THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER Reveals The Stranger's Identity And It's A Game-Changer - SPOILERS

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER Reveals The Stranger's Identity And It's A Game-Changer - SPOILERS

Yesterday's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power finale didn't just reveal Sauron's true face, but The Stranger's identity as well. It's a big deal, and one that teases major plans for season 2...

News
By JoshWilding - Oct 15, 2022 03:10 AM EST
Filed Under: Lord of the Rings
Source: SFFGazette.com

This article was originally published on SFFGazette.com - be sure to keep checking that site for the latest on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power!

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power's finale revealed the identity of The Stranger, and he is a stranger no more! Daniel Weyman's character has intrigued fans from the start, though the fact that he arrived on Earth in a ball of flame left many convinced that he must be Sauron. 

His uncontrollable powers also suggested there could be a darker side to this "Meteor Man," though his befriending of the local Harfoots - precursors to Hobbits - had us wondering if he may, in fact, be Gandalf. Still, with so many theories doing the rounds (Saruman was another name that often cropped up online), it's been hard to pinpoint who, or what, he might be. 

Well, after The Dweller, Nomad and Ascetic catch up with The Stranger, he's named as Sauron. In a devastating twist, we learn that they believe him to be their master, and the trio vows to restore his memory. However, it soon becomes clear they've made a mistake, and the sinister group calls him an "Istar" (wizard) before he dispatches them. 

All signs point to The Stranger being Gandalf, but we don't get confirmation until the very end of the episode (even if he is never named).

Talking to the Harfoot, Nori, before they set off to try and piece together his past, the Meteor Man offers some words of advice when he says, "Always follow your nose." That's the exact same thing Gandalf once said to Merry, leaving no doubt that The Stranger and Gandalf are one and the same. 

His memory still needs to be restored, but J.R.R. Tolkien's work provides some clues as to why he's arrived on Middle-Earth. The Istar were sent to this realm when Sauron started to increase in power, and while The Rings of Power has seen that happen a little sooner than it did in the lore, there are ways his arrival could be explained in future seasons.

For now, this is a very exciting development, and one that confirms The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is also set to serve as an origin story for Gandalf the Grey. 

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Fogs
Fogs - 10/15/2022, 3:26 AM
Hahahha I'm so glad I dumped this after the 1st episode. Hope you have a good time with it cause just by reading about it, all the deviations wouldn't really allow me to enjoy it without realizing it's a glorified (bad) fanfic.
BigPhilbowski
BigPhilbowski - 10/15/2022, 6:55 AM
@Fogs - criticising something you admit you havent even watched. Even worse, going out of your way to shit on it in an article. Run along troll.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 10/15/2022, 8:00 AM
@BigPhilbowski - watched every episode from immediate midnight drop and it’s bad. REALLY bad. As a generic fantasy ‘take’ on Tolkien it would rank as an extremely beautiful, and very well acted, attempt to cram the a bad cliff-notes interpretation of Tolkien’s world and work into a final product presentation and that is where it fails badly.

Once you attach the Tolkien name to the work, you attach the Tolkien mythos and all of the Legendarium’s expectations, to that work. These works have what might correctly be termed the first modern ‘geek’ base in that, unlike ’Star Wars’ at 45 years old, these works predate even that by almost two decades.

The show worked well enough on its own merits (not great, definitely not trash) but failed miserably as an interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s world.
Fogs
Fogs - 10/15/2022, 8:38 AM
@BigPhilbowski - I watched the 1st episode and read all spoilers, I'mpretty aware of all that happens and the storyline is what drives me off.

It's certainly beautiful, I loved the visuals.

I don't think I'm a troll, I wish I liked and have zero problems with others doing so.

But if my opinion troubles you that much, sorry to hear that. Peace out.
Goldboink
Goldboink - 10/15/2022, 8:49 AM
@SauronthePower -
There are some nice presentations of some events but it’s so far from the lore that it shouldn’t be Tolkien.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 10/15/2022, 9:24 AM
@Goldboink - agree 1000%
BigPhilbowski
BigPhilbowski - 10/15/2022, 11:27 AM
@Fogs - again admitting you didn't watch past the first episode yet you're criticising it and going out of your way to do so on articles about it. Most definitely a troll whether you realise you are or not.
Fogs
Fogs - 10/15/2022, 12:21 PM
@BigPhilbowski - ok
ObserverIO
ObserverIO - 10/15/2022, 5:34 AM
Shoulda been played by Ian McKellen.

...Or Robert Townsend.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 10/15/2022, 8:10 AM
@ObserverIO - ………or Stuart Townsend (old inside joke)
Goldboink
Goldboink - 10/15/2022, 9:00 AM
@SauronthePower -

SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 10/15/2022, 9:01 AM
@Goldboink - Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuude………… !!!!!!!!!!

Pietro for the win!
BassMan
BassMan - 10/15/2022, 10:47 AM
@ObserverIO - dude he’s almost 80, let the character live for a new generation? My moms Bond was Connery, doesn’t have to be everybody’s
Goldboink
Goldboink - 10/15/2022, 4:24 PM
@SauronthePower -
He's got the right nose for it
IvanBadski
IvanBadski - 10/15/2022, 5:36 AM
i was amazed how this show got worse with each episode.
TheCoonII
TheCoonII - 10/15/2022, 5:38 AM
°sigh° the fruit loops bird says that too by that logic of can also be him! That's not even one of Gandalf s memorable lines!
TheDpool
TheDpool - 10/15/2022, 7:03 AM
It was my brother that had to tell me that this basically meant it was or could be Gandalf but most definitely an Istari.

Kinda accepted this show wouldn't be following lore, let's face it any chance they had at bringing in Gandalf they were gonna take it.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 10/15/2022, 7:52 AM
Let’s get the source material correct Josh.

The Istari (let’s get the spellings and pronunciations right, were sent 1,000 years into the 3rd age, TOGETHER AS A GROUP OF 5, by boat, to the Grey Havens, WELL after Sauron had risen to power (like 4,500 years WELL).

THAT was Tolkien’s narrative.

All this balderdash nonsense about unearthing lost correspondence from J.R.R.’s notes that was sold by Christopher well after his death in order to scrape out every last penny from the name is exactly that…..nonsense.

‘The Silmarillion’ is iron-clad canon. The 2,487 post mortum compendium cash-grabs are NOT. In said ‘Silmarillion,’ (as written by John Ronald Reuel himself) ALL of the FIVE wizards arrive TOGETHER, and are called ‘Istari,’ NOT Istar. They also most certainly not advanced Alzheimer’s patients either as they were source written for the word wizard to mean ‘wise, old man.’

This attempt at narrative misdirection by certain fawning, compliant ‘supporters’ of these showrunners has gotten desperate and blatantly wtong at this point
SpideyQuad
SpideyQuad - 10/15/2022, 8:35 AM
@SauronthePower - holier than thou token jerk. So sit there and read your books and spare the rest of us your negativity. Question: has every version of the Christmas Carol been exactly the same? So obtuse stUck in your "little" world.
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 10/15/2022, 9:04 AM
@SpideyQuad - nice try

By that little attempt at ‘logic:’

Why don’t we just go ahead and rework ‘Macbeth,’ ‘Othello,’ ‘Julius Caesar,’ ‘King Lear,’ ‘Hamlet,’ Beethoven’s 9th, and the Mona Lisa as poorly researched, tone deaf, 1-person soliloquies so that they conform to what little SpideyQuad wants to see for these particular five minutes before his limited, ‘trending,’ attention span changes its flavor-of-the-month to whatever’s hot in the moment.

It’s called ‘IP’ for a reason genius

Apparently you have a lot to learn before you hit your teenage years so run along…..wouldn’t want you to be late for 7th Period English class
SpideyQuad
SpideyQuad - 10/15/2022, 1:08 PM
@SauronthePower - nice little insult at the end it brings down your whole statement. I said my piece and you said yours still look pretty silly to me complaining about something you supposedly love. Sick
SauronthePower
SauronthePower - 10/15/2022, 2:02 PM
@SpideyQuad - I do believe that the exact terminology ‘holier than thou sanctimonious jerk’ was initiated by YOU to something that I was responding to Josh. By my count, that means that YOU initiated AND escalated, simultaneously. I responded to this in an above response to something else you stated, but I shall resummarize here: respect begats respect. When kept to the topic at hand, bereft of insults, then respect is deserved. When reducing your/our position through name-calling, escalation most times is the ‘human-nature’ response.
My initial post in this stream was against Josh attempting to posit a complete untruth as settled science narrative of Tolkien’s work, a deception that has been employed by many of these particular showrunners’ defenders in order to posit THEIR narrative of the truth, which is indeed not truth. Whether or not Josh (and…to be fair…I have always refrained from jumping on the copious quantity of ‘Josh’ comments that do the rounds on these boards) was actively participating in that or was himself just fed bad information (one being directly culpable and one being inadvertant), the fact is is that some of the statements in this original article are just flat-out wrong.
Let’s keep the focus THERE. Any escalation on my part will always and ONLY happen to someone who initiates like-minded tactics directly against me. Fair enough??
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