Rings of Power (Andrew Richardson)
Credit: Ben Rothstein/Prime
Do you know why a sword floats and a stone cannot? Neither do I!
This is Anarion, a new character in Rings Of Power Season 3. He’s Elendil’s younger son and Isildur’s brother, which is funny because A) I don’t recall ever hearing about him in the first two seasons and B) he looks older than Isildur to me. He is, however, an actual character from Tolkien’s legendarium, so at least they’re just not making up characters left and right – or at least not all the time.
What I can’t figure out about this image is the sword. How is Anarion carrying this blade? He appears to be standing with his arms at his side. The swore is not sheathed or strapped to his back. It appears to be balancing on his neck, at the top of his spine. Not even resting over a shoulder. I’ve never seen a sword carried in this manner. If he was moving it one direction or another, surely his hand would be on the hilt.
It’s as if someone used an AI prompt to have Anarion standing there holding a sword over his shoulder and the AI generation failed and left the arm and hand out of the image, leaving the sword just sort of . . . floating there, debatably better than six or seven fingers but still not great.
I’m not sure what else it could be. Maybe he has a tail, and the tail is holding the sword from the tip just out of frame. Maybe someone threw the sword at him from behind and it’s just about to crash into this neck (that dirty coward Kemen most likely).
Do you have any idea what could possibly be going on with this strange, floating blade? Is it a magic sword that floats just behind your neck wherever you go, making all manner of social situations deeply awkward in the process? A kind of odd twist on the infamous Sword of Damocles, hovering there waiting to behead poor Anarion should he ever dispute the widely held Numenorean belief that the Sea is always right. (And it is, okay, it knows calculus and stuff).
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There may be a tempest in Galadriel, but Anarion has a magical hovering sword behind his neck. Ten points House Hufflepuff.
If you have a theory, hit me up on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. I’m also returning to YouTube this week, so check out my channel for updates.