The animal. Sorry, it just didn't fit with me.
I liked the movie and the rabbits fitted excellently for Radagast, but the elk/whatever somehow did not fit into my picture of an elven king.
Unless he's Santa Claus.
THE HOBBIT
- Thread starter checkeredhat
- Start date
- Status
I liked the movie and the rabbits fitted excellently for Radagast, but the elk/whatever somehow did not fit into my picture of an elven king.
Unless he's Santa Claus.
Saw it tonight. Wasn't thrilled with the additions in Rivendell, but overall I thought it made for a very good adaptation.
North_Ranger
Staff member
I still say it was a deer, 'cause I saw neither a big nose nor a fatty hump.
Uh, that's like a token standard in most fantasy. Wood elves ride on stag mounts.
Well, yes, but, bearing in mind that I haven't seen the emovie yet, I can see why it wouldn't fit for him. AS you said yourself, Wood elves ride stag mounts. High elves don't. So, depending on your personal view of what the Elven King would look like, I can easily see this as breaking immersion.
This may well be so, but not in my world and probably not in Tolkien's; though I would not put that out of reach for him at the time and under the circumstances the Hobbit was written. Just in case, there's no insult intented, I hold Tolkien in very high esteem!
And it did not put me in the wrong mind, I still greatly enjoyed the movie. It was just one picture that kept itself in the back of my mind.
Lore-wise, though, that is indeed a wood elf. Unless I've gotten my lore completely messed up, which is possible given how I'm a Tolkien newbie.
It's somewhat complicated. Most of the elves in Mirkwood are indeed Silvan (Wood) elves. But the royal ruling family, which includes Legolas, are Sindarin (Grey) elves from Doriath. So Thranduil is not a wood elf, but he is the king of the Wood Elves.
EDIT: And just to make things even more complicated, the royal family may or may not be what Tolkien considered "High Elves", i.e. the elves of Gondolin, who were intermixed Noldorin and Sindarin elves. Tolkien didn't specify the exact parentage of Thranduil's family, but most likely they were descended from the House of Thingol, which means they weren't from Gondolin, which means they're not "High Elves".
So, while in terms of heritage, Thranduil might not be a wood elf, he's the king of the wood elves, so it's entirely plausible that he's embraced the wood elf culture and found himself an antlered mount.
Tomorrow.
Wife and me.
LOTR Extended all at once.
Wife and me.
LOTR Extended all at once.
Canceled because she's tired. 
This may have to be a me party when it happens.
This may have to be a me party when it happens.
Canceled because she's tired.
This may have to be a me party when it happens.
and he's all mine...
At my second viewing, when Gandolf bamfs in and flashes with the foehammer, while it was all dark and quiet for those few seconds afterward, everyone in the theatre in awe, and some guy goes "...yeah!" but kinda monotone and the whole crowd erupts in laughter. It's been the one time someone commented at a movie during it that I wasn't even mad, just totally in for the ride. Might have been cause I had already seen it but it really seemed liek the whole theatre enjoyed it.
North_Ranger
Staff member
figmentPez
Staff member
I dunno, there seem to be a fair amount of fangirls on Tumblr going "whoops, there go my pants" over Kili.
North_Ranger
Staff member
And Thorin.
It really is odd when you realize Balin is YOUNGER then Thorin, yet they only added some white streaks to Thorin and made Balin into Grandpa Dwarf. They were definitely trying to sexy the main dwarf character up a bit.
Until recently, this was how I always saw Thorin.
Actually I also realize that the promotional image still does give him some gravity of age. He didn't really have that as much in the movie though.
I definitely think they were trying to make him more Aragorn-like.
That looks like Santa Clause playing Doom with God Mode.This is Thorin to me.
From Middle Earth, The Wizards card game.
Sounds about right. Hell, if it wasn't for that card game, I wouldn't have known there were 5 Wizards.
I actually read the Silmarillian and Unfinished Tales.
The Silmarillian was such a slog to get through. It's basically the bible of middle earth, including all the tedious lineage tracing.
I actually enjoyed how Jackson got around the multiple names of the Blue Wizards by just having Gandalf forget the names. The whole theater chuckled a bit on that line.
- Status