[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

No, please no, the obvious answer is NO.

Originally Posted by Hui

No. No you can't. Nobody can write a Tolkien novel except Tolkien, and he's busy being dead.

I completely glossed over that particular quote in the article, or took it as another basic cliché exclamation by filmmakers that one cannot take seriously, ever. But I am amused how strong reaction it caused

Originally Posted by Lommy

Strangely enough, this tidbit was the most exciting thing in the whole article for me. I am perhaps looking forward the most to see fresh visual depictions of Middle-Earth. I am very conscious they may fall short of my expectations, though...

I know that they will fall short of MY expectations, so... (Perhaps I oughta finally again change my signature. To that quote of Tolkien's from On Fairy-Stories about depicting bread.)

But seeing epically fully-crewed Khazad-Dûm, for sure! If it's done well...

Originally Posted by Lommy

I have so many questions about this. Are these the interpretations of the article writer, or new show canon? Will Elrond be a wily politician? Will Isildur's background still be royal, or will he be just an ordinary sailor?

I hope not!!! To be fair, the writer seems not-so-clearly-reading about some stuff (and even calls Khazad-Dûm a necropolis or whatever).

Originally Posted by Hui

And then there's the plot. I've already noted that they're condensing everything down to one mortal lifetime. That... yeah, that sounds bad, but what does it actually mean?

Originally Posted by Lommy

And funnily enough, this is the creative choice I'm the least suspicious about. It's very understandable - yet I guess we'll have to wait and see how it works out. Will Sauron be constantly zigzagging between Eregion and Númenór and various kingdoms of men where he is corrupting the future nazgûls?

I am with Lommy on this, and it is also what I wanted to say - condensing the plot is the smallest thing I am worried about. It's literally what they say, either you'd have to switch human characters in every episode, or you have to cut the darkening of Númenor into a few decades (or less). For narrative purposes, I'm absolutely fine with this. It isn't the Tale of Years. For crying out loud, in the first promotional pictures they are depicting a Halsmowhatever and Brontosaurella sitting together in some Thurthobundlesville which doesn't exist, even though they have an entire Middle-Earth full of places they could have picked, even if they were sitting in Eryn Vorn!

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

Whatever the source material, this series is going to have a broad scope. They have 22 "stars"; even allowing for many of them to appear in pairs, that's a lot of storylines to play with. (It's also a weird number, because there are 23 character posters; is one of them a duplicate character? Did they really like a minor character's design?) The list of locations spans most of Middle-earth: Numenor, Lindon, presumably Eregion, Khazad-dum, and various undefined places that are probably further east.

Faithfulness to Tolkien etc aside for now... Purely as a series with a plot that one would want to enjoy watching: I wonder how well they can manage this task. It feels like a logical idea in terms of what they intend to portray, but is it too much? Can they? Will it end up being too disjointed? Every episode, one scene with Disa asking Durin about weather, one scene with Galadriel doing the same with Hallsbaldwagon, then wait until next episode to see what they replied?

Sidenote: I see that they are not yet showing Sauron/Annatar. Probably an intentional move and a good one, makes me only more curious. THAT may be one of the things that will determine whether it's good or not. (At least I hope he isn't going to be portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch. But I think that time when you opened a cupboard and he was there has passed. It would be supercool if actually Sauron was played by multiple people, "outfitting" himself to seem more pleasant to the respective peoples he talked with. That would be - with a bit of an artistic license - canon, and pretty cool.)

Originally Posted by Hui

So... in that context, what are they doing with the plot? They say that it's all about building up to the forging and gifting of the Rings, with the goal being to establish who the various cultures who received them actually were. So I imagine we'll see a lot of disparate plotlines at first, in different corners of Middle-earth, all of them eventually converging on Celebrimbor's forge.

Which is good. To be fair I'd be up for that plot being a series, with one season - not sure how much it will start to feel dragged-out if we have five...

Originally Posted by Hui

And yes, that means some of the mortal characters will almost certainly become Nazgul. Halbrand and Bronwyn are the two mortals named in the article (and Isildur, but please, no); I bet at least one of them gets a Ring.*

(*"But the Nazgul are all male!" Yes, and Galadriel is an elven-king under the sky.)

That crossed my mind too, and I was wondering if Mr. Hallstadtsborn might. If we are already dealing with that, Bronwyn would be a cool idea (and I can sort of mentally spin a story based on the little we know about her).

And indeed as for female Ringwraith, the good ol' I.C.E. back in the 80s used to have a certain Adûnaphel as one of them, and I was fine with that pseudocanon.

But Isildur - please never!