SPOILER WARNING
The culling continues. After first dispatching Eärien, the non-canonical daughter of Elendil and sister of future kings Isildur and Anárion whose best material by far was her last, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power makes similarly short work now of Arondir, the all-new wood-elf it contributed to the mythos. It also kills Marnûkh, the rogue orc whose machinations dominate this opening salvo of four episodes, effectively a four-part season premiere.
They’re hardly the first TRoP originals to go. Bronwyn, the human healer played by Nazanin Boniadi, left between Seasons 1 and 2, and her character was killed off offscreen. This no doubt hamstrung many plans for both her love interest Arondir and her son Theo, giving the two characters a kind of aimless feeling on screen. The fact that all they’re ever given to do is grumble or glower doesn’t help.
It’s tough to say Arondir will be missed, but it’s still sad to see his stricken face as he realizes he’s dying at the hands of his own adoptive son, Theo, who also strikes down Marnûkh. All this to rescue an elf-smith whom they find lying in her cell, a weeks-old corpse. Woof.
Meanwhile, Adar, the first orc and Marnûkh’s hero and inspiration, was recast when his initial actor left, unlike Bronwyn, but still met his maker last season. The earth-children proto-hobbits who accompanied Gandalf appear to have wandered away from the storyline. Other than Theo, the human teenager turned future Ringwraith, and Kemen, the Númenorean prince who I assume will also be a future Ringwraith, there aren’t many TRoP originals left standing, at least not outside the walls of Khazad-dûm.
Are you gonna miss many of them? Maybe they were necessary to get the show to the place it’s at now, but particularly during the endless wheel-spinning of the first season few of these characters did much to endear themselves to me as a viewer. Now that the show has the confidence to really play with its most famous characters, I’m not sure the junior varsity squad is needed.
I reviewed the fourth episode of The Rings of Power Season 3 for Decider.
Tags: decider, fantasy, the lord of the rings: the rings of power, TV, TV reviews