Territorial Hobbitses

[bloodyrosemccoy]

I really loved the Lord of the Rings movies--I even think some of the character arcs were better in them--but I can totally understand Christopher Tolkien's issues with them. If I'd spent my entire life in my dad's world and all sorts of other people started barging into it and crashing around, I'd be a bit territorial, too.

This also made me realize that I am far more worried about The Hobbit than I was about LotR, because I am far more invested in Bilbo as a character. He's a brilliant character, possibly the most relatable hero I've ever come across. And he's very hard to get right--I adored the hell out of There and Back Again, Pat Murphy's awesomely insane space opera remix of The Hobbit, but Bailey Beldon is no Bilbo. And I don't know if Martin Freeman could be, either--though if there were somebody I'd want to play him, Freeman's at the top of the list. Right under a magically age-reduced Sir Ian Holm, really. But even with Freeman playing him, it's a question of whether it'll work. We'll just have to see.

Comments

[westrider.livejournal.com]

What I'm really worried about with regard to the Hobbit movie is the handling of the Dwarves*. I did not appreciate the use of Gimli for comic relief in TLotR, and it looks from the pics I've seen like that trend's been kicked up several notches. Especially because it's probably going to be stupid humour, instead of clever.

I'm still going to see it, of course, but I'm nervous.

*Fuck you, spellchecker. When we're talking Tolkien, that's how it's spelled.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

... Although to be fair, the Dwarves are something of comic relief in the books, too. Not as much, but it's there.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

In The Hobbit, to a certain extent, certainly. Gimli is pretty much just a stone badass in TLotR, tho, because Merry and Pippin were around to supply all needed comic relief.

I'm worried that, given how Gimli was treated, it's going to be taken way over the top here.

I must admit to a significant bias here, tho. Just as you call yourself a very tall Hobbit, I often refer to myself as the tallest Dwarf in America. Dwarven characters in fantasy have always resonated very strongly with me, as serious, solid characters, not goofy. Funny Dwarves can still be done, but it needs to be handled well, and I'm afraid that adjectives like goofy, zany, whacky, and madcap are going to be more appropriate here.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I can totally understand. I would have liked Gimli to be a bit less goofy. (Although sometimes his snarkier comments made me laugh AND made him a badass. "He's TWITCHING because he's got MY AXE EMBEDDED IN HIS NERVOUS SYSTEM!" Totally action hero.)

I'm rather hoping part of the crazy Dwarf hair and makeup is an attempt to differentiate them from each other (since, with a few exceptions, they were sort of a conglomerate in the book). Although to me the most comical-looking are Fili and Kili--for very different reasons than the others' outright silly styles. Sexy Dwarves? REALLY?

[westrider.livejournal.com]

There were moments when it was done well. But there were also the Dwarf-tossing bits, and I seem to recall a number of points where the "humour" basically boiled down to "Look! Gimli's short/slow/otherwise having physical trouble that his description in the book was entirely counter to!" :P

Hopefully it's just for differentiation. Even so, Nori's hair frightens me.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the dwarf-tossing had the feel of "that thing that happened in a roleplaying session at 2 AM that everybody who was there thought was hilarious, but whenever they try to tell anybody it falls flat."

[shadesofmauve]

The 'comic relief' bit that I remember most clearly from the Hobbit is also a bit of holy-shit-bad-ass -- the whole bit with the juggling of plates while making up a song about said juggling and how it impacts on poor Bilbo's sensibilities.

(Okay, Maybe I'm the only one who sees that as pure skill, but hey, can YOU juggle crockery and ad lib rhyming verse at the same time?)

From the little bit of that scene included in the trailer, I'm hopeful that it stays that Bilbo is the butt of that joke, not the dwarves.

I expect/hope that because there are so many dwarves they'll use comic relief vs. serious to differentiate *between* then, and humor will become a personality trait, rather than a racial one. If so, it could end up being a pretty good thing.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Yeah, if that's done with the Dwarves being badasses while Bilbo freaks out, it's awesome. If it's done as "bumbling, but mysteriously manage not to break anything", it's frustrating.

It could be well done. I just don't have faith that it will be. Tho Sofish_Sasha's comment above gives me more hope.

And that last is also a good point. If it's used to show that (for instance) Fili and Kili are still kind of young and goof off some times, and Bombur takes a few hits about being lazy, that wouldn't bother me so much.

[shadesofmauve]

I'm hopeful that your last scenario will be the case, if only because writing it any other way would honestly be kind of *hard*. They need variety in personality or the movie would be super dull.

[sofish-sasha.livejournal.com]

The crockery juggling was awesome. :D

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Excellent to hear! This discussion has slowly been shifting me to "guardedly optimistic" :)

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. Bombur is TOTALLY comic relief in the book, but it looks like Thorin is going to be pretty badass, so hopefull this is just showing the many Dwarf personalities.

I was always pretty impressed with the crockery-juggling, too. That takes some skill.