Rings Of Power (spoilers)

The three rings were made by the elves, Sauron made the rest.

He only made the one ring and the rest were made with his aid (disguised as Annatar). The three Elven rings were actually the last of the 19 to be made. They’ve pissed all over Tolkien’s work in some regards. Not that it really matters for a TV show. I’m just intrigued as to how the rest are now made and why they’ve changed it.

I’d guess each series will be centred around how a set of rings get made, with a “guess the Sauron” character in each, manipulating first the dwarfs, then men to create their sets of rings. Final series, he’ll make the One Ring followed by the final battle where Isildur will defeat him and take the ring.

In parallel, hobharfoots will traipse around until settling in The Shire, men will build various cities we recognise, and dwarfs will get kicked out of Moria. Oh, and Elrond will build a little retirement cottage in the woods.

“guess the Sauron” character

Bit late for that!

Still not sure who the Istar is. Was it confirmed Gandalf, or just heavily hinted?

I reckon it might be Radagast – from memory, he’s the only other named Istar, and some of the interaction with flora and fauna might point in that direction. If nothing else, it would rehabilitate the character after that nonsense with Sylvester McCoy.

Well he’s off to the east, and there was the discussion on the blue wizards, although there’s only one of course, but that wouldn’t be a huge issue going by the other stuff that’s been moved about in the show.

If it’s not, and one of the 3, i’d go for Saruman, they can do a bit more with that character, as we’ve rarely seen him when he was on mission, the weird thing is that they’re not scared to do the obvious in this show, which can throw you off as much as feigning it.

Well as a Tolkien geek I enjoyed it. I basically threw out the any idea of them following the books, seriously how could they, the folk moaning about how boring it is would go on longer than the series though 🤣
I took it for what it is, a bit of fantasy escapism. At least I don’t keep falling asleep during it unlike the House of the Dragon snooze fest.

Follow your nose, to me is one big pointer to it being Gandalf.

Follow your nose, to me is one big pointer to it being Gandalf

This. Up to that point I thought Saruman as I thought he was the first of his order.

Enjoying it, especially last three episodes. Don’t mind the Harfoots.

The song in the closing credits refers to the number of rings; three for the elves, seven for the dwarves etc.

In parallel, hobharfoots will traipse around until settling in The Shire

Actually, I reckon they’re there to provide both a link to the ring & explain Gandalf’s fondness for them – they were kind to him when he arrived etc.

I think they’ll settle near a river and become the Stoors, who are a distant cousin of the Hobbits; a pair will grow to be Deagol & Sméagol, and the ring will be found. Sméagol is over 400 years old by the time Bilbo meets him…

Shit, I’m such a geek 😂

Follow your nose, to me is one big pointer to it being Gandalf

This was a dead giveaway. Or was it just another fake out?

Here, what about the Sauron cultists as the fabled blue wizards?

Here, what about the Sauron cultists as the fabled blue wizards?

That little group of weird pale white warlock type people who are obviously trying to track the tall man down?

No Idea, I’d be interested to hear what the Tolkien geeks make of them…

Aye, that’s the ones. I am a Tolkien geek, that’s why I’m asking.

I preferred it too and found it less boring than the LoR and hobbit films.

Finished watching this last night, thoroughly enjoyed it – much better than the snoozefest of HoTD.

They have just started filming Series 2 and are currently filming on Hankley Common……we were politely diverted away from the filming area on Monday. Apparently Series 2 doesn’t air until 2024……

No Idea, I’d be interested to hear what the Tolkien geeks make of them…

In the subtitles they are referred to as the “The Aesthetics” no, me neither, no idea.

New season is out… well 3 episodes…which I’m happy about as there’s no more house of dragon for about a year or so.

Is it any better than S1?

My wife, a total Tolkien fan (our son is even called Beren), is refusing to watch it after what she called the abomination of the first one. I’m planning on watching it solo to see anyway, but interested to hear thoughts on S2.

Well, I’m enjoying it, but I also enjoyed the previous season!

I’m not a huge Tolkien fan, though, I loved lord of the rings films, hated the hobbit films, and love rings of power, so take that as you will 😀

It seems to upset a lot of Tolkien fans as it doesn’t adhere strictly to the lore but as a show I like it. Apparently the thing upsetting the fans in S2 is the orcs have families

I think S1 improved as it progressed – and I enjoyed it.  Two episodes into season 2 and enjoying it.  Not enough of a Tolkien nerd to be bothered about perceived transgressions of lore

I’m enjoying it.  I’m enough of a Tolkien fan to realise it deviates from the canon, but not enough to be bothered by it.  It’s entertaining TV inspired by Tolkien, nothing more.  I needed to watch the season 1 recap as there are a lot of strands to follow.   The first 3 episodes are promising and better than series 1 imo. We will carry on watching it.

Haha! Just started watching and my wife walked through and said ‘Oh yeh, I’m sure Sauron did **** motivational speaking’ with a look of disgust lol!

I’m a Tolkien nerd, disliked series 1 because not only did it smash up the setting needlessly, it made the unforgivable error of being shite. However, that said, series 2 got off to a great start and have quite liked it so far. Giving the Orcs agency, families and children is a fantastic plot twist.

I’m all for Adar starting an Orc Liberation Front and being a chaotic neutral force in the forthcoming war between Sauron, the elves and Numenoreans. So much for canon…

I’m quite neutral with this stuff, but Rings of Power is a hard watch, it just doesn’t know what it wants to do, so many splintered storylines that don’t seem to link up or make sense, so many annoying characters, it feels like they tried to do something but failed miserably, like the not hobbit irish hobbits, the not gandalf stranger and so on, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but this just tries too hard to imitate instead of going its own way.

Not sure it’ll last much more than 2 seasons, unless there’s a dramatic turnaround, which i’m not seeing, and struggling to keep watching, they spent so much time on the elves and sauron, that i actually forgot some of the other plot strands were still active!

The writing is terrible as is the acting. I just keep watching to see how much worse it will get. Hands.up, I’m a bit of a nerd and scoffed at lady and baby Orcs. Also gave a big sigh at the terrible job of shoehorning Tom Bombadill in to it. I wouldn’t mind but the writers were pretty much given a broad outline and have chosen to ignore it in favour of some weird and far less interesting stuff.

Bowl cut boy and sad elf. Fake peril with Isildur that is there for no reason given who he is. Blind queen lady with a political plot thinner than the one in the Star Wars prequels. Angry teenaged Galadriel who’s already pretty ancient at this point. Elrond as Mr pouty pants. Ooh quick a scene with Ents and Entwives, tick it off the list.

plot thinner than the one in the Star Wars prequels

Ohhph! harsh words, hahah!

I thought this was a thread about myopia.

I think Tolkien did hint somewhere that Orcs reproduced in the usual way (so Orc females/children not necessarily ‘off-canon’), but he did tend to revise his ideas over the years.

My main issue with RoP is the tragic missed opportunity to make something amazing (given the massive budget).  Better writing could have produced something with the epic feel of LotR, with that sense of deep history driving current events.  Instead what we have is a lightweight parody with good visuals but terrible plot & script.  Come on Bezos, you can do better than this!

better ending than the Game of Thrones crew.

I thought GoT ended quite well. And they actually ended it.

Not unlike the book. Poor show from Martin, but it’s his bag and that’s that.

I’m loving it. Loved the 1st season. Loving this season more.

Just saying.

I think Tolkien did hint somewhere that Orcs reproduced in the usual way (so Orc females/children not necessarily ‘off-canon’),

The whole bloody thing is off-canon, to the point where they might as well not bother having it attached to the novels and appendixes at all. God I’m a geek but here goes!

Not Gandalf – doesn’t appear untill the third age and has never been to the east.

Galadriel – Wise and magical. Almost the opposite of how she is portrayed. Also doesn’t have a teenaged love/hate thing with Sauron and where is her husband?

Elrond – Where to start?

I’m really hoping that evil moth wizard isn’t Saruman. Also sort of hoping he is so I can add it to my terrible things that the writers have done in RoP bingo card.

Is it any better than S1?

Tolkien nerd here. Enjoyed season 1 season 2 is better IMHO.

Well I’m watching it because visually it’s stunningly good but the acting is doing nothing for me, this may mostly be because the dialogue is so poor and explain why so far the best performance has been from Isuldur’s horse. I’m also finding the plot to be incoherent, I’m thinking ‘what is going on’ most of the time.

Tolkien nerd here. Enjoyed season 1 season 2 is better IMHO.

Lets be honest, it would be really hard to make it worse.

Has anyone complained about how dark some of the filming is? I tried to watch some at lunch today and there were bits (Barrow Downs for example) where I had no idea wtf was going on. Couldn’t see a thing. Will have to try again once it’s dark out.

I was coming in to do so. Tried to watch it in daylight earlier, basically just a black screen.

I was coming in to do so. Tried to watch it in daylight earlier, basically just a black screen.

If you are watching a pirate stream on a cheap telly that would explain it. It needs to be watched on an OLED 4k screen, with HDR, really.

I thought season 1 was pretty ropey, with bad acting*. Season two is snowballing into a pretty gripping and epic story. I’m especially enjoying the characters/performances of Celebrimbor, Galadriel, Sauron and Dwarf King**

*The Queen (regent) of Luminor was a terrible actor in season 1, but seems fine in season 2. Her acting style is conducive to blindness it seems.

**What a way to go