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Was Smaug a Scooby-doo monster in the book?

SantaC

Member
I just finished watching deisolation of Smaug, and the dragon came off as more silly than scary. He was talking himself up while Bilbo was one second from being burned, but like a true scooby episode he waited until it was too late. "My claws are like swords" ok lol.

Also, how can you be a mighty dragon when you fail to kill a few dwarves and a hobbit inside a fucking mountain.

Was he just as silly in the book also?
 

V1LÆM

Gold Member
it's a talking dragon....in a book written for kids and named after someone who is ~3ft tall. don't take it too seriously.

but to answer your question yeah he is about the same in the book. he is arrogant and trying to impress/scare bilbo. also he is just teasing/playing with him kinda like the way a cat plays with its prey before it kills it. that's why he talks shit instead of just trying to attack straight away.

also, for whatever it's worth to you. in the book smaug only faces bilbo. there is no over the top battle inside the mountain. he is still killed by the black arrow.
 
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SantaC

Member
it's a talking dragon....in a book written for kids and named after someone who is ~3ft tall. don't take it too seriously.

but to answer your question yeah he is about the same in the book. he is arrogant and trying to impress/scare bilbo. also he is just teasing/playing with him kinda like the way a cat plays with its prey before it kills it. that's why he talks shit instead of just trying to attack straight away.

also, for whatever it's worth to you. in the book smaug only faces bilbo. there is no over the top battle inside the mountain. he is still killed by the black arrow.
The dwarves never went inside the mountain?

Also Thorin is a sack of shit.
 
It's different in the book in that he's not stomping around, just barely missing Bilbo and all that over the top stuff going on during their dialogue. During their conversation Bilbo is just hanging back well out of sight with the ring on. And that giant scene with Smaug getting clowned by the dwarves and having melted gold dumped on him and all that shit was made up for the movie.
 

SantaC

Member
It's different in the book in that he's not stomping around, just barely missing Bilbo and all that over the top stuff going on during their dialogue. During their conversation Bilbo is just hanging back well out of sight with the ring on. And that giant scene with Smaug getting clowned by the dwarves and having melted gold dumped on him and all that shit was made up for the movie.
Yeah that was silly

Too bad Thorin didnt get burned to crisp
 

OmegaSupreme

advanced basic bitch
I liked his bravado. Getting killed with an arrow mounted on child's shoulder was silly af though. Is that how he died in the book?
 
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DGrayson

Mod Team and Bat Team
Staff Member
Book was excellent. Movies were such a disappointment. As soon as I heard they were going to stretch it out to 3 movies SMFH.

Just look at the physical book. This is 1 movie max possible a long one. If they wanted to go overboard, ok give me 2 incredible films and I would be happy. But what we got was super disappointing.



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poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Book was excellent. Movies were such a disappointment. As soon as I heard they were going to stretch it out to 3 movies SMFH.

Just look at the physical book. This is 1 movie max possible a long one. If they wanted to go overboard, ok give me 2 incredible films and I would be happy. But what we got was super disappointing.



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The thing is everyone knew it was stupid to stretch it to 3 movies before a single frame was shot.
 

Umbasaborne

Banned
Book was excellent. Movies were such a disappointment. As soon as I heard they were going to stretch it out to 3 movies SMFH.

Just look at the physical book. This is 1 movie max possible a long one. If they wanted to go overboard, ok give me 2 incredible films and I would be happy. But what we got was super disappointing.



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Yep. The hobbit book is one of my favorites of all time. It could have been great as one film. Those three movies are fucking terrible. What a decline in quality from the lotr trilogy, which i consider to be the greatest film trilogy of all time
 

Doom85

Member
First film was great IMHO. I was like, ”okay, Jackson might be on to something here. That was a fun adventure.”

2nd film not so much. What’s baffling is they CUT scenes from the books. Three movies of 8-9 hours altogether to do a 300 page book and you cut shit? Why cut the scene where Gandalf has the dwarves slowly arrive at that woodsmans house (forget his name), that was a rare funny scene from Tolkien. Why cut the scene in the forest where that weird horse thing (yeah, it’s been a while since I read it) attacks them? Why cut the scene of them trying to reach the Elven feast. No, instead let’s have a filler battle where the dragon we’ve hyped up for two movies fails to kill even one dwarf that’s attacking him. When Bilbo is all, “what have we done?”, my buddy ay the theater was all, “dude, if you all did that well against him, that town is going to beat the shit out of that dragon.”

3rd film was slightly better than 2 but not by much. Way too much time spent on Thorin being Corrupted Frodo 2.0 when the original greed element over gold worked just fine. And that Wormtongue 2.0 guy can just fuck off, his shtick got old fast and the leader should have kicked his ass out early on. The final scenes with Bilbo and Thorin, and then Bilbo and Gandalf were well handled though.

Should have been two films. Yes, actually having characterization for dwarves other than just Thorin was nice, but three films resulted in way too much fluff.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
I rewatched An unexpexted journey and it’s a good enough movie, taking a few liberties here and there but doing quite a good job. Too bad about the other two.

I re-read the book a few months ago and it’s great. Tolkien was a good writer. He rightfully didn’t linger too much on the final part of the story, which clearly wasn’t the most important. Doing a full movie out of it was stupid, as is most of the stuff that happens in the movie.
 

Nobody_Important

“Aww, it’s so...average,” she said to him in a cold brick of passion
Book was excellent. Movies were such a disappointment. As soon as I heard they were going to stretch it out to 3 movies SMFH.

Just look at the physical book. This is 1 movie max possible a long one. If they wanted to go overboard, ok give me 2 incredible films and I would be happy. But what we got was super disappointing.



000610.jpg
I wish they would do an series around the Simarillion. Not a movie. Too much detail for a movie. But like a big budget single season mini-series.


I would be so in for that.
 

GloveSlap

Member
The stuff with the dwarves went too far but i liked the interaction with Bilbo. Smaug just seemed bored and intrigued that Bilbo could hide from him.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
"My armour is like tenfold shields, my teeth are swords, my claws spears, the shock of my tail a thunderbolt, my wings a hurricane, and my breath death!"

Book Smaug is vain and arrogant, but he's also a terrifying force of nature that demands respect.

I didn't get that from the film version. The film version just came across as an over the top cartoon villain.
 
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BigBooper

Member
If you would like it closer to the books there's a decent fan edit called the Anti-Cringe cut. It cuts out the superfluous orc chasing and other goofiness. Some of the scene transitions are rough as a result, but I think it's better.
 

Cutty Flam

Banned
Smaug in The Hobbit is a highly fearsome and wicked worm as described in the book. I have yet to see him at The Lonely Mountain in The Desolation of Smaug. Still paused at the part where the dwarves are preparing to leave Bard's village
 
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