# 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:** 57
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1123 "2022-10-11T20:03:34Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > I don’t think it’s Bombadil either I didn’t think it is either, but every time someone tries to convince me it’s not, I somehow end up leaning further towards that being the case. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1124 "2022-10-11T20:31:24Z")
Okay, yeah he had a beard- brain fart. But he was shorter than a human. And he was there all along, he didn’t arrive. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1125 "2022-10-11T21:26:54Z")
I will give everyone in this thread a foot massage if it’s not Gandalf. In the meantime, I’ll go back to calling him Stranger since my calling him Gandalf seems to annoy people. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2022, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1126 "2022-10-11T21:35:41Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But he was shorter than a human. We haven’t seen him up against a human, only Harfoots. Hard to get a good judge of size there. > [@DrDeth](#): > > And he was there all along, he didn’t arrive. As I said in the post you initially responded to: > [@k9bfriender](#): > > We don’t know that he wasn’t experimenting with fireworks late in the second age, blowing himself halfway across Middle-Earth, and leaving him with a little TBI that it takes him a bit to shake off. As I said, I didn’t think that it was Tom, but the more people claim it isn’t the weaker their arguments seem to be. I mean, personally, I still lean on Gandalf, but I will only be disappointed if it’s someone we’ve never heard of before. ---
**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:** [October 11, 2022, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1127 "2022-10-11T23:53:16Z")
Good heavens, they could do anything, of course. But i will be incredibly upset if the stranger turns out to be Bombadil. Bombadil isn’t a confused men who came from someplace else and doesn’t understand his own power. I initially assumed the stranger was Sauron. Now i think it’s probably Gandalf, although i would personally be happier if it were a blue wizard. I’m pretty sure it’s a maiar, though, based on it’s innate magical power. (Sauron and the balrogs are also maiar.) ---
**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:** [October 12, 2022, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1128 "2022-10-12T00:29:08Z")
I don’t think we have any idea where the Stranger came from, aside from “probably far away”. I think most people assume Valinor (that’s my guess too) but we don’t really know, do we? ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1129 "2022-10-12T01:49:09Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > > [@squeegee](#): > > > > So wait: the Brandyfoots were close enough to Orodruin to get their fruit trees killed by falling fire debris. Yet Sardoc is telling Gandalf that Greenwood the Great (Mirkwood) is within hiking distance. Huh? > > Meanwhile, the Numenoreams crossed the ocean and galloped all the way to Tirharad, crossing a mountain range along the way, in no more than 18 hours. They’ve been playing fast and loose with travel times in a way that’d make Jack Bauer envious. Actually, the thing that bugs me is the ease with which they just sail directly in whatever direction they want, even straight up a river. With very attractive but unrealistic rigging. I just re-read the 20+ Aubrey/Maturin books which beat into the reader that everything is at the mercy of the wind. Not that there is anything really that they could do differently (except make the ships into galleys)… On a different topic: anyone else start hearing Lynyrd Skynyrd in their head every time they mention “The Southlands”? Glad Adar renamed it… ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1130 "2022-10-12T02:09:33Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > With very attractive but unrealistic rigging I was wondering about how impractical those sails must be. “To a man with a spinnaker, every problem is a tailwind.” Can you even tack or do anything useful with those sails? ---
**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:** [October 12, 2022, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1131 "2022-10-12T03:19:37Z")
I think I’ve said it before: as best as i can tell, whoever wrote the nautical scenes has never been on a boat. ---
**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:** [October 12, 2022, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1132 "2022-10-12T05:54:59Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > We haven’t seen him up against a human, only Harfoots. Hard to get a good judge of size there. If we assume the Evil Trio are human, we have a comparison in relative size between them and the Stranger, compared to the Harfoots, and I’d say he’s a mite taller than them. > [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > except make the ships into galleys The fleet of the Númenóreans that broke the Ban was specifically said to be made up of slave galleys: _Thus the fleets of the Numenoreans moved against the menace of the West; and there was little wind, but they had many oars and many strong slaves to row beneath the lash._ (From _The Silmarillion_) ---
**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:** [October 12, 2022, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1133 "2022-10-12T11:00:26Z")
In the scene with the Stranger’s comet or whatever arrive, we see a figure leaning against a tree. Could that be a “cameo” of Bombadil, since I doubt we’ll meet any Ents? ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1134 "2022-10-12T11:23:19Z")
We may or may not meet any, yet IIRC it looked like two figures, perhaps a larger and smaller Ent, or a Huorn/tree. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1135 "2022-10-12T13:04:29Z")
There’s also this exchange between Marva and Sadoc while the Stranger is healing the tree: > What’s he muttering? > > Likely little words, so the tree’ll understand. > > Sadoc, trees don’t talk. > > Some do. Could be joke, could be an Easter Egg, or could be foreshadowing. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1136 "2022-10-12T16:10:58Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > In the scene with the Stranger’s comet or whatever arrive, we see a figure leaning against a tree. Could that be a “cameo” of Bombadil, since I doubt we’ll meet any Ents? I rewatched that and didn’t see the figure you reference. Everyone I saw was a known character. But the meteor falling was shown across multiple scenes so I might have missed it. > [@Coriolanus](#): > > We may or may not meet any, yet IIRC it looked like two figures, perhaps a larger and smaller Ent, or a Huorn/tree. It seems glaringly obvious to me that the scene is showing an Ent and Entwife. There are two tall tree figures who look up as the meteor passes, then a smaller figure reaches for one of the tall ones, and the tall one put its “arms” around the little one. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1137 "2022-10-12T18:48:36Z")
I made a clip of the meteor flying over the Ents [[Meteor flying over Ents - Album on Imgur](https://imgur.com/a/VPkeAT5)]([https://Meteor](https://Meteor) Ents) not sure if that will work for y’all. Imgur link: [Meteor flying over Ents - Album on Imgur](https://imgur.com/a/VPkeAT5) (I cannot embed media images in a post) eta: In the clip, two tree-ish figures are swaying in the wind and one smaller ent-like creature is embraced by the larger one on the left. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1138 "2022-10-12T19:06:14Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I think I’ve said it before: as best as i can tell, whoever wrote the nautical scenes has never been on a boat. A couple times they did the non-sailors mistake of having the banner flying in the wind towards the stern. Of course on a sailing ship, the flag/banner flies towards the front, since the wind is behind the ship. > [@TroutMan](#): > > It seems glaringly obvious to me that the scene is showing an Ent and Entwife. There are two tall tree figures who look up as the meteor passes, then a smaller figure reaches for one of the tall ones, and the tall one put its “arms” around the little one. I concur. Maybe an Entling. > [@Coriolanus](#): > > I made a clip of the meteor flying over the Ents Nice! ---
**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:** [October 12, 2022, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1139 "2022-10-12T19:26:45Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > A couple times they did the non-sailors mistake of having the banner flying in the wind towards the stern. Of course on a sailing ship, the flag/banner flies towards the front, since the wind is behind the ship. I am hardly a nautical expert, but I’ve sailed small craft, paddled canoes, kayaks, and rowboats, and been a passenger on larger commercial vessels. And basically every detail seems to be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2022, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1140 "2022-10-12T19:28:04Z")
Well, the boats float because they look up, unlike rocks. Didn’t they get that much right? 😉 ---
**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:** [October 12, 2022, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1141 "2022-10-12T20:00:45Z")
“Take cover! What is happening?!” “The rocks! THEY’RE LOOKING UP!!!” ---
**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:** [October 12, 2022, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497/1142 "2022-10-12T20:37:27Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > Actually, the thing that bugs me is the ease with which they just sail directly in whatever direction they want, even straight up a river. With very attractive but unrealistic rigging. I just re-read the 20+ Aubrey/Maturin books which beat into the reader that everything is at the mercy of the wind. Doing their HW here sure would have added a very helpful dose of verisimilitude, something which has been sorely lacking in this series so far. And, on that note, news [that it will be at least 2 years](https://screenrant.com/rings-power-season-2-production-timeline-showrunner-response/) before season 2 is broadcast. [Which may mean early '24, at the earliest] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497.md?page=56) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-lord-of-the-rings-series-the-rings-of-power/830497.md?page=58)