[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

Now if the Harfoots take a significant involvement in the battles, or events, interacting with characters, resolving the conflicts then that would be 2 middle-fingers to Tolkien. As well as make them liars, or seriously not understanding the roles of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in a story.

I would suggest prominently displaying a Hobbit in the trailer, as well as the actress playing the Hobbit doing the voiceover for said trailer, you are going to be dismayed. An Easter egg does not present itself in such manner.

Originally Posted by Boromir88

Now if one wants to show growth in a character from a movie or series, how can it be done to show that "Galadriel's wisdom increased with the long years?" Stories have to have their characters grow, as aggravating as it was to see a weak and uncertain Aragorn, one of your main characters has to grow throughout the story. You don't get the luxury of translating Aragorn's 80 year backstory in a few hours of screen time.

Sure I agree Galadriel in the 2nd Age is probably not the same Galadriel from her rebellion days, but showing how Galadriel does change as a character, that is she wasn't always the Galadriel from Lord of the Rings, would be an accurate portrayal of her growth. It doesn't fit the timeline, but the timeline has to be compressed, and characters in all stories have to show growth.

Unless you can convince me that when Tolkien writes Galadriel "fought fiercely against Feanor", he doesn't mean she actually picked up arms "in defense of her mother's kin" then I see no problem with depicting Galadriel as being able to wield a blade, or any other type of weapon.

I would direct you to a single phrase from the passage you quoted:

...she fought fiercely against Feanor in defense of her mother's kin.

Exigent circumstance against the massacre of her kinsmen is wholly different than going all Godfather on a Sicilian vendetta, slaying various and sundry alleged foes in revenge for deaths that occurred in a prior Age. And then donning armor as a commander when we know that never happened in the 2nd Age. Intellectual and spiritual growth does not equal wanton slaughter.

Originally Posted by Boromir88

Yes she perceived the evil in Feanor, but also note her pride, her own anger, and the inability to perceive that some piece of Melkor's corruption had fallen "upon the minds of all the Noldor, and upon her own."

This would have to be Galadriel talking about her 2nd Age self, because the One Ring wasn't made until the 2nd Age, and she admits her "heart has greatly desired" to ask for the Great Ring to come into her grasp and "many long years pondered" what she might do with it. Again, this proves a point she might not be a warrior who would fight "fiercely against Feanor," but she was still not the same Galadriel Frodo meets in Lothlorien.

I'd make a case that 2nd Age Galadriel would not have rejected the Ring of Power if it had come within her grasp then.

She was extremely powerful and proud, but not brash or foolish. Celebrimbor handed her a Ring of Power because insight told him she was wise and would use the Ring to preserve and not destroy. Perhaps she would have used the One Ring in the 2nd Age, had it come to her; however, when she makes her remark to Frodo ("...my heart has greatly desired to ask what you offer. For many long years I had pondered what I might do..."), that was late in the 3rd Age after Sauron's return and the slow encircling of Lothlorien with evil.

The call of the One Ring on the other Rings of Power must have been intense at that point in time, and it would have taken everything in Galadriel's power to conceal hers from Sauron. I think once one puts that remark in context, it's clearly meant in regard to the waning of the Peoples of the West (of the Elves, Dwarves and Gondor) in the 3rd Age and the waxing of Sauron's strength.

Originally Posted by mhagain

The single strongest argument against a wise 2nd Age Galadriel is how she's handled at the end of the 1st Age. That's a story that was developed in multiple variants, but whether she rejects the pardon of the Valar, whether the Valar keep her under the Ban (and IIRC one version where she would have stayed anyway), whichever way you slice it this is still a character who has a long way to go, and would have continued to be a disruptive presence in the Blessed Realm.

That she didn't want the mean restraints of being under the thumb of the Valar, forever forced to come and go by their leave, would and did rankle many of the other greater Elves as well. in this case, the strict paternal oversight of the Valar was one of the greatest of their miscalculations, and they made many tactical errors over the Ages.

Much like a parent forbidding their now mature children to go forth in the world, it is natural for a strong-willed person to rebel and strike out on their own. This is not a character flaw, it is a sign of independence and trust in one's own vision of their future. Her will was strong and her blood was still hot and her thirst for knowledge and ambition was unquenched. Again, I don't see this as a flaw that wisdom must overcome.

And in regards to wisdom, it is interesting that everyone ignores the centuries Galadriel spent with Melian the Maia, and I quote from the Later Quenta:

"Yet Galadriel his [Finrod's] sister dwelt never in Nargothrond, but remained in Doriath and received the love of Melian, and abode with her, and there learned great lore and wisdom concerning Middle-earth."

She wasn't some churlish tomgirl Valkyrie out for vengeance at the dawn of the 2nd Age -- that entire plot point is asinine. She had no part in any of the great wars of the 1st Age, like her brothers, but suddenly she gets a hankering to lead armies in anachronistic armor in the 2nd Age?

She was a builder of kingdoms and a preserver of Elvish memory in both the 2nd Age and 3rd Age -- she founded a fiefdom in Lindon with Gil-Galad as her liege, then removed for a while to Lake Evendim in northern Eriador, went on to establish Eregion, and finally Lothlorien. But even then she left that behind and spent some time in Belfalas at the place later called Dol Amroth. She was the original Middle-earth Rolling Stone before Gandalf arrived.