The Hobbit Rant
I'm going to put this under a cut since it contains spoilers for The Hobbit. I know the movies have been out for a while and the book even longer but there may still be some who haven’t seen/read it.
I’m going mostly by movie canon here and I ship Thorin/Bilbo also known as Thilbo/Bagginshield. I prefer Thilbo so that’s what I’ll use. As much as I love the ship there seems to be a tendency to portray Thorin as a useless dunderhead and Bilbo as a perfect Saint. It seems to be a backlash to early fics where Thorin is portrayed as a dfp (dark f*ck prince). I haven’t really seen any fics like that but people took real exception to that portrayal and felt that Bilbo was portrayed as a helpless damsel so now they overcompensate. Those of you who are W/A shippers are probably acquainted with WillowSue. Well, Bilbo is often portrayed as BilboStu; perfect in every way and everyone loves, worships and adores him. He’s always right and Thorin is always wrong. Bilbo is smart so Thorin has to be stupid.
Now, in the books Bilbo is named elf friend but in fics, he’s also dwarf and human friend. All of Thorin’s relatives and friends choose Bilbo over Thorin and gang up on Thorin who for some unknown reason puts up with their bullying. Dwarfs are known to be very xenophobic yet they all choose Bilbo, a Hobbit, over Thorin, a fellow Dwarf.
What I really don’t get is why people would ship Saint Bilbo with loser Thorin. I mean if you love a character then why ship him with someone you hate? I know this happened in BtVS with some Spuffy shippers but they at least had the excuse that Spike wanted Buffy so they wanted that for him. Nowhere in the book or movies does Bilbo pine for Thorin. They have almost no interaction in the book and become good friends over the course of the movies.
Thorin is always besotted with Bilbo and will (literally) do anything for him while Bilbo always acts annoyed with Thorin and holds him in contempt.
Why would anyone want to be in a relationship with someone who has the emotional maturity and intellectual acumen of a two year old? Which is exactly how Thorin is portrayed in some of these fics. Either that or an emo teenager.
Thorin is always getting into some kind of trouble with Bilbo (who’s always offended by something Thorin’s said or done) and is forced to grovel and beg for forgiveness. It’s really very abusive esp. when Bilbo says rude things about Dwarfs and their culture, looks, etc.
Bilbo is super nice to everyone except Thorin.
I don’t know where this comes from since Thorin doesn’t act like this in the movies.
Edited to add:
Thorin acts towards Bilbo like season 3 of AtS Angel acted towards Cordelia. And Bilbo treats Thorin the same way that Cordelia treated Angel.
Anyway I just wanted to put this out there and see what others think esp. those who aren’t in the fandom.
Mare
I’m going mostly by movie canon here and I ship Thorin/Bilbo also known as Thilbo/Bagginshield. I prefer Thilbo so that’s what I’ll use. As much as I love the ship there seems to be a tendency to portray Thorin as a useless dunderhead and Bilbo as a perfect Saint. It seems to be a backlash to early fics where Thorin is portrayed as a dfp (dark f*ck prince). I haven’t really seen any fics like that but people took real exception to that portrayal and felt that Bilbo was portrayed as a helpless damsel so now they overcompensate. Those of you who are W/A shippers are probably acquainted with WillowSue. Well, Bilbo is often portrayed as BilboStu; perfect in every way and everyone loves, worships and adores him. He’s always right and Thorin is always wrong. Bilbo is smart so Thorin has to be stupid.
Now, in the books Bilbo is named elf friend but in fics, he’s also dwarf and human friend. All of Thorin’s relatives and friends choose Bilbo over Thorin and gang up on Thorin who for some unknown reason puts up with their bullying. Dwarfs are known to be very xenophobic yet they all choose Bilbo, a Hobbit, over Thorin, a fellow Dwarf.
What I really don’t get is why people would ship Saint Bilbo with loser Thorin. I mean if you love a character then why ship him with someone you hate? I know this happened in BtVS with some Spuffy shippers but they at least had the excuse that Spike wanted Buffy so they wanted that for him. Nowhere in the book or movies does Bilbo pine for Thorin. They have almost no interaction in the book and become good friends over the course of the movies.
Thorin is always besotted with Bilbo and will (literally) do anything for him while Bilbo always acts annoyed with Thorin and holds him in contempt.
Why would anyone want to be in a relationship with someone who has the emotional maturity and intellectual acumen of a two year old? Which is exactly how Thorin is portrayed in some of these fics. Either that or an emo teenager.
Thorin is always getting into some kind of trouble with Bilbo (who’s always offended by something Thorin’s said or done) and is forced to grovel and beg for forgiveness. It’s really very abusive esp. when Bilbo says rude things about Dwarfs and their culture, looks, etc.
Bilbo is super nice to everyone except Thorin.
I don’t know where this comes from since Thorin doesn’t act like this in the movies.
Edited to add:
Thorin acts towards Bilbo like season 3 of AtS Angel acted towards Cordelia. And Bilbo treats Thorin the same way that Cordelia treated Angel.
Anyway I just wanted to put this out there and see what others think esp. those who aren’t in the fandom.
Mare