Galadriel: “One cannot satisfy thirst by drinking seawater.”
Sauron: “Then what is it?”
“Why do you keep fighting?”
Sauron knew exactly why Galadriel kept fighting, but he wanted her to stop galloping for a moment, realize what had kept her fighting for centuries, and admit the truth. He already gave her the answer to this question several times. Did she keep fighting to avenge her brother and everyone else she had lost? No. Then, what fueled her obsession?
Recall the showrunners’ statements.
- Sauron sees Galadriel, and “knows that what she needs more than anything else is to find the evil that has plagued her for so long, and save Middle-earth. So, he self-styles himself as the person that she will trust” (J.D. Payne). He self-styled himself as Halbrand before he met Galadriel. In order for it to be possible that he did it specifically to make her trust him, he had to be aware of her existence before the raft.
- “Did she jump off the boat because she sensed Halbrand nearby?” (J.D. Payne).
- “Is her obsession, which character after character in the show tells her is not a good thing… Is he calling her to him?” (Patrick McKay).
Finally, let us set this in stone. I am certain of this.
Sauron Called Galadriel to Him
I strove to create a unique interval between each theme’s first and second note. If each major theme had a unique first interval, listeners would be able to identify that theme in only two notes, the smallest amount of musical information possible. This would be an exercise in efficiency! The more iconic I hoped a theme would be, the rarer should be its opening interval. […]
Each of these themes has a unique quality in sound and tone, but by beginning with a distinct first interval, they all become instantly recognizable in a matter of seconds.
Bear McCreary
On the boat (0:07 in the clip below), a tiny voice echoed the first two notes of Sauron’s theme:
That exact voice sings in all its glory, in episode 8:
[“Nampat burzum-ank.”] Death into darkness.
Lyrics from Bear’s Blog: The Lord of the Rings: Episode 101
Below is where it appears in episode 1.
The little voice seems like Sauron himself, calling from afar, Galadriel (in a trance) was immediately pulled back by his lure. Thondir, who sincerely cared for Galadriel’s well-being, noticed that something was horribly wrong, and desperately called back to her, as if to counter the pull and snap her out of whatever trance she was in. Someone was “tapping into the powers of the unseen world.”
In episode 8, the voice was at full strength, instead of a distant cry.
Sauron tried to twist the motives of Galadriel’s friends in order for her believe that everyone else would hold her back:
“All others look on you with doubt.”
This directly called back to Thondir, who (as Sauron might put it) mutinied against her and tried to drag her off to Valinor.