PJ, just... no

[martasfic]

(Spoilers for the new Hobbit movie under the cut.)

According to roughly half the posts on my Pinterest feed, Evangeline Lily has hinted there will be a love story between her and Legolas.

Peter, my friend, bubbeleh... no. Just step away from Fanfiction.net, slowly but resolutely. Because there are very few things that could keep the hardcore Lord of the Rings fans from buying tickets to movie #3, but putting this nonsense into movie #2 just might be it. Seriously. Seriously.

Are you trying to turn Tauriel into a literal Mary Sue? Original character, has to be restrained from great heroic acts of adventure by the king himself, now she's in love with Legolas?!? Next thing you'll be telling us, her family was eaten by wargs while she was out learning birdsongs with Radagast. Did she have to die her naturally magenta locks so the other wood-elves would accept her.

Also: red hair? Oh, I get it, she's Maedhros's long-lost daughter and will reunite all the Elven kindreds so the good guys can have victory at the Battle of the Five Armies. That would at least match with your epification of Thorin's quest.


*head/desk*

Comments

[dreamflower]

*facepalm*

I suppose I could handle a few "looks" between the two (*rolls eyes*) but a full-fledged romance? Uh-uh.

It will not only tick off the hard-core Tolkien fans, it will ALSO tick off all of the writers of Legomances who see their OCs as Legolas' One Twu Wuv, as well as all those who want to slash him with Gimli or Aragorn or Boromir or a hobbit or two.

Really, PJ, you can't win with this...

ETA: after looking at the link, I wonder if she's not yanking a few chains on purpose; that's a lot of hint from someone who had to keep secrets during the run of LOST. Reading between the lines, I wonder if her "special relationship" with Legolas is more sisterly, and the hints are meant to deflect from some other character as a love interest? (He grew up with her, his father took her under his wing?) It does sound like the sort of mischievous thing she might do (thinking back again to when she was in LOST.)

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

I'm completely unfamiliar with her in "Lost," so she may be on to something like that. I wouldn't know her character well enough to pick up on it. But I'm not sure that's really that much better. This is the thing with Legolas, though there are so many tropes that are just overdone that they seem cliched until you see them done right. It just seems awful at this level of detail.

I do hope it's not as bad as this seems, though. Endurance Beyond Hope, I suppose. :-)

[dreamflower]

LOST was one of those shows in which the real details of what was happening was kept uber-secret, while the producers and actors all delighted in throwing out misleading hints all the time. Which is why it makes me wonder.

[allie-meril.livejournal.com]

I like this theory. Here's to hoping that's what she's doing!

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

Define love interest, maybe Legolas is smitten, but she is absolutely not interested ;c)

[dreamflower]

Or vice-versa. Unrequited would work. Or even unacknowledged.

Anything to avoid them in a clinch during a dangerous situation...because that is so not Legolas. I don't know if it's so not Tauriel, since we've yet to make her acquaintance.

[mrowe.livejournal.com]

I'd better start stockpiling sporks and bleeprin - they're going to be in demand...

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

As Dreamflower said it might not be as bad as it sound. I'm hoping. But still, that might not be a bad investment...

[mrowe.livejournal.com]

Sporks and bleeprin are always popular - and who knows, she may in fact be winding us up a bit *g*

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

The twins Amrod and Amras politely want to point out to you that they had more interactions with the Avari/Laiquendi than their big brother who oh so stubbornly lived cold up there at the Himring, so do add them to the equation as well :D

Or or, maybe she's Nerdanel's daughter she begot after Fëanor left for Beleriand and once matured she sailed East as well to present herself as the 8th Fëanorian?? Oh the possibilities are endless!

[elliska.livejournal.com]

ROTFL!! Oh do shut up lest PJ read this and write some of these ideas into the script. It's not too late, you know!

(Although, I might actually be able to laugh at the idea of Thranduil finding out that Legolas is secretly in love with a Feanorian. That would be rich!)

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it? :D

[elliska.livejournal.com]

I have my fingers in my ears and I am singing lalalalala! I can't hear any of this. It is not happening. It is not happening.

Please, I really just don't want to see PJ destroy my favorite realm and all signs point to the fact that he is.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

I really, really hope that, as suggested upthread, this is a windup.

Otherwise, I recognise that (as an acknowledged Legomancer) I'm the last person in any position to be outraged - and after all, we have all the extracanonical wriggle room in the world to speculate about Legolas' love life, particularly during the Hobbit timeframe - but that really would determine once and for all that PJ is writing fanfic just like the rest of us. Just with a vastly bigger budget to make pretty pictures with...

[jay-of-lasgalen.livejournal.com]

I do hope this isn't true!

I've seen pictures of Tauriel, and she actually looks a lot like my OFC Taniquel, a Mirkwood elf and Elrohir's love interest ...

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Did you have a post about Mary Sue's recently or did I dream it? I recently wrote a Mary Sue parody on my LJ which set me thinking. I think one reason folk hate them is the same reason that OC stories are rarely much liked(unless the writer can create characters to equal Tolkien's which a young teenager is unable usually to do). When I click on a LOTR story I expect it to feature my favourite characters rather than some OC who is better than all of them.

[marta-bee.livejournal.com]

I didn't, but Dawn Felagund did and I mentioned it over at FB. Is that maybe what you're thinking of?

I don't really mind stories about OCs, even their female variant. Ive written quite a bit about Hurin of the Keys, for instance, who is for all purposes an OC. I mean, Tolkien named him but we know so little about him in canon, we basically have to make it all up. And some of my favorite fanfic stories revolve around EdorasLass's Nanny and Ann's Mag and Mormegil - I love the Gondor corner of fandom's OCs so much. The difference, I think, is that some OCs complement the canon story, giving new perspectives on established cultures and characters and situations. What I've seen about Tauriel makes me think she's setting up to disrupt the plot we know. If this was a fanfic story I would probably give more leeway, but as this is an adaptation rather than an original creation or should be, these things bother me.