The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (Amazon Prime, Sept. 2, 2022) TV Show • Page 16

Finished the last Hobbit movie today so I'll watch this tomorrow. Should I go in trying to get rid of the mindset that it's in the same "universe" as the Jackson films or does it still totally work with them so far? I know they recast characters that he used

 

I’ve found nothing that contradicts the films so I’d say it’s safe to consider it the same universe.

 

I think Amazon very much wants us to believe they’re the same universe and the Tolkien estate very much doesn’t care and dislikes both, haha.

 

It actually shares a universe with the 1978 cartoon

 

I absolutely think that the mystery man has to be one of the Istari. Looked at the appendices and the Harfoots first appear within about a hundred years of when the Istari first appear (circa 1000-1100 in the Third Age). If they were gonna disrupt the timeline and import Harfoots to the second age anyway might as well bring a wizard along too. I think it's gonna be Gandalf but I hope it's not

 

I definitely think it's one of the Istari. Most likely Gandalf, possibly one of the blue wizards (but I still don't get why just one?!?) or an invented one for the show. I think the least likely option but honestly the most exciting one to me would be Saruman. I think it would be really cool to see Saruman in the beginning.

 

Saruman would be cool but the more I think about it I bet it's Gandalf. They're giving him a backstory and explaining why he's always cared about "halflings" when no one else in middle earth did: because they were the first people he encountered upon arriving there

 

I have honestly watched this movie so many times. It has to be the worst movie that I have watched the most in my life and actually found some genuine enjoyment in, and didn't just watch ironically or to poke fun at. There are some things about it that I do think are done well, but there is just so much bad stuff that I can't even believe made it into a finished product.

The bad absolutely outweighs the good, but I remember there was a long time in the era before Peter Jackson's movies where me as a young LOTR / Tolkien buff was really starved for additional content. There was always the Tolkien Calendar every year to get 12-ish new pieces of cool Tolkien art, and I remember having this big softcover book that was basically a rule book for a table-top LOTR role-playing game that I never even attempted to play, but I kept just to look through the book because the inside had a lot of cool illustrations of scenes and characters and places and stuff.

Pickings were definitely much slimmer pre-2001.

 

that's where im at. or radagast. it's so unlikely it's him that i don't feel the need to put in spoilers lol.

 

For whatever reason, I also feel like it's very unlikely to be Radagast, even though if you just completely ignore the one from the Peter Jackson movies, there are actually some things that point towards this being him. At least as much as any other wizard at this point.

 

right, there was one scene in e2 that made me think "hmm maybe it actually is Rad" but it seems so unlikely

 

fr? where have they went on record for this show? only thing i can find with those keywords is this.

The Tolkien estate allegedly rejected bringing Peter Jackson into Amazon's LOTR show

 

I don't know what their official stance is, but I think *A LOT* of the design language points toward this being the same universe. Look at the dwarven and elven architecture, the costumes & armor, etc.

 

Christopher Tolkien hated the PJ movies, so I’m assuming it’s carrying over for the whole estate now that Christopher has passed away. Didn’t stop them from cashing the check, though.

Another thing that will be interesting to see, The Hobbit isn’t that far from entering the common domain. (I expect this law to change because Mickey Mouse is also about to enter the common domain and I don’t see Disney letting that happen.)

 

I see it as one almost quasi-drawback of the Peter Jackson Tolkien films being so insanely successful and popular all around the world, that the visual language he came up with for the films with people like John Howe and Alan Lee and a lot of other talented people has kinda become the defacto Tolkien look for visual mediums like films and TV and video games. IMHO it would be a little difficult / silly for the people running this show to take a hard stand and be like 'hey our show is completely and utterly separate and different than those films and has nothing to do with them' when everything in the show looks like it does.

I'm not knocking the visual style, I absolutely love it, I'm just trying to point out that there are myriad other ways to visualize stuff & things for your Tolkien show / movie / painting or what have you, and this show really leans into that PJ style petty heavily IMO.

 

he is described as being the oldest being living on Arda, which could mean a lot of things

 

<Enter Jason's rant about copyrights/patents here.>

 

I’m into the Balrog theory for meteor man right now

 

i just don't understand how that would work haha

 

I agree with whatever reviewer said that there's no way meteor man is gonna end up being a bad

 

That's why I think it being Saruman would be cool - kinda plays with that whole good/bad idea.

 

Old man is Eru Illuvatar

 

Did all the wizards arrive at the same time?

 

To the surprise of no one, Elon is acting like an incel over this show on Twitter.

 

would be genius if that was paid promo. and hed cash that check too seeing as hes the biggest shill alive.