spirit of the past

Okay guys, we can all do some pretty symbolic stuff with the Arkenstone. I mean, Bilbo literally steals the Heart of the Mountain.

But there’s that whole arc about Thorin trying to figure out which he is and which is better: Thorin, son of Thrain, son of Thror, King Under the Mountain or Thorin Oakenshield.

Bilbo steals the Arkenstone but he doesn’t even want it; he literally gives it away. Of course he doesn’t want the Arkenstone; that’s Thorin, son of Thrain, King Under the Mountain’s heart. It’s stone-cold, quite literally.

But you know what he does have? He already had? The acorn. Because that’s Thorin’s Oakenshield’s heart. It’s alive, and will grow.

I picked it up in Beorn’s garden.

Which means he picked it up right after he first saved Thorin’s life.

I know everyone gets all excited about The Hug at the end of An Unexpected Journey as the real beginning of their relationship, of Thorin realizing how incredible Bilbo is, but I think it’s actually earlier.

FILI: How on earth did you get past the Goblins?! … GANDALF: Well, what does it matter? He’s back! THORIN: It matters! I want to know - why did you come back?

Thorin’s saying it matters how Bilbo got past the Goblins, but he then changes the question to why. So he doesn’t really care about how; he wants to know why. This isn’t the only time Thorin does that:

THORIN: You have no claim over me!

Thorin, no one said anything about you until you brought it up.

But back to this scene:

Thorin’s demanding, wary, and angry at first:

THORIN: It matters! I want to know.

He’s being all Leader of the Company/King. But when he says “Why did you come back?” it’s like he tries to be demanding, but can’t:

THORIN: Why did you come back?

His voice changes - gets soft, gets personal. He really wants to know the answer to this question: it’s apparently important to him.

Then, of course, Bilbo clearly addresses Thorin, even though, really, his speech is supposedly to the whole company:

BILBO: Look, I know you doubt me, I know you always have. And you’re right, I often think of Bag End. I miss my books. And my armchair. And my garden. See, that’s where I belong. That’s home … 

Thorin’s obviously listening very carefully because he repeats these same words back to Bilbo as he’s dying. I mean, he’s staring so intently at Bilbo here, sort of drinking him in:

Thorin feels things, so much, all the time, that he just blocks it all out, like through a layer of water. Despite how obsessed he is with getting back to Erebor, I don’t think he’s actually thought about what Erebor is like or thought about details about it at all since Smaug came. It’s too complicated, too painful.

BILBO: … I miss my books. And my armchair. And my garden. See, that’s where I belong. That’s home …

Thorin’s face in that last picture - it’s almost taken aback: either from finally allowing himself to think of Bilbo as a real person with individual dignity or - I think more likely - from hearing about books and armchairs and gardens. What are those things, really? Warmth, comfort, safety. Things people associate with home.

Thorin has been homeless, a refuge, for a long time. He doesn’t think about Erebor specifically. He doesn’t think about the things he misses from home: he can’t; he can’t, it’s suicide. And now he is, probably for the first time in a very long time.

But here’s where I think Thorin really gets it in the gut:

BILBO: … That’s home. And that’s why I came back, cause you don’t have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can.

Bilbo is saying that he’ll give up those things so that Thorin can have them. And he’s saying it like it’s no big deal at all; his face and his voice are totally matter-of-fact:

BILBO: … That’s home. And that’s why I came back, cause you don’t have one …

Thorin looks almost confused, like he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop, like he can’t comprehend something this good and this humble. All the dwarves, they’re behind Thorin - at least in part, and Thorin thinks in whole - because he’s the king (at least in name) and because they, too, want to go home. But Bilbo is doing this for Thorin, because he thinks it’s right, because he thinks Thorin is right.

Bilbo is giving something - something huge: his home, his safety, all the things that Thorin misses - with nothing asked for in return.

And then there’s the real kicker: Bilbo’s done talking, and this is Thorin:

He doesn’t blink; he legit just looks down because he can’t meet Bilbo’s eyes. Really, I find it a fairly blatant - if unconscious - gesture of submission - particularly because Thorin always, always looks everyone in the eye, usually rather aggressively. But he’s like “I have just met the Ultimate Good, I didn’t think something like this could exist and certainly not for me; I don’t deserve this; Bilbo is everything that is good and beautiful.”

“I know that’s how you must honour him, but to me he was never that” the look of adoration on his face here absolutely breaks me. that is the look of someone in love, someone who feels something much stronger and deeper than friendship or awe.

like ok, he’s saying this to balin, who is obviously thorin’s friend, someone very important in thorin’s life and has known him all his life too. but bilbo is saying that thorin was something more than a legend, a king, a friend to him. he struggles to put it into words, and in that moment he also realizes that he was in love with thorin, and what one word can he even use to describe the weight of his feelings for him? i believe that’s why he stops and gets choked up :(

... And there will be no comfort for you, no comfort to ease the pain of his passing.

“There was a moment cut from the theatrical release of the film that I loved playing in which [Thorin] told Bilbo he could take his ‘one fourteenth share’. He could take his share, but not a single piece of the gold was leaving the Mountain. They were all prisoners in Erebor”.

- Richard Armitage (Hobbit Chronicles: Art & Design)

I’m back on my bs

So I remembered yesterday that the dwarves like totally lied straight to Bard’s face when they first met him, saying that they were going across the lake cause they were visiting their relatives in the iron hills. Now who knows how much of that he believed, but ya know, he didn’t ask many questions at least

So sure, cool. Couple of dwarves traveling between the blue mountains and the iron hills, nothing strange about that, they’re dwarves. But amongst the bearded little dudes, there’s a Hobbit. Hobbits, who famously rarely travel anywhere, much less as far as the iron hills. What is he doing so far from home?

But since none of the dwarves said anything akin to “Also this hobbit is traveling with us, just for convenience”, then it must mean that the hobbit is with them. Apart of the group, apart of the family. And unless one of these dwarves have adopted the little dude, which would be highly unlikely, he must be apart of the family in some other way. And what’a the most common way to enter a family? Marriage.

So the Hobbit, Bilbo as he introduces himself as, is probably married to one of the dwarves. But who? Well, he’s seen standing very close to the brooding one with dark hair and short beard. The brooding dwarf in fact rarely leaves his side, always standing on the ready to protect the little one.

And in the town square, when the brooding one (Thorin, rightful king of Erebor) needs someone to vouch for him, who is the first to pipe up but the hobbit, speaking highly of the young king, with adoration and hope in his eyes.

And the bi dads:

Like, the power-fantasy is the temptation the Ring uses against people It tempts Boromir with becoming the "one true king" that could save his people with fantastic power. It tempts Sam with being the savior of Middle Earth and turning the ruin that is Mordor into a great garden. It tempts Gandalf and Galadriel with being the messianic figure of legend who brings salvation to Middle Earth and great glory to herself.

The things the Ring tempts people with are becoming the typical protagonists of fantasy stories that we expect to see. and over and over we see that accepting that role, that fantasy of being the benevolent all-powerful hero, is a bad thing. LotR is about how power, even power wielded with benevolent intent, is corrupting.

And its so fascinating how so much of modern fantasy buys into the very fantasy LotR denies. Most modern fantasy is about being that Heroic power-fantasy. About good amassing power to rival evil. But LotR dares not to. It dares to be honest that there is no world where anyone amasses that power and remains good.