"The Rings of Power" Vanity Fair article

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

3300 years before the Hobbits are recorded actually entering Eriador, they had not even gotten to the Vales of Anduin. They are most likely east even of Greenwood the Great. Nowhere in the theater of action, no real reason for them to be appearing.

I don’t know how clear it was in the article, but I believe the Silvan elf and the Mortal healer are both in the vaguely-defined "Southland" (maybe future Gondor/Rohan?). So there are at least two stars east of the Misty Mountains; the action isn't all Eriador.

I'm guessing the antler-carrying nomads are meant to be fairly eastward too - that would tie in with the Hobbit movies giving Thranduil a moose for no apparent reason - and the trailer seems to imply the Harfeet are in their general area.

(Plus, of course, individual Hobbits could go where their culture didn't - and not enter the records, because they're very good at going unseen...)

hS

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

I'm guessing the antler-carrying nomads are meant to be fairly eastward too - that would tie in with the Hobbit movies giving Thranduil a moose for no apparent reason - and the trailer seems to imply the Harfeet are in their general area.

Incidentally, any idea what are they? (I assume that's the question the creators want the audience to wonder about. If they were random Lossadan - as was my first thought - who are going to host Gil-Galad for one evening because he happens to be passing through their territory, they wouldn't deserve such spotlight.)

I wondered whether they are supposed to be just some generic "Northmen", as in, denizens of (some part of) Middle-Earth as opposed to the Númenoreans. It also pretty much makes sense that they would be some sort of around-the-Wilderland-area-type-inhabitants who could also get a Nazgul or two recruited from among themselves (or are they Men of the White Mountains? FUTURE GREEN ARMY OF FLUBBER? Incidentally I had completely forgotten that this plot exists and if the series is not going to address it I am going to eat my hat!).

Speaking of the trailer: I was surprised how close the aesthetics (or at least those we have seen) are to the PJ take on it. What looks like Lindon (?) is effectively copypaste of the last scene of LotR with more architecture (which would make sense). That peculiar elf in golden armour who looks like Jamie Lannister fighting Orcs (flashback of Galadriel's brother??? Hope not) looks horribly Haldirish.

The selection of scenes for the trailer is obviously to evoke the familiar movie LotR feel in the target audience, but it is closer than I thought. Which, everything else about the series aside, is kind of a pity because I had hoped that this might bring some slightly fresher, new aesthetic (but then again not the D&D aesthetic that it seemed to me on first sight, so this is marginally better than that. Same old, but better than the D&D handbook style).

Originally Posted by Morthoron

So plopping Hobbits whole and hardy and jolly and plump into a war of Elves, Numenoreans and Sauron is daft.

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

(Plus, of course, individual Hobbits could go where their culture didn't - and not enter the records, because they're very good at going unseen...)

Seconding what Hui said here. One Hobbit does not a record in the books of the Wise make. If the Harfoots in question are going to be just the "Rosenkrantz&Guildenstern" and sort of observers from afar, or at most the third messengers to the second lieutenant of Mr. Hallstadstborn's fifth cavalry, then nobody is really going to be interested in recording them, are they? That's hardly "plopping Hobbits whole and hardy and jolly and plump into a war", so far from what we know it's plopping Harfoots (and possibly, like, two of them) sideways somewhere to the edge of some conflict they totally don't get. And the creators pretty much stated that the Harfoot characters are not going to play a major role in the big things (that would, indeed, be a no-no!).

But imagine if Frodo and co. had not had the Ring but just went to Minas Tirith for a road trip. Would people have noticed their presence? About as much as a travelling circus.

So I am not really very worried about the Hobbits (or Harfoot, as it were) appearing. (Yet.) Look, it could have been much worse. Compare to any LotR video game where Hobbits run amok slaughtering the Witch-King of Angmar and the other nazgul by dozens (intentional use of words).

I am doubtful about the series as much as the next guy but I'm also trying to be objective and sober in my judgment of it.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

So I am not really very worried about the Hobbits (or Harfoot, as it were) appearing. (Yet.) Look, it could have been much worse. Compare to any LotR video game where Hobbits run amok slaughtering the Witch-King of Angmar and the other nazgul by dozens (intentional use of words).

I am doubtful about the series as much as the next guy but I'm also trying to be objective and sober in my judgment of it.

I believe the Second Age Hobbit Episode will be called:

"Stretching the Bounds of Credulity -- Or, How the Half-assed Halfling Hath Happened Here"

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I have now read TheOneRing.net's news story/press release on the Vanity Fair article on the Amazon Lord of the Game Of Ring Thrones, and have to conclude cynically that TORN has become nothing but a paid shill. (Which I suspected during the PJ movie days).

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

I have now read TheOneRing.net's news story/press release on the Vanity Fair article on the Amazon Lord of the Game Of Ring Thrones, and have to conclude cynically that TORN has become nothing but a paid shill. (Which I suspected during the PJ movie days).

I'm not sure if they're paid for their PJ fanaticism (which actually makes it worse, imo, I mean you would have to pay me to go to their level of gushing I saw when the movies were out). I was surprised they weren't quite as zealous about The Hobbit movies, at least once they were released. But wow during the LOTR movies, it was scary how much they worshiped him.

[Galadriel55]

Personally, of all the new characters and concepts and plot (presumably - because again, this is speculation) introduced by the show, I find the hobbits / Harfeet least disturbing. Why? Because I see a way for them to remain a sort of small side reference without turning the whole thing into Morthoron's worst nightmare. I can totally see them being side characters, whose main goal in the story is to stay out of sight - which they would end up doing with success but not without struggle. I don't insist on precisely sticking to the letter of the law, and I allow fanfiction to indulge its fancy, so long as the foundation of the world is not overturned by it. Treat it as headcanon.

I have much less faith in equally wholesome headcanon for the named canonical characters. Galadriel in particular. I think that if anything will disrupt the tranquility of my anticipation of the show, it will be her storyline. (I mean, it's a zen born largely of indifference, but now they're pushing things into it that I do care about, so it makes sense).

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Snowdog

but since Peter Jackson set the standard of wholesale changes to a complete story, I'm willing to give the producers of this project a wide berth in their use of artistic license.

I don't agree with this philosophical perspective at all. In my view just because Jackson did an awful job does not entitle his successors to sequentially do as bad and just a little bit worse.

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

Speaking of the trailer: I was surprised how close the aesthetics (or at least those we have seen) are to the PJ take on it. What looks like Lindon (?) is effectively copypaste of the last scene of LotR with more architecture (which would make sense). That peculiar elf in golden armour who looks like Jamie Lannister fighting Orcs (flashback of Galadriel's brother??? Hope not) looks horribly Haldirish.

I thought it was known that they were going to use the WETA aesthetic, which in itself is not very accurate to what Tolkien wrote, particularly when it came to armor.

I cannot fathom why anybody, even out of their right mind, would don antlers in such a manner as is depicted outside of a religious ceremony. You would get blown over by every gust of wind. Perhaps that is the point and these people periodically travel by wind power..?

Also, "Galadriel dangling from cliff by knife" may become my new way of saying "Thorin dancing on Smaug's nose."

As Hui mentions, the big fireball makes me think that it is meant to be Sauron fleeing east or otherwise going somewhere.

[Snowdog]

Much of the 'analysis' I've seen online comes in with a 'hateful' bias from the start. I found that This Analysis by Cory Olsen was pretty objective and fairly balanced, and does a good job of pointing out what Tolkien actually wrote vs what has grown to be pop-culture in the wake of the Peter Jackson fan fics (bearded women dwarves as an example).


Sadly, it appears that many people already have written off this new Rings of Power series. I see the haters are really out in force with these latest poster and trailer reveals. One thing I noted in the various places the posters and first look articles were posted on fecebook (IMDB has some of the most horrid comments) reddit, and on some forums is a lot of the ones who hate this so bad think PJ did an awesome job presenting Lord of the Rings. They didn’t mind the many wholesale changes made to that complete book story, saying ‘it needed to be done to appeal to the masses’. I find that segment humorous.

Anyway, the main reasons for the hatred of The Rings of Power appears to be a mix of these:

A. I hate it because it is being made by Amazon.
B. Bezos made mention of Game of Thrones when he bought the rights, so it is going to be Game of Thrones.
C. It’s revisionist ‘woke’ BS (because it isn’t an all-white cast)
D. They are making stuff up that isn’t in the source material (original characters and storylines, tweaking canon characters, and such).
E. They didn’t use the same actors that PJ did, so it’s crap.
F. It doesn’t matter if the Tolkien Estate is actively involved. They only care about money, not Tolkien’s legacy after Christopher died, so it will be crap.

That is just to name a few I’ve come across. Any more reasons given?

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

I'm not sure if they're paid for their PJ fanaticism (which actually makes it worse, imo, I mean you would have to pay me to go to their level of gushing I saw when the movies were out). I was surprised they weren't quite as zealous about The Hobbit movies, at least once they were released. But wow during the LOTR movies, it was scary how much they worshiped him.

Well, websites make their money from advertising, and the overwhelming bulk of the ads they carried were for WETA workshop and connected businesses, all tied to PJ or New Line. Add to that the remarkable number of "insider scoops" they published.