Fair warning, these ARE plot spoilers. Keep away if you prefer surprises!

What do you make of it all? And if you like what you see, remember you can order your copy of the book from Amazon.

Tauriel in The Desolation of Smaug Annual 2014.

At Beorn’s hall by Mirkwood

- The company is chased to Beorn’s house by Beorn himself (Beorn doesn’t like dwarves, but when he discovers they’re running from Azog he helps them instead).
- ‘Beorn is the last shape-shifter in the whole of Middle-earth. Most of his kind were killed by Azog, so when Beorn finds out that The Company are fleeing from Azog, he agrees to help them.’
- Beorn tells Gandalf that the rumours of ‘a great evil’ in Dol Guldur are true, which is what makes Gandalf decide to go there himself and leave Thorin & Company to face Mirkwood alone.

At the Halls of the Elven-king

- Thranduil has ordered that his elves are not to leave the forest, and they’re not to have anything to do with any other race (especially the dwarves).
- When Thorin & co are captured, Thranduil guesses they’re going to the Lonely Mountain and will release the dwarves to go on their way, for a promise of a cut of the gold. But Thorin refuses, so he imprisons them.
- Legolas isn’t as set in his ways as his Dad.
- Tauriel is at odds with Thranduil and doesn’t understand, or agree with, his segregation. She’s ‘very headstrong’ and ‘doesn’t always follow orders’.
- Tauriel is ‘quite unlike other Elves’ and it’s hinted that she quite likes the dwarves (or is, at least, intrigued by them).
- The wood elves give chase through the forest when the dwarves escape in barrels, but don’t follow them out of the forest.
- Except for Tauriel, who does follow then to Lake-town (defying Thranduil) and Legolas who decides to follow Tauriel (because he’s ‘very protective of her’).
- Bilbo may get separated at some point in the escape.

Some events at Laketown

- Bard discovers the dwarves as they wash up in their barrels (because he’s a ‘great hunter and often spends his time in the hills around the river leading from Mirkwood into the Long Lake’), and eventually decides to trust them and take them to Lake-town.
- Bard has three children: Bain, Sigrid and Tilda (which explains the ‘injured girl’ in the piece above and is possibly part of his motivation for helping the dwarves?)

Developments at Dol Guldur

- Gandalf may do some of the following in Dol Guldur: unlock a gate; see things that aren’t really there/things appear other than they are; cast a spell making it look like there’s more than one of him; cast a protection spell; have to work out where to walk as there are trick stones that lead to traps.
- Lastly, there’s a suggestion that Smaug is also looking for the Arkenstone.

You can also see six dramatic new images from the Annual HERE and a stunner of Beorn in his angry bear-form HERE.

If you like what we do, and would like to see your Tolkien community keep growing and growing, consider making a contribution to our Pledge Drive. Every bit helps defray our costs!

Here, Ringer Captain Salt from the TORn messageboards attempts to put string together all the teasing hints that we’ve seen make their way onto the internet over the past 12-18 months.

Needless to say, this really is SPOILER country. If you don’t even want to know what the plot might be, don’t go here!

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ABSOLUTE LAST CHANCE!

An attempt to decipher The Desolation of Smaug plot

A guest feature by Ringer Captain Salt

The Prologue

Will we make an unexpected return to Bree at the start of DOS?

Act One

Most likely will open with Thorin & Co. heading for Beorn’s house, probably with Azog (or the threat of Azog) still hot on their heels. Perhaps we might have an exchange between Bilbo and Gandy here, as reported from Cinema-Con 2012:

Gandalf: You’re not the same Hobbit who set out from the Shire…what did you find down there, in the Goblin tunnels?
Bilbo (pausing, fingering the Ring): My courage.
Gandalf: Good…you’re going to need it.

Thorin & Co. arrive at Beorn’s house, apparently enraging Beorn who attacks the Company as they try to keep him out of his house. Mikeal Persbrandt has mentioned being strapped to the ceiling for a “difficult torture scene”; his Bridge Direct action figure mentions that he is “the last of his kind”; and the (possible) bear paws used a Bolg’s shoulder pauldrons have led to speculation that there may be a subplot where Bolg or the Necromancer’s minions have a personal animosity with Beorn (perhaps we might have a flashback.

Or Beorn will be introduced to the audience prior to the Company a-la the Rohirrim in TTT). There will also apparently be a scene where Beorn questions/slays at least one Orc himself.

How will the company meet Beorn?

Thorin & Co. will enter Mirkwood, while Gandy will leave them to investigate the growing shadow of the Necromancer; he seems to be departing with some urgency in the bit of this scene from one of the vlogs:

Gandalf: Give me a horse!
Ori: Why, where are you going?!
Gandalf: In search of answers!

Perhaps information given to Gandy by Beorn will spark his side-quest, but for whatever reason, he evidently will leave the Company in a flurry here. Bilbo and the Dwarves enter Mirkwood where many of the events from the novel are (or at one point were) included, such as: Bombur falling into the enchanted stream and being carried by the other dwarves; Thorin’s stag; and Bilbo’s tree/the butterflies (some of this may end up in the EE, or in my opinion, it’s likely to play-out as a rather brief montage).

Somewhere along here, Ori may find a pouch witch will elicit an alarmed (or excited?) response from Dori.

Meanwhile, Gandy investigates the King’s Tomb (crypts of the Nazgul) along with Radagast, only to find that they are empty. There was mention of Gandalf and Elrond scouting out Dol Guldur, but this seems to have been replaced with Raddy as Gandy’s sidekick.

Bilbo and the Dwarves will encounter the spiders; the dwarves will be “webbed” by the spiders, but will apparently be given chase by the beasts before they’re captured – Bilbo evidently escapes and has a confrontation with the spiders here, where Sting will most likely be named. The Wood-elves including Legolas and Tauriel are involved in fighting off the spiders in the film. The dwarves are captured, and Thorin will have a rather tense encounter with Thranduil (Thrandy: It has been a long time since Thorin Oakenshield ventured north…for what purpose?) after which the Dwarves are imprisoned.

Thranduil and Thorin will not get on.

A subplot will involve Tauriel, a young Silvan elf who is a Captain of the Elvenking’s guard and who feels strongly about intervention in the “rise of evil” (potentially a response to the growing power of the Necromancer) while Legolas, apparently taking a cue from his father, is initially isolationist. There is rumored to be a romantic subplot involving Tauriel as well; supposedly Kili will become attracted to her (though for all we know, this is one-sided and a Gimli/Galadriel type-thing); there are pursistant rumors of a Legolas/Tauriel romance; and (IMO most intriguingly) rumors that Tauriel will have an unrequited thing for Thranduil.

Craig Hall has been cast as Galion, the King’s butler, while Eli Kent is playing an Elf named “Lethuin”. (?!?) Robin Kerr also plays an Elf named “Elros” (probably of Rivendell), but obviously we don’t know how he fits into the film.

At one or more point(s), the Elves will battle ranks or Orcs — either on the parapets of the Woodland Realm, on Dol Guldur, somewhere along the River Running, or some combination of these options. At least one Orc will be captured and interrogated by the Elves.

Legolas: There was more the Orc could have told us.
Thranduil: There was NOT more he could have told me!

Azog and his hunters will continue to track Thorin’s Company into DoS; presumbably, Fimbul — who was originally intended to be Azog’s lieutenant, and who appears on the DoS Annual — probably plays a larger role reminiscent of Yazneg in the first film. Ben Mitchell also plays “Narzug” who it doesn’t seem was in AUJ. Conan Stevens as Bolg will also have a part to play amongst the Orcs, probably not only in relation to Azog but in the Necromancer story as well.

Azog will stalk the dwarves across Mirkwood.

The day-to-day operation of the website, and the events we host, require a lot more resources than when we first started nearly 15 years ago. We sometimes find it hard to ask our readers for the help we need to keep running, so we began discussing what it is that makes TheOneRing.net worth helping out. It started out as a search for the Top Ten Moments of TORn, but the list got so long because each staff member had their own idea of important moments in TORn history. Here, instead, is something more encompassing: Ten Ways TORn helps serve Tolkien and Lord of the Rings fandom (listed in no specific order).

And, if you enjoy what we do, consider a donation (no amount too small, because every bit does help!) to keep us running!

If you can’t, that’s fine as well — keep reading, commenting and contributing. Because TORn is as much you as it is us!

If you’ve ever sent in an article, submitted a photo or report, posted on our messageboards, visited our chat, or commented on our twitter, facebook or g+, you’re the reason TheOneRing.net is among the largest and most-respected pillars of the Tolkien community on the web.

• Spy Reports

• Spy reports were a big part of our content when the website first started. From casting announcements to secret location pictures to leaked images of important plot points, spy reports were our bread and butter stories. Some of the reports were from random, anonymous sources, while others were official leaks from cast and crew. In fact, there were many production members who said they used TheOneRing.net to keep track of what some of the other filming units were doing. Other spy reports were just someone stumbling upon a film location and sending in a story or images and then we’d all try and guess what location it actually was. Some of our biggest spy reports were of Arwen at Helm’s Deep (which subsequently didn’t happen), Saruman’s prone body on a spiky wheel (which did happen), and TheOneRing.net was given the honor of introducing Thorin to the world. And very soon, we will be seeing stories from MrCere’s visit to the set from his Production Embed last year.

• Hall of Fire Chats and the Message Boards

• Literary discussions on the message boards and Hall of Fire chats – From the very beginning of TheOneRing.net, discussions of the books, chapter by chapter, has been a hallmark. After all, while we waited for news on who would be cast, where filming would take place, and rumors of what might be cut out, we had the books to talk about. Discussions worked by talking about one chapter at a time, and luckily, there are enough books with enough chapters, to keep those discussions going on for a long while. Since the beginning, we’ve looped through the books several times, but luckily, there are always new readers joining the discussion, and new interpretations to be had. And for something a little more dynamic, there are the Hall of Fire chats in Barlimans. Sometimes the talk is about a specific chapter, or a certain character, and sometimes it is about current events, such as new character images or reviews of a recently released trailer. No matter which forum you use, there is always someone to talk to about some aspect of Tolkien, the books or our fandom.

• TORns Live Videos

• We began with TORn Live, which consisted of Red Carpet interviews at premieres, awards ceremonies and special events like Cannes 2001 and SDCC. These would be recorded, edited and released online a few days or weeks later. But technology now allows for live streaming interviews and vlogs and the like. Quickbeam hosts a weekly TORn Tuesday event with interviews and discussions, while he interacts with a live chatroom. The Happy Hobbit ladies record and post their vlogs and post them within a day or two of their recordings, for a much quicker turnaround on video content. And right now we have the Road to DragonCon in full swing with live streaming from across the country.

• Conventions

• Convention appearances – Calisuri and Quickbeam hosted a panel at San Diego Comic Con in 2001, before the release of FOTR, and since then barely a year has gone by that TORn hasn’t had a presence at at least one convention. At many of the conventions we appear at we also have a presence on the exhibit hall floor where we have sold some of our classic TORn shirts. We love it when we get up on stage for a panel and half the people in the audience are wearing some of our older shirts.

•  

  

  Baggins Birthday Party sign

  Line Parties and Fan Events

• Line Parties and other fan hosted events – TheOneRing.net has always been a grass roots type of fan-site and that is no more apparent then looking at the Line Parties of years past. Whether it is just a few friends, or some hundreds of people signing up on the website to attend, fans like you all over the world hosted Line Parties. A few even took place over several days, and included costume contests and trivia games for prizes. Other fan hosted events over the years have been the Hobbit Day/Baggins Birthday Bash events on Sept. 22, the Tolkien Toast on Jan. 3 and the Tolkien Reading Day on March 25. TORn staff in Los Angeles have been hosting a Baggins Birthday Bash party for 11 years now, but there are fan groups around the world that have hosted similar events. Smaller moots happen around the world all the time, there is a very active group in Wellington and one in Croatia. If you are hosting a fan event in the next year or two, please feel free to tell us about it.

• The Oscar Parties

• Originally conceived as a fan event to help raise funds to buy TORn a new server, who could have imagined the Cast and Crew actually showing up to the FOTR oscar party? Even more surprising, who could have imagined the ROTK sweep and all those Oscars on stage at a fan hosted party?

• O.R.C and E.L.F.

• TheOneRing.net hosted conventions – The One Ring Celebration on the West Coast (O.R.C.) and the Eastern Lord of the Rings Festival on the East Coast (E.L.F.) were co-productions with a professional convention company, but they definitely had a TORn stamp on them. The conventions allowed us to combine our love of the films by interacting with cast and crew with our love of the books through academic discussions, the art shows and costume displays. We really did break the mold on how a commercial scifi convention is run and hope everyone who attended had a blast.

• Academic essays and editorials

• TORn has long standing relationships with many in the academic community who have posted guest essays and editorials. Over the year several staffers have posted in depth analysis to fan questions on the site as well. In fact, we have a whole section on the ‘old TORn’ (pre-crash) called Green Books for academic posts. This section had so much good stuff in it, we published a book called “The People’s Guide to J.R.R. Tolkien” and a sequel book as well.

• Driving fan initiatives

• After Return of the King was done and Peter Jackson moved on to do King Kong, the fans waited to see what would happen with The Hobbit afterwards. Months turned to years and still no word while studios went bankrupt, copyrights issues got tangled up and various lawsuits were filed for missing payments. Finally, a few fans decided they had had enough and started a petition to ‘Make the Hobbit Happen’. They brought it to TORn and we got thousands of you to sign so that a big pile of names was delivered to TPTB. A similar thing happened when there was talk that the production would be moved out of New Zealand. The fans could see no where else as Middle-earth, so the ‘Keep the Hobbit in NZ’ campaign was born, but this time on Social Media. And most recently, there was an explosion of Tolkien fan love over the #Votebilbo twitter event prompted by an MTV Audience Award.

• TORn Community

• This list compiles many of the things that TheOneRing.net does to keep you informed, entertained and engaged, but there is really just one thing that makes TheOneRing.net so important to keep around. And that is the community of fans that convene on our message boards, in Barliman’s chat, on Facebook and Twitter.

This site was built by fans getting together to discuss what they hoped for from Peter Jackson long before FOTR ever saw the light of day. The fact that a long existing fan-base gathered here meant engaged and informed discussion began from day one, including analyzing all the spy reports about casting and location details. We didn’t have to wait for the release of the films, or for several episodes of a new show to take off before we could discuss the minutia of every detail because our fan base was already well established.

And what is ‘fandom’ if not a community of like minded people passionate about the same thing. Sure, everyone has their own opinions, so every time a new image was released, or a new trailer appeared, the message boards and chatroom erupted into heated discussions. But as the years wore on friendships were made, some turning into marriage, and we all began meeting up at various moots, conventions, concerts, premiere events, trips to New Zealand or just coffee and a movie. How many of you newer fans were galvanized by the #Votebilbo campaign and now have a wider array of Twitter friends because of it? The fact that TORn was able to continue to exist during all those lean years between film productions is due mostly to you, the readers, sticking around to discuss anything and everything to do with Tolkien, and sometimes other bits of pop culture. We know that after the release of The Hobbit: There and Back Again we will see another decline of readership, but we also know that the community is strong, the friendships have been forged and all of you take that fandom with you where ever you go next.

So again, if you are so inclined to help support us and keep the website going, please do make a pledge or bid on one of the many cool auction items we’ve been posting about the past few days. On behalf of the All Volunteer Staff at TheOneRing.net, you have our deepest gratitude for all the support over the years.

Our reactions within the ranks of the TORn Staff have been across the board (both cold and hot). Watching how fans react on the Message Boards and on our Facebook timeline is fascinating!

We launch TORn TUESDAY every week at 5:00PM Pacific: brought to you by host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway and producer Justin “That There is a Bear” Sewell — Our innovative live show includes worldwide fans who join us on the Live Event page with a built-in IRC chat (affectionately known as Barliman’s Chat room). Be part of the fun and mischief every week as we broadcast *live* from Meltdown Comics in the heart of Hollywood, U.S.A.!

And yes our YouTube channel will have this archived later.  You can find us on www.youtube.com/the1nering

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Follow us on Twitter:  @theoneringnet

Follow Cliff Broadway:  @quickbeam2000

Like us on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/theoneringnet

Most of this past week’s action has been on The Hobbit Message Board where the speculations are flying!  Could we have seen a picture of Beorn?  Some say yes, some say no (very Elven!); but we’d like to hear what you think!

So the Hobbit Message Board is wondering about the new Favourite Elven Couple.  Join in the conversation here.

And we can’t help but wonder about The Desolation of Smaug spoilers.  Is there a battle?  And there’s more in a recent article on the film?  We’d love to hear from you!

Want Hobbit Movie News?  Each week, TORn poster DanielLB ventures into the very rich and fast-moving Hobbit Discussion Board to collect the Hobbit Headlines of the Week.  Check out this week’s action here.

We’ll share more topics next week and hope you join in on the conversation!  Don’t forget, TheOneRing.net Message Boards have over 9,936 registered Tolkien fans, just like you.  Let your voice be heard!

With Peter Jackson absent from Comic-Con International in San Diego to finish production on The Hobbit trilogy, the duty of bringing Middle-earth to Comic-Con fell to the staff of the TheOneRing.net. Consisting of TheOneRing personalities Alex and Kellie Rice, Josh Rubinstein and Rebecca Perry, with Cliff Broadway and Cathy Udovch driving most of the dialog, the panelists dug deep into the The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, the second film of The Hobbit trilogy.

Releasing December 13 with limited information currently available from which to draw theories and deduce conclusions, the panelists energetically showed off their expertise of Tolkien lore, analyzing known sequences adapted from the novel. The most fun came when the panelists cut loose theorizing on new scenes and relationships from Smaug, including a larger role for the wizard Radagast, the inclusion of new elf character Tauriel, talking giant spiders, a Jackson-created side story for Gandalf, elven goddess Galadriel seeing combat action and Bilbo’s impending encounter with Smaug the dragon, voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch.

Breaking down the structure of Smaug and its parallel with the chronology of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel, the panel took the crowd through the film’s outline, beginning with Bilbo Baggins and his dwarven allies meeting the giant bear-man Beorn. This encounter precedes The Company venturing into the dangers of Mirkwood, wherein lie the deadly spiders teased in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

[Read More]

Everyone gather round for our weekly live webcast TORnTUESDAY! We have some great footage from our livestream at San Diego Comic-Con and above all we have coverage of the final days of shooting THE HOBBIT films down in New Zealand.  They just completed all their photography a couple of days ago.

We will have lots of mischief today — so please bring your questions and comments to the chat!

We launch TORn TUESDAY every week at 5:00PM Pacific: brought to you by host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway and producer Justin “I Make Damn Good Shirts” Sewell — Our innovative live show includes worldwide fans who join us on the Live Event page with a built-in IRC chat (affectionately known as Barliman’s Chat room). Be part of the fun and mischief every week as we broadcast *live* from Meltdown Comics in the heart of Hollywood, U.S.A.!

And yes our YouTube channel will have this archived later.  You can find us on www.youtube.com/the1nering

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Follow us on Twitter:  @theoneringnet

Follow Cliff Broadway:  @quickbeam2000

Like us on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/theoneringnet

Let’s have a closer look at what brings such huge interest and different fandoms together at this amazing show — and prep you for what we will reveal during our presentation! Bring your questions and comments to the chat!

We launch TORn TUESDAY every week at 5:00PM Pacific: brought to you by host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway and producer Justin “I Make Excellent T-shirts” Sewell — Our innovative live show includes worldwide fans who join us on the Live Event page with a built-in IRC chat (affectionately known as Barliman’s Chat room). Be part of the fun and mischief every week as we broadcast *live* from Meltdown Comics in the heart of Hollywood, U.S.A.!

WE APOLOGIZE that there is no available archive of this particular installment on our YouTube channel —- it was a “sneak preview” after all!

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Follow us on Twitter:  @theoneringnet

Follow Cliff Broadway:  @quickbeam2000

Like us on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/theoneringnet

We launch TORn TUESDAY every week at 5:00PM Pacific: brought to you by host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway and producer Justin “I Promised Royd I Would Read It” Sewell — we will even have special guest Larry Curtis (“MrCere” on TheOneRing.net) join us, the man who was stationed on the New Zealand sets with Peter Jackson, WETA, and all the creative forces behind the camera! Our innovative live show includes worldwide fans who join us on the Live Event page with a built-in IRC chat (affectionately known as Barliman’s Chat room). Be part of the fun and mischief every week as we broadcast *live* from Meltdown Comics in the heart of Hollywood, U.S.A.!

After the show has completed broadcast you can always watch the archive later at TheOneRing.net’s official YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePUq7nOnUxw

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Follow Cliff ‘Quickbeam’ Broadway on Twitter: @quickbeam2000

Our anonymous tipster’s news seems to be reinforced by this story that popped up just a couple hours earlier on The Lebanese Cinema Movie Guide. The key part:

The first trailer from The Desolation Of Smaug, will be be attached to all of Man Of Steel prints. And it’s not a teaser trailer, but it’s a full 2 min 30 sec theatrical trailer. The trailer is set to debut online on June 12, 10 am PDT.

The eagle-eyed will note that the claimed 2 minute 30 seconds length conflicts with that listed in the approved listing on the British Board of Film Classification that we reported earlier today. So what gives? We don’t know, but for what it’s worth our source mentioned nothing except the date and the location.

UPDATE: We now hear that Alberta Film Classification has given the trailer a PG rating and has listed it with a running time of 2 minutes and 1 second. You can check it yourself here. Thanks to Ringer Jeremey for the heads-up!

Join us for TORn TUESDAY every week at 5:00PM Pacific: brought to you by host Clifford “Quickbeam” Broadway and producer Justin “I Love Ham” Sewell — as we learn how this magnificent Dwarf suffered and struggled to change his family’s future — and what Peter Jackson & WETA did to help us distinguish his rough and tumble companions from each other (using more than just colored hoods). Our innovative live show includes worldwide fans who join us on the Live Event page with a built-in IRC chat (affectionately known as Barliman’s Chat room). Be part of the fun and mischief every week as we broadcast *live* from Meltdown Comics in the heart of Hollywood, U.S.A.!

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Follow Cliff ‘Quickbeam’ Broadway on Twitter: @quickbeam2000

But in the midst of these familiar images was what looked like a brand new scene of an army of orcs laying siege to a castle with very striking dragon-shaped prominences on the ramparts. Could this be something we hadn’t yet seen from The Desolation of Smaug? Were we getting a sneak peek at some flashback to Carn Dûm or Minas Ithil?

Nope. It turns out it’s a scene from the 2011 film Sucker Punch from director Zach Snyder.

Keen detective and TORn staffer Magpie matched up the images and found the scene, one of several in Sucker Punch that are overt homages to other genre films. So, alas, as TORn staffer Justin said, “These aren’t the orcs you’re looking for. Move along.”

Misleading clips aside, we’re still looking forward to Google’s “Chrome Experiment,” which will “bring Middle-earth to life in the browser with 3D Trolls, interactive musical experiences, and more.” It’s currently in beta testing to be released to the public later this year. And as for Configura Equipos… ¡Estamos vigilando!

Watch the misleading video here.

Read about Google Chrome’s “A Journey Through Middle-earth” here.