It’s hard to believe that I’ve post 200 articles on this blog. Back in June, I celebrated the blog’s one year anniversary by redoing the look and feel of the Tanuki Corner, and now I will celebrate this milestone by once again ranting about Rings of Power, the show whose second season dropped yesterday. So far, three episodes have been dropped, and I will cover this season episode by episode, breaking it down in comparison to Tolkien’s lore, something that even the critics are admitting is being decimated by the show runners. I mean, Forbes even called it “a dreadful, jumbled mockery of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings,” and they were one of the people who initially defended the first season.
With this in mind, gird thy loins for the next few weeks as I break down everything wrong with Season 2 of Rings of Power.
#1: Sauron
The first episode opens up with giving us some of Sauron’s backstory, something that they would’ve done well to do in the first season, but then we wouldn’t have gotten a bunch of unnecessary mystery boxes.
Now, turning to the books, Sauron’s backstory is one that goes back to the Music of the Ainur. Originally, he was one of Aule’s Maiar until he was swayed to join forces with Melkor in the hopes that he would be granted the power to create the world as he saw fit, to make it perfect and beautiful. This wasn’t a bad thing, but as absolute power corrupts absolutely, he eventually became evil and most likely grew to resent Melkor (now known as Morgoth) as he destroyed Middle Earth and wasn’t giving Sauron as much power as he had hoped for.
This continued into the War of Wrath which signaled the end of the First Age, when Melkor was defeated, and Sauron was taken captive. Eonwe, the herald of the Vala Manwe, urged him to go to Valinor where he could repent before the Valar and be restored to their good graces, an act that he refused to do, instead opting to flee into the depths of Middle Earth to hide from the Valar while he gathered his strength and came up with his master plan. Eventually, a bit later in the Second Age, he was able to gather the remanent of the orcs to himself and set up shop in Mordor (a place that had been created by Morgoth sometime in the First Age while fleeing the Valar).
This brings us to the beginning of the show where Sauron is in Forodwaith at the beginning of the Second Age trying to convince the orcs (who are led by Adar, a character who isn’t even in the books) to follow him. While it might make some sense with the lore for there to be orcs in Forodwaith since it would’ve been relatively close to Utumno/Angband and Sauron was traveling everywhere at that point, what follows absolutely doesn’t make sense at all. In the show, the orcs (who were scattered and very easy to control at this point) decide to follow Adar and kill Sauron. Now, I’ll give credit where credit is due in that Sauron looks like Sauron in the Silmarillion, but the fact that he’s killed is ridiculous. Sauron dies only three times in the cannon; once during the Fall of Numenor, again by Isildur, and finally by Frodo when the Ring is destroyed and each time he dies, he is weakened. When he dies during Numenor’s fall, he can no longer change into a fair form. After he’s killed by Isildur, he’s a shadow of his former self. After he dies from the Ring being destroyed, he’s a fart in the wind.
With that said, it also took him a very long time (usually over a century) to be able to take on a physical form again. In the show, we see all of his blood drip through some rocks, slowly gain sentience, become Venom, and then do some unintentionally funny stuff (like sliding down a mountain side) before becoming Sauron again by eating a person. And the way that they show this? They just have the screen occasionally fade to black before coming into focus again, so we have the illusion of time passing.
From there, a bunch of other nonsensical things happen to take us to the events of Season 1, even though Sauron had been alive in the cannon during all of this, building a following amongst the Easterlings (the people living in Rhun and Harad) and finished constructing Barad-dur.
#2: Galadriel, Elrond, and Regional Manager Gil-Galad
After we get our backstory for Sauron, we cut over to Galadriel and Elrond riding horses in Lindon. Elrond has the three rings they made in Season 1 and leads Galadriel into a trap, where she is basically detained and taken to Gil-Galad to answer the question, “Was Halbrand Sauron and if so, why didn’t you tell us sooner?”
However, I have a better question for all of this: Why didn’t you discuss this in Eregion where everyone, especially Celebrimbor, would’ve been privy to it? That would’ve made a lot more sense, but hey, what do I know?
Galadriel then proceeds to dance around the question and goes into Karen-mode when Elrond (who is quickly becoming the only character with common sense in this season) suggests that they destroy the three rings because they might’ve been corrupted by Sauron. While none of this happens in the lore, since the Elven rings were free of Sauron’s influence, I actually find myself agreeing with Amazon’s Elrond because in their version, Sauron had only been gone for five minutes and he had essentially instructed Celebrimbor on how to make the rings of Temu. Either way, Gil-Galad, who now wants the rings so that a tree can be healed, and the elves don’t have to go back to Valinor tries to arrest Elrond while Galadriel smirks behind him like your spoiled little sibling does after breaking the window and blaming it on you. Elrond, being in a bit of a pickle, jumps what I am guessing is a 200 ft fall into the bay below, somehow survives and swims to Cirdan the Shipwright’s dock.
Meanwhile, Galadriel is not arrested even though she begrudgingly admitted to letting Sauron loose in Middle Earth and is allowed to keep Mary-Sueing her way through the episode.
#4: Cirdan
Once again, credit where credit is due, Cirdan actually looks like how he supposed to look in the book (a wizened old elf with a short beard and thousands of years of experience) and is, next to Elrond, one of the more likeable characters in the show because he tries to destroy the rings. However, this is ruined when he promptly gives them back because some glitter came out of the bag they were in and thus, Gil-Galad, Galadriel and Cirdan get their rings (even though Galadriel’s ring just came to her because it bounced in her direction).
#5: TUSKAN RAIDERS IN RINGS OF POWER!!!!
Maybe that title seems a bit overboard, but this was one of the most annoying points of the show. Not only are the Harfoots and Methdalf (a.k.a Totally-Not-Gandalf) back and eating creepy crawlies while somehow losing sight of where East is in a desert (just keep your back to the sun), but they’re also being followed by Easterlings. Now, if anyone remembers what the Easterlings looked like in Peter Jackson’s LOTR, you might’ve thought they looked pretty good, and their outfits looked practical for where they lived. But in ROP, they look like they stole some costumes from George Lucas’s basement. They don’t look Tolkienian at all and look like they would be better suited for Tatooine. You’re half expecting them to pull out blasters and start shooting the Harfoots (which honestly would’ve been the greatest thing Amazon could’ve done for the show).
Are you excited for Episode 2 yet?
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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