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No. 39545
>>39541
Because no one's making the same complaints about Bard. Yes, Bard was in the original book, but he had pretty much no characterization, not much backstory, and certainly no character arc. His part in this movie was just as shoehorned in as Tauriel's, took even more time away from the other scenes than hers, could have Mary Sue arguments targeted at him (clever, wields a magic weapon, descendant of hero, fighting back against a corrupt government, targeted for special hate by said government just because he does The Right Thing, hero of the working man, deals fairly with everyone, and no "flaws" to speak of), and could even be argued to be ACTUALLY taking the limelight away from the book's more major characters.
Now personally, I feel Bard's expanded role was beneficial, because it makes his involvement in the downfall of Smaug come off as less of a Deus Ex Machina (though since Smaug wasn't the REAL point of the original book, the DEM element of his defeat wasn't that big a deal there), and I disagree with the Mary Sue criticism in general, much less in this specific case--I only bring it up to point out that people who make the argument against Tauriel could just as easily apply it to him. But the point remains--he's essentially an Original Character wearing the name of a canon character, and one who is all around more competent and admirable than most of the canon characters. And yet, Tauriel is the one that gets all the hate, and she was less of a change to the story than Bard was.
Between all that and the fact that nerd culture has begun enabling and even celebrating its misogynists in recent years, of course you're going to get accusations of misogyny from time to time.
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