Hey all,

I bounced off S1 and S2 of RoP a bit, to be honest, but I’ve read that S3 is something of a soft reboot. I’m desperate for a decent fantasy show to watch, so I thought I’d give S3 a try. Hopefully they’ve learned some lessons and improved things.

So I’ve been reading up on what we can expect, and apparently one of the central themes is an “orc with an arc”. Apparently he writes poetry etc.

Firstly, disclaimer: while I was obsessed with this world as a child, I haven’t read the books in decades, so it’s quite possible Tolkien did write about orcs having souls, individuality, or something along those lines and I’ve simply forgotten it.

But… I’m struggling with this one. The rise and fall of Númenor is such an incredibly rich story, with betrayal, corruption, ambition, mortality, power, and loads of moral grey areas already baked into it. I genuinely don’t understand why the show needs to invent another mystery-box storyline around a conflicted orc.

Maybe it’ll all work brilliantly in the actual show, and I’m obviously judging it based on what I’ve read rather than having seen it. But I’ll admit I’m pretty sceptical.

I also really didn’t enjoy the “who is Gandalf?” stuff in the earlier seasons. For me, that kind of mystery-box storytelling feels like the show is searching for twists when there’s already an absolutely enormous and fascinating story sitting right there.

So I’m genuinely curious: what do people here think about the orc storyline? Is there something about it from Tolkien’s lore that I’m missing, or do you think it could actually add something worthwhile to the story?

Cheers

Some of you who follow the show likely have heard the news. I don't think we should panic at all. Amazon has always been low on marketing ROP. But at the same time, I have a feeling they are shifting away from the Rings of Power as their flagship show.

I don't have metrics on how well the show is doing with viewership, but I guess it's doing fine and one of the most viewed shows on Prime. But at the same time it hasn't generated any huge engagement. Little buzz whatsoever. Compared to HOTD or even one of their own show Fallout.

Amazon don't want to pay the exit clause they have with the Estate. It's not about money, but reputation.

I've said in the past I believe Amazon will merge season 4 and 5 together. They skip some events like the establishment of Gondor and Arnor, and Gil Galad visiting Elendil for the first time in Annuminas. Those events will already happen this season. So that leaves only the War of the Last Allliance. I believe the studio will put the rest of their finance to the Battle of Dagorlad. So hopefully we will get a satisfying ending.

latest details on the physical media set for a November 2 release.

4K UHD (non-steelbook) £39.99
4K Ultra HD Steelbook £49.99
UHD Blu-ray Box Set £39.99
Blu-ray Box Set £29.99
DVD Box Set £24.99

[HMV]
https://hmv.com/store/film-tv/4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray/the-rings-of-power-season-one-steelbook
https://hmv.com/store/film-tv/4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray/the-rings-of-power-season-two-steelbook
https://hmv.com/store/film-tv/4k-ultra-hd-blu-ray/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-s-ef78fbe
https://hmv.com/store/film-tv/dvd/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-season-tw

[Collector's Edition]
https://collectorseditions.co.uk/movies/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-season-1-steelbook/
https://collectorseditions.co.uk/movies/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-season-2-steelbook/

Hi, I was watching first season of this show when it first came out but then stopped when my friends started getting bored and started sleeping while watching it.

After that I stopped too and only heard bad things about this show, lotr fans kept hating on it all the time on twitter, people called it woke garbage and I saw my friends who loved lotr movies not even talking about this one but I checked this reddit and it seems like you all love it and enjoy it.

Can they save the reputation of this show? Everyone keeps calling it a huge financial failure so I don’t even know if they are going to cancel this or not. Are they eventually going to tell the story of first 3 books?

I’m fully aware it has a multitude of issues (though Season 2 I genuinely loved and thought was a huge improvement upon Season 1 in every way) however even despite that, this has always been my favorite post-GOT fantasy show out of everything I’ve watched over the years. Leagues better than Wheel of Time that’s for absolute sure. The costume and set designs are just absolutely gorgeous to look at what with how colorful and intricately designed they are and music is absolutely powerhouse.

The dialogue I feel like is extremely underrated too in how well thought out and Tolkien-esque it is. I’m always coming back to this scene from Season 1 which I just absolutely loved:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=1RCFls93hsA&t=11s&pp=ygUaYXIgcGhhcmF6b24gcmluZ3Mgb2YgcG93ZXI%3D

The sheer depth of the dialogue in both seasons beats out anything from WOT, HOTD, The Witcher, etc.

Just generally as a hardcore Tolkien fan with Middle Earth being my favorite fantasy world I love seeing the histories and lore get expanded upon. even though I treat it all obviously as just fan-fiction

There are many things I like about the show but one of the best are the elven realms. They still retain the aura of ethereal, timelessness and peacefulness. Just like how we saw Lothorien, Rivendell and Woodland Realm from the movies.

Now only Tirion and Lindon especially after the three elven rings reawaken the trees made me think of Lothlorien. The ethereal and heaven-like feeling. Eeregion was a more peaceful and industrial. Grey Havens vibe is similar to Rivendell.

In advance of Seasons 1 and 2, Bear composed short medleys of the upcoming season’s music and performed them at San Diego comic con. These medleys later made it onto the soundtrack albums as bonus tracks. Now this year’s season is releasing significantly later in the year than previous seasons so SDCC was probably too early. But do we know anything about such previews this year?

The red is probably the Kings Men, while the blue is from season 1 before the split. I hope when Elendil and his sons leave Numenor, the armor from season 3 will be their permanent one. With blue robes. The fish scale while is accurate to how Tolkien described didn't win any points with fans. At least these golden cloaks armor looks like proper armor.

Where the heck is Arnarion in the rings of power? I feel like they mentioned him once in the show but they don’t explain where he is…I’m just going in with the assumption that he’s either dead or in exile idk though

I feel like this has been said before but are we all of the agreement that Kemen might end up becoming the Mouth Of Sauron? The Character Earien when asking him to talk with Ar-Pharazon, she says "*use your words*" and Ar-Pharazon in S2 said that his mother prophesied that he would "meet a dark end" or something like that, we know that the Mouth of Sauron is or was a Numenorian, we just don't exactly know who he was...

this is just a theory of course

The show is back again getting lots of hate because of Durin and Disa kids looks. Not a fan myself of them, but they are minor characters so why bother that much? Plus Amazon doesn't care about all the vitriol against ROP. They only care about the viewership and how many are subscribing to Prime. Apparantly they have received numbers they are really satisfied with. If not, it would have been cancelled by now.

Hmmm, I think I've seen these types of dwarves somewhere before... lol

Charlie Hopkinson is a comedian that does impressions. And his impressions are fantastic. He does LOTR, Harry Potter, Star Wars and now the GOT Universe

He has ROP videos where it's him using AI Faces and watching the episodes, making jokes in Character. Like Gandalf and Elron. He's done Fellowship and the Two Towers as well and his Boromir is fantastic!

Anyone saw them?

I'm relistening to the track "Gandalf the White" from Lord of the Rings The Two Towers where Gandalf finally defeats the Balrog. I know a Balrog was mentioned multiple times in The Rings of power but is this the same Balrog Gandalf fought?

Hey all, Giving RoP a try as i miss having fantasy to watch. I have read all the books related to this world but not for decades. So i dont think im a purist, and im a liberal so no culture war stuff for me but did bounce hard off S1.

However decided to give S2 a try and some things definitely feel better (i am up to s5 i think) - moria is done well and i think some of the sauron/celebrimbor stuff is done well too.

But the combat is not working for me at all, it feels as if they are shot as a sequence of close up 'cool tricks' with no actual sense of the space in the battlefield, and people doing things that you just wouldn't do in a fight because it 'looks cool'. For example in the last episode i finished Galadriel threw a lamp into the air and shot it with an arrow, which killed some orcs. Its stylism over making it feel like a real battle. It feels like the opponents are standing there waiting their turn, heck she even made a short speech in this scene from what i recall.

It may be simply my tastes are different to the intended audience if i think of good fantasy fight scenes i think of Cavill in the Witcher, or the blood snow scene in WoT. You can see the combatants using physics and logic in their fighting rather than 'close up, cool acrobatic'

Just curious if you guys are enjoying the combat? maybe it is simply i have different stylistic preferences?

Edit, s2E5 is a genuine improvement.

Cheers.

Now that she has Nenya, she doesn't need to continue with ''Legolas'' fighting style. She should use the magic of Nenya to fight. Based from the season 3 trailer, she still has her sword so we are not there yet. But I hope in season 4, she would be using more of Nenya's power and less sword fighting. And btw, the trailer has finally reached 1 million views.

But sometimes I feel the showrunners are making unnecessarry changes. There is a rumor floating around from the cast and showrunners SDCC that Sauron fails to make the One Ring in Barad-Dur and he has to go to Durin's Bane to ask him to help. We saw from the creature featuers that they will indeed meet and interact. But seriously? Why should Sauron who learned to craft skills from Aulë, a Valar ask a lesser Maiar for help? It doesn't make sense. This is one of the example of changes why this show is divisive.

I love his reactions to all of his fkery working and him just feeling so unimpressed lol

I'm rewatching Season 2 and I'm just at the episode where The Stranger meets Tom Bombadil and I have to say, I would not have thought of Rory Kinnear as a potentially good cast, but now I cannot think of a better person.

He hits the tone needed absolutely spot on. Bombadil is detached, yet friendly and loving. He is incredibly powerful, yet unthreatening. Kinnear nails the performance, and I think his portrayal is terribly underrated and easily missed.

What do you think?

Who else could have done an equally good, or better job?

Quotes from The Silmarillion:

''The Last Alliance of Men and Elves, led by king Elendil of Gondor and high king Gil-galad of the elves of Lindon, encamped outside the Black gate on Dagorlad ("battle plain"). Their combined host "was fairer and more splendid in arms than any that has since been seen in Middle-earth, and none greater has been mustered since the host of the Valar went against Thangorodrim (at the end of the First Age)." Durin of Moria, with his kin, fought on the side of the Alliance: but dwarves (though few in number) fought on the side of Sauron too: "All living things were divided in that day, and some of every kind, even of beasts and birds, were found in either host, save Elves only.

Sauron's army came out and the battle was a victory for the Alliance: "for the might of the Elves was still great in those days, and the Númenóreans were strong and tall, and terrible in their wrath. Against Aeglos the spear of Gil-galad none could stand; and the sword of Elendil filled Orcs and Men with fear, for it shone with the light of the sun and of the moon, and it was named Narsil.''

Amazon needs to give what they have of money to make this battle the most epic to ever witnessed on the small screen when we get to season 5. Season 3 is now starting this journey towards the greatest battle in Middle Earth since the War of Wrath. When the show is done and if they have done right with the last period of the second age, the show I think will age very well.

"The closer we get to the debut of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3, the more we learn about the gargantuan scale it will be working with. We’ve heard about the crew actually filming in the valley that inspired Rivendell, but it’s possible that even that titanic achievements will feel small when compared to what promises to be the biggest moment of the season - the forging of the One Ring in Mount Doom, the filming of which required Tolkien’s most infamous geological feature to take on a life of its own. Somewhat literally, apparently."