mikkalia15:

cliopadra:

heirsfthemountainhall:

ymrtumbler:

gwengrimm:

clematis70:

guylty:

withywindlesdaughter:

avelera:

avelera:

But have you considered: Thorin might be nearsighted?

Case in point:

Exhibit 2

“It cannot be.”aka Doesn’t actually recognize Azog until he starts talking…

This needs no explanation:

*BOOM*

Exhibit 3:

Not subtitled, but Thorin shouts for Kili when actually Fili is the one who was almost crushed >.< 

Exhibit 4

Not pictured because I couldn’t find a gif, but Thorin prompting Balin to lead them out of Rivendell because he “can see knows these paths”

Exhibit 5 

Cut off Azog’s arm, was probably aiming for something slightly more fatal, couldn’t tell he was alive when dragged back inside Moria…

Exhibit 6

WHERE’S BILBO?

(”I have no idea because I can’t see for shit.”)

Conclusion:

Since wearing glass in front of your eyes is slightly more of a liability for a fighter than people’s faces being slightly blurry, I’m just gonna throw this out there as a possible explanation for fandom to run with 😉

Ok but I think this is my favorite post of mine that’s done well because

1) it give a humorous explanation for Thorin’s random moments of fail that’s cracky and funny

2) it actually kinda makes sense and it gives Thorin a minor (or not so minor for his life and world) disability that he works around and actually kinda explains said moments of fail realistically and honestly guys the more I think about it and replay the movies in my head the fewer contradictions I can find for this headcanon???

There is a fanfic in here somewhere 

Convincing arguments!

Thorin has suddenly become more human and more pleasant (short-sighted person speaking here)

@ymrtumbler

I love this. Thanks for the tap, @gwengrimm!

You are not wrong OP, Thorin IS nearsighted.  In the book, it was even canon:

“How far away do you think it is?”  asked Thorin, for by now they knew Bilbo had the sharpest eyes among them.  
“Not far at all.  I shouldn’t think above twelve yards.”
“Twelve yards!  I should have thought it was thirty at least, but my eyes don’t see as well as they used a hundred years ago-” 
(From the chapter, ‘Flies and Spiders’

of The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien

)

Thorin isn’t just slightly nearsighted either, he thought a large object at across-the-street distance was three-quarters of the length of a football field away.  
By modern standards he would be legally, coke-bottle-glasses-or-we-don’t-let-you-drive, blind.

In the movie Thorin’s nearsightedness is never actually stated, but I love the clever ways in which they worked it into the acting (as avelera highlighted very well), and also into the costume and set design (implying that Dwarves tend to be nearsighted in general): 
Dwarven ornamentation is always three-dimensional, be it stamped leather, cut runes, thickly-embroidered brocade, or cast-metal beads.  There are no purely painted or smooth-inlaid designs anywhere that would require sight, let alone 20/20 vision.  

Dwarven cities too, are violently three-dimensional and ornamented with a lot of straight-lined geometry and gigantic statues.  Perhaps most telling of all, the terrifyingly high stone bridges found in both Erebor AND Moria are treated as perfectly ordinary sidewalks… which would make sense for a race that couldn’t even SEE the ground below.

As for Thorin’s precision-jump in the forges…

Brass ones.  Solid fucking brass ones.

You know, it actually kinda makes sense that dwarves in general should be more nearsighted than other races. They live underground, inside stone halls where the most they need is to see what they’re doing with their hands and what’s directly in front of them (to about 4 meters max. maybe less, you don’t need to see much further than that when mining.) 

of course, this also perfectly explains my favourite “blind dwarf” scene

I desperately want to tag @veilfireshadows but it WONT LET ME