The day has finally come.
We’ve seen for the first time characters from Amazon’s upcoming Lord of the Rings
adaptation in images that display more than their hands.
We also got the most insight into the show, the timeline, the story, and the people behind
it than ever before.
Some came as a great comfort to me, some have me very intrigued, and some make me kind of
nervous.
If it’s your first time here, hit that subscribe button for not only the latest on Rings of
Power, but also weekly lore videos diving further into Tolkien’s world.
First, I’ll note one of the most comforting bits of news - we are NOT getting a Game of
Thrones-esque version of Middle-earth.
In the Vanity Fair interview with showrunners Patrick McKay and JD Payne, McKay is quoted
saying the goal was “to make a show for everyone, for kids who are 11, 12, and 13,
even though sometimes they might have to pull the blanket up over their eyes if it’s a
little too scary.”
This should come as great news for all who were concerned about it being compared to
Game of Thrones and were duped by bogus rumors that circulated around the production.
As many of us believed, it appears that when Bezos said he wanted the next Game of Thrones,
he indeed meant he wanted the next cultural phenomenon that everyone was talking about.
And as I’ve often said, with a broader audience to appeal to, LOTR has the potential to be
even bigger.
The fact that the showrunners seem to understand this element of Tolkien is a huge comfort.
We also got confirmation of what I’ve long expected - that this will be a condensed timeline
of the Second Age.
With the creation of the Rings of Power and the Fall of Numenor storyline happening over
a 1700 years apart in the books, it makes sense to condense this storyline in order
to tell these stories simultaneously, or at least to have one lead into the other.
I must, however, lament the loss of a longer timeline here.
While the article points out that mortal characters would be dying off each season, that is a
very important aspect of Tolkien’s world - the fact that elves linger and men pass
by them in the blink of an eye.
I hope there isn’t too much condensing as it could really come at the detriment of elven
characters like Elrond, Gil-galad, Galadriel.
Not to mention mortal Numenorean king Ar-Pharazon, whose aging is a major reason Sauron is able
to corrupt him.
Among our other first looks, we get portraits of two dwarves, and confirmation that we will
see Khazad-dum in all it’s Second Age glory.
This is something that was very high on my wishlist for the series as the descriptions
of Moria in the books is amazing and its size and scope are truly breathtaking.
The way Gimli describes it makes me love it all the more.
The two dwarves we see here are Owain Arthur as Durin IV, prince of the bustling subterranean
realm of Khazad-dum.
And The dwarven princess Disa, played by Sophia Nomvete, standing at Khazad-dum’s entrance.
Now let’s address the elephant in the room with these characters - Durin IV wasn’t
a prince of Khazad-dum during the rings of power creation, it was Durin III.
Now, maybe Vanity Fair just used the wrong Roman Numeral, but the number of Durins seems
like kind of a silly thing to change.
I may be going way too far down the hypothetical rabbit hole here, but I hope they don’t
make it seem that Durin is just another name to the dwarves.
Like if Durin III is this guy’s dad, that will be a seemingly minor thing that would
be a major omission of dwarven culture.
The dwarves of Khazad-dum believe that Durin I, who was the original father of their people,
is reincarnated every so often.
So when one gets the name of Durin, it is because they are so alike to him in appearance
and manner, that he is believed to be Durin reincarnated.
So there simply can’t be multiple Durin’s at the same time.
Like I said, its a hypothetical rabbit hole.
Next up we have two more characters created for the series.
Silvan elf Arondir, played by Ismael Cruz Cordova and Bronwyn, a single mother and healer
played by Nazanin Boniadi.
We are told that this image of Bronwyn is in her apothecary in Middle-earth’s Southlands
and in this image, we are told the two share a forbidden love and are in the village of
Tirharad (another name that is original to this series).
This will be our first depiction of a male elf and female mannish character in the immortal/mortal
love dynamic.
For those unfamiliar, this dynamic is not unique to this adaptation.
In the Silmarillion, during the First Age, Galadriel’s brother Aegnor loved a mortal
woman Andreth.
It results in one of the most beautiful and sorrowful conversations between Andreth and
Aegnor and Galadriel’s brother Finrod and is certainly worth checking out if you’re
not familiar with it.
I can’t help but wonder if we will see some inspiration from this story in the depiction
of the pairing of Bronwyn and Arondir.
I’m very curious to see how this plays out.
Tolkien tells us of exactly three elf-man pairings - the other two being Beren and Luthien
and Aragorn and Arwen.
These are incredibly rare, and come at a huge cost.
We’ve seen what a misguided attempt at this storyline looks like and…it’s not pretty.
Personally, I hope this pairing has a tragic end like that of Aegnor and Andreth - not
out of spite for created characters by any means, but because what makes the pairings
of Beren and Luthien and Aragorn and Arwen so significant is because of their rarity.
Even Beren and Luthien die before their happy lives together.
Front and center in this article is Galadriel.
The article’s opening paragraph launches us into this new era of Middle-earth adaptations:
Galadriel’s world is a raging sea.
Far from the wise, ethereal elven queen that Cate Blanchett brought to Peter Jackson’s
acclaimed films, the Galadriel played by Morfydd Clark in Amazon’s upcoming series The Lord
of the Rings: The Rings of Power is thousands of years younger, as angry and brash as she
is clever, and certain that evil is looming closer than anyone realizes.
By episode two, her warnings set her adrift, literally and figuratively, until she’s
struggling for survival on a raft in the storm-swept Sundering Seas alongside a mortal castaway
named Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), who is a new character introduced in the show.
Galadriel is fighting for the future; Halbrand is running from the past.
Their entwined destinies are just two of the stories woven together for a TV series that,
if it works, could become a global phenomenon.
If it falls short, it could become a cautionary tale for anyone who, to quote J.R.R.
Tolkien, delves too greedily and too deep.
We get four images featuring Galadriel in this piece, more than any other character.
First we have a simple image of her head above water, a behind-the-scenes look at her and
the aforementioned Halbrand in the stormy seas that I think may carry them to Numenor,
a shot of her in full armor where she is described as commander of the Northern Armies, and one
with Elrond where they are reuniting in Lindon.
This is our first look at Gil-galad’s elven kingdom that lies on the west coast of Middle-earth
and incidentally encompasses the Grey Havens that we saw in Return of the King.
As two of my all-time favorite Tolkien characters, seeing Elrond and Galadriel together in an
elvish realm is an absolute gem of an image for me.
I can’t tell you how excited I am to see these two characters throughout the second
age.
I’ve said for quite some time that I think Elrond is one of the most compelling characters
in all Tolkien’s works for those willing to dive into his life.
Galadriel is likewise one of the great Tolkien characters and certainly one that is well
deserving of a beefed up role in a show that will require a lot of original dialogue and
moments throughout.
Now, before we get into things that make me nervous, and for those who may be new to the
channel, I’m still 100% excited about this show and will be reserving any judgment until
I see the show itself - possibly until after the entire first season.
So take my next comments as nothing more than a major Tolkien nerd thinking out loud and
conveying nerves related to something very near to my heart.
My biggest concern going in was that this show would follow the Game of Thrones path
of violence, sex, and gore.
With that concern thankfully put to rest, I’ll disclose my second concern - I fear
that Galadriel will become a run-of-the-mill action heroine - or as I like to call her,
Galadriel: Warrior Princess.
One of the prominent images in this story even has a “cool guys don’t look at explosions”
action-hero vibe.
One of my favorite things about the Peter Jackson films is the fact that Galadriel is
so powerful that she doesn’t need armor, or even weapons for that matter, to walk into
battle.
The way she just casually walks into Dol Guldur and dispenses with an orc with a flick of
the wrist is one of my absolute favorite Galadriel moments.
She is all the more terrifying because she doesn’t need a sword to do damage.
And I can already hear some thinking “but she had a ring of power in The Hobbit”,
you should know that the rings of the elves are devices of defense, not a means of attack.
Now just because she’s pictured with armor and a sword doesn’t mean we will lose her
magical side - and I definitely hope that we don’t!
Galadriel is also described as being “as angry and brash as she is clever, and certain
that evil is looming closer than anyone realizes.”
While the point is made that Galadriel is thousands of years younger than we see her
in Peter Jackson’s films, the point remains that Galadriel is still thousands of years
old at this time.
She’s over 8,300 years old in The Lord of the Rings, meaning she’s approaching the
big 5-0-0-0 at this time, so I really hope she doesn’t come off as some impulsive teenager.
If anyone would fit that role, it could be Elrond, who is in his 70s at the start of
the Second Age - but given the timeframe of the Rings of Power, even Elrond would likely
be at least 2000 or 3000 years old, so even he wouldn’t be a young pup anymore.
And that brings me to my second concern about my favorite characters - Elrond being described
as a politically ambitious young elven leader.
This could mean a variety of things, but just the thought of Elrond being described foremost
as a politician gives me a gag reflex.
Now Ar-Pharazon - that would be a character that screams politician.
Though younger than some of his peers, Elrond is elven lord Gil-galad’s vice regent, and
leads the elven armies in aiding Eregion when Sauron attacks.
And Gil-galad himself is, in Tolkien’s texts, the one who perceives the rise of a new darkness
and seeks to warn people about it.
At my most pessimistic, I fear that the show has taken two of the biggest things we know
of Gil-galad and Elrond (wisely perceiving the rise of Sauron and leading the armies
of Lindon, respectively) and simply given them to Galadriel.
I hope this isn’t the case and we get great, heroic adaptations of Galadriel, Elrond, Gil-galad,
and the multitude of rich Tolkien characters from the Second Age.
They certainly all deserve it and one shouldn’t come at the detriment of the others.
When it comes to created characters or characters with increased roles, I think we can look
to Tauriel from The Hobbit as both a good example and a cautionary tale.
I firmly maintain that Tauriel is a great created character but for one glaring problem
- the love triangle.
Take out the love triangle and you’ve got a great character whose status among the elves
is complex, she’s totally believable as a great warrior, but isn’t one-note as she
is a silvan elf, and therefore seen as lesser than the Sindar like Thranduil and Legolas.
She stands toe to toe with the already established character of Legolas, without the writers
feeling the need to knock Legolas down to show how awesome Tauriel is.
Aside from the studio-mandated love triangle, Tauriel works.
Here’s hoping the created characters and beefed up roles in Rings of Power work.
As for the other couple of images we got, there’s one of the previously mentioned
Halbrand.
It seems that perhaps he is a blacksmith based on the tools on the bench.
If I had to guess, he MIGHT be in harad based on the architecture, but that’s really hard
to say.
As for this image of Tirharad, I get more from the characters than the scenery.
This doesn’t really scream the southern lands of Harad to me, but it’s only a glimpse
of one village.
I hope we get some diversity of locales in the show and it doesn’t just come off as
“woodland village #4” that could be from any given fantasy show.
Finally, we have an image of premiere director JA Bayona with two nomadic hunters wandering
the fields of Middle-earth.
I don’t have much speculation in terms of what we may be seeing here.
For all we know, these could just be extras that feature in a single shot of the show.
I’m certainly curious why they wear giant antlers on their backs and what purpose they
may serve.
I was very pleased to hear the hobbits won’t be a major presence in the show.
I worried that the showrunners might feel like a Middle-earth adaptation requires the
presence of hobbits to be unlikely heroes, but they’re unlikely for a reason, and it
seems the creators understand that and won’t diminish their impact in the beloved third
age tales by over-including them here.
Again, I can’t say this enough, this is all based on descriptions in an article, but
what Amazon chooses to put in front of us, like the show itself, matters.
And it’s what we are going to base our feelings regarding this show on until we have the actual
show itself.
I’m still 100% excited about this show.
I relish in the fact that we will be returning to Middle-earth.
That I’ll soon be able to see my beloved Elrond and Galadriel on screen again.
That we’ll see Khazad-dum in its glory days.
That we will see Gil-galad and Celebrimbor.
That we will see the greatest realm to ever exist fall into ruin.
That being said, the fact that such a high percentage of what is described and shown
in the article are events and characters original to the show does give me a bit of apprehension.
This could just be the particular bread crumbs that Amazon wants to show us right now, knowing
the main course is yet to come.
At the end of the day, we’re Tolkien fans - and fan is afterall short for fanatic.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a fandom that is more fanatic about looking at the hidden
details and references, and significance in anything and everything put in front of us.
Tolkien taught us to look for significance and to expect excellence.
I hope this is the greatest show in history - seasons of tv that truly feel like films,
where we sit in awe each an every week we soak it in.
The budget is there, the source material is there.
I, for one, refuse to temper my expectations…my hopes are sky high…because I firmly believe
Tolkien’s world deserves that.
If you want to dive deeper into Tolkien’s world and keep up on all the happenings with
LOTRonPrime, you’re in the right place, so make sure you hit subscribe and the bell
so you never miss a video here on Nerd of
the Rings.