Rings of Power‘s second season concluded last week in a mixed moment for the free peoples of Middle-earth. Eregion had fallen completely to the forces of evil, Sauron controlled nine more rings of power, and strife suffused each and every one of the show’s disparate plotlines. But what is Lord of the Rings if not a story of people hoping, in spite of the darkness?
The final shots of season two see the recovering survivors of Lindon’s armies and Eregion’s citizens rally around Elrond, Gil-Galad, Arondir, and Galadriel, after finding safe harbor in what Tolkien fans know will one day become Imladris, Elrond’s house of Rivendell. For Benjamin Walker and Robert Aramayo specifically, the moment felt like a sea change in the strange relationship Gil-Galad and Elrond have had with each other on the show so far—one forged in the darkness of the battle they waged to try and save Eregion from its doomed fate.
“There’s a moment [at the end of episode seven] where Elrond’s command of the army has failed, his tactics have failed, and he really is lost. He doesn’t know what to do,” Aramayo reflected in a recent press junket to io9. “And in that moment, Gil-Galad takes command and control of the situation and then sort of moves forward—but I think it’s all of those moments along the relationship where Gil-Galad is teaching Elrond certain things, and he’s developing the leader that Elrond will become.”
“That’s why I’ve always thought about them together, because if you look at Gil-Galad and Elrond, even just outside of the show, there’s a lot of very strong similarities between the two characters,” Aramayo continued, “so I’ve always felt like Gil-Galad is sort of shaping him, sometimes in a direct sense and sometimes in an indirect sense, by his choices and by the way that he moves through the world. There’s a lot of similarities in [what will become] the Last Alliance, and eventually the Council of Elrond, and Elrond had so much to prove across these two seasons, in terms of his half-Elven nature.”
“Even if we both experience failure together, it does feel like we’re on a trajectory together,” Walker added. “It’s a solid relationship, and the failures and the mistakes are… I mean, [Elrond] absconded with the rings early on, but once we come back together, Gil-Galad and Elrond accept aspects of each other and can grow together. The time they’ve shared together, the affection they have for each other and the necessity of it, in terms of the level of threat, they really do find themselves needing each other going forward.”
“But it’s also interesting that Gil-Galad is there, he’s fighting in the Battle of Eregion, but he recognizes the strengths of Elrond for whatever reason. Elrond is in control of that situation, until he isn’t, you know?” Aramayo concluded.
“I think that says something about Gil-Galad in terms of recognizing the strengths of Elrond as well by the end of the finale,” Walker mused. “I mean, this is a horrible analogy, but in the primate world, the way they teach young monkeys to climb is to let them fall. A parent will stay out of vision of the child so that it can learn its way and then as it falls, they just come miraculously there.”
“I’m not calling you a child,” Walker jokingly clarified to Aramayo, “But that’s a loving way to teach: to give space, to let someone make mistakes and to figure it out on their own. I think in that way Gil-Galad and Elrond’s relationship is very master-student, and it gives Elrond the freedom to become who we know he will be.”
They’re not the only heroes reflecting what they’ve lost and found coming out of season two though. Although the Rhûn and Númenor storylines in season two were very distanced from each other, both Nori and Míriel found themselves ending season two on paths that pulled them away from their closest allies in the show so far, as Nori and the Stranger (née “Grand Elf” Gandalf) and Míriel and Elendil went their separate ways to face their futures.
“I don’t think this is gonna happen to her for a while, but I do hope that Nori does get to a point where she can just not feel like she’s responsible for everything that’s happening, and really can just be at peace,” Markella Kavenagh told io9 of Nori’s decision to go with the Stoors to find a new home at the end of the season. “I think she constantly feels like it’s her responsibility to fix things, to make things right. She was able to share in that burden with the Stranger, and to an extent with Poppy as well, but I think now—it might be a while—but at least she knows that she’s on the right path for now, and she really feels strongly about that.”
It’s a similar case for Míriel, who ends the season in chains before Ar-Pharazôn, his coup all but complete, but insistent she’s exactly where she needs to be after sending Elendil off with Narsil. “When I think about it, she’s never been dependent on anyone,” Cynthia Addai-Robinson added. “I think even in the early days, when Pharazôn played more of a consigliere role, it was never about a dependence. I think Míriel’s always been her own woman, and operated, in a lot of ways, within her own mind.”
“It was important for her to have this shared situation with Elendil, I think it helped her grow as a better person, but I think that hopefully, she maintains that same sort of ‘Queen Energy,’ if I can say that, under the most trying of circumstances [in season three],” Addai-Robinson continued. “If you know the end point for Númenor, it’s ultimately not going to end well [for her]. But I’m very excited myself to see how the showrunners will map that out, but still give Míriel a really interesting journey to that point.
Rings of Power season two is now streaming on Prime Video.
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