“I’m just being a difficult LoTR hardcore fan” : Tolkien Fans’ Actions and Reactions to Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit Trilogy

Abstract

Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy has been debated and discussed widely. Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien have had strong opinions about the films, and I believe that their online conversations about the movies call for a closer look. I am particularly interested in Tolkien fans’ reactions to the films; the reasons for these reactions; and the actions they provoked. Some fans loved the possibility of revisiting Middle-earth. They drew a clear distinction between the book and the movies, showing understanding towards the changes and additions required by the adaptation process. Pitted against them were the fans who experienced the films negatively. This group did not differentiate between the movies and the novel, and saw the former as a problematic continuation of the latter. This study focuses on the latter group of fans and the disappointments caused by The Hobbit movies. I will focus on the discussions on fan edits. Some Tolkien fans demanded new, more orthodox fan versions of The Hobbit movies. This was an attempt by the fans to integrate Jackson’s world with Tolkien’s world as seamlessly as possible. Most importantly, these fan edits appear as a moral statement, signalling the fans’ collectively experienced ownership of Tolkien’s legacy. I will argue that the fans’ experience of a moral duty to create their own edits of The Hobbit movies also shows that they do not recognise Jackson as the custodian of Tolkien’s cinematic world.