Sauron is literally the archetypical Fantasy Dark Lord.
"Appearing in a popular series" is not my benchmark for being iconic. For instance, Tauriel has way more screentime than Sauron, and she appeared in the same franchise, but no one cares about her or even remembers her. Meanwhile, everyone knows Sauron. It's simple and straightforward.
Sauron is literally the Lord of the Rings and you try to act like he's not iconic, sure dude.
That's what the apologists of sequels always do, they try to bring down the past work and pretend it wasn't popular, iconic, or good.
That's why, when I read Rings of Power apologists, GoT Season 8 apologists, Disney apologists, I always ask myself "How did they even become fans of these franchises in the first place, since they only find flaws in past works"?![]()
Being important to the story is irrelevant.
Why does this thread not know what "iconic" means? Do you people never have casual conversations with anyone? Lol.
"Iconic" means that I could ask a friend who has never seen LOTR who Legolas is, and they'd tell me "it's the elf with the white hair and the bow".
"Iconic" means that I could ask a friend who hates movies who Sauron is, and they'd tell me "it's the big scary evil eye".
It's really not hard to understand what "iconic" means.
You could’ve just stopped right there. Characters importance starts and ends with the quality of the story. Legolas is a lesser LotR character. I barely think of him in regards to the story.
Even if I was to use your definition of iconic, he still doesn’t qualify. Compared to Gandalf, Frodo, Gollum and Sauron? He’s nothing.
If you don't think he's iconic, that's your problem.
He's so iconic they inserted him in The Hobbits. And if you watch Youtube reactions to the Desolation of Smaug trailer, people absolutely went crazy when they saw Legolas again.
A character doesn't need to be important to the story or have a lot of screentime to be iconic, they only need to look and act badass, and Legolas most certainly did.
Nevermind the fact that Legolas was very important to the story. Every character in the Fellowship of the Ring played a key role in the story. Legolas literally saved Aragorn at Helm's Deep, without him giving Aragorn a rope, the future king of Gondor would have died brutally. I do wonder if this thread watched the LOTR movies at all. People here literally had the sheer gall to say that Sauron, the titular "Lord of the Rings", is not iconic. The sheer disrespect of this thread is amazing.
Last edited by Varodoc; 2022-08-26 at 07:07 PM.
Well, does iconic really mean anything other than 'widely recognized'?
At this point with so much controversy surrounding RoP and with so many people having seen the trailers, the Black Elf and Black Dwarf will also be iconic to Rings of Power, regardless of how important they are to the story or how much screentime they have. Like, they're practically front and center in a lot of the promotional material and in the interviews, and the show isn't even out yet. Name the top 3 'iconic' people from Rings of Power right now, and it'd be Galadriel, the black Elf dude and the black Dwarf lady.
I think a distinction has to be made between currently in the spotlight and actually being iconic.
Legolas (the character from the books, not necessarily bloom as legolas, though there is an argument to be made that he was iconic in the role) launched an entire archetype of character in fiction. When you look up the "Stereotypical wood elf", the description is basically legolas. (Insert the stuff about tolkien popularizing taller elves that I know I don't need to patronize you with here, but my point is that over time, legolas became the sort of yardstick for what a wood elf is)
Where as these actors are currently in the limelight, it would be too early to consider any of them iconic, at minimum the show has to come out first. Though Disa does stand out.
Really looking forward to this show, this and the game of thrones one. Hope they haven't gone full woke though and stay true to the lore/story of the shows.
Legolas could’ve been replaced with a red shirt. Why couldn’t some other random Elf/Human/Dwarf/etc done the exact same thing?
Sauron is very iconic. He doesn’t have much personality to him but he is a constant state of oppression that hangs over the entire series.
Orlando Bloom was having a moment. He’s a handsome actor who’d done capable work in two beloved film franchises. No wonder they wanted to insert him into The Hobbit despite having nothing to do with the story. Replace him with somebody more generic and no one would’ve noticed.
Legolas literally has no character development in the movies, and isn't really interesting once you really break down him down. It's not like he's well known for being well acted or having character depth. He's most well known for being a charming, badass pretty boy that is practically a Gary Stu, and I don't know if that's any better, really. I mean, Legolas is also iconic in the movies, and I don't know what reasons there would be that I could point to say 'this is the right way'.
Cuz his appearance in the Hobbit prolly shouldn't have been as forgettable as it ended up being.
Last edited by Triceron; 2022-08-26 at 09:15 PM.
Hoping for good things from this show but anticipating it being underwhelming.
Perhaps I've become too jaded, but I find very likely that modern writers will forget to tell Tolkien's story and try to make it their own. I think the temptation of leaving their mark on something is greater than trying to be truthful the spirit of another author's work. But I suppose we will see.