They are the answer to all the good things “turned to evil ends ” because Elrond and Elros’s lives were not turned.
Two Ages later Elrond is still keeping Rivendell unbroken and uncorrupted, still shelters and protects and heals everyone who comes his way-and Elros’s descendants and their people are still some of the greatest forces for good in the West, even after the falls inbetween, still carrying the glory of all the First Age’s heroes with them. They’re literally the the ones that give meaning to every stupid tragic thread of the First Age-and the less tragic ones, too, the ones that went relatively well before the inevitable death and destruction!-because they inherit every legacy and they make them better.
If there is one thing I have gotten from poking at the edges of the Silmarillion fandom, it’s an increased appreciation for how incredibly great Elrond is and how he and Elros are the culmination and at-long-last fruition of all the thwarted good of the First Age, combined into their two selves, and how you can see the full magnitude of that good in the way they each carried their legacies forward in the different contexts of the Elves and Men.
