ISSUE NO. 51
Streaming Wars is a weekly opinion column by IGN’s Streaming Editor, Amelia Emberwing. Check out the last entry: 8 Episodes Aren’t Enough: House of the Dragon, The Acolyte and More Prove That Seasons Need To Be Longer.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 is so close that you can almost taste it, and they’re back with (presumably) the final trailer before the next chapter hits on August 29th. While the Rings of Power sneak peek we saw at this year’s SDCC was most certainly a meatier one (clocking in at 3 and a half minutes), this most recent one is much more tailored, giving us a laser-focused look at what’s to come from Sauron and his hostile takeover of Middle-earth.
What immediately stands out to me in this most recent look at the season is the horror themes woven throughout the trailer. Galadriel’s terror, followed by a heightened heartbeat as her vision turns red is some Grade-A fantasy-horror stuff and I really hope we see it play out more in the coming season as darkness starts to spread well beyond the Southlands.
With those horror vibes come some pretty interesting moments between Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and Adar (Sam Hazeldine). The first of which comes early on, with “sooner or later, Sauron’s eye bores a hole. The rest of him slithers in.”
This isn’t just a throughline for the trailer, but for everything that’s to come in Season 2 so far as Sauron’s control is concerned. It’s also the second quote of the teaser (the first being from Benjamin Walker’s Gil-galad) that implies that in trusting him as Halbrand in Season 1, Galadriel has opened herself up to be controlled by Sauron as his power grows. The real question here is whether or not this concern is a myth and Galadriel’s red-tinted vision is a nightmare, or if the Mistress of Magic is about to inadvertently become a weapon for the greatest evil in the land.
To defeat that evil, the races of Middle-earth are going to need to band together in ways that we know will ultimately fail — but not across all corners. Perhaps that’s what makes The Rings of Power so interesting, even though we know where all of this will end before it’s all said and done. It’s the idea of banding together that takes me to this final trailer’s most compelling moment — a potential team-up between Galadriel and Adar.
“Sauron is my enemy as much as yours,” Adar tells her before the trailer pans to the two of them looking on at an army of orcs. “I can help you destroy him.”
Here’s the thing… Adar might be telling the truth?
Based on what we know from Season 1, Adar is most certainly no friend to Sauron. Basically, the guy just wants his little orc kids to be ok. Sending them into an all-out war against Sauron and his minions most certainly puts his children at risk, but that risk will become infinitely worse if they become mindless barbarians for Sauron’s bidding. We might know that’s exactly what will come to pass, but this goth dad just wants to protect is murder babies! (And do some murder himself, probably.)
From Galadriel’s side, she still seems largely on her own. The trailers thus far have mostly separated her from her kind, with the exception of the ring shot we’ve seen ad-nauseum since the marketing for Season 2 began. When we last saw the two together, future King Elrond (and Galadriel’s closest companion) was still pretty pissed over not being told about Sauron sooner. But, in Galadriel’s defense, she spent the entire dang season telling anything with ears the evil was coming and not a soul would listen — Elrond included. So I happen to think that little mister Elrond (Robert Aramayo) is being a bit of a brat.
Because her bestie is being a little brat, Galadriel may find herself with more incentive than ever to side with someone like Adar, even if she knows deep down that it’s probably a pretty bad decision. The whole “enemy of my enemy” thing is all well and good right up until the enemy of your enemy is dead and the first enemy of the proverb is suddenly in a really solid position to kill you.
The only thing that makes me question whether or not Adar and Galadriel ultimately end up in an alliance is seeing Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) hop into the army of trolls and orcs. But this could easily happen later in the season or be a result of Galadriel and Arondir not really working in close quarters at any point during the series so far. (They fought together in the battle for the Southlands, but that’s pretty much the long and short of it.)
In the end, we’re going to see all of the heroes of Middle-earth put to the test in the coming season(s). In those moments, it’s not necessarily the outcome that matters most, but the story that gets them there. Galadriel and Adar would be a formidable force so, if there’s anything that this final trailer does, it’s set up plenty of intrigue around what their decisions and alliances may be while Sauron keeps lying to himself about saving Middle-earth.
“I am the one keeping the storm at bay.” Please. Get it together, Dork Lord.
Amelia is the entertainment Streaming Editor here at IGN. She's also a film and television critic who spends too much time talking about dinosaurs, superheroes, and folk horror. You can usually find her with her dog, Rogers. There may be cheeseburgers involved. Follow her across social @ThatWitchMia
