#sauron @ melian: hello how do you handle having romantic feelings for an elf

[kazz-brekker]

i've seen a couple people say that they don't think sauron ever actually cared for galadriel not because clearly their interactions are hugely underscored by his lies and manipulations but because he's a maiar and therefore doesn't have anything approaching mortal emotions since he's an entirely different kind of being from a human or an elf, but that's not actually true about maiar. luthien's mom, melian, was also a maia, and she fell in love with thingol of doriath and deeply mourned him when he died, so clearly maiar actually are capable of love for individual people. i do think that sauron considers himself to be above pretty much all other life forms on middle-earth and his interest in galadriel definitely had a lot to do with being drawn to her own power and possible usefulness in achieving his own goals, but that doesn't mean he didn't genuinely care about her in some way. and actually, i think his behavior is a lot more interesting if he DOES care about galadriel and was really wounded by her rejection but still puts his own goals and wants above anyone else.