The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 on Prime Video saw a huge level up for one of Tolkien’s most iconic characters. Elrond (Robert Aramayo) went from being a herald to a commander, a follower to a leader, and, most notably, a Rings of Power skeptic to someone willing to wear one to save another elf’s life.
**Spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 finale, now streaming on Prime Video**
At the end of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 8, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) has not only fallen from a great height during her fight with Sauron (Charlie Vickers), but she’s also been stabbed with Morgoth’s crown. The elf seems to be on death’s door. Not even the High King Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) has the power to save Galadriel. However, Elrond then sees Galadriel’s ring, Nenya, and remembers how she used it to heal another elf earlier in the story.
After a whole season of warning the other elves not to trust any of the Rings of Power, for fear they were infected with Sauron’s plotting, Elrond wears Nenya to save Galadriel’s life.
“It’s a big journey. And I think what he’s thinking in that moment, when he’s about to put it on, it’s like, ‘Well, here I go. I’m in the game,’ you know?” Aramayo told Decider in an interview last week. “And what does that mean? Am I in his game now? Is this exactly what he wants? Am I now encircled in his power in this way that I’m not going to be able to control?”
“I think that’s what’s so cool about Elrond. I think he’s actually aware of his limitations.”
In case some Rings of Power viewers don’t know, Elrond is particularly unique among the elves because he was “Half-elf.” Part of him is human. “It’s why he gets on so well with Durin,” Aramayo said. “Because, you know, he understands the mortality inside him more so than most elves. Not completely, but more so because he is an elf.”
Aramayo also explained that Elrond’s human nature meant that he doesn’t possess the same powers or abilities that other elves might. Nevertheless, Aramayo believes that Elrond’s greatest strength is knowing this truth.
“He’s aware that he doesn’t possess the skill of fighting that Galadriel or [Ismael Cruz Córdova’s] Arondir does. He knows that, you know? That’s what I like about him. I think he focuses on his strengths and he knows his limitations,” Aramayo said.
“So when Sauron’s back, he won’t presume to think that he can just trust these things that were anywhere near him because he’s thinking, ‘I can’t even trust myself in this moment. I can’t trust the people around me whom I’ve trusted for 100 years.’ You know, so it’s a real complicated journey for him.”
Aramayo also revealed to Decider that understanding Elrond’s limitations influenced how he wanted to depict the character’s fighting style during the Battle of Eregion.
“Again, just speaking about Elrond and his limitations at this point, I didn’t want Elrond to just bust down and be able to do the things that Arondir can do, or the things that Galadriel can do, or the things that Gil-galad can do,” Aramayo said. “I wanted him to feel quite human because that is his strength. You know, that half-elven nature, whether he realizes it or not.”
Aramayo went on to say he wanted that battle to “bring out the humanity” in Elrond. “I wanted it to feel desperate. I wanted it to feel mucky and slushy at times, but forward momentum that was pushing him.”
“And he makes it all the way to the wall, personally. You know what I mean? It’s not his skill that’s going there. It’s his desire, the fight inside of him.”
Elrond might have some fight in him, but Robert Aramayo might not. Before appearing in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the British actor played a younger version of Ned Stark on HBO‘s Game of Thrones. His one major scene was battling Ser Arthur Dayne (Luke Roberts) outside the Tower of Joy. Ironically, Aramayo said that the medieval fantasy fight sequence did nothing to prepare him for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2’s epic battles.
“I was terrible when we shot Game of Thrones,” he said with a chuckle. “And I was terrible at any kind of sword play.”
“So when they said that I was going to fight in the second season, I literally, purposefully lived essentially next door to the stunt gym,” he said. “I would be there every day that I was off, training and all this stuff.” Training and “all that stuff” to get Elrond realistically to that wall.