The events in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” on Prime Videos occur tens of thousands of years before those in the “LOTR” films. The focus of the programme is on some highly well-known figures from J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional world. While the main focus is on Sauron’s past, whose identity is still a mystery, we also get to learn about the incidents that influenced the stories of characters like Galadriel and Elrond. Isildur is one of the most significant figures in “The Rings of Power.”
In “Rings of Power,” Isildur, an ancestor of Aragorn from the “LOTR” films, is still a young man attempting to find his place in the world. The programme has plenty of time to explore his character development and give him more depth, giving his acts at the end of his trip greater significance even though we know how his narrative will ultimately finish. This in-depth telling of his story will also enable us to shed light on what actually transpired to him at the conclusion of the conflict with Sauron. Isildur either passes away naturally or transforms into a Nazgul. Let’s investigate. Spoilers follow.
Does Isildur Become a Nazgul?
The Lord of the Rings is a vast series that opens a variety of doors into the past and future of various people through books, movies, and video games. Sometimes, as the medium evolves, character characteristics are changed, and their plots frequently diverge from those that the story’s author originally intended. This is precisely what occurred to Isildur in the story.
Isildur does not turn into a Nazgul in accordance with what is written in the books and what the films faithfully reflect. When Isildur uses his father’s shattered sword to sever Sauron’s finger, which was attached to the Ring, the battle against Sauron in The Last Alliance of Elves and Men appears to be lost. He succeeds in destroying Sauron’s physical form, but the conflict continues. Isildur arrives at the location where Sauron had created the Ring with the help of Elrond. The Ring would have been shattered if Isildur had thrown it into the fire, leaving Sauron with nothing to tether him to the ability to return and obliterate the world once more. Isildur chooses to maintain the Ring despite being tainted by it by this point.
Long after leaving Minas Anor with about 200 warriors, Isildur is ambushed by an orc army at the Gladden Fields. The orcs massacre the men because they are outnumbered. Isildur makes himself invisible with the Ring and flees. The Ring comes off his finger and falls into the river Anduin as he tries to swim to the other side. Smeagol discovers it after more than 2000 years have passed, and it further corrupts him. Isildur crosses the river without the Ring but is slain by the orcs after being discovered, primarily because of the royal gem Elendilmir. We learn that Saruman had discovered Elendilmir, which had previously been thought to be lost, as well as Isildur’s remains during the War of the Ring.
The video games take a different turn from the novels and movies in how they wind up Isildur’s tale. We learn from “Middle-Earth: Shadow of War” that the orcs didn’t murder Isildur when they located him. Instead, they carried him to Mordor and left him in Sauron’s care since he didn’t believe that death was a sufficient penalty for his deeds. He placed one of the Nine Rings of Men on Isildur’s finger, transformed him into a Nazgul, and compelled him to obey him for aeons. Isildur is ultimately slain by Talion, the game’s protagonist, and freed from his affliction.
Although the idea of Isildur becoming a Nazgul is definitely intriguing, it doesn’t seem very likely when taking into account the character’s original backstory. When Sauron delivered the nine tainted rings to the men, who used them so frequently over the years that they were invisible, he created the Nazguls. They were so thoroughly corrupted by the influence of the rings that they finally lost memory of their previous selves. Isildur needed to have lived a longer life for this to have occurred to him. Further evidence that Isildur had passed away and lost his physical form comes from Saruman’s discovery of his remains, which rules out the possibility that he changed into a Nazgul.
Isildur won’t turn into a Nazgul if “The Rings of Power” follows the original blueprint for his life and death. The writers may play around with this idea, though, as the show is free to explore the storylines of its characters in any direction. The show’s timeline indicates that Isildur is already alive and the rings haven’t been created, thus they undoubtedly have the chance to do so. This gives Sauron, although a limited opportunity, to transform Isildur into one of the nine Nazguls. It remains to be seen if the show decides to take that direction or not.
