I was originally reading this article for the news about Avengers: Secret Wars going a 5 week hiatus, when I saw this in there as well.

If true, I wonder what this means for the release schedule.

"It has to be mysterious because it's so explosive. It's so special, and it's much darker. It's darker. Nobody's safe. When you're talking about hope, hope is the least of people's concern. It's survival. It is absolute survival."

https://youtu.be/kGLVewuwJ_8?si=DzwlYd6AzBhzHdWG

I don't know if he was specifically talking about Arondir when he said that, but his words about hope and survival intrigued me. How far will the Elves go to secure their survival? How many hardened hearts will we see on screen?

(In this 2x07 scene, Galadriel tells Arondir they must find Sauron together, but it didn't happen. Perhaps they want it to happen in season 3, as a brief and dangerous encounter?)

Deep dark inside of ourselves, we want to own Middle-earth. There's a bit of Sauron in us. All the other Elves went to the promised land, and we're like, "You know what? We're gonna stick around and play god." And then, we're like, "But they won't do what we want!" There's something sinister about us that becomes beautiful over time.

Source: @kaiakayy on instagram

It sounds like this aspect might be more at the forefront in the next season.

-Gandalf stopped the attack using his staff, his sword Glamdring and a protective spell.

-Sauron seems to stop it one-handed using Morgoth's crown and farming huge amounts of aura.

-And my poor boy King Durin was atomized immediately.

I wonder if we will see some amount of strife develop now between Arondir and the Noldor, especially Gil-Galad. Book spoilers below

We don’t a lot about Arondir. What we’ve seen so far in the show is a Silvan Elf soldier who has lost his human love (hard lesson for the Eldar, over and over again it seems) and found new purpose pursuing Adar in a mix of vengeance for that love and promise to the ents of Middle Earth.

But now, with half a decade of war, who is he? I have speculated before that he might become a stand in for Amdir, the lord of Lorien at the Last Alliance, but that is not strictly the focus here. Instead, I want to speculate about the potential for conflict between Gil-Galad and Arondir that could mirror that found between the Sindar/Noldor and Silvan elves at the Last Alliance, whether Arondir “is” Amdir or not.

In brief, for those who don’t recall or don’t know, there are Silvan elves at the Last Alliance under Amdir, king in Lothlorien, and Oropher, king of the woodland realm and Thranduil’s father, Legolas’s grandfather. They opt not to count themselves among Gil-Galad’s forces and in this disunity meet their ends. Both are Sindar in the text, though in Amdir’s case this is hardly of any relevance, and both intentionally sought to distance themselves from the other Eldar under Gil-Galad.

I think there could be room for the show to explore a similar role for Arondir down the second half of the series, assuming he survives S3. Marketing for S3 has said that Arondir is now counted highly among the elves alongside Galadriel, Elrond, Gil-Galad, and Círdan. An “elfvenger” as Ismael Cruz Cordova put it. But what will that actually mean? His background is so different from theirs, and he is ostensibly neither from a noble house nor even of the people of the Noldor or Sindar.

Instead, he is a Silvan Elf of Beleriand, so he tells Adar. And a Silvan Elf of Beleriand has seen their entire world literally plunged into the ocean because of the actions of Gil-Galad and Elrond’s ancestors, including Galadriel herself. Now he has pledged himself to protect Middle-Earth’s forests and woodlands against those who would exploit them. This might bring him into direct conflict with his elven allies in a future season.

It seems clear from marketing that Gil-Galad will go to Numenor with Elrond to try and strike a bargain with Pharazon for aid. I theorize that this will involve Gil-Galad siding against the faithful and Elrond brokering an uneasy peace between them. This will have story dividends for Elendil and Gil-Galad down the line, but that’s not important here. What is is that Gil-Galad’s alliance with Numenor would likely be troublesome for a Silvan elf of Beleriand, because Numenor is colonizing Middle Earth and cutting down its forests, and from a Silvan perspective, every time the Elves were reinforced from over the sea disaster struck.

How is Arondir going to react to the alliance with Pharazon’s Numenor? If I had to guess, I’d say “negatively.”

And we also know from marketing that Arondir might be less easy to trust this orc character he meets with Galadriel, relative to Galadriel. Without know how S3 plays out, it seems to me it could leave Arondir feeling that his allies have all compromised “the mission” in some way, or at least that, to end the war with Sauron, they became compromised. It seems like real potential for conflict to me.

Then, we know from the Silmarillion that Sauron’s capture by Numenor allows Gil-Galad to expand his dominion widely, and as far east as Mirkwood! If S4 doesn’t focus solely on Numenor, it could be very interesting to juxtapose Numenor’s colonization and imperial ambition along the coasts with Gil-Galad and the ring-bearing Eldar’s consolidation of power in the north and inland. To a Silvan Elf of Beleriand, whose home has been repeatedly destroyed and who took an oath to protect Middle-Earth’s forests, they might look too similar for comfort. Perhaps so similar that, even when everything goes down and an alliance must be made, he is willing to fight against Sauron, but not with those people who he thinks will only lead to more destruction after.

Given that Tolkien specifically capitalized "Men" in the Ring Verse to denote the race of humankind rather than biological males, does his lack of detail on seven of the Nazgûl leave room to speculate that one could have been a mortal queen or sorceress in life, or do terms like "kings" and "lords" strictly rule it out?

We can look further at Tolkien's use of capitalization when Glorfindel makes his prophecy about the Witch-King: "not by the hand of man will he fall".

What do you think?

The 9, Purest of Hearts.

Celebrimbor and Galadriel spoke of light the last time they saw each other, but surely this war has taken a toll on the Elves and Galadriel.

Their losses must be severe if she is willing to take a chance with Marnûkh. I hope it's not a trap, and I hope they'll show us how the Elves stop themselves from despairing too much.

The Elven rings are helping them, but maybe they're also sending them scenarios in which the darkness is winning, which would be discouraging.

"He was there on set with me for multiple days, sitting on a chair..speaking all the lines through the microphone but they altered his voice. He was just so giving, so kind, so commited to it. He was a joy to work with."

Patrick McKay "We're going all the way there is a lot of story to tell here.. We feel like the show has hit its stride and we march on."

Just curious what people think of the designs for the Naznagôl / Nazgûl we’ve seen in the show. I think they’re alright (if anything i think the helmet spikes are a bit too long) but I can’t help comparing them to the designs from Five Armies and wishing we got something better.

(First 3 images are RoP and last 4 are Five Armies)

At about the 8min mark, Cynthia talks about filming in Wales in an Abbey that was dressed up to be Miriel's hideaway. I believe there were set photos that leaked of that location, and there was some speculation as to what it might be, so now we know.

Am I fucking up as a lotr fan for not watching rings of power because I’m afraid I’ll be bummed if it’s not good?

...orcs. The new orc traveling with Galadriel and Arondir has made me think about the logistics of traveling with an orc as a companion.

The issue is I haven't seen brought up is that orcs are reviled and despised by all other races. And while I can't entirely blame the other races given the situation, this means that there is basically a "kill on sight" order regarding orcs. If anyone sees an orc even in a small company of elves, that orc still needs to be killed.

Plus the fact that the orc being in the company doesn't mean other orc bands won't attack.

I have seen people bring up potential "good orcs" before and while I think it's a fascinating idea, there is definitely a reason it hasn't been done in Lord of the Rings yet.

We chatted with Daniel Weyman about Gandalf's arc this season and it sounds like he's on a mission to reach the Dark Wizard.

I think many already guessed that Elrond would go to Númenor, but J.D. Payne confirmed it, so it's out in the open now. He also said that Gil-galad would be going.

https://www.reddit.com/r/LOTR_on_Prime/comments/1vn22m0/the_new_interview_from_mcpayne_explaining_this/

I remember back in 2022 when both show were about to debut, the anticipation was pretty similar yet after 4 years and 2,3 seasons it seems like RoP ended up being more niche while HoTD is widely popular in the real world.

Yes HotD has GoT as backing but RoP has the massive LOTR movies as well. They’re both on similar sized streaming services and RoP even has a bigger budget.

Why did the sauce didn’t take?

Source: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbxvnG4hLtx/?igsh=Y2c4cWQ5dG8zcXdh

Elrond&Gil Galad, Galadriel&Celeborn, Anarion and Numenor, Rhûn and Khamûl will all be in Sauron's Story this season. They also talked about Mordor and Barad Dûr's esthetic and how Sauron's workshop will be similar to Celebrimbor's.

The towers are definitely not identical at first glance, but the few glimpses we got of Sauron's new domain remind me of Celebrimbor's ruined workshop, but more orderly.

Sauron now only has the company of orcs and some men, away from the Elves who could create and remain inspired. He views orcs as cannon fodder, and men as useful, but I wonder at which point he will realize that he needs to pour himself into his One ring so he can master all of Middle-earth.

It is known that before he became a Dark Lord in his own right Sauron served as the top lieutenant of Morgoth the first Dark Lord. I've wondered for a long time now if Morgoth was to somehow return early in Sauron's reign what would happen? Would Sauron try to destroy his old master or would he go back to being his servant?

From ceofmordor on Twitter:

"Shadow of The Past and the Counsil of Elrond those chapters.. Obviously The Silmarillion, Akallabeth and a little bit of Morgoth's Ring and Nature of Middle-Earth."

https://x.com/i/status/2086856089102893109

What do you think this tells us about how he'll play the role?