rocky41_7

I’ve talked about this aplenty in private conversations before, but my biggest beef with how Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit movies  alter the final conflict, so that Bard is the one arguing for peace and  Thranduil gunning for war, besides the character assassination  committed against Thranduil, is that it makes no sense given their respective positions.

Thranduil and  the Elves of Mirkwood have their difficulties for certain, but by and  large they seem to be getting by. Aside from the half-assed plotline  about the jewelry of Thranduil’s wife (a plot-point poorly explained  even in the films that invented it), the Elves have little reason for  great interest in Erebor’s treasure. They’re producing enough to trade  heavily with Laketown, as well as to have regular feasting and partying.  At no point is there any suggestion they’re going without or that the  Elves of the kingdom are displeased with Thranduil’s rule; rather,  Tolkien goes out of his way to emphasize how beloved Thranduil is by his  people. In short, there are very few, if any, signs of discontent among  them, aside from their struggles against the growing corruption of the  forest.

When the Elves march to Erebor, it’s with the idea of  picking over what might be left after Thorin’s quest, not to rob him of  the Arkenstone or start a larger conflict over treasure they have no  real claim to. Furthermore, whatever they might recover from Erebor will  have very little impact on them. It won’t heal the forest, it won’t  stop Sauron’s shadow from spreading, and it won’t change their material  day-to-day noticeably. It’s a “would be nice to have” kind of thing, not  a “need.”

There is no reason for Thranduil to be be willing to  kill to get Erebor’s treasure, except to make Bard a flawless hero by  comparison and cast a more villainous/morally gray shadow on Thranduil,  in keeping with the PJ films’ take on both of them.

Bard, by contrast, comes from a people who just lost everything.  Their leader is dead, their entire town has just burned down and sunk  into the lake, and, having fled for their lives, they are unlikely to  have grabbed many valuables on the way out. In fact, the state of the  people of Laketown is so grim that Thranduil diverts his march to Erebor  for the sole purpose of offering succor to the refugees, giving them  supplies and helping them build temporary structures for shelter before  continuing on to the Lonely Mountain.  

For Bard and the others of Laketown, that money would make an enormous  difference. That money is funds to rebuild Laketown, or to refit Dale  so it can be inhabited again. That money can help them trade for food  when the supplies given to them by the Elves run out. That money can buy  them clothes--as Laketown sinks in winter--and we know there are  children and elderly among them. Bard sees that money not only as what  is owed to them based onThorn’s promise, or purely on a moral sense  since it was Thorin’s Company that rousted Smaug and set his sights on  Laketown resulting in its destruction, but as the future of his people.

At  the point of the Battle of Five Armies, Bard and his people are  homeless refugees with nowhere to go and little left to trade. They are  desperate. That may not have fully set it yet, but Bard has enough  foresight to know they need a solution quickly. Men, after all, are mortal--they don’t have centuries to rebuild and get their lives on track again.

Based on this alone and even setting aside mischaracterizations of either character, the idea that it’s Thranduil who will go to war for Erebor’s gems and Bard who is arguing restraint makes absolutely no sense.

Crossposted: tumblr | Pillowfort