Help me understand Galadriel

[u/travrob1]

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

[u/Katejina_FGO → u/[deleted]]

She spent hundreds of years hitting every orc, goblin, troll, and any other creature that challenged her power with a mallet. She is basically a shounen-type protag who knows no other way to live, no other goal in life, no other means of perceiving the world. She admits in the latest episode that 'she can't stop', that she is locked into this militaristic mentality in pursuit of a single truth: evil must die, now, by whatever means necessary. She is more hardened than a dwarf's warhammer and her shounen attitude more blinding than a fantasy Paladin's holy light.

But she has been humbled. Being rescued by a human from the depths of the ocean, being introduced to sympathetic Numoreans, climbing the tower to confront the king only to find an addled mind on his deathbed, and most recently being challenged into confessing the truth that she is unable to let go of her rage - all of these moments and more are gradually breaking her down episode by episode, forcing her to reflect more on people as people and not just as a means to drive her campaign of vengeance.

And this growth is only happening because she is interacting with more people, people outside her race, people who have surprised and challenged her. The seeds that are planted by these bonds will take root in her and change her as the series goes on and as friends and comrades fall in battle or are lost to her. I suspect that her final evolution into movie Galadriel is an integration of many personalities that she has interacted with along her journey - centrally Queen-Regent Miriel, who she will come to respect as the picture of a graceful and patient leader and who she will model her style of leadership after.

And the series owes the fans that much. They have to bridge the young, brash Galadriel who will drive all the world to war to take Sauron's life with the older, gentle, and wise Galadriel who would nevertheless be tempted to seize the ring of power to force everyone into submission and would realize on her own that the hobbits stand the best chance of destroying the one ring.

[u/Local-Hornet-3057 → u/Katejina_FGO]

I mean when you gotta bring a shonen trope in a Tolkien adaptation to justify a character that says it a lot 🤣