‘The Rings of Power’ season 2 kicked off last week with its first three episodes. The initial episodes did good enough work to set up the themes for the rest of the season. We’ve seen everything from Sauron starting to corrupt Celebrimbor, to the corruption of Dwarves. We’ve also gotten a bit of context regarding Orcs in Middle-Earth, and Galadriel starting to transform from a foolhardy warrior into a more thoughtful character.

Now, we’ve also gotten some insight into what Arondir and Isildur have been doing since the gut-wrenching season 1 finale.

We know that Arondir’s love, Bronwyn has died following the infection that set in after she was hit by Orcish arrows, and Isildur has been seemingly left for dead after Numenoreans retreated back to their island nation.

Eventually, both Isildur and Arondir come across each other with Arondir offering assistance to Isildur and Estrid when they are ambushed by Sauron’s faithful. Arondir and Islidur eventually bond over the course of the episode. Their struggles are similar but fundamentally different.

Arondir lost the love of his life, and Theo is rejecting him, seemingly further fueling darkness now that he is directly responsible for his mother’s death. Arondir is now an outsider in the community there’s nothing binding him to the place except for his wish to help.

Isildur has been seemingly abandoned with no way to contact his family who is grieving heavily for him, perhaps in time the two will start to cooperate more through their shared grief. And the fact that both are outsiders in a place where people have little trust to give. They will also likely bond over their need to help and fight evil.

As far as Arondir goes, we don’t know how his story ends considering that he is an original character, but we do know how Isildur’s story ends. Isildur will likely never return to Numenor since now that Pharazon has been “chosen” to be the next king of Numenor, the show is likely setting up the destruction of Numenor since Pharazon will eventually be corrupted by Sauron and will attempt to break “The Ban of Valar.’

Considering that Eärien and Elendil are still faithful to the Valar and the Elves they will manage to escape the destruction and reunite with Isildur down the line.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!