The first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power sure has been polarizing. One thing this show has been, across the board, is big and bold, both in its story choices and its character depictions. I give them credit for doing nothing hesitant or halfway. It’s been an extravaganza of sight and sound and feeling, for good or ill. And in the finale, episode 8, long-running theories were dashed and/or confirmed; identities were revealed or further teased; fans were elated, impressed, or thoroughly bummed out. It’s all in there, and all out there.
Many critics (a term I am applying only to those who went in with an open mind) like to say things like “The Rings of Power has gone off the rails.” But I don’t think so. It didn’t go off the rails because it was always on a different set of tracks than the book(s). It’s been weaving this way and that over new landscapes, through new plot tunnels, over conflict bridges, and through narrow character canyons. Sometimes the narrative landscape actually resembles one of Tolkien’s, but mostly not. Once we square with the layout of these new sets of tracks, we can try to make sense of it. I struggle with it myself.
So let’s get to it. To say this discussion has spoilers in it would be a serious understatement. But I won’t lie, a lot of this is criticism.
Before I start off harshly, I really want to emphasize that there is still much to recommend this show. I’ve loved nearly everything about the Harfoots (despite going in as a skeptic), the Stranger, future Moria and all its residents, Elrond, and even, at times, Galadriel and Númenor. On these alone I would argue that this adaptation is worth the price of admission. There is so much that’s worthwhile in all of that. I will be listening to the series’ music over and over, long after watching the episodes. The rest, though, that I will grumble about—the compression of the timeline, the reordering of events, the depiction of Sauron, and the character assassination of Galadriel from episode 8—are simply the deep drawbacks.
Let’s start with a summary of what happened in the finale.
Episode 8, “Alloyed” — The Stranger has wandered into the Greenwood alone, but he’s been trailed by the Mystics, who finally confront him. Scarily. They’re all, no worries, we’re here to serve you, Sauron! Over in the grand realm (but which sure seems to be just one nameless city) of Eregion, Elrond and Celebrimbor fuss over not having a solution to the Elves Fading Problem, having been denied mithril by the Dwarves. Galadriel shows up, and what might have been a happy reunion between old friends turns immediately to present concerns: the wounded “low-man” Halbrand and the predicament of the Elves in general. Galadriel and Elrond play catch-up.
When he’s “well” enough, Halbrand manages to wander from the hospital wing of Eregion into the . . . central forge room of Eregion in a way that makes it seem like the recovery room is just downstairs? Were the Elves anticipating frequent injuries with this new forge of theirs? Halbrand flatters Celebrimbor and gives him some ad hoc advice about mixing substances. You know, alloys, something one would think the Noldor, of all the Elves—and Celebrimbor especially—would have thought of before. Celebrimbor is intrigued.
In Númenor, the old king (Tar-Palantir, but who we’ve been told is named Ar-Inziladûn) is on his death bed (well, still), and when Eärien sits to sketch his likeness for his honorary tomb-statue, the old man stirs. He mistakes the girl for his daughter, Míriel, and sends her up into his secret tower room to check out the object hidden within, which of course we already know about). I guess this palantír may function for anyone, not just those with royal authority.
Back in Eregion, Gil-galad, Elrond, Galadriel, and Celebrimbor argue. Celebrimbor seems to have some new ideas involving something round—suggesting a power “not of the flesh but over flesh”—but Gil-galad isn’t having it. He orders Eregion to “disband” (huh?) and is officially throwing in the towel. By quoting Gil-galad’s own words back to him, though, Elrond manages to buy the project three months, so that Celebrimbor can have a crack at “saving all Elvendom.” But Galadriel is now suspicious, having heard the “power over flesh” line before, from Adar, who knew a thing or two about what Sauron used to be experimenting with. Except this time it’s coming from Halbrand, isn’t it? She asks a loremaster to go and find any notes available on the bloodlines of the Southlands, hoping to verify Halbrand’s lineage.
Back in the Greenwood, the three Mystics subdue the Stranger. They tell him they have come from Rhûn and that he is really and truly Sauron; still confused, he almost seems open to the concept. But the sudden intervention by Nori, Poppy, Marigold, and Sadoc turns into a battle with the cultist ladies. Every one of the Harfoots helps. Sadoc is mortally wounded, Poppy hits the spell-slinging lady on the head with rocks (I loved that), and ultimately the Stranger is outed as an “Istar” as the Mystics realize they were mistaken. The three Mystics are finally defeated by the newfound wizard’s conviction that he is not what they wanted him to be, and their banishment is decidedly . . . wraithlike. On the ship to Númenor, Elendil and Míriel speak of the sacrifices that may be required of those who are Faithful (to the Elves, to the old ways, etc.). When they reach their destination, they see the harbor filled with black sails—the signal that indeed, the king is dead.
Back in Eregion, device devising continues apace, with Galadriel giving Halbrand the side-eye as she waits to get results back from the lab . . . err, I mean, lore back from the archives. When it does come in, she sees that there is no existing lineage for Southlands royalty, and there hasn’t been for a long time. She confronts Halbrand in a nearby garden. Here he is outed, at last, as Sauron indeed. Galadriel blinks a lot, trying to rationalize (like a lot of us) why this cannot be. When she finally faces the truth, she attacks him, but the two of them continue the conversation in a psychic memory-nightmare episode in her mind. First on the raft, then in Valinor. Sauron seems to suggest that it was her who convinced him to come back to Middle-earth, that he only wanted to remain in Númenor. He tempts her, she rejects him. He leaves her to drown in the river without ensuring her death—classic Bond villain mistake—but Elrond pulls her out. Instead of aborting the creation of a ring, which Sauron had suggested could be two, she simply insists that three be made. “One will always corrupt. Two will divide.” Halbrand has vanished, but she also doesn’t tell the others who he is; she only says that he cannot be trusted. Elrond suspects something. Back among the Harfoots, it is decided that Nori will go with the Stranger on his continued adventure towards Rhûn. Poppy will be the Harfoots’ new Trailfinder.
Over in Mordor, where he’s traveled back to the south, Sauron has scored himself a Sith cloak. He smiles for the camera—evidently not bothered in the least for not having won over Galadriel—and then walks on towards Mount Doom.
Now for the particulars. Oh, and a reminder: the “RoPer” adjective is just my shorthand for “the Rings of Power version of a Tolkien-invented character.” Now let’s get to it, starting with the Dark Elephant in the Room.
Annatar / Halbrand / Sauron: Back in February of this year, when all we had was the Super Bowl teaser to chew over, I theorized that “Raft Man” might have been Sauron in disguise but I didn’t really want to voice it. I mean, there wasn’t much to go on yet. It was just a gut feeling that they would introduce him as a good guy early on, but not as Annatar, the guise “both fair and wise” that he adopts in The Silmarillion. Then when the show began and we actually met the refugee Halbrand, I dismissed the theory. The more we followed him, despite the “clues” that at least looked like red herrings, the whole set-up seemed far too contrived, requiring far too many leaps of logic, to make him Sauron, after all. Tons of people were guessing that it was him all along.
And in the end, I was mistaken, after all. I’m glad I was. There are so many aspects of the situation that I find far-fetched. Then again, this may be because I’ve read so much more about Sauron than The Lord of the Rings (and Amazon rights) has to work with. So what we have here—and what I have to keep reminding myself— is simply a very alternative Sauron that showrunners McKay and Payne have invented. We have RoPer Sauron, who somehow got himself on the floating wreckage of a ship far, far out on the sea west of Middle-earth.
Were the other raft survivors phantoms of his devising, or were they legitimate mortals unaware of him? Where was he going? It sure seems like timeless Sauron, future Dark Lord, could have succeeded if he’d actually been trying to reach Númenor. Was the sea monster part of his sorcery, or was that even real? I’ve heard it theorized that it might have been sent by Ulmo, the Vala of all waters, to sabotage him—but that would be digging a spoon deep into The Silmarillion, and if you can do that, then this shouldn’t be so alternate a Sauron as we got.
Take Gil-galad. Doesn’t it seem like an odd choice, for writers with the full majesty of The Lord of the Rings available to them, to depict the High King as weak and haughty while portraying Sauron as a former bad guy who’s trying to be a nice guy but who gets steered back into evil by one of Middle-earth’s staunchest defenders (Galadriel)? I mean, it’s gutsy. This Sauron was just trying to turn over a new leaf, apparently. But it was Galadriel’s efforts to get back to Middle-earth that turns him back to his old tyrant’s ways? He is, throughout the run of this show so far, a gaslighter and an abusive friend/partner/whatever, and he now he will return to being a mass murderer—specifically due to her prompting (if unknowingly on her part). That story choice is more shocking, to me, than the idea that the true villain was under the heroes’ noses this whole time. Because of course he was. That aspect of Sauron was never a problem. Many viewers assumed, as I did, that Sauron was simply hiding in plain sight among the Elves of Lindon or Eregion this whole time, and was the reason behind the absurd mithril-as-necessary-drug plotline.
This is not to say that the Halbrand-as-Sauron scheme is wrong through and through. Of course not. I would say this show doesn’t get anything wholly wrong. It even gets some things right. But what it does get wrong, when scaled out, becomes problematic for Tolkien’s world. I will say again that I don’t think we’re seeing writers (or at least showrunners) stumbling through the lore without knowing it. I think they know it—a lot of it, maybe all of it—but they may not always understand it. I think their changes to these characters are deliberate. For example, yes, Sauron is a deceiver. Hell yeah. That’s accurate. He’s not going to march around Middle-earth at this stage in his black spiky armor. I get that; even Tolkien knew that. But this “bad boy” version of Sauron that some are swooning over, who if left alone might have turned out okay? That’s not very Tolkienian at all.
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The Keeper’s Six
The showrunners may not have been able to use The Silmarillion‘s story, but this “origin story” of the dark lord of the rings didn’t need to be incompatible with Tolkien’s larger ideals, did it? So while we can’t look to The Silmarillion for its stories, we can allow it to show us what Tolkien himself intended for the character of Sauron. For example, until Sauron meets the Númenóreans and their armies come to the aid of the Elves in his war against Eregion and Lindon, he’s only concerned about the Elves. And even before that, long before his ring-scheme was conceived, he went from shame and fear to pride after the defeat of Morgoth. His moment of near repentance is real (which The Rings of Power sure is trying to capitalize on, despite not having Silmarillion rights), but it’s very brief, not something he ruminates on for centuries. He does try to surrender at first to the herald of the Valar, but when he realizes that he’d have to humble himself, to go back to Valinor and almost certainly serve time, he abandons the notion. He’d only hoped to escape accountability, anyway. So Sauron looks around and judges that the Valar, with Morgoth now removed, have given up on Middle-earth. So what he wants early on in the Second Age is to order the world according to his vision. But he knows he can’t just assume control because there are still Elves around. Oh, sure, if it was just the “lesser” Men that peopled Middle-earth, mortals scattered in tribes and small nations around the continent, he could have mopped the floor with them or made them his slaves or servants.
But the Elves? And those Númenóreans? In “Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age,” we’re told:
He looked with hatred on the Eldar, and he feared the Men of Númenor who came back at whiles in their ships to the shores of Middle-earth; but for long he dissembled his mind and concealed the dark designs that he shaped in his heart.
Even if Saulbrand was chewing on the idea of not going back to his old ways, tell me, did he ever seem like someone with hatred for the Elves or fear of the Númenóreans? Like, even a little? Of course he can put on a false face, but we do get a few moments where he is alone, with no one around for him to deceive with appearances. There is only us, the audience, looking on through the immersive fourth wall, while Sauron sits in contemplation or stands in the dark with his eyes wet. He seems to be genuinely wistful or unsure of his path, doesn’t he? If only Tolkien’s most powerful female Elf character didn’t unwittingly prod him down the wrong path. I don’t find that a good look.
The Rings of Power writers have tried to make Sauron relatable. I am now genuinely curious what others—what you—think about that. The show has now spun him as a handsome rebel that maybe the right woman could theoretically change. That old cliché. And now follows the fanboy/fangirl crushing within the show’s fandom, which to me is a shame. Yes, Sauron can be made complex. No one said he should be a one-note, shallow character. He was not evil in the beginning, that much is true, even in Tolkien’s vision. But the key word is beginning. Way back before time, before the universe, he had another name and he was not evil. He did at some point choose to be, though, and he followed Melkor/Morgoth onto the path of rebellion and evil all through the First Age and even before it. Sauron’s point of no return is well past by the time he is supposed to start making trouble in the Second Age.
But all right, I know, I know, that’s Silmarillion talk and they simply could not walk through that. It’s a tough spot for the showrunners to be in, I suppose. Before the showrunners even came onto the scene, Amazon had secured only Hobbit and Rings lore; JD Payne and Patrick McKay’s pitch, which was accepted, would not allow them to use specific information from anywhere else, except in bits and pieces (like that map of Númenor). I get all that. No matter what, they would have to invent new movements for our beloved, still-alive-in-the Third Age characters (Galadriel, Elrond, Gil-galad, etc.), all new ideas concerning what the Rings of Power were, how they came to be made, and just how Sauron deceived everyone. But . . . did this mean they had to make their story incompatible with the books they couldn’t use? Did it mean they had to re-define those beloved characters from their Lord of the Rings incarnations? I guess that’s my sticking point.
To be fair, Jackson did this to some extent, too. He did it, hardcore, with Faramir. He did it a little bit with everyone, really: he made Frodo younger and more naïve, Elrond grimmer, Galadriel creepier and less comforting, and Aragorn was less confident. Though I think Jackson made Boromir actually more likeable, if not as deeply rooted. It’s not new to change aspects of a character in adaption. Yet I struggle with the writers’ choices here, and especially with their attitudes toward the source material.
The showrunners were asked about the Sauron reveal in the episode 8 entry of The Official The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Podcast, and JD Payne said the following:
If you sort of think about the obvious way, it’s, okay, a tall mysterious beautiful demigod named Annatar shows up and says, you know, ‘Let me help you with all your problems by making you some rings.’ Who’s going to fall for that?
By “obvious way” he means The Silmarillion way. Tolkien’s way. Is Annatar the obvious way? Or was it the best way for what Sauron was trying to achieve, without regards to the need for a mystery box? The narrator of The Silmarillion doesn’t try to trick the reader, only the Elves. So yeah, that quote makes me cringe, perhaps more than anything in the show itself. Because it sounds like an excuse. If they didn’t run with the Annatar concept because they simply didn’t have the rights to do so, that’s one thing. But saying, “Who’s going to fall for that?” tells me they thought Tolkien’s own idea was a flimsy one, or at least they’re using that position as a justification for their choices.
Well, what do readers think? How do they regard Tolkien’s all-too-brief account of the Second Age, wherein Sauron convinces the Elves to forge a batch of powerful rings through which he intends to dominate them? He did so by appealing to the Elves’ unrest, to their desire to remain in Middle-earth and make it as blissful as Valinor had been. They were seduced by his mad ring-skillz. He moved among them and guided them; it was a long and gradual process. 300+ years, in fact, by Tolkien’s timeline. Elves are smart and perceptive, so Sauron put in the work, both to teach and to deceive.
But okay, so that’s The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales version. I know I have to let that go. Let’s look, then, at the situation only from the bounds of The Lord of the Rings, which Payne and McKay absolutely were able to work from. It was still knowledge that Sauron offered the Elves—knowledge to achieve what they wanted to achieve (whatever that might be), to craft to make what they wanted to craft. Here’s how Tolkien describes it in “The Council of Elrond”:
. . . he told of the Elven-smiths of Eregion and their friendship with Moria, and their eagerness for knowledge, by which Sauron ensnared them. For in that time he was not yet evil to behold, and they received his aid and grew mighty in craft, whereas he learned all their secrets, and betrayed them . . .
Their eagerness for knowledge. Does that read like one interpretation might be “. . . and their eagerness for knowledge to stop their race from dying, by which Sauron ensnared them”? That’s the stretch here. Remember Halbrand’s jailbird advice to Galadriel? He says “you’d do well to identify what it is that your opponent most fears…[and] give them the means of mastering it. So that you can master them.” That was one of the great clues to Halbrand’s true identity. And while indeed “not yet evil to behold,” Halbrand ends up spending very little time in the forge-room of Eregion after wandering in from the sick ward. It seems mere days, at most (maybe weeks, if we’re generous), and that’s only after presenting some vague but initial smithing ideas that allowed Celebrimbor to recalibrate. Having Sauron be present and involved for most of the work that created the Three Rings that would eventually be known as Vilya, Nenya, and Narya also feels disingenuous to the book. They’re supposed to be the only three that Sauron’s “hand never touched” or sullied.
“All of this springs from the text,” the showrunners insist. I would say it stretches from the text, at best.
In the same podcast interview mentioned above, the showrunners were asked if actor Charlie Vickers would be still playing Sauron in future seasons. Would he take a different shape? They were coy about this, but they admitted that his Halbrand form has now been outed, and that there are still Seven Rings yet to be given to Dwarves, and Nine for Men. So this has me wondering if those Seven and Nine will each be a season’s worth of story, and whether the Elves will even be involved in further ring-making! I mean, they should be, right? But who knows, at this point? I think a lot of new soap opera drama would be needed to bring Sauron back to Eregion again. Galadriel and Gil-galad could be pushed away so as to inch closer to Tolkien’s own summary (those two famously refused to treat with Sauron), while Celebrimbor could go all-in. But it’s been made weird now.
I know that it takes continual effort to push aside the extended legendarium and remember that this is a version of the story that expands back through time only from The Lord of the Rings. That it is an alternate version to Tolkien’s own. If it can’t use a bunch of the stories that Tolkien did write, I at least want it to be relatively compatible with them. Does that seem like a fair expectation?
So all right. So RoPer Sauron tried to leave his evil past behind and was just trying to settle into a simpler life as a blacksmith or whatever? Okay. But this still needs to be the Sauron of which Gandalf will one day say this in “The White Rider” chapter of The Lord of the Rings:
Indeed he is in great fear, not knowing what mighty one may suddenly appear, wielding the Ring, and assailing him with war, seeking to cast him down and take his place. That we should wish to cast him down and have no one in his place is not a thought that occurs to his mind. That we should try to destroy the Ring itself has not yet entered into his darkest dream.
RoPer Sauron does seem nuanced enough to imagine these things things—that some people, given the opportunity, might not want to rule over everyone else, that they would destroy an object of power. He’s traveled in the company of heroes and commanders (Galadriel, Elendil, Míriel, and who knows how many others) and heard their concerns, and seen their plight. He’s not just an aloof force of evil in the shadows, but one who has dwelt among them like he’s one of them. This just doesn’t feel like the show has figured Sauron out yet.
Balrog: Hey, Durin’s Bane didn’t bust out yet, after all! Good. That’s worth something. They teased it, but then they held back. I’m holding onto hope that they save that for the final season, not the next one.
Catacombs in Eregion: Catacombs. That’s where the Vulcan Elf loremaster told Galadriel that he’d have to go to find anything on the bloodlines of mortals. But . . . what gives? Catacombs are “subterranean cemetery of galleries with recesses for tombs.” It could be stretched to be any underground passageway or group of passages, but still, that sure seems like an unusual feature for an Elvish realm (where wine cellars would be fine), given that Elves don’t just age and die in those ways. I think they were just trying to come up with the Elf equivalent of a dusty attic or moldy basement, to imply that Elves don’t normally need to keep archives on anything other than Elves. And sure, Elves definitely record their history from decidedly Elven points of view, and pay less attention to the history of Men, but come on. They’re making them extra jerky here. I suppose this at least makes one appreciate Rivendell more.
But word choice, in any Tolkien adaptation, should matter more, shouldn’t it? Just like when RoPer Elrond and RoPer Celebrimbor were approaching the gate of Khazad-dûm in episode 2. Celebrimbor has a line, a lovely line, that I really enjoyed the first couple of times I heard it. It spoke well of the Dwarves. Heck, it even spoke well of the writers. Celebrimbor says, “They sculpt the rock with the respect of one who cares for an aged parent.”
I love that. I get that. If you’re someone who’s ever had to care for someone older and in need of assistance, whether close family or not, it means even more. But then I thought about it. Why would an Elf say this, and to another Elf? Is this a common experience for them? I don’t think so. Elves in Middle-earth age, if very slowly, but they’ll never become infirm or physically impaired; they would not need to be cared for in the way that Celebrimbor is implying here. Had he said this line to a Man, it might make more sense; it would be him trying to say something that they would understand, as mortals. But it’s ill-fitting for an immortal Elf to say this to an immortal Elf. Heck, both Celebrimbor’s and Elrond’s parents are long gone, but neither had to care for them in this way. So while the words are nice, the context isn’t right. This is how dialogue and word choice in this show have been. Sometimes it’s awkward, and sometimes it’s splendid, but sometimes even when it’s lovely it might still feel off, because it doesn’t feel it belongs in a lived-in Middle-earth.
Celebrimbor: I really do like Charles Edwards but I think his talents would have been better served in another role. RoPer Celebrimbor seems to be a far cry from the wunderkind the grandson of Fëanor ought to be. Yes, he’s supposed to actually learn from Sauron, but the brief exchange between RoPer Sauron and RoPer Celebrimbor about mixing alloys felt vague and amateurish.
Galadriel: I’ve said a lot about Sauron, but honestly, the biggest disappointment from the revelations of episode 8, and by extension the whole show itself, lies in what they’ve done with Galadriel all this time (but which we didn’t know for sure until now). I’ve liked her well enough throughout—she’s still felt like a heroine to get behind, and it helps knowing what her future is like—but they’ve done the character dirty now. They’ve actually made her complicit in Sauron’s return and rise in both the Second Age and Third. They’re implying that it was her persistence in hunting him that literally flushed him out and brought him to all the important places where he can inflict the most damage. If one were to accept the show’s take, and make it part of their head-canon, then a read of “The Mirror of Galadriel” is particularly twisted. She would be harboring guilt all throughout the millennia that followed. Even if she was fooled. Even if she didn’t mean it (because of course she didn’t).
Worse, they’ve made jerkface RoPer Gil-galad right! Gahhh. After she sailed off toward Valinor, Elrond remarks to the High King that Galadriel was so certain that her search for Sauron should have continued. Gil-galad answers:
We foresaw that if it had, she might have inadvertently kept alive the very evil she sought to defeat. For the same wind that seeks to blow out a fire may also cause its spread.
I mean, that’s exactly what has happened. Had Galadriel left well enough along, Sauron might have faded into obscurity on his own. That’s what they’re implying.
Is there some way back from this? Unlikely. But who knows what the writers will devise in seasons to come? Could they somehow reveal that Sauron was on that shipwreck-raft, somehow working on a plan to return anyway, and his running into Galadriel simply meant an opportunity to have a partner in his crimes? Sure, they could, but that’s . . . weak. He didn’t really need her, after all. And when he fails to win her over, he’s not upset.
It’s clear from the interviews that the showrunners were aiming to show Sauron actually trying to leave his dark past behind, after all. Both character choices explored here sure are a far cry from what Tolkien himself kept returning to in his own post-Rings musings about Galadriel. The showrunners can’t use those stories, but they can use the themes of those stories. But they aren’t. Now, I get the parallels they’re trying to make with light and dark. With real light and reflected light. I get their wanting to show the path Galadriel could have started down, as a precursor to her speech to Frodo when she is tempted by the One Ring.
But I’m not a fan of the implication. And it also means that parts of Galadriel’s speech to Frodo in year 3019 of the Third Age has her directly quoting Sauron. “Stronger than the foundations of the earth” and all that. Well, at least they didn’t have RoPer Sauron also say to her, “All shall love you and despair,” because that’s such a brilliantly chilling line and she deserved to compose those words herself. Stop giving women’s cool lines to dudes, Rings of Power!
When we finally know (or meet) the person who will one day become the Witch-king, the lord of the Nazgûl, they’d better not have him nudge someone and remark, “I like to stand between others and their lords and kin. Oh, I am also deathless. And I’m going to be totally living or dark undead. No one can smite me.” Nudge, nudge.
Gil-galad: I’m crossing my fingers that the showrunners really work on his arc, so that one day we’re cheering when he values his smart friends and takes up arms against Mordor. I recently finally watched the ridiculous but fun Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012), and if you haven’t seen it, you should know that Abe is played by Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker), his dad is played by Adar (Joseph Mawle), and one of their vampire enemies is Jackson’s Celeborn himself (Marton Csokas)! Benjamin Walker can sure swing an axe! So I have some hope that we’ll someday see Gil-galad and some sweet, sweet spear-swinging action. Aeglos!
Mithril-as-necessary-drug: Ehh. They never pulled back on this at all. Really seems like mithril emits Silmaril light in RoPer Middle-earth, after all. Dang it. Can’t the Dwarves, who are so excellently portrayed in this show, have something that’s wholly theirs to find? Must their special ore need to originate in Elves, too? (Fëanor, the greatest of all Elven crafters, having made the Silmarils.)
Mountains and Trees: When Gil-galad is talking to Celebrimbor, Elrond, and Galadriel, the High King says, “Since the mountain of fire’s eruption the Great Tree is all but bleeding leaves.” Now, is there meant to be some link between Mount Doom and the Great Tree of Lindon? They never did resolve the situation of Elven souls, the blight on the Tree, and the need Elves seem to have for mithril-light. No theories or myths were debunked. In the very least, I had hoped someone would say something significant about the eruption of Orodruin. Are we to even assume Galadriel said a word about the Southlands, Orcs, Adar . . . any of that . . . to the others in Eregion? She probably filled in Elrond on most of it, but it’s frustrating to see no discussion of the evil that Gil-galad implied was gone for good back in episode 1. And what about Gil-galad’s disbanding of the Elven outposts? He’d declared “that the days of the war were over.” Why did he do that? Did that have something to do with the blight that had started to show on the Great Tree? Was that about their dying/fading? If so, fine, but say that! And what about the sapling that grew in Durin and Disa’s home? Why did we never go back to that? It was such a swell idea, and now feels like a missed opportunity.
In a show about rings, some things ought to come full circle, surely?
Mystics & The Stranger: We haven’t learned everything about the three Mystics, but we can do some guesswork now. They’re from the region called Rhûn. They thought, or at least hoped, that the Stranger was Sauron, which means they’re either part of Sauron’s service of old, or Morgoth’s. Or possibly they’re servants of a bad wizard merely looking to align themselves with Sauron.
When the Stranger, the Istar, defeats them, their dissolution is decidedly wraithlike. That’s no accident. It’s another callback to Jackson’s version of the Nazgûl as seen by a Ring-wearing Frodo, where he could see into the “wraith-world,” as Gandalf called it in the book. This doesn’t tell us very much, except that it feels like necromancy, which is very much associated with Sauron. Does this mean that these three are or were mortal women whose bodies were subjects in his experiments with the unseen world, “not of the flesh, but over flesh”? Or is that something anyone dabbling with evil power can try to tap into?
Very unofficially, and far from anything “canon,” Tolkien himself only speculated loosely about some wizards who might have gone bad when they came to Middle-earth. They are the Istari, and in a letter to Rhona Beare (Letter #211 from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien), he wrote:
I think they went as emissaries to distant regions, East and South, far out of Númenórean range: missionaries to ‘enemy-occupied’ lands, as it were. What success they had I do not know; but I fear that they failed, as Saruman did, though doubtless in different ways; and I suspect they were founders of beginners of secret cults and ‘magic’ traditions that outlasted the fall of Sauron.
It could be this sort of thing that the show is playing with, and reinventing. “He is not Sauron. He is the other. The Istar.” So is there a second Istar who came before him? Since moths are tied with Gandalf in the Jackson films, is the moth imagery in their banishment a reference to an Istar who these Mystics already serve, who in turn went bad and served Sauron? Good or bad, wizards and moths seem to be a thing in adaptations now. Also, why does only one of the three Mystics (the Dweller) seem to wield sorcery, while the others just use weapons. Well, these are just curiosities at this point, and don’t need immediate answering anyway.
Rhûn: The word rhûn simply means “east” in Sindarin. Why would someone from Rhûn call it that? And why would someone who is from there call their own stars strange? This is a quote pulled from Aragorn, when he calls when he refers to both Rhûn and Harad, lands he himself had traveled to, “where the stars are strange.” I’m of course excited to see where this plotline goes, and indeed if this Istar-who-is-probably-but-not-absolutely-clearly-Gandalf actually goes there, doing Blue Wizards’ work, and what that culture will look like? Will they call themselves exotic and strange? I sure hope we see the people in that land see themselves as normal.
Ring Sequence: In The Silmarillion, an unspecified number of Rings of Power are made by the Elven-smiths in Eregion, under Sauron’s guidance (in his Annatar disguise). Only after he makes the One Ring do we learn that of that batch of rings, Three in particular were made without his involvement, and were “forged by Celebrimbor alone.” But he gets a hold of all the rest, and from that number he ends up giving seven to Dwarves and nine to Men. Thus it’s clear that sixteen Rings of Power were made, then three separately, then the One.
All right, but forget that for a moment. The Lord of the Rings doesn’t give us the full summary of events involving the Rings, but we do get this from the Second Age timeline (and thus The Rings of Power had this before them):
1200 – Sauron endeavors to seduce the Eldar. Gil-galad refuses to treat with him; but the smiths of Eregion are won over.
1500 – The Elven-smiths instructed by Sauron reach the height of their skill. They begin the forging of the Rings of Power.
1590 – The Three Rings are completed in Eregion.
1600 – Sauron forges the One Ring in Orodruin. He completes the fortress of Barad-dûr. Celebrimbor perceives the designs of Sauron.
1693 – War of the Elves and Sauron begins. The Three Rings are hidden.
Forget the years. They compressed the timeline and shoved all of this up near the fall of Númenor. But still, that’s the order of the Rings, and it’s right there in the useable text. Why, then, make the Three Rings first and involve Sauron directly? Probably because to the average casual Tolkien film and TV fan, the timeline from Appendix B is obscure. While the dramatic ordering of the names from the famous poem is not.
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
Three, seven, nine. Which has me think we won’t be seeing future Nazgul for a while, still.
Valinor: There was little talk of Valinor in the season finale, but I still feels like it’s one of the greatest missteps that the show has made. I’m talking about its brief portrayal (which still has elements of AWESOME) and the means to reach it (an unmanned ship sailing into an ominous glowing portal), but especially its use in the show as a place of banishment. Gil-galad trying to send Galadriel there to get rid of her is about as opposite of Tolkien as anything I can imagine. People get exiled from Valinor, oh yes, but reversing that feels like the entire idea of Valinor is deeply undermined. If all I knew about Valinor was from what The Rings of Power shows us, I wouldn’t be very impressed. It seems almost oppressive. But damn, the “Valinor” theme in the soundtrack is excellent.
In conclusion, The Rings of Power is another Tolkien adaptation full of exciting, inspiring moments and absolute misfires. Because this one is a “prequel,” it’s hard for me not to compare it to Star Wars’ Episodes 1–3. Sure, we can see Anakin as a little kid, then an annoying teenager and young man, and find things about him that are endearing. But it’s either too much information or the wrong set-up for him that, ultimately, don’t much improve the character of Darth Vader…they might even be knocking him down a few pegs. Seeing this earlier and “younger” Sauron isn’t merely seeing how he came to be the Dark Lord of the Third Age; it’s recasting that same Dark Lord and making him something he wasn’t.
***
Ah, but what do I know? What do we know? We’re Tolkien fans, not TV show producers or writers. Or marketers. Well, maybe some of you are. I’m just a book nerd who tries to see the best in things even outside the books, but even I have the need to vent sometimes. I still defend The Hobbit trilogy of films for their right to exist, and I think that despite a bunch of missteps a lot of good came out of them. And so they will come out of The Rings of Power. There is already a crop of newborn baby Tolkien readers coming into the fandom.
I am absolutely still keen on seeing where this show will take us. I’m interested to see if any decisions made in the next season will make better sense of this one. I suspect that there are things they can’t just reel in or dial back. Galadriel is the big one for me. But I’ll give them a chance. I’ve still got a lot of respect for the legions of people who made this thing. I wanted it to be better, because it’s Tolkien, but it’s still got a lot of heart in it.
And honestly, one thing this adaptation does (that nearly all of them do) is make me appreciate the books all the more. While Halbrand screams right at the camera, close up, or smirks as he walks off towards Mount Doom, the facelessness of Sauron in the book is terrifying. Tolkien made his overarching Dark Lord scarier precisely because he lurks beyond the pages and in the corners of our imagination. We see him not in the expression of an actor but in the ways his power has tortured the natural world; in the ways he corrupts mortal Men and makes them into black-clad ghost-things that “cried with the voices of death”; in the ways that good men and women mistrusted one another; in the ways that Elves are seen to be estranged from their old mortal friends; in the fact that Galadriel, who Tolkien envisioned as Sauron’s antithesis despite her sins of pride, is feared by Men as some kind of forest witch and that those in her favor must be “net-weavers and sorcerers.” We see Sauron not with a swooping black Sith cloak but in the awful heaviness laid upon Frodo’s mind and body simply by carrying around something made by him. We see him in the fear that Sam feels while watching his best friend suffer.
No matter what form it takes, more talk of Tolkien is a good thing. Where Middle-earth is shown to be beautiful and memorable—awesome, we’re lucky to have it. Where it’s made to be subpar, well, we can talk about that, too, and just appreciate his world all the more.
Jeff LaSala is responsible for The Silmarillion Primer, the more recent and much shorter Second Age Primer, the Deep Delvings series, and a few other assorted articles on this site. Tolkien nerdom aside, Jeff wrote a Scribe Award–nominated D&D novel, produced some cyberpunk stories, and works in production for Macmillan and the Tor Publishing Group. He is sometimes on Twitter.
The easiest way to think of it is a Fan Fic written by someone who watched Jackson’s ROTK and never read anything by Tolkien combined with Amazon’s hubris.
It’s neither horrible nor great. Make some popcorn and forget it within a week of it ending.
Isn’t there something in the appendices that after the War of Wrath, some of the Maiar who followed Morgoth repented, and that included Sauron, at least at first? Sauron was too great to be pardoned by anyone but Manwë, so he was ordered to present himself in person at Valinor, at which point his pride reasserted itself and he fled instead.
Possibly the showrunners were trying to suggest that Sauron was initially repentant, and was sailing to Valinor? Then circumstance intervened, Galadriel rejected him, and so he decided to be evil again? With his kind of evil being the “I just want to remake Middle-Earth to meet my definition of beautiful, we just have different points of view” variety?
I don’t think it was handled well, but maybe that’s what they were going for.
Honestly this is a hard read from a fan’s (Jeff’s) perspective. That said I love to read you Jeff, always. What I see here though is confusing Really Big Fan Of Tolkien with Critic. This is a problem that so many people who are devout fans of Tolkien’s writings have: always taking the very very broad outlines that Tolkien wrote (called Worldbuilding) at face value and comparing them to another interpretation that has been created. And then of course finding the new creation lacking because, yeah, you do have ideas of what should and shouldn’t be and you get cranky and close minded in your reactions. Hence the snark that is sprinkled throughout this essay.
The reason why this series was created was because Tolkien wrote two very good adventure/fantasy books. Not perfect as some parts were hamfisted like some parts in this series, but very good. Because of those books we got to see his Worldbuilding which is basically Tolkien trying to work out some deep psychological issues in his life. And we all have those). What is great about his Worlbuilding is that he gives some life to it because they were so personal to him. By definition they aren’t so personal to us even if parts of them resonate in us. This takes us to this series and to Peter Jackson’s movies: they are both personal takes on a deeply personal huge story. They say more about them than they do about Tolkien. And so it will be with any take. Call them fanfic if you like. Its okay and not pejorative like some think.
Tolkien has a genius in allowing his readers to enter into his world so that they can make their own personal spin that works for their lives. As such the danger for us is in being too literal, too fundamentalist. At times this essay crosses that line. The way to step back from that cliff edge is to make the essay more personal.
I’ve really appreciated your write-ups of the show! Especially your choice to examine their creative choices from several angles, and discuss other possible paths, while also not feeling the need to defensively or angrily reject theirs even when theirs uhhhhh is often not great. Level headed commentary and analysis shouldn’t feel so rare and precious, but alas, in these days, it does. And I really agree with your final sentiment, “No matter what form it takes, more talk of Tolkien is a good thing.” I’ve had friends who were never interested in the books start reading them because of this, and I love that.
I can’t get over how the show runners claimed way back when that they wanted to “write the book Tolkien never wrote” and fill in the cracks between the stories, as it were. Instead they appear to have decided that they could write a story *better* than Tolkien, overriding in many cases what he actually wrote.
I continue to maintain that the one big issue with the show is the idea that there had to be a “mystery box” to keep the audience guessing, and Sauron’s hidden identity was chosen. The concept of a mystery box to keep the audience engaged is a rather modern one; a much older notion is having the audience aware of some duplicity while the players are deceived – Shakespeare uses this trope many times. In fact, many of his tragedies start out with informing the audience that it *is* a tragedy. Seeing Sauron deceive the elves while we are aware who he is would have been fine, but the show runners needed a “mystery box” to keep people talking about their show afterwards or I guess they thought it wouldn’t hold water on its own.
For all my criticisms, I’m not as cynical as all that. I don’t see hubris, I don’t see even arrogance at this stage. I’ve heard Payne and McKay in person speak with great enthusiasm about this project. I think they have had good intentions. But there’s SO MUCH jammed into the show, inevitably it’s going to be filled with problems. To me The Rings of Power is ultimately like a patchwork quilt rather than a tapestry, and some of those patches are beautiful. And some are not.
I could, had I the time and energy, write up a post all about the things I liked. But that’s not really what this was about. I wanted to look at the finale and the big picture. And I really do mean that I still found the show worth continuing with. I’m curious where they can go from here.
@5, I agree. I would have liked to see an Annatar-like persona of Sauron and let the audience in on it, and watch his deception play out, knowing what the characters don’t know. Prequels and origin stories are already about the viewer knowing the “ending.” It’s the journey we’re interested in most.
Not the least – why on Middle-Earth would Celebrimbor, grandson of Feanor, who might well have “borrowed” Aule’s tools as a kid, even consider, for a second, that a human, whose life is but a mote compared to his own, would have something to teach him about smithing?
The whole concept of the different relation to time and its passage between Elves and Humans gets lost in the compression anyway, forcing them to shoehorn in an acute crisis to motivate the creation of the Rings because the actual motivation is meaningless in the context of the series.
Jeff, thank you again. I appreciate the balance of your approach. I have nothing more to say, merely because I agree with everything you’ve just said.
And for that matter, why would the stars be strange in Rhûn, as opposed to Harad (the South)? Different stars would require a difference in latitude, not in longitude. I’ve always taken Aragorn’s remark about the stars to refer specifically to Harad.
When taken in the context of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit trilogy, I mark this first season as better than the Hobbit movies, not as strong as the Lord of the Rings trilogy, mostly due to issues of pacing and the fact that the Harfoot/Stranger storyline seems to be present just to add some mystery to ‘Who is Sauron?’, as it otherwise relates not at all to anything else happening in the season, unlike the Galadriel, Elrond and Arondir plotlines which all converge.
While I agree that the show blundered in its final episode (as well as a couple episodes along the way, what I’ve taken to calling modern TV’s mid-season “sag”), I found this show to be an utter delight. Recognizing, of course, that an Oxford don writing a novel between the 1930s & 1960s and a writer’s room constructing a TV show adaptation in our era of content overload are approaching similar story mechanics with completely different aims.
For example: Galadriel’s prodding of Saulbrand (THE NAME BY WHICH I SHALL NOW CALL HIM!! LOVE IT!) seems to me to be directly in line with Jackson’s Galadriel when she says, “To bear a ring of power is to be alone.” The full-force regret of that statement echoes certain notes of her confrontation with Saulbrand in this episode.
Not sure why the mithril plotline is such a bad take, either. One of the things I appreciated about this show, despite how clumsy the writing could be, was the ways in which it signposted obvious things. Draping the Stranger in heavy dark grey cloaks, aligning him immediately with the Harfoots, etc; or introducing the discovery of mithril an episode (or two?) before shoehorning in a device leading to the most logical conclusion that the three Elven rings of power would be those that saved their race from doom. Not to mention the hanging lantern of Saulbrand smithing away in Numenor.
All this to say: no, it isn’t Tolkien’s Middle-Earth. Neither is Jackson’s beloved LotR trilogy. Nor can they be. Tolkien was a scholar and a supernerd for medieval epic poetry attempting to create a semblance of the things he loved through novel form. Showrunners paid by one of the world’s most destructive billionaires can hardly approximate how it feels to dwell in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth.
To their credit: they made an adequate TV show. I think it’s okay if they fumbled some things. Tolkien fumbled, too (Ent-Wife song, that’s all I gotta say). And yet I’ll always adore his Middle-Earth.
Fortunately we’re all entitled to our opinions. It’s a TV show and not a book. Compromises have to be made. I’ve read Silmarillion, The Hobbit and LoTR and I’m thoroughly enjoying the ride.
@9 it’s worse than you say: at this point Arda is still flat, like a pancake. Eriador, Rhovanion, Rhun, and Harad all have the same stars, i.e. those that are above the world. Only in a round world can there be different stars in the southern himasphere.
I don’t think the show committed to a flat vs. globed Arda either way. I think it’s…arched, and that’s enough. But who knows? In this version Valinor might not even need to be “removed,” since it’s already accessed via Elf-ship and glowing portal.
That’s one way of looking at it. Another would be that this was a long term gaslighting. To quote Stephen Franklin of Babylon 5, “people love giving power to those they believe don’t want it”. If we assume that this outcome is (at least generally) one Saurbrand wanted from the beginning (Númenórean military aid, the queen-regent of Númenor publicly proclaiming him the true and rightful king of the Southlands Mordor, entrance to Eregion, etc.), perhaps with a few bonuses he didn’t anticipate (a quick filter on the Southlanders to figure out which of them are hardcore Sauron loyalists and which aren’t), then dangling a mysterious pouch with the crest of a lost royal house in front of a curious Noldor is exactly the way to start people thinking along the lines you’d want them to be thinking. Get people asking questions like “what is the hidden, secret meaning of that crest?” rather than questions like “if he really doesn’t want anything to do with his supposed past, why not drop that pouch in that conveniently deep ocean you found him floating on?”
There’s no good reason why a truly repentant Saurbrand who just wants to live a quiet life of peace to take the trouble to deliberately equip himself with that crest. There was always a plan and it always involved Mordor. Claiming that he just wanted to be a simple smith (with a regalia fetish) is pure gaslighting.
A very thoughful essay; although I may be saying so because I mostly agree with it :D From a thematical POV the storyline of Galadriel, Sauron, Numenor and the Southlands is really murky, and in many cases, as Jeff points out, it’s really hard to reconcile what’s depicted in the series with the characters and themes written by Tolkien.
On the other hand, as for the Elrond + Durin and the Harfoots + the Stranger storylines, I think they were in general well written, some hemming and hawing notwithstanding about the harfoots not leaving anyone behind/totally implying that they should leave someone behind :D
@15: I like that interpretation, but I think that the problem is what Jeff says: the showrunners and the text of the series itself seem to point out that Sauron was at the very least doubtful about what to do and it’s Galadriel who would have prodded him back into the path of evil & becoming the dark lord. I guess we’ll have to wait for the second season to see if there’s a more explicit explanation or even some kind of course correction,
@15, there are just so many leaps of logic there. I’m willing to give it all the benefit of the doubt. Heck, I already am, because I am eager to see the story continue, in hopes that more will be explained. But the Sauron we met from the start, Raft Man Halbrand, gaslighting from the very first moment makes no sense in those moments when we see him alone. When he is nearly crying. I can’t see how Sauron alone with his thoughts and being sad and reflective while no one is watching him . . . is a gaslighting-across-the-boards Sauron.
Two small corrections to your recap, Jeff: the mindscape sequence begins in Valinor and continues on the raft, not the other way around; Malva is the new Trailfinder, although it’s hinted that Poppy will have to prompt her much of the time.
My theory of how Galadriel survived Sauron’s attempt to drown her is that Sauron saw Elrond coming and scarpered because he didn’t want to reveal himself to all the Elves yet (leaving open the possibility that he might return to Eregion as “Halbrand” in Season 2).
Concerning the apparent astronomical error in Episode 8, I’m hopeful that it will turn out that “the stars are strange” refers to one particular place in Rhûn, where some geological or architectural phenomenon distorts the view of the stars and renders the Hermit’s Hat visible. But this is probably wishful thinking, and the concept probably derives not only from a lack of astronomical knowledge on the writers’ part, but also from ambiguity in Aragorn’s statement in FotR, where Tolkien really should have added a comma after “Rhûn”.
@14: But, of course, Ar-Pharazôn needs to invade Valinor later in the series. I also thought of the flat-versus-round Earth issue when Galadriel sights land in Episode 6 — I don’t know enough about geography to know whether she could have seen it so soon if the Earth were round, or if it would have been hidden behind the horizon. I suspect, however, that, even leaving aside the rights issues, the Downfall of Númenor itself will be a big enough event for a future season to depict without also having to show and explain a radical change to the entire planet.
“Tar-Palantir, but who we’ve been told is named Ar-Inziladûn”
Inziladun was his given (Numenorean) name. When he became king, Ar-Inziladun took the name Tar-Palantir.
Incidentally, Amazon Prime’s closed captioning says he’s Tar-Palantir.
@anthony Bernacchi and others,
One thing to remember about “the stars being strange”, and wondering if the land was further south, we need to remember that this was before the Fall of Numenor, so the world is still flat (though circular). I do not know what this would do to the stars.
I’m incredibly keen to see where this goes next, and equally excited about reading the thoughtful and well-written reactions of a knowledgable Tolkien fan—cheers, Jeff! Thank you, this was another fun read.
I grew up without a television, and RoP is the first show I have ever followed and fallen in love with. So, please bear with me and take this with a grain of salt. I know little either of Tolkien or of good storytelling on TV or film. There was one thing you wrote that really jumped out at me “Tolkien made his overarching Dark Lord scarier precisely because he lurks beyond the pages and in the corners of our imagination.”
Do you have thoughts on how the showrunners could have actually done this? It’s pretty unclear to me: how do you introduce a world, and show the space around its Evil, but the never the Evil itself? How do you tell that kind of a story on screen? I think the story they did tell, where Evil is given a (really lovely) face and a backstory and personality, is one way to solve this problem on screen.
One thing I have loved about the show is that it’s thematically consistent with itself in a way that is very satisfying to watch—we get a opening line of “nothing is evil in the beginning”, we end the season having arrived a storyline of how Sauron turns (I guess I should say turns back) to evil. I had really wanted to see a story of King Halbrand the Reluctant and Flawed Hero, but Charlie Vickers’ acting in episode 8 totally knocked it out of the park, and sold me on the potential of this version of the story. Loved the Sauron fakeout with the Cultist Ladies, too, it made me laugh. I hope we get to see them again. Great costumes and soundtrack.
Lastly, I appreciate the point in your essay where you discuss that TV and book storytelling are different. The same types and shapes of stories aren’t going to work in both. I’m enjoying the ride on this one and I hope people for whom this isn’t working are going back to the books with renewed love and appreciated. (Sad to say, I’m a bit of a stubborn cuss, the pervasive fan message that no one could improve on grandmaster Tolkien’s tales, and that the books are always better, has not persuaded me to begin reading. Yet. We’ve got a long wait for the next season though, and this Lord of the Rings thing does sound pretty cool!)
@7. Hydroxide: It bears pointing out that the Elves of Middle-Earth (especially those with common sense & good luck sufficient to survive the War of the Jewels and other disasters) are not so arrogant as to dismiss the possibility of humans making any contribution to a discussion (and there are numerous examples of the little thought of making valuable contributions throughout Tolkien).
Also, if any elf has a moral imperative to show every form of humility, it’s the grandson of Feanor by Curufin: I’d argue that Lord Celebrimbor’s characterisation in the show makes perfect sense as an elf making every effort to NOT be his father or grandfather come again.
Quoting @3: “What I see here though is confusing Really Big Fan Of Tolkien with Critic.”
I think this is a fair point except it’s somewhat unclear to me who would be watching this and analyzing it other than a “Really Big Fan of Tolkien” (“Big” referring to extent of fandom rather than physical size, presumably).
Even if we accept this as an independent, alternative approach to the 2nd Age, there is a deeper layer of world-structural creepiness than what the author is getting at here. Namely, that some higher power drove Galadriel to the raft. The postmodernist in me says, “Well, of course, that higher power is The Writer”. But within the world, I guess that would be Eru.
So, this whole game of getting suckered by Sauron, conquering the Southlands for him, and giving him the idea of creating The One Ring was Meant To Be. Which means that the next few centuries of death and destruction from Sauron was Meant To Be. That’s kind of creepy.
We have several seasons yet. So, they probably will somehow show that her idiocy in coercing a complete stranger with no more claim to rulership than a scrap of leather, into combat, will have been the Right Thing To Do in the end. But still it feels off … even if we disregard our Tolkien fandom.
@19 Sure. He’s both. The caption labeled him as Tar-Palantir, but Míriel herself called him Ar-Inziladûn, and the close captions spell it that way, too.
Regarding flatness/roundness and stars being strange, I don’t second guess their choices here too much (beyond finding it odd that someone considers the view of the stars from the land they’re from as “strange”). This is a world where the Sun and Moon were made from a fruit and flower, and many of the stars themselves were made by Varda from the “silver dews from the vats of Telperion.” So expecting them to be positioned and viewable in real world cosmological ways seems unnecessary.
Normally I’d say that after the fall of Númenor, when Ilúvatar “changed the fashion of the world,” then I would say we can begin to tree these alignments in ways more familiar to us today. But since all things are up in the air in regards to The Rings of Power, either in their choices or the rights they have to work with.
@21, I would take nothing from you. I am happy for anyone who enjoyed this show thoroughly. Especially since so many toxic people decided before it aired to hate on it and cause trouble in fandom circles. So yeah, I wish it well and will watch its career with great interest.
As to this . . .
This is a fair question. The first thing I will say to this question is that it’s important to remember that Tolkien didn’t try to depict Sauron as Sauron outside of The Lord of the Rings at all except, perhaps, in the tale of Beren and Lúthien, which you can find in chapter 19 of The Silmarillion or in other bits and pieces in the actual book that Christopher Tolkien later compiled. And in that story, he’s very much a physical being; present, commanding both Orcs and wolves/werewolves. He’s not a faceless evil but a very present one. A shapeshifting one, too.
Much later, in Tolkien’s various writings about the Second Age, which includes writings that were published in both The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales and elsewhere (which I lay out here), up until the moment the One Ring is made, Sauron was only a vague and faceless evil as far as the Elves were concerned. They didn’t realize that Annatar, the fair and wise gift-giving dude (whom they believed was from Valinor) who had helped them with their ring forging, was the very same “new shadow” that Gil-galad had been sensing for centuries. We even get this:
In such times he might have been Halbrand-like, but probably chose a more lofty guise than just some Man, to be among Elves. They thought he was someone the Valar (gods) sent, not a mortal or anything so simple and inexperienced as that.
But the moment the One Ring was made, total change: now he’s not only a faceless evil but a very real one. He sent Orc-armies from Mordor, and though the wording is unclear, it’s possible he even led some of those armies himself when warring with the Elves.
So something more like this is what I wished the showrunners had done. I wish they’d gotten permission to use Annatar or something at least compatible with it. And then we the audience needn’t be deceived about it. The Elves need to be, not us. Have you ever seen a horror movie where we watch from the POV of the lurking killer outside, or a monster or ghost, spying upon the fearful or unsuspecting soon-to-be victims in the windows of their house? There’s still tension there. We don’t need the mystery box to be anxious, to be thrilled and worried for the good guys.
I do think that the writers/creators of this show may be taking to heart the story-telling adage that even the worst villain is a hero in their own story. We’re seeing a Sauron here, in this moment, who perhaps is a bit more conflicted, because of the time compression. We’re seeing centuries/millenia of self doubt/processing in a few moments (in the context of his life).
This does make it seem, to those of us who know the “history” of Middle-Earth, a bit quick. But, for those who are not aware of the fairly scant information on the Second Age, this may be giving them what they need to appreciate the greater arc of the story.
I’m finding that most of my criticism of this show has as it’s source, the time compression of the story. I do think that there wa a missed opportunity to really *understand* the immortality of the Elves, to see their lives continue, as human characters come and go.
As for Sauron/Halbrand trying to get to Númenor, I do think that his idea in getting there was to build a base of power and corrupt it. When he met Galadriel (a perhaps unexpected meeting), his plan evolved and developed. Would he have truly wanted to have her join him? Sure, why not? Thingol and Melian joined together, and were able to help each other. Would Sauron want that also, and perhaps try to manipulate Galadriel into a similar situation? I can buy that. I can also buy that Galadriel may be slightly tempted by that, but ultimately dismiss the invitation as against her core being.
But, we can all be tempted…
I do agree that Galadriel’s character seems to be a bit “fluid,” changing as the needs of the episode call for. That’s not great, but I also think that with the writers having a 5 year plan (thank you, Babylon 5!), that her character portrayal in this season may make more sense as the story goes on…
@24:
I remember Miriel saying she was Inziladun’s daughter, and of course the caption when she said that also used that name. What I meant was that when the King was speaking the caption labeled him Tar-Palantir, in at least one earlier episode, maybe others. I don’t remember the caption labeling him as Ar-Inziladun, but I might have missed that and maybe need to watch that scene again.
Having said that, I’ve enjoyed reading these reviews, even if I haven’t commented before this, so thank you for that.
Hope@21: that the books are always better, has not persuaded me to begin reading. Yet.
Surprised here. Without TV growing up, weren’t you avidly reading? How did you avoid reading LOTR? My kids had no TV and were denied a lot of fantasy as “inappropriate,” but they still snuck reads of The Hobbit, LOTR, and others.
I “hope” you dig in. Do you hate fads? Read it anyway. Do you dislike poetry? Try a read of LOTR while skipping it all. Do you love words? Read with a dictionary available for all the uncommon ones Tolkien makes a point of including. Do you feel as if you already know the bones of the story? Read to “flesh it out.” Whatever the reason, it is worth your time and focus.
Excuse me, but how DARE you compare this show to the Star Wars prequels? The Star Wars prequels are actually, despite popular opinion, awesome, and despite their clunky dialogue style/other various missteps I think DID provide a lot of insight into Vader’s psychology and the fall of a person/institution/government, as well as contributed a lot to the lore in general. For real man. ;)
Anyway, you hit on a lot of my own thoughts. Tons of things I like/enjoy about the show, and when season 2 comes, I’ll check it out.
But your analysis of Sauron and your wish that even if they can’t get specifics into the show, that they can at least thematically and qualitatively match Tolkien’s story/characters is exactly how I feel. Along with the condescending ‘who would fall for that!’ comment. The thing is, they don’t HAVE to trick the viewer…there is no reason to obfuscate it this way aside from this idea that everything has to have a twist/mystery box. The point is that Sauron WAS wily enough to trick the Elves. In some ways it reminds me of some of the justification of Faramir’s changes which was basically like, ‘who would believe somebody could actually resist the Ring!’…well, Tolkien and all the people who read it, for one.
That said I do think Sauron was totally lying/manipulating Galadriel in that moment. If the show runners have said otherwise, I will just ignore that, haha. It does jive with some of the extratextual writings that Sauron has this view of imposing what he sees as the correct order onto Middle Earth (as opposed to wanting to annihilate like Morgoth) so I could see him spinning that into a ‘we could rule side by side and you could even keep me honest’ kind of seduction attempt (especially as we do know Galadriel DOES have a desire to have her own realms, etc).
But I also agree it totally cheapens other aspects of Galadriel’s character AND even has to flat out quote the movies.
Gil-galad is also a total milquetoast of a king, yawn.
I’m intrigued by what the Mystics might have been…human sorcerors or necromancers, perhaps. I assumed when they said ‘The Istar’ they didn’t mean they had seen one before, but just that they might know some other beings like Sauron exist? I don’t know. I’m still holding out hope it’s a Blue Wizard (which WOULD be such an interesting thing to fill in and experiment with) but it’s probably Gandalf, sigh.
I didn’t even know there was a “who is Sauron” mystery. I’ve read LOTR and the Silmarillion (but I only remember a couple of themes from that, it’s been so long). I never delved into the appendices or other works. So maybe that’s why I enjoyed the show so much and didn’t get bent out of shape over every discrepancy from the originals. Some people are acting like their property has been stolen from them. Hope they never hear about Dennis McKiernan
Do all the people that hate adaptations also hate Hendrix’s version of All Along the Watchtower? It’s a different story, told about a time long ago. I don’t understand why it has to be the same. It’s fiction.
Another few things I meant to add:
1)Great call on some of the clumsy/careless uses of language/metaphors that make no sense in the context of Elvish immortality. Granted, they have gotten that right (the conversation with Elrond and Durin for example, and I love how many of the Harfoot metaphors reflect their lifestyle/values) but it IS jarring.
2)More and more I am realizing modern (or maybe just amateur) storytellers think that a twist/surprise/mystery can take the place of compelling storytelling. You can tell a compelling story even if the viewer knows things the characters don’t (if anything, that can be part of the enjoyment).
To take a superior example, the Star Wars prequels (AHEM) do not try to be coy about Senator Palpatine’s identity/destiny. In the wake of TPM I do recall some theorizing that maybe he WASN’T Sidious, but there were also plenty of clues he was and I truly don’t think the movie was trying to hide this fact to any large degree. The joy was in watching him move the pieces. (In fact, your screenshot above is one of my favorite moments lol)
It’s good to remember how much of a sliding scale, how much of a spectrum, there is for those who enjoyed the show. I don’t get bent out of shape about adaptions that make changes, but that’s not the same as . There are not only two modes: (1) fully embrace and praise or (2) despise thoroughly. I’m nowhere close to either of those.
I don’t know, Lisamarie. The Star Wars prequels are an easy comparison to me. The primary difference is that Darth Vader is likeable especially when you know his end. That he’s redeemable, and ultimately just a man, makes him very different than Sauron. Sauron’s more like Palpatine, I suppose, especially Rise of Skywalker Palpatine who ends up being far more powerful than his original trilogy self because . . . reasons. *shrug* But imagine they made a new set of prequels, episodes -3, -2, and -1, in which we learn that young Yoda was the one who ended up sending baby Palplatine onto his dark path. How would we all feel about that? Suddenly Yoda’s missteps is what brought so much misery and death to the galaxy.
Heh. I don’t know what I’m talking about now. :)
Anyway, your point about Faramir is spot on. That’s exactly right. And we can probably find all kinds of moments like that, and it’s as if the showrunners were saying, “Who would believe that?”
Lisamarie, yes, another fine parallel. That we know pretty quickly that Senator Palpatine will become the Emperor only adds to the drama. We didn’t need him to be a mystery in the least. He’s the overaching villain. It’s the hero’s journey that we care more about. I wanted that with Galadriel and Elrond, etc.
Interesting article and take on this; thanks for it. Personally, as long as I pretend that this is a high fantasy that is NOT Tolkien, I am fine with it. I don’t dismiss fan-fiction; arguably LotR is an extended fan-fiction riff inspired by Norse mythology, enough so that he absorbed Old Norse language into Elvish, alliterative Viking-era poetry into Rohan, and some of the commitment to live a great life regardless of fate from the concept of wyrd.
What I dismiss is that this is consistent with Tolkien in terms of content or sometimes even spirit, which it simply is not, no matter how much they assert otherwise. Even leaving out the timeline issue, there are numerous inconsistencies with LotR and the Appendices. It’s just another watered-down Tolkien knockoff using a lot of the same names, which would be fine IF they were not relentlessly name-checking Tolkien and his characters. On its own, it sometimes works well, and I can enjoy that for its own sake, but not because it is based on Tolkien.
Even ignoring that, I find the writing and plotting mediocre, in multiple ways. The plot mechanics are often too visible, and thus overly predictable, right down to specific lines, which my wife and I are consistently providing ahead of the actors. The language ranges from basic to inelegant; every time someone tries to provide some kind of deep wisdom, it sounds like a Deep Thought by Jack Handey. Tolkien can turn an epic phrase (e.g., “But no living man am I!”), and at the very least had well-crafted language. This is just basic, plodding prose for the most part. I expect better for a high fantasy epic rooted deeply in language. They can do it on occasion – but not often. (This is not new: If you watch the Peter Jackson movies, you can always tell when it shifts away from Tolkien’s phrasing, which at times is jarring.)
It also seems to me that the closer it gets to a primary plot-driving character with direct links to LotR, the worse it gets. Elrond and Durin IV are utterly delightful, as you note, but their whole engagement is never seen in the books, and in the short-term has no effect on the arc. The Harfoots are fun to watch and are the most audience-friendly, which is very much in line with LotR – they serve a purpose not unlike Sam, as the “ordinary people” at sea in great events, but I don’t expect to see any of them fighting Sauron, wielding a Ring of Power, or going to Númenor. I found Adar interesting, and it struck at the heart of Tolkien’s own ambivalence about orcs, to be fair.
By contrast, Galadriel as an arrogant, relentless, lone-wolf warrior who alienates everyone around her, and furthermore seems to lack even basic understanding of how to engage with people other than by command (needing advice from Sauron, Eru help us) is light-years away from the character in LotR and the Appendices, whose central, overriding trait is insight into others: She read Gimli’s heart. She read Sauron’s heart and closed the door to him doing the same to her. She knew of Aragorn’s needs, and Gandalf’s struggles, and acted with empathy and kindness, even when being as ruthless as necessary (e.g., against the Necromancer). Even if we ignore The Silmarillion, where she rejected Fëanor’s request for a single hair because she saw into his heart and saw his flaws, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that this character in RoP is not Galadriel. And she is so important to this plot, that that nags at me. I simply cannot see the character arc that leads us to the character she becomes. The character as written is a fascinating, wonderful character – but it ain’t Galadriel.
It kept us engaged well enough to want to keep watching, and I can expect some fun scenes but interesting characters, but I don’t expect Tolkien, nor should anyone else, I think.
Pretty sure we only have Sauron’s word for it that Galadriel is why he ended up going back to Middle-Earth… so I take that assertion with a mine of salt
Did anyone else find it odd how quickly and easily the southlanders adopt Halbrand as their king? This guy just shows up and Galadriel says he should be king and everyone is excited?
So the funny thing is, in a lot of ways, the Clone Wars did exactly that with regard to the whole Jedi Order and how thoroughly bad they messed up with Anakin (and Ahsoka to some extent). And actually, I don’t completely love it. I do like it and I think it makes tons of good points about where the Jedi were flawed and made mistakes, but there are definitely a few times (particularly in the Season 5 finale arc) where they make the Jedi so ridiculously obtuse and rigid that you’re practically rooting for Order 66 by the time it comes. There is definitely a contingent of fans out there who believe the Jedi were villains and deserved to fall and that the OT should be subverted. And that’s where prequels start to sometimes cross a line with me – I do like getting more info/nuance and exploring that stuff, but sometimes it feels a little too much like you are trying to trick the viewer retroactively (hahaha! that thing you liked is bad!).
To be clear – I have no problem with prequels of any type showing that characters were flawed and made mistakes, even ones that led to whatever is going on in the original work, but sometimes it can be a little too ‘small universe’. Which is how I feel about Rings of Power to some extent.
And I’m not even talking about the sequels so let’s not go there, haha.
To be clear, I was mostly just joking around because it irked me that your example for ‘the Rings of Power has a lot of misfires’ was to compare it to the prequels, which I find to be an insult to the prequels ;) The prequels DID have misfires but I don’t think Anakin’s story was one of them (the romance dialogue aside) nor do I think it diminished Vader’s character as you claimed.
Re; Faramir – yeah, it was just kinda clear that they didn’t totally understand virtue, or rather, how to write a realistically virtuous character. Because such things do exist (in both literature and real life). Tolkien was able to craft the story that you could believe in both the Ring’s evil, but also that a person like Faramir could resist it.
The dark and light lines remain creepy (in my mind.)
Even more so in the last episode.
And even if it’s intended: it is hard to accept that when good Finrod says this line about touching the darkness to know the light, it is good and when Saulbrand says it, is bad.
Especially considering it’s the exact same line!!
That weirds me out.
So okay, yes there are plenty of different ways of facing, experiencing the darkness or going through it as an ordeal and growing from the experience.
But this always felt too ambiguous to me with the wording.
I suppose the writers could have been going for something Carl Jungian ie the Shadow Self? Dark and light in everyone? And then, maybe a Joseph Campbell interpretation might work or help? *wry grin* But that’s a whole other animal.
But otherwise, it’s very hard for me to not feel a cognitive dissonance. (Even if put in the context of oh Finrod meant well when he said it but Saulbrand did not mean well. And Saulbrand was twisting the evergreen memory. BUT It’s still the same line.)
Because of this, a much creepier thought crept into my mind. The Finrod actor did very well as “Saulbrand,” a little too well. Eeeee! Don’t think I’ll ever know who the real RoPer Finrod is now!
I know by all intents and purposes, I am not supposed to think this: But something whispered, “what if Saulbrand was there from the beginning/beginning whispering words of tempting and deceit???” Eeeee! And also ICK!
Just hopping in one sunny Valinor day and hopping out another?
Since the only difference the audience is given is that Real Roper Finrod wanted to fight Sauron. And fake Finrod was slyly talking of “peace.”
Guess I just need a little more than that to show why when supposedly real Finrod gives this advice, it is still good. And when Sauron repeats it, it is bad. Unless Finrod was not thinking of the consequences of his words back then???That would kind of make a strange sense after watching the full season.)
Otherwise it must be a Carl Jungian take and well then if that’s the case…
Think one might need a Star Wars Jedi to hash all this out!! ;-) @Lisa Marie.
Any thoughts Jeff?
Sure, if that was all we had, his own insistence, that wouldn’t be much. He’s a liar. But are we to think that if Galadriel didn’t keep pushing him to decide to come with her to Middle-earth, he’d been planning on secretly busting out of that jail cell to stow away on one of the ships (none of which would have set sail if Galadriel hadn’t pushed Míriel to making that call)? Are we to think that Sauron also somehow rigged the petals to fall off the white tree? At a certain point, this string of circumstances all becoming part of his gaslighting just gets silly. It sounds like so much of it was Galadriel’s persistence, and he was just along for the ride . . . and therefore his tyranny in the Second and Third Age is all because of her. Bleh.
I just don’t see how that was an important box to check for Sauron, if it was all part of “his plan.” What does it matter if a very small group of mortals heard someone proclaim him king of the Southlands? Especially as the volcanic eruption that followed, which was at least his initially design, could very well have killed them all.
I’m afraid I’m not familiar enough with Carl Jung to take a stab at any of that. But no, I can’t imagine Sauron having the power to just sneak into Valinor and back out again. I still would at least like to know what had he been doing on the raft in the first place, and who were those other people?
I’m not Jeff, but I did really dislike what they did with Finrod there and that line (although I’m able to rationalize it as meaning ‘once you have experience you can better discern lies from truth’ although I do hate the idea that light/good/beauty is not recognizable on its own in some fundamental sense).
HOWEVER, it actually is not the same line. When Finrod says it, he says something like, “Sometimes you have to touch the darkness to know the light”. When Sauron says it, he says, “Return to the darkness one more time”. At least in my own rationalization, even if I don’t like the underlying implications, sometimes it is true that we can learn from those things.
But I can’t believe any of that would actually involve willfully returning to/seeking it out, which is what Sauron is urging.
Lisamarie, to me what’s most bothersome about the Finrod line is just how close it is to Saruman’s mistake, as Elrond points out in Fellowship:
Ironically, the very next sentence from Elrond would be the perfect sort of thing for a show like this one to have explored (who knows, maybe it will):
I don’t think we ever hear of what sort of betrayals he’s referring to there. How great would it have been if The Rings of Power helped fill in these gaps instead of reinventing characters and plotlines?
@43 – bingo. I almost brought up that exact same line, haha.
(As an aside, I started to wrote, and then deleted, my whole rant against the ‘Grey Jedi*’ concept which is a Thing in the Star wars fandom, because I really don’ t have time to go into that lol).
*Meaning a Jedi, usually kind of a badass, who willfully uses both the Light/Dark sides because BALANCE. I don’t mean a character like Ahsoka who breaks from the Jedi Order, necessarily, or who has different opinions about attachment/emotional regulation.
@@@@@ Lisa Marie yes you are right…Saulbrand didn’t repeat the line…but guess I felt the implication as a duplication.
Maybe it was because of the way I paraphrased it in my mind…Fake Finrod “Do you remember what I told you? I need you to touch the darkness one more time.”
Just guess it never felt right even when it was supposed to feel right.
Jeff, the more I read about Carl Jung today the less I find out I really know —-laugh. A lot goes over my head. I fear my knowledge of Jung is more of a Pony version. I read more Campbell and Tolkien (well still more to read there!)
Maybe one way of looking at that would be like The Dark Crystal…sort of an integration process that brings the whole together. Journeys, inner struggles…facing/embracing/overcoming? The inner dragon? Just think some of the original Star Wars.
But in truth, George Lucas was inspired more by Joseph Campbell than Carl Jung.
Galadriel going under water would completely be a “deep sea or night sea journey,” and symbolic of the deep subconscious. That is interestingly a very psychological and mythic depiction to choose.
I am also having trouble with the idea that Galadriel was the catalyst for Sauron returning to his evil ways because “she put him in the position to do so.” And the idea that if she left well enough alone that wouldn’t have happened. What is the purpose of this??
This Galadriel does not recognize Sauron and is trying to see the best in this reluctant king of the south?
I understand that everyone is responsible for their actions…but that’s not a one sided thing.
What of Sauron Saulbrand himself? Even if Galadriel leads him to these ?temptations? Is it not up to Saulbrand what he chooses??
Was that not what the whole LOTR was about concerning the Ring?
Even if Galadriel is pushing him and Saulbrand really wanted to redeem himself…does it make any sense to blame someone outside of himself for his return to evil? I wanted to stay in Numenor but you made me??? Is that even believable??? To take his words at face value? Well maybe it’s believable that he would say or believe that. But the audience should as well? *eye*
Yes, it’s true Galadriel was unaware, caught off guard and was single minded about her decisions
(these are human flaws) She certainly had her regrets by the time of the volcano. I felt for her.
But to say she pushed Sauron into being bad?
That completely feels like something Sauron would use or any narcissist or psychopath. It also feels like gas lighting.
So yes he wasn’t always bad. And that makes me wonder, since this is The Rings of Power, if what I am missing is part of this is “The Tragic Story of Sauron?” A new take, where even if he’s in the background, it’s all how the shadow reclaimed him? Sauron the Unsung tragic antihero, who causes a lot of destruction as he Falls??
Jeff mentions Saulbrand’s tears when no one is watching. Saulbrand is not supposed to appear all bad and manipulative? At least not at first?
The idea that that happens over time? Builds up and wham here I am now. I don’t know. Find it odd.
Maybe, evil is an addiction and this Galadriel unknowingly is an enabler for Saulbrand?
God, maybe Saulbrand was even falling for her and knew she would hate him if she found out who he really was and he cried when no one was watching.
But as for Galadriel being to blame for his rise…or even tempting him…I guess his will was pretty weak and thin at the start.
To say it’s someone else’s fault that Sauron returned?
That’s more like a mummy movie yeah whoever brought the sarcophagus back caused the problem or Pandora’s box.
But I do not see this with Galadriel, unless one could say her hate blinded her to what was in front of her nose. Or loneliness. (Since Celeborn has been gone for awhile.) Or that the hate brought the shadow into being. Or Aha! Drew the Shadow’s touch! I guess then, Galadriel could have been irresponsible in her blindness and stubbornness. Or yes responsible for putting herself in that position.
But to take Saulbrand’s words with an impression of “she made me or caused me?” That does sound weird. It might make sense to a psychopath or secondary psychopath or narcissist…or a kid in trouble for mischief. It sounds strange.
Reading through all thoughts here, it really surprises me how easily that idea can be accepted.
I think if Galadriel herself had taken responsibility aloud for her actions…even blaming herself openly “it’s my fault” (this is more modern nuanced but that’s part of RoP so if one is going that way) “I chose my path…I did not see…I was blind…” then another character in counter point telling her she could not have known…
Then Galadriel making a comment about responsibility and choices and still being stubborn “we are responsible for the paths we choose…”
But it would show courage. Because I believe this character now does blame herself…but why is it Galadriel alone who had the power to bring back Sauron?
What if he was with someone else if he had been the Stranger and Nori brought him near his temptations cause she kept you know pushing?
And I guess it’s to show the arc of how Gadriel could have been a dark queen. (Have other thoughts on the show how and why bits, but will leave them for now)
Maybe alas I remember what Gandalf said about what we choose to do in the time that is given…
Not who made us do it.
Because I hear in my head “they made us do it preciousssss those nasty elvses but we did not want to Shut up!”
Hi Jeff
Thanks again for these articles, they’re so thoughtful and well written. I really like the attitude you take to the show. It’s healthy to look at RoP as its own thing (perhaps an alternate universe), not Tolkien canon on screen. If nothing else the show will get more people looking at the books.
I’m with you on most of RoP’s strengths and flaws. I ended up really enjoying the show, after the clunky start. Magnificent to look at, some thrilling action, good acting and some excellent dialogue (plus plenty of bad lines). For me, who managed to not get hung up on the Tolkien lore departures, the flaws (like the mithril or Celebrimbor not knowing about alloying) were, overall, minor compared to the strengths.
One thing I don’t see is a problem with Galadriel playing a role in Sauron’s rise. Maybe I need to watch the show again as I probably missed some stuff, but it seems to me the writers aren’t implying she’s to blame for anything (though it makes sense she’d blame herself).
I presume Saurbrand, diminished by whatever happened with Adar, was on his way to Numenor with some faithful followers (or dupes) to try his luck there. He spotted Galadriel and decided to tag along with her as a) she’s hot, b) she’s corruptible and c) she might be a tool to get in with the Numenoreans and/or elves. Eventually he decided he’d have more chance of implementing his plans to perfect Middle Earth back on the mainland, with her at his side. I do like that he and Galadriel have a personal connection now. Next season I expect Saurbrand will rescue and try to corrupt Isildur, so they’ll also have a relationship that’ll give more weight to the battle that we know is coming.
Maybe that sorrow we saw on Saurbrand was him regretting going back to violent ways, instead of being able to peacefully get what he wants. Or maybe he was just sad he’s diminished. I don’t mind if there’s a little good in him – every villain is the hero of their story. If they’ve given him a bit of moral complexity, that’s fine. This is a multi-season show, you want your main characters to change and have depth. An off-stage, purely evil Dark Lord works great in the books and movies, but wouldn’t here.
As for the Annatar/Senator Palpatine evil-only-the-audience-knows approach, that might have been effective (with Sauron as fake Istar), but for me a season-long mystery box worked well.
I’m looking forward to the next season and reading more of your thoughts on it.
I like what they done with Sauron and Galadriel stories. In Tolkien works Sauron was so one dimensional and pure evil – boring. And here we have this Han Solo rugish bad boy type with some sens of humor who is also somehow monster and evil. But with some idea about redemption. We all know how he ended but I am now interested why. That is pure gold. Hope they will be able to go with this idea in S2. And Galadriel in Tolkien is also super boring ( like this type of wise, uptight and always right). Here she is like lost, super stubborn and quite flowed character. I am also interested how her story develop. And this tension between both characters is cool. I hope for more mind palace trips for them. I don’t get Harfoots story, for me it was quite boring ( they were saying goodbyes for whole 6 min or more ). But wondering song was great. I am in for S2.
FYI, Happy Halloween, folks.
This one’s for you deep-cut nerds like me.
Love the map costume Jeff! Tre cool!
Well everyone has different thoughts that’s cool too.
I understand the desire to make a villain have these other dimensions to “round them out,” especially with a modern take. And understand that Tolkien never had Sauron bad in the beginning.
The irony I find in the real world approach is there are also real psychopaths who exist without remorse. And there are studies which show they have no understanding of compassion, care or love or why what they do is wrong. But they know enough to use other’s emotions against them. And as far as redeeming…for some that gene does not exist. It’s only that people with good hearts could not believe that possible.
But there are various levels of psychopathy (“secondary,” characteropath, narcissist et al )…where it might be closer to the Saulbrand situation, where something external works upon them that has the possibility to turn them more to the darkness possibly even for survival’s sake. So they are indeed not evil in the beginning.
Maybe it was just weird for me to say “hey poor Saulbrand he’s not a secondary psychopath yet…but Galadriel unwittingly brought that into being.
I’m just thinking if she’s accountable for her decisions…so is he. He is a Maiar after all!
Unless Roper Saulbrand is in the midst of PTSD as well (he can’t be accountable because he’s in some sort of recovery?) and Galadriel caught him at a vulnerable moment? With the pushing? Maybe that’s the idea. He’s disengaged from himself…he’s having therapy. Or needs it. Ok then this is RoPer Sauron.
I could kinda see that. He’s at a low point.
Maybe Saulbrand is the Main Central character of Rings of Power? That kind of makes sense now.
The ‘lore masters’ are so deep in the weeds they saw a very different show than people like me, who has only re-read LotR 150 times over the years.
Ultimately I liked this show very much, found it a happy, satisfactory watch, with much that was breath-taking, though at times it hit scenes that went on way too long, like the swimming and farewell scenes.
I’m happily anticipating re-rewatching it over the holiday season, and looking forward to the next seasons — though I may well not be living when they’ve all been made. For that matter, maybe all life as we’ve known living the last 100 years will no longer exist either — and Rings of Power will never be completed. Which will be such a relief for the lore masters since it will prevent their sensibilities from being so painfully scourged by the show not being what they have decreed it should be — or in fact that it shouldn’t be at all.
“… where Tolkien really should have added a comma after “Rhûn”.”
Except if Tolkien had ever added a comma for no better reason than to avoid confusion, he wouldn’t have been Tolkien :-)
One thought:
Have the Harfoots not heard of “Stranger Danger?”
I want to stay away from comparisons to the Star Wars prequels and the Hobbit films lest I be tempted to draw equivalences between Jar Jar and Tauriel…
I enjoyed the show as a show; my wife (who is NOT a Tolkien person except by proximity) found it entertaining and engaging. I cringed a couple of times when (like at the parley at the Black Gate) I wanted to shout “That’s not what happened in the book!” but that did not massively distract from my enjoyment of the show.
And furthermore, Saurbrand giving Celebrimbor an idea and says “it’s a gift” made me all gooey inside…(insert jokes about Meme the petty dwarf and Anatar Lord of GIFs here)