Official Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit thread

Arcanine said:
Anywany, I finished re-reading The Hobbit a week or so ago. Really good. Finally know the story behind Battle of Five Armies. Still dislike Smaug's death. >:[ Hope he is portrayed correctly in the film(s). (Red and gold with a jewel-encrusted underbelly)
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Agreed smaugs death was kinda quick,i was hoping for him to come back and eating thorin or something ;D
 
Shush, we have gotten to Smaug's demise yet! But yes, it has been annoying trying to pull some allegories to other things.

And my friend was mad at the movie because Smaug is blue-green, who saw it this morning. So yeah...sorry Arcanine.
 
Fi said:
Shush, we have gotten to Smaug's demise yet! But yes, it has been annoying trying to pull some allegories to other things.

And my friend was mad at the movie because Smaug is blue-green, who saw it this morning. So yeah...sorry Arcanine.
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oh bloody hell the movie is ruined for me this is outrageous i really don't 'aslhgljerwhOLQPGLO'HLGN NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
 
Fi said:
Ugh...for English Class we've been forced to read The Hobbit for the last two weeks. We are at the 12th chapter together as a class.

I like the story and all, but does it really have to have all these allusions to World War I and the Bible? Also, my teacher everyday is like: "Bi, Two, Bilbo, Two Books." And we always talk about ambivalence and how they go through the mountains like the inverse of the cruxification and how everything has to mean something different.

I really am getting tired of trying to find hidden meanings in every word, and I have fallen asleep 4 times in the middle of a sentence while reading it. I hope I'll have the attention span to watch the 3 hour movie.
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protip: english teachers always think they find hidden meanings that the author didn't intend at all
 
Arcanine said:
Fi said:
Shush, we have gotten to Smaug's demise yet! But yes, it has been annoying trying to pull some allegories to other things.

And my friend was mad at the movie because Smaug is blue-green, who saw it this morning. So yeah...sorry Arcanine.
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oh bloody hell the movie is ruined for me this is outrageous i really don't 'aslhgljerwhOLQPGLO'HLGN NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
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No need to complain,i werent mad when harrys eyes were blue instead of green
 
Fi said:
Shush, we have gotten to Smaug's demise yet! But yes, it has been annoying trying to pull some allegories to other things.

And my friend was mad at the movie because Smaug is blue-green, who saw it this morning. So yeah...sorry Arcanine.
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Smaug doesn't appear in the first movie, as far as I know. He's due to appear in the last two, however.
 
Just got from from seeing the Hobbit an hour ago,it was great.
I really liked the fact that they brought the Nazguls back,even though it was only for one scene,one thing I didn't get was how those Orcs(or Goblins) were walking around in the daylight.Btw way Smaug is in it,you just don't really see him much.
 
I have somewhat of a confession to make. I have read The Hobbit and, as sad as that probably is, I didn't really like it all that much.

I think the entire book is well-written on a rhetorical level, and Tolkien is a masterful world-builder. However, examining the book on its own, especially the plot, I found somewhat disappointing.

My main issues lie with the central conflict. From the beginning, Smaug is established as the antagonist, the big conflict to overcome. The story in its core illustrates Bilbo's journey to vanquish an evil dragon, and there is never really a decent conclusion to that journey. It all leads up to a supposedly decisive moment when Bilbo and Smaug meet, and then it goes downhill from there. Instead of Bilbo being the one to resolve the conflict (which he kind of should have, since he is the protagonist), Smaug just flies off to attack a nearby town and is then killed by a guy who is completely random as far as the story is concerned. If Bard the Bowman had been the protagonist from the start, it would have been more satisfying to see Smaug's fall, but since this was supposed to be Bilbo's story, Bard stealing his thunder leaves me kind of... meh.

What follows then is a giant battle between various forces which, to me, felt kind of tacked on, but since it was sort of foreshadowed, I give that a pass. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but if I recall correctly, Bilbo is knocked out while wearing his invisibility ring, and spends the whole conflict unconscious, which kind of takes the suspense out of the situation.

What I would have wished for was for Bilbo to be more... significant. He does have a few moments of greatness when Gandalf is gone, but it would have been nice to have that significance last until the end, to show his growth as a person. What I personally would have found great was if he would have somehow managed to subdue Smaug through diplomacy. Bilbo is shown to know his way around a conversation when he tricks Gollum, iirc. How awesome would if had been for this tiny guy with no war experience to defeat a dragon without even using a weapon? By tricking him through talking cleverly? He would have been the guy who accomplished through wit and cunning what thousands of hammer-swinging dwarf warriors failed to do through brute force.

I personally would have liked that conclusion a lot better.

I find it kind of sad that I think that way for various reasons. From what I know, Tolkien was a pretty ok guy and, as I already mentioned, a master at worldbuilding, which is a skill I hold in very, very high regard. I just wish I was able to get actually immersed in his world a little better.
 
Charmander said:
I have somewhat of a confession to make. I have read The Hobbit and, as sad as that probably is, I didn't really like it all that much.

I think the entire book is well-written on a rhetorical level, and Tolkien is a masterful world-builder. However, examining the book on its own, especially the plot, I found somewhat disappointing.

My main issues lie with the central conflict. From the beginning, Smaug is established as the antagonist, the big conflict to overcome. The story in its core illustrates Bilbo's journey to vanquish an evil dragon, and there is never really a decent conclusion to that journey. It all leads up to a supposedly decisive moment when Bilbo and Smaug meet, and then it goes downhill from there. Instead of Bilbo being the one to resolve the conflict (which he kind of should have, since he is the protagonist), Smaug just flies off to attack a nearby town and is then killed by a guy who is completely random as far as the story is concerned. If Bard the Bowman had been the protagonist from the start, it would have been more satisfying to see Smaug's fall, but since this was supposed to be Bilbo's story, Bard stealing his thunder leaves me kind of... meh.

What follows then is a giant battle between various forces which, to me, felt kind of tacked on, but since it was sort of foreshadowed, I give that a pass. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but if I recall correctly, Bilbo is knocked out while wearing his invisibility ring, and spends the whole conflict unconscious, which kind of takes the suspense out of the situation.

What I would have wished for was for Bilbo to be more... significant. He does have a few moments of greatness when Gandalf is gone, but it would have been nice to have that significance last until the end, to show his growth as a person. What I personally would have found great was if he would have somehow managed to subdue Smaug through diplomacy. Bilbo is shown to know his way around a conversation when he tricks Gollum, iirc. How awesome would if had been for this tiny guy with no war experience to defeat a dragon without even using a weapon? By tricking him through talking cleverly? He would have been the guy who accomplished through wit and cunning what thousands of hammer-swinging dwarf warriors failed to do through brute force.

I personally would have liked that conclusion a lot better.

I find it kind of sad that I think that way for various reasons. From what I know, Tolkien was a pretty ok guy and, as I already mentioned, a master at worldbuilding, which is a skill I hold in very, very high regard. I just wish I was able to get actually immersed in his world a little better.
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I definitely agree with you about the way it resolves the Smaug plot.
 
Yeah, I think I heard something about how Peter Jackson made Bard the Bowman a more important character to correct that problem.