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Thranduil. Whenever I think of him, there's a line from The Avengers that runs through my mind: "That guy's mind is a bag full of cats." He reminds me a lot of Loki, who I also don't understand in the slightest.
Actually, I do kind of understand him. I mean, I get where he's coming from -- he just wants to protect his people and reclaim what belongs to him, and he does not care a smidgen for anything or anyone else. He's selfish and isolationist, but I can get inside his head if I want to, unlike Frodo.
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I think the biggest problem I have with Thranduil (and Loki) is that he's unpredictable. I do not deal well with unpredictability. Not in fiction, not in life. This is why I hate and fear spiders -- it's impossible to predict where they'll go and what they'll do. Same thing with Thranduil -- he might come over and help you out by giving you wagons of food and all the warriors you could ever need to wage a war. Or he might decide he's no longer interested in this battle and just leave. You. Don't. Know. You can't count on him. At all. Ever. ::Shivers::
I love predictable people and characters, I really do. I married the most predictable man (with the broadest shoulders and the cutest dimples) I could find. I want to know I can count on you, I want to know I can make a plan and it will get followed, and I don't want you to randomly surprise me by completely changing all the plans on a whim.
It's rather surprising that I like cats, isn't it?
You know, my cats are very predictable. Too predictable. They have schedules, routines, and do the same things every day. LOL!
ReplyDeleteIt's very fascinating. The more you mention need for predictability, the more I realize I how opposite I am in that. We know that, of course, but my reaction's starting to get visceral, and that's intriguing.
You know... maybe unpredictability isn't the real problem here. Because both Wolverine and Sawyer delight in being unpredictable, and one of Holmes and Saunders' greatest strengths is that their enemies can't predict what they'll do.
DeleteBut as I re-read my third paragraph here, I see that you know what? It's not Thranduil's unpredictability that keeps me from understanding him very well -- it's his undependability. You can't count on him. Same with Loki. What does Thor say in T:TDW? "I wish i could trust you." You can't trust them, you can't count on them, you can't depend on them. Which is tied up with predictability, but not really the same thing.
I do need predictability and a plan, but more than that, I need dependability. I gotta know I can count on someone to be where they say they'll be. Whether they improvise their way there or stick to the plan is kind of beside the point.
(This would be why I like Tony Stark, but not Loki. Tony's also unpredictable, but he's fairly dependable. Mostly.)
Delete*snaps fingers* Oh, yeah! He was the one I couldn't understand, more so than Thorin. I think Thranduil went completely out of my mind when I was writing my answer to this...
ReplyDeleteI remember watching the movies and thinking, "What is with this guy and why do people seem to like him?" I mean...I suppose I sort of like him at the end, but...that's two minutes out of about nine hours. Not enough to make me really like him as a pers--as an elf;)
He's just...so cold. Something about him just makes you wary, doesn't it?
He's also very cold, yes. He's not nice. At all. Like, ever. Okay, he's nice for 2 seconds to Legolas at the end, and to Tauriel for maybe 4 seconds. But he's not innately nice. Or helpful. I don't trust him.
DeleteI don't understand him either. I couldn't figure out if he was meant to be some kind of heroic character or villain type one. I guess he was meant to be known as either, but he wasn't my favourite.
ReplyDeleteOne word that pops into my mind regarding Thranduil is "aloof." He's kind of apart from all the other things going on in this story, holds himself above and beyond the other characters. He isn't a hero or a villain, he's his own wild, unknowable, higher being.
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