Beyond Bilbo's and Thorin's relationship, there are other relationships between the Dwarves that might not be as appreciated as they should. I'll take about two: one is quite straight-forward, the other - kind of meta; but both are very much at the heart of the story.

Thorin and his company
From the first few minutes of the prologue, I understood this to be Thorin's story: its he who needs to reclaim Erebor, to destry the dragon (and thank the gods of script-writing for letting him try to!), and settle all sorts of old grievances with Thranduil and especially Azog. And he is from the outset present as very competent (he spots the dragon, rallies the men, rescues Balin, his father and grandfather, leads his people exodus) and moral (even though not a word is spoken, its clear that he doesn't approve of the White Gems scam).

But as the members of the company started arriving in Bag End, I understood that it their story just as much. Out of the thirteen, our main cast comprises of six Dwarves, five of which arrive separately from the rest of the group: Dwalin, Balin, Fili, Kili and Thorin. The sixth, which arrives with the big throng of Dwarves but manages to stand out, is Bofur.

Nevertheless, the company is much more homogenous than, say, The Fellowship of the Ring was: they know each other prior to the quest, they are of the same species - they're effectivelly a family. This allows them to operate both as a collection of individuals, but also as the character of the group as a whole.

The relationship between Thorin and the group is summed up in his connection to two of the main cast: Balin and Dwalin; making Balin Thorin's senior allows for a father-figure/son relationship that's very effective indeed, while Dwalin is more like a younger brother, who is admiring, fiercly loyal, and indeed blindly so.

This admiration really helps to further uphold Thorin's character in the early parts of the journey: an important feat, given how morally-ambigious his choices would become later down the line. There's a great shot of the Dwarves looking at Thorin (and, due to the camera set-up - at us the audience) after the story of the Battle of Azanulbizar is told.

Furthemore, this blind loyality specifically on Dwalin's part is one which leads to one of my favorite character transformations in the trilogy: Dwalin learns to question and subsequentally confront Thorin, because his loyalty to his kin is being set against his blind loyalty to his king. Its very moving, and it propels Thorin's change of heart, and moves the plot forward, as well.

The company and their homeland
While I'm not a patriotic person, I found this very relatable, if only on the level of appreciating the Dwarves conviction. By transforming this into a Dwarvish narrative, we stray away from Bilbo's Hero's Journey and into a story that has an almost 20th centry patriotic undertone, which is quite a complex theme for this kind of film to dabble in, and certainly very usual, and yet very relatable, as well.

Its so interesting to find moments told and directed almost like a love story, not between two characters but between a character or group of characters, and an inanimate object (the mountain), and these are among the most cinematic moments of the trilogy. One of my very favorites is Gloin bickering, as we see the attention of the company being directed, one by one, off of the screen, before we are revealed to the silhouette of the mountain. Not a word of dialogue relevant to this revelation is uttered, but we understand what the Dwarves are thinking and feeling.

While their goal is a noble one, its also much more provinical to that of the Fellowship, and so it can be challenged by others in the story. By slowing down to allow us to know Bard and invest in him, we understand the argument he is putting forward against the continuation of the quest, and when we have not Thorin rebuttle him but rather the clearly-corrupt Master do so - and with little more than handwaving, at that - we understand that Bard may actually have a point. That's another complex storytelling choice: to morally undermine your own premise.

it is the missed opportunity to show these kinds of relationships. You certainly saw it in AUJ, how the Dwarves were so tightly bonded with each other, and not just the family groups. The relationship that Thorin had with Balin and Dwalin was one of trust and shared experience, and no other Dwarf could talk to him like they did. That scene where Thorin enters Erebor, then pauses to acknowledge a tearful Balin, yeah, that sort of thing! Of course, Balin confronts him about Bilbo being in danger, and Dwalin confronts him most forcefully over Dain's army being slaughtered. No one else dared, not even Fili or Kili (though I suppose Kili did later). Yes, you do have the wonderful "I belong with my brother" scene, too bad that Bombur doesn't display the same feeling about Bofur. I realize that was because of the script changes needed, but to me that's still a badly fumbled scene. And then you had BOT5A where the Dwarves fought together, but this was just a glimpse of what could have been. The funeral scene kind of makes up for that, the Dwarves are seriously grieving their lost kin.


The relationship between Thorin and Bilbo has already been mentioned, and that is probably the best depiction of a true friendship in these movies. I'd say it parallels the Legolas/Gimli relationship better than Kili/Tauriel (not that I have a major problem with K/T, but wish TPTB had left it as a friendship). No big surprise that the acorn scene is one of the most powerful scenes in BOT5A. But I would add Bilbo and Gandalf as having a strong bond, as demonstrated in FoTR. I thought the Hobbit movies greatly expanded on that, showing Gandalf being very protective of Bilbo ("Where is our Hobbit?"), encouraging him, comforting him at the end (you know the scene), seeing him home safely, and cautioning him about the ring. To which Bilbo replied that he quite liked having a wizard around. Anyway, that's my two cents: Thorin/Bilbo and Bilbo/Gandalf friendships that were defining & life-changing, and beautifully depicted in the Hobbit movies!