Let me just get this off my chest…
ELROND GOT DONE SO DIRTY IN THE MOVIES.
WHAT THE FUCK.
No really I’m pissed as hell, listen to me for a second. I have Thoughts.
Like, sure, okay, it’s a little strange and inconsistent that he’s so skeptical of Aragorn after he was the one to raise him (*grabs Peter Jackson by the ear* ESTEL WAS RAISED AT IMLADRIS), but let’s put that aside for a second.
But the whole Arwen thing. FUCK the whole Arwen thing, tbh.
So, what, Elrond pushes Aragorn into dumping Arwen, and then tricks his daughter into leaving for the Undying Lands.
Um, WHAT.
First and foremost, this makes him a dick in the movies and he’s really…not a dick in the books, so like there’s that. But I have more.
Now, see, here’s a critical thing about Elrond. His whole family except for Arwen and Elladan and Elrohir is gone. His mother was a bird and his father was a star (No. Really.), so anyone could tell you right off the bat he was destined for nothing but tragedy. Which pans out nicely when his mother throws herself into the sea to protect one of the Silmarils (thus the bird thing), but I digress. And then he and his brother Elros were kidnapped, and of course their kidnappers got fond of them eventually and let them go, but…um, yeah. But then his brother and he are free, and all is well, and everything is copacetic–right up until he and his brother are given the choice of Luthien, to either remain immortal Elves or to choose the Fate of Men and die.
And here lies the point. Elrond chooses to be counted among the Elves. Elros, his twin brother, chooses the Fate of Men, and becomes the first High King of Numenor. And Elrond lets him make that choice.
And then there’s Celebrian, the daughter of Galadriel. So Elrond falls in love with her, as you do (and I firmly believe he makes a complete dork of himself because Elrond seems the type), and it’s all good, his parents are long gone (not dead, though) and he’s the Lord of Rivendell so he’s free to marry whomever he wants. He and Celebrian are really legitimately happy for a few years, they have a set of twins (Elladan and Elrohir) and a daughter (Arwen), and then…everything goes entirely predictably to shit. Celebrian gets captured by orcs and tortured horribly, and after her rescue she can’t recover. So she chooses to go into the West where she’ll be able to heal, leaving her husband and her three children behind.
And Elrond lets her make that choice.
So flash forward.
You’re telling me that guy, who is willing to sacrifice his happiness for his loved ones and who knows what it feels like to lose them, is not only going to force his daughter, who he loves, to abandon the people she loves in Middle-Earth, but he’s going to lie to her to do it?
I think the fuck not.
