Anyone who’s watched the Lord of the Rings movies knows that elves are extremely agile. They jump around, defy the laws of physics to swing onto horses, and attack with deadly, animated force. In the third episode of season 2, The Rings of Power gives Arondir his own big action moment, as he drops out of a tree and handily wastes the thieves attempting to kill Isildur. But the inspiration doesn’t come as much from Legolas, the most famous arrow-slinging elf in the Lord of the Rings franchise. Instead, actor Ismael Cruz Córdova said he drew from a different love: anime and martial arts movies.
Rings of Power’s elf hero wanted his big action scene to feel like anime
‘These characters have to either succumb or become’
Image: Prime Video
Zosha Millman (she/her) manages TV coverage at Polygon as an entertainment editor, but will happily write about movies, too. She’s been working as a journalist for more than 10 years.
“I love the way that anime characters run. I love the postures and the grandeur, and the storytelling of not just anime, but also Asian cinema, martial arts,” Córdova says. It was absolutely on his mind when trying to approach Arondir dropping out of a tree to best some bandits. “It’s like this beautiful, very meaningful, physical language that comes from anime and martial arts.”
Image: Prime Video
Córdova himself is a big fan of anime, particularly Demon Slayer (and particularly Rengoku). He says there are plenty more anime-informed moments throughout the season (and he’s withholding mentioning them all for now, on account of spoilers). But in episode 3, Córdova certainly recognizes how Arondir gets to go full anime, both as an action star and as a person going through some highs and lows — think Demon Slayer or Attack on Titan.
“Pilot [episodes like those] — just about everything happens, with so much intensity. And these characters have to either succumb or become,” Córdova says. “It’s that moment [...] episode 3, yet again, Arondir is faced with yet another pivot.”
[Ed. note: OK, now we’re going to talk about some of the spoilers from episode 3 of The Rings of Power season 2.]
Although this is a second season, it’s easy to see how Arondir’s anime protagonist journey is just picking up steam here: He’s lost the woman he loves, has a complicated relationship with the son she left behind, and on top of that they are at open war with the forces of evil.
Whether he gets to go Super Saiyan on any orcs — let alone Sauron — we’ll just have to wait to see. But with any luck we’ll at least get a fancam of Arondir’s anime opening.
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