What was up at Mount Doom?
Saturday, August 27th, 2005 11:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seraiOkay, so I don't know much about LOTR slash outside of the Shire. I've read a couple of man fics, but no elf fics. Or rather, exclusively elf fics. (Obviously, I've read about Legolas, but he stands apart from the rest of them for me because he's a member of the Fellowship.) So I don't a whole lot about what's been written in that sphere and what hasn't. Meaning that what I'm thinking about here has probably been written about by many, but you know, it hasn't occured to me before, so I'm gonna talk about it.
I was just over here, reading about the subject of this weekend's chat. They're gonna be talking about Isildur, and why the hell the Elves let him keep the Ring. He was supposed to destroy it. In the book, there was a big argument and Isildur said, "No, fuck you. I'm gonna keep it." And then he left, taking the Ring with him and giving Elrond a three-thousand-year headache. What was up with that?
In the movie, of course, it's a bit different, and I'm going to focus on the event as it happens in the film. (Partly because it's more specific than what we know from the books, and partly because I don't have anything against the different version of events in the films, for the most part.) Isildur's claiming of the Ring in the film is in fact quite different as a scene from that in the book, though the outcome is the same. It's far more visually dramatic, for instance - all that orange light and swirling poisonous wind. And there's the audience factor. In the movie, there is none; Isildur and Elrond are alone. Which means that Elrond could easily have stopped Isildur from leaving simply by killing him. He wouldn't even have had to touch the Ring to destroy it.
But he didn't. He stood there and let the guy go. Why? I don't buy that Elrond thought Sauron was dead; he's an Elf, and Elves knew about the Maiar. He'd know you can't kill one of them just by lopping its head off. Did the Elves not know that Sauron was a Maia? In other words, did they know him, but not what he ultimately was? I don't really buy that either, although it is possible that the revelation that occured when he first put the Ring on did not include his ultimate nature, but simply his intent and the extent of his power and deceit. And they knew about the Ring, and that it gave Sauron great power. It couldn't be good, since he made it. So the justification for its destruction was overwhelming, namely the final destruction of the last of the Great Evil and the salvation of the world. High stakes here.
On the other side of the equation we have - what? Isildur is one of the sons of Elendil, the King of Men. He and Elrond are related in the sort of distant way that only a Hobbit could really appreciate. But he's one man. Neither his position nor his blood relation to Elrond can justify not doing whatever it took to destroy the Ring. Tolkien did say that Bilbo's act of mercy made him less susceptible to the Ring, implying that a destructive deed would make the holder of the Ring weaker in resisting it. But he also said that the Elves were naturally less inclined to be taken in Sauron's power games, and the Ring would have less effect on them by nature. Elves are stronger, faster, better sighted. All he had to do was lift his sword and throw it with that deadly Elven aim, and then push Isildur over the edge, and the Ring with him. He'd never have to make contact with the thing.
Here is a picture of Isildur looking at the Ring:
and here is a picture of Elrond looking at Isildur:
And looking at these pics and thinking about this, the penny finally dropped.
You know, every now and then in Tolkien's stories, you come upon a moment where you figure there just has to be some fucking involved here, because the events just don't make sense otherwise. I cannot think of a single reason that comes closer to explaining why Elrond let Isildur go than them being lovers. We know Elves can kill; they're damn good at it. We know they can kill their relatives; they've done that in the past. We know they don't think of Men on the same level as their own kind. I'm fairly sure they can kill for mercy as well. Nothing stands in the way of Elrond doing what has to be done other than the possibility of personal investment, and so his would have to be extreme enough to override everything that's against letting Isildur walk out that door. For my money, nothing covers it better than the two of them bonded in that way.
I was just over here, reading about the subject of this weekend's chat. They're gonna be talking about Isildur, and why the hell the Elves let him keep the Ring. He was supposed to destroy it. In the book, there was a big argument and Isildur said, "No, fuck you. I'm gonna keep it." And then he left, taking the Ring with him and giving Elrond a three-thousand-year headache. What was up with that?
In the movie, of course, it's a bit different, and I'm going to focus on the event as it happens in the film. (Partly because it's more specific than what we know from the books, and partly because I don't have anything against the different version of events in the films, for the most part.) Isildur's claiming of the Ring in the film is in fact quite different as a scene from that in the book, though the outcome is the same. It's far more visually dramatic, for instance - all that orange light and swirling poisonous wind. And there's the audience factor. In the movie, there is none; Isildur and Elrond are alone. Which means that Elrond could easily have stopped Isildur from leaving simply by killing him. He wouldn't even have had to touch the Ring to destroy it.
But he didn't. He stood there and let the guy go. Why? I don't buy that Elrond thought Sauron was dead; he's an Elf, and Elves knew about the Maiar. He'd know you can't kill one of them just by lopping its head off. Did the Elves not know that Sauron was a Maia? In other words, did they know him, but not what he ultimately was? I don't really buy that either, although it is possible that the revelation that occured when he first put the Ring on did not include his ultimate nature, but simply his intent and the extent of his power and deceit. And they knew about the Ring, and that it gave Sauron great power. It couldn't be good, since he made it. So the justification for its destruction was overwhelming, namely the final destruction of the last of the Great Evil and the salvation of the world. High stakes here.
On the other side of the equation we have - what? Isildur is one of the sons of Elendil, the King of Men. He and Elrond are related in the sort of distant way that only a Hobbit could really appreciate. But he's one man. Neither his position nor his blood relation to Elrond can justify not doing whatever it took to destroy the Ring. Tolkien did say that Bilbo's act of mercy made him less susceptible to the Ring, implying that a destructive deed would make the holder of the Ring weaker in resisting it. But he also said that the Elves were naturally less inclined to be taken in Sauron's power games, and the Ring would have less effect on them by nature. Elves are stronger, faster, better sighted. All he had to do was lift his sword and throw it with that deadly Elven aim, and then push Isildur over the edge, and the Ring with him. He'd never have to make contact with the thing.
Here is a picture of Isildur looking at the Ring:
and here is a picture of Elrond looking at Isildur:
And looking at these pics and thinking about this, the penny finally dropped.
You know, every now and then in Tolkien's stories, you come upon a moment where you figure there just has to be some fucking involved here, because the events just don't make sense otherwise. I cannot think of a single reason that comes closer to explaining why Elrond let Isildur go than them being lovers. We know Elves can kill; they're damn good at it. We know they can kill their relatives; they've done that in the past. We know they don't think of Men on the same level as their own kind. I'm fairly sure they can kill for mercy as well. Nothing stands in the way of Elrond doing what has to be done other than the possibility of personal investment, and so his would have to be extreme enough to override everything that's against letting Isildur walk out that door. For my money, nothing covers it better than the two of them bonded in that way.
