Tauriel’s Nerfing
Tauriel was a glimmer of hope in The Desolation of Smaug. She kicked butt and gave the male-skewed cast much-needed diversity. But, when I saw the petals of love unfolding between her and Kili, the sexiest dwarf that I’ve ever seen, I knew where we would end up. Tauriel does not end the series as a powerful, well-rounded and deserved addition to the mythos. Instead, she spends the third film barely fighting, barely speaking, and making lovey-dovey faces at the sexy dwarf (while keeping Legolas firmly cemented in the friend zone). By the end of the film, we see the real reason that she was added to the series: to serve as a love interest for someone and inject a romantic angle into a story that, honestly, could have done without either of those things in favor of an awesome representation of an woman elven warrior. Ultimately, she just ends up a crying Damsel, which is a Damsel shame if you ask me.