4 ms·

There was no way they were going to make seven unlicensed books without getting sued into oblivion. It's reasonable to summize that they always intended to beco

There was no way they were going to make seven unlicensed books without getting sued into oblivion. It's reasonable to summize that they always intended to become an official work. They likely sent scripts/drafts in the past looking to become officially licensed and failed. So, they launched anyways, hoping to become a commercial success and resume talks. Then when they saw perceived similarity between the later released Amazon prequel they saw a chance to force deal. Ideally, Amazon/Tolkien estate settle with the book series becoming officially licensed works.

shiroiuma 3y ago
I haven't read these books of course, but we all probably would have been better off if they had become the basis of Amazon's series instead of what we got.
- metabagel 3y ago
  You’re entitled to your opinion, but I absolutely love The Rings of Power.
  - shiroiuma 3y ago
    Personally, I think the show's creators did a good job with the resources they had and the huge limitations that were imposed on them. The production values were excellent, the costumes (particularly for the orcs) were amazing, the casting and acting seemed good, but the script was really weak. This was probably because of the Tolkein estate: they only allowed them to use the appendices from The Return of the King, and for some weird reason wouldn't let them use the material from the Silmarillion. The show could have been so much better if they had access to that.
- DistractionRect 3y ago
  I can't imagine it was any better if there was enough perceived similarly between the prequel and the sequel that they sued. Further, it says something about the writer that they didn't foresee how this would play out.
  - shiroiuma 3y ago
    Maybe they sued because it was too good. But then, you're right about the second point. But even here, why would you assume that someone who's a talented fantasy fiction author would also be a talented businessperson? So conversely, if he's a bad businessperson, this doesn't make him necessarily a bad author. I don't have any other examples for authors, but I can name a bunch of rock stars off the top of my head who were fantastic and gifted musicians but totally clueless about business (and many other things too).
duskwuff 3y ago
> It's reasonable to surmise that they always intended to become an official work. Realistically, that was never going to happen either. It is exceedingly uncommon for any media franchise to accept story submissions "on spec", even in franchises which are less author-focused like films or TV series. For a literary series like LotR? Forget it. You might as well ask the Pope if you can write a new book of the Bible. (This isn't to say that licensed works aren't a thing -- far from it! But they're almost always commissioned by the owner of the franchise, not on spec. There's rarely any lack of authors willing to write for a high-profile franchise.)
- DistractionRect 3y ago
  Indeed, that's kinda my point. It seems like a desperate attempt to force licensing talks, it was never going to happen without getting licensed, and licensing was probably never going to happen organically. It seems they were hoping they could win the suit and force licensing as part of the settlement, which would return the derivative work under Tolkien estate and allow Amazon to use it. In the other case, they were going to get shot down, but then they hoped that the lengthy process of examining the work would convince the estate it was a worthy sequel, and the Tolkien estate would take a cut of the book sales in return for officially licensing it. This was always going to end up in the courts, they probably thought suing first for infringement would be favorable to them rather than wait to get sued later.

shiroiuma 3y ago

I haven't read these books of course, but we all probably would have been better off if they had become the basis of Amazon's series instead of what we got.

metabagel 3y ago
You’re entitled to your opinion, but I absolutely love The Rings of Power.
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  Personally, I think the show's creators did a good job with the resources they had and the huge limitations that were imposed on them. The production values were excellent, the costumes (particularly for the orcs) were amazing, the casting and acting seemed good, but the script was really weak. This was probably because of the Tolkein estate: they only allowed them to use the appendices from The Return of the King, and for some weird reason wouldn't let them use the material from the Silmarillion. The show could have been so much better if they had access to that.
DistractionRect 3y ago
I can't imagine it was any better if there was enough perceived similarly between the prequel and the sequel that they sued. Further, it says something about the writer that they didn't foresee how this would play out.
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  Maybe they sued because it was too good. But then, you're right about the second point. But even here, why would you assume that someone who's a talented fantasy fiction author would also be a talented businessperson? So conversely, if he's a bad businessperson, this doesn't make him necessarily a bad author. I don't have any other examples for authors, but I can name a bunch of rock stars off the top of my head who were fantastic and gifted musicians but totally clueless about business (and many other things too).

duskwuff 3y ago

> It's reasonable to surmise that they always intended to become an official work. Realistically, that was never going to happen either. It is exceedingly uncommon for any media franchise to accept story submissions "on spec", even in franchises which are less author-focused like films or TV series. For a literary series like LotR? Forget it. You might as well ask the Pope if you can write a new book of the Bible. (This isn't to say that licensed works aren't a thing -- far from it! But they're almost always commissioned by the owner of the franchise, not on spec. There's rarely any lack of authors willing to write for a high-profile franchise.)

DistractionRect 3y ago
Indeed, that's kinda my point. It seems like a desperate attempt to force licensing talks, it was never going to happen without getting licensed, and licensing was probably never going to happen organically. It seems they were hoping they could win the suit and force licensing as part of the settlement, which would return the derivative work under Tolkien estate and allow Amazon to use it. In the other case, they were going to get shot down, but then they hoped that the lengthy process of examining the work would convince the estate it was a worthy sequel, and the Tolkien estate would take a cut of the book sales in return for officially licensing it. This was always going to end up in the courts, they probably thought suing first for infringement would be favorable to them rather than wait to get sued later.