Like any other show with a strong woman in the lead, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was met with harsh criticism from fans when the first season came out. One of the biggest complaints was that Galadriel was turned into a warrior for the ‘woke agenda.’
While the series features many changes to the timeline and story, Rings of Power keeps many things accurate to the book, leaning on the approach of the Peter Jackson films when it came to making changes. With Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel receiving the brunt of the criticism online, a fan has come up with a thread that proves that ROP Galadriel is faithful to her version in the book.
How Galadriel in Rings of Power is Compared to the Books
Though Galadriel plays one of the wise elves of the White Council by the time of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Rings of Power goes back to her younger days, meaning that this Galadriel was more physical and fought alongside the other elves in her prime.
While a lot of fans have dismissed this as the series trying to rewrite the character to make her woke, Twitter user @danythien has written a thread that goes into detail about how the series Galadriel has a lot of moments and character traits that are inspired by the lore that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote. Check this out:
For example, Galadriel spends a lot of time in the series obsessing over the existence of Sauron while the other elves keep telling her that she’s worrying over nothing. This comes from a quote about Galadriel from The Unfinished Tales that said: “Galadriel was born in the bliss of Valinor, but it was not long, in the reckoning of the Blessed Realm, before that was dimmed; and thereafter, she had no peace within.”
Even the dynamic between Galadriel and Sauron was based on the books. Sauron was said to have seen Galadriel as an equal adversary, so he tried to ‘placate’ her by ‘bearing her scorn with outward patience and courtesy.”
Even Galadriel’s look, where she has a braid of her hair like a crown, comes from the books where it reads, “She was then of Amazon disposition and bound up her hair as a crown when taking part in athletic feats." As for anyone complaining why she was rewritten as a warrior, the books describe that Galadriel was “Strong of body, mind and will. A match for the loremasters and athletes of the Eldar.”
Morfydd Clark on Galadriel
Clark, who plays the younger Galadriel, also discusses how the character changed when Tolkien expanded on her lore.
Talking to Variety, Clark explained, “Tolkien changed his ideas about Galadriel, which makes her more interesting. I became obsessed with like, why did Tolkien need Galadriel to be that at that point? He kind of like fell more in love with her, I think, as he got older, and so there’s a fluidity to her character.”
With Galadriel now with a ring in her possession, it’s expected that she’s going to further go into the direction that her character is eventually in by the time of Lord of the Rings.
Though a lot of people tend to complain about strong lady characters, Rings of Power has more than proven itself that the showrunners are definitely drawing inspiration from the books, and though they have been making changes, they’re all for the sake of getting to the real themes of the material.
Catch the second season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power when it premieres on Amazon Prime Video on Aug. 29.
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