yes! I feel like a lot of hate for this character comes from the movies and the resulting fics.

To be fair, he is a very hateable character... xD
I can't approve of some of the language, but besides that, this is a very well put-together rant. Where do you find older manuscripts and Tolkien's original drafts? I'd love to read/study them.

I think Peter Jackson hates elves in general. He kills them all off, forgets Glorfindel and the twins, makes their race way too serious, totally misinterprets Thranduil’s character, removes all Legolas’ cool jokes and light hearted ness. I think I agree with you.

interesting!

This made my night. I'm glad I stumbled upon this in the archive! Thanks for posting this essay! It's nice to find someone as passionate about this subject as I...!

While this isn't really a fanfiction, I agree with all your points. Thanks for posting this.

So do you not like Pj's version of Legolas or are you merely stating these as facts and not insults?

Simply love it! ; D I might not agree with all points concerning your view of Legolas in the books and I cannot say anything about him in PJ's "Hobbit", having given up on it after the "Desolation of Smaug" (which more than anything desolated logic and common sense), but the way you execute this general strike of logic is heart-warming and brain-tickling: Simply the uplifting thing my poor mind needed after the current flood of Jackson-mad teenage drool I had to face lately.

Fabulous..I am starting to realize how much of PJ's twisted canon had seeped into my bones..feeling these days rather uninclined to think of Legolas at all (shudder..skateboarding at Helm's Deep) and coming to loathe Thranduil.

It is unfair and misses a central point: the high ones (Noldo etc) will leave for the blessed realm before the work of rebuilding is accomplished. The 'low' ones (sindar who stay (Celeborn, Tnranduil, Legolas etc,) Silvans, dwarves, Men will pick up the pieces and carry on... only they will come to know the Second Music. It is the the redemption part of the stories on so many levels that was utterly lost.

Sulriel commented we need to watch PJ's creation as a fanfic, not the book. How can one reduce such a sweeping arc to a mere video game?

and don't get me started on what he did to a certain Ranger...

This is very well put together, and I can see your point. The only thing that is incorrect is that Aragorn was 86 in LOTR and the Hobbit takes place 60-ish years before, so he would be in his twenties. Not 8. Other then that, very well done

Lot of research there! I happen to like both versions of LOTR for different reasons. Loved the first hobbit movie not so keen on the last part. Burning a body takes a lot (and I mean a lot) of wood and high temperatures doubt the boys would have had enough time or resources to burn Boromir!

A magnificent take down! And I have learned loads of interesting stuff about the early drafts. (Incidentally what do you think Tolkien's own take on homosexuality was? From very early on in reading LOTR I assumed - getting dispensation to go to Valinor etc - that it was a very close friendship in the manner of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. But of courseTTolkien was a fairly devout Catholic and will have been brought up to believe it was a sin. And I have seen it argued that Tolkien aligned himself with the hearties rather than the aesthetes in Oxford, and the former were overtly homophobic. I still think even if only subconsciously he meant L&G to read as romantic).

Excellent.
Borys