#it keeps both TROP and LOTR canon

[justacynicalromantic]

“What are you doing?” he begged again. She looked over at him, between messy strands of golden hair. A hard smile played at her mouth, the kind he’d only ever seen her give to him a very long time ago. When she had trusted him. “Sometimes to find the light,” she said, her words filled with the echo of bitter laughter, “we must first touch the darkness.” He threw his head back. “You reckless, senseless elf. There is no light where I am going. The only thing you’ll find in the Void is pain, and emptiness like you’ve never known.”

==/==/==

"The Lord of the Rings, who had been so many things and had so many names he barely knew what he was anymore, gripped her hand tighter. Whatever he was, he was hers to command, if she would finally accept it.

==/==/==

“I told you. Ours was no chance meeting. Not fate, nor destiny. Ours was the work of something greater. I just did not know what, or why, at the time.” He huffed a laugh. “Leave it to you, Galadriel, to convince yourself that you were always right in the end.” “That’s only because it turned out to be true.” He chuckled and nodded. “I suppose we shall see.” He shut his eyes. The darkness had almost consumed them now. “Do you think it will hurt? To be ensnared in darkness.” She took a deep breath. “No. It is only loneliness. You and I have been lonely many times. And this will not be one of them. It will be like… sinking in the sea.” “I never meant to let you sink. You are light, Galadriel,” he said softly, honestly. “You don’t belong relegated to the Void, forgotten in the depths.” “Then make sure I am not,” was the last thing she said, before the darkness took her mouth, and she was rendered silent for the next eternity. “I will,” he whispered. And the Void took him, as well.

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[dadattebayo]

Hmm you made valid points. But I also wonder if, as an actor, he feels more pressure to maintain a certain image to not look like he's outwardly encouraging anything (we all know haladriel isn't exactly a healthy, wholesome, sunshine and rainbows ship). Maybe since the director is actually in control of the writing for the series, she feels more comfortable outright saying whatever she wants to say about Haladriel (both from Gal and Sauron's pov)? Idk, I'm just as confused as you are.

Maybe. Maybe he just truly doesn’t like the idea of them having feelings for each other because it is not canonical in Tolkien’s world. He’s in his right but it’s a weird situation if in the series they have been implying one particular position, but the actor now conveys the opposite one.

I actually liked his previous position when he said this ship was possible, because the time gap between TROP and LOTR was huge and many things could have happened with the characters so we could imagine anything and it would still fit the original story unless you mess up with the genealogy.

Basically he keeps saying this even now but with elements of mockery, like “fiiine kids do what you wanna do, but know it’s ridiculous”

[fatcatlittlebox]

I mean no offense, but I can't really see a flashback showcasing what you suggest. It would feel like a retcon a la soap. TROP does not strike me as that kind of show. As a show with a pre five-year-plan, we would have already seen Halbrand and Galadriel be intimate in season 1. I'm not denying that there will most likely be something big happening at the end of the season with Haladriel. I just don't see it being this scenario.

I’m truly not approaching this as a haladriel shipper in a tinfoil hat. It wouldn’t be a retcon because this show has already shown they like to employ this kind of storytelling device like in S1, ala Keyser Soze in the Usual Suspects: Where there’s a big revelation and the audience has to rewatch and reevaluate what they saw or think they saw and find the clues leading up to it.

First, Galadriel is acting specifically heartbroken. The tears, the denial. That’s not just the betrayal of a close friend. She loved him, romantically. That’s a short bridge to intimacy. Also, I think another clue is that Galadriel was so bent on no one finding out that Halbrand was Sauron. It was pulling teeth. Like, the shame of calling him friend should not have outweighed warning her people. Second, she seems fixated on the idea of facing him and killing him alone. She does not want anyone finding out the depth of their relationship, especially not Elrond.

A few things that the show has pointedly not touched upon (or barely) for canon Galadriel is Celeborn and Celebrian. These are 2 characters that absolutely need to make an appearance for the ROP to become integrated into LOTR’s timeline. I don’t think TROP Gal forgot (elves’ memory doesn’t dim right?). I believe the writers are keeping them in their back pocket for dramatic effect.

Furthermore, the writers aren’t just asking the viewers to rethink what we know about these characters. The show is putting the characters through their paces of having them reevaluate what they know and think about themselves and the very concept of good and evil, vices and virtues. Elrond’s journey in S2 is essentially parallel to Gal’s from S1. Both have/had a very stark, black and white idea of what good and evil are. Gal is different now because of what she has experienced with Sauron. Their bond has fundamentally changed her. What or who would be Elrond’s inflection point? Rob interestingly said this in a Collider interview

He says “anything.” Not just the rings. I think this alludes to a person or people. Whether that’s just Gal herself being tainted by Sauron’s influence or someone “created” as a product of that bond. So we know that Adar has made good on his promise that he caused a “woman” whom Halbrand loves pain — Galadriel. The other part of his prediction not yet fulfilled is “the child.” And I still think that’s Celebrian.

[conundrumoftime]

Cat, what do you think Galadriel’s role will be from now on? I’ve heard so many disheartening opinions that she’ll just settle as the wise and distant and passive Galadriel from the movies. While I’m afraid of that and don’t really trust tv writers anymore, I can’t see them going down this route so soon. They showed already they’re not giving into the tolkien bros, I don’t see why she wouldn’t keep her role as commander.

I love this question! I have been thinking about this so much. My short answer is that I don't think they'll do that. My longer answer:

I've talked before about how I think people are mistaken about where Galadriel's canon story ends up, and a short version of why I don't think TROP Galadriel will end up as the 'lady of light [passive, retired]' figure people remember is that she never really existed; even for film Galadriel, people are remembering a version filtered by pop culture history of a story where she's a minor character. (As are all the other powerful elves of Middle-earth at this point - Glorfindel, Elrond, Círdan - it's not b/c they've settled down and got married now, it's b/c this is the hobbits' story we're seeing through the hobbits' eyes and the big mythological figures need to take a back seat.)

So here's my predictions for what they will do with her story:

She'll still be a main character. It's an ensemble show, but they have set up a main antagonist and main protagonist and built the whole idea off one of her lines in LOTR about him.

Her temptation will continue to be linked to Sauron. Partly as a convenience of visual TV storytelling (harder to have her do a speech to camera about how she desires power and realms to rule in the abstract); partly to tie into what the show has already established for two seasons; and partly because the show does so love visual callbacks to the films, in which we get this Galadriel:

recognise the dress?

(second one there is the official concept art by Julian Gauthier. We had a whole year of people saying "her hand is NOT on her stomach as if she was pregnant in that scene, you foolish Haladriels!" and then this came out and who's laughing now, eh? Who's laughing now. Anyway!)

She'll play a role in the Battle of the Last Alliance. They might put her on the battlefield - Tolkien doesn't say she was there, but on the other hand Tolkien doesn't specifically say she wasn't, soooo - but I think it's more likely they will bookend that conflict with some other kind of confrontation, like a mindbattle raft vision during the fight. My bet would be they will also do something with repeated images of water/the sea/Nenya/calling back to what Peter Jackson called the 'drowned Galadriel' look and that we'll see that s1 raft again - the showrunners do love mirroring and repeating and echoing.

They will make Celeborn and their marriage interesting. I am less confident about this one because they certainly don't have to and it's always possible that they'll just parachute him in at the last moment like "yay! husband back now :) well done :) off you go back to the forest" and God only knows I've been burned before on interesting 'female characters + marriage = boring, lesser, unimportant' on TV shows. However! I have a reasonable degree of confidence, like say maybe 65%, that they will make him and their marriage interesting.

Celeborn is probably another post so short version of why is: she is still the main protagonist and him being back gives the writers the opportunity to show more of her journey, not because husband = destination but because you can learn a lot about characters in how they relate to loved ones; and they've set him up in a way that introduces conflict (where's he been, how have they both changed from the younger idealised versions of themselves they remember) that makes for good storytelling.

They will link her back to Numenor somehow for that storyline: again I'm less confident on this one and I have no clear ideas on how they'd do it, but it feels like too good an opportunity to pass up when she's already been there once.

Her storyline will have something about learning compassion and pity - which I think people do not like the sound of if (like me!) they like her angry and violent, but it is such a Tolkien-y thing and it's already been set up in what we have seen. Note: I don't mean this in a "she'll be sweet and calm and exist to pat the male characters on the head" way; I mean it in the sense we already saw in s2 with Adar. And who else did she have a really angry, inflexible, "nothing you do will ever be enough to be forgiven" line with in season 1? hmmm...

Her getting and learning how to use her Mirror will be a big thing in some upcoming season. It's such an intriguing question mark in canon - we don't really know anything about where she got it from, how it works, even how she personally uses it - but we know it's important in the future. They will definitely do something with this.