Drunk on victory: why dragon sickness isn't necessary for Thorin to go mad in Battle of the Five Armies
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| Title: | Drunk on victory - why dragon sickness isn’t necessary for Thorin to go mad in Battle of Five Armies |
| Creator: | avelera |
| Date(s): | 12 August 2014 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | The Hobbit, Tolkien |
| Topic: | Gold Sickness, Thorin |
| External Links: | @ tumblr |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Drunk on victory - why dragon sickness isn’t necessary for Thorin to go mad in Battle of Five Armies is an essay in the The Hobbit fandom by avelera published in 2014. It claims that gold sickness isn't necessarily needed for Thorin to go mad in the film The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies, but rather his inability to cope with success.[1]
Contents
- from his own perspective, Thorin's life has been a failure: he has suffered one humiliation after another
- eg the pyrrhic battle of Azanulbizar
- eg the poor settlement in Ered Luin
- eg he was unable to gather more than a dozen dwarves to accompany him on the Quest of Erebor but when he reclaims Erebor, Thorin has won
- his need to reclaim Erebor is all that has kept him together; as he gets closer to the mountain, he unravels
Excerpt
[T]he need to reclaim Erebor is all that’s keeping Thorin together in life. He’s a lot of trauma and longing and desperation all wrapped up in a shell of bravery that is borderline suicidal. The closer he comes to the mountain, the closer he comes to confronting the source of everything that is broken inside of him, and it’s tearing him apart. The sudden loss of that external drive and pressure makes him fly apart spectacularly. But just as much there is the sudden nature of his success. Not just on the quest but in life, this is the first time Thorin Oakenshield has ever really won anything. Because I don’t think he’d see Azanulbizar or Ered Luin as victories. Balin even points out that he has nothing to be ashamed of, that he has “built a good life for our people in the Blue Mountains”, but it’s not enough. This first true, unequivocal victory of a lifetime ambition is also the first true joy and peace I think he’s ever allowed himself and he just. Can’t. Handle. It.
Reference
- ^ Drunk on victory - why dragon sickness isn’t necessary for Thorin to go mad in Battle of Five Armies (accessed 17 November 2016)