The second installment of Phase 1 of Year 3 of Riddles in the Dark team sees us revisiting The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug one last time. Three key themes are considered in the context of how they will follow through into The Hobbit: There and Back Again: 1) Dark versus Light; 2) Tauriel and Legolas and how they represent the Elvish portion of the story; and 3) Return of the King, Erebor style.

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The Riddles in the Dark team returns for the third and final round of the "how will Jackson tell the story" game. Phase 1, Episode a is a general look back at The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. Corey and Dave coin new terms to describe various ways people have reacted to the films of the trilogy so far, while Trish cracks the whip to keep things on track.

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Part 2: Professor Olsen discusses his reactions to the second Hobbit movie, The Desolation of Smaug

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Part 1: Professor Olsen discusses his reactions to the second Hobbit movie, The Desolation of Smaug

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As The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug is unveiled around the world, Tolkien Professor Corey Olsen, Laura Berkholtz, and Trish Lambert review all the riddles and conundra posed in the second year of the Riddles in the Dark game

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Warming up by looking at some more materail from The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, our Riddles in the Dark co-hosts move on to talk about the extended edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

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Checking out a flood of material released by Peter Jackson for The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug, with a little dissension amongst our Riddles in the Dark co-hosts to spice things up. Note: This was a highly visual episode, as Corey et al. tracked back and forth through the videos being considered. If you prefer to watch the episode rather than just listen to the audio, go to http://www.mythgard.org/?p=5060.

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Considering the fringe characters in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug by way of Lego set interpretation. There is a visual companion PDF for this episode available at http://www.tolkienprofessor.com/documents/ritd2.15VisualCompanion.pdf

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Trish Lambert and Laura Berkholtz take on the weighty theme of bromance in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug.

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Trish Lambert and Laura Berkholtz discuss listener opinions on when Bilbo will reveal the presence of the Ring.

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