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DeadRabbits
Nargothrond
Jul 6 2022, 8:39am
Post #1 of 47
(2166 views)
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A new teaser is here (with Tar-Miriel and Ents)!
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A new minute-long teaser just arrived! Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Tar-Miriel (first footage!) can be seen at 0:36. Ents are now confirmed as they can be spotted at 0.41.
The teaser mainly consists of different character reacting to the meteor flying across the sky, This implies that the The Stranger (The Meteor Man) arriving in Middle-earth will have serious consequences and that he will be an enormously important character. Could he really be anyone other than Sauron?
A new teaser is set to arrive on July 14th (according to Fellowship of Fans, this is just another teaser and we will still get a full-length trailer at SDCC).
Now now Bill, you swore this was a battle between warriors, not a bunch of miss nancies, so warriors is what I brought
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Ardamírë
Doriath
Jul 6 2022, 12:38pm
Post #2 of 47
(2027 views)
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This teaser is far superior to the super bowl teaser. And the characters also look far better in motion than in the promo stills we’ve previously gotten.
I also like that we at least have an idea now that the unifying plot has something to do with “the skies”. I can’t stand trailers/previews that are just a random collection of images with no attempt at giving the audience any idea of what to expect from the actual story.
Looking forward to the advertising really picking up over the next few months. I think they have finally piqued my interest with this latest one 
"Behold! the hope of Elvenland,
the fire of Fëanor, Light of Morn
before the sun and moon were born,
thus out of bondage came at last,
from iron to mortal hand it passed." -The Lay of Leithian
(This post was edited by Ardamírë on Jul 6 2022, 12:39pm)
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dormouse
Gondolin
Jul 6 2022, 1:58pm
Post #3 of 47
(1993 views)
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I was telling myself I wouldn't like Rings of Power, not being in a position to actually watch it. But seeing that I don't think I'll be able to keep it up. The ship and the birds.... the tree.....
For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood and every spring
there is a different green. . .
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uncle Iorlas
Nargothrond
Jul 6 2022, 2:08pm
Post #4 of 47
(1989 views)
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The ship and the birds.... I am disproportionately pleased that they picked up on the note about the throngs of gulls around Númenor, it's loomed large in my imagination since I first read it.
I note these longtailed seabirds don't look like our familiar gulls.
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dormouse
Gondolin
Jul 6 2022, 4:02pm
Post #5 of 47
(1919 views)
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... that's why I just put 'birds'! I wasn't sure of the species but the scene itself caught me immediately. The pictures we've carried in our heads all these years coming to life on screen. Even if there are parts of it I don't particularly like, seeing favourite details like that tells me I have to see it when it comes. Now all I need to do is work out how!
For still there are so many things
that I have never seen:
in every wood and every spring
there is a different green. . .
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LordGawain
Ossiriand
Jul 6 2022, 4:29pm
Post #6 of 47
(1903 views)
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Its on amazon prime now in much higher quality
Half a league, half a league, half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death, rode the six hundred.
'Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death rode the six hundred.
Theirs not to make reply, theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death rode the six hundred.
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Narvi
Menegroth
Jul 6 2022, 5:00pm
Post #7 of 47
(1898 views)
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I'm once again becoming optimistic about the series. The new teaser, coupled with a few of the more revealing promotional shots, might well betray the trajectory of at least a portion of the first season:
At the outset of the series:
-Gil-galad is high king of the Noldor and appears to dispatch a White Ship westward, for reasons as yet unclear. We witness the anointing of the crew in one of the promo stills beneath a golden tree in Lindon.
-Arondir appears to man a partially-ruined watchtower (Tir-harad?). He is on intimate terms with Bronwyn.
Early in the series, at the point when the meteor appears:
-The harfoot elder observes anomalies in the heavens, presaging the arrival of the meteor (and suggesting an origin beyond Arda...from the Void? From an anachronistic quasi-extraterrestrial Valinor?)
-The crew of the White Ship witnesses the meteor while sailing West (it lights up their faces as they face the bow of the ship, meaning the meteor arrives from the West...from Valinor?)
-Tar-Miriel, apparently alive and presumably queen at this point, witnesses the meteor pass above Numenor (again, suggesting it originates across the Sundering Seas)
-Durin IV witnesses the meteor from (outside?) Khazad-dum, indicating it continues east of the Misty Mountains
-The ents (including Treebeard, I'm guessing) witness the meteor from Fangorn(?) prior to its impact further east.
-Arondir and Bronwyn witness its flight together (I guess from Harad? Although their orientation relative to its trajectory suggests a location more proximal to its primary axis...)
-The harfoots witness the meteor's impact, indicating their location east of the Misty Mountains.
-All of the characters who witness the meteor are alive at this point, which I would not have expected. I do not know how to account for the 2-episode prologue episode, and I wonder if we have not yet glimpsed it in the material thusfar released, which could actually all stem from just one or two episodes, given the synchronization of the confirmed plotlines/characters.
In subsequent episodes
-The White Ship reaches Numenor
-Gil-galad dispatches Elrond to negotiate with Disa and Durin IV
Later in the season
-Galadriel arrives in Middle-earth after visit to Numenor (via shipwreck with a Northman or Numenorean exile?)
-Galadriel & co. hunt for remnants of Morgoth's forces, perhaps encouraged by Gil-galad and the sighting of the meteor out of the West
-Plotline in Numenor: Pharazon scheming against Tar-Miriel? Isildur & co. voyaging? Carine...reading?
-Big bad of season one seems to be the corrupted elf leading his company of surviving orcs, presumably raiding while eluding Galadriel & co.
-Arondir is ambushed by orcs in a wood, is chained, fights his way out? Is Bronwyn's settlement the target of the Big Bad's raids? How does Theo (cringe) find the hilt of the broken sword?
EDIT: I have no idea how to fit Celebrimbor into this sequence, as he does not appear to witness the meteor. Perhaps he is already in Eregion at this point; perhaps he ventures there with Elrond from Lindon. All the elves seem to appear at a banquet together. I think this banquet takes place before Galadriel's departure.
(This post was edited by Narvi on Jul 6 2022, 5:04pm)
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InTheChair
Nargothrond
Jul 6 2022, 5:54pm
Post #8 of 47
(1864 views)
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Might be Ent-wives rather than Ents
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They seem much shorter than the trees around them.
Well... could be perspective I guess. It's fairly dark
Oh. Actually I see now there's more than one Ent in the scene
Maybe we get our first Entlings
(This post was edited by InTheChair on Jul 6 2022, 6:07pm)
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Eldy
Dor-Lomin
Jul 6 2022, 9:20pm
Post #10 of 47
(1741 views)
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...of the Red Comet from ASOIAF/GOT, with all the shots of characters around the world watching the same astronomical event, and presumably drawing their own conclusions from it. Maybe Meteor Man is really Azor Ahai reborn! 
(This post was edited by Eldy on Jul 6 2022, 9:20pm)
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uncle Iorlas
Nargothrond
Jul 6 2022, 11:05pm
Post #11 of 47
(1698 views)
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I suspect we'll find that a lot of these shots of people looking in an upward direction have been edited to seem as though tbey'te all watching the meteor but fewer will turn out actually to be doing so. The mode right now seems to favor actively misleading previews calculated to suggest some false notion of the plot points, because for so many years previously, people complained of previews that revealed too much.
At any rate if this meteor comes from the west and lands west of the misties, nobody in Harad is watching it cross the sky.
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Narvi
Menegroth
Jul 7 2022, 1:38pm
Post #12 of 47
(1542 views)
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Perhaps Celebrimbor begins the series in Lindon and travels to Eregion with Elrond on his embassy to the dwarves. Given his characterization in the recent press release, I could imagine him chafing under Gil-galad's authority and eager to chart is own path.
I wonder how close the relationship between Celebrimbor and Elrond will be. Gil-galad and Celebrimbor are both being portrayed as elder statesmen. Perhaps they will exert conflicting influences over the young half-elf.
Speaking of the elves...have we speculated yet on when Celeborn and Celebrian will enter the story? They're both quite important figures in the lives of Elrond and Galadriel. If we're beginning the series around S.A. 500, Galadriel should already be married to Celeborn and have given birth to Celebrian. That doesn't seem to have happened yet. Maybe they will postpose this plotline until after the foundation of the realms of Eregion and Imladris.
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Narvi
Menegroth
Jul 7 2022, 1:45pm
Post #13 of 47
(1536 views)
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There are some shots that seem more obviously synchronized with the meteor than others. Of the ambiguous cases, the shots of Tar-Miriel and of Bronwyn and Arondir seem most doubtful (not to mention the oddity of the latter being able to glimpse such a phenomenon from their position in the far south, if we are right in locating "Tir-harad" there.
The impact site is surely on the plains east of the great forests of Wilderland, regardless of whether the ents whom we glimpse are dwelling in what would become the Brown Lands or in Fangorn. This comports with the notion that the harfoots roam the eastern plains before their westward migration to the Vales of Anduin in the Third Age.
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Archestratie
Nargothrond
Jul 7 2022, 2:45pm
Post #14 of 47
(1525 views)
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Sauron has to be Meteor-man, right? By this point in the teaser-trailer sequence they would have had to reveal the main villain. It wouldn't make sense otherwise.
My guess is they're going to turn Sauron into a angsty person, drawn to the "dark side" but who wants to do good in the world. He will begin and a genuinely helpful person who wants to see justice, though a particularly hard brand of justice, done. But people keep getting in is way, and so he resorts to ever-more drastic measures to get power and ensure his vision is realized.
Sauron thinking he is the good-guy is very modernistic writing, not so much Tolkien. Which makes me think it would be a change the show runners would make.
My Low-Magic Fantasy Novel on eBook/hardback: The Huntsman and the She-Wolf
The Huntsman and the She-Wolf on audio Book.
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Eldy
Dor-Lomin
Jul 7 2022, 4:45pm
Post #15 of 47
(1500 views)
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Sauron thinking he is the good-guy is very modernistic writing, not so much Tolkien. Which makes me think it would be a change the show runners would make.
Why would Sauron not think he was the good guy? According to Tolkien's own analysis, Sauron started off as genuinely good and retained "relics" of this later on. While I think most (if not all) objective third-party observers would agree Sauron stopped being good, I don't see why Sauron would share that assessment of himself.
Sauron had never reached this stage of nihilistic madness. He did not object to the existence of the world, so long as he could do what he liked with it. He still had the relics of positive purposes, that descended from the good of the nature in which he began: it had been his virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall, and of his relapse) that he loved order and coordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction.
(Myths Transformed, Text VII)
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Eldy
Dor-Lomin
Jul 7 2022, 4:51pm
Post #16 of 47
(1492 views)
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Based on Charles Edwards' recent comments...
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...about Celebrimbor (quoted in this thread), I get the impression that Celebrimbor is already Lord of Eregion at the start of the series, though I don't suppose his statement is conclusive. Edwards mentioned that "Celebrimbor encourages and assists Elrond to visit Khazad-dûm and to court the Dwarves," which suggests to me a mentor/protégé relationship of sorts. I definitely hope we get to see Gil-galad and Elrond together, though, given their association in the books (and, subtly, in PJ's Fellowship, with Elrond "inheriting" Gil-galad's circlet from the prologue).
You raise some good questions about Celeborn and Celebrían. I'm wary of putting forth actual year numbers given how little we know about how the timeline compression will be handled, but my guess at this stage would likewise be that Celebrían hasn't been born yet.
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Narvi
Menegroth
Jul 7 2022, 4:58pm
Post #17 of 47
(1490 views)
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It's almost certain at this point
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Although he'll clearly be the most powerful evil character to manifest himself in the series, I doubt Sauron will serve as the primary antagonist of Season 1 (or 2, for that matter). That role seems to be filled by a "corrupted elf" raiding villages with a group of orcs. It is rumored that this elf has a particularly close relationship to Galadriel...
There was also a rumor that "Meteor Man" will emerge with no memory of his identity and will come into his own among the harfoots. This leads me to think that Season 1 will show us Sauron at the germ of his creative urges. He'll have the instinct to try and help the harfoots through some sort of scheme or technology, which they will reject. His frustration with this may cause him to depart the harfoot camp, perhaps after perpetrating his first atrocity...
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uncle Iorlas
Nargothrond
Jul 7 2022, 6:35pm
Post #18 of 47
(1465 views)
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Maybe this is some sort of budding Sauron showing his coulda-been benevolent side among the protohobbits, but I don't much like to let Gandalf be that far wrong when he tells us that hobbits had entirely escaped Sauron's notice until the late Third Age.
Of course there will inevitably be things I don't care for. I've yet to think of any likable explanation for Meteor Man. In the end this may amount to a thousand submissions for consideration, of which we may each choose a few to adapt to our own imagination of things.
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Felagund
Nargothrond
Jul 7 2022, 11:01pm
Post #19 of 47
(1402 views)
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Fully expecting Ent-wives, ever since what looks like their 'gardens', mentioned by Treebeard in LotR, showed up on Amazon's Second Age map.
Welcome to the Mordorfone network, where we put the 'hai' back into Uruk
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Helcaraxe
Lindon
Jul 7 2022, 11:47pm
Post #20 of 47
(1411 views)
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The teaser mainly consists of different character reacting to the meteor flying across the sky, This implies that the The Stranger (The Meteor Man) arriving in Middle-earth will have serious consequences and that he will be an enormously important character. Could he really be anyone other than Sauron?
I don’t see it like this at all. I reckon the meteor man might well be an Istari coming out of the West. Why would Sauron be coming from the direction of Valinor? Doesn’t make any sense whereas an Istari would. Also looking at the first trailer, when the meteor man climbs out of the crash, are Amazon going to go for a human like ginger haired and bearded Sauron? Much more wizard looking to me. Although out of canon (once again), an Istari arriving to help the fight against the growth of evil makes far more sense to me….
"Don't Touch Me!!" - Thomas Covenent
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Archestratie
Nargothrond
Jul 8 2022, 12:47am
Post #21 of 47
(1389 views)
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Sauron thinking he is the good-guy is very modernistic writing, not so much Tolkien. Which makes me think it would be a change the show runners would make. Why would Sauron not think he was the good guy? According to Tolkien's own analysis, Sauron started off as genuinely good and retained "relics" of this later on. While I think most (if not all) objective third-party observers would agree Sauron stopped being good, I don't see why Sauron would share that assessment of himself.
I never really read Morgoth or Sauron as thinking they were implementing Iluvitar's will in their own twisted way. I always read them as consciously acting in opposition to the vision Iluvitar laid out at the beginning, or at least thinking they were acting in opposition to it.
For me, that's how good/evil break down in Middle-earth. I don't recall Sauron ever invoking Illuvitar's vision or authority as justification for his actions. Perhaps I'm wrong about that, though.
My Low-Magic Fantasy Novel on eBook/hardback: The Huntsman and the She-Wolf
The Huntsman and the She-Wolf on audio Book.
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Eldy
Dor-Lomin
Jul 8 2022, 1:14am
Post #22 of 47
(1386 views)
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I never really read Morgoth or Sauron as thinking they were implementing Iluvitar's will in their own twisted way. I always read them as consciously acting in opposition to the vision Iluvitar laid out at the beginning, or at least thinking they were acting in opposition to it.
For me, that's how good/evil break down in Middle-earth. I don't recall Sauron ever invoking Illuvitar's vision or authority as justification for his actions. Perhaps I'm wrong about that, though.
Why would Morgoth or Sauron use faithfulness to the vision of Ilúvatar as their metric for what is good? I'm not saying you're wrong to use that as your metric for morality in Middle-earth (whether or not it's mine is beside the point), but we're talking about characters' self-perception here.
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Junesong
Nargothrond
Jul 11 2022, 12:56pm
Post #23 of 47
(1045 views)
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Everything you said. Bang on.
"So which story do you prefer?"
"The one with the tiger. That's the better story."
"Thank you. And so it goes with God."
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DeadRabbits
Nargothrond
Jul 11 2022, 5:45pm
Post #24 of 47
(1004 views)
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You just put my theory to shame. Perhaps it wasn’t so well thought out after all, but nevertheless there are a few things that point towards the Meteor Man being Sauron:
- Why put so much emphasis on everyone witnessing this potential world-changing event if it just turns out to be one of the Istari (unless it’s a red herring)?
- Him holding an apple in his hand poster could be a reference to the evil witch in Snow White who disguised herself as an old woman (yes, I could be reading too much into this).
- The sequence of him holding hands with one of the Harfoots is the very first shot in the "Nothing is evil in the beginning" promo (referencing Elrond's quote "For nothing is evil in the beginning. Even Sauron was not so." – again, I'm probably reading too much into things).
- The crash site of the meteor looks like the eye of Sauron in the leaked teaser (I can't find any screenshots of this anymore).
You could of course make a case for the showrunners planting evidence for the Meteor Man being Sauron in the promotional material and then going in a totally different direction in the actual show. It was hinted that Sauron might be “hiding in plain sight” in Vanity Fair’s interview with the showrunners, so there’ll probably be a big reveal at the end of season 1.
Wildcard: The Meteor Man is a terminator and Nori Brandyfoot is a distant ancestor of John Connor. This could make for an interesting crossover.
Now now Bill, you swore this was a battle between warriors, not a bunch of miss nancies, so warriors is what I brought
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Junesong
Nargothrond
Jul 11 2022, 6:34pm
Post #25 of 47
(991 views)
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The more they insinuate Sauron (and I agree with all your examples) the more I feel like it can't be him. I think modern marketing is too 4D chess for that.
Maybe I'm wrong and they really are just telegraphing things for the casual fans... but I don't buy it.
My personal guess is that they're using "meteor man" in the trailers to be a stand-in for the villain (or at least to give ominous villain energy to things) while in reality setting up a twist with the show. From what we've read, the writer's seem to be teasing the big villain reveal for a little while. I've heard reports that we'll finish Season one still speculating about who Sauron might be. My guess is we'll see Sauron (hooded and hidden) doing villainous things but the pulling back of that hood will be a big reveal later on.
Meanwhile, I think meteor man will turn out to be Gandalf. I think the "meteor from valinor" theory - while dubious lore-wise - is a cool storytelling way of bringing a messiah type figure into the story.
I definitely agree that they're giving us all kinds of clues that it's Sauron though - it just makes me even more sure it won't be, in the end.
"So which story do you prefer?"
"The one with the tiger. That's the better story."
"Thank you. And so it goes with God."
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