But Are There Dragons Podcast
We Finished the Hobbit! Final Thoughts…
Jessica and Kritter recorded their final thoughts on The Hobbit live on YouTube during a Season 1 wrap party, and this is that recording! Who was our favorite character? What did we like most? And when do we think it’s ok to stop reading…the end of a sentence? A page? A chapter? Find out in this bonus episode!
Don’t forget to follow us at But Are There Dragons on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, and But Dragons Pod, just one t, on X, formerly known as Twitter.
You can find Kritter at Kritter XD on YouTube, TikTok, and X, and at Kritter _XD on Instagram.
You can find Jessica by searching Shelf Indulgence on TikTok, Instagram, and X.
Music credit to: Frog's Theme by Nobuo Uematsu, Noriko Matsueda, Yasunori Mitsuda
ReMix: Chrono Trigger "Theme of Frog's" - OC ReMix
Jessica and Kritter recorded their final thoughts on The Hobbit live on YouTube during a Season 1 wrap party, and this is that recording! Who was our favorite character? What did we like most? And when do we think it’s ok to stop reading…the end of a sentence? A page? A chapter? Find out in this bonus episode!
Don’t forget to follow us at But Are There Dragons on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, and But Dragons Pod, just one t, on X, formerly known as Twitter.
You can find Kritter at Kritter XD on YouTube, TikTok, and X, and at Kritter _XD on Instagram.
You can find Jessica by searching Shelf Indulgence on TikTok, Instagram, and X.
Music credit to: Frog's Theme by Nobuo Uematsu, Noriko Matsueda, Yasunori Mitsuda
ReMix: Chrono Trigger "Theme of Frog's" - OC ReMix
Hello, hello. This thing is saying we are live, so I'm assuming that's true and I will introduce us for our first ever live stream on our brand new YouTube channel. Hello, welcome to the but Are there Dragons? Podcast, a podcast where two friends pick a book at least one of them has not read and work their way through it a few chapters at a time. We have managed to work our way through the Hobbit, by the way, hi, I'm your host, Kritter.
Jessica:And I'm your host, Jessica, and if you can just give us a shout out that you can see and hear both of us in chat, because this is our very first live stream with our channel.
Kritter:And oh, okay, I can see, I can see us live on my phone, I can really positive.
Jessica:I'm excited, I'm so excited.
Kritter:I'm using a different software, like than my other channel and all of this, so it's all an experiment, but I'm kind of loving it, actually it's. It seems like it's working out.
Jessica:Thank you, light-blinded Fool and Leia.
Kritter:Awesome, yeah, so good to see you guys already here. Dana Lou Who, further up in the chat, I think somebody it was Not all who wander are lost got first, like the moment we scheduled, which was super positive, awesome, awesome. So, yeah, we are here to talk about the Hobbit because we finished season one of but Are there Dragons? Which was us reading the Hobbit, Jessica, Jessica, reading the Hobbit for the very first time. So I want to lay some ground rules here at the very beginning of the stream.
Kritter:Thing number one we are full Hobbit spoilers everyone. So if you, if you're worried about being spoiled on this old book that has movies, then you might want to leave. I hope. I hope you don't leave, though. Thing number two I had I had other. Oh, we would love to hear your thoughts, your questions. We want this to be a conversation with the chat, so I welcome questions, thoughts, opinions, everything, comments about the podcast, all of it. That's what we want, so feel free to just let it fly. And then thing number three I don't know if you know this, but Jessica just got engaged this weekend and we're all very excited for her. So be excited for her in the chat please, because I'm very, very happy.
Jessica:Leigha says we both look lovely. I see it, thank you, and I see Not all who wander is still with us, so not just when we scheduled, but still.
Kritter:I love it. I love that this is the little discord fam here, just kind of like everyone who talks about it on. Discord is also.
Jessica:I don't know if I can handle it being bigger. Oh look, there's a Random Nomen in the chat.
Kritter:Oh, she got engaged, I know, isn't that weird, like I'm so happy to be the one to tell you that that's what happened.
Jessica:Yeah, so, and we did anything. I would just emphasize what Kritter said. If you want to talk about stuff that happened on the podcast or anything that happened in Hobbits, I would ask, as the first timer, if we could stay away from any future Lord of the Rings spoilers though out of consideration for me, because we it's not what we're talking about today, but we are going to launch into Lord of the Rings shortly here after, so Hobbit spoilers are okay. LOTR spoilers please, no, thank you.
Kritter:Yes, and I guess we'll probably end up saying this at the end as a reminder, but we have decided on how we're going to start the Fellowship of the Ring. So for our first episode, which should come out the first Tuesday of the new year, the first Tuesday in January, which I don't have written out but I could, it's the second.
Kritter:It's the second. Okay, so season two of but Are there Dragons? Will be starting on the second of January, with the begin before everything that happens before chapter one. So I think it's C, it's like the prologue, the epilogue foreword and prologue. Something like that. Yeah, it's generally, generally. Yeah, the first three things. Oh my gosh, I know I wrote it down because it's not an epilogue, because it's in the epilogue after I thought it was too, but it was a, it was a first, the epigraph the foreword and the prologue.
Kritter:That's what we're reading for season two, episode one, fellowship of the Ring. I just today downloaded the audiobook. I made sure it was Andy Serkis again, because I'm in love with him now and there's multiple versions of the audiobook.
Kritter:So that's where we're at, be looking forward to that. I need to start reading because we'll be recording somewhat soon and it all start the outlining also very fun news that we just discussed today. We're going to start kind of like gently bringing guests onto the podcast every so often to also weigh in on on these things that we're reading. So that'll be a fun experiment for season two. So amazing. So, jessica, now that we've got all the introductions out of the way, your first and my first podcast this is. This is the first ever podcast that either of us have ever done. How do you feel?
Jessica:I feel great. I feel like we learned a lot with season one. Yeah. And we're only hoping to make it better with season two from the behind the scenes figuring out our stuff perspective. I love the crew that we have that hang out in our part of discord and have been visiting us and giving us their thoughts, and several of them are here on the chat tonight. So that's so awesome and thank you.
Jessica:Thank you, I was blown away by just how fun this was from like a buddy read perspective, because I've never successfully done that before. So that was part of the challenge. Going into this was as was I going to be able to pump the brakes and read it mindfully and a little bit slower so that I could enjoy it more. And it really was fantastic to kind of do this with everybody that was kind of keeping tabs with us. It was it really amped up the squee factor.
Kritter:It did, and some people in the discord were providing like background context, not spoilery context, but just interesting like Tolkien facts and stuff. So that was super fun. So, yeah, thank you all for being along for the ride for season one and hope we're hoping that you'll stick with us for season two. I see Wolf brother in the chat. What's up? You looked at my YouTube.
Kritter:Understandable, but never forget that we are on YouTube as a podcast and we have our own channel, and so if you haven't subscribed yet, you should consider it, because not only could you listen to us every week, but you could also watch us talk, which that may or may not be what you want, but you know it's there for you if you ever, if you ever want to want to see us, basically, if you miss our faces, then that's your option. So, yeah, okay, jessica, this was the first ever Tolkien work that you read. Obviously, you've seen some movies, lots of movies, lots of the movies, because they're, you know, the best. But how was the reading for you? Was this what you expected? Did it live up to the hype?
Jessica:So which hype right?
Jessica:So there's a couple of scopes of hype, that I you know. There's obviously tons of folks who identify Tolkien and these works as incredible icons in literature and I definitely agree with that and I do feel like it keeps up with that. But if you think about it from the perspective of this was written in the 1930s. This is incredible, you know, and we've talked about it in a couple of different episodes how, to me at least, it's pretty clear how much it's influenced modern day fantasy, the stuff that we consume on a pretty regular basis.
Kritter:Because we're both fantasy girlies.
Jessica:Because we are fantasy girlies from way back. And then the other piece of hype was that there are folks who are kind of dissenters, and you know, Tolkien is just so hard to read and I just could never get through it, and or something in between. Right, it doesn't have to be both extremes, but there are. There are folks who are like you know, Tolkien was very difficult to read and I couldn't get past point x, whatever that might be, and so I didn't have that experience with the Hobbit. I you know, I don't know what it'll be like going into fellowship maybe fellowships a little bit of a harder read. Again, I'm aware, and we've talked about how Hobbit was intended to be a child story.
Kritter:Mm, hmm, mm, hmm, and it's like half the length we, we, we just started talking about our schedule for fellowship and, looking at it, it's almost twice as long on audiobook as the Hobbit, so that'll be different a little bit.
Jessica:So we're gonna, we're gonna work to find our stride with, you know, with a beefier book, and see what that looks like. So I didn't find him particularly difficult to read, but again I've kind of qualified with that, with the fact that maybe fellowship will be a smidge harder, so I really did love it. There were parts there were, there were parts that were still a surprise, even with all the media that I've seen produced of it. There's also the fact that I didn't realize how much I had let the movies influence me, mm, hmm, okay, in a couple of different ways. So it was good to kind of shake loose some of that. But also I'm pretty sure I've talked about it on the pod I have trouble with, um, visualizing things on my own, so having the visuals from the movies available to me helped me kind of do more theater of the mind as I was reading it.
Kritter:For sure that was kind of nice.
Kritter:Yeah, so we talked this came up on the discord and so now I feel like I need to bring it up, just based on the whole having a hard time visualizing things. So I feel like one of the things that I struggle the most visualizing even though I have read all of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit was the. Whenever we came across Lake Town and the, it was described as being built on piles of logs from the forest or whatever, and in my brain that was literally like, like you know that a beaver dam essentially was what my mind came up with. And then somebody at the discord was like, no, like, first of all, piles has a million definitions, fun fact but one of them is you know, whenever it's like a dock, like the right, the poles, that docks are built.
Jessica:So I had heard them called like pylons, so pylons.
Kritter:Yeah, pylons yeah.
Jessica:Yeah.
Kritter:But piles, you know who knew, who knew, so like even people right, and so if I would have maybe watched the Hobbit more recently, I would remember like what that had looked like and I assume that is accurate to the books. But because I was just reading the books I was like this town is built on beaver dams. Essentially that's gonna fall over.
Jessica:So obvious, but that was one of the many topics that was fun to kind of hash out at Discord and there were folks who were awesome and bringing in information in a non-spoilery way. That was a lot of fun to kind of flesh out. You know there are a couple here that are longtime Tolkien fans that are helping get us stuff.
Kritter:Right, right, shout out to not all who wander are lost. I believe they've been instrumental in educating us on some of the things that we have just gotten wrong, but it's fine, you know, because that's part of the reading experience. We also have had a fun little chat about the who All Counts is the Five Armies. That came up in our last episode and we posted about it on our but are there Dragon socials? And turns out, based on some deets that I can't remember, who attached it in the chat. Do you remember? Whoever you are, you're a goddess. I remember anyways.
Jessica:I don't remember.
Kritter:You're amazing.
Jessica:Yes, we love you.
Kritter:Apparently there's like there's a debate about it, so it's not a solid thing. Even though the text, as Jessica says, really suggests that it was the first five mentioned, not including the Eagles, there's some other things that suggest that the Eagles are included and that the Wargs don't count because they're part of the goblins and all that stuff. So, like I love getting to read this again and to really just think about these things and try and visualize them again and understand what was meant by some of these passages and whatever. So it's been a blast for me too, even though I've been around. Basically, yeah, classic Beaver Dam construction, light-blinded fool, you get it. That's what you pictured too, right, it wasn't just me, correct? Okay, so you said that there were. You said what was it? That it corrected your opinion about some things, right? The book.
Jessica:It influenced. It definitely influenced some opinions. So I think and this is not by any way meant to be blame, but I think that the movies are the reason why I had created this false narrative of how much better Thorin was than the way he was represented in the book. It's not that he was completely without salvation or completely without flaw in the movies, but I do feel like he was represented much nicer.
Kritter:More favorably.
Jessica:More favorably in the movies, in the movies, and I feel like that line was a lot closer in the books that he really. He was portrayed as a very balanced individual, we'll put it like that Like he had his share of personality flaws.
Kritter:Yeah, I mean pretty harsh. Honestly, he was like harsh. He was very politician-ish, which makes sense because he's royalty or whatever but at times he seemed semi-fair. But then, yeah, the harshness was what got me. It was just like man, you are not very likable, unfortunately. Yeah, Thorin said he was sorry at the end, so he's good. Yeah, exactly, it's like getting last rites or whatever.
Jessica:Yeah, well, we talked about that. We talked about the perspective that being on your deathbed can offer you.
Kritter:Fire.
Jessica:Phoenix. Thank you, not all who wander or lost Fire, Phoenix is the one that dropped that, so thank you.
Kritter:Shout out to Fire Phoenix in the Discord you're the bomb. He was much more dwarf-like in the book, exactly. Yes, I feel like now I kind of knew the dwarves weren't super dwarf-y in the movie because they didn't look like Gimli. Basically, they were all the fabulous hair and whatever the flowing locks, all that stuff. Some of them didn't even have beards, I think. But yeah, Thorin was quintessential dwarf in the book, harsh, very, very susceptible to greed and the influence of treasure and just not the kindest person. There's a lot. I said this. My relationship with Thorin is just simply complicated and there's really nothing else to say. I go, I don't know.
Jessica:So that was just one example of I didn't realize and you think about. The movies have been out for like a decade. The first movie, I think, is 10 years old, so I didn't really think about how long that's kind of just been sitting there steeping in my subconscious.
Kritter:Yeah, that's fair, and I guess I also have had my perception shift, despite the fact that I had read the books before I read them so long ago. I think that as a child that Bilbo was someone that I didn't really relate to and that to me now is absurd because he was the most relatable character, one of the most relatable characters I have read at all. I got me and him were just like we were like this it's kind of hard to describe. So that is not something I expected from this reread, because the movies and again, I haven't watched the Hobbit movies in a while, but the movies did not dissuade me from that because he was kind of like Prissy is what I remember him just being Prissy, and now I'm like you know, the ways in which he was Prissy make a lot of sense. I really understand why he was the way that he was.
Jessica:Well, there's Leigha being all of us, right? Like I used to think I was an elf, same girl same.
Jessica:But I so you kind of just touched on how the read changed for you from, you know, middle school or elementary school to now, and so that was my. I think that was probably my biggest takeaway, honestly, from the experience was I was really grateful to have done this read for the first time ever as an adult, because I was. I don't think that I would have appreciated it as much or on as many levels if I had read it as a kid.
Kritter:Yeah, I can back up 100% with, because that was my situation. I love the story, I love the dragon. I didn't understand I mentioned this in the last episode or the episode before that why the story didn't end when the dragon ended Like there was all you know. I didn't appreciate the battle at the end at all, even less than I did this time, cause, again, not a battles gjrly, but still like there were so many things that I just glossed over or just didn't notice what it like, the prose, the literary umami, probably just went right over my head back then. This time, no, this time we got to appreciate it. It was lovely.
Jessica:Yeah, and the other piece of that is this is a book that I would have like consumed in a sitting.
Jessica:Like this book would have been done in a weekend, whether we're talking to 12 year old me or 40 year old me. So taking the time to have gone through it, think about each set of chapters and talk it through it really did add a lot. Again, I get really impatient. I have a hard time with buddy reads, but I absolutely see the value now and I'm looking forward to you know, I'm looking forward to our trek into fellowship because it'll be better with a buddy.
Kritter:Yeah, yeah, I'm looking forward to it Cause I did, I like, inhaled those books back when I read them for the first time and I feel, if I recall right, at least two towers ends on. Well, you know what? No, we're not going to spoil anything. No, we're not going to spoil anything. We're not going to talk about it. Basically, they kept me engaged, let's put it that way. And so my non-reader sister cannot say the same. She, I believe, hasn't even started fellowship. She maybe has finished the Hobbit. And I lent her slash, gave her a copy of the entire Hobbit slash trilogy back during the pandemic. So we're trying, we're trying to influence. We can't always influence, even if we're the best of influencers. What can I say?
Jessica:Well, I hear you. Excuse me, I hear you. My Random No men also was not on board for the Hobbit, but he will be lightly following along for the fellowship.
Kritter:Yeah, it's okay, it's okay. Oh, my gosh, not all who wander are lost says I've always known I'm a Hobbit, partly due to my childhood battles with adults trying to make me wear shoes.
Jessica:You know same.
Kritter:Actually we should have known. Based on that alone, you know what's way better than climbing trees with shoes.
Jessica:Do what I'm saying.
Kritter:Climbing trees barefoot. You can really get the toes in there, man. Yeah, what can I say? I get it. Not the same page, not all.
Jessica:Tell me we need to have the same childhood with one sentence.
Kritter:Yeah, pretty much. Light Blind Fool says Fellowship is a big step up in target audience, but that's not a spoiler. You see that from chapter one. Well, we're not even starting with chapter one, Light Blind Influenced, we're starting with the before chapter one, which is actually almost as long as chapter one, which I find hilarious, Very looking forward to seeing what that's honestly like. I don't even. I do know part of the contents, just because of some stuff that I've done for my content on TikTok, but I don't even remember what all is in that part Cause I my child brain just yeeted it at some point. It for the core story.
Jessica:So did you read fellowship as around the same age as well?
Kritter:Yeah, well, right, yes, I read the Hobbit, and after I read the Hobbit I was like I wonder if this author's done more stuff and so I like got on the library computer. You know, back in the day in the 90s In the box computer where the monitor is. And I'm typing in Tolkien and holy, there's a trilogy that's like a you know sequel kind of. So no, I almost immediately read the trilogy, right after the Hobbit. So it was you know, right, right through.
Jessica:And have you reread it since.
Kritter:So I think I reread it. I read, I think I reread it in middle school, so I like, I read for the first time. I want to say like right around, like fourth or fifth grade. And then my mom is a teacher I know I've said that before and she was our English teacher in, I think it was seventh grade and I was. I somehow and don't, I did not get special treatment for the most part, but somehow I managed to convince her to have us read the trilogy as some of our reading assignments, because they're classics, and so I read it one more time, basically, although I feel like I probably lightly read it because I had already read it. You know what I mean.
Jessica:Whenever?
Kritter:you've already read a book you kind of oh gosh yeah. Yeah, so it was a light read and then never since, so since I was a child, basically I have not read it. Okay, great. Yeah, I have watched the movies countless times A lot. They're my favorite movies of all time, but I yeah, I have not reread the series. I did read the Silmarillion last year, though for the first time, so that was something else.
Jessica:Yeah, we'll revisit that after we get done with Return.
Kritter:Yeah, yeah, honestly, the Silmarillion would probably be best in this format where you're like taking it in little bits and processing Well that and it's in little. It's like a history book in the sense that you get little snippets of things that happened in Middle-Earth's history. So it's not all one narrative, but I don't think that's a spoiler. It's just how it is. Yeah, just how it is.
Jessica:I did want to acknowledge Random Nomen had a question a while ago that had probably got lost about. Did we think that anything didn't really hold up when we were reading through? And I can only think of one topic that we touched on.
Kritter:I think I know what you're thinking.
Jessica:Yeah, although Light Blinded Fool also had a good point.
Kritter:Oh, two then yes.
Jessica:I saw that too.
Jessica:So the thing that popped up most for me when I was reading it was the casual fat shaming of Bombur by Thorin and yelling at him and telling him not to make a fuss, and just the way that Thorin treated Bombur specifically and a lot of times talked about that he was too heavy to be carried and sometimes it was figurative and sometimes it was literal, but either way, just the very casual fat shaming left a very poor taste in my mouth. And then the other point that Light Blinded Fool made, which was an excellent one, is there's when the girls, One female character in the read oh, there was.
Jessica:Nope, just kidding. No, there wasn't. I was like Galadriel is a named female character, but she is not anywhere in this story.
Kritter:You know what? Bilbo's mom was mentioned, but she did not show up, Like she wasn't in the story. She was just talked about and I, yeah, that's it. So that's why and we'll see what happens at the end of the trilogy but that's why I maintain, even though Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, Tolkien, has such a special place in my heart. The Wheel of Time is my number one, and part of that is the amazing women. It's men and women, and they're both incredibly important, Whereas in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit not so much. I mean they beefed up the women in both the Hobbit movie and the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies, and even but do they pass the Bechdel test?
Jessica:Has that been a thing that you did?
Kritter:I mean it depends. So I don't believe In the extended editions. I think they do, because Eowyn talks to the little girl and I think the little brother says the little girl's name at some point. So even under the stricter Bechtel test, which is the Kritter Test.
Kritter:No, no, the Kritter Test is something else, but it's the stricter version of the Bechtel test is two women have a conversation that's not about a man. And so I think Eowyn talks to the little girl who gets rescued, like gets put on the horse, and she's just like are you okay? And the little girl's like yes, or something like that happens. So technically it passes, but it's so slight it doesn't even count.
Jessica:And that's even with that updated treatment 20 years ago.
Kritter:Yeah, so that's my those two. I agree, Bombur, the fat shaming, and I get that. You know it's a different time or whatever. That's always what people say when stuff like that happens with old stuff, but it's still, just when you're reading it today, kind of like a ugh, do we have to, you know? Yeah, thankfully it didn't happen that often, and then I wish there were more ladies. That's all that's basically it. Yeah, yeah, biggest complaints.
Jessica:Which really wasn't that bad. You know, you think about it no. Again. He started these stories in the early 30s. It's almost a hundred years old, 90 years old.
Kritter:Yeah, no, it's fabulous and I guess that kind of leads us perfectly into and I talked about this in the final episode how much I effing loved this book. I loved this book. I remembered like loving the trilogy and like really enjoying the Hobbit. It's like the trilogy like overshadowed the Hobbit, but now that I'm reading the Hobbit first and really focusing on it, OMG, this book slaps so hard. I loved it. How did you feel about it, reading it for the first time?
Jessica:I mean, I loved it too. It had so much more depth to it than I expected from a children's story, so I got really sentimental as we got through those last few chapters, the Return Trek Home, and just a couple of comments I think I made in the last episode that we recorded. You know Bomber Bilbo's getting philosophical on the way home. You know he recites poetry and Gandalf I'm paraphrasing heavily, but Gandalf comments on how you are no longer the same. There was one that I really loved, which was I don't remember exactly what he said, but Bilbo. Gandalf said we still have a long way home, essentially, and Bilbo's, or it's still a long road home. And Bilbo said but it is the last road. And I just there's such nuance to that that obviously I imbue it with it as the reader. But I'm like I'm so glad I didn't try to read this as a kid. This would mean nothing to me. I think you made a point once that you know you must have just glazed over this part when you were in school.
Kritter:And of course you would, of course you would the fun's over Once you get a little mileage, yeah, once you get a little mileage on you.
Jessica:You're like you really start to feel for Bilbo and dude. I'm rooting for you to get back to your arm chair, trust me.
Kritter:Yeah, with all your stuff being sold, the nightmare that is trying to get it back like reclaim. You know you got to hire lawyers.
Jessica:It's just so much that stuff, and forever being known as slightly odd.
Kritter:Yeah, which is fine with me. Honestly, Like that's been my whole life. You know what I mean, Cause I grew up I played sports, you know, and so like I was hanging out with all the athletes and I, but then I was also, you know, bringing a book to read after practice and on the bus to the games and all that stuff, and so, yeah, I'm used to being a little odd, but that's okay, and that's good.
Jessica:That's why it's balance.
Kritter:It's all about balance. A wolf brother in the chat actually has a good point. So he says that he loved all the. He loved the battle of wits most of all, and my question is which one? Bilbo and the dragon, or Bilbo and Gollum, I guess we would call that. Probably the riddles Would be Gollum and Bilbo, maybe, but yeah, let me know which one you're talking about. So I want to ask you, Jessica, the chapters, at least at the beginning, were very much like now. This is happening Now like we're meeting the dwarves, now we're meeting the ogres. Right, they were ogres. Yes, yeah, the ogres, and now the troll. Thank you, I knew that was wrong, but I had orcs on my brain and so, yeah, trolls, now we're meeting the trolls. Now we're going to Elrond's house, now we're meeting Beorn, and so there was. It's very, almost episodic, especially at the beginning. So do you have a favorite episode of the Hobbit?
Jessica:I think that from an imagery perspective, when they first go to Last Homely House, it was just so gorgeous, the descriptions through there were just fantastic, and there was more of that From a narrative perspective. There was some really great chunks from there. I just blanked, I'm sorry. Well, let me go Okay, yeah.
Kritter:So I kind of agree with Wolf Brother that for me I want to say the battle of wits with the dragon, when Bilbo was talking to the dragon and like puffing himself up and giving himself all these titles and then like kind of tricking the dragon into revealing its weak spot but then accidentally revealing that he got help from Lake Sound, all of that is like so well written and fun and you're just nervous because there's a dragon there. But you know Bilbo's protected because he's got his ring on and all this other stuff. Like I love that scene. I loved Riddles in the dark, but it's so it's got this creepiness that I guess like that's the only thing that takes away from it. Tolkien was so effective at just freaking me out and making me really nervous that that's the only thing that sets that maybe behind the dragon scene ever so slightly. And then, honestly, I don't know, I'm just picking all the scenes that are like out of the movies or like the iconic, you know whatever scenes. But I like the troll scene too.
Jessica:I think that's really fun, the like throwing of the voice, but I mean to be fair when we got to that part of the reading, like we were both so stoked when we got to the Gollum chapter and we got to the Smaug chapter honestly.
Kritter:Like we were both super excited when we got to that part of the read it wasn't just about the movie, true, yeah, so those were probably the highlights for me, the both of the battle. Well, for other, you nailed it, the battle of the wits, so yeah. So you like the last Homely House, which for me is like I'm such a like I'm not a battles girly but I'm not also not incredibly patient, and because that felt like a like a breath, deep breath before the storm, kind of right before they enter the wild or whatever To me.
Kritter:I was like, ok, let's go. You know what I mean? I had the same thing with Beo rn's house. I was like, ok, let's go, like let's move on to the next thing. But the imagery was beautiful.
Jessica:And so and they even started that chapter that way, right, like the the narrator told us. You know there's nothing fun to say. They were there for two weeks and basically caught their breath, and you know they stayed for a long time. But there's nothing fun to say about it, yeah, except for the maps thing. Yeah. The convenience of the map.
Jessica:If I had to give an answer. It's really, really corny, but my favorite part is Bilbo's journey. Like the transformation that Bilbo goes through in finding himself and standing up for himself, the things that he faces in terms of being a better person, overcoming fear, not being a doormat, but also still navigating and trying to do good things for his friends, even though his friends are, you know, on the precipice of making really bad choices, bilbo's journey is really the thing that I love the most. I said it's really hard for me, but all of my favorite beats kind of point back to that one factor.
Kritter:Mm, hmm, ok, so I guess this leads right into something we also were inevitably going to talk about, which is who's your favorite character in the book.
Jessica:I mean, I think we should say who's our favorite character besides Bilbo, right, because? I think we're we both are pretty established as heavy Bilbo sympathy.
Kritter:Hashtag Bilbo Stan. Yes, hashtag Bilbo is our king. So yeah, bilbo number one.
Jessica:But then Honestly, I think the one that I enjoyed the most and was the most interesting was Beorn. So Beorn was interesting in the movie, but I, for whatever reason, reading about him gave him enough more depth that I really thought he was very cool. So I think I think it's Beorn.
Kritter:It's just very gruff. You know, I kind of like, respect the like. I'm not going to take any crap from you, but you know, tell me the, tell me your story. I want to hear whatever like he's. He's a cool guy and at the end, when he rolls into the the battle and take and takes out the big battle from, not the last battle he takes out the big bad because he was like, oh, you guys killed the, the King Goblin or the Great Goblin or whatever Almost like man.
Kritter:I wish that could have been me. And then he ends up getting to kill the Great Goblin spawn. Yeah, it's a nice touch. I like that touch. Okay, so who's my? I think mine is probably, and I'm so terribly bad with names, so correct me if this is not the right dwarf. But I think my number two is Balin the nice dwarf.
Jessica:Yeah, he talks about it.
Kritter:Yeah, I love him. He went from like being cute, you know, to like, you know giggling things and whatever to like eventually just being like the best friend that Bilbo could have asked for, you know, like he wanted them. He considered, I guess, all of them to be his friend, but the true friend that he had on that trip was Balin, I guess. Gandalf oh, my gosh, I completely forgot about Gandalf. Oh, oh man, no, okay, I'm sorry. Balin, your number three. Gandalf is my number two actually because he was just fun and feisty and unexpected and some of my favorite scenes involved like throwing up the voice with the trolls.
Kritter:Super fun the fact that he just disappeared, like some of his, some of his like his, disses, like he had some of the sickest burns in the books, if I recall, and so and he was the one that started it all. So, yes, Balin, I apologize, but you are incredible. Gandalf, though, was my number two. I think we talked about how a lot of the leaders in this, in this book, were kind of like well, complicated at best, but like a little meh or not as good as you would expect them to be. We were talking Thorin, the elf, king Thranduil though he's not named in the book, which I think is hilarious the, the, the head of Lake Town, whatever his name, is the Steward, not the Steward.
Jessica:Master.
Kritter:The master. Thank see, I'm terrible with names, but then we got Bard, who was solid. So who, I guess? Like would you if you had to live in a in a under one of those leaders? Who would it be?
Jessica:Definitely, bard, yeah, you know, if I'm not living, if I'm not living in Hobbiton, I'm living. I'm living under Bard, because the rest of them seem terrible and there is a point that I, you know, Leia mentioned. Weren't we all elves, you know, at one point it would have absolutely been Elrond, because they absolutely would have identified as an elf. And now I'm like no, no.
Kritter:Mm, hmm, mm, hmm, mm, hmm. Man Bard is a really good choice, but I think I still would have gone with Elrond, if it's because, like you know, the Hobbits don't have some like a king or whatever. You know, bilbo might as well be their king. Obviously not because he's a bit of an outcast now, but I mean living in Rivendell who, and Elrond is so nice. I mean, the description of him in the book was just like imagine, the best person you can think of this is Elrond. Welcome to Rivendell.
Jessica:In the last homely house you know, and he's done some really awesome stuff, but we're not going to talk about it in this book.
Kritter:We're not going to talk about it here, just trust me. Like, just trust me, he's pretty great. So yeah, we only got Elrond very briefly, though that was incredibly temporary. But yeah, I think the difference between movie Thranduil and the Elf King was interesting. I feel like they were pretty similar, the vibes. I remember the Elf Lee Pace's Thranduil being really intense.
Jessica:Yeah, I think I found him just a little bit more menacing, honestly, but also.
Kritter:In the books or in the movies.
Jessica:No, lee Pace's portrayal I thought was pretty menacing.
Kritter:Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, I agree.
Jessica:But I think that they added, you know, they kind of amped up his backstory a little bit to account for that. But I will say also, like when we first meet the Elven King, when he takes all of the dwarves hostage, he's very you know no business and I have no problem throwing you in cells and throwing away the key until you, you know, tell me what I need to hear. But he was a little bit more moderate by the time it came time for the battle.
Kritter:Yeah, yeah. He definitely felt slightly different by the end of the book. He went from like yeah, I mean a hostage taker to somebody who's like oh, bilbo, you're the best man.
Jessica:Naming you Elf friend.
Kritter:Yeah.
Jessica:You know, you're much more magnanimous now than you were when we first met.
Kritter:Right, but I guess that's what the promise of treasure will do for you, or, like the inevitable, like acquisition of treasure, will do for you. Okay, so we let's see. So who's the best villain? Who did you do? What villain to do like the most?
Jessica:It has to be Smaug. I mean, Gollum was incredible, Smaug was intense. So Gollum and Smaug both had really smart battle of wits moments and then you add Smaug's physical presence and dominance.
Kritter:Yeah.
Jessica:And so Smaug takes it by a nose.
Kritter:By a nose. I agree that Smaug was just impressive. You threw the page. He just kind of jumped off the page and I think that Bilbo or Bilbo, lol, I think the Gollum did too, Like you felt them both in the room with you essentially whenever you were reading about them, which was awesome. You know the testaments of Tolkien's writing, but there's just something about a dragon. You know it's a tough thing to beat, I think. So we'll get more Gollum, you know, in the future. So we're not done with him yet.
Jessica:I always just realized, like in the moment that we named our podcast But are there dragons. So obviously we're going to slant dragon a little bit.
Kritter:A little bit, but that's a little bit. Oh my gosh, wolf Brother, the way you spell Gollum, just like it's screaming golem to me from the wheel of time books and it's distracting. I mean it's fine, it's fine. But you're right that Gollum did technically probably win as compared to Smaug, because he's still alive at the end of the book. Smaug isn't. Dana Lou is asking but are there dragons? The answer is there's one, there was a dragon. It was very exciting to finally get to meet Smaug after it was like he did not disappoint.
Kritter:Even though he had much briefer time on the page than expect. Well then, I initially expected that. I originally expected he left an impact, left a mark, essentially.
Kritter:But, yeah, that's actually. I know I said this in our episode zero and I'm not sure if I said it on any of the other episodes, but Smaug is the reason that I read the Hobbit in the first place, because he was on the cover that I saw at the library. So shout out to Smaug for luring me in. Who knew that the dragon is what was going to get me? I mean, Dana Lou, dragons were your gateway drug to fantasy, Absolutely.
Jessica:Same.
Kritter:Same so same page.
Jessica:It was kind of even odds if there was a dragon on the cover or horses, which you know, and a lot of fantasy stories they're on horseback, so you probably got me.
Kritter:Yeah, yeah, I guess Eye of the world Horses, At least Daryl K. Sweet cover, which you know can't be beat. Let's be honest, it's something else. If you haven't seen it, if you haven't seen the original artwork for the eye of the world, you should go look because it's amazing. Leigha says who doesn't love dragons? I, you know thorn and Bard, but facts.
Kritter:Understandably in their case, push through bad books because of dragons. Yeah, fair, yeah, this. It's so funny how Smaug was so. He was a focal point in this entire book, but we didn't meet him until like the very end. That was so interesting to me, but I guess you can't go see the big bad right away. You got to build up to it. Bilbo had to find himself.
Jessica:Yes, ultimately he, you know he, nor the dwarves, neither were the ones to beat the dragon.
Kritter:Yeah, although bilbo got the the alley oop, bilbo got the assist at the very least.
Jessica:So and bilbo also. Bilbo also made it so that the war got won, so you know what I mean. Bilbo created a pathway towards a bloodless truce which meant that they were there and ready to fight when the other supposedly three armies showed up.
Kritter:I do wonder if they would have stayed at odds with each other if the goblin showed up, if Bilbo hadn't taken the action that he took.
Jessica:I mean I tend to think yes, because they everybody, seemed very set on their path. You know what I mean. Nobody seemed willing to really compromise, apart from Bard, who thought he was already compromising by asking for what he thought was a very reasonable amount.
Kritter:Yeah, yeah, it was tricky. I do think Bilbo was the brains of the operation most of the time when it came to the Tours, which is so after Gandalf left. I guess After Gandalf left.
Jessica:Even though he was only a very small person after all.
Kritter:Very small but mighty it turns out. I kind of love that development. He goes from, as I said earlier, prissy to still prissy, but also kind of awesome. You know not, kind of definitely awesome. Also very impressive and awesome and a certified bonafide adventurer, yes, kind of respected for that.
Jessica:I'll miss him in our next leg of the journey.
Kritter:Yeah, I mean we'll be. He'll be there at first, but yeah, it's gonna be different Getting introduced to a bunch of new characters. Are you, I guess I mean introduced, there will be characters that we haven't read about yet. Are you excited about the prospect of a reading about all the characters you've seen in the movies?
Jessica:I am. I always felt like you know this is. I think you and I might have had this discussion before, but this is the mystique behind it. You know, I believe that there's all kinds of lore in these books that I haven't been privy to. So I feel like I'm about to crack the lid on the deep magics and see, you know, behind the scenes a little bit.
Kritter:Yeah, I'm looking forward to you seeing all of it and looking forward to revisiting it, since I have been thoroughly corrupted by the movies Anything. Well, I knew I know some of the differences, so I'll be expecting them, but like I don't remember, I'm sure I don't know all of them anymore.
Jessica:I will tell you that last weekend, I think, I did a Hobbit rewatch as a reward.
Kritter:The animated one.
Jessica:I did both I did the animated and I did the movies.
Kritter:That's a time commitment.
Jessica:Yeah, well, not all at once, not all at once. Oh, okay, and it was so hard not to go because it's been actually been a minute. It's been a healthy minute or two since I've done a LOTR rewatch, so I was like, oh, I'd really like to watch it. Nope, gotta stay strong.
Kritter:That'll be your reward. That'll be your reward In 16 years when we're done. It's not gonna be that bad. You know, the Hobbit took us what. How many episodes? We had six, six, six episodes. We really yeah, fellowship is like around twice as long. So 12 episodes that's like three months or something, I don't know. Somebody else do the math.
Jessica:Yeah, I know 12 would be three months if we keep going with the weekly drop like we've been doing, which I think both of us are hoping to do.
Kritter:Yeah, yeah, yeah, we are for sure. So, yeah, that'll be it. We can finish all be done with Lord of the Rings by the end of the year. You know, think about it that way. That's not that bad Okay. Okay, it's not like one of the first time reader wheel of time podcasts, because, though, they're in it.
Jessica:Honestly, I'm grateful because I could never be that disciplined for that long. Those books are bigger and there's more of them and I definitely have favorites and play favorites and read through pieces faster than others. I don't skip. I never skip, because I'm too completionist for that. Yeah, wouldn't feel real Would not feel real Doesn't count, can't count it if you didn't read it.
Kritter:Agreed.
Jessica:But I would be so overwhelmed to be a WoT first time reader.
Kritter:Yeah, I agree, but I highly recommend it to anyone.
Jessica:Yeah, I'll be here as a support. Like you can hear my digits, you can DM me and you know I'll be there rooting for you.
Kritter:Yeah, first time readers, mad respect, but, like the first time reader, podcast is the one that I because you have to, you have to slow down even like, oh my gosh. So yeah, being a first time reader of the wheel of time is amazing, I assume. Being a podcaster not so much. But you know, I don't know, we'd have to ask.
Jessica:There are some really awesome people doing it, you know all of the ones that I've met Dani and Brett, Ali and Gus, Allen and his crew. You know all of them. When I've met with them, they're all incredibly friendly and nice and having a good time and like stick to their guns. I'm like good for you guys, because I would have a really hard time being that contained and that disciplined.
Kritter:Yeah, yeah, this though I've had such a good time doing the Hobbit, I feel like it was a great pace, honestly, like, yeah, I was a big fan of it and I do feel like the Hobbit goes by so quickly compared to other books that I've read of late. Like I reread the Stormlight archive this year, oh boy, those are long. Those are in a, as I say, that is a wheel of time reader. Like those are, they just feel and are. I love them, but they're so long and so going from that and I've been rereading the wheel of time slowly this year too going from those to the Hobbit, was literally like what is even happening? This is all incredibly digestible super, super fast. Like there's no fluff. I mean, there's a little bit of fluff. The songs, you know, arguably fluff. I guess we haven't talked about the songs yet. How do you feel about them? We haven't.
Jessica:In the end. I mean, I feel good about them but kind of like with the theater of the mind, like I don't, I don't immediately put them to music. I do. I do feel tempted to get the Andy Serkis version because I would like to see them yeah.
Kritter:He sings them. It's love. Like I've said this before, I'll say it again a thousand times Andy Serkis' version of the audiobooks, at least, of the Hobbit superb spectacular. I haven't looked to see if he's won any awards for it, but I would have voted for him if, if I had voted.
Jessica:Oh yeah, what are those called they? They must do voice acting, they must do narration.
Kritter:I think it's. I think so Because Michael and Kate but Michael Kramer and Kate Redding, who do the wheel of time, they won one, I thought, recently. Well, and Rosamund Pike won one for the Eye of the World also, which she did recently. Yeah, he must have.
Jessica:I mean, he's just, he's just incredible and he's so immersed in that world.
Kritter:Yeah, he knows what's up. I've said this before, but his impressions like he, it's like he's doing impressions of the people, the actors who are playing the roles in the respective movies, right. So he sounds like Lee Pace's Thrandui l. He sounds kind of like Benedict Cumberbatch's Smaug that one would be really, really hard to emulate Honestly, probably the hardest one out of all of them.
Jessica:Well, he had said like he he really worked his voice to get that lower register and I'm sure there was some auto tune to make it, you know, super gravelly.
Kritter:Yeah, okay, I love this question from random nomen. If you could take the best part of each author and build the perfect author with Robert Jordan, tolkien and Sanderson, what would you take from each author?
Jessica:Well, I feel like I'm a little bit more versed in two of those than I am in the third, but generally I would take. I would take RJ's Women, tolkien's World Building and and I really do like Sanderson's humor Tolkien's World Building and also tying up loose ends. Like I haven't had a book be so satisfying in the ending in so long.
Kritter:He just there was nothing.
Jessica:Thank you, dana Lou, who it is called an Audi, nice, an Audi, yeah, yeah, so I do. I do tend to like Sanderson's humor and wit. I, rj, had a lot more female representation, not always the best, but at least it was present. And Tolkien gave, gave me so much from the literary Umami perspective, yeah, and just neatly tying up all of those loose ends. I really can't remember the last time that I walked away from a book going nope, you gave me everything, thank you Amazing, amazing.
Kritter:So I think I would do. I think I would do Robert Jordan's World Building, because when I go there it feels like I'm going home, like it feels like a real place with real people. I would take Tolkien's prose because I found his writing to be delicious, just beautiful and poetic, and I I don't care if it's slightly old fashioned, I didn't feel like it was Like, I felt like it was perfect. And then this is so bizarre. But I would take Sanderson's I'm trying to think of how to say this. Sanderson's, um, oh my gosh, like awareness of people's feelings and, and the sure, you know Sanderson's modern sensibilities which is so funny because he's a Mormon, like right, and so you don't necessarily.
Jessica:He's worked on himself like nobody's perfect. He's worked on it.
Kritter:So you, you, he has, he uses like sensitivity, and other like readers right.
Kritter:He's a beta readers, right, so he does. He just has like mental health beta readers. He's got like people who look at how he's writing women. He's got all these things that he really wants to do, right, and I love his conscientiousness. That's, that's what I'm looking for. I couldn't think of the word, but his conscientiousness is just lovely, because there are, like you know, there are a couple things in Robert Jordan's books that I'm like God, I don't think that's how it would have went down, based on how I know these characters there are. You know, there, yeah, and obviously in the Tolkien there's minimal women. So, and the and the fat shaming, which, again, product of his time or whatever. So those, yeah, that's what I would do. Tolkien's prose, Jordan's world building and Brandon Sanderson's conscientiousness, yeah, oh, empathy, perfect Wolf, brother another great word for it. Yes, absolutely Exactly what. What about chat weigh in? Oh well, brother, did he's magic systems? Oh, good one. Rj's world building, seconded an amen. And Tolkien's humor. I really like Tolkien's humor too.
Jessica:Yeah, so I really wanted to go back to your comment about his prose. So I will say that that was something that I was just mildly aware of because I am someone who, like, grew up reading Shakespeare and stuff and had many contemporaries who didn't like reading projects like that, because they're challenging, because they're not in a modern day vernacular, which I do understand. It's never been a barrier for me, but I was aware of it because I'm like this is a 90 year old story Like the, the, the prose could be unwieldy, but generally speaking, it really wasn't a barrier for me, except for that one section that I told you about and you had mentioned right before then that the POV had changed for the first time we had left either a.
Jessica:Bilbo or dwarf, dominant storyline. And and I was like I remember I remember looking at my Kindle, going like when did we get so clunky? Like why do we? Why do I feel like we're talking to a tax accountant? I don't understand. And then you said that in our episode and it clicked and I was like that's what it was. So you know, kudos to him. It was a voice change, but I was pleasantly surprised that the prose wasn't more of a barrier.
Kritter:Yeah, it was a bonus for me. I do. Yeah, it's like an incredibly easy to read and we'll see if that continues on into the, into the trilogy.
Jessica:I've been told that Lord of the Rings is is a more challenging read. So I'm trying not to let that sway me, but I have been told that it's harder to read.
Kritter:Only time will tell We'll see it's not written.
Jessica:for my experience, children, it is not.
Kritter:Light blinded fool. I'd like all three of them to talk to Ursula K Le Guin before they write their next one. Yeah, that's seconded, seconded, I'm. Sanderson's. Magic says random no man. Tolkien's world building and history and history, sorry. And RJ's handling of scale Okay, nice, yeah, I could see that. Yeah, I feel like RJ's world building and Tolkien's world building are both just delectable. They're so good.
Jessica:So I think that for me, when I said world building, I really meant the prose part, because I'm thinking specifically of the literary Umami pieces. There he can describe a hollow in a wood and I find that to be incredibly appealing, the way that he accomplished that.
Kritter:And he just like, drops you right into the world. I see what you mean yeah.
Jessica:Yeah, so I think that I probably really meant the prose versus world building, but all I could think of was all of the different things that he described that I'm highlighting going. This is a favorite this week. Yeah, they were really good. That's fair. Random, no men is just a little salty because this is the first book and I don't know how long that I've read that I actually looked at chapters and use them as guideposts to how much I would actually read. It's a little bit of a running joke.
Kritter:You just inhale, you don't.
Jessica:Yeah, so we had. I had done a TikTok about this ages ago actually. He said something about he was really tired and he was just trying to get to the end of his chapter and I was like, oh gosh, I fall asleep mid sentence all the time and he goes you don't finish the chapter. I said, no, I don't finish the chapter. Even when I don't fall asleep, I'll finish what I'm reading and step away at any time. And he looked at me like I was a monster that I just popped out of a book.
Jessica:So it's a little bit of a running joke with us and we talked about it back forth and I was like why? Why do you need to use chapters? The serving size is the book. The serving size isn't a chapter, the serving size is the book.
Kritter:No, no, no. If I'm reading a physical copy which I will admit doesn't happen almost ever anymore, because now I'm an audio book early but when I am reading a physical book back in the day which happened all the time my general rule of thumb was I would keep reading until the end of the chapter, unless I got to a page that ended in a period, like at the end of a paragraph, and then I could bookmark the next page. Ideally, the page would be like the second page you know what I mean so that you could flip the page, put the bookmark in there and then start fresh on the new page.
Jessica:That was like so I will admit that that was my preference when I read physical copies. But, as I've gotten to Kindle.
Kritter:Do you just like drop a pin? How does that even work? I don't use Kindle. No, I don't.
Jessica:I fall asleep. I literally fall asleep mid-sentence a lot so it's problematic, but I just get out of the habit.
Jessica:And also, I read a lot of works that didn't have chapter titles. So part of what spawned this is we were having a conversation about WoT actually, about all the chapters where the boys are doing their trek with Tom, and how each chapter was the same, and I was like, oh, I guess I didn't really pay attention because I don't really go by chapters. It doesn't work. We can choose a monster. There it is. The chapter is how the author wants me to take the story. Yes, sir, you have made that point clear.
Kritter:Okay, but like Go, yeah, don't keep going.
Jessica:And it's just a way in which we're different, and it's really funny to me because of how much it sends him into outer space. And I had, admittedly, got to a point where I didn't even look at titles anymore, because I read a bunch of books that didn't actually have titles for chapter titles.
Kritter:Like it was just one thing.
Jessica:So I had really just gotten out of the habit of caring about chapters and he just thought that's so interesting. I'm sorry, dana-lou, it probably isn't fascinating at all, but it's.
Kritter:I find it fascinating.
Jessica:I think that it's funny to hear how different people approach how they consume, and it's different by media too.
Kritter:Audio books I can stop it whenever. I'll just pause it, and then I usually will click the back 10 seconds. So I have the context and then we keep going. Which?
Jessica:I think random nomin says that that's a thing that he does too, because audio is his preferred method for when he's traveling for work, for example. There are other people that they're only catching what they can read when they can read it, and so they have to be more flexible, and I think that that's when I developed that particular habit. When you're a single working mom who I might be able to read for 10 minutes, I can't be fussy. Okay, get what I get.
Kritter:And random nomin. Think about it this way Whenever we were looking at the Fellowship of the Ring to decide what we were going to read first, you want to know how long chapter one is. Via audiobook, which, I assume, translates into many, many pages, it is over an hour long, so that's a lot of pages to be able to, at least in this. Oh, that's a pretty copy. In this day and age, sitting down for that long without any distractions, sometimes it's hard to come by. I would find a period at the end of the page, though, so I'm with you on that. I need a decent ending point.
Jessica:I mean it says that book one, chapter one, is only 20 pages. Shhh, what?
Kritter:Why is it an hour long on Audible? Okay, okay, we should compare notes. We need to compare notes.
Jessica:We don't. I'm like it's not the last battle, we're not doing this.
Kritter:No, yeah, that's crazy. Hold on, hold on, hold on.
Jessica:I'm going to read it on this, obviously because I'm going to read it on my Kindle so that. I can highlight and do all my notes.
Kritter:Chapter one, book one, a long expected party one hour and 11 minutes.
Jessica:I wonder if it has tons of songs.
Kritter:Oh, and he's like singing them Maybe. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I'll look at one of my copies too, just to see. Yeah, anyways, I'm going to read it because, yeah, we get on to talk for like an hour about 10 pages of the fellowship of the ring. That maybe won't work.
Jessica:Thank you all for tuning in to this riveting content where we're looking at our book.
Kritter:Hey, you know what? It's a good little how we read covers. The last battle is nine and a half hours on audiobook. That's a perfect example of a chapter that you cannot read in one sitting.
Jessica:And that is notably the last time I cared. So I, when I finally made it to a memory of light in March of last year, I got to chapter 36, I think the chapter before it and it was 11 o'clock at night and I'm like I can't start this chapter.
Jessica:I'll have to wait and do it fresh in the morning. And it took me forever to fall asleep because I was like but I knew that it was 200, because I was reading on Kindle, so page approximation works better for me. It was about 200 pages or something like the size of a short book.
Kritter:Yeah, yeah, half the length of fellowship. Yeah, says light-blinded fool, Wow, yeah. So we were talking about the tomes that are the Stormlight archive and that we looked at them in books.
Jessica:Those are some thick boys.
Kritter:Thick, thick boys and fellowship isn't quite so thick. So you know we're coming up on our normal episode length time, or actually we've surpassed it so, and since we're, I believe, planning on posting this on our podcast so people can listen to it as well as see it. So I guess I usually like to do kind of final thoughts whenever I'm doing live streams like this. You know, final thoughts, takeaways, things you're looking forward to, whatever you want to talk about, just for this last little part, because we've finished the Hobbit and it feels good what's on your mind?
Jessica:What's on my mind is you know, woohoo, we did it. You know like I'm really genuinely excited. I'm super proud of myself. This book is, this author is like the boogeyman under the bed, so it feels really good to have gotten through it and I'm pleasantly surprised about how much I really enjoyed this format and I'm super excited for us to get started on the next one. And there are so many incredible pieces of prose that I'll take with me forever from that read just beautiful little moments from that read that I get to have forever now.
Kritter:So I love that. Yeah, I guess. For me it's been so nice getting to read it again as an adult. I've mentioned that before. I think there are so many things that I appreciated a thousand times more because I read it as an adult and not a kid.
Kritter:I would recommend this book to literally all ages, and actually I don't think I said this on our last recording because I'm pretty sure it happened after this, but I had a birthday party this past weekend, I think, or the weekend before, I don't know what is time. Anyways, it was a while ago, it was more than a week ago, so I guess it was two weekends ago. But we did the extended edition no, the non-extended edition Lord of the Rings movies and a friend of mine had his kids over for part of it and one of his kids, I think, is nine, and I literally went, grabbed the Hobbit off the shelf and was like tell me what you think I gave it to her. I'm actually going to Disney World with that family in February, so you best believe that I'm going to be asking for a book report. So I mean it when I say I think it's good for children, because that's about the age that I read it and they're not going to appreciate it the same way that the adults will appreciate it.
Kritter:So if you are an adult and you haven't yet read the Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings because you're like it's beyond its past time, I should have. I should have read it already it's for kids or I've already seen the movie. So I'm set. No, you have not and you are not set. You need to read the book because, first of all, the book is far and away better than the Hobbit movies. Second of all, Jessica can attest to this now it is beautifully written and distinguishable from anything, probably, that you've ever read, even though it set the foundation for it. And it's just worth your time, and it's not that much time, so it would be worth it if it was way more time than it takes. So just there's I, just I. You should just read the Hobbit. Ok, it's one of my favorite books of all time, and if you're not reading it, if you haven't read it, then you're missing out. It's basically where I'm at.
Jessica:So I would just say ditto you know all of that Like, yes, definitely read it. If you're somebody like me who you know, I've never read it and I feel dumb going back and read it now. And don't feel dumb, just go back and read it, give it a chance.
Jessica:Yeah, yeah so what's the catch phrase? Oh yes, so never laugh at a live dragon is the one that has gotten the most votes. So my partner in crime and I haven't actually discussed yet what our final decision is or if we're going to change it up per season, so TBD.
Kritter:But for tonight's stream, since that one got the most votes for our season one. But are there dragons? I think it's. I think it's the right sign off phrase, so we'll save it. I'm going to do my best, without a script, to do our closing remarks. First of all, I want to thank everyone who was in the chat. You guys made it super fun. I'm super glad that you asked questions and had comments and I look forward to doing more live recordings, hopefully in the future. Obviously not every time, but definitely the final. The season wrap party will definitely be live and then maybe some other ones. We'll see if we have, you know, some special occasions or whatever, but yeah, so thank you for tuning in to the wrap party for the hobbit for season one of but are there dragons? Your hosts, me, Kritter XD and Jessica Sedai, slash shelf indulgence. Very much appreciate your support and we would ask that, if you're not following us yet on our social media platforms, where but are there dragons? Pretty much everywhere except we are, but dragons. Pod on X.
Jessica:One T, only one T.
Kritter:But dragons pod, only one T over on X. And then, yeah, you can find me at Kritter XD, basically everywhere, and you can find Jessica at Shelf Indulgence and Jessica Sedai on TikTok and X and Instagram, so we're all over the place, so don't forget to give us a follow in all of that.
Kritter:And for those of you who are sticking around, primarily on the podcast platforms, we love that you're here and listening and we hope you continue listening into future seasons. So, Jessica, any any last words you want to do the sign off phrase, since it was yours.
Jessica:Sure, I would just echo all that. We love all the interaction that we've gotten for a brand new pod. We really appreciate everybody who's interacting with us, whether it be real time, after the fact on YouTube in Kritter's Discord, whatever it may be. We love all the interaction and having buddies to read along with. So hopefully you'll keep coming with us, but we love it when you check in with us, no matter what. So that's it for us today. We're still workshopping catchphrases for season two, so keep an eye out for that, wherever you get your podcasts, or on here on our YouTube channel. So tonight's catchphrase is never laugh at live dragons. Thank you, good night. Thank you, bye, guys.