rebelrebelwrites

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(requested by anon)

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I thought Sauron Season 2 reminded me of someone and now I can’t unsee it.

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sauron will put a crown on galadriel's head or he will stab a crown into her shoulder either way she is getting fucking crowned

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She was cunning, resourceful, and oh, did I mention? Hot. I could have danced all night with that one.

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER | 5.07, "Fool for Love"

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generally speaking when it comes to mental and physical health, if you're asked "do you struggle with this" and your answer is "no, Because I Have A System," then your answer is actually yes

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Childhood made everything feel like it lingered. The time it took for hot chocolate to cool down was eternal. Christmas day took weeks. The two-hour drive to my grandparents' house took us to a new world. It's all too fast now.

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Annatar: I am the lord of Eregion! Elf in crowd: You're a fucking prick, that's what you are!

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she was so hot in this armor god bless our dark lord

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the thing is, there can be a character development journey about galadriel outgrowing her pride without it feeling sexist.

galadriel's pride can be seen as her individualism and her belief in her own exceptionalism. she has a god complex after all.

and her journey can be about her learning how important a community is, how it can uplift her and let her shine and lead if she does right by others.

the way they go about it is that galadriel sacrifices herself as the way of resisting sauron so the elves take her back in their community.

but galadriel's issue has never been that she doesn't not sufficiently resist sauron or is not ready to die in order to defeat him.

her issue in s1 is that she doesn't let anyone in and no one really tries to stand at her side. she is alienated and it is not just her at fault - the people around her fail her and turn their backs on her when she is hurt. they treat her trauma like a burden.

sauron is the only one who tries to understand her and patiently encourages her to open up, thus she lets him in, and he tries to heal her (in his own way)!

but no one, NO ONE, bears the responsibility for alienating galadriel in s2... they just sideline her and doubt her. elrond's "tough love" is fun to watch and all, but man, he could have been a bit softer and more empathetic. gil-galad's joke about her finally being quiet after she wakes up from her suicide jump is... well.

therefore, the season fails to deliver what i suppose it intended to. it feels like a proud female warrior is getting slut-shamed and humbled by the bunch of men who are wrong to have ever doubted her to begin with... ultimately proving sauron right about all others looking on her in doubt.

in the end, it indeed is sauron alone who sees galadriel's greatness and has never doubted her light to overpower her darkness that mirrors his own. i believe that is one of the reasons why he admires her and literally wants to bind her to power.

he does lose it after she tells him that the door is shut and binds her to his darkness in desperation, but the insinuation that the elves take away her sword yet sauron gives her a weapon far more powerful is almost delicious tbh.

it could be a redeeming opportunity to dismiss the sexist development of s2 as a red-herring and further explore galadriel's struggle with her darkness, having her outgrow it in a more interesting and meaningful way.

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The Princess Bride is such a funny book to read after ONLY seeing the movie. Like Goldman made up a fake author from a fake country and proceeded to write the book as an abridged version of what the fake author wrote... and then he proceeds to add in notes to the "abridged version" mentioning all the boring world building stuff he skipped because it was boring.

Like shout out to William Goldman, man really did make an entire book that is just "the cool scenes you thought of in your head" and then made up a fake author to abridge so he doesn't have to connect them.

And it slaps

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Endless List of My Favorite Movies: The Princess Bride (1987)

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i love feral knight galadriel who holds the world in her teeth as much as the next girl, but the thing about galadriel is that she is just as motivated by her grief as she is her pride and rage. this is why her character is established by the scenes of her with finrod in tandem with her in the frozen north. she is bitter and broken and bitter because of the brokenness—and it’s further complicated by how she’s treated like an inconvenience, an embarrassment, like a rough stone amidst smooth glass. her feelings are large and messy and too big for her to hold and her anger is a plea to be believed, a cry for the burden to be shared. and it’s a further tragedy that she gets ignored.

but even holding the tension of how she is perceived by the ensemble, it is her grief that is the cause and catalyst for her rage. this, i think, makes her choosing to set aside the sword and let gil-galad take the lead in 2x08 incredibly beautiful and not at all a destruction of her character. it is, instead, an ode to her growth. it is her wrenching finrod’s dagger out of her heart. in setting down her sword, she severs the head of the ouroboros of her grief.

and the best part is that she doesn’t lose her strength. she is a sorceress, a ring-bearer, a queen. she continues to fight and lead and protect, it just takes a new shape. she puts down her sword but does not lose her edge. she is the lady of light, the one thing the shadow of morgoth fears. she is the one holding the storm at bay.

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when did sauron fall in love with galadriel? it's complicated. it was at first sight--the moment their eyes locked on the raft, the instant light and shadow collided and neither blinked. but it was also when she stood before the court of númenor and announced herself with a hot, unyielding pride.

he falls, and then he keeps falling--down a spiralling path of ambition, obsession, and ruin. his great trick isn't shuffling facial features; it's shifting the moral compass of middle-earth. but in númenor, he isn't the dark lord yet. he's cool rationality and cunningly sharp edges and a man who might be king. and with galadriel, he's too much boundary crossing, always standing a touch too close, looking a touch too long.

and when does galadriel fall for sauron? perhaps it is the moment he places her brother's blade back in her hands, hitting on her dual loves for finrod and vengeance. he's right to think he is the only one who truly sees her, except it's not her light he's caught in with his piercing gaze; it's her darkness.

and when she discovers his secret... well, there is no easy way for light to love shadow; every thought of him, every breath hitched carries the weight of what might be and what truly, desperately mustn’t. after all, the rings of power is the story of how the daughter of finarfin sears paths through the shadow, even as she reckons with her own aching longing for that same darkness.

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I find the recent comments from showrunners Payne and McKay interesting particularly when they state that Sauron did not want to kill Galadriel in the finale duel but for her to acknowledge him and "give him credit." Now why would that matter so much to him if not for the possibility that what he had done was done so with her in mind? Meaning, Sauron was thinking of Galadriel this whole time. His return to Mordor, the rings, his conquest. They are the broad strokes to the greater masterpiece he is shaping for her. She is his inspiration. She is his audience. Which brings me back to the theme of eyes. His eyes and hers. Eyes that see and look. The Eye is the mark of Sauron. But more than anything he wants Galadriel to see him. I made this last gifset to illustrate how this is the focus of Sauron's obsession and motivation.

Throughout his existence so far, he has been gifted and plagued by his ability to shapeshift and change form at will. He "has had many names." You see how this weighs upon his soul. He has had too many names. He has worn so many faces to too many people. He’s weary and the burden of not being seen for so many years, thousands - he almost comes apart.

This is why he desperately longs for Galadriel to see him. Not as the “abhorred” but as himself. Because to be seen is to be whole. To have one, true name even if it isn't uttered aloud. This is what Adar asked of Galadriel and I think it's meant to reflect Sauron as well. The difference is that Adar embraced the name he had earned while Sauron rejects his. Sauron hates his earned name because it is a constant reminder of how alone and misunderstood he feels in his purpose. That is until he meets Galadriel. She doesn’t abhor “Halbrand.” She loves him. She sees him. To her he is “friend" and "king."

"Galadriel. Look at me.” I believe that she did fall in love with the real him and he knows it. It's why he will always keep “Halbrand.” He will linger in the memories of when Galadriel knew him this way. That's why he continues to look like some variation of Halbrand. Because that's how Galadriel saw him. This the illusion he created for himself and one he is reluctant to leave. As long as she can see him. Just the possibility and the hope.

And while Galadriel can claim fondness for the part of him that was soft, vulnerable and human, that is not all she fell for. And Sauron won't let her get away with excusing herself or denying that she loved the parts that were truly him. This gesture, when he has her impaled with the crown and she averts her eyes away from his gaze.

He jerks her eyes upward as if to say, "Look." She fell in love with this person too. Sauron is Halbrand. The rage-filled, domineering and ambitious, violent spirit. He won't let her deny it. He won't let her look away. This is what they shared. She did not shrink before him when he pushed her away, when he told her of his darkness, when he told her, and showed her of how cruel and manipulative he could be. Remember, he saw her rage and vengeful side too. "Galadriel. Look at me." He says it aloud and presses these words upon her mind like a phantom prayer. His words probably haunt her soul. She feels it. It's what she hints at when she admits to Elrond that Gil Galad doesn't trust her alone with Sauron: You know why. The constant question that gropes her thoughts. It's the open invitation that still keeps the door open to his mind. She says she perceives "all of his mind as it concerns elves." I don't think that's because that is all that Sauron allows her to see. I think it's because that is what most occupies his thoughts. Her.

That's why, as I have previously wrote, I think the events of season 2 were setting the groundwork for manifesting the plan Sauron has for shaping the world as he saw it with Galadriel. He is going to enact their shared vision and, he believes, Galadriel will see its beauty and worth and return to him. Which leads me to her parting words to Sauron in episode 8. She tells him to heal himself. I think by now Sauron has enough insight to see that he is indeed a broken spirit. It comes up in his confessions with Celebrimbor and the showrunners have already hinted that Sauron is becoming increasingly aware that there is something about his very essence that poisons every meaningful relationship he has and dooms him to failure and despair. He also says to Galadriel at the start of their swordfight that he want to "heal..." and before he finishes with "Middle Earth", he pauses. He was going to say that he wants to heal himself. So by the time the viewer sees Galadriel tell him to basically fuck off and heal himself, those seeds are actually already planted. He has to cure himself of this blight. He has to purge himself of it. And now he has explicit instructions from Galadriel. He sees and remembers everything, right? He's going to do it. He's going to try to repair what he may see as his defect. It will be interesting to see how he interprets his marching orders from his queen. I think that is where the One Ring comes in.

The showrunners have already hinted that the forging of the One Ring will be an upcoming storyline soon. They also hinted that he's going to fuck something up. Furthermore, the audience has already been shown that the more of himself Sauron puts into a ring of power, the more corrupted and less potent of a creative, benevolent force it imparts. They've also shown that when Sauron tries to make rings on his own, he fails in the final product. He even went through a whole batch of mithril on his own without success. So if the writers have hinted that Sauron errs in the making of the ring, what could they possibly mean? Where did he go wrong? Is it that Sauron had different intentions for the Ring's purpose than what it ended up becoming? Or that he fulfilled its malicious purpose but with unintended side effects? If the former, I wonder if his true intention with the One Ring is to create another healing ring of power, his own ring as a mate of Galadriel's. Maybe he forges it, believing that this would meet Galadriel's demand to heal himself. The shownrunners have already shown that they like to put unexpected layers to the most well-known parts of Tolkien: “One ring to rule them all. One ring to find them. One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.” Maybe those words have additional meaning.

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This is the best this evil bastard has ever looked. He spent hours washing and conditioning his hair and styling it just so,got some highlights while he was at it,he’s cleaner than he’s ever been(low bar), his clothes fit amazing, not a spot of grime on his face(also low bar). Picked his outfit out carefully, got his accessories right. He wanted to look his best when he made his horrifying proposal of soul-merging through exchanging rings(most people call that marriage but ok you do you babe) to the woman who’d been hunting him down for years and who he had been deceiving for months

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Even Tolkien was a Haladriel shipper