Survivor: The Second Age

[The 1,000 Reader]

Originally Posted by JennyHallu

And as for Celebrian, she represents a goodness and innocence that was sorely needed in Second Age ME. The 1,000 Reader, your arguement makes no sense: Frodo's journey to Valinor, while irrelevant, was also not his death. It was his ultimate triumph, a return to Eden-on-Earth, where he died a natural human death in his own good time. And Celebrian's retreat from Middle-Earth was, in the same way, NOT her death. It was the greatest tragedy to befall the world in the Second Age. (Celebrimbor's stupidity with the Rings, and the Numenoreans' stupidity with their ONE rule was just stupidity, and difficult to see as a tragedy, really) But that Celebrian's goodness and innocence was harmed by the corruption of Middle-Earth, that we learn that good things cannot last in a corrupt world, that is tragic. I say that Celebrian should survive, even win, as our own denial of the hopelessness of this Middle Earth.

As far as Middle-Earth was concerned, he/she was/were dead. I've even seen many wise members of these forums say that was Frodo's death in a sense. He was detached from Middle-Earth in pretty much every way, and that moment was the end of the line. Looking at Celebrian, the same applies.

Letting her win as you suggested wouldn't be honorable. That would be a pity win. A real survivor needs to win through their own skills, not because someone feels sorry for them.

It's the survival of the fittest, and she isn't fit.