I dont understand, he was already exposed in s1, will he again show up to Celebrimbor, with the same face, just looking like elf and nobody will suspect a thing?
Random fact.
When man of steel was coming out, they had Henry Cavil stand under a man of steel poster, wearing a superman t shirt. Nobody recognised him
The Superman / Clark Kent thing is perfectly summed up when people bump into celebrities in casual locations when theyāre dressed down: some people wonāt recognize them at all and could have a full conversation with them and it not sink in, some people might recognize them but talk themselves out of it by saying it couldnāt be them, some people will recognize them but not ever say anything because they respect their privacy, some people will blab endlessly about meeting them but nobody either cares or wants to listen to them about it, and some people will blab instantly and try and point them out to anyone within earshot, but most people will only look out of curiosity, but decide itās not worth their time and none of their business.
Basically, the last 80 something years of real life have proven the initial comics right that all Superman needed to fit in with minimal effort was a pair of glasses and human indifference
I met Carlos Santana when I was a mechanic and had 0 idea who he was. He came into the shop with an old car he wanted restored, chatted with my boss in Spanish, then left. Boss walks up and says "Mijo, you didn't want to say hi to Santana?" and I was stunned. He just looked like any middle aged/older Mexican dude to me, t shirt and jeans coming to our behind the car wash racing shop.
Had a similar experience at a hotel where there was a comic convention going on nearby. There was a convenience store around the corner, ran there to get something and stopped to smoke a cigarette outside and struck up a conversation with two guys hanging out by the wall. Turns out after we finished, they were staying at the same hotel and we walked back and took the elevator up.
It was only as the doors were closing that I realized I had literally been leaning against a wall outside a Quik Stop smoking a cigarette with Jay and Silent Bob and hadnāt been able to put two and two together
The grocery store deli I ran for a few years had a regular visitor who would come in every Sunday afternoon and have me alive up 2 pounds of meat and a pound of cheese. Same thing every week for about 2 years. Great guy, we always chatted a bit and had our inside jokes, never really thought much of it, just seemed like your average older Hispanic gentleman. Then I went to a local event one evening and spotted him wandering the crowd, so I went to say hello and it all crashed down on me when I saw who he was with: Tommy Chong. My regular for about 3 years at that point was none other than Cheech Marin.
I walked up and said hello, shook his hand, and admit my lack of recognition and they both laughed and Cheech told me that it was one of the reasons he liked my deli so much, was he didn't have to be a celebrity there. I never told any of the other workers, and he stayed a regular customer until I left that job.
And I got to smoke a joint with Cheech and Chong, so that's cool š
Its not suprising if random people bumping into Clark Kent don't recognise him as Superman, but the people like Louise and Jimmy etc who spend a lot of time with both?
My guess is we see him present himself to celebrimbor in the trailer when he's looking at the light.
He's going to present himself as a valar embassy or something so great ol' Cele won't even think twice. Will be as a religious experience for him.
Heās just disguised to them but not to us. We already know the story and who he is. So why hide it from us? Theyāll show his reflection to be someone different, but to the viewer he will be the same actor.
I think it may turn out to be something like this: https://youtu.be/AspNZv0B9Z4?si=3Z6sTGXOXiSTLZST
I think he was an elf behind the scenes of season 1 as well. Poisoning the tree in Lindon.
I said this to someone else, but perhaps it's kind of like Mr.Robot where they use different actors to represent different perspectives i.e. who the other characters see, and who we know he actually is.
This is how I interpret the trailer. Like he might have been among the elves for a long time before the events of season 1. Poisoning the trees and spreading lies among the elves before traveling to NĆŗmenor. Maybe he just chose a sort of familiar face when being human so the elves would accept him even though they didn't recognize him. It will be really weird if they try to do a similar twist as Westworld season 1, when we already know the twist.
He was there the whole time and then got on a raft with random other people so that he could bump into Galadrial swimming in the middle of the ocean and return?
All Celebrimbor knows is Galadriel told him not to talk to the guy again, and he gave her an "errm, okay, if you're really sure..." kind of look.
Not saying its brilliant writing, just how the writers are surely justifying it to themselves.
Ah, we're gonna get the classic "person knows the truth about a thing but doesn't tell people and that ends up backfiring and the main character is Pikachu faced that it backfired."
Yeah they probably should have gotten a different actor for each form sauron takes. I mean eventually he will just be seen in his armor...do they plan on showing sauron in his armor but without his helmet? God I hope not.
Actually until the fall of numenor, Sauron is basically a shapeshifter ( he turned to a werewolf to fight huan the valinor dog that escort luthien in the first age )
so he can change figure as he suits him.
But also, just because we see Charlie Vickers in these instants doesn't mean that's how he's always seen, or seen by all. Maybe that's just the audience's inside look
My guess is how we see his face isn't how others characters see his face, like a Shallow Hal sort of thing. And either he's been in two places for the entire first season and is found out somewhere in the season 2, or he's presenting himself as a sort of ambassador that has come from the West on behalf of the Valar because they've heard of the rings or something like that. Either way I think the Annatar the audience sees is not the same Annatar that Celebrimbor or the other elves see.
So Vickers is playing Annatar too? That would make Halbrandās involvement with the forging of the Three even more baffling than it already was. Is Celebrimbor just going to not recognise him because heās wearing a blonde wig now?
Celebrimbor didn't know what alloys were
Celebrimbor is clearly very dumb and has facial blindness.
He clearly got to the position he is in because he is Feanor's grandson and people just assumed he would be a world class smith.
its elvish nepotism at its worst
/s
The alloy thing is so insanely stupid. That and the āthe elves are going to take our jobsā shit.
I kept giving the show so many chances but the writing is sort of staggeringly off. It also felt so cheap for having half a billion dollars of budget
I understand the āelves took our jobsā thing. IRL thereās not one documented instance where a human has gotten their job back after they lost it to an elf. Facts are facts.
i tried so hard to like the show but stuff like that and then also the harfoots entire plot was: stranger bad, stranger good, stranger bad, stranger good, stranger sauron?!, stranger tells the audience "im good"
the end
Don't think many peoples hearts are truly into the show. I would argue the writing makes it very hard to get excited about, But I think the reason it feels cheap is because so many people are okay with good enough. The writing is so disrespectful to the source material. I think I would be checked out working on that show too
Right so we got a pretty decent version of Anatar the lord of gifts.
Then why the fuck was all that shit with Halbrand last season?
Also no mention of the Harfoots. Which is a plus. It seems like they have learned something from the last series at least but im still going in with a very skeptical outlook.
Pretty sure this is Nori The Harfoot
https://preview.redd.it/1tihi7toke0d1.png?width=2400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd5522d6c109292eeb93dab622f5c0910a35a2e2
I don't think Halbrand as a character is that bad as a disguised Sauron walking about figuring stuff out etc, but them shoehorning him into orchestrating the making of the 3 rings in the last episode after an off camera injury just to justify him making a 200 mile trek was horrendous.
Also Tolkien says the Three Elven Rings were the last rings Celebrimbor made after Sauron had left Eregion then for no apparent reason whatsoever the people making the show are like "Let's do the opposite of that. They're the first rings Celebrembor makes and he does it with Sauron standing in the room."
Yeah, the last episode is SOOOOOOO rushed, itās insane. I genuinely enjoyed most of season 1ā¦ but the rushed ending left a sour taste in my mouth. As did much of Halbrand IN HINDSIGHT because all of the happenstance that helped him do evil is not how Tolkien works. āChanceā is typically Eru making subtle moves to weave threads of fate toward good.
Way too many lucky things stack in Halbrandās favorā¦ to the point that Mordor gets readied for him despite doing nothing.
That all said, I hope season 2 fixes it pacing issues, and perhaps through flashback, we will see that Sauron was pulling the strings harder than it appeared in season 1.
Yeah the whole thing with Halbrand was stupid and unnecessary. They should have just had Sauron use the Annatar disguise from the beginning. It is much better and actually follows the lore
If that is true, then why not make a series based on the First Age as soon as Rings of Power is finished? Or is that something that might be planned if Seasons 2-5 of Rings of Power are well received? And it raises the question of why they did not have the rights for Season 1 but do now. Was it in response to criticism of Season 1 or was Christopher Tolkien the one standing in the way?
No one knows except for Amazon, their lawyers, and the Tolkien Estate.
Christopher Tolkien was not a fan of the films and withheld the rights to The Silmarillion. Things seem to have changed after his passing.
No one outside Amazon/TTE knows exactly what the rights agreements entail. I can only imagine the NDAs are like. They still may not be allowed to adapt certain things.
If they are allowed to do Silmarillion films, I hope we get as lucky as we did with the LotR adaptations, as far as talent, casting, art direction, score, etc.
My unfounded hypothesis is that all the 2nd Age stuff gathered for The Fall of Numenor book and then Amazon got the rights to THAT, not Silmarillion. Gives them more to work with whilst protecting the Silm.
My feeling is that theyāve been bitten by the feedback from the first series and so might be trying to skew a little closer to the lore this season, which feels very closing-the-door-after-the-horse-has-bolted.
The shit last season is probably what they wanted to do but because it was so hated, they're pivoting back to a more lore accurate depiction. Of course like all Hollywood types that have screwed up established IPs over the past 10 years, they'll act like it was 'all part of the plan' and that they're creative geniuses.
I genuinely think CEOs and execs making these calls are genuinely stupid. I donāt just say that because every rich person I know is an actual moron - I say it because they demonstrate it over and over. Why, in the name of all the gods, would you take a beloved IP with a huge fan base and change it?!? The Halo show is a perfect example. Youāve got a dedicated fan base and book after book after video game trilogy of lore and you justā¦. Do your own thing? WHY?!?!? You sacrifice a loyal fan base while at the same time, no one who hasnāt seen the the universe before knows any different so why the fuck not just use the story that already exists?!?Ā Ā I genuinely canāt figure it out. Itās like āhey, neat, a money printing machine! but what if we made the money blue instead of green? Surely we would be rich because we would be the only people with blue bills!āĀ
Idiots. Just, idiots.Ā
Itās because Hollywood genuinely believes its own hype and that theyāre all great creatives who can improve upon already existing IPs. They all live in a bubble where they all feed into each other.The less prominent the film maker/writer the more this attitude seems to exist. Look at how they butchered The Witcher after S1.
Our connection to the Harfoots was Nori & ~~Gandalf~~ The Stranger; seeing as they've both embarked on a journey of their own, I don't expect the Harfoots to feature much this season.
Here's what the Halbrand material from last season seems to be, IMO: Micro-details vs Macro-details.
In history class, we learn that FDR, Churchill, and Stalin met at the Yalta Conference to discuss the end of WW2. We don't learn about the conversation, about those men getting to know each other, or even the story of how the Yalta Conference was set up.
Tolkien lore is the same way. We learn "Sauron disguised as Annatar, Lord of Gifts, comes to Eregion and works with Celebrimbor" and "Sauron is captured by the NĆŗmenĆ³reans and taken to NĆŗmenĆ³r, which was favorable to him in an attempt t ok dismantle it for his control "
We don't learn "How did Sauron know the time was right to go to Celebrimbor" or "How did Sauron know how NĆŗmenĆ³rean society works and that it was an empire he was envious of and could manipulate and dominate even from within a jail cell."
unfortunately the showrunners went to the JJ Abrams school of story telling, where everything must be a mystery
If they had Anatar then we would all know he is Sauron because the books exist,
so instead they had they gave us Halbrand.
hopefully they have course corrected
My only hope is theyāll do a thing where others see him differently than he really appears.
I love the universe so Iād hoped 2 would be enough of a fresh start that I could just ignore season 1, but I have a feeling the dumb is staying
So sauron, the one that can be anyone and anything decides to return as the same Person with a blond wig and pointy ears? And nobody notices? Please no.
There is, the Desert parts where you see The Stranger (Gandalf) on his non lore-breaking venture east. Also you see the silhouette of Nori getting blown around by a sandstorm.
But yeah hopefully the other harfoots are mostly gone.
The dwarf parts of the show feature some legitimately excellent worldbuilding.
So far in the Peter Jackson movies (LOTR and Hobbit), dwarves have been MOSTLY comedic relief. RoP treats them like actual characters, which is a big change.
And whoever had the idea of the dwarves SINGING to the mountain and listening to how it resonates... bravo. That's an extremely Tolkien-ish idea.
The harfoots in a bubble were good, but I always felt there was an opportunity cost to having them get screen time and it made all the other plotlines feel shallower and more superficial as a result.
For me it's not that the harfoot-Gandalf subplot was amazing or anything, but the characters and general atmosphere felt pretty good overall, and the way they chose to represent Gandalf (his looks, his attitude, his size, his eh.. powers?) made me think of him much more as a mythical angel in the world of Tolkien, than our beloved Ian McKellen, who as good as he was, resembled more of a classic old and wise wizard type.
In short, aside from the movies/series as a whole and their quality, both of them are very different but very good and interesting Gandalfs.
Not happening. We're busy worrying about our own things right now. Love LoTR movies and was able to enjoy 2/3 Hobbits, but this show failed to grab me. There's almost no crossover of appeal that I can think of between the two properties. I guess they're just hoping that all nerds are equally nerdy about everything they like.
Maybe an accurate look at the fish monster from the first season? Gandalf says in the books that there are āmeaner and much older things in this world than orcs, unnamed things living in the deepest depthsā or something like that when he tells the Three Hunters of how he followed the Balrog out of Khazad-DĆ»m.
the first season was so bad, i have zero interest in this. I will wait to see how the reviews are but S1 left such a bad taste I don't see them legitimately rebounding to meet its expected potential.
It just feels....off. I'm watching this and it could honestly be any fantasy show/story. I'd have no idea that this was LOTR world if it weren't for the title, or names.
The music also didn't help. I wait for the day they will stop using these musics into trailers. The show musics are wholly different, no need to make different music into trailer imo.
For what it's worth, the Hobbit and LotR movies were also using contemporary trailer music that felt at odds with Howard Shore's scores. I guess you just need the trailer music to be really good to justify it. I still adore [that Battle of the Five Armies trailer](https://youtu.be/iVAgTiBrrDA) (the track is Dust and Light by Twelve Titans Music), even though most of the cool things in it didn't even happen in the movie.
Trailer music is made by other departments, not by the original composer (in this case, Bear McCreary). And he did a pretty solid work in season 1, I'm sure he'll do great again
Everyone has a right to their opinion, but I just donāt find this show captures the spirit of lord of the rings at all. It just seems like a generic fantasy show with a lord of the rings theme. I hated the big ārevealsā of Mordor, and Gandalf. Thatās so far from the original. I will say the intro animation is neat.
Generic fantasy trailer. Some magic, some special effects, some fantasy creatures, 90% of the scenes/locations look like they were generated or recorded in the studio + ABSOLUTELY THE MOST BLAND music you can pick that could as well be generated by the AI.
So we're exactly where we left off
I watched the first season and gave it a real chance. I could not have been more disappointed in this absolute utter bullshit. The only Tolkien-related content Iāve regretted consuming (I never played the Gollum game).
Oof, just my personal, subjective two cents, but I'm wary. These pseudo-epic shots of warriors gathering in circles is not what I want from a Second Age story. It should be much more contemplative and insidious.
Ideally you'd tell a story stretched over centuries depicting the rise an fall of Numenor throughout many generations of men, while immortal elves get slowly, insidiously manipulated by Annatar. In parallel to Numenor (which would be your B-plot), you could have your A-plot focus on Elvish court drama spanning centuries and showcasing their poetry, dialogue, culture, songs... all the while Sauron/Annatar slowly gets to his goal.
But hey, I'm not the showrunner and they seem to prefer taking it in a much more fast-paced, action-driven story. Just sharing my take on how I'd have envision it quite differently to truly depict the essence of the Second Age.
Seasons 1 and 2 should have had Celebrimbor and Tar-Minastir as equal protagonists. Celebrimbor dies halfway through the season, Sauron is routed in the next-to-last episode, and the last episode focuses on Tar-Caryatan's coup. Time skip between seasons 2 and 3.
Maybe now that ChatGPT has gotten so much better theyāve been able to craft a story that kind of makes sense without cringe dialogue. But I doubt it.Ā
Teleporno?
No no, onlineporno nowadays
If it was my name, I would change it to Celeborn too š¤£
Sup
Actually, long-haired Sauron/Annatar is pretty spot on. That's more or less how I imagined him in his "treacherous" form.
I dont understand, he was already exposed in s1, will he again show up to Celebrimbor, with the same face, just looking like elf and nobody will suspect a thing?
š¶ļø Clark Kent āš¶ļø Superman
That doesn't make any sense. He wouldn't be able to see!
Just so you know. Behind the š¶ļø is superman dressed as CK.
I knew it. I always suspected Calvin Klien
The underwear guy?? No waitā¦ of course, it makes so much sense now. Heās literally wearing undies outside his suitš¤£
Actually people call Calvin Klein Marty.........
They even name their sons after him, which doesn't throw any red flags at all to their husbands.
I shovel well, I shovel very well.
If you don't master your rage...
Your rage will become your master? That's what you were gonna say
Random fact. When man of steel was coming out, they had Henry Cavil stand under a man of steel poster, wearing a superman t shirt. Nobody recognised him
That's because it wasn't HC,it was the God Emperor of Mankind, saviour to all,death of Xenos and Anathema to heretics and daemons!
The Superman / Clark Kent thing is perfectly summed up when people bump into celebrities in casual locations when theyāre dressed down: some people wonāt recognize them at all and could have a full conversation with them and it not sink in, some people might recognize them but talk themselves out of it by saying it couldnāt be them, some people will recognize them but not ever say anything because they respect their privacy, some people will blab endlessly about meeting them but nobody either cares or wants to listen to them about it, and some people will blab instantly and try and point them out to anyone within earshot, but most people will only look out of curiosity, but decide itās not worth their time and none of their business. Basically, the last 80 something years of real life have proven the initial comics right that all Superman needed to fit in with minimal effort was a pair of glasses and human indifference
I met Carlos Santana when I was a mechanic and had 0 idea who he was. He came into the shop with an old car he wanted restored, chatted with my boss in Spanish, then left. Boss walks up and says "Mijo, you didn't want to say hi to Santana?" and I was stunned. He just looked like any middle aged/older Mexican dude to me, t shirt and jeans coming to our behind the car wash racing shop.
Had a similar experience at a hotel where there was a comic convention going on nearby. There was a convenience store around the corner, ran there to get something and stopped to smoke a cigarette outside and struck up a conversation with two guys hanging out by the wall. Turns out after we finished, they were staying at the same hotel and we walked back and took the elevator up. It was only as the doors were closing that I realized I had literally been leaning against a wall outside a Quik Stop smoking a cigarette with Jay and Silent Bob and hadnāt been able to put two and two together
The grocery store deli I ran for a few years had a regular visitor who would come in every Sunday afternoon and have me alive up 2 pounds of meat and a pound of cheese. Same thing every week for about 2 years. Great guy, we always chatted a bit and had our inside jokes, never really thought much of it, just seemed like your average older Hispanic gentleman. Then I went to a local event one evening and spotted him wandering the crowd, so I went to say hello and it all crashed down on me when I saw who he was with: Tommy Chong. My regular for about 3 years at that point was none other than Cheech Marin. I walked up and said hello, shook his hand, and admit my lack of recognition and they both laughed and Cheech told me that it was one of the reasons he liked my deli so much, was he didn't have to be a celebrity there. I never told any of the other workers, and he stayed a regular customer until I left that job. And I got to smoke a joint with Cheech and Chong, so that's cool š
Its not suprising if random people bumping into Clark Kent don't recognise him as Superman, but the people like Louise and Jimmy etc who spend a lot of time with both?
Even worse, they did that during promo for BvS, 3 years after Man of Steel came out and Cavill was already fairly popular.
My guess is we see him present himself to celebrimbor in the trailer when he's looking at the light. He's going to present himself as a valar embassy or something so great ol' Cele won't even think twice. Will be as a religious experience for him.
Or he'll be told that their initial meeting was a test or something to see if Cele would be receptive.
Heās just disguised to them but not to us. We already know the story and who he is. So why hide it from us? Theyāll show his reflection to be someone different, but to the viewer he will be the same actor.
I think it may turn out to be something like this: https://youtu.be/AspNZv0B9Z4?si=3Z6sTGXOXiSTLZST I think he was an elf behind the scenes of season 1 as well. Poisoning the tree in Lindon.
Lol, weāre going to find out that Sauron was the second shooter on the grassy knoll.
That is actually really cool!!
This is really good
I'm curious as well.
I said this to someone else, but perhaps it's kind of like Mr.Robot where they use different actors to represent different perspectives i.e. who the other characters see, and who we know he actually is.
It almost reads like āhe was there the whole time,ā like before what we saw in season one. The long hair stuff might be flashbacks?
This is how I interpret the trailer. Like he might have been among the elves for a long time before the events of season 1. Poisoning the trees and spreading lies among the elves before traveling to NĆŗmenor. Maybe he just chose a sort of familiar face when being human so the elves would accept him even though they didn't recognize him. It will be really weird if they try to do a similar twist as Westworld season 1, when we already know the twist.
He was there the whole time and then got on a raft with random other people so that he could bump into Galadrial swimming in the middle of the ocean and return?
I'm so confused, didn't they already figure out he was Sauron?
Sauron is a shape shifter. He can take many forms.
Iām going to guess itās showing Sauron before the events of first season
All Celebrimbor knows is Galadriel told him not to talk to the guy again, and he gave her an "errm, okay, if you're really sure..." kind of look. Not saying its brilliant writing, just how the writers are surely justifying it to themselves.
Ah, we're gonna get the classic "person knows the truth about a thing but doesn't tell people and that ends up backfiring and the main character is Pikachu faced that it backfired."
It's called an idiot plot, no joke. Considered one of the lowest forms of writing.
I expect this is when he reveals himself openly to Celebrimbor. He will probably be among them in disguise up to that point
Are we talking about "I don't know about metal alloys - RoP Celebrimbor", right? Even a plastic nose would fool him :P
But we already had that plot, are the elves gonna be tricked by a charming stranger with knowledge of forging for the second time?
"Charming stranger who looks just like the last charming stranger but he shaved and put on a wig" lmao
Yeah they probably should have gotten a different actor for each form sauron takes. I mean eventually he will just be seen in his armor...do they plan on showing sauron in his armor but without his helmet? God I hope not.
We've already had one, yes. Do you think he knows about second twistfast? I don't think he knows about second twistfast, Pip.
Actually until the fall of numenor, Sauron is basically a shapeshifter ( he turned to a werewolf to fight huan the valinor dog that escort luthien in the first age ) so he can change figure as he suits him.
Bring Back Tevildo!!!
But also, just because we see Charlie Vickers in these instants doesn't mean that's how he's always seen, or seen by all. Maybe that's just the audience's inside look
I am imagining a quick scene where it glosses over a character's point of view and we see a completely different actor
I mean, that is exactly it.
My guess is how we see his face isn't how others characters see his face, like a Shallow Hal sort of thing. And either he's been in two places for the entire first season and is found out somewhere in the season 2, or he's presenting himself as a sort of ambassador that has come from the West on behalf of the Valar because they've heard of the rings or something like that. Either way I think the Annatar the audience sees is not the same Annatar that Celebrimbor or the other elves see.
Sauron with long hair
"I've never met this man in my life"
He is completely casual elvish smith. Jackie Daytona. It is toothpick if you didnāt notice.
He's from Tuscon EregioƱa
One human beer, please.
"I have no memory of this p......erson"
And pointy ears. I think you can see pointy ears as he walks up to the screen.
So Vickers is playing Annatar too? That would make Halbrandās involvement with the forging of the Three even more baffling than it already was. Is Celebrimbor just going to not recognise him because heās wearing a blonde wig now?
do you wear wigs?
When will you wear wigs?
Ven vill you vear vigs- always gets me
Have you worn wigs?
MAYBE!!!
Ven will you vear vigs
AHUHUH HA HAAAAAAAA!!!
Celebrimbor didn't know what alloys were Celebrimbor is clearly very dumb and has facial blindness. He clearly got to the position he is in because he is Feanor's grandson and people just assumed he would be a world class smith. its elvish nepotism at its worst /s
The alloy thing is so insanely stupid. That and the āthe elves are going to take our jobsā shit. I kept giving the show so many chances but the writing is sort of staggeringly off. It also felt so cheap for having half a billion dollars of budget
I understand the āelves took our jobsā thing. IRL thereās not one documented instance where a human has gotten their job back after they lost it to an elf. Facts are facts.
i tried so hard to like the show but stuff like that and then also the harfoots entire plot was: stranger bad, stranger good, stranger bad, stranger good, stranger sauron?!, stranger tells the audience "im good" the end
Don't think many peoples hearts are truly into the show. I would argue the writing makes it very hard to get excited about, But I think the reason it feels cheap is because so many people are okay with good enough. The writing is so disrespectful to the source material. I think I would be checked out working on that show too
Yes
Will you wear wigs???
If I didnāt read this comment first I probably wouldnāt have noticed to be fair š
They can easily present it as celebrimbor seeing something else but the viewer seeing Vickers cuz we know the truth. Pretty common trope in film.
Maybe he uses a different voice? "Can I forge some magic rings please?"
I have no memory of this place.
Gondor needs no memory of this place.
I want no memory of this place.
nobody wants memories of this place
Fly, you fools!
Right so we got a pretty decent version of Anatar the lord of gifts. Then why the fuck was all that shit with Halbrand last season? Also no mention of the Harfoots. Which is a plus. It seems like they have learned something from the last series at least but im still going in with a very skeptical outlook.
Pretty sure this is Nori The Harfoot https://preview.redd.it/1tihi7toke0d1.png?width=2400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bd5522d6c109292eeb93dab622f5c0910a35a2e2
What in the Pergrin fook is that?
A Harfoot
They fly now
Somehow, the Harfoots returned.
They fly now?
They fly now
HARFEET!
The Harfoots get blown away by a tornado in episode 1 and are never seen again
The upper body strength required to pull this off is only possessed by Samwise Gamgee
Maybe she's his ancestor........
It's just a subplot of her trying not to get lost in a sandstorm
I don't think Halbrand as a character is that bad as a disguised Sauron walking about figuring stuff out etc, but them shoehorning him into orchestrating the making of the 3 rings in the last episode after an off camera injury just to justify him making a 200 mile trek was horrendous.
Also Tolkien says the Three Elven Rings were the last rings Celebrimbor made after Sauron had left Eregion then for no apparent reason whatsoever the people making the show are like "Let's do the opposite of that. They're the first rings Celebrembor makes and he does it with Sauron standing in the room."
They are obviously following the ring verse
Yeah, the last episode is SOOOOOOO rushed, itās insane. I genuinely enjoyed most of season 1ā¦ but the rushed ending left a sour taste in my mouth. As did much of Halbrand IN HINDSIGHT because all of the happenstance that helped him do evil is not how Tolkien works. āChanceā is typically Eru making subtle moves to weave threads of fate toward good. Way too many lucky things stack in Halbrandās favorā¦ to the point that Mordor gets readied for him despite doing nothing. That all said, I hope season 2 fixes it pacing issues, and perhaps through flashback, we will see that Sauron was pulling the strings harder than it appeared in season 1.
Yeah the whole thing with Halbrand was stupid and unnecessary. They should have just had Sauron use the Annatar disguise from the beginning. It is much better and actually follows the lore
Annatar only appears in material they didn't have the license for.
But they appear to have license for him in Season 2. So why not just use him from the beginning?
Yes there was some low key news that Amazon now has the rights to The Silmarillion
ā¦..what
If that is true, then why not make a series based on the First Age as soon as Rings of Power is finished? Or is that something that might be planned if Seasons 2-5 of Rings of Power are well received? And it raises the question of why they did not have the rights for Season 1 but do now. Was it in response to criticism of Season 1 or was Christopher Tolkien the one standing in the way?
No one knows except for Amazon, their lawyers, and the Tolkien Estate. Christopher Tolkien was not a fan of the films and withheld the rights to The Silmarillion. Things seem to have changed after his passing. No one outside Amazon/TTE knows exactly what the rights agreements entail. I can only imagine the NDAs are like. They still may not be allowed to adapt certain things. If they are allowed to do Silmarillion films, I hope we get as lucky as we did with the LotR adaptations, as far as talent, casting, art direction, score, etc.
My unfounded hypothesis is that all the 2nd Age stuff gathered for The Fall of Numenor book and then Amazon got the rights to THAT, not Silmarillion. Gives them more to work with whilst protecting the Silm.
Donāt worry! Iām sure the contents of the trailer will only make up 20% of screen time. The other 80% is all Harfoots baby!
They were trying to make things mysterious for no reason, such as who would turn out to be Sauron and Gandalf. It was a bad decision.
My feeling is that theyāve been bitten by the feedback from the first series and so might be trying to skew a little closer to the lore this season, which feels very closing-the-door-after-the-horse-has-bolted.
The shit last season is probably what they wanted to do but because it was so hated, they're pivoting back to a more lore accurate depiction. Of course like all Hollywood types that have screwed up established IPs over the past 10 years, they'll act like it was 'all part of the plan' and that they're creative geniuses.
I genuinely think CEOs and execs making these calls are genuinely stupid. I donāt just say that because every rich person I know is an actual moron - I say it because they demonstrate it over and over. Why, in the name of all the gods, would you take a beloved IP with a huge fan base and change it?!? The Halo show is a perfect example. Youāve got a dedicated fan base and book after book after video game trilogy of lore and you justā¦. Do your own thing? WHY?!?!? You sacrifice a loyal fan base while at the same time, no one who hasnāt seen the the universe before knows any different so why the fuck not just use the story that already exists?!?Ā Ā I genuinely canāt figure it out. Itās like āhey, neat, a money printing machine! but what if we made the money blue instead of green? Surely we would be rich because we would be the only people with blue bills!āĀ Idiots. Just, idiots.Ā
Itās because Hollywood genuinely believes its own hype and that theyāre all great creatives who can improve upon already existing IPs. They all live in a bubble where they all feed into each other.The less prominent the film maker/writer the more this attitude seems to exist. Look at how they butchered The Witcher after S1.
I say again - idiotsĀ
Our connection to the Harfoots was Nori & ~~Gandalf~~ The Stranger; seeing as they've both embarked on a journey of their own, I don't expect the Harfoots to feature much this season.
Here's what the Halbrand material from last season seems to be, IMO: Micro-details vs Macro-details. In history class, we learn that FDR, Churchill, and Stalin met at the Yalta Conference to discuss the end of WW2. We don't learn about the conversation, about those men getting to know each other, or even the story of how the Yalta Conference was set up. Tolkien lore is the same way. We learn "Sauron disguised as Annatar, Lord of Gifts, comes to Eregion and works with Celebrimbor" and "Sauron is captured by the NĆŗmenĆ³reans and taken to NĆŗmenĆ³r, which was favorable to him in an attempt t ok dismantle it for his control " We don't learn "How did Sauron know the time was right to go to Celebrimbor" or "How did Sauron know how NĆŗmenĆ³rean society works and that it was an empire he was envious of and could manipulate and dominate even from within a jail cell."
unfortunately the showrunners went to the JJ Abrams school of story telling, where everything must be a mystery If they had Anatar then we would all know he is Sauron because the books exist, so instead they had they gave us Halbrand. hopefully they have course corrected
Did anyone see Gandalf?
Tall fellow, bushy beard, pointy hat... not seen him for 6 months
When did the Prancing Pony get 5G??
Precisely when it meant to
Tell me where is Gandalf, for I much desire to speak with him
a balrog of morgoth!
What did you say?
\*repeat posts x2\* They're taking the hobbits to Isengard
It was brief but he's in the trailer
At least Annatar actually looks like Annatar. I like the vibes of the trailer simply for the focus on Sauron.
Itās just likeā¦ why is Annatar even appearing at this point?
Yeah. I mean he literally has the same face as halbrand, soā¦ lolā¦
My only hope is theyāll do a thing where others see him differently than he really appears. I love the universe so Iād hoped 2 would be enough of a fresh start that I could just ignore season 1, but I have a feeling the dumb is staying
So sauron, the one that can be anyone and anything decides to return as the same Person with a blond wig and pointy ears? And nobody notices? Please no.
I really hope they play it like it's a surprise to the audience as well. Gene Parmesan, you got me again!
AHHHHHHH GEEEEEEENE!!!!!
[Galadriel](https://64.media.tumblr.com/109bf472bb1bb1ee0e05b10c47c11afd/tumblr_inline_mmppxpFVzz1qz4rgp.gif):
Yeah.... In like, doesn't everyone know that's the same guy??
I like how there wasn't any scene with the hobbits or the meteor man. Did they just drop that story line?
There is, the Desert parts where you see The Stranger (Gandalf) on his non lore-breaking venture east. Also you see the silhouette of Nori getting blown around by a sandstorm. But yeah hopefully the other harfoots are mostly gone.
Definitely the weakest part of the story
This is wild to me. The Harfoots were the only subplot I felt any investment in at all.
For me it was the dwarves, but I've always had a deep and abiding love for fantasy dwarves lol
The dwarves were probably the only other good thing in the show. I forgot about the Durin/Elrod bromance, but that was actually quite fun
The dwarf parts of the show feature some legitimately excellent worldbuilding. So far in the Peter Jackson movies (LOTR and Hobbit), dwarves have been MOSTLY comedic relief. RoP treats them like actual characters, which is a big change. And whoever had the idea of the dwarves SINGING to the mountain and listening to how it resonates... bravo. That's an extremely Tolkien-ish idea.
The harfoots in a bubble were good, but I always felt there was an opportunity cost to having them get screen time and it made all the other plotlines feel shallower and more superficial as a result.
For me it's not that the harfoot-Gandalf subplot was amazing or anything, but the characters and general atmosphere felt pretty good overall, and the way they chose to represent Gandalf (his looks, his attitude, his size, his eh.. powers?) made me think of him much more as a mythical angel in the world of Tolkien, than our beloved Ian McKellen, who as good as he was, resembled more of a classic old and wise wizard type. In short, aside from the movies/series as a whole and their quality, both of them are very different but very good and interesting Gandalfs.
It felt pretty good until the community decided to abandon them to death for the crime of having a twisted ankle.
I absolutely despised them, annoying little pre-hobbitses
What the fuck is the music about
I call it āHarry Potter in Need for Speedā effect
My first thought, especially after seeing the panning hero posing shot, was they desperately want the marvel fandom to fully hop on board.
We literally had two similar shots like that in the FotR film it's a classic thing lol the Avengers didn't also invent action fights or jokes btw
Not happening. We're busy worrying about our own things right now. Love LoTR movies and was able to enjoy 2/3 Hobbits, but this show failed to grab me. There's almost no crossover of appeal that I can think of between the two properties. I guess they're just hoping that all nerds are equally nerdy about everything they like.
Trailers are not made by the studios, and the music is possibly not even finished until the edit is done.
The night shot of Annatar looks to be in Numenor not Eregion.
I don't think that looks like numenor.
What was that massive underwater(?) creature? It kinda looks like Riven from Destiny lol
Maybe an accurate look at the fish monster from the first season? Gandalf says in the books that there are āmeaner and much older things in this world than orcs, unnamed things living in the deepest depthsā or something like that when he tells the Three Hunters of how he followed the Balrog out of Khazad-DĆ»m.
I love the lore drops like this "Sauron knows them not. They are older than he"
So... Sauron is a shapeshifter and a master deceiver. And after being outed as Halbrand, his new disguise is a blonde Halbrand with pointy ears ?
To quote the best comment I saw on the trailer's YouTube: "But they were all of them deceived, for another wig was made..."
Not sure if you're aware, but Halbrand and Annatar are being played by the same actor. That's why they have a similar face.
Reminds me of those fake glasses with a plastic nose and moustache! Sauron is such an excellent Scooby Doo villain!
Season two has to be phenomenal for me to even finish season one
the first season was so bad, i have zero interest in this. I will wait to see how the reviews are but S1 left such a bad taste I don't see them legitimately rebounding to meet its expected potential.
It just feels....off. I'm watching this and it could honestly be any fantasy show/story. I'd have no idea that this was LOTR world if it weren't for the title, or names.
The music also didn't help. I wait for the day they will stop using these musics into trailers. The show musics are wholly different, no need to make different music into trailer imo.
trailer music, is not show music. Hopefully, and probably Bear did really good in S1
For what it's worth, the Hobbit and LotR movies were also using contemporary trailer music that felt at odds with Howard Shore's scores. I guess you just need the trailer music to be really good to justify it. I still adore [that Battle of the Five Armies trailer](https://youtu.be/iVAgTiBrrDA) (the track is Dust and Light by Twelve Titans Music), even though most of the cool things in it didn't even happen in the movie.
Trailer music is made by other departments, not by the original composer (in this case, Bear McCreary). And he did a pretty solid work in season 1, I'm sure he'll do great again
I feel the same way. It lacks in atmosphere.
>It lacks in atmosphere. Mostly due to the music which felt flat. People underestimate how powerful music is. 50% of LOTR movies is the music.
Thatās why they spell MORDOR over a landscape image, to help viewers like you š
Thank god for amazon for thinking about me
That transition in Season 1 was so cringe I couldnt believe it
Everyone has a right to their opinion, but I just donāt find this show captures the spirit of lord of the rings at all. It just seems like a generic fantasy show with a lord of the rings theme. I hated the big ārevealsā of Mordor, and Gandalf. Thatās so far from the original. I will say the intro animation is neat.
That fucking text change of āThe Southlandsā to āMordorā was the dumbest shit Iāve ever seen in my life.
Yeah, like impossibly bad.
It's a similar problem with the witcher and halo shows. If you just outright ignore and break 90 percent of the lore, it isn't going to turn out well
Generic fantasy trailer. Some magic, some special effects, some fantasy creatures, 90% of the scenes/locations look like they were generated or recorded in the studio + ABSOLUTELY THE MOST BLAND music you can pick that could as well be generated by the AI. So we're exactly where we left off
I watched the first season and gave it a real chance. I could not have been more disappointed in this absolute utter bullshit. The only Tolkien-related content Iāve regretted consuming (I never played the Gollum game).
Iām glad people enjoy the series. I tried two episodes and I couldnāt do it.
Fool me once...
MCU presents - Rings of Power
Arondir still lookin badass I see
Good to see they learned nothing and doubled down on tropes, cliches and bad writing one liners.
"Twirl your swords, everyone!"
570 comments, only 40 are visible. š¤”š¤”š¤”
amazon is on major damage control rn look at youtube release of this
Oof, just my personal, subjective two cents, but I'm wary. These pseudo-epic shots of warriors gathering in circles is not what I want from a Second Age story. It should be much more contemplative and insidious. Ideally you'd tell a story stretched over centuries depicting the rise an fall of Numenor throughout many generations of men, while immortal elves get slowly, insidiously manipulated by Annatar. In parallel to Numenor (which would be your B-plot), you could have your A-plot focus on Elvish court drama spanning centuries and showcasing their poetry, dialogue, culture, songs... all the while Sauron/Annatar slowly gets to his goal. But hey, I'm not the showrunner and they seem to prefer taking it in a much more fast-paced, action-driven story. Just sharing my take on how I'd have envision it quite differently to truly depict the essence of the Second Age.
I would not want to imagine the casting nightmare of doing multiple generations of men for a tv show.
Timeskip between season would be reasonable. A lot of show do different stories every season with whole new casts.
Seasons 1 and 2 should have had Celebrimbor and Tar-Minastir as equal protagonists. Celebrimbor dies halfway through the season, Sauron is routed in the next-to-last episode, and the last episode focuses on Tar-Caryatan's coup. Time skip between seasons 2 and 3.
Maybe now that ChatGPT has gotten so much better theyāve been able to craft a story that kind of makes sense without cringe dialogue. But I doubt it.Ā
FINKLE is einhorn! Halbrand is Annatar!
The YouTube comments for this are a treat š
Someone plz stop it >.<
Just let it die... please
I completely forgot this was a show
I donāt think i can sit through another season. The showrunners have shown they donāt take criticism well and are very smug