The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

[Werthead]

3 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

Was the balrog at the end the one from Jackson's films or is it new, but the same one, i.e. Durin's Bane?

So they're making Sauron a cult leader, which would be fine I suppose, but as Ran indicated, the guy looks ultra suspicious.

If he's going by the name Sauron openly, as the trailer indicates, it's immediately obvious he's evil because Sauron was around in the First Age and Galadriel and Elrond would know him by that name.

[Ser Drewy]

7 minutes ago, Werthead said:

This is getting confusing. I thought the idea was that they were going to bring in Annatar maybe later in Season 1 and then do the whole corruption of Celebrimbor thing.

Here it looks like Sauron is already on Numenor, already as a priest of Morgoth before the rings are forged.

Weird.

That's a good point. Kinda makes me wonder if the timeline squishing might really bite Payne & McKay in the rump. But then I don't understand why they wouldn't start with Annatar as a mystery figure, friendly and the creation of the Rings being the big close with his true identity being revealed. 

[Corvinus85]

1 minute ago, Werthead said:

If he's going by the name Sauron openly, as the trailer indicates, it's immediately obvious he's evil because Sauron was around in the First Age and Galadriel and Elrond would know him by that name.

To me the trailer indicated that somewhere in the east (or south)m where those new characters are, the name of Sauron starts getting whispered again, while Sauron himself may not necessarily use the name in the scenes they showed here. But if he does go around openly calling himself Sauron, how does Celebrimbor get tricked? Surely he knows the name, too.

[Ran]

Is the kid who is this Bronwyn's son the character Joseph Mawle is playing as an adult, I wonder? And could he essentially end up as one of the first of the Nazgûl?

This thing is baffling. Nice looking, though.

[Ser Drewy]

1 minute ago, Ran said:

Is the kid who is this Bronwyn's son the character Joseph Mawle is playing as an adult, I wonder? And could he essentially end up as one of the first of the Nazgûl?

This thing is baffling. Nice looking, though.

Rumour was Mawle was playing Adar the Father of Orcs. 

[Ran]

Just now, Ser Drewy said:

Rumour was Mawle was playing Adar the Father of Orcs. 

I know Adar is "father", but this isn't a Tolkien character, right? Is he supposed to be an orc as well then? Or are they going the twisted elf route?

[Werthead]

There was a good analysis that the House of the Dragon trailer actually works as a trailer, laying out the stakes, what's going on, who the protagonists are etc. Rings of Power so far has instead relied heavily on name recognition from the Jackson trilogy (Elrond, Galadriel, Sauron, Isildur). There isn't really a strong sense of the story they're telling in the trailers. Tolkien fans can work it out, sure, but the casual audience seems to be fairly unmoved so far.

From what we've seen, Adar is human or elven (his ears are covered). Rumour was that he was a "dark elf" who'd gone over to evil, and might even be Maglor.

[Ran]

Well, when you collapse almost two millenia of history... going to get confusing.

I think right now that the real problem is that it's just too expansive in trailer-form. You have FA stuff including a glimpse at Valinor, several Elven realms, a dwarven realm, Númenor, other human dwellings, the Harfoots in their side story... it is a hell of a lot of material. How can anyone make sense of that?

But it looks sumptuous.

[Ser Drewy]

That's kind of what I've been wondering about the show in general for awhile now. With all these plots, characters and flashbacks, it seems to be there's a risk of this being really overstuffed with material. 

[Rhom]

15 minutes ago, Ran said:

But it looks sumptuous.

That's what I got from it too.  It absolutely looks stunning.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

41 minutes ago, Werthead said:

There isn't really a strong sense of the story they're telling in the trailers. Tolkien fans can work it out, sure, but the casual audience seems to be fairly unmoved so far.

About that, how much buzz is there for ROP online so far?

[Calibandar]

2 hours ago, SpaceChampion said:

Looks like young Gandalf to me.

 

Hmmmm it feels weird. So The Stranger is apparently not Sauron but Gandalf would not look young at any point.

I suspect this character is something else, though the showrunners did indicate this character is in " the same class"  as Saruman, Gandalf etc, meaning either its a Maia or an Istari.

1 hour ago, polishgenius said:

 

Its very interesting that they are actually showing that this guy plays Sauron, which must indeed mean that The Stranger in the Meteor is not Sauron. I find that a big relief. Clearly this actor is then playing the Annatar role.

53 minutes ago, Ran said:

I know Adar is "father", but this isn't a Tolkien character, right? Is he supposed to be an orc as well then? Or are they going the twisted elf route?

Its an invented character, from what I read he is supposed to be a Father of the Orcs kind of twisted Elf indeed.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

It looks… generic… 

 

[Calibandar]

That Balrog scene at the end is very interesting, that has to be a new one appearing in the series surely since presumably there is zero reason to just copy paste that from the LoTR films. Quite exciting

[Corvinus85]

3 hours ago, Calibandar said:

That Balrog scene at the end is very interesting, that has to be a new one appearing in the series surely since presumably there is zero reason to just copy paste that from the LoTR films. Quite exciting

Pretty sure it's Durin's Bane. There was that shot of a leaf that flew through the cracks deep down in a cave with veins of mithril. When it lands it catches on fire and there seemed to a smoky shadow in the background. 

[SpaceChampion]

21 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

Pretty sure it's Durin's Bane. There was that shot of a leaf that flew through the cracks deep down in a cave with veins of mithril. When it lands it catches on fire and there seemed to a smoky shadow in the background. 

But Durin's Bane doesn't emerge until the 3rd Age, and kills Durin VI, not Durin III or IV.

[Slurktan]

40 minutes ago, SpaceChampion said:

But Durin's Bane doesn't emerge until the 3rd Age, and kills Durin VI, not Durin III or IV.

And? They are moving it up seemingly. Seems smart if they actually want a story to involve the dwarves.

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, SpaceChampion said:

But Durin's Bane doesn't emerge until the 3rd Age, and kills Durin VI, not Durin III or IV.

I know. Another time compression.

[polishgenius]

If it is gonna be Durin's Bane it's also a bit concerning to me that they're implying its awakening had to do with Sauron.

[Ser Drewy]

Some are claiming that figure is not Sauron now, but may be a Sauron Cultist.  There's also claims that Morgoth destroying the Trees was seen in an extended look at the show.