Legolas Syndrome

[Linnamalle]

I've always been curious to why he has such a massive following.

Okay, since nobody else has taken the bait on this question, I will give it my best shot.

Let's get the obvious out of the way. He's cute/handsome/attractive (pick one.) He's tall, slender, lithe, leonine, a capable warrior, etc etc. So much for the physical. But there's more than one of those out there, so still one may ask, why LegOrly?

Consider the following list:

Gentleness
Kindness
Faithfulness
Self-Control
Peacefulness
Patience
Loyalty (see Faithfulness)

Consider list number 2:

As princes go, he's not eactly arrogant or power-pushy
As elves go, he's remarkably approachable
As comrades go, he seems very easy to get along with (who besides Gimli ever really argues with Legolas, aside from his Helm's Deep argument with Aragorn?)
As Warriors go, he's able to count corpses with a laugh and smile and a sparkle in his eye
He's cool-headed under pressure, yet shoots with deadly accuracy
He is at once valiant and dangerous to an enemy, and yet completely safe and non-threatening to an ally (rather important these days to a number of females who have been victimized by someone they should have been able to trust.)
He doesn't have a problem with his temper.
He doesn't have a sharp tongue.
He doesn't enjoy handing out criticism.
He doesn't avoid emotion, or scorn it (consider his gentle response to Gimli's grief at leaving Galadriel.)

Now my point is, what girl wouldn't want a loyal, gentle, kind, non-threatening, non-argumentative, powerful man like that if he was available?

In short, he is very, very, very safe. LegOrly will probably never hurt you unless you switch over to The Dark Side. Wouldn't you want him as an ally? I would. What girl hasn't at some point in time created a dream-partner remarkably like what I've just described?

Once you have that: gentlesness, kindness, sensitivity, safety, loyalty, valor and reliability-- being ethereally gorgeous probably doesn't detract much, and may even add considerable appeal.

I should probably finish my post by firmly stating that given a free choice, I prefer Book-Frodo, myself. But considering the above lists, I can certainly understand why so many females find LegOrly so very extremely appealing. If I were still a teenager, who knows what my reaction to him might have been?