The One Ring Forums: Tolkien Topics: Movie Discussion: The Hobbit:
Bilbo with Binoculars?



TheFoeHammer
Registered User

Nov 22 2012, 11:07pm


Views: 1272
Bilbo with Binoculars?
One ring .net pulbished an article on the 22nd stating that new figurines were on the market and that bilbo comes with binoculars?


The star of our journey, Bilbo Baggins, comes equipped a satchel, binoculars, Sting with Elvish markings, a sheath, hairy feet, and a protruding tummy. Rightfully so on the last item! The likeness of the figure, while not dead on, bears enough of a resemblance to Martin Freeman that it’s worth a buy.

what the hell? i hope to god he doesnt have these in the film.

as a die hard lord of the rings fan, im scared that throughout the movies i will constantly be tutting at these things. Its not that i mind jacksons additional plots, about ringwraiths etc.

but i love lotr because its a believable fantasy, but it kinda crushes this when i see bunny sleds and axes in heads, and binoculars? sounds like hes trying to do a harry potter. :(


(This post was edited by Ataahua on Nov 22 2012, 11:31pm)


DanielLB
Immortal


Nov 22 2012, 11:14pm


Views: 710
Sorry, you'll have to explain why binoculars are ridiculous? /
 

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imin
Valinor


Nov 22 2012, 11:16pm


Views: 691
They werent invented in ME were they? //
 


DanielLB
Immortal


Nov 22 2012, 11:19pm


Views: 718
Not like modern day ones, no.
I'm sure they are a Middle-earth variations of what they are today. Something simple, nothing fancy.

I don't see a problem with that? The Hobbit's had pretty much everything else.

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imin
Valinor


Nov 22 2012, 11:25pm


Views: 681
I'm just waiting for
Bilbo to pull out his brand new iphone 5 and update his facebook and post a tweet, then get out his ipad and play fruit ninja Tongue

i think its perhaps going a bit far but like you say, so long as its not some brand new thing and looks a bit simplistic and old then it will be ok.


DanielLB
Immortal


Nov 22 2012, 11:27pm


Views: 669
I think two pieces of curved glass in a wooden frame would be fine
And certainly wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb - they have glasses, and they have wooden furniture. Plus, Elrond has his own observatory.

Think of everything else they had - umbrellas, a mill, condements, chess, golf, booze, games, geographically accurate maps, time pieces and so on. We have all that today as well and no one complains.Wink

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(This post was edited by DanielLB on Nov 22 2012, 11:32pm)


Dlanor da Great
Rivendell


Nov 22 2012, 11:28pm


Views: 690
Technically....
...Nothing was invented in middle earth at this time. This all takes place before our age where all this stuff was developed.


Elessar
Valinor


Nov 22 2012, 11:30pm


Views: 680
Review
You must be talking about our own Dwalins review. He calls them binoculars but I don't think that's what they are.

PS: I thankful he was willing to do this review for me as I'm back logged with other reviews and work stuff. He bailed me out.


(This post was edited by Elessar on Nov 22 2012, 11:32pm)


imin
Valinor


Nov 22 2012, 11:33pm


Views: 640
I havent really thought about it
as they dont have them in the books so didnt think they would make them in the movies.

For me i would like him not to have them or have them just sitting on a table in his home but not used - just some prop. If they were to do them, then i think your idea is best.


DanielLB
Immortal


Nov 22 2012, 11:37pm


Views: 627
I agree - why would Bilbo ever need them?
Since he doesn't use them in the books. Unless he doesn't start the journey with them? Perhaps the Elves or Dwarves give them to him?

Or while he is in Dale? There are lots of possibilities, but the idea of binoculars in Middle-earth isn't a silly one.

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Lacrimae Rerum
Grey Havens

Nov 22 2012, 11:54pm


Views: 688
Sigh. It's a canteen not binoculars
 


DanielLB
Immortal


Nov 22 2012, 11:58pm


Views: 623
That solves that then! /
 

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Elessar
Valinor


Nov 23 2012, 12:00am


Views: 623
Exactly!
Had to go double check my figures but its two jugs in a holder. The smaller scale figure I could see binoculars. Ill edit that correction in a bit.


Mooseboy018
Grey Havens


Nov 23 2012, 12:33am


Views: 573
Why would they be?
Middle-earth has Legolas's elf eyes.


painjoiker
Grey Havens


Nov 23 2012, 2:58am


Views: 533
Bilbo had a doorbell... And a clock...
Why not binoculars?
Vocalist in the semi-progressive metal band Arctic Eclipse


Xanaseb
Tol Eressea


Nov 23 2012, 9:25am


Views: 441
LOL LR saves the day once again ;) //
 
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Pousette
Rivendell


Nov 23 2012, 3:52pm


Views: 392
Well, technically...
...Middle-earth has, to our knowing, never existed.

(And even if it had, swords and domesticated animals wouldn't have been "developed", either.)

=)


Sam20
Lorien

Nov 23 2012, 5:14pm


Views: 386
Bilbo and the binnoculars
Even if Middle-Earth did not exists there has to be consistencies whithin his world to make it believable. But in any case this is Jackson's invention and not Tolkien's. Since it is not mentionned in the book, one has to assume that Bilbo doesn't have binnoculars and probably would not need it. Hobbits have precise eyesight (not as much as Elves but they do well of their own) and can do without them.


Fardragon
Rohan

Nov 23 2012, 7:28pm


Views: 401
spectacles are mentioned in the books
If you have the technology to make spectacles, then you have the technology to make binoculars.

As for eyesight, a person with good eyesight will be able to see more with binoculars than a person with poor eyesight. You will always benefit.

Now, we know Bilbo does not have binoculars in the movie, but Elrond does have a telescope.
A Far Dragon is the best kind...

(This post was edited by Fardragon on Nov 23 2012, 7:29pm)


Finrod
Rohan


Nov 23 2012, 7:55pm


Views: 361
Matches and express-trains and pop-guns, ph my!
No shortage of anachronisms:
  • Then he felt for matches and he could not find any at all, and that shattered his hopes completely.
  • Goodness knows what the striking of matches and the smell of tobacco would have brought on him out of dark holes in that horrible place.
  • But in slapping all his pockets and feeling all round himself for matches his hand came on the hilt of his little sword – the little dagger that he got from the trolls, and that he had quite forgotten; nor do the goblins seem to have noticed it, as he wore it inside his breeches.
  • Gandalf, too, was lying down after doing his part in setting the fire going, since Oin and Gloin had lost their tinder-boxes. (Dwarves have never taken to matches even yet.) So ended the adventures of the Misty Mountains.
  • I wonder how many breakfasts, and other meals, we have missed inside that nasty clockless, timeless hole?
  • ‘If you had dusted the mantelpiece you would have found this just under the clock,’ said Gandalf, handing Bilbo a note (written, of course, on his own notepaper).
  • It is not like you, Bilbo, to keep friends waiting on the mat, and then open the door like a pop-gun!
  • At ‘may never return’ he began to feel a shriek coming up inside, and very soon it burst out like the whistle of an engine coming out of a tunnel.
  • The dragon passed like an express train, turned a somersault, and burst over Bywater with a deafening explosion.

…all eyes looked upon the ring; for he held it now aloft, and the green jewels gleamed there that the Noldor had devised in Valinor. For this ring was like to twin serpents, whose eyes were emeralds, and their heads met beneath a crown of golden flowers, that the one upheld and the other devoured; that was the badge of Finarfin and his house.
The Silmarillion, pp 150-151
while Felagund laughs beneath the trees
in Valinor and comes no more
to this grey world of tears and war.
The Lays of Beleriand, p 311


(This post was edited by Finrod on Nov 23 2012, 7:56pm)


imin
Valinor


Nov 23 2012, 8:33pm


Views: 338
in the real world it took around 600 years to go from specs to binoculars //
 


Pousette
Rivendell


Nov 24 2012, 12:40am


Views: 308
Yes, but
that doesn't really tell us anything. Spectacles might have been around for quite a while - hobbits has been resident in the Shire for the last 1300 years, and like someone else mentioned - they also invented umbrellas, clocks, doorbells and so on...

Now, the binoculars are probably not in the films, but still - binoculars might have been a possibility for the hobbit culture at that time.


imin
Valinor


Nov 24 2012, 1:29am


Views: 317
my point was
just because the technology is available doesnt mean they have been invented. The tech was around in the real world but no one had the idea to make binoculars til much later. Could be the same in middle earth.

Still they are not in the books and from the sounds of it, not in the film either, so its kind of a pointless thread now, lol.


Pousette
Rivendell


Nov 24 2012, 9:08am


Views: 293
Fair enough ;) //
 


DanielLB
Immortal


Nov 24 2012, 10:07am


Views: 302
What came first, the telescope or binoculars?
I wonder if Hobbits star gazed?

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imin
Valinor


Nov 24 2012, 12:18pm


Views: 281
telescope came first
i dunno overall im not that bothered if they had binoculars or telescopes or things of that nature as they are still relatively simplistic in relation to things we have today.

At the same time i just feel there is no reason to add them as overall it doesnt really add to the story or anything - as a prop i guess its ok.

i had a better post to reply to this but my internet cut out the exact second i tried to post it and it got deleted, so this one will have to do, Tongue


Fardragon
Rohan

Nov 24 2012, 3:14pm


Views: 234
telescopes
All you need for a telescope are two convex lenses with different focal lengths.

Binoculars are basically a pair of telescopes folded up using totally internally reflecting prisms, and additional lenses to turn the image the right way up.

The technology is exactly the same, but the engineering is rather more complex.

If Leonado Da Vinci had been born 100 years later and known Galileo, we would have had binoculars in the 17th century.
A Far Dragon is the best kind...