Why didn’t Elrond just kill Isildore?
...take the ring from him and throw it into the Lava. Would have saved everybody a lot of trouble.
shareHe could have killed two birds with one stone by just pushing Isildore into the lava.
share
MovieChat Forums > The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Discussion > Why didn’t Elrond just kill Isildore?
FYI the fandom has been asking each other that question for decades. And has never come up with a suitable answer.
Maybe he wasn’t sure he could do it and could possibly have been killed himself, so fear to preserve his own life took over.
shareNot to mention fear that by desiring the Ring, even just to destroy it, would corrupt him and he wouldn't be able to destroy it anyway.
sharePlus if he did kill Isildur he has to go back down the mountain and tell the entire race of men that he’s just murdered their king and the man who has only
minutes earlier defeated Sauron.
Oh, you think Elrond would actually tell the humans what had happened in the Cracks of Doom?
The only other living witness was Cirdan the Shipwright, and elf-lords like Elrond and Cirdan have a LONG history of not telling humans things it isnt good for them to know. It would be better for the humans to believe their king died destroying the One Ring, so that's what would go in the history books.
Well they’re gonna wonder what happened to their king and the saviour of the world after he goes up the mountain and then doesn’t come back down, I doubt they’d be convinced by Elrond telling them a story about how Isildur tripped and fell into the fire, it likely wouldn’t take them long to work out that Elrond killed him, then they’d begin to to think that Elrond took the ring for himself, there’d then be a war between elves and men etc.
shareLook, if someone I knew died during a fight with Sauron himself, I would NOT be quick to assume he was killed by his own allies.
Because, you know, Sauron.
I think the Ring's power would stop him. If Isildur refused to destroy the Ring, Elrond's options would be
a) Take the Ring by force and throw it in himself.
b) Throw Isildur and Ring both into the fire.
If Elrond attempted a, he would have been corrupted before Isildur hit the ground. The Ring has a powerful effect and would have taken hold of Elrond's willful act immediately. Knowingly or not, Elrond avoided his own corruption.
If Elrond had tried b, there is no guarantee that it would work. Wielding the Ring, Isildur would stand a fair chance of destroying Elrond, and declaring war on the Elves. If Elrond succeeded, war between Elves and men would be highly likely anyway (as others have said here).
Well, there was the option of
c) Tell Isildur that the ring had the most power when it was closest to the Crack of Doom, and when he was right next to the edge and fiddling with the ring, give him a shove.
Elves are stronger and faster than humans, Isiuldur was preoccupied, and Elrond wouldn't have had to touch the Ring itself.
He could have tried that, yes, I suppose. You're not wrong, though: in Mordor, the Ring is strongest. Isildur's paranoia would be at its height, too, and I doubt the attempt would have succeeded. I'm not sure how much stronger Elrond was than Isildur, either, Elrond being half-elven and Isildur being a descendant of the Numenoreans. Isildur also did possess the Ring, which might have given him all he needed to defeat Elrond.
shareElrond isn't an assassin and Isildore was no pushover.
shareace spade and mcqualude gave great explanations. also I haven't read the books in awhile but im not entirely sure if Elrond understood the full extent of the ring and Saurons ability to come back simply because it existed..
share