Tag: ableism

If you disagree with how the narrative portrays Th orin you get accused of thinking he’s perfect, no I think he’s still a good character and his flaws do not need to result in death, and I’m with you on not thinking he needs to spend his entire life and afterlife just self-flagellating. I don’t agree with that being the only way to do good after making mistakes, and that he’s the “bad one” in the story. Sry for blowing up yr inbox, yr just the only one I saw who shares my feeling!!

Thanks again, anon! 🙂 Feel free to blow up my inbox anytime.

Ia with your points about the Hobbit movies but I think they were too inconsistent with the gold sickness. i read it that Th orin acts differently under it than the established moments in AUJ, but since most of the fandom sees him as discourse character status instead of good and most jokes about greed, I think that’s the common reading so the movies didn’t do a good enough job with the antisemitic undertones. It’s too ingrained and not enough folks want to think about it. So, conflicted :/

“Discourse character status” is a really good way to put it. Those who hate him see themselves as rightfully excoriating a horrible, greedy, abusive character (he is none of these things) who only got what he deserved (wrong). On the other hand, those who like him see themselves as infallible saints who treat a canonically mentally-ill character as a combination of their pet and a way of saying that they’re not ableist, even if they’re mentally ill themselves. On either side, the only way of “redeeming” Thorin is to have him essentially debase himself on his knees, begging forgiveness from anyone that he directly or indirectly affected through the dragon sickness and curse. Usually this is done through years of brooding and grief. Come on, now.

I completely agree with everything you said.