The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power fans find a new villain to hate: Kemen

The latest episode of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, "Halls of Stone," may have been the best of the second season so far. Sauron is at his villainous best, the dwarves were delightful as always, and there were some heartbreaking scenes on the isle of Númenor.

Now that Ar-Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) has taken the throne, he's going about suppressing those Númenoreans who don't share his vision for the future of the kingdom, namely those who are still faithful to the Valar and the elves. He sends his son Kemen (Leon Wadham) to do some the dirty work, which gets very dirty indeed. Kemen breaks up a ceremony being held by the Faithful and gets into a fight with Valandil (Alex Tarrant), with whom he'd had tension in the past. Valandil stopped short of badly hurting Kemen, and then when he turned his back, Kemen ran him through with a spear, killing him.

This cowardly move has earned Kemen the ire of fans online, who now see him as "public enemy number 1":

The fan below makes references to human sacrifice, previewing a plotline from Tolkien lore:

It's always good for a show to have a character fans love to hate. Kemen does indeed seem like a craven baby, although let's spare a thought for how his father Pharazôn manipulates him. That doesn't excuse Kemen killing Valandil when his back is turned, but I get the idea that things aren't great at home for Kemen.

New episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power air Thursdays on Prime Video. There are only three left until the end of the second season. Until then, we talked with actor Trystan Gravelle, who plays Pharazôn, about the new ruler's ambitions, his family, and more:

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