What's one thing you would change about the Silmarillion canon?
You have activated my trap card. I would make the twins make sense. What do I mean by that, you ask?
Identical twins are not that common, and I would let Tolkien get away with a bunch of fraternal twins, if he made it so that it ran in the maternal side of the family. But he did not and it is infuriating.
Let me explain: Identical twins happen due to chance, early in pregnancy. Fraternal twins happen due to the pregnant person releasing more than one egg. There are other factors that go into this, but genetics are a major factor in whether or not that second thing happens. And it's the genetics of the pregnant person that matter here.
Amrod and Amras could be identical, and I'm fine with that.
But then we get to Lúthien and Beren's line, where there are twins in three generations in a row and THE PATTERN IS BROKEN.
[image from the Tolkien Gateway]
So, say twins run in Nimloth's family. That makes sense, she has twin sons and a daughter, who also has twin sons. That's all fine. Fraternal twins run in their family. But then Elrond has twin sons! It ruins everything. But what about Celebrían, I hear you asking (you're not asking, I know). There's no indication that twins run in her family. They might? But we don't know. Neither her mother nor grandmother had any twins.
It's all just very improbable.
TLDR: the thing I would change about this is that Elrond is AFAB, and bore the twins. It makes everything work.
I seriously doubt you were expecting this answer when you asked but this is the biology thing that Tolkien got wrong that bothers me most because he's SO CLOSE to being right.
If you're still here, thank you, anon! <3
