Wednesday, December 17, 2014

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Well, the Battle of the Five Armies premiere was last night, and now the final Middle-earth chapter is complete.

It started with joy and ended in tears (and maybe a little laughter over Kili and Tauriel).

We set off from home, after a little hobbit feast that featured lembas bread, Smaug's gold, elven arrow fruit skewers, and BotFA-themed sugar cookies, homemade by my older sister Crystal and I that afternoon -- she was the baker and assistant-designer, and I was the designer and decorator. ;)


Sting, hobbit door, the Lonely Mountain, the One Ring, the eye of Sauron, and (my favorite) Smaug [the adorable]. ;D
One picture before we head off, in all our costumed glory. A ranger, elf of Rivendel, Arwen, battle Tauriel, a hobbit girl, movie Tauriel, and Gandalf the grey/white. ;)
We decided to stop by Walmart to get pics, be stared at, and kill some time. xD
Elves are very picky about their yogurt.
Gandalf wanders the aisles of wally world...
I explain, Amber dances, Crystal laughs...
"Cuties." (See what we did there? ;))
Gandalf and the elves show off their 3D-glasses swag.
But we elves can be very serious, too. ;)
Me and my 2 older sisters. ;) Funny thing as well: it features the costumes that I made for the 3 Hobbit films. Alissa, with much coaxing, donned my first Tauriel costume, Crystal wears Arwen's blood red dress, and, of course, I'm wearing my "battle Tauriel" design. ;)
And after a bit more goofing off, we were able to go get our seats in the theater, sit through 30 minutes of trailers (*eye roll*), and then watch the final Middle-earth movie of our time.

I'll just be honest -- I *sobbed* through the last 45 minutes; and you know a movie is good if it can make you cry that hard.

SPOILERS ahead, so if you haven't seen the movie yet, you'll want to skip the next 2 paragraphs...

While the beginning and middle and the "big battle" were wonderful and exciting and straight up awesome, the end is what really stands out. It was so beautiful and heartbreaking and everything it should have been. Peter Jackson did this final chapter of Middle-earth justice.

I felt Thorin and Kili's pain as they watched their brother and nephew brutally murdered before their very eyes. I cried with Tauriel as Kili lay dead in her arms. My heart hurt with Bilbo as Thorin spoke with him for the final time. I wept as Bilbo said farewell to the dwarves at the doors of Erebor. And when he journeyed back home to Bag-end, and as he began to "pick up the threads of an old life," I could feel the heaviness the adventure had laid on our dear Bilbo's heart.

And then "The Last Goodbye" played, and that was when I realized: it's over. We went "there and back again" with so many wonderful characters, and now it is time to bid Middle-earth a very fond farewell -- but really, it will always live on.

~          ~          ~

"To these memories I will hold.
With your blessing I will go,
To turn at last to paths that lead home.
And though where the road then takes me,
I cannot tell.
We came all this way,
But now comes the day
To bid you farewell."

10 comments:

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    1. Spoilers ahead...


      First off, I love your costume! Its beautiful! But oh my goodness, I cannot agree more! To be honest, I went into this film not expecting to like it very much. I had almost lost faith in Peter Jackson after hearing some rumors. But after seeing it last night and crying throughout ;(, I came to realize just how wrong I was. Despite some rather ridiculous moments, this film was so beautiful! And I can't help but think about Tauriel's question "Why does it hurt so much?" and then Thranduil's answer "Because it was real,"
      I realized why I found myself crying when Bilbo told Thorin about his acorn. Why I was bawling when Thorin said his last farewell, why I felt like I had lost my best friend when he died. It's because to us, Tolkien's stories are real, that goodness and beauty is real.

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  2. Your costumes are amazing! I am forcing myself to not read this:) I'm going to the theater tonight and have already *accidentally* read certain spoilers so I don't want to read anymore=D I will read the spoilers after I see this movie that is going to kill me:( *tears*

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  3. What beautiful costumes!! You all look fabulous.

    My mother, younger sister and I went to see the movie yesterday afternoon. Another sister (one who doesn't like fantasy so she didn't go with us) braided our hair in Middle-Earth hairstyles before we went. In my hair, my sister did Arwen's Flight to the Ford braids, Mom had Legolas's hairstyle and my younger sister had Tauriel's.

    I absolutely LOVED the movie. It was MAGNIFICENT and easily the best movie I've seen all year and one of the best movies I've ever seen. It was very bittersweet though, because, as you said, it is the last big Middle Earth movie.

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  4. I love your idea of the BOTFA themed dinner before the movie! I wish I had done that, but we went and saw the triple feature, so I didn't really have time. But if we go see it again (which I'm hoping we do) then I'm planning on stealing your idea! :)

    Blessings -

    ~ Aspen

    P.S. I just did a movie review for BOTFA on my Heirs of Durin blog.

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  5. Oh my goodness! You look great in your costumes! That's so cool that your sisters dressed up in your costumes. And that you went to Walmart to show off them off, that is so AWESOME! I love the picture of you and the yogurt!

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  6. I ADORE that you convinced Alissa to dress up! :)

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  7. You are amazing!!! Your dress looks crazy awesome!!!
    ~Jacquie

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  8. aahhhhhh wish I had done a Botfa themed dinner...but there wasn't time...my Tauriel costume was literally finished 2 min before we left for BoTFA. XD crazy right?

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