re: Rings of Power Readers/Lore thread, NOT Episode- SPOILERS EVERYWHERE!

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Whatever you do, don't start with The Silmarillion. That is a tough read. Tolkien is my favorite author of all time and I've only finished it twice.

Start with The Hobbit. It's by far the easiest read and having read that makes LOTR more enjoyable.

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Probably best advice. The Hobbit is a pleasant and fun tale. It adds some context to LOTR, which quickly becomes serious and desperate.
The others then really just educate you to the world you've discovered.

Several reasons NOT to read the Silmarillion or other works first- writing style. The Sil is not a novel or narrative, it's a history book. Very dry read. Tons of info.
Also, you learn there are immense conflicts, at least 3 or more which far exceed the stakes of LOTR. This one in Rings of Power (Last Alliance) will be on the same level. Anything involving Morgoth is bigger, the Valar could squash Sauron with ease, while Morgoth gave them all they could handle, several times.
Remember how Gandalf tells Pippin, while at Minas Tirith awaiting the war to begin, that death was not the end, and beyond there is blue skies and green fields, and glorious wonderment? Morgoth threatened THAT, twice turning the lights out in Valinor.

Doing the others first, will diminish the stakes of LOTR.

Some internet belief that the Stranger could be the Man in the Moon who is also a Maia as well. Someone pointed out on the Ascetic’s disk appears to maybe be the moon and we see the Stranger looking up at the moon.

In the credits the main one is called the Dweller and the other 2 are called the Nomad and Ascetic.

Little is known about the Man in the Moon but has been mentioned in the main movies and in Lore.

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Just quick question. Do the readers know who Sauron is? Not in terms of the show but is it ever established in the readings?

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All of this is fan fiction. While some may know due to spoilers, no, there’s nothing from the lore that lets us know who Sauron is. As far as the lore is concerned, Sauron is just founding Mordor at this point and isn’t heard from again until he appears to the Elves as the Lord of Gifts.

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All of this is fan fiction. While some may know due to spoilers, no, there’s nothing from the lore that lets us know who Sauron is. As far as the lore is concerned, Sauron is just founding Mordor at this point and isn’t heard from again until he appears to the Elves as the Lord of Gifts.

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Yeah, based on lore, Sauron has not appeared as of yet. Everything we've seen would be headfakes.

If we try to apply the overall lore to the story as it is, perhaps Annatar pops up soon, with the alternate cure to fading (as in, not Mithril).
It will seem like a good thing, as the Elves won't need to consume all of the Dwarves' treasure.

Gil Galad will be at least skeptical, preferring to use what they've figured out will work (mithril, again). Celebrimbor, not wanting to bankrupt the Dwarves, will choose the new alternative...
Rings of Power.

I like it. It's not the way I would have imagined it, but it's well-made and interesting.
And I don't mind a show that is more dialogue-based, and doesn't toss some risque stuff out there just because they can. There's a place for that, but it doesn't have to be everywhere.

Scoob what do you think about the theory that the Stranger may be the Man in the Moon? Again not my theory but something that has been floating around since this last episode. Very little regarding him in the Lore and we hear of him I think in the Hobbit in song. I am not sure if in the LOTR.

He was a Maia as well and the link is with symbols on the disc the Ascetic of the moon and him looking at the moon. We have to assume the three our a cult looking for him as it appears the meteor and his arrival has started the whole chain of events that are unfolding before us.

It would make for an interesting story line.

So never noticed this one. At the end of Return of the King, the credits show this: a Gondorian knight facing off against two trolls… that has to intentional, right? For those of you who don’t know, Harvey had the rights for Lord of the Rings for a while, and Harvey originally wanted Jackson to make two Lord of the Rings films, but then in the end wanted Jackson to make it into a single two hour long film, which Jackson refused to do. Harvey as an insult to Jackson gave him the rights to Lord of the Rings and sarcastically wished him the best of luck finding any film executive in Hollywood with the balls to make it.

Enter Mark Ordesky. Jackson had gone to every single major film production studio in Hollywood pleading for them to allow him to make two Lord of the Rings films simultaneously and they all thought Jackson was insane. Then he finally went to New Line and talked with Ordesky. At the end of Jackson’s presentation Ordesky asks Jackson “Why would anyone in their right minds make two Lord of the Rings films?” Jackson starts packing his shite thinking he failed when Ordesky says “Isn’t the Lord of the Rings a trilogy? So this should clearly be three films.”

Ordesky saved the films really, but they still had to reluctantly give the Weinsteins some credit when they really didn’t have dick to do with the film outside of the rights. It was by far Harvey’s biggest frick up and loss of his career (outside of the raping of course) and he retained the rights to the Hobbit which is a big reason that took so long to make and was subpar. Also allegedly this orc in the Extended Edition was modeled after Harvey:

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In return of the king (movie) it was said Elrond had the ability of foresight into the future. Is that true? Was that something he's always had or when did he learn it?

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He had gifts in foresight but not to the degree of Galadriel’s. Tolkien said Galadriel was the second most powerful elf who ever lived outside of Fëanor, but Elrond was gifted in his own right.

From the Silmarillion:

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Thus Narsil came in due time to the hand of Valandil [...] but the blade was broken and its light was extinguished, and it was not forged anew. And Master Elrond foretold that this would not be done until the Ruling Ring should be found again

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And I forgot this, but while Galadriel said this in the films, Elrond did in the books:

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Elrond raised his eyes and looked at him, and Frodo felt his heart pierced by the sudden keenness of the glance. ‘If I understand aright all that I have heard,’ he said, ‘I think that this task is appointed for you, Frodo; and that if you do not find a way, no one will'

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But he also had conflicting visions as well, like this:

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Therefore naught was done at that time, though Elrond's heart misgave him, and he said to Mithrandir:

'Nonetheless I forbode that the One will yet be found, and then war will arise again, and in that war this Age will be ended. Indeed in a second darkness it will end, unless some strange chance deliver us that my eyes cannot see.’

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And

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Orcs were mustering, and far to the east and the south the wild peoples were arming. Then in the midst of gathering fear and the rumour of war the foreboding of Elrond was proved true, and the One Ring was indeed found again, by a chance more strange than even Mithrandir had foreseen; and it was hidden from Curunír and from Sauron.

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Galadriel I think had a step by step foresight after she passed her test which initially clouded her sight and why she needed Frodo to offer her the One Ring. That she knew would happen. Elrond’s was more there’s multiple paths.

Galadriel saw them too, but there is connection between Galadriel and Shelob that I think the show will likely seasons down the line encapsulate on. It’s what I’d do if I were writing the series. In a rare sense of humor by Sauron, he would mockingly call her his cat, even though he couldn’t control her, but that doubles down on the cat narrative as well. Shelob was always hungry, always needed to feed, so he’d just feed her his own servants if she was ever starving.

Elendil, I think, had the gift of wisdom, of correctly seeing what is happening from a small few bits of apparently unrelated events.

People seemed to travel far and wide to seek him out, in multiple stories, to get his take on what was going on. Hobbit, as well as LOTR.

Galadriel, using the Mirror in particular, was more of a "seer", and she had to suss out what was legit, what hadn't yet happened and could be avoided, etc. I see her Mirror as a take on the Palantiri, but not as yet corrupted by Sauron (it would be, if he took the One Ring again). Add to that her insight through millennia of personal experiences, and applying that to what she could see.
I think she's using her Ring, probably combined with stuff she learned from Melian and from Valinor, to do the Mirror.

Elrond has his Ring, but not the personal time alongside Melian, nor the time alongside the Valar and Maia in Valinor, so he doesn't have the necessary skills or knowledge to create (or power) such a device.

For all we know, it could be powered in part by Ulmo. It's never stated in LOTR or Hobbit, but Ulmo was infamous for skirting the Valar's self-imposed rules of not engaging in Middle Earth, and she uses water. That's his thing.
Galadriel is the last of the original Noldor who left, I seem to recall Ulmo had a soft spot for them. Turgon in particular, but others too. So he might do this for her, but not for the ones born in Middle Earth.
-In thinking about Ulmo and such, Galadriel was using water, as stated. I don't think Elrond used water for his knowledge... he did use it for the defense of his realm, but I don't think he gazed into a pool or fountain.

So, Ulmo could well be using that as a conduit to feed info to her, and it's not available to reach Elrond.

Speaking of water, I wonder if we get the Mirrormere soon in the show, or if they will wait on Galadriel and Celeborn to go East. That's where Durin saw his crown, and Frodo long after saw the same thing. Definitely some enchantment in that pool... I wonder if Galadriel gazes into it too, and takes some of the water with her for later usage? Base additive for the Mirror, and maybe to put in the phial for Frodo?

I kinda see a resemblance I guess.

Probably no way to tell if that’s a true story or not, of Harvey being the inspiration that is.