"The Rings of Power" Vanity Fair article

[Huinesoron]

Amazon’s Lord of the Rings Series Rises: Inside The Rings of Power

As a big, chunky first-look at the series (they seem to have watched the first 3 episodes), I figure this will probably need its own thread - not least because I'm going to analyse it to death. To give a very quick start:

- We get faces and names for 5 of the posters revealed a few days ago. Looking at this collage, the woman with the armour and Two Trees dagger (row 3, left) is Galadriel, the one with a sceptre on the same row (second from right) is Elrond, and the last three on the bottom row are new characters Arondir and Disa, and Durin IV.

- There are also several other characters who I can't match up. New mortal characters Halbrand and Bronwyn are probably on there; the unnamed pair of nomads probably aren't (though one could be the apple-holder). Two "Harfoots" are assigned actors, but not shown or named; Isildur's actor is named but not shown.

- Locations shown include the entrance to Khazad-Dum, a very Shire-like green hill, "the [mortal] village of Tirharad", Lindon, and an apothecary in "Middle-earth's Southlands".

- There's a lot of plot discussion which I hope to dig into, but the big one, and the one that will have all you skeptics laughing through your teeth:

They have compressed the entire Second Age plotline down to the life of Isildur.

"If you are true to the exact letter of the law, you are going to be telling a story in which your human characters are dying off every season because you’re jumping 200 years in time, and then you’re not meeting really big, important canon characters until season four. Look, there might be some fans who want us to do a documentary of Middle-earth, but we’re going to tell one story that unites all these things."

So Sauron's rise from nothing - the forging of the Great Rings - the fall of Eregion - the darkening of Numenor - Ar-Pharazon's rise and glory - the Akallabeth and the Last Alliance - all of it happens in a timeframe which allows Isildur (and presumably Halbrand, Bronwyn, and the Harfoots) to witness the whole blessed thing.

... hmm.

EDIT: A couple of other Vanity Fair articles appeared over the week that followed, plus the first teaser trailer:

Teaser Trailer 1 (Superbowl Trailer)
Secrets of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Teaser' Trailer (Vanity Fair)
10 Burning Questions About Amazon’s 'The Rings of Power' (Vanity Fair)

hS