And the tragedy is *important* because it highlights the futility of war, the loss and the pointlessness. Unlike LOTR, Five Armies doesn't end on a triumphant note. There's no big sappy climax that goes on and on while people congratulate each other. It's deaths & an empty house.
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I'm always going to love the original LOTR films (and I may yet binge their extended editions too, because see above, re: raccoon person) but I think I might actually prefer the Hobbit trilogy - or its ending, at least - to the ending of Return of the King. It feels more human.
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The ending of LOTR is exhausting because it's exhaustive, trying to wrap up every lose end and show us how the world was fixed and made perfect forever - meaning, how it became narratively static. But at the ending of Five Armies, the world is still the world.
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Also, on a practical note, I liked that the Hobbit films, unlike LOTR, had visible background POC (the bar is SO LOW), had the women of Dale fight in the final battle, and, yes, introduced an extra female character because Tolkien was good at languages, not ladies.
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ANYWAY. I bought & binged the films because social distancing, figuring I could at least say I'd seen them and be done with it. I didn't expect to enjoy them as much as I did, and I'll be interested if there's anyone else who comes back to them with a different view.
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Seeing how low-ranked Five Armies is compared to the prior two, I can't help feeling that people were angry it was a tragedy instead of triumphant: that Thorin became flawed and cruel; that the hot dwarves died; that the world wasn't fixed by a pointless battle.
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It came out in 2014, which honestly feels like a lifetime ago, both personally and politically. But in 2020, as much as I want us to get that happy LOTR ending in the real world, acknowledging that sometimes you just get repeatedly screwed by selfish leaders feels realer to me.
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Sometimes you put your faith in someone who fucks up awfully, and even when they walk it back in the end, there's still consequences. Sometimes the best you can do is rebuild and be glad of the opportunity. And sometimes you go home to find it's been stolen from you.
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Which is why it matters all the more that Bilbo's treasure, the most important thing he takes home, is an acorn: something small to plant for the future. The seed of the spreading oak we see him laugh beneath in his eventual old age.
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There's plenty of bad in the world right now, and lots of us are chasing after Arkenstones in the hope that they'll magically fix the future. But maybe we just need acorns. Acorns, and hope. Kindness, and the courage to speak truth to power. To know when to let go of grudges.
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