Itaril

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

I'm not known for my great enthusiasm for the movie----but it does have to be pointed out that Tolkien himself once posited the possibility that other hands would add to his stories and some of his academic essays discuss how subsequent writers change stories (see, for example, his essay on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight).

I have to wonder though, whether celluloid is the medium he would have preferred for "additions", and not books.

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

There isn't anything necessarily wrong with adding a female character per se. If Tolkien's creation really cannot accept the inclusion of a new female character, then maybe there is something to the arguments that Tolkien has a problem with female characters.)

A problem with female characters? How's that? Galadriel is one of the most powerful and wise in LOTR. Lúthien with Beren entered the gates of Hell and recaptured a Silmaril from an incarnate "fallen angel'.

Personally, I have no particular issue with the gender of Tauriel. I equally dislike the idea of Alfrid, another invented, unnecessary character apparently on the way along with Tauriel.

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

And in some ways it reminds me of the horrible vituperation visited on Amy Winehouse when she died. There are plenty of male rock stars who suffered the same affliction but they never received the vitriole she did. Why all the focus on the female character and not on the dwarves?

I don't see the parallel between this and Amy Winehouse. And why have the Dwarves not thus far been the object of vilification? Perhaps because they actually appeared in the book.