Smaug was a "great" fire drake of the Third Age, considered to be the last "great" dragon to exist in Middle Earth. Drawn to the enormous wealth amassed by the Dwarves of the Lonely Mountain during the reign of King Thror, he laid waste to the neighboring city of Dale and captured the Lonely Mountain, driving the surviving Dwarves into exile.
For almost two hundred years, Smaug hoarded the Lonely Mountain treasures to himself and ruled within the Lonely Mountain, until a company of Dwarves managed to enter the Lonely Mountain and drive him out of hiding. Correctly believing that the dwarves had received assistance from the men of Lake-town in entering the Lonely Mountain, Smaug left the mountain to wreak destruction upon Lake-town, nearly decimating it before being slain by Bard the Bowman.
In The Hobbit film trilogy[]
Smaug is voiced and interpreted with performance capture by Benedict Cumberbatch in Peter Jackson's three-part adaptation of The Hobbit. Smaug is presented with a long head, red scales, enormous wings, and gleaming yellow eyes. The dragon has a deep, resonant voice with an underlying growl.
He appears in the prologue of the first film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, described as a "fire drake from the north" before taking residence in the Lonely Mountain. His full appearance was not shown as only parts of him were glimpsed as he is flying over Dale and partially obscured by the treasure in the Lonely Mountain. He is featured mostly off-screen, only visible are his legs, tail, a small part of his head, and his wings as he flies, which is consistent with Tolkien's illustrations, and his eye, which can be seen in the final scene of the film. In addition, Smaug is a topic of discussion amongst the White Council as Gandalf cites his reason to support Thorin Oakenshield's quest.
When Thorin and Company arrived at the Lonely Mountain and sent their burglar Bilbo Baggins to find theArkenstone unwittingly cause a landslide that unveiled the dragon. Smaug stirred from his sleep amongst the vast pile of treasure, as he was suspcious that someone was in the chamber with him. Although Bilbo was forced to use his One Ring to keep out of sight from the dragon, Smaug immediately was aware of his presence by his scent (which the smell of Hobbit was unknown to him). He began to search for Bilbo, beckoning him to come out from where he was hiding and when Smaug got too close, the Hobbit was overcome with fear and attempted to run, only to alert the dragon, who gave chase after him through the chamber. Bilbo evaded from him and hides behind a massive pillar, still under the cloak of the Ring. Smaug continued his search, and claimed that he was aware of the Ring in Bilbo's possession and that he sensed that Bilbo has something "made of gold, but far more precious," which in turn forced the hobbit to remove the ring in front of him. Smaug was amused by Bilbo's knowledge of who he was, and began his conversation with the Hobbit in order to deduce his origins.
During their conversation, the Hobbit then tried to lie to Smaug by claiming that he no more but a simple traveler who came to the mountain alone to have a stare of him as he didn't believe the tales about him. The dragon later doubted that flattery would keep him alive and asked who he was and where he came from. Bilbo later made his riddle talk by claiming that he "came from under the hill and over hills and under hills his path had" and through the air he was "he who walks unseen", Smaug hardly believed him but asked Bilbo what also did he claim to be and the Hobbit answered that he was the "luck-wearer", "riddle-maker", and "barrel-rider". The dragon then revealed that he knew that the dwarves were outside of the mountain although Bilbo (whose eyes were on the Arkenstone) tried to deny it, but Smaug did not believe his denies. Soon, a cat-and-mouse banter began with Smaug and Bilbo, as he had been made unfavorable comments about Thrór and boasted about his armor and invincibility. Smaug then realized that Thorin, Thrór's grandson, had sent Bilbo for the Arkenstone and revealed to him, that he founded out Thorin's goal "some time ago" and said that it didn't matter because the quest was ultimately futile as he was aware that Sauron was preparing to openly declare himself once more.
Later on, Smaug tried to take away Bilbo's friendship with Thorin by lying to him that the Dwarf was using him and found his fate worth nothing, but the Hobbit refused to believe him. Smaug was intrigued by his word and wanted to know what reward Thorin was willing to give him if he succeeded in finding the Arkenstone and replied that he would never give away any of treasure, not even a single coin. During the game, Smaug disconcerned of the Hobbit's attempt of stealing the jewel and kept Bilbo from catching the Arkenstone and boasted about his superiority, which the Hobbit would notice the missing scale on his "armored" underbelly, and muttered that one ofGirion's Black Arrows did hit one of his scales but later denied it when Smaug asked what Bilbo complemented. Smaug then caught Bilbo's eye on the jewel and claimed that he was almost tempted to let him take it only to let it consume Thorin to madness just like it did to Thrór, though at that point, the dragon then ended the banter with Bilbo and immediately tried to eat him, but Bilbo used his ring to escape and managed to get the Arkenstone while Smaug flew around in rage and unleash a torrent of flames around the treasure chamber in an attempt to roast the Hobbit alive before he can escape.
When Smaug saw Thorin with Bilbo, who pointed his sword at him to see if he found the Arkenstone, the dragon started to charge at him and the other Dwarves who appeared to defend their friends and attempted who charge after them and burn them to death with his fire breath, but they managed to elude him, and Smaug began to silently stalk the abandoned halls in search of them but after the Dwarves avoided him.
Upon realizing he is blocking their only path out of the mountain, the Dwarves hatch a desperate plan to lead Smaug to the Lonely Mountain's forges in hopes that they can trick him into rekindling the smelting vats with his fire breath. They reveal themselves to Smaug, initiating a perilous game of cat an mouse through the halls of the mountain, doing everything in their power to encumber the pursuing dragon as they race towards the entrance to the Lonely Mountain. As Bilbo leads the dragon into the Gallery of the Kings, he is quickly overrun by Smaug, who deduces that Bilbo and the Dwarves were aided by the men of Lake-town, and leaves to destroy the town. As he is leaving, Thorin appears and taunts him, unveiling an enormous, freshly casted golden statue of a dwarf, which distracts the greedy dragon long enough for the statue to melt into liquid gold and engulf him. However, Smaug survives the scalding gold and erupts from the molten pool, roaring that he will show the Dwarves what revenge really is. He then breaks through the walls of the mountain, shakes off his gold coating, and takes flight. Smaug flies off towards Lake-town, and the film ends with him uttering "I am Fire, I am.....Death!" as he soars towards the unsuspecting town, leaving Bilbo and the others in horror at what they have unleashed.
In the opening of the third film, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Smaug, after reaching Lake-town, proceeds to destroy the city for their part in aiding the Dwarves. Bard, having escaped imprisonment from the Master of Laketown, climbs atop the belltower and tries to shoot Smaug with arrows, though each attempt fails, harmlessly bouncing off Smaug's armor. Eventually, Bain, Bard's son, arrives to aid his father with a Black Arrow. Unfortunately, as Smaug flies over, he claws at the tower. With the tower now being half-destroyed, Bard is forced to make a makeshift crossbow using a rope that held bell, some pieces of broken wood, and Bain as a stand. Smaug lands, and looks towards Bard, sneering at his attempts to stop him. Ignoring this, Bard notches the arrow, while Smaug charges him and his son. Bard fires his arrow, which hits Smaug straight in the chest on his weak spot. The dragon stumbles, knocking Bard and Bain off their perch, before flying back up. Clawing and biting at the sky, his internal glow fades as he dies in mid-air. Smaug's body, upon falling to the water, lands on Laketown's corrupt master, killing him.
Even after his death, Smaug's influence is felt throughout the movie. Aside from the damage he inflicted on Lake-Town driving the residents to try and stay in Dale, as Thorin falls under the influence of the dragon sickness, Bilbo begins to hear him speak in Smaug's voice, and Thorin experiences a hallucination of Smaug while walking on the golden floor that they created while trying to 'drown' the dragon.
The dragon was created with key frame animation, meaning it was animated by hand, in addition to Cumberbatch's motion capture performance. Weta Digital employed its proprietary "Tissue" software which was honored in 2013 with a "Scientific and Engineering Award" from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to make the dragon as realistic as possible. Cumberbatch aimed for Smaug's voice to be "that bridge between animal and human, something guttural, deep and rasped, kind of dry as well because of all the fire breathing." He studied reptiles at the London Zoo to prepare for the role.
Smaug was considered the highlight of the second film of the series with several critics hailing it as cinema's greatest dragon incarnation. Universal praise was also given to the visual effects company Weta Digital and the vocal and motion-capture performance of Cumberbatch for bringing a fully realized personality to Smaug.
Personality[]
While his personality is more or less the same as the book, in the movie, Smaug is considerably more malicious and cruel than in the book. He takes much more pleasure in psychologically tormenting Bilbo, choosing to spare him just so that Bilbo can watch Laketown burn, and sarcastically asking him how he would like to die. During his attack on Laketown, Smaug went out of his way to mock and sneer at Bard and Bain. He was also aware of the return of Sauron, and was apparently intent on joining forces with him. Like his book counterpart, Smaug is quite arrogant, and the mere implication that he may possess a weakness made him visibly angry.
Abilities[]
His large size is shown to grant him amazing brute strength, sufficient for him to easily break through the mountain. His armored skin is shown to be nearly impenetrable and his natural endurance for heat is demonstrated by being able to survive being submerged in molten gold. As his stamina is very high, he's able to move fast enough to fly since surviving the melting gold. His senses are good enough that he was able to detect the sound and smell of a Hobbit even when the ring rendered Bilbo invisible to the eye. It is show that his roar is powerful enough to be heard in the village. He was as intelligent as any man, if not more so, and he is able to communicate with people. Visually, Smaug is shown to glow with red light from within when he is about to unleash his fiery breath, same red light emanating from his eyes, only dimming at the moment of the dragon's death. In addition, his sense of gold is shown so great that he managed to feel the One Ring carried by Bilbo, describing it as "something made of gold, but far more... precious". It is possible that he can change how his fire-breath comes out, depending on the usages. In the first film, his fire was more liquid and napalm-like, which had enough power and mass to shatter stone buildings and its blast could spread on the ground. In the second film, his fire is somewhat of a more typical fire or gas-fueled flamethrower-like with immense firepower enough to engulf his own body. It is possible that his breath in the second movie was normal fire because his priority was to kill the intruders, and not to cause destruction, understandably his treasures as well as risk having the mountain fall down on him. Likewise since most of Lake-Town consist of wood as oppose to the stone buildings of Dale, Smaug wouldn't need to rely on his flames to cause destruction but just watch it spread. Even with that limitation, though, his single breath was enough to re-ignite the great forges of Erebor.
Trivia[]
- Smaug appears as the main antagonist in Logan Meets The Hobbit.
- Smaug will become Team Griffin/Eeveelution and their friends' enemies in Brian and the Eeveelution Family's Adventures of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
- The name "Smaug" is presented as a translation of the "original Dalish" Trâgu, and is related to Sméagol/Trahald. The name Smaug is "the past tense of the primitive Germanic verb Smugan, to squeeze through a hole"; others have noted that it has echoes of "smoke" and "smog", though this connection is illusory at best, the "au" phoneme is pronounced like the "ou" phoneme in sound or house. Therefore names such as Sauron or Smaug are pronounced like "Sow-ron "or "Sm-ow-g."
- It is possible that Smaug may have been under the influence of Sauron.
- Smaug will get revenge on Tino Tonitini and his friends in future adventures.
- Smaug will get revenge on Sailor Moon in future adventures.
Gallery[]
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