[KriegerGeist]

I can't get over how we know that this whole thing (the trilogy) could have been avoided had "Agent" Elrond snatched the ring from Isildur's hand and tossed it into the fires of Mount Doom when he had the chance in the first War of the Ring..."The War to end all wars"...

No more Ring of Power, no more Lord of the Ring (Sauron) and everyone would have lived happily ever after four (or was it two) thousand years before until the present.

Why did you not let Isildur keep it Elrond.? It would have been so easy to snatch it and toss it! It's all your fault. You failed as an Elf in Lord of the Rings just as you failed as an "Agent" in the Matrix.

[HairOfTheDog]

Don't blame Elrond, Tolkien failed him. And it would have been a pretty short story then, not much worthy of telling!

[BradyLS]

Actually, the Elrond we see in the movies and in the BBC Radio production of LOTR always seems to be in a foul mood. In the books, Tolkien described him as very kind and grandfatherly. I don't have the books handy, but how did it go? "Warm as summer. Gentle as spring..." Something like that?

Whatever the case, his temperament seems understandable when he is talking about the loss of his daughter or the missed opportunities to destroy the Ring during the brief moments we see and hear him. I accept that, too.

[The Iguana]

Isildur was not exactly a slouch. I imagine that Elrond would have had quite a fight on his hands to take it from the King of the Dunedain by force.

I'm sure he had no desire for such a fight.

Presumably he hoped Isildur could be talked out of it at some point later.

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

"Agent" Elrond didn't snatch the ring from Isildur, for the same reasons Gandalf didn't snatch it from Frodo: because taking it by force would either "break his mind" or lead to conflict, and because he could not trust himself to keep the ring, either. Saying "I'll take that ring to destroy it, because he obviously can't handle it" is just the first step on the path to self deception, which the ring would use to ensnare Elrond or Gandalf. Of course, the books don't say Elrond led Isildur to the Crack of Doom, only that he observed him take the ring, and advised him against it.