The universe of The Lord of the Rings is extremely complicated. There are Valar and Maiar, magic trees everywhere, ambiguously powerful rings, and at least two Dark Lords who want to throw the world into chaos. One thing that J.R.R. Tolkien always made plain in his universe, however, is the difference between the right side and the bad one. Good people may get tempted by the powers of darkness, but at the end of the day the morality of The Lord of the Rings has always been black and white, a fundamental imperative for a story whose core is simply good versus evil. Which is exactly why it’s so strange that the prequel series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, insists on making all of its characters shades of moral gray.

It’s not alone in this trend. Over the last 15 years, movies and television have been obsessed with moral ambiguity. Walter White was pushed to break bad because of an unjust system, everyone in Game of Thrones had their ideals compromised by the realities of the world, and you can’t throw a rock in the Marvel Cinematic Universe without hitting a villain that we’re supposed to believe made a few good points. There was a time when these blurry lines between right and wrong felt like a sign of maturity, an indicator that what we were watching was for adults rather than kids. But now that this has become the default state for most shows and movies, it’s too often hollow and obligatory. Moral ambiguity has become a cheap way to paper over a story that doesn’t have anything meaningful to say, and superficial flaws have become camouflage for characters too flat to make concepts like morality feel relevant at all. Ergo, it should be self-explanatory why 0=The Rings of Power is so heavily invested in the concept.

This issue was certainly present in the first season of the show, but in the first three episodes of season 2, it’s become impossible to ignore. The entire series, it seems, has been built around questions of moral grayness that seem at odds with the universe they’re based in. It’s as if the writers are convinced that minor flaws and human mistakes are the key to relatability, and that relatability is important for all its characters. Scene after scene, characters debate the morality of certain issues that seem clear. It’s one thing to know that the elves freely used Sauron’s Rings of Power when they didn’t know who created them, but after a whole scene about how they’re the tools of the enemy, watching the elves put the rings on anyway felt ridiculous, a sudden introduction of ends........

© Polygon