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Rings of Power: Some Gushing about Adar and Thoughts on Adapting a Canon
As of ep. 6, I think Adar may now be my favorite character in The Rings of Power. He's well written, well acted, and well directed, and I think his storyline is an example of how to extrapolate on a canon in challenging, "updated" ways without disrespecting it.
Spoilers for RoP through ep. 6 follow:
The Story So Far…
As many had posited, Adar is one of the original Elves captured by Morgorth and twisted, so that, over many generations, their lineage produced the Orcs. He's an Ur-Orc, if you will. His basic deal is that he sees the Orcs (somewhat literally) as his children/descendants, and he wants them to have their own homeland free from servitude to Sauron. He contrives a massive explosion/permanent ash cloud at Mt. Doom to obscure the sun so that the Orcs, who can't tolerate sunlight (especially in this version of Middle-earth) will have a place they can comfortably live.
On Adapting Canon
I'd argue this is a good way to adapt an existing canon because it adds instead of changing. Earlier this season, the writers changed the backstory of Númenor, for example. They replaced the idea of the Númenóreans being jealous of the Elves/Valar because they were barred from immortality to the idea that they just don't like Elves because of genophobia/they'll take our jobs. This is worse than the original and shows no regard for the work put into the original. Another example would be turning Galadriel into someone notable only for being a war leader and fighter, vs. being notable for being ancient, wise, etc.
The introduction of Adar, however, changes very little. It does add the tale of his "killing" Sauron (I guess, one body of Sauron), but since Sauron can just come back in another body, this doesn't greatly change the canon. Mostly, it adds to the canon; it's another adventure of Sauron we hadn’t heard of, but it doesn't require jettisoning anything.
In fact, the basic philosophy of Tolkien's universe is more on display in Adar's plotline than anywhere else in this show. He accepts Eru as the omnipotent, good God (has Eru even been mentioned before?); he accepts that Morgoth created the Orcs as a twisted invention, but he also argues, reasonably enough, that Orcs are still living beings and ultimately children of Eru and deserve to be able to live. This changes nothing. It drops us down in Tolkien's philosophy and challenges it by adding conversation to it, by posing a question Tolkien didn't engage with much. What about the Orcs as people? They didn't ask to be born Orcs. Is the proper approach to them to hate and kill them all because they were made evil, as Galadriel implies? Or do they, in fact, deserve some compassion, as any being should? And, if so, how can you show it without allowing immense danger and destruction, since Orcs are predisposed toward violence, aggression, mayhem, etc.? Adar clearly doesn't have the answer here; he's responsible for a lot of grisly killing and destruction. But the points he raises are, nonetheless, good ones, and I don't think Galadriel necessarily has the answer either.
So bravo to The Rings of Power for this, and may it switch to doing more of this in the future! It's common right now, not only with RoP but in many, many contexts, to opt for changing over adding. I see this in much of current discourse around equity, for example: the cultural movement wants to change our norms to be more equitable, which is a good goal and needed, but there's a tendency to demand this be done in one way, with a tacit assumption that any challenges or questions are necessarily markers of bigotry and oppression—and often they are, but often they're not, and we need open conversations if we are to move forward. I would rather see an equity discourse that embraces adding more: adding voices, perspectives, discussions, etc. This creates a richer, more nuanced, more compassionate view of life. In literature, it's a dialogic approach—allowing multiple valid and differing voices—which I have long championed as my personal favorite approach to story. Adar is a nice, genuinely dialogic addition to Tolkien's universe—and, yes, Tolkien's universe, not a new one with some of the same names and places.
Brief Gushing about Adar
In addition to the structural and philosophical thoughts above, I really like how Adar is depicted as an individual. And I think my favorite thing about him is that he looks so very tired. I don't think there's a scene where he doesn't look some variety of tired, and I just want to invite him to take a nap.
"Tired" is not usually high on a writer's list of dominant traits for characters and this, in itself, makes the character kind of refreshing and interesting. It also makes sense! I have the impression that Adar has been knocking around, often under torturous conditions, for several hundred-to-thousand years (however long in this version), first under Morgoth and then under Sauron, really trying to take care of this group of his descendants, which is no easy task because (a) there are a ton of them and (b) they are not in a good position to care for themselves, being designed to be destructive, rather dim, violent slaves. I have the impression of someone who rarely had any sleep (or Elvish rest equivalent) for centuries because he is virtually always at work—always on childcare duty, in a way, and any parent knows how exhausting that is. And so, yes, he's very tired, and I think that choice as a dominant presentation falls into the golden category of unexpected yet utterly correct. It's nicely handled all around.
Spoilers for RoP through ep. 6 follow:
The Story So Far…
As many had posited, Adar is one of the original Elves captured by Morgorth and twisted, so that, over many generations, their lineage produced the Orcs. He's an Ur-Orc, if you will. His basic deal is that he sees the Orcs (somewhat literally) as his children/descendants, and he wants them to have their own homeland free from servitude to Sauron. He contrives a massive explosion/permanent ash cloud at Mt. Doom to obscure the sun so that the Orcs, who can't tolerate sunlight (especially in this version of Middle-earth) will have a place they can comfortably live.
On Adapting Canon
I'd argue this is a good way to adapt an existing canon because it adds instead of changing. Earlier this season, the writers changed the backstory of Númenor, for example. They replaced the idea of the Númenóreans being jealous of the Elves/Valar because they were barred from immortality to the idea that they just don't like Elves because of genophobia/they'll take our jobs. This is worse than the original and shows no regard for the work put into the original. Another example would be turning Galadriel into someone notable only for being a war leader and fighter, vs. being notable for being ancient, wise, etc.
The introduction of Adar, however, changes very little. It does add the tale of his "killing" Sauron (I guess, one body of Sauron), but since Sauron can just come back in another body, this doesn't greatly change the canon. Mostly, it adds to the canon; it's another adventure of Sauron we hadn’t heard of, but it doesn't require jettisoning anything.
In fact, the basic philosophy of Tolkien's universe is more on display in Adar's plotline than anywhere else in this show. He accepts Eru as the omnipotent, good God (has Eru even been mentioned before?); he accepts that Morgoth created the Orcs as a twisted invention, but he also argues, reasonably enough, that Orcs are still living beings and ultimately children of Eru and deserve to be able to live. This changes nothing. It drops us down in Tolkien's philosophy and challenges it by adding conversation to it, by posing a question Tolkien didn't engage with much. What about the Orcs as people? They didn't ask to be born Orcs. Is the proper approach to them to hate and kill them all because they were made evil, as Galadriel implies? Or do they, in fact, deserve some compassion, as any being should? And, if so, how can you show it without allowing immense danger and destruction, since Orcs are predisposed toward violence, aggression, mayhem, etc.? Adar clearly doesn't have the answer here; he's responsible for a lot of grisly killing and destruction. But the points he raises are, nonetheless, good ones, and I don't think Galadriel necessarily has the answer either.
So bravo to The Rings of Power for this, and may it switch to doing more of this in the future! It's common right now, not only with RoP but in many, many contexts, to opt for changing over adding. I see this in much of current discourse around equity, for example: the cultural movement wants to change our norms to be more equitable, which is a good goal and needed, but there's a tendency to demand this be done in one way, with a tacit assumption that any challenges or questions are necessarily markers of bigotry and oppression—and often they are, but often they're not, and we need open conversations if we are to move forward. I would rather see an equity discourse that embraces adding more: adding voices, perspectives, discussions, etc. This creates a richer, more nuanced, more compassionate view of life. In literature, it's a dialogic approach—allowing multiple valid and differing voices—which I have long championed as my personal favorite approach to story. Adar is a nice, genuinely dialogic addition to Tolkien's universe—and, yes, Tolkien's universe, not a new one with some of the same names and places.
Brief Gushing about Adar
In addition to the structural and philosophical thoughts above, I really like how Adar is depicted as an individual. And I think my favorite thing about him is that he looks so very tired. I don't think there's a scene where he doesn't look some variety of tired, and I just want to invite him to take a nap.
"Tired" is not usually high on a writer's list of dominant traits for characters and this, in itself, makes the character kind of refreshing and interesting. It also makes sense! I have the impression that Adar has been knocking around, often under torturous conditions, for several hundred-to-thousand years (however long in this version), first under Morgoth and then under Sauron, really trying to take care of this group of his descendants, which is no easy task because (a) there are a ton of them and (b) they are not in a good position to care for themselves, being designed to be destructive, rather dim, violent slaves. I have the impression of someone who rarely had any sleep (or Elvish rest equivalent) for centuries because he is virtually always at work—always on childcare duty, in a way, and any parent knows how exhausting that is. And so, yes, he's very tired, and I think that choice as a dominant presentation falls into the golden category of unexpected yet utterly correct. It's nicely handled all around.