Estrid in ‘The Rings Of Power’

CREDIT: AMAZON

IGN released several new images for The Rings Of Power Friday, focusing on a brand new character headed to Season 2 on Amazon Prime later this year.

Check out all those images—including one steamy Isildur image—right here.

The new character featured in these images is the mysterious and beautiful Estrid (Nia Towle). She appears to be a potential love interest to Isildur (Maxim Baldry). That will be nice for the poor young man, who spent all of Season 1 being yelled at by his friends and family. And then his horse ran away.

In Season 2, we’re losing the main healer-randomly-turned-general of the Southlands, Bronwyn, as the actress who played her—Nazanin Boniadi—quit acting to pursue activism with the #WomanLifeFreedom uprising in Iran.

It seems likely that Estrid is being brought in to fill the gap, since it would be a little sad and awkward to have Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova) and Isildur hanging out sans Bronwyn.

More importantly, I think Estrid is Sauron. I have a mountain—well, a Mount Doom—of evidence to back this theory. Namely:

 

In Season 1, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) jumped off a ship headed to the Undying Lands and started the thousand-mile swim back to Middle-earth when she came across a raft upon which a man, Halbrand (Charlie Vickers) happened to be rafting. He had some others with him, but they were gobbled up by Sea Smaug.

Halbrand was a very attractive man, you see, who Galadriel randomly ran into in the middle of the ocean and he also turned out to be Sauron! This is, I think we can all agree, a pretty crazy coincidence. Galadriel had been looking everywhere for him, from the frozen troll-filled north, to the Harfoot-infested west, and almost—almost—to the orc-infested Southlands. Still, she met him randomly on a raft in the middle of the ocean.

Using this trail of logic, it seems egregiously obvious to me that the beautiful woman that Isildur runs into randomly somewhere in the Southlands has to be Sauron.

Okay, you ask, then how is Sauron—disguised as Annatar—chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’, all cool with the elves in Eregion where he spends most of his days? Which we know he is because we see him in the trailer with his silly hair!

Well I’ll tell you: They’re going to do some funky disco timeline stuff to mess with our minds. You see, Sauron/Halbrand had fled Eregion and made his way to Morrrrdorrr at the end of Season 1 (and we knew it was Mordor because of that well-timed title card above Adar’s head). That’s a really long ways from Celebrimbor’s neighborhood. (Next LotR spinoff: Celebrimbor’s Neighborhood).

How would he be back in Eregion so soon? Eh? Mordorrrrr is much closer to Isildur and Arondir, on their Bronwynless trek from Mount Doom to Pelargir and safety.

Here’s how I see it: Sexy Sauron arrived at Mordor after the ring forging. He looked at his kingdom, he was finally there, and then he snuck back down to an elf with no hair.

Perfect timing for not-Halbrand to sidle in and get the lowdown on his future rival, He Who Cutteth Off My Ring Finger. And what better way to do that than by disguising himself as a beautiful woman, one who quickly charms Isildur but who Arondir instinctively mistrusts. As IGN puts it, the Beleriander “believes she’s hiding something and is much slower to believe that Estrid can be trusted.” As right he should be, given who she really is!

The writing is on the wall, folks. It’s really not up for debate anymore. Estrid is Sauron and Isildur, I fear, is in for a grave surprise.