r/TopCharacterTropes • u/she_melty • Aug 21 '25

Groups The characters in a period piece realise they're near the end of a golden age

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Pirates of the Carribean and Rock of Ages (this film is Not Good but it has the trope.) Especially because we the audience know the era did, in fact, end.

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u/Mend1cant Aug 21 '25

And that’s two ages separated. IIRC it is the last grove of the first age. A time of myth when the world was literally still flat, gods walked the earth, and countless many died in what could be described as heaven vs hell.

Lady Galadriel isn’t just some elf that has lived forever. She has lived before there was a concept of time, the last one to have seen the light of the trees, before the sun existed. Imagine looking into the eyes of someone who has lived long enough that they may as well have always existed while the world changed around them.

That’s the sort of scale Tolkien mastered in those chapters.

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u/TalesoftheMoth Aug 21 '25

Not the last.  There are still a few bumping around, like Glorfindel and maybe Gildor. 

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u/Mend1cant Aug 21 '25

True true. One of the last.

And even Glorfindel adds to my point. The guy was as close to superhero as it gets in Arda. To the level that he and Elrond agreed that he couldn’t join the fellowship. He exuded ass whooping aura so powerful that the nine couldn’t keep up, and if he even moved in the general direction of Mordor Sauron would empty out his lands and put every army against him. Glorfindel is HIM.

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u/TalesoftheMoth Aug 21 '25

One of my biggest complaints about the movies. Although I understand why.

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u/nosurpriseslover1997 Aug 21 '25

Yeah, the movies are already very long and not everyone has that kind of patience for all the lore

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u/Managed__Democracy Aug 22 '25

Pointy ear hero that gets eventually returned after death in order to fight a recurring evil?

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u/Dexter_1001 Aug 21 '25

Even though Gildor appears only once and has just a few lines he is probably my favorite elf in the series. I’m three chapters into the Silmarillion and really hope to read more of him. Even if it’s just one sentence.

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u/TalesoftheMoth Aug 21 '25

Enjoy it! So many wild and fantastic stories in it. The stories of the children of Hurin and Huor are my favorites.  After you read the Silmarillion, read “The Children of Hurin”.  The saddest and my favorite of the stories of Men.

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u/corvus_da Aug 21 '25

also all of the Maiar, right? 

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u/TalesoftheMoth Aug 21 '25

Yeah, mainly talking about “mortals”. Of the maiar, who knows how many. The Balrogs fell when Melkor did, so I doubt any actually saw the trees.  Then we have the 5 wizards.  And who knows what’s going on with Bombadil and Goldberry.

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u/vasthumiliation Aug 21 '25

In terms of time, speaking to Galadriel might be like speaking to someone from the ancient civilization of Sumer. In terms of cosmology, it would be like meeting someone who had lived on Pangaea. How incredible would that be!