I have lots I want to write about after rereading the Lord of the Rings. But first there are a couple of topics about the Hobbit films that I want to address. One of these, of course, is Thorin. When I reread The Hobbit recently, I was struck by how much I sympathized with Thorin's possession with the dragon-sickness and his recovery from it. One of the things I really liked about the film The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies was how they depicted that. The most important conflict in the film, to me, was not the one going on outside the mountain but the one inside of Thorin.
All Thorin wanted was to keep his newly-acquired treasure intact. He was so determined to do this that he shut out everyone else who was asking him for help or even trying to help him. He even got to the point where he wanted to hurt the people he cared about. Thorin's relationship with the dragon hoard echoed, in many ways, Gollum, Bilbo, and Frodo's relationship with the One Ring, and that I think helped the continuity of the Hobbit trilogy with the Lord of the Rings films.
The most crucial scene in Thorin's arc was the one during the battle where he goes to the room with the golden floor. It is there that he sees what he has become. His craving to hold on to his hoard has made him like the very dragon that he sought to destroy (and that way, I thought, they made Smaug still relevant through the entire film). He even has a vision where the floor of solid gold is swallowing him up the way his greed is. Finally, he comes to his senses. He throws his crown onto the floor, and he goes out to lead his brethren into the fight. His return to his senses is a return to his nobility, and that was, appropriately, the most triumphant part of the film. Perhaps that is why the filmmakers didn't focus on the aftermath of the battle so much, because they wanted to emphasize Thorin's personal triumph.
It is not the lack of strength or material things that keep us from winning our own personal battles, but the ability to overcome our personal pride and weaknesses and to focus on the things that are truly important.
See you in the Shire!
All Thorin wanted was to keep his newly-acquired treasure intact. He was so determined to do this that he shut out everyone else who was asking him for help or even trying to help him. He even got to the point where he wanted to hurt the people he cared about. Thorin's relationship with the dragon hoard echoed, in many ways, Gollum, Bilbo, and Frodo's relationship with the One Ring, and that I think helped the continuity of the Hobbit trilogy with the Lord of the Rings films.
The most crucial scene in Thorin's arc was the one during the battle where he goes to the room with the golden floor. It is there that he sees what he has become. His craving to hold on to his hoard has made him like the very dragon that he sought to destroy (and that way, I thought, they made Smaug still relevant through the entire film). He even has a vision where the floor of solid gold is swallowing him up the way his greed is. Finally, he comes to his senses. He throws his crown onto the floor, and he goes out to lead his brethren into the fight. His return to his senses is a return to his nobility, and that was, appropriately, the most triumphant part of the film. Perhaps that is why the filmmakers didn't focus on the aftermath of the battle so much, because they wanted to emphasize Thorin's personal triumph.
It is not the lack of strength or material things that keep us from winning our own personal battles, but the ability to overcome our personal pride and weaknesses and to focus on the things that are truly important.
See you in the Shire!