The Rings of Power’s Galadriel was a bit different from LOTR’s Elven queen, but Season 2 should see Galadriel take a step in the right direction.
Given its unprecedented budget and The Lord of the Rings source material, The Rings of Power was highly touted. Its 25 million viewers made it Prime Video’s largest premiere event. Unfortunately, the series’ viewership numbers fell with each subsequent episode. There were various reasons for the decline in viewers, but the showrunners have promised that Season 2 will make good on certain Season 1 complaints.
Despite the showrunners’ good will, Season 2 has run into a number of production issues. A horse died on set, and there was a fire that stalled production. Then, the WGA Strike started, and Amazon created controversy by announcing that The Rings of Power would continue production without its showrunners. Regardless of the issues and controversy, The Rings of Power does have something positive going for it. Morfydd Clark recently teased that her Galadriel character will be much more well-rounded in Season 2. Here’s why that matters.
Lord of the Rings’ Galadriel Is Regal
The Lord of the Rings fans know that Galadriel is something special. She was born in Valinor before the sun rose, and her wisdom, power and beauty are unmatched. In the Third Age, Galadriel is the Elven Queen of Lothlórien, and she keeps Sauron’s Orcs out of her realm with her magic and the power of her Elven Ring. Notably, she helps Frodo on his quest to destroy the One Ring. She allows him to look into the Mirror of Galadriel, and she gives him a phial with the light of Eärendil, which wards off darkness on more than one occasion.
Galadriel also casts down Dol Guldur after the One Ring is destroyed, though it isn’t just Galadriel’s deeds that make her special. It is her regal air and her abounding wisdom that make her stand out. Readers could feel her gravitas as she spoke to the Fellowship, and the FOTR movie did a great job of portraying her otherworldly wisdom.
Galadriel’s Growth on The Rings of Power
The Rings of Power’s Galadriel adaptation is a bit different. In Season 1, she is depicted as brash, impulsive and prideful. On top of that, she’s just too intense, and that’s not even addressing the fact that she made a habit of disregarding Gil-galad’s commands. Fans didn’t really like this portrayal of Galadriel because it’s a far cry from the regal queen The Lord of the Rings had already established. However, that should be changing in Season 2. In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Morfydd Clark explained that Galadriel will be a bit different going forward.
“So last season I think that her grief was so intense, her sadness was so huge. I think when you are in those points of ultimate lows, you do end up becoming self-obsessed. You can’t see anything beyond this haze of misery. And now that has started to clear. Hopefully, with that she’s rediscovering the beauty of life and what she was really trying to protect the whole time beyond herself. That’s something I just love about Tolkien: You need to be connected to the world and those around you.”
One of the good things about The Rings of Power is that Amazon has already committed to five seasons. This gives the series room to grow, and that means that its characters should look different in Season 1 than they will in Season 5. Galadriel started off self-obsessed and brash, but she will end the series as the LOTR character that everyone knows and loves. Granted, that doesn’t mean that her character will be perfectly regal and flawless in Season 2, but there should be some growth. As Clark indicated, that development will start by her seeing “the beauty of life” and remembering that she’s not doing anything for herself. Hopefully, that will allow her character to mellow a little bit, which should allow her to be more relatable for viewers.
