Dance of Darkness and Light

AHHHHHH Haladriel! Causing much shipping and much hate. I’ve written about them before, while season 2 was still coming out. In that essay, I talked about how I believe they were never in love with each other, or at least not in the way most shippers want them to be. At the time, season 2 hadn’t concluded, but now that it has and I rewatched it several times, especially their confrontation, I wanted to talk about them again.

As discussed in previous essays, Galadriel pinned a lot on Halbrand. He was a companion, the first she believed could understand a part of everything she had gone through, he provided her with a sense of purpose, and he made her feel something other than misery for the first time in about a thousand years. So obviously, she would be deeply attached to him. I still don’t believe she loved him romantically, though. People can be attached to one another without it being romantic. As for Halbrand, Galadriel made him believe he could be redeemed. But in a twisted way where he was never actually redeemed, just stood with a light source. She provided him with a title, corresponding power, followers, and resources. Now I do believe Halbrand was in love, but not with Galadriel. He was in love with what she could provide him with. Which Charlie Vickers seems to confirm. In an interview, he states, “I think he sees her as a useful tool to achieve a means to an end.” Either way, he sure as hell only sees Galadriel as a tool and not a person.

And then their friendship, and whatever depth their bond grew to, was broken. When Galadriel found out who Halbrand really was, as I mentioned before, a world shattered in her. She got better mentally and emotionally, regained some of the life in her eyes, and actually started living, not just surviving. And it was all because of Halbrand and all that he triggered. Not reducing the impact of people like Elendil and Míriel here, who all also had a hand in this, but Halbrand was the foundation of all the changes she went through in that short amount of time. Then, when she learned he was Sauron, that foundation got pulled out from underneath her. While Sauron believed the stuff he did shouldn’t come between them, Galadriel did not share the idea and refused to be on his side. And this is where the interesting things start.

So to start us off, I wanna clarify something. Halbrand was a mask. People said it wasn’t, but yeah, it was, and no amount of denying changes that. It was a fake name, a fake face, and a literal fake identity as king of the Southlands. He used it to run, and used it later to get what he wanted. And it hid who he truly was. That is a mask. Just like Annatar. Both identities were masks that hid the same terrible, awful person behind them. And by that river, the mask came off. Not literally, as in the face of Halbrand is no more, but there is a shift in his entire demeanor so fundamental that it becomes clear that whoever is standing there with Galadriel is not the Halbrand she, and we, came to know. Sauron drops the act. And you can tell it was an act by that very shift. Kind, warm, goofy Halbrand turns into ice-cold, ruthless Sauron. The latter is his true nature, and Galadriel sees it for the first time.

In the meantime, Sauron delusively believes that none of his lies or past actions will matter to Galadriel. His basis for that was when she told him that he could be free of whatever he did in the past. Obviously, she did not know that being the servant of Morgoth, killing her brother, and refusing redemption was his past. Nor that faking his identity, lying, manipulating, and trying to take over Middle-Earth was his present. She also spent a lot of season one comparing themselves. And their stories do parallel, but while Galadriel sees that they’re similar, kindred spirits, Sauron seems to believe that they are the same, that the two of them are not just similar, they’re two of a pair. And we see in season 2 that he’s got a truly messed up sense of right and wrong, fault, and an entirely fucked-up moral compass. All of which caused him to believe that Galadriel would forgive even if she knew who he was. She said his past didn’t matter, and he believed that that meant, no matter what he did, she would not hate him for it. In his twisted sense of morality and blame, he believed he didn’t deserve any after the battle for the Southlands, and that she thinks that too. Which is why he had such a hard time comprehending that she wouldn’t stand on his side. She said he could be free of his sins, so why would she not forgive them now?

This inability to comprehend Galadriel rejecting him is what leads into his season 2 attitude. Sauron’s feelings go from loving what she could provide to an obsession with something he couldn’t have. In his eyes, she not only rejected him, but she was irrational to do so. He can’t take accountability for his actions because, in his eyes, he’s no longer at fault for them. Galadriel said so herself. But then she rejected him anyway. And to him, it doesn’t make sense. So he didn’t just take a rejection, which he clearly would not have been able to handle anyway. And that “irrational” rejection led him to want her even more. By this point, he’s not wanting her for what she could provide. He just wants her. He wants to own her, to have her by his side. It is an obsession with something he knows he cannot have, but that just makes him want it even more. It is this obsession that lingers around him in season 2, mostly visible in his moment with Mirdania. And I know we all joked that he said “Lady Galadriel’s, of course,” as if he were asking “You’re not thinking about her 24/7?” but while the jokes were more of a romantic vein, it’s actually obsessive. The look in his eyes is not that of someone in love, but someone desperately trying to hide how badly they want something.

Galadriel’s side of this season is about grappling with everything. She had a friend, a companion in Halbrand, someone who saw a side of her, many didn’t, and brought out a side of her that didn’t exist for ages. And that friend was the Dark Lord Sauron. And she brought him back. To her, everything he does from now on is on her. Her best friend hates her, and her king hardly trusts her. And beyond the blame, just the very idea that the person she cared for so much is also the person she wanted to gut herself is a difficult one to wrap your head around. For the most part, she is trying to process all of it and trying to deny she was ever friends with Halbrand.

Their personal turmoils about each other come to a climax in their confrontation in Shadow and Flame. If I had to sum Sauron up in one word, it would be delusional. He didn’t manage to process anything, and he never stopped believing himself blameless. Therefore, in his eyes, Galadriel is still being irrational in rejecting him. He still tries to get her on his side, because, as I said, he became obsessed with having her on his side. Meanwhile, Galadriel is torn apart. Not only did she have that charming little debate of hers, but it’s reached a peak here. Here she is blatantly seeing the similarities between Halbrand and Annatar while also seeing the differences. Halbrand has a warmth that she misses, but he is also alike Annatar in many ways. And of course, Annatar too, is a mask, and Galadriel can now see through it. She is not just seeing the truth about Halbrand clearly, she is also seeing what lies behind the masks of Halbrand and Annatar. And the cold, ruthless, cruel man, who wants to rule all Middle-Earth as a tyrant, is it. And she hates it.

A key moment in their confrontation is when Sauron takes his Halbrand form again. While many shippers like to use how Galadriel momentarily freezes as proof of their ship being oh so in love, the truth behind that moment is far from that. Yes, Galadriel freezes because she cared for Halbrand. And suddenly, she is met with him again. She is met with the version of him that was in the Southlands, where they had their deepest moment. But it’s also not Halbrand. Many pointed out the small differences in his outward look, how he seems prettier. He looks more like a dream than reality, something idyllic to reach out to. But there’s also a huge difference in his demeanour. His face, his eyes, his voice, the way he carries himself, it’s all different. Sauron tried to use the face of Halbrand, but did not care to put on the rest of that mask. The identity and personality he faked were what Galadriel was drawn to, not his face. And Galadriel saw this. And when he said that line of his again, “Fighting at your side, I felt if could just hold onto that feeling…” it’s cold, it’s devoid of all emotion. He’s taken a line, a moment, that meant so much to Galadriel, and spat in it by showing just how much it means to him. Emotionlessly recounting those words to try and disorient her. And of course, Galadriel’s response to this is to swing her sword at his head! So romantic! She recognizes that who she’s looking at isn’t Halbrand, and he has not been Halbrand. Not only does she see that Halbrand was a lie, but Sauron is now mocking who Halbrand once was to her by acting so cold and pretending it’s the same. It was the final moment that made her realize fully who she was dealing with. Not Halbrand, not Annatar, but Sauron.

As their confrontation goes on, it escalates. Sauron tries to convince Galadriel that deep down, the two of them are the same, and that she is still available to him. But Galadriel keeps defying him and sternly declares that she and her mind are forever closed off from him, right before she roundhouse kicks him in the face despite hardly standing at that point! In that moment, Sauron goes feral. He can’t take rejection and still believes Galadriel has no reason to reject him, so this second denial is making him go ballistic. In his anger, he is swinging his sword to kill, and Galadriel narrowly misses most blows. And there is one, of course, she can’t dodge. Backed against that stone, he stabs her with Morgoth’s crown. His lines in that moment, “I would’ve placed a crown upon your head. I would not have rested until all Middle-Earth was brought to its knees to worship the light of its queen,” are often romanticized. But they are spoken in this tone that suggests that Sauron is done. For the second time now, he went in for the kill. If he can’t have her, he has to get rid of her. He is telling her what he could’ve given her had she chosen to stand on his side, because as far as he’s concerned, she hasn’t, so she’s dead. And these lines also show a lack of understanding of Galadriel. We read in the books that she wanted a kingdom of her own to rule, but she didn’t want to be a tyrant. That is what Sauron is describing: a tyrant, worshiped by followers who are forced to kneel before her. That is not who Galadriel is. And of course, she defies him again, responding to his “This is what you could’ve had” line by telling him that those people he was talking about will always be resisting him. She manages to smile at him despite all of that pain. Now I’m not sure why Galadriel refuses to show any pain and holds back her reactions to it, but she can’t do it forever. When she replies to Sauron, basically telling him that Middle-Earth will never stop fighting him, he twists the crown in her chest, dragging her along the stone, this making her whimper and whail in pain, and Sauron gets that terrifying psycho look on his face. If we recall what he said to Celebrimbor an episode before, to him, pain is like a game to see whose will is mightier. So the reason behind that psycho look, revealing in Galadriel’s pain, is because just by her showing it, he is winning this game he believes they are playing. To him, it wasn’t just a battle of bodies, but of will as well.

But Sauron likes it or not, Galadriel’s will is strong. Sauron gives her one last chance to stand by him. He had already taken the Nine and he demands, once again, Galadriel give him Nenya. Now, Galadriel does something very important. She tricks him. She pretends to give him the ring and see things his way, but jumps from the cliff with it instead. This is important because the trickster got tricked. Galadriel got payback by giving Sauron a taste of his own medicine. Pretending to see his views and hand Nenya over just to rip it away by jumping, parallels Sauron’s technique of offering people what they most want but then ripping it away by inevitably revealing his true nature. Girl didn’t just trick him, she did exactly what he is always doing. She got the ultimate payback.

There is also a symbol in the moment Galadriel leaps. Sauron’s hand reaching out to her. While shippers focus on the reaching out bit, no one seems to focus on the part where he never reaches her. Which is a symbol on its own. Sauron reaches for Galadriel but doesn’t reach her. But there’s also the bit where clasping their hands together was sort of symbolic. They did it first on the raft when Galadriel pulled Sauron onboard. It was a moment where they both decided that they might not be too keen on each other, but they could only survive the storm together. Second is in the Sailing into the Dawn scene when Númenor sets out to Middle-Earth. They clasp hands as a form of alliance and agreement. But here, he reaches for her hand, but cannot grab it. The connections they had before is gone. There’s no more trust, no more alliance, no more begrudged working together. She is gone, and he cannot reach her.

Now Sauron seems to take none of that well. It seems to me as if he entered this furious state of “If this is what she wants, we can do it this way” where he essentially decided that she is not going stand on his side, she is not going to stand on anyone’s side. The bit where he went feral and going for the kill earlier seems still his attitude. He still wants Galadriel, but she has now rejected him twice. So there’s no point in trying to reason with the one who won’t be reasoned with. She just has to die.

Galadriel, on the other hand, seems to have chilled out. Sauron still needs stopping, and she will do what she can in that, but she no longer seems convinced that it has to be her to stop him. Before, she insisted because of her crusade at first, and her guilt after. But it very much seems like that seeing Sauron in all his horrid, repulsive, manic glory made her realize that she may have been the one to bring him here, but she is hardly responsible for his actions. Even if she didn’t, she does just generally look more chill than before, no longer needing desperately to be the one to take him down. This shift has a bit of a presence in her soundtracks as well. In the Galadriel soundtrack written for season one, Bear McCreary talked about this bit, this motor, that was representing Galadriel’s drive to take down Sauron. Then, in the final scene when the elves are deciding what to do about Sauron, the soundtrack “The Sun Yet Shines” plays, which heavily includes the Galadriel soundtrack. But more specifically, it starts with that very same bit that is representative of her drive to defeat Sauron. Only this time, that bit is played by different instruments and has an overall calmer vibe, suggesting that Galadriel still has a drive, but it no longer about needing to be the one to take down Sauron and is no longer about vengeance.

Sauron and Galadriel’s is a curious dance of one-sided nemeses with some other tropes thrown in the mix. At first, Galadriel is targeting Sauron for personal reasons, opposition for personal rather than plot or morality reasons being the definition of a nemesis. Then her reasons change. But during that time, Sauron either doesn’t care about her feud or doesn’t see it as a feud. And now it seems Galadriel has calmed down and chilling in that valley with her support system, and Sauron is the one who has developed personal reasons to want to take Galadriel down. Theirs is a story that holds parallels, oppositions, plenty of personal involvement, and nowhere near as much romantic moments as most Haladriel shippers believe. Their nemesis relationship is genuinely interesting because of the personal effects it has on the both of them. At the end of the day, they are two very powerful people whose stories are intertwined by fate. I can’t wait to see how it goes on.