#idk man just spit thru canon until u find a galadriel u like

[galadhremmin]

I'm not sure if a version exists where Artanis actually takes part in the kinslaying, but honestly I'd prefer it. Or at least one with her not taking Part at all, but profiting from it, like Finrod. It doesn't exactly make sense with the whole Doriath thing, but I think it's more interesting if she has the same issues as Finrod, amplified by ten because she's also lying about it. Idk, she's just too holier than thou otherwise. I'm all for her being a not entirely good person, like Finrod, but also one who seeks to keep her head down and fit in with the Sindar and experience personal growth (only finwean to do so -joking) rather than redeem her self in a suicide mission. She's so much more compelling, and so much less irritating, if she has actual narrative flaws other than vague pride and self righteousness.

Look anon, I can't make you like a character you dislike.

I will say though; given how very few important female characters wrote, and even less of them with any complexity, or more than a name, if that-- I think it's worth it trying to puzzle together a version of Galadriel you personally can get into writing (assuming you're a fic writer). Tolkien changed his mind on the character repeatedly, so there is enough to work with.

I'll also say a character does not have to be a literal murderer to have morally grey moments and complexity.

Anyway, she fought in defense of her mother's kin in one version, i.e. killed Noldor. Personally I don't think this qualifies as kinslaying. We're told a bit about what unlawful killing is when Tolkien goes into why Curufin didn't kill Eol, and he mentions killing in self-defense for example as permissible iirc; similarly we don't see Turgon's execution cliff mentioned as a kinslaying cliff... but even if that is not legally kinslaying, I imagine killing people would still feel pretty bad, especially because she might have killed acquaintances. She is a princess of the Noldor as well as the Teleri, and going by Shibboleth she saw herself as Noldorin (going with her being the only one of her family to sa-sí because she wanted to speak as her people did. Speaking of, that actually mirrors one of Indis' two reasons for abandonning Vanyarin th! I really do think they were close)-- but she did kill her own people, even if they were attacking her other people.

Maybe that is part of why she stays within the Girdle, aside from her love for Melian, and wanting to learn more about Beleriand. I cannot imagine the Fëanorians took kindly to her killing Noldor; see Caranthir's 'yea more' moment where he suspects Angrod of divided loyalties solely due to his descent, and Angrod is nowhere noted to have fought for the Teleri. I don't know if she was keeping her head down exactly, but she seems to prefer remaining among the Sindar for a long time. And she does experience character growth. The Galadriel who refuses the Ring is a different person from the Galadriel who wanted to sail despite her family/subjects's murders, I think. It's possible her true moment of growth is the refusing. She's an elf. Things take a long time.

Either way, though a version in which she is fully blameless exists (Tolkien in his end of life extremely catholic revisions), she does go with the intent of sailing on those stolen ships in published Silm. Like Finrod, she simply is stopped from doing so. They put their own wishes and ambitions first.

And if she fought in defense of the Teleri, and was then stuck with the rest of the Noldor on the Ice... well, it just seems like a tense situation. They might deeply regret attacking blindly, but if you lost your parent or sibling to the defense you might nevertheless not feel friendly towards someone who cut them down.

She doesn't lie in published Silm-- she simply refuses to tell Melian, who smells rat. Thingol doesn't ban her or her brothers because they're related to them, and didn't kill Olwe's people. I doubt either Melian or Thingol was exactly happy with how they handled it though.

Galadriel's loyalty seems to be mostly to herself after she lands in Middle Earth. And who can blame her? It makes her an interesting character.

As for the flaws you call vague.. the thing is, I don't think her pride is vague. Nor is her judgement not always fair, as demonstrated by the Shibboleth quote about not judging Feanor the same way she does others. She is very ambitious; she wants to 'order' lands as she thinks right. There are vaguely uncomfortable echoes of colonial narratives in her story if you want those. This is also why the Ring temps her the way it does. Of course she doesn't mean to harm people. But she is always convinced she is right, as much as Fëanor was really.

Galadriel even in Valinor does not see the shadow that has fallen on herself (i.e. her own faults) but very much focuses on the evil in people she already does not like, which in Valinor is only Fëanor (Shibboleth). I feel like there it's possible the same was true for more people in Middle Earth. Fëanor's personal downward spiral is a disaster because of his talents and position; but there are many people much worse than that. I feel like being prone to being overly judgemental while blind to your own faults is a very real flaw in a world full of people easy to dislike.

Then there is LoTR, where she does not seem to ask permission to use Osanwe on the fellowship. This is... less than ethical behaviour. No, she does not technically force them-- but they never saw it coming. Sam doesn't like it! Boromír is unsettled by it. She just seems to think she has the right to do this.

Again, I think Galadriel being so blind to her own flaws while harshly judging those in a person she already dislikes, her pride and hunger for power are not minor flaws at all. There is even that NoME note about Gil-Galad ruling under the 'suzerainity' of Galadriel.

She is noted to love the Valar but ends up defying them for a very long time, she sees te Noldor as her people but fights them to defend the Teleri, she abandons the murdered Teleri she defended to go over the Ice with the people she fought, she arrives in Beleriand, having wanted to rule specifically 'without tutelage'-- only to spend centuries being taught by Melian, under Thingol's rule. She's proud, ambitious very self-righteous, strong, blind to her own flaws; maybe being offered the Ring is what finally makes her see her wanting to rule as a flaw at all. Honestly it's not that hard to take the canon material and find a convincing characterisation for a story in there somewhere.

She seems very different from Finrod just going by their encounters with Thingol-- compare her 'maybe so!' attitude to Finrod's awkward guilty interaction.