Tauriel is Tolkien, Not Token

I have already written extensively about Tauriel and the fact that the criticism towards her is both inaccurate and sexist. This post is to show how Tauriel fits perfectly into Tolkien's legendarium. It is a supplemental post to my Tauriel essay, for scene details please read that. Bold in Tolkien's quotes is my emphasis.

Kiliel: Interracial and Queer

Trigger warnings: mentions of assault, rape, and murder.

Those who know me know that Tauriel/Kili is my favorite romantic relationship, and this essay is about two aspects of it that are commonly overlooked.

Tolkien is known for his interracial relationships, and Middle-earth's history is fundamentally shaped by them. Many people have talked about how Tolkien explicitly and consistently condemns internal racism throughout the legendarium. The Fellowship is the most well known example, but there are many different examples of how great things always happen when the different races come together. Haldir summarizes it perfectly when he says, “Indeed in nothing is the power of the Dark Lord more clearly shown than in the estrangement that divides all those who still oppose him.”

Alternatively, many haters say that Tauriel/Kili invalidates the importance Legolas and Gimli's friendship because now Legolas and Gimli were not the first elf and dwarf to get along.

This is completely nonsensical. Legolas and Gimli's friendship was never the first. Elves and dwarrow have a long history together that began before the First Age (see here for a complete covering of that history).

This also ignores the fact that Legolas and Gimli's friendship only starts after Gimli's relationship with Galadriel; and that that relationship is part of an often overlooked yet fundamental part of Tolkien's legendarium – the majority of Tolkien's romantic relationships are also interracial, and most of them are explicitly stated to be divine order. All of them follow a distinct pattern.

Feminism and Love

*This essay is a part of my Feminism series. You must read my Intro before reading this essay.*

This essay is about our society's extremely dysfunctional and restricted view of love. You must be familiar with the terms on my terminology list to understand this essay.

I said in my Intro that, “I love love, I love the psychology behind love, and having healthy and loving relationships is one of the biggest priorities in my life.” Being a lover of love, I love love in all it's forms.

Though some progress has been made, the romanticizing and sexualizing of emotions, especially love and passion, is still systematically overlooked or denied.

Nothing is inherently romantic. Absolutely nothing. What makes something romantic is if you feel romantic attraction when you do it. That's it. Likewise, nothing is inherently sexual. Kissing, hugging, hand holding, cuddling, sharing a bed, living together, etc. - none of these things are inherently romantic or sexual.

Wood Elves and Queer Coding

*This essay is a part of my 'Tolkien and Gender' series. You must read my Intro before reading this essay.*

Queer Coding. For those who don't know, queer coding is giving a character traits commonly associated with queer people, without explicitly stating that they are queer. Now, are any traits inherently queer? No. Our end goal is getting rid of labeling and classifying personality traits. However, we are no where near that point yet. Not only do we still code specific traits and behaviors as queer, most of the time they are talked about negatively – there is a long history of queer coding villains. Positive examples are usually (but not always) lumped in with and called 'queer subtext'. However, my issue with that is the fact that queer subtext goes far beyond a character's characterization (rightly so; and a queer coded character can certainly be part of a larger queer subtext). For this essay, I'm going to be using the term queer coding.

I came across a post recently that went along the usual lines of 'Thranduil is queer coded, Thranduil is a villain, this is bad'.

Thranduil is definitely queer coded; but he is not a villain, and this is not bad. That post also ignored the fact that Legolas and Tauriel are also queer coded (since I will be referring to parts of their aesthetics, see here if you want my full analysis of them).

Supplemental Woodland Realm Essay

This is a supplemental essay to my Tauriel’s Characterization essay, which goes over all three of our beloved elves’ characterizations and arcs in the The Hobbit films. You need to have read that essay for this one to make sense. Here I am going over the visuals in the films (like clothing and weapons), as well as expanding on elements from the films. I own none of the quotes or pictures included in this essay.

Also relevant to this supplemental essay is my Legolas’s Family History essay, which goes over all of Tolkien’s different texts relating to Thranduil and Legolas; and my Height Differences in The Hobbit post, which clarifies and compares the heights of many different characters (including Thranduil, Legolas, and Tauriel).

This supplemental essay is an expansion and slightly more formal version of a post I made on tumblr, about my favorite family in Tolkien.

Eowyn is an ISTP

See here for my Éowyn essay. For clarification on how the eight functions work, see here.

The Relationships Between Elves and Dwarves Throughout the Ages

*This essay follows my Tolkien Canon Policy. Anything that does not contradict the text(s) above it is considered canon. Lord of the Rings is the first tier; The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, and The Children of Húrin are the second tier (as all – in some way – were not fully complete like LotR; however they are all individual books in their own right); and all other works and notes are in the third tier.

It may stand out to you that I do not use any quotes from The Hobbit in this essay. That is because this essay is about the bigger Middle-earth mythology, and The Hobbit was not written with the intention of being part of the bigger mythology, thus leading to numerous inconsistencies that cannot be reconciled. *

Many people seem to be confused about the depth of Gimli's feelings for Galadriel, especially in comparison to his friendship with Legolas. I have also seen much confusion on the matter of elf/dwarf history overall. It is a complicated matter that depends not only on what time in Middle-earth's history you are speaking of, but also on what clan of elf or dwarf you are speaking of.

Therefore, I have covered all elven and dwarven interaction throughout all of Middle-earth's history in this essay.