system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[LoTR] In pure utilitarian terms, did Elrond make the right choice when he let Isildur walk off of mount doom with the ring?

Which has worse consequences: Elrond pushing Isildur and the ring into Mount Doom, killing Isildur & the ring while starting a war with Man, or letting him live and allowing all of the death & destruction of Saruon & Saruman with the possibility of Sauron's Resurrection?
gpt
Elrond knew that if he killed Isildur, he would not be able to suppress the desire to claim the Ring afterwards. He could do nothing once Isildur refused to dispose of it. No one knew that Sauron would regain power either, and Saruman was firmly on their side at that point. It also bears repeating that the whole near-the-edge thing is a movie invention; they were on the slopes of Mt. Doom in the book, far from being able to summarily dispose of it. It is more likely that if Isildur and Elrond did both proceed to the edge as shown in the movie, both of them would be seized with the sudden and obvious conviction that the other was secretly planning to throw them in and keep the Ring, and then fight over it - the victor would then walk away with the Ring.

Without a doubt, though, the Ring would not have been tossed in. It would just be a war with Man, weakening the Free Peoples and hastening the rise of Mordor.