Take 1

The transcript discusses the portrayal of Sauron in the first season of "The Rings of Power" TV show. It explores the decision to present Sauron in the form of Halbrand, a repentant and sympathetic character, rather than as a traditional villain. The transcript suggests that while some viewers may appreciate the nuanced approach, others may have preferred a more classic interpretation of Sauron. It also critiques the rushed development of Sauron's manipulation of Celebrimbor and suggests that a more gradual build-up would have been better. The transcript concludes by expressing hope for a more faithful adaptation of Sauron's story in the second season. The Dark Lord himself, Sauron, the most integral character of the Second Age and also in the Rings of Power in his form of Annatar. It is often hard to tackle a character of such importance and might, and we have seen one version in the Rings of Power in Halbrand. So what went right, what didn't work and most importantly what are the challenges slash decisions you have to make around the main villain? Mostly, in this episode we will talk about Sauron during the earlier periods of the Second Age when he was Annatar the Lord of Gifts as this is mainly the period we see in Season 1 of the Rings of Power. Firstly, canon wise, what do we know about Sauron during this period? Well, around 1200 of the Second Age he came in the form of Annatar, an apparent emissary of the Valar but got rejected in Lindon by High King Gil-Galad but found more success in Eregion, the realm of the craftsmen governed by Celebrimbor. He slowly gains the trust of Celebrimbor and ends up crafting Rings of Power with the growth of Imrodain. Then suddenly he leaves and in Mount Doom the One Ring is forged and Annatar reveals himself as Sauron all along. Then in reaction to this Celebrimbor forges the Three Elven Rings which doesn't have the taint of Sauron importantly. So this is mainly the story of Sauron during that period and what we do know and to be fair there isn't that much written. So what did the showrunners McPain do? We get a human form of Sauron, an idea and topic that to be fair the Professor himself meddled and theorised with but did not fully substantiate. This is of course Halbrand and we first see him out at sea and on a shipwreck whilst also running from his past importantly. This raises the first big question in handling Sauron, pure evil or repenting and sympathetic in nature? This is the main question. Recently in modern media there has been an influx of having sympathetic villains or evil characters who funnily enough aren't completely evil. Or do you revert to a traditional villain like Sauron was in the Lord of the Rings trilogies and in the books? An evil villainous tyrant who the audience should not sympathise for? And by the books I mean the Lord of the Rings. The show interestingly in marketing and even in dialogue mentioned Elrond's line from the Lord of the Rings. Nothing is evil in the beginning. And Amazon did clearly take this route with Sauron in the form of Halbrand. He is running from his past, Eivind admits his guilt to Galadriel in the scene where we're talking about the death of her brother Finrod. And despite being Sauron he is still courageous and brave by even saving people in Teheran village during the attack. So even if he was maybe manipulating Sauron. So this shows that at least for a bit he was potentially leaving his past life behind and maybe partly thanks to Galadriel. So at the start of the second age was this the correct and right way to handle Sauron? Despite this being a generalisation in Tolkien's works it is generally good vs evil and right vs wrong. And by the beginning of the second age would Sauron really have been in a repenting form or should we instead have gotten a classic villain who is behind everything and we want to root against? I personally would have preferred the second one and instead have a dignified and clear evil and have that tension of evil rising and returning build up across the season. But at the same time trying to add that extra nuance to Sauron and having people gauging storylines of TV audiences would make more sense to me as to why McPain went down the Helbrand route so I don't really hold that against them. But I would have preferred Sauron in that form. Of course another reason as to why we got Sauron in the Helbrand form is as mentioned in the last video, the guessing game and a big surprise at the end which I personally did not prefer. So in context to the second age that is all around 500-1200 of the second age around the time when Sauron returned to Mandume and then he enters Eregion as Annatar the Lord of Gifts. To compare this to the Rings of Power for this part we got injured Sauron riding on a horse with Galadriel to get medicine and treatment in Eregion and then after 40 minutes in episode 8 somehow convinces Celebrimbor and manipulates him. Yes Celebrimbor and Annatar working together and manipulating him did happen but this should have been something that should have been built up over multiple episodes or even a season but instead we got it rushed at the end of the finale. But there is a reason why McPain did this as they said quote we wanted him to come into the narrative in an unexpected way because if you sort of think about the obvious way instead of a demigod like Annatar shows up and says let me help you with all your problems by making some rings who's going to believe that? Seemingly this suggests that they did not want to approach the Annatar reaching Eregion and convincing Celebrimbor into making rings because the fans would have already known it is Annatar and the action itself is not believable. The second age is a brief outline and so are these events so there are warranted reasons for adding more stuff to make this a fleshed out narrative not a loose string of detached events and in completing that Gormak Paine have technically achieved that. But by not doing the Annatar seducing Celebrimbor story because A the fans will know Annatar Sauron and instead working around and trying to fool everyone can then result in for example what happened in episode 8 where Celebrimbor the greatest craftsman of the age doesn't really think of using alloys and the whole seducing phase happening in under 20 minutes of screen time. Despite us fans knowing what is going to happen that Annatar is Sauron, seeing Annatar over a number of episodes seduce and manipulate Celebrimbor and result in that betrayal would have been much better because ultimately we are fans because we enjoy the content and if the content we like is then replicated on screen then we would still be happy and excited seeing our favourite moments and storylines adapted and then for the general viewers they would of course be surprised for example just like the red wedding in Game of Thrones. Again, someone can easily counter this and fair enough say there is virtually nothing written about this in the second age and they have to make stuff up or reconstruct it and in partiality this is correct and they could of still made stuff up and added original moments but add this stuff around the main narrative and plot point of Annatar coming to Aragorn as an emissary of the Valar and over a large amount of time manipulating him. The showrunners even speak about desperation for the characters wanting Annatar's help as opposed to them blindly believing him with quote, people don't make devils bargains because they are stupid, they make it because they are desperate. This is in fact a good example of how the showrunners are taking the bare bones of this timeline and adding more content to piece together and make this whole event narratively make sense and they could of still done this and done that thing but keeping the primary event of Annatar seducing Celebrimbor and creating the dwarven human rings as the backbone. Instead the backbone here was a repenting Sauron who becomes attached to Galadriel and due to the demands of the plot ends up in Aragorn in the season finale. But despite the timeline being altered now with the three elven rings made first, there is still hope as in season 2 we know this will be Sauron's story and maybe, maybe we will get Annatar back in Eregion with Celebrimbor and the rest of the rings will be forged but even if we do unfortunately I don't think we will get too much time as at the end of season 1 Halbrand is in Mordor and probably there for season 2. Let us know what you think of how Sauron was adapted in season 1, did you like the character choices and traits or would you have preferred a more traditional Tolkien-esque villain? Also what are your thoughts on the Annatar ring forging storyline and how that was adapted? Make sure to like and subscribe and until the next video my friends, goodbye.