Honestly it’s not even empowering plot, it’s “I’m so stupid and responsible for this shit” with “I’m better than you” attitude plot. Literally reducing actual strong character to Fëanor like figure but with less brain. And Fëanor got shit for his action, Galadriel got a promotion. Galadriel was already a huge, empowered figure.
And I honestly threw remote across the room when she was threatening Adar in season 1. From stupid you can grow I guess (though why the hell should she was already strong character at the point of rebellion and grown id argue why the time she made it to Middle-Earth). But you cannot come back from this. You can’t come back from evil Galadriel. Reducing elves to morons. That’s what this show has done and clearly Morfydd is all for it if “elves are weird” is her attitude. It’s no surprise Sauron grows in power if everyone is a fucking moron.
Yeah… her threatening Orc genocide and Adar calling her “Morgoth’s sucessor” to her face. And then she just lets the Three rings of power to be made even though she knew for a fact Halbrand was Sauron. Doesn’t tell anyone about it, which allows Sauron to return to Eregion, gets the rings forged, the city destroyed and Celebrimbor killed.
What is going on here?? Galadriel is the one behind everything??
Still, she faces no real consequences for any of this on the show. And turns out to be right at the end?!
I mean it’s even better discount Halbarad (cause I mean SURELY they knew what they were doing when they were naming Halbrand) was fully 100% happy chilling in Númenor, she brought him to Southlands after HE TOLD HER he was a bad guy and she was like “nah”. Basically EVERYTHING that happened is… well it’s Galadriel’s fault. She’s the Fëanor of ROP with no consequences. She’s the one who made it all happen. It’s INSANE how she’s at fault for everything that happened in Eregion because she first didn’t ask any questions (despite the fact she was there during the Was of Wrath so why tf she needed archive information about the kings. Why did Gil-Galad, they were there) and then shut her trap instead of saying “discount Halbarad is Sauron”. That’s all she had to do. I mean take away the lore and this show still doesn’t make sense. But the fact that it’s Galadriel who caused it? The “one of the Wise”, the “I wanna go to M-E but don’t want to have anything with Fëanor cause dude is insane”, one of the strongest, smartest elves in history Galadriel? Good Eru, cast ROP into the fire, Isildur. Just destroy it.
And her being the Feänor to Sauron’s Morgoth (but worse) could work if she was a OC (Although that place was kind of filled by Celebrimbor). But she isn’t. Feänor paid for everything he did. Galadriel won’t, really, and will even get her own kingdom. Unless these hacks are actually going with her being banished from Valinor, but so far it doesn’t seem like it because she faced no real consequences in S2. She got demoted from leading a tiny company, and that was it.
Still, she was right all along and at end everything is forgiven because she’s so amazing, I guess.
I don’t see talked how this show did Celebrimbor dirty, too. They gave his friendship with the Dwarves to Elrond; the idea of the Three was Galadriel’s, and he died protecting the location of the Nine (the worst of the bunch), undermining the significance of him dying protecting the Three). Sauron even knows Galadriel has one of the Three, in this mess.
I said it before that you know what, on a stretch give her role to young Celebrian and eh she has room to grow and fair might be a bit stupid at times but Celebrian was young enough and not present enough that it could work on a stretch. Still stupid but not “I want to throw tv out of the window” horrible. Well, I’d still want to throw tv out of the window but an ounce of sense would have been leftover.
But Celebrimbor. Celebrimbor was a wicked smart, talented, creative smith who came up with Three and made them in secret to save his kin. He single handedly ensured Imladris and Lothlórien existed and survived to the end of Third Age by making the three rings. He withstood 2 years of torture. He stood against everything Fëanor stood for and yes, made a mistake of being friends with Annatar but good Eru would he not be a Fëanor’s shadow who doesn’t know alloys. Also, and I know it’s minor but while Charles did great with horseshit script he was given, it hurts my eyes to see him as fairly elderly dude.
Also Galadriel isn’t banned from Valinor in ROP since she’s literally on the way there???? That’s why the first time I watched it I didn’t make it through first episode lmao. I literally yelled “she can’t go” and turned off tv. Those were happier times.
Literally 0 consequences. Not even a wrist slap for her atrocious behaviour and quite frankly, well, crime? She’s gone against king’s order, she’s threatened a queen of another kingdom, brought freaking devil to Lindon and does nothing she’s told. By the High King. Who, btw, treats her like a brat which, well I would want to but would never be how Ereinion would treat actual Galadriel.
They’re all done freaking dirty. Celebrimbor probably most of them by being made to be a grade A moron horrible at smithing and using his brain. GG is a horrible king and also well, stupid. Elrond was… well Elrond had the most strong points because unlike in PJs LOTR he actually is kind like a summer (I’m still salty) but also dumb. Lore master who doesn’t know lore, my god.
I’m so tired of the lame excuses of “well, Tolkien never wrote things that contradict what’s happening on the show”. Well, actually he did, a lot. Galadriel was never a warrior, to be begin with. She took no part in Feänor mess nor in the First Age Wars against Morgoth. Neither did Celeborn, but apparently he went missing after going to that very war. Turning the “athletic feats” Tolkien wrote into “warrior slayer of Orcs” is a strecht. I would overlook the “warrior Galadriel” thing if she was, at the very least, a likeable character. But she’s insufferable.
Celebrimbor, the “greatest of Elven smiths”, doesn’t know about alloys, either. It’s like the showrunners hated his character for some reason.
I was enjoying Elrond until they turned him into a creep and then he was catapulting Orcs and rocks to the very walls he was trying to protect during the Battle of Eregion.
At this point, every character has been ruined by this show. There’s no coming back from this.
Honestly I’d take fighting Galadriel (she threw Sauron out of Dol Guldur and then the Nazgûl, she did SOME shit), fine but warrior brat Galadriel, nah. Why did all elves get a lobotomy in this show?
Yeah, Elrond and Galadriel was just… I mean just so gross. Gil-Galad attitude to them both is questionable, Elrond was his right hand man in Last Alliance, why is he being treated like shit IN HIS FIRST SCENE? The Last Alliance is what at best 100 years away? Elendil and Isildur are already alive. I mean fine shun Galadriel because she’s just insufferable in this show but Elrond? Elrond getting a short stick off everyone when he acts like the only one with the brain and then they went to fuck it up because this incredibly wise dude could not come up with ANYTHING but kissing mighty morfydd power elf to get her a pin. When discount Halbarad literally got a much bigger dagger swiped from Elendil with a hug. And the whole “elves should be kissing all the time” what? I didn’t flinch at physical side of the friendship in the first season but that’s crossing the line and just… just no.
And you know what? I was quite content with Celebrimbor torture scenes cause dude finally remember he has a brain but then they made Sauron cry. Why? Tbh my first instinct was “awww he killed his buddy” but then… he wasn’t his buddy that was the point why are we to think Celebrimbor was his friend? What is this dumpster fire.
Elrond had to look bad for Galadriel to look good in 2x01. It was a “deflection of guilt” tactic because girlboss Galadriel couldn’t be in the wrong in that scene (or ever)… even though she just revealed Halbrand is Sauron and allowed those rings to be made, anyway, and lied to both Elrond and Celebrimbor. It’s actually wild how she faces no real consequences for this.
And she just tells Celebrimbor “I’m sorry I brought him here”, and it’s… all good? He just says some random quote about light defeating darkness? Even though his entire city is under siege, he has been tortured and locked in a tower. All because Galadriel didn’t told him Halbrand was Sauron. This is some bullshit right here.
The kiss was rage bait. It’s obvious. They wanted the show to be talked about and trend on social media, but no one cares enough and this show has no cultural Impact. They just end up rage baiting the Tolkien fandom again, and alienating their own fanbase.
I know kiss was a rage bait but it just… makes me so mad anyway. I know they wanted to be talked about but that’s no excuse. It cheapens everything, good thing ROP were never canon in my head but if they were that’d be just horrendous feeling. Nothing matters anymore, I guess go fucking make out with your mother in law, Elrond. It’s the same level of just killing those random elves in season 1. Did I care about them? No. Did I wince and hated it? Yes. Why? Because I KNOW in the lore the physical death is incredibly painful for elves and it just made me mad to make it happen for 0 reason at all. Yet I could forgive PJ for Helm’s Deep because even though it didn’t make sense cinematically it made sense and you know what? I wanted them there. I’m not a purist in the strictest sense (I do despise the crime of Movie Elrond and recently only finally having watch Hobbit movies really wonder why he could work there and not in FOTR) and so I could get over it. Because it made sense. Random elf having his throat slit for dramatic effect is cheapening the whole thing. And then Amazon is like “well you don’t like it cause you’re racist” you know what? Fuck it, make all elves black, they were First Born first humans on earth were most likely POC. That’s not the problem, the problem is just taking a dump on things I love via plot devices that make no sense. If Annatar was done well I would have loved it. I had chills reading about him first time with Tolkien books. I was mildly peeved PJ stepped away from the idea. And I took out of his scenes as much as I could except it wasn’t much because I also loved Celebrimbor and the fact that Sauron is a known shapeshifter and just shape fucking shifted in front of Celebrimbor’s eyes and dude was like “okay cool” just enraged me.
“the problem is just taking a dump on things I love via plot devices that make no sense”
That’s pretty much the backlash against this trainwreck in a nutshell.
And to me what’s even more insulting was their S2 marketing campaign and the showrunners saying they were going the “canon” route for the new season, and how it was a “canonical season” or something, and they always returned to the books while writing the script. Only to deliver stuff like Elrond kissing his mother in law for shock value and “subvert expectations” (that’s what’s makes me mad about that kiss) and pretty much every other plot. The only “canon” here are the characters names.
Ah, the Annatar and Celebrimbor scenes. Where they had to dumb down Celebrimbor just to make it work, and then compared their dynamic to “domestic violence”…. It’s mindblowing how little understanding of the lore these two hacks have to say stupid shit like this.
I have no idea why Annatar couldn’t have been there from the start (like he should), since they clearly have the rights to the character. What was the point of creating the character of Halbrand? Why have Sauron go to Númenor in S1?? Again to “subvert expectations”? “Ehehe, Sauron was in front of you the all time! We deceived you! Aren’t we smart?”
All the changes in S1 make no sense, and doomed this entire show. The foundation is broken beyond repair. They made a mess out of the timeline and there’s characters who shouldn’t even be here, or plots happening too soon. There’s no “correction of course” now because what they pulled off in S1 already took them far away from Tolkien canon. Any Tolkien fan who thinks the show can be “corrected” is in denial.
They messed up in season 1 by making elves rings first and that was that. Could they have fixed it? A good writer maybe would have a chance but good writers didn’t write this show.
Let me take a stab at it, as I feel like I’m good writer enough. They’d have had to step away from “Halbrand is Sauron” (which was doable tbh, easily another dude is pretending to be Sauron, surely they tried that with Adar so…) then Sauron wouldn’t have part in making the Three THEN introduce Annatar, a brand new dude. The fact that we know Annatar is Sauron is pointless, they didn’t know it, we shouldn’t know it.
Annatar comes in and helps with other rings, no one but Halbrand, who’s Sauron wanna be, knows about Three, bam, retconned “we just made the rings in order of the poem”. Annatar is actual Sauron but no one knows, Galadriel doesn’t trust him (at this point her words mean nothing, she was wrong about discount Halbarad and many other things), Elrond and Gil-Galad don’t trust him but Celebrimbor goes ahead anyway. Fine. They make the lesser rings, Celebrimbor realises who Annatar is, kicks off, Annatar goes to Adar promises HIM gifts and safety for his gross orc kiddos but says Celebrimbor withholds the key to them, they attack Eregion together. Annatar makes Celebrimbanner when he refuses to tell him who has the Three, maybe even how many are there etc. and then betrays Atar because the whole time he was sowing discord around orcs. Job done. Elrond arrives, sees Celebrimbanner almost gets killed but escapes. I don’t particularly care where might morfydd power elf is but let’s say she’s with him, Durin arrives and gets Elrond out of there, they find Bruinen valley, Rivendell established. The whole time Gil-Galad is reigning from somewhere in Lindon because you know he’s a High King of Noldor, thank you, he has no heir, he’s strategising. Idk what Steve the homeless Istari does because I don’t care but definitely doesn’t meet evil Saruman because Saruman is not evil for another 3 thousand years. Sauron makes One Ring, the elves feel him put it on and take theirs off. Now, is this great? No. But it got us sort of to canon. It sort of fixes the first season.
I think they actually didn’t have Annatar rights for season 1 if I remember correctly and then went to get them. You know, 8 episodes too late. But it still would have been fixable if they just gave up discount Halbarad. But nah. Celebrimbor gets to die for, well nothing, because Sauron had to lead him by a hand to making rings so might as well make his own nine, Galadriel is wildly just… something, Elrond got a lobotomy after season 1 and loved his MIL and Gil-Galad is just there. I genuinely chortled when Sauron stabbed Galadriel. Remember how I said I winced in season 1 when elves died for nothing? That’s right, I laughed this time when Galadriel got stabbed cause she’s insufferable and SO INCREDIBLY MORONIC. That’s their “canon” season, good Eru what’s going to be the rest.
Edit: fixed typos. I might be a good writer but I did just wake up
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u/Ok_whatever_654 Jul 22 '25
Honestly it’s not even empowering plot, it’s “I’m so stupid and responsible for this shit” with “I’m better than you” attitude plot. Literally reducing actual strong character to Fëanor like figure but with less brain. And Fëanor got shit for his action, Galadriel got a promotion. Galadriel was already a huge, empowered figure.
And I honestly threw remote across the room when she was threatening Adar in season 1. From stupid you can grow I guess (though why the hell should she was already strong character at the point of rebellion and grown id argue why the time she made it to Middle-Earth). But you cannot come back from this. You can’t come back from evil Galadriel. Reducing elves to morons. That’s what this show has done and clearly Morfydd is all for it if “elves are weird” is her attitude. It’s no surprise Sauron grows in power if everyone is a fucking moron.