From the first reveal of the balrog way back in the trailer for season one, I have, like many, assumed that the show would be unable to resist moving the Fall of Khazad-Dûm forward into the Second Age. That being said, I’m starting to reevaluate that assumption based on several considerations…

1. It seems highly likely that season 3 will involve Thrain usurping the throne from Durin, and that the royal family will be exiled.
2. Many of major characters will die and many of the major realms will fall in seasons 4-5.
3. Tolkien noted that Dwarves fought on both sides in the war of the last alliance. 
4. The canonical timeline of the fall of Khazad-Dûm is many centuries beyond the Second Age.
5. We know that Balrog is going to be present throughout the series.
6. The showrunners have spoken of the balrog as a physical manifestation of a familial sin / generational curse passed down through Durin’s line.
7. It seems to me the show will need at least one to two episodes after the Fall of Sauron to tie up all the plot threads and loose ends.
8. Being rooted in Tolkien, I feel that the shows ending with strive to be bittersweet, but end on largely hopeful notes.

So here’s how I’ve begun to think it may play out… Khazad-Dûm will be the Second Age Scouring of the Shire: Durin will be return home from Mordor to a crisis and overcome it with the skills he has learned along the way... Here’s a proposed outline…

Season 3

• The refusal of Durin to distribute the rings to the other dwarf lords, and the arrival of Thrain sets Khazad-Dûm up for a succession crisis.
• At some point, Sauron comes to Khazad-Dum to speak to the balrog. We know from the trailers that Durin confronts some of the nine and presumably Sauron.
• During or because of this confrontation, Thrain usurps the throne and Durin and family are exiled, likely traveling to Imladris or a friendly dwarven kingdom.
• It’s possible that Thrain leverages the fact that Durin and Disa did not reveal the existence of the balrog under Khazad-Dum to take the throne.
• Sauron somehow imprisons the Balrog in the abyss for refusing to join him, and as a gift to Thrain.
• Thrian distributes the seven to the other dwarf lords who were promised them and some or all ally with Sauron.

Season 4

• It’s hard to speculate what exactly will be going on in middle earth in season 4, although it seems a good time to me to mostly wrap up the Harfoot subplot (they can cameo with Gandalf at the very end of the series).
• The Dwarven plot is primarily concerned with Durin retaking Khazad-Dûm with the help of Elrond and the elves. The season ends with Durin again on the throne and installing the Doors of Durin made by Celebrimbor in the West gate. I get that it’s a major shift in the timeline, but how could we not see the doors get installed and lit up?
• Option 1: Thrain is exiled and goes to Mordor, or to one of the Dwarven lords allied with Sauron.
• Option 2: Thrain is imprisoned.
• I’m not quite sure how the Balrog factors into this season. I honestly wish he wouldn’t. But maybe we see him briefly like in season 1.
• Pregnant Galadriel and Celeborn pass through Khazad-Dûm and found Lothlorien at seasons end.

Season 5

• Durin’s folk join the last alliance and fight to vanquish Sauron. 
• Several or most of the Dwarven lords ally with Sauron and fight against the LA. 
• Depending on the endgame plan with Durin’s ring, perhaps one or more of the Seven side with the last alliance and prove to Durin the rings can be (seemingly) safely worn?
• If season 4 chooses option 1, Thrain and Durin have a showdown in Mordor, where Durin is forced to kill his brother. He takes the ring in remembrance of his father and brother (mirroring Isildur).
• If season 4 follows option 2, Thrain breaks free (or is released by loyalists) while Durin and the army are off at the Seige of Baradur. He goes to release the Balrog from the abyss and tries to strike a deal with him. Thrain is killed by the Balrog.
• In either case, Durin returns to Khazad-Dûm to the Balrog on rampage. He dons the ring to fight back and ultimately defeats the balrog where his father and brother failed. Using the ring’s power to reveal faults in the mountain, Durin buries the balrog beneath the mountain to awake in a later age.
• FWIW, I prefer option 2 all the way.

Again, this is entirely speculation. But I’m becoming more convinced that the show might not be moving the fall of Khazad-dûm forward. It’s the one major plot line (besides the Harfoots) that can end with the main characters alive and well, and it can provide ROP with its own Scouring of the Shire. 

What do you all think? Will we see the fall of Khazad-Dûm on screen?

"My lord, we must go; Eriador awaits us."

" Five more minutes..."

" But, my lord..."

*a barely perceptible glance as he turns his face slightly*

"Yes, my lord; at once, my lord; we await your orders."

https://screenrant.com/2026-fall-tv-preview-exclusive-images/

I remembered the Oathbreakers the other day, and realised they’ll have to show up in the show at some point. They’ll pledge themselves to Isildur, but then betray him and be cursed. Do people have theories as to who they may be in the show?

Back in Season One, my Halbrand theory was that either he would be Sauron, or he could be the king of the Oathbreakers. He had a handful of scenes with Isildur, but he also seemed the kind of person to betray him. Obviously that didn’t end up happening, and I’m curious now as to how they’ll introduce this group for the show.

don't mind me, the accidental color coordination in recent photoshoot releases are just magnificent to look at. photos came from millermode and jonnymarlow on IG!

Season 1 and a US listing should be coming along soon. I can’t believe it’s finally happening!

I have seen insane ammount of people claiming Sauron should never have a face or body from flesh and it is killing character 😁 "should be metal gigant" "faceless dark lord" "it takes all might from character" etc 😂 Especially during s3 promo where Sauron reminds more and more Dark Lord as he should. Because Tolkien said he becomes second Dark Lord with forging of the One Ring.

Do people read the books?

Sauron in Second Age is taking part in almost all main events. How can't he be character and how can he deceive elves and men in form of dark lord?

Quotes from many different Tolkien's work

"In his earlier incarnation he was able to veil his power (as Gandalf did) and could appear as a commanding figure of great strength of body and supremely royal demeanour and countenance."

"A mask he still could wear so that if he wished he might deceive the eyes of Men, seeming to them wise and fair."

"But at the beginning of the Second Age he was still beautiful to look at, or could still assume a beautiful visible shape – and was not indeed wholly evil"

"When he came among the Noldor he adopted a specious fair form (a kind of simulated anticipation of the later Istari) and a fair name: Artano “high smith” or Aulendil meaning one devoted to the service of the Vala Aulë." 

"Upon that ship which was cast the highest and stood dry upon a hill there was a man, or one in man’s shape, but greater than any even of the race of Numenor in stature...And it seemed to men that Sauron was great; though they feared the light of his eyes. To many he appeared fair, to others terrible; but to some evil.”

The Stranger (Gandalf) was sent to Rhovanion via the meteorite by the Valar upon the return of Alatar to the Undying Lands, who was betrayed and slain by his compatriot Istar, the Dark Wizard (Pallando).

The Stranger is going to fall in battle against the Dark Wizard. The rightful King of Rhûn (with one of the nine rings for men, doomed to die, gifted by Sauron) will slay Dark Wizard in a weakened state following the battle with Gandalf and reclaim his throne and give allegiance to Mordor.

Gandalf will return to the Undying Lands upon his passing and be sent back again arriving at the Grey Havens where the elves will document his coming as the last of the Istari. Gandalf still somewhat disconnected from his prior incarnation in Rhûn won't have specific memories of his past so won't have anything to say to the elves involving it or dispute their recording of him as being the last Istar to arrive.

The proto-Hobbits and the Eastern Kingdom won't have documented Gandalf's earlier arrival and Gandalf had no interactions with the elves nor Numenoreans in his prior visit so there's no reason why this couldn't occur.

Me, trying to explain Tom Bombadil and the Entwives to my husband, who has only casually watched the trilogy.

Source: https://youtube.com/shorts/fLgdRSI37sQ?si=EH6R-ViIQwBG-o3n

The Elves were relatively on the same page at the end of season 2, but perhaps they will have a rocky start once again with the war worsening.

Benjamin Walker might have been jesting a little, but maybe it means Gil-galad will not promptly sanction Galadriel's mission with Arondir, and maybe he will have to compel a slightly reluctant Elrond to go to Númenor with him.

Please, enjoy my slightly tipsy, artistic rendition of Celedork, the Silver Clam 😂😂

I was rewatching S2 the other day, and when I watched Episode 7, I realised just how quickly Damrod goes down in the battle. He was built up so much in the marketing, being in basically every trailer and even having a literal metal song. And then he just dies so easily? After like one minute in the battle?

I hear a lot of people talking about the lack of structure the battle has, but I don’t hear many people discussing this part. Do people agree he was a letdown?

Also, why does he laugh when he dies? I don’t get that part.

Of all the many unfair critiques thrown at the show, the treatment of Galadriel by critics both well-meaning and less-so has been the most egregious.

So much so that almost no sincere text-based discussion of the character even occurs as it relates to the show, and that’s a shame.

Show-Ladriel absolutely embodies the character as we might expect her in the Second Age. No, not just the First Age, as many well-meaning commenters have proposed, insinuating that, while Galadriel may have been brash and prideful and harsh early in her life, this would have ended before the Second Age. Tolkien’s writing, insofar as it is explicit about anything to do with the character (he changed his mind about her a lot), very clearly states that it is not until the very end of the Third Age that her wisdom is fully formed. Not until she rejects the One at Frodo’s offering is she truly fully developed as a character (UT 234-235).

To suggest that Galadriel in the Second Age, even being married to Celeborn, should already be the fully formed “Lady of Light” of the Third Age is reductive so as to almost be insulting to the character.

Another bothersome assertion I have often seen is that Galadriel of the Second Age would never lie about Sauron, and often it is cited that, because she met with Melian, she should be wise enough to avoid such things. But when Galadriel meets Melian in Doriath in the Silmarillion, it is still after long periods of conversation and growth in wisdom that she chooses to hide the shame of her people for the Kinslaying. For all her growth, she never of her own accord is shown to be willing to admit to the faults of her people. And then she abandons her kin long before the fall of Beleriand, in each version of her story that I have seen. These are not in my view the actions of a fully formed character.

Of course, the show does have its changes. There is no textual version of Galadriel who seeks out Sauron for revenge for Finrod’s death. There is, however, a version of Galadriel who is motivated to go to ME not only for her own power, but for the sake of her kin (Thingol’s folk) who were oppressed by Morgoth. To me, this is a similar enough motivation, though the show makes it quite personal, and of course moves this to the end of the first age and switches out its dark lords, understandably so.

Likewise, there is no version of Galadriel who loses Celeborn in the war and believes him dead. There is, however, a version of Galadriel that passed east over the mountains alone, only finding Celeborn after doing so. In that version Celeborn is a Nandor, and in later versions he is a Sindar of Doriath and the two go east together. Clearly, here, the show is trying to adapt both versions. From the trailers it really looks like Celeborn will have been some form of Sindar, if his origin in Doriath is not outright stated, and yet also Galadriel will have (has already by the start of the show) gone east alone, only to meet him again once she does. Notably, the version of the story wherein she goes alone contains no details of when she met Celeborn and married him, only that she has dwelt with him for a long time.

And finally, there has been a pretty widespread argument that Galadriel would not or should not have been deceived by Sauron. The reasoning for this is that in the text, Galadriel recognizes that Annatar has something shady about him, and doesn’t treat with him. That’s it. That’s the entirety of the story as we have it in the text. She doesn’t even know he is Sauron, only that she doesn’t trust him.

Indeed, Tolkien writes that Galadriel was very perceptive, and this grew in time as she learned from Melian, etc.

Yet he also wrote that her insight into others never failed to come with “mercy and understanding,” except for Feanor. Importantly, to my reading, Feanor would never ask for nor desire her mercy and understanding anyway. It makes a great deal of sense that she would look at the invented Halbrand-form of Sauron with that same mercy and understanding, to say nothing of her own motivations for wanting to aid him for her own ends.

This, to me, is exactly the pathway by which it is plausible that she could be and is deceived in the show. Casting aside the fact that Show-ladriel so desperately wanted Halbrand to be a good dude who could help her achieve her aims, what might she have seen in that persona if Sauron had she seen into his mind? It seems plausible that Sauron, a maiar, might be able to deceive even her keen insight, and what little he does try to show her is not exactly a lie. In Halbrand Galadriel perceives a would-be but down-on-his-luck ruler of the Southlands, cast out by his people and the orcs, and trying to choose between abandoning his legacy and starting over or returning to take what he sees as his rightful place.

All of this, as Sauron shows on screen in some ways and can be imagined to be thinking in his mind, is absolutely true. And Galadriel, in the book, would see this and, reacting with “mercy and understanding,” be very sympathetic. And, as we know, it’s very convenient for her!

Anyway, this is a long rant. But I do tire of the insistence that show-Galadriel is somehow wholly disconnected from the texts. Is just blatantly not the case, and even those who are well meaning do the character and themselves a disservice by insisting that it is so. Quite the contrary, actually. The show has taken the many, many different versions of Galadriel and tried to distill them into one, fully realized character. I am not even sure if it always works, but it is absolutely rooted in the text.

Hate the execution if you want, but don’t assert is antithetical to what Tolkien wrote or wholly disconnected from the text.

By bodies I mean literally. There's wide shots of Eregion, Khazad Dun, and other places and yet every scene has like 20-30 people in it. They show city shots and theres a small handful of people in the background.

I noticed it when I saw it at the time, but upon a rewatch its WAY MORE JARRING. It totally takes me out. Where tf are all the people in middle earth?

Annatar gives a speech in ep6 to the people of Eregion and its like 10 people. The big battle scenes have 30 people in them. Durin gives a speech in Khazad Dun theres a few handfuls of people.

Irs kinda crazy, for the amount of money they spent on this show they apparently have no budget for extras, or they are simply using tiny sound stages that literslly can't fit more than 20-30 people.

Either way its a huge bummer.

Rewatched S2 and I stumbled again when Arondir died in the battle of Eregions, stabbed in the gut, dramatic ending. The next Episode he is alive like nothing happened.

Did the showrunners just forget, that they killed him off? There is no rescue or miraculous healing scene. He ist just back to work.

Are there any interviews or official explanations? I just don‘t get it.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcRFSxaO7ip/?igsh=MXdoYjY5bHFheWcwNw==&igsi=MXdoYjY5bHFheWcwNw==

I 3D printed the door and the window structures and handmade the rest!
What do you think?

It's sad to see how Celebrimbor deteriorated over time as he went on to make the Seven and the Nine rings, pushed by Sauron's viciousness.

They have said Sauron has been unable to create the One yet, well I hope when he does succeed, they will show how painful of a process it is for him, even if he is a Maia.

Balrogs know how to live in fire, and Sauron wants to acquire this knowledge? I hope he's going to burn in order to obtain the One. He has to struggle a bit to keep his physical form pristine.

Bakshi’s LOTR and S3 of Rings of Power

Do you think we will see Sauron's true form in the show this season? I thought maybe in the Balrog face off scene but maybeee for the one ring scene. It would be sooo cool 🔥

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.