Isildur is one of the most notorious names in the Lord of the Rings, both as the king who cut the one ring from Sauron’s finger, but also as the man who was too weak-willed to destroy it. His failure to drop the evil object into the fires of Mount Doom allowed the dark lord to survive, and essentially brought about the next 2,500 years of war and suffering that occurred.
His choices weigh heavily on those who come after him, including Boromir, who, as a noble son of Gondor, fails to learn from Isildur’s mistakes and believes he can conquer the ring, and Aragorn, who has deemed himself unworthy of his rightful place upon the throne for most of his lifetime, because Isildur’s blood runs in his veins. Isildur was one of the most exciting characters for the Rings of Power series to explore, because he undergoes a huge transitionary journey from the unassuming if slightly misled young man he is now, to a mighty and fearsome king, to a corrupt ruler whose own hubris gets him killed.
The first season of Rings of Power left off with Elendil and Miriel journeying back to Numenor with the belief that Isildur is dead after a burning building collapsed upon him. It’s one of the most obvious character predictions for season 2 that Isildur will somehow survive and find his way back to his father, because he still has some incredibly important parts to play in the fate of Middle Earth before the War of the Ring.
It is in many ways logistically important that he remained on the mainland, because it gives Elendil the excuse to sial back to this world he now holds in such contempt and anger after believing it took his son from him. This is essential, because the Southlanders have just been directed to make their way to Pelargir, which will later become the famous LOTR kingdom of Gondor, which Elendil and then Isildur will rule.
But one of the most important journeys throughout the following series will be showing how Isildur becomes a great and iconic ruler, and then loses it all through his own greed and pride. The Rings of Power is already setting up Isildur’s downfall with subtle hints like the voice he keeps hearing across distant shores, and his decision to get himself expelled from the sea guard also taking his friends out with him.
Throughout the first season, Isildur has seemed fairly well-intentioned, as if his heart is in the right place, but also as if he feels like he has something to prove, both to his father and to the world. These are traits that he will carry with him throughout the long journey of his life. He is, at this moment in time, both brave and honorable, willing to jump to the defense of those who cannot defend themselves, and very close to his father who leads all of these traits as a very noble example. But Isildur is also rash, quick to anger, and missing something within himself that makes him always ache. This could in part be due to the death of his mother, but also because he wants to make his own mark in the world rather than living in his father’s shadow.
This is certainly something that he achieves during the march of the Last Alliance of elves and men, the great battle fought on the Dead Marshes long before Frodo, Sam, and Gollum journey across them in the Third Age. During the Last Alliance, Sauron appears in physical form in order to end the war that has been raging for years, and in doing so, he wipes out a huge chunk of the army in one fell swoop.
The tragedies include Gil-galad’s death at the hands of Sauron, and also Elendil’s, Isildur’s father. In his blind rage and grief, Isildur takes up the sword Narsil, and cuts several of Sauron’s fingers from his body. One of those fingers of course contained the ring of power, which makes this one of the bravest and most important moments in Middle Earth history, because it’s the first time a mighty maiar has been defeated by a mere human. Up until this very moment, Isildur remains the loyal, compassionate and strong son of his father, but this moment changes him.
Clefting the ring from the hand of the enemy gives him that acclaim he has been longing for all his life, but it also gives way to the arrogance and the lust for power that have always been inside him somewhere. The ring heightens the worst qualities in a person, and for Isildur the ring is his undoing. He believes he can control it, and use it to rule anyone who stands against him, making Gondor the most powerful and undefeatable kingdom in all the lands.
And it is this that gets him killed, for when his battalion is ambushed by a band of orcs, the ring takes the chance to betray him and flee, to head back to its true master. Isildur is so preoccupied with finding the ring, which has driven him obsessively mad at this point, that he is an easy target for the attackers, and is washed down the River Anduin with 3 arrows in his back.