What do you think of the 'belated love epiphany' trope? They keep saying the Elrond/Galadriel kiss was 0% romantic, but he kissed her on the lips thinking she might die... it's kinda like... he slowly realized that he might feel more than platonic friendship now that Galadriel might be truly gone to him?

Omg I got a questionnnn??? Ahh 🫶💘✨ tysm!

This is great observation, let’s dive in!

(note: after writing this, just want to warn you that it’s long. straightforward, but you’re getting a full course meal, lol)

*ahem*

I could see why some might interpret it this way. However, I actually am of the belief that we are not quite there yet. I love this trope, and totally see it fitting into ROP. My interpretation is that the kiss was actually intended to be unromantic, and just a ploy. That, and a goodbye of course, but Elrond’s intentions were not to kiss her as a last minute, ‘get out all your pent up romantic feelings’ kind of thing. He didn’t mean to kiss her in a romantic way, which is partly why it’s so chaste. But also, Galadriel doesn’t realize it wasn’t romantic at first(I did a post on this a little while ago, go take a look at it and then come back). I do think though, that they both unexpectedly enjoyed it on a romantic level. Will they admit it to themselves? Probably not right away, because they have a good excuse for themselves: “it was just a ruse.”

Now despite all this, the kiss was entirely romantic. So here’s why his intentions matter— the main trope that is actually being used here is the ‘forced to kiss’ trope, which is very common between 2 protagonists who have the potential to become lovers, but will not consider the possibility because of XYZ. The trope typically involves these 2 protagonists, whether enemies or colleagues or childhood best friends, you name it, and a sticky situation (or sometimes an agreement, such as fake dating, or actors etc) where they have to kiss in order to resolve it. The trope is everywhere, and it’s the one step further than the classic ‘forced proximity’ trope. So there’s your romance lore, lol. That, on top of how the scene was shot, directed, and edited, creates this beautiful recipe that sets up expectation on the viewer’s part. Remember, we have to look at this from a showrunner’s pov, not just from the character’s pov. lf my observations are correct, the scene wasn’t written to give Galadriel a means to escape. We totally could’ve been given a badass spy-esque escape of just her. Or, if Arondir was going to show up and save her, why didn’t he just save her earlier? Nah, the scene was written to give them a means to kiss. And before anyone says “it was the only way she could escape the situation..”, know that yes, you’re correct. But who wrote her into that specific situation? Mm. Yeah. So it has to serve some larger purpose. It’s not bait, it’s not for controversy, it’s for plot.

Though the kiss was not meant to be romantic on Elrond’s part, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have any romantic feelings at all. The purpose of the ‘forced to kiss’ trope is to cause an awakening. It’s to present a possibility that perhaps the protagonists have not considered before, or only vaguely considered, but now that they’ve tasted it(pun intended), their brains can’t go back. My speculation is that there are romantic feelings brewing under the surface for both Galadriel and Elrond. However, they’ve denied it as a possibility for themselves, and thus, it’s not been fully fleshed out. Now they’ve crossed a line, however. One that perhaps they wouldn’t have dared to cross unless someone literally forced them to(thank you, Adar). If there’s no romantic feelings, then they’ll just forget about it, laugh about it, cringe and move on. But if there are romantic feelings (which in this case, there’s no reason to make two characters with this much family lore kiss unless they are changing it and adding a romance arc), then it’ll come up again. They’ll have trouble seeing their “friend” as friendly as they did before. No matter what, they won’t be able to get over the fact that they’ve shared romantic intimacy. I expect we’ll see clues to this in the next season. Some common ones to look out for would be, new/different/hesitant responses to their usual touching, either held gaze or avoiding eye contact, forced proximity, outsider perspective/teasing, and being interrupted when they’re having a potential “moment.” 😀 *cue mr darcy hand flex*

Considering this is a slow burn romance arc, I do expect we’ll see your theory come into play later on. The set up of the kiss kind of gives way to this. I’m going to predict that we will see the ‘belated love epiphany’ trope eventually. They won’t give us full on acknowledgment of romantic feelings just yet, because they have 3 more seasons to flesh everything out. But it would make sense given that they’re often out in dangerous/self-sacrificial situations, for them to have a moment of realization when it’s (almost?) too late. ROP also love their parallels when it comes to characters, relationships, scenes, scripts, tropes, you name it. It wouldn’t surprise me if their confession and/or next kiss comes in the form of a parallel to their first, or something else related to earlier seasons. There’s many options to choose from that would put them in a ‘belated love epiphany’ scenario. For example, the kiss in 2x07 almost reads as the trope, but it ultimately doesn’t follow. They could parallel it by having their next kiss in a real “I’m going to loose you for good” moment. Obvs as viewers we know neither of them will die, but the characters won’t, and that’s where the trope will get to shine.

The process of “slowly realizing they might have more than platonic feelings towards each other” will happen in season 3. It would have been nice if the kiss was done in this way, but for the sake of the story arc, it has to happen after. If it had happened during their first kiss, then we would’ve seen those slow realization tropes that I mentioned during season 2. Hint, we actually saw a couple of them, very briefly. I’ll let you go back and try to find them 🤭. Instead, we saw a different trope during season 2, which led me all the more to conclude that the kiss was written with romantic intent(not done with romantic intent; this is the showrunners perspective). The trope I’m referring to is the ‘forced negative tension’ trope (honestly idk wth it’s called sorry), where the writers purposely cause a conflict between the 2 love interests only to later on, resolve the conflict with a romantic trope. Are we following? Basically, they didn’t have to fight as much as they did. It was a deliberate choice. There’s more I could say about the undertones of their tension in season 2, but for now we’ll just keep it basic. The trope goes, that if there’s negative tension and a romantic/intimate gesture breaks the tension, then there are feelings, whether the characters are aware of them yet or not. In this case, they had negative tension right up until the kiss. It’s so intentional, because it’s still there when Galadriel says “You should’ve just kept charging, Elrond.” and when she says “Win.” It literally does not break until he touches her face and goes in to kiss her. The proof is in the pudding, my friends 😌 (ajshdh i’ve always wanted to say this stupid saying hehe).

So, hopefully this sums up everything to do with the use of tropes in Gal and El’s relationship arc. Many LOTR fans probably didn’t catch them because A) they aren’t familiar with them or B) they’re blinded by the “lore”. Understandable either way. No judging here.

At the end of the day, regardless of how much people discredit the writers and directors, recognize that this is a million dollar television series that is approved by the tolkien estate, and therefore the showrunners actually do know what the heck they’re doing. Well, when it comes to storylines. Ik they’re not perfect, but what I’m trying to say is that it’s all intentional. Season 1 was written with Season 2, and therefore was written so that Elrond and Galadriel would be set up as very close friends, then have a fallout, then end with a kiss. After considering all this, I have high hopes for future seasons and pray they don’t chicken out on what could be one of the most redeeming of Tolkien’s OG relationships ever.

Anyways, thanks for reading. I love y’all and seriously love to discuss relationships in this light, so keep ‘em coming. I think that’s enough words now though. Logging off for the night!

xo, Jade

jk here’s a meme for ya :D

ok goodnight <3

Rings & Realms just released their season 2 episode 8 part 2 analysis, and they're reacting to the kiss around 1:26:00. She is saying it was weird because it felt too romantic, and Galadriel looked shocked because she thought it was a joke. Like, what?

Do I need to get my eyes fixed? Galadriel reciprocated, and although Elrond was being very chaste about it, the kiss was filled with tenderness despite the horrible situation they were in. They both had tears in their eyes, it was emotionally charged. Galadriel looked shocked only after she understood what Elrond had placed inside her fist.

Is media literacy dead?

What's the trope again? Belated love epiphany? When you realize you love someone when you're about to lose them forever? This is it.

This was the first kiss between Elves depicted on screen; reducing it to a simple deception and nothing more would be truly cheap.

They have the chance to explore a slow burn romance between Elves. They should cease this opportunity instead of introducing a character who really is inconsequential.