rebelrebelwrites

[rebelrebelwrites]

Deceiver

The Orcs of the Misty Mountains mistake Celebrían for her mother.

~

Or, why Galadriel finally closes the door.

Read here.

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Rating: T

Status: One-shot, Complete

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Finally decided to say ‘hey why not’ and share this small fic I wrote for Eastwynds as a part of the Gifts of the Valar Exchange for Christmas. I thought about making something for it but been too busy. It was fun to finally contribute something (however small) to the fandom in fic form! Thank you to @scriberated for all of her hard work putting together the exchange. ❤️

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Y'all ever just suddenly have the overwhelming urge to swim??? Like not actively but you just wanna,,, be in the water and have some Peace

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I love the idea that @rey-jake-therapist has proposed: that this shot here is a callback to this one in “Adrift.” I agree that this parallel is a strong one. And that next to Galadriel’s broken body, the shadowed outline of a person, presumably Sauron, can be seen. The poetry of such a thought: not just that someone had been there, that someone was meant to be there, but perhaps that someone is there still. There’s an imprint. In another world, the unseen one, or a dream, Halbrand is there still. “He never left.”

It’s clearly shown in TROP that this is their recurring theme. Sauron is the voice that beckons her. It is his presence that she feels in her dreams. He is the last thing she senses before she awakes. It is his face that haunts her in that waking world.

And it's a beautiful and ghostly image that this is something Galadriel and Sauron share. Sleep is not only an intimate act. Aside from the obvious psychological and sexual symbolism here, the Freudian theories and incubus myth -- the implication here is the subconscious connection. In the subconscious and dream world, unexpressed desires can be revealed. Truths are uncovered. Or unrequited fantasies can live uninterrupted. Without the constraints of reality or society. And how moving is it that this is where Galadriel and Sauron are tethered?

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Happy New Year my Friends!

Some Sauron and Galadriel sketches. Part 2.

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[insp.]

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When Everything Everywhere All at Once said “The only thing I do know is that we have to be kind. Please, be kind, especially when we don’t know what’s going on" 

When the Good Place said “Why choose to be good every day when there is no guaranteed reward now or in the afterlife… I argue that we choose to be good because of our bonds with other people and our innate desire to treat them with dignity. Simply put, we are not in this alone.” 

When Jean-Paul Sartre said ”‘Hell is other people’ is only one side of the coin. The other side, which no one seems to mention, is also ‘Heaven is each other’. Hell is separateness, uncommunicability, self-centeredness, lust for power, for riches, for fame. Heaven on the other hand is very simple, and very hard: caring about your fellow beings.“

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IDGAF if the women in my fiction are empowering or aspirational, I'm an adult, I don't need role models, I want the women in my fiction to be interesting, and if that involves being pathetic, hypocritical, amoral, or trapped in a delightfully dysfunctional relationship so be it

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McKay: It was hard to keep them apart for an entire season, but the sort of joy of that was knowing at the end of the rainbow – the dark, twisted rainbow – they would be reunited.

(requested by anon)

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About Halbrand/Sauron in season 1, Patrick McKay has said that "every single thing he says is not a lie"/"every single line is true to a certain extent". To Galadriel especially, his only lie is one of omission--his pre-Halbrand identity. But he'd been Halbrand long before he met her, and it's not like she ever asked him, 'Hey are you actually someone else? Like the mortal enemy I'm obsessed with finding, is that you?' Instead she decided, all on her own, that he was "the lost king of the Southlands" (who could ride her to victory, ahem), which was never even a thing, and "he always said he wasn't" (M.C.), but she ran with it bc yolo, I guess. Then his openness with Gal carries over to their interactions in 2x08. I'd say, going by his opener of murdering Adar right in front of her, plus knowing she knows what he did to Celebrimbor to get more rings made, what would he be trying to hide, exactly?

All this to say, my little "what if?" theory--based on Sauron's near complete honesty with Galadriel, up to letting/inviting her to have free access to his mind, for thousands of years--I really feel like, if she had, for whatever reason, earlier in s1, directly asked him, "Are you Sauron, née Mairon?", he would've admitted it. Bc isn't this basically what happened in 1x08? She was like, 'Aren't you...??' and he was like, 'Alright, ya got me. I am. Btw, we should get married. I'm already making the wedding bands.' He danced around it for like a second, but once he saw what she was getting at he brought out the "I have had many names."

Speaking of which, and I know it was impromptu, but I respect him for proposing only when she knew the full truth, and not just Halbrand. It was not only bold (delulu, but bold), it was honest. He wants her to accept him as all he is, like he accepts her as all she is.

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It’s fascinating that TROP has shown Galadriel's instincts and intuition to consistently be sound and accurate. Time and time again, her insights bear out in reality.

She knew Sauron was alive

She knew his mark had greater significance

She knew where his shadow was rising

She sensed that Halbrand was not who he said he was (from the very beginning in fact)

She knew Elrond had gone to Cirdan

She knew the Three Rings would save the elves

She knew that Sauron wanted Adar to attack Eregion.

So why would that intuition fail her when it comes to Sauron? Not just that she knows his mind, his schemes and his malice but also when he was earnest, when he was broken and when they felt “it” fighting side by side. Something within him rang true and clear to Galadriel. Something she couldn’t deny. As this post by @cloudinthesky444 describes, their connection, as effortless and spontaneous as it was, possessed a rightness to it. She felt its authenticity. At one point, she trusted him, respected him and may have even loved him. I don't think that was a blind spot. I don't think she could have even allowed herself to feel love for him if that rightness had not been there. That sense of completion and of being seen and understood. Remember, she held the palantir. It showed her visions of Numenor's end. But it never revealed or hinted at the potential dark Maia that was standing right there as her ally. I think it was because Halbrand's regression to Sauron was not yet fated to happen. That path was still undefined. Even though Halbrand was a disguise, it was not an illusion. There was such a small window but I believe that Gal's intuition was always on point. Halbrand was devoted to her. Sauron believed in her as she did him. Galadriel once had aspirations of reclaiming Middle Earth from the darkness with Halbrand at her side. She wasn't foolish to believe so. If her instincts had allowed her to aspire to such dreams, then I think there was a real possibility of that future, however fleeting. Now that door is shut, but there were seeds of a hopeful future and they were planted with love and in good faith. I believe that as the story moves forward, their bond will bear fruit. Something beautiful and good will be borne of it, specifically from that small moment of time -- when Galadriel loved him and aspired to redeem them both. I think Galadriel's instincts and good faith will be repaid and she will be vindicated again.

[rebelrebelwrites]

Stardust AU: Galadriel is a curious star who falls to Middle Earth and Halbrand is a down-on-his-luck blacksmith who is reluctantly tasked with helping her find her way.

Inspired by Find Me Falling by PinkGerberaDaisies

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I hope every writer who sees this writes LOADS the next few months. Like freetime opens up, no writers block, the ability to focus, etc etc you're able to write loads & make lots of progress <3

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the definition of shooketh

(he got so close! and used that tone! and he's your destiny! bOOM GALADRIEL)

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what if instead of being under the impression that Darth Vader killed his father someone told Luke that Vader killed his mother and then Luke hit him w that accusation in the middle of their confrontation and Vader just started crying

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tbh characters like galadriel are more important now than ever. there's morfydd clark saying that every time she's played a human woman, shame has been at the heart of the character, but there is no shame in galadriel.

galadriel turning her back on the ethereal light of elven heaven to hunt down and savage a demigod with her dead brother's dagger, only to accidentally fall in love with that demigod isn't the fragile, guilt-laden journey we're used to seeing women undertake.

it's unapologetic. it's defiant. it's staring into the storm and deciding you have the right to step forward into that tempest. (a decision men have made time and time again in story and in song while women are rarely given the opportunity.) she's not watching the rings of power from a distance. she's the heart of the show, her delirious appetite to kill sauron the only reason the story even exists in the first place. and yes, for those knowingly or unknowingly anxious about women, it's a hard watch. that's exactly why they should watch it.

i love galadriel. i hope she never takes her hand off the hilt of her sword. i hope she never learns shame.