The Rings of Power Fandom Finds New Reason to Hate Galadriel
Portrayal of Galadriel in The Rings of Power is divisive among the fandom.
Her character is criticized for many different reasons, from her self-righteousness and abrasive personality, to her inability to detect the very evil she is hunting right under her nose. But one of the newest accusations levied against Galadriel on Reddit is her propensity for anger. In fact, RoP's Galadriel screaming angry face even became a meme in many corners of the Internet – and the show provided enough variations of it.
Now, to be fair to the showrunners and scriptwriters, unreasonable, unquenchable anger is clearly intentionally portrayed as a driving force behind Galadriel's actions. Other characters recognize it and – correctly – note that wrath, which even makes her choose almost certain death over giving up her hunt for Sauron at one point, is self-destructive and harmful to Galadriel herself, above all.
And, you know, it is perfectly fine for characters to have moral flaws. And this particular flaw is not exactly unthinkable for Galadriel, given that she is a Noldor princess, meaning that in the past she returned to Middle-earth as a leader of people going on a collective vengeance quest. That quest ended in a string of tragedies and disasters, of course.
And herein lies the problem. A character flaw is a character flaw only if it actually is something that hurts the character, something that the character needs to get over, if a happy, rather than tragic, ending is to be achieved. If a supposed flaw is something that harms other people, but that the character herself never even admits, and everyone else, including the narrative as a whole, has to work around, it is not a flaw – it is just a very annoying trait that makes people hate the character.
And so far Galadriel had received little in the way of comeuppance for her constant anger, or associated negative traits. Sure, she lands herself in needless trouble a few times, but the narrative always allows her to find her way out – without humbling herself or learning any sort of lesson, and furthermore is inclined to make her ultimately right.
The season finale did nothing to dispel this impression. Of course, we're still at Season 1, while five or so are planned, so there is enough time for Galadriel's character development. It might be that her current state of mind is supposed to be her lowest point, where she makes everything worse for everyone, unwittingly on her own part, but not on the part of the showrunners. Only time will tell.