January 12 and August 7, 2021. These are the dates of the releases of Amazon’s Lord of
the Rings synopsis and teaser image respectively. 207 whole days connect these events, making
the two seemingly individual pieces of information interlinked a lot more than you might think.
Now, I won’t waste the time of you who’ve already seen the synopsis by reading it, so
I’ll just put it on-screen as I break it down.
Amazon Studios’ forthcoming series brings to screens for the very first time the heroic
legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth’s history. This epic drama is set thousands
of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and
will take viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to
glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads,
and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s pen threatened to cover all
the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble
cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence
of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic
forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to
the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters will carve out legacies that
live on long after they are gone.
By and large, I’m going to be talking about this sentence by sentence. But before I get
into that, please be sure to like, subscribe, and comment your opinions on the show down
below.
Of course, a lot of the synopsis is intended to be just fluff, but even in the first sentence,
you get a sense of plurality, that the show won’t just be about one place, thing, character,
event, etc. I’ve said this before, and it fits with last week’s theory of the show
having one part, two episodes, mostly about the forging of the Rings of Power primarily
in Eregion, and the other six set in a much more Numenor centric setting. If you want
to watch that video, I’ll link it here, but I’d also make two emendations to it:
it’s definitely shaky at best whether or not the show will actually end with the Fall
of Numenor, and also, I think I unintentionally neglected something important, which was the
Rings themselves. I still think the show will be ultimately about the Rings, or their effect
on Middle-earth, even in the latter six episodes. Not only does the synopsis agree with this
and much of the promotional material, but it’s basically the only thing you can write
about, to some degree, because all of the major conflicts of the Second Age come about
because of the Rings… or more directly, Sauron, but they’re in essence the same,
in more ways than one. They’re both sources of evil, temptation, and have that special
little sprinkle of evil ghost matter when you’re considering the lore. From the standpoint
of the story, its uses interlope with its applicability within the lore, also being
a source of evil, acting as the antagonist. There are definitely other parallels between
Sauron and the Rings if you’re considering plot devices and the likes, but frankly, I
think you get the point, and I don’t want to waste my precious few brain cells on this.
Now, it just depends on how much they want to focus on the Rings. I’m confident I’ll
at least be able to say, this is still about the Rings! By the end of the show, but how
much of that is just going to be just “technically true,” I don’t know. But heyy, as long
as I’m right.
Another part says that the show begins in a time of relative peace, and as I also said
in my last video, this hints at the show starting… in the early Second Age, when it was, well,
uh, relatively peaceful. But since we’ve got so much info about Numenor, which is in
the late Second Age, and all that news, it’s definitely looking like we will have it split
into those two parts.
Also, a lot of people are interpreting “the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien’s
pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness” as Morgoth rather than Sauron. For those of
you who don’t know, he’s basically Sauron’s dad, that’s a joke and the equivalent of
Satan.
[also, just putting this out there, they weren’t lovers, I’m speaking to everyone on DeviantArt.com]
People think this because Morgoth was basically 1000x stronger and more evil. But, his being
in the story would be a huge breach of canon, which the Tolkien Estate purportedly isn’t
allowing. Plus, you gotta remember a lot of this is just fluff anyways.
—> Amazon: Hello. Here at Amazon, we take our filmmaking seriously. Want to buy a few
copies of the Lord of the Rings?
—> You?: Sure, I’ll take a few copies. Oh, but, I hope this doesn’t have the best
villain that Tolkien ever wrote about in it, right?
—> Amazon: Oh of course not. That’s why we made a show on the second best villain
of the series!
—> You?: Ok, thanks, I’ll take two. Man, I hate good villains.
So, yeah, if it’s the villain Amazon’s focusing on, they’re going to say its the
best. It’s just fluff, you really can’t tell much from it.
Almost done milking the synopsis, but here’s the actually cool stuff. We’re going to
see new AND old characters. Of course, it’s nothing new if you have been following the
show for a while, but if you haven’t, expect to see some characters like Galadriel, Elrond,
and Isildur. Additionally, we’ll see Moria, Lindon, and Numenor… that they mentioned.
But, the Rings of Power were forged in Eregion, which begs the question of why they aren’t
mentioning that place. Beg someone else.
Onto the much more exciting thing, the first teaser image of the show. This person here
is Finrod, brother of Galadriel and friend of Men. Because he died way before the Second
Age, we know it’s probably some sort of flashback set in the Land of the Gods, Aman.
This news started a huge uproar in the community, precisely like how I just started a discord
server. I’ll link a card up here if I can, and I’ll also drop one in the comment section
and description. There, yall can talk about pretty much anything that has to do with Lord
of the Rings adaptations, YouTube, and even some other things. There you’ll also get
quicker updates about the show and get immersed in it much more, so I’d recommend it. With
the release of the sevrer and this video, I’m also changing drastically channel memberships.
New icons, new emojis, new perks, and four tiers is now available. Ig you want to be
a member, just click the join button next to the subscribe button and look over the
options.
As I was saying, this confused a lot of people. But, the photo also makes a lot of sense.
This Elven city definitely has elements of Peter Jackson’s series, meaning it’s going
to be filmed in continuity. It also lookers very similar in my opinion to this city from
Wheel of Time, the sister show to LOTR.
Additionally, there are also
these two Trees, the Two Trees of Valinor. They were destroyed way, way before the Second
Age, meaning this flashback takes place even longer before than we would’ve guessed.
It also means that Amazon likely has the rights to more than just small bits of The Silmarillion,
the Appendices of the last Lord of the Rings book, and the Unfinished Tales. They’ll
be able to show more of the previous ages than we thought.
Those are pretty much all the major things in the teaser image.
Now, where do these two things connect?
Kingdoms rising, Legacy,
And villains.
The synopsis mentions each of these things, and they’re all also linked to the teaser
image of the series. Kingdoms rising implies primarily the rise of either, or both, of
two empires: Numenor and Eregion. The foundation of both of these kingdoms began very early
in the Second Age, but it’s not too much of a stretch to say they were still rising
in, say, the year 1000 of the Second Age. Particularly, Eregion, which was founded in
the year 750.
Legacy is another point of contact because of this image in general, showing the Two
Trees before their destruction and Finrod before his death. I definitely don’t think
it’s a stretch to say that legacy is a probable theme of the show, showing the sadness of
the Elves and all of that stuff.
Now I almost didn’t include this one, but villains end this legacy—the legacy of the
Two Trees and Finrod we see in the teaser. It was actually Morgoth who ended the Two
Trees, but regardless, my point stands: there’s probably going to be a focus on villains,
bigger than there really was in The Lord of the Rings. This makes sense because they need
to connect many different characters with some element, apparently villains.
If you enjoyed the video or learned something new, liking and subscribing really helps out
the video. Like I said you can also go check out the Discord or become a member if you
want a bunch of special perks. And also, if you want to watch more videos about the show,
click one of these end screens. Alcar mi tarmenel na erun.