The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2 has dropped one of its characters, and this leaves an important Tolkien trope wide open. One of the risks of a TV show is that actors will have to depart for one reason or another, leaving a studio to have to either recast or write the character out. The latter option can mean quite an interruption for their story arc and impacts the arcs of other characters as well. This is precisely what seems to be happening with The Rings of Power season 2, and since Tolkien’s works tend to involve specific character formulas, this will be an awkward problem to deal with.

Actor Nazanin Boniadi, who played Bronwyn in The Rings of Power season 1, will not be returning for the upcoming installment. Boniadi had previously expressed a desire to focus on advocacy works but later clarified that this wasn’t why she stepped away from the role. Instead, the actor has implied that she has another project on the way, stating on her Instagram that she is excited to share more details when she can. There is no sign that Bronwyn has been recast in Rings of Power season 2, so the character has likely been written out of the show—but what about her and Arondir’s romance?

No Bronwyn In Rings Of Power Means No Elf-Human Romance In Season 2

The Elf-Human Romance Created Added Cohesiveness With LOTR

Bronwyn and Arondir had some definite heat going on between them in The Rings of Power season 1, but Boniadi’s departure from the series will put the breaks on their romance. Ismael Cruz Córdova, who plays Arondir, will be in the upcoming episodes, so there will have to be some explanation about what has happened to the woman whom the elf had been so determined not to leave behind in the previous installment. Given the buildup of this relationship, this is a bit frustrating. However, as Rings of Power‘s resident elf-human romance, this change has further repercussions.

Tolkien’s works often include an elf-human relationship. It’s a familiar Lord of the Rings dynamic, and since a Second Age story is a new frontier for a screen adaptation of Tolkien’s work, Rings of Power needs as much familiarity as possible. Arondir and Bronwyn were meant to fill this trope, but this storyline seems to be abandoned. This is quite a slap to the face for Tolkien’s art since this mortal-immortal dynamic has a significant hand in the themes of Lord of the Rings.

Arondir & Bronwyn Weren’t A Canon Love Story (But They Still Served A Common Tolkien Theme

Tolkien’s Elf-Human Romances Hold A Lot Of Weight In Lord Of The Rings

At first glance, Bronwyn’s absence from The Rings of Power isn’t too big of a deal since she is an invention of the Prime Video series and not a character from Tolkien’s works. The same is true for Arondir, so their romance isn’t pivotal to the Second Age and its events. Additionally, there weren’t any notable human-elf romances during this period of Middle-earth’s history. Still, Bronwyn and Arondir’s romance was one of Rings of Power‘s better additions since it incorporated some of the themes that are prevalent throughout Tolkien’s legendarium.

Fans of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings movies will be familiar with Aragorn and Arwen’s story, but they weren’t the first romance of this kind. The First Age of Middle-earth saw two tragic pairings of Elves and Men, Beren and Lúthien, and Tuor and Idril. The former is a couple based on Tolkien and his wife, Edith, who were raised under different religious denominations and were, therefore, barred from being together for a time. This autobiographical parallel repeats with the other elf-human pairings in The Lord of the Rings, which means that Prime Video had a responsibility to do Arondir and Bronwyn right.

Rings Of Power Bringing In A New Elf-Human Relationship Would Feel Clumsy

Rings Of Power Season 2 Has An Awkward Situation To Handle

Rings of Power was trying to do something good with Arondir and Bronwyn, but it looks like it’s going out the window. This means that the series will commence without an elf-human pairing, and while that’s disappointing, it’s better than the alternative. The only other options would be to either have Arondir fall in love with another human, which would be odd, or bring in new original elf and human characters to fall in love. Of course, after Bronwyn’s character was dropped, it would be glaringly apparent to audiences what the Prime Video series was trying to do.

Any method of introducing a new elf-human romance would feel clumsy and would make The Rings of Power less immersive overall. The series may be better off moving on and leaving Tolkien’s relationship trope behind. While it’s a bit disappointing, it’s better than the series reaching too far to compensate for its lost character.