Hey Nonnie! Yes, it is always okay to ask a question 🙂 I am so sorry I am a slacker when it comes to answering promptly. Nggh. Sorry.

Oooh, okay – that’s a new one! Yes, Thranduil finds relating to Laindawar and Legolas much easier than he does to Laerophen. Laindawar is similar to him in spirit, if not quite so wounded in soul. Legolas is open and giving and merry, and is content in the company of others.

Thranduil absolutely loves Laerophen, absolutely is proud of him and respects him, but they’re very different creatures at heart.

Thranduil is reserved by nature and habit, but he is not an introvert like Laerophen. It would have seemed to him that there was two sides to the child: the one that was at ease, the one that was engrossed and excited when he was living in his books and in his own head, and then the one that was stilted and awkward and clumsy around others, the gawky prince in the public eye, the one that blurted things or stood like a scarecrow when he didn’t quite know how to react.

He would have tried to make Laerophen more at ease, bringing him out of the outward business of royalty as much as possible, giving him small opportunities to practice… but children always and forevermore learn best by example. And so Laerophen took on as many of his father’s mannerisms as he could, as a defence mechanism. We see that best when we first meet Laerophen: how stilted and stiff he is, how poor he is at dealing with so many people. He is unnaturally cool at first, and – every so often – he blurts something a little ridiculous. He gets into stupid arguments with Bomfris, he allows Dain to take the lead, to act as though he is older that Laerophen is. He is NOT COMFORTABLE. But he’s trying desperately to put on a veneer of ease and calm and elegance. (it doesn’t work)

Even so, Laerophen is still better at relating to others than Laindawar is. Laindawar retreated to his forest trails and his swordscraft, where Laerophen loved his books and following the path of his inner thoughts. Laerophen has learned to relax a little and be himself more naturally with others, possibly through the unquestioning approval of a scamp of a Dwarf child. He even gathers the courage to speak out against his family on one memorable issue :)))

yes, Laerophen is more confident now! He’s taken his own measure, both as a friend and a defender, and discovered that there is more in him than he realised. It is a good feeling!

Thranduil isn’t grateful to the Dwarves of Erebor yet – not even for standing between his forests and the Orcs of Gundabad and the Northern Wastes. He’s a little preoccupied by the whole ‘LEGOLAS AND WHATTHEWHATTHEWHAT’ situation at this point.

But he is most definitely noticing that his awkward giraffe of a second son is more comfortable in his skin amongst the Dwarves of Erebor than anywhere in his own kingdom. (the scene in the recent sneak-peek confirmed and drove this point home!)