Elven Kings Under the Sky - S02E01

In a familiar derelict hall, Orcs and Adar assemble in the immediate aftermath of the fall of Morgoth for the crowning of Sauron, which goes a bit awry.

We then see slimy, soggy Sauron reconstituting over several millennia with a slow progression from insect to rodent to human.

Yes, and I just wanted to throw in here, for those who think that the showrunners don't know they're Tolkien, just the other day, as I was rereading his poem, Mythopoeia, for a certain space class done by a certain Dr. Sarah Brown.

Oh, I recognize that.

I hope you do.

I encountered the following line, slime crawling up from mud to live and die.

Yeah, that gave me a bit of pause.

I'm sure.

So rituals that we see in this section, of course we see the crowning of Sauron.

He makes a predictable speech to his followers.

It starts with a bright future and finishes up by telling them that they have no choice, but to follow him.

It does include the first mention in season two of power, not of the flesh, but over flesh.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Uh, Adar seems to be using an ancient crown from an ancient evil.

And in this moment, all must witness it, even with their doubts.

I mean, one of my doubts is where were those Silmarils supposed to fit into that crown? It didn't look like it would hold them.

Yeah, yeah.

A little tiny nitpick that I have around that.

So Adar, interestingly, encourages trust of Sauron and his children.

And then he kills Sauron using Morgoth's own crown imbued with evil.

So what's the usual ritual function here? And how has that really kind of gone awry?

Well, this is the crowning of a king, isn't it? This is the sort of scene that you find in so many different stories.

In fact, of course, we see it in the Lord of the Rings.

Thank goodness Aragorn's crowning doesn't go equally awry.