Q: How Faithful is Amazon’s Rings of Power to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Books?
ANSWER: Amazon Prime’s show is not very faithful to J.R.R. Tolkien at all. But there’s a legal reason why the show can’t be faithful to Tolkien: Amazon didn’t procure the rights to use most of Tolkien’s source material. They are contractually bound to make up nearly everything you see in the show.
Some of the characters (including Elrond, Galadriel, Gil-galad, Celebrimbor, the 2 Durins, Elendil, Isildur, Miriel, Tar-Palantir, and Pharazôn) are (loosely) based on characters mentioned or appearing in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings stories. But the Amazon timeline is barely comparable in any way to Tolkien’s timeline and the character histories are essentially all made up for the show.
The Amazon show is basically fan fiction. It cannot (legally) be anything else. It’s not using enough source material to be taken seriously as an adaptation. If you want to know why the show deviates so much from the source material, now you know. There’s no need to agonize over the differences. It is what it is, as they say.
There is precedent for this kind of free-style adaptation or derivative work. I’d prefer not to wage an idealogical war on Amazon Studios over their (legal) inability to use most of Tolkien’s ideas.
If you’re not sure about the major differences between the show and the books but want to know, read the spoilers below. If you’d rather not spoil your enjoyment of the show, don’t read this article beyond this point.
The Timeline is All Wrong
When asked about the compressed timeline, showrunner Patrick McKay told Time “These events were laid out in the timeline, and there’s hundreds of years between them. Tolkien wasn’t writing a story. He was writing a faux history. But now it needs to move like a story. It needs to have breadth and depth. It needs to be emotional and have a continuity. That means you can’t stop for 200 years and have half your cast die every two episodes. It’s not practical or satisfying to the viewer.”
Fair enough, but the show’s timeline doesn’t even attempt to follow Tolkien’s progression of events. Without arguing for alternative ways to compress the timeline, here is a rundown of how Tolkien described the Second Age:
Tolkien’s Second Age lasted for 3441 years. Gil-galad’s realm lasted all through that period and at no time did the Elves feel like they had to leave Middle-earth to avoid fading.
The Númenoreans returned to Middle-earth in the Second Age year 600 and by 1200 S.A. they began establishing permanent havens (cities) in Middle-earth. By 1800 S.A. they began conquering portions of Middle-earth.
The Noldor established Eregion in the year 700 S.A. Tolkien did not write a definitive text establishing whether [Galadriel and Celeborn] or Celebrimbor founded the realm.
Sauron began “stirring” again around the year 600-ish. By the time Aldarion was exploring Middle-earth (Circa. S.A. 800) Gil-galad was becoming concerned about a possible rising dark power. However, Tolkien never finished this sub-plot.
Sauron made Mordor his new stronghold around the year Second Age 1000. The volcano was already there, already active, and the Ash Plain (Lithlad) was already that way. The southern lands around Lake Nurn were habitable and lush.
Sauron, disguised as Annatar (“Lord of Gifts”), approached the Eldar around the year 1200. Gil-galad, Elrond, and Galadriel rejected him. Celebrimbor agreed to work with him.
The Elven-smiths of Eregion began forging the Rings of Power around the year S.A. 1500. Celebrimbor made the Three Rings last in 1590, and he alone had any part in their making. Up to this time neither Galadriel nor any other Elf recognized or unmasked Sauron.
In S.A. 1600 Sauron forged the One Ring in Mordor. As soon he put it on his hand the Elves were aware of him and they took off their rings. No Elf ever again wore a Ring of Power during the Second Age.
The rest of the Second Age is filled with wars. Eregion was quickly destroyed. Gil-galad sent Elrond east with an army to help Celebrimbor but Elrond arrived too late. He gathered what survivors he could and fled north to establish the refuge of Imladris. The Númenoreans sent help in the year 1700 and Sauron suffered his first major defeat in 1701. But Sauron had by this time seized the Seven and the Nine from the Elves of Eregion. He took them back to Mordor and “perverted them”.
Eventually Sauron gave the Seven to the Dwarf kings (Tolkien does not say how) and the Nine to various Men (including 3 Númenoreans).
The Númenoreans began resenting their lack of immortality around the year 2250. About this time the Nine (Nazgûl) first appeared, already enslaved by their rings.
Tar-Palantir repented and tried to reform Númenorean society beginning in S.A. 3175. Pharazôn seized the throne in 3255, forcing Tar-Miriel (Palantir’s daughter and his cousin) to marry him. Jealous of Sauron’s power, Ar-Pharazôn led an armada to Middle-earth in 3261. Sauron’s armies fled away so he chose to surrender to Ar-Pharazôn and allow himself to be taken prisoner to Númenor. This was the first and only time Sauron visited the island.
By 3319 Sauron had corrupted most of the Númenoreans and persuaded Ar-Pharazôn to attack Valinor in a vain attempt to seize immortality. The Valar relinquished their authority and Eru (God) punished the Númenoreans, destroying their island (giving rise to the Atlantis legend) and changing the world forever.
Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anarion escaped the destruction of Númenor on 9 ships. They were driven by the cataclysmic storm/tsunami to the northwestern shores of the old world. There they settled among Númenoreans and other peoples friendly to the Elves and founded the realms of Arnor and Gondor.
Thanks to the One Ring, Sauron survived Númenor’s destruction and returned to Middle-earth. After he took a new form he gathered his forces and attacked Gondor. Elendil and Gil-galad formed the Last Alliance of Elves and Men. They were assisted by the Dwarves of Khazad-dum and the Wood Elves (living in Greenwood the Great and Lothlorien). The Alliance eventually destroyed or drove off Sauron’s armies.
Sauron made one last desperate attempt to kill Gil-galad and Elendil. He succeeded, but he was in turn struck down by Elendil. Sauron’s spirit fled his body when Isildur cut the One Ring from his finger.
Other Differences between Amazon’s Show and the Books
J.R.R. Tolkien’s elves don’t have pointy ears. There is no story or illustration where J.R.R. Tolkien describes or depicts any of his elves with pointed ears. However, the Amazon show follows in the footsteps of the Peter Jackson movies and fan fiction in giving their elves pointy ears.
Galadriel was not a warrior in Tolkien’s stories. However, this characterization appears to be based on the Uzi Rule (the assumption that if J.R.R. Tolkien did not specifically deny the Orcs all carried Uzi sub-machine guns, then they must have carried such weapons; they simply didn’t use them in any scenes of the stories). The Uzi Rule illustrates the absurdity of fan attempts to redefine Tolkien’s Middle-earth on the basis of Absence of Denial, which is a classic logical fallacy.
In fact, toward the end of his life, Tolkien wrote (in a letter to one of his readers) that Galadriel had been quite athletic in her youth, and in one of his private essays he wrote that she actively fought against Feanor’s rebellion in Valinor. So the Amazon show’s portrayal of Galadriel is not inconsistent with some of his thoughts.
*=> Personally, I would have liked to see Galadriel use her elven power more in the first season. But she may yet use it in later seasons. She was – by the end of the Third Age – the most powerful elven enchantress (thanks in part to Nenya, the Ring of Adamant). In The Silmarillion, Tolkien writes that Galadriel spent much time in Doriath and was mentored/tutored by Melian, the Maia (angelic being) who married King Thingol Greycloak (they were the parents of Lúthien Tinuviel, considered to be the most powerful of all elven enchantresses in all time).
No one hunted Sauron in Tolkien’s stories. Gil-galad didn’t send out soldiers to search for traces of Morgoth’s servants. It’s logical to assume some cleanup would have occurred at the end of the First Age, but all of that would have been finished long before the elves of Eregion began forging the Rings of Power.
Galadriel’s story about Celeborn’s death completely contradicts both Tolkien’s stories and the Peter Jackson movies (where Celeborn makes an appearance as the Lord of Lothlorien – he was played by Marton Csokas). Of course, Amazon could bring Celeborn “back from the dead” in a later season. So far, we only know that Galadriel believes her husband is dead.
On the other hand, Finrod’s story in the show is completely inconsistent with his story in The Silmarillion. But I assume that since Amazon couldn’t use the Silmarillion as a source, they had to change Finrod’s story.
Tolkien never wrote that Galadriel visited Númenor. The Uzi Rule allows the showrunners to send her there. According to Unfinished Tales (which the show cannot use as a source), elves from Aman did visit western Númenor until the rebellious kings made them unwelcome.
In the books, Elendil doesn’t have a daughter. Eärien was made up for the show.
Tolkien never wrote of any special friendship between Elrond and any Dwarf kings. The great friendship was between Celebrimbor and Durin III (who lived around the middle of the Second Age). Celebrimbor’s closest dwarf-friend was Narvi, the smith who made the great doors of the west-gate. Durin II may have been the King of Durin’s Folk when Eregion was established.
The Durin who fought in the War of the Last Alliance appears to have been Durin IV.
Tolkien never mentioned any Wood-elves serving in Gil-galad’s armies. However, Celeborn was for a time Lord of Harlindon (south of Gil-galad’s realm in Forlindon). So, theoretically, Arondir’s service in Gil-galad’s army is not inconsistent with anything Tolkien wrote (thus invoking the Uzi Rule).
On the other hand, Gil-galad never established any garrisons in the southern lands around Mordor. Nor was Mordor placed under guard during the Second Age. That only happened during the Third Age.
Galadriel’s sea voyage to Valinor is completely inconsistent with Tolkien’s descriptions of how such voyages worked in the Second Age. The Amazon show appears to show “the Straight Road”, a mystical means by which Elves of the Third Age and later could leave this world (Earth/Middle-earth) and reach Aman/Valinor, which Eru/Iluvatar had removed from “the circles of the world”. In the Second Age, even Men could have seen and reached the shores of Aman. In fact, it was that very ability which led to the destruction of Númenor.
The Harfoots (presumed ancestors of the Hobbits of the Shire, Buckland, and Bree) are completely made up. But I rather like them and I think their story is so far pretty logical.
In the book, it is the “stars of … Harad” that are “strange”, when Aragorn describes his journeys. In the Amazon show, the stars of Rhûn are inexplicably said to be strange. But this may be a reference to the “flat Earth”. So, in the books, Middle-earth is only a continent on a larger, flatter Earth. I suppose Rhûn’s stars could be strange compared to the stars over the Greenwood (where the Harfoots are said to be wandering when they meet the Stranger). This apparent inconsistency is NOT covered by the Uzi Rule (in my opinion). It appears to be a logical extrapolation based on what we know about the actual physical/mystical history of Middle-earth (and Arda).
Amazon’s Isildur literally gets left behind in the dust. Given that most of Isildur’s life story is told in materials Amazon couldn’t use, it appears they decided to tread carefully in writing his in-show story.
And the origin story for mithril is – well, NOT Tolkien.
Is The Stranger Really Gandalf?
I’ve read many of the online speculations about him. His “follow your nose” comment is apparently accepted as a strong hint that he must be Gandalf.
Technically, if Amazon Studios is forbidden to use characters from The Lord of the Rings who are not placed in the Second Age by Tolkien, then I don’t see how the Stranger can be Gandalf (or Saruman or Radagast). Some online pundits have argued that he is probably one of the Blue Wizards.
That’s kind of problematic, too (because the only text where Tolkien writes that the Blue Wizards might have appeared in Middle-earth in the Second Age is not part of the materials Amazon licensed).
I suspect Amazon may never name this Istar/Wizard. Or they may give him some non-canonical name. After all, that leaves the question of whether he’s Gandalf unanswered. Gandalf told young Faramir “many are my names in many countries.” The name Gandalf was bestowed upon him (in the Third Age) by “the Men of the North” (and it’s Old Norse, meaning “elf of the wand”).
So, I don’t have an opinion on who he is but I’ll throw my hands up in disgust if he’s ever credited as Gandalf (at least in the story – I suppose credits would be marginally acceptable).
The fact the Stranger seems to have forgotten who he is or his purpose (for a while) mirrors Gandalf’s own forgetfulness after he returns to life. So the Stranger is (in the first season) neither a confirmed earlier incarnation of Olorin/Gandalf nor a contradiction to anything Tolkien wrote about the Second Age. His true identity may remain ambiguous for the entire run of the show (although I wouldn’t be surprised if he whispers something into Nori’s ear at some point – that’s a clever trick Doctor Who has invoked with River Song and the Doctor’s “true name”).
Could Amazon Have Been More Faithful to Tolkien?
I don’t know much about the process by which decisions were made. Showrunner J.D. Payne told Time they consulted extensively with Simon Tolkien (JRRT’s grandson) and the Tolkien Estate.
When I advised Weta Workshop on some details of Middle-earth for Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies, I suggested they consult The History of Middle-earth and Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth. But the reply I received was that “Peter has all the books. We just can’t use them.” On the basis of that experience, I understood going forward that some of the details of Peter’s Middle-earth would have to be different from Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
I think it’s significant that Christopher Tolkien’s chief complaint about the Peter Jackson movies had nothing to do with the attention to detail. He simply felt Jackson had turned his father’s story into an action movie franchise, eschewing the deeper themes of The Lord of the Rings.
Maybe some people will raise that objection to the Amazon show. I’m not in a position to judge what they were free to do, or prevented from doing.
I admit I don’t understand why they compressed the timeline in the way they did. But that’s really a question about details and in my mind what Amazon has done isn’t so far removed from many other dramatic adaptations of great stories. It’s a minor issue, in my opinion, even if some more experienced film industry veteran could have been brought in to develop the show’s timeline – it still (I’m guessing) would have been compressed in some way.
If I had to nit-pick this production, I’d focus on story-internal inconsistencies (or things I felt were weak plot points). However, for the time being, I’ll keep such thoughts to myself. This article’s purpose is just to answer the direct question of how faithful the show is to Tolkien’s writings (and why it cannot be).
Hints of Tolkien in Amazon’s Dramatization
One of the primary themes of the show is the impending fading of the elves. Tolkien doesn’t ever say or imply anywhere that they were afraid they were about to lose their physical existence during the Second Age. But that is the apocalyptic event that drives them in the show. And the chief purpose (according to Tolkien) of the Rings of Power is to slow the decay of time – to extend the physical existence of the elves before they fade (or must leave Middle-earth). So the show gets this about as right as one should expect from a dramatization.
Khazad-dûm was at the height of its glory during the Second Age. The show implies as much.
Númenor is based on Atlantis. Although Amazon’s Númenor feels small and under-developed to me, it has the right aesthetic, in my opinion.
The backstory for the Orcs reflects one of Tolkien’s “myths”. He never fully settled on the origins of the Orcs, but Adar is a pretty cool character (in my opinion – for a bad guy).
Celebrimbor’s workshop seems about as good an example as one could hope for.
The resentment of elves in Númenor is spot on.
Who or What are the Three White Witches from the East?
The Stranger banished them back to the realm of shadows from whence they came. And when he did so they began flashing or morphing into horrific skeleton-like shapes. They reminded me of the Nazgûl. However, unless Amazon plans to abandon the male-only motif for the Ringwraiths (who, theoretically, shouldn’t exist prior to the making of the Rings of Power), the fact they appeared to be women seems to rule out any Nazgûl connection.
But in the books there are other creatures who served Sauron who were associated with death and “the realm of shadows”. Those were the Barrow-wights. The ladies (known from the credits as the Nomad, the Ascetic, and the Dweller) did seem to take on a rather wightish look in my opinion.
Whether they are something else remains to be seen, but I think the most likely explanation at this point is that they are wights.
See Also
Did Tolkien Ever Use the Phrase “Mythology for England”?
Could Amazon Have Covered 3441 Years of Second Age History in 5 Seasons? (2022)
Why Did J.R.R. Tolkien Write So Little about the Second Age? (2022)
Will Amazon Create A New Canonical History for Middle-earth?
Which Lord of the Rings Characters Will Appear in Amazon Prime’s TV Show?
Is Amazon’s Lord of the Rings Based on The Silmarillion?
Shhh! It’s A Secret Ring! (Classic Essay)
A History of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Part 1 (Classic Essay)
A History of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Part 2 (Classic Essay)
A History of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Part 3 (Classic Essay)
Was Anglo-Saxon Really the Language of Rohan? Cited in reference to the Old Norse names of Gandalf, Disa, and Durin, which would be anachronistic in Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
It is truly a pity we don’t have you in the Youtube space during this time. Your opinions on adaptations and artistic choices always stand out for being fair to the process, yet conscious of the lore and themes of the sources.
All the channels that do discuss the show, usually just recap events and point out lore inconsistencies. That wouldn’t be fine if it were a documentary, but it would make more sense to discuss the show for its artistic merit.
Thanks. But making YouTube videos, other than just talking to the camera, is a lot of work. I’ve tried the solo talking head format and I hate the result. I do love chatting away on camera when I have another person to respond to.
Just noticed I had written “Tolkien never wrote of any special friendship between Elrond and any Elf kings.” I’ve corrected that to end with “Dwarf kings”. In the books, Elrond was Gil-galad’s herald and close advisor, as is depicted on the show.
ADDED ON EDIT: In fact, I found many errors after the article was published. I hope I’ve fixed them all.
I was more than a little annoyed at the liberties they took with Galadriel’s story early on in the series, but as the episodes progressed I began to like the series better. I’ve read just about everything Tolkien wrote and had to admit I was hazy about what I remembered about the second age and where it came from.
I had to go back and reread the LOTR appendices, which I had not looked at in decades. I’ve often reread the trilogy, but would skip the appendices because of the vast detail in Simarillion, UT and HOME.
All in all, I like the series.
I am not as happy/content about Númenor as you are regarding the dislike of the Elves.
But it’s a tricky subject since most of the SA is compressed into “one bad week in Middle Earth” in the show.
I don’t know, to me the dislike isn’t strong enough.
After all in one or two seasons they are supposed to sacrifice people to the fire.
Other than that Númenor seems small because we didn’t get an establishing shot.
They could’ve done so with an eagle (free symbolism) looking down on the Island from up high.
The island also includes the weird choice to put the capital along the shore or at least along a “Fjord”.
I don’t really get why. Was the capital named? I am not so sure.
A simple “take them to the capital” would bypass any forbidden words like Armenelos.
Other than that the story is of course completely bonkers and it’s kind of funny that the Orcs of all theatres come off the best.
“…it’s kind of funny that the Orcs of all theatres come off the best.”
You know, you aren’t kidding about that.
Of course, the timeline compression would have a been a strong (and understandable) impulse even if Amazon had gotten the rights to the Silmarillion. The entire period of the period of the forging of the rings to the end of the Elves and Sauron is about 200 years! (ca. T.A. 1500-1700). Impossible to depict that on screen without massive time jumps: a tough challenge even for a first rate screenwriter (which TRoP does not have).
I honestly think the far better option would have been to try harder to acquire the rights to one of the compact, sufficiently complete tales of the First Age, like Beren and Luthien, the Children of Hurin, or even the Fall of Gondolin, as edited and published by Christopher Tolkien in his final years. I don’t know how hard Amazon tried (if at all) for any of these, or whether Chris Tolkien or the rest of the Tolkien family would have budged on them for any amount of money. Being unable to acquire them, it would have been better to simply move on to some other I.P.. Apparently, however, Jeff Bezos was intent getting a Tolkien adaptation, and perhaps that’s why we ended up where we are.
I would have been more excited for the series if they had picked a fairly dramatic year from the Second Age (like 1698 or 3318) and dropped the audience right in there and made up the details as needed.
I have no doubt that the Stranger is Gandalf. When he said “always follow your nose,” I think it was the showrunners way of saying “Check it out, it’s Gandalf.” The show’s way of borrowing from Peter Jackson’s dialogue is starting to get on my nerves a little.
To be honest, Celebrimbor annoys me a lot more than Galadriel. He’s kind of creepy. I always thought of Celebrimbor as a genuinely decent guy, but just as doomed as anyone else from the House of Fëanor.
I think that’s as fair an assessment as could be given, but I’d add that whichever way you slice it, season 1 was always going to be a mess. It had to establish the setup and get us to a critical stage in the plot without access to the background material which it’s so dependent on. Where we’ve now arrived is actually pretty close to the situation as described in the books, and it’s possible to develop the main story arcs almost exactly as they are in the books from this point. I think that’s interesting to observe.
Whether the show will do so it currently unknown, of course, and season 2 is going to be the really critical one for determining how close it actually is to Tolkien. I’d hope that they can wheedle access to more material, particularly from the second half of the Akallabeth, but they’ve always been a little coy about exactly what they do have access to. The fact that they used the map of Númenor is definite confirmation that they do have more than they’ve openly admitted, so the question is how much more.
On the other hand they could go completely off-piste, so I guess we’ll find out in due course.
It’s the writers who missed the mark on the “warrior woman” thing, not the fans (who aren’t art critics and shouldn’t be dismissed for being illogical). Just because it isn’t rendered logically impossible by the source material doesn’t make it a good artistic choice. And a few vague remarks from Tolkein suggesting that Galadriel was “athletic” and “actively fought” don’t justify turning her into a breastplate-wearing soldier. Nobody wants to see Galadriel swinging a sword around. There is an endless supply of such characters in LOTR, so give us the sorceress instead. Grateful that I didn’t waste my time watching this trash in spite of having a Prime subscription.
The elven watch on Mordor or Tirharad before it’s officially Mordor doesn’t make much sense, Arondir setting aside the obvious that he is a diversity hire (I’d sooner see Ismael Cruz Cordova play a young Haradrim warrior and all the diversity quotas playing Haradrim, Cynthia Addai playing his girlfriend, Lenny Henry old father and tribal chief and Sophia Nomvete some village witch showing that mortals can be taught sorcery and so tempted and corrupted with power by Enemy, it would make way more sense for worldbuilding, they could also show the positivie Haradrim characters facing both the growing shadow of Sauron and Numenorean colonialism and oppression, nobody would then complain about race swapping it would portray the cultures right and would explore the deeper nuance of Tolkien that so far has been overlooked) Arondir in one episode even claims to have been born in Beleriand…making it even more ridiculous.
In any case whether he is Wood Elf/Silvan or not…his character portrayal and design is laziest I’ve seen in a long while, hell he looks like a modern man doing cosplay, and a poor one at that! The whole elven watch is obvious shameless copy of Gondorian watch over Mordor, except this one made more sense, for Gondorians knew what they were guarding, fought in Black Land before, established many outposts and strongholds, fortresses that guarded the passes and had many, many men, they also guarded the land from being occupied by Enemy again AND dealt with the remnants of dark creatures…in the show none of that is there, the small garrison of elves doesn’t even have reason to be there! There are no dark creatures to guard against, neither are the men inhabiting the place any threat, they are a bunch of peasants, they are not even any horde of defeated warriors or anything, there is no plausible reason for the Elves to be there, Mordor in any case is so far removed from the sphere of influence of all elven realms so far away from them that they would not be able to maintain any guard there! 🙂 As Tolkien wrote Sauron chose Mordor specifically due to geographic necessity (also due to the presence of Orodruin that he used in his forgings and sorceries):
“The placing of Mordor in the east was due to simple narrative and geographical necessity, within my ‘mythology’. The original stronghold of Evil was (as traditionally) in the North; but as that had been destroyed, and was indeed under the sea, there had to be a new stronghold, far removed from the Valar, the Elves, and the sea-power of Númenor.”
This whole subplot tries to taint the perception of elves though, makes the weird take on elven imperialism and adds the allegory of racism! It doesn’t help that the southlanders of Mordor (who ethnically make little sense, there are white and black people mixed in there, but shouldn’t they all be simply…middle eastern looking? Mordor for all we know could be equivalent of middle east 🙂 then the diversity proponents would freak out hehe) use the slur against elves “knife-ears” a slur which was stolen from Dragon Age fantasy universe of Bioware games, the humans there used this slur on the elves hehe so it shows how derivative of the post-Tolkien cliches the show has! The resentment of Elves by those folk, even if the whole ‘elven occupation’ doesn’t even interfere with their lives much, for they are small garrison…makes all of this subplot predictably one the nose! The only specific reason why this guard exists is…these men were once servants of Morgoth…big deal, if the elves had any duty of policing men and any former servants of Morgoth would have to be watched….they would have to occupy the whole world they would have to have such garrisons in all over Rhun hehe, stupid! Elves never had any duty of policing the Men, and in any case how in the world would the elves know to follow this specific group into this specific place of all the lands in the world!? Have they read the script? This is a giant contrivance and most of the story of the show is based on that, there is lack of certain inner logic and realism in people’s behaviors, reactions and actions, a LOT of the story relies on such contrivancies to drive the plot! If any situation or thing happened slightly differently none of it could have happened hahah.
As for Numenor portrayal and general resentment towards elves….if only it was not such a blatant allegory, most clumsy I’ve seen, the “elf workers taking your trades” oh my…there is no doubt why the meme “they took our jobs” is a thing! Ughh so predictably stupid, the resentment based on jealousy of elves immortality as well as the non-existant (for it’s not even mentioned in the show!) Ban of the Valar should be in focus from the start!! As for imagery of the Numenor aesthetic….there is something off about it that I can’t put on finger on, maybe it’s the certain ‘eastern’ look of the civilization, the diversity quotas adding real black numenoreans hehe or the fact that they use the sun imagery? I always assumed the Sun would be personal emblem of Anarion just like Moon was of Isildur but the general heraldry of Numenor should be more of a….star symbol, then also one can definitely see that the Numenoreans…do not physically look as impressive as they should, the Numenoreans should be looking taller, more physically imposing and powerful, they are enhanced humans basically but in the show they are very ordinary, they according to Tolkien should be even fairer so more beautiful and thus more elf-like in appearance!
Of the actors mainly actor for Elendil has a look and does a proper job in acting, Pharazon looks more like Karl Marx than anything else and the attempt at making him a chancellor Palpatine knock off made me laugh pitifully! The Greco Roman feel mixed with some Egyptian flavor would have been probably accurate, though Byzantine comparison was mostly to the late Third Age Gondor in decline and Minas Tirith being Byzantine city etc. There is though something to appreciate in the attempt at making a bit more of splendor of Numenor, gold motif etc. though still it’s not as grand or rich as it could appear, it doesn’t help that the worldbuilding makes no sense, apparently in the show Numenor is isolationistic still, but in one episode it’s said that they actually ABANDONED their colonies, like Pelargir…(to which the southlanders of Mordor are now going ughh) which is just insane! Still there is also something about the fact that PJ’s portrayal of Minas Tirith had absolutely done great in portraying the scale of the halls etc. but in the show, even the throne room of Numenor is so painfully small!
Then are also all the shifting of character agency, Celebrimbor is deprived of his achievements, Gil-galad is villified and made cold and unlikeable, Elrond’s role as warrior and herald of Gil-galad is removed into some sort of politician, Galadriel gets all the credit even though she is made completely unlikeable, she is made commander of armies, even though she should be participating in politics, she is also immature despite her thousands of years and angry all the time, obsessed to the point of complete lack of reason! She is deprived of all her powers, and then there is palantir…which in lore are sole property of Elendil’s house, and they DO NOT SHOW FUTURE! For goodness sake, this scene should have been Galadriel’s mirror being used! It would make more sense Galadriel showing Miriel the visions of the future or possible futures to convince her, advise in effort to ally with Elves, the whole purpose of that subplot! How in the hell it is Miriel showing Galadriel visions of palantir?!! Galadriel should be incredibly wiser, older and more expereinced than Miriel, in any case the only reason for the two unlikeable females talking is for that stupid Bechdel test 🙂 and then in general the role of Miriel as regent….the political situation makes no sense in Numenor, apparently the old king Tar-Palantir was all but forced to abdicate due to some sort of popular revolt or lack of support yet they still gave the power to his daughter?! And she still has her father’s guidance?! Makes no sense, she either would be then on the King’s Men faction side to have their support and duping them pretending to be one of them or they should have simply followed with the king is ill and cannot fufill his duties and that’s it the background details should be consistent, he is on his deathbed basically so there was no reason for inventing all that crap about the internal turmoil, also Pharazon’s role should be different, I cannnot for the love of me imagine him playing a role of a chancellor haha!
And last but not least, other than lore problems…the show just makes the story make little sense in general, the whole thing with Halbrand makes no sense, the show that should have been exploring the background for the forging of the Rings just relegates the titular rings of power to an after thought! The storylines are full of stupidities and absurdities, the whole plan of Adar…was to awaken Mount Doom using water?! From the dam that was build long before (apparently the only solution for the dam is opened by the key that was magical evil blood sucking sword of Sauron, the tower apparently and dam have not been build by elves so they just adapted older structure for their outpost?!) and the garrison of far sighted elves did not notice the giant trenches being dug all across the land and felling of trees on vast areas! They have apparently been patrolling this land for centuries!? They all get captured offscreen, the Adar and Orcs portrayal trying to be more sympathetic puzzles :), then the whole load of stupid with the villagers that evacuate without taking much supplies that they go to outpost fortified one…and then return to defenseless village to fight Orcs haha, also the fact that villain Adar sends Arondir to be messenger…returning his weapons just to have some diplomacy…which was pointless?
He could have marched himself with army and offered the deal himself haha any dark lord wannabe would have killed Arondir as dangerous warrior that killed his orcs he was also instigator of that slave revolt, he should have died many times over now haha the plot armor of Arondir is massive 🙂 Adar claims to deeply care for his orcs but released a dangerous elven warrior that will kill many more of his beloved minions! Hahah also why send the elf?! If he seriously wanted to convince the villagers to surrender to him, he could have send one of the men captured from destroyed villages long before, also all the underground tunnels, carving underneath the villages and houses all that digging and they could not have dug UNDER the dam?! They needed that magic sword key?! The whole mechanism makes no sense, why the sword is the key, what purpose does it all serve? Was the goal to make volcano explode just add water? But then the dam without the trench and tunnels would just…spill all over the plain of the valley it would not reach the Orodruin heart haha oh my goodness this plan is so stupid (setting aside the question whether it’s ‘realistic’ to have awaken volcano this way…I would sooner accept the magical explanation, Sauron after all has power to work over the Orodruin and make it active and erupt again, he controls the fires of Mount Doom by his will ,the mountain also lapses into dormancy when he is away from Mordor and awakes when he return and is plotting, there is magical element in it, saturated with his dark power! I would even accept the ridiculousness of the magic sword being mystical key to awaken it due to Sauron’s power in it or something, Adar though is completely without any powers, he is the most ordinary creature possible…as a side note all Elves are pretty ordinary in the show, none of them has any magic…the only magic stuff in a song even…is DONE BY THE DWARF! Which I would sooner associate with Elves! Magic songs is their turf!)
The whole plan of Adar is so full of holes and contrivances, without the sword none of it would work and all the contrived reasons why the characters did not secure that sword hilt, why they have not realized sooner that it was switched…for an axe…have they not realized that the shape is different touching it…also if it has evil influence on people…why return it to the boy Theo who already held it too long? All those questions and all the ridiculousness of the teleporting, inconsistent time and distance, travel times with people conveniently appearing when they need to be the time constraints making no sense, as did the deadline of the ‘elves fading before the spring’ what?! And how in the hell that corruption decay of the tree is signifying elven race fading?! It makes no sense, how is random tree getting sick and rotting indicate elven race decline…is this magical tree somehow connected to elven nature and immortality?! What the hell is going on? The whole thing is basically combined three separate concepts corruption that is dark power of Sauron or Morgoth flowing out into the world and tainting the land itself like Shadow falling on Greenwood in any case none of the Dark Lords has been in Lindon 🙂 so it cannot be that, and the ‘fading of elves’ as in their souls and natural aging processes in mortal lands! So combination of things that makes no sense. Woof 🙂 there is a LOT about this show that harms the common sense of the audience and believability and suspension of disbelief for this fantasy world :).
You’re far too kind to Amazon’s mediocrity. It’s just a waste of time.
I don’t think the time jump would necessarily be problematic, if you set the series around the time of the forging of the rings. It would span 500ish years, but the elves and Sauron don’t change at all in that time, and once the decision is made to forge the rings, nothing much happens until the fateful day when the One Ring is forged. So the first season could show how things are in the year 1200, and then future seasons follow the life of Tar Minastir with Sauron, Celebrimbor, Elrond, Gil-Galad, and Galadriel and any other characters they make up for the show staying constant. We don’t know when or how long Narvi ruled, but I would guess it was before the Gwaith-i-Mírdain decided on forging the rings, so he and Durin would be the only first season characters who would be gone by the later seasons.