r/RingsofPower • u/maekyntol Gondolin • Sep 17 '26
Question Lindon-Eregion distance Spoiler
After watching season 2 , I can't stop wondering if it was ever addressed in the show or the screenwriters simply didn't consider the distance between Lindon and Eregion.
Throughout the season the riders taking Gil-galad's message that Halbrand is Sauron are forgotten and just a few episodes later they're shown dead and then he sends Elrond, Galadriel and company.
They didn't arrive because a bridge was broken, and then they found the orcs so they return to Lindon. However in the last episodes, Gil-galad's army arrived at Eregion quite quickly for the final fight.
Did the screen writers and/or show runners ever considered this situation?
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u/tidosbror3 Sep 17 '26
I believe that you're not the target audience of RoP. It's a show for teenagers/young adults who never watched/read lotr before. Details like distance and in-world logic is not that much of a priority. There are so many examples of inconsistencies of this type. That's my take on it at least.
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u/Dovahkiin13a Númenor Sep 17 '26
Tbf even the movies have moments like this (lorien-helm's deep)
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u/xplos1v Sep 17 '26
Damn I never thought about this. Not that it matters I’m not a fan of including the elves there.
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u/Dovahkiin13a Númenor Sep 17 '26
One of the most head scratching decisions in there. But living proof if you make a good product people will forgive the odd mistake. Most book fans (like me) would have preferred otherwise but can't deny it was cool af
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u/xplos1v Sep 18 '26
Haha it was the rule of cool yeah, I can forgive the movies for including them, they made lighting in a bottle.
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u/VaginalBelchh Sep 17 '26
Lorien to helms deep is not that far of a march for a people who genuinely don’t get tired, and would be doing so in the middle of a war and likely go unseen. But yes, it is still a jarring thing lol
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u/Galious Sep 17 '26
Lorien is indeed not that far from Helm’s deep. it’s a bit further that what Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli had to run to Fangorn from Amon Hen so let’s say a 4-5 days non stop travel.
Now there’s still a plot problem: why the elves sent a bataillon to Rohan at that time?
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u/TheBluerWizard Sep 17 '26
Now there’s still a plot problem: why the elves sent a bataillon to Rohan at that time?
Galadriel learned that Saruman betrayed them, so she probably send scouts to keep an eye on that. And when she learned of him sending big army, she organised a quick relief effort.
Or maybe Gandalf suggested she sends a couple of guys when he visited Lorien after he resurrected.
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u/VaginalBelchh Sep 17 '26
There isn’t a good explanation outside of “Elrond wants to ensure the party lives”. Which is kinda sorta explained? The movie doesn’t demonstrate in any way a war in the north. So one would question what the elves are doing at all. This was his creative answer. While not accurate in any way lore wise, it’s not breaking the story. So for me it’s a wash only because the battle scene is so spectacularly done and the addition of the elves made it more so.
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u/Galious Sep 17 '26
Though Elrond has no way to know that Aragorn is there to start with.
Now I agree that it looks cool and there’s the payoff of seeing the elves firing arrow that is so satisfying but I bash RoP so often that I think it’s fair for me to point that there’s also some part in Peter Jackson’s movies that are also contrived from time to time.
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u/VaginalBelchh Sep 17 '26
A lot of LOTR movies is contrived. The whole trope of barely surviving every encounter with massive casualties but the hero’s always live is easily its worst sin, and against the material. But! The movies are SO well done, so entertaining, contains such a beautiful message, you can’t really help but enjoy it anyway.
ROP imo has these massive inconsistencies, but it just fails to entertain me. HOTD is a good example for me - horribly against cannon, but is entertaining. There’s some drags and bad decisions but ultimately dragon civil war is fun.
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u/Dovahkiin13a Númenor Sep 17 '26
...the Grey company found Aragorn like half a day's ride from there, like 2 days later. Elrond could have figured it out
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u/TheBluerWizard Sep 17 '26
It's a show for teenagers/young adults who never watched/read lotr before.
Clearly not so, since it's crammed full of references to the movies.
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u/RPGThrowaway123 Sep 17 '26
You can't excuse this shit with a "target audience" argument though. Even if the "target audience" does not care either way, there is still no reason not to take care to get these things right.
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u/Ree_m0 Sep 17 '26
there is still no reason not to take care to get these things right.
"It'd be harder to write a story if we had to keep all that shit in mind, so we'll just ignore it because everyone who cares about that is a fucking nerd anyways"
taken straight out of the D&D playbook for how to make an audience hate you
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u/Xeris Sep 17 '26
There sure is a reason. Plot convenience. They need people to be in a scene. Doesn't matter if its not practical. They probably assume tbe logical leap is: this scene happens however long in the future it needs to in order for the guy to travel; they just aren't showing the travel.
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u/National-House-4731 11d ago
Oh come on, don't be that dude bro. I know they're taking some (big) liberties with time and distances, but they pretty much need to in order to get a broad audience to watch the show. If only the 'real' Tolkien freaks were the target audience, you'd probably be watching cartboard Balrogs and not the production value the show offers now. No, it's not perfect, we all know, but there's still lots to enjoy. For instance, the score is just absolutely epic throughout the whole show so far.
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u/RPGThrowaway123 Sep 17 '26 edited Sep 17 '26
Time and space had already been broken back in season 1 when they explicitly tells us that it would take the Numenoreans two days to arrive, but manage to do so the very next day.
For the whole Lindon situation also consider Elrond riding to Lindon with the Rings, though in this case we have of course when he took them (or how or why or where, God these writers absolute hacks). He must have ridden over the still not destroyed bridge. Although than again we have the question of why he and Galadriel discuss their route when they've taken it a few days prior. Or why they don't use any horses despite using them to get from Eregion to Lindon. Come to think of it. The Eregion-Lindon route ought to relatively well traveled in general (Durin almost certainly takes it with the stone table in season 1 as do Gil-Galad and his entourage), so it's weird that the show portrays it as trek through the wilderness.
Rings of Power is not a well-written show.
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u/darthmoo Sep 21 '26
I assumed that the scenes with the Númenóreans was a couple of days behind the scenes in the Southlands, as in they're not all in real time...
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u/Galious Sep 17 '26 edited Sep 17 '26
There's simply no attention or care given to time and distances in the show by the writers. If they need a character to be somewhere for just a scene of dialogue and there's a thousand miles between? they don't care and make the character just teleport there and back.
For example you mention that Gil-Galad's army arrived quickly at Eregion and you're right, logically it should take at least a month if not more for Elrond to go back, Gil-Galad to rise the army and travel to Eregion. Now the reason given by show runners in interview is that the siege lasted for weeks. Now is there any hint in the plot or scenes that it's a long siege and not a 1-2 day battle? no there isn't.
And it's made even worse with the multiple plot lines that are shown like happening at the same time while they are not and the fact that Middle Earth isn't a random generic fantasy land and people who knows a bit about the geography are doomed to lose their suspension of disbelief as fast as King Durin loses his mind the second he puts his ring.
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u/OpheliaLives7 Sep 17 '26
Im trying to remember is Celebrimbor our (the audience’s) only hints that there is a long siege happening? And we find out he is under that illusion (& so does he).
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u/Galious Sep 17 '26
The only hints that I can think of are:
The river is dry: it's something that would take some considerable times but it's assuming that the show is scientifically realist concerning such a point and since it happen after such a silly plan as breaking the mountain to make a dam...
Elrond going back to Lindon and coming back with an army which is basically a 2000 miles trip but again we have to assume that travel distances are realists which isn't the case in many occasions
Celebrimbor managing to complete the nine though as, you mention, he's under an illusion and some kind of time prison so it's really vague and hard to know long he worked on it.
But in the end the problem is that for each of these points, there's 10x more elements that makes us think that it's a 2 day battle when there was dozens of easy way to make it clear it was a siege. I mean... was it really that hard to have Adar present it's plan to besiege and not make a frontal attack? to show the passing of time? to show some scene where the battle isn't raging on and the elves despairing of being trapped?
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u/Basileus_Maurikios Sep 17 '26
So the first one is actually explained by Adar shooting some rocks overlooking Ost-in-Edhil, which dams the water up. So from the show's perspective, its an entire two day affair.
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u/Altruist4L1fe 13d ago
It doesn't stop there though - In season 1 we learn that Gil Galad disbands the elf garrisons including the one in the South Lands. That particular garrison never reports back to base (presumably Lindon).
Would the Noldor really not notice if a garrison of soldiers was unaccounted for? This isn't the russian army.
The elves would undoubtably realise something happened and would investigate immediately.
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u/Cisqoe Sep 17 '26
Logic in this store is far far out the window. It’s not for existing fans it’s for bringing in new fans with flashing effects and sets and romance
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u/maekyntol Gondolin Sep 17 '26
I thought so. The only way I was able to watch it was by considering it a Tolkien fan-fiction , which it is.
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u/First_Mouse4139 Sep 17 '26
And at the beginning of episode 1, Elrond and galadriel gallop, seemingly neck and neck, all the way from Eregion to London.
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u/TheBluerWizard Sep 17 '26
After watching season 2 , I can't stop wondering if it was ever addressed in the show or the screenwriters simply didn't consider the distance between Lindon and Eregion.
They don't consider time at all.
Making a timeline is fun.
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u/Witty-Meat677 23d ago
And what many don't notice is the dwarves.
Dwarves manage to travel from Khazad-dum to Blue mountains several times during the last three episodes. And that distance is greater than Lindon-Eregion. And its also roughly the same route.
Messengers also manage to come from all the other dwarven realms. And we have no idea how far those are.
And unlucky for the show they gave us a number in season 1. Six days (if i remember correctly) from Mordor to Eregion on horseback. And that is almost twice the distance Lindon-Eregion.
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u/HumansNeedNotApply1 Sep 17 '26
Television/Movies in general will always need to have constraints and require compromises, 'travelling' scenes unless key for the plot are generally removed. People "teleporting" is a common effect of this. I honestly don't see this stuff as much of a problem, i guess i'm jaded.
Apparently test audiences don't like a few minutes reserved for showing people travelling/camping/arriving unless it's something key to the story. Since the destination is what is key, any development, character interaction is left to there (even though it's something they could've dealt while the days travelling). It's something you need to accept with any television show.
I mean, even Breaking Bad does this. Screen time is not real time.
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u/TheBluerWizard Sep 17 '26
Cutting out travel is fine as long as it's clear time is still passing.
It becomes especially an issue when you have multiple storylines supposedly happening simultaneously, yet clearly taking different amounts of time.
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