Rings of Power: Ignoring Immortality

The biggest mystery in the Rings of Power so far is the identities of everyone interacting with the Harfoots. Who is The Stranger? Who are The Evil Cult hunting down The Stranger?

The Stranger is likely to turn out to be Saruman. The Tolkien Legendarium asserts that Saruman spent a lot of time in The East; where the Harfoots are roaming around is part of The East, but barely. Also, the Tolkien Legendarium clearly asserts that Saruman arrived in Middle Earth much earlier than Gandalf did. Supposing that The Stranger is the first of his kind to arrive in Middle Earth seems reasonable, and if true, it aligns much more with Saruman’s identity than with Gandalf’s.

The fact that The Evil Cult members are dressed in white, like Saruman’s original wizard color, reinforces this hypothesis. Perhaps The Evil Cult are individuals whom Sauron has directly or indirectly tasked to find these wizards whom Sauron might suspect The Valar High Angels are sending to Middle Earth to aid in the fight against him.

It is very possible at the current moment that the leader of The Evil Cult is Sauron himself. It seems realistic that The Evil Cult Leader is pretty enough to present him or herself as Annatar The Bearer of Gifts to Celebrimbor and convince Celebrimbor to work together on some metal ring craftery.

Balrog: Too Close & Too Soon

The Rings of Power has made an error introducing The Balrog as easily as it did. So, supposedly, there is this huge cavern with mithril…