This post contains spoilers for “The Rings of Power” season 2, episode 7. Proceed with caution!
The penultimate episode of “The Rings of Power” season 2 had plenty of splashy moments. There was a giant battle that you could actually follow. The Nine Rings for Mortal Men officially entered circulation in Middle-earth, and we learned why they turn men evil (at least, according to the show). We even almost had an epic cavalry charge — although the reason they never actually gave it to us will baffle me to the end of my days.
Despite the overload of events, one melodramatic moment in the episode continued to capture the polarizing commentary of the internet days after it came out: that smooch between Elrond and Galadriel. I already debunked the question of whether the shocking kiss happens in the “Lord of the Rings” books last week, but since that time, Elrond actor Robert Aramayo himself has come forward to clarify another key question: Was the lip-locking moment romantic?
The first thing I’ll say here is that Aramayo is a bonafide Tolkien fan. You could even classify him as a Tolkien nerd. When I interviewed Robert a couple of years ago, he kept up with my deep-cut Middle-earth questions at every step. I was genuinely impressed. This guy knows his stuff.
When Nerdist asked about the kiss and Elrond’s motivations, Aramayo said, “It’s the last thing I’d expect, and I think if you were in that room, I think it’s the last thing you’d expect as well. And it’s a pretty dangerous room. So, whilst it’s a sort of bizarre tactic, I think it’s certainly shocking and achieves his goal of slipping off the way to get free.”
When asked if the act was free of all romantic overtones, he emphatically said, “Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah,” adding that in the fantastic elven world, a kiss may not be taken quite as strongly as how we humans view them in the real one. While my own research can’t find a spot where Tolkien specifically addresses this sort of thing in his writing, it would fall in line with the Oxford Professor’s love of old stories and cultural behaviors (where lip-to-lip kisses often weren’t romantic).
All that said, I do think it’s interesting to point out that Aramayo also said, “I was honestly against it for quite a while. But I think it’s good when you get those moments because then you talk about it and you sort of flesh out the world a little bit, when you have those conversations.” I love to hear this, because it sounds an awful lot like he was processing what so many Tolkien fans are struggling with now. In the same vein as the withheld cavalry charge, I’ll always wonder why the kiss was tossed into such a busy episode in the first place. Why even go there? But Aramayo’s words do offer a way to make some sense of the awkward (for modern Western audiences, at least) moment and to set Elrond and Galadriel up to continue being friends (without benefits) moving forward — which is good news because, well, the two end up related anyway, just not in the way you might think.
There are two things that make the non-canon Elrond and Galadriel peck a bigger deal than you might expect. First, there’s the curious case of the missing Celeborn. Galadriel’s husband (whom we meet in Peter Jackson’s “The Fellowship of the Ring” as played by Marton Csokas) is supposed to already be around. In season 1, Galadriel mentioned that he went MIA in the wars with Morgoth before the story started. Since then, showrunners JD Payne and Patrick McKay have neglected to follow up on the subject. This is a curious rewriting of the source material, where Celeborn is around for all of the Second Age action. (He’s even the one who fights with Elrond at the siege of Eregion while Galadriel is elsewhere.)
Making things even more awkward is the fact that Elrond ends up marrying Galadriel and Celeborn’s daughter, Celebrían. The book “Unfinished Tales” explains that Elrond first sees her shortly after season 2 ends. He falls in love with her instantly, but they don’t get married for another millennium. (Typical. Elves dragging out those human timelines.)
While Celebrían is an important part of Elrond’s story in the books, in the show, neither she nor her father are anywhere to be seen — and we don’t have any clue about when they’ll show up, either. When asked if there is any news about Elrond’s future romance in the show, Aramayo got right to the point: “No. Unfortunately not.” He added that he hopes it happens, as it would be fun to explore what Elrond falling in love is like, especially when contrasted to Tolkien’s other epic romances. “He writes this epic love. It’s stunning,” he concluded, “and Elrond and Celebrían is no different, I don’t think. Especially what she goes through and all of that stuff. So yeah, it’s a really interesting story.” Here’s hoping we see the real romantic deal soon.
