Lord of the Rings TV series gets multi-season order at Amazon

[Faramir Jones]

Formendacil, I found what you wrote here interesting:

Nah, the real twist will come (at the end of season three or four) when Aragorn is killed and Evilagorn takes his place as part of some long con to infiltrate Lórien--but it turns out that Arwen is there and he falls as head-over-heels as his twin did and he commits to BEING Aragorn thenceforth and was actually the Strider that we come to know in The Lord of the Rings all along--the pipeweed (such an unelvish habit) is the only indicator left.

However, I then asked myself this question: 'Should you be giving certain people bad ideas?'

[Boromir88]

I just wonder about the balance there... ~Inzil

It is a difficult balance, but can be done. Sounds like they're trying to go with a "faithful fan-fiction" approach. Not too dissimilar from our RPG structure on the 'Downs. I was never very involved in the role-playing forums here, but I always appreciated the structure to keep it grounded in Tolkien and Middle-earth, and not stray into the Star Wars realm of fan-fiction.

We could only guess at this point...but maybe "completely original" in terms of characters and plot, but a "faithful adaptation" in terms of setting, background and overall vision (in what leads up to Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings").

It can be successful and funny that essentially the Lord of the Rings isn't so much a black and white battle between good vs. evil. It's more about the battle between Hope and Despair. "Hope" in the even the very wise can not predict all ends, there's always a "Fool's Hope." Despair in "there is no hope, I know and can predict what the end is going to be." For me, when I think of the Hollywood business, despair has won. I know we're going to get the same recycled, uninspiring, dumbed down attempts to be "original" and appeal to the masses.

[Rhun charioteer]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.av...1832655334/amp

the Amazon teaser has a map that extends beyond the sea of Rhun. To be pedantic, I don't think the orocarni were that close. They should be further in the east.

Anyway, though we are getting these minor teasers, and Amazon must be intending to build hype slowly.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Rhun charioteer

To be pedantic, I don't think the orocarni were that close. They should be further in the east.

I agree, but then again they're not necessarily meant to be the Orocarni. They could just be an Eastern mountain chain someone made up to add something to the map. For all we know, whoever added them to the map has no idea what an "Orocarni" even is.

Someone on Reddit (who amusingly refers to it as "That stupid mountain range") claims that this non-Tolkien addition to the map predates this Amazon series and possibly appears in the films too. I'm curious as to where it originated.

UPDATE: Maybe it originates from the "official" (ie film-official) maps made for the Hobbit films, e.g. this. I wonder why on earth anyone felt the need to add a non-canonical element to the maps for that. Maybe at some point in the film script "Eastern Dwarves" were going to be mentioned or something, along with the kitchen sink presumably. However, the Reddit person claims (in a rather vehement discourse in another thread) that they pre-date even the Lord of the Rings films, although they don't give any evidence for that.

If it is meant to be the Orocarni, presumably the coast wouldn't be far away and Rhûn as a whole would be tiny. In my opinion, Rhûn should be huge: far, far larger than the Middle-earth we see, like comparing Europe and Asia.

[Rhun charioteer]

I agree. Rhun should be vast.

I suppose it could be a connecting chain of the orocarni which stretch westward or something.

But given the fact that it is so noticeable and the series is about Aragorn who did go to Rhun-I think that might be why the map has more of Rhun shown. Becuase it will be a location of the series.

Also I find it amazing people were getting so excited over the lack of Beleriand "it must be the second or third age, no Beleriand!"

I was like well yes, they don't have the rights to the silmarillion.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

UPDATE: Maybe it originates from the "official" (ie film-official) maps made for the Hobbit films, e.g. this. I wonder why on earth anyone felt the need to add a non-canonical element to the maps for that. Maybe at some point in the film script "Eastern Dwarves" were going to be mentioned or something, along with the kitchen sink presumably. However, the Reddit person claims (in a rather vehement discourse in another thread) that they pre-date even the Lord of the Rings films, although they don't give any evidence for that.

Someone else on the Reddit thread links to the map from the Fellowship movie, which also features them. Neither movie map shows the weirdly quartered forest, though; that seems original to Amazon (and to my mind confirms that they're intending to go there).

Those rivers coming east off the Sea of Rhun aren't on the Tolkien maps either; they seem to originate from the old Middle-earth Role-Playing game (MERP). This map (1997) shows them, for instance, though I can't find any maps around that date that extend further east. (This version from 1982 doesn't show the rivers or the mountains.)

Interestingly, overlaying either Ambarkanta map IV or V onto my map matching Beleriand to Himling-Fuin-Morwen (you can line up the Blue Mountains and the shore of Beleriand easily, and the endpoint of the March lines up with the Bay of Balar nicely) puts the Orocarni anywhere between the eastern edge of Mirkwood, and the Misty Mountains themselves. It's pretty clear that Tolkien originally thought of his world as a lot smaller, and that the Misty Mountains and the lands around them were a much later addition.

Someone on the Reddit thread has pointed out that the compass is labelled really weirdly: instead of N-E-S-W, it reads D-Th-Nd/Ng-Z/Nj (depending on which version of the Cirth you look at; it can't be Hobbit-style runes or Norse runes, because it uses characters those don't have). That doesn't match any of the known Middle-earth languages (and no, it's not a copy of the Thorin's Map compass either), and the Hobbit/FotR maps from the films were labelled in English.

My best guess is that they used a font set up in a strange order - the Shadow of War game did that with their Tengwar, and people are generally pretty bad about checking. But you never know, there might be something to it.

hS

[Huinesoron]

Seven for the Dwarf Lords, in their halls of stone.

"Calenardhon".

Suddenly this map is 10x more exciting.

EDIT: Could it be the War of the Elves and Sauron? We've got the Ring poem, and the presence of old names like Calenardhon (assumed Gondorian but could be earlier) and Lindon (almost always Second Age). We've got a big obvious space to the right of 'Eriador', and no similar space to fit 'Arthedain' (if they were doing the Fall of Arnor). And it would make a good story, in the Game of Thrones way: Celebrimbor delving into Forbidden Arts with Satanic help, Numenor, if not going full slaver yet, at least utterly disregarding the rights of the local peoples, Lindon forting up and refusing to let anyone in, and Annatar the Bright wandering around stirring up trouble...

(This was suggested to me by someone on another forum, but most of the detail is mine.)

hS

[Kuruharan]

The Orocarni (if that is what those are supposed to be) should be a much larger mountain range.

Given the names on the map, I agree with Huinesoron that the Second Age looks more likely.