Rings Of Power (spoilers)

Watched three episodes so far and am thoroughly enjoying it. Keep reading reviews where people are complaining that it’s boring (along with a lot of frankly depressing comments about, well, you know what) but simply can’t see that. Whole thing so far feels a lot like the bit in the Fellowship of the king film where they go through the Argonath.

The Orcs are definitely much nastier than in the films but then there are no Urak-hai as afar as I know in the second age

The bit in the second episode with Arondir in the tunnels was awesome, claustrophobic and scary and the character definitely has a lot of the feeling of Strider about him: nothing like a good Orc hunt to brighten the day…

Roll on episode 4.

I’ll hunt out the lord of the rings trilogy and hobbit stuff to watch on prime/Netflix as I’ve only managed to see the first episode of lord of the rings.

I’d skip the Hobbit films and stick to LotR and this new series. The Hobbit was dire despite Martin Freeman being well cast as Bilbo.

I can thoroughly recommend Screen Crush on YouTube for some geeky insight.

Always try to catch it after an episode for the stuff I’ve missed or never knew.

After episode 3, it doesn’t look like there’s any point trying to pin things down to a particular point in time in the published works.

Yeah, i think they need to nail it down that this series is going to realign the timeline of the Second Age, it has to, there’s hundreds of years between all the events and characters, you’d have to recast everything but the elves with each time jump.

Tolkien was always up for reviewing and reworking his world that he’d built, so hopefully they don’t get too uppity about some of it, but yes, we are seeing things that are two thousand years apart happening around the same timeline on the show!

Anyone else think that Sauron has already appeared?

If you mean the fallen angel I think that’s Gandalf

No – that’s be too obvious, but I wondered if he’d appeared elsewhere, more discretely. Might be wrong though …

My vote’s for Gandalf, too. Or at least one of the mages, but not Sauron. And if this means departing from the official storyline, OK. I’m not in the slightest bit concerned about whether or not a fantasy show I’m watching on TV is 100% faithful to the original book.

a major part of the Sauron back story is he’s fair and charming and as punishment the Valar remove his ability to
have a physical form.

I think it’s Gandalf, the link to the Harfoots / Hobbits is the give away.

I wondered if the sailor washed up with Galadriel in Numenor might end up being Sauron – his implied skill at metal working, charm and violence when provoked had me wondering?

I think it’s Gandalf, the link to the Harfoots / Hobbits is the give away.

Would be weird, to be fair, Harfoots (Hobbits) were stated as not doing anything of note until the third age, and the maiar never appeared until the third age, so would take it in a completely different direction to the source material.

Same with Sauron, he’s already somewhere in middle earth skulking about, Valars would be a bit too strong to bring to the story without Morgoth around, it’s going to be interesting to see how they work the storyline, if it is an earlier maiar version of gandalf then i hope it’s not just to bring the harfoots into the storyline, it’s been done so many times now, and there’s so many more interesting species around to use rather than just rehashing the films.

Episode 1 was long-winded pompous guff. Much as I’d expected. ‘The wind that aims to blow out the fire may also fan the flames’ or whatever. Comical pseudo-profound BS.

Episode 2 was a bit better.

Not sure I’ll stick it out for the rest.

Comical pseudo-profound BS.

I’m not sure it was ever pitched as competition for those black and white Ingmar Bergman films on C4. Granted a soundtrack with one violin playing discords would have cheaper than going full ‘Howard Shore’.

although the Oirish accents for the Harfoots (Harfeet? 🙂) is starting to grate a bit

Me and Mrs bloke were chuckling at the allocation of accents to the various races:

Harfoots (a comical, itinerant travelling people) = Irish

Dwarves (fond of a drink, belligerent and with a tight hold on their treasure) = Scottish

Elves = (genteel, educated, wise and beneficent) = Public school English

Orcs (the baddies) = a mish mash of working class northerners and east end cockneys!

It couldn’t have included any more crass class stereotypes if it had tried!  You just know all the writers and production staff are from good Elvish stock!  Despite the class war casting, I think it’s been an entertaining watch.  Looking forward to seeing it develop.  I also thought the stranger might have been Tom Bombadil.

I thought the Harfoots were a mix of Irish and West Country accents, Lenny Henry is definitely doing his somerset/devon accent, are they all meant to be speaking the same accent, if so i think they might want a bit more training 😂

Got to say I’m finding it a little slow / dull. And I’m a die hard fan. I mean the bit with Galadriel riding the horse on the beach in episode 3 actually had me saying to the wife this is terrible – unless there was some point to that scene I’m missing. Lots of things for those that like the lore, but definitely needs to up the % of action somewhat.

I’ll stick with it, because I want to know what happens, not necessarily because I’m enjoying it

There’s so many timelines merging together in this, from both second and third ages, it’ll be interesting to see how it’s taken by the Tolkien crowd, personally i think it’s worth it as the timelines are so vast you’d be recasting every few episodes to capture all this, but it’s certainly looks like it’ll be covering a lot of key points, the last episode might potentially explain why an earlier Gandalf may be the stranger.

Got to say I’m finding it a little slow / dull.

It’s full on action compared to the House of the Dragon dullfest.

Well, i thought the latest episode was pretty decent.

Cant really say much about it without chucking out loads of spoilers, which I know is in tbe threaf title but still, there was some fairly chunky spoilers in this one.

I’ve just caught up with episodes 3 and 4, really enjoying it. I think Numenor looked stunning, I enjoyed the world building. I like the friendship between Elrond and Durin. And Elrond’s ‘super elf eyesight’.

The elf v orc, fight was really well staged. I love the cockney orc accents…

I’ve read loads of complaints of it being slow, have these people never read the books? Thy were never action-a-minute, page turners. Definitely more of a slow burn. I like patient story telling.

I think most of series one will be setting the scene getting all the players aligned. When’s series 2 out? : )

Series 2 starts filming October 2022 according to Wikipedia

Im really enjoying it, beautiful to look at and the story is moving along, doesn’t fall need to be big battles. House of the Dragon in comparison is dull.

For me it slows down when they start doing the harfoots stuff, it just feels like mostly filler, whereas this week we had a lot of the other stuff that’s moving a lot faster, especially in Numenor and in the dwarf mine

I think the Harfoots are in it because the spaceman is actually Gandalf, otherwise at this point they feel more like a distraction.

Gandalf is already about but in a different form in the second age. He was called Olorin and chilling in the West with the Valar. Tom Bombadil has been around since year dot and is older than anything or anyone else.

I’ve not read the books for years, but I think there were two blue wizards in the second age. They were sent specifically to disrupt Sauron’s plans. I don’t think Sauron will make an appearance until the next series. There’ll be a couple of red herrings and then he’ll come in to the story as a good guy.

I’d be happy if they disregard the lore and do their own thing though. People can read the books and the series can be it’s own thing. So if the space man is Gandalf that’s fine.

I’m liking the series more after four episodes but still find the tone inconsistent.

Just found this, so spaceman probably isn’t one of the blue.

Towards the end of his life Tolkien returned to the issue of the other two Wizards. In a brief outline he noted that the two Wizards were sent to Middle-earth in the Second Age and were destined to disrupt the work of Sauron in the East:

Their task was to circumvent Sauron: to bring help to the few tribes of Men that had rebelled from Melkor-worship, to stir up rebellion … and after his first fall to search out his hiding (in which they failed) and to cause [?dissension and disarray] among the dark East … They must have had very great influence on the history of the Second Age and Third Age in weakening and disarraying the forces of East … who would both in the Second Age and Third Age otherwise have … outnumbered the West.
—”Last Writings”, The Peoples of Middle-earth[4]

Therefore Tolkien dramatically altered his conception of the two Wizards. They no longer arrived in Middle-earth along with Saruman, Gandalf, and Radagast in c. T.A. 1000. Instead they arrived much earlier, at roughly the same time as Glorfindel in c. S.A. 1600. Whilst Glorfindel was tasked with aiding Elrond with the war in Eriador, the Wizards were destined to journey to the East and South. Instead of mentioning that they drifted from their mission, Tolkien points out that they played a decisive role in the downfall of Sauron at the end of both the Second Age and the Third Age. They became known as Morinehtar and Rómestámo, Darkness-slayer and East-helper, and were successful in preventing the forces of the East and South from outnumbering those of the Free peoples in the West.[4]

Based on these later writings, a history of the two Wizards can be summarised as the following:[4][5]

The two Wizards were sent to Middle-earth at roughly the same time as Glorfindel in c. S.A. 1600 (and similarly at the behest of the Valar), the Year of Dread, when Sauron forged the One Ring and completed the building of Barad-dûr.
The two Wizards journeyed into the East and South of Middle-earth, where they remained; they were not heard or seen of west of Mordor.
There they became known as Morinehtar and Rómestámo, Darkness-slayer and East-helper.
The two Wizards were able to hinder Sauron’s operations in the East and South, aiding the defeat of Sauron in the War of the Elves and Sauron and War of the Last Alliance.
During the early Third Age and until the end of the Watchful Peace, they were tasked with finding where Sauron dwelt. They failed.
They ensured that the forces of the East and South did not outnumber the West, thus helping secure victory for the Free peoples in War of the Ring.

Apparently the Orc / Elf leader is the first Orc that Melkor (Sauron’s old boss) created by corrupting an Elf, so he’s definitely not Sauron.

I really think comet man could be Sauron, or Halbrand. Definitely been little hints here and there that suggests it could be either one.

It would just be nice to have the strangers story move a little without having to have so much harfoots stuff, that singing and dancing stuff was not very good, then the whole sad stuff about those left behind, 5 minutes after they’d all been singing about nobody being left behind 😂

Series 2 starts filming October 2022 according to Wikipedia

Yep , Bray and Bovingdon.

As big fan of The Silmarillion, I am really enjoying it.
I hope they go back and do some first age stuff if this proves a success.

My only criticism is how one of the wisest Elves acts so brashly, and with the political nouse of a fart.

I really think comet man could be Sauron, or Halbrand.

Now Halbrand makes sense. He’s silvertongued and in the 3rd episode he claimed to be a great blacksmith- handy for forging rings

Got to say I’m finding it a little slow / dull.

Have to agree. It’s all very pretty but it could do with a bit more oomph.

It’s the first season of a planned multi season show, which has sewed the seeds of some potential big events occurring during the show, i’d expect the season ending to have the big events, there’s lots going on in numenor, same with middle earth and we’ve just seen something with the dwarves that could be a plot for something big.

It’s just glacial when we end up with the harfoots for me, at best it’s a side plot, at worst they’re going to just imitate Fellowship even more with the harfoot plot, which is definitely not a good thing for me.

Mmmm. Who’s the elf lord poet who is having a forge/tower built by the dwarves?

Celebrimbor – Fancy pants Elven smith. Sauron, in disguise, helps him make the rings whilst secretly crafting the one ring.

blimey this is a tiresome drag.

I bailed about 15 mins into episode one (probably more the background music than the RP elves everywhere). Shame as I could do with a bit of escapism and had considered another go, but this thread really ain’t selling it.

New episode that bad?I’ve not watched latest episode but if it wasn’t for the hype and the fact I loved the LOTR films I’d have not bothered watching anymore after the first 30mins of the first episode.