THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RINGS OF POWER Drops Some Intriguing Hints About Adar - SPOILERS

@Fares - I thought Adar is Sauron? They said in the tv show that Adar is another name for Sauron and they are hiding in the Southlands after Master Morgoth died and they were defeated by the Elf/Human alliance. Am I missing something because all these fan theories still believe Sauron is someone else?

@mastakilla39 - the imprisoned elves were postulating that Adar COULD be another pseudonym that Sauron utilizes but were not sure.

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I am thinking that Sauron is going to emerge to declare himself openly and claim the southlands as Mordor, his planned kingdom re: the maps in Elros’ library on Numenor. It is already extremely clear that the green farmlands of the Theo/cursed hilt sub-storyline are being terraformed into what we come to see as the hell-on-earth Mordor in the novels/films. One of the characters even quickly name-dropped Orodruin (Mount Doom) as a landmark in this week’s episode.
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I have this feeling that old, bumbling dude is actually Annatar (Sauron) in fair form and that the meteor show was him attempting to fool the people’s of Middle Earth that he was sent directly from Valinor (remember, the meteor was sent from their isle the moment Galadriel refused to lay down her quest and turned away from the Valar’s island by jumping off the boat. Those two events happen simultaneously. Sauron (for real, in the books) was known to have approached Eonwe (in essence his power set Maia counterpart who was the Herald of Manwe) asking for penance and restoration after Morgoth’s utter defeat in the War of Wrath, calculating that evil would never be able to usurp the power of Arda and that he wanted out of the evil lifestyle, but was told that the cost for penance would be ages upon ages of servitude and humiliation with status and station below even men in order to show true atonement. At the thought of that abasement, Sauron decided to go full-on arrogant and openly declared himself Lord of Men and Middle Earth. I am wondering if the meteor thing was his way of leaving that parlay with Eonwe so as to appear as being sent from Valinor and that the bumbling old man guise is his way of appearing to the elves in fair form and with the testimony of a seemingly innocent hobbit/harfoot/halfling child, he might be able to use that as credibility to his lie. The map of stars might be the way to the Northern Elven Kingdoms (would explain why they appear strange to the nomad-like ‘harfoots’) so that he could seek out Celebrimbor to begin the Annatar deception. We have always assumed that Annatar was always a fair-form beautiful, classical long blonde hair elf. What if the writers are setting up that ‘fair form’ as a bumbling old man seemingly bereft of agency or agenda. Would parallel nicely with how the Valar actually DID send a bunch of seemingly bumbling old father figures (the Istari) to aid the free peoples if Middle Earth.

My own worthless two cents anyway.

@PhantomCelery - definitely a possibility but hopefully not. The Istari came as a complete group of five 1000 years into the 3rd age, which was 1,100 years after the sinking of Numenor. I know the writers have been circulating that letter dredged up from Tolkien’s notes that retconned the blue wizards as arriving earlier than the rest in order to disrupt Sauron’s operations, but that letter, though directly spoken by Tolkien himself, was never canon. Tolkien had gone back and started revisiting the Istari origin story but had never retconned the change. ‘The Silmarillion’ being actual official canon lays out the scenario as the wizards arriving simultaneously. That letter that some have quoted was mined from the barrel-scrapings of Tolkien’s notes and included as a sort of ‘Bonus Deleted Content’ kind of thing in something like the 11th out of 12 supplemental material compendiums released after Tolkien’s death.

@Knightrider - havent read the books, but isnt the silmarillion like that? A build up of the characters and lands where the lotr happens?

@MrDandy - exactly, on all counts.

@Lemons - well if he is, then i hope they introduce him properly. I mean, they brought back Azog as the main threat in hobbit, so i see no problem here.

@MrDandy - yeah, tbh never got past the 1st ep. Who knows, perhaps I give another try sometime too. Let me know hahahha

@WarAdmiral51 -

Looks like it. It's a load of bollocks. The Fall of Numenor is far to protracted for a television show, and I can't see this being anywhere near as interesting as it should be. If it's even vaguely close then Sauron will have to be on the island in some form, so maybe this Halbrand character is him, after all he's a blacksmith, a liar and a manipulator. Or it's all bollocks

@MaxPaint - it really is a shame too. The show IS definitely beautiful in terms of sight and sound. The actors have all generally hit it out of the park in terms of acting quality but the story is just complete stinking, hot, fetid, trash at this point. So disappointing given the budget and resources poured into this that THIS is the best the writers could come up with.