Tauriel: Mary-Sue or Not?

What do you think of Peter Jackson's original character, Tauriel.

I hate her. She is obviously a Mary-Sue	10.8%	[ 21 ]
I will only dislike her if she becomes a love interest for a main character.	10.8%	[ 21 ]
I dislike her because she feels like an unnecessary character.	17.4%	[ 34 ]
Neutral. Reserving judgement until the movie comes out.	12.8%	[ 25 ]
Meh.	8.7%	[ 17 ]
She looks interesting.	12.3%	[ 24 ]
Finally, a strong female character.	9.7%	[ 19 ]
I love her. She looks like a badass.	17.4%	[ 34 ]
Total Votes:			[ 195 ]

[LooseCogs]

I like her. I think it's good that they created a female character where there were none before. it's like the actress said in an interview, you can't have little girls watching something for three hours that has no one like them in it

[Morien Alexander]

I did not expect to like her as much as I did.

That said- to the question at hand- I think that she's less of a Mary Sue and more of a plot device. From what I know of Mary Sues, they're usually created to fulfill a writer's inner desires, whether or not they have flaws in appearance or personality. I don't think that's the case with Tauriel. I believe she was there to add to the plot in different ways.

For example, adding her character created a romantic subplot, had a female added to an otherwise entirely male cast, and made the elves (particularly the ones in Mirkwood) more sympathetic. I think a big bonus in adding her is that it allows both Thranduil and Legolas to be pretty horrible. It gave Legolas' character in the LOTR movies a little more depth-- not for having feelings for her, but because you can see how far he's come as a person from the snotty princeling to a valuable and loyal member of the Fellowship. And I feel like there is the added implication that he learns something from her, particularly in how he comes to treat Gimli.

I honestly don't think it was a bad decision to include her. I really liked her subplot with Kili, and I didn't hate the thing about Legolas liking her, because it ultimately doesn't seem to lead anywhere that's not in the books. I have significantly more issues with the Hobbit movies, so I was really pleasantly surprised with Tauriel. biggrin