The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power remains controversial for allegedly going against the established canon of Middle-earth, but according to showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, the questionable dynamic between Galadriel and Sauron was actually outlined by none other than Tolkien himself in The Fellowship of the Ring and subsequently the Unfinished Tales book.
Following that all too predictable twist in the Rings of Power finale where Halbrand unmasked himself as Sauron and tricked the Elves into forging the three rings of power, a lot of fans simultaneously began wondering the same thing: Why would Sauron go into all of that trouble to trick Galadriel? And what’s with his insistence to install the Lady of Galadhrim as his queen?
Well, it seems that the dynamic was something Tolkien foreshadowed in “The Mirror of Galadriel” chapter of The Fellowship.
“And he gropes ever to see me and my thought. But still the door is closed.” That statement is definitely “queer,” as Tolkien himself would say.
Then there’s that excerpt from Unfinished Tales which seems to clearly indicate that Sauron regarded Galadriel as the biggest threat to his plans over Middle-earth.
There are many more pieces of evidence throughout the Arda legendarium, and one fan has listed some of them in the same Reddit thread.
Galadriel is basically alluding to the archaic Middle-earth version of the “u up?” text from Sauron. Even many thousands of years later, the Dark Lord is still down bad, apparently.
Tolkien veterans are probably going to be in a fit of rage for this, but it’s an effort to stop yourself from shipping these two.
Will we get to see more scenes between Galadriel and Sauron now that the Dark Lord can exploit her mistake? I guess only time will tell.