Relationship Analysis: Tauriel and Kili from The Hobbits

The Hobbits: Desolation of Smaug, I saw the movie parts a couple of times, but during those times, I’ve never seen any scene of Tauriel and Kili until two weeks ago. I was able to watch the whole movie. Then luckily, since The Hobbits is the movie of the month in Star Movies this October, they aired everything including the last installment, The Hobbits: Battle of the Five Armies. So I finally got to see what happens to Tauriel and Kili. Well, I know what’s already going to happen because I’ve read the books.

Their romantic subplot captured my attention, but I told myself that I’m not going to write a relationship analysis between them because they have too few screentime together. I don’t know enough about their characters, let alone their lovemap. Yet here I am due to the numerous video interviews and reviews I’ve read about the movie. I somehow got the information I needed to make this post possible.

Tauriel and Kili’s relationship in the movie is a non-conventional love story or romantic subplot between an elf and a dwarf.

Tauriel is a low Silvan elf and a Captain of the Guards in Mirkwood. Her parents were murdered when she was young and Thranduil took care of her and raised her beside Legolas. Tauriel is played by Evangeline Lilly.

Kili is a the son of Dis, and nephew of Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thrain, son of Thror and he is supposedly the third in line crown prince of Durin. He grew up seeing Thorin as his father, uncle, and his king. He’s got a close relationship with his oldest brother, Fili. Kili is played by Aidan Turner.

In the movie, he encountered Tauriel in the forest, when she saved his life. After that, he started flirting with her. The short relationship between Tauriel and Kili is just a romantic subplot or others are calling it as an emotional fodder for the audience. Aside from that, if you read the book, you will find out that it won’t make you feel so emotional. I love the book, especially The Silmarillion. It’s great. So their subplot is used to make the story more relatable to the audience. Well, whatever the other reasons for their subplot, I only care about the quality and the validity of their relationship to me.

At first, you would think that it wasn’t love because they’ve only known each other for a very short time. Some even made a joke by using some screencaps in the scene where Tauriel healed Kili’s wound. Every time I remember this it just makes me laugh. The picture is blurry, but you can read it here.

If you read the book, there’s actually no way to tell that Tauriel and Kili only spent one time talking together in the Mirkwood’s cells, because in the books the dwarves were locked up for months. So if Tauriel established a friendship and a connection with Kili in one scene, she could have visited him and talked to him often which is an opening for them to fall for each other.

Before anything else, let’s establish if there was love at first sight and if they fell in love in the movie:

(1) In watching the scene where they met, Tauriel immediately made an impression to Kili. He gave her a look of incredulity and amazement. The second time they’ve met, he flirted with her, and her response was satisfactory to him. The third time they’ve met, he created an impression with her when he tried to fool her with the rune stone then he started talking about his mom. That’s saying a lot especially to Tauriel considering her upbringing. Her race was taught how dwarves only care about jewels and their gold, but here’s a guy talking about his promise to his mom says otherwise. And Kili was probably taught of the hatred of their race because Thranduil didn’t help them years ago, but Tauriel showed Kili otherwise.

So from the start, there was something going on already. They only got to know each other deeper on their third meeting. So, yes, I’m pretty sure it was love at first sight, no matter how fast.

(2) Their situation also showed that they fell in love with each other. They were in the position to fall in love with each other because they were vulnerable. According to Dr. Helen Fisher, people have the tendency to fall in love when they are vulnerable. There was a bounty on the heads of the Durin line, so Kili is practically a dead man walking.

He almost died in the movie a couple of times and Tauriel saved him three times. Tauriel is also vulnerable at that time because she was trying to help the people of Laketown and especially when she got herself entangled with the dwarfs. She was drawn to Kili from the moment they met.

If you want a summary of the second movie and the romantic moments, The Silver Petticoat Digest included Tauriel and Kili’s moment here.

3) Also, Kili fell in love for Tauriel is because she saved his life more than once and she saved him too. It is one of the reasons people fall in love because we all have a damsel in distress part of us that dreams to be saved by a knight in shining armor. In their case, Kili is the damsel in distress until he returned the favor.

4) Last but not the list, Dr. Helen Fisher also confirmed in her research that when someone fall for us, we also have the possibility to fall for them just because they fell for us. Kili took an interest on Tauriel and he showed her his emotions, and he shared his world to her, that’s some of the reasons for Tauriel to fall for him. He appreciated her for she is and he shared his world to her without their races’ prejudice.

5) In the movie, it also supported Dr. Helen Fisher’s research from her book, Why We Love. As adversity intensifies, so does romantic passion. Adversity heightens passion, romance, and romantic zeal. Adversity stimulates romantic ardour. Adversity heightens pursuit, just as barriers intensify romantic passion.

If you want to understand the Science of Love, the how’s and the why’s of love, you can buy it here and Lovesick by Frank Tallis.

What are the adversities between Tauriel and Kili?

• Since Tauriel is an elf, and Kili is a dwarf, their race actually forbids them to be together. Tauriel didn’t follow her King’s instructions. She killed the orcs and when she found Kili dying, she couldn’t leave him and ended up healing him. Another adversity here is before she had to choose between following Legolas or staying behind to heal Kili.
• Also, since their connection is forbidden, it also creates feelings of excitement and novelty for creating a friendship or more between the characters. Their characters are both young, so they were probably drawn to each other due to their differences and worldview.
• The dwarfs were about to be slaughtered in Ravenhill and Tauriel’s desperation to save Kili made her stopped King Thranduil  from leaving. She tried to stop her King, by aiming her arrow to him.
• When Tauriel is being beaten by an orc, Kili ran to her side to save her.

In the third movie, The Silver Petticoat also wrote the summary and the romantic moments between Tauriel and Kili here.

I consider their romantic subplot as a relationship because:
– no matter how few the screentime of the actors, in the two movies, they were able to establish an effective chemistry between the characters in total five scenes. Three in the second movie, and two in the third movie. The best part is they didn’t even do so much in that screen time. It was very subtle, but it was very effective. I mean come on! They got my attention. If they have chemistry, I believe it’s romantic chemistry because of the commitment they had towards each other. They were drawn to each other whether they like it or not.  And *empowerment chemistry because they somehow made each other grow in seeing and understanding their different perspectives, upbringing, and beliefs.

Of course, it’s also thanks to the great chemistry offscreen the actors Evangeline and Aidan have. Whatever the kind of chemistry the actors have offscreen, it was very effective onscreen.

• Based from my observation of the trilogy, interviews, and blog reviews, the characters’ personality have a high *compatibility.

Tauriel is introverted, socially awkward, dominant, independent, competitive, she is her own person, she has a big heart to share to every soul in middle earth and not just her race, she is curious, rebellious, somehow inexperienced about life and the outside world, she loves the idea of freedom, traveling in different places, and experiencing the world. Her King raised her and trained her to be the best, and Kili gave her more reason to be more than just a Captain of the Guards in one realm.

According to actress, Evangeline Lilly, “…And then as Kili enters her world, he opens up her heart and mind and her soul to the notion of innocence again. She sees innocence and purity in him, and she sees a spark of life that she hasn’t known since before her parents were killed, and it reminds her of the young elf that she maybe threw aside in her pain”. Through this, it shows how strong her lovemap came into play. Kili symbolized a part of herself she lost when her parents died.

Kili is extroverted, adorable, charming, likable, audacious, cheeky, flirtatious, persistent, brave, reckless, young at heart, pure, innocent, experienced in the outside world, vocal and showy when it comes to his affections. They are two kindred souls who found each other by chance, no matter how different, some of their similarities pulled them together. Kili is called reckless by many, but ever since meeting Tauriel, she made him feel he can do anything.

• Basing it from the *Principle of Completion, Tauriel and Kili made each other feel the key feeling they are looking for. Kili told Tauriel that she made him feel alive and he captured her attention when he shared his adventures with her. Tauriel is not very vocal, but you have to consider that she grew up in a place where people hardly show affection towards her and who controls the way she acts. Kili, on the other hand, adored and appreciated the person she is, let her act freely or he let her be herself and the best part about him is he shared his world and his adventure to her.
• They became friends and so much more because of the *Intimacy that had formed in the second movie. Kili shared the rune stone that symbolizes his promise to his mom that he will return to her. When Tauriel shared the elves love of the Starlight, Kili shared his experience about the Firemoon that somehow impressed Tauriel.

Take note when something bad happens, Thranduil locked up all his subjects in Mirkwood to protect them, they don’t help out. The only place Tauriel had been is in the forest, but she’d never been to other places.

It may be just a subplot to the movie, but the producers and scriptwriters worked hard to establish Tauriel and Kili’s story because they even made a theme for them.

Tauriel’s and Kili’s script from the second movie was used as the lyrics of the theme.

The lyrics are in two languages as you can see below, in Elvish and Khuzdul.

Below is the whole lyrics characters’ script in the 2nd movie. The first verse refers to Tauriel’s script and the second verse refers to Kili’s script. I agree that Howard Shore captured their romantic subplot perfectly through the theme and also with what the Silver Petticoat said in the blog. That Peter Jackson and his team of writers introduced a beautifully romantic story about two characters that unite as if through a poetic dream.

The theme’s lyrics was written by Philippa Boyens and Howard Shore. The lyrics were translated by David Salo. This theme is based on concept of duality of two voices conversing, as represented by the flute and the oboe. The relationship theme here is between two cultures that traditionally don’t go together.

This is how the theme was made and how it helped tell Tauriel and Kili’s theme. Watch below:

Sad, but it was truly doomed from the start because in The Hobbits book, all the royal line of Durin will die because Dain is the one who will become The King Under The Mountain. It’s still beautiful in my eyes, no matter what.

• Tauriel and Kili somehow had established a friendship and some familiarity in the movies because of what they shared in their conversation during the dwarves captivity in Mirkwood. Their friendship allowed them to see past each other’s differences and they were able to care for each other.
• As for the *lovemap, it’s not just chemistry and compatibility that makes the characters match each other’s *lovemap, it’s also because of their upbringing. Different, but similar at the same time. Tauriel and Kili are both looking for something and somehow they were able to give each other that feeling.
• I debated whether to share this or not, but Kili and Tauriel’s pairing as of now is one of the most ideal couple for me because the writers matched their chemistry, personality, and situation so well to the point that they seem to be twin flames as well. Twin flames is different from a soul mate. According to the literature is that twin flames are the people in our lives who we are going to meet from time to time and help us grow up. The problem is we’re going to be so attach to them to the point of wanting them desperately to become a part of our lives, but they will never belong to us or with us. My predicament here is that your twin soul can never be your soul mate at the same time, but Tauriel and Kili seemed to be soul mates. We expect them to be soul mates because Tauriel fell in love with Kili and elves fall in love only once or chooses only mate in their lifetime. If their mate dies, they fade. Tolkien had written how dwarfs, humans, and elves love and how they grieve.

In reality, will this kind of relationship work considering their differences in race and height?

Yes, I believe so, as long as they don’t let their differences get between them through communication and quality time together. The characters have great chemistry and some things in common, a compatible personality, they are somehow friends and intimate, and their upbringing makes them kindred souls. I can actually imagine Tauriel taming or could handle Kili’s recklessness and just like Evangeline said in her interview, Kili can crack Tauriel’s personality in return.

As for their height difference, I actually know a couple who had more height complications than the characters did. Tauriel and Kili’s complicated height difference is nothing compared to this actress and her lover for years. The actress only stands 3 ft while her previous lover is 6 ft tall or more. I don’t know how they get intimate physically. They probably just do what their height allows them to do OR NOTHING… 😉 I’m not really sure what Tauriel and Kili’s height, but if I compare their pictures together to the actress and her lover, Tauriel and Kili can manage more and with lesser height problems.

Below is  The Feast of Starlight by Howard Shore, Tauriel and Kili’s relationship theme. Enjoy!

At the end of the movie, Lord of the Rings, I remembered Frodo giving Sam the book he and Bilbo wrote their adventures. So I am wishing that Peter Jackson will find a way to use that opportunity to make a movie again. Simply because I love watching the adventures in Middle Earth and I really hope to see Tauriel and Kili reunited. Maybe there’s another way to do that. Who knows, right?

*Thus marked words are defined on this LINK.

Tune in for my next relationship analysis. I love this couple, but it’s tragic. Next week, I promise to write about a movie with a happy ending.

Or basing it on the fact that Tauriel and Kili are twin flames or twin souls, that’s why they didn’t end up together.