The Rings of Power - Season 2 (What No One is Talking About...)

When I heard about The Rings of Power tv series, and how their showrunners got the gig over the other bidders, I was excited to watch it. I don’t think I was alone in that excitement. Nor was I alone in my disappointment of the first season. Hello Future Me had a fantastic critique video on it, clocking in at over two and a half hours, that I enjoyed watching. (More than most of The Rings of Power episodes.)

Though I agree with Hello Future Me that the showrunners truly cared about their story and didn’t produce it as a quick money grab. The intent to make a good show was there, but unfortunately the ability to execute it was not.

And there have been SO many good articles written, and critique videos produced, detailing what went wrong (and right) that for a while there wasn’t anything for me to add to an already amazing conversation. 

(My favorite videos to watch are on the Nerd of the Ring’s YouTube channel. I aspire to be that kind of amazing and knowledgeable fan.)

But there is one thing I haven’t heard anyone talk about. I’m a little afraid of this thing, because it excites me in a storyteller way, and it may cruelly not come to fruition. Because, yes, I will be watching season two when it releases next month. (Mostly due to my curiosity to see how the showrunners will self-correct based on the feedback from the first season.)

So, what among the countless hours of content about The Rings of Power haven’t I seen discussed? It goes back to the first movie in Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. In the prolog we learn that during the War of the Last Alliance (so called because after it the elves would flake off and stop being useful to the other races of Middle Earth…if they ever were to begin with…but I digress) Isildur cut the one ring off of Sauron’s hand. No other information is given (in the movie) to indicate that these two characters knew each other prior to the non-consensual amputation.

BUT, at the end of the first season of The Rings of Power (and years before the War of the Last Alliance takes place) a young Isildur has been left for dead in Morder, exactly where Halbrand (aka Sauron) is. What if, what if, the writers have them meet? Interact? Develop a healthy loathing/hatred of each other? So that when they get to the War of the Last Alliance, these two actually have a history? Maybe then that confrontation would have more meaning because, this time, it’s personal…

Internal conflict is such a critical aspect to a good story. So, I may be getting my hopes up too much, to see any Isildur and Sauron interaction, because it may not happen. But since I’m going to be watching to see if the second season can jump tracks before chugging into the side of the mountain, I guess I’ll find out.