For as long as Lord of the Rings has existed it has been known that the Dark Lord wanted to conquer or in his own words "heal" Middle Earth and it's people using the One Ring. However, I have never really understood how Sauron wearing the One ring enslaves the free people's wills to his own. Supposedly it works by ruling over the other rings of power, but if it really worked that way then why didn't every Man and Dwarve submit to him when he first put the ring on the first time. I understand how the Elves resisted by taking their rings off. Sauron already had all the rings of men and most of their Kingdoms like Gondor resisted him. And most of the Dwarves rings were lost the ones left he possessed but the Dwarves still had their free will. So how exactly does the One Ring help Sauron conquer Middle Earth?

I don't know if I can share the link here because this is on twitter, but it looks like this could be a sign of promo for the show.

If you have a meme in mind, you'll have to share it there for them to see it. They won't see it here.

Edit: It looks like they got more than 300 replies.

Caution: Spoilers ahead for those really unfamiliar with the source material.

So, recently I was discussing Ar-Pharazôn's fate and how I am absolutely not sorry for him and his men. In my mind, he and

his fleet heading for Valinor get drowned by the same act of Eru that drowns Númenor, i.e. by the reshaping of Arda, i.e. the removement of Aman from the sphere of Arda.

Now, another redditor was kind enough to remind me that:

"He and his men that are encamped on Valinor were buried under falling hills and trapped in the Caves of the Forgotten until the Last Battle."

Now, I wonder how the show will handle this in season 4 as it deviates quite a bit from western geography.

Clearly, we were shown in season 1 that in order to go into the West, the elves with their ships have to pass a magical threshold, which presents like a golden curtain of light. It seems that passage is granted, maybe invoked by their singing, and can be withdrawn, symbolized by the golden light vaning as Galadriel watches from the waves.

From this voyage, we also see that the show has not included Tol Eressëa, the island off the coast of Aman, which as (I understand it), was quite accessible to the elves that remained in Middle-earth without having to make the decision to migrate to Valinor proper. If and how often they actually sailed to Tol Eressëa is debatable, but it is also said that the island was the furthest west, Númenorian sailors were actually allowed to enter - an exchange that clearly died when Númenir became isolationist. If weather conditions allowed it, the tower of Avallonë could sometimes be seen from Númenor - we actually get that hint from Pharazôn in the show.

So, as a consequence, the writers/showrunners have created themselves a little geographical/mystical challenge:

Why should the Valar grant Pharazôn and his men the right to use the obviously guarded path to Aman?

I personally think that it's just easier for the show to let the fleet drown on sea in a huge wave that will also devour Númenor with a few ships of the faithful escaping (Isildur's training with the navy, anyone?) instead of creating an actual Valinor set-piece with caves and crumbling rocks.

What do you think?

I was absolutely certain we’d get a trailer this week, but instead, they gave us a 10-second clip taken from a teaser that came out three months ago. I’m trying to choose my words carefully, but the marketing for Season 3 is very weak—it certainly isn’t helping to grow the show’s audience.

I absolutely adore Bear McCreary's soundtrack for this show, but Howard Shore did an incredible job with the opening song as well. I've been thinking about the visuals that go along with that music and wanted to get different opinions.

The first season visuals look like it is a subtle adaptation of the Ainulindalë. The music certainly seems to back that up as well, since the scene of darkening sand comes in as the music gets bassier. Whereas in the second season, the visuals seem to be more abstract and just show different aspects of the upcoming season. For example, there is a Balrog face in the sand. I think it opens with a pile of red sand that looks like it could be erupting, so I think it is trying to portray the spread of evil out of Mount Doom and show the various consequences as it spreads.

Does anyone else have a take on what the symbolism of the season two opening visuals is meant to be? What do you think they will do for season three? I imagine it will be a new color scheme since the first season was gold and black and the second season is red and gold/yellow.

TLDR: The visuals of the show contrast with what we know from Sauron in books. Do you like this visual interpretation? Would you like something else? Do you expect the show to go into more details and dive into Sauron intentions of order and it making sense on his own pov while contrasting it to what it really means to the rest of Middle-Earth? Or will it just keep things simple and portray a more "evil x good" story with no in-between dillemas?

Longer post:

Its been a while that we got some images for season 3, most of them focusing on Sauron.

In many of the images we see some misallignment, be it with his crown not being centred in his face or the Dark Throne not being centred in the "throne area"

There has been some discussions that this was all done on purpose (which I agree) and that it could be a way of the series to portray the "twisted" goals of Sauron.

Sauron's purposes is, as mentioned in HoME, order over chaos, the latter being what his predecessor Melkor wanted. Sauron doesn't want destruction, he wants order

It had been [Sauron’s] virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall, and of his relapse) that he loved order and coordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction

OFC, the "order" that he wants is ultimatelly twisted, for he only sees it in a world where the order relies on himself being the ultimate holder of such order, and thus the "king of world". In fact that is one of the tiles he takes for himself during 2nd age, along with "king of kings"

Now to the point:

While it is an interesting take of adaptation to "easely convey" the distorted order Sauron is seeking, in-universe from my POV it doesn't make much sense, as Sauron would probably not be willing to sit in a missalligned throne and probably would thrown the orc that sculp it into shelob lair.

I think the "problematic and twisted order" could be promoted in different ways that not directly into physical things surrounding Sauron, which I would expect would keep his things...in order (can't hold myself on thinking on The Incredibles movie where Mr. Incredible company boss keeps all the pencils alligned on his desk).

BUT

I don't hate the visuals in any mean. This is nitpicking from my part, and just would like to hear what you think about the subject.

Do you like this visual interpretation? Would you like something else? Do you expect the show to go into more details and dive into Sauron intentions of order and it making sense on his own pov while contrasting it to what it really means to the rest of Middle-Earth? Or will it just keep things simple and portray a more "evil x good" story with no in-between dillemas?

With the third season just less than a month away now, I would like to celebrate the four wonderful years the show has gifted us. Years filled with love and joy, discussions, sometimes quite heated and seemingly endless 😫, as well as in-depth explorations, intriguing details, new discoveries, and treasures unearthed from texts that, prior to the show, were largely unknown to most. Middle-earth is more alive than ever, vibrant and teeming with characters who have found a place in our hearts. And someone, much like in Tolkien’s books, suddenly appeared along our journey, and we realized that they had been there all along; we just hadn’t known about them!

An exceptional cast has brought to life figures who had previously existed only on the pages of books, making them feel more real than ever before. They have shown us that the line between light and darkness is filled with countless shades of gray, and that hope, Estel, endures even amidst death and profound sorrow. At last, we have seen not just invincible, all-powerful "heroes" performing feats on the battlefield (let us remember that Tolkien loathed war, and recall the words of Faramir in the book, as well as the sentiments of the Professor himself) but rather individuals who confront not only the enemy and his armies, but also themselves: their own fears, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities, emerging from these struggles stronger than before.

Even when, as in the Second Age, they face defeat.

Heroes who grapple with grief, loss, and destruction, and despite it all, the sun yet shine. Peoples who stand firm against the darkness; even when the light, much like the sky above Mordor, is no longer visible, they know it is still there.

From forests inhabited by small, mysterious creatures unknown to most, to elven lands flourishing with art, grace, and beauty, and on to the desolate, scorching lands of Rhûn, we have traversed deep mountains where kingdoms thrive, as well as the ocean depths, where strange and dangerous creatures dwell.

They have offered us the chance to ponder, perhaps without ever reaching a definitive answer, much like Tolkien himself, the possibility of redemption for creatures who have been tortured and corrupted. They have taught us that there is no simple black or white; there is only choice, a choice that must be made constantly, day after day, until goodness becomes an inherent part of our very nature. Like a mirror reflecting the soul, they confront us with a profound dilemma: how often might we mistake a reflected light for the true one, following it even as darkness takes root within us?

(I finally managed to put the collage together, someone is surely missing 😫, but believe me, trying to fit more than 50 pictures using only a mobile editing app was quite a challenge! I hope you like it, though.)

Ah... and, of course, let me answer in advance the question someone is bound to ask: no, I wasn’t paid to write this (unfortunately 😔😭😆), and no, I’m not a bot. There we go, that should cover it!

I just feel it makes a lot of sense seeing as sindarin is so heavily based in the Welsh language so itd be a cool nod. Also its always easier for actors to act in their own accent and I cant help but feel she is being limited by speaking in a foreign one. The abscence of welsh accent in the ither elves could be explained in the show as the consequence of her being the only one to have spent most of her life in Valinor.

I know that Amazon tends to be more minimalist in their promo for some reason, but we are inside a month with hardly a word from Amazon.

I have to imagine we get a trailer this week, but I assumed the same last week. I really can’t understand why this is the approach they are taking for what should be a flagship show they have poured so much money into…

Is there any reason to fear that the radio silence bodes poorly for future seasons?

Maybe Gil-galad has another throne somewhere else in Lindon, but I'll take the Great Tree as his 'throne' for now. It's beautiful, luminous and sinuous while Sauron's throne is dark, harsh and grotesque. His place feels like a twisted version of an underworld where no one may rest, and the melted helmets evoke the souls he has tormented, and he will continue to do so in his quest for absolute dominance.

Kudos to the production designers for creating Barad-dûr and for making me double-check the angles and dimensions. It looks very impressive and ominous, but everything is just a bit slightly off, like Sauron’s state of mind.

Another very interesting video by Philipp Menzies in his great series on „The Words and Magic of music in Rings Of Power“ came out – this time about the Valinor theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etx92Br1hkU

There may be no trop presence at nycc but apparently we are still getting stuff from sdcc. The coloring with the cast interview from s2 was genuinely one of the best things to come out of that part of the press tour and while this isn't on that level, there are some little s3 hints and ismail & owain especially are always lovely to see

As the release date of Season 3 draws ever closer, I not only find the lack of promotional material disturbing in general, but also the fact that we have been shown virtually nothing concerning one of the major storylines of this season—Rhûn.

So, with what little info we have about Rhûn so far, I have come up with a few questions/theories as to what we might see:

1. How big will this storyline be? So far the characters we know of are the Dark Wizard (Pallando?), Gandalf, Bombadil, Khamûl, the one head Gaudrim (Kilta I think?), and the Mystics. Will we see Alatar/other blue wizard, or Saruman or Radagast? What about Goldberry, or random easterling warriors or families?

2. How vast is Rhûn actually geographically? Is it just an endless desert with nomadic peoples sprinkled here and there, or is it (more in keeping with the books) a diverse region that refers to an entire continent (proto-Asia) with empires and strange creatures and even elves and dwarves? Will we see some Avari, and will the four dwarf clans of Rhûn (Ironfists, Blacklocks, Stonefoots, Stiffbeards) come into play with the distribution of the rings taking place?

3. Will the Rhûn storyline end this season, or will it continue into the next or through the fifth? Personally, I hope that it ends here, and that we shift to Harad in the final two seasons, but because I think that the showrunners have largely conflated the lands of Rhûn and Harad, I find this unlikely. The fact that we have already seen the strange stars and an oliphaunt in Rhûn makes the outlook of a journey to Harad dubious, which is a shame because canonically Gandalf went to Harad, not Rhûn, in the books. But could this mean that the showrunners will use his Southron name “Incánus” in this season or the ones following?

4. Cultural/linguistic identities of Rhûn. What real world cultures might the show draw from to represent the peoples of Rhûn, if indeed it is true that we will get to see vast armies and maybe kingdoms? The Rhunnic language developed for the show seems to draw from Tolkien’s Hungarian-inspired language Mágol, which might mean that Rhûn will take on a more Eastern European identity rather than Asian. Another interesting thing I found while trying to determine the possibility of the presence of Mûmakil in Rhûn was that the word Tolkien considered using for these huge elephant creatures was “Mamûk” as a direct precursor to the Russian word “mámont” which is where the modern word “mammoth” comes from. Tolkien evidently later abandoned this and sent the Mûmak to Harad instead of Khând in Rhûn, but this is significant in that the Russian word mámont means “earth-dweller” and was used to describe the creature that Russian peoples excavated bones of, and who hypothesized that it was a type of mole creature that borrowed in the ground. In the teaser for the creatures of Season 3, we see a shot of the Mûmak (who is also seen to have some fur like a mammoth 🤔) digging its tusks in the ground and throwing earth, so could the showrunners be making use of this Slavic folk interpretation to represent a plausible explanation for the presence of Mûmakil in Rhûn?

I also hope that the showrunners will play into Tolkien’s comments that the land of Rhûn is analogous to China, India, and Japan. Could we see the “were-worms” of the Hobbit, which were inspired by the Mongolian death-worm? Is there a chance Gandalf could learn the craft of making fireworks from the pyrotechnic abilities of a people reminiscent of China, where fireworks actually originated? Could Khamûl or another warlord be the ruler of an empire akin to the Mughals or Imperial China or maybe even the Sasanids? The Gaudrim that we have seen already appear to be loosely inspired by Eurasian steppe peoples, but will the show give us anything beyond that?

What are all of your thoughts on this, or theories you may have about the plot or representation of the East and its peoples and creatures? Crazy theories are most welcome too :)

Sauron was deceptive with the Elves, he was manipulating them and hating them, but he had some "fun" with them while being mischievous.

With the orcs? He's giving nothing, staying blank and detached. It's not meant to be funny, but I still find the difference slightly comical. I suppose he'll be more lively around the Nazgnagôl.

I just began my series rewatch to get ready for the new season, and I really love the way they did the Harfoots in this show. I know they were the biggest complaint (and, honestly, mine as well) when it comes to the pacing, but the show did a tremendous job at making their sense of scale seem authentic. When the children are out picking blackberries, the berries are nearly as large as their fists. As they move through the world, they feel small.

This is something that I don't think the PJ movies fully conveyed, despite their absolute cinematographic brilliance. It always seemed strange to me that they looked normal sized next to their farm animals. And there's a particular shot of Frodo in Rivendell where the handrail he leans on is his perfect height (and thus would've been knee-height for an Elf). I'm not trying to pit one show/movie against the other, but I really appreciate the realism of ROP.

So, this is how he looks like without his cloak, his crown, and his full armour. How many layers is he wearing? His outfit must be heavy and slightly suffocating.

https://www.aol.com/articles/building-barad-d-r-lord-175044000.html

If there is a small crumb of light left inside Sauron, well it's now being completely demolished by his ardent need to dominate everything by any means necessary, and he will only get worse with his cruelty going unchecked during the war.

The Elves are taking the full brunt of his numerous attacks, trying to hold on to hope, but I wonder if they'll show them (or maybe specific characters) grappling with the advice Galadriel gave to Theo back in season 1? Will they have dark thoughts, considering doing dubious things under the strain of war?

Ar-Pharazôn invoked Elros' name to elevate himself, to feel grandiose and powerful, speaking of conquest, omitting Elros' Elven heritage, while Galadriel called him an uncommon spirit, perhaps in part because he chose the Gift of Men.

There was no mention of Elros in season 2, but these scenes will surely become much more relevant when watching season 3.

Hi! I am interviewing the cast and show runners in celebration of Season 3. What question do you have and I will try my best to get some of them in!

Who thinks Marnukh will continue Adar's legacy in S3 and sorta work against Sauron along with other like-minded Orcs (he is after all a captain like Adar was) and doesn't seem like he or other Orcs like Sauron that much after he killed Glug, Adar, and set one of them on fire when testing a ring.