1. Elrond Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Lets imagine you have a friend whos in desperate need of an intervention. Say he loves alcohol or drugs too much, and his behaviour is depressingly predictable. In such a situation, do you let them skulk away with their vice of choice. Of course you wouldnt, youre looking out for their well-being. Now then, lets times the addiction by a thousand, and throw an apocalypse in for good measure. Also, lets say you could stop the addiction straight away by taking an object away from them. This is the situation Elrond faces, and he drops the ball spectacularly. I guess in the style of epic film-making, Isildur walking off with the Ring after his big NO! moment ticks all the boxes.. However, it still doesnt stop you asking the question of why Elrond doesnt just take the Ring from Isildur and throw it in himself. After all, while Isildur is a good fighter capable of defending himself, hed be up against Elrond, one of the greatest warriors in Middle-Earth with possibly a milleniums combat experience on him. If he really wanted to, he couldve taken that trinket off him with ease. Hell, even if he did put up a bit of a fight, he could chuck the whole diplomacy thing in the skip and Sparta-kick him into Mount Doom.. Even if you were to irritate the realm of men for a while, youve got a perfectly valid reason for obliterating him and you get to destroy a world-corrupting evil to boot (pardon the pun). Yet instead, Elrond just stands there dumbstruck, seemingly shocked at the re-learning the most-told lesson in Middle-Earth that compared to everyone else, men are idiots.