"The Rings of Power" Vanity Fair article

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

This may be one of my least favourite things in the trailer.
1) I grudgingly allowed to half-close my eyes when PJ had the pointy-eared Elves (and Hobbits!!! Incidentally, did anyone ear-inspect the Harfeet?), but using it as THE defining characteristic is just WRONG. You should be able to recognise an Elf otherwise anyway. 2) Why does it imply that being an Elf is something wrong? Because that's what it indeed looks like. This is not Sapkowski.

I don't think we can see Nori's ears, but aren't Hobbits the only ones we know had pointed ears? Tolkien Gateway says it's from Letter 27, and I think it's sometimes used to argue that elves did too (it's the "slightly pointed and 'elvish'" line).

If Halbrand is a Numenorean - which I theorise he is - then in these latter days he may never have seen an elf. We know that back in the First Age, the likes of Turin could be mistaken for elves; I don't think it's implausible that Numenoreans who lived (just about) in sight of Eressea would be of similar appearance.

As for #2: if Halbrand is Numenorean, then for a thousand years or more Numenorean society has been turning hard against the elves. I don't think Galadriel would be overly trusting of a people who are claiming most of Middle-earth as their own personal slave-taking playground, and literally had a king who called himself "Lord of the West".

(Also, she might just be offended he's playing with her hair! )

hS