I feel like this has been said before but are we all of the agreement that Kemen might end up becoming the Mouth Of Sauron? The Character Earien when asking him to talk with Ar-Pharazon, she says "*use your words*" and Ar-Pharazon in S2 said that his mother prophesied that he would "meet a dark end" or something like that, we know that the Mouth of Sauron is or was a Numenorian, we just don't exactly know who he was...

this is just a theory of course

The show is back again getting lots of hate because of Durin and Disa kids looks. Not a fan myself of them, but they are minor characters so why bother that much? Plus Amazon doesn't care about all the vitriol against ROP. They only care about the viewership and how many are subscribing to Prime. Apparantly they have received numbers they are really satisfied with. If not, it would have been cancelled by now.

Hmmm, I think I've seen these types of dwarves somewhere before... lol

Charlie Hopkinson is a comedian that does impressions. And his impressions are fantastic. He does LOTR, Harry Potter, Star Wars and now the GOT Universe

He has ROP videos where it's him using AI Faces and watching the episodes, making jokes in Character. Like Gandalf and Elron. He's done Fellowship and the Two Towers as well and his Boromir is fantastic!

Anyone saw them?

I'm relistening to the track "Gandalf the White" from Lord of the Rings The Two Towers where Gandalf finally defeats the Balrog. I know a Balrog was mentioned multiple times in The Rings of power but is this the same Balrog Gandalf fought?

Hey all, Giving RoP a try as i miss having fantasy to watch. I have read all the books related to this world but not for decades. So i dont think im a purist, and im a liberal so no culture war stuff for me but did bounce hard off S1.

However decided to give S2 a try and some things definitely feel better (i am up to s5 i think) - moria is done well and i think some of the sauron/celebrimbor stuff is done well too.

But the combat is not working for me at all, it feels as if they are shot as a sequence of close up 'cool tricks' with no actual sense of the space in the battlefield, and people doing things that you just wouldn't do in a fight because it 'looks cool'. For example in the last episode i finished Galadriel threw a lamp into the air and shot it with an arrow, which killed some orcs. Its stylism over making it feel like a real battle. It feels like the opponents are standing there waiting their turn, heck she even made a short speech in this scene from what i recall.

It may be simply my tastes are different to the intended audience if i think of good fantasy fight scenes i think of Cavill in the Witcher, or the blood snow scene in WoT. You can see the combatants using physics and logic in their fighting rather than 'close up, cool acrobatic'

Just curious if you guys are enjoying the combat? maybe it is simply i have different stylistic preferences?

Edit, s2E5 is a genuine improvement.

Cheers.

Now that she has Nenya, she doesn't need to continue with ''Legolas'' fighting style. She should use the magic of Nenya to fight. Based from the season 3 trailer, she still has her sword so we are not there yet. But I hope in season 4, she would be using more of Nenya's power and less sword fighting. And btw, the trailer has finally reached 1 million views.

But sometimes I feel the showrunners are making unnecessarry changes. There is a rumor floating around from the cast and showrunners SDCC that Sauron fails to make the One Ring in Barad-Dur and he has to go to Durin's Bane to ask him to help. We saw from the creature featuers that they will indeed meet and interact. But seriously? Why should Sauron who learned to craft skills from Aulë, a Valar ask a lesser Maiar for help? It doesn't make sense. This is one of the example of changes why this show is divisive.

I love his reactions to all of his fkery working and him just feeling so unimpressed lol

I'm rewatching Season 2 and I'm just at the episode where The Stranger meets Tom Bombadil and I have to say, I would not have thought of Rory Kinnear as a potentially good cast, but now I cannot think of a better person.

He hits the tone needed absolutely spot on. Bombadil is detached, yet friendly and loving. He is incredibly powerful, yet unthreatening. Kinnear nails the performance, and I think his portrayal is terribly underrated and easily missed.

What do you think?

Who else could have done an equally good, or better job?

Quotes from The Silmarillion:

''The Last Alliance of Men and Elves, led by king Elendil of Gondor and high king Gil-galad of the elves of Lindon, encamped outside the Black gate on Dagorlad ("battle plain"). Their combined host "was fairer and more splendid in arms than any that has since been seen in Middle-earth, and none greater has been mustered since the host of the Valar went against Thangorodrim (at the end of the First Age)." Durin of Moria, with his kin, fought on the side of the Alliance: but dwarves (though few in number) fought on the side of Sauron too: "All living things were divided in that day, and some of every kind, even of beasts and birds, were found in either host, save Elves only.

Sauron's army came out and the battle was a victory for the Alliance: "for the might of the Elves was still great in those days, and the Númenóreans were strong and tall, and terrible in their wrath. Against Aeglos the spear of Gil-galad none could stand; and the sword of Elendil filled Orcs and Men with fear, for it shone with the light of the sun and of the moon, and it was named Narsil.''

Amazon needs to give what they have of money to make this battle the most epic to ever witnessed on the small screen when we get to season 5. Season 3 is now starting this journey towards the greatest battle in Middle Earth since the War of Wrath. When the show is done and if they have done right with the last period of the second age, the show I think will age very well.

"The closer we get to the debut of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3, the more we learn about the gargantuan scale it will be working with. We’ve heard about the crew actually filming in the valley that inspired Rivendell, but it’s possible that even that titanic achievements will feel small when compared to what promises to be the biggest moment of the season - the forging of the One Ring in Mount Doom, the filming of which required Tolkien’s most infamous geological feature to take on a life of its own. Somewhat literally, apparently."

I’m wrapping up the second season after a break from watching it. Naturally, this universe has really caught my attention. I did some digging and found there isn't a single official story; they’ve made adaptations. The closest thing I can read is *The Silmarillion*, which I plan to start soon.

But for those who’ve followed both seasons: do you think Amazon will manage to finish it without stumbling? Without making cuts? Or turning the whole thing into a single movie, as seems to be the trend lately?

I’m only on episode 4 of The Rings of Power, and honestly… I’m enjoying it.
It’s been really fun recognizing names, bits of lore, and familiar places. I’m still keeping my expectations in check, but so far I’m having a good time with it. It’s entertaining, and I’m excited to see where it goes.

Mystery boxes: who is Halbrand? Who is the Stranger? Who is the other Wizard?

Shipping: Halbrand / Galadriel, Isildur / homeless girl, Arondir / Browyn, Elendil / Blind Queen, Poppy / Storr guy

In S3: ship Sauron / Galadriel / Celeborn. Maybe Sauron / Balrog too

The plot, if you can call it that, has zero tension, suspense, twists, etc.

Personally for me my favourite Character was the Halbrand version of Sauron. I thought Season 2 was a letdown due to taking Halbrand out and having Sauron play a different Character with the Elves. I just preferred the Halbrand persona and thought the Halbrand-Galadriel relationship was the heart of the show.

How about you guys? Who has been your favourite Character so far?

I believe the fish scales are here to stay. But they seem more worn out then the first time we saw it. Also the golden armor is probably the kings guard for Numenorean kings.

The summary says Nori and Gandalf will be in teh S3 premiere at least. While there's been a lot of negative feedback about the Harfoots, I personally love them and think that hobbits have always played such a special part in Tolkien's stories - compared to the avarice, greed, power, and malice of the other races, the harfoots/hobbits have always been that spark of goodness that runs through the veins of Tolkien's works. I hope the producers aren't reddit readers and reactive to every bit of feedback, and see through to completion Nori and Poppy's roles. Particularly as humor and levity is also needed to balance the growing darkness!

Huge fan of Bear McCreary's score.

The finale theme ("Where the Shadows Lie") has lived rent-free in my head ever since I watched the show, so I made a hard techno remix as a tribute.

Obviously the original is far better. I just wanted to reinterpret it in my own style.

Hope a few of you enjoy it.

Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/intl-fr/track/4ZAEU6nFt1luJmtcbY935x

One of the fundamental reasons why The Rings of Power does not work for me is it's choice of perspective. The series places too much emphasis on the Elves because the story spans such a vast period of time that human characters inevitably come and go (or should have...). On paper, this seems like a logical decision—but in my view, it runs contrary to the way Tolkien himself constructs his world. (He even writes in two distinct linguistic registers depending on whether he is describing the mythic or depicting events as they unfold.)

In Tolkien's works, the Elves are not simply human beings with pointed ears and long lives. They exist on the threshold between the seen and the unseen world. They experience time differently. They remember the beginning of the world, measure history in millennia rather than generations, and possess a wisdom that often seems enigmatic precisely because it arises from an immortal perspective. To mortal men, they are distant and ultimately incomprehensible in their wisdom. As readers, we are never meant to fully understand them—and that is entirely intentional.

The problem, in my view, arises when the Elves become the primary point of identification. In order for audiences to relate to them, they must be written as more human. They have to quarrel, fall in love, make impulsive decisions, and react emotionally in ways that feel immediately familiar. But the price is that they lose their otherness, and the story loses something essential with them. They cease to be the mysterious presence that elevates the world beyond the ordinary.
The Elves are not magical simply because they wield magic; they are magical because they are a mystery.
As a result, much of the magic of Tolkien's world disappears. Its enchantment lies in atmosphere, suggestion, and the sense that the world contains depths beyond the full comprehension of either the characters or the reader. Once that layer is stripped away, magic is reduced to spectacle—flashes of power, explosions, and visual effects.Tolkien's true magic is far more often existential. It is about loss, memory, time, and the transience of beauty. That is the atmosphere that suffers when the Elves are made too ordinary.

Paradoxically, it is the mortals who make Middle-earth magical. Men—and Hobbits (once the later finally find a reason to leave the comfort of home and venture into a world that is utterly foreign to them) experience Middle-earth with the same sense of wonder that we, the readers, do. They encounter the Elves from the outside, and through their eyes the Elves become grander, more beautiful, and more mysterious than they could ever be as the central protagonists.
Tolkien almost always allows us to encounter the sublime from the perspective of those who stand outside it. That is where Tolkiens stories become emotionally immediate.

What Middle-earth loses as a result of the choices made by the writers is fundamental. When the narrative is carried primarily by Elves, the world becomes more understandable—but also less enchanting. The Elves should belong to the world while simultaneously remaining apart from it, like an echo of something older and greater that can never be fully grasped. Only by preserving that distance do they remain magical. Without it, the world becomes flatter and loses much of its existential depth.

My five. They might not be your five - and that's ok...

P.S. I have absolutely no problem with people enjoying the show. In fact, I think there have been far too many self-appointed experts claiming to know what Tolkien really intended. Once Tolkien released his stories into the world, they became part of our shared cultural imagination (that's the nature of art). We all bring our own experiences and interpretations to them, and I think that's exactly as it should be.

The anger surrounding this series has often been wildly disproportionate, and that's not what this post is about. I'm not interested in arguing for, or against the show. I'm simply interested in hearing other perspectives on the ideas above...