‘LotR: Rings of Power’ – How Season Two Can Save the Show
Rings of Power Season Two has a trailer—and it looks like it just might be the course correction the show needs.
We’ve finally got our first real look at The Rings of Power Season Two. Now, not everybody liked Season One of the show. In fact many people hated it. This was likely a bit overblown, but the show wasn’t great. This has put a lot of stress on Season Two—can it turn things around and save the show in the public eye?
Luckily, the first trailer does have some strong indicators that it might. Indeed it seems from watching it that it’s fixed what might have been the biggest issue with the first season. And that gives me a lot of hope.
Season One and Going Off-Book
The Rings of Power Season One had its fair share of issues. Some of these came in the form of plot holes. Others in the form of strong choices of characters and how they were used. But most of these, at least the story related issues, can all be traced back to one source: The season doesn’t really follow the books, any of them at all.
Instead, it’s a largely invented story that just take place in the Middle-Earth setting. The show’s plot bore little resemblance to anything written about before. It muddled the timeline and outright contradicted known lore. This would have been less of an issue if it had focused on side characters—but it didn’t. Similar to the latter seasons of Game of Thrones going off-book, this choice really hurt the show.
The Rings of Power Season Two Appears to Be Fixing This
With that in mind I think its a good sign that, based on the trailer at least, The Rings of Power Season Two seems to be going in a very different direction. While no doubt portions, maybe large ones, will be newly-invented stuff, it does have to deal with fall-out and characters from Season One. But not all of it will be. Based on the trailer we can see one major narrative that is from the books.
In the books, Sauron, in the guise of the hot elf Annatar, becomes friends with Celebrimbor and forges the Rings of Power—and eventually The One Ring. Once his betrayal is discovered, he and Celebrimbor have a falling out. Sauron then sends his troops to demand Celebrimbor and all of Eregion surrender.
The Elf’s refusal leads to t the Siege of Eregion. The ensuing battle involves a lot of the major players of the period. It’s also the start of the War of the Elves and Sauron, which dominates the next eight years.
Closer to the Story
From the trailer, it looks like we’re getting all of this storyline in The Rings of Power Season Two. We can see scenes of Annatar and Celebrimbor working together. We see more rings getting forged. They can be seen falling out and fighting. And of course we see shots of what appears to be Eregion under siege.
This siege is supposed to be the big set-piece of the season and will take two episodes to cover. We even see Elrond leading a cavalry charge, and in the books he was sent to try and save Eregion, but arrived too late (In the books Celeborn aided Elrond in this, but I wonder if he will be replaced with Galadriel, since so far her husband has been cut form the show.)
All of this heavily implies that major plot points from the books are going to happen more-or-less how we know they did. I even wonder if the above picture doesn’t show part of the forging of the One Ring. Based on this is seem season two is really pushing to cover book storylines.
What Rings of Power Should Have Done From the Start
Rather than creating whole new stories that no one asked for, Rings of Power should be adapting the lore. Covering the events that Tolkien wrote about, but expanding on them and adding more context. Fortunately, this seems to be what Rings of Power Season Two is finally about to do.
It seem like the show might actually be focusing on the major, already written, plot that leads to the start of the War of the Elves and Sauron. Around that will be told some others stories, but hopefully these are ones that enhance, rather than detract from the main story.
One Worry About Rings Of Power Season Two
While I think overall this move is for the best, it does bring up one worry for me. Will we just get a major retread of Season One? In season one, Sauron, disguised as Halbrand, infiltrates the Elves and works with Celebrimbor to forge Rings of Power. He’s then found out and flees, kicking off a new stage in the conflict between Sauron and the Elves.
If The Rings of Power Season Two focuses on a disguised Sauron working with Celebrimbor to forge rings of powers and then getting found out with more conflict… Well, isn’t that kind of the same thing twice?
We’ll see if the show can navigate this well. But overall, I think sticking closer to the book is only a good thing. In fact, it might just save the show.
Let us know if you think this is right move for the show, down in the comments!
