I was ok with the wizard, just don’t make it Gandalf for nostalgia, stick to the blue wizards as that’s actually canon and interesting and expansive to the lore.
I’m pretty sure the rings of power writers thought they could easily get away with combining the blue wizards with Gandalf, but I think it’s just too confusing for regular fans and too wrong for nerds.
A new wizard though, one mentioned by Gandalf in films? That can work!
Yeah, same. The blue wizards would have been doable from a lore perspective, and would have been ripe for exploration seeing as they have so little known about them. But no, the RoP writers had to have their Gandalf + Hobbit to fill their nostalgia quota, of course.
The “always follow your nose” ‘reveal’ was the final nail in the RoP coffin for me.
When they had the “always follow your nose” “reveal” , that was the final nail in the RoP coffin for me.
Oh yea. I loudly groaned when it happened. My partner watching with me isn’t as much of a LoTR nerd as I do I had to explain it to them I was so loud.
I’m actually still hoping that it was a bit of a fun tease and even a way to test the waters with the fan base on whether they should make it Gandalf. It’d be perfectly fine and even a little fun if it’s a “nice” wizard thing to say and think given that bodies and smells might be entirely new to maiar.
Yeah, the potential is there for another audience fakeout, but I think it’s highly unlikely. Their target demographic is a mass audience who enjoyed the Jackson movies but aren’t hardcore fans of the books. To these fans, as you said, a blue wizard would be too much of a head-scratcher.
That’s true, however that was more or less a footnote and not something that featured in the published works. Hence why I said ‘canonically’, as in ‘going by the books’.
I think it would have been fine for the RoP writers to have The Stranger be a blue wizard on this basis, though.
But do it properly this time. No wizards or halflings in the Second Age, thank you very much.
I was ok with the wizard, just don’t make it Gandalf for nostalgia, stick to the blue wizards as that’s actually canon and interesting and expansive to the lore.
I’m pretty sure the rings of power writers thought they could easily get away with combining the blue wizards with Gandalf, but I think it’s just too confusing for regular fans and too wrong for nerds.
A new wizard though, one mentioned by Gandalf in films? That can work!
Yeah, same. The blue wizards would have been doable from a lore perspective, and would have been ripe for exploration seeing as they have so little known about them. But no, the RoP writers had to have their Gandalf + Hobbit to fill their nostalgia quota, of course.
The “always follow your nose” ‘reveal’ was the final nail in the RoP coffin for me.
Oh yea. I loudly groaned when it happened. My partner watching with me isn’t as much of a LoTR nerd as I do I had to explain it to them I was so loud.
I’m actually still hoping that it was a bit of a fun tease and even a way to test the waters with the fan base on whether they should make it Gandalf. It’d be perfectly fine and even a little fun if it’s a “nice” wizard thing to say and think given that bodies and smells might be entirely new to maiar.
Yeah, the potential is there for another audience fakeout, but I think it’s highly unlikely. Their target demographic is a mass audience who enjoyed the Jackson movies but aren’t hardcore fans of the books. To these fans, as you said, a blue wizard would be too much of a head-scratcher.
Uh, weren’t the blue wizards around in the 2nd age?
Nope. Canonically, the blue wizards arrived around the same time as their more famous brothers, early in the Third Age.
According to https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Blue_Wizards the later writings retconned this, and they arrived in Middle-Earth in the 2nd age.
That’s true, however that was more or less a footnote and not something that featured in the published works. Hence why I said ‘canonically’, as in ‘going by the books’.
I think it would have been fine for the RoP writers to have The Stranger be a blue wizard on this basis, though.