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Amazon's THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER (2022)
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630 posts in this topic

On 9/25/2022 at 5:42 PM, Beige said:

So is the Stranger...

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Saruman - can't be Gandalf surely?

 

I've been wondering if that is the fakeout. Make you assume he is one thing, and later he transitions to the other.

:ohnoez:

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I might have to watch at least part of that last episode again, because I am completely confused by something

Spoiler

How does Gil-galad know that Mithril - which has only just been discovered by the Dwarves - is the key to saving the Elves of Middle Earth?  Because of some legendary story about an Elf who fought a Balrog next to a tree?  And they have deduced from this legendary story that the magic of the tree (1) went into the Earth and (2) is still down there now and (3) can be mined out and (4) if it is the "light" that this mineral would give off will (5) fix everything?  

Did I miss something where it was better explained how Gil-galad knows this?  Because the above is just dumb.  

 

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On 9/26/2022 at 9:31 AM, Axelrod said:
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How does Gil-galad know that Mithril - which has only just been discovered by the Dwarves - is the key to saving the Elves of Middle Earth?  Because of some legendary story about an Elf who fought a Balrog next to a tree?  And they have deduced from this legendary story that the magic of the tree (1) went into the Earth and (2) is still down there now and (3) can be mined out and (4) if it is the "light" that this mineral would give off will (5) fix everything?  

Did I miss something where it was better explained how Gil-galad knows this?  Because the above is just dumb.  

 

This was the only problem I had with this episode.  That story was not from Tolkien's work.  All of the Silmarils are accounted for, so I don't know why Gil-Galad thinks there was one in a tree on top of a mountain and the light from that went into the Mithril...

Spoiler

It was probably just a story added to advance the plot that leads to Celebrimbor being tricked by Sauron into creating the rings of power.

I do wonder however if the elves asking the dwarves to mine more of the mithril will lead to the awakening of the Balrog in Khazad-dûm.

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Durin's Bane (The Balrog in Khazad-dûm)  did not awaken until the later part of the 3rd Age by Durin VI not Durin  IV so if they do that in the 2nd Age or even early in the 3rd Age that is a big change. I wouldn't put it past these fools to do it though.

Edited by ianh
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On 9/26/2022 at 12:47 PM, ianh said:

Durin's Bane (The Balrog in Khazad-dûm)  did not awaken until the later part of the 3rd Age by Durin VI not Durin  IV so if they do that in the 2nd Age or even early in the 3rd Age that is a big change. I wouldn't put it past these fools to do it though.

Thanks for this, I didn't know that's when the Balrog was awaken.

There was a Balrog in the trailer (that wasn't the one that was on the mountain in the most recent episode), so I'm curious to see which one and when it will appear in the show. 

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On 9/26/2022 at 1:00 PM, The Commissioner said:
On 9/26/2022 at 11:47 AM, ianh said:

Durin's Bane (The Balrog in Khazad-dûm)  did not awaken until the later part of the 3rd Age by Durin VI not Durin  IV so if they do that in the 2nd Age or even early in the 3rd Age that is a big change. I wouldn't put it past these fools to do it though.

Thanks for this, I didn't know that's when the Balrog was awaken.

There was a Balrog in the trailer (that wasn't the one that was on the mountain in the most recent episode), so I'm curious to see which one and when it will appear in the show. 

I think the timelines being messed up is due to the plans for the shows. If they are only running pre-rings for a season (way too short) or maybe two, then they will be mashing all sorts of storylines and times together.

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On 9/26/2022 at 2:27 PM, kimik said:

I think the timelines being messed up is due to the plans for the shows. If they are only running pre-rings for a season (way too short) or maybe two, then they will be mashing all sorts of storylines and times together.

Yeah I know they are messing with the timeline a bit.  The rings were made in around SA 1500 but Isildur wasn't born until SA 3209 and Sauron wasn't defeated until SA 3434.  Technically, Isildur and Elendil shouldn't even be in the show if the rings haven't been forged yet.

As of right now, that is my biggest issue with the show so far.  Overall though, I am enjoying it quite a bit.

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On 9/26/2022 at 12:27 PM, kimik said:

I think the timelines being messed up is due to the plans for the shows. If they are only running pre-rings for a season (way too short) or maybe two, then they will be mashing all sorts of storylines and times together.

It is a five year commitment.

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On 9/26/2022 at 8:19 AM, The Commissioner said:

All of the Silmarils are accounted for, so I don't know why Gil-Galad thinks there was one in a tree on top of a mountain and the light from that went into the Mithril...

One is in the sky, one was cast into the sea, and the third was cast into a deep pit.  Where is the pit? Could plausibly be Moria. Was a Silmaril stuck in a tree?  The story that Gil-Galad recites is stated to be a children's story - most likely partly allegorical. Veins of ore are like a tree - branching out all over the place. If the Silmaril cast into the pit was stuck in a "tree" of silver veins and then as the Balrag and Elf fought above it (similar to LOTR) and were struck by a divine thunderbolt which infused the light of the silmaril into the silver creating mithril, then the story is plausible (we are talking divinity, demons and magic here). It would also explain why a Balrog was living in Moria.

Edited by sfcityduck
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RoP tops the Nielson ratings:

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We finally have some third-party ratings for Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and the news is good for the streamer: Early Nielsen numbers suggest the show got off to a very strong start earlier this month. Per the ratings giant, the first two episodes of Amazon’s big bet generated 1.253 billion minutes of viewing time in the U.S. during its first three days of release, easily making it the most-watched streaming program for the week of Aug. 29-Sept. 4. Despite only being available for three days (and a few hours) of Nielsen’s measurement period — the show launched at 9 p.m. ET on Sept. 1 — TROP managed to outscore seven days of streaming for the Netflix KevinHart/Mark Wahlberg movie Me Time (927 million minutes) and, yes, the second full week of measurement for HBO’s House of the Dragon (781 million).

The Rings of Power Ratings Are In, and They’re Good (vulture.com)

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On 9/29/2022 at 7:50 PM, Bosco685 said:

 

That article really doesn't tell the entire story. Amazon Prime has almost 3 times that amount of subscribers globally (Over 200 Million) that HBO Max does (75 MIllion) so has access to more possible watchers by far.

Prime is also available in 200 countries while HBO Max is only available in 60. 

House of Dragon had 45% more piracy than RoP in the 1st episode and 127% more piracy in the 2nd. It's google trends continue to rise while RoP have been stagnant since the 1st week. 

I'd be surprised given all that if it didn't have more viewership minutes but they will try and paint anything with this show as a success.

 

Edited by ianh
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On 9/30/2022 at 10:14 AM, ianh said:

That article really doesn't tell the entire story. Amazon Prime has almost 3 times that amount of subscribers globally (Over 200 Million) that HBO Max does (75 MIllion) so has access to more possible watchers by far.

Prime is also available in 200 countries while HBO Max is only available in 60. 

House of Dragon had 45% more piracy than RoP in the 1st episode and 127% more piracy in the 2nd. It's google trends continue to rise while RoP have been stagnant since the 1st week. 

I'd be surprised given all that if it didn't have more viewership minutes but they will try and paint anything with this show as a success.

 

Also this is based on streaming watch minutes.  RoP dropped over two hours on the opening week while HoD had one 60 minute episode in the same period.  That means to make them equal you need to account for there being twice the minutes available for RoP.  In addition HoD is estimated to have 30% or so of its viewers watching on linear broadcast, which is not figured into the streaming minutes.  A few people have tried to adjust for these differences.  The result was RoP had about 9.5 millions viewers in the US (which jives with Amazons 25 million worldwide saw itk), and HoD had around 20 million US viewers.  9.5 is very respectable, but it does just show how difficult it is to track viewers in the streaming wars, and limited transparency. 

 

The coming weeks where is it one roughly 60 minute episode vs another roughly 60 minute episode will be somewhat more comparable (still does not account for HoD having significant cable viewership).

Edited by drotto
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On 9/30/2022 at 10:14 AM, ianh said:

That article really doesn't tell the entire story. Amazon Prime has almost 3 times that amount of subscribers globally (Over 200 Million) that HBO Max does (75 MIllion) so has access to more possible watchers by far.

Prime is also available in 200 countries while HBO Max is only available in 60. 

House of Dragon had 45% more piracy than RoP in the 1st episode and 127% more piracy in the 2nd. It's google trends continue to rise while RoP have been stagnant since the 1st week. 

I'd be surprised given all that if it didn't have more viewership minutes but they will try and paint anything with this show as a success.

 

It is a fair callout that you note the potential for the audience size to a given streaming platform makes a huge difference.

HBO Max worldwide growth has been hampered by decades of regional distribution contracts. Some analysts have researched this and noted even with a wider European distribution WB is locked down until 2025.

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