The second season of 'The Rings of Power', the canon and the 'woke' influence

This Thursday, Amazon Prime Video premiered the second season of its series "The Rings of Power", based on the work of J.R.R. Tolkien.

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About the first season I already published an analysis here two years ago. At the moment, three episodes of the second season are available. I have seen the first one and I can say that we have something similar to what we saw in the previous season, that is, a series with a fabulous display of resources, with a very careful image and even with a well-made soundtrack (in this it is very reminiscent of Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy), but which deviates quite a bit from the literary canon of Tolkien's work.

Obviously, by purchasing partial rights to Tolkien's work in order to make this series, Amazon has certain limitations. However, they could have filled in many gaps in Tolkien's work without altering the original canon, and in doing so they would have come up with a work that would surely have made those of us who have been fans of the old professor's work for decades (in my case, years before Peter Jackson's films appeared) very happy.

The problem with this series is that it not only doesn't respect the canon, but it destroys it, by introducing characters and plots that end up altering the original story written by Tolkien. That would be fine if they improved the original story (I find it very difficult: Tolkien was an excellent writer and his work has an astonishing coherence), but instead, this series ends up degrading the story, making it fall into contradictions that would sit quite badly with the author of "The Lord of the Rings".

I'll digress here to let you know that I'm going to give you some details about the first episode of the second season. If you haven't seen it yet, you might want to stop reading here.

One of the aspects that I have most disliked about this series, both in the first season and in this new one, is its inability to understand the characters of the original work. Tolkien presents Galadriel as a wise and noble elf, while the Galadriel of the series behaves like a teenager, who hides Sauron's true identity after being deceived without us knowing very well the reason. On the other hand, in Tolkien's work, an act of insubordination like that of Elrond against Gil-Galad, the High King of the Noldor, refusing to give him the three rings, would be unthinkable.

The way in which the three Elven rings reach their bearers has nothing to do with the original canon, and a plot is introduced in which Celebrimbor is not only deceived by Sauron once, but twice: it is complete nonsense that Tolkien would not have overlooked and that this series commits by breaking the canon.

On the other hand, in this second season the story of Sauron takes some incomprehensible turns, introducing us to an orc chieftain who rebels against him and kills him, when in reality Sauron was the most powerful servant of Morgoth. In Tolkien's work it would be unthinkable to see Sauron giving a speech to the orcs to convince them to support him: he was one of the most powerful of the Maiar. The orcs knew him and would never have disputed his orders, not out of loyalty, but out of fear. I leave aside the curious way Sauron has of reappearing, which is very reminiscent of Marvel's Venom and which has no relation to Tolkien's work.

In the end, what ends up happening is that the creators of this series try to "update" Tolkien's work according to their particular perspective, and in doing so they end up destroying it and giving rise to a story that, despite the great deployment of resources, ends up becoming tedious at times, losing the freshness and authenticity of Tolkien's work.

It should be noted that the viewpoint of the creators of this series is very specific, and can be seen in details that I mentioned here two years ago, such as the existence of black elves and dwarves, something that does not appear in Tolkien's work and which only responds to an attempt to adjust "The Lord of the Rings" to a "woke" mentality that upholds "diversity" as a dogma, but with nuances, since we see black elves, but not Asian ones. Also striking is the presence of elven women among the warriors of Lindon: there is nothing like that in Tolkien's work, but once again, the creators of the series impose their ideological filter on the literary canon.

Aside from the issue of racial diversity and the role of women, perhaps the most damaging aspect of the "woke" influence on this series is its failure to understand the very foundation of Tolkien's work. The author of "The Lord of the Rings" was Catholic, and although he always rejected allegories, his principles were clearly reflected in his books. Tolkien's work is an epic that shows us the struggle between good and evil, not only on a large scale (evil represented by Morgoth and his servant Sauron), but also on an individual scale, that is, the fight against the evil that tries to corrupt each one of us.

All of this is practically absent from the Amazon series. The references to evil are vague and clichéd and end up being buried by a plot and characters weighed down by a current mentality that is incapable of even differentiating good from evil, a mentality that believes that nothing is good or bad, and that everything depends on the lens through which it is seen. This moral relativism ends up causing "The Rings of Power" to lack the credibility of Tolkien's work. It is the worst example of the "woke" influence in this series.

It should be noted, to be fair, that the series has some successes that deserve to be highlighted. For example, at the moment of Sauron's failed coronation, a three-pointed crown appears, a shape that is explained because it would be Morgoth's crown, in which the dark lord had set the three silmarils that he stole from the elves (although according to canon, that crown had already been lost by that time). I also really liked the character of Cirdan and the appearance of the Grey Havens. I especially loved the workshop in which we see how the elves of Mithlond are building a ship.

It's a shame that, despite having such good material, Amazon has made mistakes like those mentioned with this series, which could have dazzled us if it had shown more fidelity to the original canon and more respect for the spirit of Tolkien's work. In the end, what you are left with after watching it is the same as in the first season: a bitter taste. Here is the trailer for this second season: