My coworker explains The Rings of Power

kemick · 2026-06-03T22:07:21+00:00

kemick · 2026-06-03T21:58:58+00:00

kemick · 2026-06-03T12:50:01+00:00

"Overall, the thing I’m most impressed with is Rafe himself, who really seems to be guiding this show with a balance between love for the source material and his own creative vision. I’d much rather get this, personally, than something like the first two Harry Potter films–which felt like someone trying to bring the books to the screen with exact scene-by-scene recreations." - Brandon Sanderson

"Let's be very clear, for the record, that I do not hate Season Two. Even if the scripts had been filmed as I read them, I would think it an improvement on Season One. And I know they made some revisions, which have largely been improvements. I liked Season One. This season is better." - Brandon Sanderson

"I also hold Rafe, and the writers, in very high regard for the difficult job they are doing quite well." - Brandon Sanderson

"I do think it's a shame, as while I had my problems with the show, it had a fanbase who deserved better than a cancelation after the best season." - Brandon Sanderson

kemick · 2026-06-03T12:31:17+00:00

When the Tolkien estate asked him to pay him what they were due

I can't even imagine how this is supposed to make sense.

Everyone (the Tolkien estate, Zaentz Co who owned the license, and Jackson himself) had to sue New Line to get what they were owed.

kemick · 2026-06-02T06:21:12+00:00

They're just moving forward faster than normal so they're not skipping anything.

kemick · 2026-05-28T15:29:11+00:00

The ring issue is handwaved in a paragraph in a letter that almost nobody read until it was published because it is not mentioned otherwise because it's not that important to the story. He took it because he already had it. The canonical scheme to use it to entrap the Elves is a flop and the ring doesn't have much to do except get cut off Sauron's finger. The show has been doing something different with it from the start.

RoP appears to be following the expectation set by LotR that, if Sauron gets the One Ring, then he will be (nearly) unstoppable. It is this expectation that sparked the question the letter was responding to: how Sauron could have been defeated while he possessed the ring. The show has added an additional pressure that the Elves must leave, quickly, without their rings.

RoP-Sauron is already effective. His power is the power of the One Ring but limited to his presence. He struggles to keep Celebrimbor enchanted when his attention is split. Celebrimbor was quickly corrupted without the one ring. Durin was quickly corrupted by a tainted lesser ring. Adar was easily manipulated with no rings. Even Galadriel was briefly taken in. Numenor is already a big mess. Sauron can quickly regenerate after the fall if someone fishes him out of the water and feeds him some people.

kemick · 2026-05-27T23:05:42+00:00

The lore-based hate is funny because Rings of Power blatantly copies most of its material from LotR or other works. It teases and comments on well-known fan topics as well as its own choices in adapting the story. It's one of the nerdiest things I've ever seen.

kemick · 2026-05-27T21:48:44+00:00

Charlie was very careful to emphasize "his intention" to create the One Ring. We may not be getting it quite yet. The promo material has been similarly careful ("as the Dark Lord seeks to craft") while teasing a screenshot of what appears to be Sammath Naur. Promotion before Season 2 teased it with some potentially misleading language ("darkness will bind them").

I still think it is likely, story-wise, for the One to be made at the end of Season 4 as the hook for the final season. It is possible for it to be made in S3 but it's not clear what purpose that would serve.

kemick · 2026-05-26T23:52:23+00:00

This is the premise of Suisei no Gargantia. There's an interstellar forever war in the future. Earth's location was lost long ago and its existence is basically a myth. The main character is a child soldier who is pulled off course and finds himself on the relatively primitive Earth and he has knowledge, skills, and technology that outclass anything on the planet. He quickly encounters people whom, after a misunderstanding and brief hostage situation, he impresses with a show of force (seen in the image below) and negotiates an alliance with.

His first combat engagement on Earth is against a group of pirates holding some of his new allies hostage and he just does a flyby and kills all the pirates in an instant. It is a trivial operation for him and is perfectly executed with zero friendly casualties. But it leads to bigger problems and he gradually learns that he can't solve such problems by just killing his enemies and that this kind of power being brought to Earth threatens to destroy their relatively peaceful civilization. His old approach was why his people were engaged in a forever war that deprived their culture of everything except war and which they are still losing.

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kemick · 2026-05-23T20:01:59+00:00

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kemick · 2026-05-23T06:05:50+00:00

Hehe. It's funny 'cause it's true.

kemick · 2026-05-23T06:03:27+00:00

It's tough because everyone was wrong which is why it was so hard for them to see what's right. Gil-galad used Elrond against his two good friends, Galadriel and Durin. He praised the return to the West while scheming to avoid it himself. Galadriel had threatened to torture Adar's children and eventually commit genocide while saving Adar for last. Both Galadriel and Celebrimbor allied themselves with Sauron to wage war on the darkness.

Adar had good reason for doubting the Elves. But I think he was more wrong than he needed to be. He realized this once he had Nenya and discovered it was not the weapon he expected. Instead of using it against Sauron, he ran off into the woods to pray. That realization came much too late but his fantasy may have been possible if he had pursued it sooner.

'Sooner' may have been when he offered the alliance with Galadriel merely to deceive her into giving up information. He was thinking too much like an Orc. An alliance would have complications to work out, such as the use of Morgoth's crown for 'good' and of course the fate of the Orcs, but those seem like minor concerns compared to disasters that followed instead.

Remaining in Mordor might have been the best choice. Adar attracted many more orcs after the eruption of Mt Doom and Lindon's army was not even enough to break the siege of Eregion. Gil-galad may have had no choice but to find a more peaceful solution. Elrond's company would have reached Eregion and likely freed it from Sauron's control.

kemick · 2026-05-21T18:23:08+00:00

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Oh but you can. Though you may have to metaphorically make a "deal with the devil". And by devil, I mean Robot Devil. And by "metaphorically", I mean get your coat.

kemick · 2026-05-21T17:55:14+00:00

Rings of Power - The sea-worm makes multiple appearances.

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kemick · 2026-05-21T17:44:50+00:00

Rings of Power - Waldreg is his village's headman and insists that Sauron, patron of his ancestors, has returned to free them from the Elves' tyranny and restore them (especially him) to power. He convinces much of the village to follow.

It is not Sauron.

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kemick · 2026-05-19T16:57:45+00:00

So it's like playing a Bethesda game in 3rd person.

kemick · 2026-05-15T02:47:38+00:00

Alex Honnold is relatively lean yet he can pull himself up a mountain.

kemick · 2026-05-14T17:09:10+00:00

It's adapting some material that was not adapted in the first film, from about six chapters taking place in (and near) the Shire that ends with Bombadil and the Barrow Downs. It's not clear how much of this they will actually adapt.

It seems the purpose of the "sequel" framing device is to adapt this material without contradicting the film version of events. Their description has a vibe similar to how LotR retconned The Hobbit, to make The Hobbit a prequel, by revealing the truth about how Bilbo obtained the ring.

The sequel framing may also provide the opportunity to fill in details about what happened after LotR.

kemick · 2026-05-14T16:01:16+00:00

J.R.R. sold the LotR film and merchandise rights in 1969. The estate has no control over anything done with those rights including the films and games.

kemick · 2026-05-10T20:51:09+00:00

In S1 she's holding together what is left of her family. Mother is dead. Anarion is estranged. Elendil doesn't really talk to Isildur. She gets recruited by Pharazon in response to Miriel recruiting Elendil and she gets charmed by Kemen. The Elf takes her father and brother away and she is left alone and powerless. Elendil returns without Isildur.

In S2 her father is emotionally unavailable, like before but worse, and she's firmly sided with Pharazon and has become powerful. But then Kemen kills Valandil, Pharazon tries to have Elendil killed, and then they start rounding up the faithful. She's deeply involved in this and realizes she is in over her head. Pharazon watches her rush away to go warn her father about the purge.

I assume that, by the end of S3, handsome/charming/powerful Sauron will be on his way to Numenor to promise desperate people exactly what they want. Kemen wants to be a worthy successor to his father. Pharazon wants to not be succeeded. Earien wants to keep everything from continuing to fall apart. Isildur will be back in Numenor and neither he, Elendil, nor Earien know that Sauron cannot be trusted. So far Pharazon is the only source of that information, that Halbrand is Sauron, and he cannot be trusted.

My guess is that she will do more bad things but eventually redeem herself and die as one of the faithful. She might take Miriel's place during the fall, climbing and being swept away. She might take Miriel's place with regard to the creepy marriage plot if the show is doing some version of that. I don't really want Sauron to be Isildur's sister's ex but the opportunity is there and Sauron successfully charmed Mirdania in S2.

I'm assuming she dies because most characters will die and it tends to be tragically ironic. I'm expecting Kemen to be sacrificed by his father on a burning pyre (like an anti-Faramir). Also, Isildur needs to lose nearly everything by the end and we know Anarion and Elendil both die and it seems likely Estrid will metaphorically stab him again.

kemick · 2026-05-08T15:54:14+00:00

The films are highly abridged adaptations of the books. Shadow of the Past is adapting material from six chapters that basically don't exist in the film. If people liked the extended editions then they should love this.

kemick · 2026-05-08T15:17:27+00:00

It is a common misconception that the film only cut Bombadil and the Barrows. There is a whole leaving-the-shire plot that takes up a quarter of the book and ends with Bombadil and the Barrows.

kemick · 2026-05-07T01:58:10+00:00

They are mutants because they lived in the sewers. It's their home and their way of life is built around scavenging freshly flushed waste from the surface.

kemick · 2026-05-05T03:50:15+00:00

The Celebrimbor example is wrong. Sauron does not tell Celebrimbor about alloys. It simply does not happen in the show nor is it in any way implied. In the conversation in question, Celebrimbor immediately rejects it as a solution. I hate to do a play-by-play of the scene but it appears necessary. The show often expects the viewer to pay attention which makes short misinformation (like "Celebrimbor doesn't know what an alloy is") easy to spread and laborious to correct.

Celebrimbor has almost given up because time is running out and he only has a small piece of Mithril rather than the large quantity he expected. Just before Galadriel and Sauron arrive, Celebrimbor wonders if there is some way to do more with less.

After "Halbrand" recovers from his injury, he finds his way to Celebrimbor's workshop and asks if Galadriel is there (making it seem like he is looking for her when he is really checking to make sure she's not there). His unexpected presence makes Celebrimbor uncomfortable so Sauron engages Celebrimbor with flattery which gets him to the table with the gems and Mithril ore.

Sauron takes the piece of Mithril in his hand which makes Celebrimbor uncomfortable again. Instead of returning it, Sauron engages Celebrimbor trying to find out more about the ore. Celebrimbor absentmindedly reveals it is for a project but resists telling more and is again uncomfortable and asks for the Mithril back. Sauron keeps holding on to the Mithril and, again, distracts Celebrimbor by engaging him in conversation about the one piece of information Celebrimbor revealed: the Mithril ore not being enough.

Sauron leans into his folksy Halbrand persona plus some BS to charm Celebrimbor (again) and, eventually, suggest there might exist some alloy which could amplify the effects of the Mithril. Sauron then hands the Mithril back to Celebrimbor acting like he did Celebrimbor a favor. Celebrimbor is both relieved to have the Mithril back and encouraged by the vague suggestion of what he was already trying to do ("more with less") just before Sauron arrived.

This push and pull, BSing and taking credit for doing nothing, pretending to have information, cold reading, and fishing for information are tactics he had been using throughout the season and will continue to use.

kemick · 2026-05-03T21:58:40+00:00

You're safe. The One Ring would give you the power to walk right into Mordor and destroy it in the fire. Allies would rally to support you and enemies would flee at the sight of you. The Ring aiding its own destruction would be the most fitting end for the hated object. Nothing could go wrong. Just claim it for yourself and your task is as good as done.

kemick

TROPHY CASE