The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power / Sandbox

Character page for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. All spoilers are unmarked.

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Elves

Elves in General

Became Their Own Antithesis: The elves look down upon dwarves for being secretive and materialistic. As Elrond eventually discovers, his superiors Gil-galad and Celebrimbor were playing on his friendship with Durin so they could get their hands on the treasures of the dwarf mines.
Costume Porn: The Lindon Elves are all beautifully dressed, sporting robes in rich colours and aged gold, as well as elaborate silver armour that has an organic, lyrical feel. The Elves of the Southlands Watch, while less embellished, sport armour incorporating a bold Green Man / Jack-in-the-Green pattern across the chest.
Elves Versus Dwarves: During the First Age, King Thingol of the Teleri Elves made an alliance with the Dwarves in the battles against the Orc forces. However, Thingol's passion for Silmarils — gems crafted in the First Age from essence of the Two Trees of Valinor — led to the deterioration of the relationship between the races when he commissioned the Dwarves of Belegost to create a necklace into which a Silmaril gem could be set. Realising the beauty of what they'd crafted, the Dwarves refused to give up the necklace, which led to an escalating conflict that's still bubbling away in the Second Age.
Gold and White Are Divine: The Elves of Lindon are mostly dressed in Ethereal White Dresses with golden applications. Lindon itself is surrounded by a forest of birch trees with leaves that are golden all the time.
Proud Warrior Race: They are fearless and highly disciplined warriors and, in the Second Age, at the height of their power. The Elvish race has been fighting against the dark forces of Morgoth for millennia.
Screw You, Elves!: The Elves have very few friends at the dawn of the Second Age. The Dwarves resent them for letting the old friendships lapse, the non-Numenorian humans hate them as conquerors over the fact that they fought on opposite sides in the great war of the First Age, the Numenorians have severed ties with the Elves for unspecified reasons, and while the Harfoots don't have anything against the Elves specifically, they distrust all non-Harfoots equally.
The Stoic: The Elves are a very stoic people, rarely losing their composure (even when in the midst of battle) and they speak in a slower and more measured way than the other races depicted.
Superior Species: Elves are immortal and don't age after they reach adulthood. They're also generally more beautiful, more magical, and more agile, with heightened senses, compared to Middle-earth's mortal races.
Super-Senses: Although the show downplays this most of the time, the Elves have superhuman eyesight, hearing and other senses, including varying degrees of precognitive intuition.
Time Abyss: As immortal beings, they don't even reach adulthood until age 50 at a minimum, and continue to be gloriously beautiful and youthful for their whole lives. Only their eyes show their full age.
Your Days Are Numbered: The Elves are said to be gradually fading, with the unhealthy trees showcasing that the light of the Eldar is dissapearing.

Valinor

Galadriel

"Sometimes to find the light, we must first touch the darkness."

Portrayed by: Morfydd Clark (adult), Amelie Child-Villiers (child)

"The company I led mutinied against me, my closest friend conspired with the King to exile me$ and each of them acted as they did because I believe they could no longer distinguish me from the evil I was fighting."

A legendary elven warrior who has made it her mission to hunt down and eradicate evil in Middle-earth.

Action Girl: Galadriel is one of the most assertive elves. This is hinted at in her childhood when she launches herself at a bratty fellow Elf for ruining her paper boat, and is intensified when Sauron kills her brother $ an event that hardens her further into a fierce and skilled warrior and drives her quest. Early on in the first episode, she establishes her combat credentials when she makes short work of a rampaging snow troll who was wiping the floor with her squad of elite elven soldiers.
Actually Pretty Funny: She usually has very little to smile about, being on a deadly mission to take down evil in Middle-earth and all, but shes very clearly amused when she witnesses her good friend Elrond mouthing along to the words of a speech hed written for Gil-galad in the first episode.
Adaptational Angst Upgrade: This version focuses much more on the sort of world-weary sorrow that a long-lived being such as Galadriel could have. The loss of her brother Finrod Felagund in particular weighs on her with much more emphasis than it ever did in the canon (or in Galadriel's case, canons).
Adaptational Dumbass: In the lore, Galadriel was suspicious of Annatar, who was Sauron in disguise, pretty much the second she met him. Here, she developed feelings for Halbrand, an identity forged by Sauron, and only found out who he was after finding evidence that he was lying about his identity. What's worse is that even after after finding this out, she decides to keep it a secret out of shame, even though Sauron knows that the Elves were going to forge the Rings of Power.
Adaptational Villainy: Tolkien's Galadriel never advocates for a Final Solution to the orcish problem. In the series, she tells Adar she'll kill them to the last and save him for the end, so he can see the slaughter. She is aware of the darkness that the quest has created in her and seems extremely troubled by it, counselling Theo in the next episode not to take vengeance to heart and not to say that killing orcs is a good thing.
Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Up until episode 7 there was no indication that she is married to Celeborn like in the source material. While their precise history is a Continuity Snarl within the Legendarium, its generally agreed their relationship started in the First Age, while here he's noticeably absent. However, it is later revealed by Galadriel that she is married to Celeborn but that he disappeared after going to war many centuries ago and she has never seen him since.
All Girls Like Ponies: When Elendil mentions riding to the Hall of Lore, Galadriel gets excited. Next scene is a slow motion shot of her smiling and enjoying her riding.^{In the legendarium...}
Authority Equals Asskicking: Galadriel is the Commander of High-King Gil-galad's Northern Armies and is easily one of the best, if not the best and most skilled warrior in the series, easily dispatching a snow troll in the first episode, fighting against several Numerorean recruits in one go and easily winning, and then also dispatching orcs left, right and centre while pulling graceful acrobatic stunts on her horse during the Battle for the Southlands.
Badass Boast: She gives one of these to Queen Regent Míriel, clearly displaying her fiery Noldorin pride, after the queen refuses to aid her mission to rid the Southlands of the orcs, promptly afterwards being thrown into jail for sedition.
Galadriel: There is a tempest in me, one that has swept me to this island, and it will not be quelled by the likes of you, Regent!
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Galadriel wanders Middle-earth for centuries through various elements and swims across the ocean, yet her fair features are never weathered.
Big Brother Worship: She looked up to her older brother, Finrod, and his death drives all her actions in the present.
Blade Enthusiast: Galadriel's most prized possession is a dagger that belonged to her brother.
Broken Bird: She's suffering from clear PTSD due to all her experiences and losses during the War of the Jewels, and believes that wiping out the last remains of evil from the face of the earth is the only way to feel at peace again.
Braids of Action: She styles her hair in a long braid during battles.
Byronic Hero: A rarer female example. This version of Galadriel is not the Big Good she usually is in the books; she is proud, arrogant, unyielding, and driven by her desire for revenge. She has a darker side, lapsing into She Who Fights Monsters territory, including desiring the extermination of all the Orcs, which she considers abominations, along with wanting to torture Adar by forcing him to watch, taking such pleasure in doing so that Adar considers her worthy of being Morgoth's successor. Despite this, in private with Halbrand she reveals a more emotionally vulnerable side when the pair open up to one another about their pasts and traumas.
The Cassandra: At the start of the show Galadriel is completely insistent that Sauron and his evil isnt gone from Middle-earth and asks Gil-galad to be given a fresh company and his permission to continue searching. Shes right, of course, but is roundly dismissed by both Gil-galad and Elrond, who then attempt to send her back to Valinor to stop her quest in its tracks.
Composite Character: This version of Galadriel appears to have a number of similarities with her uncle Fëanor compared to her literature version. She is much more martial, Hot-Blooded, brash, arrogant and aggressive, less diplomatic about what she wants and prone to Didn't Think This Through. She is also steadily slipping into She Who Fights Monsters territory in her zealous hunt for Sauron, after he murdered her brother Finrod, as Fëanor did in his hunt for Morgoth and the stolen Silmarils, with it being It's Personal between them after Morgoth murdered his father.
Commanding Coolness: She is the Commander of the Northern Armies. She is often addressed as commander by other characters.
Cool Horse: When in Númenor, Galadriel is given a beautiful pure white Camarillo horse which remains her mount for the remainder of the first season, accompanying her into battle in the Southlands.
Cynicism Catalyst: The murder of her older brother by Sauron's hand instigates her to descent into hardened cynicism and drives her obsessive quest to find Sauron and kill him, even at the cost of her own men.
Dance Battler: Galadriel demonstrates her combat prowess when testing the Númenorean recruits with fluid, dance-like motions that let her run circles around her opponents effortlessly, even as they try attacking her all at once.
Determinator: She's willing to push further in the Northern Waste than any other expedition at the risk of her own and her followers' lives in order to find a smallest clue of Sauron's whereabouts. Later she jumps ship heading to the Undying Lands in the middle of the ocean rather than leave her task undone, apparently intending to swim all the way back to Middle-earth.
Did Not Think This Through: She has a tendency to take the direct approach to problems without fully considering the consequences. An example is when she requests resources from Númenor and, when she doesn't get them, proceeds to disrespect Queen Regent Míriel and demand to speak to the king. The end result of this is her being jailed for sedition.
Elemental Eye Colors: Galadriel as a character is heavily associated with the concept of water (her Ring of Power is Nenya, the ring of water and she has a strong pull to the sea and water in general being half Teler) and her eyes are a clear, bright blue.
Establishing Character Moment: The first time we meet Galadriel in the prologue, shes only a young child but is already getting into a scuffle with another bratty elf child who deliberately sinks her paper boat, pushing him to the ground and moving as if to punch him before shes stopped by Finrod. This seems to be a common occurrence as a clearly amused Finrod asks, "Did you lose your footing again, Galadriel?"
The Exile: Gil-galad granting her the right to return to Valinor is presented to the court as a reward, and to most of her men it probably is, but in her case it comes across as a way of getting rid of her so that she'll stop pushing to continue the pursuit of Sauron.
God Save Us from the Queen!: Galadriel fears she will become this if she accepts Saurondarkness within herself created by her extremely bitter, centuries long quest for vengeance against Sauron. This also foreshadows her temptation speech in The Lord of the Ringsem> where she echoes Saurons own words to her about being fair as the sea and the sun and stronger than the foundations of the earth and envisions herself becoming a great and terrible queen if she takes the One Ring for herself.
Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Never wears a helmet to go along with her suit of armor, even while doing battle against Orcs in the Southlands.
Heroic BSoD: She suffers a brief one after the reveal that her good friend and companion (not to mention possible Love Interest) Halbrand has been her mortal enemy Sauron in disguise all along, and is then subjected to a vicious Mind Rape by Sauron himself. When she's first rescued from the water by Elrond, she very nearly kills him with her dagger before he manages to convince her that he isn't also Sauron in disguise.
Hide Your Otherness: While in Númenor, she is able to conceal her elf nature and pass off as human by covering her Pointy Ears.
Hot-Blooded: Displays impatience and persistence in getting her way, usually forgoing restraint and diplomacy for a direct approach.
I Choose to Stay: The climax of the first episode features Galadriel turning away from the equivalent of Heaven and returning to Middle-earth to carry out The Promise she made to her dead brother: to find Sauron and vanquish him.
Implied Love Interest: By the episode Udûn, Galadriel appears to have formed a very deep bond with Halbrand, the two even seeming to confess their feelings for each other following the Battle for the Southlands, though whether their sentiment is meant to be romantic or platonic is left up in the air as they are swiftly interrupted. The constant Ship Tease between the characters, held gazes and setup of the scene seem to strongly indicate the former though.
Galadriel: Thank you$ for pulling me back.
Halbrand: It was you who pulled me back first.
Galadriel: Whatever it was he did to you, and whatever it is that you did, be free of it.
Halbrand: I never believed I could beuntil today. Fighting at your side, I I feltIf I could just hold on to that feeling, keep it with me always, bind it to my very being, then I
Galadriel: I felt it too.
It's Personal: Her bitter, unending hunt for and quest for vengeance against Sauron started after he was directly responsible for the torture and murder of her older brother, Finrod, who she clearly idolised.
Jeanne d'Archétype: As opposed to being a Madonna Archetype like in the books, this Galadriel carries herself like a seasoned military leader. Like most examples, maidenhood is a crucial characteristic of the archetype and Galadriel's name does mean "maiden crowned with a garland of bright radiance". She$s blonde, and wears Battle Ballgown type of armour, which takes a few cues from different popular paintings of Jeanne D'arc in armour, like the 1865 Joan of Arc work by Sir John Everett Millais, Joan of Arc by Charles-Amable Lenoir and the 1854 Joan of Arc at the Coronation of Charles VII by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. She has faced many wars since she was a child, and after the death of her brother, she aims to defeat Sauron and defend Middle-earth from his evil, but unlike her inspiration, Galadriel is driven by her desire for vengeance rather than altruism. In the end, Galadriel ends up being deceived by Sauron, just like it happened to Jeanne D'arc.
Knight Templar: She is called out several times on how the actions of her anti-Sauron crusade makes her no different from a villain.
Lady of War: Galadriel often appears in full armor, still looking as elegant and regal as you would expect from a future Queen of the Elves. When battling the snow-troll, she flips around it with graceful precision, taking it down with a series of perfectly timed strikes.
"Leave Your Quest" Test: She$s faced with two of these in the first season alone. Firstly when Gil-galad 'rewards' her with the gift of putting up her sword and being able to sail home to Valinor, secondly when Sauron offers to make her his queen so that she can rule Middle-earth by his side. She refuses both.
Light Is Not Good: She is heavily associated with the concept of light being the future Lady of Light herself, it$s that very aspect of her that Sauron wants to bind to himself for eternity. However, Galadriel is not a pure and incorruptible person by any means and displays many almost villainous qualities due to how jaded, cynical and Hot-Blooded the long quest for vengeance has made her.
Like Brother and Sister: Galadriel and Elrond have a very close platonic bond as friends, having known each other for centuries since Elrond was a young orphan half-elf boy and Galadriel took pity on him and gave him water.
Living Legend: She's already well-known by the events of the series due to her deeds during the war against Morgoth. Even in the Elf-hating Númenor, Isildur recognises her name as that of the "scourge of the orcs".
The Lost Lenore: After being conspicuously unmentioned in relevant situations for several episodes, she reveals in episode 7 that her husband Celeborn went missing after going to war many centuries ago and he hasn't been seen since.

Master Swordswoman: She is an incredible sword fighter, being able to take on numerous Numernorean army recruits in one go without even breaking a sweat, dancing nimbly around them and easily dodging their hits, even Dual Wielding two swords at one point.
Mayfly–December Romance: Played With. This would have been the case with her and Halbrand if he was a real person and romance had blossomed, with Galadriel being an immortal elf who is over 3000 years old and Halbrand being a short-lived mortal human. With Halbrand revealed to be Sauron in disguise, this is then flipped with he, as a maiar, being vastly older than even her, having existed since the creation of the universe itself.
Meaningful Name: The name Galadriel means "maiden crowned by a radiant garland" or "maiden crowned in bright radiance" which is a reference to her infamously beautiful long silver-golden hair which, according to Tolkien, she would often bind up on the top of her head like a crown when taking part in athletic feats.
Mind Rape: Sauron submits her to this in the season one finale, taking her through a traumatising vision sequence, firstly posing as her beloved older brother Finrod (while looking at her like no brother should ever look at his sister), then proposing marriage to her in the most manipulative way possible while showing her a reflected image of them together as the king and queen of Middle-earth. When she rejects him, he finishes up by showing his terrifying true colors, screaming at her in Voice of the Legion and then making her believe that she's drowning in the ocean — just like the first time she met Halbrand — and she may have actually drowned if it wasn$t for Elrond pulling her out of the water.
Mirror Character: Galadriel and Sauron in many ways are almost mirror opposites, Sauron representing darkness and fire where Galadriel represents light and water. There are, however, also many similarities between the two, something which Galadriel becomes increasingly aware of and horrified to realise during the first season. Theya> who are not above using others to get what they want, and they both have a desire to rule and have influence over others. Its these qualities that make Sauron see her as worthy of being his queen, as he believes he can see her greatness and her power where her fellow elves can$t.
Motifs: Mirror and reflections for Galadriel, mirroring her struggle with her own darkness while trying to stay a good person.
In the first episode while searching the frozen fortress, she comes across a wall of ice where she sees her own reflection. After a few second she punches the ice with her reflection because she doesn't want to see what she has become. At the end episode as she is about to enter in Valinor she stares at her brother's dagger, literally shining on her face, and jumps into the water.
In episode 6, Adar suggests to Galadriel that her search for Morgoth's successor should've ended in her own mirror.
And in episode 8, after trapping her into an illusion with him, Sauron shows Galadriel her own a possible future where she stays at his side.
Morality Chain: She and Halbrand appear to share this role for one another, with Halbrand stopping her from executing Adar when she flies into a rage while interrogating him, drawing her back from She Who Fights Monsters territory. She has no interest in being the morality chain for Sauron, however.
Moral Myopia:
Adar notes that Galadriel's drive for vengeance makes her just as bad as Sauron, as both are willing to slaughter the entire orc race to fulfill their ambitions.
Galadriel wants revenge on Sauron for killing her brother long ago. She also tells Halbrand not to let his Dark and Troubled Past define his worth as a person. He points out her inconsistency once she figures out he's Sauron in human form.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It turns out that Gil-Galad was right in his fears about Galadriel. By doggedly pursuing her revenge against Sauron, she first saved him from dying at sea, then she convinced Númenor to send him back to the Southlands with an army so he could be its king, and finally brought him into proximity with Celebrimbor, whose crafting skills he needed to create rings. She also proceeds with the creation of the Three as weapons to counter him, but these themselves will be a double-edged sword.^note It's also unclear if she's going to tell anyone that she personally delivered Sauron back.
Opening Monologue: Just like in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Galadriel gives the opening monologue of the series, detailing her idyllic childhood in Valinor, Morgoth destroying the Two Trees of Valinor, the elves going to Middle-earth to hunt down the fled Morgoth, the War of Wrath, Morgoth$s defeat and finally the hunt for his second in command, Sauron.
Princess Protagonist: Galadriel is a Noldorin Princess, as a daughter of King Finarfin, and the driving force of the plot.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Halbrand's blue. She is much more direct, overtly emotional, brash and passionate in her personality and about how she approaches problems and matters, forgoing subtlety and diplomacy more often than not.
Refusing Paradise: As the Elven ship carrying her and her companions approaches Valinor, a vast cloud bank pulls back, the Elves are flooded with golden light, and they begin to pass over into what is essentially Heaven. Despite Thondir's pleading, Galadriel pulls away, diving overboard before she ascends, her mission not yet complete.
Royal Blood: She is true elven royalty, being descended from the kings of not just one, but three different elven races. Her paternal grandfather was Finwë, the High-King of the Noldorin elves in Valinor, her maternal grandfather is Olwë, the High-King of the Telerin elves in Valinor, and her paternal grandmother, Indis, is the kin of Ingwë, not just the High-King of the Vanyarin elves, but the High-King of all elves.
Rule of Three: Galadriel tells Celebrimbor that they should forge three rings of power instead of two, stating that three rings would keep hold a greater balance of power than just two.
Saved by Canon: We know she will survive this series because of her appearance in The Lord of the Rings.
Secret-Keeper: She keeps Halbrand's schemes to herself and doesn't reveal to anybody the identity of Sauron or that he has returned and was among the Elves, which is by far the most serious event since the fall of Morgoth. Sauron mentions the repercussions of having being deceived into aiding and abetting the dark lord could be harsh for her if the Elves find out.
Secretly Selfish: Several characters accuse her of pursuing the enemy not out of duty, but her own pride and vengeance.
She-Fu: Galadriel exhibits Legolas levels of agility while fighting the snow troll and sneaking around the city of Armenelos in Númenor.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: She cannot see the world as anything other than a battlefield anymore. Unfortunately, she's also right, but she becomes more and more aware that it has done her a great deal of emotional damage. While traveling alone with Theo after Orodruin erupts, Galadriel's conversations with him all add up to "do not become like me."
She Who Fights Monsters: At Halbrand's questioning, she tearfully reveals that she fears this aspect of her personality, in her zeal to pursue the forces of darkness and Sauron, and that she believes the rest of her people think this of her. Further demonstrated when she makes it clear to Adar, during his interrogation, that she looks forward to committing genocide against the Orcs while he is Forced to Watch those he considers to be his children die by her hands. Adar is unphased, and suggests that she herself is a worthy candidate as Morgoth's successor, with the darkness taking a hold of her as well.
Ship Tease: One is implied and seems to be forming between her and Halbrand, between him coming back for her in the ocean after leaving the rest of his companions for dead, saving her life when she nearly drowns, their frequent bickering, him retrieving her beloved dead brother's dagger for her when it is taken from her, their Held Gaze moments, quiet conversations and her evident determination to redeem him alongside herself by working together to retake the Southlands from Sauron's Orc forces and reclaim his kingdom, believing they are bound together by something greater than destiny. This quickly falls apart after he reveals himself to be an incognito Big Bad Sauron.
Ship Sinking: Any possible romance between Galadriel and Halbrand is however destroyed completely in the season one finale as Halbrand doesnem>, hes actually Sauron in disguise who reveals his true self to Galadriel after she finds out that the Southlands haven$t had a king for over 1000 years and she confronts him about his true identity.
Smug Smiler: Her superlative combat skill is underscored with a smirk of superiority whenever she soundly beats adversaries, from several inexperienced recruits at once to a mighty troll.
Spirited Young Lady: Young Galadriel has all the refinement expected from an elvish woman, but she is also bold and impulsive. She defies Gil-galad's orders to return to Valinor.
Super-Senses: Like all elves, Galadriel has almost superhuman eyesight, something that is highlighted during a conversation with Isildur during their voyage to Middle-earth. She tells him he'll soon be able to see the shore and, to his delight, confirms she's been able to see it for an hour already.
Super Swimming Skills: Zig-zagged. Upon reaching Valinor, Galadriel changes her mind and decides to jump ship and start to swim all the way back to Middle-earth. She begins to fail halfway, though given The Sundering Seas are analogous to the Atlantic Ocean, this is still seriously impressive.
Symbolically Broken Object: In the season one finale she finally has to let go of Finrod's dagger, her Tragic Keepsake, as the pure Valinorean gold and silver in the dagger is melted down to be alloyed with the mined mithril to create the three elven Rings of Power.
Tomboy Princess: As Elrond puts it, he expected the commander of the Northern Armies and warrior of the Wastelands to arrive in Lindon covered in grime and mud.
Tragic Keepsake: The aforementioned dagger that used to belong to Finrod. She eventually gives it up so the metals can be used to forge the rings of power, one of which Galadriel will claim.
Troubled Backstory Flashback: The opening consists of Galadriel narrating her memories of her once idyllic childhood in Valinor during the Years of the Trees, before morphing to the original Dark Lord Morgoth beginning the war for Middle-earth and ending with the death of her brother at the hands of Sauron.
Try to Fit That on a Business Card: Galadriels full title isGaladriel of the Noldor, Daughter of the Golden House of Finarfin, Commander of the Northern Armies of High King Gil-galad$.
Twitchy Eye: Galadriel's left eye tends to twitch when she's experiencing extreme emotions.
Unkempt Beauty: She spends a large portion of her screen time in the first season either dressed in armor and covered in grime or soaking wet, yet her legendary beauty (as the fairest of all the elves) is still very apparent and she looks every bit the regal and elegant elven lady she will later become known as when she cleans herself up.
Warrior Princess: Galadriel is true Elven royalty as her father, Finarfin, was the son of the High King of the Noldor, the second great clan of Elves who journeyed westwards to Valinor. Despite her status, like most Elves, she$s highly proficient in combat when required.
What Beautiful Eyes!: There are a lot of close ups of Galadriel's blue eyes. This is especially notable in the Mind Rape scene between Galadriel and Sauron in the season one finale where her eyes are given particular focus and appear almost inhumanly blue. This may be because were actually seeing Galadriel from Saurons point of view, as a being of pure light in contrast to his own darkness.
The Worf Effect: Her combat skill is established when she effortlessly dispatches a snow-troll, a creature that was trouncing her party and the kind of foe that gives more than pause to the Fellowship, a group composed of some the best combatants of the Third Age. She's also on the other end of this trope when confronting Sauron, although she remains defiant towards him, she isn't able to deal him any physical damage.
World's Most Beautiful Woman: Tolkien described Galadriel as being the mightiest and fairest of all the elves in Middle-earth. She is also described as being the most beautiful of all of the House of Finwë, the Noldorin royal house who are themselves famed for their good looks.
Xenafication: Book Galadriel, while still an Action Girl, relied more on her potent magical powers. In the series, she begins the story without a ring of power and she Fights Like a Normal, wielding a sword and wearing armour.
Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Galadriel, increasingly suspicious that Halbrand is Sauron, can't keep the pain off her face when he thanks her for renewing his motivation when he was at his low point.

Finrod

Portrayed by: Will Fletcher

Galadriel's beloved older brother who was murdered by agents of Sauron.
Adapted Out: Due to the show only having limited rights, his extensive role in The Silmarillion is only vaguely referenced. Notably the circumstance of his death are entirely different, oddly since his death saving Beren is mentioned in Appendix B.
Big Brother Mentor: He's clearly older than Galadriel (in Elven terms of course), and acts as a wise councillor when she comes to him for comfort after a fight with some other Elf children.
Chekhov's Gun: The blade that Galadriel inherited from him is made from gold and silver sourced from Valinor. This is used to forge the three rings of power used by the elves.
Composite Character: Seems to be Galadriel's only brother, absorbing his brothers Orodreth, Aegnor, and Angrod.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: In The Silmarillion he was mortally wounded fighting a werewolf sent by Sauron in the pits of Tol-in-Gaurhoth. In the show, he was killed by Sauron at some point after the defeat of Morgoth.
Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Singled out in the battle scene of the prologue, he is conspicuously the only fighter, among hundreds, who doesn't wear a helmet.
Killed Offscreen: He has a few scenes in the prologue, then Galadriel narrates that "Sauron found him first" and his dead body is shown, but no detail is given nor shown about the circumstances of his death.
Long-Dead Badass: In the present he's remembered as a fierce warrior who valiantly fought (and died) against Morgoth and Sauron. The memory of his deeds and struggles sticks with Galadriel in particular.
Memento MacGuffin: The blade he used was carried by Galadriel for centuries with the intent of being used to kill Sauron. She ultimately decides to give it up so it can be forged into the three elf rings of power, thereby preserving the lives of the entire elvish race for the next three millennia.
Posthumous Character: He was killed by Sauron's forces years before the events of the series take place, and appears in a sequence of flashbacks.
Sacrificial Lamb: In the series' prologue sequence, he is shown to have fought in the war waged against Morgoth, and after Morgoth's defeat, he makes it his mission to hunt down and destroy Sauron, though this costs him his life. His death compels Galadriel to take on his mission and make it her own, kicking off the events of the series.

Thondir

Portrayed by: Fabian McCallum

A soldier in Galadriel$s ranger company.
Commander Contrarian: Centuries of vainly hunting Sauron and watching Galadriel exceed their mission parameters for no visible gain have left him exhausted and pessimistic about their chances of achieving anything. Most of his dialogue is questioning his commander$s orders and judgment.
Number Two: He's seemingly Galadriel's second in the company she leads.
Put on a Bus: He enters Valinor by boat at the end of the premier, removing him from the conflict back on Middle-earth.
Take My Hand!: As the light emanating from Valinor begins to envelop the ship he and Galadriel are travelling on, and they begin to pass over, he senses her pulling away and pleads with her to take his hand and join him.

Lindon

Elrond Half-elven

Portrayed by: Robert Aramayo

The half-elven herald of High King Gil-galad who is assigned to work with Lord Celebrimbor and Prince Durin on a new project.
Child of Two Worlds: Although he chose to follow his elven half and become immortal, unlike his late twin brother, Elrond is still very much the Half-Elven. This is sometimes leveled against him as a Stealth Insult, but by standing slightly outside of full elvishness, he's also capable of (and willing to) see their faults—and to fully empathize the mistrust others have of them. (His protest to Durin is also a reminder that he hasn't forgotten how Fëanor's sons, all the progeny of the greatest elf who ever lived, completely wrecked his family.)
The Consigliere: Elrond is Gil-galad$s right-hand-man and closest confidant in all regards, to the point of apparently writing his speeches.
Disappeared Dad: His father Eärendil the Mariner was lifted into the heavens to become a star at the end of the First Age. Elrond comments he wishes he could have one more conversation with him.
Half-Breed Angst: Implied in his childhood. He tearfully mentions that after being orphaned, Galadriel was the only one who took care of him.
Half-Human Hybrid: Of mixed Elven and human blood like his brother Elros, but Elrond chose to follow his Elven nature unlike his brother.
Hybrid Power: Elrond considers himself blessed with this. He tells King Durin that he's able to see in his fellow elves that which they cannot in themselves.
I Gave My Word: When Gil-galad presses Elrond to tell him the secrets of the Dwarf's mithril vein, Elrond refuses to elaborate, stating that he promised Prince Durin he would never to reveal his people's secrets.
Innocently Insensitive: Elrond is surprised to find out that Durin took his 20-year absence so personally, as elves don't think too much about how valuable time is to mortal beings.
Interspecies Friendship: With Prince Durin of Khazad-dûm.
Know When to Fold 'Em: When Elrond journeys to Khazad-dûm seeking Durin's help, his former friend receives him testily (due to feeling slighted that Elrond hadn't been in touch for 20 years) and demands that he best him in a rock-smashing contest before he'll consider speaking further. Elrond manages to keep up with Durin for a good while, but ultimately can't match the Dwarf-lord's stamina and realises that carrying on with such silliness will get him nowhere.
Like Brother and Sister: Elrond and Galadriel have a very close platonic bond as friends, having known each other for centuries since Elrond was a young orphan half-elf boy and Galadriel took pity on him and gave him water.
Mayfly–December Friendship: Deconstructed in the case of Elrond and Durin IV. Elrond is Really 700 Years Old, while Durin has the lifespan of a Dwarf. Because he is so old, Elrond doesn't realize how valuable the time is for mortals and is genuinely baffled at Durin being so upset for his twenty years absence. As Durin points out, "twenty years might be the blink of an eye to an Elf, but (I've) lived an entire life in that time".
Nice Guy: Elrond is unflinchingly polite and gentle, has compassion for everyone he meets, cherishes the friendships he's formed and takes the security of his people very seriously. He's so pure of heart that even facing the possible extinction of his race would not deter him from doing right by a lifelong friend.
No True Scotsman: To circumvent the animosity between dwarves and elves, he's wittingly resourceful to point out that he's only half elf.
Saved by Canon: We know he survives the series because of his appearances in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Prince Durin is a Fiery Redhead and part of a Proud Warrior Race as a Dwarf, while Elrond is a patient Elvish scholar. This doesn't stop them from getting along.
Social Climber: Elrond seeks to climb to the highest halls of power to cause effective change. His status as a half-elven without noble titles is his greatest obstacle, but he has managed to ascend quite high (becoming the right-hand-man to the High King).^{In the legendarium...}
The Social Expert: A talented diplomat, he has his blind spots when it comes to the other races but is able to charm most he meets into seeing his point of view.
Strong Family Resemblance: Celebrimbor notes his likeness to Eärendil.
Super-Senses: Elrond is able to eavesdrop on Durin and Dísa by reading their lips from hundreds of yards away. Later he's able to figure out the location of the hidden door to the secret mine with ease, implying that he can perceive something that the audience can't.

High King Gil-galad

"The same wind that seeks to blow out a fire may also cause its spread."

Portrayed by: Benjamin Walker

"Hope is never mere, Elrond... even when it is meager. When all other senses sleep, the eye of hope is first to awaken, last to shut."

The King of Lindon and the High King of the Noldor in Middle-earth.
Adaptational Jerkass: Gil-galad's disbelief in Sauron's existence is unique to this adaptation. A later episode reveals that he wasn't as in the dark or as indifferent as he claimed, but also that he is willing to lie and manipulate others in the name of what he believes to be the greater good.
Agent Scully: Gil-galad is dead-set that Morgoth's evil is gone from Middle-earth, and that Galadriel should accept her brother's death and move on to Valinor. He's wrong, of course.
Distinctive Appearances: His fellow male Elves all sport either short or at most chin-length hair, whereas his hair is long, flowing and more in line with the Elves depicted in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Doomed by Canon: Ironically for someone who believes Morgoth's army to have been completely wiped out, Gil-galad's kingdom will be annihilated by Sauron's army and Gil-galad himself will perish fighting Sauron in the War of the Last Alliance.
Good is Not Nice: While unquestionably well intentioned, he often comes across as stern, aloof and even manipulative at times.
Head-in-the-Sand Management: He's so weary of the war with Morgoth and Sauron that the political consensus becomes to end the hunt for Sauron and his Orcs, even as Galadriel finally uncovers the trail.
Hidden Depths: His valid concerns about creating a Mithril artifact which would put enormous power in the hands of a single being demonstrate wisdom which was hard to see earlier in the season due to his stern and uncompromising ruling style.
The High King: The High King of Noldor in Middle-earth, and apparently holds some authority even over the Silvan Elves in Tirharad.
Immortal Ruler: When the main action of the series begins, he has been ruling the Elves for thousands of years.
Jerkass Has a Point: By the end of the first season he's proven to have been right on all counts. Galadriel's obsession with finding and killing Sauron instead ends up causing the already defeated Dark Lord to get his mojo back and set on a path to conquer the world, and the Mithril found by the dwarves is indeed the means to allow the Elves to remain on Middle-Earth without fading away.
The Needs of the Many: He is willing to pressure Elrond to break his sacred oath for the future of all Elvendom in Middle-earth.
Requisite Royal Regalia: As High King, his costuming is the most fancily embellished of all the Elves and he sports a beautiful, aged-gold ensemble topped off with a leaf-shaped Cool Crown.
The Stoic: He's reserved even by elven standards, rarely displaying emotions openly and remaining fairly subdued even when discussing dire circumstances.

Eregion

Lord Celebrimbor

Portrayed by: Charles Edwards

An Elven craftsman and the ruler of the city of Eregion.
Always Someone Better: He's considered the greatest of the Elven Smiths, but he sees all his creations pale in comparison to his famous grandfather, Fëanor's, work.
Doomed by Canon: Tolkien's Celembrimbor is killed during Sauron's destruction of Eregion.
Elderly Immortal: Celebrimbor looks more aged than the other elves. Possibly connected to his vocation as a smith.
Informed Ability: He has to be instructed on the concept of "alloys" and how a mix of materials can and will have different properties and flaws when combined, which is basic chemistry and metallurgy.
Legacy Seeker: Inspired by Fëanor, Celebrimbor wants to build a tower the would house a great forge that could burn as hot a dragon's fire and pure as a starlight. He aspires to feel the world with real beauty.
Manipulative Bastard: He is one towards Elrond, appealing repeatedly to Elrond's sense of responsibility, his desire for recognition and to his friendship with Elrond's famous, heroic father, Eäreandil, in order to exploit Elrond's friendship with the Dwarves for his own gain. He claims to be ensuring the survival of the Elves, but it's still unclear how truthful this claim is.
True Craftsman: He's the greatest of the Elven Smiths and is therefore sought out by Elrond, on instruction from High King Gil-galad, to begin work on a "special project". However, he feels his mastery of his craft is vastly inferior to that of his grandfather, Fëanor, whose Silmarils were said to have captivated the Dark Lord Morgoth and almost moved him to repentance. He also mentions that he respects the Dwarves for their smithing skills, in contrast to most other Elves who are largely apathetic to the Dwarf race.
Unwitting Pawn: Via a combination of flattery, prescient hints and an eager work ethic, Halbrand/Sauron worms his way into Celebrimbor's confidence and essentially instructs him in how to construct the titular Rings of Power that he hopes will further his evil plans for domination. As a Mythology Gag, Halbrand even says "call it... a gift" when imparting his advice, with the line given particular emphasis and referencing Sauron's disguise in the books under the name of Annatar, the 'Lord of Gifts'.

Silvan Elves

Arondir

Portrayed by: Ismael Cruz Córdova

A Silvan Elf ranger who wanders Tirharad.
Archer Archetype: He$s a very talented bowman, with exceptional aiming skills, and is one of the most composed and stoic Elves in the series.
Badass in Distress:
While investigating the tunnels under the destroyed village of Hordern, Arondir finds himself being pursued by an Orc. He dives into a pool of water, pulls himself through a narrow gap into a small cave on the other side, and watches with his dagger drawn as bubbles rise to the surface... only to be grabbed from behind and pulled into the darkness.
During the Orc raid on Tirharad, a giant Orc pummels him into submission, and has him pinned against a well. Only Bronwyn's Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind saves him from certain death.
Big Damn Kiss: He and Bronwyn share one after promising to build a life together if they survive the upcoming battle.
Cannot Spit It Out: Even in his and Bronwyn's first interaction, it's clear the two have either fallen for each other or are right on the brink. But Arondir is still paralyzed by his people's disapproval of Human-Elf relationships (his friend blatantly points out that the two most well-known such interactions both ended in heartbreak and disaster), and when challenged by Brownyn to put his feeling into words, can only protest that he's showed her how he feels in every way he can without saying it. This doesn't exactly help his case.
Dance Battler: Not unusual for his kind, he moves in a acrobatic and graceful fashion while fighting, using capoeira moves.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: Arondir's presence in Tirharad and his obvious feelings for Bronwyn are met with disapproving glares from the locals, many of whom are caucasian. One even calls him "knife ears" as a slur against elves.
If We Get Through This…: Arondir makes Bronwyn promise to plant the remaining alfirin seeds with him if they survive the battle in Tirharad.
Interspecies Romance: He and Bronwyn have feelings for each other which, as he$s Elven, raises eyebrows amongst the Tirharad community.
Nice Guy: He is emotionally reserved but also benevolent, and doesn't resent the Southlanders for their anti-Elves Fantastic Racism.
Made a Slave: Orcs enslave him, as well as the rest of his company, to dig a giant trench across the Southlands.
The Stoic: He's very taciturn and rarely shows emotion openly. Though the way his face lights up when he finally allows himself to smile at Bronwyn after Galadriel's arrival suggests at least some of the stoicism is Arondir trying to maintain a grip on his feelings for Bronwyn specifically.
One-Man Army: Played With. He takes down half of Adar's army by rigging the watchtower of Ostirith so that it collapses onto them with a single shot from his bow. On the other hand, he struggles against a single (but to be fair giant) Orc in hand-to-hand combat, and without Bronwyn's intervention, he would have been killed.
Token Minority: He's the only non-caucasian Elf introduced. He could be a literal interpretation of the moriquendi (dark elves), who like Arondir were more attached to Middle-earth than the other elves, though traditionally they didn't live as far east as Tirharad. The distinctively different style of the armour worn by Arondir and the other elves initially standing guard with him also strongly suggests they belong to a different group than Galadriel or Elrond.

Watchwarden Revion

Portrayed by: Simon Merrells

The commander of the Silvan Elves stationed in the Southlands.
Ancient Order of Protectors: His force had occupied and quietly, yet firmly, policed the Southlands for years.
Honor Before Reason: Steadfastly refuses to cut down a old tree, as with Elvish (particularly Silvan) customs of respecting nature. This gets his colleague killed and him punished until Arondir reluctantly accepts.
Icy Blue Eyes: Revion is cool and collected, possessing intense, pale blue eyes. When speaking with Arondir, he fixes him with a piercing gaze that adds gravitas to the point of concern he makes about abandoning their watch.
Made a Slave: He$s captured by Orcs offscreen along with Medhor, and is put to work digging the giant trench across the Southlands.
Properly Paranoid: His company of elves have been keeping a strict watch over the people of the Southlands due to their ancestors once having served Morgoth. Arondir insists that was long ago, but Theo's discovery of a broken sword emblazoned with Sauron's emblem in the cellar of one of the villagers and that Theo himself seems drawn to it proves that Revion could be right in that at least some of the townsfolk are still loyal to or at least bear the taint of the forces of darkness.
We Hardly Knew Ye: After being captured by Orc slavers, he gets fatally shot by arrows in an unlucky escape attempt.
We Have Become Complacent: He says as much to Arondir, and doesn't feel it's right to disband their watch over the Southlands, though he's compelled to obey his orders.

Medhor

Portrayed by: Augustus Prew

A ranger who walks patrols with Arondir.
Died in Your Arms Tonight: Medhor's throat is slit by one of the Orcs and he ends up dying in Arondir's arms.
Doomed Fellow Prisoner: Medhor is put to work on slave labor gangs with Arondir and their comrades and has his throat slit after Revion defies an order.
The Lancer: He's a supportive friend to Arondir, but is well aware of his feelings for Bronwyn and tries to discourage them, worried about the ramifications such a relationship could have for him.
Saying Too Much: He talks a lot about Arondir's illicit relationship with Bronywn.
Medhor: It's dificult enough keeping watch over them without having to keep one eye squarely on you. Or do you think me blind?
Arondir: I think you talk too much. And you smell of rotten leaves.
Slashed Throat: His throat is cut after the orcs take him and the other rangers prisoner.

Men & Women

The Southlands

Halbrand

"What do you know of darkness?"

Portrayed by: Charlie Vickers

"You dont know what I did before I ended up on that raft. You dont know how I survived, how we all survived. And when these people discover it they will cast me out... so will you."

A mysterious man of the Southlands who crosses paths with and joins Galadriel in her return to Middle-earth.
Amazon Chaser: He is impressed by Galadriel's martial prowess and genuinely appreciates her for the warrior she is. Deconstructed, after he is revealed to be Sauron, when everything gains a darker connotation. He wanted Galadriel by his side as his Queen to rule Middle-earth together for her evil potential.
Ambiguously Evil: He shows few pangs of conscience for leaving his fellow sailors (most of whom are admittedly jerks) to be eaten by a sea serpent, but does save Galadriel from drowning. He also has moments of brooding silence and coldness now and again, despite his charm and sociable manner most of the time, does not hesitate to steal, and shows his violent side when he viciously beats four Númenórean men, even if they did somewhat have it coming. He also instructs Galadriel on the art of using other people's fears to manipulate them into mastering them. Becomes far less ambiguous when his true identity as a form for Sauron is revealed.
Angel Unaware: Halbrand is not a mere human, but Sauron, the Dark Lord himself, part of the Maiar, Tolkien's version of angels. After being "killed" by Adar, he took on the form of a human being in order to walk among the inhabitants of Middle-earth incognito, deceiving them without revealing his true nature, until Galadriel confronts him about his true identity.
Bait the Dog: For most of the season, Halbrand is a roguish, yet honorable young man, if a bit morally questionable, who easily befriends everyone with his charisma and becomes Galadriel's confidant on her journey. Until he revealed himself as Sauron, that is, which calls into question all of his moments of showing good will to others.
Big Bad Friend: Sauron stood in front of Galadriel the whole time as she confided in him about Finrod, and why she was hunting for him. In his defense, he asks Galadriel several times to stop and just let him be, and warned her that he is not the hero she sees in him. Galadriel even goes into denial and lists all the supposed good things she witnessed he did after learning that the man she thought was her friend, is Sauron himself.
Big Damn Heroes: In rough seas, Galadriel is thrown from the wreckage she and Halbrand cling to and is dragged deep underwater by debris. Halbrand dives in after her, following a line of rope entangled around her leg, and pulls her back up to the surface — an act that gains her trust.
The Blacksmith: Shows a great interest in blacksmithing and seems to have a great yearning to do so, even claiming that his smithing skills are unmatched, to the point of begging a blacksmith to let him help out in any sort of forging and even attempting to steal a guild emblem so he can be allowed to forge. He later demonstrates that he is indeed quite a capable smith, forging fine weapons with ease that impress the other blacksmiths.
Briar Patching: It's revealed that Halbrand only played the part of the reluctant heir to the throne to manipulate Galadriel into pushing him into power.
Canon Character All Along: The Season 1 finale reveals that he's actually a disguised Sauron, filling Annatar's role from The Silmarillion.
The Charmer: He's extremely affable and easily manages to make friends even in the most hostile situations.
The Chessmaster: He's a skilled manipulator, and when advising Galadriel on politics he advises her to learn what her enemies fear, not to exploit those fears (which would be obvious), but rather to give them the means to master their fears, in order to master them.
Combat Pragmatist: Halbrand uses every advantage he can to win a fight — breaking arms, knocking someone's head against a wall, and tripping a horse with a spear to send Adar flying into his path.
Composite Character: Despite being revealed to be a repentant Sauron, Halbrand's subplot is fashioned after Aragorn from the LOTR trilogy. While he lets everyone believe he is the lost heir of the Southlands, the people are pinning all their hopes in terms of uniting them, as he follows same road as Aragorn. He chose the path of self-imposed exile; Aragorn is troubled by his inheritance because of Isildur falling to the temptation of the One Ring, and Halbrand because he swore an oath to Morgoth. Galadriel tells Halbrand, in her attempt to convince him to reclaim his birthright, that men like him indeed used to fight alongside Morgoth, but not he himself, in a similar fashion to Arwen assuring Aragorn that he is Isildur's heir, not Isildur himself. After his introduction, Halbrand is scruffy-looking most of the time, but after He Cleans Up Nicely, he gets the same "returning king" feel as Aragorn does.
The Confidant: To Galadriel. Due to his highly observant skills, it wasn't hard for Halbrand to get under Galadriel's skin and make her show him her vulnerable side and confide in him her fears and darkest thoughts. And indeed, he knows Galadriel's nature better than anyone.
Dark and Troubled Past: Implied; with him intent on running away from his life in the Southlands after it was taken by the Orcs, wanting a fresh start on Númenor as a blacksmith, and being quite reluctant about Galadriel's wishes for him to help her reclaim the Southlands as their king. He further alludes to it at Galadriel's pressing, believing he has done things nobody, even Galadriel, would forgive him for.
Deadpan Snarker: Acerbic wit is a great skill of his.
Dead Person Impersonation: Of the Fake King variety. He has an amulet belonging to Southlands royalty that he found on a dead man, as he says several times. Galadriel refuses to admit his version and keeps insisting Halbrand is the genuine heir, so he finally goes along with it. He's then warmly welcome as king in the Southlands by the smallfolk. It turns out there hasn't been a king there since one thousand years ago, something that nobody knew or cared about until Galadriel discovers it on the elven records.
Double Meaning: With the revelation that he is Sauron, the master of deceiving, every conversation, deed, and Longing Look he ever gave to Galadriel is called into question. When Galadriel confronts him about everything he ever said or good deed he did, Sauron reminds Galadriel that he kept on telling her that he's done unimaginable evil when she accused him of deceiving her and that she did not care about his past, of which he deserves to be free.
Establishing Character Moment: The first time he appears, Halbrand is in the middle of nowhere, floating adrift with a group of people on a piece of driftwood. He stops Galadriel from trying to get on the driftwood, and his first speech to her is cryptic: "The tides of fate are flowing, yours might be heading in, or out". The other survivors decide to help Galadriel, and while they are questioning her, Halbrand's next line is "looks can be deceiving", which is the first hint of Halbrand's true identity and powers as a shapeshifter.
Evil All Along: "Halbrand" turns out to be an identity assumed by Sauron himself.
Foreshadowing: The fact that he was actually Sauron all along was heavily foreshadowed throughout the first season when one looks at his list of character traits, and those of Sauron in the First Age and the Second Age; there's a huge amount of overlap.
One of his first lines is "Looks can be deceiving".
While on the raft, he says that Galadriel will have a hard time finding safety, what with Sauron being near her all this time.
Halbrand eyebrows go up when seeing Galadriel's dagger while saving her from drowning, meaning he probably recognized it.
In Numenor, he begs Galadriel to let him keep the peace he searched his entire life, hinting at his past as Morgoth's servant and trying to redeem himself for what he has done under Morgoth's rule.
Halbrand teases Galadriel about not making new enemies since her greatest enemy is right there talking to her.
He beats up five guys to a bloody pulp in the streets of Armenelos and shows first signs of Super-Strength.
In Numenor, he becomes a blacksmith and creates some fine weapons for the Numenorian soldiers.
Galadriel tells Halbrand he's in jail because he resents wearing commoner clothes and the armor that should be on his shoulder ways heavily on his heart.
Halbrand seemingly teaches Galadriel how to get under her opponents' skin by identifying what they fear if she wants to get what she wants. Nothing wrong with trying to teach someone to think before acting, a thing Galadriel is not very good at, the problem is he's teaching her what he himself is doing to her, and others, as Sauron.
Galadriel Dramatic Ironcally blackmails him into returning to the Southlands because otherwise, the people will assume that he is the one using her to become the king of the Southlands. Halbrand can't help but smirk just a little when she talks about crowning him.
He warns Galadriel that he did unspeakable things that will cast him out. She doesn't listen. Later, it turns out Sauron meant being Morgoth's servant, killing Finrod, and torturing Orcs — among other terrible things.
On the ship to the Southlands, he is not shown sleeping, a nod to him being the 'Lidless Eye' who never sleeps.
When Galadriel chases Adar, Halbrand appears out of nowhere from the opposite direction and captures Adar. There was no way for him to know in what direction Adar and Galadriel might go, unless he is Sauron who has the power to instantly detect the locations of his hidden opponents.
He asks Adar if he remembers him before trying to kill him. Later, Adar recounts to Galadriel that he killed Sauron.
During his Love Confession to Galadriel after capturing Adar, he tells her he enjoys her company and would like to bind that feeling to himself forever. When Galadriel confronts him in the season finale, he reveals what he truly meant by that; it was an invitation to become his queen and rule Middle-earth together.
The Gadfly: He likes to push Galadriel's buttons and trade Snark To Snark Combats with her.
Grin of Audacity: Halbrand has a confident smirk on his face every time he is up to something (and he is up to something all the time), befitting his roguish charm.
Guile Hero: When dealing with the Númenorians, and in contrast to the blunter and brutally honest Action Heroine Galadriel, Halbrand shows himself to be diplomatically savvy, charming, highly observant, and also a pretty good pickpocket.
He Cleans Up Nicely: When he finally agrees to take part in the expedition to Middle-earth, Halbrand tidies up his previously lank hair and pulls on a full suit of regal-looking armour, and goes from wandering vagabond to instantly looking like a king.
Held Gaze: He is the one initiating most of the Longing Looks with Galadriel, from the first moment they met.
Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: He doesn't bother with a helmet while fighting the Orcs at Tirharad. (He gets wounded in the side instead.)
Hesitation Equals Dishonesty:
When an imprisoned Adar asks Halbrand who he is, Halbrand turns his back on Adar and stops for a few moments but then leaves without answering the question, implying that he was dishonest about his identity.
When Bronwyn asks him if he is the king he was promised, he hesitates to answer and looks at Galadriel, who nods affirmatively, and only then Halbrand says "yes".
I Just Want to Be Normal: He refuses at first to return to Middle-earth and prefers to make a life for himself in Numenor. Galadriel convinces him to return to Middle-earth with her and redeem both of their bloodlines by stopping Sauron's forces in the Southlands.
Indy Ploy: Apparently, he didn't plan to confront Adar or meet and influence Celebrimbor, those events happen by chance and he goes along with it, taking advantage of the situation. He states that his initial goal was reaching Númenor, and stumbling upon Galadriel in the middle of the ocean was also a cosmic coincidence.
Implied Love Interest: By the episode Udûn, Halbrand appears to have formed a very deep bond with Galadriel, the two even seeming to confess their feelings for each other following the Battle for the Southlands, though whether their sentiment is meant to be romantic or platonic is left up in the air as they are swiftly interrupted. The constant Ship Tease between the characters, Held Gazes, and the setup of the scene seem to strongly indicate the former, though.
Galadriel: Thank youstrong> I never believed I could be until today. Fighting at your side, II felt If I could just hold on to that feeling, keep it with me always, bind it to my very being, then I$
Galadriel: I felt it too.
King Incognito: From his amulet, Galadriel infers that he's the direct descendant of the King of the Southlands. Though as he points out, that king was appointed by Morgoth, and he doesn't seem to be proud to belong to such a bloodline, or at least, he just lets others believe this about him.
Looks Like Jesus: Halbrand has unkempt, shaggy shoulder-length hair and sports a Perma-Stubble. He physically resembles Aragorn from the movie trilogy, and he lets everyone assume he is a promised savior for the Southlanders. Too bad he is just Sauron posing as a corrupted version of the promised savior.
Love-Interest Traitor: Despite all the romantic tension between them, not to mention the genuine affection, it turns out he was manipulating her all along.
Manipulative Bastard: While in jail, he advises Galadriel to find out what her foes want to master and help them do it so she can master them. Turns out, he was doing this to her the whole time.
Meaningful Echo: Despite not having been privy to their prior conversation, he somehow echoes Elrond's previous statement to Galadriel about her refusing to lay down her sword.
Meaningful Look: A master of it. Since he is Sauron in disguise, it's hard to know what he is truly thinking, especially in moments when he is alone and contemplating.
Mellow Fellow: Halbrand is very laid-back and personable. His Dreamworks Face and relaxed disposition can make him seem nonchalant.
Metaphorically True: Much of the background he revealed to Galadriel is accurate in a very broad, vague sense but deeply deceptive in truth, though coached in a way that likely reflects his Self-Serving Memory; he is, in a way, a "king" of the Southlands appointed by Morgoth, and has indeed done horrible, horrible things... he$s just leaving out how direct his relationship to Morgoth was and the actual scale and personal nature of his offenses.
Morality Chain: He and Galadriel appear to share this role for one another, with Galadriel stopping him from executing Adar in his rage after they capture him, as well as convincing him to lose his apathy and fulfill his duties and attempt to save the Southlands from the Orcs in the first place. After The Reveal about his true identity, he suggests that she could "bind him to light" as his queen rather than return to his previous dark ways. She rejects this, partly because she can't forgive his crimes but also because what he's suggesting is still evil and he doesn't understand that.
Mysterious Past: He's not especially forthcoming, forcing Galadriel to have to do research and infer about him, deducing that he is really the heir of the Southlands.
Mysterious Stranger: First introduced as the survivor of a shipwreck in the Belegaer Ocean. The circumstances that led to his presence in the middle of the sea accompanied by other humans remain an untold mystery, though his comparatively vital, engaging manner, versus those with him, is an initial clue to his duplicity.
Obfuscating Stupidity: Halbrand presents an affable, non-violent exterior and even appears outright cowardly on occasion. But when cornered and given no other choice, he takes down four Númenorian men (who, in the books, are supposed to be nearly as superhuman as Elves) effortlessly.
Opportunistic Bastard: Sauron didn't have any plan and met Galadriel by chance, and from there, he just latched onto her schemes just to see where Galadriel would lead him.
One Head Taller: While in the books, it would be a 6'4" Galadriel who towers over Halbrand, here, he towers over her very short stature.
Power Echoes: When Galadriel spurns and threatens to reveal him, Halbrand fully reveals his true form as Sauron, shouting that if she does so, she will be exiled or worse due to having helped him, his voice growing distorted and echoic with rage.
Rebel Prince: He poses as the heir to a nameless royal dynasty of the Southlands who chose exile instead of leading his people.
Rags to Royalty: Literal example, from shipwrecked at sea to king in the Southlands.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Galadriel's red. He is much more calm, charming, sociable, coldly cunning and manipulative than she is, better at diplomacy and finding the best ways to get what he wants.
Refused the Call: He tries to flee the Southlands when the Orcs arrive, rather than fight against (or join) them, and continues to resist Galadriel's belief they were fated to meet along, with her attempts to convince him to fight by her side and reclaim his believed birthright as king of the Southlands. He's initially more interested in starting a new life for himself elsewhere, but he eventually gives in to Galadriel's wishes and joins her to fight in the Southlands.
Rejected Apology: When Galadriel tells him about her past and the death of her brother at the hands of Sauron, he tells her, "I'm sorry. For your brother. For all of it." As Finrod died centuries before Halbrand would have been born, Galadriel just takes this as an empty expression of thoughts and prayers and shoots him down.
Rightful King Returns: For the Southlands. The Southrons receive Halbrand with open arms after learning that he is the king that was promised. Then Galadriel does some further digging into the Elven archives and finds out that the last king of the Southlands died without an heir over a thousand years ago.
Sarcastic Confession: He's fond of these. From the beginning, he dryly tells Galadriel straight out that the amulet that supposedly marks him as the heir to the Southlands throne was found by him on a dead man. Also, with a much more sincere tone, he repeatedly tells Galadriel that he's a worse person than she thinks and has done things that would horrify her. She assumes that he was seduced or coerced to serve the dark powers of Middle-earth as a mortal Man, which would be forgivable... not that he is himself one of those dark powers.
Second Episode Introduction: He does not appear in the first episode, showing up at the beginning of the second one.
Ship Tease: Seems to be forming between him and Galadriel, between coming back for her in the ocean after leaving the rest of his companions for dead, saving her life when she nearly drowns, their frequent bickering, retrieving her beloved dead brother's dagger for her when it is taken from her, their Held Gaze moments, quiet conversations, teasing her playfully, teaching her about how to exploit the weaknesses of enemies, and other characters on Númenor mocking Halbrand as being her mate, with the way they speak of her derogatorily seeming to silently anger him.
Ship Sinking: Any possible romance between Galadriel and Halbrand is, however, destroyed completely in the season one finale, as Halbrand doesnem> — hes actually Sauron in disguise, who reveals his true self to Galadriel after she finds out that the Southlands haven$t had a king for over 1000 years, and she confronts him about his true identity.
Short-Lived Leadership: He stays the so-called King of the Southlanders for a day; 1) because of Orodruin erupts just in day he arrived in Tirharad and destroys the Southlands, and 2) he is Sauron.
Sticky Fingers: He casually and effortlessly steals back Galadriel's dagger from Elendil, and later snatches a guild emblem from one of the Númenorean workers. It's implied that the money he spends in the Númenorean tavern was acquired the same way.
Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Halbrand is almost taller than the entire cast, has dark-brown hair, and a twisted sense of humor and snark.
Tranquil Fury: If Halbrand is angry, he doesn't shout or scream, in fact, he will ask people to stop from attacking him (as if pre-warning them) before having a sudden burst of violence.
Unknown Rival: He seems to have a sizable grudge against Adar. Adar, for his part, has no idea who he is, though Halbrand doesn't seem too surprised by this. It's later revealed that he's actually Sauron, and he hates Adar for previously killing him, while Adar doesn't recognize him due to the disguise.
Warrior Prince: He is a remarkably competent fighter and a prince of royal blood via his descent from the Southlands (currently deposed) royal family. As Galadriel later discovers, his superhuman strength and reflexes are because he's not human at all.
You Never Asked: He seldom outright lies, instead relying on others either reading much more into his statements than they should based on their desires or (in Galadriel's case) her ignoring his Sarcastic Confessions. From what we see of his "real" personality, he wasn't going out of his way to act differently as Halbrand, either.

Bronwyn

Portrayed by: Nazanin Boniadi

"I know I'm not the king you have awaited. But if you choose to stand with me and fight, this tower will no longer be a reminder of our frailty, but a symbol of our strength. Who among you will stand with me? Who will stand and fight?"

A farmer and healer in Tirharad.
Action Survivor: When an orc breaks into her house and attacks her and Theo, she$s initially (and understandably) terrified but manages to steel herself, first attacking it with a vial of noxious powder and then, when Theo manages to snare it by the neck, she stabs at the orc with Arondir's sword before hacking off its head and presenting it to the gobsmacked townsfolk gathered in the tavern.
Big Damn Kiss: Her and Arondir share one after promising to build a life together if they survive the upcoming battle.
Brainy Brunette: As much a peasant woman can be. She is The Medic for her village, rallies her people behind her when the Orc threat becomes clear, and is proficient at coming up with battle strategies in defence of her village.
Blue Is Heroic: She wears a blue dress and becomes the leader of the Southlanders during the battle with the Orcs.
Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: Bronwyn kills the giant Orc that was fighting Arondir by stabbing him in the neck. Had she not made it in time, Arondir would have almost certainly been killed.
Decapitation Presentation: Bronwyn proves the naysayers of her village wrong in their willful ignorance about her home town being attacked by slamming the freshly decapitated head of the digger orc onto the tavern bar.
Disney Death: After the Southland villagers successfully fend off the first wave of attacking Orcs, she lets her guard down and is shot in the shoulder by an arrow. Arondir administers Elven herbal remedies to her wounds, and Theo reluctantly cauterises them. Initially, it appears her blood loss is too great, and she seemingly dies from her wounds, going still and silent. However, Arondir and Theo's treatment works successfully and she's still badly wounded, but back from the brink.
In the Blood: In a moment of despair in the face of the Orc menace, Bronwyn's spirit buckles and she sadly suggests that the Southlanders should just bow down to the enemy, as her people, who sided with Morgoth in centuries past, are seemingly meant for darkness.
Interspecies Romance: She and Arondir have feelings for each other, which is cause for idle gossip (and even malicious slander) within her community.
Mama Bear: She refuses to leave Theo when a rogue orc breaks into their house, even when he insists she should run for help, and despite ostensibly being a non-combatant, her maternal outrage kicks in and the orc is beheaded.
The Medic: Shes the nearest thing the village of Tirharad has to a doctor in her capacity as the localcunning womanor healer. In her home, she has a large dresser covered with various herbal preparations, and when a mysterious illness begins to affect the villages livestock, she$s approached for help by a local farmer.
Official Couple: With Arondir; they update their relationship and promise to set up home together, right before the battle with the Orcs.
Took a Level in Badass: She begins her journey as a simple village healer, but after surviving an attack by an Orc scout — and managing to kill it in the process — she realises the magnitude of the threat her people face and becomes their de facto leader, orchestrating the defense of their village from the approaching Orc horde.
True Blue Femininity: Bronwyn wears a dress that's a brilliant royal blue.
You Are in Command Now: With The Southlands lacking any discernible type of political organization or leadership, she becomes it.

Theo

Portrayed by: Tyroe Muhafidin

Bronwyn's teenage son.
Action Survivor: When an orc tunnels underneath his home, smashes through the floorboards and threatens him and his mother, hes initially paralysed with fear and hides in a cupboard. However, seeing an opening, he races up a ladder to a higher floor (the orc in hot pursuit) and manages to lasso a rope around the orcs neck before leaping back down, using his weight to effectively lynch it.
Ambiguously Absent Parent: Theo's father vanished without a trace several years prior to the series, with malicious rumors saying it was out of disgust at his wife's attraction to Arondir. Theo doesn't take kindly to those rumors and flies into a rage.
Disappeared Dad: Theo doesn't even know what happened to his father, only that he left him and his mother alone.
Grail in the Garbage: Whilst exploring a barn in Tirharad, Theo accesses a Loose Floorboard Hiding Spot and happens upon the broken hilt of a weapon, which incorporates the same ominous symbol of Sauron that Galadriel discovers in the far North. How the artefact came to be there is a mystery, though it is know the village is populated by descendants of people who supported Morgoth (Sauron's boss).
Idiot Ball: During the forbidden excursion with Rowan to find food in their (evacuated and now likely Orc occupied) village, they find gruesome remains of many slaughtered livestock. Rowan wants to leave as soon as they have a cart of food, but Theo ignores his warnings and enters a dark abandoned building because there *might* be food in there. Unsurprisingly he gets ambushed and attacked.
Instant Allegiance Artifact: Having discovered an ancient sword hilt under a barn, Theo begins to covet the weapon, and becomes worryingly fascinated by it, staring at it intently — especially when a trickle of his blood activates a burning emblem of Sauron and the sword begins to reforge itself in his hands. He carefully wraps it up and takes it with him when he and his mother leave Tirharad.
It's All My Fault: He blames himself for Orodruin's eruption because he told Adar where the sword-hilt was. Prior to the eruption, Arondir says that hardly anyone could hold out when a sword is at a loved one's neck. Afterwards, Galadriel reassures that Theo had no evil intent, putting the responsibility with those who did.
Parental Sexuality Squick: He's disgusted by the sight of his mother and Arondir being close and flies into a rage when one of the other villagers suggests they're in a relationship, though this has as much to do with Theo being prejudiced against elves as it does one of the accused being his mother. He eventually grows out of this and in "The Eye" he greets Arondir with a hug when they're reunited.
Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: The eruption of Mount Doom separates him from his injured mother, and when they are eventually reunited in the Numenorian camp, Theo gives Arondir a crushing hug, realising that it's likely down to him that his mother survived.

Waldreg

Portrayed by: Geoff Morrell

The innkeeper of Tirharad.
Arbitrary Skepticism: He scoffs at Bronwyns warning that something bad is occurring in their region. He tells her he wont believe her until she brings him a clear evidence that Tirharad's residents are in danger which may well all be a bluff, as he later admits to Theo to being enthused by Saurons return.
Ancestral Weapon: It turns out that he is the real owner of the broken Hungry Weapon Theo found in a Loose Floorboard Hiding Spot under his barn. Said weapon is actually an Artifact of Doom and the key to unlocking a cataclysmic chain of events, ultimately activating what will become known as "Mount Doom" itself.
Black Shirt: He's eagerly awaiting Sauron's return to power and makes no secret of how he dislikes the Elves' presence in Tirharad. When offered the opportunity to join the Orcs he immediately accepts it. He even starts wearing an actual black shirt after allying himself to Adar.
Chekhov's Gunman: He's introduced as a simple village tavern owner, yet midway through the series, it's revealed that he is the owner of the ominous broken weapon that Theo finds, and Adar is searching for. In episode 6, the once seemingly innocuous innkeeper uses the weapon to unlock an ancient mechanism that triggers the destruction of a series of dams, which sends a vast torrent of water streaming down into the Southlands via the channels the Orcs have dug, and ultimately deep into Mount Orodruin itself. The volume of water causes a pressure cooker effect, activating the mountain's volcanic core and sending a huge blast of ash, fire and rock cascading down into the valley below. Yes, Waldreg created Mount Doom.
The Quisling: In chilling tones, he admits to Theo that he is very much looking forward to Sauron's return. After learning that the Orcs have offered survival in exchange for swearing fealty, Waldreg convinces half the townsfolk to join him in taking the offer. On arriving at the camp he immediately, and eagerly, pledges himself "to Sauron". When Adar reacts negatively to the name, Waldreg quickly amends to promising to serve him instead.
Small Role, Big Impact: His ancient ancestral weapon is the key to activating what will become Mount Doom, and he's the one who actually uses it to do so.
Would Hurt a Child: It happens off-screen, but when Adar demands that he slit Rowan's throat as proof of fealty, it's apparent he complies.

Rowan

Portrayed by: Ian Blackburn

Theo's friend.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Rowan pleads with Waldreg not to kill him when Adar gets hold of him and tells Waldreg to shed blood to prove his loyalty.
Killed Offscreen: After Adar demands that Waldreg kill Rowan to prove his fealty, that latter's death isn't shown, but he makes no further appearances after this scene, so it can be inferred Waldreg went through with it.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: At the sight of dead animals and hearing scary sounds in Tirharad, Rowan gets scared and abandons Theo to his fate in the village.

Númenor

Numenor in General

Adaptational Heroism: Their nastier imperialistic tendencies in the latter part of the Second Age are absent and the people are portrayed as more isolationist and vaguely resentful of the Elves. However, this imperialism is alluded to when Pharazôn states his reasons for supporting the decision to assist the people of Middle-earth (such as tribute).
Adaptational Wimp: In the source material, the Numenorians are much larger, stronger, and more intelligent than normal humans, due to a boon bestowed upon them by the Valar as a reward for their part in the final war against Morgoth as well as due to their ruling family being descended from half-elves. In the show the Numenorians seem to be ordinary humans, with their advantages over the people of Middle-Earth being purely due to their more advanced civilization and technology.
Born Under the Sail: Their entire culture revolves around being a maritime power. For Numenoreans, it is a great honor to become a sailor, they organize Sea Trials for apprentices, and are in the possession of their own equivalent of the Spanish Armada. This also impacts the words they use even on land - Pharazon doesnt use the wordseditionortreasonto describe rabble-rousing against the crowd, but insteadmutiny.$
Color-Coded Patrician: Most of the Numenorian aristocracy wear blue or red-coloured clothing.
Crystal Spires and Togas: Numenor is so breathtaking that even the stubborn Galadriel is left open-mouthed by its grandiosity. With its buildings of white marble with blue mosaic and gilded domes, its architecture takes inspiration from Roman and Hellenistic cultures. The Men of Numenor are dressed in clothing resembling togas, peplos, paludamentum, with the aristocracy leaning toward the Byzantine style and colors. Halbrand immediately notices the superior civilization of Numenorians and cannot believe that actual humans could build such a place. Galadriel informs him that the island was a gift from the Valar to Numenorians for joining forces with the elves and fighting against Morgoth.
Decade Dissonance: Halbrand notices there is a huge technological and cultural difference between the advanced Numenor and the race of the Men in Middle-earth, who now go through The Dark Ages, have no large cities, and live in dirty villages built of wood only.
Doomed by Canon: Obviously, the nation is not going to last into the Third Age.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Numenor incorporates many cultural elements from different civilisations across the Mediterranean. Tolkien based Numenor on Plato's legends about Atlantis, what with them both being island-based, superior civilizations. The city-state has Greco-Roman aesthetics, like paved roads, stuccoed buildings painted with blue accents, mosaics and gilded domes. Them being a maritime power suggests the Phoenicians, who were amongst the first people to master sailing.
Fantastic Racism: Galadriel and Halbrand encounter an uglier side to Numenor when it becomes clear that many Numenoreans despise the elves and hold other mortal men in contempt as low men.
Hidden Elf Village: Galadriel points out that for some obscure reasons, Numenor adopted isolationist politics and cut ties with the elves.
Landmark of Lore: The Hall of Lore, a castle situated on an isolated promontory, that contains an ancient library of tomes and scrolls.
Line in the Sand: They recruit volunteers to form an expeditionary force to Middle-earth instead of sending a permanent professional army.
Portal Statue Pairs: The entrance to the city is via a bridge whose pillars are formed of two gigantic statues.
Proud Scholar Race: Numenorians used to trade gifts and knowledge with the elves, hinting at their interest in science and art.
Shining City: The Numenorian capital, with its incredibly elaborate architecture and gigantic carved statues, is staggeringly advanced when compared to The Dung Ages simplicity of the Southlands' human culture.

Elendil

"The past is dead. We either move forward or we die with it."

Portrayed by: Lloyd Owen

"Most of my life, I've looked east to see the sun rise over the sea, and west to see it set over the land. We're sailing into the dawn and yet, to me, it feels like the coming of night."

Father of Isildur, Anárion and Eärien, a Númenorean captain from a noble lineage.
Be Careful What You Wish For: Despite claiming the alternate meaning of his name in public, Elendil does privately consider himself to be an elf-friend. By the end of the first season he bitterly regrets ever meeting Galadriel because of what happens to the expedition, his queen, and most of all the apparent death of his son.
The Captain: A esteemed and seasoned captain of Númenor's Sea-Guard.
Doomed by Canon: He will fall in battle with Sauron during the War of the Last Alliance.
Family Man: His children are everything to him, even if he struggles to keep up with them.
Fantasy-Forbidding Father: He is very opposed to Isildur's dreams of returning to his family's old holdings in the western shores, where the Faithful Númenoreans have been traditionally known to convene.
Founder of the Kingdom: Elendil will found the Númenorean Realms-in-Exile of Arnor and Gondor alongside his sons.
Good Parents: He raised his three children alone and has a close relationship with all of them. He is stern, yet fair, and will readily admonish his children when he needs to.
The Lost Lenore: His wife drowned. It also makes tragically ironic him working for an organization whose motto is "the sea is always right".
Meaningful Name: As Míriel points out in a suspicious, accusatory tone, Elendil means "Elf-friend", though he tries to pass it of as an alternate meaning, a "Lover of Stars".
Modest Royalty: Miriel points out that the lowly status of Elendil (a mere captain) and his family is at odds with his noble stock. He's a direct descendant of Elros Tar-Minyatur through Silmariën the daughter of Tar-Elendil, the fourth king of Númenor and his father is Amandil, Lord of Andúnië.
My Country, Right or Wrong: He doesn't seem to agree with the current policies of Númenor but still faithfully serves the crown. When Miriel asks him if he's "an Elf-friend", as his name states, he simply avoids the question by reiterating he's loyal to Númenor.
Only Sane Man: He's one of the few people, Man or Elf, with any sort of institutional power or authority on the show who's not overly proud, corrupt, naive, casually racist, incompetent, easily mislead, prone to poor decision-making, or secretly the devil.

Isildur

Portrayed by: Maxim Baldry

A sailor and Elendil's son, brother of Anárion and Eärien.
Adaptational Early Appearance: In the books, Isildur was born in the year 3209 of the Second Age, more than 1500 years after the Rings of Power were forged.
Affectionate Nickname: He is called 'Isil' by his family and close friends.
The Apprentice: He served in the sailing guild with his two closest friends prior to joining the expedition to Middle-earth.
Cultural Rebel: Númenor is deeply isolationist, but Isildur wants to explore the world.
Hearing Voices: He hears a feminine voice calling his name everytime he is out on the open sea.
Ocean Awe: While at sea, Isildur dreams of the far-off horizons and shores beyond Númenor.
Saved by Canon: Tolkien's and Peter Jackson's Isildur survives the Second Age, famously cutting the One Ring from Sauron's hand at the end of the period, only to fall to the Ring's temptations and later die in an Orc ambush at the beginning of the Third Age, giving Isildur's Bane its namesake.
The World Is Just Awesome: He is extremely impressed with seeing the Middle-earth for the first time as the Numenorian ships approach its coastline and woke up early just to see its beauty at sunrise.

Anárion

A son of Elendil, brother to Isildur & Eärien.
Cultural Rebel: A comment by Elendil implies that he is one of the Faithful, to an even greater extent than his father.
Doomed by Canon: Becomes one of the leaders of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men in the war to defeat Sauron, and is crushed by a stone flung from Barad-dûr during the siege.
The Ghost: Only mentioned so far and has yet to appear on screen.

Eärien

Portrayed by: Ema Horvath

Isildur's and Anárion's younger sister.
Canon Foreigner: She does not appear in any of Tolkien's works and was created for the show. She and Isildur mention their brother Anárion, indicating that she hasn't replaced his character.^note
Crash-Into Hello: She bumps into Kemen and spills a jug of washing water over him by mistake. Kemen takes advantage of the situation and asks her on a date.
Daddy's Girl: She and her father have a very sweet relationship that seems more stable than his with Isildur's.
Meaningful Name: She's an original character created for the series and Eärien means "Daughter of the Sea" in Quenya — an apt name for a woman hailing from a maritime power.

Queen Regent Míriel

Portrayed by: Cynthia Addai-Robinson

The Queen of Numenor.
Ambiguously Evil: She seems to be up to something and knows more than she appears (if her talk with her father about "the day we fear" arriving is anything to go by), but her motivations can only be guessed.
Beauty Is Never Tarnished: She's blinded by flying cinders, but her eyes and face bear no signs of burn injuries. (Otherwise Elendil might have suspected something was wrong before she made an incongruous remark about "smoke.")
Bling of War: Miriel wears elaborate golden armour and a helmet with rich details in the shape of the sun for the battle in Tirharad. Justified, as she does not fight but oversees the battle as commander and a rallying point for her men.
The Chains of Commanding: It is very difficult for Miriel to balance what she knows is right with what her subjects insist is right.
Composite Character: As a Númenorean ruler who sails to the aid of the Elves to fight Sauron, Míriel take on the role of her ancestor Tar-Minastir in the Legendarium.
Crown of Horns: She sports a crown made up of two bunches of twisting golden horns.
Double Speak: Miriel seems to have a habit of speaking in double-meaning ways that can be read as either affable and diplomatic or as a veiled threat. Calling Galadriel "a esteemed guest" when she's more accurately a prisoner is a prominent example.
Dreaming of Things to Come: Miriel has terrifying visions of Númenor being destroyed by a huge wall of water and swallowed up by the Sundering Seas.
Eye Scream: She is blinded by Mount Doom's eruption, but this just leaves her all the more determined to help Galadriel fight the coming darkness.
Neutral No Longer: She decides Númenor (and subsequently, Miriel herself) can no longer afford to stand by as Sauron runs rampant in Middle-earth.
Plagued by Nightmares: She has dreamed of the Fall more than once. She has also seen it in the palantír. Many of her decisions are based on trying somehow to prevent it without having any other information than that it could happen.
Princesses Rule: She uses the title 'Queen' as opposed to 'Princess' (which would be more usual in real-world monarchies where the actual monarch still lives) but all else fits, as she rules the Kingdom as Regent on behalf of her father, the King, who is seemingly locked away in a tower, unable (or not allowed, as Elendil tells it) to rule personally.
Race Lift: In the books, she is a classic Tolkien-esque example of a Raven Hair, Ivory Skin beauty. In the show, she is played by biracial Cynthia Addai-Robinson, born to a black Ghanaian mother and a white American father.
Symbol Motif Clothing: She wears clothing with applications resembling fish scales and fishnets, which are references to Numenor being a maritime power.
Tough Leader Façade: She's distraught to have lost her sight after Orodruin's eruption, but still manages to project an aura of strength to her people, to the point of chiding Elendil for offering supportive words when they're alone at one point during the voyage back to Númenor.

Pharazôn

Portrayed by: Trystan Gravelle

The Chancellor of Númenor and Queen Miriel's cousin.
The Consigliere: Advises the Queen in all regards, although his advice may have ulterior motives.
Dark Messiah: Up to no good, looks like Moses and has the charisma and eloquence to drive the masses towards his postulates.
Deadpan Snarker: He seems to have a decent sense of wit.
Evil Chancellor: Pharazón harbors plans of his own beyond his Queen's designs, such as his stoking of anti-elvish sentiment in Númenor.
Manipulative Bastard: Sees a crowd speaking about elves and instantly decides to play them like a fiddle. He's also heavily implied to be good friends with the blacksmith who got the crowd riled up, and likely planned for him to do so so he could step in and calm them down, increasing his own prestige.
Not in This for Your Revolution: Pharazôn supports saving the Men of the Southlands from Sauron... because in doing so the Númenorans will establish a human vassal state in Middle-earth, which will have all sorts of future benefits. He is also quick to reconsider his support the moment victory starts seeming less certain.
Royal Blood: As the childless Queen Regent Miriel's first cousin, he is directly in line to the throne should anything happen to her...
Villainous Valor: He's fully prepared to throw down with Galadriel even after watching her demolish his guards and knowing he stands no chance, until Halbrand gets his ear and offers him a way out of his predicament.
Unusual Eyebrows: Of the kinked type.

Kemen

Portrayed by: Leon Wadham

The son of chancellor Ar-Pharazôn.
Canon Foreigner: Ar-Pharazôn had no known children in canon.
Deadpan Snarker: He gets a date with Eärien by charming her with his wits.
Eärien: I'm not in the habit of going off with strange young men.
Kemen: Very wise, if I see any, you'll be the first to know.
Fiery Cover Up: Kemen tries to sabotage the Numenorean expedition to Middle-earth by leaking flammable liquid from the casks stored below decks. Isildur, hiding on one of the ships, catches Kemen and tries to stop him. They fight and accidentally set on fire the ship, the explosion destroying a second one in the process. Isildur saves his life and lies to his father that Kemen was on a fishing boat and was simply caught up in the explosion and he had to save his life. Isildur theorizes that it was all an accident provoked by one of the casks. Elendil takes everything at the face value.

Tar-Palantír

Portrayed by: Ken Blackburn

The actual king of Númenor, whose rule is all but symbolic at this point.
Authority in Name Only: He's the King, but his authority is entirely symbolic as his daughter rules in his stead.
Gilded Cage: He's called "an exile in his own kingdom", isolated to his tower due to political pressure despite his status as (nominal) sovereign.
Good Old Ways: Elendil mentions to Galadriel that he wanted to seek the friendship of the Elves like the old days, but this was politically problematic and Míriel was made ruler in his stead.
The Ghost: An in-universe example. Has not been seen in-person in public for quite some time.
King on His Deathbed: The King's bedridden, seemingly delirious and very clearly on his way out of this world. Miriel keeps his situation under wraps to avoid the kind of cutthroat royal bickering that occurs in these situations.
My Skull Runneth Over: He states to Earien that he used the Palantiri too much to the point his mind was overhwelmed and shattered by the information. As he puts it, he can no longer tell "what is from what was, and what was from what will be".
No Name Given: His name has not been mentioned out loud. The book readers know him to be Tar-Palantír, the last Faithful sovereign of Númenor; his Adûnaic name, Inziladûn ('Flower of the West'), however is used.
Secretly Dying: The other reason he's hidden from the public: his health is failing and Míriel is keeping his condition a secret to avoid further disrupting the political situation in Númenor. He eventually passes away offscreen during "Alloyed", with Míriel and Elendil returning to find mourning banners hanging in the harbour.
We Hardly Knew Ye: Passes away in the Season 1 finale after appearing in just a bunch of scenes and already very ill.
Wizard Beard: He's not a literal wizard, but his white beard is certainly fit for one, and he seems to possess the subtle precognitive abilities of his book counterpart.

Harfoots/Hobbits

Harfoots in General

Character Exaggeration: The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy put more focus on the Hobbit's pastoral, hedonistic lifestyle but also mentions that they can be sneaky went they chose to be. While their jolly food-loving tendencies are present here it also emphasizes their stealth as their defining trait.
The Dead Have Names: The Harfoots hold a ceremony the night before the Migration during which Sadoc reads out the names of those who "fell behind" in prior Migrations. Among the names is Poppy's entire family who were lost to a landslide.
Hobbits: The Harfoots are a nomadic Hobbit race not yet settled, unlike the Third Age Hobbits of the cinematic trilogies, who typically inhabit a technological setting analogous to Regency England.
I Will Only Slow You Down: Their plucky optimism masks what is in some ways a False Utopia, in that the Harfoots' existence is bucolic and pastoral, but their impermanent camps and constant migrating means that they continually face the very real danger of much larger creatures and natural disasters, as well as the anxiety that hovers over any member of their community in terms of being left behind, which is nothing less than a death-sentence, yet an accepted fact of life for any Harfoot unable to keep up.
In Harmony with Nature: Their hair is typically adorned with leaves, nuts and berries and they live out in the open, pulling their cart homes to new locations when it comes time to migrate. During a pre-migration festival, the tribe all sport costumes made out of leaves, bulrushes and twigs — perhaps representing some kind of atavistic nature worship.
Little People: The Harfoots invoke this more so than the Third Age Hobbits in that their talent for hiding makes them mysterious creatures of legend to the race of Men, akin to beings from folklore such as fairies or leprechauns.
The Needs of the Many: On the surface, they are a cutesy people who live a charmed, bucolic life, though this belies the fact that their culture is surprisingly harsh on those who would slow down their regular migrations, and any Harfoot that can$t keep up is abandoned (likely to die) in the name of ensuring the survival of the group.
Stealth Expert: Harfoots are experts at camouflaging themselves and hiding in plain sight.
Exemplified during their introductory scenes when a pair of human hunters literally walk right through their encampment and don$t spot a thing. Moments after the hunters pass by, the entire camp — homes, shops and Harfoots — literally erupt from under cover and carry on their daily business.
When The Stranger starts crashing through the camp during the pre-migration bonfire, the Harfoots almost instantly become invisible, using their cloaks, adorned with various plants and twigs, to instantly blend in with their surroundings.
Survival Mantra: As a nomadic people, theirs is Nobody goes off the trail and nobody walks alone.
Wandering Culture: Unlike the beautifully bucolic village of Hobbiton, which comes complete with a watermill, a pub and a variety of cute little Hobbit homes — all with beautifully tended cottage-gardens — the Harfoots of the Second Age survive via stealth, moving from place to place, setting up temporary camps and moving on when resources run out, or danger approaches.
Worldbuilding: The Harfoot$s nomadic culture is incredibly richly realised, from costuming to customs, and represents something new, built from the ground up, with only minimal influences taken from previous Tolkien adaptations.

Elanor "Nori" Brandyfoot

Portrayed by: Markella Kavenagh

A young Harfoot who dreams of experiencing the world outside her tribe, and is the first to encounter The Stranger.
Batman in My Basement: Having discovered The Stranger in a meteorite crater, she takes it upon herself to befriend and take care of him, carting him (with Poppy's help) to a nearby dwelling and hiding him for the night. The next day, she brings him a plate of snails to munch on and makes Poppy swear to tell no one.
Nori: He could have landed anywhere, and he landed here. I know it sounds strange but somehow I know he's important. It's like there's a reason this happened. Like I was supposed to find him. Me. And I can't walk away from that.
Be Careful What You Wish For: Her wish for greater things seems to be granted when The Stranger appears. His presence puts her and her people in great danger, on account of the trio of mystics who are pursuing him and when he is eventually cast out by the Harfoot elders, Nori sadly says that she should never have forgotten she was just a small little Harfoot.
Curious as a Monkey: Her defining trait. She$s intrigued about the outside world beyond the cosy confines of the Harfoot camp, and when a mysterious stranger crash-lands near her home via what appears to be some sort of meteorite, she shows very little fear when approaching and attempting to befriend him.
The Cutie: She's an adorably earnest Plucky Girl, and her diminutive stature, sweet face and Quirky Curls all go to emphasise her appeal.
Defiant Stone Throw: Just as The Dweller prepares to finish off The Stranger, Nori beans her in the head with a pebble.
Friend to All Living Things: Only Nori could befriend an amnesiac man that came from the sky and has dangerous powers.
Full-Name Ultimatum: Her mother addresses her thusly after Nori says she wants to learn and explore more, insisting that the Harfoots are wild folk and need only concern themselves with their own lives.
Innocent Blue Eyes: As a Harfoot, Nori is not privy to the goings on outside of her tribe and she has wide, bright blue eyes.
Intergenerational Friendship: Her relationship with The Stranger (in the finale revealed to be Gandalf himself) doubles up as an Odd Friendship, what with her being an adorable, mortal, teenage Harfoot, and him being an incredibly long-lived, unimaginably powerful Istar — a Maiar spirit dispatched to Middle-earth by Manwë to combat the threat of Sauron.
Living Is More than Surviving: She snaps at her mother over the Harfootscowering, fearful, secretive culture, though shes quickly reminded that stealth is the only reason they$ve survived in Middle-earth the last thousand years.
Nerves of Steel: She exhibits astonishing bravery (or foolhardiness) in the face of the supernatural nature of The Stranger and his otherworldly arrival in Middle-earth, even making it her mission to befriend him.
Plucky Girl: In the face of the terrifying power of The Dweller and her cohorts, Nori remains steadfast, doing what she can to distract them away from The Stranger and, after his true identity as a powerful Istari is revealed, agreeing to break with her family and go off trail, accompanying him to the unknown lands of Rhûn.
Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: She moans to Poppy about their cosy, pastoral existence and longs for adventure — just before The Stranger is literally delivered out of the blue and into her life.

Poppy Proudfellow

Portrayed by: Megan Richards

Nori's best friend.
Alone Among Families: Her entire family was killed in a landslide, making her stand out as a lonely figure in the deeply communal culture of the Harfoots. While most of the Harfoots carry their carts as a family, she's pointedly seen carrying hers completely alone. This also explains why she's a lot more cautious and worried about possible danger than Nori is.
Big Eater: She chows down quite a lot of berries when given the chance.
Deadpan Snarker: Poppy always has the right comeback.
Nori: There's head-sense, Poppy, and there's heart-sense.
Poppy: There's common sense and nonsense.
The Drag-Along: Poppy acts as a reluctant voice of reason in her friendship with the impetuous Nori, and is constantly fretting about her lack of caution — especially when she's cajoled into Nori's plan to take care of and befriend The Stranger.
Fat Best Friend: The most significantly plump of the Harfoots, shown having trouble slipping through a crack in a fence that the others slip through easily, and fulfills the best friend role for Nori.
Stout Strength: She$s a well-built young girl and during the Harfoot migration, as she has no living family, she pulls her cart (her home and worldly belongings) alone and with no help.
Vitriolic Best Buds: While she and Nori squabble about anything and everything, she's quick to jump to her defense and tell Malva to "mind her own fire" when Malva pesters a clearly upset Nori about her father's condition.

Sadoc Burrows

Portrayed by: Lenny Henry

Dubbed by: Thierry Desroses (European French)

One of the Harfoot elders and the keeper of their records.
The Chains of Commanding: His position as leader is not always pleasant. When a fellow Harfoot points out that Nori's rule-breaking should earn her an incredibly harsh penalty, Sadoc visibly winces and seems reluctant even when he doles out a lesser punishment. It's also all but stated that he has personally had to leave another Burrows (apparently his wife or daughter) behind to ensure the survival of the group, and she ended up "taken by wolves" - he knows how harsh but necessary their rules are. The painful task also falls to him to personally read out the names of all they've left behind so their sacrifice will not be forgotten.
Ethnic Magician: Harfoots are noted in Tolkien's writings to be of darker skin tones than other hobbit races. He's also the nearest equivalent to a scientist or Astrologer in the Harfoot community in his capacity as a reader of signs and portents.
Face Death with Dignity: He's mortally wounded while trying to free The Stranger from The Dweller and her cohorts. He remains calm, knowing that he's about to be reunited with his late wife and asks Nori, Poppy and Marigold to watch the sunrise with him.
Grumpy Old Man: He's a stern sort, with little time for drama.
Heroic Sacrifice: Sadoc is fatally wounded by The Nomad, but survives long enough to help the others defeat her and her cohorts, and gets to Go Out with a Smile as the Sun rises.
The Leader: The Harfoots of the Second Age live in fairly ramshackle, impermanent dwellings — a far cry from the salubriousness of Bag End — and he acts as one of the de facto leaders of their small community in his capacity as Trailsman.
The Lost Lenore: While reading the names of the dead he pauses briefly before reading "Lavender Burrows" and in "Alloyed" he mentions his late wife indicating that she was lost during an earlier Migration.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Sadoc is trying to keep Harfoot tradition and lead them to better places, even if those two things are hard to reconcile. When they find out Nori broke their rules by helping the Stranger the punishment should be exile, but citing her youth he gives her the more lenient sentence of taking the back position in the caravan (which is still a dangerous rearguard, but he did this over the objections of other elders who were insisting on exile).
Tomes of Prophecy and Fate: He's the keeper of the Harfoot records and is seen to be troubled by portents noted in the ancient book he carries with him — namely the significance of two antler-bearing hunters entering the Harfoot domain, which seems to suggest far more dangerous visitors will follow.

Largo and Marigold Brandyfoot

Portrayed by: Dylan Smith and Sara Zwangobani

Nori and Dilly's father and stepmother.
Agony of the Feet: Via some as-yet-unknown magical equivalency, The Stranger snapping a stick in half causes Largo's ankle to buckle at exactly the same moment, and he's laid up, unable to work or migrate.
Anger Born of Worry: Marigold relates to Nori's adventurous spirit, as she admits to being the same in her own youth. However, she's furious when Nori breaks the Harfoot rules by bringing The Stranger into their camp, and the family subsequently finds themselves relegated to the back of the caravan migration — a punishment made far worse by the fact that Largo's twisted ankle means they are very likely to be left behind, which is essentially a death-sentence in Harfoot culture.
Good Parents: Both of them are sweet, kindly and supportive and Largo especially is indulgent of Nori's wanderlust.
Good Stepmother: Marigold is kind and protective of Nori and Dilly, despite them not being her biological children.
Happily Married: Largo and Marigold are very much in love.
Papa Wolf: In "The Eye", Largo puts himself between Nori and the three intimidating white-robed women, warning them to stay away from his daughter.
Largo: You harm a hair on her foot and I'll brain the lot of you!
Parents as People: Marigold tries to discourage Nori from haring off-trail and helping The Stranger. When she sees just how despondent Nori is after the accident with the tree, saying that Marigold was right to remind her that she's just a small Harfoot who can't do anything, Marigold is guiltstricken for putting those words into her stepdaughter's head and changes her tune.
Second Love: Marigold is Largo's second wife, after the death of his first, and therefore stepmother to his children, which explains why they don't share her darker skin tone.
Synchronisation: After Nori makes contact with The Stranger, at one point he begins to behave erratically, and snaps a large stick clean in half — at exactly the same time, Largo is helping to put up a tent-pole and his ankle buckles, rendering him unable to walk properly.

Dilly Brandyfoot

Portrayed by: Beau Cassidy

Nori's little sister.
Cheerful Child: She's an adorable little fluff-ball, with huge, bright eyes and a cheerful demeanor.

Dwarves

Prince Durin

Portrayed by: Owain Arthur

Prince of Khazad-dûm and an estranged friend of Elrond.
Ancestral Name: He shares his father's name and will be the fourth Durin to rule Khazad-dûm when he takes the throne.
Adaptational Mundanity: In the Legendarium, it's stated all "King Durins" may be the same Durin (Durin the first, a.k.a Durin the Deathless) reincarnated continuously. Durin III instead states that upon being crowned, all King Durins receive "all the memories of his predecessors" in a more ambiguous note.
Bruiser with a Soft Center: A powerful Dwarven lord with a rough manly demeanour, but he loves his wife and children and his issue with Elrond is entirely due to feeling snubbed by a man he considered his friend.
Calling Out for Not Calling: Durin makes it clear that Elrond is no longer welcome in Moria when he pays an unexpected visit, as he hadn't written or visited once in the past twenty years, and is only turning up now because he needs a favor.
Elrond: Their prince, Durin, is an old and dear friend — almost like a brother to me. [...] Oh, if I know Durin, he'll do far more than that^note. He'll welcome us with open arms, rams' horns blaring, tables filled with salted pork and enough malt beer to fill the Anduin.
Dwarf Guard: [opens the peep hole in the gate] What d'you want?
Elrond: [smiling magnanimously] It is Elrond of Lindon, accompanied by Celebrimbor, Lord of Eregion. We seek an audience with Prince Durin.
Dwarf Guard: [beat] No.
Curse Cut Short: While meeting with Gil-galad, Durin mocks the elves for their longevity and bureaucratic ways by saying it takes them several weeks "to decide to take a sh-", which Elrond strategically interrupts.
Determinator: He's got incredible stamina, being able to cause Elrond to break into a sweat during a test of endurance while showing no signs of fatigue himself.
Fiery Redhead: Sports the thick, bushy red hair common to many Dwarves in the cinematic trilogies, and is amusingly quick to take offence and flare up.
A Friend in Need: After the king refuses to help the Elves, Durin IV decides to go behind his back and mine in secret for Mithril with Elrond. King Durin catches them, resulting in Elrond's exile, and a heated argument between father and son that results in Prince Durin getting disinherited after calling Elrond his brother.
The Gadfly: He tricks Gil-galad into handing over his dining table by claiming that it's made of a rare mineral that has great cultural significance to Dwarves. Elrond works out what happened when he spots Durin chuckling after one of the Elves carrying the table struggles with its weight.
Get Out!: He initially refuses to allow Elrond access to Khazad-dûm, furious over Elrond neglecting their friendship for decades. Following a contest of strength that Elrond loses, Durin demands that Elrond leave and never return, but Elrond and Disa are able to cajole him into relenting.
Henpecked Husband: Durin loves his wife, but is bewildered by her ability to take charge through sheer bossiness. When Durin begrudgingly agrees to let Elrond meet his wife and kids — pointedly saying the visit will be brief — Disa insists the Half-elf stay for dinner and gives Durin a Death Glare when he tries to object.
Interspecies Friendship: With Elrond the half-elven
Large Ham: He's loud, exuberant and full of bluster, bantering with mad-eyed snark when Elrond pays a visit.
Our Dwarves Are All the Same: He's designed around the archetypical Dwarf presented by the cinematic trilogies: a stout, truculent, bombastic redhead sporting a large nose and an impressive, braided beard.
Prospector: He leads a secret mission into the depths of the mountain in search for the newly discovered mithril.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Furious at his father refusing to give mithril to the elves, Prince Durin reluctantly gives Elrond the bad news. Upon seeing that mithril does have a rejuvenating effect on the elves, Prince Durin defies orders to keep digging and uncovers the mother lode: a chasm with massive veins of mithril descending into the depths. However, King Durin angrily exiles Elrond, berates and nearly disowns his son, and orders the chasm sealed up.
Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Durin is a Fiery Redhead and part of a Proud Warrior Race as a Dwarf, while Elrond is a patient Elvish scholar. This doesn't stop them from getting along.
Inverted when it comes to his father, who doesn't bat an eyelid at the thought of elves going extinct while Prince Durin tearfully begs him to have a heart.

Princess Dísa

Portrayed by: Sophia Nomvete

Durin's wife, Princess of Khazad-dûm and mother to his two children.
Big Fun: She sports the rotund form and exuberance typical to her people and is amusingly overbearing when bickering with Durin.
Black Boss Lady: She$s very assertive and since she's married to the Prince of Khazad-dûm, she's a very high-ranking Dwarf.
Girls with Moustaches: A subtle variation; the Dwarven women presented in the series sport fluffy "mutton-chop" sideburns and Dísa is no exception.
Gold Makes Everything Shiny: Like all Dwarfs, she covets gold and as the Princess of Khazad-dûm, it's unsurprising that she's fully decked out in gold accessories, including a large gold collar, bracelets and multiple gold rings. Her hands are dusted with gold powder and even her eyes are a deep, golden-amber colour.
Lady Macbeth: She gives Durin an earful on how to commit treason, telling him they should be ruling Moria and mine the Mithril in place and contravention of his unfitting father, the King.
Magic Music: She is capable of communicating with the mountain itself through her powerful Melismatic Vocals and aids in saving four dwarves that were trapped in a collapsed tunnel.
Mythology Gag: Her name derives from the one single female dwarf name Tolkien ever gave: Dís (in canon, the name of Thorin's unseen sister).
Sacred Hospitality: Unlike her husband, Dísa is not upset at Elrond for missing out her wedding or the birth of her children, and welcomes him back with open arms, insisting he stay for a lavish dinner.
Sexy Slit Dress: Her white dress is slit on the right side.
Tempting Fate: Dísa tells Elrond that the Dwarves mine and craft by communing with the earth itself. Little does she know that below the delvings of the Dwarves there are all sorts of horrors, one of which will be the bane of their kingdom.

King Durin III

Portrayed by: Peter Mullan

King of Durin's Folk and ruler of Khazad-dûm
Adaptational Mundanity: In the Legendarium, it's stated all "King Durins" may be the same Durin (Durin the first, a.k.a Durin the Deathless) reincarnated continuously. Durin III instead states that upon being crowned, all King Durins receive "all the memories of his predecessors" in a more ambiguous note.
Brain Uploading: He alludes to the notion that, upon being crowned, each dwarven king receives all the combined experiences of his predecessors in his mind. As the current King, he would know.
Cool Crown: Durin's crown is a seemingly made of iron and very solid-looking, complete with a ring of vicious looking spikes. It provides a rugged contrast to the elegantly fancy crown Gil-galad sports, but is no less cool.
Famous Ancestor: He's one of the oldest Dwarf-lords in Tolkien$s works and is the ancient ancestor of Thorin Oakenshield.
Jerkass Has a Point: His refusal to mine the Mithril, not even to save the Elves, ultimately turns out to based on valid and reasonable concerns, as the vein is sitting right on top of a sleeping Balrog.
King Bob the Nth: King Durin the Third, and his son is prince Durin the Fourth, next in line to rule Moria.
Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Like his son, he's an archetypal Dwarf, albeit more aged, sporting a massive grey beard, a huge nose, and is gruff and no-nonsense in personality.
Rage Helm: His personal guards wear hideous masked helmets as their Nogrod and Belegost ancestors once did in combat.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Puts the wellbeing of his Dwarves above all else.

Orcs/Uruks

Orcs in General

Black Blood: All the Orcs have it, as usual. Notably, so does Adar, showing that he's also closer to an Orc than an Elf, in spite of external appearances.
Black Speech: Whilst they mostly speak Cockney-accented English, when carrying the body of the Orc wounded by Arondir, they chant Nampak uglursha, to mourn their fallen comrade.
Cloak of Defense: Direct sunlight causes their skin to rapidly burn, so they have to cloak themselves in defensive white cowls and wrappings when venturing above ground. Some high-ranking Orcs sport rubbery cloaks that are seemingly made of the shed skin of large reptiles which brings up all kind of alarming questions as to whats shedding such massive sections of skin$
Even Mooks Have Loved Ones: They're still expectedly cruel monsters but unlike in most Tolkien adaptations, the Orcs seem to care about each other, even chanting to honor a fallen comrade.
Evil Is Not Well-Lit: Their distaste for sunlight means they are usually hanging around in darkness.
Fighting for a Homeland: Episode 6 reveals that their whole plan was to create Mordor by causing a volcanic eruption. The resulting ash would protect them from the sun's rays, allowing them to prosper.
Moral Myopia: They're shown as much more cooperative than other Tolkienian depictions, with genuine bonds of fellowship between each other, but view other sentient races as slaves at best or animals to exploit at worst.
The Morlocks: The more dangerously primitive Orcs of the Second Age are pale-skinned and shun sunlight, living underground and having to cloak themselves when venturing above ground.
Skeletons in the Coat Closet: They wear animal skulls as helmets.
Tragic Monster: The orcs burn in the sunlight, are shunned by the free races and treated like dirt by their masters. One gets the impression that with Sauron out of the picture, they'd have no ambition outside of terraforming the Southlands into a place for them to thrive. Unfortunately, sooner or later Sauron will enslave them again and lead them to ruin.
Weakened by the Light: Direct sunlight greatly bothers them, causing their skin to actually boil, meaning they have to cloak themselves on the surface.
White and Red and Eerie All Over: In contrast to the Peter Jackson portrayal of Orcs, they seem to largely have a very deathly pale complexion with touches of reddish pink.

Adar

Portrayed by: Joseph Mawle

"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 chivalric enough to let Arondir go intact and with his weapons.
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.
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 ashes.
Black Blood: He bleeds black, just like the Orcs do, showing him to be closer to an Orc than an Elf despite external appearances.
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 apparent leader of the Orc horde gathering in the Southlands.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The palest Elf seen thus far, complete with raven-black hair.
Evil Makes You Ugly: Adar is not nearly as pleasant-looking as 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.
Facial Horror: His face is scarred by mysterious circumstances and he looks quite sickly.
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.
Femme Fatalons: A masculine example. His bare hand's fingernails are long and unkempt.
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.
Immortal Ruler: As the progenitor of the Orcs and a corrupted Elf, he has been alive for thousands of years.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Monster Progenitor: He's the father of the Orcs currently raiding the Southlands.
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: Alludes to having been in Middle-earth since the First Age (or before) and having known the lost continent of Beleriend, 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.
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.
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. Considering he wears his armor's glove in only one fist, it's likely the burn extends down to his arm.
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.
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.
Villainous Cheekbones: He has almost inhumanly prominent cheekbones that give his face an almost skeletal flair.

Digger Orc

Portrayed by: Nathan Mennis

A terrifying, primitive being who tunnels into Bronwyn and Theo's home.
Implacable Man: It takes a full beheading to put him down for good, this after being slashed, cut, impaled and hit by several blunt force objects.
Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: A standard mook but, since the people he's attacking are ill-equipped peasants, he becomes a legitimately dangerous threat and is only barely taken out by the skin of their teeth.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: The digger Orc is a far more menacing presence than the rabble of cockney-accented Mooks from the cinematic trilogies, and is more akin to something straight out of a Folk Horror work or Slasher Movie. It makes sense in context, as this is the Second Age, not the Third, and any remaining Orcs are closer to the original ones Morgoth transformed from elves than the ones bred by Sauron in Mordor or Saruman's pointedly part-human Uruk-Hai.
Nothing Is Scarier: Theo complains of the "mice" under the floorboards keeping him awake with their scratching and scraping. Turns out it was this terrifying thing all along, lurking literally inches from him and his mother — possibly for months as it tunnelled under their house.
Off with His Head!: After Theo manages to stagger it by lassoing its throat, Bronwyn sees an opening and hacks off its head, which she presents to the gobsmacked townsfolk in the tavern.
Portent of Doom: Orcs and their kind haven't been seen in the Southlands for years and most had assigned them an almost mythological status. The singular Orc that tunnels into Bronwyn's house is a clear indicator that an old evil is back, and leaching into previously safe communities.
Scarily Competent Tracker: It was likely drawn to the presence of the ominous weapon Theo had discovered — even from a great distance — and targeted his home to seek it out.
Skeletons in the Coat Closet: It sports a large animal skull, which initially hides its features and adds to its terrifying appearance.
Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: Literally — the Orc's tunneling had kept Theo awake for weeks, and when it does make an appearance, it rises out of a hole in the floor, huge claws clacking, like a medieval Bogeyman.
Tunnel King: With its long, black fingers and claw-like nails, it had tunneled between Hordern and Tirharad — no mean feat considering the distances involved.
Wolverine Claws: Orcs in the cinematic trilogies do sport long, dirty fingernails, but this Orc has very large clawed hands, which adds to its menace.

Beasts

Snow-troll

A troll inhabiting the Northern Waste that menaces Galadriel's companions.

All Trolls Are Different: Whilst being fairly similar to the mountain, cave and hill-troll species established in The Lord of the Rings films, the snow-troll has huge, boar-like tusks curving out from the side of its mouth and several patches of fur.
Boom, Headshot!: After slicing at the troll's legs to topple it, Galadriel finishes the job by piercing its skull with her brother's dagger.
Giant Mook: It represents the first enemy faced by any heroic group in the series, and after brutalising Galadriel's companions, she skilfully dispatches it single-handedly, establishing her combat credentials.
Monstrous Humanoid: It$s vaguely human in proportion, but stands over 12 feet tall and sports a grotesque bestial face with huge, curved tusks.

The Wyrm

A gigantic sea creature that inhabits the Sundering Seas.

Insistent Terminology: It's seemingly some sort of gigantic, spined sea-serpent or fish, but Halbrand and the others only ever refer to it as "the Wyrm". Tolkien used the word interchangeably with "dragon" in his writings, as it's the Old English for "serpent".
Mix-and-Match Critters: Its full form is kept menacingly vague, though from what's glimpsed, it seemingly combines whale-like proportions with the spiked fins of a scorpion fish and the upturned snout of a sturgeon.
Our Dragons Are Different: Unlike the terrestrial dragons of the First Age or the winged fire-drakes like Smaug, the Wyrm is a sea-dragon that prowls the ocean to the west of Middle-earth, and is depicted on the maps of Númenor as a warning for sailors to stay out of its territory.
Sea Serpent: The Wyrm is a gargantuan creature, hundreds of feet long and easily dwarfing the small piece of wreckage carrying Halbrand's companions and Galadriel. True to form, it had destroyed Halbrand's boat and is intent on finishing him and his crew off.

Slaver Warg

A vicious beast used by the tunneler Orcs to keep their prisoners in line.

Adaptational Ugliness: It$s by far the ugliest live-action version of a warg to date, looking more like a bug-eyed pug than a wolf or hyena, as per previous adaptions.
Animals Lack Attributes: Averted. The warg has some rather prominent teats on its underbelly, indicating that this individual may be a female.
Beware of Vicious Dog: It's a mad beast, with crazed bulging eyes and is far more out of control and rabid than previously-seen Warg species, hurling itself into combat with no thought for its own safety.
Gonk: It stands out in comparison to the more wolflike wargs who chase after the Harfoots, having a scrawny body with bulbous features and patchy fur.
Mister Muffykins: Whether intentional or not, the warg has a definite pug-like overtone, especially with its mad bulging eyes, and evokes a lap dog gone batshit crazy.
Mix-and-Match Critter: It's a bizarre and disturbing cross between a hyena and a pug, complete with huge, bulging eyes.
Right-Hand Attack Dog: When their tunnel-digging Elven prisoners revolt, the Orcs are hampered by their inability to fight well in sunlight, and so release this beast to crush the uprising.

Others

The Stranger

"Alone, it$s just a journey. Now adventures, they must be shared."

Portrayed by: Daniel Weyman

"Betimes, our paths are laid before us by powers greater than our own. In those moments, it$s our task to make our feet go where our hearts wish not to tread. No matter the perils awaiting us on the way."

A mysterious figure who descended to Middle-earth from the stars.
Adaptational Early Appearance: In Tolkien's writing, the Istari arrived to Middle-earth during the Third Age (except maybe the blue ones who might've arrived earlier). Here Olórin is shown arriving during the Second Age.
Ambiguously Evil: Whenever he uses magic, something or someone is injured or dies. It's unclear whether it's intentional or not, but he doesn't seem to notice or care at first — until he eventually feels guilt that one spell he used killed a bunch of fireflies.
Ambiguously Human: He's certainly human-looking, but as the Harfoots note, no human could survive falling from the sky, never mind his unusual abilities. He's also, by human standards, hugely tall, with the harfoots initially identifying him as a giant. He's later revealed to be one of the istari.
Big Damn Heroes: He saves Nori, Poppy and Malva just in the nick of time from being killed by wolves, literally body-slamming the pack leader just as it's about to grab Malva and then scaring them all away by hitting the ground with his palm and forearm, creating a Shockwave Stomp.
Came from the Sky: An ominous meteorite-like object blasts through the sky and crashes near to the Harfoot encampment. Curious Nori Brandyfoot approaches the impact site and discovers the Stranger curled up in the bowl of the crater.
Canon Character All Along: The first season finale establishes that he is one of the Istari, which all but confirms that he is Olórin — the wizard who would later become better known by the name Gandalf.
Cast from Hit Points: When he creates a shockwave to frighten off the wolves threatening the Harfoots, instead of his magic harming something else around him as a side effect, it creates a nasty bruise on his own arm. Perhaps notably it's the only time to date he's used his magic as a weapon.
Extreme Omnivore: He eats snails — shells and all — due to not knowing better.
Human Aliens: He appears to be human, but came from the sky, takes awhile to learn a language that isn't Elvish and demonstrates supernatural powers. The way Nori takes him under her wing also evokes stories of a protagonist adopting an extraterrestrial. He's eventually revealed to be an Istari — a "wizard" sent to Middle-earth by Manwë to protect its peoples from Sauron.
An Ice Person: He uses some form of ice magic to freeze his arm and soothe the pain after injuring it when driving away the wolves threatening the Harfoots. In his meditation, he doesn't notice Nori touching his arm, and unknowingly freezes her hand, almost harming her. She becomes afraid of him after this.
Inept Mage: Played for Drama, his inability to do magic without unpredictable and dangerous side effects injures several people and frightens the Harfoots, to his evident distress.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: He doesn't seem to know who he is or why he's there, only that he needs to be in a place where a specific constellation is visible. The Sauron worshipping Dweller and her cohorts wipe away the block on his memory, revealing that he's actually been sent to oppose Sauron. It also has the effect of making him able to speak fluently in the Harfoots' language and understand why he needs to get to that spot.
Light 'em Up: The Stranger reveals The Dweller and her comrades to be Wraiths when she attacks them with The Dweller's own staff, before incinerating them with a blast of holy light.
Mistaken Identity: Because of his supernatural nature and him falling out of the sky, The Dweller and her duo of Sauron worshippers tracking him mistakenly believe he's Lord Sauron. He's actually an Istari, and has been sent to Middle-earth to act as Sauron's Good Counterpart.
My God, What Have I Done?: Once he realizes what his magic is capable of, after unknowingly killing some fireflies, he expresses fear that he is a threat to the Harfoots.
Mysterious Stranger: He is a man of mysterious origins with magical powers who fell from the sky, and about whom Nori feels very protective, thinking they were destined to meet. Because he is The Unintelligible and doesn't remember who he is, he has No Social Skills and comes across as naïve and almost childlike. His presence does take the Harfoots out of their insignificant normality, and sets them up on a path of adventure, but also into the path of possible danger, as unknowingly to everyone, he is chased by The Dweller, a terrifying worshipper of Sauron.
Now, Let Me Carry You: His supernatural presence seemingly causes Largo to badly twist his ankle — a literal death sentence to Harfoots, who are always on the move and have to cart their homes with them — but The Stranger, maybe out of guilt, volunteers to help drag the Brandyfoot family cart and not let them get left behind.
Portent of Doom: Him falling out of the sky is, according to Sauron's followers, a sign that his return is near. This turns out to be misdirection, as Sauron had been hiding in plain sight this whole time.
The Unintelligible: Initially he speaks either only in Quenya, which Nori cannot understand^note or repeating words he hears without understanding them, with the rest being unintelligible roaring. He does eventually pick up some English words like "Nori" and "friend", though, and is able to construct some basic sentences by halfway through the first season. By the finale he's able to give sage advice, most notably when he tells Nori "when in doubt, follow your nose".

Sauron

Portrayed by: Charlie Vickers (as Halbrand), Will Fletcher (as Finrod in Galadriel's vision)

"I have been awake since before the breaking of the first silence. In that time, I have had many names."

Morgoth's successor, a fallen Maia who at first seeks to repent of his wrongs and heal that which he destroyed during his time serving Morgoth.
Ambiguous Situation: How genuine his attempts at retiring for a simple life on Númenor as a blacksmith, seeking redemption, and what, if any, orchestration he had in meeting Galadriel and the events and feelings that unfolded between them were. How much of it was her doing and how much of it was his doing. As a masterful liar and deceiver, even if he is telling the truth about something it is nigh impossible to trust his word.
Arch-Enemy: Galadriel clearly considers him to be hers, especially after his murder and branding of her brother Finrod, considering it her mission in life to track down and destroy him, even refusing the paradise of Valinor to stay behind in Middle-earth to do so. Sauron, by contrast, sees Galadriel as his most valuable potential ally, even wishing her to become his queen and rule by his side.
The Atoner: Sauron tells Galadriel that with Morgoth out of the picture, he had a Heel Realization about how Being Evil Sucks and wishes to undo all the damage he caused. Galadriel dismisses him anyway, as he plans to reshape Middle-earth by ruling over it, which hints that he might just be looking for any excuse to become a tyrant.
Becoming the Mask: Charlie Vickers, Halbrand's actor, states that he believes Sauron was still in his The Atoner phase when meeting Galadriel, mostly because he "fears the Gods and he fears retribution". Halbrand being Halbrand is then the follow-up to Sauron praying for Eönwë's forgiveness but fleeing before facing the other Valar. On the other hand, he kept his manipulative nature intact.
Big Bad: He's the titular Lord of the Rings, and is the commander of an army of Orcs, trolls, and other monsters who served his former master, Morgoth.
Bad Boss: He performed horrific magical experiments on many of his own Orc followers, eventually to the point where Adar turned against him.
Black Knight: Sauron wears a spiked armor, similar to the one he wears in the cinematic trilogy.
Devil in Plain Sight: Despite all the mystery around him and all the cryptical things Sauron as Halbrand said and did, nobody and especially Galadriel didn't suspect anything until it was too late.
Dark Messiah: Sauron is a nominal Messianic Archetype who started as a force of good before becoming a Fallen Angel, and whose present goal is to establish himself as both the ruler and the savior of Middle-earth, and he invites Galadriel to share this role with him. He claims he just wants to redeem himself buy healing Middle-earth and rebuilding everything he destroyed by being Morgoth's servant, and by that he means conquering Middle-earth and control everything.
Dragon Ascendant: He was Morgoth's right-hand man who took over when his master was banished to the Void.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: He claims that he was released from being evil when Morgoth was defeated. A few sentences later, he fails to understand why Galadriel is trying to draw a distinction between "saving" and ruling Middle-earth. Sauron doesn't see his own evil because he isn't driven by spite the way his master was; he thinks he's trying to fix everything by making it orderly.
Evil Is Bigger: He towers over the stooped Orcs in his service and is a head taller than most humans even when assuming human form.
Evil Counterpart: Galadriel calls him the Dark Lord, while Sauron wants Galadriel to be his light.
Evil Mentor:
For Galadriel, he tries to teach her how to get under people's skin and use their fear against them.
For Celebrimbor, he shows him how to process the Mithril and the path to obtain the power of the Unseen World.
Evil Sorcerer: Described as such in Galadriel's prologue speech.
Fallen Angel: Much like the Balrog, Sauron is a Maia who was corrupted by Morgoth. Unlike the Balrog, he has apparently maintained a human size.
Face of an Angel, Mind of a Demon: As a human, he is a dashing, charming man with Puppy-Dog Eyes, and an Aragorn look-alike, but in the end, he is a Fallen Angel, former servant of Morgoth, and someone whose deeds are so horrible that even the Orcs hate him.
Fighting a Shadow: Even as a Maia, his guts will spill just like anyone else's, but killing his physical body is only an inconvenience, as he can just reform a new one, though it may take some time. Adar killed Sauron prior to the start of the series, but he is able to come back in the form of Halbrand.
Good Feels Good: And twisted when it comes to Sauron. He confides in Galadriel that after Morgoth was defeated, he enjoyed feeling the light of Eru Ilúvatar once again and seeked to become an Ascended Demon. He tries to manipulate Galadriel into joining forces with him because she is his Good Counterpart and could bind her light to him to rule together Middle-earth and earn the forgiveness of the Valar through her.
Hated by All: As Adar tells Galadriel, even the Orcs can't stand Sauron due to being treated as pawns in his ambitions.
Hellish Pupils: When screaming in rage at Galadriel, his human disguise slips to show he has vertically-slitted pupils.
Hidden in Plain Sight: Initially believed to be either dead or in the process of resurrection, it turns out Sauron has been active this whole time, just adopting a false identity.
Humanoid Abomination: Sauron is a fallen Maiar who takes a humanoid form, sometimes that of a colossal figure clad in spiky black armor.
I Can Change My Beloved: Sauron attempts to weaponize this against Galadriel by claiming she could prevent him being the Dark Lord if they were married. It falls flat when he admits that he still can't understand that saving Middle-earth and ruling over it as a God-King are different.
I Have Many Names: When Galadriel demands to tell her his name, Sauron answers that he had many names over time.
Immortal Ruler: He's been alive since the breaking of the First Silence and his goal is to rule over Middle-earth, bringing order.
In Love with Your Carnage: Sauron first starts dropping hints about "binding" himself to with Galadriel after watching her kill multiple Orcs, and threatening to torture others, as well as vowing to commit genocide on all Orcs just so Adar can helplessly watch.
It's All About Me: Everything Sauron ever did or will do is about Sauron himself. He promptly forgot about Morgoth being trapped in the void, going to beg the Valar for forgiveness. Then he decided to just hide, fearing their retribution. Then he decided to hurt the Uruk so badly in his experiments to "heal Arda" that they decided to betray and kill him. Then he decided he wanted Eru's forgiveness and Galadriel's love, and tortured Galadriel because she dared to refuse him.
Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge: He knows a lot of horrible secrets, but especially about how to obtain the power of the Unseen World, which he is very happy to share with Celebrimbor.
Love Redeems: Deconstructed. After developing feelings for Galadriel, Sauron tells her that he will atone for all his crimes if she will be his queen. The implications being that he's holding her responsible for his inevitable lapse back into villainy once she rejects him.
Manipulative Bastard: And how. He isn't known as The Deceiver for nothing. From the moment he met Galadriel, he manipulated everyone from Numenor to the Southlands.
Mirror Character: Sauron and Galadriel in many ways are almost mirror opposites, Sauron representing darkness and fire where Galadriel represents light and water. There are, however, also many similarities between the two, something which Galadriel becomes increasingly aware of and horrified to realise during the first season. Theya> who are not above using others to get what they want, and they both have a desire to rule and have influence over others. Its these qualities that make Sauron see her as worthy of being his queen, as he believes he can see her greatness and her power where her fellow elves can$t.
The Mirror Shows Your True Self: After transporting Galadriel into an illusory world made of her memories, she sees his reflection in the sea, which looks darker and more intimidating than his current form.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Without his contribution in forging the three rings, the Elves would have had to abandon Middle-earth, and with them, his only organized opposition.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: As Halbrand he saves Elendil's life during the battle at Tirharad, not knowing that in the future Elendil will, along with Gil-Galad, ultimately bring about his downfall and the end of the Second Age.
Not Good with Rejection: How does Sauron respond to Galadriel's rejection of him? He roars in fury and then traps her in an illusion of her drowning. He also seems to have actually pushed her into the river because that's where Elrond finds her.
Not Quite Dead: Adar claims he killed Sauron, except Sauron survived the assassination attempt and took the identity of Halbrand at some point before the current events.
Obliviously Evil: Implied. He doesn't seem able to understand that what he does and strives for is evil, regardless of his possible good intentions.
Offscreen Villainy: In the first season we are shown his attempts at manipulation and corruption, with most other highlights of his malign long record being told or referenced by other characters.
Physical God: For now, he has a physical form.
Personality Powers: Befitting his deceiving and manipulative nature, Sauron is a shapeshifter and a Master of Illusion.
Playing with Syringes: A magical example. After going into hiding, he delved deep into experiments with the Unseen World that involved sacrificing an uncounted number of orcs to uncover dark secrets hidden even from him.
Redemption Rejection: Sauron wants to continue his penance by "healing" Middle-earth, if possible, with Galadriel's help, but she reminds him that no penance could erase the evil he has done. Galadriel almost considers his offer once Sauron shows their future together, but outright rejects him when she realizes that he sees no distinction between saving Middle-earth and ruling it as a god-king.
Retired Monster: According to himself, he was originally intending to just lie low in Númenor after his temporary death at Adars hand without pursuing any vengeance or planning any evil schemes but Galadriels urging and advice reawakened his desire for order.
Satanic Archetype: What he becomes by the end of Season 1, after deceiving everyone. Bonus points for having Hellish Pupils and Mordor as his lair.
Shadow Archetype:
In a sense, Sauron is what Galadriel could become if she would give in her darkest impulses. She is already revengeful, ambitious, not exactly above using people for her own ends, and is hell-bend on committing genocide against the Orcs. Galadriel is capable to recognize she would turn into a tyrant next to Sauron, though he merely wants her to be his Queen.
Also he's a Shadow Archetype of his very future nemesis, Aragorn. His human identity is built of the same mold Aragorn was built as Strider, appealing to the fantasies of a young elven maiden growing up with the myths of Beren and Tuor fresh in mind. A "lost king" stripped of his royal upbringing and rightful throne from an evil impostor, humble in his looks and gruff in his ways but ultimately noble and good willed, ready to lead his people to salvation. But while Aragorn was the real deal, Halbrand was the impostor all along. And while Aragorn was eager to accept his destiny, Halbrand kept refusing it until Galadriel snapped him out of his bad mental state
Shapeshifting Trickster: While he is not shown shapeshifting on screen, is implied anyway that he can take multiple forms. As Halbrand, he acts as an Evil Mentor for Galadriel and Celebrimbor for his own ends.
Soft-Spoken Sadist: A monstrosity of a being with a smooth voice, and inhumanly creepy.
Spikes of Villainy: The form he assumes when taking command of the Orc legion has long spikes jutting out of his head and shoulders.
Take Over the World: Well, his plans are to heal and rebuild Middle-earth, though in his case it actually means ruling over the entire realm.
Tin Tyrant: Just like in the prologue of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Sauron assumes the form of a large humanoid wearing spiky black armour in the prologue of the series, although his set of armour — from what we can see of it — is different in this time period.
Troll: Sauron must have had a lot of fun faking being a human, making constant Sarcastic Confessions about his true nature, yet going along with what the people chose to believe about him, deceiving everyone left and right, listening Galadriel recounting him how Sauron killed her brother and than leading him in Valinor.
Using You All Along: Galadriel accuses him of deceiving her the whole time and using her to touch his goals. Sauron claims it's the opposite; Galadriel helped him get his mojo back after he had already given up and decided Screw This, I'm Outta Here, and Galadriel's plan was so good that Sauron decided to just roll with it.
Utopia Justifies the Means: Adar claims that after the War of Wrath, Sauron intended to heal Middle-earth's wounds and create a new, perfectly ordered realm. This being Sauron, the process involved a lot of torturous magical experiments on his own subjects.
Villainous Crush: Sauron wishes to make Galadriel his queen so that together they can heal (and rule) Middle-earth and pleads with her to "bind her light" to him and he will "bind his power" to her. He appears to have manufactured the whole scenario of him (in the form of Halbrand) ending up stranded at sea purely so that he can meet her and gain her trust in order to eventually win her to his side. Galadriel however doesn't feel the same, clearly being disgusted with his proposal.
Sauron: All others look on you with doubt... I alone can see your greatness. I alone can see your light.
Galadriel: You would make me a tyrant.
Sauron: I would make you a queen. Fair as the sea and the sun. Stronger than the foundations of the earth.
Galadriel: And you... my king? The Dark Lord?
Sauron: No, not dark, not with you at my side. You told me once that we were brought together for a purpose... this is it. You bind me to the light, and I bind you to power. Together we can save this Middle-earth.
Villains Blend in Better: Unlike Galadriel who struggles to accommodate in Numenor, he blends in better among Numenorians and tries to befriend them.
We Can Rule Together: Sauron offers to make Galadriel his Queen, promising her godlike powers if she become the light to his darkness.
Zorro Mark: Villainous example; he branded Finrod's corpse with his mark.

Morgoth

The first Dark Lord, a fallen Vala who sought to conquer Middle-earth with a horde of monsters.
Ancient Evil: Morgoth was the Dark Lord of the First Age, terrorizing Middle-earth thousands of years prior to the events of the series.
Evil Overlord: Morgoth was an evil Vala who corrupted and killed the Two Trees of Valinor, stole the Silmarils, and waged a war to conquer Middle-earth; corrupting Maiar such as Sauron and the Balrogs, and created the Orcs, trolls, dragons, and other monsters to serve as his army.
The Ghost: Morgoth doesn't physically appear, though the cloud of darkness that forms when the Trees of Valinor were destroyed resembles a spiky humanoid.
God of Evil: He's the source of all that is wrong with Middle-earth. Sauron states that Morgoth compelled him to commit some of his worst acts, though Sauron's word on the matter isn't very reliable.
Greater-Scope Villain: He is the cause of pretty much all the evil in the entire Arda/Middle-earth mythology, as it is in the source material. Morgoth developed Orcs, trolls, dragons, and other monsters, corrupted the likes of Sauron and the Balrogs, and instigated a war with the elves that lasted for centuries, with the fallout still being felt two whole ages after he was defeated and sealed away.
Heel Realization: According to Celebrimbor, when Morgoth gazed into the light of the Silmarils he was moved to tears by their beauty and realized how far he'd fallen... and then doubled down on being evil when he saw his own nightmarish reflection.
Humanoid Abomination: Morgoth is a god of darkness and evil, and his silhouette — briefly glimpsed in the scene where he destroys the Trees of Valinor — is that of a towering humanoid figure covered in spikes.
Living Shadow: Morgoth's physical presence is shown in this way during the Distant Prologue. Celebrimbor does allude to him shedding tears at one point, so he's assumed an organic form at least once during his reign.
Satanic Archetype: He's the Satan analogue of Middle-earth, as a fallen archangel who led a failed rebellion against heaven. Sauron was his right-hand demon. Given Tolkien's strong Catholic faith and his statements that Middle-earth is meant to actually be our own world, but in a lost historical age thousands of years ago, Morgoth is literally meant to be Satan, just appearing in a different version (it's complicated).
Sealed Evil in a Can: After being defeated, Morgoth was banished to the Void, and leadership of his army fell to Sauron.

The Dweller, The Nomad and The Ascetic

Portrayed by: Bridie Sisson (The Dweller), Edith Poor (The Nomad) and Kali Kopae (The Ascetic)

A group of mysterious worshippers of Sauron hailing from the far off land of Rhûn.
All There in the Manual: Their names are only given in the credits. Also, their group is collectively referred to as "The Mystics" by the showrunners, but this term is also never used in the show itself.
Ambiguously Human: Their exact nature is never made entirely explicit, though the episode trivia entries make mention of humans who have learned to wield dark sorcery, indicating that these three may be mortals who have given up their humanity in exchange for such power.
Arc Villain: They serve as the main antagonists of the Harfoot/Stranger storyline in Season 1, before being, presumably, atomised by The Stranger's Holy Hand Grenade powers at the end of the season.
Boyish Short Hair: The Dweller sports a buzzcut, which led some viewers to assume she was a man and that she was Sauron's Annatar form when she first appeared in the trailers.
Breath Weapon: As well as exhibiting an affinity for fire, The Dweller is able to breathe some sort of incapacitating smoke, which she uses to great effect when subduing The Stranger.
Creepy Blue Eyes: The Dweller has unsettlingly pale blue eyes, and is a wielder of powerful magic.
Devious Daggers: While The Dweller uses fire magic, The Nomad's weapon of choice is throwing knives.
Evil Is Petty: The Dweller's decision to burn the Harfoot caravans is needlessly cruel.
Evil Sorcerer: The Dweller in particular is able to wield potent magic, and all three are obviously malicious.
Glamor Failure: Having their magic deflected back at them reveals their true forms as mummified spirits.
Light Is Not Good: They have pallid skin with white robes and are openly hostile to anyone who isn't Sauron.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Believing The Stranger to be an amnesiac Sauron, they try to restore his memories so he can begin his conquest of Middle-earth. However, it turns out that he$s an Istari who was specifically sent to oppose their master and ends up being instrumental in his destruction centuries later, with their meddling restoring enough of his memories to send him on that path.
Not Even Human: When the Stranger uses his power to dispel them, their true form is revealed to really be undead wraith-like creatures.
Playing with Fire: The Dweller displays an affinity for fire magic, and is able to hold flame in her hands before blowing it about her in devastating blasts.
Skull for a Head: In their Wraith forms, The Dweller and The Ascetic have exposed skulls for faces, while The Nomad merely has a desiccated and wizened but otherwise fleshy appearance.
The Voiceless: The Dweller never says a word throughout the entirety of the first season.
Voice of the Legion: When The Nomad and The Ascetic speak, their voices are often distorted by a whispering or echoing effect.
The Weird Sisters: A trio of ambiguously aged, mysterious women capable of wielding magic, and hunting for The Stranger.

The Balrog

A fallen Maia appearing as a demon of flame and shadow, once a servant of Morgoth.

Adaptational Early Appearance: In the books, the Balrog was awakened by the dwarves mining too greedily for mithril during the reign of King Durin VI in the Third Age. In the show, it is King Durin III who unwittingly awakens it by dropping an Elven leaf down the chasm containing the un-mined veins of mithril.
Dug Too Deep: In "The Eye", Prince Durin hammers his way into an ancient chasm containing a vast vein of mithril. This proves to have grave consequences, as the bottom of the chasm is the resting place of the dormant Balrog, who awakens when the Elven leaf Elrond brought with him floats its way down into the darkness, landing right in the Balrog's path.
Fallen Angel: Like Sauron, the Balrog was a Maia corrupted by Morgoth, assuming the form of a fiery demon.
Horned Humanoid: The Balrog us a bulky humanoid demon that sports a pair of thick forward-curving horns.
Reused Character Design: Nigh identical to the Balrog (known by the epithet of "Durin's Bane") seen in the Peter Jackson film trilogy (specifically, in The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers), which is not set in the same continuity. The end of "The Eye" reveals this Balrog to be the same one that will eventually attack the Fellowship in Moria thousands of years later.
Villain of Another Story: According to an elvish legend, the Balrog — or at least a Balrog — fought an elf-lord for possession of one of the Silmarils, leading to the creation of mithril. That this Balrog sleeps at the root of the mithril veins implies it's the same one.
Wreathed in Flames: The Balrog is shrouded in darkness while it slumbers in the depths of Khazad-dûm, but once awakened it becomes wreathed in flames and appears to be made of living lava.

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