Media previews

[Stranger Wings]

Short promo with new footage.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Eldy had already posted that clip in another thread.

[Stranger Wings]

Ah, sorry about that. Should I remove it to save space?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Nah, we'll keep in both places.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

ET featurette, with some previously unseen footage.

The Rings of Power' Details a New Era in Middle-earth: 'Every Good Quest Needs a Fellowship' (Exclusive)

[Eldy]

Still working my way through that, as well as the new EW features that dropped today.

Power players: Inside The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Meet 13 key characters from The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

And I haven't even started on the two new cast interview videos from IGN.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

This is intriguing:

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Princess Disa (center), played by Sophia Nomvete, leads the dwarves of Khazâd-dûm in song

And what is this that Celebrimbor is looking at?

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[Eldy]

"Galadriel has been on a quest for over a thousand years, scouring Middle-earth, searching for this elusive, undiscovered, very real evil," details Morfydd Clark, who plays a younger iteration of the Elven warrior portrayed by Cate Blanchett in the Lord of the Rings series. "Ultimately, she knows this danger exists, this evil has to be stopped."

RIP my 300–600 years estimate of how far into the Second Age ROP might occur.

The line "Every good quest needs a fellowship" is interesting in its implication (if trite in its plain meaning ). Will Galadriel acquire companions while on her quest? Based on earlier previews, Halbrand and Elendil seem like potential candidates for a Galadriel-centric Fellowship.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Elendil: "They are a known family but not higher-up." Well, THAT is a big change.

ETA: yeah, I noted that Eldy. And presumably she did start on this quest right at the beginning of the Second Age, so I think that we can assume that the length of the Second Age is not too short.

[Eldy]

Elendil: "They are a known family but not higher-up." Well, THAT is a big change.

Whaaaaaaaaaat?!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

That's in the second IGN Who's who clip.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I liked the interview with Arondir and Bronwyn best. I'm really intrigued by that storyline.

[Eldy]

I liked the interview with Arondir and Bronwyn best. I'm really intrigued by that storyline.

Likewise! Arondir being one of the guards keeping Bronwyn's people in exile is not what I expected; I would've thought those guards would be Noldorin and Sindarin, not Sylvan.

Fake edit: ah, so Arondir was in Beleriand at one point. One of the Laegrim (Laiquendi), perhaps? If he was a "grower," which I assume means something like farmer, it's more likely he would have lived in Ossiriand than Doriath (cf. the NoMe chapter "Notes on Elvish Economy"; pp. 297–299).

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Any thoughts about what Celebrimbor is holding and looking at?

[Eldy]

It appears to be be a hammer.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Now there's a helpful comment .

I'm still tripping over the Elendil thing.

[Stranger Wings]

Elendil: "They are a known family but not higher-up." Well, THAT is a big change.

ETA: yeah, I noted that Eldy. And presumably she did start on this quest right at the beginning of the Second Age, so I think that we can assume that the length of the Second Age is not too short.

I imagine he’s speaking in very general terms. To me, he may simply mean that his family is not part of the power center in Armenelos, and thus not higher-up in that sense. But I’m just guessing. Could also be that they’ve changed them into a minor house to create a more pronounced underdog dynamic. But I doubt it, as I believe the massive tower Elendil takes Galadriel to belongs to their family, and it doesn’t look like a minor house sort of tower.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Sorry, but I think that's a pretty flimsy argument given how specific he was that the family was not "higher-up". There is no real room for ambiguity there in terms of Elendil being a direct descendent of Elros (and thus Lúthien, etc.), and thus Aragorn being so, as a direct descendent of Isildur. That would be a difficult pill for me to swallow.

[Stranger Wings]

Sorry, but I think that's a pretty flimsy argument given how specific he was that the family was not "higher-up". There is no real room for ambiguity there in terms of Elendil being a direct descendent of Elros (and thus Lúthien, etc.), and thus Aragorn being so, as a direct descendent of Isildur. That would be a difficult pill for me to swallow.

"Higher-up" sounds like a super vague comment to me. What is specific about it? The oldest of noble families, whose roots go back to the beginning of a particular monarchy for example (let's say, the Spanish Bourbons in Italy), oftentimes slipped over time in terms of their relative power to other families, and would therefore consider themselves not "higher-up" in the political pecking order (often using those exact words - in this case, in Italian). I don't see why that couldn't be the case here. They're certainly not going to change the fact that they are part of the Elros line, and that the importance of that lineage ultimately leads to the legitimacy of Aragorn's claim to the throne of Gondor and Arnor. They may simply be creating a dynamic wherein they are treated as a minor house in Númenórean society, despite their lineage. Sort of a family from a past age, that is now seen as a curiosity in the modern Númenor. Elendil feeling pressure to adapt to the times (as we've heard in one of the trailers) might make sense, in that context. In essence, if we just keep being the same elf-friend house we've always been, we won't have a place in the new Númenor kind of thing.

My feeling is that their lineage and pedigree won't change, but that they will be portrayed as politically almost powerless. As a way of heightening the drama.

So, a change, but not one that erases their history of descent, and the polite respect that might afford them (and perhaps significant respect for those who wish to return to the old elf-friend ways).

Given all the context we've been given thus far, that's how I read it.

We'll see soon enough!

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I listened to it again. He does not say higher up he says high up. Then he adds that he is a sea captain and that what status he has comes solely from that. That certainly implies that he does not have status based on his descent from Elros. Then there are Maxim Baldry's comments in the same clip in which he says that Isildur is a sea cadets in the first season,but doesn't want to be one because he is seeking something else. It is very hard for me to align these comments with the history of the family as written by Tolkien.

As for knowing soon, we may not, since they will be dragging this out over 5 years worth of episodes.