Rings of Power – S2 Ep 5: On the Nature of Evil

From Professor Tom Shippey’s: Tolkien as a Post-War Writer

“(The works of these) five authors, Lewis, Orwell, Tolkien, Golding and White, seem to me to hang together in unexpected ways; they are all non-realistic works, whether one regards them as science fiction, fantasy, fable or parable (all descriptions which have been applied); and they are all books insistently marked by war, all works by writers who are “post-war” in more than an accidental or chronological sense.”

…

“Finally, all five authors share a theme which explains many of the connections mentioned above. That theme is the nature of evil, a subject handled by all five with extreme originality, deep reluctance to accept prior opinion, however authoritative, and sometimes a degree of obsession.”

…

“My suggestion is that in spite of the many differences between these writers there is an overriding similarity linking the facts presented above. In essence I am saying that these five writers all have as their major theme the nature of evil; that this theme was forced upon them by their life-experience, which I would say furthermore was a characteristically British life-experience, not shared for instance by Americans or by most Europeans; that they became writers of fiction to some extent to articulate this theme; and finally that all five authors turned to fantasy, or fable, or science fiction, however one likes to label their genres, because they felt that the theme of human evil was not one which could be rendered adequately or confronted directly through the medium of realistic fiction alone. These authors then were not “escapist…”

Whereas LOTR: The Rings of Power has been the very definition of mindless escapism. 

All it was meant to ever be was a takeoff on Tolkien by people who had no real understanding of the deeper themes on the nature of evil.  Mostly I suspect, because they are really uncomfortable dwelling on that subject.

Astonishingly, someone on the production got ahold of the reins (briefly) and the nature of evil was explored.  It actually had a few decent moments.  Granted given the running time this was likely just an accident.

Let’s dig into it.

Episode 5 is off to a promising start. We are in Khaza-dum the showrunners only ever put effort into the Dwarves. King Durin III puts his ring on and suddenly finds out where to safely dig in order to find daylight.  The ring works.

The Dwarves are super happy. 

Next scene, and are you shitting me?  Okay, the repurposing has begun early this time.  We are in Eregion and as a thank you? The Dwarves unveil the Doors of Durin. Which look just like they did in the Jackson films. This is canonically accurate but it really didn’t need to be here.  It served no purpose other than repurposing a scene.

Whatever. Moving on. Sauron walks away from the party in a huff.  Celebrimbor wants to know why his Pookie is in such a tiff?  Sauron is bummed because the men are in danger and Celebrimbor doesn’t wanna make rings for them. Celebrimbor stamps his little feet, not going to happen.

Pharazon and son are having a pointless conversation. Although, you do finally get some hint about Pharazon’s defining character flaw (or at least the only one they did right), his desire for immortality. Also, he wants his son to be more evil.  He really wants the kid to buckle down and work on it.

Elendil and the Queen are having a Telemundo moment.  More (and blatant) shipping coming in but alas it’s doomed.  Or at least it’s supposed to be doomed.  Anyway because he saw a vision in the Palantir of himself riding a horse, the Queen has decided to just throw in the towel and orders Elendil to take up pacifism. 

Next scene, the soldiers loyal to Queen Mirel are being discharged.  Elendil’s non-canonical daughter is now being shrewish and evil, which she wasn’t in the first season.  However, we know the show has to cough up nine humans from somewhere, and three of the Nazgul are Numenoreans. Given that it is Amazon making this show, I find the likelihood of a Nazgirl highly probable.  The only Black Rider that Tolkien ever named was Khamûl, so I’m afraid they have more leeway here than I am comfortable with. This scene does have a purpose it shows the tension rising between Mirel’s followers and Pharazon’s.

Over to Gil-Galad who is having visions from his own ring. Again, the Elven Rings were NEVER corrupted by Sauron, so they can’t do that. So Gil-Galad is refusing to launch the war against Adar because his ring told him not to.

Moving back to Moria, Dissa drops a giant marble which travels a truly improbable distance until it falls into a ravine.  Since it was a pricey marble Dissa sings to it and wakes up the Balrog.  It doesn’t do a lot except growl.  Amazon really can’t move that part of the story forward without infringing on Warner Brothers’ rights.

Durin IV argues with his Dad.  The king who had been reluctant to dig deep last season is suddenly all about going as deep as possible.

I can’t believe I’m about to give the show a compliment but this kind of works in terms of the corrupting influence of Sauron.

Checking in on Eregion and holy crap this show is now repurposing scenes from the Middle Earth games.  Celebrimbor’s assistant put on one of the human rings and was briefly doing the ring wraith thing.

Eregion is also now starting to gather an appropriate air of doom around it. 

Rocketing over to Numenor.  We are attending a funeral for Isildor. Pharazon’s non-canonical son shows up and declares the temple is to be demolished to make way for an aqueduct. He has turned into quite the mustache-twirling villain in the space of twenty minutes. There is a scuffle and he rather snottily breaks a statue. 

Valendil, who I thought was rather out of place because that is the name of Isildor’s youngest son, fights with Pharazon’s evil son beats the crap out of him, and then turns his back on a mustache-twirler.   Honestly, he deserves what I got for doing that.  Pharazon’s son is now a murderer. And if Valdendil had had an actual character his death might bother me but it doesn’t.  It was the usual lazy progressive writing trope of; this a black character so you are required to like him or you’re a racist.

At least Elendil is broken up over it.  Fifteen minutes left, so we’re done with Numenor for the night. 

We check in on Eregion and there is actually another decent little scene between Celebrimbor and Sauron. Celebrimbor is having a very deep internal struggle against Sauron’s influence.  But Sauron keeps seducing him further.  There’s an authentic feeling of dread pervading these scenes. 

They’ve got the story completely wrong but for once, there’s a scene that isn’t laughably incompetent.  I’m feeling my own sense of dread because of this.  Something is fundamentally wrong with the universe.

The Dwarven ring is starting to affect the King.  He’s becoming as gold-obsessed as a Pratchett dwarf.  At one point he snarls at Narvin accusing him of stealing his ring.  Narvin points at the ring and says, “You took it off yourself. You said your hand was feeling heavy.” The king absentmindedly agrees that he did. He hesitates briefly before putting it back on. Sort of like an alcoholic that hates himself for that first drink of the day.

Durin begs his father not to use the ring anymore because there is some kind of Devilry in Eregion. The king ignores what his son just said and reinstates him as crown prince because he feels Durin was right to trust in Eregion. Later Dissa makes Durin swear he will never put on one the Rings.

Again, the dread is appropriate for the story being told even if the story itself is trash. 

I… I liked something in the Rings of Power?  I’m scared! Help me! I’m losing my grip on reality!!!!! 

And Galadriel comes to my rescue.  The last scene more than makes up for anything comparatively competent that happened in the rest of the episode. She makes a daring (of course) escape and takes Adar hostage. Adar offers an alliance against Sauron.  Their eyes are meeting and there is something there.

Oh my crap! Now they are shipping Galadriel and Adar. Kind of pointless given that she’s an Elf and he’s…

No. 

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

There is only one possible reason they would be doing THIS. 

So we can have the big appallingly stupid reveal that Adar is, in fact, Galadriel’s long-lost husband Celeborn.  Which means he’s going be healed by the light of Galadriel’s ring, Nenya.

They’re going to do it.  I know they are.

I have to go barf now. 

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