MOVIE NEWS – Mordor, a familiar launching point from the Peter Jackson film and the Shadow of Mordor game, has finally appeared in the series.

Throughout previous instalments of the Rings of Power series, maps have repeatedly shown where the Southlands appeared among the lands that would later become Gondor and Rohan. However, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit films, fans have come to know these lands as the dark place where Sauron and his Orcs dwell: Mordor.

The latest instalment of the Amazon TV series ended in devastation and destruction as the Orcs’ plan finally came to fruition, pouring large amounts of water into the centre of the volcano in the background of Tirharad. And the subsequent eruption proved that the massive land formation was none other than Mount Doom, meaning Mordor had finally come to Middle-earth.

Audiences got a glimpse of this early on in the original trailers for Rings of Power, in which Galadriel is bathed in the wreckage of a burning village, red light and thick ash, and in the latest story, lava spewing from the volcano makes it appear that Tirharad is no more. Several clues dropped in recent episodes have finally come to light, including the tunnels the elves were forced to dig, the orcs whose skins burned in the sunlight, and the leader Adar mentioning that he would give his own home to his children, their lord.

Now it seems that this has been achieved, and the fire and destruction of Tirharad will spread further and further until the surrounding lands become the barren wasteland of Mordor, recognisable from the Peter Jackson film adaptations. The people will have no choice but to flee to the surrounding lands of Rohan and Gondor to the west, where the Numenorans will set up their kingdom, or to Harad to the south, where they may face an even worse fate.

Part Six of the Rings of Power series was certainly a rollercoaster ride as defeat after defeat after triumph after defeat swept over the heroes, Bronwyn and Arondiro. Using the clever tactic of destroying the tower, the villagers of Tirharad were given some time to escape and flee back to the village, which they then tactically set on fire to trap the orcs in the skull mask. And just when it seemed they had won and were finally released, they discovered that the fallen orcs were in fact their relatives who had sworn allegiance to Sauron and paid the ultimate price.

The real orcs then stormed the village and forcibly took over the tavern where the surviving villagers were staying. It seemed they would all die until the Numenorans arrived and saved the day at the last moment, defeating the orcs. But even here, the first hint to the audience that something was brewing was given when Valandir asks Ontanmo, “What do you think?” to which he replies, “I love the mountain”. Little did they know that in just a few hours that mountain would be their undoing.

Waldreg has long been a traitor, a coward and a worshipper of the darkness of his ancestors. From the beginning, he believed that Sauron would return and be their saviour, and suddenly he took it upon himself to see that it happened. By stealing the enemy’s sword and entering it as a key into a vault, setting off a chain of reactions that ended with the eruption of the volcano, Waldreg single-handedly ensured four things: the deaths of several of his men, the escape of Adar, the imminent return of Sauron, and a world without sunlight, obscured by the smoke and ash of Mount Doom for the orcs to wreak havoc from.

The orcs have already burned villages, such as Hordern, where Bronwyn was born, as revealed in the first episode, but their movements have been limited to the night hours as their skin burns in the light. Now, thanks to the intervention of Waldreg and Adar, they will be able to spread across the lands and form them into the ruins of Mordor, as we saw during Frodo and Sam’s journey to destroy the Ring.

As the volcano, instantly recognisable as the iconic Mount Doom, explodes, the Orcs chant “Udun, Udun”, the name of Episode 6. Interestingly, in Tolkien’s work, Udun is the name of a barren valley in Mordor, a tiny part of a much larger plain that stretches for miles as far as the great eye of Sauron can see. Udun was famed for being created by volcanic activity, showing that this small patch of destruction is just the beginning.