#yay its the catholic analysis that nobody asked for and yet i couldnt stop myself from doing

[fatcatlittlebox]

I’ve been thinking a lot about how the showrunners have said in the past how much they referred to the Bible for inspiration and the religious symbolism utilized frequently throughout TROP. Also, how many online critics of haladriel cite the Virgin Mary as Tolkien’s inspiration for Galadriel and how shipping the two is sacrilegious. And while I do agree that Sauron is very clearly modeled after Satan, I think to say Sauron = Satan is pretty reductive. I also don't think this is the only theologic parallel in TROP.

I have said before, and I'll explain here that I think where JDP and McKay were drawing from were multiple religious parables: this includes Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. In my opinion, this parallel is an interesting and revealing one.

Like Sauron, Satan had “many names.” He was Lucifer once. In LOTR, Mairon was created by Eru and was once fair and good. Hence the opening line of the very start of this series: “Nothing is evil in the beginning." I think this is a founding principle of the show and season 1. It applies to people, ideas and intentions. Where season 1 sought to establish an origin story of sorts, they started with the "original sin”, the “Adam” and the “Eve.” In this case, the “genesis” of it all begins with Halbrand and Galadriel.

And is Halbrand the "Adam" archetype? I believe at this stage, he aspired to be. Sauron literally was reborn and perhaps saw that as a purifying experience. He wanted, in a sense, to be free of sin, the mistakes and flaws of his past. There is this striking image: an opening shot when we encounter Halbrand on the raft. Before he turns to face Galadriel, he cups water in his hand and he bathes his head: the act is baptismal.

Baptism in Catholicism is meant to cleanse the soul of original sin. A return to Adam. A return to purity. And he fits the description. He is "just a man." A "low man", primordial. They wander through Numenor in awe. Halbrand calls it a "paradise," a refuge to find his peace. And I think this is an important parallel to make because, maybe, Sauron didn't initially desire to conquer this new world, but to reclaim his Garden of Eden. To live free of his original sin. He sees the forge immediately and takes this as a sign, an offer: this is his ripe opportunity. Not to dominate and subjugate, but to be reborn as Mairon before Melkor. He is Halbrand seeking to rechart his path had he not have been seduced by Morgoth. And even if this would be a pale facsimile of his unsullied form, maybe it would be enough. But then there is Galadriel, who becomes his “Eve.”

Galadriel appears to fit the role. In the story of the Garden of Eden, it is Eve who offers the forbidden fruit to Adam. And with it the promise of knowledge, of greatness. Galadriel tells him that his current commoner state is the convenient lie, that the greatest act of reconciliation is to embrace his true self. While this advice may seem sound and was intended somewhat nobly, this is the double-edged logic that led to the fall of Man — his ambition. His pride.

Further deepening associations with sin, heaven, purity and evil is the iconography:

This shot is clearly meant to echo the famous depictions of the archangel St. Michael defeating Satan. And the symbolism is really interesting. Because where St. Michael purged Satan from heaven, Galadriel stops Halbrand. She asks him to spare Adar. Meanwhile, Halbrand is shaking with fury that I wouldn't interpret as emotion over the Uruk’s betrayal. He was almost detached and emotionless when Adar was killed later. Here, he is near tears when he proclaims, “You don’t know what he did!” He’s not talking about the Uruk in front of him. He’s talking about himself. Adar is the proxy for his past, his sins, his demons. Were Halbrand to succeed and vanquish Satan in effigy, he would be metaphorically purging himself. You can see he wants to desperately. But that closure is nullified. Galadriel stays his spear and it becomes symbolic of Halbrand’s failed overture at purification.

But mercy is not Galadriel’s folly anymore than it was for Bilbo to spare Gollum. Redemption after sin is not found in erasing the past. It’s not in making the impure, pure again. It is the balance of darkness and light in which justice collects payment. Something that Galadriel mentions twice in season 1 and is shown in Sauron's vision of their union. His world is in balance.

The loss of innocence when sacrificed for knowledge and greater ambition results to pain and suffering. But also allows bravery and hope to flourish. “Life in defiance of death.” The beauty borne from evil. Galadriel beckons to Halbrand with the promise of such harmony and he starts to believe. That peace and paradise in Numenor, his new "Eden,” are not his fate. She is. With the light of the Two Trees ensnared in her being, he would see Galadriel as the embodiment of paradise made flesh. He can live with his darkness with Galadriel at his side. Her light will provide balance. He cannot be free of the stain of his original sin. Without balance, he is destined to replay it like a broken record.

When we first see him emerge into human form, he has clothed his nakedness. It recalls to mind the creation of Man. However, in this version, darkness and shame follow this “Adam” because he has already fallen. And as we progress through 2 seasons, Halbrand devolves with the snake and serpent emerging as the dominant entity. Towards the end of season 1, he dons a serpent's scales as seen in his armor. By the end of the season finale, after Galadriel rebuffs him and effectively casts him out -- look at this shot. He looks like a cobra poised to sink his fangs into her with a poisonous bite (he succeeds in 2x08):

Like the biblical serpent, manipulation is his tool and one he has employed with great skill and ease. Adar, Mirdania, Celebrimbor, the orcs. He tempts them with promises and praise. Adar describes his way as “slithering.” When Adar commands Halbrand to grovel on the ground in 2x01, this is a reference to the serpent in the Genesis story who was condemned to crawl on his belly by God as his eternal punishment.

Later, when Sauron transforms into Annatar, his manner and dress pay homage to this. His headdress, the detail of his robes, his chest plate and his arm vambrances are adorned with coiling snakes. Charlie had said in an interview that this was intentional. This was his metamorphosis.

But with Galadriel, I posit that he “fell” as Adam not by being consumed with schemes of pride and hubris (as in past and future iterations of Sauron). It was that he fell in love. Which is why this parallel with the Garden of Eden is so important. It is a long argued theological debate that the serpent and the forbidden fruit in this story do not just represent greed but also lust and desire. Adam’s sin was not just borne of his vices but also out of love. He loved his Eve more than his God. He turned away from paradise because Eve held their future in her hand, having eaten the fruit before Adam. So he chose to share that unknown fate so long as they remained bound together. Whether in glory or exile. I believe this is the greater “sin” Halbrand committed when he left Numenor, his "Eden," with Galadriel.

I don’t even think he was aware of it at first. He may or may not have believed in her cause but he had complete devotion to her. He did not seek forgiveness from Eru but he asked for hers. He worshipped her and in doing so committed the greatest transgression. Like Adam, he turned from seeking salvation from God and chose to follow his Eve instead. And for Galadriel’s part, the obvious symbol for the forbidden fruit is Nenya. A ring that was literally made from power forged by good and evil in conflict over a tree. But I don’t think that was the real forbidden fruit here. It was when they chose each other in defiance of the gods. What ultimately gave her knowledge of good and evil? Not a ring. It was her binding to Sauron that opened the door and unleashed such power, love, life, beauty and death upon Middle Earth. The forbidden fruit was a forbidden love. That was the reason for Halbrand's preoccupying fear of Galadriel casting him out. It was because he had already been cast out of paradise in his past life. And when Galadriel shut the door to him, she cast him out of the paradise he was so desperate to rediscover.