Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is your friend. Sometimes the enemy of your enemy is the person you really wanted to stab quite a lot in the last season—which is where Galadriel and Adar find themselves when Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power returns for its second season next week.
“She is forever changed,” Morfydd Clark, who plays Galadriel in the Amazon series, recently told io9 of the Elven warrior after her chilling encounter with Sauron—in disguise as the human Halbrand until he revealed himself to her—in Rings of Power‘s first season. “Her sense of who she is and who she could become had been shattered—and she’s also had to face up to her selfishness, really. Even though her selfishness was because of her grief [over her brother’s death], her pursuit of Sauron was an individual pursuit. Now she’s got to learn that she’s got to fight, not just for herself, but for every part of Middle-earth. She’s got a wound that she’s got to tend to while fighting, and that was quite fun to play with. That he is still there.”
But Galadriel is not the only denizen of Middle-earth shaken by Sauron’s return to the world. You would think that Adar, an agent of the Dark Lord and currently the man responsible having turned the Southlands into the ashen fields of Mordor, would be pleased that such a great evil has returned. But for Sam Hazeldine (who inherits the role of Adar from season one’s Joseph Mawle), Adar has priorities that go beyond suddenly bending the knee. “Adar certainly wasn’t evil to begin with. He’s kind of been forged, gone through this evil transformation… he’s really just protecting his children, and he’s had to do some evil stuff to get there. He’s such an interesting character, with so much complexity, because he doesn’t think of himself as evil at all.”
“He’s certainly been deeply affected, by having been deceived by both Sauron and Morgoth in the past, to become what he is now,” Hazeldine continued. “There’s a huge, kind of crushing wave of responsibility [for Adar], that all of these uruk that wouldn’t exist had he not succumbed to Sauron’s power in the first place. He’s a cautionary tale for Galadriel, as well.”
It’s that shared feeling of deception that, it seems, could push Adar and Galadriel into the uneasiest of alliances, as we’ve seen glimpsed in trailers for season two so far. Regardless of how Galadriel and Adar feel about each other, Clark and Hazeldine relished the chance to play their characters off each other in this united enmity over Sauron’s return. “It was lost of fun because they are so at odds, and yet they’re forced into a situation that’s deeply uncomfortable for both of them,” Clark said of Galadriel and Adar’s loose alliance this season. “Ultimately, all of their decisions [with each other] are based on Sauron. He’s still got them. They’ve lost their confidence, and Sauron’s taken it.”
“The only thing that the share is that they’ve both been kind of abused by Sauron,” Hazeldine added. “It’s a horrible thing, but that’s what they have in common. They’re trying to do something about the threat of Sauron, but you’re wondering while you’re doing it if what you’re doing is exactly what he had intended.”
The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power returns to Amazon Prime Video on August 29. Stay tuned to io9 in the coming week to hear more from the cast and crew of the series about what to expect in season two!
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