Journalists can't do math

https://thatparkplace.com/amazon-cant-cancel-rings-of-power-without-hefty-financial-kill-fee-to-tolkien-estate/

I really wanted to say women can't do math, but the image and name and biography of the writer says he's a seasoned journalist. But it's ridiculous to suggest, as he does, that Amazon can't cancel without it costing more than it's worth.

According to The Ankler, the first season alone cost north of $465 million, not even counting the $250 million Amazon paid for the global rights to Tolkien’s works or the hundreds of millions spent on marketing. By the time viewers at home were tallying their impressions, Amazon had spent well over three quarters of a billion dollars just to get the show on the air. 

And then this, of course:

The cruel truth is that Amazon may not be able to cancel Rings of Power even if it wants to. The Tolkien estate’s kill fee ensures every unfinished season costs the company another $20 million just to walk away. With season three already in production and five seasons originally committed, the company is boxed in.

So, the first season cost $465 million, but they have no choice but to spend that four more times or it will cost them.... $60 million! Granted, I'm sure that they're spending less on season 2, and can again on seasons 3-5, but there's no way that it's less than $20 million each. So no... it's clearly cheaper for them to just cancel it: pay the "kill fee" and stop hemorrhaging money.

Anyway, the joke I kind of wanted to make, but couldn't. Oh, well.

Narghil? Nargul? Nargil Pass

Saw a reference to this pass, which only appears in some draft sources for Lord of the Rings. Tolkien himself drew a pretty draft map of Middle-earth, which was the prototype for Christopher Tolkien's own more polished map which was published. But there's some interesting things in the original map. One of them is that the mountains surrounding Mordor are both considerably less geometrically odd and square, and much, much burlier. The mountains really look like a much more dangerous and serious barrier to travel in and out of Mordor. Here's a snip of a lower resolution image of the map.

One of the very notable features, which was mentioned in an early draft of the chapter "The Muster of Rohan" but subsequently cut from the version that was published, as Nargil Pass, the big pass in the southern region of Mordor, which led to the Haradwaith. In fact, two different drafts have two different spellings of it Nargil and Nargul. Not only did it appear on Tolkien's original map, but Christopher's own 1943 draft map apparently had it as well, although that has never been published, only described. The spelling on the map was Narghil Pass. 

I've always been fascinated with the parts of the Middle-earth map that are blank, or just have a single name or label, and little to no description. I know; I know—the presence of stuff that's "out of frame" contributes significantly to the sense of verisimilitude which Middle-earth has. But it still begs so many questions that fans wish that they had answers to! Another thing; that Nargil Pass, or however you want to spell it—I wonder if that was possibly one of the routes that Gandalf contemplated for the Fellowship to enter Mordor. Clearly it's unlikely that they'd enter the Black Gate, and based on his reaction, he didn't seem thrilled with Morgul Vale and Cirith Ungol; although maybe if he'd been there he would have done so anyway. But maybe there were other options that we don't know about, like... Nargul Pass! It's also possible (although unlikely) that he'd have had the Fellowship travel around the mountains and enter Mordor from the East, but probably not. That would have added weeks of travel at best, and maybe months. And although we know little about the lands to the east, it's unlikely that they would have been safe or any easier to travel and pass through.