ADVENTURE IS OUT THEREEEEEE!!!!

         I read the Hobbit once in like 5^th grade and I remember thinking it was so epic and I was the coolest kid ever to be reading it and it was such a high level reading book that I had to carry a dictionary around to understand what the hell was going on. Since then I've been an avid reader of the late Brian Jacques' Redwall series, so this adventure was right up my ally in terms of what I like to read. I wanted to read the Hobbit again since all I remembered was there was a part involving trolls by a fire.

Firstly I really liked the idea of Bilbo as so of the antihero. Bilbo starts off as just another laid-back hobbit who wants to stick to the norm as much as possible. I enjoyed watching him grow, it was really easy to put yourself in his shoes. You are off on a quest with a bunch of fearsome dwarves and the farthest you've probably traveled is the town market. In the beginning he's this timid little thing who swoons at the thought of dragons and adventure. He's scared out of his mind and in the beginning all he tends to do is cause more trouble with the trolls and he gets himself lost in the darkness of the underground goblin caves.

        I mean, by the end Bilbo was a courageous thing to behold: saving everyone from the spider's clutches, storming into the dragon's keep by himself multiple times, and going against what his friend wanted to ensure peace between the people. Of course, all if not most of this was aided by the ring he picked up from Gollum. I think the ring did help him do a lot of things that normally couldn't do but his heroic qualities that he got he made himself. He forged his own path. The ring did sort of give him the “level up” which allowed him to become the leader and have the guts to come up with most of his ideas.

         My friend asked me who my favorite character was in this story and it took me a minute but I'd have to say Gandalf. I like his sort of “godlike” role as far as he's sort of the Jesus of Middle Earth. He's more than just another fantasy wizard. I liked the way he knew how everything was going to unfold the entire time he kept everyone in the dark. Gandalf seems to be sort of the grand ringmaster of the situation: he gets Bilbo to go on the journey and he doesn't go on the journey for material wealth like the others. It seemed that the times he left to tend to other matters, he needed to be gone for other reasons that his business with the Necromancer (Sauron). I think in a way it was Bilbo's way to shine and he had to take his rightful place in the group. If Gandalf was there, we'd probably have less of a story as well, Bilbo's transformation would have been unnecessary if Gandalf was always there to save the day with magic.