Rings of Power

While there's lots of other things going on in this episode, a big chunk of it (rock pun!) hinges on why the dwarven prince Durin is absolutely pissed at Elrond ...

While there is a world of tragedy and tradition in [the immortal society](https://www.polygon.com/lord-of-the-rings/22610056/lord-of-the-rings-where-elves-go-when-they-die-grey-havens) he built, it’s all [terribly self-serious](https://www.polygon.com/lord-of-the-rings/22565789/lotr-legolas-weird-faces-expression-orlando-bloom-elf) in the way a lot of lesser high fantasy inspired by Tolkien comes across. In Middle-earth, dwarves live longer than humans (about 300 years to humankind’s roughly 100, when things go well) but it’s still, as Durin tells Elrond, a lifetime, a significant piece of his finite time alive on Middle-earth. In hashing out his beef with Elrond, Prince Durin (Owain Arthur) is a window to the dwarven perspective on Middle-earth. Check out the second episode of Amazon’s [The Rings of Power](https://www.polygon.com/23329258/lord-rings-power-review-episode-release), and reconsider. But the best thing about Rings of Power’s second episode is that it also takes them seriously on a dramatic level. Tolkien’s fantasy humanoids](https://www.polygon.com/lord-of-the-rings) is best, dwarves or elves, I would go with dwarves every time.

The Rings of Power takes place in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Frodo takes the ring to Mordor in The Lord of the Rings. While elves ...

Most will remember Galadriel as one of the most powerful elves in The Lord of the Rings, but here she is still young. During The Rings of Power, which takes place during the Second Age, Elrond is living in Lindon serving the current Elven high king, Gil-Galad (Benjamin Walker). The Rings of Power takes place in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Frodo takes the ring to Mordor in The Lord of the Rings.

An elf woman in silver armor and a long blonde braid in the middle of a. Galadriel's journey in "The Rings of Power" is quite different from her story in ...

In the end, The Rings of Power is both a tribute to Tolkien's work and an exercise in mythmaking, using works like the "Tale of Years" as a starting point. The Rings of Power doesn't re-adapt The Lord of the Rings. Its new characters and storylines present thoughtful additions to Tolkien's writings on the Second Age, and they fill in the blanks of the "Tale of Years" in ways that are simultaneously unexpected yet completely earned. Arwen and Aragorn's love in The Lord of the Rings is the most prominent example. Just because these characters are new to The Rings of Power doesn't mean they're without precedent in Tolkien's canon. The Rings of Power makes Galadriel the main character in a way she hasn't been before, examining her role as a commander and leader before becoming the Lady of Lórien. If The Rings of Power has to shift canon so we can explore these locations and so these characters can meet up, I don't mind. It's extremely important to Tolkien's mythos, and based on the trailers, it will play a big role in The Rings of Power. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. This allows them to flesh out the key milestones of Middle-earth in a way that Tolkien couldn't with just a timeline. However, not a lot of it is written out in detail — you can find a condensed timeline of these events in Appendix B of The Lord of the Rings, also known as the "Tale of Years." [The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power](https://mashable.com/article/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-review) are here, and they are nothing short of spectacular.

A women wearing armor and carrying a sword walks away from a burning building. Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) takes center stage in Amazon's new prequel series.

That hasn’t always been a bad thing; action and fantasy films embracing the nuances of morality and subverting the logic of cinema have led to some of the 21st century’s best filmmaking. And just as I often felt nervous while watching Game of Thrones whether it had a coherent endpoint in mind as it weaved and bobbed through Westeros, I worry that The Rings of Power will be stuffed with too many invented subplots and side characters that ultimately don’t have anything to do with the story besides adding more run time. Among the hobbit-like Harfoots, we see the spunky young Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh), and in the world of men, there’s the healer and single mother Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi), who strikes up a romance with a warrior elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova). In short, it explores Middle Earth’s Second Age, which takes place thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings and is not based on any of Tolkien’s novels, but rather the information gleaned in their appendices. To answer the question: The Rings of Power is not like Game of Thrones, at least not in that way. Anonymous sources told the fan blog [The One Ring that](https://www.theonering.net/torwp/2021/07/20/110907-spy-report-incredible-details-from-amazons-lord-of-the-rings-characters-sexless-nudity-halflings/) while there will be nudity in the series, it would be “sparse and not sexualized.” Happily, many of the most important ones are women: Amazon’s series centers on a younger Galadriel, played by Morfydd Clark (Cate Blanchett in the films), a warrior elven princess intent on avenging her brother’s death by Sauron. [published](https://dc.swosu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2138&context=mythlore) a scathing critique of the women of J.R.R. (For context about what happens to the women of GoT, in the first two episodes of House of the Dragon, there’s a brutally graphic childbirth scene in which [both mother and infant die](https://www.vox.com/culture/23316570/house-of-the-dragon-heirs-review-recap-childbirth-scene), and in the second, a grown man almost [marries a 12-year-old girl](https://www.vox.com/culture/23327326/house-of-the-dragon-episode-2-rogue-prince-review-recap-rhaenyra-alicent-rhaenicent).) “It is technically an epic fantasy adventure, but I don’t think it hews to the same kind of ideas of masculinity and power that a lot of these stories traditionally do,” the writer Karen Han told the Had Game of Thrones cast such a shadow over the entertainment world that a high fantasy series without sex and gore was considered unprofitable? Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

Amazon's ambitious “Lord of the Rings” prequel series has finally arrived. Here are seven takeaways from the first two episodes.

Part of the challenge for Payne and McKay — as it was for Tolkien and Jackson — is to tell a story with clearly defined heroes and villains that leaves room for those heroes to be complicated. No “Lord of the Rings” plot really gets going until the heroes leave home. In a climactic moment at the end of the first episode, Galadriel chooses not to join her comrades, and instead jumps off their boat before the light transports them. The humans in Middle-earth are weary of the elves patrolling their lands and acting haughtily. And unlike “House of the Dragon” — which so far has kept most of its action confined to one or two locations — “The Rings of Power” spreads its story around. It’s hard to avoid comparing the TV “Lord of the Rings” with the much-hyped “House of the Dragon,” given that both are pricey prequels, derived from beloved works of fantasy fiction, arriving at the same time. That said, anyone who loved “Thrones” will find it hard not to notice how “The Rings of Power” keeps viewers oriented by zooming across a cool-looking computer-animated map, much like in the HBO hit’s opening credits. Now that the first two episodes of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” are finally available to Prime Video subscribers, we have some answers to long-lingering questions. “The Rings of Power” similarly sets the stage cleanly and clearly. There may be some benefit to remaining Tolkien-neutral when it comes to “The Rings of Power.” Though the series draws on the author’s detailed notes about his fantasy realm, the showrunners, J.D. Part of what made the “Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy a success was that Jackson and his team simplified Tolkien’s saga, beginning with a prologue that explained what viewers needed to know. Long ago there was a grand battle between the evil Lord Sauron’s armies and a coalition of heroic humans and elves, and in the aftermath an all-powerful ring fell into the wrong hands, so now it must be taken to a volcano and destroyed.

But as might be the case with "House of the Dragon," a prequel series to a beloved fantasy property might spook off newcomers unfamiliar with the original ...

The showrunners for "Rings of Power" are J.D. Of course, Elves are immortal in Tolkien's world, and their participation in Second Age events was canonized in "The Silmarillion." There are Dwarves, too -- King Durin III and his brood -- who live in prosperity in the city of Moria before an unfortunate encounter with a (It's worth noting that Tolkien's son made these comments around the release of Jackson's first "Hobbit" film, which received far more middling reviews than his first three films in Middle-earth.) Oh, and don't expect immediate resolution to the series' storylines -- Payne told Amazon's cast list is exhaustive (but notably missing a few names, including that of the unknown actor thought to play Sauron). Whether you've pored over "The Silmarillion" repeatedly in advance of the new show or you don't know the difference between an Orc and an Ent (one's a goblinesque monster and the other is a talking, walking tree creature, for the record), here's what you need to know before you watch "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power." She's back in the prequel, this time played by Morfydd Clark, and by the looks we've gotten of her in the trailers, she's just returned from battle when we catch up with her. We may or may not get to see the Lord of the Rings himself in his corporeal form -- Amazon is keeping mum on how he'll appear in the series, but he'll undoubtedly loom large over it. It's likely meant to be presented as a fictional historical account written by several authors -- possibly including one Bilbo Baggins -- that covers everything from the origin of Tolkien's world to its later ages. , the action is set in Middle-earth's Second Age, "thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Now is the Tolkienites' time to geek out --

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The company could [use some goodwill](https://www.wired.com/story/hbo-max-discovery-plus-combined/). Perhaps giving people a reason to hit the box office to see one of the biggest TV shows of the year—if not the biggest TV show of the year—is just the thing. Understandably, Amazon spent millions of dollars on the show as a way to get people to subscribe to Prime, not get their butts into cinema seats. Also, Rings of Power is a TV show, not a movie, so its format isn’t exactly conducive to the cinema experience. [Covid-19](https://www.wired.com/tag/covid-19/) pandemic, and while blockbusters like Spider-Man: No Way Home and Top Gun: Maverick have proven there is still an appetite for big-screen experiences, the future of movie theaters is the subject of much hand-wringing. [AMC ad](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiEeIxZJ9x0), which has been playing ahead of screenings at the theater chain for months, revealed that it’s getting a sequel.

The Silvan Elves are a bit more interesting. Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) and his companions are a colonizing force, occupying the Southlands. They express ...

Overall, we’re intrigued and excited about watching the next episode, and that’s exactly what the early episodes of a new show should do. Episode 1 has the stronger climax, though, with Galadriel’s leap off the boat to Valinor and that very Game of Thrones-like comet with a mysterious man inside. And by the way did you notice how he wraps himself in a grey-ish blanket… But the series is already compressing millennia of that history into one human’s lifetime for this adaptation, so who’s to say they won’t introduce one of the Wizards early? The sea serpent attack is a great example of the sort of thing that, while the scene is invented for the series, feels like something that would happen in Tolkien’s stories (and as different as the world of Narnia is, the fact that there’s a well-known sea serpent passage in his friend C.S. If so, the most likely options would seem to be the two Blue Wizards, Alatar and Pallando. The ritual during which veiled women strip the warriors of their armor is rather odd, but Galadriel’s choice, a single tear running down her cheek, is a moving and emotional moment. Since Elves don’t age, these are literally the same characters we meet hundreds of years later in The Lord of the Rings, so naturally their clothing, accents, culture and so on more or less match what we know from the later stories. Following two young female Harfoots, rather than four young male ones, also helps to further separate their story from that of the later Hobbits we know so well. The reveal of exactly why Durin (Owain Arthur) is so cross with Elrond is also a nice touch. [in our spoiler-free review](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-review/), the series is stunningly beautiful, the set, costume, and visual effects work is impeccable, the acting is great, and it all has the feel of a tale with an epic scope. We meet five different cultures from four different peoples over the course of these two episodes; Ñoldorian Elves, Silvan Elves, (Wo)Men of the Southlands, Harfoots, and Dwarves.

Elves, Harfoots, humans, and trolls — a new adventure in Middle-earth begins. Galadriel and Elrond Image via Prime Video.

Galadriel dives overboard, into the water, the shimmering light above her, and surfaces just in time to see the wall of clouds closes again, shrouding the sea and her in darkness. Ever curious, she follows it to the sight of impact, where she finds an unexpected sight: a nearly naked man, curled up in the center of the fiery hole. “You and I must look to the new sunrise.” He tells Elrond he’ll be working with Lord Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), “the greatest of Elven smiths” on a new project. A flock of white seabirds bursts through the clouds and encircles the boat while the elves break into harmonious song. But her mother, Marigold (Sara Zwangobani) urges her daughter to find satisfaction there in their village; the Harfoots are the only creatures of Middle-earth who are just responsible to their community, and that relationship is how they survive. When he asks for more details on the poisoning (and is unconvincingly rebuffed), Rowan (Ian Blackburn) shouts at “knife-ears” (rude!) that “One day our true king will return and pry us right out from under your pointy boots.” Arondir goes out back to share a charged moment with Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi), a local healer, who seems way happier to see him than anyone else in town. She and her company kneel in their armor (somehow both fierce and luxuriously draped — the elven magic gives them both immortality and impeccable fashion) as High King Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) honors them for their efforts. He tells her that a stone sinks because it looks down into the dark water; a boat floats because it looks up to the light. While surrounded by orc corpses embedded in the walls, Galadriel finds the three-pronged sigil carved into the stone, a sign that Sauron survived. As the Two Trees of Valinor are destroyed, the elves sail East across the Sundering Seas to Middle-earth to battle Morgoth’s orcs and to restore peace. Over the objections of Thondir (Fabian McCallum), she pushes the party through a blizzard and into a massive ruin of jagged stone. [The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power](https://collider.com/tag/the-lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power/) begins with this assurance, intoned in the dark by Galadriel (Morfydd Clark).

The default color on many TVs is too blue, but a quick tweak can improve accuracy. James Martin/CNET. What's happening. Picture settings ...

You can also take a look at the [best 4K TVs available](/tech/home-entertainment/best-4k-tv/). If your TV is getting the resolution you want from your sources, new HDMI cables won't make the image look or sound better, so you can save your money. You might need to pay for a higher tier to get that, depending on the service. The contrast control adjusts how bright the bright parts of the image are. As mentioned above, the next step to fine-tuning your TV to perfection is getting a setup disc. In other words, the bright areas of the image still have detail, and aren't just awash in white. [Input lag](/tech/home-entertainment/best-gaming-tv/) is how long it takes for you to press a button on a game controller and then to have an onscreen effect in the game. On newer Sony TVs this setting is labeled Brightness, and on Roku TVs there are five settings (Brightest to Darkest) in addition to a backlight control. [Filmmaker](/tech/home-entertainment/filmmaker-mode-could-make-tv-settings-easier-on-lg-samsung-and-vizio/). Believe it or not, your TV doesn't always come looking its best right out of the box. It's one of many fantasy series bursting with sophisticated special effects, and you can stream all of that magic from the comfort of your couch. [The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power](/culture/entertainment/the-rings-of-power-review-a-familiar-epic-middle-earth-adventure/) started its epic journey on Sept.

Amazon Prime's new The Lord of the Rings prequel brings viewers back to Middle Earth with a familiar nostalgic soundscape of ethereal voices, yearning horns ...

The Mystics – Bear McCreary The Boat – Bear McCreary Valinor – Bear McCreary McCreary composed the nine hours of music in just eight months, which was then recorded across four days. Sauron – Bear McCreary The Stranger – Bear McCreary Galadriel – Bear McCreary The harmonic language has this middle eastern progression.” “When we’re with the Elves, you’re going to hear choirs ethereal voices. I’m not trying to rock the boat or unpleasantly surprise you.” [A trumpeter played ‘Misty Mountain’ from The Hobbit in a stairwell… R.

In a July interview with Screenrant during San Diego Comic-Con, actor Daniel Weyman had this to say about his time as The Stranger. "They were pretty clear at ...

Tolkien didn't write much of anything about what Tom was up to during the First Age or the Second Age, only that he was in Middle-earth hanging out with his wife, Goldberry, who was also a river spirit. That means The Stranger landed in front of Nori a very long time before Gandalf is sent to help fight Sauron. In the books he is at the Council of Elrond after having rescued Frodo from the Ringwraiths and not Arwen. It's possible this could be part of Annatar's disguise and he'll change after a good shave, but with the information we have right now it's unlikely to be him. We are going to learn and learn and learn, and finding out what exactly is going on might not be so quick." "They were pretty clear at the beginning that what they were bringing me was a character who had, at his core, a really deep and primal purpose.

The new Amazon Prime series based on the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien is rated TV-14.

The first two episodes of “The Rings of Power” introduced some frightening creatures and menacing characters. This series is not based on a Tolkien book, but on the six-part “appendices” about Middle-earth history that follow his book “Return of the King.” The so-far mild sexual innuendo and references will likely pass over kids’ heads. The entire series is expected to cost more than $1 billion. But there are some familiar elves — notably Galadriel — and evil forces we’re all too familiar with. Amazon paid $250 million for the rights, and that’s just the beginning.

Amazon Prime Video quietly introduced a new 72-hour delay for all user reviews posted to Prime Video, including "A League of Their Own" and "The Lord of the ...

[Lord of the Rings](https://variety.com/t/lord-of-the-rings/): [The Rings of Power](https://variety.com/t/the-rings-of-power/),” Prime Video’s monumentally scaled fantasy series based on the works of J.R.R. The series appears to have been review bombed — when trolls flood intentionally negative reviews for a show or film — on other sites like [Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_lord_of_the_rings_the_rings_of_power), where it has an 84% rating from professional critics, but a 37% from user-submitted reviews. Each critique is then evaluated to determine whether it’s genuine or a forgery created by a bot, troll or other breed of digital goblin.

“The lord of the Rings”, a film trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien's novels, set the standard for blockbuster adaptations of beloved books.

After all, what made “The Lord of the Rings” so effective was the simplicity of the underlying idea. More than that, “The Rings of Power” is a statement of Amazon’s grand aspirations. As Galadriel, the hero of the show, once proclaimed: “The quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Now “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”, a series on Amazon Prime Video, will attempt to match that success. [Game of Thrones](/culture/2022/08/19/house-of-the-dragon-is-a-slick-follow-up-to-game-of-thrones)” or Netflix’s “Stranger Things”. “The lord of the Rings”, a film trilogy based on J.R.R.

The Nigeria Watch Party will feature 6 hosts – Falz, Timini , Tobi Bakre, The Geng, Stephanie Coker & Real Warri Pikin (Prime Video Naija let us in on this with ...

For the watch party, Goodnewx curated unique looks for each of The Geng members. Focusing on creating sophisticated, vibrant, and practical pieces for the modern woman. The brand is named after its founder, Banke Kuku who has collaborated with fashion businesses such as Duro Olowu and others and has been worn by celebrities such as Michelle Obama and Lupita Nyongo, as well as hitting the runway during New York Fashion Week. Ugochukwu Monye, a renowned Nigerian fashion designer who founded Ugo Monye, is the creative director of the brand. The Brand is known for showcasing richness through bespoke tailoring. The hosts sent out personal invitations to their friends.

Amazon Studios' new The Lord of the Rings show is pretty, but also pretty dull, at least at the start.

Hopefully the little bit of momentum in the second episode continues and the series picks up the pace. The Fellowship was perfect because for most of it you just had one elf around to do some sick archery and banter with a grouchy dwarf. (They literally have twigs and leaves in their hair, messily cram berries into their mouths, and are in great need of the invention of bathtubs and napkins.) I'm happy with this, and it does a lot to explain the wanderlust of Bilbo, the durability of Samwise, and the curiosity of Pippin. The rest of the elves, including Elrond, not a ruler yet but a younger assistant to the regional manager, figure that since Sauron hasn't been seen lately, he's probably not worth worrying about. The first two episodes of Amazon Studio's The Rings of Power, the television prequel series to The Lord of the Rings, aired late yesterday. When sitting down to play a new game, sometimes the wait between 'sitting down' and 'playing' is a gulf of unskippable cutscenes.

While Sauron is one of the most iconic pop culture villains, thanks to Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Morgoth is a more obscure villain. And as ...

When he felt he could no longer stand to the combined forces of Middle-earth and the Valar, Morgoth pledged for his life, trying to break peace after all the pain he caused. The story of The Rings of Power starts many centuries after Sauron vanished, and before he would rise as a new Dark Lord. In order to protect the Children of Ilúvatar, the Valar united and attacked Melkor in his fortress in Middle-earth, defeating the villain. Also known as the Wars of Beleriand, the great battles that marked the First Age of Middle-earth always involved Morgoth, the Elves, and the Silmarils, dragging other people and the Valar into the conflict multiple times. And as the first episode of The Rings of Power explains, the evil lord was around for a long time, since his war against the Elves raged for centuries. So, when his sentence came to an end, he claimed to be regretful of his actions, and vowed to help the Valar and the Elves to prosper.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" star Morfydd Clark discusses what she would say to Tolkien fans surprised to see Galadriel as a badass warrior.

And even before Frodo carried the Ring of Power, it was his uncle Bilbo Baggins who discovered it deep within the Misty Mountains after it abandoned Gollum, who ...

The Meteor Man has come to Middle-earth, and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power fans already are trying to figure out who he is.

Prime Video's Lord Of The Rings TV show's most mysterious character got some screen time last night. Here's what it could mean.

The cast of Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power including Charlie Vickers, Morfydd Clark, Robert Aramayo, and Ben Walker along with executive producers JD ...

It appears the streaming wars between the two biggest fantasy epic shows did not start off well for Amazon's 'The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power', ...

While on Collider Ladies Night, Markella Kavenagh details her experience joining The Rings of Power and bringing Nori Brandyfoot to life on screen.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power kicks off with a "meteor man" mystery fans are trying to solve... By Lacy Baugher | ...

Elrond, Galadriel, and Gil-galad's heads edited onto the cats from the 2019. Shout out to Mashable's Art Team for honoring this extremely unhinged art request.

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is getting slammed essentially everywhere that accepts fan reviews: On Rotten Tomatoes, while its critics score is 84% ...

Arondir and Bronwyn's relationship in the new Amazon Lord of the Rings show causes a rift between the Middle-earth races, but J.R.R. Tolkien's books and ...

Lord of the Rings - For a newcomer to the wonderful world of Middle-earth, the universe created by the British author and academic J.R.R. Tolkien can seem ...

In what can either be attributed to kismet or corporate rivalry, Amazon and HBO both launched big-budget, high-fantasy prequel series within a few weeks of ...