"Rings of Power" trailer analysis

[Huinesoron]

With two trailers for Rings of Power out, and a third on the way in a week or so, I figured a dedicated thread was worthwhile. ^_^

(It may be useful to cross-reference the cast list, which links to the teaser posters for each revealed character.)

The first teaser trailer (not counting the one that was just gold pouring into a mould) was analysed by Galadriel55 and myself in another thread. That was the one with a voiceover by Nori Brandyfoot: "Haven't you ever wondered... what else is out there?"

Trailer 1.5 is an Amazon Prime-exclusive short teaser, dedicated to the cast's reactions to The Meteor flying past. It's possible that some of the scenes are actually reactions to something else that have been spliced in, but they're presented as Meteor reactions. It's 1 minute long, and Amazon link to the US version from this tweet (which also includes a 15-second version).

EDIT: Perfect timing... about six hours after I posted, they put the 'exclusive' teaser up on Twitter.

Unfortunately Amazon have set up their player so PrintScreen doesn't work, but here's a quick rundown of the shots:

1. A green, mountainous landscape with what look like lakes on top of the nearest mountain.

2. A solid looking (watch)tower and bridge in similar mountains. There might be a dam below the bridge, which could imply we're at the east gate of Moria.

3. Sadoc Burrows, in a woodland setting. He seems to be reading a book.

4. The book in question, complete with Sadoc's hands. It's written in a non-Tolkien pictographic script, and looks like some kind of star chart, especially since:

5. Sadoc, in woodland: "The skies - are strange." Looks up.

6. The Meteor shoots across the clouds.

7. Gil-Galad looks up. This is shot 8a from Teaser 1.

8. Gulls flock around a swan-ship, which is sailing towards a golden light.

9. White-robed elves on the ship watch the gulls. They're all sort of standing around, socially distanced, while the ship sails itself. It seems to be heading towards a wall of clouds - are we looking at a ship sailing to Aman? In which case:

10. Galadriel is on the ship, watching the gulls with a bewildered expression. Speculatively, could this sequence be Galadriel sailing West, and then jumping (or being knocked) overboard and that's how she ends up on Halbrand's raft? This is also the second shot in the Twitter version. so you can take a look yourself even if you don't have Prime.

11. The Meteor again. First and third shot in the Twitter version.

12. Durin IV looking up. Twitter shot four.

13. Elves walking under a tree. Mallorn?

14. Elrond and Celebrimbor track something across the sky.

15. Bronwyn and Arondir look up at something.

16. Bronwyn and Arondir, lit differently, stand on a slope and watch the Meteor. They hold hands. Aww.

17. Someone (Elrond?) atop the watchtower from shot 2, looking out over a green valley. There's roads and farmland, and what might be a city in the middle distance. Twitter shot five.

18. A woman we haven't seen before walking down a street as petals blow past her. She wears a golden circlet, and in the background there's an orange tree in a pot, and a guard in gold and blue sun-themed armour. This could plausibly by the woman in the Flower poster, who I've seen speculated as Tar-Miriel. She looks round at something. Twitter shot 6 and final.

19. The Meteor zooms over some trees. I believe this is scene 8 from Teaser 1, but with a big difference: three of those trees are moving, and one is much smaller than the other two. Ent, Entwife, and Enting?

20. Nori Brandyfoot tracks the Meteor across the sky.

21. Nori watches the Meteor crash behind some trees and a stone arch.

22. (After some title cards) A pan up over a steep valley. We start at a carved stone head, and get a glimpse of a white city set into a cliff. The architecture (and the ship down below) looks the same as the opening shot of Numenor from Teaser 1.

So there we have it! Mostly new shots, one new face, and the next trailer ("New Teaser") is on July 14th, so not long to wait!

hS

[Huinesoron]

And naturally, six hours after I post about not being able to screenshot, they put the whole thing up on Twitter... anyway, here's the Swanship sequence:



Looking back at the first trailer, I think Galadriel's dress here is the one she's wearing on the raft - you can just see her far shoulder when Halbrand lifts her hair, and it seems to be the same plain white style. So it certainly seems like she goes from the boat to the raft.

And here's maybe-possibly-Miriel:



hS

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Explain to me again what Miriel is doing alive at the same time as Celebrimbor?

[Tar Elenion]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Explain to me again what Miriel is doing alive at the same time as Celebrimbor?

The show-runners (whom, I am informed by "experts" and "Professors", are intimately familiar with all of Tolkien's writings) are doing a little tiny insignificant bit of time compression (ca. 2000 years into something where various of their mortal main characters wont grow old and die, as best I understand it).
So *Durin III is the living father of *Durin IV, *Celebrimbor is alive at the same time as *Tar-Miriel (the ruling Queen of *Numenor, who seems have Far Harad heritage (though the Royal House, particularly after Aldarion and Erendis, married within the bloodline of Elros)), and her advisor *Pharazon (with whom she has a son).
There must be some other insignificant time compression as well, as the nomadic agriculturalist *Harfoots seem to be literate (though Hobbits did not start learning their letters until TA 1300, and even after that were still primarily relying on oral tradition until the end of the Third Age).

I have also been informed that time compression is proper and acceptable because Jackson, or something...

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Explain to me again what Miriel is doing alive at the same time as Celebrimbor?

In one of the articles they talked about compressing the timeline: basically taking the two* stories of the Second Age (the falls of Eregion and Numenor) and running them simultaneously.

(*Excluding Aldarion and Erendis.)

I don't particularly like it, but I understand why they've done it. If you want any non-immortal characters at all, having your story jump forward far enough that the first half is as long ago as the Western Roman Empire means killing them all off and creating a whole new batch. You can do that (it's basically a distant sequel, like the Hobbit to LotR jump which also replaces most of the cast), but I understand them not wanting to.

Caveat: I don't remember whether it was the showrunners or Vanity Fair who said that. We've not seen anything in the trailers to fix the Numenorean timeframe, so it's possible she's actually Ancalime or Erendis, and Vanity Fair just got the wrong end of the stick. But I suspect she's Miriel.

hS

[Huinesoron]

Trailer release! I've gone through this with a fine-toothed comb, and at two and a half minutes it's taken me long enough. A few pictures in here to break up the long, long list of shots.

1. Flythrough of a river canyon to a Numenorean city. This is the same as shot #22 in the mini-teaser. Galadriel: "There was a time when the world was so young."

2. Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, looking very Cate Blanchett. I think the music here is the Rivendell theme from Fellowship too.

3. Galadriel: "There had not yet been a sunrise." Cloaked figure walks up a hill, overwhich a white/gold city and a bright light come into view. This shot appeared in the very first image we saw from the series, back in August '21, and it revealed...

3a. ... the Two Trees of Valinor in all their glory, with a city (Tirion? Valmar?) in the foreground. Galadriel: "But even then, there was light."



Fade out to white.

4. Flyover of an unidentified group of ~20 running through a wintry-looking, possibly marshy valley.

5. Similar flyover of 10 figures trudging over a snowy mountain. Over the landscape beyond a Great Eagle soars, beating its wings only once. Song: "Come to me, come to me, lands far away..."

6. Harfoot: "Elves have forests to protect..." Flypast of an elvish city on a forested hillside. Style is like FotR!Rivendell.

7. Harfoot: "... Dwarves their mines..." A beautifully well-lit interior shot of Khazad-dum, including vines hanging from the ceiling and mirrors to fill the space with sunlight.

8. Harfoot: "... Men their fields of grain." A village of thatched wooden houses, with farmers out the front. All very Anglo-Saxon.

9. Harfoot: "But we Harfoots have each other." Shot of the Meeples on a hillside, and then, surprise! The foreground grass is actually a Harfoot in camoflague. She lifts a whistle(?) to her lips.

10. A forest, with Harfoots ("HarFEET!") dancing between the trees. Song: "For I must now wander this wandering day..."

11. Closeup of the Harfoot speaker from the last few shots as she shrugs: "We're safe." I think this is Poppy Proudfellow, but I'm not great with faces.

12a/b. Nori Brandyfoot watches the Meteor fly over and crash. Shots 20 & 21 from the mini-teaser.

13. The waterfall from shot 4 of the first trailer. Elrond: "You have fought long enough, Galadriel." I love the way he says her name here.

14a/b/c. Galadriel and Elrond standing in the snow. She glowers at him, stabs her sword into the ground, and then there's a wide shot of them both.

15. Elrond in a forest setting: "Put up your sword."

16. Galadriel looking at Elrond in the same scene. She is wearing the simple white dress from her swanship scene in the mini-teaser.

17. Group of torch-bearing figures in a blizzard. Galadriel: "The enemy is still out there."

18. Galadriel in sunlight: "The question now is where?"

19. Torch-figures in a ruined underground city.

20. A long shot of a white city built into a cliff. Could be Numenor, or maybe Tirion again.

21a/b/c. Elrond and Galadriel, in the forest setting from a few shots ago. E: "It is over." G: "You have not seen what I have seen." E: "I have seen my share."

22. Galadriel on red, with sparks flying past. She looks to be covered with mud or something else. Galadriel: "You have not seen..."

23. This:



There is water above the figures and buildings, which probably makes this either a flashback to Alqualonde, or her vision of the fall of Numenor.

24. Galadriel looking very pointed: "... what I have seen."

25. A Numenorean ship sailing into harbour. Its sails evoke stylised wings.

26. The harbour in Numenor and grand statue; I think we've seen this shot before but I'm not sure where.

27. Elves under a tree at night. Gil-Galad: "Darkness will march..."

28. Gil-Galad close-up: "... over the face of the Earth."

29. Elrond turns in alarm.

30. Torchbearing Orcs - an army of them. They may be led by a black-haired elvish-styled figure.

31a/b. The swanship, and Galadriel on it. Shots 8 & 10 from the mini-teaser. Gil-Galad: "It will be the end not just of our people..."

32a/b. Gil-Galad: "... but all peoples." Miriel walks down a street as petals/snow fly past, then looks up at the fall. The first half is shot 18 from the mini-teaser.

33. Nori and another Harfoot with sparks around them.

34. The Stranger, very out of focus, looking at his hands in a similar setting.

35a/b. Elrond with Dwarf escort looking around as they walk through Khazad-dum. Dwarf: "I am sorry."

36. Dwarf: "But their time has come." Durin III [sic] talking to someone.

37. Durin IV smashes a rock. Shot 17 of the original trailer.

38a/b. Elrond hanging off the icy waterfall, just like Galadriel in the first trailer. I guess they were in it together!

39. Viggo??! No, wait, it's Elendil, in a grand audience chamber, looking like a mess. Arondir: "The past is with us all."

40. Arondir (finishing his line), in what looks like a mortal house, complete with aging peasant.

41a/b. The ride of the Rohirrim... er, no, of Galadriel's cavalry from original trailer shot 9. Elendil: "The past is dead."

42. Two Harfeet hugging. One is Nori.

43a/b. Flashes of the raft in a storm.

44a/b. Numenorean ship on the high seas. Isildur on its deck. Elendil: "We either move forward..."

45a/b. Elendil and Galadriel riding along a beach.

46. Elendil, by a fire, looking at someone who might be Isildur. Elendil: "... or we die with it."

47a/b. Numenoreans cheering Pharazon.

48. One of the cavalry grabs a spear. Is it Elendil?

49. Durin IV holding up a jewel. Durin IV: "This could be the beginning-"

50. "-of a new era." At least four elf-men in Noldorin armour draw swords in a ritual manner under a dome and a starry sky:



Speculation says "Oath of Feanor" and honestly I'm convinced and also aaaaaaa.

51. Arondir(?) fighting a wolf. At least one of them is chained.

52a/b. Galadriel fighting a troll. Might be the same ruined city from earlier.

53a/b/c. The Stranger in the Meteor crater. The fire whooshes into him, and looks very Eye of Sauron-y while it does so.

54. Four Harfeet walk across the landscape. Song: "Away I must wander, this wandering day."

Oof, I'm exhausted! Thoughts will come later.

hS

[Tar Elenion]

"3. Galadriel: "There had not yet been a sunrise.""

A contradiction to The Hobbit (rev.) and Lord of the Rings.

"Though their [the Wood-elves] magic was strong, even in those days they were wary. They differed from the High Elves of the West, and were more dangerous and less wise. For most of them (together with their scattered relations in the hills and mountains) were descended from the ancient tribes that never went to Faerie in the West. There the Light-elves and the Deep-elves and the Sea-elves went and lived for ages, and grew fairer and wiser and more learned, and invented their magic and their cunning craft, in the making of beautiful and marvellous things, before some came back into the Wide World. In the Wide World the Wood-elves lingered in the twilight of our Sun and Moon but loved best the stars; and they wandered in the great forests that grew tall in lands that are now lost."
The Hobbit, Flies and Spiders
Wood-elves linger in the twilight of the sun and moon before the High Elves return to Middle-earth.
Note that Tolkien deliberately revised this passage to have an extant sun and moon (see Anderson's The Annotated Hobbit).

"The world was young, the mountains green,
No stain yet on the Moon was seen,
No words were laid on stream or stone
When Durin woke and walked alone.
[...]
A king he was on carven throne
In many-pillared halls of stone
With golden roof and silver floor,
And runes of power upon the door.
The light of sun and star and moon
In shining lamps of crystal hewn
Undimmed by cloud or shade of night
There shone for ever fair and bright."
LotR, A Journey in the Dark

Durin wakes with a moon present, and is able to capture the light of sun, star and moon in crystal lamps.

Galadriel's song:
"I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew:
Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew.
Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea,
And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden Tree.
Beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone,
In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion."
LotR, Farewell to Lorien

Gandalf's Ent riddle:
"Ere iron was found or tree was hewn,
When young was mountain under moon;
Ere ring was made, or wrought was woe,
It walked the forests long ago."
LotR, The Road to Isengard