Elves (Galadriel) | Men | Enemies (Sauron | Adar) | Other Races
Adar
"We are creations of the One, Master of the Secret Fire, the same as you. As worthy of the breath of life and just as worthy of a home. Soon, this land will be ours, then you will understand."
"You have been told many lies. Some run so deep, even the rocks and roots now believe them. To untangle it all... would all but require the creation of a new world. But that is something only the gods can do. And I am no god. At least... Not yet."
One of the original Uruks who served under Sauron before later betraying him. He has since become the leader of the Orcs of the Southlands as he plots to expand their domain into something greater and more terrible.- Affably Evil: Adar's a chieftain of Orcs who treats them with respect. He's also polite and honorable enough to let Arondir go intact and with his weapons.
- Affectionate Nickname: He always refers to the Orcs as his children.
- After-Action Villain Analysis: Galadriel demands information from a captured Adar about Sauron's whereabouts, which he offers. Galadriel learns from him about Sauron's true goals of trying to gather the power of the unseen world by doing torturous experiments on the Orcs that followed in the Forodwaith. Adar relates further turning on Sauron and killing him for treating the Orcs so cruel, and later becoming their new leader. Galadriel has hard times believing what she is hearing and becomes infuriated at Adar, almost killing him in a fit of rage.
- Alien Blood: He bleeds black just like the Orcs do, showing him to be closer to an Orc than an Elf despite external appearances.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Despite being seemingly defeated by the Southlanders and Numenor's forces, Adar still wins in the end once Mt. Doom erupts, turning the Southlands into Mordor. The survivors have no choice but to flee, and the Orcs claim the lands for themselves.
- Ancient Evil: Adar is a corrupted Elf from Beleriand, which got destroyed centuries ago at the end of the First Age.
- Anti-Villain: Ultimately all he wants is to give his kin a place to call their own. It's just that he's got no qualms about destroying the lives of innocent people to achieve this goal.
- Ascended Meme: His appearance strongly resembles the majority of fanart depicting Sauron before he lost his glamour, which helps draw attention away from the real Sauron.
- Arch-Enemy: To Halbrand, who is Sauron in disguise, for betraying and killing him.
- The Bad Guy Wins: With the help of Waldreg, all of Adar's plans to create a home for the Uruk come to fruition. Orodruin erupts, covering the Southlands in smoke and volcanic ash.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Adar's deeds are cruel, but he's motives are understandable enough and there's little to suggest he would perform any more acts of cruelty after conquering the Southlands. And he just so happens to be the most elvish of the orcs.
- Beyond the Impossible: Adar, a simple Orc managed to slain Sauron personally, a powerful Maia. It's really just temporary, but nobody ever managed that blow in canon, expect for the Eru Iluvatar when He sank Numenor under the sea.
- Blemished Beauty: Adar is an intentional example to differentiate him from the other Orcs. He is the most Demihuman looking Orc in a Tolkien adapted work until now, and his looks are the first clue of their origins. He is a corrupted Elf from Beleriand and he kept many of his Elvish good looks intact despite some minor Body Horror, at worst being an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette. Presumably this holds true for every Elf that Morgoth corrupted, but after a long battle with countless deaths it's unlikely any of Adar's contemporaries are still alive.
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Sauron has a major grudge against Adar for splitting him open, only narrowly being dissuaded from giving him an Impromptu Tracheotomy by Galadriel reminding him that Vengeance Feels Empty. Adar, however, has no clue the man in front of him is Sauron is and tries to goad him by speculating what he could've done to make Halbrand hate him so much.
- Byronic Hero: Adar is driven to do the things he does only because he believes the Orcs need someone willing to stand up and fight for their place in a world that will always hate and fear them. He is a intelligent, charismatic, but a jaded Anti-Villain, and quite Tall, Dark, and Handsome for an Orc.
- Canon Immigrant: Not only is Adar exclusive to this series, but so is his race the Moriondor, who are a breed of orc that resemble Elves due to Morgoth's corruption not transforming them into monsters as was stated in previous works.
- Casting Gag: Joseph Mawle playing an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette with Facial Horror who got turned from their human form into something else entirely - are we talking about Adar or Benjen Stark?
- Creepy Monotone: Adar almost never changes the intonation of his voice, and speaks in a slow, wry half-whisper.
- Cryptic Conversation: His chat with Arondir largely consisted of Arondir asking questions and Adar giving the most enigmatic responses possible. He is not particularly forthcoming.
- Dark Is Evil: He has black hair and clothing, and is the leader of the Orc horde gathering in the Southlands.
- Dark Messiah: The orcs and traitors from Tirharad hold him in high reverence. His character fitting the Moses Archetype also cements his messianic status.
- Deadly Euphemism: Adar describes his method of killing Sauron to Galadriel as splitting him open. What he truly meant by that is not expanded on.
- Defector from Decadence: Downplayed with Adar and the Orcs who follow him. At some point before the show, Adar got tired to watch Sauron sacrificing his "children" for his experiments, and forms a new faction. The Orcs are still an Always Chaotic Evil race, but their only goal is to create a home for themselves rather then take over the world or cause mindless destruction like their former masters. They do fight the heroic faction in order to fulfill their goals.
- Determinator: Adar is willing to face all kind of odds be them even immortal beings and endure losing members of his kin he cares about to achieve his goals on the long run.
- Disguised Hostage Gambit: The Southlanders Adar got to join his side end up being used as canon fodders dressed as Orcs, and get themselves killed by their own people who believed they were fighting just Orcs the whole time.
- Distinctive Appearances: The Orcs' appearance got more corrupted over generations of breeding, making Adar more distinctive for being a first generation Orc, as he still looks like an Elf.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The palest character seen thus far, complete with raven-black hair.
- Establishing Character Moment: When Adar makes his first appearance on screen, he says no words for a few minutes, but it's the way he carries himself that establishes important things about his character. He is introduced as an Elf-orc hybrid, resembling Sauron more than Sauron himself, making other characters to wonder if he is the Dark Lord. The Orcs kneel when he appears, paying their respects to him. Before mercifully killing a badly wounded Orc in same scene, Adar caresses his head while being on the verge of tears for having to put down the orc, establishing him as an Anti-Villain leader of the Orcs who genuinely looks out after his kin, contrasting Morgoth and Sauron who traditionally only used them as pawns.
- Evil Counterpart: To Arondir. Both of them are from Beleriand, but Adar had the misfortune to fall victim to Morgoth and be turned into an Orc. Now, Adar seeks to destroy other people's homes to make a place for his kin, while Arondir protects those people against him.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: While pleasant-looking by Orcish standards, Adar does not has the fairness of the elves. Even looking past the facial scarring, his features appear quite weathered and malnourished. This was likely a result of his allegiance to Morgoth, though whether it's due to being mutilated or a side-effect of defecting to the dark side isn't made clear.
- Evil Virtues: Ambition (liberate the orcs and create a realm for them), Camaraderie (rebelling against Sauron for killing his offspring), Equality (recognises the orcs as just one more race among many).
- Facial Horror: His face is scarred by mysterious circumstances and he looks quite sickly.
- Fashionable Asymmetry: For some reason Adar only wears one gauntlet.
- A Father to His Men: The corrupted seemingly Elven leader of the Orcs. When mercy-killing a fatally wounded Orc, he shows genuine sadness. 'Adar' actually means 'father' in the Elvish language and they treat him with almost religious reverence. (As it turns out, it's literally true — he's one of the elves abducted and corrupted by Morgoth in order to spawn the orc race, making them his actual descendants.) Subverted for the men of the Southlands. He rewards Waldreg's loyalty to Sauron with a sucker punch and then prompts him to kill Rowan as a demonstration of his fealty, followed by making the Southlanders fight and kill each other with only a handful of orcs dying in the commotion.
- Femme Fatalons: A masculine example. His fingernails are long and unkempt.
- Flowers of Nature: Adar adheres to an ancient elven ritual of planting seeds before a battle, in the hope of something new growing after the war passes, showing that the Adar is still an Elf deep down.
- Foil: To Galadriel. Galadriel has blonde hair and wears white and silver, with unblemished youthful features. Adar has dark hair, dresses exclusively in black and has a haggard appearance. Galadriel travelled across Middle-earth to find Sauron, Adar travelled across Middle-earth to put Sauron's legacy behind him. Galadriel has a strained relationship with the other Elves that frequently causes her to disregard their opinions and even wellbeing, while Adar and the Orcs care about each other. Galadriel can be short-tempered towards her own allies, while Adar is capable of being fairly genteel towards his enemies.
- Frontline General: Downplayed with Adar, while he doesn't fight, he leads the attack of the Orcs against the Southlanders. He obtains a decisive victory against them and takes the Southlands for him and the Orcs.
- Gaussian Girl: Adar is introduced displaying this quality to show how the Orcs perceive him. He is the only character who is being blurred.
- Goal in Life: Adar's ultimate goal in life is to create a safe heaven for his kin where no evil lord will ever enslave them again, and he is determined to do anything, including terraforming, consequences be damned.
- Good Counterpart: While he is an evil and villainous counterpart to other characters, Adar is shown in a better light than Sauron when it comes to his treatment of Orcs. He physically resembles Sauron from the usual fanon depictions of him well enough for other characters to confuse them to his desperation. Sauron did torturous experiments on the Orcs in order to find a power with which he could install himself as God-Emperor over Middle-earth, whereas Adar killed Sauron for his misdeeds and became a kind leader to them. And while abhorrent and cruel, he terraformed the Southlands into Mordor to create a sustainable environment for the Orcs to thrive in rather than wanting to take over the world like Sauron.
- Hidden Depths: Despite initially appearing hostile to anything that has to do with Elves, he still adheres to some old Elvish traditions, like planting Elfirin seeds in the ground to appease the Vala Yavanna, symbolizing his hopes for a better future.
- Godhood Seeker: Adar notes it would take the powers of a god to achieve his goals, but he isn't a god... at least, not yet.
- Human All Along: The reveal that the chieftain of the Orcs is a former Elf from Beleriand, enslaved and corrupted into an Orc by Morgoth.
- Hostile Terraforming: Adar's plan is eventually revealed to be agitating the lava beneath Mount Doom so that it will erupt and blanket the Southlands in perpetual ash and darkness. Doing so destroys Bronwyn's village so her people are forced to leave.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Adar has deep piercing blue eyes, complementing his gauntly looks.
- Immortal Ruler: As the progenitor of the Orcs and a corrupted Elf, he has been alive for thousands of years, being at least as old as Celebrimbor's grandfather Feanor if not older.
- Insistent Terminology: He takes offence to the word "orc", insisting that the monstrous spawn of the elves Morgoth corrupted be called by their proper name, Uruk.
- Join or Die: Adar releases Arondir from imprisonment so he could deliver his terms to the Southlanders who took refugee in the Ostirith watchtower. He asks the Elf to inform the Southlanders he will allow them to live if they forsake their claim to the lands and swear fealty to him. Episode 6 shows him seemingly break this promise, as he used as cannon fodder the very Men who believed his word and joined his side, if only because he wasn't satisfied having only half of the Southlanders on his side.
- Kill the God: He "split Sauron open" at some point after Morgoth's defeat and Finrod's death but before the events of the show, having grown disillusioned with the Dark Lord after watching him sacrifice countless Orcs in his experiments into the Unseen World. At least, that's what he claims.
- Klingon Promotion: Adar killed Sauron off-screen and took control of the Orcs, who are very loyal to him.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: His conflict with Sauron is this. Adar is by no means a nice person, willing to destroy the lives of countless humans in order to create a homeland for the orcs and overseeing torture and forced labor; however, he doesn't share Sauron's goals of endless destructive conquest.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Adar may be an Orc, but as far as his physical appearance goes, he looks more like a dignified Elf than an Orc. Despite his scars and gauntly appearance, he is a Tall, Dark, and Handsome man who has long dark hair paired with a pale complex and Icy Blue Eyes.
- Looks Like Cesare: Adar is pale and gaunt with stringy black hair and dresses in dark attire.
- The Man Behind the Monsters: He's the leader of the Orcs and physically appears to be a slightly scarred and burned elf.
- Meaningful Name: Adar is a Sindarin word for "father". This is fitting, since he is one of the corrupted elves who were the forebears of the orcs.
- Mercy Kill: When he is introduced, Adar comforts a dying Orc by stroking his head before mortally stabbing him to end his suffering. He looks regretful for being forced to kill an underling whom he perceives as his own child.
- Monster Lord: Adar is the commandant of the Orcs, but he kept many of his noble Elvish features.
- Monster Progenitor: He's the father of the Orcs currently raiding the Southlands.
- Mordor: He is directly responsible for the creation of Mordor.
- Moses Archetype: Befitting the Christian nature of Tolkien's works where the Evil tries to corrupt the Good, Adar is a dark example of a Moses-like figure. He is a corrupted Elf, acting like a bridge between Elves and Orcs. He sees himself as a father figure to the Orcs, and his mission is to guide and give them a promised land, where they would not be treated as slaves anymore. He successfully turns the Southlands into the hellish-like Mordor with the help of Waldreg, who provokes the eruption of Mt. Doom.
- Mysterious Past: When Adar converses with Arondir, he alludes to to having been in Middle-earth since the First Age (or before) and having known the lost continent of Beleriand, but doesn't elaborate. It's eventually revealed that he's one of the elves corrupted by Morgoth, making him one of the very first Orcs.
- Natural Disaster Cascade: The terraforming of the Southlands extended past the mountain rages and into the plains where the Harfoots planned to set up camp, killing off several fruit-bearing trees.
- The Night That Never Ends: Due to orcs burning in the sun, Adar plotted to cover the Southlands with a massive volcanic cloud to counter this weakness. Said cloud would hang over the now-named Mordor for millennia afterwards.
- Noble Demon: Adar may be a ruthless Orc chieftain, but he plenty of Evil Virtues and is a father figure to his orcs.
- Non-Specifically Foreign: Adar comes from an unspecified part of Beleriand.
- Not Always Evil: Adar brings this ethical and moral problem while being questioned by Galadriel, by pointing out that as evil as they may be, they Orcs have same creator as the other races, and same right to life and a place to call home. In the end, is not their fault they were turned into creatures of darkness, who cannot stand in the sun, and left with the only option of taking other People's homelands by force.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Adar takes on Galadriel's threats and retorts that she sounds just as savage as any of his brethren or even Sauron himself.
- Off Screen Moment Of Awesome: He managed to kill one of the most powerful beings of Middle-Earth (albeit only temporarily).
- The Older Immortal: Adar is very likely the oldest non-deity in the series, given that Morgoth's first Orcs were created shortly after the Elves came into being.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: He is referred as Adar by the Orcs he leads, but Arondir asking him why is called "Adar" by Orcs indicates that his name is rather a title than his actual name. The Orcs dubbing him as "Lord Father" in the Common Tongue only cements this further.
- Order Is Not Good: How he defines Sauron's plans to impose perfect order on Middle-earth. He is proven right at the end of season one, when Sauron reveals his plans to rule over Middle-earth to Galadriel.
- Our Orcs Are Different: "Udûn" reveals that Adar is one of the Moriondor, Elves corrupted by Morgoth, making him a first-generation Orc.
- Papa Wolf: He considers the orcs his children and he cares a great deal for them, so much so that he actually went as far as to kill Sauron himself to protect them from his magical experiments. This also means that he has a strong hatred for the dark lord and being mistaken for him is a major Berserk Button.
- Plot Parallel: Adar's subplot to find a way for the Orcs to survive in Middle-earth is similar to Gil-galad's struggles to find a way to stop the Elves from fading away and survive for longer in Middle-earth.
- Red Herring: Arondir initially suspects him to be Sauron, and the Orcs' reverence of him, along with some of his own dialogue, suggest that this might be the case. However, his angered reaction to Waldreg calling him Sauron while swearing fealty to him indicates that he's someone else altogether, and it's later revealed that he actually killed Sauron, albeit temporarily.
- Red Right Hand: His face is visibly scorched by fire.
- Rousing Speech: With the speeches Adar gives, it is little wonder why the Orcs rallied behind him.Adar: My children, we have endured much. We cast off our shackles. Crossed mountain, field, frost and fallow 'till out feet bloodied the dirt. From Ered Mithrin to the Ephel Arnen, we have endured. Ye tonight, one more trial awaits us. Our enemy may be weak, their numbers meager..., yet before this night is through, some of us will fall. But for the first time, you do so not as unnamed slaves in far-away lands, but as brothers. Brothers and sisters in our home! This is the night we reach out the iron hand of the Uruk and close our fist around those lands.
- Sane Boss, Psycho Henchmen: Being Super Prototype Orc helped Adar keep most of his Elvish features intact. Adar is capable of outsmarting from Men to Maiar and stay at the top. His underlings are feral, animalistic and absolutely morally abhorrent, but still quite loyal to him.
- Shadow Archetype: To Gil-galad, which is reflected in their breastplates having the same design, with Adar's being black instead of gold. Both view other races as a means towards preserving their own, though Gil-galad will try to maintain at least a veneer of diplomacy while Adar turns to slavery and murder.
- Slave Brand: Not mentioned, but is strongly implied that the Sauron's mark on his left side, was done to mark Adar is a slave by either Morgoth or Sauron. And whenever he holds a speech, he always mentions the Orcs being formerly used as slaves by their evil masters in the past.
- Slave Liberation: This was Adar's intention when he betrayed Sauron. He got tired of seeing his kin enslaved and used as lab rats and decided to take fate in his own hands and raise against a godly being. He sees the Orcs as worthy of freedom as any other Race and hates when someone calls them slaves.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Adar is very calm and soft-spoken despite the visceral horror he's overseeing. He speaks almost in a whisper.
- Spikes of Villainy: He wears a spiked black gauntlet, reminiscent of Sauron's armour.
- The Starscream: In "Udûn", he reveals that he got fed up with Sauron sacrificing Orcs to experiment with dark magic, and slew the dark Maia — or at least Sauron's physical form — before leading his troops to claim the Southlands as their own.
- The Stoic: He manages to keep his cool during some fairly stressing situations, such as mercy-killing one of his own, getting stabbed in the hand and having one of his captors threaten to slaughter his offspring before his very eyes.
- The Strategist: Despite being an Orc, Adar outmaneuvered beings and factions far more powerful than him. He found a way to kill a Maia and took his army of Orcs with him, carefully planned for decades if not centuries to take over the Southlands, and secretly instructs Waldreg to provoke the eruption of Orodruin. All of his plans to create Mordor come to fruition.
- Super Prototype: Adar is one of the first Orcs created by Morgoth, but unlike most of his kind, Adar somehow managed to keep most of Elvish features intact, such as his high intelligence and ability to stay in the sun.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: While Adar is scarred and slightly deformed, he still somehow managed to keep most of his beautiful Elvish features intact. He is tall, mysterious, has long black hair and soulful blue eyes.
- Tender Tears: His eyes are visibly misty when he has to mercy kill one of his offspring, with the reassuring smile he gives showing a degree of sensitivity otherwise unexpected from a leader of orcs.
- Tragic Villain: Adar has a Mysterious Past, but there are a few clues about his story. He was once a an Elf from Beleriand, but under unknown circumstances, he was enslaved and turned into an orc by Morgoth, though he still kept most of his Elvish features intact. And later, he possibly served under Sauron, whom he betrayed to save the Orcs from his odious experiments. He then went underground and worked on trying to create a home for the Orcs, destroying instead other people's lives in the process.
- Tranquil Fury: Comparing or mistaking him for Sauron is the one thing that could strongly anger the otherwise stoic and taciturn Adar. Waldreg does this upon meeting him for the first time, and Adar, feeling insulted, gives Waldreg an angry look, than grabs him by the neck and violently knocks him to the ground without saying a single word. And if that wasn't enough, he takes his anger further on Rowan and demands Waldreg to kill the boy in order to prove his loyalty.
- Turned Against Their Masters: At some point, the Orc Adar turned against Sauron and killed him for his cruel treatment of the Orcs, and then took the reigns over the Orcs after Sauron's demise. Unlike Sauron and Morgoth before him, Adar truly cares about the Orcs and wants to create a permanent home for them.
- Two-Faced: Adar's left side has many malformations, scars, and Sauron's mark branded on his face, while his right side is more fair.
- Übermensch: Adar is an Anti Villainous example. He is a former Elf who got turned into an Orc by Morgoth and then enslaved. None of those things stopped him from rebelling. He turned against and killed Sauron when Sauron start abusing the Orcs like Morgoth did, and decided to lead his kin to a better future. He believes that Orcs are worth of being alive and forging their own path just as much as the other Races of Middle-earth, no matter how abhorrent and evil they are, because to him the Orcs are his children. He also show signs of being Godhood Seeker while talking to Arondir, but is quite ambiguous what he truly meant by telling Arondir that he seeks godhood or why.
- Undying Loyalty: The Orcs led by Adar are shown to be very loyal to him and treat him with reverence. Adar also cares to a great deal about them, and is a father figure to the Orcs. This is in deep contrast with their previous leaders, Morgoth and Sauron, whom the Orcs served out of fear.
- The Unfettered: Adar is so committed to his goal to create a home for his kin that he literally terraformed Middle-earth by provoking the eruption of Orodruin and creating Mordor in the process.
- The Usurper: Adar rebelled against Sauron years before Galadriel caught up to either of them.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Adar terraformed the Southlands into Mordor because his kin can thrive only in places deprived of sun. And for the Orcs, a place like Mordor, free of sun but also of enslaving Evil Lords, is an utopia.
- Vague Age: Adar specifies that he is from Beleriand. He is the progenitor of the Moriondor, but other than that, his age is pretty vague, other than him being one of the oldest if not the oldest Orc alive.
- Villain Ball: Not too bad as he is a chessmaster and a careful planner most of the time, but him just letting go to Arondir together with his weapons to deliver his terms to the Southlanders is this. Had he not released Arondir, Arondir wouldn't have saved Theo from the Orcs, who had in his care Morgoth's tilt that Adar wanted to use for setting off Orodruin's eruption in the first place.
- Villain Has a Point: It's hard to disagree with Adar when he says that orcs, no matter how abhorrent they are, have an intrinsic right to exist, or to have a homeland, or that it's wrong to dehumanize them and deny they have a soul like any other Demihuman race on Arda. Indeed, Galadriel often overlooks the fact that plenty of humans willingly sided with Morgoth of their own volition.
- Villainous Cheekbones: He has inhumanly prominent cheekbones that give his face an almost skeletal flair.
- Visionary Villain: Ever since usurping and killing Sauron, Adar had a single goal in his mind: create a home for his kin. He is ambitious and patient, and enjoys blind loyalty from the Orcs. Of course, the villain part comes from him being an Orc who has no qualms murdering, torturing and leaving other people without their home in order to create one for the Orcs. At the end of season one, he turns the Southlands into Mordor and install himself as the new Evil Overlord, if a benevolent one to the Orcs.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Adar just wants to create a permanent home for the Orcs, so they can leave their underground bases and live on the surface again. To make this happen though, he enslaved and killed many innocent people and terraformed the Southlands into Mordor.
- What Measure Is a Mook?: He argues with Galadriel on the behalf of the Orcs, bringing valid arguments like them being too living, thinking beings, who should have same rights to live and prosper as any other Races, at least one of whom allied with Morgoth in the past and were still allowed to have a place to live. And since nobody wants to accept those facts, he will enforce those beliefs, consequences be damned.
