i used to be like, really against the books of LOTR because "lol too many songs" but on reflection honestly I think i'd rather have the songs than what jackson did to the characterisation of the hobbits in both the LOTR films and the hobbit films. and oh my god the hobbit films. jesus. fuck. christ. wow. D:
i mean, smaug was p. cool, but... I dunno having recently re-read the LOTR books and not too long ago re-read The Hobbit, AND having read a fair chunk of the Silmarillion in the last couple years, I feel like... the LOTR trilogy are a pretty good summary/adaptation but... they kinda turn all the hobbits into either A) annoying comic relief, or B) in the case of Frodo, Awkward Lonely Sad Boy Woobie, when in the books Frodo is... kinda a badass??
Also so is Sam for that matter. Bilbo too when it comes down to it in the Hobbit.
I can understand some of the changes in the film, I mean the Hobbit is, as even I forgot myself, a serious case of Unreliable Narrator, because it's Bilbo writing about his own adventures. Of COURSE he's going to portray his dwarvern companions as being dicks to him when they probably were just like "mate, look, stop being a whiny fuck, we're ALL suffering out here too, just give it a rest and bloody help."
Thorin Oakenshield: "Bilbo, look, the lads have been getting kind of antsy lately and nobody wants to come out and say it because... frankly, they want to like you and give you a chance... just, please, help us out with things a little, pick up the slack, and stop complaining all the time, and it'll be easier for everyone, you included. kay?"
Bilbo: *scribbles out what he wrote last in his journal and re-writes* "and so the EVIL, NASTY DWARVES kept making poor Bilbo do ALL THE WORK..."
I mean don't get me wrong it's not like LOTR and the Hobbit are THE BEST FICTION EVER ZOMG IF YOU DON'T LIKE THEM YOU ARE TRAAASH like seriously, i'm not precious about that shit, haha.
(though a recent thing I found out from Miq is that the literal angels and gods of the setting, made by Illuvata, literally are all queer and it's pretty rad. They pick their own gender expressions and stuff and dress however they like.)
But peter jackson did kinda... fuck it up a bit.