Okay, trailer review, using
G55's numbering, and drawing on the
Vanity Fair reaction article (which seems to have extra information):
1. A lovely opening shot of what VF confirms to be Numenor. The archway has some nice patterning on it, and the ship looks like an interesting design. The tower (ooh, it's a lighthouse!) has a movie-Imladris feel to it, and presumably the Argonathalike is Elros. Almost has to be Romenna. The Meneltarma is nice and imposing, though I always pictured it taller than it is wide.
2. Flyover of the Meeple. This looks very like the famous flyover of the Fellowship all strung out in a line from the movie - it might even be the same filming location! I'm not convinced the Meeple are even characters; they may just be scenery to show that M-e is full of primitive nomads right now. (VF says they're "not particularly central to the story".) I feel like the valley behind gets more of a dramatic reveal than it really warrants; there's nothing there! Did they forget some SFX?
3. Nori! The name's still dumb, but this is
Nori Brandyfoot, the Harfoot. She's almost certainly the voiceover as well. VF says the Harfeet live "within the forest and fields", so my guess is eastern Mirkwood (exactly as various people are saying upthread!). I think she's adorable.
4. Waterfall, and an ice-choked river running from it, leading into:
5. Galadriel climbing the ice-cliff beside said waterfall. VF says this "is clearly the Forodwaith", but that means they don't know. It's obviously the source of the rumours about the Helcaraxe appearing in episode 1, but yeah, we don't know. It's ice. Could be anywhere from the Grinding Ice to Mindolluin. I'm not impressed with her climbing technique; I wonder whether she's meant to have fallen from the top? Would explain why she's using her dagger to climb. There are at least three other billowing cloaks below her, suggesting a party of climbers/fallers.
Her 8-rayed star emblem makes a reappearance. It looks like it has uneven rays, which makes it
not the Star of Feanor (which in any case should have 16). It could be based on the House Finarfin emblem, which has 8 'rays' and a central circle; but I think it's just a generic star for the High Elves.
6. Halbrand on his raft. The raft seems to have bits of sail, and what looks like a grille, so I think it's actually a chunk of wrecked ship. The colour scheme seems to match the Numenorean ship, so maybe he's a Numenorean mariner (and buddy of Isildur)? But then his name is in the wrong language...
7. Arondir in the woods, showing off his arrow-fu. Little bit silly, but oddly enough a quick Google confirms that catching an arrow in flight is physically possible. There's three arrows coming at him, and they look like they might be black-fletched (his are red) - Orcs?
8. The fireball. Flies over a gnarled-looking wood that I would parse as Mirkwood-y. This would make sense; see later.
8a.
Gil-Galad looking up. Are those gold leaves? Have they put
mellyrn in Lindon? Tolkien explicitly stated that they didn't grow there, though at least Gil-Galad was canonically gifted them (which is where Galadriel got hers). If the fireball is east of the Mountains, he might not actually be looking at it; there's no yellow glow on his face.
9. Galadriel, leading an armoured cavalry charge... well, could be anywhere from Forodwaith to Ithilien.
10. Galadriel again (I recognise her chainmail), in a cave with snow on the ground, finding a goblitroll thing; I think it's ice-encrusted. Putting this together with the waterfall and the claims about her "fool's errand" - she's hunting through the North for traces of evil, and oh look, she found some. Possibly she winds up in the Sea while trying to get home (shades of Arvedui) - ie, her 'crazy solo quest' is actually just the first couple of episodes, before she can get word back to Lindon that she was right after all.
11. Elves, forest, and a cliff over the sea. I reckon this is Lindon, and that could be Gil-Galad in the middle. It would match the image of Lindon in the Galadriel-Elrond reunion shot from the first VF article. So... yeah, either it's autumn, or TV!Gil-Galad has figured out how to grow
mellyrn.
12. Prince Durin IV. The
10 Questions article says he's the son of Durin III, which... I mean, it's not
quite ruled out by the books and timelines, but would make the superstition that they were both reincarnations of Durin I a bit hard to cling to.
13. Elrond is not happy about that rock. He seems to be in Khazad-Dum, and I like the detail that he's got wing-patterning on his shoulders - his grandfather led the House of the Wing! I'm not sure what the rod is that he's holding - it's clearly of dwarf-make.
14. Disa, singing. The original VF article described this as a "scene-stealing" moment, and the later ones have talked about dwarves using chants to sound out the rock. I mean... sure?
15. Galadriel on Halbrand's raft. She's lost her armour, and might even be naked; she's also unbraided her hair for some reason. And onoes! She's an elf! It doesn't seem like she expects that to go down well.
16. The fireball has landed, and Nori is pulling
The Stranger out of it. Wild Mass Guessing on the internet says this could be one of the Istari, or maybe Sauron somehow. The producers are being very cagey about it, and seem to expect it to be an eagerly-discussed mystery. Not gonna lie, this looks kind of daft.
17. Prince Durin smashes a rock, while at least three older dwarves look on. VF want this to be a rock-smashing contest with Elrond. I mean... it
could be the same rock? Would imply that the rod Elrond had was actually the handle of an axe. But that seems very silly.
18. Arondir attacking a ship. Could it be... a Numenorean ship? Is he fighting off Numenorean slave-takers who are attacking mortal villages? Please?
19. Gold armour, shields with trees on ("the tree of the High Elves" from the doors of Moria), and a blond elf we've not seen elsewhere looking very distressed at being attacked by Orcs. That's... it isn't...
please tell me this isn't supposed to be The Death of Finrod. I don't ask for much, but please don't let that be Finrod. (The fire in the background could imply this is the same sequence as the one we first saw armoured Galadriel's photo in?)
20. Nori and the Stranger, holding hands. I guess they're going to go about together being mysterious and secretive. Even if he's not Gandalf, he's certainly implied to fill a Gandalf-like space. (Maybe he's Bom Tombadil!
)
Overall? I don't hate it. Some of it's silly, but a trailer will always bend towards the most visually distinctive moments. I doubt Arondir spends his entire time catching arrows, and Galadriel almost certainly stands on the ground at some point. I am not sold on the fireball, but... well, so far we don't know anything about it, and I think I can allow them at least one Deus Ex Machina. We'll see where it goes.
I do really like the designs, and the varied colour palette! It might actually make it possible to tell everything apart! And the Lindon "mallorns" look a lot closer to my image of
mellyrn than what Movie Lorien gave us.
Coming September 2nd, Tolkien's death-day. Umm... maybe that's a little on-the-nose.
hS