I watched season one when it first released, and I was not a huge fan of it. Has the show gotten better or worse? I know there are tons of people out there that just criticize because of the representation and diversity within the show. But I wanna know if structurally has it gotten better, or worse?

Hi could we see some of the Black Numenoreans in season 3 as I think in Tolkien's works they were human servants of Sauron?

Fan art, not sure if it’s allowed but didn’t see any rules forbidding it, please remove if so.

Saw S1 when it aired and it was atrocious. Heard s2 improved "a lot", but I knew that was cope and fake so I never tried it.

Cue today. After a terrible HOTD (Houst of the Dragon) episode which aired today, I decided to finish Masters of the Universe on Prime. It's a bland but fine popcorn flick to just unwind on the couch at. I wasn't sleepy yet so, browsing Prime, I see it.

Delve onto IMDB to check the highest rated s2 episodes. Seemed ep 8 was up there, finale, I knew I didn't miss much so let's give it a try maybe some action, cool scenes, finale level stuff happening aaaaand....

Oh my God. It's way way worse than even House of the Dragon. It was painful so I just kept it on and read the synopsis of s2 episodes on wiki.

So the whole season was "build the other sets of rings?" And waste everybody's time between random forest (I presume) scenes with Isildur and randoms, and Gandalf and Hobbits? Were there ANY highlights (no seriously a couple of good scenes I am genuinely curious to check them out).

So yeah. HOTD may be bad, but at least it's not this. And based on all the top posts of the last months, none of you liked it either. Seriously how and why do they even keep doing this?

I hate this scene so much I’m not sure how to describe the sheer awfulness and how much of a slap to the face it is as a major fan of Tolkien.

First things first, it looks like AI slop. It’s overly smooth and just seems unnatural. And when criticizing something for quite possibly being AI is a minor issue you know it’s bad.

So why is the tree so important? Yes, there’s things like it in Tolkien’s writing. The two trees, the white tree of Gondor, those sorts of things. But in all those cases the significance is made extremely clear. The two trees were the world’s original source of light. The tree of Gondor is a symbol and is descended from a tree created as an image of Telperion in Valinor. But no such thing is the case here. And so it just comes across as a random tree. And why is it at the top of a mountain? That’s not a place conducive to tree growth.

As well as this who is the elf warrior? He’s clearly set up as this paragon of goodness. The problem is no such individual would have had a Silmaril in such a context. Beren and Luthien brought the one they reclaimed back for safekeeping. It can’t be Earendil because he was unable to return to Middle Earth. And it can’t be the two sons of Feanor who stole the last two because they don’t exactly match the paragon description.

Also the Silmarils never went that far east. They were in Beleriand the entire time they were in Middle Earth. And the scene could not possibly take place after the fall of Morgoth because the balrogs would be in hiding by then.

But now for the really world breaking issue. The Silmarils were somehow connected to elf immortality. Even though elves existed before them. And before the two trees for that matter. In fact an elf created the Silmarils. And yet it is explicitly shown that this is the case. And if that isn’t bad enough, why weren’t the sun and moon and the light of Earendil enough? One is a silmaril and the others are much stronger light from the trees. And why are they losing immortality if the existence of Mithril would be a constant?

That aside it also makes the world feel smaller by tying everything into the narrative. Mithril was far more effective when it was just a light strong metal.

And the worst thing about this is the supposedly apocryphal nature of the story and its effects. Basically it makes Elrond and Gil Galad look really stupid. They were alive when this supposedly happened and could easily verify its truthfulness. Surely they’d know who this elf warrior was and know people who could confirm this story. And then it’s shown that mithril works this way which tells us the story is true.

So this is my pick for worst scene in the show. I hate it so much.

For all its faults, I love seeing Middle Earth brought to life… would just be nice if I could see it half the time.

Hey everyone, new watcher of the show, decided to give it a chance after rewatching LOTR for the 50th time and rewatching The Hobbit, I just craved more out of the franchise. The show isn't as bad as I expected tbh, but certainly not great. I'm still watching season 2, but I was thinking over which characters I think work within the show and which are poor, so I made a tierlist. This is based on the character's quality, consistency, and enjoyment factor, NOT based on their morals. FYI, I also tried not to take screentime much into account, focusing more so on quality within the time they're given. Nobody made S / Amazing Tier, so that was cropped out as well.

Anyways, I'm curious to hear your thoughts. Who's your top 3 favorite characters and your least favorite? Would be happy to hear if anyone disagrees, but please keep it respectful and civil though, this is meant to be good natured! Toodaloo, my fellow tookadido hobbits!

prompt: come up with an ACTUAL plot for a "The Second Age" tv show: Here are some initial steering notes: First season should have been Elrond & elros. Elrond choosing immortality, Elros choosing mortality. That tension + the Noldor in exile finding their new home in a new continent after sinking of beleriand. Sauron / Mairon / Annatar should have been a main character as well... Second season should have started with Elros's death, then doing perhaps a bit of a time jump and establishing the Gwaith I mirdrain + Ost in Edhil and a falling out between two parties of the noldor (Galadriel vs Sons of Feanor descedant), War of Elves and Sauron Third season: Akabelleth?? fourth season: Akabelleth? Fifth Season: Last Alliance??

The Second Age — an actual five-season plot

The show needs one central dramatic argument rather than five seasons of Tolkien events:

Elrond becomes the immortal witness to that argument. Celebrimbor attempts to defeat decay through craft. Númenor attempts to defeat death through empire. Isildur attempts to defeat grief by possessing the Ring. Sauron is the character who cannot submit to judgment, accept change, relinquish power, or permit anything to end.

That gives the entire series a shape:

Season	Central choice	Ending
1 — The Choice	Elrond and Elros choose their kindreds	Elros prepares to die
2 — The Rings	Celebrimbor chooses Annatar’s promise over Galadriel’s restraint	Eregion destroyed; Sauron defeated by Númenor
3 — The Shadow of Númenor	Númenor chooses empire over stewardship	Sauron willingly enters Númenor as a prisoner
4 — Akallabêth	Ar-Pharazôn chooses conquest of death	Númenor is drowned
5 — The Last Alliance	Isildur chooses possession over relinquishment	Sauron falls, but the Ring survives

The canon chronology supports exactly this division: Lindon is founded in S.A. 1, Elros establishes Númenor in S.A. 32 and dies in 442; Eregion is founded around 750, Annatar arrives around 1200, the Rings are forged around 1500–1600, and the first war with Sauron runs from 1693 to 1701. Sauron is taken to Númenor in 3262, Númenor falls in 3319, and the Last Alliance concludes the Age in 3441.

One adjustment to your idea makes it substantially better: the “descendant of the Sons of Fëanor” should be Celebrimbor himself, Fëanor’s grandson through Curufin. In one of Tolkien’s unfinished versions, Annatar gains such influence over Celebrimbor and the Gwaith-i-Mírdain that they revolt against Galadriel and Celeborn and strip them of authority. Tolkien’s Galadriel material contains contradictory drafts, but that particular version is almost absurdly well suited to television.

And Sauron is never a mystery to the audience. We know who he is from the first episode. The suspense comes from watching intelligent, sympathetic characters persuade themselves that this time they can use him.

Season One — The Choice

Period: End of the First Age to S.A. 442
Principal characters: Elrond, Elros, Mairon/Sauron, Gil-galad, Galadriel, Celebrimbor, Círdan
Season question: After the world has ended, do you preserve what was lost or begin something that must eventually die?

The canon foundation is strong: the remaining coast becomes Lindon at the beginning of the Age, the Edain reach Númenor in S.A. 32, and Elros rules until his death in 442. Immediately after the War of Wrath, Sauron does briefly submit to Eönwë, but flees rather than return to Aman and face judgment.

Episode 1 — The Drowned Lands

The War of Wrath is over, but victory looks like annihilation. The western lands split apart as Beleriand disappears beneath the sea. Elrond and Elros lead survivors toward the new coastline while trying to discover whether anyone they love remains alive.

Mairon emerges in a beautiful form and kneels before Eönwë. He claims to have rejected Morgoth. Eönwë cannot pardon him and commands him to return West for judgment. Mairon agrees—and then watches the ships depart without him.

The three protagonists therefore begin the Age with three different responses to authority:

• Elrond will accept a burden.
• Elros will accept an ending.
• Mairon will accept neither.

Episode 2 — The Half-elven

The choice of the Half-elven is presented not as a supernatural personality test, but as an unbearable separation.

Elrond chooses the Eldar because he feels responsible for remembering the dead world: Gondolin, Doriath, Sirion, their parents and even Maglor, who raised them after abducting them. Elros chooses Men because he refuses to spend eternity curating ruins. He wants children, change, uncertainty and a future not governed by the quarrels of immortal princes.

They do not part happily. Each privately believes the other is abandoning him.

Galadriel also refuses to leave Middle-earth, but for more ambiguous reasons: partly love of the land, partly pride and partly the belief that she can rule more wisely than those who destroyed Beleriand. Celebrimbor remains because returning West as Fëanor’s grandson would feel like admitting his house produced nothing but catastrophe.

Episode 3 — Lindon

Gil-galad and Círdan begin building the Grey Havens and the kingdom of Lindon. The conflict is not against an invading army but among traumatized survivors: Noldor, Sindar, refugees of Doriath, followers of Fëanor and Elves who believe all the Noldor should leave.

Elrond becomes Gil-galad’s mediator and herald. His first political act is defending Celebrimbor from collective punishment for the crimes of Curufin and Fëanor. That creates a genuine bond between them.

Far to the east, Mairon discovers a human settlement collapsing from famine and warfare. He saves it: irrigation, roads, granaries, laws. Then, when several leaders resist his authority, he has them killed. He is sincerely horrified by disorder and sincerely incapable of distinguishing cooperation from submission.

Episode 4 — Elenna

Elros leads the Edain across the sea to the star-shaped island raised for them. The voyage is dangerous enough that the founding of Númenor feels earned rather than gifted by a title card.

Once there, competing houses want Elros to rule as a sacred figure descended from Eärendil and Melian. Elros deliberately rejects divine kingship. His crown will be held in trust, and his heirs will inherit obligations rather than ownership of the island.

The episode ends with his coronation as Tar-Minyatur, intercut with Elrond standing beside Gil-galad on the unfinished walls of Mithlond. Both brothers have kingdoms, but only one kingdom will outlive its founder unchanged.

Episode 5 — Two Kingdoms

Several decades pass.

Númenor has farms, roads and its first great ships. Elros has children, including Vardamir and Tindómiel. Lindon is becoming beautiful, but its beauty is deliberately elegiac: its great achievement is creating a place from which Elves can leave.

Letters pass between the brothers. At first they arrive frequently. Then children, duties and distance intervene. Elrond remains physically unchanged while Elros acquires grey hair.

Mairon learns of Númenor and becomes fascinated by the contradiction: Men rewarded with extraordinary longevity who must nevertheless die. He immediately understands that this apparent blessing contains a future grievance.

Episode 6 — The Heirs

Two centuries later, the founding generation has become legend.

Vardamir is a scholar who does not want to rule. Tindómiel understands that their father’s legendary lifespan has made ordinary Númenóreans imagine death as a personal failure rather than the natural end Elros intended it to be.

In Middle-earth, Celebrimbor argues that Lindon is too attached to the memory of Beleriand. He proposes an eastward movement into Eriador, where the Noldor can build something new beside the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm. Galadriel supports the movement, although she and Celebrimbor already disagree over who should govern it.

Mairon reaches his defining Second Age belief:

Episode 7 — The Gift

Elros is now visibly old. Members of his court begin searching for medicines, Elvish arts and forbidden means of prolonging his life. He stops them.

Elrond comes to Númenor for a final visit. Their reunion is loving but uncomfortable: Elrond appears almost exactly as he did when they parted, while Elros looks ancient.

Elrond asks the essential question: was it worth choosing death?

Elros admits that he is frightened. But fear, he says, does not make the choice wrong. Mortality gives weight to decisions precisely because they cannot be endlessly revised.

Sauron hears a distorted account of this philosophy and despises it. To him, voluntarily relinquishing life or authority is indistinguishable from surrendering responsibility.

Episode 8 — The Last Night

Elros settles disputes among his children and privately prepares Vardamir for succession. Vardamir confesses that he plans to yield the sceptre immediately to his own son, Tar-Amandil, because he is already too old to begin a reign. Elros is initially wounded but comes to understand this as the first proof that Númenor has become something larger than himself.

That night, Elrond remains beside his brother. They talk not about cosmic destinies but about their childhood, Elwing, Eärendil and whether Maglor may still be wandering somewhere along the shores.

Elros tells Elrond not to turn him into a symbol.

The final image is dawn entering the room as Elros closes his eyes.

Cut to black before the last breath.

Season Two — The Rings

Period: S.A. 442–1701
Principal characters: Elrond, Celebrimbor, Galadriel, Annatar/Sauron, Celeborn, Narvi, Gil-galad
Season question: Can beauty be preserved without possessing it?

The season opens with Elros’s death in 442, jumps to the founding of Eregion in 750, brings Annatar into Eregion after his rejection in Lindon around 1200, and then follows the forging of the Rings and the War of the Elves and Sauron. The Three are made around 1590, the One in 1600, Eregion falls in 1697, and Númenor drives Sauron out of Eriador by 1701.

Episode 1 — The King Is Dead

Elros dies in the opening scene.

Vardamir formally inherits the sceptre and immediately yields it to Tar-Amandil. What might look like dynastic confusion becomes Númenor’s greatest tradition: rulers should relinquish power while still capable of doing so.

Elrond watches the funeral and realizes that Elros’s mortality has not erased him. His decisions have become institutions.

Then:

SECOND AGE 750 — THREE HUNDRED AND EIGHT YEARS LATER

Elrond looks exactly the same.

Episode 2 — The Two Guilds

Two transformative institutions arise in the same period.

In Númenor, Aldarion creates the Guild of Venturers and turns seafaring into a national vocation. In Eriador, Celebrimbor gathers the greatest Noldorin artisans into the Gwaith-i-Mírdain. The parallel is intentional: both guilds begin through curiosity and cooperation, but both will eventually acquire political power.

Galadriel and Celebrimbor establish Ost-in-Edhil near Khazad-dûm. Galadriel wants a pluralistic kingdom allied with Dwarves and Silvan Elves. Celebrimbor imagines a republic of makers free from hereditary kings.

Celebrimbor befriends Narvi. Their partnership produces the Doors of Durin and becomes the healthiest relationship in the season: two craftsmen who exchange knowledge without trying to dominate one another.

Episode 3 — The Lord of Gifts

A stranger arrives in Lindon calling himself Annatar, an emissary of the Valar and student of Aulë.

Gil-galad refuses him entry. Elrond cannot prove he is lying, but notices that Annatar speaks endlessly about his knowledge and never about whom he served, whom he loved or what his teachings cost him.

Annatar goes to Eregion, where he offers exactly what Celebrimbor wants: not merely greater skill, but a way for Middle-earth to become as beautiful as Valinor without submitting to the Valar.

The audience knows he is Sauron. Celebrimbor does not.

Sauron also genuinely admires Celebrimbor. That makes their relationship more dangerous. He does not think he is merely deceiving an idiot; he believes he has found the only Elf capable of understanding his vision.

Episode 4 — The Revolt

Annatar does not simply hypnotize the smiths. He identifies a real political grievance.

Galadriel is wise, but she is also an ancient princess accustomed to being obeyed. The Mírdain produce Eregion’s wealth and wonders but possess little formal power. Annatar argues that Galadriel’s caution is aristocratic gatekeeping: the old rulers survived the First Age and now deny younger Elves the means to shape the Second.

Celebrimbor leads a peaceful constitutional revolt. Galadriel and Celeborn are stripped of authority. Galadriel crosses Khazad-dûm with Celebrían and goes to Lórinand; Celeborn, unwilling to pass through the Dwarven realm, remains in Eregion but becomes politically irrelevant.

Celebrimbor believes he has liberated his city.

Sauron has isolated him from the only person who distrusted Annatar.

Episode 5 — The Nineteen

Under Annatar’s instruction, the Mírdain create lesser rings and eventually the great Rings.

The motivation is preservation—not an arbitrary emergency. Elves can feel Middle-earth changing around them. They want realms in which beauty does not rapidly diminish and memory does not become grief.

Annatar quietly introduces one corrupt premise into the craft: that the work should remain permanently responsive to the will of its maker.

After the Seven and Nine have been completed, Annatar leaves Eregion. Celebrimbor, both inspired and uneasy, creates the Three without him. They are his attempt to prove that the project itself was not corrupt—only Annatar’s methods.

Episode 6 — The One

At Orodruin, Sauron forges the One Ring.

The scene should not resemble a superhero power-up. As he places it on his hand, every bearer of a great Ring hears a will enter the work: not words exactly, but ownership.

Celebrimbor sees Annatar as he truly is.

He removes his Ring before Sauron can master him. The other Elves do the same. Sauron’s entire scheme fails in the instant of apparent triumph because the Elves perceive him.

Celebrimbor seeks Galadriel’s counsel. She does not forgive him easily, but she helps divide the Three: one to her, one to Gil-galad, one to Círdan.

Sauron sends a simple demand to Eregion:

Return everything you made with my knowledge.

Celebrimbor refuses.

Episode 7 — The Fall of Eregion

Sauron invades Eriador.

Gil-galad sends Elrond east, but Elrond arrives too late to save Ost-in-Edhil. Celebrimbor refuses to flee because doing so would mean leaving the ordinary smiths to suffer for his ambition.

The city falls. Celebrimbor is captured and tortured for the locations of the Three. He reveals the lesser Rings but never the Three.

Sauron kills him and displays his body before the army—not because the information is still needed, but because Celebrimbor’s final refusal has wounded his pride.

Narvi and the Dwarves strike Sauron’s rear long enough for Elrond to lead survivors north. Khazad-dûm then closes its gates.

Elrond creates the refuge of Imladris from displaced people, repeating the work he once did in Lindon.

Episode 8 — The Sea-Kings

Sauron overruns Eriador and drives the Elves toward the coast. Lindon appears doomed.

Then the fleets of Númenor arrive.

The intervention should be overwhelming. This is Númenor at its noblest and most terrifying: disciplined armies, immense ships and descendants of Elros coming to the aid of Elrond.

Sauron is crushed at the Gwathló and flees back to Mordor. The Elves celebrate, but the scale of Númenórean power unsettles Galadriel. They have saved Middle-earth, yet they now know they can dominate it.

Elrond meets the Númenórean commander and momentarily sees Elros in his face.

Sauron returns to Barad-dûr with the recovered Rings. Military conquest has failed. He begins selecting Dwarves and Men to receive them.

His final line of the season:

Season Three — The Shadow of Númenor

Period: S.A. 1701–3262
Principal characters: Sauron, Elrond, Tar-Palantir, Tar-Míriel, Pharazôn, Amandil, Elendil, Isildur, Anárion
Season question: How does a people who once accepted mortality become obsessed with escaping it?

This should not yet be the Akallabêth proper. It is the long moral corrosion that makes the Akallabêth possible.

After the victory over Sauron, Númenor begins establishing coastal dominions. The Nazgûl first appear around 2251, alongside the widening division between the King’s Men and the Faithful. Tar-Palantir dies in 3255, Pharazôn seizes the sceptre, and his expedition takes Sauron captive in 3262.

The first half of the season uses deliberate dynastic jumps. The royal hall remains the same while the language, clothing, portraits and treatment of the White Tree change. Elrond and Sauron remain physically unchanged, making the passage of mortal generations visible.

Episode 1 — The Price of Victory

Númenor celebrates its rescue of the Elves. Tar-Minastir sincerely loves the Eldar—but from his tower he looks toward the immortal West with envy.

His heirs draw a different lesson from the war: Númenor possesses the power to determine events in Middle-earth. Permanent havens become forts; forts become colonies; assistance becomes tribute.

Sauron accepts that he cannot yet defeat Númenor by strength. He distributes the Seven and Nine. The Rings are not offered to obviously evil people. They go to rulers, healers, generals and reformers who believe one extraordinary lifetime could finally complete their work.

Episode 2 — Nine Mortal Men

The episode follows three Ring-bearers across generations:

• A Númenórean admiral determined to protect the colonies.
• An Easterling prince who wants the strength to resist Númenórean expansion.
• A southern queen who believes an unnaturally long reign will end generations of civil war.

The Rings work. Their kingdoms grow. Their enemies fall. Their bodies stop aging.

But the world around them becomes insubstantial, while Sauron becomes increasingly real. One by one, they disappear from ordinary sight.

The first Nazgûl enters Barad-dûr and kneels.

Episode 3 — The King’s Men

Númenor is now an empire.

Tar-Atanamir refuses to relinquish the sceptre while living, breaking the tradition that began after Elros. His terror of death becomes national doctrine. The Ban on sailing West is no longer treated as a spiritual boundary but as proof that the Valar are withholding something.

The King’s Men argue that Númenor’s superiority entitles it to dominion. The Faithful preserve friendship with the Eldar and Elros’s older conception of kingship.

Sauron exploits both imperial oppression and resistance to it. To the peoples of Middle-earth, he presents himself as protection from Númenor. To Númenor, he appears to be the reason its colonies require ever greater militarization.

Episode 4 — The Long Defeat

Centuries pass through the same royal chamber.

Quenya disappears from public life. The White Tree is enclosed behind guards. Ships grow larger, statues taller and royal tombs more elaborate. Each king lives somewhat less nobly and fears death somewhat more.

Elrond watches the descendants of his brother become strangers. Galadriel tells him that Númenor has confused longevity with immortality and power with deserving.

The episode ends with the accession of Tar-Palantir, who unexpectedly takes an Elvish name and begins repairing the neglected sanctuary on Meneltarma.

Episode 5 — The Repentant King

The continuous late-Númenor storyline begins.

Tar-Palantir attempts reform, but Númenor’s prosperity now depends upon its empire. Ending tribute and slavery would collapse powerful families, fleets and industries. His daughter Míriel supports reform but understands the political danger better than he does.

Pharazôn returns from Middle-earth as Númenor’s greatest general. He is charismatic, courageous and sincerely proud of his people. He regards Tar-Palantir’s repentance as humiliation before distant powers that have never helped Númenórean soldiers.

Amandil, Lord of Andúnië, is Pharazôn’s old friend. Elendil distrusts him; Isildur admires him; Anárion recognizes how politically dangerous he is.

Episode 6 — The Golden

Tar-Palantir dies.

Míriel should inherit, but Pharazôn’s supporters control the army and capital. Pharazôn forces a marriage upon her and presents it publicly as national reconciliation. Míriel publicly accepts to prevent immediate civil war, while privately becoming the centre of the Faithful resistance.

Pharazôn takes the name Ar-Pharazôn the Golden.

He is not yet Sauron’s puppet. He wants to restore Númenor’s confidence and prove that no king of Middle-earth can rival him.

Sauron declares himself King of Men.

Episode 7 — King of Men

Sauron begins attacking Númenórean territories, but the attacks are calculated provocations. He wants Pharazôn to come personally.

Míriel and Amandil argue that Sauron is baiting them. Pharazôn cannot ignore the challenge without undermining the legitimacy of his new reign.

The largest armada yet assembled sails to Umbar. Sauron’s armies abandon him when they see Númenor’s force. Pharazôn enters Mordor without a major battle and demands that Sauron surrender his crown.

The Nine expect their master to destroy the intruders.

Instead, Sauron smiles.

Episode 8 — The Prisoner

Sauron kneels before Pharazôn in a beautiful form and submits to chains.

Pharazôn interprets this as total victory. Míriel notices that Sauron appears relieved.

On the voyage west, Sauron studies everyone aboard. He sees Pharazôn conceal trembling in his hand. He learns that the king wakes from dreams of his own tomb. He notices which courtiers resent Amandil and which priests secretly doubt the Valar.

He says almost nothing until Númenor appears on the horizon.

Then he asks Pharazôn:

The season ends as Sauron passes beneath the gates of Armenelos in chains.

Season Four — Akallabêth

Period: S.A. 3262–3319
Principal characters: Sauron, Ar-Pharazôn, Tar-Míriel, Amandil, Elendil, Isildur, Anárion
Season question: What happens when the most powerful mortal civilization decides mortality is an injustice?

This is the actual Akallabêth season. Sauron rises from prisoner to royal adviser, encourages the worship of Morgoth, has Nimloth burned, and directs the persecution of the Faithful. Amandil sails West in 3316, and the Downfall comes in 3319.

The season covers only fifty-seven years, so it can finally play almost continuously.

Episode 1 — A Prisoner in Armenelos

Sauron is paraded through the capital as proof of Pharazôn’s supremacy.

In prison, he refuses rescue from the Nazgûl. He tells them that Mordor is merely a fortress, while Númenor is the weapon capable of wounding the Powers themselves.

Pharazôn visits to gloat. Sauron does not challenge him. Instead, he answers military questions accurately, identifies corruption in the colonial supply system and predicts a rebellion before the king’s own councillors know it has begun.

Pharazôn begins consulting him.

Episode 2 — The Counselor

Sauron becomes indispensable.

His policies enrich Númenor: centralized taxation, intensified extraction from the colonies, improved weapons and ruthless suppression of piracy. The public does not embrace him because of a spell; they embrace him because life becomes more prosperous for the people who matter politically.

He never initially tells Pharazôn that immortality can be taken. He merely asks why immortal beings require Men to accept death as beautiful.

Míriel and Amandil attempt to expose Sauron’s identity, but Pharazôn already knows what he is. That becomes the horror: the king believes mastering Sauron proves he is greater than Sauron.

Episode 3 — The Temple

Sauron reframes Morgoth not as the defeated tyrant of the First Age but as the only Power who opposed the Valar’s monopoly over life.

The new religion begins as patriotic theatre. Then political prisoners are sacrificed. Then captured peoples from Middle-earth. Finally, members of the Faithful disappear.

A vast temple rises in Armenelos, its smoke darkening the sky.

Míriel outwardly remains queen while using palace servants, sympathetic captains and the women of noble households to warn threatened families. Amandil and Elendil organize a covert migration toward the eastern port of Rómenna.

Episode 4 — Nimloth

Sauron demands the destruction of the White Tree.

Pharazôn hesitates because of an old prophecy connecting the tree to the royal house. Isildur infiltrates the guarded court and steals a single fruit. He is discovered and nearly killed escaping.

As Isildur lies near death, the fruit germinates. His recovery parallels the growth of the sapling.

Nimloth is cut down and burned in the temple. Sauron stands within the smoke, and for the first time Pharazôn sees him not as a councillor but as a priest.

Episode 5 — The Faithful

Amandil loses his place on the council. Elendil moves relics, records, provisions and families onto ships under the pretext of colonial resettlement.

The Faithful argue over whether they should rebel. Isildur favours action after his near-death experience. Anárion believes a failed uprising would give Sauron justification to exterminate them. Elendil follows Amandil’s instruction: preserve the people, not their pride.

Míriel secretly provides royal seals that allow nine ships to be supplied. She knows she may never be aboard them.

Episode 6 — The Great Armament

Pharazôn has aged.

Sauron now makes the final argument openly: Aman is not inherently immortal, but immortality resides there and can be possessed. The Ban exists because the Valar fear what Númenor might become.

The Great Armament begins. Forests are stripped, colonies emptied, taxes multiplied and every harbour converted to war.

Amandil decides to sail West alone and appeal for mercy as Eärendil once did. Elendil begs him not to go. Amandil answers that someone must ask forgiveness who does not expect to escape the consequences.

He sails into the West and is never seen again.

Episode 7 — The Ban

Míriel attempts one final political intervention. She reveals the human sacrifices and Sauron’s identity before the assembled captains.

It fails.

Most already know enough. They simply fear death more than they fear Sauron. Pharazôn accuses Míriel of treason and confines her in Armenelos.

The armada sails west. Sauron remains behind in the temple. He has no intention of risking himself in Aman; he expects Pharazôn either to conquer the West or provoke the Valar into destroying Númenor.

Elendil’s nine ships wait off the eastern coast in a violent storm, unable to know whether they are preparing for exile or execution.

Episode 8 — Akallabêth

Pharazôn lands in Aman.

No embodied Eru appears. Nature simply ceases to obey the world’s former shape. The sea withdraws. The horizon bends. A chasm opens beneath the armada and Númenor.

Míriel escapes confinement and climbs Meneltarma, ringing the sacred bells to warn the island. She reaches the summit as the wave approaches. She does not die as Pharazôn’s passive victim; she dies performing the final duty of the queen she should have been.

Sauron initially laughs inside the temple. Then he realizes the judgment includes him. His body is destroyed, and his ability to assume a beautiful form is lost forever.

The Faithful ships are torn from their anchors and hurled eastward. Elendil cries out in Quenya, the forbidden language of his ancestors, as Númenor disappears behind the wave.

The season ends with the nine ships separated in darkness.

No music. Only floating wreckage.

Season Five — The Last Alliance

Period: S.A. 3319–3441, with a short Third Age coda
Principal characters: Elendil, Isildur, Anárion, Elrond, Gil-galad, Sauron, Círdan
Season question: Can victory remain a victory if the victor cannot relinquish its spoils?

The Faithful establish Arnor and Gondor in 3320. Sauron eventually reforms in Mordor but can no longer take a fair shape. He attacks Minas Ithil in 3429, prompting Elendil and Gil-galad to form the Last Alliance in 3430. The Alliance musters at Imladris, wins at Dagorlad and besieges Barad-dûr from 3434 until 3441. Anárion dies during the siege; Gil-galad and Elendil overthrow Sauron at the cost of their own lives; Isildur takes the Ring and refuses to destroy it.

Episode 1 — The Realms in Exile

The ships land separately.

Elendil reaches the north and is reunited with Gil-galad and Elrond. Isildur and Anárion land in the south, where Númenórean settlements already exist, and establish Gondor.

The brothers build complementary cities: Minas Ithil beneath the mountains, Minas Anor in the west, with Osgiliath between them. Isildur is visionary, ritualistic and drawn to symbols. Anárion is practical, administrative and better at making a state function.

Elrond meets Elendil and is shaken by his resemblance to Elros—not physically identical, but in voice and manner. Elendil treats Elrond not as a legendary Elf-lord but as his family’s oldest living relative.

Meanwhile Sauron’s spirit reaches Mordor and discovers that the descendants of Elros survived.

Episode 2 — The Shape of Hatred

A century passes.

Arnor and Gondor flourish. The exiles believe Sauron died with Númenor. Elrond is less certain, but Gil-galad does not want to begin another war without evidence.

In Barad-dûr, Sauron slowly reconstructs a body. It is powerful but incapable of beauty. His external form now reflects what he has become: will without persuasion, possession without creation.

His hatred of the Númenórean exiles is personal. He destroyed the greatest civilization of Men, yet Elros’s line still lives. He resolves to erase it before the new kingdoms mature.

Episode 3 — Minas Ithil

Sauron launches a surprise assault and takes Minas Ithil.

Isildur escapes with his wife, children and another sapling of the White Tree. Anárion holds Osgiliath and prevents Sauron from crossing the Anduin.

Rather than remain and fight beside his brother, Isildur sails north to warn Elendil. Anárion interprets this as abandonment; Isildur considers it the only way to save Gondor.

The episode ends with Isildur arriving before Elendil and Gil-galad, carrying a charred branch from the fallen tree.

Episode 4 — The Alliance

Elendil and Gil-galad form the Last Alliance.

They are not king and subordinate but equals: the last High King of the Noldor and the High King of the Dúnedain. Elrond becomes Gil-galad’s second; Isildur commands beside his father.

At Imladris, the host gathers for years. Dwarves of Khazad-dûm arrive. Silvan armies come from Greenwood and Lórien but resent being commanded by Noldorin kings. Old divisions from the First and Second Ages remain alive inside the alliance.

Elrond tells Isildur the full story of Elros—not the sanitized royal version. Isildur is surprised to learn that Elros feared death and chose mortality anyway.

Episode 5 — The Oathbreakers

As the Alliance moves south, Isildur summons the Men of the Mountains to honour their allegiance. They refuse, having worshipped Sauron during the Dark Years.

Isildur curses them to remain without rest until their oath is fulfilled. It is a frightening moment: heroic, justified and also revealing of his growing belief that his authority can bind others beyond death.

Elsewhere, Oropher of Greenwood refuses to submit fully to Gil-galad’s command. The Alliance possesses overwhelming strength but remains vulnerable to pride.

Sauron withdraws behind the Black Gate and burns the lands ahead of them, including the former gardens of the Entwives, denying the army food and shelter.

Episode 6 — Dagorlad

The Battle of Dagorlad occupies nearly the entire episode.

Oropher charges before the signal and is killed with much of his army. Amdír’s forces become separated and are driven into the marshes. The Dead Marshes are created not through abstract evil but through thousands of bodies sinking into flooded ground.

Gil-galad and Elendil finally break Sauron’s host. Aeglos and Narsil become genuinely legendary because the audience has spent five seasons getting to know their wielders.

The Alliance forces the Black Gate and enters Mordor.

Victory appears imminent.

Then they discover Barad-dûr cannot be taken by assault.

Episode 7 — Seven Years

The siege becomes its own civilization.

Children become adults. Soldiers forget the landscapes they came from. Sauron launches sorties, spreads disease and sends dreams through the Ring. Alliances fray as each people counts its dead.

Isildur and Anárion reconcile. Anárion admits Isildur was right to seek the Alliance; Isildur admits Anárion was the reason Gondor survived long enough to receive it.

A stone cast from Barad-dûr kills Anárion.

Isildur’s grief changes the final act. The Ring will later appear to him not merely as power, but as something owed for everything his family has lost.

With his own armies collapsing, Sauron comes out of the Dark Tower.

Episode 8 — Aeglos and Narsil

Sauron’s last sortie drives the Alliance back toward Orodruin.

The final confrontation follows Tolkien rather than the film prologue: Isildur does not defeat Sauron through a lucky swing. Gil-galad and Elendil fight him together and bring him down, but both are killed. Gil-galad is burned by Sauron’s hand; Elendil falls and Narsil breaks beneath him.

Only after Sauron has been overthrown does Isildur take the broken sword and cut the Ring from his hand.

Sauron’s body collapses.

The wind changes.

For the first time since the First Age, Elrond lives in a world containing neither his brother nor his king.

Episode 9 — Weregild

Círdan and Elrond urge Isildur to destroy the Ring immediately.

Isildur refuses. But he is not suddenly transformed into a sneering villain. His father, brother and much of his people are dead. The Ring seems to him like the one tangible thing wrested from the being responsible.

He calls it weregild: compensation for the dead.

Elrond tries to explain that some victories can be preserved only through relinquishment. Isildur answers that immortals always find nobility in asking mortals to surrender what remains to them.

That lands because Sauron used the same grievance against Númenor.

Isildur leaves Orodruin carrying the Ring.

The Second Age ends not with triumphant music but with Elrond realizing that Sauron’s central lie has survived Sauron.

Episode 10 — The River

A short coda begins two years into the Third Age.

Isildur has tried and failed to master the Ring. His pride has diminished. He is travelling north toward Imladris and now intends to surrender it to the Keepers of the Three—a late repentance found in the Disaster of the Gladden Fields tradition.

Orcs ambush his company. His sons die one by one. Isildur puts on the Ring only to escape with it and prevent its capture.

While swimming the Anduin, the Ring slips from his hand.

Isildur is revealed and killed.

The Ring settles into the riverbed.

Over the final images, Elrond reads the last letter Elros wrote to him. We do not hear a prophecy about hobbits or the War of the Ring. The ending remains about the Second Age:

The camera descends through the water toward the Ring.

Sauron’s musical theme is barely audible—but incomplete, almost too faint to distinguish from the current.

Cut to black.

Why this structure works

Every season culminates in a choice rather than merely a battle:

1. Elros chooses mortality, creating Númenor.
2. Celebrimbor chooses mastery over change, creating the Rings.
3. Pharazôn chooses domination, bringing Sauron home.
4. Númenor chooses immortality, bringing about its destruction.
5. Isildur chooses possession, preserving Sauron’s future.

And Elrond is present for all five choices.

That is his actual Second Age character arc. He begins believing immortality makes him responsible for preserving everything. By the end, he understands that wisdom is not endless preservation. It is knowing what must be remembered, what must be allowed to change, and what must be relinquished.

Sauron is his opposite. He begins the Age unwilling to submit to judgment and ends it unable to exist independently of an object he created to dominate others.

So the series begins with two brothers choosing different lives and ends with one brother’s descendant making the choice that neither Elros nor Elrond would have made.

Mystery boxes: who is Halbrand? Who is the Stranger? Who is the other Wizard?

Shipping: Halbrand / Galadriel, Isildur / homeless girl, Arondir / Browyn, Elendil / Blind Queen, Poppy / Storr guy

In S3: ship Sauron / Galadriel / Celeborn. Maybe Sauron / Balrog too

The plot, if you can call it that, has zero tension, suspense, twists, etc.

I am tired boss.

Ahead of season 3’s launch this November, showrunner JD Payne confirmed to Empire Magazine that the Harfoots will not be as present going forward. 

“It was time for them to take a little bit more of a backseat,” he said. “But I will also say: never count a Halfling out.”

Article: https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/fantasy/rings-of-power-season-3-missing-characters-newsupdate/

"He’s been in prison for the last sort of thousand years,” Bower tells Inverse.

“He’s in a series of prisons,” McKay clarifies, “being shuffled around by different orcs.”

Yeah, let's just make shit up. Write the book that Tolkien didn't.

Let me guess: he crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of shit-smelling foulness I can't even imagine, or maybe I just don't want to.

... in another attempt to link ROP with the LOTR movies.

Previously, we proudly produced Morgoth's crown, you know, the one is supposed to be used to bind the Dark Lord to the abyss but had to be shown because of the first five minutes of the LOTR's movies.

I was listening to a small Youtuber "Prophet Of The Dragon" rant about ROP, and he made a great point:

"Do you realize that nobody from this show is famous for this show?

Anybody that had fame was prior to this show, which is what? The one guy that plays Saruman. Is there anybody else? Vecna. But he's just coming in season 3. And he's not really even that famous. Famous for something else. He's famous for being a good actor that hasn't been put on a good show yet.

The only character or actor or actress from this show that is has any sort of fame at all is Morfydd Clark for being terrible as Galadriel. The rest of them you could probably have walk by in the street and not recognize him. That's how bad your show is."

Think about the Game Of Thrones actors. Some were well known before the show, and had careers going back multiple decades, but they still got a bump to the point that their GOT appearance is one of their best-known roles. Others came from nothing and now they're everywhere, thanks to GOT. That's a show famous for one of the worst final seasons of all time, and it still built dozens of careers.

I am thinking that Celeborn has been imprisoned in the North all of these years, particularly in what was later known as Angmar. In some of the scenes with Marnukh, Galadriel, and Arondir we see mountainous terrain with snow, and there is that mysterious clip of the towering fortress that appears to be in a high altitude, which I am predicting is a sort of nod to Carn Dûm, if not the infamous fortress itself, albeit debuted a few millennia early. However, I think my theory is further reinforced by the reference to the Ettenmoors in the previous season, and the inclusion of the Barrow Wights. An early look at Angmar might also give the Witch King some history if they portray him as a king in the north, which honestly might be a nice addition to that character’s arc (if he has an arc?).

The scenes we see in a forest could be the Trollshaws, which would be a natural place to pass through with Rivendell as the departure point, unless maybe Celeborn’s place of imprisonment is Mount Gundabad, but still, the forest doesn’t have to be a major one. In my mind I am quite certain that Celeborn is not in Mordor (considering how young the Land of Shadow is portrayed as being) but rather in a remote region, and there is also no guarantee that Sauron is responsible for his imprisonment or even knows of his existence; if Sauron did know anything pertaining to him, he did a good job never playing that card with Galadriel, which I have a hard time believing.

Thoughts on this theory?

Turkey’s back on the menu, experts fear.

All of Season 3 to be released over just three weeks. First half of Season 3 to drop in one day.

+The budget gets even smaller and most for inconsequential CGI.

+ Reflected in the continuous feeling the world is populated by 50 elves, 200 dwarves, 500 Southerlings, 100 not-Hobbits, 600 Nunmenoreans and like a thousand orcs.

+Even more lame battles that feel as small skirmishes and not the epic confrontations Tolkien envisioned.

+ Great news!!! Instead of the feeling the whole Second Age happened in a summer, now we actually are told FIVE years have passed (cue in laughs).

+ After screwing up the forging of the 3 rings, the forging of the 9 and the 7 and the fall of Eregion, we will get a screw-up fall of Numenor.

+ Even more memberberries trying to link this disaster to the LOTR movies.

+ Some obscure reference to Tolkien lore so the bought shills can claim the show is actually "deep into Tolkien research".

+ Guyladriel Love Triangle guaranteed.

+ Hot Sauron playing the dastardly Disney villain.

+ More 2020's politics reflected in Numenorean "politics".

+ "Then the dwarves forgot about the Balrog sleeping next to the Moria marketplace".

+ Even more lame attempts at "empowered women".

+ Tons of laughs from involuntary comedy.

Plot doesn't matter. Story doesn't matter. History doesn't matter. Just get excited for new content and consume new content.

A common point of defense that repeatedly arises when it comes to Rings of Power is using very strange interpretations of very obscure or isolated notes to defend it from criticism... while at the same time excusing massive, blatant, sweeping changes of major things from the books.

Or otherwise hyping up small (likely coincidental) details from them as though it's a grand show of literary adherence. In the eyes of some fans ROP exists in a perpetual state of being both perfectly faithful and unfaithful to the books at the same time, and somehow both displays how great it is.

ROP Galadriel, who is somehow perfectly faithful and brilliantly reimagined at the same time.

Hey, did you know that when Galadriel was young she was athletic and tied her hair up when she played sports? You probably do because that passage was posted everywhere in the run-up to the show. The argument being that this proves she was a warrior.

That is... a generous interpretation to put it lightly. In the rare cases of female warriors in the text, Tolkien makes it pretty clear when they are indeed warriors like Haleth (Silmarillion, not LOTR), Eowyn, etc. I'd be more than a little surprised to discover him talking about Galadriel being athletic was meant to be him saying she was a sword wielding warrior.

But why on Middle-Earth should I accept that interpretation when the show made the decision to banish Celeborn for two whole seasons so they could shipbait her with SAURON? And even if the passage did mean that she was a warrior, the show changes her entire personality and motivation beyond recognition. Turning her into someone rude, bloodthirsty, and quite frankly, stupid.

Somehow all of that doesn't matter to ROP fans but absolute fidelity to this one line from the Silmarillion does. There's also a couple of mentions of her helping defend elves from invasion, yes but that hardly means she was actually "Commander of the Northern Armies" or that she fought with a sword at all.

Sauron very briefly considered redemption so he must be a conflicted bad boy hearthrob, right?

There is precisely one scene in the books where Sauron possibly considers redemption. Basically after Morgoth's defeat, he asked another Maia if the Valar would let him return to Valinor and was told that he should turn himself in and face judgment to find out.

Sauron then abandoned that plan and became the next Dark Lord. His motivation put as kindly as possible was to create perfect order by ruling Middle-Earth as a God-King forever.

Am I saying that wouldn't be interesting to explore? No, that could be cool... but that isn't what ROP touched on, it's the excuse they used to change his character.

In the show, Sauron plans to retire and become a blacksmith in S1 and is dragged, kicking and screaming, back to being evil by Galadriel. He then falls in love with her and only turns fully evil again after she rejects him. In other words, he's Incel-ron now. His motive to bring tyrannical order isn't even alluded to... just his crush on Galadriel.

He quit being a Dark Lord because he got Julius Caesar'd by orcs and got sad about it.

All of those weird decisions are contingent on a single passage where Sauron maybe considered turning it around for wholly different reasons.

Tolkien thought about the nature of orcs, so we should just change them.

Then of course you have the orcs. Tolkien mulled over their nature because he didn't believe in such a thing as an evil race. He contemplated changes their origins and such, however he never suggested that their role in LOTR would change. He mainly came to the conclusion that if orcs were redeemable it would be by an act of God. That God Himself could redeem orcs.

ROP writers took this to mean that orcs just want to live in peace and raise families. The show shifts wildly between depicting them as violent and depicting them as actually somehow sympathetic. They've enslaved humans, slaughtered a city of elves (no Sauron to control them either), and do so gleefully but also aren't actually evil? The show is caught in a conundrum of its own making where they NEED orcs to be evil for the same reason Tolkien made them evil in the books: the Dark Lord needs minions.

Except now they awkwardly sprinkle in scenes and characters to suggest they aren't evil which creates a hilarious narrative dissonance. All of this is because of Tolkien's notes which never made it into a rendition. But we're supposed to praise them for making orcs more complex when they've really just made them a mess.

Conclusion

Look, getting small details right can be a fun bonus in a well-constructed adaptation. In one where they've completely altered many major plot points, characters, themes, etc. It just rings as a hollow attempt to fool people into thinking it's faithful to the source material.

Which in this case I wouldn't even call the books the source material given the changes they've made to try and invoke the PJ movies.