Elrond Half-elven (My love for divided fantasy characters)

So, there's a show out right now on Amazon Prime called Rings of Power, and while it's only half released at this point, it's pretty terrible.  It's very pretty, the sights and sounds and songs are wonderful, but the writing and story are boring if you've never read Tolkien, and nonsensical if you have.  But that's not the point of this particular ramble.  I'm going to blather on for a bit as to why Elrond is my favorite fantasy character of all-time.

But first, my 2 runners up.  Drizzt Do' Urden is a dark elf from an evil race but he is innately good, and flees his homeland to find a better life.  As a bi-racial kid from a bad neighborhood who wanted a better life in a better world, that certainly resonated with me.  Tanis Half-Elven was a product of a rape and raised in an unwelcoming elven area where he matured faster than his age-mates, and found himself reluctantly thrown into leadership roles time and again.  Parts of this also resonated with me (Tanis also got all the girls, something I was NOT blessed/cursed with growing up).

But Elrond, he was already full grown and wise and wonderful in the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.  I was initially a little ticked with Elrond when I read through the books as a youngin, because he was a mixed race father himself, and had some problems with his daughter marrying a human.  WTF Elrond!?!?  You're half-elven yourself!  You of a ALL peoples should be all for it if one of your kids wants to marry a space alien!  What is wrong with you!

Then I read the rest of the Tolkien's works and there's a whole new layer of badass/pain/suffering/loneliness that his character endures forever (and this is what elevates Elrond to legendary status in the book of the Hawk).

To explain this, I have to start with how elves work in Middle Earth.  They're kind of immortal.  I say kind of because they will live as long as the world does.  They're tied to it.  They're made that way.  They don't get sick, poisoned, drunk, and even their sleep is different.  And even why they're slain, they go the halls of Mandos to be "judged", and then are sent back to the Undying-lands, given a fresh body, and hang out there until the world ends.  They're the epitome of immortal, for as long as the world is whole.

Small aside here for humans, who live short lives, die, and then their souls leave Middle Earth entirely.  Where do they go?  No clue, but this mortality is described as a 'gift' by the elves, the gods, and the author, so it's a good, if not great thing, which is an awesome way to look at death if you're looking at a driving theme for a fantasy work, and there's a reason Tolkien is the best selling author of all time.

So this means that for elves, they never lose their friends or family.  They're only temporarily separated for a while until they get back to the West where they'll hang with their peeps until the world ends right?  Isn't that great?  (I suppose it depends on how much you like/love your family and friends?)

Now, back to Elrond.  He loves/loved his parents.  He loves/loved his brother.  He loves/loved his children.  Let's go down the list shall we?

Parents = Earendil and Elwing - They're both now the equivalent of Venus or Polaris.  They 'ascended' (the gods made his ship fly) and now they sail across the sky forever.  Elrond last saw them when he was SEVEN YEARS OLD when his town was sacked and everyone but he and his brother were killed (his mother fled with a Silmaril to try and draw off the killers, threw herself into the sea and was saved by the sea god).  Point being, he can still SEE his parents every day, and has been able to see them every day, but will never again be able to speak with them.

Brother Elros - So because BOTH of Elrond's parents were mixed race, their sons were given a choice to live out their days as Elven or Human.  Elros chose human.  So although he lived for 500 years, he passed and did NOT go to the Undying Lands.  His spirit left this world for other pastures and Elrond will only have his memories of his twin.

So now his daughter wants to marry a human (and his nephew about 50 times removed, but that's a whole nother kissin cousins story).  NO WONDER he has some reservations about this.  He never tells her no, but he does try to make sure she fully understand what she's getting into.  And he's proven right!  The gods offer her the same choice, and she chooses a human life to be Strider (I'll explain why I keep calling him that in a second) and Elrond is heartbroken once again when 121 years after Lord of  the Rings ends, Arwen dies alone in the forest where she and Strider first met.

(Side bar - I call Aragorn by the name Strider for the same reason Pippin always called him Strider.  It was the first name I was introduced to, and it was funny.  Pippin continued to call him Strider even after he was crowned king, and did it in front of dignitaries and everyone.  Aragorn loved it and Pippin so much he took his crowned sur-name as "Telcontar", which means Strider in elvish.  And when Arwen buried Strider, she didn't make a grave for herself along side her husband.  She had Merry and Pippin buried on both sides of Aragon for their final resting places, keeping a part of the fellowship together forever).

So, when Elrond finally takes one of the last ships West, the only one waiting for him there is his wife and mother of his children.  And we're not sure she's okay.  The reason she left for the West in the first place was because she was captured and tortured by orcs.  Her sons rescued her, and her husband was able to heal her body, but her PTSD was so bad that she didn't want to live anymore.  Rather than commit suicide, she took a ship West instead.

Why didn't Elrond go with her?  Because Middle Earth is a terribly messed up place!  His parents saved the world at the end of the First Age, his brother gave up his immortality to make the world a better place, and his children, 'nieces and nephews' still needed some help from Elrond - the man who was raised by the people that killed his town.

So he keeps helping and healing and making this world a better and balanced place until he finally feels he can leave.  THIS is why he's my favorite fantasy character, because he is me.  I keep trying to help and heal and make this world a better and more balanced place . . . until I too am called home to join my ancestors.