I applaud you. You have broken down one of the 5000 reasons why Rings of Power falls short of our expectations. You articulated it nicely! Well done.👏❤

It is like they made this show based on Galadriel actually taking the one ring from Frodo. If this was what they were going for it might have been somthing.

She's condescending, rude, obnoxious, and overbearing. Then she gets worse somehow.

Is the problem that supporting characters, characters who are primarily about the backstory, don't work as main characters? It seems the Star Wars prequels had the same problem - when the Jedi were a legendary caste of knights tragically wiped out, they were cool. Watching them sit around in the council was less cool. In the Jackson films, Galadriel and the elves are mystical and numinous because they're in the background. They let the hobbits be the main characters. Making them the main characters required making them imperfect, and that ruins their mystique.

It's only a problem from a certain point of view.

This actually COULD have been a decent show... if they hadn't manacled Tolkien and his entire Middle-Earth brand to it. If they'd sold it as a completely new world with new characters and settings with different names, and zero connection whatsoever to Middle-Earth... well, there would still have been a few issues with the writing but they'd have got nowhere near the hate they've had. This is the entire problem with studios making big-budget shows now - they screwed up The Witcher in exactly the same way, for exactly the same reasons. They want the instant acclaim and viewing figures that generate big bucks for them, but don't have the patience or work ethic to put in the effort to earn it. So they jump on the back of an already beloved work, hoping to cream off the benefits vicariously purely from the name, but at the same time are arrogant enough to believe they can 'do better' than the original, and that rewriting huge chunks of fundamental lore will put their own 'stamp' on it. It's like a toddler finger-painting all over a Da Vinci painting and saying "Look what I did with all my pretty handprints - it's better now, 'cos it's got ME all over it!"

There are no flaws - Galadriel is absolutely incredible!!!! A total epic heroine as is the entire prequel - nothing but absolute arrogant rubbish here......... the synchronicity with the books is refreshing - nothing wrong with a little modernisation while retaining all the essence..........

Wow, when viewed from this perspective, this sounds like a compelling drama that explores how some elves were corrupted by the darkness. The main problem is that Amazon chose to deconstruct an already established character. It would be nearly impossible now to give her a strong enough redemption arc.

how dare You criticize a wamen

No, no the show runners say her dagger is a symbol of “primordial innocence” and when she melts it, she’s letting go of her childhood. It’s so bizarre

It is also important to mention something else. This show is so badly written that Sauron never deceives Galadriel. He tells the truth (not all of it though), and Galadriel draws all the wrong conclusions by herself. She brings him along for no reason and sometimes despite all reason, and makes him a part of the forging of the rings. Not-Sauron never had to do anything for the "deception" to progress, powered by Galadriel's misplaced self-confidence in her deductive skills. And "Master Craftsman" Celebrimbor's ignorance of alloys. And her not killing, or even denouncing, the one individual she vowed to kill above all other considerations. And other contrivances starting with her and Sauron meeting at random in the middle of an ocean. This whole show depicts a Sauron that has no plan and just went along with Galadriel self-deception after a chance meeting. It's hilarious in a way. As for Galadriel's dagger being sacrificed for the making of the Three, I'm not sure if that's the intention but I see it as the symbol of her bringing her whole race into her personal genocidal revenge plans. Am I too cynical here?

Thank you for this eloquent presentation of my exact feelings for this character. Even though I'm months late, I would like to add one thing in the criticism of this character arc: They have yet to show us the clear Sauron motives. He has claimed that, so far he wants none of the things Galadriel is pushing him to do. It may very well be all lies of course, cause... Sauron. However, given the current villain trends, he could have been in a redemption path, which Galadriel obstinately denied him. So how exactly are we going to redeem and sympathise with Galadriel, who's solely responsible for Sauron's turn to evil and everything he's going to do from here on out?

This is thoughtful and interesting. What I found challenging when interpreting the this show is the creator’s intentions versus what they showed. Galadriel comes across a righteous moral grandstander, telling Halbrand he abandoned his crew to death but dis he? He told them to be quiet and they ignored and chose to save himself. What could he against a giant sea monster any ways? Galadriel can single-handedly kill a snow-troll and even she fled the scene. As far as we know, Halbrand is a refuge from a derelict former kingdom whose loved ones were recently killed. Through this lens, his questionable behavior might be seen as desperate and trauma-induced rather than lack of virtue. We’re just not given enough reason for Galadriel to be the way she is. Sure, her brother died but so did the loved ones of many other Elves and plenty who had it worse than a princess. Her evenge is just about feeling good which is such a tragic but kinda repulsive motivation. Why did the writers have to start Galadriel’s arc at the bottom of the Mariana Trench?

Why do you think the villains these people make are to our eyes the most reasonable characters (until they all of a sudden start doing evil shit without reason), and what they clearly try to frame as heroes are deplorable people to any sensible persons iknow.

Halbrand is Galadriel Shadow self

It's hard to believe that Galadriel is thousands of years old 😢

Genocidal Galadriel 😮

If Sean Bean plays the character, tragedy is inevitable,no ?

How many spoonfuls of bovine excrement in our soup does it take before we stop kidding ourselves? 🤮🤮🤮

#notmygalagriel

Galadriel is an unreliable and hypocritical protagonist. From her very first line she deceives herself and the audience. Frankly, the best reveal this show could have done was to reveal that Sauron was masquerading as Galadriel. It would have been more believable. Also I don't understand why a show about adult characters--some of whom are thousands of years old--needs them to learn the difference between good and evil like it's the Teletubbies. They are grown-ups! Shouldn't they have already developed a sense of personal morality? Buffy Summers already understood the difference between good and evil at 14 y/o, so why can't Galadriel? Maybe the writers think their audience is kindergarteners.

Galadriel look great in sun light 👍

I'm glad someone pointed this out, I didn't like how they portray Galadriel. The fact that she noticed on the raft that Halbrand lacks empathy and didn't care about his mates in the slightest, she still takes him under her wing regardless and expresses no empathy for them either. This is out of her character, completely. On a positive note, I hope the writers of season 2, will take all constructive criticism under consideration.

ROP is a complete fail. Why spend so much time watching and analyzing it? Just ignore the POS.

Thank you for a fantastic, level-headed, thoughtful video essay. One of my greatest dissatisfactions with the series is the portrayal of Galadriel in the late Second Age. This is not even remotely an on-point portrayal. Galadriel is fundamentally an intellectual, she's determined and athletic, but also wise, not much of a warrior even in the First Age, but certainly someone with a great knowledge of magic, taught to her by the Maiar. Galadriel, as written by Tolkien, is a fallible character, tempted several times in her life, but also a fundamentally ethical and decent character. Even in her wilder younger years, she was not walking around and making arrogant threats to friends and allies among Elves or Men. Finrod was also, though many things, certainly not a shady and ambiguous bully of his own sister.

This is a very good video about how terribly written Galadriel has become. I truly loved Galadriel in both Tolkien's great books and Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings Trilogy films, as the former presented a wise, compassionate, powerful woman who chose to use her power for good and was able to overcome the corruption of the One Ring, while the latter also kept all of these facets of her character. This current show just decided to make Galadriel not any of these, but rather an petulant, sociopathic child, one who needs to be punished for her transgressions. Instead, the show makes it seem that she should be held up for butchering an entire race of people, bullying others into doing everything she wants, sacrificing anyone who does not follow her vision, and casting others who might have the best interest of their people as being the villain (aka, show Sauron and Adar). In other words, Galadriel has become the very definition of evil that Tolkien made in his epic masterpieces.

Another key aspect of tragic heroes going through a moral choice is: There are certain lines that the hero should come close to, but not cross. Boromir would not actively plot to steal or murder Frodo to take the ring. But in a moment of weakness, and with the ring pulling on him, he does act in the moment, regretting it later. He is redeemable. His core morals and goals are intact. RoP Galadriel finally finds Sauron. She then keeps it to herself long term and protects his identity, evidently to cover her shame in being tricked. Now she is a accomplice. All the questionable, mean, rude, and thoughtless actions of earlier to oppose evil are now pointless if her goal was supposedly to stop him at any cost. Her own stupid pride is now more important. This is a hollow character.

Galadriel in ROP is completely unlikeable, she's just a cretin, IMO, while Boromir is merely a flawed human being who becomes a tragic hero through a series of bad decisions. But he remains likeable through the entire movie up until his tragic death. The original Galadriel in the LOTR series as portrayed by Cate Blanchett had an aura and mystique about her that made her a very potent character.

Personally, I will say that 'there is a big tempest in me' when I see what a bunch of woke producers, actors and writers have done to my beloved JRR Tolkien, whom I have read his books since the 1970s and absolutely adored the Peter Jackson film version of 'The Hobbit' and 'the entire LOTR Trilogy. I never made it past watching the trailers for the ROP and am happier for it. Cate Blanchett played the role of Galadriel in the Peter Jackson version and her performance was stunning. She had an aura and mystique about her that was so convincing to her ultimate latent power that the scene with Frodo over the mirror literally gave me chills. Sorry, Amazon, you blew a billion bucks on a turkey...

12:46 "Contrast this with the tragic arc of *a supporting character*, whose hubris would break apart the Fellowship, but manages to find heroism and hope in his darkest moment, when he finally understand his own flaw and how it manages to connect Boromir's arc with the greater themes present in 'Fellowship of the Ring'." I think you've hit the nail on the head: Galadriel, like Bella Swan in 'The Twilight Saga', is a supporting character who is made the main character by the narrative, but unlike Bella, there's no catharsis.

Inadequate writers that just don't know how to write compelling stories for these characters, especially when they try to adapt the original story to their own agendas. 🤔

Strong female character used to mean a female character that could call out the male characters on their BS, but feminists changed the definition to a male character that looked like a female, calling out the other male characters for their BS while pulling even more BS out their butts. Now we see its ultimate evolution: a female character is a male character who looks like a female, but is actually the villain ...

They made her a petulant, teenage Xena the Warrior princess or perhaps a really dumb, rash Legolas. She is not a teenager, she is vastly old having lived before she came to the west and then in the west for untold millennia learning from the wisest beings there are. They made her very warrior like, when most of us pictured her, if you must type her at all in a fighting sense, as a battle mage. No one ever saw her as Legolas or a warrior. Her power lies in wisdom, she is "Wise", her wisdom was LEARNED not inherent in her like a fairy. She can see into the future.....her power is not in her sword. In this worthless monstrosity they turn a character creatures, of any race, either instantly fear her due to their own evil nature - or love her as a symbol of virtue and wisdom unattainable by themselves. This infuriating Galadriel is not even likable, you are pulling for the bad guys and looking for a place to bury the script and the writers in forever.

This is so insightful. I just started reading into Tolkien's work, but I have one question, when does Tolkien details Halbrand's journey in the Silmarillion? He mentions Annatar but I might have missed it while reading. Thank you!

So to make her "stronger," they took away her supernatural powers and made her have to introduce herself to everyone?

Amazon is laying off 18,000 people. Target is hiring. Seems Bezos may be trying to recoup some of his losses for his idiotic attack on Tolkien which was a complete failure.

thx subscribed "ALL SHALL WATCH ME AND BE BORED!!!"

Would be quite a twist if the brother never died and was manipulating her from the beginning

The only person Galadriel seems to have a kindred spirit was the edgy boy with the evil sword. Both are filled with hate and a murderous intent. Should point that out. I do think they're building Galadriel into some kind of villain though. If that isn't the case I would say all this is for naught.

Would make more sense if Galadriel end up becoming the villain she is going down the same path as Arthas from Warcraft.

the result of guyladriel's psycopathing (the act of turning someone a psycopath, ask FBI) changes have been catastrophic for tolkienkind

Finrod Felagund, friend of Beren, what have they done to you?

You are giving this show too much credit. You know why she was the way she was. You know why things were the way they were. It wasn’t creative choices.

Yeah I mean... what they got deeply wrong is their inability to portray true virtue. They instead gave us this pseudo virtue that looks nothing like virtue. But I mean, it's not their fault and there's no point in hating the show or the actors like everyone's doing, just go watch the original.

Halbrand aka Saroun and the dark elf Adar are the two most interesting characters in this show. Let that sink in a moment. The two main villains in this show ( one of them one of the most evil characters in literature) are more relatable than the main hero.

Hollow minds and heart produce hollow characters and stories.

I'm sorry but the writing in the RoP was ridiculous. Galadrial was a tragic character only insofar as she was tragically boring.

This show is just terrible

I also can't imagine how it's possible for an actress to be an actress and yet have absolutely zero control over her eyes. It's like she has no muscles around her eyes at all. Except for that really strange creepy smile on the horse scene, regardless of which emotion she's supposed to be feeling, her eyes are just neutral and dead. The actress version of resting bitch face.

I doubt even amazoid will be stupid enough to keep this crap show going