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This is supposed to be a roast but “a mix between a demon and a smoldering marshmallow” sounds like exactly the right vibe tbh
I also think this would be good
So, a few years ago my mom and I were wondering about marshmallows (I think it started as an etymology question but we both have ADHD) and we ended up finding the Grand Flaming Marshmallow Balrog Contest, where people built balrogs out of marshmallows and then set them on fire, and I feel like that’s relevant here.
This is right after Gandalf says, “A balrog. A demon of the ancient world.”
I just love how PJ chose to cut to Legolas’ face because he is exactly who you should cut to at this moment. You need an elf to show what it really means. Other than Gandalf, the rest of the Fellowship can sense something is gravely wrong, but they don’t understand just how grave. Like Gandalf, Legolas knows the terror. He understands the gravity of what lies around that corner. He’s got a piddly little bow and he is mere steps away from a demon of the ancient world. This frame shows a kid coming to the realisation that he is way out of his depth, that this mission will take him to places he only knew to exist in legends of the Elder Days, a time long gone, barely history.
He’s probably one of the youngest elves in Middle Earth at this point. He probably grew up on stories of the balrogs, slaying the ancient High Kings of the Eldar and tearing Middle Earth apart, thousands and thousands of years ago. They are legends in old crumbling books, read illicitly by a little elfling who was kept up at night by the terrible tales.They are the monsters under the bed and the shadows in the heart of the forest. They are the beasts behind the winged hordes of hell, that older elves, who’ve seen the worst that Arda has to offer, always assured him were no more than distant nightmares, stories relegated to dust and ancient memory. Except now they are real. They are here. They are coming.
The best part is that in the books he just starts screaming when he lays eyes on it
In its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left hand it held a whip of many thongs.
‘Ai! ai! wailed Legolas. “A Balrog! A Balrog has come!’
Legolas can be relied upon to have the correct reaction to everything.
It is not necessarily normal, or socially appropriate, or sane, but it is always 100% correct.
i’m sobbing
while I love all this interpretation, Legolas is in fact one of the oldest elves running around Middle-Earth at this point.
Legolas first appears as a minor character in The Fall of Gondolin, which is about the sacking of an ancient (First Age) elf city by a great and terrible army, including multiple balrogs, sent by Morgoth, an evil god who was Sauron’s boss. Glorfindeldied the first time tackling a balrog by himself. (Eru Ilúvatar just sends the Elves on back after they die if they don’t want to stay in the Grey Havens.)
Legolas was one of the scouts (being “long-eyed”) who brought refugees of Gondolin to safety. One of those refugees was a seven-year-old Eärendil. Eärendil, you may recall, is the mariner who had a Silmaril on the prow of his ship and was made into “our most beloved star.” (This starlight is captured by Galadriel in a vial of water and given to Frodo and Sam, which Sam uses to scare off Shelob in Cirith Ungol.)
And who might the sons of Eärendil be? None other than Elrond Half-Elven, father of Arwen and leader of Rivendell, and Elwing, far-back ancestor of Aragorn.
Legolas saved Elrond’sfather from balrogs when Eärendil was a child. Legolas is something like EIGHT THOUSAND YEARS OLD at the time of LOTR. And the thought of a balrog STILL scares the shit out of him.
