Galadriel Is an Even Bigger Villain Than Sauron, If You Think About It
The elven warrior is in fact the main protagonist in The Rings of Power, but everything that went wrong in the series is kind of her fault.
Galadriel has spent the entire season of The Rings of Power trying to hunt down Sauron but somehow ended up only making matters worse — at least that's what fans believe looking back at her journey.
According to a hot take by Redditor MissKatieMaam77, virtually nothing Galadriel has done throughout the first season deserves trust. Driven by revenge, she keeps dismissing what others tell her, and continuously uses the only best friend she has, Elrond, even when she knows that he was right.
First of all, she is to blame for Sauron even coming back. If you recall the beginning of the season, Halbrand was simply floating on a raft with no devious plan in sight.
"And here comes Galadriel declaring him a long lost king and brow beating him into fulfilling that role she made up without the bare minimum of background checks. It's fine, let's not embarrass Galadriel to prevent a few thousand years of war, countless deaths, and the very likely end of men," Redditor argues.
Many fans agree with the sentiment, adding that there was a way for the writers to "save" Galadriel from the constant embarrassment.
"To help alleviate that terrible writing [...] I would've added a scene where Galadriel expresses deep doubt and a "I'm not feeling like myself" sentiment to Elrond privately so that parts of her rationale can at least be justified, " Redditor BillBRoO_Baggins suggests.
According to fans, it's not about Sauron being manipulative and devious, it's exactly about Galadriel being either "stupid" or straight-up evil. And given that she is still the main hero of the series, the second option is quite unlikely, people note.
When she did not tell anyone about Halbrand's true identity in the season finale, fans appeared to have lost all hope in the series' protagonist. It looks like the showrunners will have to find a way to redeem Galadriel in the upcoming seasons so that people will make peace with the terrible decisions she made in the first one.
Luckily, Amazon has plans for five seasons of The Rings of Power, so there is plenty of time. The work on season 2 is already underway, with the premiere date to be clarified later.