Everything The Rings of Power revisits from the Lord of the Rings trilogy

One of the charms of a sprawling prequel series like The Rings of Power in seeing the world you love from the Lord of the Rings movies (and the hobbit trilogy, we also see and appreciate these fans) in a completely different form. This lets fans participate on a whole other level, making each new tidbit the show reveals a mystery in its own right, a pocket secret that we already know the ending to, but not the ‘how’ or ‘why’.

To his honor The Rings of Power is not excessive still familiar. There’s a lot of recognizable iconography in the first two installments – flora and fauna, armor designs and architecture – but very little direct execution. Right now the show is mainly taking us to a new place. But there is still some important things you might recognize.

With that in mind, here’s a quick rundown of everything shown in The Rings of Power this is reminiscent of previous screen adaptations of Middle-earth.

Galadriel

Image: Prime Video

Galadriel, an early highlight of the show, is perhaps the closest thing to a protagonist The Rings of Power‘s sprawling cast. That’s because she has a clear and compelling journey ahead of her straight away: as the series’ sprawling story begins, Galadriel is on a quest for revenge that will ultimately lead to her playing one of Tolkien’s most complex and unrealistic characters The Fellowship of the Ring only implied.

Elrond

Image: Prime Video

The arrogant cutie here eventually becomes the stern leader of Rivendell, played by Hugo Weaving in Peter Jackson’s films. He is one of the few connections between any film adaptation of Tolkien’s work, as Elrond was there for everything. It’s all the sadder to see him as such a chilled elf boy The Rings of Power – He will see some things that will make him a much less funny person.

Sauron

Image: New Line Cinema

This is funny. In early The Rings of Powerwe get a glimpse of LOTR’s great evil when he appears in these films, but it will almost certainly take a different and surprising form The Rings of Power. Part of the fun will be spotting it before it’s revealed.

Khazad dum

Image: New Line Cinema

One of the best locations in The Rings of Power is also one of the worst in the Lord of the Rings movies: Moria. Khazad-dûm, the majestic dwarf city we get to see The Rings of Power‘s second episode, is what those ghastly mines looked like before its inhabitants dug “too greedy and too deep” and discovered a sleeping Balrog, a leftover soldier from the war against Morgoth. After the dwarves fled, goblins and trolls moved in, giving the teeming city a tragic atmosphere.

Sail west to the Undying Lands

Image: Prime Video

One of the last images we see in The Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the first shown in The Rings of Power: Elves sail to the undying lands to the west. The immortality of elves, as you may have heard, is strange – elven heaven is an actual location on the map, west of Middle-earth, so to speak. Either The Rings of Power and Lord of the Rings, elves wishing to retire from the mortal-lands can sail to paradise in a very somber ceremony. According to Tolkien lore, things change about this process a lot of in the time in between The Rings of Power and Lord of the Ringsand we may see some of that play out as the show goes on.

harfeet

Image: Prime Video

Harfoots are a kind of hobbit. They’re not really deep Tolkien lore you’re missing – according to the showrunners, it just didn’t make sense to do a Lord of the Rings series without Hobbits, even though Hobbits play no real role in the story they adapt. So they brought with them the Harfoots, a nomadic group of little people who remain invisible but get into trouble nonetheless.

orcs

Image: Prime Video

One thing that seems to have changed very little in Middle-earth between then and now is the orc problem. Still among the more problematic tropes in Tolkien lore, orcs have existed for pretty much as long as they have a fictional story of Middle-earth, a race of exclusively evil people who only exist to provide an army for the bad guys. So far the main difference is in The Rings of Power‘s Fighting orcs seems like a lot: this is a time when Sauron was not trying to destroy his enemies, but to deceive and corrupt them, and he doesn’t need an army for that. So it makes sense that the first orc appearances would be similar to those at the beginning of the series – lonely, frightening bogeys portending something evil.

However, they can still be hot.