#rop speculation

I have noticed some recent conflict in the fandom over what exactly Sauron feels for Galadriel, and I don't want to insert myself into any of that. That being said, I do agree that what Sauron feels for Gal is complicated. I think there is love and there is obsession and probably other things that can't be boiled down nice and neatly into any one emotion.

With that preface, Tolkien actually talks about how Sauron's underlying driving motive is love. Love of order. Love of beauty. Love of perfection. He even says that in the beginning, these things were Sauron's virtue. Morgoth was a being driven by a nihilistic hatred for all things that he could not control and corrupt, but Sauron was driven by passionate love for Middle-earth and the things therein, and this was actually the core difference between them.

Of course, though we know that Sauron's love (as Mairon) started out as something good, it was quickly twisted into obsession to control what he loved. And eventually, when he was not allowed to control it, it twisted into hatred just as passionate as his love had been.

I love that we're actually getting a microcosm of that with Sauron and Galadriel, and I think how Sauron feels about Galadriel is very Tolkienian, given the above passages from "Morgoth's Ring" that I referenced. I think at the beginning, Sauron-as-Halbrand's love for Galadriel was actually pretty genuine and as pure as it could be for a being like him. He connected with her (genuinely, I believe), he admired her, he found her beautiful, and he saw a kindred spirit within her. And I think those were all pretty wholesome feelings.

However, we've already seen those feelings begin to warp into obsession to possess and control. We saw it even by the end of Season 1, when we saw how manipulative and angry he got when Gal rejected his marriage/partnership proposal. We're definitely seeing it in Season 2 with his creepy, possessive behavior towards Mirdania in the last episode.

I think over the course of the series, we'll see Sauron's love become a darker and darker thing, more and more obsessive, more possessive than a genuine connection: mirroring how his love for Middle-earth fell into something dark and twisted. By the very end of the series, I could even see Sauron coming to hate Galadriel - much as he comes to hate Middle-earth - because he can't possess or control her, but I think it will still be an obsessive hatred that is, in part, a love gone terribly wrong.

Okay, now I've got that dumb pun out of my system. 😂

Since I'm seeing a lot of talk about him right now, I'm going to throw in another theory I've had about who he might be:

The King of the Oathbreakers of Dunharrow.

This one mostly came from me struggling to imagine ROP's incarnation of Isildur cursing someone to an eternity of living death. Who, I thought, could pierce through his kicked puppy aura and make him that angry? As it stands right now, Kemen seems the one best-placed to do so. His cowardly murder of Valandil - coming after Isildur saved his life back in s1 - his scornful treatment of the Pelargians, his upcoming environmental crimes... these aren't going to endear them to each other. And depending on what happens to Eärien in the future - if she does go fully over to the King's Men, and/or dies in the Fall - Isildur might have reason to blame Kemen. Take all these things together, and I think Kemen could make Isildur angry enough to curse him.

Also, he is totally the sort of cowardly wee git who would swear to fight alongside someone, then decide, "actually, nah..." So there's that too. :P

Some other things that could back this theory up:

At the end of s2, we left Kemen looking like he was all set on establishing his own wee fiefdom in Pelargir. Geography in ROP is a fairly - um - flexible commodity, so it's not out of the question that we might see his influence extending as far as the White Mountains.

Before the coming of Isildur, the Men of the Mountains worshipped Sauron. They are supposed to be indigenous Men of Middle-earth, but maybe the show might choose to inject a bit of Númenórean influence there, with Ar-Pharazôn's son throwing his weight around in the general Gondor area?

Again, Kemen would totally break an oath.

Maybe Adar will wear the ring as a necklace, hidden, like Elrond did... which could explain why Sauron doesn't get it...

Galadriel saw Adar cry, it has to mean something. Maybe she sees how Nenya can heal even a corrupted Elf, which could give her more courage to face Sauron if she wears Nenya? 🥺

Thankyou for this ask!!

(Interestingly I was gonna post about Adar's fate today anyway after just now learning something about JD & Patrick that has made me believe Adar might actually live this season after all so I'll add that theory of mine to this answer too!)

But 1st, I had not noticed Adar's sword in Sauron's hand so omgggggg this is hugeeee!! And to add Galadriel with Nenya in this scenario, it can mean so many things!!

Adar can give her the ring on his own after loosing the crown & his sword to sauron

She could take those off him in a separate clash right before her & Sauron's meeting

Sauron can take it from him when he takes his sword and crown then give it to Galadriel as a manipulation move

In almost all cases, it seems Adar's in for a loosing battle & boy am I worried AF for our daddy & his identity crisis!!

But I just cannot give up hope of Adar living you know.. it's some sort of disease I seem to have in regards to this character!

Because to me, you are SO right mentioning that scene of Galadriel witnessing the Uruk funeral! It HAS to mean something!!

So so many Adar scenes this season seem purposefully added! Like the parallels between him & Galadriel mourning the dead, the parallels of sowing seeds, the Arondir-Adar conflict (which seems unfinished tbh) & the whole play on Light & Dark.

One can say all this was to make his death impactful (add Nenya induced healing here too if you are a believer), which would have been fair had they not kept on adding more & more layers of mystery to his onion-ass identity too!

Twice they make him name drop silm characters in E7 alone; each of those name's rights must have cost THOUSANDS of dollars! So all this building up of mystery; one might rationally assume, must resolve before his death right?! Either this season or in season 3..

Which brings me to my theory on why he might somehow survive to season 3:

I found out today that JD & Patrick are mentees of the Hollywood 'Mystery Box' dude (about which I've heard many angry ramblings but as I've never seen the guy's work myself I can't choose a side)

This is important to my delulu ass rn because the whole 1st season of ROP had the Mystery Box of "Who is Sauron" with the little box of "Who is the stranger".

Now in 2nd season the Mystery Box has been "Who is Stranger" carrying forward from season 1, & the little box is what they have successfully manufactured in these later episodes, the mystery of "Who is Adar".

I believe they will open the stranger's identity mystery box in E8 & will carry forward the tantalizing box of Adar's identity for season 3 to be the main Mystery Box!

(I'm not counting Dark wizard's mysterious identity here as an option rn because they haven't built it or him up as much, maybe it'll be season 3's little box?!)

So wether Galadriel saves Adar on screen or not, whether Adar heals with Nenya or not, Adar still might live!! There are so so so many interesting things they have done with him, it just doesn't make sense to me to waste all that potential in a death rather than use it to maintain hype for the next season!

So in my delulu mind Adar might loose to sauron his sword, Morgoth's crown, Nenya, his children & even his Uruk-ness but he isn't dying just yet!

Elrond? It would come out of nowhere, they've said in interviews that Galadriel and Elrond's relationship is platonic, and there'd be the weird "kissing my future MIL" aspect of it.

Celebrimbor? Again, it would come out of nowhere, and Charles Edwards said in an interview that they aren't going with the "Celebrimbor had an unrequited crush on Galadriel" direction.

Gil-galad? Once again, out of nowhere, and it would just be weird and uncomfortable?

Arondir (since we know he shows up for the Battle of Eregion)? Unless Galadriel is his rebound for losing Bronwyn, it would make no sense and they've barely interacted in the series.

A minor elf character (Camnir, Mirdania, etc)? Again, it would come totally out of nowhere, and if it's significant enough for Morfydd to mention it, I really think it'll be with a main character. Plus, where would they go with that, since we know she eventually ends up with Celeborn one way or another?

Speaking of which...Celeborn? Still not 100% convinced that he might not make a very surprise appearance, but it just doesn't seem to fit with the "shocking" description nor the fact that some reviewers who have seen it threw an absolute fit over it apparently.

Adar? This is the one contender that I could see making *some* sense (not as much as Sauron though). There's definitely chemistry there, if not of any romantic sort (as of now), and we know they're going to have some big scenes together in the upcoming episodes. It would fall into the "shocking" category for sure, and I could see lorebro reviewers losing it over it for the same reasons as they would over Sauron. However, right now, I don't see it fitting into the story anywhere, plot-wise or thematically. But right now, it would make more sense than any of the prior possibilities.

Am I crazy that this just leaves Sauron? The character who they have spent two seasons establishing a connection with her and emphasizing that they are still very hung up over each other? The character who, whether you ship them or not, she has the deepest and best chemistry with? The character with whom a kiss would fit thematically (touch the darkness, etc)? Plus, I can think of multiple likely scenarios that it could occur during (a vision, as part of a Galadriel corruption arc if they go there, etc). And it would definitely be shocking and send lorebros into absolute conniption fits.

I've been mulling something over since last week's episode, and I haven't seen anyone else mentioning it: Elrond's promise to Galadriel that he'll put defeating Sauron over saving her.

Now, that sort of thing is a Chekov's gun of narrative; that sort of promise doesn't get made unless it's going to get tested down the road. Before the end of this season, I can guarantee it will come into play, and Elrond will have to make a choice between making some sort of move that will hurt, delay, or stop Sauron and saving Galadriel. And I don't know what the setup will be exactly, but I think it will happen after Sauron and Galadriel's fight at the end of the "Last Temptation" scene.

People have commented on how Elrond's theme comes in right at the end of the "Last Temptation" track. I think Elrond will arrive right at the end and be faced with a choice of saving Galadriel from Sauron and/or corruption/darkness and stopping Sauron from doing some sort of greater, more far-reaching damage, and he'll choose the latter. It would fit perfectly.

Maybe he'll kiss Galadriel because we see him touching her face in the trailer, but I don't think this will top the Galadriel/Sauron scene in episode 8 because there's barely anything that has been shared about it, and 'leaks' about their confrontation were immediately shut down by a reddit moderator and a crew person.

Charlotte Brändström said that Sauron 'loves' Galadriel, so their moment together has to be good and juicy.

I've seen some of the Elrond/Galadriel kiss hearsay, but I also heard that the supposed "leak" was from a very unreliable source that was wrong about a lot of "leaks" for S1. From what I can tell, the studio is being VERY secretive about the kiss, so I think it's going to be something big. Whether or not there's a Saurondriel kiss or a Galadriel corruption arc, I'm convinced SOMETHING big is going to go down in the finale.

If it is Elrond/Galadriel (which I really don't think it will be), obviously I'll be disappointed, less for shipping purposes and more for the fact that I just don't see how it would work with the story. There's been no build up to it, no hint of anything like that in their dynamic. Rob and Morfydd have great chemistry, but everything about them exudes brother-sister energy, especially this season. It would just be...such an anticlimactic moment. Especially when Sauron (and all the build up between them) is right there.