Thursday 13 June 2013

The Great Tauriel Debate


Warning: contains "opinonions". Whatever they are.

9 comments:

  1. Yay, yay, yay! This came at a great time because I've been thinking about her lately. She was awesome in the trailer and I even wrote a little about her in my reaction to it.

    "Opinonions" make me cry when I cut them. :P

    For me, the best situation would be to have the film follow the book quite strictly. Obviously that's not going to happen; Tauriel IS a thing. So now that she's in there, the next best situation is for her to simply be a girl who kicks butt. From the trailer, it looks like she will be.

    As for the romance - I read somewhere that she will NOT fall in love with Legolas. If there is romance it's probably going to be Kili. There are two reasons that worries me. First: friendship/love between an elf and a dwarf is Legolas & Gimli's story. Considering the history of their races and their personal history (Legolas' dad is the Elvenking who imprisons the dwarves; Gimli's dad was one of those dwarves), it's really quite touching that they become friends. If Tauriel and Kili are in looooooove, I think that takes away from the later story because "it's already been done".

    The other reason the possible romance worries me is that there's this idea that when you have male and female characters together, THERE MUST BE ROMANCE. It's offensive to girls (they can never get away from being a love interest; even when they're more than just that, they're still going to end up as someone's girlfriend) and to guys as well (I don't know about you, but I don't know any guys who fall in love with every girl they see). PJ had no problem with Galadriel not being a love interest, so I hope Tauriel won't have romance added to her storyline.

    Oh, Charley. You have such a way with words. "THEY THINK THEY CAN APPEASE US BY ADDING SOME BOOBS!" Also I misheard the part about Galadriel and Gandalf snarking and I thought they were snogging, which resulted in a very different mental image...

    Nice video!

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    1. Ehehe, thank you!

      Also, on the romance front, the actress has stated that there will definitely be romance in her story. This cuts me to the soul, it really does. WHY CAN WE NOT HAVE AN AWESOME LADY ELF WITH NO ROMANTIC TIES PLEASE. GALADRIEL DID IT BUT EVEN THEN THEY HAD SOME MEANINGFUL LOOKS WITH GANDALF. GAWD.

      Sorry. It annoys me.

      Then again, the Galadriel-Gandalf snog . . . I think my brain just screamed and died.

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    2. ARGH NO NO NO I DON'T WANT ROMANCE. Why can't Tauriel kick butt AND be pretty (seriously, how did her hair stay so perfect after all those flips and jumps in the trailer?) AND be independent? I don't hate romance, but do we really need it in every story just because there's a woman (especially where there wasn't one before)?

      *has a sad because elfy-dwarfy feels are for Legolas and Gimli in LotR, not these guys in The Hobbit* Have you read that part of the Appendices, where it talked about their friendship? :) It's so sweet.

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    3. YES! Then again, elves seem to have a gift for never losing their perfect hair. Humans and dwarves are not so lucky.

      Ohmygoshyes. My heart exploded.

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  2. If Tauriel is a competent, sympathetic, developing character, I won't question it. If she's just a female so Jackson won't seem as sexist as Tolkien seems at times, she's useless. If she's someone who can take care of herself, but nothing else, then she's basically Arya from the Inheritance Cycle. We both know how useless that particular elf was.

    Personally, I love the way Jackson is fleshing out the story. Knowing the structure and the need for new antagonists, I didn't question his choice of including Azog. (I have never completely read the appendices, so I had never heard of him until then. Now that I have read his bit, I still don't mind that Jackson messed with his backstory.) Similarly, I didn't question his choice of including the darker storyline of the Necromancer, which I almost forgot was included in the Hobbit-- it wasn't, really, except for brief explanations for Gandalf's absence. I think Jackson is a big boy now and he knows what he's getting into.

    As for not having read the books... I wish it weren't so, but the same thing happened with Martin Freeman, who plays Bilbo admirably. As long as they can act, I don't care if they know Bilbo's granduncle or not.

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    1. But what do you think about the romantic aspect of her character? Just wondering. It's neat to see what different fans think.

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    2. Personally, I hope she doesn't get involved. I've joked a couple times about it, calling her Legolas's girlfriend, but I hope the moviemakers have the sense to transcend the obvious part she could play. Now, if Legolas had a girl, then she died at the hand of a dwarf, that would be awesome. In that case, I vote yes for girlfriend. But again, I hope the writers find a good role for her, instead of a contrived romantic or racist.

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    3. Well said Liam - and I'm glad I finally found someone who agrees on the Azog and Necromancer bits! I think the Necromancer, in particular, is a great tie-in to the trilogy (because it's Sauron and all that) and also gives a more legitimate and visible reason for Gandalf to vanish all the time. In the book, even seven year old Charley thought it was a bit odd how he vanished every time he was needed, just so the dwarves could get into hijinx.

      On Tauriel, also, you are right. It doens't matter if she's female or not, it's whether she's an interesting and useful character. I believe I mentioned token females in the vid, but . . . yeah. My hatred of those is unbounded.

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  3. I love your accent! :D (Sorry to get all American on you).

    What?!?! There's going to be a romantic subplot?!?! THAT. RIGHT THERE. Bringing Tauriel in just for a romantic subplot represents EXACTLY what I hate about female characters these days in books. People seem to think they can't exist unless they have some sort of romantic purpose (*COUGH* Bella and Edward *COUGH*). We have Katniss, Hermione, and all of the other fantastic female characters that exist, but as time goes on, the take-charge heroines are diminishing into weepy, needy, sappy teenaged girls. I hope Tauriel's not like that.

    Anyways, enough of my ranting. Wonderful, well-argued video and I hope to see more of these from you! :D I'm curious to see what you think of the movie after you watch it.

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