#hold to the idea that neither elrond nor elros chose out of anything like 'well my experience with elves has thus far sucked'
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a fascinating, impactful thing about Elrond and Elros’s Choices to be Elf and Man respectively is that no way did they not start out Pretty Fucking Codependent. Since the age of 6, it’s been just the two of them surrounded by kinslayers, and then just the two of them surrounded by Gil-galad’s people and the Host of the West who don’t understand their many, many complicated feelings about the kinslayers. Like their parents before them, they are the only two half-elves alive in the world, completely alone but for each other. And their primary models for healthy relationships are Elwing “I will not let you suffer the wrath of the Valar alone” Dioriel, Eärendil “[I’m exhausted and want to leave but] My wife may Choose for both of us - immortality? Alright, babe” Tuorion, and Maglor “this is a terrible idea but I will not let you take further blood on your hands and Eternal Darkness on your soul alone” Fëanorion. There’s no way for them to have not been Pretty Fucking Codependent!
Yet still, still, for the love of boldness and fortitude and the mystery beyond the edge of the world, Elros chose to be a mortal Man; and for the love of wisdom and grace and the beauty of the world, Elrond chose to be an Elf forever in Arda; and as price, they both accepted that they would be sundered from one another until the end of all known time.
#elrond#elros#[softly but with fervor] i mean FUCK#the silmarillion#lotr#peredhil#obv reasons for choosing are written here for poetry more than character analysis BUT we do VERY MUCH in this house#hold to the idea that neither elrond nor elros chose out of anything like 'well my experience with elves has thus far sucked'#nor even 'i feel in love with someone'#but rather out of understanding eagerness and truly matched temperaments for their respective paths#we also hold that elrond made it like 5 years M A X I M U M in being-built lindon before gil-galad was like 'do you wanna just...go...'#and elrond was like 'YES THANK YOU it's not permanent if i don't go MORE west right?' and immediately built and sailed a boat to numenor#and in general split much of his time between the shores until elros's death and even after (though much less so)#was this supposed to be what they did? [wobbles hand] ehhhh...#was ulmo clearly tacitly endorsing it? yeah#elrond carefully never sailed off the western coast of the island it was fine. he was just visiting
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