Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power [Amazon] *Spoilers*

The anecdotes I remember at the time was that the first movie was quite cathartic for Tolkien fans

I started the show last year but other things got in the way so I decided to start again from episode 1.

I have some questions about Tolkien’s mythology but I want to avoid spoilers so thought it best to here.

A Valer is a a godlike being that lives in Valinor. Morgoth was one of these but turned bad and caused havoc in Valinor.

Sauron is is a similar but less powerful being more like an Angel who becomes a demon.

Valinor is the afterlife for elves.

Is Valinor also where elves come from? And this is where the RINGS OF POWER begins with young Galadriel and her brother? And elves like her soldiers ans Elrond were born on Middle-Earth and she and the High King are considerably older than them so for Galadriel Valinor is both the Afterlife and where she was born?

Have I got that right?

If so, why didn’t other Valer help fight Morgoth? Why didn’t other of Sauron’s kind also help to try stop them?

Again no spoilers please and no talk of show vs the writings unless it is related to the above.

However, if any of this is actually explained in later episodes then then please just let me know that and that is enough of an answer.

Cheers

This is in essence the same question that Christians find so hard to answer: why does a supposedly all-powerful god allow evil to exist? I'm not aware Tolkien had a good answer for it within his mythology...

Indeed. People were following the build up to FoTR for years before it was released. The reactions to the trailer made the news internationally. That is some CRAZY misremembering. There was almost Star Wars level anticipation for FoTR. Amazing when you consider it was a new franchise and that, let's be honest, fantasy was still considered pretty damn nerdy (Certainly more so than Sci-Fi). The entire trilogy was a phenomenon at the time. NOT retrospectively. They changed thole concept of release schedules. Now major franchises are routinely working on sequels in parallel. I know this did happen prior to LoTR trilogy to a degree (Superman 1/2, Back to the Future 2/3 did some parallel filming for example). But they certainly made it more of a thing. DVD extended editions have yet to be surpassed in quality and content. The hype was insane! People I worked with who would never read a book, let alone fantasy, were suddenly reading it. Book shops suddenly had Sci-Fi/Fantasy front and centre instead of one rack in a dark corner.

Apathy? I don't know where that poster was living. In NO WAY was this correct.

As for the actor. I thought he was great. Thought Adar was the most interesting character on the show and most of that was down to the portrayal. I mean, I didn't hate the show as much as many. I thought it had some good qualities: Adar, thought the Dwarves were PERFECT, thought the production values were great. Liked Arondir. Liked the friendship between Elrond and Durin. But, like most, I thought the biggest issue was with Galadrial. I didn't have any problems with the idea of her involved. But the portrayal was just REALLY bad. (Hated the kid too though 😀. Annoying little sh*t )

But yeah..... FoTR. Apathy? Mental. Hah

Tolkien never really described them as 'we' would see it, it would more a description of their qualities and responsibilities

e.g. Manwë... King of the Valar, King of Arda, Lord of air, wind, and clouds... Noblest and greatest in authority, but not in power, of the Ainur; greatest of the Aratar.

e.g. Orome Renowned for his anger, the most terrible of the Valar in his wrath. Had a mighty horn, Valaróma, and a steed called Nahar. During the Years of the Trees, after most of the Valar had hidden in Aman, Oromë still hunted the Enemy in the forests of Middle-earth with Huan, Hound of the Valar. 

The above is from this Wiki link but it also contains spoilers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valar_in_Middle-earth

Above them all is the supreme creator being - Eru Ilúvatar is introduced in The Silmarillion as the supreme being of the universe, creator of all existence, including the world, Arda and its central continent, Middle-earth.

The elves aren't an offshoot of the Valar, but are children of Ilúvatar, like humans, dwarves and hobbits.

The elves were the first of these children to appear and are immortal which is why they were called to Valinor by the Valar to remove them from Melkor \ Morgoth's corruption.

But a great war comes and many of the Elves return to Middle Earth to continue the war against Melkor ... this is covered in the Silmarillion which is episodic \ kind of like the Bible, covering huge amount of time. If you do read it I suggest creating an cast of characters as a cheat sheet beside you.

Yes that's it re: the elves.

Not all elves will have lived in Valinor. Branches of the Elven race such as those in Greenwood \ Mirkwood in the Hobbit would not have.

There is a character in the LOTR books, Glorfindel who is described thus - in the films his actions were transferred to Arwen:

"They do not fear the Ringwraiths, for those who have dwelt in the Blessed Realm live at one in both worlds, and against both the Seen and the Unseen they have great power."

Those who lived in Valinor are described in the books as 'High Elves' and by the time of the LOTR movies few remain in Middle Earth.

Re: the comment in the cell, if you don't get an explanation by the end of the season post it here and should be able to answer if it is just background \ prehistory - unless it risks spoilers for the future seasons of Rings of Power.

It is hinted at in the books... aside from physical characteristics of speed \ skill... if you think of what we find terrifying - balrogs, dragons etc

For an orc, an elf of the blessed realm is 'terrifying' in that sense.

Easier for the books to convey that rather than on screen.

i dint think so. AI is mikes away from actual creativity.

was looking at WW2 flavoured Lotr and while it looked okay at first glance it didn’t hold up under scrutiny. Hands being a major flaw in each image.

check out the hand on the thumbnail above

Someone posted earlier in the thread, I know it is a gag!

Some people seemed have given a lot more thought to this series than it deserves?

Something that popped up in my google feed, from searching for the above ship, trigger action to be shown posts.

The below post gives details of the ship design and how they wouldn't function as intended.

Spoiler warning for these blog posts.

Another good source is this youtube [NotR] playlist: - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLyHBx6FRJC3Gh-_JnvPcPMl4T5LXiH_t

In terms of Amazon shows it could be #1 in 2022 in terms of new episodes watched.

While the Boys has more minutes viewed, that is from 24 episodes, so you'd assume some of them are people binging \ catching up on earlier seasons.

nonsense physics of how that actually collapsed the tower.

Spoilers in this but explains how that Tower collapse shouldn't have happened as shown

As for spoiler in the cast list, didn't see any on IMDb, so don't know what list you looked at? A google search does have the spoiler.

Hadn't looked in a while but just noticed this is down to 6.9 on imdb. imo anything less than 7.5 for a series is pretty bad and would normally lead to the series being cancelled?

When it comes to value for money, it's not just this complete turkey of a show...

I think they have the rights to a few more IPs

I read this:

but if anyone else has a more definitive answer, please enlighten me.

So what did Amazon buy? “We have the rights solely to The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, the appendices, and The Hobbit,” Payne says. “And that is it. We do not have the rights to The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The History of Middle-earth, or any of those other books.” That takes a huge chunk of lore off the table and has left Tolkien fans wondering how this duo plans to tell a Second Age story without access to those materials. “There’s a version of everything we need for the Second Age in the books we have the rights to,” McKay says. “As long as we’re painting within those lines and not egregiously contradicting something we don’t have the rights to, there’s a lot of leeway and room to dramatize and tell some of the best stories that [Tolkien] ever came up with.”

Interesting hypothesis. was the script was written by ChatGPT ha ha!

I will be watching the last episode later tonight.

I like an episode a week and for something like this show I want it to last but hadn’t intended on it lasting this long but there is always something that gets in the way.

not today though - a magnificent meat feast pizza and no interruptions

:D

EDIT: I may as well ask this question now though as I won’t be on the boards again for a couple of days. I mentioned my confusion about this one in a previous post .

Galadriel was talking to Halbrand in the dungeon on Numenor about the symbol he carried. I think she was trying to get him to admit to being of the bloodline of the King of the Southlands. He told her that his family sided with evil in the war ti which Galadriel responded that her family started the war.

I assumed at first that she meant the Elven race and her actual family but then remembered that the war started because Morgoth attacked Valinor and destroyed the Trees.

so I’m lost as to what Galadriel actually meant.

I have some unexpected free time today.

A fantastic end to a fantastic season.

Unfortunately I had seen the cast list on a Google search where some numpty had added in the spoiler that Halbrand wasn’t Halbrand’s real name. I would never have seen it coming but I still enjoyed the reveal and the confrontation. 

I liked the distraction that someone else was Sauron but I wouldn’t have fallen for it being the Stranger.

I would have liked if Sadie had survived (Hobbits shouldn’t die :p) but it was great way to go and the magic battle was a lot of fun. 

Are the three women in white or the group they represent from the writings of Tolkien ?

Why Sauron left the forge so easily after Galadriel stabbed him confused me and I had always thought that Sauron made all the Rings at the same time so the fact that he manipulated the Elves into making their three was a surprise. And the leaving was part of that manipulation. 

I’m guessing Sauron having the hots for Galadriel is not from Tolkien’s writings but I’ll go along it - she is very tasty.

So the show has rewritten, how and when the rings where made.

Slim Sauron :-)

As someone who watched it when it came out, and quit after episode 5 or 6 through lack of interest, I have recently started watching it again with the family, and I have to admit it is better 2nd time round. Not brilliant but not bad.

I think I got too engrossed with black elves and Irish hobbits the 1st time around to enjoy it. But if you just chill and watch it as a tv show, it's grand.

The Last Kingdom was more watched...ooof