April 4, 2003

Reprazentin' With the No-show
Burnet

I think Galadriel's absence at the wedding is a good idea for many reasons: Thus far in the movie they've done a bang-up job of capturing the other-worldliness of the elves, and Galadriel has been the main mover and shaker in this department. All of our experiences with her up to this point have been eerie and magical. They've really been capitalizing on all of her mystique so that we can get a good feel for what true High elves are like. We need to see that elves have very different attitudes, worries and concerns, and aren't just lucky, tall, sexy humans that get to live forever. Galadriel's the lady for the job because: Elrond's half human, Arwen's in love with a man, Celeborn and Haldir aren't central enough characters, and Legolas doesn't REALLY count as a High elf (yes, I am aware that Unfinished Tales says some things about the Royal Line of the Greenwood elves that might contradict me, but c'mon), and she's pretty much the queen of the elves. Of course in the books we meet other High elf characters that help give us this eerie-elf feeling such as Gildor and Glorfindel, thus lightening Galadriel's elvishness-displaying burden so she can afford to be a little more chummy with the mortals. But in the movie Galadriel's gotta be full-on weird because she's the Highest of the High Elves in Middle Earth and she's gotta represent the prideful attitudes of her people; it just won't do to see her dabbling too much in the affairs of mortals, it would leave us with the wrong impression about elves. She IS wise enough that she's helping out with the whole ring-quest thing, letting Frodo the hobbit (probably a lesser form of human in the eyes of most elves) take the ring out of Lothlorien. And she was kind enough to acknowledge the relationship of Aragorn and Arwen: "That choice is yet before her," and so on (granted, I think this good will towards Aragorn was more pronounced in the extended version). It's good that we get to see her wisdom win through her elvishness a bit, but she's still gotta represent. Hypothetically the elves of Lothlorien would have to ask of their Lady, "Why travel all that distance to witness the pledge of eternal love from a guy who's gonna be King of a land that we are foresaking, not to mention the fact that, by our standards, he's gonna die in a matter of minutes?"

Galadriel would steal Aragorn's show with all of her majesty. You gotta admit that, although Aragorn bore himself well in Lothlorien, his kingly majesty went pretty much out the window. The elves, perhaps Galadriel most of all, were respectful to him, but that's just politeness on their part. We were given the impression that if he stepped out of line (which he would never do of course), they would have sent him walking.

So if we want to maintain the elf-vibe, I don't think Galadriel can attend. Of course, her Nenya-power oughtta be diminished or diminishing by then, but I don't think that really has much to do with her elf-strangeness. I am, however, kind of hoping we get to see Galadriel and Arwen have a pre-nuptial chat of some sort, so that Galadriel can give her blessings and advice-- after all she is her grandmother! But Arwen, like Aragorn, doesn't need Granny stealing her thunder on her wedding day. Also, I suppose I can live without Gimli's 'tell-me-she's-hot-or-I'll-hew-your-kneecaps' to Eomer. And I guess Frodo won't get to see her again until the Grey Havens, but I think that works for me (Grey Havens definitely requires much elf-strangeness). Anyway, these are strictly movie-version thoughts and I wouldn't change anything in the book (although I did feel a bit gypped when Pippin didn't die fighting the Troll Chieftain-- but that's a whole nother essay). Word out.