Sad or Elated now the Movies are at an End?

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

Has the thought occurred to anyone else that inclusion of the Tauriel/Kili storyline may as much have been influenced by modern fan culture as anything else? It struck me that this was Jackson making use of some 'shipping' in his own film. It would certainly not be without precedent, and it's known (not in a Dothraki way ) that film makers, especially those making 'geek friendly' products, are using focus groups more and more, and are very aware of internet culture. Even Sherlock incorporated this in the last series, making use of twitter "OMG he's alive!" quotes all over the screen and having a laugh with (about?) fandom.

An elf/dwarf 'ship' is something lifted directly from tumblr - once the decision was made to throw in a female Elven warrior, it's not long before other ideas would seem interesting.

While I'm on the topic, it shouldn't be underestimated that the LotR films were probably instrumental in kicking off the plethora of geek films/TV we are now seeing. I would strongly argue that No LotR would mean No Game of Thrones, no Doctor Who revival, and no Marvel Cinematic Universe. Or at least, certainly not with the impact they are currently enjoying.

Of course it was a marketing decision, PJ admitted as much ("cold-blooded" as he put it). Marketing decisions were what ran the entire Hobbit enterprise. From a strictly cynical standpoint, one could say the idea for dragging the story into 3 three-hour films had more to do with marketing and money than plot, and there is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that was the primary motivation.

Marketing made Thorin, and even more so Kili, look like handsome matinee idols rather than dwarves (which, of course, made the rest of the dwarves look outlandish and alien). Marketing gave us another round of gravity-defying Legolas, with the bloated, contact-wearing Orlando Bloom reprising his stiff portrayal. Marketing gave us uneven Tauriel, who, like Arwen before her, first appears like Xena the Warrior Princess, able to kill scores of orcs and spiders singlehandedly before succumbing to the inevitable weakening of the character until she's incapable of fighting on her own and becomes a pile of vulnerable mush by the end.

Yes, it was all marketing, and the story suffered for it.