AfricanRain t1_iwstjn1 wrote on November 18, 2022 at 2:09 AM

I saw people for years being adamant that LOTR was still a bigger franchise than GoT and I just don’t think you can argue it’s true anymore. Maybe word of mouth killed ROP but people just clearly like Westeros more than Middle Earth.

ArsBrevis t1_iwsz9xa wrote on November 18, 2022 at 2:54 AM

Ridiculous argument.

The difference in reception is NOT because of IP strength but the quality of the adaptation. As someone who read ASOIAF long before the HBO show, it was virtually unknown to the general audience prior to HBO GoT whereas the widespread popularity of Tolkien's legendarium spans decades.

Put it this way - a shitty LOTR show was able to keep fairly close streaming viewership figures to a critically and popularly well received GoT show. If that's not IP strength, what is?

reddishcarp123 t1_iwtyxm7 wrote on November 18, 2022 at 9:35 AM

>The difference in reception is NOT because of IP strength

Yes it is lol, the data completely shows that LoTR is literally more popular with those that grew up watching it while GoT is more popular with teens & non-fantasy watchers. You're argument is completely invalid & meritless.

pm_me_reason_to_livx t1_iwu9xip wrote on November 18, 2022 at 12:02 PM

> Ridiculous argument

I know /u/AfricanRain is gettin' downvoted here, but from what I've seen, it might not be a ridiculous argument to make at all.

> The difference in reception is NOT because of IP strength but the quality of the adaptation.

Is it really? Even if it's a bad show, I expected ROP to garner a lot more online discussion than it ultimately did. That one post made here awhile back about how there was basically no talks of ROP on twitter especially when compared to HOTD was very accurate. ROP was dead as fuck on twitter. Not that there weren't any tweets about it... but for the most part, it never had a huge buzz, people just didn't seem to care that it was something that existed. That's the vibe I was getting.

Casually using Tik Tok and Instagram, I got the same vibes. Users mentioned, memed, made videos about, and discussed even Euphoria more than they did ROP. I just think for younger audiences LOTR might be irrelevant to be honest... because even if it was bad, quality wouldn't stop it from having cultural relevance, even if that cultural relevance comes due to mockery. We've seen it many times before.

HickRarrison t1_iwuosor wrote on November 18, 2022 at 2:19 PM

I personally saw lots of social media activity for ROP, mostly because the algorithms know I like LOTR. But yeah, definitely not as much as Stranger Things or Euphoria or HOTD.

You're right about younger audiences -- I'm Gen Z myself and I don't think any of my friends care about anything LOTR related. I don't think that's necessarily an indicator of viewership, because from what I've seen the overall viewership numbers for ROP are fine.

I think it says more about LOTR's target demographic -- it skews a lot older than those other shows. The movies are 20 years old, and the books are nearly 70 years old. And they aren't exactly light reading for kids. High fantasy in general is also a pretty niche genre compared to the fantasy in GOT/HOTD.

donmongoose t1_iwundxg wrote on November 18, 2022 at 2:08 PM

I think you're massively underestimating just how much Tolkein fans hated RoP, not to mention how many "normies" could recognise that even at a basic level, the show failed. The fact anyone even bothered watching it and doing reviews does suggest that the LotR franchise is still up there near the top and it'll take more than one piss weak season of TV to change that.