In just a matter of weeks, director Peter Jackson's second go-round in the world of Middle-earth will come to a conclusion with the arrival of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Though debate continues to rage on over whether or not splitting J.R.R. Tolkien's modest story into a trilogy was a necessary endeavor, audiences have nonetheless flocked to the films, with the trilogy-ender destined to take the box office by storm. Two years ago, An Unexpected Journey swept people away in a relatively charming introduction full of songs, humor and a lot of innocent fun. Last year's The Desolation of Smaug began taking audiences -- and its characters -- down a much darker path that ended with a bleak promise of bad things to come that The Battle of the Five Armies is set to fulfill. With Smaug bound to Lake-town to rain down fire and death upon its people, Sauron regaining his strength in Dol Guldur and, of course, the titular battle looming ahead, gloomy days are incoming that will leave a number of the trilogy's characters dead before Bilbo Baggins ever begins his journey back home. Due to our knowledge of what happens throughout the course of The Lord of the Rings, we're well aware that quite a few characters are safe no matter how many times the films attempt to put them in peril. With this article, we'll take a look at a handful of characters who aren't so lucky and whose fates are definitely sealed, as well as those whose ambiguity either in Tolkien's works or as Jackson and company's own creations could very well spell their doom. Be warned, for this article is quite spoiler heavy.
Writer, film enthusiast, part-time gamer and watcher of (mostly) good television located on the fringe of Los Angeles, who now has his own website at www.highdefgeoff.com!
