Name: 為什麼電視對託爾金是錯誤的？ (Why TV Is Wrong For Tolkien)
Uploaded: 2026-01-13T17:45:15.000Z
Duration: 8 min 28 s

There are plenty of criticisms that you can level at the Rings of Power, Amazon's TV series set in the second age of Tolkien's Middle Earth.

關於 Amazon 的電視劇 Rings of Power，也就是設定在 Tolkien 的 Middle Earth 第二個時代的電視劇，確實有不少可以批評的地方。

進階形容詞比較級句型

I don't dislike the show as much as some people, but

雖然我沒有像有些人那麼討厭這部劇，

程度副詞

the first season didn't really work for me.

但第一季對我來說真的不太對味。

That's, of course, partly down to the show's creators, but

當然，這部分要歸咎於影集的創作者，但

I also have a lot of sympathy for them because I think they're faced with what might be an impossible task.

我也很同情他們，因為我覺得他們面對的是一項不可能的任務。

See, I'm skeptical that the Lord of the Rings or any other story from Tolkien's mythology can really work as a TV series.

你看，我懷疑 Lord of the Rings 或 Tolkien 神話中的任何其他故事，是否真的能以電視劇的形式呈現。

這就像是 square peg, round hole 的情況。

TV as a form just doesn't play to the strengths of Tolkien's vision.

電視這種形式根本就無法發揮 Tolkien 創作的優勢。

To understand why I think this, we have to look closer at what makes Tolkien's story special and also what stories TV is best at telling.

要了解我為什麼這麼想，我們得更仔細地看看是什麼讓 Tolkien 的故事如此特別，以及電視最擅長講述什麼樣的故事。

The Lord of the Rings trilogy consists of epic high fantasy novels.

《魔戒》三部曲是由史詩高奇幻小說組成的。

All four of these words have important meanings.

Fantasy is the genre indicating a story with with supernatural elements.

奇幻是指出故事中帶有超自然元素的類型。

Epic and high are subgenres without exact definitions.

史詩和高是沒有確切定義的次類型。

But generally, high fantasy means a story told in an alternate or secondary world, as opposed to fantastical elements in our own world.

但一般來說，高奇幻指的是一個發生在另一個世界或第二個世界的故事，而不是我們這個世界裡的奇幻元素。

And epic, in this case, means a story that has the highest possible stakes, the fate of the world or the universe.

而史詩，在這裡指的是有最高可能賭注的故事，關乎世界或宇宙的命運。

But I actually want to focus on this novel.

但我其實想專注在這本小說上。

我們現在都知道小說是什麼了。

It's by far the most popular form of literature.

它至今仍是最受歡迎的文學形式。

it's also a genre itself, with conventions that separated it from earlier genres of literature like medieval romance and the epic.

它本身也是一種類型，有著將它與早期文學類型如中世紀羅曼史和史詩區分開來的慣例。

What set the novel apart when it emerged in the 1700s was its focus on ordinary people, as opposed to knights or noble heroes, and

小說在 1700 年代出現時，與眾不同之處在於它關注的是普通人，而不是騎士或貴族英雄，還有

their engagement with contemporary culture.

Plots became less important than characters.

And the stories, rather than take their structures from traditional genres, were structured by the choices these characters made, by the consequences of those choices, and

而故事，與其說從傳統類型中汲取結構，不如說是由這些角色所做的選擇、這些選擇的後果所構建，並且

eventually by their inner lives, their psychological conflicts with themselves.

最終由他們的內心生活，他們與自己的心理衝突所構建。

Now, as you move backward in time, characters become grander and more archetypal, embodiments of particular virtues, vices and codes of honor.

現在，當你往回追溯時間，角色變得更宏偉、更具原型，是特定美德、惡習和榮譽準則的化身。

They're more defined by their roles in the narrative structure, which is rigid and conventional.

他們更多地由他們在敘事結構中的角色來定義，而這種結構是僵化且遵循慣例的。

Not to be confused with the word epic in epic fantasy, I'm talking about epics like Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil's Aeneid, Beowulf, or the Indian Mahabharata.

這不是指奇幻中的「史詩」這個詞，我說的是像荷馬的《伊利亞德》和《奧德賽》、維吉爾的《埃涅阿斯紀》、貝奧武夫，或是印度的《摩訶婆羅多》那樣的史詩。

According to genre theorist Mikhail Bakhtin, the epic is Set in a distant mythical past, it reflects the collective memory and values of a society.

根據類型理論家米哈伊爾·巴赫金的說法，史詩發生在遙遠的神話時代，反映了社會的集體記憶和價值觀。

It's centered around the heroic deeds of larger than life figures.

它們圍繞著超越凡人的英雄事蹟展開。

And it takes place at the founding of a culture or at a peak time.

並且發生在文化創立之時，或是一個高峰時期。

Most importantly, epics have a sense of completeness to them.

最重要的是，史詩有種完整性。

What happens in an epic was always going to happen.

史詩中發生的事，本來就註定會發生。

The character are bound by fate or destiny.

It is as closed as a circle, Bakhtin says.

巴赫金說，它就像一個封閉的圓。

Inside it, everything is finished, already over.

在裡面，一切都已完成，早已結束。

These are all qualities that describe the Lord of the Rings.

這些都是形容《魔戒》的特質。

The story is set in an alternate world, but

Tolkien also imagined it as a mythical past for England.

Tolkien 也將它想像成英格蘭的神話般的過去。

It reflects shared values of fellowship, friendship, courage, and hope in the face of overwhelming dark forces.

它反映了在面對壓倒性黑暗勢力時，夥伴情誼、友情、勇氣和希望的共同價值觀。

It features the heroic deeds of larger than life figures like Aragorn and Gandalf.

它展現了像 Aragorn 和 Gandalf 這樣超凡人物的英雄事蹟。

And it takes place at a peak time of Middle Earth, the end of the Third Age during the War of the Ring.

而故事發生在中土世界的一個巔峰時期，也就是第三紀元結束時的魔戒聖戰。

Now, of course, the Lord of the Rings is novelistic too, most apparently in Tolkien's choice to foreground the hobbits, characters who are literally not larger than life, but

當然，《魔戒》也具有小說的特性，最明顯的是 Tolkien 選擇以哈比人為主角，這些角色實際上並非超凡脫俗，而是

whose choices have a huge impact on their world.

他們的選擇對他們的世界產生了巨大的影響。

What makes Tolkien truly special was his ability to incorporate the qualities of epic and myth into a modern novel and to let the reader feel again the power of long dormant genres.

Tolkien 之所以如此特別，是因為他能夠將史詩和神話的特質融入現代小說中，讓讀者再次感受到沉寂已久的類型所蘊含的力量。

See, in a world as complex and rapidly changing and scientific as ours, we're not really able to write new epics and myths because, well, we can't believe in them.

你看，在我們這樣一個複雜、快速變化且充滿科學的世界裡，我們其實無法寫出新的史詩和神話，因為，嗯，我們無法相信它們。

We need our characters to be as complex as we are.

我們需要我們的角色跟我們一樣複雜。

Their wills need to be free, not bound by destiny.

他們的意志必須自由，不受命運束縛。

我們的故事需要開放，而不是封閉。

And yet we still yearn deeply for the completeness, the unity, the closed circle of epic storytelling.

然而我們內心深處仍然渴望著史詩敘事的完整性、統一性，那種封閉的圓滿。

In fact, the more complex our world becomes, the stronger we feel that longing.

事實上，我們的世界變得越複雜，我們就越強烈地感受到這種渴望。

The catch is that ages that are characterized by high rates of change are eager for new myths, but

關鍵在於，那些變動劇烈的時代，渴望新的神話，但

also ill adapted to giving themselves what they desire, as Hans Blumenberg said.

也難以給予自己所渴望的東西，就像 Hans Blumenberg 所說的。

But in his fictional secondary World, Tolkien found a loophole, a way for readers to satisfy their burning desire for the epic and the mythic without betraying their knowledge of how the world really works.

但在他的虛構的第二個世界裡，Tolkien 找到了一個漏洞，一種讓讀者在不背叛他們對世界真實運作方式的認知下，滿足他們對史詩和神話的強烈渴望的方法。

For me, that's the value and the beauty of Tolkien's vision and what any adaptation should seek to capture.

對我來說，這就是 Tolkien 願景的價值和美麗之處，也是任何改編都應該試圖捕捉的。

Twenty years ago, I believed Peter Jackson did, and

二十年前，我相信 Peter Jackson 做到了，

that's due to his artistry and the artistry of everyone who worked on that trilogy.

這歸功於他的藝術造詣，以及參與那部三部曲的每個人的藝術造詣。

But it's also because movies are able to convey this epic quality.

但這也是因為電影能夠傳達這種史詩般的特質。

Even when they're trilogies, their endings have a finality to them.

即使是三部曲，它們的結局也帶有最終的確定性。

Tv, on the other hand, is much more open ended.

There are endings, of course, endings of episodes, of seasons, even of series.

當然有結局，有單集的結局、季的結局，甚至是影集的結局。

But TV shows, especially those that run multiple seasons, are fundamentally oriented toward the next thing, not the last thing.

但電視節目，尤其是播映多季的節目，本質上是朝向接下來的內容，而不是最後的內容。

This is what makes television the ideal medium for novelistic storytelling, where characters are the most important thing.

這使得電視成為小說式敘事的理想媒介，在這種敘事中，角色是最重要的。

Complex, flawed characters whose choices and their consequences are what structure the story.

複雜、有缺陷的角色，他們的選擇和後果構成了故事的結構。

I mean, all the best TV series, especially TV dramas, are intense character studies.

說真的，所有最棒的電視劇，特別是電視影集，都是很深入的角色研究。

This is why Game of Thrones is the ideal fantasy series for tv.

這也是為什麼《權力遊戲》是電視上最適合的奇幻影集。

It's a story in which destiny plays a role, but

這是一個命運會扮演角色的故事，但

a complicated one, often being misinterpreted and subverted by the messy choices of messy characters who ultimately decide their own fate.

命運很複雜，常常被一團亂的角色們所做的混亂選擇誤解和顛覆，而他們最終決定了自己的命運。

TV is just not suited to capturing the epic in Tolkien's world.

電視就是不適合捕捉託爾金世界裡的史詩感。

But to remove it is to remove an essential piece.

但如果移除它，就等於移除了一個重要的部分。

Now, watching the Rings of Power, you can see the creators trying to balance epic narrative with psychologically complex characters.

現在看《Rings of Power》，你可以看到創作者們試圖在史詩敘事和心理複雜的角色之間取得平衡。

But when they lean into the epic, it stops being good tv, it falls flat.

但當他們偏向史詩時，就變得不好看，顯得乏味。

And when they lean toward the psychodrama, it stops feeling like Tolkien.

而當他們偏向心理劇時，就感覺不像託爾金了。

And their job is extra, extra hard because they're dealing with the second age, which is less novelistic than the Lord of the Rings, even less epic in Tolkien.

而且他們的工作更、更難，因為他們處理的是第二紀元，這比《魔戒》還要不那麼像小說，在託爾金的筆下甚至更不史詩。

These are myths where characters are even grander and more archetypal, their stories more conventional.

這些是神話，其中的角色更加宏偉、更具原型，他們的故事也更慣例。

Trying to dive into the psychology of Galadriel and Sauron for multiple seasons is a losing game.

試圖花好幾季深入描寫 Galadriel 和 Sauron 的心理，這註定是場輸局。

Now, I'm not rooting against the Rings of Power.

現在，我並不是在唱衰《Rings of Power》。

Maybe they'll find a way to square the circle in season two.

也許他們能在第二季找到方法 square the circle。

Or maybe, just maybe, popular IP doesn't have to be adapted and forced into every shape under the sun.

又或者，也許，受歡迎的 IP 不一定要被改編，然後硬塞進各種形狀裡。

This episode was brought to you by Squarespace, the all in one website platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online.

本集節目由 Squarespace 贊助播出，這是一個功能整合的網站平臺，協助創業者在線上脫穎而出並取得成功。

Whether you're just starting out or managing a growing brand, Squarespace makes it easy to create a beautiful website.

無論你是剛起步，還是正在管理一個不斷成長的品牌，Squarespace 都能讓你輕鬆打造一個漂亮的網站。

And now you can make a completely personalized website with their new guided design system, Squarespace Blueprint.

現在，你還可以透過他們全新的引導式設計系統 Squarespace Blueprint，打造一個完全個人化的網站。

Choose from professionally curated layout and styling options to build a unique online presence from the ground up, optimized for every device and with optimized SEO tools so you show up more often to more people.

從專業策劃的版面配置和風格選項中挑選，從頭開始建立獨特的線上形象，針對各種裝置進行優化，並搭配優化的 SEO 工具，讓你更容易被更多人看見。

You can upload video content, you can even sell access to your video library all from within Squarespace.

你可以在 Squarespace 內上傳影片內容，甚至販售影片庫的存取權。

Basically, a Squarespace site is going to make whatever you're sharing or selling, look professional, and

基本上，一個 Squarespace 網站能讓你想分享或販售的任何東西，看起來都專業，而且

that's going to help you get the word out.

Head over to squarespace.com for a free trial, and

前往 squarespace.com 即可免費試用，

when you're ready to Launch, go to squarespace.com nerdwriter for 10% off your first purchase.

當你準備好上線時，請前往 squarespace.com nerdwriter，即可享有首次購買 10% 的折扣。