Dorthonion wrote:
He's changing the story with no regard
(with no regard, with no regard)...
ga - gard - gard - gard.
I actually quite like Tauriel as a character, but I think it might have been a mistake to merge her story arc with that of the Dwarves. Instead of having Legolas and Tauriel shadow the Dwarves and Orcs all the way to Lake Town, they should had the Mirkwood Rangers skirmishing with Orcs throughout Mirkwood.
It would have been cool to see the build up of The Necromancer's army result in violent clashes with the Elves. After that scene when Gandalf is captured in Dol Guldur, and the Orc army leaves to march to Dale, PJ should have followed it up with scenes of skirmishes between Legolas, Tauriel and their Rangers and the Orcs lead by Azog.
Show the Rangers shadowing the Dol Guldur army, skirmishing with the Hunter Orc "Scouts". Tauriel and Legolas then report the Orc Army's movements to Thranduil and beseech him to intervene and aid Laketown, but Thranduil refuses and washes his hands. "What goes on beyond our borders is none of our concern" (paraphrased).
But I guess the focus group demanded an arbitrary love story be shoe horned in and so Tauriel had to go pining after the first humanoid potential love interest to giver her attention.