Sauron didn’t plan to get shipwrecked, trapped on a raft, and almost eaten by a sea worm twice.
He didn’t plan on meeting Galadriel, an elf who, astoundingly, had just jumped out of her ship to somehow swim the entire length of the Sundering Seas, in the middle of the ocean.
Sauron didn’t plan to be rescued by the Númenoreans.
He didn’t plan for Galadriel to refuse to believe that he’d stolen a symbol from a dead man as he told her, then insist that he was a king while he insisted he wasn’t.
He didn’t plan to be out in prison for theft and assault.
Sauron didn’t plan for Galadriel to somehow convince Númenor to send ships to Middle-earth.
He didn’t plan to be caught in a pyroclastic flow from the eruption of Mount Doom.
He didn’t plan to be stabbed by a lance. (offscreen?).
He didn’t plan to get an infected gut wound.
Sauron didn’t plan for Galadriel to force him to ride six days to Eregion, a stronghold of his millennia-old enemies, to be under care of elven healers (who don’t sense he’s Maiar?).
He didn’t plan for Celebrimbor to let him assist on a project he couldn’t have known existed.
Sauron didn’t plan on some grand scheme to seize power.
He didn’t even lie to Galadriel.
She orchestrated everything that happened to him, often in defiance of his explicit requests.
He was ignored because Galadriel always, always insists she’s right.
Sauron didn’t plan on corrupting the rings.
He didn’t plan to assassinate Elrond or Gil-galad.
He didn’t plan to sabotage Celebrimbor’s project, or steal the mithril, or do *anything* he could have easily done to ensure the elves would either die or leave Middle-earth.
Sauron didn’t murder Galadriel when she confronted him about his true identity.
Instead, he offered her to be the anchor for his redemption.
Galadriel is furious he wants to be a king to heal Middle-earth?
Honey, you TOLD THE SOUTHLANDS HE WAS THEIR KING.
What this show establishes, in its utter fumbling incompetence and in defiance of the most basic of Tolkien’s lore, is that the Sauron of the Third Age is entirely a creation of a deceitful, manipulative Galadriel whose cruelty and rejection drive a repentant being back to evil.
In summary: Sauron is a penitent nobody and happy to remain so as long he has a forge to work in and some metal to bang on, until a shrill, pushy Karen of an elf drags him back to power even though he begs her not to, then crushes him when he asks her out.
This show is poison.
Addendum:
“But Sauron could have orchestrated all this to merely seem like coincidence.”
He saves Galadriel from drowning, twice.
He gives her dagger back, twice.
He provides Celebrimbor with the solution to allowing *the entire elven race* to remain in Middle-earth.
Galadriel didn’t know who Sauron was, but Sauron certainly knew who she was.
Ignore that he could’ve killed his greatest, most relentless foe 1000 times over during the course of the show. By *doing nothing*, he could’ve let her die, left her defenseless, let her race disappear.
So, sure, I suppose there could be a reason Sauron needs Galadriel and the elves to be alive and active in Middle-earth as part of his evil scheme to rule all of Middle-earth.
What these writers actually wrote, though, was “Galadriel friendzoned sad boi #Sauron into Mordor.”
🤷♂️
Addendum 2:
“Eye of Sauron! Farsight! Elves under his control!”
Watch this scene from episode 5. Is this a devious Sauron manipulating Galadriel? Or is this a repentant Sauron being henpecked by an arrogant, violent scold asking him to exchange the peace he’s now found for war?
And now watch this scene. Who’s Sauron manipulating in this moment of quiet solitary reflection? For whose benefit is his rejection, then acceptance, of this false identity that Galadriel has pressed upon him? For us, the audience?
Surely not.
“Violent criminal escapes his former life only to be reluctantly dragged back” is a perfectly valid story to tell. See A History of Violence (starring Viggo “Aragorn” Mortensen!) or John Wick.
It is not Sauron’s story as told by Tolkien.
This is Soap Opera Sauron.
Fin.
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