[Spoilers]Rings of Power 3: Tolkien’s actual writing… who needs that?

[Le Cygne]

On 1/6/2023 at 9:29 PM, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

They have access to the “tale of years” that gives an outline of all the events of the 2nd Age.

There's also a good amount of the story of the 2nd age in the LOTR chapters, I just did a reread and bookmarked all of them, and it's quite frequent, with Gandalf, Galadriel, Aragorn and others recounting past events.

[Le Cygne]

Gandalf:

'The Three, fairest of all, the Elf-lords hid from him, and his hand never touched them or sullied them. Seven the Dwarf-kings possessed, but three he has recovered, and the others the dragons have consumed. Nine he gave to Mortal Men, proud and great, and so ensnared them. Long ago they fell under the dominion of the One, and they became Ringwraiths, shadows under his great Shadow, his most terrible servants. Long ago. It is many a year since the Nine walked abroad. Yet who knows? As the Shadow grows once more, they too may walk again. But come! We will not speak of such things even in the morning of the Shire.

'So it is now: the Nine he has gathered to himself; the Seven also, or else they are destroyed. The Three are hidden still. But that no longer troubles him. He only needs the One; for he made that Ring himself, it is his, and he let a great part of his own former power pass into it, so that he could rule all the others. If he recovers it, then he will command them all again, wherever they be, even the Three, and all that has been wrought with them will be laid bare, and he will be stronger than ever...

'But for the moment, since most of all you need to know how this thing came to you, and that will be tale enough, this is all that I will say. It was Gil-galad, Elven-king and Elendil of Westernesse who overthrew Sauron, though they themselves perished in the deed; and Isildur Elendil's son cut the Ring from Sauron's hand and took it for his own. Then Sauron was vanquished and his spirit fled and was hidden for long years, until his shadow took shape again in Mirkwood.

'But the Ring was lost. It fell into the Great River, Anduin, and vanished. For Isildur was marching north along the east banks of the River, and near the Gladden Fields he was waylaid by the Ores of the Mountains, and almost all his folk were slain. He leaped into the waters, but the Ring slipped from his finger as he swam, and then the Ores saw him and killed him with arrows.' 

Elrond:

Then all listened while Elrond in his clear voice spoke of Sauron and the Rings of Power, and their forging in the Second Age of the world long ago. A part of his tale was known to some there, but the full tale to none, and many eyes were turned to Elrond in fear and wonder as he told of the Elven-smiths of Eregion and their friendship with Moria, and their eagerness for knowledge, by which Sauron ensnared them. For in that time he was not yet evil to behold, and they received his aid and grew mighty in craft, whereas he learned all their secrets, and betrayed them, and forged secretly in the Mountain of Fire the One Ring to be their master. But Celebrimbor was aware of him, and hid the Three which he had made; and there was war, and the land was laid waste, and the gate of Moria was shut...

Of Numenor he spoke, its glory and its fall, and the return of the Kings of Men to Middle-earth out of the deeps of the Sea, borne upon the wings of storm. Then Elendil the Tall and his mighty sons, Isildur and Anbrion, became great lords; and the North-realm they made in Arnor, and the South-realm in Gondor above the mouths of Anduin. But Sauron of Mordor assailed them, and they made the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, and the hosts of Gil-galad and Elendil were mustered in Arnor.

Thereupon Elrond paused a while and sighed. 'I remember well the splendour of their banners,' he said. 'It recalled to me the glory of the Elder Days and the hosts of Beleriand, so many great princes and captains were assembled. And yet not so many, nor so fair, as when Thangorodrim was broken, and the Elves deemed that evil was ended for ever, and it was not so.' ...

'I was the herald of Gil-galad and marched with his host. I was at the Battle of Dagorlad before the Black Gate of Mordor, where we had the mastery: for the Spear of Gil-galad and the Sword of Elendil, Aiglos and Narsil, none could withstand. I beheld the last combat on the slopes of Orodruin, where Gil-galad died, and Elendil fell, and Narsil broke beneath him; but Sauron himself was overthrown, and Isildur cut the Ring from his hand with the hilt-shard of his father's sword, and took it for his own.'

Here's another, Faramir:

'The valley of Minas Morgul passed into evil very long ago, and it was a menace and a dread while the banished Enemy dwelt yet far away, and Ithilien was still for the most part in our keeping. As you know, that city was once a strong place, proud and fair, Minas Ithil, the twin sister of our own city. But it was taken by fell men whom the Enemy in his first strength had dominated, and who wandered homeless and masterless after his fall. It is said that their lords were men of Numenor who had fallen into dark wickedness; to them the Enemy had given rings of power, and he had devoured them: living ghosts they were become, terrible and evil. After his going they took Minas Ithil and dwelt there, and they filled it, and all the valley about, with decay: it seemed empty and was not so, for a shapeless fear lived within the ruined walls. Nine Lords there were, and after the return of their Master, which they aided and prepared in secret, they grew strong again. Then the Nine Riders issued forth from the gates of horror, and we could not withstand them. Do not approach their citadel. You will be espied. It is a place of sleepless malice, full of lidless eyes. Do not go that way!'

Edited February 17 by Le Cygne

[Le Cygne]

On 12/3/2022 at 1:22 PM, Mosi Mynn said:

The inevitable Pitch Meeting 

 

This sums it up nicely!

Even the way it started was like, well, we could give everyone a chance to see how cool elves can be, but instead no, let's go right into how awful they are, even the kids.

Edited February 14 by Le Cygne

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

59 minutes ago, Le Cygne said:

This sums it up nicely!

Even the way it started was like, well, we could give everyone a chance to see how cool elves can be, but instead no, let's go right into how awful they are, even the kids.

Yup.  That is, sadly, a fairly accurate summation.

[Raja]

If anything, the elves need to be taken down a peg or two.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

4 hours ago, Raja said:

If anything, the elves need to be taken down a peg or two.

Read The Silmarillon that’s nothing but Elves having their asses handed to them because of their arrogance in believing they could, on their own, defeat the most powerful of the Valar.

Edited February 15 by Ser Scot A Ellison

[Le Cygne]

This conveys what I was trying to say. What a difference in the depiction of elves. In the books and movies, there's an entirely different way of bearing themselves, of being. RoP made them humans with pointy ears.

 

Edited February 17 by Le Cygne

[Raja]

13 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

 

that’s nothing but Elves having their asses handed to them

I meant on screen as opposed to in books.

[SpaceChampion]

Plausible.   Was the Rings of Power script A.I. generated?

 

[Werthead]

Embracer Group and Warner Brothers have resolved the LotR movie rights spat, WB has paid Embracer a ton of money and moving forwards Warner Brothers are going to be making new Middle-earth films.

Oh, so many Middle-earth films.

If they make Istari Rumble Squad, I will sue.

[Ran]

Back in 2022 Embracer said they were looking at things like, "additional movies based on iconic characters such as Gandalf, Aragorn, Gollum, Galadriel, Eowyn and other characters from the literary works of J.R.R. Tolkien."

I genuinely think that authors like Tolkien (or Roald Dahl) could not quite have imagined that this is what the future would bring based on the way the relationship between corporations and IP has changed vastly since their deaths. 

[Derfel Cadarn]

30 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Embracer Group and Warner Brothers have resolved the LotR movie rights spat, WB has paid Embracer a ton of money and moving forwards Warner Brothers are going to be making new Middle-earth films.

Oh, so many Middle-earth films.

If they make Istari Rumble Squad, I will sue.

“A new threat looms over Middle-Earth, and Mandos knows heroes won’t be enough…

Enter the Halls Squad - Sauron, Feanor and other dead arseholes are released temporarily from Mandos’ Halls of the Dead on a suicide mission... “

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

“A new threat looms over Middle-Earth, and Mandos knows heroes won’t be enough…

Enter the Halls Squad - Sauron, Feanor and other dead arseholes are released temporarily from Mandos’ Halls of the Dead on a suicide mission... “

So if it's a suicide mission, that means they automatically return to the Halls of Mandos.

[Argonath Diver]

What if, had Tolkien understood the implacable force that would eventually be today's megastudio zeitgeist, he agreed to the rights of his works continuing on post mortem, with the stipulation that the "From the mind of JRR Tolkien" title screen also had an asterisk under it saying "*please assume he'd think this is likely shite. LOTR Hardbacks $5 off with ticket stub!"

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

4 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

“A new threat looms over Middle-Earth, and Mandos knows heroes won’t be enough…

Enter the Halls Squad - Sauron, Feanor and other dead arseholes are released temporarily from Mandos’ Halls of the Dead on a suicide mission... “

Stop, please stop.  Someone with green light authority could be reading this.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

On 2/21/2023 at 11:58 PM, SpaceChampion said:

Plausible.   Was the Rings of Power script A.I. generated?

 

I’ll quote Spock, “It would explain a great many things.”

[Farerb]

So WB will try to do their own Tolkien fanfiction, rivaling Amazon.

[Derfel Cadarn]

7 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

So if it's a suicide mission, that means they automatically return to the Halls of Mandos.

Saves on boat trips

[Veltigar]

4 hours ago, Farerb said:

So WB will try to do their own Tolkien fanfiction, rivaling Amazon.

Does anyone have more info on this? There was an article on the Guardian about it, but I felt like it did a poor job explaining what exactly WB could attempt to do given all the rights issues.

[Corvinus85]

We know of one film at least that's coming, the animated War of the Rohirrim, about Helm Hammerhand.