Why Did Sauron Want to Convince Galadriel That He Wanted to Heal Middle-earth?

In the finale of season 1 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, one of the things that we learned was the fact that Halbrand was Sauron all along and had learned the true strength within Galadriel. He even tried to convince her that he wasn’t there to plunge the world back into darkness but was looking to heal it using the powers of the Unseen World. So, with that said, why did Sauron want to convince Galadriel that he actually wanted to heal Middle-Earth?

Sauron’s very essence is that of a person who wants to control and dominate everything. As a Maia named Mairon, he was obsessed with order and design, and that’s why he wanted to join Morgoth. In that regard, he wants to repair Middle-Earth from the damage he helped cause and then put it under his control.

Even though Morgoth and Sauron were the two greatest threats that Middle-Earth had ever seen, they were different in terms of their desires. Morgoth wanted to corrupt all of creation because of his bitterness toward Eru Ilúvatar’s powers of creation. On the other hand, simply wanted to control everything, including Middle-Earth. In that regard, let’s look at this discussion in detail.

Does Sauron Really Want To Heal Middle-Earth?

The season 1 finale of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power revealed what a lot of us have always suspected to be true. Halbrand was Sauron the entire time, and he had kept this a secret from Galadriel because he had a lot of goals that he wanted her to understand. When Galadriel confronted him about who he actually was, Halbrand told her his goal, which was to heal Middle-Earth.

Sauron tried to convince Galadriel that he wanted to right the wrongs that he committed when he was still Morgoth’s most trusted lieutenant. That was the reason why he wanted to heal Middle-Earth. The reason why he kept the fact that he was Sauron from Galadriel was that she told him that he should forget everything that happened in the past and the things that he did. Of course, Galadriel told him that under the impression that he was Halbrand and not Sauron

Regardless of that, Sauron’s point was that he wanted to heal Middle-Earth and repair the damage that was done to it during the First Age when the war-ravaged the entire land and killed a lot of people. But does Sauron really want to heal Middle-Earth?

To understand whether or not Sauron truly wants to heal Middle-Earth, it is best to get to know him based on what JRR Tolkien has written about the character in his Legendarium. In doing so, we would be able to understand the logic behind his actions.

Created as an Ainur named Mairon, Sauron was said to be the greatest of the Maiar in terms of his intellect, wisdom, skills, and power. He may not have been the strongest in terms of his fighting capabilities, but he was certainly a very skilled and powerful Maia that had a lot of different talents that he honed while he was learning under the greatest smith himself, Aulë.

Mairon’s virtues, however, were design and control. He wanted everything to be in order and to be designed perfectly. That was why he was such a good craftsman and artisan during his time in Valinor, as he was obsessed with perfection and order. But he was more obsessed about being able to control everything so that he could put things in proper order, and that was the reason why he was drawn to Morgoth, who he believed could give him the power to achieve his grand designs.

Mairon became known as Sauron after joining Morgoth. But while he and Morgoth were on the same side, they had different goals that they wanted to achieve. Morgoth, the strongest out of all of the Ainur, was bitter towards Eru Ilúvatar because he desired to have the power of creation that only the supreme creator possessed. As such, Morgoth wanted to corrupt everything in the world.

On the other hand, Sauron didn’t want to corrupt and destroy the world. Instead, he wanted to put everything under his control. He was so obsessed with order and design that he wanted to be able to control the entire world so that he could put everything in proper order. In short, he wanted to be a tyrant that controlled everything.

Going back to our point regarding Halbrand’s goal of healing the world, it does seem like it is consistent with Sauron’s obsession with control and order. The fact that Sauron wants to heal the world and undo the damage that he helped cause is quite consistent with the fact that he wants everything to be properly designed and in order. It is also consistent with Sauron’s nature as a control freak.

After all, there wouldn’t be anything to control if the world was always in chaos. As such, Halbrand wanted to heal the world so that he could put it under his control. And by being the one ruling Middle-Earth, he would be able to achieve the grand designs that he wanted to achieve when he first joined up with Morgoth.

Why Did Sauron Want To Convince Galadriel To Join Him?

During the scene where Halbrand was trying to convince Galadriel that his goal was to undo the damage he caused to the world, he was quite sincere with his approach as it really did look like he wanted to heal Middle-Earth. But why was he trying to convince Galadriel to join him?

Well, that all boils down to the fact that convincing Galadriel would remove the greatest threat to his plans. He had spent quite a long time with Galadriel during their travels together, and that means that he is perfectly aware of what she is capable of and how determined she is to see that her mission is completed.

Sauron understood that she was going to be someone that he would struggle to defeat if she decided to oppose him. This is consistent with Tolkien’s writings in the sense that, in the Legendarium, Sauron always feared Galadriel as the only one that could actually equal his power in Middle-Earth.

But if he were to convince Galadriel that there was a good point in why he was doing the things that he was doing, he could convince her to join up with him and become his queen. That means that he would be able to eliminate the greatest threat to his goals and gain her as an ally. Luckily for the people of Middle-Earth, Galadriel rejected Halbrand’s offer, as she would have been a queen that would have been terrible as the dawn, treacherous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth.