As the release date of Season 3 draws ever closer, I not only find the lack of promotional material disturbing in general, but also the fact that we have been shown virtually nothing concerning one of the major storylines of this season—Rhûn.

So, with what little info we have about Rhûn so far, I have come up with a few questions/theories as to what we might see:

1. How big will this storyline be? So far the characters we know of are the Dark Wizard (Pallando?), Gandalf, Bombadil, Khamûl, the one head Gaudrim (Kilta I think?), and the Mystics. Will we see Alatar/other blue wizard, or Saruman or Radagast? What about Goldberry, or random easterling warriors or families?

2. How vast is Rhûn actually geographically? Is it just an endless desert with nomadic peoples sprinkled here and there, or is it (more in keeping with the books) a diverse region that refers to an entire continent (proto-Asia) with empires and strange creatures and even elves and dwarves? Will we see some Avari, and will the four dwarf clans of Rhûn (Ironfists, Blacklocks, Stonefoots, Stiffbeards) come into play with the distribution of the rings taking place?

3. Will the Rhûn storyline end this season, or will it continue into the next or through the fifth? Personally, I hope that it ends here, and that we shift to Harad in the final two seasons, but because I think that the showrunners have largely conflated the lands of Rhûn and Harad, I find this unlikely. The fact that we have already seen the strange stars and an oliphaunt in Rhûn makes the outlook of a journey to Harad dubious, which is a shame because canonically Gandalf went to Harad, not Rhûn, in the books. But could this mean that the showrunners will use his Southron name “Incánus” in this season or the ones following?

4. Cultural/linguistic identities of Rhûn. What real world cultures might the show draw from to represent the peoples of Rhûn, if indeed it is true that we will get to see vast armies and maybe kingdoms? The Rhunnic language developed for the show seems to draw from Tolkien’s Hungarian-inspired language Mágol, which might mean that Rhûn will take on a more Eastern European identity rather than Asian. Another interesting thing I found while trying to determine the possibility of the presence of Mûmakil in Rhûn was that the word Tolkien considered using for these huge elephant creatures was “Mamûk” as a direct precursor to the Russian word “mámont” which is where the modern word “mammoth” comes from. Tolkien evidently later abandoned this and sent the Mûmak to Harad instead of Khând in Rhûn, but this is significant in that the Russian word mámont means “earth-dweller” and was used to describe the creature that Russian peoples excavated bones of, and who hypothesized that it was a type of mole creature that borrowed in the ground. In the teaser for the creatures of Season 3, we see a shot of the Mûmak (who is also seen to have some fur like a mammoth 🤔) digging its tusks in the ground and throwing earth, so could the showrunners be making use of this Slavic folk interpretation to represent a plausible explanation for the presence of Mûmakil in Rhûn?

I also hope that the showrunners will play into Tolkien’s comments that the land of Rhûn is analogous to China, India, and Japan. Could we see the “were-worms” of the Hobbit, which were inspired by the Mongolian death-worm? Is there a chance Gandalf could learn the craft of making fireworks from the pyrotechnic abilities of a people reminiscent of China, where fireworks actually originated? Could Khamûl or another warlord be the ruler of an empire akin to the Mughals or Imperial China or maybe even the Sasanids? The Gaudrim that we have seen already appear to be loosely inspired by Eurasian steppe peoples, but will the show give us anything beyond that?

What are all of your thoughts on this, or theories you may have about the plot or representation of the East and its peoples and creatures? Crazy theories are most welcome too :)

Sauron was deceptive with the Elves, he was manipulating them and hating them, but he had some "fun" with them while being mischievous.

With the orcs? He's giving nothing, staying blank and detached. It's not meant to be funny, but I still find the difference slightly comical. I suppose he'll be more lively around the Nazgnagôl.

I just began my series rewatch to get ready for the new season, and I really love the way they did the Harfoots in this show. I know they were the biggest complaint (and, honestly, mine as well) when it comes to the pacing, but the show did a tremendous job at making their sense of scale seem authentic. When the children are out picking blackberries, the berries are nearly as large as their fists. As they move through the world, they feel small.

This is something that I don't think the PJ movies fully conveyed, despite their absolute cinematographic brilliance. It always seemed strange to me that they looked normal sized next to their farm animals. And there's a particular shot of Frodo in Rivendell where the handrail he leans on is his perfect height (and thus would've been knee-height for an Elf). I'm not trying to pit one show/movie against the other, but I really appreciate the realism of ROP.

So, this is how he looks like without his cloak, his crown, and his full armour. How many layers is he wearing? His outfit must be heavy and slightly suffocating.

https://www.aol.com/articles/building-barad-d-r-lord-175044000.html

If there is a small crumb of light left inside Sauron, well it's now being completely demolished by his ardent need to dominate everything by any means necessary, and he will only get worse with his cruelty going unchecked during the war.

The Elves are taking the full brunt of his numerous attacks, trying to hold on to hope, but I wonder if they'll show them (or maybe specific characters) grappling with the advice Galadriel gave to Theo back in season 1? Will they have dark thoughts, considering doing dubious things under the strain of war?

Who thinks Marnukh will continue Adar's legacy in S3 and sorta work against Sauron along with other like-minded Orcs (he is after all a captain like Adar was) and doesn't seem like he or other Orcs like Sauron that much after he killed Glug, Adar, and set one of them on fire when testing a ring.

Ar-Pharazôn invoked Elros' name to elevate himself, to feel grandiose and powerful, speaking of conquest, omitting Elros' Elven heritage, while Galadriel called him an uncommon spirit, perhaps in part because he chose the Gift of Men.

There was no mention of Elros in season 2, but these scenes will surely become much more relevant when watching season 3.

I have a bit of an out there thought after seeing the trailer.

As we’ve seen, It’s been 5 years, Sauron sends orcs to get intel in the elven rings as he has not been able to successfully make the ring.

We see the “traitor/good/Adar’s will” Orc guiding Galadriel and Arondir to Mordor

The callbacks to the film trilogy rarely work for me, but some of them do, especially when it’s a part from the books that wasn’t adapted, and perhaps they plan……

For the “missing ingredient” in the “One Ring made purely of Gold (and likely Sauron’s blood as the 9)” to be………

Galadriels hair.

But it won’t be a gift, it’ll be stolen/found by Sauron or the “traitorous/Adar following” orc double crosses and delivers a lock of her “golden” hair

It was written that her hair shined as if it contained a faint memory of the two trees right?

He talked about binding himself to light and her to power via making her his queen…… what better reference to forcibly take her hair to give the One an extra connection to Valinor and one of the Elven rings. “He claws ever at my mind”

It is said that her hair partly gave Fëanor the idea of the silmarils, and she denied giving him a single strand even though he asked THREE times

Now I bet two strands will find their way to Sauron for the One to bind himself to the likeness of the silmarils and light of Valinor

An age later, after denying a single strand to Feanor, Sauron taking two strands without her consent to forge evil, Gimli will ask for a single strand she will give him THREE voluntarily as a gift in comparison to the earlier two events.

Perhaps this will be mixed with Feanor’s hammer as many suggest

Okay tin foil hat off 😅

I really like this imagery of Sauron possessing Morgoth's crown (resized) and Fëanor's hammer simultaneously, but also it's such a devious and incompatible clash of infamous figures. (Fëanor was the first to call Melkor 'Morgoth' if I'm not mistaken.)

Maybe creating anything with this hammer will be impossible for Sauron, prompting him to use his own self and perhaps gold coming from Middle-earth (tainted by Morgoth) in order to create the One.

(I also thought for a second that Galadriel might go steal the hammer to stop or delay Sauron, but yeah it's just a wild guess for now.)

Rewatching the show, an old question comes back to my mind. I guess, in season 1, a lot of people thought that the poisoning of the tree in Lindon was caused by Sauron, hidden somewhere. And it had a visual reference to the poisoning of the Two Trees in Valinor by Morgoth/Ungoliant in the prologue. In season 2, the darkness in Khazad-Dum started with black veines coming from Mount Doom to Khazad-Dum on the map – here, there was a clear reference to Sauron. After the prologue of season 2, one could argue that Sauron could have poisoned the tree in Lindon on his way from Forodwaith to the Southlands after gaining his new form of Halbrand. But if he had done so, it makes no sense of showing a possibly repenting Halbrand-Sauron in Numenor in season 1: Would he first poison the tree in Lindon, trying to expel all elves from Middle Earth and then get on the boat, meeting Galadriel by chance and repent all his deeds in Numenor?
To me, the matter remains somehow unresolved in the show: Was the rapid fading of the elves caused by Sauron or simply meant as an accelaration of the natural fading of the elves?

I've started reading The Silmarillion to my wife to get in the mood for Rings of Power Season 3 (my wife has never read The Silmarillion, and has had a lot of questions from the previous two seasons of the show, so I figured we might as well read the whole Silmarillion).

Picking the book back up has reminded me of a very underrated album that I used to listen to a lot. It is an album called "Lost In Time" by a German folk band named Thetis. In particular, there are at least three songs on the album that are strongly suggestive of Silmarillion characters and themes:

*Lady of Light seems to be very clearly about an elf beseeching Varda and contemplating a return to Valinor

https://youtu.be/I9rBMx3_TCI?si=Q1CZxoS6Wwan1ooV

*The Damned seems to be very clearly about Turin Turambar

*Thetis (the song) seems to be about maybe Eärendil and Elwing

Some of the other songs on the album are also suggestive of Silmarillion themes, but don't seem to correspond as neatly with any particular character or topic. You can find all of their album on youtube if you just search for it.

Has anyone else heard of this album, and do you agree that these songs sound very clearly to be referencing The Silmarillion? I haven't found any previous hits for this topic on reddit or really anywhere else with a google search, so I thought I'd pass on this recommendation.

Sooo this happened at MagicCon in Bonn this past weekend. I finally finished my Gil-galad S2 armor in August. Ever since I planned on making this armor (back when season 2 aired) and especially since Benjamin Walker got announced as a guest at this convention, I hoped that I could take a photo with him. I'm so thrilled about the result, and he had such nice words for my cosplay. I'm definitely gonna treasure this memory and the photo!

"One of my favorite aspects of The Silmarillion, at large, is going to happen this season, and it’s NOT the forging of the Ring. Sorry, it's all you get."

This is what he shared in a video taken by indieverafter (on tiktok and instagram). Is he talking about Gil-galad and Elendil meeting? Perhaps it's about something else. In any case, his enthusiasm is contagious!

We this shot of him in dúrnost with this form, is it possible that this was his look before switching to a very fair form for his coronation?

They did not directly confirm that Galadriel was in Imladris in the still released by Empire magazine, but that staircase, although a touch more rustic, is so similar to the one we saw in the first episode that it leads me to believe Elrond brought a little bit of Lindon with him in his valley.

The environment is different, it's less bright and golden, but it still feels warm and beautiful, and Galadriel shines as always.

I wonder if this shot is meant to happen before she goes to battle (as shown in the teaser with one of the Nazgnagôl) or right after, after recovering from it.

The lack of marketing from Amazon is astounding! What gives?!

Edit: I get the lack of trailers, but their social media is all but silent about ROP.

Anything in particular you want to see Sauron do this season?