During the recentRings of Powerseries, audiences have seen a very different portrayal of Galadriel, the elven lady who will later become the ruler of Lorien, and an instrumental figure in the fate of the fellowship tasked with destroying the one ring in Mount Doom. Galadriel’s character arc during the first season of the Amazon series focused predominantly on her desire to avenge her brother Finrod’s death aftershe mourned his body, by vanquishing the darkness of Sauron from Middle Earth forever.
However, this vengeful mission of hers also came with a warning: not to become the evil she so desperately wished to eradicate. So in the final episode, when she realized that Halbrand was indeed Sauron, and that she had actually kept alive the being who had betrayed her people so long ago, why did she choose not to reveal this information to her friends, and share the truth of Halbrand’s identity to warn them?
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The answer is hinted at during Galadriel’s final confrontation with Halbrand, trapped in the recesses of her memory in the Sundering Seas. At first the deceiver tries to placate her by telling her what she wants to hear, including that heactually wants to heal the worldrather than harm it, and that they were brought together for a reason, to rule Middle Earth. But when she doesn’t go along with his plan, his anger grows, and he violently demands “What will they do when you tell them that you weremyally? When you tell them that Sauron lives because of you?”
Within these two questions, we see all of the shame and guilt wrapped up in Galadriel, both in failing her own personal quest to defeat him, but also in the mistrust of her people, who are already weary of her long search for Sauron and the lives that have been lost in trying to defeat him. She already feels an outcast afterGil-galad tried to send her back to the Undying Lands, and she fears that if she reveals what she has done, it will be the final nail in the coffin.
Instead, when Elrond pulls her from the river Glanduin, and she races back inside to Celebrimbor’s forge, she chooses to stay silent. Elrond is already aware that something is wrong after he pulls her from the water and she holds Finrod’s dagger to his throat, demanding that he prove his identity by confirming how they met. But when he later asks her “where is Halbrand?” she chooses not to reveal the exchange that has just passed between her and the dark lord, and only says “he is gone. And I doubt he will return. And should he ever, none of us are to treat with him again.”
They proceed with the creation of the three elven rings of power, which are forged untouched by Sauron’s evil hands, but there is no hint in the first series aboutwhere the other 17 rings are, so fans are already predicting that Celebrimbor may not heed Galadriel’s warning not to treat with Halbrand any further because he doesn’t understand the true gravity of the situation.
It is quite possible that Halbrand and Celebrimbor’s paths will cross again, and that the other rings will be forged during season two, thanks to Galadriel’s hesitation in revealing Sauron. There is already a sense that this decision is a mistake, and it is clear that she chose not to reveal her mistake to the others, but what will be interesting to see during season 2, is if this decision will mellow her character, or only make her anger and her hatred stronger. It would be easy for her to carry this betrayal deeply, as she has carried many others in her long lifetime, and this would only perpetuate her fiery, strong-willed and often rash characteristics from series one.
However, it would be a wiser course for her to become more cautious after her trust in Halbrand got her blindsided. She will always keep that steely determination, and it is the thing that carries her through her journey in bothThe Hobbitand theLord of the Rings, but the later version of Galadriel is a wiser, more stoic character, and maybe she will transition into this version of herself because of this fundamental decision not to tell the others Halbrand’s true identity.
This is symbolized both in her giving up Finrod’s dagger at the end of the episode, and in the fact thatshe never uses her sword skills inLOTRbecause by this point in her life she has learned to fight with love rather than hatred. Perhaps she feels that it was her mistake to trust him, therefore it must be her responsibility to defeat him, and right the wrongs of her past. This is, after all, the only way that characters in Tolkien’s world ever find peace and salvation.
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