What Did They Do to Tar-Palantir?

I realized I'm probably in a very small minority here, but one of the things that irritated me the most about Rings on Prime is the changes they made to Tar-Palantir.

The King in the Books and the Show

In the Silmarillion, Tar-Palantir is the older son of a king who despises the Elves and the Faithful; that king forced a Faithful woman to marry him, so when their sons were born, she tried to raise them to love the Valar and the old ways. In the case of her oldest son, she succeeded; in the case of her younger son, she did not succeed, and he behaved more like his father. 

The king noticed this. He preferred his younger son over his older son, and wanted to make his younger son the next king instead. However, he couldn't do that because he couldn't change the Numenorean laws. The older son became king Tar-Palantir, but his younger brother kept causing him problems until he died early (the Silmarillion never mentions murder, but it does mention that he had an uncommonly early death). But the brother wasn't the only one causing problems, making Tar-Palantir's life very miserable. 

However, he was never deposed. He reigned as king until he died. Why? "[E]ven those that hated him feared his words as those of a true-seer" (Silmarillion 277). People were scared of him. They were not going to get rid of him or force him out because they were too frightened. What interests me about this is that Numenor had become very arrogant and confident in their own power, so it's fascinating that even in their arrogance they could be afraid of someone they hated. 

And in the show, all of that was just gone. 

Tar-Palantir was a feeble, insane old man who died of something, spoke in rambles, couldn't accurately convey his prophecies, went crazy after looking through an actual Palantir, and got forced off the throne! Because I guess the Numenoreans actually weren't scared of him? Oh, and by the way, do we really think that Tar-Palantir would go insane after looking through a palantir? (I'm fairly sure that the palantiri themselves don't actually hurt you. All they do is talk to each other. What caused Saruman and Denethor to lose it after looking through their palantiri is the fact that Sauron had one of the other palantiri and was talking to them. But we know for a very solid fact that Sauron doesn't have one in the show, so...) 

There's nothing much more to say about him, except that one of his prophecies was that when the White Tree died, the line of Numenorean kings would also die, and this prophecy eventually prompted Isildur to steal a fruit from the white tree and plant it, making an offshoot, and that offshoot eventually became the White Tree in Minas Tirith. In the show, Tar-Palantir is dead, and he hasn't made that prophecy, so... no White Tree in Minas Tirith? 

By the way, in contrast with Tar-Palantir, his brother is described as "strong and ungentle" (277); his son was Pharazon, also a character in the show. In the book, Pharazon 

had become a man yet more restless and eager for wealth and power than his father. He had fared often abroad, as a leader in the wars that the Numenoreans made then in the coastlands of Middle-earth, seeking to extend their dominion over Men; and thus he had won great renown as a captain both by land and by sea. Therefore, when he came back to Numenor, hearing of his father's death, the hearts of the people were turned to him; for he brought with him great wealth, and was for the time free in his giving (277). 

In the show? He buys a bunch of drinks and talks with people. Oh, and the only time he's near a fight, he stays out of it. In fact, when there's a war, he doesn't go with the ships; Miriel does instead. 

How Not to Write Strong Characters

One of the many issues I had with Rings on Prime is that, in order to make certain characters seem clever and strong, the writers made everyone around them seem like idiots. I've heard a lot of people talking about this issue with The Main Character, but I noticed it also with Tar-Miriel. I think that's why they have Elendil speaking very nervously to her, when as the son of the Lord of Andunie he probably should have known her well and addressed her almost like an equal; why they took away all of Tar-Palantir's story; and probably why they made Pharazon less of a warrior than he was in the books. They wanted to expand on Miriel's character, which is perfectly reasonable, but apparently the only way they could do that was to limit the other characters. Miriel has Pharazon's role, she has Tar-Palantir's place as ruler, and she looks powerful only by talking down to Elendil. 

It seems as though the writers weren't talented enough to expand on her character without diminishing other characters. They didn't have the skill to make her interesting, so they took other characters' interesting skills and put them on her. 

Well, either that, or they didn't have the rights to that part of the story. I guess that's always a possibility.