So, as I stated before, one of the biggest positive elements of Desolation of Smaug was the character journeys of certain characters, specifically those of Bilbo Baggins and Thorin Oakenshield.
How, specifically?
I'm glad you asked!
Bilbo
Despite my continued affection for Thorin Oakenshield, Bilbo comes first.
On the other hand, I'm finally talking about someone other than Thorin! Isn't it amazing?
But, I digress.
There are two major differences we see in Bilbo in Desolation of Smaug.
The first is his level of courage and self-confidence. He is, undoubtably, braver than he was when we first met him back in Unexpected Journey. He doesn't seem as daunted by challenges or new stages in the adventure, as the Bilbo of Unexpected Journey would have been. He doesn't seem quite as nervous of doing his bit of spy work now and then, nor does he seem to have much trouble with the idea of using his sword anymore. When they first arrive at Beorn's house (this will need its own blog post eventually), and they are being chased by Beorn in his uncontrollable bear form, he just automatically draws his sword to defend himself. Later on, when the spiders have the dwarves captive, Bilbo really doesn't hesitate to attack them on his friends' behalf.
And now we know how Bilbo's Elven sword became Sting!
Back on topic.
Unlike the Bilbo of The Hobbit book, our Bilbo voluntarily climbs a massive tree to reach the sun, and get his bearing (thank you, Peter Jackson, for putting the butterflies in there!). This scene proves to be one of those brief clips where next to nothing is spoken, but so much is effectively communicated by the character's actions. Bilbo breaks through the canopy of dense Mirkwood trees, and the very first thing he does is take a deep breath of the fresh air. He's managed to escape, albeit temporarily, from the almost suffocating atmosphere of the forest, and just spends a few seconds basking in the long-lost sunlight…and enjoying the pretty blue butterflies. It is, in and of itself, a touching scene.
On the flip side of Bilbo's character journey, we start to see some not-so-positive changes as well.
More specifically, we start to see the Ring taking control.
In a world where everything was filmed and produced in chronological order, Bilbo's ring wouldn't even really be important enough to catch our attention until Bilbo uses it to snag the keys and get his buddies out of their Mirkwood dungeon. In that world, we'd find Bilbo's affection for the ring a bit odd. Some of us might begin to suspect something dark and sinister, but we'd probably just dismiss it as one thing or another. "You've been watching too much X-Files," you might tell yourself. "You're just paranoid. Not everything is a conspiracy."
However, as we live in a Post-LOTR franchise world, we notice that silly piece of metal right off the bat. Ring-fanatics across the globe let out a collective, "Oooooh! It's
the Ring!" on
Unexpected Journey's
opening weekend alone. And then, some of us had to go back for seconds. And then, thirds.
As a side note, I'm really beginning to think that the reason these big franchise movies (
LOTR,
The Hobbit,
The Chronicles of Narnia,
Harry Potter,
Twilight,
Star Wars, etc.) gross so high is because of fans like us, the people who are willing to spend untold amounts of our hard earned cash to see the movie(s) in the theatre multiple times. On The Hobbit's Official Facebook Page, I encountered someone who complained that he/she had only seen
Desolation of Smaug four times. My reaction was, "
Only four times?" But, who am I to talk? I've seen
Unexpected Journey three times,
Desolation of Smaug twice, and
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe six times in the theatre alone. But, ticket prices were a bit cheaper back in 2005/2006.
Back on topic.
It becomes clear very early on (even to those of us who know nothing about
The Hobbit or
An Unexpected Journey) that something's going on between Bilbo and his magic Ring. Like Frodo before him (or after him, if we're going chronologically), the 2nd movie in the trilogy shows Bilbo lying awake at all hours of the night, staring at the Ring and stroking it tenderly, as if it's a pet poodle or a new born baby. This scene is a prime example of the measures Peter Jackson and Company went to in order to connect the
LOTR trilogy to
The Hobbit. It's subtle, but Ring-fanatics like me will recognize it immediately.
The biggest evidence that Bilbo's obsession with the Ring may be unhealthy comes a bit later. However, this moment doesn't actually happen in the book.
Due to Bilbo's tree climbing expedition (mentioned above), he was the only one of the fourteen members of Thorin's Company not to be taken by the evil giant spiders. Okay, okay, Bilbo did get nabbed on the way back down, but some mysterious reason, he isn't entirely knocked out by spider venom. Is the brief clip of Bilbo tied up in a spider web cocoon another tie-in between him and Frodo (who also found himself entangled in a similar cocoon back in
Return of the King)? Anyway, there's still enough life in Bilbo for him to manage to escape from his spidery bonds and go find the rest of his friends. In order to do this effectively, though, he puts on the Ring.
Everything starts out just fine, and accurate to the book. Bilbo fights the spiders and rescues his friends (including Thorin who should, at this point, be having his epic "You betrayed my family!" conversation with Thranduil…but isn't). Things start to not be okay when Bilbo loses the Ring in a surprise attack by a giant spider. Instead of staying to help his friends, as he's supposed to do in the book, he goes chasing after the Ring. And thus, leaves his friends to fend for themselves in their fight against the spiders. Which then makes for yet another one of those long, drawn out, unnecessarily gory battle scenes that Peter Jackson has apparently become so fond of. And, which consequently leads to the dwarves running into and getting captured by the Elves.
Where is Bilbo this whole time?
Off searching for his Ring. He looks over and sees it a short distance away. All seems well. He'll get his Ring back and go help his friends.
But, no. Another giant spider pops up out of a secret den and lands, as Mr. Jackson would have it, right on top of the Ring.
Bilbo doesn't even hesitate. He leaps at the spider, fights with it, and eventually hacks it to death. He grabs his Ring, stands over the mutilated carcass of his first cold blood murder, flashes a smile, and declares triumphantly, "Mine!"
And this is the moment that we realize that our furry footed friend who detested the idea of adventures when we first met him back in
Unexpected Journey has become a vicious killing machine. Albeit, it's an evil spider, but all the same. Bilbo isn't as innocent as we once thought.
Bilbo follows us down this mental road a minute later, after catching his breath for a bit. His expression changes to one that wordlessly says, "What just happened? Where am I?" He stares at the Ring in confusion as if to say, "How did I get here?" Then, he looks up and sees the spider he's just killed in front of him. He looks shocked, until he realizes, "Oh my goodness!
I did that." His expression changes from shock to horror as if to say, "Oh my goodness! I was willing to kill in cold blood for this stupid piece of gold."
At this point, Bilbo should have tossed the Ring away. But, actually to his credit, he pockets it, and later uses it to follow his buddies and their Elven captors into Thranduil's kingdom.
Why do I say this is to his credit? The Ring doesn't let its bearers get rid of it so easily, so why is it good that Bilbo kept the Ring after everything that's happened to him?
First, because, at that point, anyone could have found it. And anyone happens to include Sauron or Azog or anyone serving Sauron. If Bilbo had disposed of the Ring right then and there in Mirkwood, it would have made its way back to Sauron that much faster.
End of Middle Earth as we know it.
End of story.
And, if Sauron got the Ring back so soon, the Ring would never have come to Frodo, and there would be no
Lord of the Rings trilogy for us to enjoy.
Thank you, Bilbo, for not getting rid of the Ring when you thought about it!
My Ring-fanatic friend made an interesting point: After this episode with the spiders and the Ring and all that, Bilbo seems to be more cautious about wearing/using the Ring. Granted, he uses it to get his friends out of Thranduil's dungeon. But, there are also a ton of other places he could have used it, but didn't.
Most notable is Erebor.
When Thorin sends him into Erebor to find the Arkenstone, Bilbo doesn't put the Ring on until Smaug begins to wake up, and that more out of panic than anything else.
Smaug can smell him, hear his breath, sense his fear, but he can't see him. Which gives Bilbo the upper hand, in some ways.
But, Smaug hits on something, that is, in and of itself, a major tie-in between
LOTR and
The Hobbit. "There is something about you. Something you carry, something made of gold… but far more
precious…" And, of course, "precious" echoes and reverberates off the walls in an overly dramatic fashion, which leads Bilbo to hallucinate and see Sauron's eye, and unknowingly take off the Ring, which then defeats the purpose of hiding from Smaug in the first place.
Now, before we get too much further, let me clear up one very important thing for you: Smaug and Sauron are not allies.
How do we know this?
Simple. If Smaug was in alliance with Sauron, he would have been called upon to join Sauron's forces at Dol Guldor. Which, clearly he isn't, or he wouldn't still be sleeping in his pile of gold in Erebor.
Smaug is his own little evil entity, and he's really only important to Thorin and Company's personal little journey to reclaim The Lonely Mountain. The only people who are really concerned with Smaug's presence are Thorin, his buddies, and the people of Laketown. The rest of Middle Earth could really care less.
Now that we've got that straightened out, let's get back on topic.
The fact that Smaug can detect at least some of the power (and possibly the all around evilness) of the Ring should say something to Bilbo.
Smaug has been practically suffocated in gold for hundreds of years. He knows its scent like the back of his claw. So, why should the Ring smell any different to him?
Because the Ring isn't just an ordinary ring. Smaug doesn't have to be on Sauron's Facebook Friends List to sense his power and malice in the Ring (we find out in
Fellowship of the Ring that Sauron passed some of his power and malice and cruelty into the Ring when it was forged). Maybe Smaug doesn't quite know what it is. Maybe he doesn't recognize it as part of Sauron or Sauron's nature. But, he does recognize that the Ring isn't just another piece of gold to add to his collection. He recognizes it as evil, just like himself.
Then, why doesn't he try to take the Ring from Bilbo himself?
Perhaps its because he knows it is evil?
Or, perhaps, because, like everyone else, he's heard of Sauron. He knows the legends of the Ring that was taken from Sauron so long ago. And, suddenly he finds himself face to face with it. Maybe he laughs at Bilbo's obvious ignorance. After all, how could Bilbo
not know what he's got in his pocket? But, at the same time, he doesn't want anything to do with it.
Smaug is his own evil entity, wholly separate from Sauron. Maybe he likes it that way, he likes the idea of being an Independent bad guy instead of working for the large Mordor corporation. And, maybe he'd prefer to keep it that way.
He could very easily fry Bilbo, taken the Ring, and delivery it to Sauron. But, maybe he knows (or at least assumes) that, in doing so, he would be taken over by Sauron and made into one of his servants.
In any event, Smaug isn't about to find out.
Yeah, I know I said this post would be about Bilbo's character journey. I got a little distracted by Smaug and the Ring. But, the Ring does have a way of making itself the center of attention, doesn't it?
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