The Hobbit - Forgiving and Forgiveness

With my last post, I was rather harsh with my critique of the religious aspect of "The Hobbit", as it is written and composed by J.R.R. Tolkien.
I hold that grudge for a while now and was really astonished to find the book such a recommended literature for moral guidance of young teens, when in my opinion it did not give one single useful instruction or aspect to find a way in my own life.

The Hobbit film in comparison, made lots of the non-existent background in the story perceptible, the characters understandable, though still, their life is quite far apart from our daily experiences.
I would like to have seen my last boss, if I had taken up a sword and held him at bay, when his demands became strange and unreasonable.
Perhaps such a cave like Golum's would work for him?
What a pleasant idea that is ;o) - Just joking! I am really a rather nice person, or at least I thought to be, till I went in to see the film.
Yes, not the film, but what transpired before it began, changed my mind about myself a great bit.
I was forgiven by the person, who I wronged, but the difficult part is inside myself.
I have not forgiven myself for acting in such a way.

As this now had quite some time to grow and nag inside of me, I turned it around, observed and analysed it from all sides and still came out with no solution.
But the nagging inside of me brought me to combine two things together, which brought me to new answers, even if not to the solution of my initial problem.
Like Servetus on her blog so wonderfully describes seeing parallels in RA's roles with one's own life as a very helpful method to understand more of one's own problems.
And that I did ... - though the past cannot be changed, whatever the intentions or resolutions come up with.

But now to the answers and no more about my unchangeable problem:

What, if Thorin Oakenshield had regrets about the past, even if they were only small ones', like a bad word to his ill/mad grandfather or not obeying his father in a little thing, before the dragon Smaug came and captured their land?
He would not, if he were anything like me, be able to ever let go of the past in that case.
I remember my faults of when I was 4 years old, especially when I am down and depressed and then I have nightmares about them all combined or separately, just how they can strike me best.
How much more must a lost land, unprotected and dead grandfather and lost father bind Thorin Oakenshield to his past, must haunt him in nightmares, must nag at him with questions of what if's?

We only had glimpses into this depths in RA's eyes. I am looking forward to more of it in the future parts, to the abyss he will reveal on the further journey, to the fight outside and within himself, that makes him such a great character, though a very hard role to play. I have the highest respect for Richard Armitage that he took this character to such heights and took his haunted background up to full extent.

This for me is also the element, where the film starts with much more depths than the a bit funny Thorin Oakenshield of the book, always getting into a mess whenever he commands, could ever hope to have.
This is where I am exceedingly thankful, that this material got into the able hands of Sir Peter Jackson and his team, who made this a story with a moral, though enjoyably not in an instructive, but in a very entertaining and interesting way.

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A behind the scenes footage about "The Hobbit" I enjoyed very much, but which contains many (!) SPOILERS:



Collider.com (04.12.2012): 20 Minutes of Behind-the-Scenes Footage from the Making of THE HOBBIT by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub