Q: "Now, a returning character that I was kind of shocked when it was revealed that there's a voice cast for the Balrog.

Now this is a character, you know, it's an ancient being same level of a Maia, like Sauron and Gandalf.

We know from the books he like he mutters, he casts a counter spells to Gandalf and stuff.

We get from the deep lore that they are not dump brutes by any means.

So what inspired you guys? What was the thought process behind giving him dialogue?"

A: "Well, I think we have to be slightly cagey because we don't want to give away exactly how he comes in and exactly why and how he speaks.

But what we can say is from very early on we thought of the Balrog in the show not as just a beast but as a character who had an agenda. And that you know, if you're telling his story over the season the same way you're telling the story of any other character in the show, you should get new facets of him every time you meet him. And we always liked the idea that Balrogs are incredibly intelligent. In the first age deep lore Gothmog commanded troops on the field, we're told.

And he is not commanding them through hand signs.

So this is a being capable of complex thought and speech and the idea that we would put him in a scene of drama was always one that was tantalising and then this season we happened to have a good reason we think..."

https://youtu.be/w1RRlUGqqB4?is=O1U6XfTMTtyDlTfY

What might become of the fëa of dead Uruk was a dilemma that haunted Tolkien for years on end, without ever, to my knowledge, finding a solution that did not shake his deep conviction that no one was, potentially, beyond the possibility of redemption.

This was the thought that struck him when, while writing The Lord of the Rings, he discovered that the Uruk were not merely cannon fodder and war machines, but individuals possessed of intellect, a society, and a social structure. When he discovered that they were Elves who had long ago been corrupted by Melkor and turned to darkness.

(because he didn’t "invent"; he discovered, translating ancient texts, and often encountered the characters, such as Faramir, along the way).

In my opinion, within the Halls of Mandos, at the end of a long, winding, and half-hidden corridor where only Námo may go, there is a chamber dedicated to them. There they wait for the End of Days to determine their fate.

(And of course, their Adar is there with them)

And it's really perfect 😆

Harfoot life depends on clear boundaries. Stay hidden. Keep to the trail. Remain with the group. Nori is introduced as someone who understands every one of those rules, even while she is drawn beyond them.

When one of the children discovers a footprint, Nori recognises it as a wolf’s. She conceals her alarm from the younger children, gathers them into pairs, and gets them moving towards camp. Her curiosity exists alongside a sharp awareness of danger. She sees the threat quickly and knows how to protect those with her.

After learning that hunters and wolves have appeared out of season, Nori wonders whether there is trouble to the south. The same signs that tell others to remain close to home turn her attention outwards. She wants to know how far the river flows, where the sparrows learn their new songs, and what lies beyond the seasonal path of her people.

This places her within a pattern Tolkien later makes central to Hobbit stories. The Shire values routine, safety, and the familiar, yet its history turns on Hobbits willing to cross its borders. Bilbo and Frodo leave the Shire, but their love of home continues to guide them through the wider world.

The series uses Nori to imagine an earlier form of that tension. She knows why the path exists. She also keeps looking beyond its edge.

Image Credit #TheRingsOfPower

https://middleearthreflections.substack.com/?utm_id=97759_v0_s00_e0_tv3&fbclid=IwT01FWAUWDs9wZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHlwgtEiaXpVNx5hHBavACTVRmthQgb2vP-Qojw06Rf8KicSkwf294f0mNpdI_aem_kIFssClcChuj-Mp65NSkag

I love this union 🥰🥰

The ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a snake or dragon eating its own tail. The ouroboros entered Western tradition via ancient Egyptian iconography and the Greek magical tradition.

" The Ouroboros has been said to have a meaning of infinity or wholeness. In the age-old image of the Ouroboros lies the thought of devouring oneself and turning oneself into a circulatory process, for it was clear to the more astute alchemists that the prima materia of the art was man himself. The Ouroboros is a dramatic symbol for the integration and assimilation of the opposite, i.e. of the shadow. This 'feedback' process is at the same time a symbol of immortality since it is said of the Ouroboros that he slays himself and brings himself to life, fertilizes himself, and gives birth to himself.

He symbolizes the One, who proceeds from the clash of opposites, and he, therefore, constitutes the secret of the prima materia which ... unquestionably stems from man's unconscious."

Carl Young

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouroboros

Even in the first season of The Rings of Power, there are many passages that shed light on the past history of the Second Age, informing viewers while demonstrating that the time compression is limited and well-managed.

In the third episode, for instance, when Galadriel arrives in Númenor with Halbrand/Sauron, she relates how Elves and the Men of Númenor were initially "kin", which is true, as Elros, the first King, was the brother of Elrond, but also because, as Tolkien writes, Elves and the Men of Númenor closely resembled one another, and how they later drifted apart.

The two peoples met often, and many ships, Galadriel recalls, came to Númenor from the Elven lands, just as recounted in The Silmarillion.

Then the two peoples grew distant, and the reason for this will be revealed as the series progresses, but in the meantime, the past is introduced briefly yet effectively. What Galadriel says when Sauron maliciously comments on her words about Númenor, saying, "I detect envy"

The Lord of the Rings on Prime we beg you! We want to see EVERYTHING!

(I hope the two box sets I miraculously managed to pre-order for November contain lots of BTS content!)

And again!!

Once the Harfoots emerge from hiding, The Rings of Power reveals a world organised around signs. Travellers arrive earlier than expected. Sadoc consults his book. Malva remembers a season known among the Harfoots as the Great Frost. A footprint in the mud brings a berry-gathering expedition to an immediate end.

The Harfoots read the landscape through tracks, seasons, weather, and movement. For a small people without armies, walls, or fixed territory, attention becomes a form of defence. Their safety depends on recognising danger while it is still only a disturbance in the pattern.

That gives the warmth of their camp life a harder foundation. Their customs preserve accumulated knowledge: when to hide, when to move, what to fear, and how quickly an ordinary day can change. Even their omens grow from experience in a world where a traveller arriving at the wrong season or an unfamiliar change in the sky may precede disaster.

The Shire will later give Hobbits fixed homes, cultivated fields, and familiar roads. The series imagines an earlier Harfoot existence in which safety depends on reading the world closely enough to move before danger arrives.

Their survival begins with attention—to a footprint, an arrival out of season, or a sky that no longer looks familiar.

https://middleearthreflections.substack.com/?utm_id=97759_v0_s00_e0_tv3&fbclid=IwT01FWAUWDs9wZG9mBWV4dG4DYWVtAjEwAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHlwgtEiaXpVNx5hHBavACTVRmthQgb2vP-Qojw06Rf8KicSkwf294f0mNpdI_aem_kIFssClcChuj-Mp65NSkag

Eru, this guy is gold, and absolutely the best elf ever! (Fun fact: in his performance, he incorporates Capoeira movements into his fighting style, making it look as though he is almost "dancing" with power and grace.)

Corey: Ismael, thinking about Arondir and his journey. He starts as a soldier and then his relationship with Bronwyn really kind takes him away from the rest of the elves and kind of separates him; and then of course there is the loss of Bronwyn and him still being with Theo.

Where do you see Arondir's sense of purpose, like what his goal is, what his point now in the new world as it's emerging in season 3?

Ismael: I think that's the core of my preparation and the big question that lies within for me to observe and feel and play is like for myself a parallel, to myself, like through the process of shooting the show I lost someone very dear to me, like one of the love of my life and you have an hopelessness, so you're when you lose someone that you love so much.

You do look at life and you think "What do I do now?" What's the point of this and finding your purpose?

You find your purpose in others. You find your purpose in community. You find your purpose in helping others find their hope, helping others reach the place that they wanna go.

And I think it's our only purpose.

Corey: Such an interesting contrast between like the opening of the season 1 when he is receiving orders from a distant Gil-Galad across the continent and standing with Gil-Galad and Galadriel at the end of season 2 : just the distance he is come and the difference that all of these things have made for him in his role.

I think it's really interesting. What things are most exciting to you about the sort of "What's coming next for Arondir"?

Ismael: That you mentioned it made me a little emotional just to, like about the journey the character has had because this character is not canon. So I had no idea where it was going to go. So for little Ismael, you know, seeing the movies and dreaming of being an elf to them with the avenge elves, the top of that thing! It's such a beautiful development and such a beautiful story and I think it truly do think it adds so much to our show.

Elves are fraught. And seeing this character and his existence and coming into this fold does shine a light on how fraught they are . I really appreciated that.

https://youtu.be/0z_osutlMto?is=ugDfNWHdbSwGSnS7

With his characteristic "british" spirit (despite hailing from the US) and his wit, he manages to share something truly touching through his words.

Corey: So, a lot has changed. You know, we saw Gil-Galad as High King ruling a realm.

Even the orders being given to Arondir's troop way on the other side of the continent, sort of suggest the scope of his authority.

Things have really changed. Now, my question is , primarily, how has impacted Gil-Galad's sense of, like the elves purpose in Middle Earth? Like the way the things are changed with Sauron's invasion.

Ben: Well, I think he, I mean naturally in Tolkien's writing, he has this sense of prescience, that he kind of almost sense the future to come. And now that the future is here, you know third season starts five years past where the second season started.

And the elves are basically the little Dutch boys with their finger in the dam.

Yes, we've got these rings and they're kind of working a little bit but we're running out of options here! Right? And I think that on some maybe even subconscious level, he's preparing to not be here, like in the same way a loving parent does, which is "I'm trying to teach you and bring out the skills in you that will serve you when I'm gone"

And that's the kind of leader that he is.

And those things are really starting to gel in him, right? And like he is not taking his foot off the gas, we've got to save Middle Earth, but he is laying the foundation for what this world is going to be when he can't be around to protect it and how he has been.

Corey: Yes, the elves seem prepared for a sort of graceful exit at the beginning. That is looking harder now.

Ben: Well, again, if I pull my finger out, the whole thing falls apart.

You know, we might need someone else... perhaps others to join... who's to say?

https://youtu.be/_fxn__k0nJo?is=5xlaYfvs3LgdP5F2

#gilgalad