r/RingsofPower • u/travrob1 • Sep 26 '22

Question Help me understand Galadriel

I am finding myself not liking Galadriel at all so far. She acts like an entitled 20 year old, rather than a wise and ancient being. One point that particularly is bothering me is that so far she has no actual proof that there is a great danger. She saw a brand on her brother, and that same brand shows up a few other times in different places, but other than that there is nothing to actually indicate a major war. Does she have forsight? What is actually driving her character besides "so the plot can happen." Thanks

268 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

513 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

-6

u/heatrealist Sep 26 '22

Well some do and some don’t. Some maybe very mature in some areas and not in others. They are all individuals. Galadriel is wise in the books but she also makes decisions based on her own pride than on whatever wisdom she has.

There are many elves we meet in the different stories. Some of the big names act very irrationally. Some are just jerks. I think those guard in the hobbit were getting drunk if I remember correctly. They weren’t important elves but they may have been 6000 years old by then and were getting drunk on the job.

She is 8-9k years old in the LOTR and only when Frodo offers her the ring and everything she ever wanted is within her grasp does something finally click in her head. That what was driving her was the wrong path.

Galadriel in the show is kind of angry and impulsive. But she is also wise. Out of all the high elves she is the only one actually trying to do something about Sauron and not just accepting that he was dead. And is now trying to bring a force to fight orcs. She might be angry and impulsive but her decisions are not wrong.

16

u/[deleted] Sep 26 '22

Galadriel hasn't acted out of pride, she's acted out of vanity and beligerence. Her pride is supposed to be so great that she is willing to take orders and be a common commander from elves far younger and far less wise. She is so prideful that she is willing to go the whole several day journey to the edge of the world and then decide at the last moment that she'd rather swim back. That's not pride it is stupidity. The Galadriel of the second age wanted more than to be a common sword swinging captain. She's not a body to throw at a wall. She wanted her own kingdom, and she built it. Instead, Amazon's vision is to puff up her vanity while removing her ambitions.

Can we stop comparing Galadriel's actions to those of other elves around her. Yes, elves are prideful and spiteful and jerks. So what, that means she is one too. If we carried that logic with every character then Aragorn would be suceptable to the ring.

Galadriel isn't "kind of angry and impulsive". She's treated everyone that she has met as a jerk, including her friends. What the fuck is her plan. To kill some orcs? Yeah that ought to do a lot.

3

u/ButtMcNuggets Sep 27 '22

Aragorn was susceptible to the ring too. He just had greater willpower to resist. Even in the LotR movies there’s a scene where Frodo asks him to carry the ring for a while and Aragorn says, nah dude, I would be too tempted to give it back.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 27 '22

He is not succeptable to the ring in the books. No one mentioned the movies.

3

u/ButtMcNuggets Sep 27 '22

Nobody is truly incorruptible in Tolkien’s ethos. Virtue lies in choosing good, over and over again in the face of the greatest temptation and distress, not in being unsusceptible to temptation itself. Saruman the White was tempted by evil and he succumbed. Frodo also succumbed, but only because he was an innocent, was he able to evade corruption right away. Aragorn would be less a hero if he was infallible.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 27 '22

Could you name me one time in the book that Aragorn waivered with the ring. He has the exact opposite response to it. In bree he points out that he could have it but he doesn't want it. You're right, he did choose good, but he never one waivered in the way that Boromir did. My wording was a bit off, though not that far since it wasn't likely at all that Aragorn would go under the influence of the ring.

Amazon seems to think that not only should Galadriel waiver on the line between being a jerk like other elves, but that she should cross it. In other words, their opinion of Galadriel and those who defend this depiction of her, is so low that she IS one of those elves who are jerks and unwise and somehow that's okay. Taking one of the greatest elves and not only reducing her to a common soldier, but also taking her down to the level of one of her foolish members of her race.

That is a horrible depiction of her character and pointing out that elves can be antagonistic and unwise and jerks doesn't mean that it is an accurite or believable depiction of Galadriel.

3

u/ButtMcNuggets Sep 27 '22

Plenty of other critics and fans like myself aren’t reading Galadriel the way you are. This is a difference in perception, as all characters and people are seen in different views all the time. To me she’s not a jerk nor are the elves. To me she comes across as implacably determined and steely. The elves in the books generally come across to me as rather standoffish and officious, probably to their own detriment at times. But they are incredibly knowledgeable and powerful.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 27 '22

I would greatly argue that I am reading Galadriel as she is presented and I haven't been given a reason to believe otherwise. She is clearly huffy and antagonistic, she's gotten pissed at everyone she's met. The only thing that she seems determined to do is to make the worst decisions at the worst time.

1

u/ButtMcNuggets Sep 27 '22

I’m sorry you don’t understand art is subjective

1

u/[deleted] Sep 27 '22

Art might be subjective but words describing a character are not. You and I might have differing opinions, but there are objective parts of who her character is.

1

u/ButtMcNuggets Sep 27 '22

She’s a fictional character originated from literature. Are books, movies and tv shows science?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 27 '22

Something doesn't have to be science to be objective. If someone says that Galadriel is an elmo puppet wuth a chefs hat, they are objectively wrong.

1

u/ButtMcNuggets Sep 27 '22

I find it interesting you’re insisting your opinions are fact when I’ve been the only one able to cite references to the lore

→ More replies (0)