10 big questions we have after The Rings Of Power season 1 finale
A heel turn, a wizard, and a question of succession leave a lot of threads for The Rings Of Power to unravel in season two
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**Warning: Spoilers lie ahead for The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power season one, episode eight.**
After an eventful first season, The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power wrapped up its initial run of eight episodes with an eventful hour of television that paid off quite a few mysteries, delivered some major reveals, and set the stage for a new struggle in the eventual second season. It was a lot to take in, and like a lot of good season finales, it left us with some big questions to chew on as we await the next round of episodes. So, if you’ve seen the finale already, let’s talk about them. These are the 10 biggest questions we have after The Rings Of Power’s first season.
1. How will Adar react to Sauron’s return?
Well, the biggest question looming over the entire first season of The Rings Of Power was finally answered in the season finale, as Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), the supposed “King of the Southlands,” revealed himself to be Sauron in disguise. By the end of the episode, having fled Eregion after Galadriel resisted his advances, Sauron had arrived in Mordor, his new home.
Of course, Mordor is already occupied by Adar (Joseph Mawle) and his devoted Orc “children,” who created the realm as a haven for themselves after all the pain Sauron caused. So, how is Adar going to respond to a new threat on his just-established turf, and how will Sauron win the Orcs back to his cause after years of mistreatment? We know how it eventually turns out, but watching things get there could be interesting.
2. How is Sauron back like this, anyway?
Adar claimed earlier in the season that he killed Sauron to put an end to his reign of terror in the far North, something Galadriel didn’t necessarily believe, but Adar was clearly quite proud to claim. We know Sauron’s not so easily killed, but how did he go from trying to rule over Orcs in the far North and working to make some kind of superweapon to … floating in the sea East of Valinor where Galadriel could find and befriend him? It’s an interesting arc for the character, one that could use a little extra backstory as we head into season two.
3. Where are the other Wizards?
To go along with the Sauron reveal, we finally got confirmation that The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) is indeed one of the “Istar,” the wizards sent to Middle-earth by the Valar to aid in the fight against Sauron. Based on everything The Stranger has said, and the way he looks and behaves, he’s almost certainly Gandalf, but what does that mean for the other four wizards? Tolkien wrote plenty about Saruman and Radagast, but also mentioned two other “blue” wizards who went off into the East and basically never came back. Will we meet all five of them in future seasons, and see how the order of wizards ultimately works to put each in their respective place? And speaking of the other wizards…
4. What’s in Rhûn?
The mysterious white-robed figures named the Dweller (Bridie Sisson), the Ascetic (Kali Kopae), and the Nomad (Edith Poor) finally made their purpose known this week, and it turns out they’re devotees of Sauron who want to bring their master back East to the land known as Rhûn (a Sindarin Elvish word that literally means “East”), for … reasons. They eventually find out that they’ve got the wrong guy in The Stranger, and The Stranger kills them before they can correct their mistake. Still, since he’s got a map of the same stars they mentioned on him anyway, he decides Rhûn is the place to go to figure out more about who and what he is.
So … what’s in Rhûn? It’s a rather mysterious land in terms of Tolkien’s writings about it. Sauron has a presence there at one point, as do the kings of Gondor, and there are even Elves and Dwarves who’ve called it home, but generally it’s a big mystery for the show to delve into. It’ll be very interesting to see how season two addresses that particular patch of unexplored land.
5. How will the other Rings of Power get forged?
In keeping with Tolkien’s own lore about the Rings, Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) ends up forging the Three Elven rings at the end of the season without Sauron’s direct influence (though he did offer some tips and tricks along the way). This means that Sauron can’t control or influence the wearers of these rings, so the Three are all set.
But where does that leave the Seven Rings eventually given to the Dwarf Lords and the Nine eventually given to the Kings of Men? According to Tolkien, these rings were also made in Eregion by Sauron, working in disguise as a being who called himself Annatar, but that’s not the way things seem to go in the show. Galadriel’s already wise to Sauron’s schemes, and she’s tipped off Celebrimbor as well, so another guy just showing up and offering to help make some rings feels like an iffy proposition. Still, those rings have to get made at some point. How does Sauron figure that out in season two?
6. What happens to the people of the Southlands now?
Those poor Southlanders just cannot catch a break. They beat back the Orcs to reclaim their home, only to have Mount Doom erupt all around them. Then they managed to get out of the Southlands and head slightly West, and now the guy they thought was their king is either never coming back or is coming back to corrupt them to the Shadow. What happens to Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) and her people now that they’re once again dealt a bad hand?
It’s worth remembering that Isildur (Maxim Baldry) is still somewhere in Middle-earth, having seemingly-but-not-really died back during the eruption. His father might think he’s gone, but we know that Isildur is sort of the single most vital part of the way the story of the One Ring ends up playing out in the Third Age. He’s arguably the reason there is a Third Age. With him still around, and the Southlanders settling in what will eventually be Gondor, it seems like a safe bet we’ll get to see him practice his kingship.
7. Who will rule Númenor?
Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) arrives back home at the end of the episode, blinded by the eruption of Mount Doom, only to find that her father the King has apparently died, leaving her a regent without a monarch to serve as regent for. This, along with the rest of the strife that’s befallen her island kingdom politically, suggests that it might be time for some new management in Númenor, or at the very least a bit of a political struggle for the future of the crown. So, who’s going to try and replace Míriel? Well, Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) seems to have set himself up for the job quite nicely. What could possibly go wrong?
8. Will Durin defy his father?
For now, at least, the Elves have found a way to work around not having a ton of mithril at their disposal, but that doesn’t mean the battle over the future of the metal is over. There’s still a fight to be had down in Khazad-dûm, where Durin IV (Owain Arthur) still wants his father to not just let him mine the stuff, but help his friend. Viewers know that it’s probably a bad idea—there’s a Balrog down there, after all—but we also know that Durin’s not likely to give up, and that Khazad-dûm is not going to last forever. How long before the powder keg in the Dwarven mine goes off?
9. Where is Galadriel’s husband?
Last week, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) mentioned her husband, who went off to battle and apparently never came home, leaving her fighting alone and without the man she fell in love with. Here’s the thing about that, though: Celeborn, Galadriel’s canonical spouse, lives well into the Third Age, and even rules alongside her in Lothlorien when they set that whole settlement up. So, where is Celeborn now, and what’s he been doing? It feels like something the show wouldn’t drop without having a good reason, so it’s a question worth keeping in mind as season two draws closer.
10. When do Harfoots become Hobbits?
The Harfoots have had a rough season on The Rings Of Power, and it’s not over yet. After losing their carts, the industrious and determined halflings of Middle-earth are getting right back up and trying again, heading off on their trail on foot as Nori (Markella Kavenagh) heads out to help The Stranger. With Poppy (Megan Richards) staying behind to help her people, it seems likely that the Harfoots will start to evolve a little bit, but how long before they settle into holes in a place called The Shire, and what will they have to go through to get to that point?
79 Comments
Won’t it be great not to think about it for two years?
The only investment I have in this show is Elrond and Durin’s friendship. I can wait.
You’re taking me back to how long the wait was between Better Call Saul seasons.
The big question is who greenlit this turd
Harfoots are one of three groups that become the Shire hobbits. Presumably before they can all settle down we’ll need to meet the Fallohide and Stoor populations as well. Weirdly the Harfoot were originally supposed to be the “Dwarfiest” of the hobbit precursors, both in manner and in people they befriend, but they don’t seem to have wanted to play around with that yet.
Considering the outage about the Harfoots being Irish Traveller pantomime, it’s probably for the best that they steered away from making them more recognizably Jewish, no?
TBH , as someone from Ireland I’m amazed there wasn’t more backlash about the harfoots, no disrespect to the actors who were just working with what they had , but it was like something from UK TV in the 50s or 60s .
11) will Amazon hire real writers this time?
‘Gandalf’ is likely on his way toward meeting his east-dwelling blue brethren. Should be interesting to see what the show thinks they’ve been up to.
If they didn’t show up way before him, they’re probably staggering around in disheveled robes, moaning and killing fireflies.
One thing I love is the way they established Adar as a power, it feels like he is a legit rival to Sauron. Sure, he’s not as magical, but he’s got the orcs on his side and a home-field advantage at this point. Another thing I respect is that once they revealed Sauron’s identity, superfans were going to have to watch all his scenes again now that suspicions have been confirmed. Also, I think his relationship with Galadriel was carefully written to not be romantic on the surface but to tease the chemistry between them. I didn’t see the offer of being his queen as anything sincere on Sauron’s part, as Gandalf told Sauramon, he doesn’t share power. Galadriel knows that and didn’t fall for it. However, the fact that Sauron is handsome and charismatic did add subtext, and I’m sure the writers aren’t going to discourage people shipping them even though they have all but said it is not romantic. Call it evil-baiting. They better cast a very charismatic actor to play Galadriel’s husband because a cohort of fangirls already hates him. I am very curious to see if Arondir and Adar will team up against their common enemy. The Stranger is obviously Gandalf, but the casting for the Blue Wizards is wide open, as is what their role will be.
I don’t know about this “Adar fights his former master” -theory… he seems quite obedient and will probably bend the knee as soon as Sauron knocks on his doorstep. Adar has done his job quite faithfully, digging tunnels and enabling Sauron’s device for causing one of the highlights of the series in Ep. 6. And lied convincingly about killing Sauron too, that probably was the plan all along….
The whole Halbrand + Galadriel -story arc is a bit contrived and far fetched, with the sea monster and everything having to be a set piece by Sauron inorder to bond with Galadriel and so forth… but I see why they created these story arcs in the series because it allows for reveals and twists and probably the showrunners thought that there must be lots of those in order to keep up interest.
And it sort of works from an entertainment point of view, although the changes do cheapen the original lore a bit IMO.
But Sauron’s got such sexy eyes and curtains.
I’m no expert when it come to Tolkien, but I’m going to assume Sauron is going to visit the Dwarves and Humans as Annatar without the Elves finding out about it until it’s too late and create the rings for them.It’s weird that they would deviate from the source material when it comes to the creation of the rings. I imagine that die hard fans are up in arms about it.
Yeah, but fuck them.
Why?
Because they bother me.
He’ll more likely go to the elves and convince the king to give rings to his allies for political reasons.
Mostly have given up; this show is not for me. I can wait for the second half of Dune inste- oh, Crist.
For someone who doesn’t care you’re sure committed to letting us know your opinion multiple times.
Sorry, cannot resist one more whine: the people of the Southlands did not ever mention or seem to recall that they did not have a king for the past 1,000 years? Having one show up should maybe evoke some kind of opinion about that long gap.
Part of the problem is the source material they are allowed to use. Apparently, they have no right to anything from Silmarillion, so that could be why he didn’t go by Annatar.
Interesting, Amazon paid a lot of money and they don’t have the rights to Silmarillion.
I can’t say why they didn’t, but they only have rights to the 3 books of LotR (including the appendices) and The Hobbit. The other works are still owned by the Tolkien estate. And they don’t have rights to the movie versions, so they can’t make things exactly like them.There’s a lot of “bits” of the Second Age in those books they can build from, but they can’t use any names that are exclusive to Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, or other published stuff.
Well, FWIW, I think the Halbrand presentation is more about the writers’ love of misdirection for its own sake than anything else.I have no idea if we’ll ever get the full story, but the more I think about it, the more I think the explanation we’ve gotten is a fudge. There’s no good reason to consider The Silmarillion (especially) to be one volume for adaptation purposes vs. even its constituent books. If I had to guess, what Amazon bought the rights to is tied to their pitch for the series, and includes either rights to Akallabeth and Of the Rings of Power (the parts of it they plan to touch on, anyway) or at least some control over the Tolkien’s estate to license them separately.Bc even if it’s difficult to imagine a RW billionaire actually paying to fund an anti-woke RoP response by getting the rights to those parts of the Silmarillion, it’s a lot harder to imagine Amazon and the Tolkien estate making a deal of this size without maintaining some form of exclusivity over the content.
Halbrand wasn’t misdirection for its own sake, he was a daylight critique of the Hero’s Journey. Galadriel interpreted every coincidence as fate that aligned neatly with her traumatic obsession, and this led her to ignore Halbrand’s rejections of the Call to Adventure to force a destiny on him just because she thought he had the right bloodline. The very ideas her beliefs were built on were monarchist and proto-fascist, so why wouldn’t she end up empowering and validating The Ultimate Evil?The creator of the Hero’s Journey, Joseph Campbell, was the go-to guru for nerdy dudes with writer’s block for decades. He was also a generationally wealthy misogynist who thought Nazi hatred was fearmongering and quit teaching because female students kept asking him too many questions (seriously, he quit academia because women were mean to him).This story is more interested in heroes as people who do things because they need to be done and entertains a skepticism toward the type of storytelling that encourages people to seek out roles within hierarchies to give people permission to do the right thing.
Joseph Campbell was a misogynistic white supremacist.
Agreed, the writers have probably read Campbell (derogatory).But I’m not sure you need Campbell to explain the dynamics here, and I’m not even sure it helps? Halbrand’s nature isn’t philosophically appealing to Galadriel, it’s practical: his bloodline can raise an army, which Gil-Galad is otherwise denying her. It’s Bronwyn to whom the idea of Halbrand as King appeals the most. Nobody suggests that she should continue to lead the Southlanders, and her express wish is to seek a role in a hierarchy at which she isn’t the head.Nobody in Tolkien’s anti-monarchist (even Adar’s a monocrat even if doesn’t see himself as a monarch), and while this feels like a really dumb semantic thing, while Galadriel’s eliminationist language is certainly reminiscent of fascism, none of the other precursors exist.
All that being said, I mostly was talking about it in terms of the suggestion it was a rights issue. The name Annatar has no worth outside of the story of the forging of the rings, etc. etc.
Insightful. Thanks!
Annatar is mentioned in the appendices, which they have the rights to use so that isn’t a valid excuse.
As someone who gives no shits whatsoever regarding the source material, this was a pretty great season. Properly epic all the way around, well-acted and told, and most of the ‘subplots’ were pretty interesting and well-handled. Final episode gets knocked down a full grade for having no dwarves, but aside from that it was pretty damn good.
Agreed. I loved the heart and sincerity. Criticisms are valid, but some of it feels very irrational (not just the racist bs). Like so what if certain twists were predictable or if the show is changing the original? In the context of this new story they’re telling, the choices, to me at least, were fine. And the best decision the producers made was casting Clark.
She really is great and in the last two episodes she really was starting to feel like she has layers.
I can’t wait for Galadriel to go through puberty.
Supposedly the rings of the dwarves and of men were all created in Eregion before the three rings of the elves, so your guess as to how the showrunners are going to have to twist this to get those rings made is as good a guess as any.
The rings were all roughly made at the same time, though The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and the LotR differ a bit on the specifics. What they agree on is that Celebrimbor made the three elven rings on his own, without Sauron’s knowing, so they weren’t as tainted as the other rings and they were more powerful than any of the other rings other than the One. The show obviously changes this up drastically, particularly by having Galadriel discover Sauron before all the rings are made. Frankly, it seems like they are changing stuff up to avoid direct comparisons to The Silmarillion and other writing the show doesn’t have the rights to. The simplest solution is just to have Sauron make the other rings by himself in Mordor while also ingratiating himself to the Men and Dwarves he eventually gives them to.
He did mention he planned to stay in Numenor, so it was off plan for him to go to Eregion. I imagine he will most likely make his way back to Numenor and start corrupting Ar Pharazon, possibly as Annatar.
We are.
I’d assume they did it because it’s a change that doesn’t alter much and still allows them to surprise the viewers. I doubt it’s a rights issue, they mention events from the Silmarillion and the titular gems themselves almost nonstop.
I am a hardcore Tolkien nerd. I’ve read every word he has written including his letters. That said, even though they are playing fast and loose with some of the lore and timelines, I find the show enjoyable. The Long, Long swaths of time between events in the legendarium would make doing a show that wasn’t completely different every episode very difficult. I am ok with the compression to make it work.
11. Why does Sauron look like a CW version of Aragorn? (And what is the Dark Lord’s skin treatment routine?)
1. Don’t care.2. Bad writing.3. Somewhere.4. Bigger question: why are they so incompetent at the one thing that they should be good at, besides failed audience fakeout.5. Maybe someone can send a synopsis to the writers.6. They will die, unless plot armor.7. A big ol’ wave, which Sauron caused by convincing them to attack the Valar to regain their immortality, oops, much better to play games with the audience.8. That would make a good afterschool special.9. See #5.10. The Bronze Age, typically.
How was it Sauron could simply walk into Mordor????
That’s simply what one does.
one foot at a time lol
Sauron walking into Mordor like “wow what a shithole this fucking sucks Jesus”
Is Isildur really dead / how will they bring him back in time to cut the ring off Sauron’s finger?
Good season overall. The writing was definitely reflected in the budget the show has. I wish they could have at least shot the first and second seasons together so we won’t have to wait another few years for season 2.
Agreed on a combined shooting to get us the second season faster. I’m hoping that since there’s already been so much heavy lifting done in terms of the production (set, costumes, etc.), plus *hopefully* no Covid delays, that it won’t take as long. I believe they started filming this month.
I thought it was a strong finale and the overall season really worked for me. I think the show gets undue hate. I liked that the season felt like it had a real flow and direction looking back. People criticize the pace, I disagree completely, time spent with characters did real world building for me. I feel like I got to know more about the lives and beliefs of all the beings of Middle Earth. And how do you not love Disa and her husband Durin and his boyfriend Elrond.Some mysteries were resolved, other hinted at and deepened, layers to be revealed in the coming seasons. Even though we know some of the characters destinies, I don’t feel like we are being rushed toward those eventualities.
The only real notes I have for season 2: MORE DWARVES
how long before they settle into holes in a place called The Shire, and what will they have to go through to get to that point?
Well since RoP likes to use throwaway lines as a point of reference, like they did with (likely Gandolf)the Stranger, I’d say there would be a dragon involved before the Harfoots finally settle, if anyone remembers Bilbo’s 111th birthday celebration. “Dragon? Nonsense. There hasn’t been a dragon in these parts for a thousand years.”
I admire the willpower it must have taken for you not to turn this article into a slideshow.
If the Stranger is really Gandalf, that will almost certainly be a deal breaker for me, and this show will have to finish its run just as Foundation did: without my eyeballs. That’s just a bridge too far to me. There are so many reasons it couldn’t be Gandalf (including Gandalf’s own words) that it would be a real break with canon as well as a missed opportunity to tell the story of the blue wizards and what happened in Rhun. But there are a lot of missed opportunities in this show so far, and a lot of it has been like watching fan fiction. Why not a half season of Halbrand working with the elven smiths, crafting the other rings, before the elves discover him and kick him out before crafting their own? That’s kinda how it went down and would make for some good TV.
I think, to your first point, it’s gotta be Gandalf, unless the show commits to some serious misdirection. His comment to Nori about following your nose is almost verbatim what he says to Merry in the Mines of Moria, regarding the air not being so foul from a certain direction. It’s a heavy-handed wink and nod to his identity.Regarding dragging out the forging of the rings with Halbrand, I think that has a pretty short shelf life on screen, considering most folks had pretty much already figured Halbrand for Sauron, and the only folks who didn’t were really those who bought into the misdirect that the Stranger might be Sauron, but once this so-called king of the Southlands was getting heavily involved with ring-forging, there was pretty much no more mystery about who was going to be Sauron. I don’t think the show could drag that on for half a season.
I kind of want Sauron to go back into Eregion in yet another form so Celebrimbor just keeps getting tricked by Saurons in disguise.In all seriousness, I guess Sauron could assume a new form and go to Eregion, perhaps taking on the angelic/Maiar form and claiming to have been sent by the Valar. Then he could forge the rings in disguise and we’d still have the “Galdriel and Gil-Galad suspect him but the Mirdain are all duped,” plotline…
“Now let’s make some mithril thimbles!”“Thimbles?”“I meant nose-rings!”“Nose-rings??? …hey…waitaminute….Sauron, is that you again?” (Celibimbror rolls his eyes and shakes his head in comic disapproval)“What can I say—I gotta be me—unless I’m being someone else!” (Sauron turns to audience and does his famous jazz-hands move–audience roars with laughter)
Wow, the phrase “mithril thimble” really sings.
Sounds like some kind of Tolkien-centric nerdcore band.
I’d been thinking that it’s a shame the show has to be so tied into particular actors that it narrows the scope of any shapeshifting, but one thing they’ve set up if Celebrimbor’s in Eregion is that Sauron could show up pretending to be Gil-Galad, and suddenly that’s what I want to see most.
“Watch me trick Fredebrimbor out of his ring!”
Sauron appearing in increasingly absurd Count Olaf disguises would make the show attain instant-classic status. “Don’t be silly Galadriel. Halbraun has brown hair and this person is wearing a hat!”
Sauron already did that last season. He dispatched of Galadriel after she refused to join him, then shape-shifted into Galadriel and jumped in the river. That’s why Elrond was giving her the stink-eye. (/s)
I just want that ring forging scene explained a bit more. I don’t understand why Galadriel went through with forging the rings after figuring out that Halbrand was Sauron. She’s been shown to be smart enough to realize that Sauron wanted the rings to be forged and that is likely a bad thing, so why push forward anyways?
I thought this as well, but I think after reading these comments, the reasoning is that the rings were still needed to save the elves. So she figured they would move forward with the forging to save her kind, but without any further influence from “Halbrand”.
Isn’t it more that the elves need them to stay in Middle Earth? I thought they could still go to the Undying Lands and be OK.I guess I could see that motivating Galadriel as she wants to take Sauron out still. Seems like having some discussion over continuing the forging may have helped.
Yeah, I guess I meant for them to stay in Middle Earth, although that also seems to kind of be used interchangeably with “saving them” as a race/species. Heading to the Undying Lands, at least in the show’s context, is presented as a kind of giving up or defeat, and something of a transition to a new plane of being. For whatever reason, it seems the elves want to remain in Middle Earth, and end up doing so until the end of the Third Age.
I wish that stuff was explored or detailed out a bit more. The First Age stuff with Gods and monsters sounds great and I’d love to see what the Undying Lands actually are. I know some of that stuff is meant to live in imagination though.
I think the Undying Lands and Valinor are one and the same, and we did see Valinor early in the series during the prologue when Galadriel was young.
Bc she is the sauron now muahahhahah
According to Tolkien, these rings were also made in Eregion by Sauron,
working in disguise as a being who called himself Annatar, but that’s
not the way things seem to go in the show. Galadriel’s already wise to
Sauron’s schemes, and she’s tipped off Celebrimbor as well, so another
guy just showing up and offering to help make some rings feels like an
iffy proposition.
The show was very deliberate about Galadriel NOT tipping off Celebrimbor. She tells him and Elrond not to treat with Halbrand again if he returns, but she doesn’t tell them why (because if she did they wouldn’t forge the Rings and the Elves would be forced to leave Middle-Earth). Elrond later finds the genealogy scroll, so he knows that Halbrand can’t be the true king of the Southlands, but whether he’s put together that Halbrand is Sauron is still in question.
So (more or less reposting what I posted in the episode recap/review), given how they’ve portrayed Celebrimbor, it’s well within reason to imagine that should Halbrand come back to Eregion while Galadriel and Elrond aren’t there, and perhaps with some more mithril, or another metal that has properties very similar to mithril, that Celebrimbor would welcome him back with open arms and be totally down for making some more rings.
Yes, it drove me nuts that Galadriel never flat out said that Hallbrand was Sauron! Don’t know why they chose to have her figure it out before the other rings are made.
My guess as to why she never told them it was Sauron is that 1) they would not have forged the rings if they knew that was the case, and 2) she needs the rings in order for the Elves to stay in Middle Earth, so 3) she can continue her quest to destroy Sauron. What I find interesting about that choice is that it ultimately will make Galadriel culpable, to some extent, for all the things Sauron will eventually do with the One Ring because she had the opportunity to stop him from the start and chose not to. It sets up a character arc that’s far more interesting than Perfect Warrior Goddess Fights Evil, but instead is a deeply flawed individual whose obsession for revenge for her brother leads her to make some terrible mistakes, which she’s already demonstrated to some extent, but not to this level.Will be super interested to see how this all progresses in the coming seasons. As others have said Morfydd Clark has done incredible work so far.
Weirdly, even in the books, the elves figuring out the nature of the rings when Sauron puts the One on, doesn’t stop Sauron from just attacking Eregion, taking almost all of the rings and redistributing them to Men and Dwarves. The elves somehow weren’t able to spread the word that, hey, Sauron’s back and putting on these rings is a bad idea.
I doubt the rest of rings will be made in Eregion. The show can’t use any plot that is too close to The Silmarillion, which is one of the reasons everything is already been changed up so much. They could simply have Sauron make the rest of the rings in Mordor himself. By doing that the show can still present a reason why the three elven rings aren’t under the control of the One ring, because Sauron didn’t personally craft them.
They can use anything from the Appendices of Return of the King. Appendix A states that the Rings of Power were forged in Eregion.And they’ve already taken stuff from The Silmarillion. The Appendices don’t say that Sauron took a fair guise to fool the Elves, they just say that Sauron instructed the elves.
They can use anything from the Appendices of Return of the King. Appendix A states that the Rings of Power were forged in Eregion.And they can divert from what the appendices say, as they are. And they’ve already taken stuff from The Silmarillion. The Appendices don’t say that Sauron took a fair guise to fool the Elves, they just say that Sauron instructed the elves.The appendices say, “He was unable ever
again to assume a form that seemed fair to men, but became black and hideous,
and his power thereafter was through terror alone,” after the fall of Numenor. So the show can use Sauron’s ability to present himself as he pleases up till then. What they can’t use is Annatar, presenting himself as an emissary of the Valar, from The Silmarillion.
I have to say it is a breath of fresh air to come here and see commenters enjoying the show for what it is and not shouting into the echo chamber that it sucks like on Reddit. I’ve been part of the Tolkien fan community on reddit for over a decade and now it’s just salty people being salty.