"Because it was real."

Reyna Nicole at A Peace of the Past tagged me for a Battle of the Five Armies Q&A!  Thank you very much, m'dear! :-) 

Rules:

1. You must be tagged in order to take the Q&A.

2. You must tag (notify) at least three other bloggers (or whatever they are on) for this Q&A.

3. You must answer the following questions to the best of your ability.

4. You must have seen The Battle of the Five Armies to be tagged/take the quiz.
 (A quick warning before I begin: there will be Significant Spoilers.  So if you haven't seen BOTFA yet and don't wish to know what happens, this post is Not For You.)

Questions: 

1. Tell the story of how you came to see the movie(s) or got 'into' Tolkien in the first place.  

Ooh.  Well, I became a Tolkiendil when I was in fifth grade--I'd known of Tolkien for a long while, and finally I decided to read LotR when I came across it at a library book sale.  It completely captured my imagination, and I finished all three in short order.  It took me quite awhile after that to read The Hobbit, for whatever reason, but as soon as I did, I fell in love with that too. 
Well, after a year or two, my family saw the LotR movies, and we've watched them at least once a year since--every person in my family who can read has read at least one Tolkien book.  So even if my interest in Tolkien dimmed, I've never completely dropped out of the fandom.

A year and a bit ago, though, I got completely crazy about Tolkien in a way I'd never been before, and it was mostly because of--you guessed it--the Hobbit movies.  When we saw AUJ, I wasn't a big fan...well, that's an understatement.  I re-read TH just so I could point out all the inaccuracies between the movie and the book.  But then I met a few other girls who really liked the movie, and they persuaded me to give it another chance.  I proceeded to do so, and found I really, really liked it.
This was just a few months before DOS came out, so I got caught up in all that excitement, and I really loved that movie; it was the first Tolkien movie I'd seen in the theatre, and the cliffhanger at the end--!!  Well, I was totally hooked on the Hobbit trilogy after that. ;-)
...Wow, that was long.  It's really hard to stop myself once I get started on Tolkien stuff, hehe.   
 

2. Who are your three favorite characters in the Hobbit Trilogy? 
...WHAT.
I can't chooooose!  But...erm...okay.  
First off is Bilbo, because Martin Freeman was PERFECTION as Bilbo.  Oh my wooord...I loved Bilbo in the book, but Martin Freeman added whole new layers to his character and made him so complex and loveable and...yeah.   I'm a solid Bilbo fan now. ;-)

Secondly...Fili and Kili.  They still only count as one! :P  I love Kili for his youth and joy and reckless spirit (and also because he and Tauriel are SO ADORABLE.) and Fili for his loyalty and trustworthiness and courage.
 
Thirdly, Thranduil.  Yeah, he was kind of a jerk in the movies, but he's one of my favorite characters in the book and they made him sympathetic enough in BOTFA for him to keep on my list. ;-)
Honorable Mentions go to Gandalf, Bofur, and Bard (and Smaug!  He was so cool :D), and the award for My Favorite Cameo is tied between Elrond and Frodo.  Hahahaha.  Yes, that was way more than three.  No, I'm not sorry. :P

 

3. Did you cry in the Battle of the Five Armies, and if so, which scene(s) and what type (sniffling, sobbing, choke-crying)?  
Um, YESSSSSS.
I actually didn't cry until after Kili's death. I was really expecting to cry all the way through the movie, but the tears didn't come--rest assured I was crying inside, though. :P
Anyways, after Kili died it suddenly hit me: this is the last Middle-earth movie.  And it was like the shock of Kili and Fili's deaths just wore off and I just started sobbing.  I ended up curled up in my seat, crying into a friend's shoulder while doing my utmost to cut off the circulation in her hand by squeezing it so tightly. :P
I did stop crying at the auction scene at the end because one does not simply stay miserable when all those hobbits are being hobbity on the screen. ;-)  But I started again at the end because THEY ACTUALLY DID THE "WHAT ABOUT VERY OLD FRIENDS" AND I LOST IT.
And then "The Last Goodbye" was very emotional, obviously. :P 
 

4. Were any deaths compelling to you, and if so, whose?  
Well, they all were.  Smaug's actually was CRAZY dramatic--my attention was riveted to the screen. Thorin's was very much the climax of the movie, really, so it was compelling as well.  Fili's death completely grabbed my attention because it was so sudden and harsh, and the moments leading up to Kili's death were so suspenseful that I was practically hyperventilating. ;-)

 
















5. Over all, were you satisfied with the movie itself? 

YES, definitely.  There were a few things I'd have changed--Thranduil ought to have been nicer and I'd have appreciated a bit more closure with the whole Tauriel thing.  But other than that, I thought the movie was practically perfect.

UNASHAMED SHIPPER RIGHT HERE.

(However, I might be just slightly biased, SNORT.  So I'm waiting to give a final opinion of it until I can see it on DVD.  Maybe the Extended Edition will satisfy all my nitpicks. ;-))
  

6. Describe the movie in one word.
Oh goodness, it was such a big and complex thing that it's very hard to sum it up, but the first word that comes to mind when describing BOTFA (and the trilogy in general) would be "epic".  Huge and mind-blowing and ground-breaking and just...epic.  Haha.

Now to tag some people!  Okay, so I don't know who all in the blogosphere has seen it yet, but I'll just tag some Tolkiendils anyway and let them do it at their convenience. ;-)
Elizabeth Anne D.
Eowyn

And if you would like to do this tag, just comment and I'll add you to the list. :-)