Remember that Galadriel & Elrond’s Kiss in ‘The Rings of Power’? Showrunners Finally Explained It

In Tolkien’s canon Galadriel and Elrond are close allies and share a deep bond as leaders of the Elves. Galadriel is Elrond’s mother-in-law because her daughter, Celebrían, is married to him. They both work together to protect Middle-earth, especially through their roles as bearers of the Elven Rings of Power.

The show put a somewhat steamy twist on their relationship by having them kiss in the penultimate episode of the show, while Galadriel was imprisoned by Adar. Personally, I thought that the kiss was just a ruse so that Elrond could provide Galadriel the means to escape the imprisonment, but it seems that the showrunners aimed for something else.

Morfydd Clark and showrunners Patrick McKay and JD Payne explained to ScreenRant that the kiss showed respect and loyalty, not romance.

Morfydd Clark explained that she wanted Elves to kiss as a way to show love and admiration in a platonic, unique way that reflects their different culture. She emphasized that the deep bond between Elrond and Galadriel is about respect, loyalty, and centuries-long friendship, not romance.

Morfydd Clark: Well, I kind of wanted the elves kissing on the mouth all the time from the very beginning. I kind of see it as an ultimate show of love and admiration, but in a platonic way. And I quite like that. It was kind of felt, to us as humans, quite like, “[Gasps] It’s romantic.”

I quite like the idea that the elves do move through the world quite differently, and kind of a little bit bohemian. But when I read it, I was like, “[Gasps] Ooh.” But I also think that this idea that romantic love is the greatest, most important form of love isn’t something that I necessarily kind of — it’s wonderful.

But there are also so many different types of love, and the love that Elrond and Galadriel have for each other, which is millennia long and filled with respect and loyalty and admiration, is something that I think is so beautiful.

Patrick McKay in turn explained that the kiss was not romantic, but rather an expression of love, regret, and apology, as Elrond realizes he may have been wrong about some things. He emphasized that it doesn’t suggest a future romance and that elves express love in unique ways.

Patrick McKay: To our minds, the kiss is not romantic in nature. But also, he loves her, and he’s very scared she’s going to die, and he needs to create a distraction to slip her a way of breaking out of her locks. And this is an expression of his love and regret, and apology for starting to realize that he was maybe wrong about some of the things she was arguing earlier in the season.

I don’t know, it grew organically out of the material, and felt like where it wanted to go. But certainly, it does not auger a romance between these two friends in the future. And elves are different, you know. Elves express their love in different ways.

Payne joked that the elves were a bit more European hinting that this is a thing in Europe:

JD Payne: They’re a little more European.

Patrick McKay: Yes, yes, a little more European. [Chuckles]

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In any case, no matter the motivations behind the kiss it was a strange moment, and yet another example that critics of the show used against it to point out all the inaccuracies and lore-breaking.

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