Rings of Power: The Good, the Bad, and the Astronomy, Part 2: Episode 3

 The "good" in this episode is swiftly summarized: the visual eye candy that is Numenor.

The "bad," unfortunately, is just as easily listed: the egregious liberties taken with the line of Elros, starting with Elros himself. Apparently gone is Tolkien's very intentional description of them as twins - they don't even look related at all! 

Twins play a very special role in Tolkien's legendarium, as I wrote about here, so to make this change to them being just "brothers" (as Galadriel notes) is very significant. It was pointed out to me that the specific mentions of Earendil's sons as twins appear in material that RoP showrunners supposedly do not have the right to. This is where we see the difference between clever writing around an inconvenience and passive-aggression. In LOTR Elrond's sons are specifically said to be twins - identical twins. Since twins often run in families, it would be reasonable to infer that there was a decent chance that Elrond could be a twin as well. For Feanor's sake, look at how similar the names Elros and Elrond are! Even if the showrunners didn't want to risk the ire of TheyWhoMustBeObeyed (TWMBO), they could have reasonably made Elros and Elrond a lot more similar looking, and perhaps hint at a close connection. But no, instead they went all "fine, if they can't be twins, let's make them look like stepbrothers!" We can't even reasonably blame it on an attempt to highlight that Elros chose to be human and Elrond to be Elven kind (if you look at the painting, they both have pointed ears!). When Tolkien wrote that the two lines of the half-elven were united in the marriage of Earendil and Elwing and their sons, he wasn't talking about the Brady Bunch! Elros and Elrond are close blood relations, biologically full-brothers, and the showrunners should have made them at the very least look as such.

[Note to readers: If you haven't guessed it, Elrond has long been my favorite Tolkien character. In the immortal words of RuPaul, don't *bleep* him up!]

The other major oopsie with the kings of Numenor is the fact that Miriel's father has been deposed from the throne rather than dies. This leads me to wonder what other changes are in store for her in terms of her relationship with Pharazon. 

Which leads me to the astronomy. Thankfully, there is enough here to cleanse my palate. Once again, we reference the Big Book of Accumulated Harfoot Wisdom (TM) and its star maps, which Nori is determined to consult in order to help the Stranger.

I must preface this by saying that despite the fact that we know that Middle-earth is supposed to be our earth, so the stars should be the same, we have absolutely no idea if the showrunners know this fact (or care about it). It is therefore entirely possible that most, if not all, of the constellations other than the Big Dipper are completely made up. I will go under the assumption that at least some of them are supposed to look like real world star groupings.

One that I think I recognized was Lyra the Harp, in the upper left part of this picture.

The upper right part seems to be what I had called part of Scorpius in the previous post (body and tail). The other two I need to do an ink blot test with, although the lower left is almost a backwards Big Dipper.

Here are clearer shots of those two star images:

Another possibility for the left hand one is a stylized head of Leo (the signature backwards question mark). What I need to do is draw out the stars without the lines, which are drawing your eyes to connect the stars in a way that perhaps we currently do not in our modern constellations. 

Other groups are perhaps pieces of constellations or perhaps again even reverse images?

The blurry upper left images look very much like Cassiopeia to me (remember, I had complained in the previous post that it was missing from SoggyGaladriel's (TM) celestial navigation session). The lowest right image reminds ne a bit of Andromeda (in style not accurate representation) while the upper middle image looks like part of Virgo to me. 

There appears to be a lot going on in the image below: perhaps the clustering of stars represents the Milky Way, and there is a pathway or two noted (perhaps denoting the motion of planets, or a comet?)

Again, it is more important that we recognize what these images are suggesting than the actual stars they represent: this is proof of "archeoastronomy" or "cultural astronomy" in the Second Age among the Harfoots (we now know that is the plural - thank you Sadoc!). This migratory culture is a careful observer of the night sky, they know its seasonal patterns, and they know when something isn't "right" (a transient event like a supernova, or comet, or a man falling from the stars).

As an aside, I hope everyone caught the delightful easter egg of Sadoc talking about "beings who were turned into stars" - a big shout-out to Elrond's dad the Evening Star, Earendil!

Finally, we get to the Stranger's constellation:

Again, we see the clustering of stars that I think represents the Milky Way. The stars are also aligned in two slightly curved lines with a connection between them. My gut reaction is Gemini:

Image's original location here.

You can see that the shape is close, and it is near the Milky Way, although the orientation is wrong. But it is highly suggestive, and is a reasonable approximation of what the fireflies were trying to construct in episode 2.

Another, more simplified connect-the-dots of Gemini, taken from here.

 

It is also significant that Gemini is close to Orion in the sky, given the centrality of Orion to the cosmology of Middle-earth (placed in the sky as a sign of the ultimate revenge against Morgoth at the End by Turin, aided by the Valar and Ainur). Now, if this is the case, what can it mean? I think the Stranger is looking for his brother, perhaps even his twin. This would be a nice parallel with the Elrond-Elros arc in the episode. But who is his brother? Is this Gandalf looking for Saruman (or the other way around)? Is it one of the two Blue Wizards? There is also the possibility that, like Sauron's "sigil," it is actually a map, perhaps a mountain/tower or some other geographical location...

Stay tuned, on As the Flat World Turns.....