Rings of Power Season 2 is fixing its Sauron mistake

The Rings of Power Season 1 was quite divisive amongst Tolkienites. While plenty of fans were happy to return to Middle-earth for more adventures, some weren’t pleased with the liberties the show took with Tolkien’s sacred texts. 

I must confess, while I wish I could say I didn’t allow hate to fill my heart, I am just a mere mortal man, and like the nine human kings of the Second Age, I was warped into a foul creature of the night by the venom in my soul. Okay, if I’m being honest, that’s a bit of an exaggeration for flavor. I actually enjoyed The Rings of Power as much as the next fan.

With that in mind, though, I found myself a little irked by some of the writers’ creative decisions. Most notably, I wasn’t a fan of the decision to change Sauron’s backstory and the history of the Elven Rings. 

In the show, Sauron disguised himself as the Southland King Halbrand and — after about a week or two of hanging around Eregion — he helps Celebrimbor use Dwarven Mithril to forge the Three Rings. Soon after their creation, however, Halbrand’s true identity is exposed, and he makes a run for Mordor with his tail between his legs. 

Sauron the mighty!

This is in contrast to the books where Sauron disguises himself as Annatar, “Lord of Gifts,” and spends years ingratiating himself with the elves. One of the ways he does this is by slowly teaching them the skills necessary to forge the Rings of Power. After the work is done, Suaron then slinks off to Mordor to create the One Ring, and you know the rest…

So what’s the difference? Well, I don’t actually mind the removal of Annatar. What I didn’t like was the speed at which Sauron convinced Celebrimbor to forge the Three Rings and how quickly Halbrand was exposed. I thought it made the elves look uncharacteristically rash and Sauron incompetent, which sounds in character to those who’ve seen the Lord of the Rings movies, but it doesn’t quite mesh with their book characterization.

Sauron the coward?

In the books, Sauron is at the peak of his power (sort of, but that’s another story) during the Second Age; he’s no longer under the yoke of Morgoth, and there’s not really a single being in Middle-earth who can oppose him. That’s not the way he’s shown in The Rings of Power, and as someone who was pretty excited to see Sauron at his mightiest, I was more than a little disappointed to see him portrayed as so gutless. 

Thankfully, it looks like Rings of Power Season 2 is going to fix some of the issues I had with Sauron’s characterization. First of all, we’ll get this out of the way quickly: he’s an elf now, so presumably, this new form is Annatar, so I can stop moaning about that. Secondly, he looks to be a hell of a lot more powerful and actively uses his unknowable ancient powers to devastate Middle-earth, which is exactly what I wanted from the Dark Lord. 

Finally, I like how sinister Charlie Vickers looks in the role. I never really bought Halbrand as Sauron, but this new Annatar guise (if that is Annatar) looks like he’s having a lot of fun causing chaos, and I can’t wait to see more. Ultimately, I suppose the lesson here is to give shows time to find their feet and let characters settle in. We don’t need to make knee-jerk decisions based on one season… I wonder how long I’ll remember that?

If you love Tolkien’s wonderful world, you’ll probably be thrilled at the news that a new Lord of the Rings movie is on the way. Still, it’s not the only Lord of the Rings film coming soon. The War of the Rohirrim, an animated movie, is set for release in December 2024. If you prefer your fantasy to be a little more fiery, we’ve also got an article breaking down everything you need to know about House of the Dragons Season 2.