In The Rings of Power, Halbrand likely wants to stay in Numenor to further his manipulation of Galadriel and the rest of his plan, including the destruction of Numenor’s political system.
The first season of The Rings of Power had high expectations to live up to and it managed to do this by keeping familiar elements, but also by introducing new characters and stories.
Halbrand is one of the characters that the show invented in order to connect Sauron to the downfall of Numenor and to gain the trust of Galadriel with his planning and scheming.
How good is the first season of The Rings of Power?
When Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series was announced, it was immediately clear that the show would be a considerable undertaking for the studio, to live up to the reputation of the previous films in the franchise and the beloved Tolkien lore.
This is likely why this series ended up being the most expensive series ever made.
The Rings of Power series also had to deal with not only condensing the lore down into digestible storylines, but also with grabbing viewers’ attention in a story that most people already knew the ending to.
Fortunately, the first season of The Rings of Power manages to capture the same beautiful landscapes and fantasy-driven sets, costumes, and score that fans love about the rest of the franchise, and it introduces enough new character arcs to keep the show interesting throughout.
The Rings of Power: Why did Halbrand want to stay in Numenor?
One of the story arcs that The Rings of Power introduced in the first season is Halbrand and his underhand scheming.
Halbrand and his storyline include many twists and turns, and you should note that explaining why he chose to stay in Numenor in the first season will contain some major spoilers for the first season of The Rings of Power.
The most important thing to understand about why Halbrand does what he does is that it is revealed at the end of the first season that Halbrand was in fact Sauron all along.
Although Halbrand’s story and character was created specifically for the show and does not feature in any of the Tolkien Lore, it is unclear how evil Halbrand is in this stage of the story.
However, what is clear is that Halbrand and his actions are driven by the same need for power and corruption as Sauron.
This means that Halbrand probably wanted to stay in Numenor simply because it helped to further reinforce his story and his manipulation of Galadriel at the stage, and he could also entertain himself by furthering the political divides that were already present in Numenor at the time.
The show has used this new storyline as a way for them to somehow connect Sauron to the downfall of Numenor later on, which has saved them some time in terms of the exposition.
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Why do Halbrand and Galadriel go to Numenor in the first place?
Although it is quite evident from the beginning of the series that Halbrand is hiding something about his identity, he convinces Galadriel with his knowledge of psychology and manipulates her into believing that he is the King of the Southlands, instead of suspecting that he is Sauron.
Halbrand’s continuous manipulation makes it difficult to know which occurrences were just coincidences and which were planned.
Regardless of whether their first meeting in the Sundering Seas was planned or not, they were rescued together after a sea monster attacked their raft and taken to Numenor in Middle-earth.
What happens once Halbrand is in Numenor?
It seems like Halbrand is always one step ahead with his planning and this is why it would make sense if he planned to run into Galadriel in the Sundering Seas to gain her trust, and by extension, to have an entry into the Elven kingdom.
In much the same way, their travels to Numenor gave Halbrand the opportunity to increase the political struggles in Numenor and even to get back at Adar.
Not to mention the fact that the volcanic eruption that he allowed to happen was the beginning of Mordor. This reinforced the idea that Halbrand planned out each and every move that he made to get what he wanted.
What will happen to Halbrand is The Rings of Power season 2?
The first season of The Rings of Power ends quite dramatically with Halbrand, who, it has now been revealed, is Sauron, entering Mordor for the first time.
This indicates that if the series does follow the same sequence of events as the Tolkien lore, Sauron still needs to settle his score with Adar, build Barad-dûr, and forge the One Ring in future episodes.