moo1982

[moo1982]

REY-JAKE-THERAPIST’S new chapter for her SAURONDRIEL fic “ONE” is up!! I personally know how hard she’s been working on it and for so long, because she wanted to get the filthiness just right for you guys 🤌✨ So much so that she’s given me a warning because of my low filth tolerance threshold to “be careful while reading it” So suffice to say it’s going to be absolutely fantastic for the fans!😉

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Read it here :

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62099242/chapters/170806633?view_adult=true

Reblog it if you can,guys! Since she’s not here to promote it and I’m not a big account 😅

[moo1982]

haladriel moments: 63/∞

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Amazing!!! They are so angry and so hurt it captures it perfectly and with great humour 😂🥰

Canon accurate Haladriel dynamic lol, fanart by the amazing Momo aka @rinrin20983156 on X

Support the OG post on X

[moo1982]

*face mashed against the screen* HOW can I have missed this transcendent masterpiece?!

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Yes, my argument exactly! Purely research purposes 🤣

While I love Trials of Mairon, for season 3 level of lust and out of bounds behaviour I think he needs to transition to You were my crown by @willowaus

“Now Sauron's lust and pride increased, until he knew no bounds” (“The Silmarillion”)

“so great was the [One] Ring's power of lust" (Tolkien Letter 131)

One word for Sauron in Season 3: Horny

Jacqueline Coley understood the assignment. Charlie needs Sauron x Galadriel smut for research purposes.

[moo1982]

“Now Sauron's lust and pride increased, until he knew no bounds” (“The Silmarillion”)

“so great was the [One] Ring's power of lust" (Tolkien Letter 131)

One word for Sauron in Season 3: Horny

Jacqueline Coley understood the assignment. Charlie needs Sauron x Galadriel smut for research purposes.

[moo1982]

The phenomenon where characters or individuals who embody evil or negative traits are often perceived as attractive or alluring.

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Charlie Vickers as Halbrand

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haladriel moments: 62/∞

[moo1982]

@fatcatlittlebox I love how in your metas you bring out such subtle meanings and possibilities. Focussing on what others may have paid little attention to.

Neither Adar's original message or Sauron's translation of it would have made sense to anyone other than Sauron himself so it is very fitting to see it as an internal conversion. Adar's provocation functions as a prompt for Sauron to question himself about what Galadriel means to him, about who he was inspired to be while he was with her and where that part of him is now gone. He is missing both desperately at this moment, feeling the emptiness inside. Maybe he hopes he hasn't completely lost Halbrand, his chance for light and redemption that Galadriel represents for him.

Very clever linking of the scenes in the forge, the point of nearly killing Adar on Tirharad and the moment when he translates the message.

I had an ask about Adar's message that he carved on the body and it turned into another meandering meta so I figured I'd just get into it in a separate post. The question was what do I think the message actually means. And I think the answer is both -- there's Sauron's message and Adar's message. Yeah. Like so many themes in TROP, there are different dialogues happening.

I think the real literal translation is from Black Speech, as I've analyzed before in previous metas, a gauntlet or missive from Adar about taking Galadriel hostage. I'll get into that in another long ass post, but what I found interesting is what Annatar claims it says: "Where is he?" It's also the title of the episode. This question is important. We can start by asking ourself, who is the "he" here? Annatar is talking about himself. No surprise there, but I think he is literally referring to a different self -- Sauron or Halbrand. He's dissociating. He did this notably, when he stood over Adar and is about to execute him saying "You don't know what he did!" Halbrand here is referring to Sauron. Another version of him. Past, present, or alternate persona.

One of the reasons I love this shot so much is it conveys so much. On either side, Halbrand is flanked by Galadriel and a horse. A calm horse. A non-galloping horse. This time she's urging Halbrand to stop and think. Galadriel is the mentor in this moment. And with Galadriel in the foreground she seems to overpower Halbrand here -- she is his master. But the context of this shot is super interesting for the purposes of this discussion. This scene is mostly intercut with closeups of every player's face and this is the only line that Halbrand utters that is not a close up. "You don't now what he did." Compare it to the shot below. The shot with him and Adar is quite a distance away from the action and that's symbolic of Halbrand dissociating from Sauron and the deeds he is referring to. These are separate personas. "He" did evil. "He" is abhorred. And in Halbrand killing Adar, he would be purging himself in effigy.

But before that, in the forge scene with Galadriel, Halbrand says, “You don’t know what I did.”

This switching between third person and first person is fluid with Sauron and Halbrand because I think he is splitting into different people. Here Sauron speaks for himself and his actions. You know that he is Sauron (perhaps even Mairon) in this moment because whenever he stares into the fire, this repentant Sauron emerges. He is taking ownership and he means it. And it tracks because he is contrite. He tells Galadriel, "I'm sorry." For her brother, for her pain. Furthermore, there are instances in this scene where his voice is a different register: deep, guttural and almost ancient.

And I believe there's a reason why Charlie has mentioned this analysis of his character more than once: to paraphrase, Sauron is a successful deceiver because he actually believes he is the persona he has created. Which begs the question, does this mean just psychological dissociating or actual splitting and compartmentalizing pieces of himself? We already know in the lore that Sauron poured "his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all life" into the ring. If he can do that with the darkness in his soul, it stands to question -- can he do it with his goodness? He’s also not the only Tolkien character to do this. Later Smeagol does this as Gollum. I think the question "Where is he?" is a clue as to why Annatar seems so disconnected and empty in comparison to how Sauron was as "Halbrand." There's something missing in him, something absent. Where is he? Halbrand is lost- but not gone. Let's go back to the opening line of the show again, "Nothing is evil in the beginning." Interestingly, it leaves out the second part of the quote which is in the book -- "Even Sauron was not so." That is a glaring, purposeful omission. One that I think that the show is aiming to explore by showing his fractured evolution.

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Mirdania: "My lord is occupied. But he wishes you good fortune on your journey."

Halbrand: "Are you asking me to leave?"

Bonus:

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Mirdania: "Lord Celebrimbor regrets to inform you he's unable to grant you entry."

"Mightn't I speak with him directly?"

Bonus:

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I think we have had a glimpse of Sauron weird things like how he got hold of Finrod's dagger and made it disappear and reappear at the right moment, stealing the guild, showing superhuman power in beating up the Numenoreans who confronted him about the guild. Talking to Miriel behind Galadriel's back tomorrow get the guild. So all these are Sauron weird things and behaviour.

That said, I agree there are several plot holes from both season 1 and 2 that need clarification.

“With Sauron, at least, he was kind of in the background in Season 1. It’s like he was in hiding, really, and the audience weren’t in on who he was until the very end. Whereas in the Second Season, everyone was in on it, and he could kind of come into the foreground, so I think Season Three continues in that trajectory and I’m finding that more and more of the story will start to center around Sauron’s journey, in a way. In that, all the worlds which have operated kind of independently in the show, will slowly be drawn into this one central storyline, where, like, the ripples of evil are starting to affect, really, everything.”

“He’s going to fall down further down that rabbit hole of, like, being evil. And the remaining light in him is being diminished. Any light that he had when he was cruising around with Galadriel or whatever, that’s gone. And he’s now hellbent on his goal. And […] there’s one more ring he’s still going to make, at some point. And knows where he goes in the future, I mean, I know because it’s in the books.”

Actor Charlie Vickers Teases Sauron's Fate in Season 3 of 'Rings of Power'

Also, Charlie talking about his morning tea. New headcanon unlocked: the Dark Lord and his morning tea.

And he’s probably looking through the Sauron x Galadriel tag on ao3, as we speak.

Overall, great interview and great questions. And it’s clear the marketing for S3, as Sauron is concerned, is the One ring. It’s what Charlie has been teasing, and this doesn’t come as any surprise because the One has to be forged in Season 3. There’s no spoiler in saying this, because it should have been forged already, after all (before the Battle of Eregion, which kicked off the War of the Elves and Sauron).

The characters coming together to fight Sauron is also not anything new, that’s the whole point of the Last Alliance. In a way, Sauron is the main character here, as every other character unites to defeat him. Although, Season 3 has to be Sauron at the height of his power, as he starts his “King of Men” and “Lord of the Earth” era (“fall down further that rabbit hole”?).

Charlie has been talking about Númenor since last season, but, from the books and Amazon announcement, there’s still the War of the Elves and Sauron to cover (1 major battle + 1 siege), and he has to find ring-bearers for the Nine. So, far we haven’t heard anything about this, which might indicate these are the real spoilers for next season. Three bearers of the Nine are said to be from Númenor, and one from Rhûn, and the Easterlings are among his biggest supporters in the legendarium, so we might see this plot come into the main storyline (as Charlie puts it), but on Sauron’s side.

Charlie has been talking about Sauron being in the background in Season 1 quite a lot recently. And in the Q&A with Morfydd and the showrunners he even joked about “weird Sauron things” off-screen or in the background when the camera was focused on Galadriel. By this, he probably means sorcery. Which makes me wonder if we’ll return to the events of S1 via flashbacks or something, to clear this up. Why mention this in interviews, otherwise? We still have unresolved plots from S1, namely: how did Sauron got that injury? Was it real or a deception? Then Sauron told Galadriel “not all of it” was an illusion back in S1; what does he mean by this? What was real and what was the deception?

[moo1982]

Even thinking that Charlie might end up exploring AO3 🤭😂 For purely research purposes,of course, and to prove to Morfydd that he too knows what the fans are saying...(See December 2024 interviews). I mean it would help with adding to the character complexity for his three dimensional Sauron 🤭🤭

He actually told the interviewer, "You send it to me." AO3 girlies, this is our day.

[moo1982]

Beautiful Haladriel fanart by the amazing Sunny!! aka @pinksunnys on X!!!

Pls like and support the original post on X

[moo1982]

Not really a question. Just enjoying your fanfics Among the broken altars of the gods and You were my crown. Impressive how you are keeping up with both and producing chapters so fast. I really like the characterisation and how immersive the chapters are. I like how Galadriel is so strong in both fics. Obviously you were my crown is a lot darker and Annatar more arrogant but I like how Galadriel is surprising him and I think she is breaking him more than the other way around. I am wondering whether something that neither of them expects will start developing between them.

Thank you so much.

They're both very different fics, with very different versions of Sauron which helps when I need to distinguish between what I'm writing. I adore writing wife guy!Halbrand who guesses he should try to do better after everything went to hell the last time around and then sexy, absolutely deranged Annatar. And then the differences in Galadriel who's lived through it all once around and is willing to try things differently with Halbrand and Galadriel at the beginning of the second age who is just not ready to trust this emissary. No matter how sexy and good in bed he is.

Galadriel being able to surprise Annatar is something I always want to have at the forefront and he's definitely in as much trouble as she is for breaking.

And I like to think there will be something developing between them but Galadriel isn't going to lose her bite with him. Its integral to who she is.

And I think the next few chapters will really showcase if something begins to really develop between them.

🥰