One Ring to troll them all

The White Council

Sure, she was still wary of my presence here, but there was an underlying curiosity more than true suspicion shining through her eyes, and I counted that as a win.

I stood up and bowed my head at Galadriel, to the surprise of most in the room - Gandalf just looked amused this time, probably at the expense of the others. "Much have I heard of your wisdom and grace, Lady Galadriel. A star truly shines on the hour of our meeting."

Galadriel smiled then, as if I had passed some sort of test, and shifted her gaze to Gandalf, who quickly stood from his seat as well and tried to straighten his grey robes. "Lady Galadriel," the old man said, looking quite flustered, and I watched in amusement as Gandalf stuttered out a clumsy greeting.

"Mithrandir. It has been a long time."

"Age may have changed me, but not so the Lady of Lorien," Gandalf said, bowing his head. I moved my gaze away before I could roll my eyes at him, which made me meet Saruman's eyes. We both stared at each other and quickly looked away before we could acknowledge that we had probably been thinking similar things in regard to Gandalf's schoolgirl crush - slash - admiration - slash - friendship.

It would be a cold, cold day in hell when Saruman and I publicly agreed on something.

After we all took a seat again - Saruman hadn't moved an inch from his since he first arrived - except for Galadriel and Elrond, who for some ungodly reason opted to stay standing, we began the meeting.

Until now, everything had followed the original story, except for some minor details, and it was freaking me out.

The butterfly effect I created by destroying the ring should have changed the whole future in its entirety. Hell, maybe Bilbo and some of the other dwarves should have never been born because I destroyed the ring so early! Yet, no one was missing.

The elven rings were supposed to have lost their power. Yet they didn't. I could still feel the three rings, especially now that they were all in the same room with me - and there was another thing to consider. Why the hell did Gandalf have Narya?! Círdan gave it to him so that it would help him fight against Sauron, didn't he? But that happened after the War of the Last Alliance, so with Sauron being defeated earlier than in canon, Círdan wouldn't have had any reason to give Gandalf Narya, yet he gave it to him anyway.

Heck, Aragorn wasn't even supposed to be in Rivendell!! If I remembered correctly, in the books, the last king of Gondor was killed by the Witch-king of Angmar - who this time didn't get that title in the first place because he was gone - after the Witch-king invaded Arnor and made Aragorn's ancestors flee and start living in hiding, which is why his family had been with the Dúnedain for years after that.

The question was; if the Witch-king never came to be because, by destroying the ring early, all the Nazgul passed on, then how did Arnor fall and why was Aragorn hiding in Rivendell?

Or better yet, how did Gandalf get the key and the map from Thorin's father, who was supposed to be captured in Dol Guldur?! And by whom?! Because he sure as hell wasn't captured by Sauron this time!

It just didn't make any sense. The only change I had seen until now was the fact that the family who was supposed to be killed by the trolls never died because the trolls never came down from the mountains - and that wasn't an important change per se.

Well, and Gollum didn't exist. I was 100% sure of that. Without the ring, Smeagol could never become Gollum. So that was another change - one which was admittedly more important than the last, at least as to how it affected the events after the Hobbit.

But those were only two changes.

With the butterfly effect, there should have at least been a hundred different things to consider.