My favorite scenes in the LotR books are the ones where Legolas has vital information and just decides it's not important to share.
Like when Gandalf spent literal PAGES trying to figure out why the vibes were off in Moria and Legolas chimes in with just "it's a balrog :) that shit's evil :) we're so fucked :)" like what do you MEAN you knew already and just didn't tell him??
Or at the beginning of Two Towers when Aragorn thinks there's something nearby so he puts his ear to the ground to listen, and then like 10 minutes later is like "hmmm i hear horses" and Legolas is just like "mm yep. there are 105 blond bitches with spears" like you just let your friend put his face in the dirt and you can SEE them??
Legolas please gain a sense of urgency
It's because legolas hasn't spent enough time with non-elves to remember that they don't know what he knows.
gandalf is scratching his head in moria, and legolas is thinking "oh man, the wizard noticed something off *besides* the obvious balrog that we all are aware of??"
"I wonder what aragorn is listening for? must be hard to hear, what with all of the horses. How many horses are there, actually? 1... 2... 3..."
"What do your elvish eyes see?" is Aragorn saying, as politely as possible, "Because the REST OF US are at a significant disadvantage, Prince Dipshit."
you are not allowed to leave this in the tags
the what
It's a fan-theory based on the canon explicitly-stated distances that elves can see with perfect clarity. While some of those distances were miles in the double- or triple-digits, the curvature of a planet the size of our own would make anything more than about three miles completely useless to be able to make out, because anything beyond that distance would be hidden from one's gaze by the earth itself.
While the easiest assumption to make would be that Tolkien just hadn't considered this while writing his books, some theorists have added, "Oh so that's why you need elves to get to Valinor, because they're the only ones who can see the path to that distant, legendary land," to the theory, which is just kind of fun (more so than the standard, "oh because they're magic" treatment).
Thinking back on this, I'm certain that taavicleric was just referring to elves being able to see crazy distances with clarity at all, but the fan-theory was what came to mind first.
I mean, Eru did canonically make Middle-Earth round to stop humans sailing to Valinor. But Elves can still get there. I consider that very good evidence that elves percieve Middle-Earth as flat.
