Just throwing this out there, but if you're looking for the Amazon Lord of the Rings series to replace the Game of Thrones hole in your heart, you're barking up the wrooooooong tree.

And if Amazon makes Lord of the Rings gritty to meet the Game of Thrones hype then that will be the most disgusting insult to the source material possible.

The settings may "feel similar" but the stories they tell are so VASTLY DIFFERENT that it would be like... Taking the original Spiderman movie and rewriting it completely to match up with Watchmen.
Not... A perfect... Analogy... But...

The point is that the two stories have their own merits and values. They may have the same setting as "Superhero" but the points they're trying to make and the tone they're trying to convey are completely and utterly worlds apart.

One isn't better than the other because they're like apples and oranges in terms of storytelling. You may prefer one more than the other depending on the tone of the stories you like to consume, but they aren't comparable as narratives.

I feel like Game of Thrones (TV) is more successful when compared to other grittier, television shows like I dunno The Walking Dead or something along those lines.

I hope my point is clear here. I could write an entire paper on all of the differences of Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones when it comea to Narrative and Structure and Moral and Purpose and everything.

TLDR: LOTR is fundamentally different to GOT and it doesnt mean "thing bad" it means "dont look at one as a replacement for the other" that is all.

I wrote this thread while REALLY SLEEPY so please forgive any inconsistencies lololol