Amazon Studios The Rings of Power is a couple of months away. We want all Spoilerites to have the best viewing experience possible and have the widest knowledge base about the Second Age of Middle-Earth. This is a weekly Let’s Get Nerdy article series highlighting a different piece of Tolkien I think you need to know about!
In past articles I have answered the question:
- What Are the Rings of Power?
- What is Númenor?
- What is the Second Age?
- Who are the Harfoots?
- Who is Prince Durin IV?
- What is Khazad-dûm?
- Who is Celebrimbor?
- What is the Last Alliance of Men and Elves?
- Who is Elendil?
- New Pics! Who are Bronwyn and Theo?
- What is Rivendell?
- The Rings of Power First Reactions Are In!
- What is Lindon?
- What are the Nine Human Rings?
- Empire Magazine’s The Rings of Power Covers
- New Character Pictures
- Will Wizards Appear in The Rings of Power?
“Nothing is evil in the beginning.”
… states the latest promotional spot for the upcoming The Rings of Power streaming series on Amazon Prime spinning out of The Lord of the Rings franchise.
Share from the official @LotRonPrime Twitter account this is the first new bit of video footage from The Rings of Power we have had since the Super Bowl spot. In Case You Missed It I did a reaction video to the initial teaser trailer:
Rings of Power Trailer Reaction
Ashley V. Robinson is the biggest Lord of the Rings fan in the entire Universe. What does she think of the Rings of Power trailer that debuted during the big…
Now let’s watch the newest promo together:
https://twitter.com/LOTRonPrime/status/1541453841408765953?s=20&t=YcsVZhKgj32p-CU6QUdGNg
In fairness, this appears to simply be repurposed footage from the first trailer. It captures the word “teaser” pretty completely. We’ve already had the announcement of The Rings of Power getting a Hall H feature at San Diego Comic-Con next month where I’m certain all will be revealed. That’s probably about as true as anything Gandalf says, but we’ll definitely get more than what we have right now.
Of all the footage we see the only thing I can’t easily identify is whose hands are being clasped in the opening footage. Based on my own biases and the cuffs we can see I’d guess these are Harfoot characters (probably Nori Brandyfoot who seems to be getting a lot of mention in interviews and footage), but this is fully conjecture on my behalf.
“Which hand is Nori’s?”
I hear you asking through the aether. Probably the smaller one. I can see her being a Frodo Baggins – or perhaps Pippin Took – insert in The Rings of Power. The picture of innocence who is going to discover more inside her than she ever thought possible. If the Isari (the wizard character I wrote extensively about in last week’s Did You Hear? feature), are present I imagine one of them – OR MORE THAN ONE!? – will serve as Nori’s mentor on whatever quest she seems likely to undertake in keeping with the Tolkien tradition.
Per the Hobbit culture we know the Tooks are the adventurous family (fun fact: Bilbo Baggins is a Took by way of his matrilineal heritage), so despite her last name being “Bandyfoot” which feels closer to Merry’s “Brandybuck” surname I suspect there may be some Took origins in Nori’s tale.
Following the hands reaching for each other the promo follows up with a very cool dark shot of who I’m confident is Arondir – the original to the series elf character. It’s nice to see him taking up the legacy from Legolas Greenleaf of choosing a bow and arrow as his weapons of choice. With Arondir being a non-canonical character there’s very little we know about him at this point. This is not to say Mirkwood – formerly Greenwood – elves have the market cornered on archery, but this choice to prominently feature Arondir as an archer does leave me wondering if he hails from the Greenwood – or perhaps what will become the Greenwood?
Personally, I’m very interested in Mirkwood and how it undergoes the fall to “mirk” or “darkness” and the introduction of the Spiders Bibo, Thorin, and their party encounter during the events of The Hobbit.
Next up we see Galadriel leading a charge, High-King Gil-galad, and the same incredible shot of Númenor which opened the aforementioned teaser trailer.
So, not a lot of newness to go on.
Perhaps the most to be gleaned is from the written theme of the promo:
Nothing is evil in the beginning.
I’ve spent many words rattling on about Annatar-cum-Sauron in this feature series and this has me wondering if The Rings of Power isn’t secretly about to be a bit apologist for the character who is preparing to strike against all the character in Middle-Earth we hold nearest and dearest to our hearts as fans of Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings franchise. This could perhaps seed the conflict between the elves and the dwarves the on-screen adaptations like to make a mountain of. Elves and dwarves aren’t super closely bonded in J.R.R. Tolkien’s written work, although there isn’t the animosity we’ve seen on screen – particularly between Thranduil and Thorin during the events of The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug.
It could also very honestly allude to Númenor. Its rise and fall and the evolution of the people known through the lens of Middle-Earth history as the Númenoreans.
The Lord of the Rings deals in black and white morality. Frodo is good. Sauron is bad. A character like Boromir is as complex as the ethics of Arda become. My main takeaway from this promotional video is The Rings of Power is more interested in dwelling in the grey area of contemporary storytelling versus the parable of a hero’s journey The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien explore across multiple characters over and over and over again.
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She/her. Canadian actress. Bi Queen. Canadian co-host of Geek History Lesson. Canadian comic book writer: Witchblade, Apollo IX, Jupiter Jet series, Science! The Elements of Dark Energy, Aurora and The Eagle. Award-losing: actor, writer, podcaster. https://linktr.ee/AshleyVRobinson