The Hobbit (6 Points)

 

            I’ve always found it hard to get into works derivative of Tolkien. This goes for movies, books, comics, video games, etc. High fantasy stories need to work hard for me to get invested, and a lot of the time they fall flat for me because of bland characters and stilted dialogue. However, the granddaddy of all that, The Hobbit, doesn’t fall victim to any of that. Let me start off by saying that I love Bilbo Baggins. I love that little man so much. The poor guy just wants to vibe in his hole and have two breakfasts. Then along comes Gandalf, who I also love to bits, and just forces him into an adventure. I love the contrast between Gandalf and Bilbo; Bilbo is just a normal, chill guy, and Gandalf is this grumpy obtuse weirdo that just does whatever he wants. They clash, and yet, they get along really well. Anytime they interact it’s gold, and the dwarves, although a little one-dimensional for the most part, add so much to the dynamic. That’s what The Hobbit does so much better than most high fantasy: it has character. Even one-off characters, like Gollum/Smeagol, are oozing with personality. It’s what makes the book such a fun read.

So much high fantasy is trying to live up to Tolkien, but Tolkien has the luxury of not having to live up to himself. Even though I’m not into Tolkien that much, I can tell how much passion he had for the world he created. There’s so much rich detail that’s organically inserted into the text that gives the world so much life and history. I will say though, I’m not a huge fan of how Tolkien has “evil” races and “good” races. The fact that all Orcs and Goblins are just inherently bad treads a fine line and feels somewhat uncomfortable. It’s even worse in the movies when the movies where the Evil Barbaric Orcs TM are all coincidentally dark skinned. While I’m sure it wasn’t a conscious choice, it does evoke some negative racist stereotypes. Also, I’m just tired of Orcs in stories. They’re boring outside of Dungeons & Dragons campaigns.

Speaking of Dungeons & Dragons, it’s neat to see how much of it comes from this book (and LOTR too). The simple setup feels exactly like a group of friends starting a campaign. I can just feel when a dice roll goes wrong and Bilbo gets caught by Goblins. It has this fun and lighthearted adventurous spirit that has been carried on by countless nerds with miniatures and maps. In addition to D&D, another unexpected thing that follows up Tolkien better than most is the first Star Wars. George Lucas's 1977 film captures the energy of The Hobbit extremely well, even going about world building in a similarly organic and subtle way. As a matter of fact, you can even argue that it's more subtle and organic in Star Wars since it mostly relies on visuals and lines of dialogue for world building (besides the opening crawl, although that's more plot than world building). That first film has a similar adventurous spirit to Tolkien's novel, and you can feel the passion for Lucas's world oozing through the film too. You can see where both Lucas and Tolkien pull their inspirations from too, with Lucas paying homage to westerns and samurai films (among many other things) and Tolkien ripping things straight from Norse mythology and various other European mythologies. Star Wars owes so much more to Tolkien and his fantasy contemporaries than it does science fiction, because it's far more of a fantasy series with sci-fi elements than the other way around.

Did I mention how much I love Bilbo? I want to be a Hobbit so bad.

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