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...but the names of some characters shall fade first...

Ah yes, the aftermath of the Battle of The Fiver Armies...
When I first read the book, I honestly couldn't feel for Thorin, even when he was dying, and to be honest, I never understood why Bilbo should care either, or the other dwarves, for that matter. In the book, Thorin was just rude, arrogant, not very competent and all around not a nice fella to have around.
Their parting in the movie is pretty much just as unpleasant for Bilbo as it was in the book, however, the movie characters actually built up a real connection, a friendship, even, so when they have their falling out, it means a lot, and it hits hard. When movie Thorin gets the dragon sickness, you can see him becomming something else, something scary and dark, something he wasn't before. There's a real fall from grace there. In the book... not so much.

The movies actually bothered to show us why these dwarves - and Bilbo - would follow Thorin, so even when he falls, you can still see why they would forgive him, and you can understand why Bilbo is also willing to forgive him and keep his memory as that of a dear friend. It's all built up and carried through in great detail, so it feels believable. In the book, it's basically just "Fuck you burglar! Oh well, I'm dying, I'm suddenly all nice now".
I guess that might work for very small kids, but for an adult, it's not nearly enough, because adults know, that it's not how it works.

As for those, who complain, that the movie didn't do the deaths of Kili and Fili justice, well, I couldn't disagree more.
Much like with Thorin, the brothers are fleshed out in much greater detail, then their book counterparts, and even their death scenes are given bigger focus, so the above complaint is rather riddiculous.
And while the book versions weren't quite as unsimpatetic as their uncle, it's still hard to care for them, because not only are they given very limited character development, but their death is basicaly just mentioned in a single sentence, and even that is only told in the aftermath of the battle, so it feels rather insignificant. More of a footnote, then an actual, important event, really.
I think it's a pretty basic rule in storytelling, that if you want to have a tragic death scene, you've gotta make the readers care for the characters first. Also, leaving more then just a single line for the death scenes to breath would probably help as well.

And even Balin, who is probably the most developed one next to Thorin, falls rather short in the book compared to his movie counterpart. Not only that, but one thing that always bugged me about him in the book was, that he kinda disagreed with Thorin, and yet, still decided to follow him.
Which the movie version does also, but here's the thing - in the movie, it makes sense, because we have multiple scenes dedicated to the mutual respect and friendship these two characters share, and we can see why this Balin would stand beside Thorin despite having second thoughts about the quest. Because, unlike his book counterpart, movie Thorin is a respectable leader, a great friend, and he has much more to him then simply being the heir to the line of Durin. But book Thorin has none of the qualities that makes movie Balin follow his king, so why exactly is Balin with him? Because he's the king? Not likely, as that didn't stop 99% of the dwarven race to say no to the whole quest thing.
I know, that Tolkien was probably trying to establish a conflict with this, but from an adult's point of view, it just didn't make much sense.
So I can't tell you how bloody happy I was that the movie fixed this problem as well...
And yet, many people still can't fathom why the movies are so much longer, then the book... Maybe becaus they actually bother to take their time and build up all the characters and subplots...

Another thing is, that in the book, it never really feels like Bilbo is actually a part of this company, nor does it feel like the reader is part of the company. Or KNOWS the company, for the matter... Which really bites the novel in the ass at times like these, when tragedy strikes, and we're supposed to care for a bunch of people we either knew little to nothing about, or what we knew, wasn't really enough to make us feel sorry for any of them.

Makes you wonder, how Bilbo managed to remember their names at all...

The book had some really great foundations and ideas, but sadly it sorely lacked building up it's characters personalities and motivations.

Disclaimer:
The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit (c) Tolkien, New Line Cinema

backup account: www.yourparodies.wordpress.com

More Middle-Earth sillyness: yourparodies.deviantart.com/ga…

Description
...but the names of some characters shall fade first...

Ah yes, the aftermath of the Battle of The Fiver Armies...
When I first read the book, I honestly couldn't feel for Thorin, even when he was dying, and to be honest, I never understood why Bilbo should care either, or the other dwarves, for that matter. In the book, Thorin was just rude, arrogant, not very competent and all around not a nice fella to have around.
Their parting in the movie is pretty much just as unpleasant for Bilbo as it was in the book, however, the movie characters actually built up a real connection, a friendship, even, so when they have their falling out, it means a lot, and it hits hard. When movie Thorin gets the dragon sickness, you can see him becomming something else, something scary and dark, something he wasn't before. There's a real fall from grace there. In the book... not so much.

The movies actually bothered to show us why these dwarves - and Bilbo - would follow Thorin, so even when he falls, you can still see why they would forgive him, and you can understand why Bilbo is also willing to forgive him and keep his memory as that of a dear friend. It's all built up and carried through in great detail, so it feels believable. In the book, it's basically just "Fuck you burglar! Oh well, I'm dying, I'm suddenly all nice now".
I guess that might work for very small kids, but for an adult, it's not nearly enough, because adults know, that it's not how it works.

As for those, who complain, that the movie didn't do the deaths of Kili and Fili justice, well, I couldn't disagree more.
Much like with Thorin, the brothers are fleshed out in much greater detail, then their book counterparts, and even their death scenes are given bigger focus, so the above complaint is rather riddiculous.
And while the book versions weren't quite as unsimpatetic as their uncle, it's still hard to care for them, because not only are they given very limited character development, but their death is basicaly just mentioned in a single sentence, and even that is only told in the aftermath of the battle, so it feels rather insignificant. More of a footnote, then an actual, important event, really.
I think it's a pretty basic rule in storytelling, that if you want to have a tragic death scene, you've gotta make the readers care for the characters first. Also, leaving more then just a single line for the death scenes to breath would probably help as well.

And even Balin, who is probably the most developed one next to Thorin, falls rather short in the book compared to his movie counterpart. Not only that, but one thing that always bugged me about him in the book was, that he kinda disagreed with Thorin, and yet, still decided to follow him.
Which the movie version does also, but here's the thing - in the movie, it makes sense, because we have multiple scenes dedicated to the mutual respect and friendship these two characters share, and we can see why this Balin would stand beside Thorin despite having second thoughts about the quest. Because, unlike his book counterpart, movie Thorin is a respectable leader, a great friend, and he has much more to him then simply being the heir to the line of Durin. But book Thorin has none of the qualities that makes movie Balin follow his king, so why exactly is Balin with him? Because he's the king? Not likely, as that didn't stop 99% of the dwarven race to say no to the whole quest thing.
I know, that Tolkien was probably trying to establish a conflict with this, but from an adult's point of view, it just didn't make much sense.
So I can't tell you how bloody happy I was that the movie fixed this problem as well...
And yet, many people still can't fathom why the movies are so much longer, then the book... Maybe becaus they actually bother to take their time and build up all the characters and subplots...

Another thing is, that in the book, it never really feels like Bilbo is actually a part of this company, nor does it feel like the reader is part of the company. Or KNOWS the company, for the matter... Which really bites the novel in the ass at times like these, when tragedy strikes, and we're supposed to care for a bunch of people we either knew little to nothing about, or what we knew, wasn't really enough to make us feel sorry for any of them.

Makes you wonder, how Bilbo managed to remember their names at all...

The book had some really great foundations and ideas, but sadly it sorely lacked building up it's characters personalities and motivations.

Disclaimer:
The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbit (c) Tolkien, New Line Cinema

backup account: www.yourparodies.wordpress.com

More Middle-Earth sillyness: yourparodies.deviantart.com/ga…