Quote:
Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin
"Estel's" identity wasn't that much of a secret; at best it was classified Confidential since it was known to all of Elrond's household, all the Dunedain, Gandalf, Galadriel, Celeborn, Haldir and even Bilbo. The Dunedain, after all, knew good and well who their hereditary chieftain was and who he was descended from.
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I don't own DVD copies of the three Peter Jackson "Hobbit" movies, so I have to depend on youtube to look up various scenes to refresh my memory on the occasions when I want to comment on something related to these of awful film experiences. In terms of this discussion thread, I took a particular interest in the obvious
sequel-set-up scenes near the end of
The Batttle of the Five Armies when the "young Elf lord" Legolas takes leave of his father, King Thranduil without a clue as to where he wanted to go and what he might possibly do. In a typical Hollywood "western," the hero cowboy would simply mount up and slowly ride off on his horse into the setting sun. For "royal" elves like Prince Legolas in a Peter Jackson movie, this would involve riding away "into the West" on an enormous CGI moose with antlers spanning twenty-five feet, at least. But I digress ...
I went over all this "Legolas leaving" stuff in comment #74 above so I don't want to repeat all that here. I only wanted to figure out where the next movies might go on the basis of where "the narrative" left off at the end of
The Hobbit in
2942 when Bilbo returns to the Shire with his little magic ring. Specifically, I wondered why King Thranduil didn't tell his son, Legolas: "
Just head on over to Imladris (i.e., Rivendell) and check out this ten-year-old boy Aragorn, the true heir to the throne of Gondor." Why bother with all the "Confidential" name-concealing stuff if everyone in Imladris -- except Aragorn himself -- knew the real story? And what would Legolas do in Imladris for another decade while waiting for Aragorn to grow up, turn twenty (in
2951), learn his true name, meet his older foster-sister Arwyn, and go out into the wild where he would meet and become friends with Gandalf five years later in
2956? Why does King Thanduil play these stupid "figure it out for yourself" mind games on his own son when he could just let him in on what so many other people already know even when Aragorn himself doesn't? I just don't see how this works.
At any rate, Tolkien didn't mention Legolas until the Council of Elrond (in October of
3018) where Elrond reveals Aragorn's true identity to the assembled guests, Legolas included. According to Tolkien, King Thranduil had sent his son Legolas to Rivendell to tell Lord Elrond and other important persons that Gollum had escaped from the wood-elves' rather lax supervision. As Appendix B tells us, Aragorn had captured Gollum and turned him over to the elves and Gandalf for interrogation the previous year (
3017) so one would presume that King Thranduil's son Legolas had at least met Aragorn back home in Mirkwood at the time of this turnover. So why did King Thranduil send his son Legolas on a wild goose chase for decades when he could have told him: "
Just stay here with us in Mirkwood and this 'Strider' character will come visit us in another seventy-five years (3017) bearing a disgusting little creature for us to keep prisoner for him and his wizard buddy Gandalf? Then, when we lose the foul wretch like we lost the hobbit Bilbo and some dwarves earlier this year (2942), you can take a message to Rivendell the following year (in 3018) and find out this guy Strider's true name along with everyone else. So why not just save yourself a lot of needless wandering around to no purpose?."
Something tells me that this Legolas character has a lot of wandering around lost to do in these forthcoming movies -- at least, "based on" the information Tolkien provided in Appendix B of
Lord of the Rings. Bilbo's poem might even require some modification:
Pyrite, or "fool's gold" does glitter.
Some wanderers truly are lost.
Bad movies make viewers feel bitter
When they think how much tickets now cost.
From the ashes some soot shall be scattered
On the living room floor made of clay.
For the rich only one lesson mattered:
The penniless once more shall pay.