Relatively Non-Spoilery DoS Impressions

1. Bombur is all sorts of awesome, even if he never says a word. The barrel sequence should put that beyond all doubt. Also, he proves Gimli correct when he says in The Two Towers: "We Dwarves are natural sprinters... very dangerous over short distances."

2. I am officially in love with Erebor's technology. What we see of it can't be in prime condition but it's still capable of working. Take that, Smaug.

3. Smaug is the best cinematic dragon of all time, hands down. THAT VOICE. And a good percentage of it isn't even effects - it's just what Benedict Cumberbatch was able to do with a microphone. He poured everything he had into bringing this dragon to life, and it shows. Let's give him all the credit not just for the voice acting but for the motion-capture as well.

4. Martin Freeman is Bilbo. 100% of the time I forget that it's acting. He's just that believable as Mr. Baggins. It's amazing to watch him play Bilbo as the Ring begins to affect him and Smaug toys with his mind. Utterly amazing.

5. The same thing goes for Richard Armitage as Thorin. Watching Thorin begin to be affected by the gold fever/dragon sickness is heart-breakingly painful. There And Back Again is only going to be worse in this regard. Gah.

6. If you don't love Bard and his family to bits, I'm not sure what's wrong with you. For a character who gets introduced at the last minute in the book and gets very little characterization, they've done excellently with him. He rungs rings around the Master of Laketown's spy network and helps the Dwarves even after he's argued with Thorin (and made some pretty valid points, at that).

7. Legolas was awesome. He's also strangely hilarious. The absurd look of mixed jealousy and big brother overprotectiveness as he watches Tauriel speak to Kili in the dungeons sealed it. Also, his fight with Bolg. For the first time in five movies, Legolas is injured. It's just a bit of dizziness and a nosebleed, but it's still the first time he's been injured. All he ever got in LOTR was a bit of dirt on his face. And his reaction was priceless, too: he stared at his own blood and you could just see that everything became personal for him with Bolg, like, "You do NOT make me bleed my own blood."

8. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked Tauriel. She was very much what I would picture a Sylvan Elf to be like. In fact, if they had cut out Thranduil's suggestion that Legolas likes her, made the healing scene with Kili a bit shorter, and possibly removed Kili's feverish, "Would she ever love me?" I would have absolutely no problem with her and probably would praise her despite her non-canonical status.

If you're gonna give us girls a role model character, at least don't bog her down with romantic subplots. Sheesh.

Even so, the threatened Kili-Tauriel love story wasn't really what we all feared it to be. It was actually really sweet and platonic. They expressed curiosity in each other and each other's races. She sympathized with his promise to return home safely to his mother because she has lost her own parents (not stated directly in the movie, but mentioned in various interviews).

9. NEEDS MORE FILI. I've been saying that since AUJ and I'll continue to say it. Must Kili forever overshadow his awesome older brother. (C'mon, Kili, quit hogging the spotlight...) However, Fili's endless arsenal of knives was hilarious to watch. The Elves couldn't find them all, hahaha.

And Fili finally did it. When Thorin tells the injured Kili to remain behind in Laketown, Fili protests, arguing that he'd carry Kili up the mountain himself if he had to, but that they wanted to see the halls of their fathers. Thorin tells Fili, "When you are king, then you will understand," and Fili is just like, "No, sorry, uncle. My place is with my brother," and says behind in Laketown with Kili.

*cries pathetically over Durin family feels*

Also, Bofur waking up after being drunk under the table at about that point was hilarious. XD Gotta love Bofur. Hope we get to see one of Jimmy Nesbitt's daughters splash water on him in the Extended Edition...

10. I don't have any pictures of Beorn, but he was a real One-Scene Wonder. His roar is enough to scare off Azog and his hunters. Some serious awesomeness going on there.

Also, the Necromancer vs. Gandalf. That and Smaug are worth the price of admission alone.

Gah, I wanna go see it again so badly!!!

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Does This Song/Poem Have a Name Yet?

Fellow Ringers, we need to come up with a name for this one! If it has gifsets on Tumblr, it needs a name, especially since Bard shall apparently recite it in DoS.

We can always be very unimaginative and call it 'Bard's Song'...

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

French DoS Posters!

Although I would normally probably count as a Gallophobe (a person with an extreme aversion to France, French, and all things and people French... mostly because the sound of the language is like nails on a chalkboard for me), somebody on TORn (where I get all of my news nowadays) found these lovely posters for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in French. So I shall post them.

Well, most of 'em, since I didn't bother with the Tauriel one. My attitude toward her is neither positive nor negative. It is a mix of, "Meh," and, "Wait and see."

While the Bilbo poster isn't the greatest, it is infinitely better than that horribly photoshopped one released the other week. Everyone hated it; some suggested firing the whole photoshop team and starting anew. This one is passable, however. Even the Legolas one is lovely and looks quite interesting.

Everyone loved the Thorin poster, of course. All hail to His Majesty.

You know, I might even keep these pictures, because they *are* quite nice. And now I cannot say the words, "Quite nice," any more without saying it in the voice of Tom the troll from AUJ... *sigh* The perils of belonging to a fandom.

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

Not At All Sorry For The Hobbit Spam

Looks like Bilbo with the map on the side of the Lonely Mountain. Can't wait to see the secret door!

It's Bard the Bowman and his kids (what happened to Mrs. Bard? Is she dead?). The boy is named Bain, and is canonically mentioned in LOTR/Appendices as having succeeded his father. The two girls, however, are thrown in for cinematic purposes. I don't mind, however, since I always figure that there must have been more children than just the lone son and heir. Plus, coming from a larger family myself, I always think that only children must get so lonely without siblings.

Although, that being said, siblings can also drive you crazy... Even so, wouldn't trade 'em for the world.

Bonus points: Bard's daughters are played by James Nesbitt/Bofur's girls. They look amazingly similar, don't they? (To each other, not to him necessarily.) It will be very funny if they run into Bofur in the movie... XD

I can't remember if I've posted this before or not. If I have, too bad. Here's Kili in Beorn's house or Laketown, one of the two. He appears to be giving someone a rather annoyed look. Not sure why. Guess we'll find out!

Is that Dale in ruins? Ahh, Thorin, what are you doing, wandering around in the snow dressed like that? Gloves or something would be of great use here. (I realize it's probably just a set picture, but even so...) Then again, maybe Dwarves are just naturally resistant to cold and heat. It makes enough sense.

On a completely different note, the red does look quite nice on Thorin, although I miss the blue coat. ;)

Five weeks exactly now, people!!!

In Pace Christi,

Elyse

DoS Trailer Screenshots

A mere hour after the trailer came out, screenshots were available.

The trailer was being discussed far and wide.

Analyses were drawn up. Potential timelines have been made. Speculations have been passed around like hot tamales. The trailer has been watched frame by frame to pick up on all the little details.

Likely, if I were to go look on Tumblr now, I would find gifs. I would find artwork. I would find gifs of the artwork.

THIS IS THE FANDOM TO WHICH I BELONG!

(From left to right: Richard Armitage/Thorin, Graham McTavish/Dwalin, William Kircher/Bifur, Jed Brophy/Nory, Mark Hadlow/Dori, James Nesbitt/Bofur. I especially like the glare Graham gives the camera. He's Dwalin, sure enough!)

Anyway, on to the lovely screenshots. No doubt, tomorrow there'll be plenty more on TOR.net, but for now, this is what I have:

(Oh, you want a link? Here's a link: http://www.framecaplib.com/lotrlib/html/episodes/indices/hbttrail/thumb09.htm Have fun! The screencaps from this trailer begin at the bottom and continue on into the next sections.)

Bard the Bowman, doing his epic thing. I particularly like his arrows - the centers have been hollowed out in a fashion reminiscent of the pommel of Aragorn's sword, Anduril. Who is the real Aragorn figure here - Thorin or Bard? You decide.

Guess who showed up for a brief moment just after Gandalf's epic ninja twirl with his staff? Plus, the flames around the Eye look like the writing on the Ring - awesome.

I dunno, I just liked the way Legolas's face softened here. And I'm not a Legoriel (as it has already been dubbed) shipper. I'm perfectly happy with them being good friends. (WHY must there always be a romance???!!)

Our king, people. Or, should I say, 'ladies'? XD

His Majesty looks quite good in red. I wasn't wild about it at first, since I loved his beautiful, beautiful royal blue so much. However, I'm changing my mind about that.

I also notice Bilbo has switched to blue. Hmm. Bilbo was a bit excitable in AUJ and wore red; Thorin was always serious and wore blue. Red Oni, Blue Oni. Even without prior knowledge of the book, I might have guessed that Bilbo's going to start taking over as the serious, responsible leader and Thorin will... well... going back to Erebor, facing the dragon that destroyed his home, and encountering all that gold that so drove his grandfather mad... it mightn't be pretty.

...uh-oh. And it looks like it's already started.

*pauses to reflect on how much Richard Armitage is going to ruin my life*

Argh. I'm doomed.

The gate to Beorn's house is looking mighty beautiful. The greens and yellows of the grass and trees are simply stunning. I love how much more realistic everything looks in this second trailer - looks like someone noticed the comments about the teal shading and went back and fixed it all. Nice.

Oh, and there are bear statues over the gate! :)

 

The bridge into Thranduil's realm in Mirkwood. Look at the leaves on the trees... the grass... the water... AUGH, the color!

 

 





 

I'm glad to see that Thorin will always have Dwalin beside him. After all, you need your buddy close to talk trash about the Elves, the Laketowners, etc. XD

 

Really, though, Dwalin's strength and loyalty are some of the best parts about him. The scene where he yells for Thorin and nearly falls from the hanging tree at the end of AUJ? That's Dwalin. And that's why I love him.

 

 

 

Trees in Mirkwood! Glorious trees! They may be poisoned and evil and dying, but still... glorious trees! Look at those branches, gnarling and twisting up to the skys. Look at that canopy of red leaves, like mottled stained glass. Gorgeous.

 

 

 

Look! Mirkwood guards! It's a totally new design of Elf armor, and it looks lovely. Tree branch motifs this go around, instead of leaf and petal motifs. I approve. Also, are they wearing masks over the lower halves of their faces? I suppose that could help if you're fighting poisonous creatures in Mirkwood and do not want to breathe fumes...

 

 

Thorin doing his Captain America leap off of ledge with flames following behind.

 

Seriously, I should start counting how many times Cap does this move in the movies he's in. It's at least three. 1 - When he jumps towards Bucky after confronting Schmidt/Red Skull for the first time, Captain America: The First Avenger. 2 - After he blows up a tank, Captain America: The First Avenger. 3 - After he blows up some other alien mobile, The Avengers. Possible case for 4 - falling out a window and onto a car after deflecting and alien grenade away from people, The Avengers.

 

Let's just call it the Cap Jump and be done with it.

 

Honestly, I'm surprised someone on TORn hasn't noticed this shot and started worrying about whether or not Smaug will singe Thorin's hair. XD Oh, the importan things we worry about.

 

In Pace Christi,

 

Elyse