The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Season 3's Two Big Character Deaths Explained
by Rafael Motamayor · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
Google Discover
The land of Mordor is where the shadows lie, and this article is where major spoilers lie. Read no further if you haven't watched the Season 3 premiere episodes of "The Rings of Power."
"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" has one thing in common with the TV phenomenon that was "Game of Thrones" — they're both exercises in enduring misery. After all, the show is all about watching stupid sexy Sauron (Charlie Vickers) make everyone in Middle-earth suffer season after season. And sure, the series is willing to kill beloved characters, but it really excels at killing hordes of people and turning entire kingdoms into desolated volcanic wastelands where the sun never shines.
Things are even worse at the start of Season 3, between Sauron trying to forge the One Ring, Mordor's Ringwraiths spreading across Middle-earth, and a Dark Wizard (Ciarán Hinds) ruling Rhûn. Elsewhere, when it comes to the civil war plaguing Númenor, the realm's only hope is Eärien (Ema Horvath), who was responsible for the King's Men usurping the Númenórean throne in the first place. In fact, Eärien is an unexpected main character early in Season 3, acting as a faithful servant and the head torturer for the usurper Ar-Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) while at the same time operating as a double agent for her brother Isildur (Maxim Baldry) and father Elendil (Lloyd Owen) as they try to restore Queen Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to power.
Unsurprisingly, things don't go well, as "The Rings of Power" Season 3 kills off two original characters made for the show in its first four episodes. First, Eärien dies in the second episode, followed by the wood elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) being tragically betrayed and murdered in Episode 4.
Eärien and Arondir deserved better on The Rings of Power
Let's start with Eärien. The character has always felt out of place on "The Rings of Power," with her scenes slowing down the pace and taking away from other, better storylines. Frustratingly, the show simply doesn't have time to cover all the ground it wants to, with the limited number of episodes per season forcing it to jump around too quickly. That being said, Eärien aiding the rise of the King's Men in the secluded and isolated island of Númenor due to her mistakenly believing that following Queen Míriel had gotten Isildur killed was interesting, as was her becoming a double agent once she learned the truth.
Unfortunately, Eärien's double age storyline — her best so far — doesn't last long. By Episode 2, she's already been discovered. So, rather than be subjected to torture and forced to become truly loyal to the King's Men, she dies by suicide by jumping off a balcony.
Likewise, when he was first introduced, Arondir was a great character. Sure, he didn't actually do much, with much of his screen time being dedicated to an attempt at a romance between him and the now-deceased Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi). And yet, Ismael Cruz Córdova has always played his role with great gusto, giving Arondir a strong personality that makes him feel like more than just a Legolas knock-off. But that just makes his departure all the more upsetting.
Indeed, Arondir gets little more to do in Season 3 than worry about Bronwyn's annoying son Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin). This all leads to a confrontation in Episode 4 when Sauron orders Theo — now a Ringwraith — to murder the elf. A tragic end, sure, but with little buildup.
The Rings of Power is getting rid of its original characters
With Arondir and Eären's deaths, "The Rings of Power" is quickly getting rid of its original characters. After all, the show had already killed off one of its best brand-new additions in Adar (Sam Hazeldine and Joseph Mawle), while the Harfoots that were so essential in Seasons 1 and 2 are nowhere to be found in Season 3 so far. Granted, Theo's still around, but he's likely to be killed soon as well (due to that whole being a Ringwraith thing). That just leaves Kemen (Leon Wadham), the tiring nepo baby at the center of the Númenor story.
Instead, it's clear "The Rings of Power" is currently more focused on bringing in previously missing characters from J.R.R. Tolkien's source material, like Isildur's brother Anárion (Andrew Richardson) and Middle-earth's own Odysseus, i.e. Celeborn (Jamie Campbell Bower), who's married to Morfydd Clark's elfish warrior Galadriel. It makes sense for the show's writers to be doing this right now, too, as we're getting closer and closer to the end of the series' reported five-season plan. But that means "The Rings of Power" will also have less and less time to explore any of its original characters from this point on.
Another problem is the show's condensed timeline, as "The Rings of Power" is trying to tell a story that spans thousands of years in Tolkien's literature over a much, much shorter period. That means we still have a lot of major "Lord of the Rings"-related developments to get through, be it Elendil and his sons founding the kingdom of Gondor or Celeborn creating Lothlórien with Galadriel. Will all that and more to cover, there's just no more room for the likes of Arondir the wood elf.