#ughipkgbjtnr

[incorrect-lord-of-the-rings]

every once in a while... I just think... What if Rings of Power wasn't a Silmarillion adaptation, but just... Original characters having adventures and struggles and stuff in Middle-Earth? Or if they had changed just a few things.... It could have been so much better. This is mostly coming from my thoughts on the things I loved in the show. I liked the original characters (mostly) (aside from the Harfoots being... slightly sociopathic at times). I really liked Arondir and basically all his scenes. I love the idea of a bunch of hobbit children stumbling across something new and trying to solve the problem by themselves in their own hobbit way. I loved the way they explored a friendship between a dwarf and an elf, and how the elf didn't realize how fast time was passing by for other races. There were so many aspects that could have worked so much better if they had just had a cast of almost only original characters, with established characters few and far between, or had just focused on a more original story.

This is very long so you have been warned.

Like imagine instead of Galadriel, it was a young elf warrior who'd only been alive for some time (maybe less than a thousand years or so idk lol) and was still considered childish for her age, but she had witnessed horrors of battle, or her family were slain by orcs in battle, or she was like a warrior scholar who searched for more information about Sauron and Morgoth against everyone's wishes (better yet if she's autism coded). If they had done that instead of having her be Galadriel, her behavior and actions would have been far better received.

Or like... I'd even liked it if they kept Galadriel as she was in the show (eh) but changed it so Halbrand wasn't fucking Sauron in disguise (do not get me started on this). Like I said during the airing of the show, I really wanted him to be a future ringwraith. Imagine getting so close to a character, seeing him be upon his throne in the Southlands, and then being given eventually a marvelous ring. We all know what's coming, it's one of the first things we learn in the original stories, but he and all the other characters (minus the mysterious and sexy Annatar) are oblivious.

We could even keep the entire cast of elf characters in Eregion and had a lot of political intrigue with them and Annatar. Okay? He mysteriously appears, or the showrunners make a new way they meet him or something that makes sense in the TV show medium, and we get to see how others react to him. To some he's trustworthy upon first meeting him, to others he's suspicious and not to be trusted. However, those who have more influence have deemed him trustworthy, so we could see the brewing animosity between Annatar and those who suspect him (a very wary Galadriel, for example).

In this case, we could have a lot of nice politics and dynamics of the characters. The original characters gang up together and take back the Southlands from the orcs, or some other land, and rebuild a prosperous kingdom. Then one day, the last episode of season one, King Halbrand is given a ring forged by Celebrimbor, the famous elven smith, and his new partner in crime (heh), Annatar.

The second season shows the slow and steady corruption of the good King Halbrand, and the others' reactions to his slow turn. Little things. Like fidgeting with it when kingly duties get stressful, eventually relying only on the ring for comfort and pushing away all others who love him. Like getting injured in a small attack, and when they treat his wounds while he's unconscious, they remove his ring, and then he wakes up later and nearly attacks the healers helping him because he thinks they stole it. He gets in contact with the other kings of Men and receives a letter from another king about how he is always thinking about his magic ring. About how he feels it is being pulled by something. Halbrand responds in a letter detailing similar experiences. He becomes greedy and reclusive, and then he slowly realizes everyone else around him is aging faster than he is. His son, who he had seemingly just seen as a boy, is now nearly a man. His wife is suddenly more tired than usual. One of his friends and mentors dies of old age and he was barely there to witness his last days.

Eventually, he is fully corrupted as the arc completes and Sauron is revealed and everything. God, this could have been so much fun to see...

For this version of the show, there are no explicit hints as to who Annatar really is, but there are little clues dropped. If anyone knows the story already, they'll catch every little piece of information that's given, whether subtle or not. The new viewers going in blind would see the twist and then have to go back and watch it a second time to notice and point out every single sign they should have seen coming. Like the way he acts, the way he says certain things, the things he knows, the way others react to him. It all could have been so intriguing to see.

Amazon, hire me. And pay your writers.