Fandom Voices: Filmverse Fans by Dawn Walls-Thumma

Posted on 26 August 2022; updated on 17 May 2023

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Responses: The Hobbit Films

The Hobbit films came out just as I was getting invested in Tolkien fandom. I think, in some ways, it caused more controversy? They were a greater departure from canon than the LotR films were. There was a bit of misogyny running through the fandom at that time, specifically regarding the addition of Tauriel. I think I came out of it with a positive outlook rather than a defeatist one because I could enjoy the books and films separately, and just blocked or unfollowed people who annoyed me. I'm not one for discourse. It's been interesting to see the Hobbit-film side of the fandom die down a little with time, especially as I'm more invested in the Silm, which seems to be going strong still.  But that's maybe confirmation bias because I mostly follow Silm folks.  The Hobbit fandom rejuvenation was nice though because we got to see some more Dwarf love in a pretty Elf-heavy fandom.

~ Sam, response collected 30 April 2022

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I came in just before the release of BotFA, so my corner of the fandom was still very much in the hype-zone, so to speak. Bagginshield everywhere you looked and generally positive attitudes towards the movies in the Hobbit spaces. There were a lot of other new writers like me who had just found this space and were starting out and that was lovely because we were learning together.

The Lord of the Rings side looked vastly different.
I got sucked into the LotR part of the fandom pretty much immediately after, since watching An Unexpected Journey finally convinced me to give reading The Hobbit and then The Lord of the Rings another try and I fell utterly in love.
Funnily enough, it was the LotR part of the fandom that was complaining about the movies the most. During that time the majority of the most active writers were all purists and Mary Sue hate was at a high as well, which made it a pretty bad place to be for a new writer. Especially one who wanted to write about OCs.

It got better though.
A year or so after BotFa was released, the influx of new fans in the Hobbit part settled and we all found our place. It remained a largely movie-positive space, but you could also see a lot more book-takes popping up from the newer authors, who had time to read the books.
On the LotR side there was a huge exodus (or at least it felt like it, because a lot of major "players" left/stopped publishing), I presume to other sites (at least I saw a few familiar names pop up on AO3) or maybe they left entirely, which meant the fandom there felt a lot safer and happier over all.

Shadow, response collected 30 April 2022

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I watched the first Hobbit movie and didn’t like it much, but I was interested in Dol Guldur and looked it up online. From there I read lots of lore and turned to The Silmarillion. Became active in fandom for the first time after reading The Silmarillion.

~ Anonymous, response collected 30 April 2022

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I joined the English-speaking fandom on Tumblr due to rekindled interest due to the release of the Hobbit movies. It was fine, though I could tell I was coming into a community with a lot of baggage and established disputes on how to read the source material.

~ Juliana, response collected 30 April 2022

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(I apologize upfront for the wall of text, I am prone to rambling!)

I joined because of how emotionally devastating (in the best way) the final Hobbit film was for me. I needed fix-it fic, immediately!! I was particularly captured by the Kili/Tauriel romance included in the films, and I quickly became a huge Tauriel fan. My first forays into the Hobbit fandom were very solidly based in the films, and I found a community of Kiliel fans who had similar interests. I wrote a lot of Kiliel fic, and a lot of Kili & Fili genfic. Fili also became a favorite character of mine, and one I projected onto a lot, especially my newly-discovered aromantic identity. My Tumblr url has been "arofili" for 6+ years now! And my AO3 username is "starlightwalking"—a reference to the scene in Desolation of Smaug where Kili says of Tauriel, "She walked in starlight in another world."

I didn't stay in the Hobbit corner of the wider Tolkien fandom, though. I became more and more interested in other parts of the Legendarium; I'd seen the LotR movies before the Hobbit movies came out (though I was quite young at the time; I was a teen when the Hobbit movies were released, and I have fond memories of going to see them in theaters with my dad), and I'd read the LotR books and the Hobbit book before that. Newly interested in Middle-earth, I jumped back into the books eagerly, and began to research more about the cultures of my favorite characters (the Dwarves and the Silvan Elves), which led me to a pairing very related to my previous interests: Legolas/Gimli. I began to write and read more LotR fic, specifically about those two, because it was such a natural progression from Kili/Tauriel, as Kili and Gimli are related and Tauriel and Legolas are friends, and their stories are therefore intertwined, with Kiliel as a mournful precursor to the much happier Gigolas story.

In connecting with other Tolkien fans, I naturally was exposed to more obscure parts of the Legendarium, primarily through fanart. I love to organize things and make lists, and learning the family trees of The Silmarillion was very fun for me! It was a natural progression to learning all of their names and personalities, through the Tolkien Gateway wiki and of course by reading the Silm itself. Once I'd done that, there was no going back! I started to explore Silmfic, and I quickly picked up on characterizations and fanon and meta, and made friends with all sorts of Silm fans. Maedhros/Fingon was an instant ship for me, and through befriending other Russingon shippers I really fell headfirst into the Silm fandom. But it was Back to Middle-earth Month 2019 that really catapulted me into writing more about the Silm than I'd ever written about anything else!

This has gone a little off-topic, but back to the Hobbit movies: as a new fan who *loved* those movies, it was disappointing and upsetting to see so much hatred and mockery directed toward them. There was a definite sense of elitism in certain corners of the fandom—though certainly not all of them, or even most of them! Really, the worst part was the Tauriel haters. I can understand most of the critiques of the Hobbit films, but I refuse to budge on Tauriel. The amount of hatred she received as pretty much the only female character in the movies was astonishing and infuriating, and though I was already fond of her I quickly became a fierce defender of her as a character. Even nowadays, nearly a decade after the movies were released, I *still* see unapologetic Tauriel hate! I am glad that I was confident enough in my opinion not to feel put off by the haters, and I'm grateful for everyone else who stood up for her, or at least expressed a more nuanced take on her rather than "she's just Peter Jackson's cringe OC who was useless and a Mary Sue blah blah blah and also her romance with Kili was pointless and bad."

Even nowadays, when I see Tolkien fans dunking on the Hobbit movies, I can't help but feel defensive of them. Yes, they have many flaws, but also I love them. Seeing people who are genuinely distraught about how they "ruined" the story or the fandom is hurtful, because I would not be here without them! They are very important to me! And though I am primarily a Silm fan these days, I will always love and appreciate the Hobbit movies, and my experiences of being part of the Hobbit-movie-fan-to-Silm-fan pipeline will always shape my views on new fans coming from other media sources, and thus those adaptations themselves. Maybe the new Amazon series will be horrendous. But you won't see me out here being needlessly cruel about it ... especially since I can already tell I will like their Elf/human couple! I want to take the good things out of this, and that includes the new fans who will undoubtedly make this fandom a better place in the long run, because anyone who loves Tolkien enough to remain dedicated to his works will add something to our fan communities.

~ starlightwalking, response collected 1 May 2022

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I felt welcome because there was a big surge of new fans.

~ Anonymous, response collected 10 May 2022

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I joined again because I hated them and wanted some vindication. This was how I ended up drifting towards The Silmarillion.

~ Anonymous, response collected 10 May 2022

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The LotR films had sparked my interest, but I wasn't at a place in my life where I was ready to dive into fandom. The Hobbit films came at just the right time to push me fully into the fandom. I worked my way through the entire Gen tag for the films on AO3 and wanted more, so I started writing my own fic. If not for the Hobbit films, I might not have started writing for Tolkien at all.

~ Anonymous, response collected 10 May 2022

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I found The Hobbit trilogy during a particularly harrowing time, and the fandom basically served as a haven. I came across works by some amazing authors, who were kind and incredible. Their works sustained me and kept me going, and I'll forever be grateful to them for writing such stories. Since Peter Jackson's trilogy was my gateway to Middle-earth, I owe my thanks and love to him as well.

~ JoT, response collected 15 May 2022

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I was already in the fandom due to the first trilogy. So when The Hobbit came out, it was nice to have new images and videos of that world ... And it was nice to welcome new fans to our beloved world.

~ Lady_Elwing, response collected 15 May 2022

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There was a huge influx of new fans on Tumblr during the release of The Hobbit. It was fun, it was fast-paced, it was a combination of new fans and established Tolkien enthusiasts, and it was friendly.

~ Anonymous, response collected 15 May 2022

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I joined the fandom because of the Hobbit movies. I saw the first two movies and then read the book and watched the LotR movies. I got to see the third one when it came out, and it's a precious memory.

~ Anonymous, 18 May 2022

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I initially went to see the films because I was a fan of Benedict Cumberbatch at the time, and Desolation of Smaug had just been released, so I went to go see it. I had been aware of the books prior and seen snippets of the LotR films on television, but they never grabbed my attention, despite many friends recommending them to me. However, the Hobbit films blew me away, and I was quickly sucked into the Tolkien legendarium. The fandom was extremely active, and growing, for the Hobbit films in particular—large enough that it was its own distinct fandom separate from LotR in general such that it still took me a little while to read the trilogy, and then The Silmarillion. I recall having a very enjoyable experience with the extremely talented artists and writers creating content for the Bagginshield ship (Thorin/Bilbo Baggins), and all of the enthusiasm for the Hobbit films. While it seems like nowadays there's some amount of disdain or dislike for the Hobbit films it was not so at the time, I was completely swept up in the adoration of these films by fans, and it cemented my love of Tolkien's world enough to go all the way and read the Silm and the rest of the many books (I eventually ended up settling in the Silmarillion fandom primarily).

~ Molly Jacobson, 26 May 2022