[SPOILERS] Rings of Power: Ah, Mithril, that's the good stuff!

[3CityApache]

11 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

Could Sauron/Halbrand suffer from amnesia like The Stranger?

That could probably explain why he saved Galadriel from drowning, too, but honestly I would find it kinda cheap.

[fionwe1987]

7 hours ago, LynnS said:

I'm assuming there is some kind blood magic involved and Adar was a donor.  So they are his progeny in that sense.  I'm assuming that Sauron used men to create his second generation of orcs and this is why Adar asks Halbrand if he hurt some woman that Halbrand loved.

None of this is true in Tolkien's writing, but hardly out of the realm of possibility for this show. 

[The Bard of Banefort]

Reading all these Sauron theories online, something that doesn’t sit well with me is how Sauron is emphasized as someone obsessed with control and order. None of the candidates—Meteor Man, Halbrand—have that kind of personality. If anything, Adar would have been the best fit. 
 

Are they going to go full Star Wars and give Sauron secret children too? That would be fun 

[Stannis is the man....nis]

Out of curiosity have the creators of this show ever say if this is “in canon” with PJ’s LOTR movies?

[Secretary of Eumenes]

Haven't watched, won't watch, not here to talk shit about something I haven't seen. 

I have been enjoying lurking, though, and I have a question for clarity. 

I got the impression that Sauron had shown up a while back, but then y'all started talking about his identity being a mystery... Is it like a mystery box situation? Cause they keep saying Sauron, Sauron, Sauron whenever the Thursday night football games come back from commerical. Like, they have been doing that for weeks. That's a long time to drag out a mystery reveal. 

I'll take my answer off the air, thanks.

[The Marquis de Leech]

5 hours ago, Stannis is the man....nis said:

Out of curiosity have the creators of this show ever say if this is “in canon” with PJ’s LOTR movies?

They have been very clear that this is not a prequel to Jackson, but rather its own thing.

[The Marquis de Leech]

3 hours ago, Firebrand Jace said:

Haven't watched, won't watch, not here to talk shit about something I haven't seen. 

I have been enjoying lurking, though, and I have a question for clarity. 

I got the impression that Sauron had shown up a while back, but then y'all started talking about his identity being a mystery... Is it like a mystery box situation? Cause they keep saying Sauron, Sauron, Sauron whenever the Thursday night football games come back from commerical. Like, they have been doing that for weeks. That's a long time to drag out a mystery reveal. 

I'll take my answer off the air, thanks.

It's like Agatha Christie. Multiple different candidates for disguised Sauron are dangled in front of the viewer, and we have yet to have the big reveal about which one actually is Sauron. 

[Secretary of Eumenes]

5 minutes ago, The Marquis de Leech said:

It's like Agatha Christie. Multiple different candidates for disguised Sauron are dangled in front of the viewer, and we have yet to have the big reveal about which one actually is Sauron. 

Well that doesn't sound so bad. 

Thanks.

[The Bard of Banefort]

Do we know what elf tribe/land/kingdom Arondir comes from?

[The Marquis de Leech]

35 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Do we know what elf tribe/land/kingdom Arondir comes from?

I believe he's supposed to be a Silvan Elf. But this is a setting where even that lot take orders from Gil-galad.

[Werthead]

16 hours ago, The Marquis de Leech said:

They have been very clear that this is not a prequel to Jackson, but rather its own thing.

Eh, I don't think they've been that clear on that. They struck a deal with New Line/WB to use their imagery if necessary, and they are using the Jackson versions of Sauron's armour and the design for the Balrogs, and there's enough elsewhere that's similar (Moria isn't exactly the same but then we only saw like 0.001% of it in the films, and you can easily imagine other halls and sections of the mines that are differently-designed because they are thousands of years older or newer than others).

I think from a creative point clearly there are no personnel in common between the two projects on the writing/directing front, but the reuse of Jackson designs muddies the water.

[RumHam]

Amazon offered me a free trial when I was having something shipped so I started this. I have a question. If in the second age Elves are Elves and Dwarves are Dwarves and Men are Men, why are the Hobbits Harfoots? I'm assuming they eventually find the shire and settle down. I'm just curious if there's a lore reason, or it's a weird rights thing where they can't say hobbit? 

 

[Heartofice]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

Eh, I don't think they've been that clear on that. They struck a deal with New Line/WB to use their imagery if necessary, and they are using the Jackson versions of Sauron's armour and the design for the Balrogs, and there's enough elsewhere that's similar (Moria isn't exactly the same but then we only saw like 0.001% of it in the films, and you can easily imagine other halls and sections of the mines that are differently-designed because they are thousands of years older or newer than others).

I think from a creative point clearly there are no personnel in common between the two projects on the writing/directing front, but the reuse of Jackson designs muddies the water.

Also, so much in terms of style and tone is basically second hand knock offs of Jackson's movies that it would be very strange for them to pretend there was no connection there. 

I think a better approach for them would have been to try to steer as far away from what Jackson did as possible, create a whole new aesthetic for this world and try to do something unique. 

[Corvinus85]

19 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Amazon offered me a free trial when I was having something shipped so I started this. I have a question. If in the second age Elves are Elves and Dwarves are Dwarves and Men are Men, why are the Hobbits Harfoots? I'm assuming they eventually find the shire and settle down. I'm just curious if there's a lore reason, or it's a weird rights thing where they can't say hobbit? 

 

Tolkien wrote of so called proto-Hobbits who lived in, ahem, the early Third Age in the areas where we see the Harfoots in the show. There were three groups: the Stoors (Smeagol was a Stoor), the Harfoots who were the most numerous, and the Fallohides. Tolkien never wrote about the condition of the Hobbits in the Second Age. The show decided they needed Hobbits, they looked at the lore and picked the Harfoots.

Edited October 4, 2022 by Corvinus85

[Werthead]

34 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Amazon offered me a free trial when I was having something shipped so I started this. I have a question. If in the second age Elves are Elves and Dwarves are Dwarves and Men are Men, why are the Hobbits Harfoots? I'm assuming they eventually find the shire and settle down. I'm just curious if there's a lore reason, or it's a weird rights thing where they can't say hobbit? 

They can say Hobbit no problem, it just feels like they've decided to use the term "Harfoots" to differentiate them from the later Hobbits.

This might be a mild act of rebellion, actually, since there seemed to be a directive from Amazon to have Hobbits and the writers decided they had to go with that, but they'd try to find a way that at least nods to Tolkien, so using the term "Harfoots" and putting them vaguely in an area they may have been in during their wandering days during the books (albeit a couple of millennia later) was the best fist they could make of it.

They do have an issue here in that the Harfoots presumably never come into contact with other major characters like Galadriel or Elrond, or achieve much of note, otherwise it'd be a bigger deal when Bilbo and Frodo later show up.

[SpaceChampion]

7 hours ago, RumHam said:

Amazon offered me a free trial when I was having something shipped so I started this. I have a question. If in the second age Elves are Elves and Dwarves are Dwarves and Men are Men, why are the Hobbits Harfoots? I'm assuming they eventually find the shire and settle down. I'm just curious if there's a lore reason, or it's a weird rights thing where they can't say hobbit? 

 

Elves aren't Elves though, when they woke they invented words (and their language Quenya) and they called themselves Quendi. 

Dwarves aren't Dwarves either, they call themselves Khazad.

 

[Lady Anna]

I'm up to episode 4 and I'm enjoying this show. The visuals, costumes, music are all superb and they help this world stand out as something alive and rich. I really cannot compliment the costumes and set design enough.

I have not read any of the books. I've only watched the LOTR movie trilogy which I love very much. I think they've definitely captured the feel of Middle-Earth at a time, I gather, when things weren't as dark as we see in LOTR because Sauron hasn't returned to power yet. The Dwarves are excellent. I love them and Elrond is also a standout.

I feel like all the actors are doing a good job but the actor who plays Adar really commanded the screen in his only scene in episode 4. The actresses that play Nori and Poppy are also doing a really great job imo. Sometimes it's not easy being the young comic relief but they really pull it off.

If I have any complaints, it's definitely about the writing. I can't speak of it as an adaptation, but regardless of that, some scenes are a bit "convenient" and the dialogue stilted, but it's nothing that you wouldn't find in other shows. Definitely nothing that seems worse than the average.

All in all, I'm really liking the show.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

On 10/3/2022 at 10:00 PM, The Marquis de Leech said:

It's like Agatha Christie. Multiple different candidates for disguised Sauron are dangled in front of the viewer, and we have yet to have the big reveal about which one actually is Sauron. 

Galadriel is Sauron…

[The hairy bear]

That would actually be a great twist!

[.H.]

Me and my wife are Sauron!