Released between 2012 and 2014, The Hobbit series created quite the buzz around fandom communities and fantasy book buffs. First of all, they took the word “serie𒐪s” to heart, even though they were working off one single book.
The Hobbit was written before Lord of the Rings, as Tolkien wrote the story for 💯his young children. It’s a pretty simple story about bravery, greed, and adventure. Bilbo is employed by a bunch of greedy dwarves whose greed and desire for gold is many of their undoing by the end.
However, the movie, I felt... was arguably better. The dwarves were far more humanized and people could easily tell the differences between their looks and personalities. Instead of just fighting for gold, they were fighting for home. The movie gave us much more complex characters. For me, that is a huge aspect that made the s💃tory better.
Though there was a lot of content put in that wasn’t needed either, like the romance side-plot or Legolas being there. That’s just me though. I think a lot of people got attached to the elves and it’s something they like and have fun making fun of. Also, the ✨whole side plot with the orc, Azog, got pretty ridiculous at times. The movie made an antagonist who wasn’t eve🐬n needed in the book! Whatever your opinion is, there are some pretty cool comics out there fans have made in celebration of the movie series. Let’s take a look.
25 🔴 Hello Again
Legolas was incredibly rude to the dwarves in The Hobbit, which did make for some funny banter and satire. At one point, he picks up a locket of Gloin and picks at the pictures ofꦍ f﷽amily that are in his locket. He asks if one is Gloin’s brother, and Gloin says, “That’s my wife!” Legolas then called the other photo “a goblin mutant” to which Gloin says, “That’s my wee lad, Gimli!”
Oh, the irony. Oh, Legolas, if only knew this “goblin mutant” would be your best friend in the future.
With Legolas not making an appearance in the book, this scene did make up for some of my fan-grief. Elves probably live so long that they all are extreme hypocrites in everything. If I were Gimli’s dad, I would be very concerned about how Legolas changed and decided to be best friends with my son. I’d be like “Hey, that guy was a jerk and I don’t want him here.” But Legolas is a ridiculous fighter, so I would also recognize that he is needed for the quest. Since The Hobbit book was made before Lord of the Rings, and in✨ movie-form, it was made opposite, the crew did a good job in giving little hints like this one from their earlier movies.
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24 Erebor Super𒀰market
Erebor is also known as the Lonely Mountain. You know, the place with the dragon and the gold and the tragic part of the story. Dwarves used to live there until they were kicked out by Smaug. According to The Atlas of Middle Earth, the Lonely Mountain is about possibly 3,500 meters tall and full to the brim with jewels. In this comic, though, Erebor 𓄧is a supermarket. I sort of see it as a joke towards dwarven greed, since they are charging in it during a sale. If Erebor is a Supermarket, is Smaug the manager? I have so many questions.
Did the supermarket belong to Thorin and company like the actual Erebor? Are they going to cart themselves in, kick Smaug out, and then trap themselves in there in a fit of greed and anger? Is the Arkenstone, also known as “The Heart of the Mountain,” now just “The Heart of the Supermarket?” Supermarkets don’t sell jewels the size of fists, so I guess thꦑe Arkenstone would be more like a really big gaudy keychain. Instead of the humans and elves gathering outside the gate to talk to Thorin, would they be🦄 cars gathered in the parking lot honking? Thorin crafted a “Closed Forever” sign.
Artist unknown.
23 ܫ 🐎 “I’m Fine”
Me too, Biblo, me too. Bilbo is a very entertaining character. His love of comfort, home, and familiarity is something I think anyone can relate to. His hatred for change, danger, and risk is something that makes him a very🃏 fun protagonist to watch. The films and book made a perfect balance because too much of either thing could have made Bilbo annoying and unlikable.
The actor choice of Martin Freeman to play Bilbo was a perfect choice.
His facial expressions and little movements as Bilbo matched the home-body hero perfectly. As we know, the adventures he goes on in The Hobbit gives him extreme anxiety. Who can blame him? However, he was also the sort to get all anxious about little things, like having house guests, an empty🐟 pantry, and not being on schedule.
This comic is funny because I think Bilbo is screaming on the inside throughout the whole story like this. I feel like this would be good for whe🉐n he’s keeping the Arkenstone from Thorin and Thorin just talked to him about trust. That’s a good time for prime screaming. I’d be ꦯscreaming. Honestly, out of dragons, orcs, and everything, that was the scariest part of the film series.
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22 🗹 Dwarf Love 🅺
If I had to guess the most popular shipping of characters in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series, it would be between two different ones: Thorin and Bilbo, and Legolas and Gimli. Putting Legolas in The Hobbit and showing hi♏m off as a dwarf-hater had a lot of Legolas and Gimli shippers giggling in the theaters. It just felt like it rained irony any time Legolas said something rude about dwarves.
If I were Tauriel in this comic, I’d be angry at Legolas.
Mostly because my love interest passed away and now Legolas is not just showing off his, but also being a hypocrite while doing it! Tauriel was not a popular character (maybe even the least popular character) in The Hobbit. I have to agree with the many fans that she felt a little forced, especially in her romance🔯 with Kili. When Kili passed away, even her grief felt forced to me. Maybe I’m just a romance-hater. I mean, comparing her relationshipꦫ and banter with Kili compared to the moments Thorin and Bilbo or Legolas and Gimli really shows how weak the writing was with the romance. The other ships are just headcanons, and the canon romance feels far less meaningful!
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21 ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ�🐠�ᩚᩚᩚ The Smaug Bank
This comic gets a ten out of ten for being adorable. The Hobbit marketing team should invest in little Smaug piggy banks. Maybe ones like that cat that peeks out of a box and takes a c𒐪oin any time you put a coin in front of it? Except that it's Smaug? Best idea. They would sell!
Tolkien was infamous for his love of dragons. There are even books about his love for dragons such as the children’s book John Ronald’s Dragons by Caroline McAlister. She learned a lot about the writer through her trips to Oxford. In her book, which contains real facts about him, is a list of dragons from Tolkien’s life. He was inspired by dragons such as Fafnir from “The Story of Sigurd” in Andrew Lang’s The Red Fairy Book. He was also inspired by The Beowulf𓃲 Dragon since he was an Anglo-Saxon scholar and studi▨ed and wrote about Beowulf.
In one of Tolkien’s scholarly writings, he wrote, “I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighborhood, intruding into my relatively safe world, in which it was, for instance, possible to read stories in peace of mind, free from fear. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fafnir was richer and more beautiful, whatever cost or peril.” – From his essay “On Fairy-Stories.”
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20 ꩲ Little Potato
Baby dwarves are probably the size of little potatoes. How adorable! Protect them at all costs. I wonder who the mother is? Did you know that in all of Tolkien’s works, only one female dwarf has been named? . Yeah🐼, I sometimes forget they live a very long time. She was the only named dwarf🦄 because Middle-earth dwarf women are known to be rarely seen in the outside world. I guess if they have tiny potato-sized children, that makes some sense.
I bet Thorin would be the best in parental instincts. He’s someone worth following but still has room to learn and grow himself. He’s the sort who would do anything to protect the weak and small. And what about mixed races? If Kili and Tauriel worked out, could they have had kids? It probably could in Peter Jackson’s world, but in Tolkien’s world, probably not. There are only two kinds of "interspecies" babies we ever hear about: men and orcs, and men and elves. They are explained by the members being "branches of the s♈ame race." According to Tolkien’s lore, dwarves and elves were made b🍌y two different deities, putting them in different branches.
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19 💯 Cold Uncle
Fili and Kili are the babies of Thorin’s company. In Tolkien’s book, they were also one of the more active characters (a lot of the dwarves were referred to their actions as a group). Thorin was the elder brother of their mother. To be honest, I have no idea what happened to their mom. She’s the only named female dwarf, but that doesn’t mean we get any other juicy details. If she’s gone, then I guess Thorin really 𝔍did raise them?
The bond between the uncle and his nephews showed itself as a significant one in the movies and book.
This put salt in the wounds when all three characters don’t make it to the story’s end. Some people have theorized Tolkien’s reasoning in ending these charact꧑ers. One particular reason was that with Thorin gone, Kili would have been the new King. Can’t have that, I guess?
Fili and Kili were probably a handful to raise. Like any literar⛦y twins, they are portrayed as the playful, daring, and more trickster-like out of Thorin’s group. In modern day regular Earth, I bet some families would put little Fili and Kili on those child leashes. They probably got into all sorts of trouble that Thorin had to fix.
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18 🙈 Deus Ex Machina ꦍ
Funny and sad. This comic is referencing the eagles as deus ex machina due to their role in the third Lord of the Rings movie an꧒d book. Just when all seems doomed for the protagonists, the eagles appear and totally flip the battle. They save Frodo and Sam from lava and drive the orcs back as well.
A lot of fans have run into the issue as to... why didn’t they fly the eagles to Mordor in the beginning? So manওy people wondered that hardcore fans have answered the question. Various reasons are that the eagles do what they please, Gandalf can’t just ask them to help all the time, and of course, they would clearly alert the orcs and everyone else what is happening since they are the size of trucks. Remember the quest was supposed to be somewhat sneaky?
But this is about their role in The Hobbit. They actually played a larger role in The Hobbit book. Unlike in the movies, the eagles are more of an intelligent race o🌳f their own rather than just some big eagles. In fact, just showing them as eagles that beckon to Gandalf in the movies rather than their full capabilities and willpower shown in the books is a big reason they are seen as a plot hole.
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17 Dwar♒f Legolas
Oh no, this little Legolas is precious! What a stick-in-the-mud father. For those who are curious why dwarves and elves even hate each other in the first place, you’ve🌊 come to 𒆙the right place! They actually didn’t hate each other in the First Age of Middle-earth. The two races even collaborated on different projects like the fortress of Menegroth in Doriath.
This whole dwarf and elf mutual hate began with an elf king, Thingol, was ended.
As you can imagine, it was dwarves who took his life. They did so because he hired them to build and make different accessories and buildings. The dwarves wanted one of the necklaces, claiming since it was made by dwarves, it belonged to dwarves. Of course, the king di🅷sagreed and thus they ended him. Then the dwaღrves were ended. Then no one was happy and they hated each other.
Dwarves and elves have probably nurtured and ꦏsculpted the hate through their bloodlines. Poor Legolas probably never heard the end of it from his father. This sort of makes the relationship between Gimli and Legolas all the🌊 more touching and powerful. It takes a lot to undo learned prejudices. Our world can learn a lot from them.
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16 ⛄ Hissing Thorin
The artis🌜t described thi𝄹s comic to be inspired by the fact that they think Thorin is like a needy pet to Bilbo. I can see that; Thorin does seem like the jealous type, especially when Bilbo interacts with non-dwarves. I suppose his sense of self-importance and high rank only makes the hissing a little louder.
I’d say a big difference that the movie did better than the book was in humanizing Thorin as someone who valued friendship. In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, we have that scene where Thorin recognizes Bilbo as a precious friend. That♎ scene did not happen in the book. The nicest line Thorin gives Bilbo in the book is probably the one he says when he leaves his mortal coil.
He says, “There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and s♋ome wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” But in the film, the quotation is a little altered. Instead, Thorin says, “If more of us valued home above gold, it would be a merrier world.” I think both quotes are lovely.
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