What you mentioned (at length and more than once) was what was essentially the minifig stuff: cloths, armor, weapons, banners, etc. So I'm not sure if you are abandoning those claims and shifting over to set design entirely, or simply expanding on your original views.architect wrote:I do not agree about sets themselves. You have a point about weaponry though. KKII is definitely its own concept and theme. But I believe design is influenced greatly by LOTR. For example Castle of Morcia has tiers in different levels and the center section is taller than the side towers.KK2 designs don't resemble LotR designs in the slightest - I wish they did. At least Alan Lee based his designs on real weapons and armor.
Vladek's Dark Fortress is like the Black Gate of Mordor with Isengard Towers or Dark Towers. The set is long, narrow, tall, black, and has a central door. Ok so its not exactly the same. The Viking Fortress got the cool door It must have taken them a bit to figure out that interesting construction.
Ben
As to the set designs, I must disagree with that, too. I don't really see any of LotR in the designs of the sets themselves, just previous LEGO designs. The KK2 Castle of Morcia resembles nothing so much as the KK1 castle. It's debateable if the view of Minas Tirith you use as a comparison was even available to the LEGO designers at the time that they had to have designed the KK2 castle, in any case.
Any fold-out Castle LEGO has done can duplicate the long wall look of Vladek's Castle. These are standard LEGO thematic devices - I honestly don't see any LotR in them at all.
Maybe Narnia will be a positive influence, but I think it is a long reach to blacken LotR with any imagined parallels with KK2.
As to the whole Christian Allegory folderol: that's really off-topic, and unless soneone tells you such is present, it is quite easy to miss the connection, so I wouldn't make a big deal out of it.