Finally ! This is my version of the fellowship of the ring ( and Arwen :B ), I’ve tried to not be influenced by the movie but as per the Tolkien’s story. Hope you like it :D
Recently I screencapped the whole dang (three-hour!) movie from a Blu-ray version of the film and while sorting the screencaps I noticed some delightful little details. To wit:
When Isildur takes the Ring, for one brief second there’s this shot of his reflection looking back at him from it. It’s kinda weird and unsettling, which is obviously very appropriate.
You can get a glimpse of Arwen’s stunt double during the river scene.
Boromir is a total manspreader.
Everyone’s nails in this film are so fantastically dirty and gross (especially yours, Frodo.)
Legolas having to physically hold some other Elves back from… beating up the Dwarves? during the Council of Elrond is sort of funny to me, but also a great character detail.
I frickin love the Argonath scene (I used to have this poster on my wall) and I especially love that there are birds nesting in one of their eyes.
At a couple of points during the Amon Hen battle scene you can very clearly see Merry and Pippin’s smaller stunt doubles.
Aragorn taking Boromir’s vambraces at the end is very touching when you spot it, but it amuses me that the film just breezes past him actually taking them off the body and what exact explanation he gave, beyond possibly “I wanna keep this dead guy’s stuff. As a tribute to him, obviously.”
thranduil sleeps calmer knowing even if his son married a dwarf at least he married The Supermodel dwarf and singlehandedly crushed the hopes of single dwarves and dwarrowdams everywhere
this is my headcanon and you will never take it from me.
listen, just Listen for a second, okay.
Gimli Gloinul is from the line of Durin okay, he’s from the line of KINGS, his bloodline stands up against Legolas’ perfectly, if the elves and dwarves got their shit together for a hot second they would be like “YES, PERFECT, A DIPLOMATIC MARRIAGE TO BIND OUR HOUSES TOGETHER AND NEVER SHALL THE TWAIN THROW ONE ANOTHER TO DRAGONS…again.” because you have a king’s son and a king’s nephew which, well, I love Dain but he’s not an EREBOR KING and GIMLI IS FROM THE FAMILY OF EREBOR KINGS.
And Gimli acts like he’s from the line of Erebor kings, too, okay, he’s a diplomat and a warrior and a nobleman, he’s the sort of person who SAYS things like ‘faithless is he who says fairwell when the road darkens’ and stares down Elrond Peredhil in his own home when his strength and faith are questioned. And he’s the kind of person who swears his allegiance to people he barely knows because it’s Right and Good and Gimli knows it.
And Thorin Oakenshield was handsome, and his sister the lady Dis is beautiful, and Gimli’s cousins Fili and Kili were fine young dwarrows, and Gimli’s mother is a great beauty.
Basically my point here is that Gimli, proud strong gimli with his firebeard hair and bold laugh and mithril tongue and clever fingers, broke the hearts of everyone in Erebor and not a few people outside of Erebor when he married a goddamn elf. Like. Not even Arwen Undomiel (WHO MARRIED A GODDAMN HUMAN, it’s been a weird couple of years in Middle-Earth, everyone wonders strongly if they’ve been drinking too much). Like he’s not even marrying a great beauty of the elves, Legolas isn’t ugly by elvish standards but also he’s nothing particularly special, and he’s not a great diplomat, and he’s BARELY a king’s son because everyone knows that Mirkwood elves are…a little odd. Legolas is a big cheerful hunter who sings songs he doesn’t remember all of, who chatters to trees and has no sense of the right thing to say even if he’s developed enough self-preservation to know the wrong thing to say, and FOR THE LOVE OF MAHAL HE FIGHTS WITH A BOW.
“GIMLI” Gloin bellows “YOU TURNED DOWN THIRTY-TWO SUITORS FROM FINE DWARVISH LINES FOR THIS”
“Ignore him, amrâlime, he’ll get over it” Gimli says in amusement as he beckons Legolas over to his forge, where he’s carefully smithing mithril-inlaid gold marriage clasps that will grip fine elvish hair. It’s too hot in the forge to wear shirts, if you’re working. Every dwarf in twenty feet stops what they’re doing to watch Gimli’s biceps flex as he holds up a jewel for Legolas’ inspection.
“YOU COULD HAVE HAD A HAREM” Gloin wails from down the hall.
it will never cease to delight me that in the trilogy, gimli is shown to be charming, with all the polish and grace of a trained diplomat—he trades wits with elrond and speaks so graciously to galadriel that she gives him a gift denied feanor; his extemporaneous description of the glittering caves is what convinces legolas to travel there with him after the war, he sings the song of durin so well that sam begs to learn it.
whereas legolas is this big cheerful lug of a hunter-tracker, incidentally a prince, only unwittingly beautiful and graceful—his speech is decidedly stiff and formal, even when he’s trying to be gentle, but then turns around and starts singing without realizing he’s forgotten half the song. He has strange moments of seriousness, when the ancientness of him shines through, but then—
I do wonder what their first conversations were, gimli dignified but a little chilly; legolas stiff even as he attempted humor, but a way forward nonetheless.
This, I think, is one of my favorite elf pictures. I love the adorable baby Legolas grabbing daddy’s hair, and the indulgent attitude of Thranduil along with that tiny smile. Given how few children elves have, proportionate to their lifespan, it really shows how much elves must adore their babies (especially since they regard it as the happiest part of their lives).
And given how Thranduil is angry and/or a hardass throughout most of the books AND movies, seeing his softer side is really very sweet.
