
From what I've heard others talk about, Annatar is specifically a creation from the Silmarillion. Amazon only has the rights to Lord of the Rings and its Appendices. The name Annatar never appears in the Appendices, so on a technical level, Amazon doesn't have the rights to the character or his story.
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It's not head canon. It's what the show literally explained Mithril to be. Elrond explains the backstory of the light of the Silmarils seeping into the earth to become Mithril, and Celebrimbor and Durin both witness Mithril having properties that can stave off the corruption. What are you pointing at as being headcanon? This is literally what the show has made Mithril out to be.
Not what the sources say, dude. Stop lying. Jackson tried for three movies, Miramax tried to talk him down to one 2 hour movie with drastic cuts to the story, which Jackson outright refused. Weinstein threatened to replace him, Jackson stood his ground. He pitched the agreed upon two movies to New Line, they instead proposed a trilogy. New Line and Jackson shared the rights for the Final Cut, but New Line simply let him do his thing and never interfered with the creative process. New Line financed the movie, Jackson made it. Did New Line have a major contribution in making the movie? Yes. Were they the reason the movies were made to begin with? No. Are they the major reason we got the movies? No.
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You could beat someone to death with the irony here.

Oh I know that. But Elves are different. Mythical, perfect (in any source apart from this show), while Halbrand is just a normal and literally dirty human, it feels wrong for a Maiar, but I guess Gandalf also looked like a pretty dirty human, though he still had a much better aura about him (being played by one of the greatest actors of this planet did help too)
Season 1 could almost be called the prequel for the show. Similar to how Season 1 of House of the Dragons time jumps after setting up stuff. They've stated Season 2 Sauron will be inspired by Breaking Bad and The Sopranos. Sauron will be a complex bad guy. They just didn't want to jump right in. Fans of LotR likely wouldn't need it but not every viewer is a fan. They certainly could have executed it better though.
“It would be very tempting to make the first season of this show The Sauron Show, very villain-centric,” McKay says. “But we wanted that level of evil and complexity of evil to emerge out of a world that you’re invested in — not because evil is threatening it immediately. We wanted you to fall in love again with Middle-earth. We wanted you to understand and relate to the struggles that each of these characters are having before we test them in a way they’ve never been tested before.” https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv...-2-1235233124/
"Man is his own star. His acts are his angels, good or ill, While his fatal shadows walk silently beside him."-Rhyme of the Primeval Paradine AFC 54
You know a community is bad when moderators lock a thread because "...this isnt the place to talk about it either seeing as it will get trolled..."
"Man is his own star. His acts are his angels, good or ill, While his fatal shadows walk silently beside him."-Rhyme of the Primeval Paradine AFC 54
You know a community is bad when moderators lock a thread because "...this isnt the place to talk about it either seeing as it will get trolled..."
I completely agree. While it was obvious that Halbrand was Sauron, part of me wanted Sauron to be literally anyone else.
Sauron is a Maiar, he was an angelic and divine being, I would expect a mortal guise that befits that status. Halbrand is a literal hobo with filthy clothes.
It's like the dragons in WoW. Notice how the Aspects (Alexstrasza, Ysera, Nozdormu, Deathwing...) all took badass, iconic, and mighty humanoid forms. Now imagine Deathwing disguising himself as a hobo, that's Sauron as Halbrand. It doesn't really fit the character, who would be too proud and self-absorbed to take on such a filthy form.
Having rights I believe only means that they can't name him by name. Sauron as a shapeshifter could in theory appear as basically anything (including Halbrand). Tolkien never explicitly says what race Annatar appears at.
I wish they had the rights of Annatar for RoP - and chose to have him as an elf. He was supposed to make 16 rings over a long period of time. RoP only made two and now he's exposed.
The Hobbit and two covering Lord of the Rings. Mirmax later cut The Hobbit out of the project. Jackson kept trying to adapt what Miramax was saying he could. They didn't try. He actually cut his adaptation down to two movies that could be made with a $75 million shared budget. Two $37.5 million movies would have been nothing like what we got out of NLC. If New Line instead proposed a triology, restoring cuts from the script, and making it bigger and better then they clearly enabled the films to be what they are today.
Again you indicate I am right but only when you state it. They were the entire reason why the movies got made as they did.
Last edited by rhorle; 2022-10-17 at 06:22 PM.
"Man is his own star. His acts are his angels, good or ill, While his fatal shadows walk silently beside him."-Rhyme of the Primeval Paradine AFC 54
You know a community is bad when moderators lock a thread because "...this isnt the place to talk about it either seeing as it will get trolled..."
To be fair, this is the Shadow of Mordor adaptation I believe. Tolkien never explicitly says that Annatar was an elf.
But yes, I agree with you, I hope that he shows up portrayed like this. It's by far my favourite portrayal of Annatar(and the one that makes the most sense). I don't like Halbrand at all.
He said Sauron took on a form that would allure the elves, so a form that the elves would find fair and beautiful.
Now look at the elves and then at Halbrand the hobo in ragged clothes, I don't think they'd find him attractive. But I can believe that they would find Annatar (as depicted in the videogame) attractive.
There's a reason why the Lord of Gifts is always depicted as an elf. It just makes sense. Elves are the fairest and most angelic race and the only race allowed to live in Valinor. It just makes sense that the "fairest and most beautiful Lord of Gifts" would look like an elf.
Last edited by Varodoc; 2022-10-17 at 06:19 PM.
Amazon didn't have the same rights as the PJ films. It's a clusterfuck of a mess of rights, really.
And that scene wasn't specifically mentioning 'Annatar' by name, merely portraying Sauron in a different form, which is one of those gray areas as far as rights are concerned.
I'd already explained it. The fresh start was immediately followed with the 'What of our King?' line, and the episode concluded with Halbrand being implied to be the leader of the group heading to Pelargir. Arondir's story is tied to that.
Now that we know Halbrand isn't a King and is Sauron, and shown headed to Mordor, it leaves the Southlander story wide open with no real connection to Season 2. Sure, they're headed to Pelargir, for a fresh start. Does that even mean they will be in Season 2?
So then what is the problem? Arondir is looking for a fresh start but will have to deal with the fallout of his girlfriends King being Sauron. Vague ideas are fine for other main characters but not for Arondir. This again shows your double standard because of the grudge you hold against Arondir. He is the only one that requires an in-depth resolution.
"Man is his own star. His acts are his angels, good or ill, While his fatal shadows walk silently beside him."-Rhyme of the Primeval Paradine AFC 54
You know a community is bad when moderators lock a thread because "...this isnt the place to talk about it either seeing as it will get trolled..."
I can't even say for sure he will be in Season 2, that's how ambiguous it is compared to the other POV characters.
Right now the Southlander story is concluded with a fresh start in mind. The story is going the way of the Harfoots in that their story is resolved, with Nori and Galadriel carrying the arcs forward. We're literally left to guess Arondir's motivations here on out. As in, his connections to S2, if any. Which, I continue to point out, is odd because he was literally a POV character for the first season. Not a side or supporting character, a POV character.
Last edited by Triceron; 2022-10-17 at 06:45 PM.
- They should've let him be king for a while.
- Help Galadriel trying to find Sauron while managing his new kingdom.
- He can be the bringer of gifts to his new people, help them rebuild and gain a following
- Get some Mithril from the dwarves or elves.
- Forge the rings for his generals/lords (who later becomes ringwraiths) and have Celebrimbor help by having Celebrimbor believe it will help ward off Saurons evil some what.
- Celebrimbor goes back with the other rings to gift to the dwarves or Sauron himself gifts them without elves knowledge while traveling back with Celebrimbor.
- Celebrimbor later creates the three elven rings with the knowledge Sauron provided without his knowledge.
- Sauron forges his own ring when he's back in Mordor.
- Shits hit the fan.
Think the payoff of his reveal would be greater. Write it so multiple people can be accused of being Sauron. To have people invested in the relationships between the three races.
Cut out Harfoots.
This would of course be less bombastic and EPIC in the short term. But certainly more engaging and making more sense imo.
Last edited by Kumorii; 2022-10-17 at 06:38 PM.
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