The Hobbit (film series)

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Fandom
Name: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
Abbreviation(s): AUJ, DoS, BotFA
Creator: Peter Jackson, JRR Tolkien
Date(s): 2012 – 2014
Medium: film
Country of Origin: New Zealand
External Links: The Hobbit Official Site, The Hobbit Official Blog
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Hobbit film trilogy is an adaptation of The Hobbit, a novel written in 1937 by J.R.R. Tolkien. The Hobbit films generated a lot of fan interest starting long before production began, let alone before the films' release, which had several unforeseen events throughout its years of planning, -- problems due to the collapse of New Line Cinema, legal issues with the Tolkien Trust, an actor's union boycott and MGM studio financial problems -- culminating in delays in filming, rewriting of scripts and the departure of different names involved.

The novel was written before The Lord of the Rings, so the LOTR novel is a sequel, but the Hobbit films were produced after the Peter Jackson LOTR films and are considered a prequel trilogy. Scenarios and locations are widely reused in this trilogy, as well as the reappearance of several actors such as Orlando Bloom who plays the elf Legolas.

Fandom

Fan involvement in The Hobbit fandom was massive, with old members being brought back to Middle Earth since the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as new ones coming from other fandoms, like Martin Freeman (Bilbo) or Benedict Cumberbatch (Smaug) from Sherlock BBC. Such involvement of new and old fans also generated slight friction, but also presented reactions, such as the defense of certain characters.

Shipping

Main articles: The Hobbit RPF § Cast, and The Hobbit RPF

The most popular ship is Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield, with the pairing portmanteau names Bagginshield and Thilbo. This grew from the story, with an assist from Martin Freeman's fanbase from Sherlock (BBC) and Richard Armitage's fanbase from everything he was ever in.

Family relationships and friendships among Thorin's Company, the dwarves of Erebor in general, the residents of Laketown, the hobbits of The Shire, and the elves of Mirkwood are all common elements of fanworks, even those that focus on a romantic ship.

  • Durin Family - Thorin, Kili, Fili, Dis and their cousins Dwalin, Balin, Gloin, Oin, Dain and Gimli
  • Ri Family - Dori, Ori, Nori
  • Ur Family - Bofur, Bombur, Bifur

Note that relationships, both slash and gen between Gimli and Legolas have been a favorite of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings fandom from books to movies.

For more details, see List of Hobbit (film series) Relationships and Popularity

Other popular ships include

Tropes

The tropes for this fandom also depend heavily on which movie most recently aired, though some tropes began early due to general awareness of how the book plays out.

  • Dwarven Culture - Taking the available textual information from the rest of Tolkien's works and visual information from the movies, then mixing liberally with communal imagination, fans have invented complex cultural expectations for dwarves. Some ideas are headcanons for only a single fan, while many have become shared fanon among large groups.
  • Hobbit Culture - Tolkien's books contain rather more information about hobbits than dwarves, but fans choose which elements to incorporate into their works and invent new ones where there is inadequate information (or where it suits their plot).
    • Food - Hobbits' 7 meals a day are often mentioned, as are Bilbo's cooking skills. Hobbit courtship is often said to involve food.
    • Respectability - Mentioned in the novel, Bilbo puts aside his respectability for adventure. In some works, he's said to be a bachelor still because something else has already made him lose respectability in the eyes of other hobbits. Belladonna's Took heritage is sometimes brought into play, such that she also was involved in adventures in her youth.
    • Flowers - The language of the flowers is often referenced in works where Bilbo is shipped with someone. Flower crowns also frequently make an appearance.
  • Canon Divergent Alternate Universes - Several types of AUs gained traction early on, frequently developing large followings. Most of these are based on canon divergence, often involving fix-its.
  • Soulmates - also known as "Ones" as in one and only love. Many works include the soul mate's name appearing like a tattoo, on both characters' bodies, sometimes hidden and other times un-hideable. In other works characters have soul names or personal names they keep secret from all but close relatives and/or their spouse. This is semi-canonical among elves in Tolkien's writings.
  • Genderswap - There are very few canonical women in The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. There are a few more in additional materials from Tolkien, but most of those are elves or valar. The films added a few women to the movies or expanded the roles of barely-mentioned women. However, the vast, vast majority of main characters are men. It's very common for Bilbo in particular, but also several other characters, to become cis female in fanworks. There are also trans characters in Hobbit fanworks.
  • Mpreg - This is quite common, with many works describing that either some or all hobbit or dwarf cis men are capable of bearing children outside an A/B/O framework.
  • Alpha/Beta/Omega - Usually, the younger, shorter or weaker characters are set as the Omegas, mainly Bilbo and Kili.

Fanfic Challenges

Notable Fanworks

Fanart

The art linked here is general to the fandom, not specific to single characters or ships.

Canon-related art:
AU art:

Fanfiction

Zines

Cosplay

Archives, Communities & Resourses

Communities and Archives

Meta/Further Reading

Other Resources

Notes

  1. ^ The first Dwalin/Thorin work on AO3 was posted around January 3, 2013. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 160 works there. By December 15, 2014, it had about 320 works.
  2. ^ The first Bungo/Belladonna work on AO3 was posted around January 30, 2013. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 40 works tagged there. By December 15, 2014, it had about 75 works. Many works that mention Belladonna/Bungo aren't tagged with the ship, since the works usually focus on Bilbo and have his parents as a background ship. (For example, by December 15, 2014, Belladonna was tagged about 270 times and Bungo about 195 times.)
  3. ^ The first Thorin/Thranduil work on AO3 was posted around December 21, 2012. By December 15, 2013, the ship had about 115 works there. By December 15, 2014, it had about 270 works.
  4. ^ The first Bard/Thranduil work was posted around December 13, 2013. This ship had less than 20 works on AO3 as of December 1, 2014; by February 20, 2015, there were about 310.
  5. ^ There were about 11 Thranduil/His Wife works on AO3 by December 15, 2013. Only 2 of these were also tagged with the Hobbit movies; the rest dealt with the book or with the Lord of the Rings/The Silmarillion. By December 15, 2014, this ship had about 40 works on the site. By February 20, 2015, it had 95 works.
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