Repentant Sauron Deep-Dive

The Rings of Power’s first-season-portrayal of Sauron left many fans wondering where The Dark Lord was. When contrasted with expectations from The Lord of the Rings, Sauron in his Halbrand form was furtive, pensive, and morally gray - none of the traits many would have expected to see from this precursor to the mail-clad embodiment of evil from Peter Jackson’s films. At the time of writing this, only the first season of Amazon’s story has been revealed and the true nature of their version of Sauron is still shrouded in some level of mystery - but from my perspective, it’s not hard to see where they’re going with this character, and where they’ve been looking in the source material to get to this portrayal.

For a while, my theory was relatively simple. In the second age, Sauron is known for being a trickster, taking different physical disguises and having dealings with the different races of middle earth under the name of Annatar or “lord of gifts”. It would not be much of a stretch to have assumed that the show was completely playing with us and draw the conclusion that everything we saw from Sauron in season one was simply a ruse; an act that he was putting on to fool the characters in the show along with the audience. While there is certainly some level of deception surrounding Suaron’s character that is yet to be revealed to the audience, leaning fully into this trickster theory requires us to ignore far too much of the story that was told through Halbrand, and would also force us to miss out on some of the more compelling aspects of interpreting Sauron in the second age: namely his repentance. 

It’s my belief that the show is deliberately leaning into an interpretation of Sauron for its first season that is based around his “repentance” as described by Tolkien. The key detail here is that Sauron never truly repents, even if he did consider it for a time, and that his phase of misguided repentant and benevolent musings is what solidified his path of descent onto the throne of the Dark Lord. The basis for this is sufficiently clear when looking at the source material:

“When Thangorodrim was broken and Morgoth overthrown, Sauron put on his fair hue again and did obeisance to Eönwë, the herald of Manwë, and abjured all his evil deeds. And some hold that this was not at first falsely done, but that Sauron in truth repented, if only out of fear” (Silmarillion).

“[Sauron] repents in fear when the First Enemy is utterly defeated, but in the end does not do as was commanded, return to the judgment of the gods. He lingers in Middle-earth. Very slowly, beginning with fair motives: the reorganizing and rehabilitation of the ruin of Middle-earth, 'neglected by the gods', he becomes a reincarnation of Evil, and a thing lusting for Complete Power - and so consumed ever more fiercely with hate (especially of gods and Elves). ” (Letter 131)

“Sauron was of course not 'evil' in origin. He was a 'spirit' corrupted by the Prime Dark Lord (the Prime sub-creative Rebel) Morgoth. He was given an opportunity of repentance, when Morgoth was overcome, but could not face the humiliation of recantation, and suing for pardon; and so his temporary turn to good and 'benevolence' ended in a greater relapse, until he became the main representative of Evil of later ages” (Letter 153).

In Tolkien’s legendarium, Sauron considered repentance at the beginning of the second age out of fear of the greater powers - not because of a true change of heart. He was ultimately unwilling to accept punishment and so stays in middle earth and continues with new plans. What’s interesting is that his plans begin with what he would consider ‘benevolence’. This word is wrapped in quotation marks in Letter 153 indicating to me that this was not true benevolence, but a flawed view of benevolence as Sauron would have conceived of it. The key components of Sauron’s benevolence seem to be a desire to rebuild (or re-order) middle earth along with a bitterness towards the Valar who he feels have abandoned and ‘neglected’ middle earth - again with the quotes around ‘neglected by the gods’ indicating this is how Sauron sees things. It seems to me that he saw chaos and strife after the war of wrath which overthrew Morgoth and ended the first age, and decided that rather than accept punishment and repent for the part he played under Morgoth, he would attempt to take action in order to avoid judgment. He seems to not want to give up on the idea of repenting wholly, but rather tries to repent in his own way: by making order out of the chaos he blames the Valar for creating.

“[Sauron] still had the relics of positive purposes, that descended from the good of the nature in which he began: it had been his virtue (and therefore also the cause of his fall, and of his relapse) that he loved order and coordination, and disliked all confusion and wasteful friction. (Morgoth's Ring).

This is a character who struggled when dealing with the chaos and unknowns of the world just as much as elves, men, and dwarves, but who was also gifted with incredible power at the same time. He loses himself in his own flaws - which are also linked to own born gifts. This idea that Sauron’s “second Fall” during the second age came about because of his desire to do good is an important one, and in order to hammer it home I have yet another quote:

“The Enemy in successive forms is always ‘naturally’ concerned with sheer Domination, and so the Lord of magic and machines; But the problem: that this frightful evil can and does arise from an apparently good root, the desire to benefit the world and others — speedily and according to the benefactor’s own plans — is a recurrent motive” (Letter 131).

What I am hoping to exhaustively highlight is the nature of Sauron’s rise to power and relapse into evil during the second age. As a character, Sauron is undeniably evil, but the story of how he ascends the throne of Dark Lord is inherently tinged with gray. The word ‘relapse’ (used by Tolkien himself multiple times) makes this abundantly clear. It’s just as important to recognize Sauron’s moral failings and evil nature as it is to recognize the theme surrounding the origin of evil that Tolkien is trying to highlight here.

We cannot exclude the possibility that at some point Sauron may have been genuinely moved to attempt to change, but at the end of the day, he’s not interested in repentance, but in avoiding punishment. And while he may begin with hints of benevolence when he formulates new plans for middle-earth, ultimately he is falling for the allure of power and control that Tolkien wanted us to be so weary of. Just as The One Ring influences the characters in the Lord of the Rings who consider taking it, Sauron begins the second age with benevolent musings about how he will help the world and those around him using his power. But this is a dangerous ticking time bomb. In Tolkien’s mind, and so also in his sub-created world, power always corrupts. This is a rule of Tolkien’s universe that binds the stories and characters within it. Sauron is no exception, and as an Ainur, sprung from a particular part of the mind of Illuvatar, he was written to embody a particular Fall of those who hold power: that they become enamored with their vision for the world, even if it began with benevolent intentions, and so become enthralled with the means of executing their vision: control - and eventually domination.

What the story of Sauron in the second age should be highlighting is how and why does Sauron take the mantle of Dark Lord. The answer is not simply that he wanted to control and to dominate the peoples of middle earth. That is the final result of the answer, sure, but it’s vastly over-simplified. It’s a way of looking at his character that skips over all his character development, and glosses over the origin of evil that Sauron was written to represent. His brief phase of ‘benevolence’ and ‘repentance’ plays an essential part in his character progression. We cannot get to Sauron of The Lord of the Rings without seeing how he tried to redeem himself, but was ultimately consumed by his flaws. Portraying his rise to power as the new Dark Lord during the second age must necessarily also convey his temporary turn to a flawed view of ‘benevolence’ and ‘repentance’ which leads him to a relapse into evil.

This is what The Rings of Power has set themselves up for so well. They’ve chosen to surround Sauron’s morality as perceived by the audience with ambiguity. Based on cues from the show alone, it is completely reasonable to interpret their first season portrayal in completely opposing directions: on the one hand, it is entirely possible to buy into the depth of his emotions throughout the season and view him as a being who was wanting to change, but was still haunted by his past and pushed by militant forces that were out of his control back into his old position. And yet, the show has also accurately hinted at him as the devious trickster. We can just as easily read into his portrayal as that of a dark character who was doing his best to hide his red flags using the guise of ‘repentance’ and emotionally manipulating Galadriel (and the audience for that matter). By portraying him as a morally ambiguous character in the first season, the show has forced the audience to consider: “could Sauron have been good during the second age?”. I find myself wondering if there's any truth buried in that quote from the Silmarillion: “And some hold that this was not at first falsely done, but that Sauron in truth repented”. When he heroically dives into the chaotic, storming ocean to save Galadriel after she falls off the raft, Bear McReary’s score plays over the scene with notes of tragedy. I find myself wanting to root for Halbrand, hoping that there can be some way to see him as a tragic figure who was doomed to Fall rather than the evil overlord in hiding I know him to be. 

We must remember that the second age is at its core a time of lost legends, the true history of which has been lost to the ages. While we know where Sauron must inevitably end up, the journey of how he gets there needs filling in, and it seems to me the show has decided to play with the themes of his repentance from the source material in order to do so. This means that we can’t simply draw a 1:1 with the source material, but instead must look to possible interpretations to Tolkien's texts, and the remaining questions surrounding Sauron's portrayal in season one lead me in two different directions for guessing at the show's intentions.

If we decide to buy into Halbrand’s emotions during season one, we come away with a portrayal that gives us a somewhat tragic version of Sauron’s second Fall: because of the results of the war of wrath (and in the show likely the mutiny of Adar) Sauron was pushed to a state of dejection and repentance. The meeting of Galadriel on the raft and arrival in Numenor are all acts of fate (Tolkien liked to call these “chance meetings”) that lead to his rehabilitation. He’s trying his hardest to avoid what he knows to be his negative impulses. He returns to his roots: that of a great craftsman and smith, and it’s clear that he attains peace with this work.

“In the beginning he was of the Maiar of Aulë, and he remained mighty in the lore of that people” (Silmarillion)

When he pulls a newly crafted sword out of the fires of the forge in episode 5 it truly is a beautiful creation, and that seems to be enough for him - for a time. 

He decides he wants to “bind himself to the light” after spending time with Galadriel and battling with Numenor. But the light is not what he thinks it is. The light he sees in Galadriel is her at her darkest, most Feanorian phase, and by binding himself to it he’s really just finding ways to rationalize what he’s always wanted: the pursuit of power - only now he’s doing it on the other side. The militant force of Galadriel’s pride and vengeful obsession with evil is what inadvertently pushes him back into a position where he can claim power, and he starts accepting offers that are just landing at his feet. The words Galadriel spoke to him back at the jail cell in Numenor likely ring in his ears: “Your people have no king for you are him. The cage you have landed in because you chafe under the rags of the common. And the armor that ought to rest upon your shoulders weighs upon your soul”. It almost seems too easy for him, and as a proud and egotistical godlike being, he likely thought it was fate pushing him on the path he was supposed to take: that of king and ruler. What he fails to glean is that it was fate testing him. And then when he finally thinks he’s got it all figured out, Galadriel passes her version of the same test and rejects his offer of power. His pride, stoked by her approval and assurance is what pushed him back to this point and it’s his injured pride at her rejection that sends him back over the edge. The relapse is complete.

I don’t hate this portrayal, and find it somewhat compelling. Up until he starts emotionally manipulating Galadriel, it almost makes me want to like the guy - which is actually perfect. This is exactly how Sauron as a character during the second age should make the audience feel. He is not some manifestation of obvious and detestable evil, he is the devil in hiding. He’s charismatic, enticing, likable, and if you don’t look closely enough you’ll miss all his hidden red flags. The fact of the matter is, the version I’ve written above for the dark-lord-to-be is not what Tolkien would have envisioned for him at all. For Tolkien, there was very little grace towards Sauron’s actions and morality, and this little sob story I spun up about him being dejected and having fate push him back into something he wanted to avoid reads more like his own misguided rationalizations, or what he himself would have written to trick people into feeling bad for him.

Which leads me into interpreting the unknown of his repentance in season one in completely the opposite direction: none of it was genuine, all of it was a ruse, and he is the ultimate master manipulator who got even the audience of the show to fall for his bullshit. The very fact that I wrote a sympathetic interpretation for Sauron might be proof that the show has succeeded in doing what it wanted to: bamboozle the audience. As I said earlier: Sauron wants to portray himself as incredibly likable and sympathetic during the second age, all the while patiently waiting for his perfect moment to strike. His meeting with Galadriel on the raft can still be a “chance meeting” or it could have been contrived: but it really doesn’t matter. From the getgo he’s manipulating. His head hanging and dejection throughout the season is all just to lay a foundation of sympathy that he can use later when he reveals himself. The red flags are absolutely there. His cold, calculated and brutal fight with the Numenorean smiths in the alley shows it doesn’t take much for him to go nuclear. His whispering in the ear of Pharazon when Galadriel is escaping, and the way he always seems to get exactly what he needs highlights his understated craftiness and ability to put himself in the perfect position at the perfect time.

All the best lies have a grain of truth, and the most devious part of this interpretation is that he likely is hanging onto that semblance of “repentance out of fear” that I highlighted earlier from the source material. That quote from Galadriel in the jail cell is still relevant and now layered with even more subtext: “Your people have no king for you are him. The cage you have landed in because you chafe under the rags of the common. And the armor that ought to rest upon your shoulders weighs upon your soul”. He likely would have felt caged by the Valar, who wanted him to return for judgment and give up his freedom and ability to exercise power. If he let them have it their way, he would have been unable to use his gifts as a divine and sub-creative being, and would have had to give up being at the top of the totem pole. Wanting to bind himself to the light can still be a valid turn to perceived repentance, only in this version it’s solely a rationalization for wanting to absolve himself of his past actions while still pursuing power and control. He is misguided, egotistical, and blinded by his desire for power. He absolutely gaslights Galadriel into believing that it was her fault for rehabilitating a new dark lord, when in reality it was him that chose that path long ago. In this interpretation, Sauron’s 'repentance' and 'benevolence' is a thing of the past, long abandoned, which he is continuing to use in order to sow doubt and chaos.

I can truly see the show going in either direction at the conclusion of season one. Are they truly trying to expand Sauron’s interpretation to being sympathetic or are they still in line with the source material and just playing with the audience’s expectations? And the fact that season one concluded without a definitive answer is perfect: it allows the audience to have time to think about Sauron and who he should be that goes beyond the static embodiment of evil that he was required to be for The Lord of the Rings. Even though I know exactly how the story of the second age will end, I’m still along for the ride when it comes to the deviousness of Sauron. I look forward to having either of my two theories proved wrong and writing yet another absurdly long speculative analysis at the conclusion of season two.