LOTR Rants | Mostly Aralas

a FOTR scene by scene analysis of aralas, ig

EDIT: OH MY GOD I FORGOT TO SAY IM DOING ARALAS WEEK!! on my ao3, u_wear_fine_things_well, i'm doing an aralas writing challeng from apr 8 - 14, writing a semi-linear series of aralas oneshots based off prompts!! check it out <3

THIS IS 4600 WORDS IM SO SORRY

PLEASE DONT TAKE ALL OF THIS UNIRONICALLY 

THE REST OF THIS IS LITERALLY PLANNED OUT TO BE LIKE 15K WORDS SEND HELP

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A Scene-by-Scene Analysis of Aralas in Peter Jackson's Fellowship of the Ring and the Straight Context, Queer Scene Theory (SCQS)

To understand the romantically subtextual nature of the character relationship of Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson) and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) in the Peter Jackson directed adaptations of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, one must first understand the Straight Context, Queer Scene Theory, otherwise known as SCQS. I have spoken rather lengthily before of the SCQS Theory, and that, as many more of my Tolkien-related thoughts, is now available to all on the internet. Thus, I will not waste my already swelling word count in explaining the intricacies of that theory and giving trans-media examples of how widely used it is in mainstream television, film, and literature alike, but I will give a quick summary:

The Straight Context, Queer Scene Theory essentially states that mainstream media uses a formula of context and queer subtext to trick viewers into thinking that subtextually queer media is in fact entirely heterosexual, arguing that nearly every subtextually queer scene or concept in mainstream media is overshadowed by some form of straight context. This, according to the theory (which was, of course, coined by me), draws the line between contextually queer and subtextually queer in visual and written media.

For example, a film might include a scene where two men or two women meet up and share an implicitly queer-coded moment: unnecessarily heavy eye contact, the eye-lip-eye triangle of sight, standing strangely close to each other.... But just when audiences begin perhaps to question the, of course, inherently heterosexual nature of the film, something in the context of the scene reminds them that they need not worry, nothing of queer nature is playing out on their screens. Perhaps it is revealed that the only reason these two women or men met in the first place is because they are at a gathering to celebrate the engagement of one of them to a person of the opposite gender. Perhaps woman or man A is a family friend of woman or man B's opposite gendered partner, and the only reason they ever met and, consequently, had that moment, was because of an explicitly heterosexual relationship. This straight context distracts audience from the queer nature of the scene. A simpler example, of course, would be any of those (quite common) scenes in coming-of-age or teen movies where two characters of the same gender are dared to kiss at, say.... A house party. The kiss is unnecessarily passionate and sizzling with chemistry, but, of course, there is nothing even remotelyqueer about it, because it was only done on a dare (and the dare-doers were most likely drunk), which is here the straight context. Thus, as one would expect, the SCQS Theory goes hand in hand with queerbaiting in mainstream media.

But enough with theoretical examples. The reason I even bring up the SCQS Theory in this essay, of course, is because it is very heavily present in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, especially between the characters of Aragorn and Legolas. One might truly use this film trilogy and those two characters' relationship as a case in point and an Exemplary 101 of the theory.

Now, onto the scene-by-scene analysis.

The first scene in the Lord of the Rings film trilogy that Aragorn and Legolas share—and when I say share, I of course mean exist in vague proximity to each other onscreen—is at the Council of Elrond, about an hour and a half into the film when watching the Extended Cut. The character of Elrond says the line: "Middle-earth stands upon the brink of destruction. [...] We will unite or we will fall." Just before the word "unite" is uttered, Aragorn and Legolas glance at each other very pointedly, casting their gazes once more downwards once it is spoken. This is an incredibly well done and intricate moment in the film for non-first-time viewers or book fans, showing that the two characters in question are not meeting for the first time at the Council, as many are, but rather know each other from earlier times, as is canon to the source material. Of course, the symbolism of their glancing at each other and glancing away again exactly at the word "unite" symbolizes their close bond and union, (one might even say of the romantic sort), being one of elf/man (Elda/Adan) and encompassing exactly what the Council itself represents: all the races of Middle-earth coming together, elves and men and dwarves uniting against this one doom, as Elrond says. Aragorn and Legolas and their seemingly passing moment of eye contact are a perfect representation of that. This is only upheld by the following zoom into the characters of Boromir and Frodo, representing men and hobbits respectively, a subtle nod to the almost fatefully preordained formation of the Fellowship.