#this isnt my most postive post ever

[whats-she-gonna-post-next]

I'm gonna talk about The Hobbit films for a moment, specifically BotFA, so like... spoiler for that.

So, I think that The Hobbit films kinda suck. Are they enjoyable in the mindless, watching them for action sense? Yes. Did I adore them the first time I saw them? Also yes, however, since then I have had a chance to step back and examine them more closely, and have found that - at least to me personally - they are neither a good adaptation of the book, nor do they work as a fantasy epic setup for the LotR. This is, in my opinion, due to these movies wanting so badly to have their cake and eat it too, in which they could have had a really good, funny, lighthearted comedy that fits the tone and story of the actual book, or they could have had an awesome, cool, grounded retelling that fit the vibe of the original trilogy. But they wanted both.

They could have had a film comprised of insane slapstick fun, which would have made sense since Tolkien wrote the book as a bedtime story for his kids and lends itself as to why the dwarves are functionally useless at getting out of the situation, and Bilbo need to help them, it's also why a character we barely know kills the dragon over our protagonists, it's why Bilbo gets knocked out of the fight, and we miss the whole thing. It's meant to be told to children over the course of a few bedtimes, and as such is episodic and a little silly. But because they wanted to tie it in with LotR while keeping it consistent with the story (and let's be real, make as much money as possible), they tried to add some of the realism beheld in LotR, but refused to change the more childish storyelements - even inheancing the obserdity of some of it (I'm looking at you barel scene -_-) - which leaves us with a film trilogy that doesn't really do the book justice nor does it fit the established continuity of the original trilogy.

But there are some scenes that I think are absolutely phenomenal, and in which I think truly come to ahead at the end of BotFA

Specifically, the fact that Thorin's death scene actually kills me.

His complete acceptance in the fact that he is going to die playing in conjuncture to Bilbo's pleading with him to hold on brings me near to tears if I even just think about it - which, considering my mild distain to moderate apathy in relation to the rest of that particular movie, is quite a feat - and I think it's a real testimate to both Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage's acting abilities and is something I find quite fascinating, when, to be quite frank on the matter, I really kinda dislike the bulk of the rest of the movie - especially when it does so much to glorify war, which Tolkien took great strides to avoid in his books, going to far as to literally condem the Battle of the Five Armies as completely stupid and mindless fighting and is tge whole reason Bilbo isn't present for the fight and why it gets so little story time in the book.

But I think my love of this scene - though I'll often say I hate it on principle that it makes me sad - is, as mentioned earlier, completely on the part of the actors being absolutely amazing at their jobs. Despite the convoluted nature of Bilbo and Thorin's relationship (be it platonic or romantic, however you interperate it), watching them build from a mutual sort of dislike/apathy of each other (which I have always read as stemming from Thorin viewing a younger version of himself who had yet to see the hardships of the larger world in Bilbo and resenting him for it, and Bilbo subsequently refusing to give Thorin respect that he himself isn't being shown) to mutual respect and understanding (stemming from Thorin watching Bilbo risk himself again and again for him and the company and Bilbo coming more to understand why exactly Thorin is the way he is) to true friendship/love depending on your interpretation - in wherein Thorin, even in the throws of dragonsickness, gifts Bilbo with a piece of armor made of an exceedingly rare material that is worth more than the entirety of the Shire - to something torn apart by said dragonsickness and the force of trying to do the right thing even if it means hurting the one you love, only to have them reconcil at the end of it all in a truly heartbreaking moment in which the battle is won but much is still lost, is, I think, such a deep and profound moment that somehow manages not to be cheapened by the insanity of the film it is set in.

And I think it goes a long way to show that - had they not been so focused on rivalling LotR or in making extra money or creating a shock value fight for no real reason - there was huge potential for a really good film within the 9 hour destruction of a frankly amazing and fundamental piece of literature. There are several fanedits of these movies that really pair down the movie to the story it wants to tell at its core, and those mixed with my own interpretations are how I choose to view the film version of The Hobbit.

Anyways, I don’t know if any of this made sense because I kinda just word vomited