| “ | You think your life is worth more, when there is no love in it? There is no love in you. | „ |
| ~ Tauriel |
| “ | If this is love, I do not want it. Take it from me, please. Why does it hurt so much? | „ |
| ~ Tauriel |
Tauriel is a major character in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit trilogy, serving as one of the two tritagonists of The Desolation of Smaug (along with Legolas), and a major character in The Battle of the Five Armies.
She was played by Evangeline Lilly.
What Makes Her A Scrappy?[]
- She's a controversial addition to the film series as she wasn't made by J.R.R. Tolkien, unlike other characters in the film series that weren't in the original book like Legolas and Azog and even Frodo Baggins.
- Her main role is to be a lovesick puppy who can't stop being overprotective of Kili, a particularly youthful member of Thorin's Company, when she's not openly fawning over him. He is a prisoner, a trespasser, and part of the company that had stolen Thranduil's gems.
- Furthermore, their first interaction was him asking her in the creepiest of ways if she was curious about what was under his pants, which got her to pay attention to him later when he joked that his stone was cursed (given that's what was under his trousers all along).
- Tauriel has no character depth beyond simping for Kili and almost nothing to detract from the awful love triangle except for Legolas being weirdly overprotective of her despite (or perhaps because of) their gargantuan age gap.
- While added subplots to The Hobbit trilogy were mildly controversial at best for not following the canonical events of the books, like Gandalf's investigation of Dol Guldur and Bard the Bowman getting arrested in Laketown, Legolas' tracking of Lord Sauron and his Orcs with Tauriel stand out as one of the best examples of not following the book continuity not just because Tauriel was an exclusive Hollywood invention, but it seems like her addition made it so that the original plot of the book had to be changed with Kili, Fili, Óin, and Bofur staying in Laketown instead of going with the rest of the Dwarves to Erebor.
- At least Gandalf's investigation and Bard's arrest are based on subjects in the books.
- Like the Master of Laketown, Tauriel's behavior is consistently immature for most if not all of her screen time. She kept childishly giving the Elvenking grief, which prompted him to banish her. Not only is she only 600 years old, but Thranduil literally has a son who is nearly five times her age. He probably sees her as a rebellious womanchild (if not an actual child by Elven standards), and Legolas being attracted to such a young girl can be seen as problematic in and of itself.
- Her childishness extends to pure sanctimony as she bleats about "other lands" despite only caring about Kili and about herself and petulantly acts like Thranduil is some kind of isolationist when she could've obeyed him and done her chores (namely the nest Thranduil ordered destroyed "two moons" ago) instead of throwing fits.
- She is also selfish in an equally socially and emotionally stunted way, wanting Kili to stay in her arms instead of going to Erebor. Even Kili is loyal to Thorin and Dain, while Tauriel is anything but loyal to Thranduil, hence why she's banished (whereas Kili comes nowhere near being excommunicated from Thorin's Company).
- Her lack of emotional growth extends to her being a bit sadistic since she asks Narzug if he'd like being killed and tries to do it without Thranduil's say-so, to which he has no choice but to tell her the grownups are talking and to sod off.
- To drive the turning point home about how cartoonishly juvenile her personality is, she has the nerve to point a bow at Thranduil. He's known her for six centuries and she's known Kili for forty-eight hours. He's about to teach his already banished ex-retinue a lesson when Legolas unfairly saves her.
- Despite saving her from Thranduil's righteous retaliation, Legolas has to save her a second time when she was moronic enough to think she could take on Bolg. He could take out 43 Orcs at Helm's Deep alongside a dwarf and Tauriel could take out zilch alongside another dwarf, so Tauriel obviously gives Silvan Elves a bad name.
- Even her actress disliked the role to an extent as she took the role on the condition that her character wasn't going to be in a love triangle, which is all her character even did throughout the trilogy.
Trivia[]
- She is one of three Middle-earth Scrappies along with Alfrid Lickspittle from The Desolation of Smaug, Mika Milovana from the 1966 short film The Hobbit, and Samwise Gamgee from Ralph Bakshi's cartoon adaptation. Ironically, none are part of the Tolkien Legendarium.
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 Scrappies
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