An analysis of the themes, monsters, and rings in The Rings of Power Season 2 trailer

from Amazon The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power returns in August, and while the new trailer is short on story, it focuses heavily on an under-explored aspect of Tolkien’s world: epic fantasy monsters.

There’s plenty to take away from this teaser, and we can even make a few educated guesses about the scope of the second season of The rings of power.

Right out of the gate with this sick tentacle monster

Can we tell what this is? No! Isn’t it a great monster design? Absolute. I can’t wait to see this horrible thing threaten someone.

Interesting forest boys…

Speaking of threatening, look closely at this shot of Galadriel, Elrond, and friends preparing for battle, and you can see exactly who they’re defending against: cloaked figures with glowing blue eyes.

It is possible that they are orcs, elves, humans or even ghosts. But by the time of The Lord of the RingsTolkien’s Middle-earth is filled with a number of wild peoples, so it is Also It’s possible that what we’re seeing here are deeper cuts, like the shape-shifting Beornings. About the only thing we can rule out is Ents – these people just seem too small.

Cool moth… ritual?

One of the mysteries of this teaser is the identity of this moth-summoning figure with bloody palms. We saw some swarms of moths in season 1, connected to the Stranger, who is most likely Gandalf. But it certainly doesn’t look like him in this short shot. And it’s not clear exactly where these moths are located either: square columns like the ones seen here generally suggest dwarven architecture, which could indicate this is taking place in Moria.

You can have double the number of tentacles if the tentacles are roots

Theory: Is the tentacle monster actually made of carrots? Lots to think about.

Celebrimbor in his forge

Here we have the best clue to an obvious plot event that the teaser has: Elven ringsmith Celebrimbor alone in his forge, facing a mysterious figure who seems to be walking out of a huge fire. We will come back to this.

Big sea monster! Even more tentacles!

Here, a woman who appears to be dressed the same as the figure summoning the moths floats underwater, in apparently cool appreciation of this crack-like monster.

Now there are many places in Middle-earth where you can find deep water and stony arches like this – but on the other hand, this monster doesn’t look as much like a classic Tolkien creature as the Watcher in the Water, the tentacled monster that attacks the Fellowship outside Moria The Company of the Ring. The Guardian settled there after the fall of the city, in a lake formed by a stream flowing from the destroyed dwarven stronghold.

It’s possible we’re seeing a classic sea monster here, but it’s also possible this scene takes place in waters deep, deep underground; deeper than the deepest dwarven recesses, a place where the Watcher most likely came from. The Lord of the Rings never spent much time there, except in Tolkien’s descriptions of Gandalf’s one battle with the Balrog, which extended into subterranean places so old and deep that they were populated only by the gnawing of ‘nameless things’ even older than Sauron himself, according to Gandalf The two towers.

Balrog consequences

It certainly doesn’t look like things are going to go great for Moria (currently known as Khazad-dûm) this season. Now that Prince Durin’s quest for more mithril mining has put Chekov’s Balrog on the mantelpiece, it’s only a matter of time before it goes off – and season 2 could be that time.

Seven rings for the dwarf lords in their stone halls?

This could just be a regular ring, because we don’t really know what the dwarf rings looked like, but… the show isn’t called The rings of power for nothing. After torturing Celebrimbor to obtain the seven dwarven rings, Sauron gave them to seven different dwarven kings. The rings had the power to multiply the dwarves’ hoard of precious materials, but also fueled the greed and anger of their wearers.

However, unlike the nine rings for the lords of men, the dwarven rings did not turn their wearers into wraiths or anything like that. And most dwarven rings were lost over time as dwarves proved more difficult to seduce than men. Four of the rings were eaten by dragons, and although Sauron recovered the other three (the last from Thorin’s father), he kept them rather than trying to use them again.

Yep, a giant eagle

Eagles: They’re back, baby! And hopefully this time we’ll actually see them talk and establish that it’s not just big horses, but a whole society of creatures like the Ents or dwarves.

The man stepping down from the bird is the Númenórean Chancellor Pharazôn, and he expects to see more of him – if his story follows the one set out in Tolkien’s writing, he will make a bid for the kingship and marry his cousin against her , Queen Míriel. wishes, and ultimately go to war against the gods. Pleasure!

The Stranger seems very far away from everything else

Desert environments are quite rare in The Lord of the Rings – most books are set in forests, plains, mountains or swamps – so it is remarkable that the Stranger seems to be in an arid environment somewhere. This is probably the land of Rhûn, i.e. all the land east of Mordor that Tolkien never bothered to add details to, where the Stranger and Nori went at the end of season 1, looking for more clues about his identity.

Celebrimbor captured

Do you remember the forge of Celebrimbor and the figure walking out of the fire? In Tolkien’s writing, the fairy blacksmith’s story does not end happily, and we start to see some hints of that in this teaser.

As Tolkien put it, even after Sauron was rejected from the rest of the elven community, Celebrimbor and his fellow smiths continued to associate with him, because of his knowledge of the craft and their ambition to create great works. But Sauron’s teachings imbued all the great rings of Celebrimbor – the Elves Three, the Dwarves Seven, and the Human Nine – with controlling magic, in a way that became apparent to the Elves the moment Sauron forged the One Ring in Mordor and set it put on. .

The elves tried to keep their rings hidden, but Sauron’s forces eventually destroyed the elven lands, conquered Celebrimbor, tortured him into giving up everything except the three elven rings, and executed him. Season 2 of The rings of power seems to be playing out this part of the story, with Sauron appearing to Celebrimbor even after his flight at the end of season 1 – and with a disheveled Celebrimbor dropping a waterfall of nine rings, and elven guardians trying to protect him from Sauron.

a new behind the scenes video from the season 2 shoot even includes a meaningful line, with Celebrimbor telling Galadriel, “I’ve had an unexpected visitor.”

Which tower is this?

There are many towers in it The Lord of the Rings. If I had to make an educated guess, I’d say this is probably Barad-dûr – that’s the big tower with the Eye of Sauron on it in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. If so, some liberties have been taken on the location.

“But it doesn’t have the characteristic two teeth on top!” you say. That’s fine: in Tolkien’s texts, Barad-dûr is demolished to its foundations and then rebuilt after the initial construction, so it doesn’t necessarily look familiar in this prequel series. Sauron began building the tower when he chose Mordor as his stronghold, and completed it with the power of the One Ring when it was finally forged in Mount Doom.

Considering that Mordor was created in season 1 of Rings of powerit looks like Sauron will soon claim it as free real estate – and if this tower really is Barad-dûr, then we can expect the forging of the One Ring in Season 2 as well.