I don't have lots to say about this one. It presents Jean Valjean's journey from being released from prison to falling back into thievery, to repentance and reformation, to running from Inspector Javert over and over, to adopting orphaned Cosette and seeing her fall in love with a revolution-leaning lawyer named Marius, and so on.
I did feel that some of the artwork, especially Jean Valjean, reminded me of Nokman Poon's art for the Manga Classics Great Expectations and Count of Monte Cristo, and not so much like SunNeko Lee's art for their Jane Eyre... and then, I discovered at the back of the book that Nokman Poon served as the Chief Art Assistant here! So that was kind of cool.
If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG for depictions of poverty, theft, violence toward a child, men taunting a woman, and revolutionary violence that is pretty bloodless but does include a child's death.
This has been my 65th book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2022!!!
Hi Hamlette! This is Sally from 18 Cinema Lane. I have a question about 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies'. Since you’ve hosted a Tolkien themed blogathon, I figure you may know the answer. In the 2014 film, after Kili and Fili meet up with Thorin at Lonely Mountain from Lake-town, Thorin tells them they are “his sister’s sons”. Because I didn’t read 'The Hobbit' prior to watching the film, I was shocked by this revelation. As I watched the movie, Fili and Kili appeared to take this news surprising well, not displaying the emotional reaction one might have after receiving this kind of information. But the more I think about that scene, the more I realize Kili and Fili seemed to take Thorin’s confession a little too well, appearing unfazed by what they were told. Was this scene meant to be shocking for those audience members who didn’t read the book or was the moment supposed to be a surprise for the audience as well as Fili and Kili?
ReplyDeleteMy first question leads me to ask a second question. Why would Thorin keep the aforementioned information secret for so long? Up until that scene, there was no mention of Kili and Fili being related to Thorin. In fact, the only family members Thorin brought up were his father and grandfather. Meanwhile, the only family member Fili and/or Kili mentioned was their mother. But when Kili talked about his mother with Tauriel, there was no indication she was related to Thorin. If Kili and Fili didn’t know they were royalty prior to that scene in the Lonely Mountain, what would be the purpose of Thorin keeping that information from them? But if they did know their royal connection before that moment, why didn’t Fili, Kili, or Thorin say something sooner?
As a third and final question, will you be hosting the Tolkien Blog Party again this year? If you do, I’d be interested in participating.
Hello, Sally!
DeleteI happen to adore the Hobbit movies, so I very much enjoyed your question.
The simple answer is... Fili and Kili already know they're Thorin's nephews. And so do all the other dwarves. In fact, they are his heirs, as he's never married and they are his nearest kin. This is made clearer in the book (and I think mentioned in The Lord of the Rings book somewhere, though I can't put my finger on the spot -- but I am pretty sure at some point it mentions that they fall trying to defend their uncle).
In the movies, they don't make that super clear, though, and that's for sure. I do feel like it's mentioned very casually a time or two in the first couple movies, but I can't remember specific instances -- something Balin tells Bilbo at some point? I can hear Thorin saying "nephews" very clearly in my head, but I can't pull up when he says it. It might be something at the very beginning -- like how Dwalin and Balin greet each other as brothers there and then it never gets mentioned again.
Anyway, it's not supposed to be a surprising revelation, so that's why nobody in the film reacts like it is one.
As for your last question, yes! I'm planning to host the Tolkien Blog Party again this year -- and even have a prize or two stored up for the giveaway already :-) I'd love to have you join in!
Thank you Hamlette for answering all my questions! I just saw ‘The Hobbit’ trilogy for the first time and Kili quickly became my favorite character! Now that you mention Kili and Fili’s knowledge of their royal lineage, their lack of emotional reaction makes senses. The Dwarf Company consisting of those characters also makes sense, as I originally though it was just a group of guys who were randomly selected to join the company. Looking back on ‘The Hobbit’ trilogy, I realized Kili never flaunted his royal status. As I said in my previous comment, I didn’t know he was a prince until Thorin said Kili and Fili were “his sister’s sons”. Whenever Kili interacted with Tauriel, he never brought this fact up with her. From what I recall, Kili didn’t treat Bilbo or Gandalf differently because they weren’t royalty. The fact Kili was well aware of his royal connection yet chose to be humble about it makes me respect and like him as a character even more!
DeleteAs for the Tolkien Blog Party, yes, I will join in this year! Definitely looking forward to the event!
Sally, Kili is my oldest daughter's favorite -- in fact, she just got a new hamster last month and named him Kili :-)
DeleteWe just happen to have watched Desolation of Smaug today (it's Tolkien's birthday!), and when they had to leave Kili in Laketown because of his wounded leg, Fili calls Thorin 'uncle' and Thorin calls Fili and Kili his kin, and then Thorin tells Fili he'll be king one day, so that relationship does get mentioned there -- at least in the extended version, which is what we watched today. But it's not made a big deal of and is pretty easy to miss, especially with all the other stuff going on.
Of the other dwarves who come along, some are Thorin's kinfolk and some are friends from before (Balin and Dwalin, in particular), but most of them are just random dudes. Thorin does a speech in An Unexpected Journey about how, even though only a couple of them are warriors and the rest are tinkers and cooks and toymakers and such, he wouldn't trade any of them for an army because when he put out the call for people to join his quest, they answered willingly and eagerly. (At least, that speech is in the extended version, which is what we watched last month -- I prefer the extended versions of AUJ and DOS and the theatrical of TBOTFA, so that's what I'm most familiar with)
Kili and Fili both are pretty impressive with their humility. A good contrast to Thorin, who does tend to strut and speechify, heh. My favorite is Bard, but I basically love all the characters at this point.
If you want to revel in some Tolkien movie appreciation and discuss them a whole lot, my best friend and I created a 28-day-long "meme" back in 2015 (when "meme" could mean "series of related things" and not just "funny words stuck on an image") that celebrated lots and lots of things about the 6 Middle-earth films. The master list of my posts is here, if you're interested :-D