The Hobbit: 10 Dumbest Character Decisions

One of the greatest heroes of the entire trilogy, and in Middle-earth in general, is Bard the Bowman. It was he that killed Smaug the Terrible, who could have easily reigned terror on the entire country should he not have been stopped by that fateful black arrow.

As the ancestor of Girion, the man who was so close to defeating the dragon all those years ago, this almost felt like fate. So much so that Bard even kept a black arrow hidden in his home, seemingly for just the occasion of Smaug’s return.

Though he was imprisoned when the great dragon began his descent on Lake Town, he soon escaped and made his way up to the top of the bell tower. However, he took with him just a bow and a quiver of arrows, nothing that would ever have a chance of piercing the hide of Smaug.

It was only when his son, Bain, brought him the black arrow that he seemed to remember it even existed at all.

You may say that there wasn’t time to go home for it, but in the time it took to waste all of his arrows pointlessly trying to kill the beast, he could have gone and got the one weapon that actually had a chance to kill him.