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In Season 2, Galadriel's autonomy is consistently undermined. Her voice is silenced, she is mansplained, and choices are removed from her hands. Her authority is diminished by being demoted from leadership roles and by giving up Nenya, which forces Adar to bargain with Elrond instead of her. When Adar tells her to be silent while he deals with Elrond, it shows her reduced autonomy. The men in the room bargain over her and over her ring. She is a bargaining piece, no different from the ring she gave up.

In Season 1, Galadriel was exiled because she was seen as irrational, broken. A ‘mad woman’ whose defiance could no longer be tolerated by the elves. As noted in feminist literary criticism, Madwoman in the Attic, women who step outside societal norms are framed as unstable and cast out. 

When Galadriel was exiled, she defied male authority when she leapt from the ship.

In Season 2, she obeys because her previous defiance of male authority was the root of her mistake. Madwoman in the Attic notes women who challenge authority must either be tamed/retrained or erased. Galadriel’s autonomy is restricted until she admits her mistakes and accepts the role the narrative gives her. She must be humbled and self-reflective, aligning with the male authority she once defied. Only then can she confront and resist Sauron.

Galadriel is allowed to defy Sauron because he falls outside the bounds of legitimate male authority. As the villain, he is an external threat to the social order. But when she challenges men who represent the accepted order, her defiance is framed as transgressive, something that must be corrected. Feminist critique notes women’s agency is only valued when it aligns with what male authority approves of, and their power is only admired when it fits within those boundaries.

The shift from Galadriel’s exile to her submission in Season 2 highlights how narratives often force women to ‘learn their place.’ She reenters the fold after she is no longer a threat to the social order.

It’s easy to challenge Sauron’s views because the narrative opposes him, but what the narrative frames as 'right' shouldn’t be beyond scrutiny. Cultural biases shape storytelling. When stories about women are written by men, their internalized biases shape those narratives.

Galadriel is the only female character in this storyline and the focus on her mistake and how it reflects on her person is disproportionate. While Galadriel is made to reflect on her character flaws that led to Sauron’s rise, Celebrimbor is spared similar narrative condemnation of his person. He dies, but it is triumphant. Morfydd Clark once said she loved that Galadriel didn’t know shame. But Galadriel in S2 was shamed for who she was. 

Throughout history, stories have often reinforced the idea that women must know their place in society—subdued, obedient, and in harmony with male authority. In works like Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, defiant women were 'tamed' to conform to societal expectations.

In Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen’s defiance of male advisors like Tyrion and Jon Snow coincides with her descent into 'Mad Dany,' framed as uncontrollable and ultimately killed by Jon. When she aligned with their expectations, her power was admired. But once she stepped outside their approval, the narrative eliminated her. She went mad so her death was justified.

With a new season, I hope Galadriel’s autonomy is intact, regardless of whether she aligns with the expectations of others.

“a life of feminine submission, of “contemplative purity,” is a life of silence, a life that has no pen and no story, while a life of female rebellion, of “significant action,” is a life that must be silenced, a life whose monstrous pen tells a terrible story.” - The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar

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It's hilarious to me to mock Sauron fans' headcanons if they're too romanticized when you can't even spare a moment to analyze judgy Nice Guy TM behavior from your fav that happened in canon. I'm tired of this disingenuous fandom.

What's the real issue that's not being verbalized?

Yeah some so-called villainfuckers don't actually want a villain and yes it IS annoying, but it's just headcanon. That doesn't actually hurt anyone so why does it need to stop. Not even the romanticizers want Sauron to exile Galadriel, become a Nice Guy and judge Galadriel if she doesn't live up to moral standards, call her out with sexual language over her dynamic with another man, or demote her sorry 🤷🏾‍♀️

Y'all are too much lmao. Calling people pussies for romanticized villain headcanons that exist only in fandom, meanwhile there's a fandom cone of silence around criticizing how good guys behave in canon, how they actually treated the female lead, how it affects her arc, and how it will look if it continues. This is what is truly insulting to me.

It will not age well. It never did with the Dawson's, the Xander Harris's, the Ted Mosby's et al.

Aight bet. We shouldn't let up on any man and allow him to be overly romanticized if that's not how things really are, not just villains.

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interesting how often the ones claiming that galadriel's season 2 arc was perfect and everyone who doesn't think so is just too haladriel brainrotted or something are the same folks who openly say it's fine if she were to just... fade into the background in season 3 or disappear outright. sorry I actually do think it's sexist for galadriel to be introduced as the central protagonist only for her to be gradually phased out so that gil-galad and elendil or elrond or whichever legendarium dude can have more to do.

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just gonna say it, for any haladriels who wanna protect their peace... block that ropconfessions blog (as many of us have already). confessions blogs inevitably just start drama so it's good practice to block them on principle anyway and that one is blatantly already being used by the usual shit stirrers for ship war nonsense. they claim they're discerning with submissions and don't spread toxicity and meanwhile there's posts calling haladriels "illiterate" and ones outright defaming people.

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Whoever sent in this confession, what possessed you to look at a Muslim brown immigrant who references being Muslim and made a joke punching down at white people and decide that they can't do that. I linked the joke that was attached to this confession as "proof" of racism.

This post said all are welcome in the fandom but assumed the people who participate in the fandom are white lol. Whoever sent this confession is NOT slick and I can spot a white person weaponizing race from miles away.

I think I know who sent this in or which group of friends. Some of y'all shouldn't send a confession in using the same language "loudest part of fandom" which was used repeatedly in a post just days before.

The post they're in is very annoyed about the similar types of complaints that himbosecrets (the Muslim woman being called racist in this "anon" confession) has made about the show.

The "racist" joke from a Muslim immigrant

I'm sunnexsplendor on Twitter so hit me up there. It's Black History Month so run me reparations if you're going to run your mouth.

"It's disappointing how racist this fandom is. Sometimes its subtle but its still racism. People send racial abuse over ships. People repost that popular ship twitter that keeps making race-related jokes. Sure the show needs to improve on writing POC but the loudest part of fandom doesn't care about POC characters either."

Elvish translates to: You are all welcome here <3

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Hot take but I think the USian audience isn't inconsequential to Amazon. 74% of all Prime users are USian while the rest of the world accounts for 26% of all Prime users.

Source: https://www.investing.com/academy/statistics/amazon-facts/ (NOVEMBER 4, 2024)

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I have to disagree with you here. They treated this like a movie when it's an tv season and their ratings suffered for it, this delayed meeting being one of the consequences of treating a weekly tv show like a movie. If they wanted inspiration, they shouldn't have taken it from Star Wars. A TV show they should've taken their cues from was Interview with a Vampire s2 which also had a reunion in s2 finale between their leads, but never lost sight of those two characters. I don't want to spoil anyone who hasn't watched but the way they did it actually built up anticipation. I also don't think it helps that the long awaited confrontation featured recycled lines and trite MCU dialogue.

I also disagree about needing Galadriel and Sauron to be ready before their confrontation. The most explosive, unpredictable moments come when the plot hasn't been at a standstill waiting for characters to be ready. McPayne said they were inspired by Empire Strikes Back holding off on the Luke and Vader confrontation. well, Luke wasn't ready at all. in fact, his lack of readiness in facing Vader propelled the intensity and devastation of the fight.

tl;dr the ratings dropped precipitously because they treated the show like a movie. They said it better:

Note to keep in mind

I am manifesting hope that those with any reading comprehension will understand that the only reason why the showrunners didn't have Sauron pay a nice little visit to see both his exes on their camping trip was because they wanted to build up anticipation and significance for their inevitable reunion, and not that they didn't think Sauron wouldn't do it.

You can bet that there was a finished draft at some point for them to even bring this up in an interview, even if they 'quickly' dismissed it. They wanted to see if they could fit them into the sequence of events sooner, but due to other considerations, and for the sake of hyping up their meeting, this was cut.

"But if they collided early, it would rob some of the power of that final meeting. So...for that and many other reasons having to do [with] character and proximity, they were going to be ready only then."

By character, they didn't mean it would've been 'out of character' for that to happen. If that was the case, they wouldn't have even given this a second thought, much less bother to look at other media enemy relationships to compare to. Proximity means that Sauron is anxiously waiting on his Amazon rings delivery, and he needed to be there to sign for the package. They mean that both Galadriel and Sauron needed to go through more experiences individually first before they would be fully ready to confront each other.

Bonus: For S3 and beyond, we know Charlie 'I would write more of them meeting if I was in charge' Vickers is on board though if this ever pops up again (spoiler alert: it will).

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

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I zeroed in on Morfydd saying that she was very much herself in some ways because she wasn't conforming to the rules of her people.

The implication then is to be part of the elf community again, she's had to suppress parts of herself.

If you've watched enough stories with female characters, you'll often see this pattern emerge of conformity and repression for the female character and how they relate to their society. Screen writers use freud's theory of id, super ego, and ego and what it means for female repression like they studied under the man.

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"Her time with Halbrand was a time where she was very much herself in some ways because she was an Elf alone. She wasn't following the rules of her people at that point. So, he knows a part of her that other people, other beings, don't, and there's a tragedy to losing that, and through losing him, she's also lost that part of herself. " --Morfydd Clark

I thought we were done with LA press day bounties and the latest drop brought the most devastating line yet. 😭 I could go on and on about this aspect of Galadriel's characterization and in particular what being around Halbrand/Sauron brings out of her compared to how she acts when she's back in the 'nest' as it were. I don't know if it's intentional or not but something about the way they've written Galadriel reintegrating back into her community just felt subtly stifling and like that'd be one thing if the writers were self-aware about it but I got the impression it's meant to be this 100% good/wholesome thing about maturation and growth. I think this is the first time someone from the show has spoken of it differently, because there is a Loss there too. A pretty profound one.

Yes she had reasons to feel guilty and that would mean a humbled Galadriel in season 2, but I couldn't help but also notice the way she holds herself, bites her tongue, struggles to contain her anger and pain, are all pretty similar to how she acted around the elves in season 1 before she was exiled. And we subsequently saw her really sparking and expressing everything she felt after jumping off that ship, meeting Halbrand, causing a ruckus on Numenor, etc etc. (With Habrand especially, I think the way I described it once when watching s1, the reason the dynamic really grabbed me and what I saw as Galadriel coming alive, is that he spoke to her like she was just a woman, the real flesh and blood person in between the black sheep of the elves or the untouchable Lady of Light. It's no wonder he got her to bare her soul in that forge.) I reject the idea that all of that was just this flawed part of her she needs to erase from her character to become the true Galadriel. Character growth should temper her more impulsive and reckless traits but not figuratively lobotomize her.

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(insp) (requested by anon)

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I see the regret and grief too. But since we know she's been feeling so much conflicting emotions in the preceding fight, I prefer her to feeling things that are conflicting as she falls as well. She's telling him to heal yourself so that's why I think there's a component of look at yourself and your actions in her never taking her eyes off him as she falls as well.

I read your meta about Galadriel's two voices and that's a good point!! You might be swaying me. I want to comment on it when I have the time.

I'm not over Morfydd saying Galadriel thought she was going to die when she fell off the cliff.

She never broke eye contact with Sauron as she fell, thinking he would be the last thing she saw then?!

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I'm not over Morfydd saying Galadriel thought she was going to die when she fell off the cliff.

She never broke eye contact with Sauron as she fell, thinking he would be the last thing she saw then?!

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☯︎ CHARLIE VICKERS on Sauron and Galadriel's genuine connection and what drew them together in Season 1 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power via Awards Buzz

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Second new interview for today!

C & M are asked what does power mean to each of them.

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Botticelli Halbrand is what he shall be called from now on.

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god what I cannot wait for is to see Galadriel fight the darkness more than she has thus far, because she is already technically corrupted, that crown put a living breathing darkness into her that Sauron wanted her to feel and experience as a way to capture her and get her to his side but she will be fighting it. The way they confirmed she is light “for now” is so important because we get to see that corruption and her fighting it, maybe even being compelled by it. But one of the things is she is granted a place back in Valinor after she refuses the one ring from Frodo, but here she is also going to have to refuse the darkness time and time again. Him, his darkness, the one he had been seduced by and fell to. He gets to see her be corrupted and have to fight it over and over, in essence fighting him. Because she is stronger than him in this, her light is stronger, her will is stronger, her need to be good is stronger. And that had to anger him, but also I imagine there’s a little respect there too. She had done what he could not. Her light is stronger than his darkness, and it always will be.

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Not gonna lie. Its a little weird and gratifying hearing Patrick McKay say the thing you just wrote. Can’t say that he read it but it just goes to show, and I repeat, we (film and lit nerds) all read the same stuff, studied it and wrote about it. So there you go, HC and meta writing is always valid and we’re not delulu when we draw from the same well.