Aragorn and Bilbo storylines in the Hobbit Sequel Film- Storyscape

A Heart for the Bridge Film: Bilbo and Aragorn Discussion

Gilraen'   Aragorn at his mother's memorial
Image © New Line Cinema

The Necromancer storyline provides a dramatic political backdrop to the Bridge Film, but it needs to be augmented with more personal and emotional story elements to form a well rounded entertaining adventure film. Storylines with Bilbo and Aragorn are possible candidates in this role.

Bilbo’s Life during the Bridge Film

As the lovable star of The Hobbit film, the audience will expect Bilbo to feature in the sequel. Bilbo’s storyline would allow his adoption of Frodo to be told, providing continuity with the Lord of the Rings films. Yet the Bridge Film years are quiet time for Bilbo following his great adventure. He settles back down with his new found maturity and wealth, and he takes up writing, and his friendship with the elves of Rivendell develops.

Frodo’s parents drown in the Brandywine river when he is a baby and he is brought up by the Brandybucks. Bilbo later adopts Frodo when he is around 20 years old.

Bilbo is unlikely to be the protagonist for the Bridge Film, as his quiet life will not make an exciting film plot. Bilbo’s part in the tale does not begin again until Gandalf discovers the nature of the One Ring, and this has to wait for the Fellowship of the Ring to begin.

Bilbo could instead become a link at the start of the Bridge Film that leads us into other storylines. There are several events that could be used to make this connection. At the end of The Hobbit book Balin and Gandalf’s visit Bag End. This could introduce a discussion of the darkness rising in Mirkwood, leading on to Dol Guldur. It could also lead to the story of Balin’s ill-fated journey to Moria (though I expect the motif of dwarven-greed-awaking-fiery-monsters will have been well used in The Hobbit film, and Balin’s story will be a minor thread).

Another promising Bilbo link is that during his visits to Rivendell he could begin a friendship with the young Aragorn.

Aragorn’s Early Years in Rivendell and Love for Arwen

In contrast to Bilbo, Aragorn’s life during the Bridge Film time period is full of dramatic events that the filmmakers will desire to use, as told in the tale of Aragorn and Arwen in the Appendices. When Aragorn is a baby his father is killed by orcs, and his mother Gilraen takes her son to be raised in Rivendell. His identity as Lord of the Dunedain and Isildur’s heir is hidden from him.

At the age of twenty Elrond reveals Aragorn’s true lineage to him. Aragorn then meets the beautiful Arwen in the woods of Rivendell and falls for her. His love is forbidden by Arwen’s father Elrond, and Aragorn departs to travel across Middle Earth and prove he is worthy of Arwen. After many heroic deeds in Rohan and Gondor under the guise of Thorongil, Aragorn comes back to Arwen at Lorien. She then returns his love and they pledge their fates together.

With strong character development, romance, and conflict, Aragorn’s story will likely feature heavily in the Bridge Film, and Aragorn may well be at the heart of the story. His departure from Rivendell to prove his worth is promising as the story’s overall focus and ‘inciting moment’. The main obstacles in promoting Aragorn’s storyline is the brevity of the source material (its only seven pages long) and that some of the tale has already been covered in the existing Lord of the Rings films. We already know of Aragorn’s destiny to return to Gondor and Elrond’s disapproval of his love for Arwen. The Bridge Film would require a different perspective to this tale. One possibility is that we have a more immature Aragorn, whose ‘love at first sight’ for Arwen is not necessarily returned straight away, so Aragorn must earn Arwen’s love.

There is a good deal of history to the Rangers within the Lord of the Rings books. Tales elude to their ancient kingdom of Eriador (that the Shire was part of), the legendary wars with Angmar (where the tower of Amon Sul was destroyed) and the Rangers constant unseen work against the enemy in the wilderness. This material was overlooked in the original films and could provide a route to expanding the tale of Aragorn’s early years within the Tolkien canon. Storytelling in Rivendell with a young Aragorn is a suitable vehicle for working in this material.

Aragorn’s Heroic Errantries

With Aragorn leaving Rivendell to prove his worth as a promising focus for the Bridge Film, we then come to describing the heroic events that Aragorn undergoes. Aragorn travels throughout Middle Earth to the distant East and South. In Gondor his great deeds are achieved under the name of Thorongil and he aids Ecthelion against the Corsairs of Umbar. The problem with using this material is that Tolkien has essentially repeated the motifs from Lord of the Rings- Aragorn defeating the Corsairs is near identical to Return of the King. This storyline would fail to deliver new and interesting characters, themes and locations in Middle Earth, and might even lessen the enjoyment of Lord of the Rings for future viewers (who would begin by watching the prequel films and be given an inferior introduction to Gondor/Rohan).

A possible method of overcoming these problems is that instead of telling the story of Aragorn’s deeds in the South, we have Aragorn join with Gandalf and aid in his struggle against the Necromancer. This could involve the timeline change described in the previous section, or, sticking more closely to Tolkien, we know Aragorn could aid Gandalf in searching the Gladden Fields or seeking Gollum (The Gollum storyline again risks encroaching on the start of Fellowship of the Ring- as soon as Gandalf learns of “Shire! Baggins!” then the true nature of Bilbo’s ring is revealed).

The filmmakers have mentioned another possibility with Aragorn helping to protect the Shire. This story thread could use further material from Lord of the Rings, working in some of the history of the wolf attacks on the Shire and providing a connection between Bilbo and Aragorn. The Scouring storyline could even be used (though its meaning would be completely lost in this context). Overall the prospect of Aragorn defending the Shire seems somewhat underwhelming compared to the epic conflicts that Lord of the Rings viewers have become accustomed to, and the Necromancer connection seems to offer greater potential.

Aragorn as the Star of the Bridge Film

It appears Aragorn is the best bet for the protagonist of the Bridge Film, with his emotional character arc delivering drama and romance. There is potential in linking up his story with Gandalf and the Necromancer thread. What’s more there is a reasonable amount of material to work into this story with the history of the Dunedain.

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