‘The Rings Of Power’ Showrunners Have Awfully Strange Explanations For Sauron’s Identity

The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power has been one of the most divisive shows of the year. It is bound to cause controversy when a beloved work is made into a film.

I wasn't prepared for how bad the show was. I went from mild interest and low expectations to genuine hype after I really enjoyed the first two episodes of the show.

The Rings of Power was an incompetent fantasy even if it had no ties to Middle-earth, according to my review of the first season. The true grandeur of The Lord of the Rings and its Second Age is not explored in this shabby story.

The identity of Sauron was a sticking point for a lot of people. Before you read this, please be aware of the following:

In the first season of The Rings of Power, there were many mystery boxes. We were given a lot of potential candidates because of his secret identity. He said his very first line in the second episode, "looks can be deceiving."

In the eighth and final episode, Halbrand was revealed to be the Dark Lord, though it wasn't clear if he was actually trying to deceive the elves or if he was just trying to seduce Galadriel. It could have been interesting, but it relied too much on coincidences and never explored the depth that would have made that final confrontation possible.

I enjoy the Sauron reveal, even though I am negative about this show. The surrealism of the confrontation itself was compelling, and Charlie Vickers did a great job. I was troubled by the fact that he had deceived our hero, Galadriel, who is supposed to be so smart and powerful that Sauron could never trick her. It might have been less of a problem if Galadriel's daughter, Celebran, had been a non-Canon elf. The season needed to focus more on this and other relationships like the one forged between Sauron and Celebrimbor.

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Sauron is not HalBRAND in the legendarium. Annatar, the Lord of Gifts, is also known as Artano the high smith and Aulendil the servant of Aul. He is trying to deceive and subdue the elves. Sauron was a Maia of Aul and he had a lot of knowledge about magic.

He spent a lot of time teaching the elven smiths new secrets in Eregion. He helped the elves forge the Rings of Power. The Nine and the Seven were forged to transform the Men into the Ringwraiths.

Sauron shows up as Halbrand in The Rings of Power and suggests he use an alloy to extend the supply of Mithril. The Three powerful elven rings are created first by the elf smith, rather than after the Nine and Seven. The entire process of forging the Rings of Power takes fifteen minutes of screen-time, and skips the rest of the story that is supposed to precede it.

This was done so that book readers wouldn't know who Sauron was. Patrick McKay was asked about changing Annatar's name.

The part of the audience steeped in lore is six or seven episodes ahead of the characters, that's what we were worried about. We wanted to keep the experience of deception for book readers. We were attracted to the idea of the shadow taking many forms. The reference to gifts is a nod to the Annatar of it all, but also, at the end of season one, three rings have been crafted. There are still more gifts to be received.

This is odd. They wanted to change the story so book readers wouldn't know. It would be similar to having Gandalf come back as a completely different character for eight episodes in order to make the audience guess who he was.

The contradiction offered by co-showrunner J.D. Payne is still present.

We were not about the big twist, the big surprise, the big shock, we were about surprise. I think we were more interested in creating characters and relationships that were engaging and full of conflict, and that was the goal. The minute you see this guy, and he says something that Galadriel later says to Frodo, you assume it is Sauron. Someone who has no idea until it suddenly happens is going to have a great viewing experience. If you suspect him all the way, that is a great way to watch the show, because you are engaging with a whole layer that someone else doesn't engage with.

I don't know what to think. Payne is saying that if you guess immediately that Halbrand is Sauron, you will have as great and valid a viewing experience as everyone else. What is it?

The problem with messing with the established story and lore without a clear vision of how to make your own adaptation work without completely bungling and mucking up said story and lore is. The Three elven rings are the best work of Celebrimbor's life, and crafting the lesser Nine and Seven is ruinous. I am confused about how Sauron is supposed to return to E region and what to do with the elves again.

It seems both Galadriel and Elrond are covering up Halbrand's true identity by the end of the first season, so it's possible that Celebrimbor will be fooled again. Extra mystery boxes that serve no purpose and simply give us as close to the real story as possible would have been better.

This was always going to be a challenge since Amazon didn't own the rights to The Silmarillion, the text in which much of the story can be found. If you don't have the full rights to the story in the beginning, why choose it in the first place?

There are many questions I have about this show and its many creative choices. Sauron is a problem that has yet to be solved and making him like Tony Soprano or Walter White won't solve it.

You can read my review of the first season here.

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