# Hobbit question concerning the death of Smaug **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 19, 2013, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbit-question-concerning-the-death-of-smaug/674271 "2013-11-19T17:23:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbit-question-concerning-the-death-of-smaug/674271/61 "2013-11-21T18:22:30Z")
Once again I am forced to admit amusement at people who are hopping mad that a movie wasn’t 100% faithful to a book and wasn’t made to their exacting specifications. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbit-question-concerning-the-death-of-smaug/674271/62 "2013-11-21T18:38:22Z")
And I am forced to explain that not being 100% faithful is really just fine to a point, so long as the movie is great. It wasn’t, and I agree with Knorf’s objections as to why this was the case. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbit-question-concerning-the-death-of-smaug/674271/63 "2013-11-21T19:33:35Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > And what kind of movie would that be, if the Dwarves were something straight out of a cartoon? Especially after LotR? The basic issue is that the Hobbit was expressly written as a children’s book, and LoTR was expressly not written as a children’s book - despite the fact that LoTR follows as a sequel to the Hobbit. This means that they have very different tones. Not to defend Jackson at all, but the fact that the movie trilogies have different tones is sorta inevitable. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbit-question-concerning-the-death-of-smaug/674271/64 "2013-11-21T20:32:26Z")
Just to be clear: I do NOT, ever, expect a movie to be “faithful” to a book. Movies are movies, that we see and hear. Books are words that we read. Books can tell us a character’s inner feelings, but movies can’t. Movies can show us details (we can see the whole room) that a book can’t possible describe. There’s no way that a movie can reproduce a book, and I never expect it to. My problem with THE HOBBIT movie is that it’s boring and repetitive, not that it does things different from the book. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbit-question-concerning-the-death-of-smaug/674271/65 "2013-11-21T21:37:27Z")
I agree with that, and would add that often where the first _Hobbit_ movie (the only one I’ve seen yet) departed from the book, it was not an improvement. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbit-question-concerning-the-death-of-smaug/674271/66 "2013-11-21T21:38:29Z")
Not fans of chase scenes, I take it. 😉 But yeah, agreed, Sadly. ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbit-question-concerning-the-death-of-smaug/674271/67 "2013-11-21T23:02:08Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Agreed. Bird poop in his hair and beard are bad enough - but a sleigh pulled by giant _bunnies_? > > :: shudder :: But…but, they’re _Rhosgobel_ rabbits! ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbit-question-concerning-the-death-of-smaug/674271/68 "2013-11-21T23:38:21Z")
> [@Elendil's Heir](#): > > Agreed. Bird poop in his hair and beard are bad enough - but a sleigh pulled by giant _bunnies_? . You know, I felt the exact opposite way. Rabbit sleighs are very much OK for the Nature Wizard of the bunch in a fantasy universe ; and he is an Istari so special perks and small wonders are to be expected. Gandalf gets giant eagles as his Deus Ex, Radagast has giant bunnies, that’s fine. OTOH, he doesn’t just have bird shit in his beard, the right side of his face looks like he dipped it in a vat of yoghurt. I mean, come _on_. A speck of bird shit would have been fine (again, ermit of the woods, eats mushrooms, doesn’t do the social thing on a regular basis… standards slip), but an entire bowl of bowel custard ? ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbit-question-concerning-the-death-of-smaug/674271/69 "2013-11-22T02:11:46Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Exactly. > > Balin: [after overhearing Bilbo tell Gandalf he will not join the Dwarves on their journey] It appears we have lost our burglar. Probably for the best. The odds were always against us. After all, what are we? Merchants, miners, tinkerers, toy-makers. Hardly the stuff of legend. > Thorin Oakenshield: There are a few warriors amongst us. > Balin: Old warriors. > Thorin Oakenshield: I would take each and every one of these Dwarves over an army from the Iron Hills. For when I called upon them, they answered. Loyalty. Honor. A willing heart… I can ask no more than that. Although I still maintain the entire party would have done better to simply hang Bombur at the start. 😛 Tolkien himself explains that Dwarves, though tough, enduring and capable fighters, don’t have the same penchant for heroism as Men: > [@](#): > > There it is: dwarves are not heroes, but calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbit-question-concerning-the-death-of-smaug/674271/70 "2013-11-22T02:18:24Z")
Missed edit window but a fuller quote: > [@](#): > > “The most that can be said for the dwarves is this: they intended to pay Bilbo really handsomely for his services; they had brought him to do a nasty job for them, and they did not mind the poor little fellow doing it if he would; but they would all have done their best to get him out of trouble, if he got into it. . . . There it is: dwarves are not heroes, but calculating folk with a great idea of the value of money; some are tricky and treacherous and pretty bad lots; some are not, but are decent enough people like Thorin and Company, if you don’t expect too much.” ---
**Author:** ![Anduinel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Anduinel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anduinel)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbit-question-concerning-the-death-of-smaug/674271/71 "2013-11-22T18:39:08Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > You know, I felt the exact opposite way. Rabbit sleighs are very much OK for the Nature Wizard of the bunch in a fantasy universe ; and he is an Istari so special perks and small wonders are to be expected. Gandalf gets giant eagles as his Deus Ex, Radagast has giant bunnies, that’s fine. I would have been annoyed if the rabbits had turned up in LOTR. But The Hobbit is lighter fare and the text already includes two species of talking birds (three if one doesn’t split hairs about the thrush), talking spiders, and Beorn’s animal butlers. Alongside that company, the bunny sled doesn’t bother me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hobbit-question-concerning-the-death-of-smaug/674271.md?page=3)