Film / The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

"I have no right to ask this of any of you... but will you follow me... one last time?"

"You're a very fine person, Mr. Baggins. And I'm very fond of you. But you're only quite a little fellow... in a wide world after all."

— Gandalf the Grey

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, previously known as The Hobbit: There and Back Again, is the third and final film in the three-part cinematic adaptation of J.R.R Tolkien's classic fantasy novel The Hobbit, directed by Peter Jackson and adapted for the screen by Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens. It was released in December 2014.

Beginning immediately where the prior film ended, the Dragon Smaug unleashes his wrath on Laketown, Gandalf remains a prisoner in Dol Guldur, and the Necromancer's forces prepare for a war to wipe out the free peoples of Middle-Earth once and for all. Amongst the chaos and flames of war, friendships will be tested, hearts corrupted, and the forces of good must overcome their distrust of one another and unite if they are to save Middle-Earth from the ultimate evil.

Battle of the Five Armies is also the final film for both Christopher Lee and Ian Holm before they died in June 2015 and June 2020, respectively.

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The Battle of the Five Armies provides examples of:

Tropes A to D

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: Thranduil's elven sword is so ludicrously sharp that he can easily decapitate several orcs who get stuck in the antlers of his giant stag with just a single stroke.
• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: Once it starts about mid-way through the film, the eponymous battle lasts for most of the rest of it, but is often broken by quiet breather scenes where characters are in momentarily protected places and have time to talk and plan as the battle rages on nearby.
• Action Prologue: Smaug attacks Laketown and is killed before the title screen appears.
• Adapted Out:
  • Bard's ability to speak to birds from the book is omitted. Here, he figures out Smaug's weakpoint on his own instead of a thrush telling him.
  • While the goblins appeared in the first film, they and the fully-removed Warg army do not return to fight the Dwarves, Elves and Men in this one. Instead, Azog leads the Dol Guldur orc army, and a second Gundabad army led by his brother Bolg arrives later for the killing blow.
• Adaptational Context Change: Gandalf's last words to Bilbo near the end are almost word-for-word from the book, but the context is very different.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The film actually shows the titular battle, whereas in the book much of the battle happens off-screen, as Bilbo gets knocked unconscious partway through and wakes up three days later after the fighting is done. Original character Tauriel gets a prominent part in the battle, and in the end Bolg is killed by Legolas instead of by Beorn.
  • The fight of the White Council against the Necromancer is depicted, a scene inspired by "The Quest of Erebor" in Unfinished Tales. (Inspired by, not really from, since Jackson and co. didn't have full rights to those and were writing around copyright.)
  • Despite this being the film that expands on the novel's events the most, this trope is also combined with Compressed Adaptation. The final chapter-and-a-half of the novel focuses on Bilbo's peaceful journey back to the Shire, stopping at Beorn's house and Rivendell along the way and saying various goodbyes to people he'd met, whereas the film omits aspects of the journey and condenses it all into a little over five minutes.
• Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: Bilbo claiming the Stone as his payment doesn't make any sense, since his contract was to get a share of profit on specifically returning the stone to Thorin. In the book it was just the recovery of the treasure and Thorin's claim to the Arkenstone amounted to yelling "Dibs!" when they were sorting the hoard, so it was more valid.
• An Aesop: Thorin puts it best, after he learns it himself:
  Thorin: If more people valued home above gold, this world would be a merrier place.
• Age Lift: An interesting example. At the end, Thranduil tells Legolas to seek out Aragorn, who is already a well known Ranger. According to the timeline of the books, he would only have been ten at the time. However, Aragorn was apparently born earlier in the movies^note the movies cut out the nearly 20-year Timeskip at the start of Fellowship, but Aragorn still gives his book age in Two Towers, so the math still checks out.
• Agony of the Feet: Thorin manages to force Azog under the ice they're fighting on, but he's able to stab Thorin's foot from underneath and return to the surface.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Smaug threatens Bard's children.
  Smaug: Is that your child? You cannot save him from the fire! He. Will. Burn!
• Armor Is Useless: Averted in Bolg and Azog's case who have attacks deflected repeatedly by their heavy armor. Played straight in virtually every other case, be they dwarf, elf, orc, or anything else. Their armor may as well be tissue paper.
• Artifact Title: Only four armies are present; the dwarves, the elves, the orcs and the men. Adaptations have been writing around this for decades.^note Tolkien's original plot notes had seven armies in all; the battle's title coming from the five "good" armies being dwarves, elves, men, eagles and bears versus the two evil armies of orcs and wolves. In the book proper, the dwarves, elves, and men each make up one army and the orcs and wolves are counted together as the fourth army. The eagles were then the fifth army, as there was only one bear. The director considers the orcs to be two armies — "the Orcs of Dol Guldur, and the Orcs of Mount Gundabad" — as an excuse for leaving out the eagles.
• Artistic Licence – Economics: Erebor's massive treasure hoard. It puts the contents of Fort Knox to shame and everybody in the area wants it, but they're all alone up there in the upper-right-hand corner of a Left-Justified Fantasy Map (which, in the Expanded Universe, is shown to be on the edge of a massive arctic tundra to the north and the east), hundreds of miles from other communities, with no-one to trade it with besides the parties fighting over it. Nobody even thinks of this. Justified, though; of the four parties involved in the fighting (the dwarves, elves, orcs, and men of Laketown), only the last actually wants the treasure for its actual value. Thorin's been taken by greed and refuses to share, the Iron Hills dwarves fight on Thorin's behalf, Thranduil seeks a specific memento in the hoard, the orcs want the mountain itself as a strategic fortification, and the men of Laketown only want what they were promised to help rebuild. The book had an offhand remark from Thranduil's herald inviting Thorin to try eating the gold while the armies of Laketown and Mirkwood besieged the Lonely Mountain, and the Master of Laketown actually loads himself down with gold as he flees — he starves in the wilderness because he didn't bring any food.
• Artistic Licence – Engineering: Legolas manages to knock down a stone tower in such a way that it lands with its base on one side of a chasm and its roof on the other, so that he can use it as a bridge. A stone structure designed to be upright almost certainly wouldn't have withstood the impact of such a fall, but even if it had, it's more than miraculous that it manages to maintain its integrity for the length of time it takes Legolas and Bolg to have a fight to the death on it. The tower was meant to bear vertical loads from roof to base, not horizontal loads directly on its walls. Admittedly it gradually falls to bits over the course of the next while, but Rule of Cool was taking many liberties here. It's also possible that the tower's resilience was meant as a testament to the engineering skills of the dwarves that built it.
• Asshole Victim: The Master of Laketown, who gets crushed by Smaug as he falls to his death while sailing down the river with a boat loaded with gold and kicking others (well, Alfrid) out.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Bard kills Smaug by firing the Black Arrow into the spot of his missing scale.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Thorin, Dáin, Azog, Bard and Thranduil. All of the leaders of the various factions are badasses who can easily handle themselves.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning:
  • Inverted. Thorin dressing the part of king only serves to demonstrate his madness. As Dwalin says, the kingly Thorin is even lower than the common man he started the quest as. It's only when Thorin casts off the crown and returns to the Company as the great leader and warrior they respected him as that he is truly a king worth following.
  • Defied by Bard. After Laketown is destroyed and with the Master a stain on the back of Smaug's corpse, Alfrid tries to save his own skin by gussying up with Bard and taking advantage of his newfound fame as Dragonslayer by declaring him King of Dale before the mass of people. However, both because Alfrid's praise disgusts Bard and because he has no time for such nonsense while there are people who need help, Bard outright refuses Alfrid and goes on to rally the people together without such titles. He ultimately does become King of Dale later on, and his putting the needs of his people before his own advancement shows well what kind of King he will be.
• Back for the Finale: In a meta sense. Billy Boyd, who played Pippin in the original trilogy, wrote and recorded the song for the end credits.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Elrond and Saruman, and later Thorin and Dáin.
• Badass Army: All of the armies:
  • The Silvan Elves of Mirkwood, showing themselves to skilled with swords and experts with a bow.
  • Lord Dáin provides an army of heavily armored dwarven pikemen from the Iron Hills who can stop the charging orcs dead in their tracks.
  • The Orc army of Dol Guldur. While subject to Conservation of Ninjutsu, still proves its numbers are huge deal, plus it has a number of trolls in its ranks as siege weapons and frontline soldiers, supported by goblin auxiliaries. They are reinforced by a second army from Gundabad that aside from orcs also had large hobgoblin berserkers and swarms of giant bats.
  • The fact that the Men of Laketown lacked young able men, training, discipline, equipment, armor, new weapons or any supplies apart from what the Silvan elves brought them, and still managed to hold their own against a surprise attack from the orc army and take down several trolls, speaks very highly of them.
• Badass Boast:
  • Two dwarves vs. "only" a hundred goblin mercenaries. No problem.
  • A quiet one from Bilbo Baggins...
    Gandalf: They will see you and kill you!
    Bilbo: No, they won't.
• Badass Longcoat:
  • Thorin is seen later in the film wearing a coat similar to the one he wore early in Desolation of Smaug and all of An Unexpected Journey.
  • Bard, as well, wears his duster from Desolation throughout the film, including during the final battle. He kicks much ass in it.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Azog's timing for the arrival of his second army was apparently based on the assumption that Thorin would attempt to infiltrate his own command centre.
  • In a larger sense, Gandalf's plot to kill Smaug leaves Erebor (a critical strategic position with a literal mountain of treasure) up for grabs, drawing every greedy pair of hands within a week's travel. But if he hadn't done so, Azog would have joined forces with Smaug and started a conquest of Middle-Earth. So Gandalf had to use both applications of this trope to prevent that; use the gold to draw the Orcs, Elves, Dwarves and Men to the same place at the same time, then hope that the races that weren't completely psychotic would unite against their common foe rather then just devolve into "everyone versus everyone else."
• Bat Out of Hell: Sauron's forces make use of giant killer bats.
• Battering Ram:
  • Hilariously combined with Use Your Head. When the orc forces begin their attack on Dale, a troll with huge chunk of stones tied to his head rams the wall as a living battering ram and then... promptly flops back after knocking himself out.
  • After walling up the entrance to the Lonely Mountain, the dwarves have to get out quickly to join the battle, so they knock it down with a huge golden bell.
• Belly-Scraping Flight: After Bard shoots the oncoming Smaug, the mortally-wounded dragon's chest strikes a glancing blow to the tower where the bowman and his son are perched, nearly achieving a Taking You with Me.
• Berserk Button: After Tauriel accuses Thranduil of being heartless, he is utterly furious, dismissing her romantic feelings for Kíli as a crush compared to what he shared with his late wife, and he threatens to kill her while pointing his sword at her heart.
• Beware the Nice Ones:
  • Galadriel, among the fairest and most reserved of all Elves, doesn't take what Sauron has done to Gandalf well.
  • Bard continues this, always concerned about his people, family, and trying to avoid bloodshed whenever possible, but when he has to fight, he will.
• Big Bad: Since Sauron runs away to Mordor and Smaug dies in the beginning, Azog becomes this for the rest of the movie.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • When Thorin tries to throw Bilbo over the mountain, the other dwarves instantly restrain him, while ushering Bilbo off to safety.
  • When Fíli and Kíli are scouting for orcs and hear a sound, Fíli quickly sends his little brother away and heads toward said sound himself. He saved his brother's life. Briefly.
  • Also, Bain is prompt to take up a sword to protect Sigrid and Tilda when they face Orcs in the ruins of Dale.
• Big Damn Heroes:
  • Firstly done by the White Council to help Galadriel against Sauron and the Nazgûl and later by Radagast, Beorn, and the Eagles to save the day during the Battle of the Five Armies.
  • Also, when Thorin snaps out of his Dragon Sickness and charges out into battle, the Company at his back, the horns of Erebor resonating through the vale. Cue much rejoicing amongst the Dwarves and the armies of Men and Elves. Not so much amongst the Orc ranks, obviously.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • Smaug is dead, Erebor now belongs to the Dwarves again, the people of Laketown resettle in Dale, Azog and his son Bolg are dead and their armies scattered and defeated, Sauron loses Dol Guldur, and Bilbo returns to the Shire with a small chest of treasure. However... Laketown is destroyed and hundreds have perished, many more also died during the attack on Dale and the Lonely Mountain with thousands more that follow during the Battle of the Five Armies; Thorin, Kíli, and Fíli are dead (and Tauriel is left mourning for Kíli after realizing that she truly loved him), Thranduil and Legolas are estranged, and Sauron is merely banished back to Mordor where he is explicitly stated to start rebuilding his army (and thus endangering Gondor).
  • Also, Azog's personal "mission" of snuffing out the Line of Durin may have succeeded since he killed Thorin, the king, and his two nephews, Kíli and Fíli. The only other relative mentioned was Dáin Ironfoot, who is Thorin's third cousin.
• Blade Lock: An unusually justified example occurs between Thorin and Azog, thanks to the forked shape of Azog's blade.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Alfrid claims that he tried to stop Laketown's Master from fleeing with the treasury. Absolutely none of Laketown's residents believe him and he comes very close to being torn apart by an angry mob before Bard shames them out of it.
  • After everything's said and done, Bilbo claims to have lost the ring when called on possessing it by Gandalf. Gandalf clearly doesn't buy it.
  • Early on in the film, Bolg meets up with Azog to bring him up to date about the hunt for Thorin, explaining that the search was derailed by elves. When Azog asks what happened to the elves, Bolg states that they fled like cowards. When we last saw him in the previous film, Bolg was the one running away from a pissed-off Legolas.
• Bling of War: While not excessively shiny, Thorin wears a fancy suit of full plate for most of the movie. After finally shaking off the Gold Fever, he changes into a well-made but far humbler suit of mail virtually identical to the one he was wearing in the first movie.
• Bloodier and Gorier: The Extended Edition features orcs getting bloodily beheaded and dismembered, a wolf getting smashed by a carriage wheel, and Galadriel liquefying an orc. As a result, the Extended Edition gets an R rating, the only Middle-earth film to have one.
• Bloodless Carnage: Compared to, say, Boromir or Théoden from Lord of the Rings, the deaths of Fíli, Kíli, and Thorin barely have a bloodstain between them. Probably justified in-universe, as the Dwarves were hewn from the stone and the earth. The Children of Aulë may not bleed like the Children of Ilúvatar.
• Blood-Splattered Warrior: After Thranduil slaughters a large number of orcs inside Dale with his two elven swords, black droplets of orc blood are smeared across his face and neck.
• Body Horror:
  • Numerous Orcs, notably Azog and Bolg, have extensive parts of them replaced or supplemented with metal parts, in such a way that it almost hurts to look at. Of particular note is that Azog has switched out the claw in his stump for a blade, which means at some point either he or one of his followers yanked that claw out and shoved the blade in.
  • Special mention goes to the troll Legolas rides just before his duel with Bolg, which has its shins and forearms replaced with crude-looking prosthetics, in addition to having eyes pierced with chains so the orcs can steer it.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: Smaug spots Bard trying to shoot him down with arrows and descends to gloat that he is unstoppable while staying still enough to be a target for Bard's black arrow. It somewhat fits his dragonlike arrogance, but it's still a bad decision. Of course, all the other arrows hadn't hurt him, he didn't know of his broken scale, and he didn't seem to take note of the black arrow despite Bard aiming it right at him.
• Book Ends: Gandalf's first words in An Unexpected Journey and his last words in this film are almost word-for-word from the book, though the context of the latter is rather different.
• Bootstrapped Leitmotif: In a rare mid-movie example, Smaug's theme completely replaces Thorin's until he casts off the dragon sickness.
• Boring Return Journey: In adherence to the novel, the journey to Erebor takes up the entirety of the first film and about half of the second, but Bilbo's return to the Shire is shown in a short montage of him and Gandalf travelling serenely through beautiful countryside. Justified in that all of the enemies who were pursuing them before are gone, Thranduil has probably loosened up enough at this point to give Bilbo free passage through a now Sauron-free Mirkwood, and Gandalf is implied to have stuck with him for the whole trip back.
• Bottomless Magazines: Averted for Bard when fruitlessly pelting Smaug with arrows, and Legolas after spending all his arrows shooting down a small army of Gundabad orcs to defend Thorin.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: The members of the Company take weapons and armor from Smaug's hoard (including the mithril shirt that Thorin gives to Bilbo) to protect themselves, while the Lake-men do the same in Dale's abandoned armory. All of these weapons would be decades old, and possibly even rusting (especially the Lake-men's weapons).
• Brick Joke:
  • Lobelia Sackville-Baggins is seen making off with Bilbo's silverware, providing the start of the joke that Bilbo refers to in the first movie to Frodo.
  • Also Bilbo picking up his handkerchief he'd mentioned forgetting back in the first film.
  • One is also set up when Thranduil tells Legolas that he must learn Strider's true name for himself. In Fellowship, Legolas is the one to reveal Aragorn's name to Boromir.
  • In the previous film, Gandalf notes that he was mistaken for a vagabond by unsavoury characters while travelling on the Greenway. When he rides up to Dale, Alfrid tries to shoo him off for the same reason.
  • In the extended cut Radagast loans Gandalf his staff, and warns him that the crystal at the end comes loose sometimes. In the battle Gandalf is stuck dodging a troll's attacks while trying to get it to stay in place long enough to use offensive magic.
• Bridal Carry: In a rare gender inversion, Galadriel carries Gandalf in one of these when she's trying to get him out of Dol Guldur. Also, Gandalf is a large man, but she is not visibly exerting herself when she carries him — implying her magical/inhuman strength.
• Bridge Logic:
  • During the fighting at Ravenhill, Legolas topples a watchtower (by steering a large troll into it) to bridge a chasm and go to assist Tauriel.
  • During the chariot scene in the extended edition, Dwalin uses a troll corpse to get across a gap in the ice.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Galadriel is pretty much burned out after exerting her full power to banish Sauron, and all she's done is cast him off to a different part of Middle-Earth where he'll eventually recover.
• Buffy Speak: The Iron Hills dwarves counteract the volleys of arrows that the elves fire at them with ballista-launched projectiles that spin like windmill blades, breaking the elvish arrows up in midair. Dáin only ever refers to these weapons as "the old twirly-whirlies". The production team for the movie admit that they couldn't think of a better name for them.
• Bullying a Dragon: Not involving Smaug, but with Thranduil. He and Bard march up to the front of Erebor, and Thorin decides to shoot an arrow at the feet of Thranduil's mount, to the cheers of the other dwarves. Thranduil's soldiers, who are less than twenty feet behind them, promptly load their bows in response to their king being threatened. Thorin clearly Didn't Think This Through.
• Call-Forward:
  • When Galadriel confronts Sauron directly, she takes on the "Dark Queen" persona she showed Frodo in Fellowship.
  • When Thorin's company stands atop their blockade dressed in full armor, Glóin wears the armor that would later be worn by his son Gimli throughout the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
  • At the ending, Thranduil suggests to Legolas that he meet and look after a young man among the Dúnedain known as Strider, otherwise known as Aragorn.
  • Bard, convincing the people to spare Alfrid, uses the same reasoning as Aragorn for Wormtongue. They both think that enough blood has been spilled.
  • Though not explicitly stated, it's implied the acorn Bilbo found will become the Party Tree seen in Fellowship.
  • When Thranduil sees the slain bodies of his kin filling the streets of Dale, it's reminiscent of Haldir's final moments in Two Towers.
  • Bilbo returns to the Shire in decidedly un-Hobbitlike, foreign garb. Some sixty years later, his nephew Frodo and companions would return to the Shire in the same manner.
  • Bilbo awakens on the battlefield just as the Eagles arrive, and stares up at them dreamily with a smile on his face. Years later, at the finish of the War of the Ring, Frodo and Sam will also watch hazily from the foot of Mount Doom as the Eagles wing in to save them.
  • When Thorin is above the Gates of Erebor and receives the raven bringing him news of Dáin, he looks to the rising sun cresting over the hill. "At dawn on the fifth day, look to the East," said Gandalf to Aragorn in The Two Towers.
  • When Thorin and Company break the barricade and join the fight, Dáin even yells "TO THE KING!" much like Éomer reinforcing Théoden at The Battle of Helm's Deep in The Two Towers.
  • Bombur blowing the horn of Erebor is also very similar to Gimli blowing the horn of Helm's Deep.
  • Thranduil laying waste to the Orcs as he charges with his Elk on the bridge to Dale brings to mind Théoden charging down the causeway at Helm's Deep, throwing down Orcs left and right.
  • Thranduil also quotes Frodo almost word for word while facing the defiant Tauriel: "What do you know about love? Nothing."
  • The people of Laketown trudging through the mountains to the ruins of Dale harken back to the prologue of An Unexpected Journey, where the Dwarves were similarly exiled from their homes after Smaug's attack.
  • Thorin's fight with Azog is very similar to Gandalf's fight with the Balrog. Both send their enemies falling down to their apparent death, and they walk away before their enemy attacks their foot, and finally kill their enemy before collapsing and dying themselves.
  • Bolg's army leaving Gundabad is very similar to Sauron's army coming out of Minas Morgul.
  • Gloin's helmet that he gets from the armory is Gimli's helmet from the original trilogy.
• Call That a Formation?: Inverted. The Elves march in an uncannily perfect grid, the Orcs are as organized as their mismatched bodies allow, and the Dwarves form an absolutely superb shield wall. All of this discipline completely disintegrates as soon as they get within striking distance of each other.
• Captain Obvious: Legolas continues his streak of stating the obvious, though Tauriel did ask a question with a rather obvious answer.
  Legolas: These bats were bred for one purpose... for war.
• Car Fu:
  • How Bard takes down a troll that's threatening his children in the streets of ruined Dale, hopping aboard an abandoned cart and sending it rolling downhill to collide with the creature.
  • In the Extended Edition, the dwarves launch their decapitation strike against Azog by charging towards Ravenhill in an armored goat-drawn chariot with rotating blades on the hubs of its wheels, reducing orcs to Ludicrous Gibs all the way. (This is probably the main reason why the Extended Edition's rating was bumped up to R.)
• Casual Danger Dialog: When Thorin and his cousin meet in the middle of the raging battle, they take the time to talk and hug.
• The Cavalry: Dáin Ironfoot arriving with a Dwarf army to help Thorin. Subverted, as another Orc army is arriving from Gundabad to help the villains. Then played straight, as the eagles arrive with Radagast and Beorn.
• Chekhov's Gun: Subverted twice.
  • We see Bilbo receive his mithril shirt from Thorin, and are told that it'll block anything. It will chronologically, but this time around Bilbo is knocked out by a blow to the head.
  • Back in The Desolation of Smaug, Laketown was shown to have a windlance, which combined with a black arrow could take down a dragon. Smaug destroys it during his rampage and Bard is forced to improvise.
• Chewing the Scenery: Smaug, Galadriel, Dáin Ironfoot and Sauron all get a chance to be Large Hams.
• Clock Punk: The extended edition shows that the dwarves of the Iron Hills have invented some sophisticated spring-driven weapons — ballista bolts that splay open mid-flight to deploy four spinning blades, and the repeating crossbows mounted on their chariots which are operated by a hand crank and have reloadable magazines.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu:
  • Thorin and Dwalin are attacked by roughly a hundred goblin mercenaries... and defeat them all off-screen.
  • Pretty much any battle where main characters are facing off against anyone or anything other than another main character. The more that attack them, the easier they go down, such as the poorly equipped Bard taking down untold numbers of heavily armored orcs.
• Continuity Nod:
  • During the battle, Legolas spots Thorin, about to be killed by an orc, and promptly kills the warrior by throwing Orcrist into its chest, much like Thorin did for Legolas during the barrels incident.
  • Bilbo mentions in An Unexpected Journey that he forgot to bring his handkerchief. Returning to Bag End at the end of this movie, he finds it.
  • As an old Bilbo told Frodo in An Unexpected Journey, Lobelia really tried to take off with his silverware.
  • When Thorin is dying, he tells Bilbo to go back to his books, his armchair and his garden — all things Bilbo admitted to missing in An Unexpected Journey — and cherish them.
  • The film ends with an elderly Bilbo telling visitors to go away, only to realize that it's Gandalf at the door, much like in The Fellowship of the Ring.
• Contrived Coincidence: In the opening...
  • Specifically the Master of Laketown's boat happens to be passing under the cell block, allowing Bard to escape.
  • Smaug burns all of Laketown to the ground except for the bell tower, the one building from which Bard always has a clear shot.
• Cowardice Callout: When Alfrid is caught in the act of trying to avoid going into battle by disguising himself as a woman, one of the women outright calls him a coward. When Alfrid tries to make the excuse that not every man is brave enough to wear a corset (while ignoring the fact that his disguise doesn't come with a corset), the woman says "You're not a man. You're a weasel."
• Creative Closing Credits: As with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King the credits show sketch artwork, this time sequencing in from the last shot of Thror's Map. The actors' names are showed along their character portraits, the names of the principal production staff are accompanied by something relevant to their role and the rolling credits are displayed above scenes that chronologically depict Bilbo's entire journey.
• Crown of Horns: Thranduil's circlet has highly stylized antlers.◊
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Elrond and Saruman defeat the Nine pretty easily, but its still a dogfight and they only engage one or two at a time. Galadriel banishes all of them at once, simply by raising her hand.
  • While it drains her almost to the point of unconsciousness, it doesn't take Galadriel long to utterly whup Sauron's ass.
  • The crowner has to be from the Extended Edition, where Galadriel saves Gandalf from a big orc who was torturing him. With a single wave of her hand, she obliterates the orc so thoroughly that his mates could have buried him in a mop bucket.
  • The initial part of the battle goes rather badly for the Men, Elves, and Dwarves, with much of Dale overrun by orcs, Dain's forces being cornered against the gates of Erebor, the Elves forced from the field into Dale and all but wiped out entirely. Only when Thorin recovers and the Company joins the fight, does the tide begin to turn.
  • Once the eagles join the fray however, they almost single-handedly turn the tide against the orcs and bats, who were gaining the upper hand due to their sheer numbers.
• Cutting Back to Reality: A gold-crazed Thorin finally begins to experience a Heel Realization as he walks across the golden floor of his new fortress and begins hallucinating out of guilt. Initially only seeing Smaug's ominous shadow under the gold, he soon finds the golden floor collapsing under his feet as if still molten, forming a whirlpool that slowly swallows him despite his best efforts to claw his way to the top... and then we cut back to Thorin standing on the surface, unharmed but deeply shaken.
• Death by Adaptation: The Master of Laketown dies in the film when Smaug crashes into his boat. In the book, he dies only after Bilbo returns home.
• Death by Looking Up: The Master of Laketown meets his end seconds after seeing Smaug's corpse plummeting towards him and his barge full of treasure.
• Death by Materialism: Alfrid in the extended edition. For some reason, the impact of a single gold coin on the trigger is enough to set off the trebuchet where he decided was a good place to hide from the battle.
• Death from Above:
  • The bats for the dwarves, elves, and men fighting against the orcs.
  • The eagles do this against the orcs and the bats.
  • The eagles also brought along Beorn, who skydives into battle while shapeshifting into his bear form in midair.
• Decapitated Army: Thorin plans to do this with Azog, as he's commanding the orc army. Subverted, as Azog was planning for this to lure Thorin into a trap and he's got a second army coming in to finish off the already beleaguered dwarves, elves and men. Luckily, the army is routed by Beorn and the Eagles.
• Deliberate Injury Gambit: Trapped in a Blade Lock with a much stronger orc, Thorin allows the blade to pierce him so Azog will drop his guard. It works, but neither walks away from their injuries.
• Demoted to Extra:
  • Radagast and Beorn both have much smaller roles here compared to the previous films.
  • Roäc the raven, who in the novel acts as a messenger between Thorin and Dain. While Roäc does appear in the film, he is only seen briefly and never speaks, and his name is not uttered on-screen.
• Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: During Thorin's funeral the men of Lake-town play the few notes of his theme on a massive horn.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • In the book, Azog was killed by Dáin during a battle 140 years beforehand. In the movies, he survived that battle and he and Thorin Mutual Kill one another during the Battle of the Five Armies.
  • Fili and Kili also die a little bit differently. While both of their incarnations' deaths take place in the final battle, the book has both of them die defending their uncle. The film, however, has Fili die at Azog's hands in front of Thorin and Bilbo, while Kili gets stabbed by Bolg as he defends Tauriel.
  • Happens to Bolg as well. Beorn mauls him to death in the book, while the film has Legolas stab him in the head before the latter falls through the debris.
  • The Master of Laketown survived the main events of the book, but in the epilogue is revealed to have fled into the wilderlands and starved to death. In the movie, he's crushed by Smaug's corpse.
• Dies Wide Open:
  • Fíli, perhaps to emphasize the suddenness of his death, since it's the first of a major character.
  • Thorin also dies this way, still looking up at the sky at the eagles with Bilbo.
• Digital Head Swap: Dáin's appearance is managed by placing Billy Connolly's face (or what of it is visible under Dwarven facial hair) onto an actor's body. Exactly why this was done is unclear, though Connolly is known to be suffering from early stages of both prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease — rumors are circulating that he was too unwell to appear in full costume, but the directors thought his performance was too perfect to recast. It's also possible that, as a man in his seventies, it was simply too strenuous and physically demanding to perform in the many layers of armor required for the role.
• Dirty Coward:
  • The Master of Laketown, who tries fleeing with his treasure, refusing to let anybody onto his boat.
  • Alfrid, who disguises himself as a woman to avoid fighting and tries escaping with all the treasure he can find.
• Disc-One Final Boss: As anyone who's read the book (and watched the trailer) would know, Smaug turns out to be this. The real final boss is Azog and his orcs.
• Divided for Adaptation: One of three movies adapted out of a single novel.
• The Dragon:
  • Sauron's past as Morgoth's chief lieutenant is finally acknowledged when Galadriel calls him "Servant of Morgoth".
  • Azog serves as this for Sauron, and Bolg for Azog.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Dwalin goes to Thorin to impress upon him the fact that their kindred are dying out on the battlefield. Thorin's response is to act concerned... about the gold, and start rambling about how they can take it deeper into the mountain to keep it safe.
• Dual Wielding: During the fight inside Dale, Thranduil wields two elven blades against a horde of orcs.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: In the Extended Edition, Dáin considers Thranduil to be so Elfeminate that he resembles a woman, and he calls the Elvenking a "pointy-eared princess."

Tropes E to M

• Emergency Cargo Dump: The Master of Laketown escapes from Smaug's wrath on a boat full of treasure and a handful of servants. When they want to go faster, Alfrid suggests that they should throw out something or someone. The Master agrees and throws out Alfrid.
• Enemy Mine: The elves, men, and dwarves quickly forget their mutual antagonism when a bigger threat arrives in the form of the orc army.
• Equippable Ally: Bard's bow is shattered fighting Smaug and he doesn't have a convenient dwarvish windlance from which to shoot his black arrow, so he improvises by jamming the arms of his broken bow into the remaining structure of the bell tower and aiming the arrow by resting it on his son's shoulder.
• Establishing Character Moment: Dáin has a... subtle way to announce his motives.
  Dáin: I would like to politely ask you to SOD OFF!!!
• Evil Costume Switch: Thorin's attire gets a lot gaudier while he's under the effects of the dragon-sickness, including a crown, robes, and armor. Once he regains his senses, he comes out in the lighter, simpler attire he wore as a member of the Company.
• Eye Awaken: Azog, under the ice.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • Alfrid is put in charge of the night watch and reports all clear. Bard sarcastically confirms that it's clear... except for the entire elven army just outside the walls.
  • Apparently, no one noticed Azog and his signallers setting up a giant semaphore tower before the battle started, on top of a hill visible from pretty much all the battlefield, the city of Dale, and the gates of Erebor.
• Fantastic Mount:
  • Thranduil comes to war on the huge elk that was briefly seen in flashback in the first film.
  • The Dwarven army brings a handful of very burly mountain goats.
  • Dáin Ironfoot rides on a war pig.
• Fantastic Slurs:
  • While under the effects of dragon sickness, Thorin's derogatory term for Bilbo is "Shire rat."
  • Dáin belittles Thranduil as a "faithless Woodland sprite."
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The dwarves of the Iron Hills are based on ancient Roman centurions. They fight in a turtle formation with spears and rectangular shields, and Dáin's helmet has a red horsehair crest on it.
• Forced to Watch: Azog maliciously kills Fíli right in front of his friends and family, and Bolg appears to take a particular pleasure in killing Kíli in front of Tauriel.
• Foregone Conclusion:
  • Anyone who's read The Lord of the Rings and/or seen the original film trilogy knows that, far from defeating Sauron, Saruman's going to join forces with him.
  • Bilbo, Gandalf, Legolas, Galadriel, Elrond, and Saruman all face life-threatening situations, but we know they'll survive the movie since they all appear in The Lord of the Rings. And that Sauron himself escapes the destruction of Dol Guldur and returns to Mordor.
  • We know Balin survives this as he's killed in Moria (as well as Ori and Oin).
• From Bad to Worse: If being attacked by an evil dragon isn't enough, whole legions of orcs and goblins came in to besiege the survivors of Laketown with barely a small group of people left alive by the end of it.
• Full-Boar Action: Dáin Ironfoot rides one. While it doesn't have tusks, Dáin's mustache curves up and has metal points instead.
• Gambit Pileup: The gist of the film following the prologue and Smaug's defeat. With Erebor now liberated, all the regional powers (the Dwarves, the Woodland Realm Elves, and the survivors of Laketown) all try to claim the Lonely Mountain. These combined three attempts then smash head first into Sauron's own scramble to claim Erebor before Mordor loses access to a strategic gateway into the West. And in the middle of all this, Biblo and Gandalf are trying to navigate the political and martial minefield and get Thorin and the Company out of this alive.
• Gendered Insult: In the Extended Edition, Dáin mocks the Elvenking as a "pointy-eared princess." Thranduil is not amused.
• Genre Blind:
  • When informed that the Dwarves are camped inside Erebor, Bard isn't concerned, believing there is ample treasure to be shared. Alfrid, no stranger to greed, is clearly more realistic about what will happen when Bard tries to call in their marker.
  • Thorin is probably the only person who didn't expect the presumably drowned Azog to burst from under the ice and attack him.
• Gold Fever: After Smaugh's death, Thorin proves to be at least as nutty as his grandpa, degenerating swiftly into a paranoid recluse who would rather die than give away a single coin of the hoard. Thankfully he snaps out of it during the final battle. A line from Balin implies that treasure that's been part of a Dragon Hoard carries a genuine curse called "Dragon Sickness" that drives the treasure's new owners to behave much like a dragon — paranoid, greedy and murderously possessive. While Thrór fell to dragon sickness on his own, it's hinted by Thorin's behavior and even his speech mannerisms becoming more like Smaug that the decades he spent sleeping in the hoard had cursed Erebor's treasures and that curse was consuming Thorin.
• Good Is Not Soft:
  • Galadriel is one of the wisest, generous, and most compassionate beings in Middle-Earth... but she's also one of the only beings in Middle-Earth strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Sauron himself in what can best be described as, "Fury in physical form."
  • Pretty much every good character in the film fits this, from Bard to Saruman to Thandruil.
• Gory Discretion Shot:
  • Presumably; the fate of one particular orc who tries to kill Gandalf, only to be dispatched by Galadriel cuts away for his demise, implying a fate unfit for a PG-13 rating. And it was — that orc's on-screen demise was one of several gorier scenes that got the Extended Edition of the film slapped with an R rating.
  • A number of moments during the battle itself also fall under this. Foremost among them is the close-up of one orc's face, shortly before the camera pans up as Dáin brings his hammer down.
• Go Through Me: Legolas stops his father from harming Tauriel, insisting that should he choose to do so, he would have to kill his son as well.
• Grand Finale: The film serves as the finale of the trilogy, as well as the final Tolkien film made by Peter Jackson and company. The film's tagline represents this, paraphrasing a quote from Thorin:
  Thorin: Will you follow me... one last time?
• Greater-Scope Villain: Sauron, whose presence and influence become more evident this time around. He is responsible for trying to take Erebor, which will prove strategically important.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Galadriel and Sauron chew plenty of scenery during their fight in Dol Guldur.
• Handicapped Badass: Even more so with Azog in this film, in that he replaces his metallic claw prosthetic in favour of a long curved blade.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: None of the main characters wear helmets during the battle. While the most prominent dwarves of Thorin's company (Thorin, Fíli, Kíli, Dwalin and Balin) wear no helmet at all, the rest initially don full armor and helmets to defend against a siege, but abandon both helmets and suits when they enter actual combat. Dáin initially wears a helmet, but loses it during the battle; that doesn't stop him from successfully head-butting several orcs who do wear heavy helmets.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Thranduil has one seeing his slain kin littering the streets of Dale. To clarify, in the backstory his father Oropher was slain in the War of the Last Alliance, he himself was heavily scarred by the fire drakes of the North, and we learn that his wife was taken to Gundabad to face a dire end (there is no grave, Legolas says). And then his son, his only remaining family, tells him that he would rather fight than stay safe. Thranduil breaking down at that point is, shall we say, quite understandable.
  • Bilbo has one after Fíli's execution by Azog, and a total breakdown when Thorin dies.
• Heroic Second Wind: The dwarves receive one when Thorin joins the fight with his men.
• He's Back!: When Thorin throws away the crown and snaps from the Dragon-sickness back to his old honourable self.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Thorin and Dwalin, to the point that Thorin realizes the extent of his own Sanity Slippage when he finds himself willing to kill Dwalin.
• Hollywood Tactics:
  • When orcs are charging the dwarven shield wall/spear hedge, the Elves opt to jump over the Dwarves rather than shoot arrows, rendering the formation moot. Particularly egregious that all the Orcs they initially killed with the surprise move were seconds from getting impaled on the Dwarven pikes. Reality bites back when the battle line almost immediately collapses into a confused melee as a result, nullifying their main advantage until they can reform later in the battle.
  • Surprisingly averted by Azog who executes an effective divide-and-conquer strategy, establishes a command post on high ground that gives him a view of the entire battlefield from where he uses an elaborate signal system to direct his troops, and deploys specialized siege trolls and plenty of auxiliaries, including goblin mercenaries.
  • Also averted when Thorin and company charge out of Erebor. During the siege they had been wearing thick, heavy armor designed to withstand incoming blows as their enemies charged in towards them. When they leave, they discard the heavy armor for something more light and mobile, otherwise it would have tired them out and dragged them down when they needed to move quickly and fight for a long time. However, that doesn't excuse them charging through their own ranks headlong into the onrushing enemy army, without so much as having helmets on or using their shields. Evidently, Plot Armor dictates that at that precise moment Azog must forget about archers, otherwise they would have been turned into pincushions.
• Hope Spot: When Bilbo shows Thorin the acorn he'd taken from Beorn's place, Thorin's sickness begins to fade and Bilbo nearly gets through to him. Sadly, it fails when he immediately learns that the survivors of Laketown are setting up camp in the ruins of Dale.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Gandalf and especially Bard really should know better than to trust Alfrid with anything remotely important.
• Humble Hero: Bard. Best shown when all the townspeople revere him for killing Smaug, and he seems bemused and annoyed by all the attention.
• Hyperspace Arsenal: Where did Bard keep his sword during the negotiations with Thorin? He's not wearing a weapon by the bridge, but he has one when riding back to Dale a few minutes later.
• Hypocritical Humour:
  • Bard tells Alfrid to get to work by giving him wood to carry. Alfrid then gives it to a woman already carrying wood, telling her "Pull your weight."
  • During Smaug's attack on Laketown, the Master, in his effort to flee, has his guards push away the people struggling to get on his boat, all the while lamenting "If only we could save these poor people!"
• I Am Not My Father: Or grandfather. This realization is the final push that allows Thorin to snap out of Dragon Sickness.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Bilbo, when it comes to preventing a costly and unnecessary war between the other factions of Middle-Earth, readily admits to secreting away the Arkenstone from Thorin's grasp. By this point, all the other company members can see how bad their leader's greed is getting, and they're not as outwardly angry with him; some even agree with his necessary betrayal.
• Idiot Ball:
  • Thranduil during the extended edition's version of the early battle. First, he orders his soldiers to strafe the dwarven army. The dwarves launch some kind of ballista arrows with spinning fans that shatter all arrows in mid-air and land among the elven ranks, killing hundreds. Thranduil's answer is another volley of arrows, which results in more of his elves being killed. Then when the orcs appear and the dwarves form a shield wall, Thranduil has two rows of soldiers jump over the dwarves and defeat the whole purpose of their formation rather than, say, doing a pincer manuver on the orc army which is busy running at the dwarves.
  • In the same battle the dwarves, instead of taking advantage of their superior defence and overwhelming firepower advantage, charge their cavalry directly into the elvish shieldwall where they are predictably cut down in seconds. Although, to be fair, this only happened because the battle somehow forgot the barrage of ballistae that just slammed into the same elvish shieldwall, which would have, had the law of causality been followed, scattered the tight elven formation, allowing an immediate shock charge from heavy cavalry to break it completely.
  • Also, the orcs after the initial assault. Thorin Oakenshield is charging his army at the tip of a wedge, without headgear, keeping his shield as far away from himself as he can, and no single orc is ordered to shoot him? Where are Bolg's Morgul arrows when orcs really need them? Also, the eagles can just swoop in and fell the majority of Bolg's army without getting shot at. The eagles did fear "great bows of yew" after all.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Several main characters suffer this throughout the battle, along with many other unnamed combatants on both sides.
  • Bard's black arrow finds its mark and brings Smaug down immediately.
  • This is also how Fíli and Kíli die, one being impaled by Azog's prosthetic blade and the other by the spike on Bolg's mace.
  • Azog suffers this fate towards the end of the film after doing the same thing to Thorin.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: At one point during the battle, Bilbo forgoes stabbing with Sting and does what Hobbits do best: throw rocks with lethal accuracy. One orc eventually figures out that as many orcs are being felled by flying rocks to the head as they are by Thorin's blade...
• Improvised Weapon:
  • To shoot the Black Arrow, Bard has to devise a siege bow by ramming the halves of his broken bow into some support columns and resting the arrow on his own son's shoulder.
  • Many of the Lakemen carry harpoons, pitchforks, scythes, and various blades-on-sticks. One elderly woman is seen joining the battle carrying a large, metal candlestick.
• Incoming Ham: There are no close-ups of the mysterious newcomer dwarf, Dáin, riding in on a boar at the head of his army, until after he begins to speak and everyone recognises Billy Connolly's dulcet tones telling everyone to sod off.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Although there are plenty of Manly Tears flying around this movie, Bilbo breaks down miserably after Thorin's death, and begins to cry-whine in grief.
• Improbable Infant Survival:
  • Averted in one case with a corpse of a young child shown in the city of Dale during the orc attack.
  • Played straight with Bard's children, all of whom have enough Plot Armor on, along with being protected by a Papa Wolf.
• Irony: Sauron at one point has three of the five Wizards and all three Elven Rings within his grasp, but doesn't seem to realise it. But, even if he did, Saruman and Elrond defeated the Nazgul and he had no opportunity to retrieve them before being banished by Galadriel.
• It Has Been an Honour: Thorin and Bilbo share this sentiment as Thorin is dying.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Thranduil is perfectly correct; Gandalf's decision to encourage Thorin into taking back Erebor and trying to kill Smaug ended up with who knows how many people getting killed or injured. Of course, Thranduil isn't seeing the bigger picture here; left to his own devices, Smaug would have surely joined Sauron's forces, and Erebor's strategic location would have allowed Sauron a strategically critical fortification that would have served as a foothold to his complete conquest of the North.
  • Although it would have been callous and unfair of Thranduil to simply leave the battle with his elves, abandoning the men and dwarves to their fate, he is the king of his people, charged to protect them, and they were at that point getting their asses kicked. Choosing to keep those he had left safe is not in itself a bad idea.
  • Alfrid reacts with concern to the news that the dwarves are still alive in Erebor with a massive treasure. Bard tells him not to worry, as there is plenty of gold for everyone. Alfrid, being much more familiar with avarice than Bard, has good reason to worry.
  • Thorin is clearly suffering from gold sickness by the time he negotiates with Bard, but his argument is fairly reasonable; the bargain he made in Laketown was compelled by force, and even if it wasn't, the fact that negotiations were happening while Thranduil — who had arrested the dwarves for trespassing in the previous film and had previously broken the dwarven/elven alliance — sat right outside the gate with an army is very, very bad diplomacy.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Thranduil shows a couple times that he is not a total asshole, such as when he brings the refugees of Laketown food and water, or is fully supportive of Bard's attempts at peaceful negotiation, or when finally admitting that Tauriel's love for Kíli was genuine.
• Karma Houdini: Alfrid in the theatrical edition. Whatever fate drops on him (dragon, death by drowning, hanging by angry mob, orcs, trolls...), he manages to avoid it, and leaves unharmed. His dignity, thankfully, is not so lucky. Averted in the extended edition, where he receives a Karmic Death instead.
• Karmic Death:
  • The Master of Laketown is squashed flat by the falling dead dragon that he abandoned his people to.
  • Alfrid gets killed when a gold piece falls out of him onto the launching mechanism of the trebuchet he was hiding in and launches him into a troll's mouth.
• Keystone Army: Thorin and the company's Big Damn Heroes moment, while driving the orcs back, isn't enough to win the battle completely, since the orcs simply outnumber everyone else by a good deal. This prompts Thorin to try and take out Azog, knowing that without their leader, the orc army should fall apart.
• Kick the Dog: Azog killing Fíli in front of Thorin.
• Knight Templar: In his dragon sickness, Thorin becomes one of the biggest hypocrites in the entire Middle Earth cinematic universe. He asserts the gold is his because "it was hard fought for"... except the dwarves had no hand whatsoever in the victory! Had Bard not killed Smaug, it would have been entirely impossible to keep him out of Erebor: how could the company keep him out when an entire kingdom of dwarves couldn't when the mountain was at its best defended? It's doubly insulting for the Laketowners, given that it was entirely the dwarves' fault, ultimately, if Smaug laid waste to them in the first place. The entire conversation with Bard just drives the point home as Thorin digs himself ever deeper with every word that comes out of his mouth.
• Lamprey Mouth: The were-worms have five fleshy tooth-tipped protrusions in a ring around an inner circle of teeth.
• Large Ham: Dáin Ironfoot. He chews and headbutts the scenery during all of his screen time. And his mount is a literal "large ham", i.e. a huge boar.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Thranduil's cold and unfeeling behaviour eventually alienates even Legolas, to the point where his son actually refuses to return home after the battle's over. Thranduil's all but lost the only remaining person he really loves, and he has no one to blame but himself.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • Thorin in the trailer: "Will you follow me... One last time?"
  • Billy Boyd in the film song in general (and probably speaking for Peter Jackson), but more specifically: "I bid you all a very fond farewell..."
• Leave Him to Me!: Saruman tells this to the other members of the White Council after Galadriel banishes Sauron back to Mordor.
• Lecherous Licking:
  • Smaug appears to be licking his lips at one point while cruelly taunting Bard.
  • Bolg does it while approaching the injured Tauriel.
• Left Hanging:
  • The whole question of who gets Smaug's treasure. This was resolved in the novel, but keeping it in the film would result in too many endings after the climax.
  • Also the question of who will take over as King Under the Mountain after Thorin's death. This is, again, resolved in the novel, and is put back into the extended edition where we see Dain at Thorin's funeral, wearing the same crown that Thorin had worn earlier on the movie.
• Legally Dead: When Bilbo finally gets home, he returns to find his kin have declared him dead and are auctioning off his stuff. They pointedly refuse to even recognize him as alive without official proof.
• Let's Split Up, Gang!: Fíli and Kíli split up to locate Azog and his followers. Bad decision on their part.
• Lock-and-Load Montage: Two interspersed with each other, as the opposing factions of men and dwarves prepare for their approaching battle/siege. The men of Laketown clean out the ancient armoury of Dale, and the dwarves suit up in Erebor.
• Logo Joke: The second roar of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lion is accentuated with a dragon roar.
• Lost Aesop: The movie adds Thorin's Dragon Sickness, including being swallowed by a vision of molten gold, as a message that coveting so much wealth will inevitably lead to one's downfall. The book does not have this aesop, as it plays straight the story of a party of dwarves going after a Dragon Hoard.
• The Lost Lenore: Thranduil's wife was killed by orcs long ago, and it turns out to be his justification for only caring about keeping his people safe and not fighting for or protecting non-elves. Well, that and in the previous film, we saw that his face was actually grievously burned fighting dragons and orcs in previous conflicts — probably the same wars in which his wife died. He's suffered so much in past wars that he now has a strong "looking out for number one" mentality.
• Loud of War: Lots of blowing huge trumpets, for signaling and morale boost.
• Love Hurts: Discussed by a heartbroken Tauriel (who is sobbing over Kíli's corpse) and Thranduil, whose eyes are filling with tears because he deeply empathizes with her loss, being a widower who has never recovered from his wife's death.
  Tauriel: They want to bury him.
  Thranduil: Yes.
  Tauriel: If this is love, I do not want it. Take it from me, please! Why does it hurt so much?
  Thranduil: Because it was real.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Galadriel turns a orc that was about to cut off Gandalf's fingers into hamburger in the Extended Edition.
• Mama Bear: Don't threaten Gandalf or Galadriel will end you. Just ask Sauron.
• Manly Tears: From the trailer, we already had Dwalin, but almost every male character on the heroes' side is seen crying at least once during the movie, including the Not So Stoic Thranduil.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!": Both armies take turns at utilizing this, as reinforcements show up throughout the battle for each side.
• Master Swordsman: Thranduil is extremely proficient with a sword (or two). When he's surrounded by a few dozen orcs inside Dale, he slays them all while Dual Wielding.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The movie keeps it vague as to whether "Dragon Sickness" is the result of a true curse, or the result of natural greed and lust for gold. In the source, the truth is it's a mixture of both magical and mundane greed, both amplifying the other until it becomes overwhelming.
• Meaningful Echo: Thorin, overcome with "Dragon Sickness" i.e. Gold Fever, repeats some of Smaug's lines verbatim, sometimes with his voice altered to resemble the dragon's.
  "I will not part with one coin... Not one single piece of it."
• A Million Is a Statistic: Zigzagged. During Smaug's rampage, subverted to hell, with the movie putting an emphasis on how everybody is reacting to it, and that even his death doesn't undo their problems. During the battle, the deaths of the warriors don't get much emotion, but the survivors of Laketown getting attacked by the orcs is given the emotional weight they should.
• Moment Killer: A moment between Kíli and Tauriel is cut short by the appearance of Legolas, who needs Tauriel elsewhere.
• Mood Dissonance: Bard is giving a stirring speech to the crowd of Laketown refugees about how they have to stop infighting and pull together if they're to survive. Please ignore the adorable puppy wandering around the foreground of the long shots.
• Mood Whiplash: The battle scenes jump between deadly serious fights, intentionally over-the-top action set-pieces, and pure comedy seemingly at random. This is much more pronounced in the Extended Cut, which restored a number of the comedic scenes. This also extends to the threat posed by the orcs; Thorin and Bard are constantly beset by deadly foes where even the weakest mook takes skill to defeat, but the comic trio Bifur, Bofur and Bombur are cutting through even the toughest foes like grass.
• Mutual Kill: Realizing that he cannot keep Azog's blade at bay, Thorin allows the orc to mortally wound him. With Azog's guard temporarily lowered, Thorin takes the opportunity to return the favour, slaying him before he succumbs to his wounds.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Thorin starts to realize this when the battle is ongoing, and starts to recognize that he's going down the same exact path his grandfather did that ultimately drove him mad.
  • Towards the end of the film, Thranduil realizes that he was a bad father when Legolas tells him that he can't go back to the forest. Before he leaves, Thranduil tells him that Legolas's mother loved him as a form of apology.

Tropes N to Z

• Negated Moment of Awesome: At the beginning of the battle in the extended edition, dwarf chariots charge into the fray, and seem set to wreak havoc among the orc army. While we do see them kill several orcs, Azog responds by deploying Ogres, who destroy all three chariots and kill the crews in less than a minute.
• Neutral Female: Subverted. During the attack, the citizens of Laketown barricade their women and children in the Great Hall. As soon as the children are safe, every available woman grabs whatever's nearby and goes back out to fight.
• Never My Fault: Thorin refuses to accept responsibility for the destruction of Laketown and the displacement of its people.
• Never Trust a Trailer: A number of battle shots shown in trailers didn't end up in the movie. Most are restored in the Extended edition.
  • Thorin's "Everything I did, I did for them" from the trailer didn't end up on the big screen.
  • The battlegoat cavalry charge, the catapults, and the battlewagon on the frozen river are missing... from the theatrical release. In the extended cut it's how Fíli, Kíli and Dwalin catch up to Thorin in order to go after Azog.
  • The full Elven army shooting arrows all at once? Not in it.
  • Gandalf's "How shall this day end?!" never appeared outside of the trailer.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Thranduil, in spades. In fact, one could make the argument his behaviour played directly into Azog's hands.
  • He completely dismisses Gandalf's warnings of the impending orc army, believing he's making it up to save the dwarves.
  • He brings his entire army to attack Erebor, which at that point is manned only by a company of 13. When the orcs do show up, this not only leaves Dale wide open to attack, it puts the Elf and Dwarf forces in a position where the orcs can easily corner them. And speaking of which...
  • His refusal to even attempt to negotiate with the Hot-Blooded Dáin, who admittedly is partially to blame as well, leads to a brief but bloody skirmish with the dwarves that costs both armies soldiers they could have sorely used against the orcs, including most of the goat cavalry.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: It's only the timely arrival of Azog and his army that causes the Dwarven and Elven armies to put aside their grievances instead of kill each other. Azog might have a good strategy going of pinning them all between two separate armies, but just imagine if he had had the restraint to wait a single day and let the Dwarves and Elves do most of the work of killing each other. In the Extended Cut it's even worse, since he arrives just after the battle has started and stops it cold. This could be explained either by his bloodlust, or vendetta against Thorin.
• No Kill like Overkill: Galadriel walks in on a single orc about to kill Gandalf and promptly blasts the sucker into with a burst of power that lights up the sky all the way to the horizon. In the Extended Edition, he's shown being turned into Chunky Salsa.
• No One Gets Left Behind: Somewhat disconcertingly averted. When Bain catches sight of his father in the ruins of dragon-fired Laketown and runs to help him, a very pragmatic Tauriel opts to leave him and keep going, as she has both of his sisters and four dwarves to keep alive.
  Tauriel: Leave him. We cannot go back.
• Not His Sled: In the novel and the theatrical edition, the arrival of the orcs interrupted the battle over Erebor's treasure hoard just as it begins. The extended edition delays the arrival of the orc army by several minutes, allowing Dáin's army to engage in direct combat with the Elves.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Bard has a sequence of these during his one-man defence of Lake Town. The first comes when he sees Smaug for the first time. They get steadily more intense.
  • Galadriel, when she's cornered in Dol Guldur by the Nine.
  • Fíli, when he's in the tunnels under Ravenhill and hears Azog coming.
  • Azog, when he sees the eagle army led by Radagast.
  • Thranduil and Bard when they see Bilbo, their best negotiator, is going to get horribly murdered by a royally-pissed off Thorin.
• Once More, with Clarity: We see a flashback to the previous film where Bilbo sees the Arkenstone on the floor but is forced to use the Ring when Smaug sees him. Except we now see Bilbo pocket the Arkenstone while he was invisible.
• One-Man Army:
  • The film gives an idea of just how powerful Galadriel really is. Foreshadowing her single-handedly destroying Dol Guldur off-screen during the War of the Ring.
  • There's also a moment when Dwalin announces that a troupe of 100 goblin mercenaries are approaching — so, naturally, he and Thorin can handle it. Of course, that would make them a two-person army, but still, fifty goblins each is no joke.
• Only Sane Man: Gandalf has filled this role throughout all the films, but he gets to his wit's end after fruitlessly trying to convince a haughty Elven king and two overly stubborn Dwarf lords that their common enemy is about to launch a major war against them all.
  Gandalf: Since when has my counsel counted for so little?!
• Onrushing Army: Times five, as the title would suggest.
• Our Ogres Are Hungrier: Ogres have been mentioned briefly in Tolkien's writings but never made an appearance. Here they appear as part of the Dol Guldur forces, as long-armed monsters halfway in size between the orcs and the trolls.
• Overly Long Gag: Gandalf seems to take forever to clean out his pipe.
• Papa Wolf: You really don't want to threaten Bard's family, even if you're a dragon.
• Please Wake Up: Bilbo when Thorin dies, still trying to rouse him and get him to look up at the Eagles, despite the fact that he is very obviously already dead.
• Plot-Based Voice Cancellation: Though it's not heard what Kíli says to Tauriel, it should be obvious to at least English speakers that he says "I love you" before dying.
• Posthumous Villain Victory: In the final battle Azog and Thorin fight each other and Azog dies after falling into the icy lake and being impaled. However, Azog manages to mortally wound Thorin, and he dies shortly thereafter, meaning Azog was successful in wiping out Thorin's bloodline.
• Post-Victory Collapse:
  • Galadriel is so spent after her fight with Sauron that she begins to sink to the ground, and has to be supported by Elrond.
  • Thorin does one as well after finishing off Azog for good. Unfortunately he was stabbed in the chest by the latter just before this happens.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Two of them, right after one another:
  Saruman: Are you in need of assistance, my lady?
  Elrond: You should have stayed dead!
• Precision F-Strike: Dáin calls the armies of Men and Elves "bastards" shortly after telling them to "sod off." He's also heard referring to the Orcs as "buggers" several times. For this film series, that's cussin' up a storm. Dáin is, of course, played by Billy Connolly.
• Prepare to Die: Said by Smaug to Bard as he advances on the bell tower that Bard's stationed in.
  Smaug: You have nothing but your death!
• Pretty Boy: Invoked by Dáin when he threatens Thranduil.
  Dáin: If [Thranduil] chooses to stand between me and my kin, I'll split his pretty head open!
• Primal Stance: Azog's army uses trolls in the battle, who naturally have a somewhat hunched stance. Some trolls who carry catapults on their backs stand on all fours like a gorilla to stabilize themselves when the catapult is shot.
• Professional Butt-Kisser: At first, Alfrid insists that he is now in charge of the Laketown refugees in the absence of the Master, due to his position. Once it is clear that no-one will follow him for a second, he attaches himself to Bard and tries to become his toady.
• The Promise: Kíli entrusts Tauriel with his rune-stone, telling her to keep it "as a promise." Tauriel, knowing how important the stone is to Kíli from Desolation, is well-aware of how Kíli feels about her (and uncertain about what she feels for him), is visibly conflicted. She tearfully returns the rune-stone to Kíli after he is killed, having moments with him shortly before his death.
• Rain of Arrows: In the Extended Version, this is neatly subverted when Thranduil's Elf archers launch a volley at Dain's Dwarf army, only to see the arrows cut down by Dain's secret weapons.
• Rasputinian Death:
  • Bolg is impaled through the brain. In the extended version the blade is then twisted for good measure, his body falls several hundred feet off the cliffs and is then crushed by falling debris (as if to emphasize that he's dead for sure).
  • Azog likewise takes quite a bit to be killed, such as being cut repeatedly during his fights, getting tossed into icy water, and finally getting Impaled with Extreme Prejudice shortly after he stabs Thorin.
• Rated M for Manly: Badass dwarves, badass elves, badass men, badass orcs, and badass eagles (plus a badass werebear) in one massive war. What more can we ask for?
• Red Shirt Army: Don't get too attached to all those Dwarf soldiers. In a subversion, while the Dwarf forces visibly suffer heavy casualties, many of them do fight the orcs fairly evenly. Surprisingly averted by the Men of Laketown, who also hold their own effectively, despite being poorly equipped and trained. This trope is played straighter, however, by the Mirkwood elves.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something:
  • The White Council — whose members include some of the most powerful individuals in Middle-Earth — join forces to assault Sauron, the Nazgûl and his fortress at Dol Guldur.
  • Thranduil is perfectly willing to armor up and lead his troops into battle. His son Legolas too, of course, who gets arguably the best fight scenes in all the movies.
  • Both Thorin Oakenshield and Dáin Ironfoot lead charges against the orcs, and Fíli and Kíli are right at their side the whole time.
• Running Gag: Alfrid always seems to be skulking in the background right about the time a main character needs a random unoccupied mook to do something important... which he promptly screws up by doing a half-assed job.
• Sacred Hospitality: Extended by Bilbo to the Dwarves toward the end:
  Bilbo: If you're ever passing through Bag End, tea's at four, there's plenty of it, you're always welcome... Don't bother to knock.
• Sand Worm: The gigantic were-worms, mentioned very briefly by Bilbo in the novel, make an appearance in the final chapter of trilogy, and are used by Azog's forces to burrow huge tunnels through which his forces can travel in order to surprise-attack Erebor. Visually, they're a straight-out Expy of the carnictis from Jackson's King Kong.
• Sanity Slippage: Thorin slowly but surely goes round the bend with gold lust and obsession over finding the Arkenstone until he snaps back to sanity near the end.
• Screaming Warrior: While the elves mostly fight in mechanical silence aside from the grunts and whatnot, the dwarves of the Iron Hills do a lot of yelling in their native language.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
  • As Thorin becomes increasingly unhinged, the rest of the Company begin defying him.
  • When Thorin orders Bilbo thrown from the wall for giving Thranduil and Bard the Arkenstone, none of the Dwarves comply. When Thorin tries to do it himself, the rest of the Dwarves try to stop him.
  • Later, when Thorin orders them to not join the battle so as to protect the gold, Kíli eventually just up and shouts at Thorin that he's not going to stay in hiding, though Thorin is back to normal by this point.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Alfrid spends most of the battle hiding and avoiding at as best he can, before eventually managing to flee altogether.
  • Thranduil, along with his army, also attempts this, but is talked out of it.
• Secret-Keeper: Downplayed, but implied when Bilbo asks Balin if hpypothetically giving Thorin the Arkenstone would snap him out of his Gold Fever. From Balin's reaction and response, it's implied he's deduced the Hobbit found the jewel, but doesn't confront Bilbo on it (nor does he pass this onto Thorin since, as he rightly concludes, it'll only make things worse).
• Sequel Hook: Since this is a prequel, we already know where it all leads to, but nevertheless the final scene of the movie shows that Bilbo lied to Gandalf about having lost the Ring, as we see him holding it, while the ominous "One Ring" theme from The Lord of the Rings movies plays on the background.
• Shout-Out:
  • When the Orc army is fighting its way into Dale, a desperate messenger calls out to Bard, "They've taken Stone Street!" A major portion of the trilogy was, of course, filmed at Stone Street Studios.
  • The scene where Thorin snaps out of his Sanity Slippage seems to be inspired by the scene in El Cid where King Alfonso rejects his sister's influence.
  • In the extended edition, the dungeon keeper in Dol Guldur drags Gandalf to an execution block to cut off his hand and take Narya, the ring of fire. The camera angle and the knife he tries to use are reminiscent of the scene in Game of Thrones where Locke cuts off Jaime Lannister's hand.
  • Jackson acknowledges that the duel between Thorin and Azog on a frozen river with the ice breaking up under them is an homage to Alexander Nevsky.
• Silk Hiding Steel: Galadriel is the epitome of grace, charm, and diplomacy. This does not mean, however, that she cannot fend for herself on the battlefield. Au contraire.
• Slouch of Villainy: Downplayed in that Thranduil is an antagonist, not a villain, but he does slouch when sitting on his chair in his tent.
• Spikes of Doom: Azog even has them on their trumpet!
• Spanner in the Works: Gandalf cites Thorin and the Company as this to Sauron when trying to convince Thranduil of the impending Orc attack. The Dwarves were never meant to reach Erebor and their quest has set off a chain of events (including the White Council driving him out of Dol Guldur) that have now jepoardized Sauron's plans for the West. Sauron now has no choice, but to show his hand now and launch his forces prematurely to claim the Lonely Mountain (for both its treasure and strategic position) before it's too late. The ensuing loss of the Battle of the Five Armies completes the Spanner, delaying Sauron's return to power for over half a century until Frodo's generation.
• Spoiler Title: That humans, elves, and orcs will go to war over Erebor is established before the eponymous Battle of the Five Armies begins, but the arrival of dwarves and second Orc army to the battle is treated as a twist, even though anyone can count that two of the five armies are still missing. This was partly due to a title change. The film's original title was There and Back Again in reference to the novel's alternate title.
• Stealth Insult:
  • "You have no power here, Servant of Morgoth." Yep. Galadriel just told Sauron to his face he was nothing but a lackey.
  • An extremely subtle example from the Extended Edition. Thranduil tells Bard that Ecthelion of Gondor might be willing to purchase the Arkenstone. When viewed in the context of Return of the King, it is clear that Ecthelion is merely the Steward of Gondor, not the legitimate King. Thranduil is implying that the Arkenstone is merely something used by illegitimate leaders in an attempt to legitimize their rule, and that Thorin is not a king.
• Stealth Pun: Who's riding one of the Eagles of Manwë at the Battle of Five Armies? Aiwendil ("Friend of Birds" in Quenya, and Radagast's true name).
• Stepping Stones in the Sky: Legolas pulls this off during his fight with Bolg, as the improvised bridge collapses beneath them.
• Suddenly Speaking: In the Extended Edition only, Bombur and Bifur get a line each, after being The Voiceless and The Unintelligible respectively for the entire trilogy.
• Taking You with Me: Subverted. An enraged Tauriel appears to be trying to do this with Bolg, but both of them survive the fall.
• Tap on the Head: Bilbo gets knocked out by Bolg for a decent chunk of the fight. All he gets is a little blood on his temple.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The Elves and Dwarves, even moreso than the book. In the book, they come to a verbal truce after learning of the impending army of Orcs headed their way. In this film, it becomes a completely wordless alliance on the spot.
• A Thicket of Spears: The armies of the Iron Hills differ from most dwarves by entering battle in phalanx formations, carrying heavy shields in one hand and spears in the other, with which they can hold the enemy at arm's length. This indicates that their military includes traces of a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of ancient Rome/Greece (even if their leader speaks and acts like a Violent Glaswegian). Of course, the Mirkwood Elves then ruin the whole point of their formation by just vaulting over the shields to attack the Orcs head-on.
• Think of the Children!: Alfrid yells this when trying to divert attention away from his own cowardice.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Legolas gives a heavy sigh when he realizes that, having just been momentarily saved by Thorin, he must now return the favour by throwing his sword into an orc — which sucks, because it leaves Legolas with only his knives to fight Bolg. It's also the same sword Legolas took from Thorin in Mirkwood — the elvish sword that he says Thorin has no right to, being a dwarf. By throwing it, he's essentially giving it back to Thorin.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Legolas throws his sword into an orc to save Thorin.
• Together in Death: Bard orders that the women and children be sent to safety in the Great Hall, but the women aren't there long before one of them grabs a weapon and declares that they should be with their husbands in death, as in life, prompting the others to get their own Improvised Weapons and follow her. She at least is seen to have survived the battle in the end.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer makes it somewhat obvious that Smaug won't survive his attack on Laketown.
• Travelling at the Speed of Plot: Legolas and Tauriel make a journey from Laketown to Gundabad and back in a couple of days at most. A look at the map of Middle-Earth shows that Gundabad is located at the northern peaks of the Misty Mountains — the same mountains it took Dwarves many weeks to travel from. They also had to either pass through Mirkwood or make an even longer way around — even mounted such trip would have taken a full week at least.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • Zigzagged. The Company grows more and more weary of Thorin as the dragon sickness gets to him. When he commands that Bilbo be thrown over the mountain, none of them obey. Kíli comes within a hair's breadth of joining the battle against his orders. Played straight when he comes back to his senses; they have no problem following him into battle.
  • Bilbo is this to the Company and Thorin. Everything he does is with their best interests in mind and he makes this very clear to Thranduil and Bard when he bargains the Arkenstone for peace. And then he scales Ravenhill, which is infested with orcs and Gandalf claims to be a suicide mission, to warn Thorin and the others about yet another incoming army from Gundabad. It's safe to say that Bilbo will do almost anything to protect and save his dwarves.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Thorin refuses to reward or even thank Bard for killing Smaug.
• Use Your Head:
  • Dáin's preferred melee attack. Even without a helmet, he can still knock armored orcs out.
  • A troll headbutts a wall to allow orcs to get through. It promptly falls unconscious.
  • In order to knock over a tower as a bridge to reach Tauriel, Legolas steers a troll head-first into its base.
• Veganopia: When Thranduil brings food and water to the survivors of Lake-town, his caravans don't contain any meat or meat products, which strongly suggests that the Mirkwood Elves are vegetarians.
• Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: The Master of Laketown was uncaring about his people, enriching himself while the people starved and became poorer. He had a more comical lackey Alfrid, who was cowardly enough to use a Paper-Thin Disguise.
• Villainous Crossdresser: Dirty Coward Alfrid dresses up as a woman to avoid joining the men in battle, but it backfires on him pretty quickly when the actual women of Laketown aren't content to sit on the sidelines.
• Violent Glaswegian: Dáin Ironfoot, played by actual Glaswegian Billy Connolly using his native accent, is loud and confrontational and spends most of the battle headbutting orcs.^note  A headbutt is also known as a Glasgow Kiss
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Azog averts this trope in this film, this time wearing full armor.
• The War Sequence: The eponymous battle.
• Weapon Twirling: At the gates to Erebor, the Mirkwood Elven army responds to Thorin's warning shot with a highly unnecessary bow spin as they load up their bows. Though somewhat justified in that it was probably meant to look intimidating.
• We ARE Struggling Together: Played with, and a major theme in the film. The Dwarves, Elves, and Men should be uniting to fight the forces of darkness, but instead they're determined to fight a petty war among themselves just because they won't divide a treasure-horde fairly. They nearly come to killing each other, but as soon as the Orc army actually does show up (which drastically outnumbers them), all three groups immediately snap into fighting side by side against the greater threat. So ultimately averted: they were able to set aside their petty differences to survive.
• We All Die Someday: Thranduil says this about the Men and Dwarves who will die at the hands of the orcs and uses it to justify why he doesn't care that they will be killed, so long as his Elf subjects are not sacrificed in the battle. Tauriel calls him out for thinking Elves are better and more important than everyone else, just because they're immortal.
• What Could Have Been: In-universe example: The opening when Smaug annihilates Laketown effortlessly makes Gandalf all the wiser for wanting to get rid of him before he could join up with Sauron. Remember those pitched battles at Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith from the original Lord of the Rings trilogy? Put Smaug on the villains' side, and neither of those battles lasts more than minutes. An unproduced sequence mentioned in DVD extras would have had Gandalf seeing Smaug leading Sauron's forces in a Palantir vision.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Several, most of which are addressed in the Extended Edition:
  • The Arkenstone is the ultimate MacGuffin for the whole trilogy, but the theatrical edition never ever shows what happens to it after the Battle of the Five Armies. In the extended edition, it was buried with Thorin like it was in the novel.
  • The issue of Smaug's treasure hoard being cursed with dragon sickness is also forgotten once the dwarves move back to Erebor and Thorin is dead.
  • The moment Thorin goes after Azog riding on the war goats, the battle is completely forgotten even if it is at its climax. Hundreds of war bats are swooping over the elves and dwarves, dwarves are at their breaking point, a second orc army of orcs is coming from the north and Azog's orcs are still plowing through the defenceless humans in Dale; as soon as Azog dies after a lengthy fight, all the main characters are quietly pondering their future or voicing their sorrow, without regard to what should be happening on the battlefield. Addressed in the extended edition, which intercuts the scenes on Ravenhill with the main battle still raging below.
  • The theatrical edition never makes it clear what becomes of Dáin, the dwarf army, Bard, and the remaining people of Laketown. The extended edition shows Dáin being crowned as the new King Under the Mountain.
  • Radagast disappears from the theatrical edition after the battle, so we never get to know the reason he doesn't appear in The Lord of the Rings. Given that not even the books reveal it, we can just guess he returned to his labours.
  • Given she's a Canon Foreigner, we never see Tauriel again. And since she is banished from elven kingdom, Kili is dead and Legolas leaving her to go on a quest in finding a rider called "Strider" (Aragorn), it is very likely that she lost the will to live and that she died of a broken heart.
  • In the theatrical edition we never actually see the fate of Alfrid, also a Canon Foreigner, implying that he is a Karma Houdini. The extended edition gives him a Karmic Death instead.
  • Azog's were-worms appear for one scene to make his troops a tunnel to the battlefield, and are never seen or mentioned afterwards.
  • The wargs were essential to Azog's pursuit of Thorin and Company, and yet they're nowhere to be seen in the final battle. They show up only in the extended edition.
  • The goats Thorin and team use to climb up Ravenhill to confront Azog vanish the moment the dwarves jump off them. For that matter, they appear out of nowhere when they got on them, being the remnant of a lengthy chase scene present only in the extended edition.
  • The fate of the Elven army is also up in the air. We see a few follow Thranduil into Dale, where most are cut down quickly. By the time the Iron Hills Dwarves fall back, there are no elves left to be seen on the field. It's unclear whether any of them survived, or if they suffered a Death by Adaptation.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Bard condemns Thorin for the fact that his actions caused the destruction of Laketown and the deaths of hundreds — or even thousands — of innocent people.
  • Kíli calls out Thorin for letting others fight their battles for them while they hide inside the safety of Erebor.
  • Dwalin also calls Thorin out on becoming ever more obsessed with reclaiming Erebor to the exclusion of everything else, including the well-being of everyone.
  • Thranduil calls Gandalf out on how his plan to get rid of Smaug back-fired with a lot of collateral damage, and now it's his duty to "finish" what he started.
  • Bilbo calls out Thorin for not keeping his word or being himself after the latter learns the former bargained the Arkenstone.
  • Tauriel calls out Thranduil in Dale when he's about to leave the People of Laketown and the Dwarves to die.
• Wizard Duel: Sauron vs. a very, VERY angry Galadriel, the most epic wizard duel yet. Definitely the hammiest.
• World of Badass: The battle itself is not to be joked at as every single commander in the field is one.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Legolas nails Bolg with a hurricanrana during their duel on the tower bridge.
• You Can't Go Home Again:
  • When the battle's done and the mourning starts, Legolas flat out tells Thranduil that, after all that's passed between them, he can't return to the forest.
  • Averted with Bilbo and the dwarves, though.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Dáin Ironfoot reacts to the sudden appearance of the orc army with "oh, come on!"

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♫ I bid you all a very fond farewell... ♫

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