The Rings of Power vs House of the Dragon: Which show will win the fantasy face-off?

In what can be called a brave and bold move, two major studios - HBO and Amazon - decided to release two of their biggest fantasy shows - _House of the Dragon_ and _Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power_ , just two weeks apart. As a result, fantasy fandom - which comprises the vociferous Tolkien nerds who know every dialogue of Lord of the Rings trilogy by heart and George RR Martin readers who have devoured A Song of Fire and Ice books - found itself at crossroads. They now have to decide which show has won the ultimate fantasy face-off. The shows - The Rings of Power and HoD are similar to each other in one aspect - they are prequels to mega successful epic fantasy sagas which had the world by chokehold in the last two decades. As a result, both shows had a rather tall order to live up to. The Prequel Baggage The shows, even before their release, were hyped up by fans and the studios backing them. The comparisons to the LOTR trilogy and Game of Thrones were inevitable as the writers tried to at least match the standard set by their predecessors, if not do better. While HoD, to a large extent, does justice to the legacy of GoT, The Rings of Power visibility falls short at replicating the cinematic brilliance of Peter Jackson’s trilogy. The characters are just not as rich. The scale, though enormous and visually appealing, didn’t manage to get the Tolkien nerds excited about the upcoming episodes. That, of course, might change as there are 6 more episodes which are yet to be released and with each episode, the show might just get better. When compared to GoT, HoD performs far better, in terms of the characters’ arcs, the fight sequences and the plot twists. The show seems similar to earlier seasons of GoT when the characters were only being introduced and viewers were curious to know what else the series had in store for them. The comparison on grounds of prequels might not be completely fair though. While the LOTR trilogy was a mega success and is celebrated even today, the final season of Game of Thrones got brickbats and criticism for not being able to give the perfect send off to George RR Martin’s world of dragons and White Walkers. As a result, The Rings of Power had a tougher path to walk as compared to its contemporary HoD. Naturally, HoD scores in this aspect while The Rings of Power loses out. The Numbers Game Opinions are subjective but facts are certain. It is easy to see how LOTR and HoD stack up against each other based on their viewership on the respective OTT platforms. The Rings of Power’s first two episodes were streamed by about 25 million people in the 24 hours following their release on September 2. Meanwhile, on August 22, 10 million people consumed the first episode of House Of The Dragon. The gap is 15 Million, which is a sizable amount. One might attribute the sizable difference in viewerships to LOTR’s immense popularity as compared to GoT. One can argue that the fantasy fandom, however, gives every show an equal chance before it tips the scales in the favour of any one of them. The Rings of Power clearly scores better when it comes to the viewership and the ratings. The Diversity Debate One similarity, in both The Rings of Power and HoD is that both shows have been criticized by their respective fans - particularly those who have a keen interest in Tolkien and Martin’s work - for the inclusion of a diverse cast. Many are also accusing the shows of being ‘too woke’ to pander to the left-learning audience. The Rings of Power, however, has hit a raw nerve with fantasy fans as some of them have racially attacked the Black cast members of the show. The attacks were condemned by Amazon studios in a statement released on Friday. The backlash over a diverse cast shows that while both shows are competing with each other to win over the same audience, they are haunted by the same demons - the abusive trolling and the subsequent cancel culture. It is, of course, too early to say which show has outperformed the other as only a couple of episodes are out for both franchises. Both fantasy shows have a long road ahead but one thing remains for sure - the fantasy fandom spares no one. If the quality of either of the shows goes down over time, fantasy fans, being equal opportunity offenders, won’t think twice before crowning the other show the winner of the ultimate fantasy face-off. Let the battle begin! Deepansh Duggal is an entertainment, pop-culture and trends writer based in New Delhi. He specializes in op-eds based on the socio-political and gender issues in the world of entertainment and showbiz. He also writes explainers and occasionally reviews shows in the OTT space. He tweets at @Deepansh75.  Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News ,  India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.