The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power star Charlie Vickers explains why Sauron can be seen crying after killing Celebrimbor in the recent season 2 finale. Despite tricking the legendary Elven smith into crafting the nine rings of men imbued with Sauron’s blackened blood, Celebrimbor finally comes to his senses and sends his creations out of Eregion in Galadriel’s care. Sauron, however, tortures Celebrimbor for knowledge of their whereabouts, but is instead taunted by the Elf that he deceived and led to ruin. In a fit of rage, Sauron kills him with a final arrow through the heart, an act that brings the aspiring Dark Lord to tears.

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter following The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 finale, Vickers explains how murdering Celebrimbor affected his character so differently from the countless others he is responsible for killing. Not only does Vickers suggest that Sauron respects Celebrimbor and his talents, but he reveals that it was the Elf’s final words that caused him to lose control. Describing the act as so “un-Sauron” like, he says the unexpected display of emotion makes the scene more interesting to watch. Check out his comments below:

It’s funny, it’s one of those things where I did the scene and I wasn’t expecting to get emotional. It’s not like it was a planned thing. It just happened. And then when you talk about it, you have to go back and try and unpack why, and sometimes there is no explanation for these things. But in thinking about why he might have been feeling like that, there’s a lot of different things. I think you do see him kill people in this show, and he often kills them quite matter of factly, let’s say. It’s different with Celebrimbor because he has been a partner in crime and someone [Sauron] really respects and someone he could have used.

There’s also this huge anger in himself in this moment that he’s been defeated because Celebrimbor has hidden these rings. Sauron needs the rings, yet Celebrimbor wants to die before he tells Sauron where these rings are. And Sauron says, “There are many ways of keeping you alive,” something like that. So he clearly wants to torture him until he finds out, but it’s just like the way Celebrimbor tells him that he’s now a slave to these creations. I think it probably hits home for Sauron, and he loses control and kills him. And I think that makes him really angry and upset, because it’s so un-Sauron to be out of control. It is more interesting to watch than him just dispatching everyone.

What Sauron’s Emotional Reaction Means For The Rings of Power Season 3

The Rings of Power Has Introduced A Very Different Dark Lord

While Amazon is still yet to officially renew The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power for season 3, the latest reports indicate that a confirmation of the show’s return is expected to arrive before the end of October. As such, audiences are likely to continue learning much more about Vickers’ version of Sauron, who has already proven himself a vastly different entity to the distant and disembodied threat he poses in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies.

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Sauron is the predecessor to the Dark Lord Sauron. However, as he likes to point out in Rings of Power, they are very different Middle-earth villains.

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While The Rings of Power season 1 brought Sauron’s penchant for deceit into sharp relief, his season 2 journey provided audiences with a much greater understanding of his origins and nefarious goals. As a being who was himself deceived and manipulated by the original Dark Lord Morgoth, The Rings of Power’s Sauron has often been tinged with a more sympathetic depiction of Tolkien’s iconic villain. His emotional reaction to killing Celebrimbor during the season 2 finale, further casts a sense of moral ambiguity over his character that is likely to be further explored throughout season 3 and beyond.

Our Take On Sauron’s Continued Quest For Control

Sauron’s Need For Control Will Likely Turn Inward Too

Shifting beyond the more simple depiction of Sauron as a creature of pure, unadulterated evil, Vickers’ Sauron is a being who has become obsessed with the notion of control over both himself and Middle-earth. It is this obsession that will likely come to a head with The Rings of Power season 3 showing Sauron finally crafting the infamous One Ring.

However, as the show’s season 2 finale so effectively demonstrated, Sauron is far from infallible, and is still subject to his own emotional outbursts and shortcomings. It is this self-perceived weakness that Celebrimbor’s final words managed to pierce as effectively as Sauron’s own arrows, and likely a part of himself Sauron will seek to destroy as his journey continues in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 3 and beyond.