One Thing That Rings of Power Finale Did Not Bother to Explain
Remember the bizarre white-cloaked witch ladies?
Since the beginning of season 1 of The Rings of Power, the three witchery ladies rocking devious white outfits and looking generally ominous were one of the big mysteries. Some people even though that one of them was a Sauron in disguise, even triggering fears that Amazon went as far as gender-swapping the main Middle-earth villain.
Well, the reality turned out to be less scandalous but just as much underwhelming... because we never actually got to know who the albino ladies even were.
In episode 9, titled Alloyed, the enigmatic trio found the Stranger and referred to him as Lord Sauron — by mistake, as we got to know later in the episode. They apparently believed that the bearded Stranger who fell from the stars was no other but the dark wizard himself, and they invited him to go to Rhun to learn and master his powers. But the Stranger begged to differ: he told them he was "good", and basically wiped them out with his magic.
When they died, the ladies seemed to look like Nazgul — some kind of ghost skeletons in cloaks that would appear in front of Frodo when he put on the Elden ring in the original movie trilogy. Still, their origin remains unclear — just like their goal.
Fans doubt that they are actually Nazgul, because those were mortal kings who got corrupted by their rings, while in this show, all rings are yet to be forged.
"If they plan to be coherent with this plotline I'd say they are something like a cult that is part of the threat the blue wizards went east to fight," Redditor Supersnow845 suggested.
Others simply complained that "there is no explanation for anything in this show" — a complaint that is quite reasonable, given that The Rings of Power did not bother to tell virtually anything about the witches (aside from the fact that they are from Rhun).
"In Tolkien's auxiliary material he alludes to the presence of dark magic cultists and worshippers of Melkor in the East, in Rhûn. These "witches" dressed very cult like and carrying a bunch of vaguely Melkor/Sauron iconography are from Rhûn... otherwise, they're dead. They are not so much a mystery as instead the Strangers mission to the East is," Redditor Codus1 explained.
It would appear that one still has to delve into the source material authored by Tolkien in order to navigate oneself in The Rings of Power universe — even though the Amazon show is not exactly based on any certain book by the author.
Still, there are four more seasons for Amazon to explore the many unresolved issues they have left after season 1. The work on the second season is already underway, with the premiere date to be announced later.