Like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson's The Hobbit movies are high fantasy epics with long running times, every frame bursting with beautiful environments and a sprawling cast of colorful characters, including Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins, Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield, and Ian McKellan as Gandalf the Grey. Jackson even created a few new characters like Tauriel, never before seen in Tolkien's book.
The amount of screen time each character has doesn't correlate to dialogue, and many of the characters with the most screen time have almost no spoken lines. Screen time becomes about presence, not character importance, but it still makes sense that for a trilogy of movies centered on J. R. R. Tolkien's book The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins would be front and center. But where do the rest of the dwarves fit in, the elves of Mirkwood, and the formidable Smaug?
The titular character of The Hobbit trilogy is the very hobbit in question, Bilbo Baggins, and he can be seen in over 5 hours of footage. That's an impressive sum for so small a fellow, considering the combined running time of the theatrical versions of the three movies clocks in at just shy of eight hours.
Bilbo isn't quite sure if he has the courage to accompany Thorin Oakenshield and his company of dwarves to defeat Smaug and restore Erebor to its former splendor, but he certainly has the heart. The majority of the time Bilbo can be found babbling, but there are many scenes when he communicates a tremendous amount of feeling by just a shared look with Gandalf, such as at the end of The Battle of the Five Armies, when no words can properly convey mourning Thorin's death, one of the saddest moments in Bilbo's life.
Hand in hand with the adventures of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit movies is the tale of Thorin Oakenshield, the rightful King of Durin's Folk (and one of the most prominent dwarves since Gimli). Thorin and his Company of Dwarves request Bilbo's burgling abilities to help infiltrate the Lonely Mountain and defeat the dreaded Smaug, who has guarded its treasure fiercely for years.
With a little more than 4 hours of screen time, the King under the Mountain's narrative takes up quite a bit of the overarching story, a necessity in order for fans to grow attached to his tumultuous internal conflict inspired by the desire to do right by his people without giving into Dragon-sickness.
A member of the Company of Dwarves that follows Thorin Oakenshield to the Lonely Mountain, Dwalin (who's also the brother of Balin) often finds himself offering council to Thorin and Bilbo because of his plain-speaking wisdom, though the former is less likely to take it the more time he spends around Smaug's treasure.
With nearly four hours of screen time, Dwalin is present nearly as much as his good friend Thorin, though he doesn't have as much dialogue. What he lacks in words he more than makes up for with action, and plays a critical role in The Battle of Five Armies, coming to Bilbo's aid when he's surrounded by orcs.
Along with his brother Dwalin, Balin arrived at the home of Bilbo Baggins to eagerly request his help in Thorin Oakenshield's quest to retake Erebor for Durin's Folk. Less of a bruiser than his brother, Balin is still one of the most powerful heroes of The Hobbit movies, often using candor to great effect in his sagacious discussions with both Bilbo and Thorin.
With just about four hours of screen time, Balin is on screen almost the exact same amount as his brother Dwalin, and together the pair's interactions provide insight into the central characters of Bilbo and Thorin, who both question their own abilities in very different ways.
One of the most youthful-seeming dwarves in Thorin's group, Kili appears to have a lot to learn about the wider world, but his naivety and sweetness eventually work in his favor. Tauriel, in service to Thranduil, King of Mirkwood, can't help but fall for the handsome dwarf despite the fact that he becomes her captive.
With nearly four hours of screen time, Kili is one of the most prominent members of the Company of Dwarves, and his love story with Tauriel grants him more lines of dialogue than even Dwalin or Balin. Aside from Thorin, he's probably one of the most memorable dwarves in movies because of the uniqueness of his narrative and his tragic story in The Hobbit.
It's difficult to tell most of the dwarves in Thorin's cohort apart, but if they all looked like Dain, that wouldn't be a problem! Aside from his striking appearance, Dain II Ironfoot has an impressive pedigree as the grandson of Gror, the son of the famous Dain I of Durin's folk. The lord of the Iron Hills left Wilderland to aid Thorin in the eleventh hour, as enemy goblin and orc forces closed in on all sides of the Gate of Erebor.
Though he has less than five minutes total of screen time, Dain leaves quite the impression. With his flaming red hair, head tattoos, and mustache fashioned into tusks to match the horns of the ram he rides into battle, he's not a Hobbit character soon to be forgotten, no matter how much screen time he has.
While Smaug, orcs, goblins, and other fantastical creatures provide the bulk of the antagonists in The Hobbit movies, one villain takes human form; the oleaginous Master of Laketown. Caring only for his own welfare, he leaves the townspeople to die by dragon fire while he desperately paddles away in his rowboat laden with treasure.
The Master has less than ten minutes of screen time but effectively communicates the folly of avarice, acting as a cautionary tale for anyone who would sacrifice the many to serve the whims of the few. The symbolism of his character is carried on by his sniveling minion Alfrid who, although not a character in The Hobbit, survives Smaug's attack and continues to drive home the futility of greed.
Beorn is the skin-changer who begrudgingly receives Gandalf, Bilbo Baggins, and the Company of Dwarves in his home when they seek shelter after a long days' march, providing them with food, rest, and vital information about the path to Mirkwood.
The great bear-man received about ten minutes of screen time in The Hobbit, and returned for about a minute in The Battle of Five Armies to give the divisive blow to Bolg, the Goblin leader. Without him, the goblins dispersed in a panic, easily picked off by the rest of the Dwarves, Men, Elves, and Eagles.
One of Gandalf's oldest friends and a powerful wizard in his own right, Radagast the Brown appears mostly in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, when his woodland dwelling minions bring him news of a great evil, long thought dead, beginning to take shape in Middle-Earth once again.
Though he doesn't have much more than six or seven minutes of screen time, Radagast's contribution is just as important as Galadriel's, Elrond's, or Sauron's, all of whom return for extended battle scenes with the Necromancer and to discuss Radagast's discovery. For fans of the wily wizard, they would have been happy with even more from him and his rabbit sled.
An embodiment of Sauron's evil not yet able to gain traction as a corporeal form, the Necromancer is an insidious presence that affects Mirkwood and brings a blanket of darkness to its arboreal splendor. Unlike in the book, the Necromancer revives the nine Nazgul in The Hobbit movies, who are fought off by Elrond, Galadriel, and Sauron.
Though he only appears in the battle at Dol Guldur with the White Council, the Necromancer has a few lines of whispered dialogue and manages to leave his mark on The Hobbit trilogy as the dreaded Dark Lord yet to come, never fully vanquished but merely dormant.
source https://screenrant.com/the-hobbit-characters-with-most-vs-least-screen-time/
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