"The Rings of Power" Vanity Fair article

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

I'm guessing the antler-carrying nomads are meant to be fairly eastward too - that would tie in with the Hobbit movies giving Thranduil a moose for no apparent reason - and the trailer seems to imply the Harfeet are in their general area.

Incidentally, any idea what are they? (I assume that's the question the creators want the audience to wonder about. If they were random Lossadan - as was my first thought - who are going to host Gil-Galad for one evening because he happens to be passing through their territory, they wouldn't deserve such spotlight.)

I wondered whether they are supposed to be just some generic "Northmen", as in, denizens of (some part of) Middle-Earth as opposed to the Númenoreans. It also pretty much makes sense that they would be some sort of around-the-Wilderland-area-type-inhabitants who could also get a Nazgul or two recruited from among themselves (or are they Men of the White Mountains? FUTURE GREEN ARMY OF FLUBBER? Incidentally I had completely forgotten that this plot exists and if the series is not going to address it I am going to eat my hat!).

Speaking of the trailer: I was surprised how close the aesthetics (or at least those we have seen) are to the PJ take on it. What looks like Lindon (?) is effectively copypaste of the last scene of LotR with more architecture (which would make sense). That peculiar elf in golden armour who looks like Jamie Lannister fighting Orcs (flashback of Galadriel's brother??? Hope not) looks horribly Haldirish.

The selection of scenes for the trailer is obviously to evoke the familiar movie LotR feel in the target audience, but it is closer than I thought. Which, everything else about the series aside, is kind of a pity because I had hoped that this might bring some slightly fresher, new aesthetic (but then again not the D&D aesthetic that it seemed to me on first sight, so this is marginally better than that. Same old, but better than the D&D handbook style).

Originally Posted by Morthoron

So plopping Hobbits whole and hardy and jolly and plump into a war of Elves, Numenoreans and Sauron is daft.

Originally Posted by Huinesoron

(Plus, of course, individual Hobbits could go where their culture didn't - and not enter the records, because they're very good at going unseen...)

Seconding what Hui said here. One Hobbit does not a record in the books of the Wise make. If the Harfoots in question are going to be just the "Rosenkrantz&Guildenstern" and sort of observers from afar, or at most the third messengers to the second lieutenant of Mr. Hallstadstborn's fifth cavalry, then nobody is really going to be interested in recording them, are they? That's hardly "plopping Hobbits whole and hardy and jolly and plump into a war", so far from what we know it's plopping Harfoots (and possibly, like, two of them) sideways somewhere to the edge of some conflict they totally don't get. And the creators pretty much stated that the Harfoot characters are not going to play a major role in the big things (that would, indeed, be a no-no!).

But imagine if Frodo and co. had not had the Ring but just went to Minas Tirith for a road trip. Would people have noticed their presence? About as much as a travelling circus.

So I am not really very worried about the Hobbits (or Harfoot, as it were) appearing. (Yet.) Look, it could have been much worse. Compare to any LotR video game where Hobbits run amok slaughtering the Witch-King of Angmar and the other nazgul by dozens (intentional use of words).

I am doubtful about the series as much as the next guy but I'm also trying to be objective and sober in my judgment of it.