In Season one of Amazon’s The Rings of Power, the final episode largely ignored Isildur’s (Maxim Baldry) fate in favor of the creation of the three Elven Rings and Sauron’s (Charlie Vickers) not-so-shocking identity revelation. Fans of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy films know Isildur largely figures into the fate of Sauron, the One Ring, and everything that follows in Middle Earth and the age of men – the opening scene of Fellowship explains it all.
Isildur is presented in the first season as a young man without a clear direction, who wants nothing more than to live up to his father, Elendil’s (Lloyd Owen) honorable ways. He questionably self-sabotages as a trainee of the Sea Guard, seeking a higher calling. When he volunteers in Episode Four to travel with the Númenorian to fight in the Southlands, it feels to viewers that maybe he has found what he’s looking for, only to find himself buried in the ashy creation of Mordor.
Season two has an opportunity to show Isildur’s rise from literal ashes to the man who eventually defeats Sauron.
His journey to rejoining his father and his people should be done in a way that he faces several trials. Perhaps escaping Mordor – a land now dense with enemies and danger – a parallel to Frodo and Sam’s journey in The Return of the King. It also presents a chance for the writers to show the beginning stages of Isildur’s divide with Sauron. The duo likely will cross paths somewhere in this new dark land. Whichever way the writers decide to go, Isildur’s fate deserves an entire episode (or two!) because the implications and fallout from his story are central to both diehard and causal fans of the series.
Of course, the show could go in a completely different direction and explore the voice that distracted Isildur during his training and how that factors into his rise to prominence – an elf perhaps?
Even more unlikely, but possibly more fun for viewers could be a partnership of sorts between the Sauron-formerly-known-as Halbrand and Isildur, giving viewers both the truth at the early inner workings of Mordor and a new Middle Earth bromance to cheer.
Whatever the case, Isildur’s rise from failed sailor to the wielder of Andúril in the war against Sauron will be a dynamic story worth following – if only to see the young man of Númenor with some well- deserved happiness.