(courtesy IMP Awards)
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (S2, E4-8)
——————– SPOILERS AHEAD !!!!! ——————–
Many people like to think of the world in purely binary terms.
It understandable in one way; with life normally manifesting in all manner of chaotic guises, and consistency and predictability as rare and as easily findable as unicorns, being able to order things simply and uneasily, no matter how arbitrary and unrealistic it may be is quite beguiling.
But there’s how you want to view and organise the world, and then there is how it is actually, and while the insecure and the idealistic may embrace the former, there are people like legendary author J. R. R. Tolkein who acknowledge how complex and messy the world and that while seeing the world in purely binary good or evil, black or white, is appealing, it doesn’t reflect how the world, either ours or the one he meticulously and wondrously dreamt up The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
In the prequel series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, now concluding its second season, with a confirmed three seasons to go, just how non-binary the hearts of men, dwarves and elves is become graphically and enthrallingly clear.
In a story set thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the evil wannabe ruler and enslaver of Middle Earth, Sauron (Charlie Vickers) is beginning his rise to power, appearing first as handsome human Halbrand, who charms and seeks to bring to his side, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and then as the elf Annatar, who fools master Elven-smith Celebrimbor, lord of the Elven capital of Eregion, into forging the three Elven rings, the seven Dwarven rings and the nine rings which destroy the kings of men and turning into wholly unattractive wraiths.
If you think that’s a lot of scheming and plotting then consider that in the midst of deceiving two big names in the Elven world, Sauron, by using flattery and lies and manipulation of perception to achieve his ends, also manages to convince Adar (Sam Hazeldine) to lead his beloved Uruk aka Orcs against Eregion to wipe out Sauron only to lose his “children” to the master deceiver himself.
Things are not going well for the most part in Middle Earth, and while there are signs of light and integrity everywhere from the lofty goodness of Elrond (Robert Aramayo) who resists the lure of the Elven ring Galadriel is wearing (though these are largely, but not completely, free of Sauron’s corruption) to the purity of support and intent of Harfoot Elanor “Nori” Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) and her BFF Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards) who save The Stranger (aka ———- SPOILER !!!! ———- Gandalf) and the noble heartbrokenness of Dwarven prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur) and his faithful and brilliantly capable life partner Disa (Sophia Nomvete) to the swashbuckling bravery of Elven warrior Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova).
But for all of those moments of the very best of people, whatever kind they may be, there is, while not necessarily great evil – though clearly that is the only way to describe Sauron – afoot, there is, for wont of a better term, broken and fallible humanity into which turns out to be amply fertile grounds for Sauron’s manipulative machinations.
Time after time in the five final episodes of a masterfully good second season of The Rings of Power, we see people who are otherwise “good” people succumbing to Sauron’s allure and buying the raggedly twisted bundle of goods he’s selling.
In today’s us vs. them world, it would be all too easy to condemn these people for having failed egregiously to the point of no redemption, but the truth is, Tolkein’s storytelling, and that of this illustrious sequel, has always been far more nuanced than that and recognises that even the best of people can fall into ill-decision and warped perspective.
There is really no binary separation between good and evil, and while there is, yes, a marked difference between those exhibiting the very best angels of our nature, and those who quite cruelly and nastily don’t, the way this manifests in the world, and in Middle Earth is far complicated than the aggressive Mexican standoff of the current digital landscape.
These five episodes exhibit that beautifully, but even more than that, they present characters, even surprisingly Sauron in shockingly unexpected moments of vulnerability, who don’t always get it right.
The Rings of Power never condemns them for this, and indeed, is quite agnostic about the goodness or otherwise of people, save for Sauron and the autocratic nightmare Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) who, aided by his sniveling toady son, Kemen, played by Leon Wadham, steals power in the storied kingdom of men, Númenor.
Make no mistake – Tolkein’s stories are grand epic morality plays where good does win out over evil, but while the end goal is clear, that goodness must beset its flipside if people are truly live free and as themselves, the getting there sits far more in the grey than the black and white that so many people cling to.
The great joy of The Rings of Power, quite apart from its evocatively sumptuous sets and stunning cinematography, is that it answers the need all of us have for clearly defined sides in titanic battles for the heart and soul of life, but without acting as if there is no subtlety or nuance woven into such stories.
It’s sophisticated, intelligent, meaningful storytelling that also has a metric ton of heartfelt “humanity” (a catch-all term in this instance for all the various races in Middle Earth), meaning that we get an epic, almost otherworldly story, some truly mythic narrative spinning that adds so much lustre to the later tales that we know so well, and characters who cut to the heart of who we are and who underscore in ways few stories do that while good and evil do exist, they rarely manifest quite as obviously as we might believe.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power streams on Prime Video.