[EddySchauHai]

I’m a pretty big Tolkien fan and I absolutely love this series. They keep surprising me with license-scope beyond what I thought Amazon acquired (using content from the Simarilian for example). If you’re on the fence about this show because of its media, give it a shot!

/spoilers

Can’t wait to find out who Sauron is, if he’s in the show so far.

[peteradio]

Wait, what, is Sauron hiding as one of the characters!?

[EddySchauHai]

Either one we’ve seen or one we haven’t! In the canon lore he disguises himself as the Lord of Gifts from Valinor and works with Celebrimbor to create the rings of power. Elrond, Gil-Galad and Galadriel don’t trust him but don’t realize who he really is. My money is on Halbrand, as he’s a good smith and able to persuade people to do as he wants but it’s probably a false lead and he’ll come in later.

[mcv]

I've seen good arguments why the Meteor Man might be Sauron. It doesn't fit a lot of things from the Tolkien lore, but it does fit some hints from the show.

[peteradio]

Good lord, I'm so delightfully disoriented. I didn't realize the rings didn't exist yet.

[mcv]

That's because they're completely mixing up the history. They're already hinting at the destruction of Numenor, and they've introduced all the characters involved in that (except Sauron himself), all of which should happen 2000 years after the forging of the rings. And they're even hinting at the dwarfs digging too deep in Khazad-Dum (4000 years in the future).

They're clearly writing a completely new timeline, made up of parts of Tolkien's timeline.

[mcphage]

One of my biggest pet peeves in made up fantasy worlds is the fact that their worlds are absolutely static for hundreds or thousands of years at a time. Nations rise and fall constantly! Maps shift! First the kingship is in Eridu, now it's in Bad-Tibira! Then Bad-Tibira fell and the kingship was taken to Larag!

(Of course, this makes the trope I'm complaining about Older Than Dirt, since the Sumerian King List claims their kings ruled for tens of thousands of years)

[prox]

I think he was quite a beautiful and most of all charming character before his corruption if I remember correctly.

[EddySchauHai]

Originally Sauron was a Maia who was 'good and uncorrupted' with a passion for order. He sided with Morgoth because he thought if they could control the minds of Middle-Earth they'd be better off. As far as I know, in the lore, Sauron isn't evil in the way he's portrayed in the movies in that his goal is to improve everyones lives through efficiency and order (so it's not as simple as light v dark).

Sauron can shape-shift so in the second age he shows himself as a fair and beautiful man, but he's also portrayed as a werewolf and vampire in the books at different times!

[slowmovintarget]

He was corrupted by Morgoth and became evil. But otherwise, yes.

[prox]

Interesting. Didn’t he lose that power when made the final Ring of Power, and when he activated it, he threw all of his “life force” in it (cruelty, malignancy etc.)

[EddySchauHai]

Yes in order to make the One Ring more powerful than the other rings he had to put his own strength into it. However the elven rings weren't made by Sauron so he couldn't control those (eventually worn by Gandalf, Galadriel, and Elrond), and if I remember right the Dwarfs were too stubborn to be controlled (or something), so only the humans ended up being controlled anyway.

[readthenotes1]

Iirc:

-All the rings were made for elves except for the One. The 3 the elves ended up with were made in secret which is why they escaped Sauron.

With the elves warned (when Sauron out on the One), the other rings went to dwarves and men instead.

-Sauron lost the ability to shape-shift and appear fair with the drowning of Numenor, where he was.