#Elrond the “I'd rather do whatever plot requires than be a king”

[eri-pl]

The sad thing about Elrond

(no, not everyone sailing or going brr on him, the other one)

From all the people who like Elrond, who claim to be friends, even to love him maybe, very few see him as himself. His parents (sailed, effectively sailed + parents extended edition: dead, ???), his brother (brr), his wife (sailed), his kids (brr, ?, ?). Maybe a few others.

Others look at him and see someone else's face. Or at least they see Elrond as a symbol of this or that. Never as himself.

He just tends to remind everyone of someone or another.

Many of the old Noldor see him as The Last Feanorian (minus the kinslaying problem), many elves see him as Luthien 2.0, many humans see him as the blend of all the elves they ever heard of (at least the good ones) and/or as a stand-in for their legendary ancestor king Elros, even Bilbo sees him as Mister Related To All The Stories Which I'm Gonna Sing Anyway. And there are probably many other things worrying is seen as.

(yes, Arwen has this problem too, but she's not in the Silm, and I mostly think about the Silm)

I suppose even Elwing sometimes looked at her kids and saw Earendil's face in them. That's what parents do, especially when missing the other parent. But it was only moments.

And then she was chased and jumped.

I'm sure M&M initially saw the twins, at least subconsciously, as a replacement Ambarussar, and as their redemption for what happened to Dior's sons. But I think they (at least Maglor) got over it and learned to actually see them, and this was one of the things that made "and love grew" possible.

And then one died and the other disappeared.

What's most sad in this is that I don't treat Elrond better. All the reasons I like him (at least the vast majority) aren't really about him. Realizing that may be the reason why I count him on my fave list lower than Finrod. He's still 3rd on the list anyway. But I wish he was there more as himself and less than the symmetry axis of the Silmarillion and all the associations I have to him.

Tbh he probably wouldn't be this high. I imagine Elrond is actually thie same kind of well-mannered, polite and kind as was one of my friends in high school and while it was fully a good thing, it also somehow made her hard to approach or to relax around. Which... Is even more sad, I guess.