The final offender in Jackson's Hobbit films is so inane, unnecessary and annoying that the other four entries above combined don't even come close to the irritance that is the character of Alfrid. The Lake-Town citizen is already gaining a less-than-stellar reputation among fans of the series and book alike as being The Hobbit's version of Star Wars' Jar Jar Binks, and it's not particularly difficult to see why. First introduced alongside Stephen Fry's excellent performance as the mayor of Lake-Town, Alfrid is billed as the snivelling, cowardly deputy of the mayor, doing whatever he can to avoid getting his own hands dirty. Jackson got the character's balance between comic relief and genuine threat just right in The Desolation Of Smaug, and that was fine - the character didn't receive enough screen time to become annoying. However, the dirty lech returned for The Battle Of The Five Armies, commanding far more on-screen time than before for absolutely no reason. Yes, Alfrid's return was intended purely as a form of comic relief between serious scenes in the film, but the effort fell almost completely flat. More annoyingly, the main characters of the film (Bilbo, Gandalf and Dain, to name just a few) have various comedic scenes throughout the final film that feel more natural and infinitely more funny that anything Alfrid does on-screen. Begone Alfrid, you should have perished along with the rest of Lake-Towns ruling class. With the Hobbit trilogy now at an end, are there any changes made in the three films that, in retrospect, you thought were pretty cool? Are there even more things that Jackson changed that you hate that aren't listed here? Let us know in the comments below.
Joe is a freelance games journalist who, while not spending every waking minute selling himself to websites around the world, spends his free time writing. Most of it makes no sense, but when it does, he treats each article as if it were his Magnum Opus - with varying results.
