peterquills:

glorfindels:

OH MY GOD BUT THIS IS NOT OKAY

NOT OKAY AT ALL

THE THING PEOPLE DON’T SEEM TO UNDERSTAND WHEN THEY’RE BEING ALL CRITICAL OF ELROND FOR THE WAY HE WAS ALL *MARGE SIMPSON GRUMBLY NOISE* ABOUT ARWEN AND ARAGORN IS THAT HE DOESN’T WANT TO LOSE HER LIKE HE HAS LOST EVERYONE ELSE IN HIS LIFE.

let’s break this guy’s really fucking tragic life down, aka elrond half-elven in a nutshell:

• his dad earendil, sailed off not long after he was born on a great voyage to find a way to valinor (“the west”). a whole bunch of shit happened and… he basically became the morning and evening star (silmaril bound to his brow, ship that sailed in the sky, etc).
• meanwhile, back at the havens the sirion, were elrond, his twin brother, elros, and their mum, elwing. elwing had the silmaril that earendil eventually binds to his brow, and when the havens are sacked by the sons of feanor, she throws herself into the sea and is turned into a white gull and goes off to find earendil.
• elrond and elros are left behind and are taken in by maglor, one of the sons of feanor (part of me says maedhros too, but i’m not sure?), eventually they were released and rescued - in other words, left by their parents, taken in by the dudes who sacked their home. good. times.
• elrond and elros, being half-elven are given the choice of their parents to become firstborn or men. elrond chose to become firstborn, elros chose to become a man. ELROS, ELROND’S TWIN BROTHER, CHOOSES TO BECOME MORTAL AND YAY ELROND NOW GETS TO WATCH HIM DIE. AND PEOPLE WONDER WHERE ELROND’S DAMAGE OVER ARWEN MAKING THIS CHOICE COMES FROM??
• meanwhile, elrond remains in lindon with high king gil-galad (of whom elrond was herald and best bro), where a whole bunch of shit happened, like the two of them rejecting annatar (sauron), some wars and stuff because ugh sauron, and elrond also went off and founded rivendell. 
• come the war of the last alliance, elrond marched out with elendil and gil-galad to mordor, where they laid seige at barad-dur, where elrond got to watch all sorts of great people (and also relatives) die. including elendil, anarion and his king, gil-galad. so yeah, he lost a bunch of people he really loved a lot. 
• post war of the last alliance, early in the third age, elrond marries celebrian, who bears him the twins, elledan and elrohir, and arwen. some time later celebrian is captured by orcs and awful shit happens to her. despite elrond doing all he can to save her, she loses the will to remain in middle-earth and departs to the west.
• after the war of the ring, arwen chooses a mortal life and is wed to aragorn. because of her choice, she can never be reborn from the halls of mandos, so in case you missed it: elrond will never, ever see her again.
• BUT THAT’S NOT THE END OF THIS GUYS FUCKING TRAGIC LIFE: after elrond takes the white ship to valinor, elledan and elrohir remain in rivendell. it’s not known what choice they make. elrond might never see his sons again either.

so yeah. if anyone wants to get into it over how terrible a dad elrond was for not supporting arwen’s decision to surrender her immortality, I WILL FIGHT YOU.