[+] The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - SPOILERS ALLOWED

[doctorbadwolf]

Even the balrog of Moria is a shapechanger (and is glimpsed briefly in a trailer)

That’s probably Gothmog, Lord of The Balrogs, IMO.

 

[Mallus]

I am enjoying the fact I can’t tell if it’s Gandalf, Sauron, or Saruman who fell out of the sky.

 

[Nikosandros]

So, with Galadriel hot on his tail, Sauron jumps into a giant catapult and launches himself into a low orbit. A couple of weeks later he comes crashing back down to Middle Earth somewhere near the future location of Dol Guldur.

Yup, that sounds just like the sort of thing Tolkien would write...

I recall a letter to some physicist at Oxford discussing the orbital dynamics of an ideal Maia with cylindrical symmetry.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Seems like that leads back to the ring, to me, but yeah I don’t think the Stranger is Gandalf.
Some fan service is just too silly.

Yeah, he's several thousand years too early. It's some other Maiar.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

When Tolkien visited the USA he was dismayed about just how seriously people were taking his work, which he was well aware was just a piece of fiction created for his own amusement. He was concerned that is had become a substitute for "true" religion, as he believed it. By that time he was too old to do much about it, although he touches on those issues in his forward to LotR.

He should see the weird creeps on Facebook, with their names spelled out in Norse runes, talking about how it's a "legendarium of the Anglo-Saxon people."

JRRT would be thrilled to see the ordinary pedants, in contrast.

 

[Zaukrie]

So, is the show worth watching for someone who has only seen the movies?

It's better if you aren't obsessed with the books, frankly. So, yes

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There are, of course, many other spirit beings in Middle Earth. Tom Bombadil has been mentioned, but there is also Goldberry, and the balrogs. Even the balrog of Moria is a shapechanger (and is glimpsed briefly in a trailer) and could hypothetically appear in human guise. And might even have fallen during the Second Age.

Wasn't that balrog a leftover from the First Age?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So, is the show worth watching for someone who has only seen the movies?

My wife loved the first two episodes and has never cracked the cover of a JRRT book.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And it's way better than The Hobbit. All three movies and the novel.

Those are fighting words. About the novel, obviously. Carry on with hating the movies.

 

[reelo]

Those are fighting words. About the novel, obviously. Carry on with hating the movies.

Agreed. The novel is an absolute classic, the movies are trash, Peter Jackson or not.