The most important thing The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Did not disappoint in terms of turning the whole story on its head, confirming that Sauron is deceiving everyone in his disguise as Halbrand. But as fans looked more and more closely at the story in hindsight, and tried to fit Sauron’s new timeline into the Tolkien canon, the question divided much of the audience: Does the Halfrand/Sauron twist really work? and ScreenRant The Rings of Power Podcast Has many thoughts on what it suggests, what it changes and what it promises for the future of the show.
Where Galadriel spent the first season of The rings of power Asking whether or not Sauron is still alive, the audience has the benefit of knowing the answer. What they may not know is the disguise, if any, Sauron was wearing through the first part of the story. The mystery was revealed in grand fashion, as King Halbrand of the Southlands confessed to being Sauron, and credited Galadriel with restoring him in the first season finale. And immediately, the detractors called “plot hole” and flawed logic, citing Tolkien’s own writing or a broken timeline.
But does the twist work perfectly? Does it fit alongside Tolkien’s existing knowledge? And most importantly, why was Sauron on the boat at all? The answers are found in the latest episode of The Rings of Power Podcast: “Halbrand is Sauron: Does the Twist Make Sense, or a Plot Hole?” Included below:
Hosts Andrew Dice and Stephen Colbert dive deep into the existing knowledge, ideas and potential stories scribbled or discussed by JRR Tolkien throughout his life, and where the Rings of power Writers have room to fill in their own fiction. But the one unanswered question about Sauron’s story remains: How did Halbrand end up on the raft with Galadriel? Does the story really make sense? What missing pieces will the show hopefully answer?
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Sauron is killed long before many viewers seem to think
The site of Sauron’s death has been abandoned for centuries when the show begins
Viewers are sure to have their own issues with any given storyline The rings of powerWhether based on the tale’s own merits, or how it contributes to existing Tolkien scholarship. But one of the biggest pieces of Sauron’s puzzle is easy to misunderstand on a first watch. Especially when the show’s opening narrative seems to suggest that Galadriel and her elves are somewhere close to ‘pursuing’ Sauron, or retracing steps in his master plan. When Adar finally claims that he killed Sauron himself, viewers may not fully understand what is being revealed.
Since both Sauron and Adar describe only the immediate events following his master’s defeat, It is possible that Sauron’s death was years, months or even just days or weeks after the fall of Morgoth.. If the northern fortress where Sauron gathered the surviving orcs was the scene of the crime, the area has been totally abandoned for centuries by the time Galadriel finds it. So what was Sauron up to all this time? This is a question Tolkien fails to even hint at, let alone describe in full.
How did Sauron spend the 1,000 years before the Flood?
How Sauron ends up on the boat, and the raft, remains a story for the show to tell
As Tolkien fans know, The rings of powerThe events of the Second Age, spanning the millennia between Morgoth’s defeat and Sauron’s own (in which the One Ring was cut from his hand). While the main events of Sauron’s journey in the Second Age are known, and sure to be covered in the TV series, the intervening centuries are wide open for the writers to fill in. Tolkien established the things Sauron had, sure. But he didn’t say that these were the only things the Dark Lord was up to.
To the audience members pointing to Sauron’s presence on the raft (or the wreck boat that preceded it) as too much of a coincidence, and therefore part of his plan, we are sad to say that clairvoyance or foresight is not one of Sauron’s. s gifts. . If it really was coincidence or chance, then Viewers should be less concerned with how he crossed paths with Galadriel, and focus on how Sauron spent the previous centuries after his death at Adar’s hands.
For the full conversation and debate on this and all other topics related to the TV show, be sure to follow along The Rings of Power Podcast in your favorite podcast app, and stay tuned to ScreenRant for all the coverage from season two and beyond.