In the end it will be worth it
Mar. 12th, 2023 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sunnyskywalkerI've been turning over a quote from Miriel in The Rings of Power and the way it encapsulates so much of the whole season's meaning.
The narrowest meaning applies this only to the Faithful and being friends with elves. That makes it sound almost cult-like: the elves might be quasi-immortal and generally wise, but they're still people, and committing to pay an unknown price to stay loyal to a bunch of people regardless of their actual behavior is not a great plan.
But if you take it as a broader commitment to forging relationships outside one's own circle and helping others? Now that is probably what Tar-Palantir was trying to express. Or maybe the original meaning of a teaching he only dimly understands himself. And it's very much what this season was about.
Numenor agrees to team up with an elf and the Southlanders to save the Southlands from orcs and any nebulous power that might be behind them; they don't really understand what war is actually like anymore, and the cost of just the first minor expedition shocks them--but Miriel wants to trust that they've done the right thing and it will be worth it. Nori helps the big stranger without knowing what it might cost her or her people; it turns out to be a lot when three creepy sorcerers destroy most of their few, precious possessions and kill their pathfinder--but she trusts that helping him was the right thing to do, and the other Harfoots come to agree with her, despite the cost. Elrond and Durin are convinced that elves and dwarves working together is the right thing to do, including sharing mithril in particular; Durin wants to take the risk to get the large quantity Celebrimbor and Gil-galad think they need and trusts that it will be worth it. His efforts are thwarted, but he tried. And his initial breach of his people's secrecy by telling Elrond about the mithril at all and giving him that small sample does save the elves, in the end; Durin will have to hope it was worth destroying his relationship with his father. (And, um, eventually seeing Khazad-dum destroyed by a balrog.) Arondir decides to trust and help the Southlanders, even love them, despite the risks that some of them are in league with Sauron (and some are!), that it will lead to his death in Middle-earth, and that romance between and elf and a human will almost certainly lead to heartbreak. I think it's clear from the show's structure that they're all right. There is a cost to helping others, which can't be known in advance but which might be terrible--and in the end, it's worth it. It's the right thing to do.
One example left very much hanging is Galadriel's friendship with Halbrand. She took a chance to help this scruffy unknown human gain a throne, and he turned out to be Sauron. Oops. Even if he won't be king of the Southlands after all on account of the Southlands being covered in lava and orcs now, he's right that she helped him. He got a good reputation with some Numenoreans which he'll be able to use later even with this little setback (we know he'll talk Pharazon around eventually). He got access to Celebrimbor's workshop and learned just what he could do with mithril if he can get some for himself (and learned enough about the elves' process that he'll be able to make One Ring that can rule their three eventually). He probably damaged Galadriel's credibility once everyone figures out who he was. And she gave him hope when he was floundering. These are going to be some pretty high costs.
On the other hand...some good came out of it, and more could follow. Halbrand's suggestions helped Celebrimbor crack the problem of saving the fading elves with a tiny smidgen of mithril, and we know that the elves staying in Middle-earth will be crucial: without the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Isildur never would have been in position to cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand and give Middle-earth a three thousand years' reprieve from Sauron's tyranny. Halbrand's supposed kingship helped convince the Numenoreans to help the Southlands, and that relationship will lead to the founding of Gondor and Arnor and the Last Alliance, again granting Middle-earth that reprieve--and eventually producing Aragorn, who will help the Ring-bearer whose actions lead to Sauron's final downfall.
And while Galadriel is shattered by the discovery now, it might help her in the end. Sauron talked her through a couple of problems, like when he got her to stop and think about what really frightened Miriel; that technique of slowing down to think rather than throwing herself against a brick wall repeatedly will serve Galadriel well. And realizing that she felt Sauron of all people was a kindred spirit might be the shock she needs to reign in her autocratic tendencies. One reason she came to Middle-earth in the first place was that she liked the idea of ruling (acto The Silmarillion), and we see her at the end of the Second Age still having little concept that maybe strolling into someone else's kingdom and barking orders is both wrong and ineffective. A little more self-awareness plus Sauron's lessons on trying to figure out what other people want or fear so you can convince them to work with you might help her grow from a hardened lone warrior to the wise ruler of Lothlorien. Which will put her in a position to help Frodo the Ring-bearer one day when he desperately needs help. So maybe, in the end, the cost of helping Halbrand will have been worth it after all.
Eventually.
"My father once told me that the way of the Faithful is committing to pay the price even if the cost cannot be known and trusting that, in the end, it will be worth it."
The narrowest meaning applies this only to the Faithful and being friends with elves. That makes it sound almost cult-like: the elves might be quasi-immortal and generally wise, but they're still people, and committing to pay an unknown price to stay loyal to a bunch of people regardless of their actual behavior is not a great plan.
But if you take it as a broader commitment to forging relationships outside one's own circle and helping others? Now that is probably what Tar-Palantir was trying to express. Or maybe the original meaning of a teaching he only dimly understands himself. And it's very much what this season was about.
Numenor agrees to team up with an elf and the Southlanders to save the Southlands from orcs and any nebulous power that might be behind them; they don't really understand what war is actually like anymore, and the cost of just the first minor expedition shocks them--but Miriel wants to trust that they've done the right thing and it will be worth it. Nori helps the big stranger without knowing what it might cost her or her people; it turns out to be a lot when three creepy sorcerers destroy most of their few, precious possessions and kill their pathfinder--but she trusts that helping him was the right thing to do, and the other Harfoots come to agree with her, despite the cost. Elrond and Durin are convinced that elves and dwarves working together is the right thing to do, including sharing mithril in particular; Durin wants to take the risk to get the large quantity Celebrimbor and Gil-galad think they need and trusts that it will be worth it. His efforts are thwarted, but he tried. And his initial breach of his people's secrecy by telling Elrond about the mithril at all and giving him that small sample does save the elves, in the end; Durin will have to hope it was worth destroying his relationship with his father. (And, um, eventually seeing Khazad-dum destroyed by a balrog.) Arondir decides to trust and help the Southlanders, even love them, despite the risks that some of them are in league with Sauron (and some are!), that it will lead to his death in Middle-earth, and that romance between and elf and a human will almost certainly lead to heartbreak. I think it's clear from the show's structure that they're all right. There is a cost to helping others, which can't be known in advance but which might be terrible--and in the end, it's worth it. It's the right thing to do.
One example left very much hanging is Galadriel's friendship with Halbrand. She took a chance to help this scruffy unknown human gain a throne, and he turned out to be Sauron. Oops. Even if he won't be king of the Southlands after all on account of the Southlands being covered in lava and orcs now, he's right that she helped him. He got a good reputation with some Numenoreans which he'll be able to use later even with this little setback (we know he'll talk Pharazon around eventually). He got access to Celebrimbor's workshop and learned just what he could do with mithril if he can get some for himself (and learned enough about the elves' process that he'll be able to make One Ring that can rule their three eventually). He probably damaged Galadriel's credibility once everyone figures out who he was. And she gave him hope when he was floundering. These are going to be some pretty high costs.
On the other hand...some good came out of it, and more could follow. Halbrand's suggestions helped Celebrimbor crack the problem of saving the fading elves with a tiny smidgen of mithril, and we know that the elves staying in Middle-earth will be crucial: without the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, Isildur never would have been in position to cut the One Ring from Sauron's hand and give Middle-earth a three thousand years' reprieve from Sauron's tyranny. Halbrand's supposed kingship helped convince the Numenoreans to help the Southlands, and that relationship will lead to the founding of Gondor and Arnor and the Last Alliance, again granting Middle-earth that reprieve--and eventually producing Aragorn, who will help the Ring-bearer whose actions lead to Sauron's final downfall.
And while Galadriel is shattered by the discovery now, it might help her in the end. Sauron talked her through a couple of problems, like when he got her to stop and think about what really frightened Miriel; that technique of slowing down to think rather than throwing herself against a brick wall repeatedly will serve Galadriel well. And realizing that she felt Sauron of all people was a kindred spirit might be the shock she needs to reign in her autocratic tendencies. One reason she came to Middle-earth in the first place was that she liked the idea of ruling (acto The Silmarillion), and we see her at the end of the Second Age still having little concept that maybe strolling into someone else's kingdom and barking orders is both wrong and ineffective. A little more self-awareness plus Sauron's lessons on trying to figure out what other people want or fear so you can convince them to work with you might help her grow from a hardened lone warrior to the wise ruler of Lothlorien. Which will put her in a position to help Frodo the Ring-bearer one day when he desperately needs help. So maybe, in the end, the cost of helping Halbrand will have been worth it after all.
Eventually.
