but I'm a nice elf

[ladysisyphus]

Upon re-watching the third Hobbit movie, I started thinking some thoughts about That Love Triangle. Now, I know that love triangles are the quick and lazy go-to of fiction looking for conflict (true) and that they're usually perpetuated without any idea as to why at least two of the characters might have a thing for one another (also true) and that

Comments

[drmoonpants]

YEAH

...that's all I got, we already talked about this

BUT YEAH

[yumiyoshi]

1) I agree with this post
2) It took me a minute to figure out what you meant by the last sentence and then I lost it. XD

(I am, as you can see, in no way in the fandom.)

[ladysisyphus]

Legolas/Gimli is one of those things I wouldn't be particularly into or insistent about, except ... I mean, the fact that you can ship it just from the books, without ever touching a movie, makes it pretty hard to ignore. And creating Tauriel and pairing her with Kili makes for an interesting juxtaposition. So hey, I will board that ship and sail it, too, into the West.

[bgnathaleigh]

Summarized this to my housemate, who said, "Well, isn't LoTR two-thirds written by females?" (Namely, Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh.) And... yeah. Solution: more fiction written by women...?

I noticed all your points while I was watching too, and I loved that they didn't descend into romcom tropes and Nice Guy character traits.

[ladysisyphus]

Let's put all the oldy moldy fantasy franchises in the hands of ladies! I'll sign that petition a hundred times.

I was thinking, too, that maybe they made Legolas so nice because everybody likes him already? On reflection, though, they had plenty of reason to make him a dickbag here, showing that the years in-between have tempered him. But nope! He starts out from a pretty good place already.

[neomeruru]

This is really boss, thank you for writing out what was in my head. It feels like when I try to talk about how it was a GOOD love triangle for these reasons, I just get shouted down by fanboys because it wasn't in the books, and therefore it burns us.

[ladysisyphus]

Lord love a duck, the next entitled fanboy I hear whinging about Tauriel, I'm going to feed to a lady dragon. I called the fan cut that specifically eliminated the plotlines containing Tauriel and Galadriel the Get Rid Of Slimy girlS edit.

In the end, I wish the love story plot hadn't happened, but largely because I don't like the sort of obligatory sense that if there's a girl, she needs a romance plot. But if it had to happen, at least it happened this well. And I won't even pretend I'm not into the Kill/Tauriel. He could plant his face right in her boobs while they were both standing and that is fantastic.

[velithya]

I haven't seen the second two hobbit movies but I read this anyway and I'm glad I did!
Thanks for doing a sensible love triangle, movie people!