# Amazon Lord of the Rings series; The Rings of Power **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** middle-earth, amazon-prime, tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [March 3, 2019, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497 "2019-03-03T20:01:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/282 "2022-09-04T00:05:34Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Cirdan the Shipwright, who’s one of the oldest living elves, is described in the books as having grey hair and a beard, so elves do eventually age I think I remember reading or seeing somewhere (maybe one of those YouTube video series explicating various Tolkien details and characters) that he chose to look that way (and I forget why). So maybe the two I complained about also choose to look that way, at least until they are leading armies into battle. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/283 "2022-09-04T00:14:58Z")
It’s movie canon at least that elves can use glamour-c.f. Thranduil’s facial scars. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/284 "2022-09-04T01:10:22Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > The scene on the raft where Galadriel tells Galbrand(?) that she feels his pain was not well acted. She needed more depth of feeling. A small point, but kind of telling for me. And it was pretty weird that she kept tugging on that rope, for no obvious reason. Not to mention that the guy helped her aboard at all, after abandoning his friends. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/285 "2022-09-04T01:31:30Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > And it was pretty weird that she kept tugging on that rope, for no obvious reason. I got the impression that the rope was pulling that log into a different position and somehow steering the raft, but it was just a random thought based on the fact that it looked a little bit like a rudder. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/286 "2022-09-04T01:59:29Z")
Same here. Look the Jackson LotR trilogy was perhaps the greatest trilogy in the history of film. So yeah, the Hobbit will suffer by comparison. And the first parts, especially in the Shire were wonderful. But then they insisted he turn it into a trilogy, and it suffered from that. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > I wonder if the stranger is one of the blue wizards, or even radagast. I just can’t see sauron talking to fireflies. Okay, here is my 1,000,000 Qualoo bet- the Stranger is Annatar. He isn’t an Elf ? So not Glorfindel, which would make sense also. > [@msmith537](#): > > I’ve heard the show has been getting “review-bombed” due to stuff like diversity and what I presume is general “nerd rage”. Yeah. “LotR doesn’t have enough strong females.” Then “New show is too woke”. > [@Lantern2](#): > > As everyone is saying, it’s gorgeous and sets a new standard for TV production values. Yes, it is purely gorgeous. > [@Smapti](#): > > IIRC, she was always more of a politician than a general or a warrior. Eowyn notwithstanding, women warriors just aren’t a thing in Tolkien’s legendarium. He is retelling old myth and legends. The Argonauts have maybe one woman or none (depends on version) out of some 20. In the Odyssey- none in the crew iirc , none of the Knights of the Round Table were women. Etc etc. The old tales aften told of a quest and a journey with a party, but the party was always stag. (Yes, the Greeks and the Norse had some female warriors in myth or reality, but afaik, not part of a band of adventurers. Too many scenes of Galadriel lost at sea. > [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > I guess the Prince and King were looking at the arkenstone in episode 2. That or the contents of Marsellus Wallace’s briefcase. Nope- _Mithril._ Another Mil Quatloos on that. > [@muldoonthief](#): > > I think it was mithril in the box - that’s what caused the downfall of Khazad-Dum after all - the discovery of mithril, causing them to delve too deep and wake the Balrog - aka “Durin’s Bane”. Yep. > [@What\_Exit](#): > > There is almost nothing about women Dwarves, so the beardless women shouldn’t be a huge problem, it is just that it is the expectation very many of us had. He did say they were hard to tell apart to non-dwarves, but with hoods, etc, that could work. > [@puzzlegal](#): > > I think Tolkien may even have described some groups of hobbits as brown. Yes, he did. _The Harfoots were browner of skin, smaller, and shorter, and they were beardless and bootless; their hands and feet were neat and nimble; and they preferred highlands and hillsides._ They were the most common. So dark skinned hobbit- kin is very reasonable and canon. Bilbo and Frodo were of Fallowhide blood and so paler _The Fallohides were fairer of skin and also of hair, and they were taller and slimmer than the others; they were lovers of trees and of woodlands._ The skin color of the Stoors is not mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/287 "2022-09-04T02:02:50Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > And it was pretty weird that she kept tugging on that rope, for no obvious reason. I also noticed the mystery rope, & couldn’t come up with anything other than the actor being told to play with one of the few props available. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/288 "2022-09-04T02:09:42Z")
25 million viewers day one apparently, major record for Prime. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/289 "2022-09-04T02:13:41Z")
It was a sort of rudder. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/290 "2022-09-04T02:53:14Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Nope- _Mithril._ Another Mil Quatloos on that. Yeah, I guess it’s mithril silver. I have so long associated Moria with mithril, I forgot there was a time before they discovered it there. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/291 "2022-09-04T03:03:23Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Cirdan the Shipwright, who’s one of the oldest living elves, is described in the books as having grey hair and a beard, so elves do eventually age, even if it takes a long time. He appears briefly in the intro to FOTR alongside Galadriel and Gil-Galad, and I assume he’s the fellow Galadriel saw at the very end of the episode. I’m thinking it’s a Numenorean ship, which will take them to Numenor and introduce that part of the story. And about time already, if you ask me. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/292 "2022-09-04T03:47:27Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Gil-galad and Celebrimbor look too old. I’ve been trying to put a finger on it for awhile and it finally came to me - Celebrimbor looks oddly like a middle-aged Martin Sheen. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/293 "2022-09-04T07:17:10Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > When they showed various things reacting to the meteor falling, I thought we saw ents? Definitely. With huorns. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/294 "2022-09-04T07:30:16Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > The Magical Meteor doesn’t fit the legendarium at all. I’m thinking at this point that the arrival of the meteor implies that the Stranger has been introduced into Eä from somewhere beyond. After all, the stars and planets as seen from Middle-Earth aren’t actually other worlds and suns as they are in our reality - they’re magical artifacts placed there by the Valar, issuing forth a source of divine light untouched by Melkor’s corruption. That’s why I’m leaning towards the Stranger being Tom Bombadil - for something to have come from outside of Creation it would have to have been the will of Iluvatar Himself, and since Tom seems to exist outside of any of the defined classes of beings that exist within Arda, it seems fitting that he was sent into the world by The One. (Granted, this reasoning could also imply that the Stranger is Sauron having been sent back through the Door of Night by Melkor, or even Melkor himself making his way back into Arda. Which would be wildly anticanonical, but since this show is deuterocanon at best I wouldn’t be surprised if they decided to throw an absolute curveball and go off in a direction the Professor never intended.) ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/295 "2022-09-04T08:01:27Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Okay, here is my 1,000,000 Qualoo bet- the Stranger is Annatar. I’m guessing he is, it wouldn’t make sense for it to be any of the Istari (wizards). They don’t arrive until Sauron is defeated (in the war that has Isildur chop off his finger and take the One Ring). The reason they were sent to Middle-Earth was because Sauron was coming back to power yet again, and the Valar decided they needed to send some people to help, and sent 5 Maiar. That all happens thousands of years after these events. On the other hand, around this time period Sauron masqueraded as a Maia sent as an emissary from the Valar (not a huge stretch, since he was originally a Maia named Mairon before being corrupted by Morgoth). I don’t believe there is anything written about how he arrived, but falling from the sky is certainly a good way to convince people that you’re an angel. According to the lore, he befriends Celebrimbor under the guise of Annatar, and gets him to help make the Rings of Power. (And then secretly makes the One Ring on his own, which controls the other rings.) The way this character is introduced looks like the way you might expect Gandalf or another wizard to be introduced, but that makes sense because that’s precisely what Sauron was pretending to be. By the way, my feelings about this show are that I like the look and feel of it overall. The one thing that stands out is the dialog. The speech is more natural than previous portrayals we’ve seen, and I feel like the characters are more relatable. Even though I’m a Tolkien nerd, I really like this approach. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/296 "2022-09-04T08:20:45Z")
The character from the trailers who is very obviously indicated to be Annatar - you know,the [Malfoy-looking](https://youtu.be/uYnQDsaxHZU?t=54)[one](https://youtu.be/x8UAUAuKNcU?t=46) - looks nothing like Sky Guy, so either he’s going to change his appearance, or it’s not him. Given the contexts he’s shown in, in the various trailers - facing down wargs, shaking trees - and the distinctive shape of the robelike rags he’s wearing, they’re clearly presenting him as some sort of wizard or sorcerer, though. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/297 "2022-09-04T12:27:53Z")
It’s canon that Sauron changes his form, though. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/298 "2022-09-04T12:33:56Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > > [@puzzlegal](#): > > > > it seems silly to care about the race of the actors playing them. > > Well, it takes them out of the story, dontcha know, because it doesn’t match what they had in their wee little pointy heads. Well, honestly, it always bugs me when related people in movies look different. Like if the mother looks Swedish and the daughter looks French. So it does bother me a little that a village of 100 souls who are probably all related have a lot of racial diversity. But… meh, people migrate, and they are fantasy people. And it doesn’t bother me as much as when it’s actual specified close relatives. I’m liking most of the characters. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/299 "2022-09-04T12:41:26Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > So it does bother me a little that a village of 100 souls who are probably all related have a lot of racial diversity. But… meh, people migrate, and they are fantasy people In this setting, the human race has only existed for about 2,000 years and originated in a single location from which they all migrated. It hasn’t been nearly long enough for natural selection to have any impact on skin color or things like that, and it’d be pretty odd if all the light-skinned humans had decided to migrate west as a whole while the darker-skinned ones all migrated east and south, so if the first generation of Men were created with many different skin colors and physical features, then it wouldn’t be all that surprising that their descendants still display a mix of phenotypes. Likewise, the elves are only two or three generations removed from the firstborn, so the existence of dark-skinned elves like Arindor (who, as a Silvan, is the child of elves who never travelled west and never saw the light of the Trees) isn’t too hard to swallow. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/300 "2022-09-04T14:02:23Z")
I’m confused-why would Sauron decide to fall from the sky? Isn’t he already around? That sounds like climbing out your window then using your door to pretend you just got home. I don’t think it’s Tom or Glorfindel (who is supposed to show up and I can’t wait because he’s apparently a badass according to the books). I’m enjoying it so far. I don’t really care about the new GOT show even though they’re both prequels and we know how they end. The time-squish is a bit disconcerting: Isildur was supposed to be ancient by the time of the LOTR, but this doesn’t _seem_ too far removed from those movies time-wise? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2022, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/301 "2022-09-04T15:08:35Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > It’s canon that Sauron changes his form, though Sure. But this particular form is very … ordinary, I guess my feeling is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497.md?page=16)