But I Will Help You Take It Back if I Can
I know everyone gets all excited about The Hug at the end of An Unexpected Journey as the real beginning of their relationship, of Thorin realizing how incredible Bilbo is, but I think it’s actually earlier.
FILI: How on earth did you get past the Goblins?!
…
GANDALF: Well, what does it matter? He’s back!
THORIN: It matters! I want to know - why did you come back?
Thorin’s saying it matters how Bilbo got past the Goblins, but he then changes the question to why. So he doesn’t really care about how; he wants to know why. This isn’t the only time Thorin does that:
THORIN: You have no claim over me!
Thorin, no one said anything about you until you brought it up.
Thorin’s demanding, wary, and angry at first:
THORIN: It matters! I want to know.
He’s being all Leader of the Company/King. But when he says “Why did you come back?” it’s like he tries to be demanding, but can’t:
THORIN: Why did you come back?
His voice changes - gets soft, gets personal. He really wants to know the answer to this question: it’s apparently important to him.
Then, of course, Bilbo clearly addresses Thorin, even though, really, his speech is supposedly to the whole company:
BILBO: Look, I know you doubt me, I know you always have. And you’re right, I often think of Bag End. I miss my books. And my armchair. And my garden. See, that’s where I belong. That’s home …
Thorin’s obviously listening very carefully because he repeats these same words back to Bilbo as he’s dying. I mean, he’s staring so intently at Bilbo here, sort of drinking him in:
Thorin feels things, so much, all the time, that he just blocks it all out, like through a layer of water. Despite how obsessed he is with getting back to Erebor, I don’t think he’s actually thought about what Erebor is like or thought about details about it at all since Smaug came. It’s too complicated, too painful.
BILBO: … I miss my books. And my armchair. And my garden. See, that’s where I belong. That’s home …
Thorin’s face in that last picture - it’s almost taken aback: either from finally allowing himself to think of Bilbo as a real person with individual dignity or - I think more likely - from hearing about books and armchairs and gardens. What are those things, really? Warmth, comfort, safety. Things people associate with home.
Thorin has been homeless, a refuge, for a long time. He doesn’t think about Erebor specifically. He doesn’t think about the things he misses from home: he can’t; he can’t, it’s suicide. And now he is, probably for the first time in a very long time.
But here’s where I think Thorin really gets it in the gut:
BILBO: … That’s home. And that’s why I came back, cause you don’t have one. A home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can.
Bilbo is saying that he’ll give up those things so that Thorin can have them. And he’s saying it like it’s no big deal at all; his face and his voice are totally matter-of-fact:
BILBO: … That’s home. And that’s why I came back, cause you don’t have one …
Thorin looks almost confused, like he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop, like he can’t comprehend something this good and this humble. All the dwarves, they’re behind Thorin - at least in part, and Thorin thinks in whole - because he’s the king (at least in name) and because they, too, want to go home. But Bilbo is doing this for Thorin, because he thinks it’s right, because he thinks Thorin is right.
Bilbo is giving something - something huge: his home, his safety, all the things that Thorin misses - with nothing asked for in return.
And then there’s the real kicker: Bilbo’s done talking, and this is Thorin:
He doesn’t blink; he legit just looks down because he can’t meet Bilbo’s eyes. Really, I find it a fairly blatant - if unconscious - gesture of submission - particularly because Thorin always, always looks everyone in the eye, usually rather aggressively. But he’s like “I have just met the Ultimate Good, I didn’t think something like this could exist and certainly not for me; I don’t deserve this; Bilbo is everything that is good and beautiful.”
Then Wargs and Orcs show up immediately, so there’s no time really for any sort of response from Thorin, but as soon as Thorin actually allowed himself to listen to Bilbo, he was in love.
titsay
germansingergirl
romaincrisis
snowghoul
turnnoffyourmind
gamechangershow
