Rings of Power: Prediction Thread

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Since there is a sort of Mirth version of this, it nevertheless struck me that we do not have a genuine prediction thread for the Rings of Power. I found myself throwing an occasional prediction in the discussion thread for the various episodes, but thought that it might be nice to have a place dedicated specifically to them.

So this would be the place to post your predictions - your SERIOUS predictions - of what might happen in the show.

Ideally, post your predictions that are based on at least some foreshadowing or what you believe is a foreshadowing, not just "I believe that in season 3, Isildur will grow a moustache because it would be neat".

I think that this thread could - hopefully - serve in the future as a fun repository of what we believed would happen, seeing where we were correct and where we were not.

Just like in the case of Form's recent thread, let's make this a positive thread. By which I do not mean that your predictions cannot be negative (I leave it for you to decide whether Isildur with a moustache is a positive or a negative vision), but I mean that baseless screams about how the show is going to butcher everything because that is its vile nature are not something we need to see. If we wanted to read that, we could head almost anywhere else.

And as a last remark, obviously, this thread will, by nature, have SPOILERS.

For the sake of keeping things neater, I will post my own predictions in a separate post.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Here go my first predictions based on the first two episodes.

I am not sure how "obvious" things I should mention - on the one hand not to be "Captain Obvious", on the other hand for not miscalculating to take something for granted which, in fact, is not granted or self-evident at all.

I will therefore trust my intuition. Just for the sake of completion, here goes what I consider borderline self-evident: we are going to learn that Halbrand is actually Theo's father. I am also writing it here because it forms the basis of my most important first theories.

Topic 1: Theo will become a Nazgul (Witch-King?)


It started with the "reverse Morgul-blade", which I think is an evidence by itself. In any case, SOMEBODY needs to become a Ringwraith, and so far we do not have that many characters (also at the time when I am writing this, we have not yet seen the Númenoreans, but I took a glimpse of the character list on Amazon and there is that one young dude who is effectively a page to Ar-Pharazon or somesuch and who is described as wishing to impress Ar-P by all means necessary, well that sounds like a recipe for "from clerk to a Nazgul 101" to me, so that would be 2/9 accounted for, as far as I am concerned).

Regarding Theo, I have said elsewhere that it inevitably must lead to some horrible tragedy of his mother being good (obviously) and him being evil. (No matter that it would have been interesting to see her, the nice healer lady, turn into Nazgul, but I do not think that is likely.)

My ultimate prediction for their tragic family fate is that eventually, with broken heart, the kind healer mother kills her son, but he rises back as undead. And if he happens to be WK himself, you could somehow, after his un-death, connect it to the future Witch-King prophecy about being killed "not by a man".

That being said, I certainly hope that THIS prophecy is addressed as coming into existence already now (I mean, I think there is nothing indicating that it was literally uttered for the very first time with some Arvedui and co. - it could have existed in another form by some Númenorean or Elven soothsayer).

Another related element, which would be really really cool, but which is based on lack of definite geographical knowledge of what is where (especially on my part) so I cannot vouch or it making sense, would be if the beautiful green land we see in the Southlands got turned into Mordor/Nurn. It would be a good explanation for all the Orc-digging: they are building the foundations for Barad-dur and co.

Topic 2: The Entwives

Vaguely connected to the idea of transformation of lush green lands into fire and brimstone is my following prediction: We are going to see the Entwives.

I think we saw some Ents watching the meteor and I am sure it was not a coincidence. But what would Ents do except look pretty and whisper in the wind if there was no plot surrounding them? They can't go to war like in LotR, so what else would they do?

It would be very neat - and I cannot see why not - to see the destruction of the Entwives (in ambiguous terms, of course), or maybe the entire Ent-Entwife rift and development. Maybe even Treebeard himself and Fimbrethil as characters (? when did this actually happen? Is it specified? I always thought that it DID happen in the Second Age). In any case, we know the Entwives lived in what became the "Brown Lands", and I always understood the point being that they had gone there when it was still a normal place, but by the time Treebeard and co decided to check it, Sauron had been there and nothing much was preserved.

So, these are some of the predictions that come to me from the top of my head. What are yours?

[Blind Guardian]

*Spoilers for episode 3, which as of my writing this was released only a few hours ago*

As I said in another thread, I think that the Stranger is Gandalf. His being with the Harfoots is a backstory as to why he likes Hobbits. This is furthered in episode 3 with him joining the Harfoots migration and assisting in moving the buggy.

Some things that stand out: the way he interacted and spoke to the fireflies is similar to how he spoke to the moth on top of Orthanc. The way that he took away the light without making physical black shadows. Even with how he forgot who he was after becoming Gandalf the White. This might be his initial rise to Gandalf the Grey.

Now with Halbrand being Sauron, I think it is more plausible after seeing episode 3. Melkor and Sauron were smiths with Sauron being Aule's maiar. He saw the forge and immediately tried to convince them that he was the best smith on the island. He also seemed the relish the violence of fighting with the group that cornered him after he stole that emblem. In the books Sauron was in Numenor and lead to their downfall.

But, then again, it's completely possible that the writers are throwing in nothing more than a different version of Aragorn. He does look like Viggo Mortensen as the Ranger.

It's also possible that Adar is Sauron or the first "mouth of sauron". I don't have much on this, except for his gloves looking like Saurons. His being Sauron seems like of cheap and not like when Sauron was haunting that forest in the Hobbit. I guess we'll find out in episode 4.

As for the entwives, I think it's possible that Arondir ends up meeting them. Where else would his story go? Everyone around him is dead or far away. There was also him agreeing to chop down that tree. The ents might be lurking nearby, watching. They're either going to understand that he had to do what he had to do to survive or they're going to be furious. He might have something to do with the ent wives going to Valinor without the male ents.

[Pitchwife]

*(Like Blind Guardian, I've seen Episode 3 by now, but I'll try to keep this as spoiler-free as I can.)*

I think we're clearly supposed to assume that Theo is Arondir's son (skin tone, hair covering his ears) and not so much left the family as never lived with them in the first place. It's less clear whether Arondir is aware of this - has Bronwen told him? I don't think she's told Theo, but he may guess in due time, if he hasn't yet, and bear a grudge against his parents which may facilitate his way into becoming a Nazgûl (which I agree seems highly likely).

Originally Posted by Legate

My ultimate prediction for their tragic family fate is that eventually, with broken heart, the kind healer mother kills her son, but he rises back as undead. And if he happens to be WK himself, you could somehow, after his un-death, connect it to the future Witch-King prophecy about being killed "not by a man".

Except the Nazgûl became undead by fading from life, not by rising from death, but of course the latter is much easier to present with cinematic effect than the former.

Halbrand I think is something, or someone, else. As of ep. 3 he seems set up for a Viggorn-like career, which would be dreadfully unimaginative and copy-cattish, so I hope the makers have something different in mind. I think he'll ally himself with Galadriel for a while but betray her in the end and either become another Nazgûl or, like Legate suggests, the King of the Dead (which would indeed be awesome).

I don't think he's actually Sauron himself. For one thing, he's been doing a rather inefficient job at ingratiating himself with the Númenóreans; for another I seriously hope they won't dismantle the original timeline as much as bringing Sauron into Númenor as a castaway before he has a chance to do his work on Celebrimbor and start the whole ring-making business. Also it seems like we'll get a first glimpse of Sauron veeery soon if we haven't already, and unless he has the power of bilocation he can't be Halbrand.

Or actually I hope I'm wrong and they won't show us Sauron himself, or at least not too clearly, until we meet him as Annatar; the audience should find out who he really is along with the characters, not before them. (I mean we know, of course, but we're not exactly the target audience the makers had in mind, are we?)

[Formendacil]

A tiny prediction, borrowed from elsewhere:

Originally Posted by Formendacil

Now that I think of it... we're probably not getting Tar-Minastír's mighty army driving Sauron from Eregion, are we? No pre-Last Alliance last alliance of Elves and men. That's probably going to get folded into (Ar-?)Pharazôn's fleet landing at Umbar, isn't it? Pity. Well, I'd best go predict it...

[Boromir88]

I'm in BG's camp with thinking Adar is the Mouth of Sauron. He appeared to be a man, and I hope the series explores the Black Numenoreans more.

[Oddwen]

(spoilers fresh from episode 3)


The way Adar was out of focus seemed vaguely reminiscent of the Nazgul on weathertop - if it's not the Mouth of Sauron then maybe an established pre-Wraith?



The music in the jail when Halbrand was talking about his past sounded vaguely like the strings of Rohan from Lotr - maybe a red herring? I don't think he's Sauron, I'm reluctant to connect him with Eorl, I really like the theory that he's the King of the Dead, but he's a strong contender for a Ringwraith if not.


I just rewatched the long trailer and spoilers for things we haven't seen in the show yet It looks like Elendil takes his family/an army and Galadriel and Halbrand in a ship back to Middle-earth, Halbrand is wearing some of the same armor and then attacking someone while on a horse - more Eorl foreshadowing? I just don't want to think of him as Eorl quite yet. There's a scene of him in another trailer standing in front of a doorway and behind him are dozens of candles in little nooks - just like skulls in the cave of the king of the dead in LotR?



I have no idea which thread to put this in but Legate I think the reverse Morgul blade should be called the Lugrom blade. For very obvious reasons.