About

Low Opacity Elrond Healing Frodo or simply Low Opacity Elrond is a series of memes including image macros and redraws based around an image from the 2001 movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring in which Elrond uses healing words to revive Frodo Baggins. The scene is depicted through a three-way crossfade of Elrond on the left, a passed-out Frodo on the right and shots of Rivendell. In the early 2020s, the clip became a meme and spread on Reddit, X / Twitter and other platforms.

Origin

On November 25th, 2020, X^[1] user @pettingsoftily made a thread sharing three screenshots from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings. The first is a blurry image of Frodo captioned, "me after one dab," the second also shows Frodo and is captioned, "'You good?'" and the third is a screenshot from a scene^[2] where Elrond uses healing words on Frodo, who has been brought to Rivendell, to revive him, captioned, "I don't even have a good caption for this, this shot is just insane," garnering over 70 likes in three years (shown below). This is the earliest known version of the meme.

Spread

The image gained viral spread over the following years, inspiring further memes. On August 26th, 2021, Redditor u/Kaelsang posted the image to /r/lotrmemes^[3] and captioned it, "The vaccine doing its work while I'm sleeping," garnering around 80 likes in two years.

On December 5th, u/Tamborin2 posted a screenshot of the original meme with an additional comment to /r/lotrmemes,^[4] garnering over 21,000 upvotes in two years (shown below, left). On January 30th, 2022, X^[5] user @SketchesbyBoze posted the image with a caption about waking up from a three-hour nap, garnering over 2,800 likes in two years (shown below, right).

On May 28th, X^[6] user @myelessar posted the image, writing, "every day I feel more and more like this lotr shot and no I can’t explain it," garnering over 51,000 likes in two years (shown below). On May 29th, X^[7] user @Chevesik posted a redraw of the scene in the user's comments section, garnering over 500 likes in the same span of time. On October 24th, Tumblr^[8] user klngfili posted the image, writing, "Happy low opacity elrond day to all who celebrate it," garnering over 30,000 notes in just over a year.

On December 18th, Tumblr^[9] user distance-does-not-matter posted a redraw of the scene that gained over 5,000 notes in just over a year (shown below, left). On December 29th, X^[10] user @joshcarlosjosh posted the image, writing, "the week between Christmas and New years feels like this shot from the fellowship of the ring," garnering over 77,000 likes in the same span of time (shown below, right).

On March 29th, 2023, the post by X user @myelessar was reposted to /r/lotrmemes,^[11] garnering over 14,000 upvotes in 10 months. On October 24th, Tumblr^[12] user fatehbaz posted a compilation of Low Opacity Elrond memes because the scene in which Elrond heals Frodo takes place on October 24th, garnering over 7,000 notes in three months.

On December 20th, X^[13] user @TrishaMellon posted the image, writing, "That period of time between Christmas and New Year’s feels like this image, I don’t know how else to describe it," garnering over 60,000 likes in two weeks (shown below). It was reposted by Instagram^[14] user the_cable_guy_ the next day, garnering over 100,000 likes in the same span of time.

On December 26th, X^[15] user @joshcarlosjosh posted the meme, writing, "Happy Transparent Elrond and Frodo Week to all who observe," garnering over 22,000 likes in a week. On December 31st, X^[16] user @youwouldknow posted the meme, writing, "My husband telling me happy new year at midnight after I fell asleep on the sofa hours ago," garnering over 100,000 likes in two days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References