For all its sweeping action, The Rings of Power often reads like a romantic costume drama. Amazon’s Lord of the Rings prequel is all about Sauron’s rise to power — but it’s hard to ignore the undercurrent of romantic angst in the villain’s nefarious crusade.
Take Sauron’s (Charlie Vickers) arc in Season 1, as the disillusioned, darkly charming Halbrand. The Dark Lord managed to befriend Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and stoke some scintillating chemistry in the process. But when he revealed his true form, their bond was immediately fractured. The Rings of Power Season 2 depicts that fallout with all the anguish of a bad breakup.
Season 2 sees Sauron throwing all of his energy into a new pet project: creating those eponymous Rings of Power. He also gains a new (and even more toxic) situationship with the Elven smith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards). Galadriel, meanwhile, transfers her white-hot chemistry with Sauron to a new frenemy Adar (Sam Hazeldine), the father of the Uruks. There’s also that little matter of the kiss she shares with Elrond (Robert Aramayo), her future son-in-law, in the penultimate episode of Season 2. (Galadriel was kind of been busy this season.)
To the untrained eye, none of this should make a dent in the story at hand, but all this romantic subtext can get pretty distracting the longer The Rings of Power ignores a missing piece of Tolkien canon: Galadriel’s husband, Celeborn.
Who is Celeborn in Lord of the Rings?
In case anyone needed reminding, Galadriel is totally married. Or, at least, she was — it’s kinda complicated. Galadriel first mentioned her husband, who she believes to be dead, in The Rings of Power Season 1. Celeborn went off to fight against Sauron’s predecessor, Morgoth, and never returned. Galadriel’s brother, Finrod, also perished in that battle — though it’s telling that we see his body while Celeborn is still missing in action. It’s a clever loophole that allows the series to explore other emotional bonds for Galadriel, but Lord of the Rings fans know Celeborn can’t actually be dead.
Celeborn has a big role to play in the future. He notably becomes the lord of Lothlórien alongside Galadriel. The pair also have a daughter, Celebrían — Elrond’s future wife and the mother of Arwen, a major Lord of the Rings heroine. But even beyond his duties to future characters, Celeborn has a huge presence in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium. He plays an active role in both the First and Second Age of Middle-earth history — and notably appears in The Fellowship of the Ring, which is set during the Third Age — so it’s weird that The Rings of Power has removed him from the early chapters of Sauron’s rise.
Will Celeborn appear in Rings of Power Season 3?
Those familiar with Tolkien’s lore are understandably getting antsy, crafting theories that could potentially explain Celeborn’s absence. (The idea that Adar could, somehow, be an amnesiac Celeborn is the wildest one yet.) The Rings of Power’s co-creators, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, have of course been coy about the character’s potential return: in 2022, Payne told Esquire that Celeborn could “become important later on.” But how much longer will fans have to wait to see the Elven power couple in action?
As The Rings of Power wraps its second season, it’s coming even closer to the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Some mysteries have, thankfully, been solved, and the series has also set the stage for major landmarks (like Rivendell) and alliances to take shape. It’s admittedly exciting to watch the pieces fall into place, but without someone as major as Celeborn in the picture, none of this progress feels right. His absence is one of the series’ most glaring changes to Tolkien canon, and it needs to be remedied sooner rather than later. It’s not too late to introduce the character, but hopefully, Season 2 will be the last season without Celeborn. It may seem like hyperbole, but Middle-earth really won’t be the same without him.
