He isn't Sauron. He isn't some random general. Honestly, Adar is probably the most complex thing to happen to Middle-earth since Boromir decided he really needed a jewelry upgrade. When The Rings of Power first dropped, everyone was busy squinting at the screen trying to figure out if every hooded figure was the Dark Lord. Then Adar walked out of the shadows in the Southlands. He wasn't some cackling monster. He was a scarred, weary, almost mournful figure who called the Orcs his "children."
It changed everything.
Middle-earth fans are used to Orcs being disposable cannon fodder. They're the guys who get stepped on by Ents or sliced up by Legolas while he's doing skateboard tricks on a shield. But Adar—played with incredible gravitas by Joseph Mawle in Season 1 and Sam Hazeldine in Season 2—refuses that narrative. He calls them Uruk. He demands they be treated as living beings with a home. If you're trying to understand the deeper lore of the Second Age as the show presents it, you have to look at Adar as the bridge between the ancient elven world and the rising darkness.
Who is Adar and where did he come from?
The show basically created him from the scraps of J.R.R. Tolkien’s darkest notes. He’s a "Moriondor." If that sounds like Elvish for "bad news," you're pretty much on the money. According to the lore established in the series, he was one of the original Elves kidnapped by Morgoth during the First Age, long before the sun even rose.
He was tortured. Twisted. Broken.
The result wasn't a mindless beast, but a "Sons of the Dark" survivor. He’s an Uruk, but he still has the elegance and the long-game thinking of an Elf. You can see it in his armor, which looks like it was once beautiful before being hammered into something jagged and functional. He doesn't serve Sauron. In fact, he claims he killed him. (Spoiler: He didn't quite finish the job, but he definitely tried).
The Moriondor: Breaking down the origin story
Tolkien was famously indecisive about where Orcs actually came from. Early on, he suggested they were corrupted Elves. Later, he worried that made the Creator look bad, so he tinkered with the idea that they were made from mud or men. The showrunners for The Rings of Power leaned hard into the "corrupted Elf" theory.
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Adar is the living proof of that trauma.
Think about it. He remembers the stars. He remembers what it felt like to be whole. But he has spent thousands of years in the dirt, leading a race of beings that the rest of the world views as a plague. His motivation isn't world domination in the way Sauron wants it. Adar wants a "fatherland." He wants a place where his children don't have to hide from the sun. That’s why he triggered the eruption of Orodruin (Mount Doom).
He didn't just want a volcano; he wanted a permanent cloud cover. He wanted to give the Uruks a home. It's almost... noble? In a twisted, scorched-earth kind of way.
Why the change in actors?
You might have noticed he looks a bit different in Season 2. Joseph Mawle left the role after the first season. It was a bummer for a lot of fans because his performance was so whisper-quiet and intense. Sam Hazeldine stepped in, and honestly, he nailed the transition. He brought a bit more of a "war commander" vibe to the role, which made sense as the conflict with Sauron (disguised as Halbrand and then Annatar) heated up.
Recasts are usually a nightmare for immersion. Here, it sort of worked because Adar is a character defined by change and scars.
Adar vs. Sauron: A toxic relationship for the ages
The dynamic between Adar and Sauron is the real engine of the show’s political drama. Most people think Orcs are just Sauron’s loyal dogs. Adar says "absolutely not."
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He sees Sauron as a pretentious tyrant who wants to "heal" Middle-earth by enslaving it. Adar just wants his kids to survive. This creates a massive power vacuum. In the second season, we see the tragic irony of Adar's position. He is so desperate to stop Sauron from returning to power that he ends up making alliances and tactical moves that lead his people right back into the meat grinder.
There's a specific moment in Eregion where you see the cost of his ambition. He’s wearing a Ring of Power—Galadriel’s ring, Nenya—hoping its power will help him finish what he started. But the rings are inherently deceptive.
- Adar wants peace for the Uruk.
- The Ring promises power.
- The result is always more blood.
The tragedy of the "Father"
The word "Adar" literally means "Father" in Sindarin. The Orcs don't follow him because they're scared of him. They follow him because he's the only one who ever loved them. That’s a wild concept for a high-fantasy show. Usually, Orcs are just green monsters that growl. In The Rings of Power, Adar gives them a culture. He gives them a prayer for their dead.
But he's a hypocrite.
He claims to love them, yet he marches them into a siege against Eregion where they die by the thousands. He uses them as a shield against his own ancient enemy. It’s that nuance that makes him better than your average TV villain. He’s a victim of Morgoth who has become a victimizer himself, all while believing he’s the hero of his own story.
If you look at his face—the prosthetic work is genuinely top-tier—you see the remnants of an Elf. The pointed ears are ragged. The skin is translucent and pale. He is a ghost of a civilization that moved on without him.
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What this means for the future of Middle-earth
Adar’s story is a dead end. We know how this ends, right? We’ve seen The Lord of the Rings. We know that by the time Frodo and Sam are trekking through Mordor, the Orcs are firmly under the thumb of the Eye. There is no "Father" left.
This makes Adar's journey in the show a long-form tragedy. He is fighting for a future that we already know he loses. Every victory he has—creating Mordor, seizing a ring, defying Sauron—is just another step toward the inevitable enslavement of his "children."
He represents the last gasp of Orcish independence. Once he's gone, the Uruks lose their soul and become the mindless legion we see in the later ages.
Actionable insights for fans and lore hunters
If you're watching the show and want to get the most out of Adar’s arc, you need to pay attention to the subtext. He isn't just a guy in black armor.
- Watch the eyes: Both actors play Adar with a sense of "pre-war" nostalgia. He often looks at the Elves not with pure hatred, but with a weird kind of jealousy.
- Track the ring: When he gets his hands on Nenya, notice how his demeanor changes. The ring is supposed to preserve things, but Adar uses it to fuel a war. It’s a classic Tolkien "corrupting influence" beat.
- Read the Silmarillion: Look for the passages about the "Cuiviénen" and the disappearance of the first Elves. Tolkien doesn't name Adar, but he describes the process that created him. It adds a whole new layer of horror to his character.
- Listen to the language: He speaks to the Orcs in a mix of Black Speech and Elvish. It shows his dual nature—he's stuck between two worlds and belongs to neither.
Adar is the soul of the show's original content. While Galadriel and Elrond are following the "greatest hits" of the lore, Adar is a window into the messy, gray areas of Middle-earth that Tolkien hinted at but never fully explored. He’s a reminder that even in a world of absolute good and evil, there are people caught in the middle who are just trying to find a place to exist. Even if they have to burn the world down to do it.
To really grasp the weight of his character, go back and watch his conversation with Galadriel in the barn from Season 1. It’s the mission statement for the character. He challenges her morality, pointing out that her quest to "purge" the evil makes her just as bloodthirsty as the things she hunts. It’s the most "human" moment in a show full of gods and monsters.
For anyone following the series, Adar is the benchmark for how to add to a legendary mythos without breaking it. He doesn't contradict the books; he fills a gap with a story about fatherhood, failure, and the long shadow of trauma.