Blooding Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly) in “The Desolation of Smaug” – which I’ve reviewed here– was a no-brainer for the makers of “The Hobbit” films. They could scarcely complete part two of the triptych without including a vital female presence.
Fleeting glimpses of Galadriel (Cate Blanchett) and a moment with a Lake Town gossip would not propitiate the vast demographic of tweens and teens raised on Bella Swan and Katniss Everdeen, so Tauriel was invented and born as their Middle-earth identification figure. She enters the new film alongside her fellow elf warrior Legolas (Orlando Bloom), another “Desolation” debutant, and immediately overshadows him. Read the full article here
