'The Rings Of Power' Re-institutes Original "Eye Of Sauron" Metaphor
Image Source: Prime Video on YouTube.com
The Rings of Power is taking a different approach to the form of Sauron than the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings trilogy from over two decades ago.
Spoilers ahead for Season 2, Episode 6 of The Rings of Power, and the series more broadly based on Tolkien’s lore.
As some may be aware, in the Peter Jackson films, Sauron lacked a corporeal form due to not yet possessing the One Ring. To create and maintain a sense of threat from a character with a minimal presence in the book trilogy as the main villain, Jackson chose to imagine Sauron as a great flaming eye atop his fortress of Barad-dûr, constantly searching for the Ring and intruders to his realm.
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The Eye of Sauron was immediately made iconic and has appeared in countless visual mediums over the years and even made its way into Jackson’s later The Hobbit trilogy. However, it was initially controversial as no such form for Sauron was ever mentioned in the novels. At the same time, Jackson did not get the visual from nowhere, as the books describe Sauron as having a piercing gaze and an eye always on his enemies.
The Rings of Power has returned to these textual mentions of Sauron’s intense and powerful gaze with Episode 6 of Season 2. Adar, when speaking with Galadriel, mentions that Sauron’s gaze “bores a hole while the rest of him slithers in,” a powerful description of his persuasive skills and commanding presence (and not an allusion to some form of magic).
Of course, by the end of the series, Sauron will have lost his fair form entirely in the fall of Númenor. While he is unlikely to be a glowing eye anytime soon, the possibility remains open for this imagery to appear later in the show’s run. But, even without this iconic form in Rings of Power, Sauron remains a powerful villain in both works of Tolkien lore, and we dreadfully anticipate what the final episode of Season 2 will bring.
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Source(s): ScreenRant
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