We have no reason to think that Shadowfax is actually the king of all horses. We only hear that from Gandalf, an old fool who spent so much time smoking pipeweed that he didn’t even see the one ring was right under his nose.
Horses have no king. Horses need no king.
I’m not sure anyone else could have done better. Didn’t Bilbo bring it back through Rivendale after his adventure? Man, time for another read through.
Elrond could have stabbed isildur in the neck and kicked his ass into the volcano but he didn’t do that either, he just bitched about for three thousand years.
Elrond could have stabbed isildur in the neck and kicked his ass into the volcano
Okay, first of all, that’s a significant book vs. movie difference.
In the book, that discussion happened on the battlefield, well away from ‘kicking his ass into the volcano’ range. Which brings in two big problems:
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Elrond killing Isildur (for no readily apparent reason) right in front of the combined armies of elves and men is quickly going to cause … tensions between those two armies. This very well might spark another war, between elves and men this time.
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The Ring’s power becomes an issue then. Elrond would have to take it from Isildur’s corpse and carry it to Mt. Doom. Though that’s only a short distance, the Ring’s corrupting power will be intense over that time, especially since Elrond took it by force and murder. Even as great as Elrond is, I’m pretty sure he’d be claiming the Ring as his own and keeping it by the time he got into the volcano.
But there’s also another problem that both Book Elrond and Movie Elrond would have faced: one does not simply stab Isildur in the neck. Don’t get me wrong – Elrond does have a pretty good chance of it, but both of them are very badass warriors. Killing Isildur might not be such an easy thing to do, even for somebody like Elrond.
Agreed! But this is a meme sub, so movie Elrond gets shit on. Book Elrond had an excuse.
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Yeah, really cool Gandalf. You know, him and a few of his pals would have been really fucking helpful when we were walking through half of Middle Earth on foot.
Not really. Maybe early on? Horses wouldn’t have survived Moria. They even had to leave Bill the pony behind, remember? Horses probably wouldn’t have fared well in the stinking marshes either. And once they got close to Mordor, stealth was of the utmost importance, and a giant white horse is pretty obvious compared to a couple of hobbits.
