There are many, many reasons why I would discourage people from comparing The Rings of Power and The Lord of the Rings to House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones. Chief among them is the number of casualties. Death is not as shameless in Middle-earth.

Even so, there were a decent amount of characters who died in The Rings of Power season 2 . Here's a quick refresher..

. an in memoriam , if you will. Seriously, season 1 had far fewer casualties.

Barely any, actually. But this season was much darker! There was war, and in-fighting, and Sauron strutting around in plain sight. The silver lining is the many deaths this season do pave the way for new actors to join the show as new characters next season.

It'll be nice to welcome new faces to the party if and when The Rings of Power returns for season 3. But dang, did so many people have to die?! Missed the finale? Catch up here first. Season 2 opens with a flashback in which Adar temporarily kills Sauron (played by Mr.

Saoirse Ronan himself, Jack Lowden ). But since Sauron turns into goop and resurrects himself (as played by Charlie Vickers), I'm not counting that. He didn't stay dead.

These 13 characters, however, were not so fortunate...

..