A connection I’d never made before. Hope Sandoval is the real-life version of how Galadriel should’ve been portrayed in the LOTR films: fey, distant, ethereal, disconnected from mortal concerns.

I don’t mean Hope’s appearance. In the books, Galadriel is canonically described as tall with golden hair; Hope is quite short and very much dark-haired. I mean how they feel as personalities, as beings in the world.

Of the characters in the films, if it’s not obvious I was most disappointed by Galadriel¹. She just lacked the gravitas and remoteness that are both well-described in the written version and that would befit someone who is about 8,300 years old. And I don’t think it was Cate Blanchett’s fault. She had poor direction and poor writing to work with. Though other parts of those films were excellent, the writers of the LOTR films just did not know what do with Galadriel.

The films completely miss her power, her pride, her strangeness, the fact that she’s one of the most dangerous beings in the world, no matter what her intent is. She seemed there like a lugubrious Renaissance fair refugee rather than someone who could’ve potentially taken on Gandalf and triumphed.

And that was a real failure.

1. Other than Tom Bombadil not being present at all. He was the most important entity in Middle Earth!