Bagginshield Is Canon (◡‿◡✿)

,Ok, that title’s a bit controversial but hear me out:

It shouldn’t come as news to Tumblr that BBC Sherlock was kind of a big deal. However, as the group that ostensibly “discovered” the show, Tumblr has also already gone through cycles of being jaded with it, finding numerous problems, analyzed and obsessed over it to death. People here are constantly falling in and out of love with the show, if they ever liked it in the first place, but there’s one thing that I think is sometimes missed outside this sphere:

BBC Sherlock was a huge deal in entertainment on a global scale (at least in the English speaking world which is my frame of reference). It’s not just that it did well and launched the careers of Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch. BBC Sherlock has actually directly changed the course of Hollywood and some of its biggest franchises.

thorin told gandalf he wouldn’t be responsible for bilbo’s fate, and then risked his own life to save him in the misty mountains.

thorin was humbled and deeply touched by bilbo’s dedication to the quest, so much so that he couldn’t even maintain eye contact with bilbo (he fell in love with him, then, and realized it too).

bilbo, with no combat training at all, threw himself at a warg and then an orc to save thorin’s life at the risk of his own.

bilbo looked on in fear as gandalf worked to heal thorin.

thorin hugged bilbo, in what is arguably his greatest display of affection to anyone, in front of the whole company and in lieu of looking at the lonely mountain, his home. then he looked at bilbo like he was looking at someone he loves. (heart eyes, motherfucker)

thorin, king and leader of the company, deferred to bilbo’s leadership and ordered the others to do the same while escaping thranduil’s halls. (then, in a deleted scene, he frantically shouted bilbo’s name and searched for bilbo in the water, essentially ignoring his kin for bilbo’s sake)

in laketown, bilbo and thorin swapped colors - thorin wearing bilbo’s red/maroon, and bilbo adopting thorin’s blue.

bilbo vouched for thorin in laketown, staking his own honor on thorin’s word. thorin looked at him so fondly, so warmly.

bilbo and thorin led the climb to the secret door.

the moment with the key. do you see the way they looked at one another?

thorin can’t even speak bilbo’s name while bilbo is in the mountain alone with smaug - he can barely choke out the word ‘burglar’.

thorin goes running into the mountain alone to help/retrieve bilbo.

meanwhile, bilbo taunts a live dragon in an effort to find the arkenstone for thorin.

and the dragon smaug verbally attacks bilbo’s relationship with thorin, casting doubt on it, as if he somehow knew it was the weak spot in bilbo’s bravado.

during their plan to ensnare the dragon, bilbo wants to follow thorin, but thorin asks him to follow balin instead. this scene. go rewatch it.

thorin doesn’t doubt bilbo’s abilities. he gives him a really important task in the dragon-ensnaring fiasco.

bilbo hides the arkenstone from thorin, believing that the one thing he really wants will actually cause him the most harm. he risks their friendship and his place in the company in an effort to keep thorin well.

when thorin starts to show signs of the dragon sickness, bilbo is the first to notice, and the most visibly concerned for thorin’s well-being, noticing and vocalizing that he doesn’t eat or sleep.

thorin doesn’t ask bilbo to look for the arkenstone. he gives him places of honor, instead. bilbo stands on the throne dias with thorin while thorin addresses other members of the company.

the acorn scene. happens.

thorin gives bilbo what is arguably the second most valuable item in the mountain, in the throes of dragon sickness when he is at his most greedy and covetous - a mithril shirt, that no blade can pierce, armor for the upcoming war. he calls it a token of their friendship, and calls bilbo a ‘true friend’.

thorin trusts bilbo when he has already lost faith in his people, his family, his kin. he trusts bilbo when he can trust no one else.

bilbo is willing to throw away everything in order to keep thorin safe - he betrays him to save him. he stands up to him and tells him that he is lost, when no one else will.

thorin cries when he learns of bilbo’s betrayal. he acts like a hurt and betrayed lover. and even in madness, even after threatening bilbo harm, he throws down his weapons and only grabs bilbo’s clothing; presses him to the wall instead of dangling him over it. he doesn’t hurt bilbo. something holds him back, even in this deranged state.

bilbo’s voice cuts through the cacophony of voices in thorin’s head during his auditory and visual hallucinations.

bilbo is willing, once again, to risk his own life for thorin, to warn him that another army is coming.

the way thorin says bilbo’s name on raven hill. the way they nod at one another. the unspoken agreement. they turn to leave, together.

thorin is genuinely happy, the happiest we have ever seen him, as he is dying… because bilbo is there.

bilbo is glad to have shared in all of thorin’s perils. he begs him not to die.

thorin wants bilbo to go home, live his life, be happy. this is his dying wish.

bilbo is broken at the funeral, but not until he comes to stand by thorin’s still body.

bilbo can’t even express to his friend balin what thorin meant to him. balin smiles knowingly.

Theory: the Hobbit is ONE book that has been stretched into THREE movies. Bilbo, unlike, hella many protags has no forced heteromance to satiate the romantic audiences desire. One of the central conflicts and POIs is his growing and disintegrating relationship with Thorin (as well as the rest of the co. but Thorin specifically). To make some stretched and ‘eh’ movies slightly more interesting, like ben hur, the actors act out a non-textual story of Bilbo and Thorin falling in love with each other. And of course all of this would feel possible and without any repercussions for Jackson as far as following through on queerness goes because he knows Thorin is gonna die. 

Ben Hur & Queer Subtext:  x

So at NYCC, Radio and I had a chance to talk at length with the Weta people. Some stuff was about the BotFA EE and out of deference to their concerns about leaking stuff ahead of the release I won’t bring up too much, but I will mention some interesting anecdotes about behind the scenes Bagginshield stuff (though not posed as such to them, of course, just asked questions around stuff that we as fans find to be related).

ARE YOU KIDDING ME

So it turns out the latest jewelry merch for The Hobbit at NYCC is an acorn necklace. And lest you should think Bagginshield isn’t real, or that the acorn scene was explicitly meant to be about love, the quote on it is Gandalf’s “small acts of kindness and love” – to keep the darkness at bay.

You know, I must admit I don’t have as much depth to add about Bilbo as I did Thorin. I read up a lot on Thorin because he fascinates me, and I have a lot of Richard’s personality and interviews to go off of for filling in the blanks. I’ve not read up nearly as much on Martin Freeman’s take. 

However, I would offer:  Bilbo is meant to be a 20th c. repressed English (specifically: Oxford) gentleman. He’s modeled after Tolkien himself to some extent, as someone who dreamed of dragons finally getting the chance to face one with his own unique skills. 

As to Bilbo’s repression: he’s not stoic or brooding. He’s grouchy. He’s vocal about when the dwarves are irritating him, eventually, and he’s not shy when it comes to complaining about problems. But it’s always quite mild. Even when he’s angry at the dwarves he never really explodes, he never gives them a straightforward order to leave, which I think the dwarves would have understood. Everything in Hobbiton is about appearances and respectability. One can make pleasant conversation or small-talk, or exhibit outrage, but showing the depths of emotions not so much. 

So what does Bilbo in love look like? Bilbo in love is Concerned. 

(All credit to thorinshielding for the gifs, an excerpt from this post about Bilbo looking at Thorin when Thorin isn’t looking) 

Which is funny, because I honestly believe Bilbo fell in love first 

And realized it last

(And only left Erebor because he could not stay with Thorin no longer there)

Bilbo in my mind is unaware of how in love he is. I think in part because, as Martin Freeman said, Thorin is a bit mysterious to him. He’s a legend, he’s not part of Bilbo’s world, he’s from the books and maps. I think Bilbo has trouble connecting the idea that what he feels for Thorin is more than awe until Balin asks him to put it into words. But he was in love throughout, and I think on some level it was the dragon sickness that brought it out of him, because it gave him the chance to take care of Thorin.

I shy away from such gross generalizations as “Bilbo is a caretaker”. I don’t actually see him as parental (he shies away from very small children except as a storyteller), for example, even if he is domestic in the literal sense (I think Thorin is domestic too, the only difference is he doesn’t have a home). But I believe, like Thorin, he shows his love by taking care of others and protecting them, and that’s one of many very interesting parallels between them. As Richard said, it’s two people from wildly different backgrounds finding each other in an improbable place and understanding one another. Bilbo shows his love by helping Thorin get his home back, not Thorin son of Thrain son of Thror get his kingdom back. He shows it by leaping up to defend Thorin from Azog, from asking Thorin’s permission before giving orders to the company to get in the barrels, by keeping the Arkenstone from Thorin because it would make his sickness worse, by being the only person who mentions that Thorin isn’t eating or sleeping, not just that he’s obsessed with gold. Bilbo knows immediately that Thorin is better when he charges out of the mountain, and his first concern isn’t fear for his own safety (Thorin did just threaten to kill him after all), but to get the news to Thorin as soon as possible that he’s walking into a trap. His first instinct when he finds Thorin on the battlefield is to take care of him and heal his wounds. (*sob*)

Bilbo in love is demonstrating the very hobbit-y priority of taking care of the health of the person they’re in love with, just like Sam making sure Frodo ate on their quest, or Pippin finding Merry on the battlefield and his first words to him being “I’m going to take care of you.” That’s hobbit-speak for “I love you.” They don’t necessarily say it with grand gestures or poetry or valuable gems or mithril armor. To a proper English gentleman like Bilbo it would be unthinkable to make such grand gestures, or demonstrate overt affection anywhere but in private.

So while I’m not as well-read in the Bagginshield corner of the fandom as I should be, I’d like to think I’ve read enough to be aware of overall trends. With the debut of Battle of Five Armies, I’m hoping that some of the more alpha-male depictions of Thorin will give way to a more nuanced approach, and that shy delicate Bilbo as a characterization will die the fiery death it deserves.

Yet even sensitive takes on Thorin tend to have him as a darker figure, commanding and stoic. When showing depictions of Thorin in love, I know I myself am guilty too of either writing Thorin as having difficulty expressing himself, or being tormented by his own affections. In mature scenes he’s often described in shadowy, forceful terminology, his desires dark, his movements strong or violent as an overall theme. (Keep in mind, this is a gross generalization and meant as commentary, not judgement.)

But lately I’ve been working on post-BotFA takes on Thorin and Bilbo in love and I’ve been forced to confront a realization: Thorin’s affections are not dark by any means.

Thorin-in-love is bright. He lights up. He’s happy, he smiles, and if anything he looks decades younger. Thorin in love is de-aged practically to the days before Erebor fell.

Case in point (in chronological order and all looking at Bilbo)

(I’m so sorry for the last one)

It’s all the more dramatic when set against the strangely dark shadows that come over his features when he’s in the deepest throes of dragon sickness, when he’s dressed as his grandfather. And boy, is that an essay for another day, the conflict between youth and age in The Hobbit, and how Thorin shedding his grandfather’s image is his redemption, the way he looks younger when he looks at Bilbo with love. 

(By the way, has anyone else noticed the shadow effects on Thorin’s face every time we see him with dragon sickness or is that all in my head?)

My conclusion is more my thinking aloud about writing Thorin’s characterization when showing him in love, specifically with Bilbo. I’ve detailed elsewhere how Thorin has trouble separating himself from his responsibilities, and that Bilbo is one of the very few people (perhaps the only person, including Dwalin sadly) to whom he is only Thorin and not an extension of the line of Durin. Thorin in love is actually free, and brought back to the days before he lost everything. If you imagine almost a split personality stemming from the day Smaug attacked, “Thorin” as a person is really only about 30-50 years old, before loss and tragedy suffocated that part of him. (By the way, I’m dealing with romantic love in this essay, but Thorin in love with friends and family also de-ages him and he smiles freely with the people he cares about, actually quite frequently if you pay attention.)

This opens all sorts of fun possibilities about “hopeless romantic goober” Thorin, which honestly I don’t think is a stretch if you see that smile in the acorn scene. That is Thorin hopelessly in love, with almost no trace of illness. Even his movements change on the Ravenhill when Bilbo appears and he’s no longer sick. Thorin’s steps actually get lighter, reminding me of Richard’s interview where he said young Thorin has a very different fighting style than standard age Thorin, the latter of which is heavier and tightly controlled.

For me this means as much as it seems to make sense to write Thorin as this almost Byronic figure who is dark in his passions, actually I think love literally ignites him and sets Thorin free from the shadows that make up his life. In those moments he most resembles other members of his family like Kíli, and I imagine someone like that is lurking beneath all the trauma he went through. Oh, certainly not feckless or entirely care-free, but gentle and lively, someone who actually smiles instead of smirks and gives those smiles freely at even the smallest gesture. Someone who does not want to lead his loved ones into danger, to whom all life is precious, someone who was very badly hurt over and over again and who would never allow refugees to suffer, or the weak to be harmed.

Thorin has had to be hard, but beneath it all I really do think Thorin is a young dwarf who lost his home and wanted to go back to it, who fought hard for his family, who wants nothing more than to protect the ones he loves, and yes, someone for whom love is light and wonderful and something that makes him smile. 

watch bilbo’s right hand..

okay so i sense a parallel here between thorin’s hesitation to name bilbo, to call him anything, thorin eventually settling on “burglar”