Rings of Power Season 2: The Balrog Creates This Problem With The Timeline

The showrunners' choice to introduce the Balrog in episode 8 of season 2 of The Rings of Power creates a major problem with the timeline depicted by Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings.

Warning, the rest of this article contains SPOILERS for episode 8 of season 2 of Rings of Power. We advise you not to continue reading.

The Awakening of the Balrog at Khazad-dûm

ÇThere it is, season 2 of Rings of Power has released its epilogue on Prime Video on Thursday, October 3last. In a fiery episode 8, Sauron succeeded in his mission: to forge the nine Rings intended for Men through Celebrimbor, before eliminating the master blacksmith. In a final high-flying duel against Galadriel, he almost managed to kill the elven general, while recovering the orc army of his enemy Adar. In short, everything went well for the disciple of Morgoth, who can then return to Mordor to begin his great project of enslaving the free peoples of Middle-earth.

This final episode, full of twists and turns and revelations, was an opportunity for the showrunners to close several narrative arcs. Among them, that of the Dwarves in Khazad-dûm. The entire season focused on showing us the beginnings of the fall of the kingdom, through King Durin III, who, gifted with his evil ring, persists in wanting to dig into the heart of the caverns to extract wealth. A very heavy price to pay since his greed awakens from the depths – as everyone knows – the terrible Balrog, the same one Gandalf fights in The Fellowship of the Ring thousands of years later. We expected Amazon to show us Durin's Bane in its best light, as it has never been done in CGI before.

What's the problem with the Balrog in the Rings of Power?

But this event served on a platter to satisfy the fanbase nevertheless poses a problem for the most fervent aficionados of J.R.R. Tolkien – the creator of The Lord of the Rings. And once again, it's the showrunners' relationship with the Tolkienian timeline that's not right. Let's not beat around the bush, in the Second Age, where the series takes place, the Balrog is not awakened. The fire demon is not supposed to destroy what will later become the Mines of Moria until nearly 2,000 years after the start of the Third Age, or after the fall of Sauron, when King Durin VI reigns. By introducing the Balrog, the series exposes itself to major narrative problems that will undoubtedly handicap it in the future.

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The series has every interest in putting the monster away in its toy box for later and only introducing it as a treat for its viewers. After all, when King Durin III throws himself in a last heroic burst on the beast before a landslide closes the passage behind them, signing the end of the arc. We imagine then (and we hope) that season 3 will focus on the coronation of Durin IV, his attempt to resist the ring of power and thus to protect his people from this threat. An unprecedented situation and there also out of step with the Tolkienian heritage, since Durin IV is aware that a demon hides in the bowels of the Earth. So how will he react?

This liberties taken by the Rings of Power are not new. The series has been criticized several times for such largesse. Now that the Stranger turns out to be Gandalf, his arrival in Middle-earth in the middle of the Second Age can legitimately make fans of the novels wince. In Tolkien, he is not supposed to appear in Middle-earth until a thousand years later, after the fall of Sauron.

The Balrog is definitely subject to all the debates since the end of season 2. Its introduction – or rather its design – has also made part of the community react around the Lord of the Rings. Because while wings seem to be seen spreading in the series, some argue that he does not have any. This part of the fans take as an argument the description that Tolkien makes of them in The Fellowship of the Ring. The British novelist does indeed speak of wings, but they seem to be a way for him to serve as a metaphor for his gigantism. “The shadow that surrounded him spread like two vast wings”. As for the others, they insist on the idea that the Balrog does indeed have wings. This is also how he is exposed by Peter Jackson in his film adaptation of The Fellowship of the Ring.

 And to go further, discover what happened in the Mines of Moria before the passage of The Fellowship of the Ring.