[a] p p l i c a t i o n

[thorencalenaran]

Personal Information

Name: Essie

Age: 28

Personal Journal: estivaate

Email / AIM / MSN / Plurk: estivaate on plurk and estivaate at gmail

Current Character(s): N/A



Character Information

Character Name: Thranduil, King of Sass the Woodland Realm

Fandom: Tolkien Legendarium/ The Hobbit



Character History: It began in the First Age of Arda, when Melkor was being an ass and doing his thing and ruining things (he’s good at that), a tiny little elfling was born the king Oropher probably in Beleriand, but they eventually moved East, towards the Great Greenwood. But really, you probably don’t care about much of the First and Second Ages of Arda because they have nothing to do with the movie (I mean, explicitly anyway) and everything to do with the insanity that is the books. So, skipping onwards to the Third Age. Well, actually, no. I lied, I do need to regale you with tales of the Second Age a wee bit, so let’s have some story time, shall we?

Yes, so, in the Second Age of Arda, Sauron the Deceiver (the guy with the giant flaming eyeball) waged wage on Arda in the name of his now cast out master, Melkor (I mentioned him earlier, he likes to screw shit up). How did he do this? With the One Ring. You see, he has this ability to change forms and he made himself pretty and convinced a super awesome elven smith to forge these rings with magic and whatnot in them and then forged one in secret that could ‘rule them aaaaaaall!’.

Needless to say, elven smith was pissed, but he forged three in secret so no biggie. Except where the rings for the Men totally worked and Sauron became super powerful and blah blah blah, war. (What does this have to do with Thranduil, I hear you ask? Well it does, I swear). Basically, Mordor amasses a giant army and, in return, elves and men also form a Last Alliance and, in 3434 of the Second Age, the Battle of Dagorlad commenced. Thranduil served in this under his father, Oropher, in this batter. It is here that Thranduil would get his scars that are seen in the movie (I am assuming since Smaug and Scatha are the only dragons mentioned in Arda after this point, actually, the scars make no sense at all, but whatever Peter Jackson, whatever).

Why is this battle important? Because Thranduil left his home of the Woodland Realm a prince and came home a king.

This loss does deeply affect Thranduil, and sets the stage for more loss later.

With the destruction of Sauron, Arda falls into a time of relative peace. Emphasis on relative because he wasn’t really dead or destroyed, just bodiless. So, Thranduil returns to the Woodland Realm and rules over the Great Greenwood happily with a wife and child, Legolas (you know him, Captain Obvious in the movies). So begins the Third Age. And then it gets terrible again.

The spirit of the Necromancer begins inhabiting Dol Goldur, a point in the south of Greenwood, and his evil spirit begins to infest the woods, forcing Thranduil and his people north, eventually he is King of Norther Mirkwood, the name changing because of the orcs and the lovely gross spiders (spawns of Ungallant, a giant, light eating spider that was bffs with Melkor back before Arda was a thing) that are everywhere. At some point during these years, the movie implies that there is a battle in Gundabad to which Thranduil loses his wife (whom, might we note, has no name, and nothing written about her at all, so, in my head canon, Thranduil loses his wife in Gundabad).

Yay for more loss.

It is this loss that keeps Thranduil from helping the dwarves when Smaug first attacks Erebor, it might be added. Well, that and the minor hostility between Thranduil and Thror over deeds, necklaces, and payments. But that’s details really.

So by the time the dwarves start traipsing about his darkened wood during their quest to Erebor in 2931 TA, Thranduil has endured quite a bit of loss for an elf (let us not forget the hosts of elves that he would have lost in the Battle of Dagorlad, and the subsequent skirmishes with orcs and the Necromancer in the former Greenwood) that makes him, perhaps, a bit more suspicious than others. Maybe.

So when Thorin and company refuse to tell the truth, Thranduil has them locked up (though, in the books, he treats them as all elven prisoners are treated; like guests. They get good rooms, food, drink, and comfort and it is not until the dwarves are like dwarves and start being ridiculous that Thranduil puts them in actual cells). The fact that he is a bit peeved at the whole necklace deal also helps, but this plays but a minor role in the movies. I mean, he does totally offer to help the dwarves if they give him back the necklace he wants, but Thorin refuses so…

The elven king keeps Thorin and his band locked up until Bilbo manages to free them, and we don’t deal with his sassiness until the Battle of the Five Armies.

Once Smaug is dead, thanks to a certain former bargeman and now dragonslayer named Bard the Bowman, Thranduil marches a small army towards the mountains to back up the people of Laketowns claim to some of the treasure held within the mountains. Now, depending on the canon (of which I like to mix, obviously) Thranduil could be there for entirely selfish reasons or for entirely altruistic reasons. He’s an elf, chances are it’s a bit of both. He does have a great amount of compassion for the people of Laketown (now Dale since the burning) and he does really not like the dwarves, so this works for him.

Of course, what they don’t expect is the orc army that was doing its thing and coming to murder all the happiness in the land.

The fail, mostly thanks to the eagles Thranduil likes to think it was his army thanks and Erebor and Dale are reestablished as kingdoms, with alliances between them and Mirkwood. The alliance between the Woodland Kingdom and Erebor is on shaky ground, but it exists nonetheless. Also, it would be after this battle that Thranduil inspires his son, Legolas, to go forth into the wilds and find Aragorn, son of Arathorn, with the words that he might just one day be a great man. This is another loss to add to Thranduil’s little score card of angst.

After the Battle of the Five Armies, Thranduil goes back to his halls and, for the most part, tries to keep to himself. He does offer aid when necessary, as he keeps Gollum prisoner before the War of the Ring to question him about the whereabouts of the ring, but Gollum escapes thanks to orcs and elves being way too nice to prisoners (of course, in the books, Legolas is still around now and is totally the one that was in charge of all this, hence why Thranduil sends him to the Council in Imladris to explain the things. But that don’t jive with Jackson, Thranduil needs all the loss. All of it.)

There are no mentions of Thranduil’s death, though it is assumed that he sails west and is marginally appalled when Legolas brings a dwarf to the grey shores. I mean

WHEW. Okay, storytime over.



Character Personality: AHEM gets on soapbox. Let me tell you a thing, okay. A few things actually, about Thranduil Oropherion, King of the Woodland Realm. Firstly, his sass is not the best thing about him, oh no, let’s talk about Thranduil’s most amazing trait; his resiliency.


You see here, this is an immortal being that has gone through, more or less, Hell and has come back with a few scars, emotional and physical, but does not let his grief make him Fade. He loses a father on the battlefield against the second greatest evil that Arda has even seen, looses more than a third of his people to a battle that his father was, in his own way, reluctant to go to, but he comes back, puts on a crown, and makes sure to put his people, the remainders of them, above all else. This elf suffers great loss at the hands of war, great trauma as well (it is said he cannot look to the South without the horrors of Mordor seeping into his vision), and keeps on trucking’. Sure, you think that this should be normal, that death is a thing you should be able to get over, but for an elf, it isn’t. He should not have had to lose his father like that, not, many years later, his wife to the hoards of Angmar at Gundabad. But he does, and he does not waste away for it. He lives on for his son, for his people, and puts them above all else, even his own happiness.


Secondly, lets talk about this badasses compassion. Yeah yeah I know, you wanna claim he is a giant dick crowned in leaves and silk, but he isn’t I swear. Remember all that loss we talked about? All that pain that he must have endured losing his father and wife to horrible circumstances? Remember how he lost so many of his people to a war that should never have happened? That would make a lot of people cold, but not Thranduil, oh no. He still loves, and loves fiercely at that. He has more compassion than any scarred being should. He sees the troubles of the people of Laketown, and does what he can to help them. When the dragon burns Erebor, it is not just some grudge that he has against dwarves that keeps him from helping them, but rather a love of his people. He cannot bear to see any more be put in danger (and, let’s be real, getting between a dragon and his gold is putting yourself in a whole lotta danger when you live in a place surrounded by wood), but he still helps out the mortals (which most would not do). He stands by Bard of Dale when the other has little but linage and a hollowed out shell of a town to claim as his own. When Thranduil is confronted with the death of Kili and the resulting sorrow from Tauriel (whom, we should add, has committed one of the worst offences and elf could commit by pointing her bow at him, like NO TAURIEL NO) he bears little ill will to her, and seems to feel the pain she has at the loss of one you love (he tells her that it hurts because it was real, and I think that speaks volumes for what happens to the people he lives). On top of that, Thranduil lets go of his own son. He understands that, with what Legolas has now seen, he cannot stay confined (and safe) in the halls of Mirkwood. It could not be easy (especially with the movie verse, where it is assumed the Legolas is the only son) to let go of the only family you have left, especially after a battle like that. The relief that is on Thranduil’s face when he finds Legolas alive is proof enough of his depth of compassion and fear.


And that’s the third point. Fear (and bravery) in the elven king that is so great, he overcomes great loss and still manages to think of others, Of that isn’t brave I don’t know what is. And it is show, several times, that despite the peace and near stoic mask that the elven king wears, he has a great amount of fear in him, mostly fear for others, rather than himself. He does not let many of his elves go beyond the boarders of his realm because he knows what horrors lie beyond, and is afraid for them. He wishes to keep as many of his people safe as possible, and there is a fear of loss. More loss. It could be at this point in his long life, that Thranduil has stopped really living for himself, and now lives for his people and to see the best for them. He holds a grudge against the dwarves, yet is brave enough to offer them aide despite knowing the hostility he would enocuter, he knows the price of war, fears it, and yet comes to the aid of both humans and dwarves in the face of the orcs. And, yet again, despite knowing the horrors of Mordor and having a good fear of what Mordor can do, he allows his son to go forth to a Council that is focused entirely on destroying that evil. That, I think, is quite brave.


And finally, after all of that, you have the sass. But, that is quite linked, I believe, with many of the aforementioned personality traits. He has built up a persona, a mask, to keep himself alive. His resiliency has mandated that he not let those around him see the fear and weakness that had been burned into his bones from one too many wars and one too many losses. He is snarky and sassy and all too arrogant because he has to be, because his people need that more than they need a bleeding heart sitting on the throne. He cannot let others come too close because, what he has left of his compassion, is for his people and those that he feels he can call friend (such as Bilbo). So yes, Thranduil is a sassy bastard with glorious hair and a war elk, but those are really not the most important aspects of his personality at all (except the hair, the hair is key okay).


Powers and Abilities: Immortality (unless killed in combat that is). Some elven magic that allows him to conceal the scars that are found on his face (a result of dragon fire). He also has extremely keen eyesight, hearing, reflexes, an immunity to cold, a freakishly light step (he can totally walk on snow okay), immunity to illness (except grief, but that’s not really an illness).Highly adept with weaponry, mainly two swords, a bow (judging by the rest of the Mirkwood elves, a slightly more compact bow to make it easier to fight in confined spaces).



Samples

Network:


I swear to whatever beings are responsible for this reprehensible act, I will discover your identity and I will seek retribution.


[ Thranduil is quite clearly furious, even if his face shows little emotion beyond the constant twitch of his eyebrows. Eyebrows that, only yesterday, were a dark brown that was offset by his moonlit silver hair; now both are a shocking and nearly electric blue.]


It does not escape me how this… place functions, and I am well aware that with my own will, such an act can be undone, but the mere fact that someone thought this to be an appropriate jest deserves note. [ His eyes narrow, he would blame dwarves if he could. ] Do not think that you are safe, jester of Nautilis, for my will power is as strong as yours and my kingdom as great. [ To prove a point, his hair and eyebrows slowly fade back into their usual shades, though his visage does not.] When dwarves have a better sense of decency, you know that you have hit a new low.



Third Person:


There was little that could truly phase the king of the Woodland Realm at this point in his life. He had seen much, the rise and fall of kingdoms, the rise and fall of great evil, the passing of beings that were supposed to be true and immortal, and the extinction of whole races. And yet— yet he found himself at a bit of a loss when confronted with the idea a whole world that could be bent to the will of the individual. Having first arrived in Nautilis, Thranduil was struck with a great pang of loss; for his world, his people, his son, but he had hidden it all behind sly smiles and quick wit as he was want to do. Now, having been here for some time (or no time at all, it was hard to tell, it was as if time flowed differently here than it did in Middle Earth), Thranduil was quickly adapting to change.


At least, as quickly as an immortal being that resents change can adapt.


The king has learned to deal with ‘technology’, the strange and near magical ways that people were able to keep in contact with one another in this place; he was used to the different dress, the different speech, the variety and difference between men in the world. He has learned to work absurd contraptions, such as toasters and espresso machines (he must admit, he might be able to grow fond of the dark liquid, it was not the wine that he loved from the Woodland Realm, but it was pleasant at times), has even tried to trade in his bow for something far louder and violent. There were even, amongst the robes of silk and satin in his closet, a few pieces that one might consider ‘modern’; suits and pressed shirts that Thranduil had seen about and grown enamoured with. There was much that he had over come (as is his personality), but still—


“If I must be honest, I do miss home.”


It was like an open wound in his chest, this ache he had for the twisting trees of Mirkwood, for his carved halls and echoing chambers. He missed the sound of Sindarin whispered amongst the trees, the sight of his son before him. It was gnawing away at him, making it difficult to find joy in the small things that are all around him. Not even the ability to manipulate the world, literally, around him was enough to fill the void. Perhaps, he thought, it was time to find a way home.