The Rings of Power Shows the Nazgûl Still Have a Human Side

In season 3 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Sauron begins recruiting the nine lieutenants who will one day become the Nazgûl, or Ringwraiths. J.R.R. Tolkien’s lore offers few details about their gradual transformation, but the series initially presents the rings as miraculous gifts that turn the Men who wear them into Nazgnagôl, or “Ring-servants.”

Rather than enslaving their wearers immediately, Sauron’s rings heal injuries, cure terrible afflictions, and grant extraordinary power. Each gift, however, brings its recipient closer to surrendering his freedom.

For Rings of Power co-creator Patrick McKay, depicting that transformation is one of the biggest reasons to make the series.

“Part of the opportunity of this show is to dramatize what the introduction of these powers, the rings, mean to all these peoples in this world,” McKay tells Polygon.

McKay and fellow showrunner J.D. Payne wanted to establish why anyone would willingly accept a ring from Sauron, the self-proclaimed Dark Lord.

“It was very important to J.D. and I that there was a reason you would want to wear one, which is that it would give you wealth and power,” McKay says. “The idea that, in the lore, thousands of years from now, they’re enslaved to Sauron’s will, they’ve lost their humanity, and they’re ghost-like wraiths, that’s a long way off.”

“That’s the bill coming. Right now, it’s the good times.”

Spoilers follow for the first four episodes of Rings of Power season 3.

How Rings of Power makes the Nazgnagôl frightening

Executive producing director Charlotte Brändström wanted the Nazgnagôl to feel recognizably human while also having an unsettling supernatural presence. At the start of season 3, a Nazgnagôl appears during a battle between Elves and Orcs. Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) confronts the Ring-servant and is handily defeated before escaping.

“I slowed down everything around them,” Brändström says. She filmed the characters at either 36 or 48 frames per second and introduced echoes and reverberation into their movements and voices.

Their unnerving composure matters as much as their supernatural abilities. “We could feel their power by the fact that they never needed to hurry,” she says. “They know the power they have.”

Despite their frightening appearances and abilities, the Nazgnagôl have not yet fully transformed into the monsters audiences recognize from The Lord of the Rings, Brändström says. “They still have a human side to them at that moment.”

Tolkien’s Nazgûl have become so thoroughly enslaved to Sauron that almost nothing remains of their former identities. The Rings of Power explores how that happens, beginning with men who have understandable reasons to accept the rings and gradually revealing the price of their power.

How Sauron creates the Nazgnagôl

By the start of season 3, Sauron has already recruited three kings of men to become Nazgnagôl. Early in the premiere, five leaders from Rhûn arrive in Mordor to forge an alliance between the two kingdoms. They have been sent by the Dark Wizard (Ciarán Hinds).

Sauron tells them that their ancestors ruled Rhûn for a thousand years before the wizard arrived and cursed their flesh and that of their descendants. After an Orc kills the two most loyal to the Dark Wizard, Sauron reveals a small box containing the remaining Rings of Power. He says he can spare only one, then drops a sword on the ground, implying that the last man standing can claim it.

Khamûl the Easterling (Zubin Varla) wins. He undergoes a painful transformation that cleanses the wizard’s curse, and Sauron dubs him “the fairest of the Nine.” Khamûl later confronts and overpowers the Dark Wizard, effectively seizing control of Rhûn.

Khamûl is also a significant figure in Tolkien’s mythology. He is the only Nazgûl identified by a personal name, apart from the title of the Witch-king of Angmar. As detailed in Unfinished Tales, Khamûl is associated with the East and ranks second among the Nine. His connection to Rhûn fits that history, though his recruitment and confrontation with the Dark Wizard are unique to Rings of Power.

A similar violent ritual later plays out with Men from the Southlands, including Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin). After Theo wins the contest, Sauron conducts a dark ritual that supposedly identifies his lineage. The Great Deceiver claims Theo is descended from “a noble house of old” who were “the sworn servants of Mordor” and were supposedly born with special powers.

Sauron says that lineage explains why Theo was drawn to the sword hilt that essentially unlocked Mordor at the end of season 1. Whether or not Sauron’s account is true, Theo accepts the ring.

In an interview with Nerdist, Muhafidin described Theo’s growing resentment toward Arondir, whom he holds partly responsible for failing to protect Bronwyn. “I think we find him at the beginning of the season kind of void of that hope and angered by the pain the world has dealt out to him,” he said. Sauron manipulates that desperation and offers Theo great power. By the time Theo starts to question what the ring might cost him, it is already too late.

The Nazgnagôl are still human, but Sauron is taking control

The Nazgnagôl’s predicament becomes clear during the climactic battle at Gundabad in episode 4. Arondir discovers the long-lost Celeborn (Jamie Campbell Bower) in a cell, and they attempt to escape the Orc stronghold with Galadriel on the back of a Great Eagle. A Nazgnagôl confronts Arondir, then removes his mask to reveal Theo.

Theo urges Arondir to leave rather than attacking him immediately. Unlike the Nazgûl, Theo and the other Nazgnagôl still have some autonomy, and Sauron’s influence has not yet completely taken over. Arondir refuses to abandon Theo, and for a moment it seems he might remove the ring. Then Sauron arrives and forces Theo to kill Arondir, seemingly exerting total control.

Theo recognizes Arondir, but the humanity remaining in him is not enough to prevent Sauron from asserting control. The scene leaves open the question of whether the Nazgnagôl are more frightening because the people beneath their masks are still visible, long before they become the faceless wraiths of The Lord of the Rings.

 

Source: Polygon