Morfydd Clark on How Galadriel “Redeems” Herself in ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 2 [Exclusive]
One of the unquestioned heroes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is Galadriel (Morfydd Clark). She’s a commander of Elven armies under King Gil-Galad (Benjamin Walker), a good friend to Elrond (Robert Aramayo), and by the time the events of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring roll around, we know she’s only too willing to aid the Hobbits on their mission to destroy the One Ring. But according to Clark, Season 2 of the Prime Video series sees Galadriel needing redemption for her part in bringing Sauron (Charlie Vickers) to the forefront and aiding in his rise to power.
In a new interview with Collider’s Carly Lane, Vickers discussed the opening sequence of Season 2, which showed a great deal of Sauron’s backstory, from his betrayal by the Orcs to eventually meeting up with Galadriel on the raft. Vickers shared that he enjoyed recreating the moment their characters met, as it allowed him to play the moment a little more deliberately:
“It was quite fun recreating that in a tiny little pool in England, to recreate that shot in order to give me a moment of thought before hearing Galadriel in the water. That whole sequence was so useful to me, and it just colored his whole world. It gave it a little more context to the earlier parts of the first season.”
This moment, Clark believes, is what redeems Galadriel to the audience, showing that Sauron had chosen the dark path he was on, and Galadriel wasn’t the one that tapped into it initially:
“I think it redeemed Galadriel a bit to see that he’d chosen [this]. She didn’t open up all his darkness, but she doesn’t know that, unfortunately. “
Galadriel Redeemed Herself Both For the Audience and For Herself
But Clark wasn’t just seeking redemption for Galadriel in the eyes of the audience, she was seeking it for the character herself as well, and she feels she found it in the final confrontation between Galadriel and Sauron.
“In terms of Galadriel, as well, when she says, “The door is shut,” she kind of knows that she might just die there, but she’s going to go as hard as she possibly can. But she’s redeemed herself. So, that was fun to find how low she could be brought by him, and to then be able to rise and still maintain her sense of goodness and integrity.”
