If there is one The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power character we at Nerdist love with all our hearts, it’s the Lord-Father Adar. A beautiful series of contradictions and nuances, Adar ultimately saw the true way forward for everlasting peace in Middle-earth before sadly meeting his death. As we head into season three of The Rings of Power, we find ourselves wondering whether Adar’s legacy will live on, either in Galadriel, whom he seemed to touch, or in his Uruk/Orc children, who now belong to Sauron once more. We’ll have to wait for The Rings of Power season three to arrive to learn more on that count… Although we do know there’s a new orc with an arc coming our way, so our fingers are crossed. But during our visit to The Rings of Power set last year, we at Nerdist learned that a part of Adar is present in season three. Sauron is keeping Adar’s sword in Barad-dûr, displaying it as a trophy.
Our reputation must have preceded us, because our kind guides (shout out to Holly!) to the world of The Rings of Power eagerly ushered us to the place where Sauron had put Adar’s sword on display in Barad-dûr. We’d just gotten over the shock of seeing Celebrimbor’s deliciously decomposing body, mangled, rotting, and hung up against the wall, when we were invited to “come over here.” And there it was, just around the corner, Adar’s sword prominently mounted on one of Sauron’s many desks. The blade glimmered in the low lights of Barad-dûr, its many spider-eyes blinking up at us—as beautiful as we imagined it would be. We definitely gasped; perhaps we cried.
Of course, much of our excitement came from seeing a piece of our favorite character right in front of our eyes. But even more than that, seeing Adar’s sword thrilled us because it confirmed a critical sense of continuity in The Rings of Power season three. In another, less-careful series, Adar might have been forgotten the moment he died. So often, TV shows have too short a half-life for memory. Important, intense moments happen to characters one minute and then get washed away in favor of new stories the next. Deaths are for shock value, not narrative. But Sauron keeping Adar’s sword in his study is such a subtle storytelling mechanism that confirms Adar has not been forgotten. And its presence fills us with hope that if Adar is remembered enough for his sword to still haunt the story five years later, then with any luck, his complex and beautiful arc will also continue to thread through.
Showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay tell us, “Sauron likes trophies, especially of people that have said no to him and people that he has had to conquer. He keeps Celebrimbor there. We call him CelebrimBONES. And so it makes sense that Sauron would keep Adar’s sword as well in The Rings of Power season three.”
And Sauron actor Charlie Vickers adds, “It’s his trophy. I like to think that… Well, he’s kept Adar’s sword, he’s got some Numenórean armor, he’s got some Elven armor, he’s got Celebrimbor’s corpse in the corner of the room. It’s almost like if someone has… If you’re thinking of an actor who has Emmys or Oscars around the house, it’s kind of like these are the trophies that I’ve got throughout my career.” He laughs and adds, “And I like to think of Sauron’s ears. Because before we started shooting, I grappled with, ‘Why does Sauron still have elven ears?’ So I kept trying to think of reasons, like, ‘Why does he still do this?’ But I thought perhaps they could be a trophy. He has conquered Eregion. So he is like, ‘Even though I hate the elves, I’m going to keep your ears and remind everyone that I came to your realm and I destroyed most of it single-handedly.’ So yeah, that informs his style choices as well, I think.”
Sauron is a true EGOT of Middle-earth, we guess. We’d like to think of Adar as his Tony.
As mentioned, we love the deep thinking that threads through everything from Adar’s sword in Barad-dûr to the shape of Sauron’s ears. And how, amazingly, all these things are tied together in The Rings of Power, giving us so many layers to unpack. On the topic, showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay were excited to share a few more thoughts when I asked whether the appearance of Adar’s sword, and in a way of his memory, means his ideals, and most importantly, the idea of the orcs being capable of nuance, continue on after his death and into The Rings of Power season three. They tell me, “The ideas did not die with him, actually. We’re doing a whole new thing this time that’s really, really going to be exciting. There’s a new orc character who I think people are really going to respond to. There’s something really cool happening there.”
It is bittersweet to see the last remaining part of your favorite character with your own eyes. But we feel hopeful that it will not be just Adar’s sword that is his legacy in The Rings of Power season three, but also the hearts and minds of his children. The Rings of Power season three releases on November 11.
Explore our other The Rings of Power season three Set Visit pieces here: The Forging of Dark Lord Sauron, A Deep Dive into Orc, A Piece of Adar Lives on in Season 3.