit over the condensed timeline. Given the huge time span these events took in the canon, it simply wasn't possible if they wanted to have any characters other than elves as main characters. I'd rather have a condensed timeline that allows us to come to know Isildur and Elendil throughout 5 seasons, rather than be introduced to them towards the end of the entire show.

I've also seen complaints about certain characters not yet being the people they'd eventually become. Galadriel and Isildur for instance were pretty different from the characters we later know them to be, but we're at the beginning of a 5 season show - if they were already at their best, then how is any character development meant to happen? Perfect character season 1, episode 1 would be poor writing, but somehow many people don't seem to understand that.

I always find it funny seeing people who've never read fanfiction before comparing ROP to a bad one. You clearly have no idea how terrible some of them are.

Interesting idea. It would be a connection to his descendants thousands of years later who have 'Theo-' at the beginning of their names. Perhaps I'm a bit morbid, but I still think he'll become a Ringwraith by the end. Maybe we'll see both if we get a timeskip long enough for Theo to have a son. Anyway, I enjoyed your article. Thanks for sharing :)