The Lord of the Rings - Second Age - Amazon Prime

[Judderman]

People arguing about the colour of hobbits and none of you have mentioned that Lenny Henry is in it?! To me, that's super weird. That'd be like Jimmy Carr randomly being an elf or something. That seems more out of place than the colour or size of things.

It is interesting having a comedian who has relatively small film acting roles as a key part of the trailers for such a potentially big show. I'm sure he will be great though, and most of the hobbits in the films were much less known than him prior to release. Other than Bilbo actors.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Farntfar, could be wrong but I heard a rumour Celeborn won't be in it. As in, retconned away.

 

[farntfar]

You assume Lenny has a big part.
It's a teaser.
How often do teasers for shows include big names in cameo parts or even big characters, like Galadriel, who may show up for 5 minutes in one episode.
We know nothing other than that we are being teased.

Edit for Thaddeus. It's not important. He's just the husband.

 

[Dave]

Which actors would make better Hobbits then?

Bill Oddie? Bill Bailey? (Anyone named Bill?)

(or maybe they'd make better Dwarves?)

 

[HareBrain]

Which actors would make better Hobbits then?

Bill Oddie? Bill Bailey?

Bill Bailey's character in Spaced was called Bilbo Bagshot.

 

[BAYLOR]

Which actors would make better Hobbits then?

Bill Oddie? Bill Bailey? (Anyone named Bill?)

(or maybe they'd make better Dwarves?)

There is new trailer on The Dark Horizons site a new trailer about 2 minutes and 32 seconds long. It looks quite interesting.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

There is new trailer on The Dark Horizons site a new trailer about 2 minutes and 32 seconds long. It looks quite interesting.

I think so, too. There were things I could quibble about, but this did look far more intriguing than anything they've shown us before.

 

[BAYLOR]

I think so, too. There were things I could quibble about, but this did look far more intriguing than anything they've shown us before.

It might turn out to be a good series.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've watched it a couple of more times, now, and these are my thoughts.

Clearly the little proto-hobbits we have seen before are not Stoors (like Smeagol) as we guessed, or Fallohides, but instead they are Harfoots. And all of them that we see in this trailer are dark of hair, and skin tones from at least not-pale to quite dark, which brings them closer to what Tolkien described than to the actors that Jackson cast.

Galadriel: I have been concerned about what I have seen of her in the stills and very short clips I had seen before. At a time in Tolkien's legendarium when she ought to be tens of thousands of years old, I thought she looked much too young. Of course elves don't age like humans do, but there is a difference between ageless and immature. (Blanchett looked agelessly beautiful.) Casting a perky looking blonde to play the role just struck me as wrong. However, now having seen a more significant sample of her acting the role, and getting a better idea of how she will play it, I'm feeling a lot better about her, like it is possible she is going to rise to the occasion. More than that, her outer youth and freshness contrasting with the centuries of anguish and tragedies she must carry inside could actually work in a very moving way. I'll need a bit more convincing, but at least at this point I am hopeful that it might be so.

In reference to what Thad said about retconning Celeborn out of the story: Tolkien wrote and considered a number of different versions of the story of Galadriel and Celeborn. I don't remember them all clearly, because it was a long time ago that I read the HoME books, but I have an idea that at the time Tolkien died the how and where of their meeting and marrying was still rather fluid in his mind. So I think I could accept a version of their story that is made-up by the screenwriters better than I could accept changes to certain other things that might occur. Having her single for a season or two does make her more flexible and able to interact with the plot, I get that, but ultimately, at some point there has to be Celeborn, because otherwise there can be no Celebrian, and if no Celebrian, then no Arwen.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Here's the new trailer on youTube:

Much improved on the teasers.

 

[farntfar]

Indeed, Brian. And thanks for the link.

We're beginning to see a bit of story at last.
As for Galadriel, I agree with Teresa. She carries her age well within a young appearance (and not so young-seeming as in the previous clip).
Also, if there is a moment shown from before the death of the two trees(*) she could be any age in the various clips.
Who's telling her to put up her sword? Elrond?
Celeborn is called Celeborn of Doriath in the Silmarillion, and described as a kinsman of Thingol. This implies that he was about from at least the end of the 1st age. Although it doesn't mean they met or became a couple immediately, I assume they met in Doriath. Galadriel spent a lot of time with Melian, as you recall.
You seem to know more, Teresa, from books I haven't read. You say there were several versions of their story. So I assume it wasn't a straightforward "We met at the village dance and have been together ever since." type story.

* I liked the rendition of the 2 trees in this clip.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Trailer thoughts, cons then pros:

I don't like the harfoots. Unnecessary, not in the lore, a distraction. It also seems weird the lines about the past being over when the elves are after (or were after, unsure of the timing) the Silmarils, and the Numenorians are/were lamenting their declining lifespans (ie stuff from the past is great let's maintain/reclaim/return to that). And warrior Galadriel is just daft.

I liked the low key disagreement between her and... Elrond? The landscapes etc looked pretty good. If this were the first and only thing I'd seen of this then I'd probably be more interested (although I wouldn't get Prime just to watch it). So, maybe it will exceed expectations.

Still have reservations, but the joy of masterly inactivity (not having any TV subs) is I can just wait and see and buy DVDs or not. In the meantime, Tolkien's audiobooks await.

 

[farntfar]

Unnecessary, not in the lore,

What's wrong with the Harfoots?
They're mentioned in both the the Prologue of TLoTR and the timeline in the appendices. Although I don't remember them appearing in the main story.
As someone has already pointed out, they also have dark skin.

 

[ctg]

The landscapes etc looked pretty good. If this were the first and only thing I'd seen of this then I'd probably be more interested (although I wouldn't get Prime just to watch it). So, maybe it will exceed expectations.

Was the port city in Numerion or in the Undying Lands?

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

farntfar, I forget which of the HoME books it was in, but you can also find the proposed revisions to Galadriel and Celeborn's story in online sources.

Thaddeus, originally I didn't like the idea of Galadriel as a warrior (in armor no less) until I eventually remembered that one of her names in the Undying Lands translated to "man-maiden", given to her because of her height and strength. I've also remembered at least a couple of references ... somewhere ... to her being of an Amazonian bent. Also that she fought in defense of her Telerian kin during the kinslaying.

In LOTR when she says to ... Frodo? ... Sam? ... someone, anyway ... that she and Celeborn together fought the long defeat, I never thought of that as literally meaning combat, but it could be interpreted that way. So my first instinct at the sight of her in armor could be entirely wrong--or at least those who think differently have some valid reasons.

Anyway, there are long stretches of time in the Silmarillion and some of the other tales when we're given little idea what she was actually doing. It's hard to think of her just sitting around for centuries and centuries, not when she is first introduced iduring the Revolt of the Noldor as so vital and active and ambitious.

 

[ctg]

About the characters seen in the trailer

The large ensemble cast includes Morfydd Clark as a young Galadriel, "now a hardscrabble warrior leading the Northern Armies," who is determined to hunt down her brother's killer. She ends up adrift at sea with a new character named Halbrand (Charles Vickers). All we know about him is that he is "running from his past." Charles Edwards plays Celebrimbor, whom hardcore LOTR fans will recognize as the elven smith who forged the legendary rings.

Robert Aramayo plays a younger version of Elrond—"a canny young elven architect and politician." (Aramayo also played the young Eddard Stark on Game of Thrones.) And Maxim Baldry will play the infamous Isildur, ancestor of Aragorn, who eventually defeated Sauron but fell victim to the One Ring's corrupting power.

Among other new characters, Sophia Nomvete plays the dwarven Princess Disa, and Orwain Arthur plays Prince Durin IV, but there's no indication of what their relationship might be. Ismael Cruz Cordova plays a silvan elf named Arondir, and Nazanin Boniadi plays his love interest, Bronwyn, a single mom described as "a human village healer."

There's also a breed of hobbits known as the Harfoots, who mostly try to stay hidden and keep to themselves. But two curious young hobbits, Poppy Proudfellow and Nori Brandyfoot (played by Megan Richard and Markella Kavenagh, respectively), are more adventurous and somehow encounter "a mysterious lost man whose origin promises to be one of the show's enticing questions." That's probably The Stranger (Daniel Weyman). Other characters include the dwarf King Durin III (Peter Mullan). The streaming platform has not yet revealed who will be playing Sauron.

Two-minute-plus teaser for LOTR: Rings of Power drops ahead of Comic-Con

"There was a time when the world was so young, there had not yet been a sunrise."

arstechnica.com

This latest teaser trailer gives us a better look at the various kingdoms featured in the series: the Elven realms of Lindon and Eregion, the Dwarven realm Khazad-dûm, the Southlands, the Northernmost Wastes, the Sundering Seas, and the island kingdom of Númenór. And yep, that looks like the Two Trees of Valinor, Laurelin (the gold tree), and Telperion (the silver tree). In Tolkien lore, the trees were the source of light for Valar until they were destroyed by Melkor (aka Morgoth) and a giant primordial spider. Their last flower and fruit became the sun and moon.

 

[HareBrain]

Bit odd to describe Elrond as "young" when he must be well over a thousand years old by this point.

 

[farntfar]

What is this point?
Elrond would be young, for an elf, at the beginning of the second age.
He was born, after all, at the very end of the first age, as the child of Earendil and Elwing.
Galadriel, as already mentioned, was much older, having been born near the beginning of the first age.

 

[HareBrain]

What is this point?

Appendix B in LOTR gives SA1200 as when Sauron starts to seduce the Eldar, and about SA1600 when the rings of power are forged. I believe that's the period of the show.

 

[ctg]

What is this point?

It's interesting that they don't talk about Galandriel as the Old One. A lot of that sort of cultural context is missing in the Elven Culture, even though it should be obvious amongst the nearly immortal species.

I imagine that there are whispers and sometimes quite loud arguments amongst themselves, and the ambition to prove themselves would be very present with the young ones. All the other races takes the ageing pretty normally and sometimes understands that physical weakness increases while the wisdom increases in most people.

I liked that they showed an elf with not a perfect hair, because just like the overweight and depressed elves are amongst the population, those with the bad hair day should also be a thing. And yet, especially in the Tolkien world, they are forever young, even if the context relays that they are actually ancient.

The funny thing is that when the LOTR happens, there are elves in the middle-earth that has never been to Numereon or even seen the light of the Undying Lands. In that context, Jackson's films showed beautifully their dying wish to see the Ancestor Lands. But that is pretty much it.

If I understand the series right, the situation is opposite and the Elves wants to explore Middle-Earth and see how rounds the globe really is. It is kind of sad that we know there's much more to Middle-Earth and its celestial companions, but Tolkien never really had time to show us the whole map or the surrounding space-system.

In that context, the astronomer hobbit is a really intriguing character, as it can possibly reveal us more about the Tolkien universe than we've known before ... if we accept it.