Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has had its highs and lows in the two seasons released so far, with heated discussions about the show’s controversial approach to Tolkien canon outnumbering positive reviews. While it hasn’t always lived up to expectations when compared to Peter Jackson’s film trilogy, it has taken a unique look at a little-explored part of Tolkien’s legendarium, and in doing so has shown us some new sides to characters audiences thought they knew.

One of the most interesting parts of The Rings of Power has been the way it shows Sauron’s arc through the Second Age. Those who have only seen the Jackson films are used to seeing Sauron as either the black-armor-clad Dark Lord from The Fellowship of the Ring‘s prologue or his manifestation as the lidless Eye atop the tower of Barad-dûr, but The Rings of Power shows us the Dark Lord in his prime and makes us believe that Sauron really has been awake since the first silence broke. This depiction of Sauron shows many of the character’s incredible ability – and one, in particular, needs to be maximized.

The Rings Of Power Season 2’s Finale Finally Uses Sauron’s Best Ability Properly

His Shapeshifting Shows His Cruelty And Skill At Manipulating The Hearts Of His Foes

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Although Sauron spends much of The Rings of Power disguised as the fair Annatar, the Dark Lord’s shapeshifting powers are far greater than that. Before he became a slave to his own ambition, he was known as Mairon and was one of the greatest of the Maiar, serving as the right hand of the Vala called Aulë the Smith.

Aulë, as one of the Valar, had many lesser spirits beneath him aside from Mairon. One of the other Maiar who served him was known as Curumo, who was sent to Middle-earth in the Third Age to serve as an emissary of the Valar. Upon arriving, the Elves called him Curunír, but Men gave him the name Saruman, who was the greatest of the Five Wizards for a time until, like his fellow Maia, his ambition turned him cruel.

As one of the Maiar, Sauron was a powerful spirit with no fixed form, and the crafting of things and changing of shapes brought him great joy. After pledging to follow Morgoth in the First Age, Sauron found that changing his shape brought him even more joy when he chose forms to terrify his foes; when fighting the Elf-maiden Lúthien and the mighty hound Huan in The Silmarillion, Sauron shifted forms several times, first becoming a werewolf and then a vampire.
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The Names of Sauron

Name
Language
Meaning

Sauron
Quenya
“The Abhorred”

Gorthaur
Sindarin
“The Abhorred”

Mairon
Quenya
“The Admirable”

Zigúr
Adûnaic
“Sorcerer”

Annatar
Quenya
“Lord of Gifts”

Artano
Quenya
“High-smith”

Aulendil
Quenya
“Friend of Aulë”

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In the season 2 finale of The Rings of Power, Sauron uses this shape-shifting ability not to give him raw power as he duels Galadriel, but to prey upon what he perceives as the weakness that is her love for others. He rapidly shifts between his fairest guise of Annatar, his human form as Halbrand whom she had called a friend, the face of the master-smith Celebrimbor who he had just killed, and even Galadriel’s own shape, all in hopes of overwhelming her with grief.

The Rings Of Power Season 3 Needs To Take Advantage Of Sauron’s Shapeshifting

The Show Needs To Let The Dark Lord Be As Beautiful And Terrible As The Dawn

While the season 2 finale was a clever use of Sauron’s shape-shifting, time is running out for Amazon to demonstrate the true power of a Maia unleashed. Sauron’s army now marches to destroy the Elves, and that army will fight some truly spectacular battles against both Elves and Númenoreans. These sequences would be a fantastic opportunity to show Sauron at his most powerful, shifting into all sorts of twisted beasts as he carves bloody swaths through the beleaguered defenders of Imladris.

Sauron’s army is doomed to lose, as the Númenoreans will prove themselves the greater martial force and force Sauron’s surrender to King Ar-Pharazôn, who will parade the supposedly defeated Dark Lord around to show that even the greatest of magics are no match for Númenor’s righteous might. Yet that supposed victory will prove to merely be the beginning of Númenor’s end, and with that ending will come a change for Sauron as well.

Why Sauron Loses His Shapeshifting Ability & When It Could Happen In The Show

The Dark Lord Is Stripped Of This Power In Exchange For Destroying His Greatest Enemy

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In The Silmarillion, the defeated Sauron used his fairest form to abase himself before Ar-Pharazôn, playing off the Númenorean’s pride and vanity with such obsequiousness that, in no time at all, Sauron became the King’s closest advisor. He used this position to twist the minds and hearts of Númenoreans, playing off their culture’s fear of death to imply that Morgoth could save them from their mortal fate, and that they could earn the favor of the First Enemy by invading Valinor and claiming the Undying Lands for themselves.

Ar-Pharazôn was easy prey for the silver-tongued Sauron, and so he led a mighty fleet from Númenor in hopes of conquering Valinor, but this violated proscriptions set by the Valar, forcing the gods to beseech Eru Ilúvatar, creator of the universe, to intervene. Eru did so with all the might and wrath befitting a supreme deity, smiting Ar-Pharazôn and his forces and shattering the island of Númenor, sinking the entire kingdom beneath the ocean, and bent the world so that no mortal ship could ever sail from Middle-earth to the Undying Lands again.

Since Sauron’s body was still in Númenor when it sank, he died there, although his immortal spirit was able to escape and bear away his One Ring to his domain in Mordor, where he spent a century restoring his form and power. Yet after Númenor’s destruction, Sauron was never again able to assume the fair form that let him seduce Celebrimbor and Ar-Pharazôn with honeyed words, although he likely saw that as a fair trade for the destruction of the kingdom he saw as his greatest threat.

How this will all come to pass is still in question, since the Amazon series cannot directly adapt The Silmarillion. The Hollywood Reporter indicates that Amazon is still committed to The Rings of Power having a five-season arc; the fall of Númenor, then, would likely be the climax of the third or fourth season, with the fifth season showing the War of the Last Alliance (seen in The Fellowship of the Rings’ prologue). If so, The Rings of Power doesn’t have much time left before Sauron is locked into his darkest form and can no longer simply beguile his foes – all the more reason to maximize his shapeshifting abilities.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter