Summary
- Season 3 of The Rings of Power will feature a time jump, potentially avoiding the darkest moments from Tolkien's lore.
- Celebrimbor's fate in the show was dark but less gruesome than in the books, sparing viewers from a more horrifying depiction.
- Despite the time jump in season 3, flashbacks or visions could still revisit darker moments as Sauron's power grows.
Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is headed for a time jump in its upcoming season 3. And while the war between the elves and the Dark Lord Sauron will continue in the wake of the siege of Eregion and the death of Lord Celebrimbor, fans might be spared a dark moment from the story that has always made Tolkien readers shudder.
After a lukewarm first season, The Rings of Power managed to turn up the heat in season 2. The nuanced portrayal of the emotionally abusive relationship between Charlie Vickers’ Annatar (Sauron) and Charles Edwards’ elven smith Celebrimbor was the highlight. Even though the season finale was dark and full of despair for the great smith of Eregion, book readers know that Celebrimbor’s fate in the season finale could have gotten much darker than what was shown. But thanks to the time jump in season 3, that might have been averted.
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What Did Sauron Do To Celebrimbor?
In The Rings of Power season 2, episode 8, “Shadow and Flame,” Eregion is besieged by Adar (Sam Hazeldine) and his Orcs, despite High King Gil-galad’s (Benjamin Walker) army, led by Elrond (Robert Aramayo), fighting them. Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) tries to rescue a broken and battered Celebrimbor. However, he asks her to take the nine rings away from Annatar, and chooses to stay behind since he is the Lord of the Eregion.
When Celebrimbor returns to his forge with soldiers to confront Annatar, the latter, finally embracing his true self, kills the guards and tortures Celebrimbor for the location of the nine rings. While shooting arrows through Celebrimbor's body, Sauron also continues to inflict emotional abuse on his victim, gaslighting him into believing it is his own fault that has led to the torture. Sauron even threatens to use necromancy and dark sorcery to keep Celebrimbor teetering on the brink of death until he reveals all that Sauron wants to know:
There are ways of keeping you alive, mellon. Must I show you my mastery of that craft as well?
When Celebrimbor resists, and his foreboding words hit a nerve, Sauron finally kills him by impaling him on a pike. That is the end of the elven smith in the show. However, in the books, there’s more insult added to injury for the greatest elven smith since Fëanor. In his writing, Tolkien ascribes a more gruesome fate to Celebrimbor after his death, one that is bound to inspire terror and wreck the hearts of the elves when they see it.
Celebrimbor's Fate In The Books
According to a passage in the book Unfinished Tales of Númenor & Middle-earth (which the series deviates from here), after Sauron has attacked Eregion and taken the Nine Rings (for men), he is unable to find the other rings — the Seven and the Three. He has Celebrimbor tortured (presumably by the Orcs) to find out about the rings. Celebrimbor eventually reveals the location of the dwarven rings, but says nothing of the three elven rings.
Sauron then has Celebrimbor put to death, even as he can guess that the elf must have passed on the three elven rings to Galadriel and Gil-galad. This angers him immensely. In his rage, Sauron returns to battle against the army of Elrond, with Celebrimbor’s arrow-riddled dead body hung up on a pole like a bloody banner. It’s not described how the elves react to this visual, but one can only imagine a sight like that would break the spirit of even the bravest. It’s reminiscent of the scene from The Return of the King, where the Orcs use catapults to send the severed heads of Gondor’s slain soldiers over the walls of Minas Tirith to deter its army.
In black anger, he [Sauron] turned back to battle; and bearing as a banner Celebrimbor’s body hung upon a pole, shot through with Orc-arrows, he turned upon the forces of Elrond.
Close to the Rings of Power season 2 finale, fans who knew how Celebrimbor’s story ends were speculating whether the show would “go there.” Some considered it would be too gory, especially for fans who have only seen the movies and don’t know how dark things can get in Tolkien’s stories from the First and Second Ages. Fans used a portmanteau that has long been used by book fans, ‘Celebrimbanner,’ to refer to the scene on social media forums. Fortunately, 'Celebrimbanner' didn’t come to pass, and Charles Edwards’ final appearance as Celebrimbor remained that powerful scene where he calls Sauron a prisoner of the rings and christens him “The Lord of the Rings.” It seemed a fitting farewell to the character.
With The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 reportedly jumping a few years ahead from the events of season 2, there’s a high chance that fans have been spared this dark moment. But, then again, Rings of Power is known to employ flashbacks and visions, like the ones Galadriel has of her brother and even Celebrimbor. This moment could always appear as a flashback or painful memory for one of the elves as a way to demonstrate what Sauron is capable of, thus stoking their fire to fight back. And as Sauron turns his attention to the kingdom of Númenor soon, there's plenty of darkness to be explored there.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
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- September 1, 2022
- Network
- Amazon Prime Video
- Showrunner
- John D. Payne, Patrick McKay, Louise Hooper, Charlotte Brändström, Wayne Yip
