Breaking down the themes, monsters, and rings in The Rings of Power’s season 2 trailer

Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy returns this August, and whereas the new trailer is brief on story, it’s lengthy on one undersung facet of Tolkien’s world: epic fantasy monsters.

There’s lots to tease out of this teaser, and even a number of knowledgeable guesses we will make about the scope of the second season of The Rings of Energy.

Proper out the gate with this sick tentacle monster

Can we are saying what that is? No! Is it however a terrific monster design? Completely. Can’t wait to see this horrible factor menace somebody.

Fascinating forest dudes…

Picture: Amazon Studios

Talking of menacing, look rigorously at this shot of Galadriel, Elrond, and associates making ready for a struggle, and you may see precisely who they’re defending in opposition to — shrouded figures with glowing blue eyes.

It’s potential they’re orcs, elves, people, and even ghosts. However by the time of The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien’s Center-earth is full of a quantity of wild-living peoples, so it’s additionally potential that what we’re seeing listed below are deeper cuts, like the shape-shifting Beornings. Nearly the solely factor we will rule out is Ents — these of us simply appear too quick.

Cool moth… ritual?

Picture: Amazon Studios

One of the mysteries of this teaser is the identification of this moth-summoning determine with bloody palms. We noticed some swarms of moths in season 1, related with the Stranger, who could be very most likely Gandalf. However it certain doesn’t seem like him in this temporary shot. And it’s not precisely clear the place these moths are, both — squared-off columns like these seen right here usually counsel dwarven structure, which may point out that this takes place in Moria.

You may have double the tentacles when tentacles are roots

Picture: Amazon Studios

Idea: Is the tentacle monster truly made out of roots? A lot to ponder.

Celebrimbor in his forge

Picture: Amazon Studios

Right here, we have now the closest trace at a transparent plot occasion that the teaser has: Elven ringsmith Celebrimbor alone in his forge, going through a mysterious determine who seems to be strolling out of an enormous fireplace. We’ll come again to this.

Huge sea monster! Much more tentacles!

Right here, a girl who seems to be dressed the identical as the moth-summoning determine floats underwater in apparently chill appreciation of this kraken-like monster.

Now, there are loads of locations on Center-earth the place you might get deep water and stony arches like this — however on the different hand, this monster resembles no basic Tolkien creature a lot as the Watcher in the Water, the tentacled monster that assaults the Fellowship exterior of Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring. The Watcher took up residence there after the metropolis’s fall, in a lake fashioned from a stream that flowed out of the ruined dwarven stronghold.

It’s potential we’re seeing a basic sea monster right here, however it’s additionally potential this scene takes place in waters deep, deep underground; deeper than the deepest delvings of dwarves, a spot from the place the Watcher seemingly originated. The Lord of the Rings by no means spent a lot time there, besides in Tolkien’s descriptions of Gandalf’s lone battle with the Balrog, which prolonged to subterranean locations so historical and deep that they have been populated solely by gnawing “nameless things” even older than Sauron himself, in accordance with Gandalf in The Two Towers.

Balrog repercussions

Picture: Amazon Studios

Actually it seems to be as if issues won’t go nice for Moria (at present often called Khazad-dûm) this season. Now that Prince Durin’s quest for extra mithril mining has set Chekov’s Balrog on the mantelpiece, it’s solely a matter of time earlier than it goes off — and season 2 may very well be that point.

Seven rings for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone?

Picture: Amazon Studios

This might simply be a daily ring, since we don’t actually know what the dwarf rings seemed like, however… the present ain’t referred to as The Rings of Energy for nothing. After torturing Celebrimbor to acquire the seven dwarven rings, Sauron gave them to seven totally different dwarven kings. The rings had the energy to multiply the dwarves’ hoards of treasured supplies, but in addition infected the bearers’ greed and anger.

Not like the 9 rings for the lords of males, nonetheless, the dwarven rings didn’t flip their wearers into wraiths or something. And most of the dwarven rings have been misplaced over time as a result of dwarves simply proved more durable to tempt than males. 4 of the rings have been eaten by dragons, and although Sauron recouped the different three (the closing one from Thorin’s father) he saved them slightly than searching for to make use of them once more.

Hell yeah, an enormous eagle

Picture: Amazon Studios

Eagles: They’re again, child! And hopefully this time we truly get to see them speak, and set up that they’re not simply massive steeds, however a complete society of creatures like the Ents or dwarves.

The man stepping down from the chook is the Númenórean Chancellor Pharazôn, and count on to see extra of him — if his story follows the one set out in Tolkien’s writing, he’ll be making a bid for kingship, marrying his cousin Queen Míriel in opposition to her needs, and finally going to struggle with the gods. Enjoyable!

The Stranger seems to be very distant from every little thing else

Picture: Amazon Studios

Desert environments are pretty uncommon in The Lord of the Rings — most of the books are set in forests, plains, mountains, or swamps — so it’s notable that the Stranger seems to be someplace arid. That is seemingly the land of Rhûn, which is to say, all the land east of Mordor that Tolkien by no means bothered including particulars about, the place the Stranger and Nori have been headed at the finish of season 1, in search of extra clues about his identification.

Celebrimbor captured

Picture: Amazon Studios

Picture: Amazon Studios

Bear in mind Celebrimbor’s forge and the determine strolling out of the fireplace? In Tolkien’s writing, the story of the elven smith doesn’t finish fortunately, and we begin to see some hints of that in this teaser.

As Tolkien put it, even after Sauron had been rejected from the relaxation of elven society, Celebrimbor and his fellow smiths continued to affiliate with him, as a result of of his data of the craft and their ambition to create nice works. However Sauron’s teachings laced all of Celebrimbor’s nice rings — the elven three, the dwarven seven, and the human 9 — with controlling magic, in a approach that turned obvious to the elves the second that Sauron solid the One Ring in Mordor and put it on.

The elves tried to maintain their rings hidden, however Sauron’s forces finally razed the elven lands, captured Celebrimbor, tortured him into giving up all however the three elven rings, and executed him. Season 2 of The Rings of Energy appears to be taking part in out this half of the story, with Sauron showing to Celebrimbor even after his flight at the finish of season 1 — and with a bedraggled Celebrimbor dropping a cascade of nine-ish rings, and elven guards making an attempt to guard him from Sauron.

A new behind-the-scenes video of the season 2 shoot even encompasses a telltale line, with Celebrimbor telling Galadriel, “I’ve had an unexpected visitor.”

What tower is that this, then?

Picture: Amazon Studios

There are loads of towers in The Lord of the Rings. If I needed to make an informed guess, I’d say this one might be Barad-dûr — that’s the massive tower with the Eye of Sauron on it in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. In that case, some liberties have been taken in phrases of its location.

“But it doesn’t have the characteristic two prongs on top!” you say. That’s effective: In Tolkien’s writing, Barad-dûr is razed to its foundations and rebuilt after its first development, so it doesn’t essentially should look acquainted in this prequel collection. Sauron started development on the tower when he selected Mordor as his stronghold, and accomplished it with the energy of the One Ring when it was finally solid in Mount Doom.

Provided that Mordor was created in season 1 of Rings of Energy, it looks as if Sauron is prone to declare it as free actual property quickly — and if this tower actually is Barad-dûr, then we will count on to see the forging of the One Ring in season 2 as properly.