From the fires of Mt. Prime, the continuation of the horror that was The Rings of Power has officially been announced to arrive to Amazon Prime on August 29. As you guys know, as an avid hater of The Rings of Power and fan of the legacy of the great J.R.R. Tolkien, I have been waiting to get a trailer for Season 2 for months. Let’s break it down.
#1: Sauron’s back
Sauron is back in this and if you thought the costumes in the first season were bad, they got worse. To Amazon’s credit, they actually gave Sauron/Annatar long hair, and he doesn’t look like the guy who keeps calling me saying he works with Microsoft. However, will that save Annatar/Sauron? No. He is being played by the same guy who played Halbrand and – while he is clean shaven in Season 2 – looks like a cosplayer who had only ever played Shadow of Mordor. I mean, look at the similarities:
Let’s also not forget that fact that Annatar was supposed to be amazingly handsome, even amongst the elves the “fairest among all creatures.” The Rings of Power Annatar (once again) looks like a 40-year-old trying to cosplay as an elf.
#2: The gang’s back
Unfortunately, it seems that nothing has changed at all. Galadriel is still Guy-ladriel, Celebrimbor is still Grandma-brimbor in a maternity dress, Don Lemonlas is back, which means we can assume that Little House on the Patriarchy is also back, and (worst of all) we still have the Harfeet…because that’s a necessary story line.
Just remember, someone got paid to write this and probably think it’s great.
#3: The rings of power
Somehow, if you thought the three elven rings looked like something you would get off wish.com in season one, the rest of the rings seem to be worse. They’re huge and gaudy-looking, a far cry from the artfully crafted rings that Weta Workshop produced for the Peter Jackson adaptation.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, I’m still wondering why we’re continuing with the dying tree storyline, especially since the trees all seem to be turning against the elves. While the rings of power in the book did have the ability to revitalize the area around them (which is why Lothlorien died after Galadriel sailed to Valinor in the books), the idea that they needed them in the first place according to the show’s lore is stupid. You saved the tree. Great. Now throw the rings into a lake or river nearby and forget about them.
#4: Remember berries
At the 18 second mark we see are girl boss, Guy-ladriel, standing in a circle of other elves (including Elrond), preparing to face off against some enemy in a foggy background and we see everyone take out their weapons.
Does that remind you of something? Perhaps the mines of Moria or Weathertop will jog your memory. What makes this worse is that one of the elves looks quite a bit like Legolas, though I’m going to bet that he could possibly be Celeborn, someone who needed to be in season 1.
There’s also the scene where Sauron is coming out of the fire, which once again seems like a callback to not just the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films and Hobbit trilogy, but also the Shadow of Mordor videogame where we get to see similar scenes. How much LOTR inspired media can Amazon copycat from? It seems like they’re trying to steal from all of them.
Lastly, we get the scene where it shows Elrond leading a bunch of elves on horseback into battle, which I feel like may be yet another ode to the ride of the Rohirrim, even though that’s something we already got in the first season.
#5: Why is it so dark?
This is something that isn’t specific to The Rings of Power, but I’m going to critique it anyway. Every other scene in the trailer looks dark and gloomy. Sure, Sauron is taking over, and darkness is spreading, but even in the scenes with the elves, everything just looks bleached of color, making it quite depressing to look at. If you just look up the original trailers for the Lord of the Rings movies by Peter Jackson, they are a million times more pleasing to look at. Why couldn’t Amazon have done the same?
#6: Eagles in Numenor
There is no canonical explanation for this since during the time that Sauron was in Numenor, all the eagles fled as a sign of Eru’s displeasure with the Numenorians. The fact that it seems that Ar-Pharazon was riding one makes this even worse since he was the worst and last king of Numenor before it was dragged beneath the waves.
All in all, The Rings of Power Season 2 looks like a disaster and I’m ready for it.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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