The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - Amazon Prime

[Biff Tannen 45691]

5 minutes ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

Figured it to be a wizard but wasn’t sure if it was one of the named wizards everyone already knows from LOTR or the Hobbit movies.  Guessing the timeline wouldn’t fit for any of those wizards but I don’t know how long they live.  I was hoping it was Gandalf.  

I think it could be any of them.  IIRC, there are five wizards total.  Saruman, Gandalf, Radagast, and two blue wizards.

[kevwun 15790]

I think it could be Gandalf if the played with the timeline some.  In Tolkien lore he wasn't sent to Middle Earth until after the rings had been forged, but he already existed.

Edited September 2, 2022 by kevwun

[Js1 85353]

I've seen speculation it was Gandalf (the speaking to the fireflies in cupped hands of the OT)

But the most intriguing theory is

Spoiler

Halbrand is Sauron.  First appearances are deceiving, he even says it

[kevwun 15790]

That's also possible, they did all die after all.

Edited September 2, 2022 by kevwun

[bolverk 29683]

I only watched the first episode last night, saving the second for tonight. I'm accustomed to the normal Middle Earth map, having read the books as a kid a couple of times, but started getting a little lost with all the new place names and the quick zooming around between scenes.

Found a map of Middle Earth from Amazon showing the new place names if anyone needs a reference:

https://www.amazon.com/adlp/lotronprime?ascsubtag=[]pl[p]23095177[t]w[r]google.com[d]D 

[kevwun 15790]

They are using the Elvish names for everything.

[atomheartbevo 89685]

1 hour ago, Biff Tannen said:

Also, for not having the rights to anything besides LOTR, appendices, and Hobbit, they have alluded to or outright mentioned a lot of backstory already.  Hell, they are addressing the Silmarils directly.  I am very satisfied so far.

2 minutes ago, bolverk said:

only watched the first episode last night, saving the second for tonight. I'm accustomed to the normal Middle Earth map, having read the books as a kid a couple of times, but started getting a little lost with all the new place names and the quick zooming around between scenes.

Obviously this has spoilers, but Nerd of the Rings did their first episode breakdown, and he touches on the maps/locations, and also talks about how much the show really skirts the restrictions on the source material in terms of how they couldn’t use the Silmarillion, etc..

 

[Biff Tannen 45691]

Anyone else catch the name Ostirith?  Perhaps a mashup of Osgiliath and Minas Tirith?

[bolverk 29683]

1 minute ago, atomheartbevo said:

Obviously this has spoilers, but Nerd of the Rings did their first episode breakdown, and he touches on the maps/locations, and also talks about how much the show really skirts the restrictions on the source material in terms of how they couldn’t use the Silmarillion, etc..

 

Thanks, I'll check it out after watching Ep 2 tonight. 

One piece of fan fic speculation:

Spoiler

From the zooming around last night, it looks like the place where the elf warrior has the hots for the hot healer (not familiar enough with character names) might be Mordor in the LOTR timeline. There's a scene where the elf and his captain are at the top of a very tall tower overlooking a valley. Might that be where the Dark Tower is eventually built?

 

[kevwun 15790]

That was my guess when watching it.

[atomheartbevo 89685]

Holy fuck, the amount of butthurt on social media over Galadriel having been a warrior is off the charts.

I don’t expect these idiots to have read the stuff Tolkien wrote outside of the main LOTR/Hobbit books about her literally being a warrior and Amazonian-like, and about elf women being as physically powerful as the men, but I expect them to have watched the LOTR and Hobbit movies - we saw how powerful she could be if she had the Ring in Fellowship, and then in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, she helped fight off the Nazgûl and then went toe-to-toe with Sauron and drove him away with her mind.

if I see anybody I know bitching, I’m going to tell them “if you didn’t get chills down your spine when Galadriel pulled out her lightsaber and yelled “WAKANDA FOREVER!” you have no soul.”

[atomheartbevo 89685]

Also, the actress that plays Galadriel, never have seen her in anything I remembered (His Dark Materials is the closest, but I didn’t finish), but she is just killing it and is stunningly gorgeous.

Would have liked to see a lot more of Finrod and her other brothers, but I get the source material restrictions on Similarian, etc,

[kevwun 15790]

I bet the same folks are real mad there's a black elf.

[Biff Tannen 45691]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

Obviously this has spoilers, but Nerd of the Rings did their first episode breakdown, and he touches on the maps/locations, and also talks about how much the show really skirts the restrictions on the source material in terms of how they couldn’t use the Silmarillion, etc..

 

God damn that's some nerdy shit and I love it.

[ztejas 43459]

10 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

and then in The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, she helped fight off the Nazgûl and then went toe-to-toe with Sauron and drove him away with her mind.

Agreed though. People just like finding stuff to bitch about. People bitched when the movies weren't 100% accurate to the books. Now people are bitching that an unrelated show isn't 100% accurate to the movies. 

[atomheartbevo 89685]

6 minutes ago, kevwun said:

I bet the same folks are real mad there's a black elf.

He’s my favorite of the original characters created for the series, and I’m ready for him to fuck some shit up.

And I get why a lot of women are swooning over him,  but my oldest pointed out that the actor was Mando on Sesame Street and it threw me off.

[atomheartbevo 89685]

6 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

God damn that's some nerdy shit and I love it.

Yeah, it cleared up a lot for me.  I’m reading The Hobbit to my son a few times a week, but I don’t know if I’ll make it to the other books. He’s got several book series going on, and Hobbit is not grabbing him as much as the other books, so it’s nice that people are doing this kind of stuff so I don’t have to look through wikis.

And now I want to get some maps from his sponsor, https://lordofmaps.com, in particular the Texas map https://lordofmaps.com/collections/shop/products/texas for my son, because he loves maps.

[Js1 85353]

Visually it’s stunning. The Elven cities and Khazad-Dum were gorgeous 

[kevwun 15790]

It's cool seeing all the things like that in their prime instead of as only ruins in LOTR.

[atomheartbevo 89685]

10 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Visually it’s stunning. The Elven cities and Khazad-Dum were gorgeous 

9 minutes ago, kevwun said:

It's cool seeing all the things like that in their prime instead of as only ruins in LOTR.

I watched the movies again last week and should have waited until after the first season, because it really complements the movies, as you now get a sense of what was lost, and the series is really making the world feel much more epic.

Speaking of, all 6 movies moved off of HBO Max to Amazon Prime yesterday. 

 

 

[crash_davis 23113]

This dude knows his Tolkien stuff. I've not read the other books so I am starting immerse myself in his videos. 

https://www.youtube.com/c/NerdoftheRings/videos

Ep 1 Breakdown

 

Another good breakdown from another source.

 

Edited September 2, 2022 by crash_davis

[Augustus 3061]

2 hours ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

Figured it to be a wizard but wasn’t sure if it was one of the named wizards everyone already knows from LOTR or the Hobbit movies.  Guessing the timeline wouldn’t fit for any of those wizards but I don’t know how long they live.  I was hoping it was Gandalf.  

That was the only guess I had.  Saruman or Gandalf.  But my entire knowledge of this universe is from the LOTR and Hobbit films. 

[Knoxtnhorn 5990]

6 hours ago, kevwun said:

I bet the same folks are real mad there's a black elf.

I did notice that there are a hell of a lot more black folks in Middle Earth than there were 20 years ago.

I'm loving this so far.  The pacing is good, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of throwaway/time-wasting scenes.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Knoxtnhorn

[atomheartbevo 89685]

Like that they are expanding on some of the stuff they couldn’t do in the movies, like the elves living forever

[Biff Tannen 45691]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

Like that they are expanding on some of the stuff they couldn’t do in the movies, like the elves living forever

How did they not address that in the movies?  They went to the undying lands at the end, the whole Aragorn/Arwen relationship, Elrond at the big battle in the 2nd age...

[CycleTex87 2970]

33 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

I did notice that there are a hell of a lot more black folks in Middle Earth than there were 20 years ago.

I'm loving this so far.  The pacing is good, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of throwaway/time-wasting scenes.

Agree there is a lot more inclusion.  I’m enjoying the treatment of the “pre-hobbits”.  Really rich scenes there. Interesting story arc to keep up with. 

[Biff Tannen 45691]

I could smell the Harfoots (Harfeet!) through the screen.  Fucking dirty ass hippies.  Take a shower!

[atomheartbevo 89685]

2 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

How did they not address that in the movies?  They went to the undying lands at the end, the whole Aragorn/Arwen relationship, Elrond at the big battle in the 2nd age...

Sorry, wasn’t clear, we didn’t get the full effect of the whole geography thing, and why they weren’t already there/where they came from, etc.

I think the way they portrayed it here was really cool.

Plus I wanted to toss in that meme.

[CycleTex87 2970]

15 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

I could smell the Harfoots (Harfeet!) through the screen.  Fucking dirty ass hippies.  Take a shower!

JJW throw back - Old hairy ass hippies, just hangin on. 

[atomheartbevo 89685]

If you want to remain spoiler free, don’t watch the short little features or whatever that are with the episodes on Prime - they spoil who rescues Galadriel, etc.

[CycleTex87 2970]

When does the next episode drop?  Next week?

[Js1 85353]

19 minutes ago, CycleTex87 said:

When does the next episode drop?  Next week?

Thursdays at 8pm 

[atomheartbevo 89685]

9 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

God damn that's some nerdy shit and I love it.

Episode 2 up

 

[atomheartbevo 89685]

9 hours ago, Js1 said:

Visually it’s stunning. The Elven cities and Khazad-Dum were gorgeous 

9 hours ago, kevwun said:

It's cool seeing all the things like that in their prime instead of as only ruins in LOTR.

Ruins of Eregion from Fellowship

[Post Oak 20224]

Just watched Ep1. I had lowered expectations buts so far it's really good and I'm so happy.

They've created an enchanting world. Galadriel can get it.

[Biff Tannen 45691]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

Episode 2 up

 

ok, only 3 minutes in on this, but it's almost too ridiculous.  The dude is analyzing the grains of sand in the title scene and also one of his theories is that meteor man might be a balrog?  GTFO dude.  Balrogs are like OG Middle Earth beings from back when the Valar were making shit.  They didn't get there from meteors.

[Biff Tannen 45691]

1 hour ago, atomheartbevo said:

Episode 2 up

 

Also, good theory at 20 minutes in about the glowing treasure the dwarves look at in the chest at the end of the episode.  Pretty cool tie back to LOTR, if correct.

[ztejas 43459]

Just watched first two. 

It's really good. I'm not sure I even have any nitpicks and I almost always do whether it's TV or movie. 

I guess my one "concern" going forward is the amount of micro-level storylines they already have going on against the backdrop of all of the more macro-level events leading up to LOTR. It seems like they should be able to balance it pretty well, though, and of course they're probably a bit limited/hamstring by what they are actually licensed to cover/use. I think through two they've also done a good job at establishing everything and keeping it from getting confusing while jumping around. The use of the map during transition scenes helps a lot in this department. 

It's crazy to me how little they've deviated from the art direction of the LOTR movies. And, I guess, why would you? It was already so masterfully done - just keep the ball rolling. It's definitely more colorful and fantastical than LOTR but the setting is obviously a lot less dark (so far) so I suppose it kind of should be. It doesn't seem like they're using too much CGI, and what is used is tasteful. It looks better and is more grounded in "reality" than the Hobbit movies in my book which were just absurd at points. There's a lot of weight to everything and it's very visceral and engaging in the suspenseful scenes we've seen so far. 

A thought I had was it kind of feels like if someone did the Star Wars prequels properly.

Spoiler

I'm like 90% sure "the stranger" is gandalf. I mean it's obviously one of the maiar. The thought did cross my mind that it could be Saruman. 

 

[ztejas 43459]

13 hours ago, kevwun said:

I think it could be Gandalf if the played with the timeline some.  In Tolkien lore he wasn't sent to Middle Earth until after the rings had been forged, but he already existed.

None of them (the wizards) were. They had to have played with the timeline. Which is fine - this is totally it's own thing. 

13 hours ago, Js1 said:

I've seen speculation it was Gandalf (the speaking to the fireflies in cupped hands of the OT)

But the most intriguing theory is

  Reveal hidden contents

Halbrand is Sauron.  First appearances are deceiving, he even says it

Ooooh I like this. 

[bernorange 8362]

Actor playing Elrond acts well, but looks so much like Willem Defoe that it's borderline breaking my immersion when I watch.  I realize that a young Hugo Weaving is likely an impossible ask, but my mind struggles to reconcile the difference.

[Js1 85353]

1 hour ago, bernorange said:

Actor playing Elrond acts well, but looks so much like Willem Defoe that it's borderline breaking my immersion when I watch.  I realize that a young Hugo Weaving is likely an impossible ask, but my mind struggles to reconcile the difference.

I see young Colin Firth at times 

[Dutchrudder 11139]

He looks like Neil Patrick Harris to me, and it makes me think of Barney Stinson when he was a young hippie barista. 

[Augustus 3061]

Apologies if somebody posted Emergency Awesome's breakdown upthread, but I usually enjoy his summaries, and he has some interesting theories.

 

[Hate 20108]

My son and I just watched the first two episodes tonight and we loved them,  I'm hooked and I can't wait to see the rest of the episodes. I am no Tolkien fanbois so I can't speak to how far off course this may or may not have drifted off course, but I don't care.  I enjoyed the hell out of it.

[atomheartbevo 89685]

43 minutes ago, Augustus said:

Apologies if somebody posted Emergency Awesome's breakdown upthread, but I usually enjoy his summaries, and he has some interesting theories.

From the comments:

Quote

Nothing is evil in the beginning" is also a direct reference to Sauron. This is a line taken almost word for word from Elrond in Chapter 2, "The Council of Elrond", from Book II of LotR: "For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so."

 

[FORTY NINE TO ZERO 2652]

Fucking loved it   Soooo good.   

 

only one small head scratcher.   Did the mom and the boy go back and sleep in the house with the orc tunnel late that night? because it sure seems like they did.  At a minimum she let him pack alone inside the house the next morning.  Lol  

 

also, I thought dwarven women had beards and looked like men. Or am I just remembering the book wrong?

[atomheartbevo 89685]

2 hours ago, ONE YARD said:

also, I thought dwarven women had beards and looked like men. Or am I just remembering the book wrong?

Originally, but in some of his writings he left them out of those who had beards, and in the 80s comics and in The Hobbit movies, they didn’t have them.

Think of it like elves who don’t have long hair (looking at Elrond).

Speaking of beards, we better get a certain bearded dude.

[Neonmoon 38129]

Just watched both and this series is amazing so far.
 

Don’t give a fuck what Tolkien nerds are nerding out about. 

[Radical Larry 28626]

I see young Colin Firth at times 

I see a young Ned Stark.

[Zepol87 9188]

50 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

Just watched both and this series is amazing so far.
 

Don’t give a fuck what Tolkien nerds are nerding out about. 

Same watched both earlier today. I'm enjoying it

Edited September 5, 2022 by Zepol87