Rings Of Power turned a legendary Elf into Jar Jar Binks
Mesa think Celebrimbor bad bombin', okeyday?
Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor (Photo: Ross Ferguson/Prime Video)
Now that the mystery of who Sauron is has been cleared, The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power can relish in seeing the Dark Lord Sauron live up to his name by tricking everyone into doing his bidding and bringing doom to Middle-earth. He’s fooled the Orcs into marching on the Elven city of Eregion, weakening both sides, and he’s fooled Lord Celebrimbor into giving him the Rings he will eventually use to try and conquer the continent. The biggest tragedy of season two is that of Celebrimbor, the Elf considered the best smith in the Second Age yet one whose legacy is tarnished by the incredible death and destruction caused by his greatest creation: the Rings of Power. Though his ultimate legacy is something akin to that of Oppenheimer (Oppenbrimbor, perhaps?), the character as portrayed by Charles Edwards in Rings Of Power brings to mind a different tragic figure, one of the most hated characters in Star Wars. That’s right, Rings Of Power has its own Jar Jar Binks.
We all remember the goofy, slapstick comedic powers of Jar Jar. He was the Gungan who got banished by his own people for being “clumsy” and caused plenty of headaches to everyone around him. His most important moment came in Attack Of The Clones, when Jar Jar, now a senator, essentially brings about the Empire single-handedly. He is tricked by Palpatine into proposing an act that would give him emergency powers in order to establish a grand army of the Republic to fight the Separatists. It was this act that allowed Palpatine to extend the war long enough to implement Order 66, eradicate the Jedi, and then turn the Republic into the Galactic Empire. Though Jar Jar has no idea of the ramifications of this act, he falls for it because Palpatine appeals to his good nature and to the fact that he was entrusted with acting as Padmé’s representative while she was flirting with Anakin about sand. Jar Jar genuinely thinks he is doing something good, that he’s providing an army to save his friends Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padmé, just as he did when he helped convince the Gungans to fight alongside the Naboo in the first movie.
Likewise, there is good reason for Celebrimbor to initially trust Sauron, who is disguised as Annatar the Lord of Gifts. For one, he knows that his first three Rings quite literally saved Elvenkind from annihilation. Secondly, when the guy he knew as Halbrand does a magic trick and turns into the Elf-like Annatar and says he is a messenger from the Valar, it’s easy to see Celebrimbor trusting him. The Valar are essentially god-like guardians of Middle-earth who the Elves not only believe in but many (including Celebrimbor) actually lived with when they took physical form, as the Valar even fought alongside the Elves in battle. When Annatar begins to suggest making more Rings for other races, Celebrimbor agrees as he wants to help his Dwarven friends in the neighboring Khazad-dûm after an earthquake destroyed infrastructure, withered crops, and threatened the Dwarves’ livelihoods. Of course Celebrimbor would try to provide aid so the Dwarves could take control of their mountain, purifying it like the Elven Rings did to the glowing tree in Lindon.
Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor, Amelia Kenworhty as Mirdania (Photo: Ben Rothstein/Prime Video)
Unlike Jar Jar, however, whose role in the rise of Palpatine wasn’t exactly that well known immediately after the Emergency Powers Act (and who didn’t realize what he had done until much, much later), Celebrimbor became aware rather early. In this season’s fifth episode, he understands that the Rings are flawed and are corrupting the Dwarves, and the thought breaks him. He caves in and agrees to Annatar’s logic that the only way to counter the Dwarven Rings’ corruption is by making even more Rings, because the alternative—that he betrayed and lied to his own kind, imbuing the Rings with deceit—is too horrible and painful to consider.
Celebrimbor acts out of an initial desire to do something good and create lasting works of beauty and craftsmanship that could save Elvenkind (though not without pride and a desire to surpass his grandfather who created the Silmarils). And yet, as Annatar tells Celebrimbor in this week’s episode when the smith finally realizes that Annatar is actually Sauron and tries to fight back, the whole world will know that it was Celebrimbor who made the tools of their own destruction. His legacy is not of beauty or craftsmanship, but death and pain and suffering, and he pays for this. First, there’s the demolition of his home and the killing of his friends. Then he cuts his own thumb to try to escape from Sauron’s grasp, only to be captured yet again. Jar Jar also wanted to be as brave as his friends yet ended up causing the worst evil the Galaxy had seen in millennia. Because of his role in the rise of the Empire, Jar Jar was exiled by his people (again), eventually becoming a clown performing in the streets of the Naboo capital of Theed, an ostracized creature living in shame whose name is never uttered out loud by either Gungans or the Naboo.
Granted, their fates are nevertheless fitting punishments for what still amounts to great sins. Aware or not, clumsy or willing, both did bring about unspeakable horror to their respective worlds. But one of the most entertaining aspects of Rings Of Power season two, particularly the first half before Celebrimbor realizes he’s been played, is seeing him as sort of a teenager in a slasher movie: someone who deserves the gruesome death that is likely coming their way but nevertheless makes you feel a bit sad for them.