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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022

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You can't make Galadriel, Gandalf or Tom Bombadil the main character in any kind of hero journey - it's too late, the journey is over for them. A story about them is a fundamentally different thing and probably too niche to justify the price tag.

Well, Second Age Galadriel is still on her journey - she did refuse to return to Valinor after the climatic battle of the First Age which resulted in the defeat of Morgoth. So Second Age Galadriel is as eager as any of them to believe in the peace, even if she is aware that darkness and danger are still out there, and she is still proud, still Noldor, still hoping to create and rule over a realm of her own.

But that's not the Galadriel we get (so far) in "The Rings of Power". They want to make her young, piss-and-vinegar, out there actively fighting Galadriel; not the mature pupil of Melian and great lady that Second Age Galadriel is. As you say, they want a character for the hero's journey, so they have to shape their version of Galadriel in that mould. That's probably part of why they make Celebrimbor much older, when canonically he should be younger than Galadriel: he's one of the 'old guys' who want to believe all the fighting is over so they can go ahead with their own ambitions. And of course, one of the 'old guys' who is wrong while Galadriel is right.

The disappointing thing for me is that a Galadriel focused narrative could be really interesting. She's someone who chooses political power over eternal bliss, and comes to deeply regret that choice. The last leader of a doomed rebellion against the gods, cursed to watch eveything around her diminish and decay while she remains forever unchanging. There's a lot of serious drama to be mined there.