The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
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In The Rings of Power, Joseph Mawle was originally cast to play Adar. However, he left the role after Season 1 for career purposes, and Sam Hazeldine was recast for the character. Did you guys feel like the recasting disrupted the connection to the character, as will happen sometimes with recasting, or was Hazeldine an improvement over his predecessor?
I think it is about 75% fan fic, because the timeline is absolutely distorted and even the canon elements are less than half of the segments where they are featured. There are several canon characters left out inexplicably.
Admittedly, the Nerd of the Rings guy couldn't actually do the breakdowns without the show, but hear me out.
The Nerd of the Rings does breakdowns that last almost as long as the episodes themselves. They cut out lots of filler like extended fight scenes, montages, and overly long panning shots. You pretty much learn all there is to know about what happens in the episodes and he often notices many things you might have overlooked.
The best part of the breakdowns is how he connects the evens of the show to actual canon lore. I will say, I almost never disagree with his assessments or reactions. If you want to know what I think of the show, he explains it better and more detail than I ever could and we agree like 99% of the time.
Have you watched the breakdowns? Do you think they are good? Do you agree or disagree with his takes on things?
I like to think I have advanced knowledge of Tolkien, but this guy is amazing.
In Rings of Power Season 2, Episode 4, Elrond and company run into the Barrow-Downs, where they encounter... the Barrow-wights?
As most of you know, the spirits of the Barrow-Downs entered the hills in the Third Age, after the Witch King had invaded Cardolan. Before that, the Barrows were the burial place of the kings of the Arnor.
Quite obviously, The Rings of Power takes place in the Second Age, before the Numenoreans established the kingdom of Arnor. What would be the reasoning for so blatantly, and somewhat pointlessly, including the Barrow-wights in RoP? Especially considering no good reason is given lore-wise for their inclusion. Ancient kings from a thousand years ago? What nation of men would have settled Eriador a thousand years ago? And where would have the spirits come from?
What are y'all's thoughts on this?
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/rings-of-power-showrunners-deal-season-3-1235838612/
I guess the complaints of Tolkien fans did not get through.
See: https://lotr.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000000242166
Amazon has newly expanded rights to plot points from The Silmarillion.
Good news... and if some of the below are true, it seems they got rights to the Ainulindalë. I do wonder how much it cost, since the Tolkien estate initially took them to the cleaners, big time.
S2E1 opening scene is Eru using the secret flame to create Melkor.
Pointless filler. Hopefully this is untrue.
Melkor (then) watches as Eru creates all the Valar and the Maiar.
Borderline fan fic and also mostly pointless filler. Hopefully this is untrue.
Eru is a disembodied voice vaguely human shaped but no characteristics can be made out.
As Nerd of the Rings mentioned, the less clearly identifiable that Eru is, the better. Hopefully they choose a good voice actor, if this is true.
The secret flame is golden, as are all the Valar and the Maiar.
Again, borderline fan fic. For most of The Silmarillion, the first colors of things are silver: Illuin (a Lamp of the Valar) and Telperion (The White Tree of Valinor) were probably created first and the Moon was was definitely created before the Sun. Silver is far more favored in Tolkien's writings than gold, so the choice of a golden flame seems to be one by the showrunners counter to precedent.
The Valar are larger than the Maiar, but are bathed in a golden light and completely naked (the scenes were filmed with nude figures in strategic lighting.)
I guess. There is really no need for them to be completely humanoid looking. I mean physical forms are like "clothes" to the Ainur, so they could easily be humanoid lacking secondary sexual characteristics... another demonstration of lack of imagination by the showrunners, if this is true.
Sauron will be played primarily by three actors in Season 2.
Whatever.
Sauron — in Mairon form, and called such — is NOT Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) or Annatar (Gavi Singh Chera).
Don't care.
After the fourth interruption of the Song, several Maia meet and discuss Melkor’s discordance.
As Nerd of the Rings points out, there should only be 3 interruptions, so whoever thought up this rumor is either trying to fool people or it is BS.
Mithrandir (Gandalf) is in this scene.
He should not be called Mithrandir (his Sindarin name), since Gandalf didn't get that name until very late in the Second Age or more likely the Third Age. His name should be Olorin or something Quenya at this point. Another sign of ignorance by rumormonger.
Mithrandir (Gandalf) is “almost” convinced to support Mairon’s (Sauron) agenda.
This sounds like trolling or introducing a fan fic-like story of Olorin to make Sauron/Mairon sound more persuasive.
Mairon gives an epic speech, “The One has blessed me more so than all of you to see the potential of His creations, and what better way to forge their mettle than by allowing them to face Melkor’s discord and grow beyond what they think capable!”
More fan fic. This rumormonger is a total Sauron simp. Also "forge their mettle" sounds like something badly mixing metaphors.
Sauron tells the dwarves he apprenticed under Aulë, so they welcome him with open arms.
More Sauron simping. This is also very fan fic, since the dwarves are not known to have allowed Annatar/Sauron into Moria/Khazad-dûm. They may have heard of him, but there is no evidence they ever worked with hime.
Sauron had a son who Adar killed.
Stupid. Melian had a daughter, but is the only known Maiar to ever have a kid. Sauron having as son is just super stupid and ultra-fan fic.
Horse lovers rejoice! A dedicated “bottle” episode with little dialog will tell the story of the first Mearas (Editor: these are the great horses of the Rohirrim), Felaróf, and introduce Shadowfax.
Stupid, unnecessary, and very fan fic, but I guess it wouldn't bother me to much to see. As Nerd of the Rings mentioned, Felaróf was not supposed to appear until the Third Age (tamed by Eorl in TA 2500-ish), so Felaróf would have to be thousands of years old when Eorl encountered the horse. If you buy that, then it really doesn't matter how old Shadowfax is... but also thousands of years old by the time Gandalf encounters the horse.
Gandalf (Meteor Man) meets Shadowfax.
Again, stupid and unnecessary. More fan fic.
Tom Bombadil and Goldberry are in an episode.
Fine.
They are played by the same actor and actress as Melkor/Morgoth and Ungoliant from Episode 1.
Whatever.
The pair, as Bombadil and Goldberry, are serving out a punishment from Mandos per “a long-held fan theory” (Editor: this “long-held fan theory” is news to us.).
Complete trolling. Only complete moron fans would have this theory.
The season will end with Sauron forging the One Ring.
Does it really matter at this point? They completely f'd the timeline for the Three Rings.
Even more:
Simon Tolkien is personally involved and overseeing this show’s expansion of the mythology.
No sure this is news. If S1 is any indication, this may not be good news.
Season 2 is mainly Sauron’s story, told from his perspective, and opens with his retelling of history.
Uhh... okay. Sounds like BS Sauron simping.
Episode 1 is primarily Sauron’s story leading up to the breaking of the first silence.
Could be interesting, fi done well. Odds are not great.
Sauron will try to deceive Galadriel again by taking the persona of Celeborn.
We finally get to see Celeborn and this is supposed to be how? Sounds like an impeding disaster... why not have have Sauron make Shelob look like their daughter Celebrian and have her show up too?
Sauron sneaks back into Eregion as Celeborn.
Whatever.
Season ending cliffhanger involves Galadriel making a choice to save Celeborn (Sauron?).
Kill Celeborn and put him out of the misery of this rumor.
Episode 6-7 is a huge 2-part Siege of Eregion.
This might actually be good. Not sure this rumor tells us much, though. The siege of Eregion was expected to show up at some point. I mean if TRoP only survives for 3 seasons and the fall of Eregion is supposed to happen in the middle of the Second Age... the timing is actually strangely appropriate.
I have just watched the series and really liked it. More then I expected it, it had some weird things and it wasnt as good as the Lord of the Rings itself, but I really enjoyed it. The thing I probably liked the most was that they kept Galadriel way of looking, really mysterious but not dark yet. The last episode was also great, the forging of the first three rings and the reveal of who Halbrand really was.
https://thedirect.com/article/rings-of-power-season-2-issues
I generally agree with these points, but I do think there was some character development, just with emphasis on the wrong characters.
One assumes that Amazon put so much money into it, that they will probably try to squeeze out a Season 3, but they canceled The Expanse, which was a much better show, so TRoP might only get 2 seasons.
What do you think?
Make sure to consider how this character not dieing would affect the story! (e.g: if Boromir was never killed he may have been able to stop Merry and Pippin from being carried of by the Uruk-Hai, so they never would have met Treebeard)
216 Votes in Poll
So a common argument I’ve heard defending The Rings of Power (or at least the show’s writers) is that they only had the adaptation rights to The Hobbit and and The Lord of the Rings (Appendices included), so they couldn’t make a 100% faithful adaptation of the Second Age. Although I don’t think this is a valid argument, it begs the question, why did Amazon only buy adaptation rights to The Lord of the Rings? Why didn’t they buy the rights to the Silmarillion as well? It can’t be because they didn’t have the money, because it’s Amazon, so was the Tolkien estate just not willing to sell the rights or did Amazon do it deliberately so they had more room to add in original characters and scenes?
312 Votes in Poll
Since the timeline is so screwed up in TRoP, I have a feeling they have skipped or will skip the construction of the Doors of Durin.
Do you think we will get to see this in the series? It seems like it should have happened already.
*****SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW*****
Now that the season finale is out, what are your thoughts about it as an episode and how well it wrapped up the previous seven installments? I was quite wowed - some of the creative decisions I'll need to digest for a bit, but overall was impressed.
***Please remember to be respectful and courteous - any legitimate opinion is welcome, but attacking others of different viewpoints is not permitted!***