Radagast in The Hobbit Film (SPOILERS)

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by cellurdur

I hated Radagast in the film (though I supported his appearance). He was just not what a member of the Istari should have been. There is one thing loving animals, but it is another having no dignity. If anything in the books he comes across as slightly snobbish with the way he looks down at the Shire. Having bird drops on his head was not only disgusting but beneath a Maia. I will not even mention the use of mushrooms as a psychedelic drug. Was very disappointed with him in the film.

Do wizards need such a pathetic thing as dignity? I say 'pathetic' because surely a wizard, in Tolkien's creation or indeed in any other writer's, is an inherently powerful being, much more so than a mere Man. 'Dignity' is something we humans need to set ourselves above or apart from the common herd and wizards by their nature have no need of that.

McCoy's portrayal of Radagast is not unlike a lot of figures in folklore - eccentric, unfathomable, even a bit disgusting.

As for him being 'silly', it puzzles me that when Jackson chose to excise the 'silly' things from the essentially very serious Lord of the Rings text, such as Tom Bombadil, he was praised. Yet when he chooses to echo the incredibe silliness of the text of The Hobbit, he is lambasted.

I wasn't keen on a hedgehog being named 'Sebastian' as the name was a bit jarring (I associate it with Brideshead Revisited and posh people's children), though I have my suspicions that might be McCoy's idea or an in-joke somewhere along the line.

[Hookbill the Goomba]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

I wasn't keen on a hedgehog being named 'Sebastian' as the name was a bit jarring (I associate it with Brideshead Revisited and posh people's children), though I have my suspicions that might be McCoy's idea or an in-joke somewhere along the line.

Indeed it is! Or so he said when I heard him talk at a Doctor Who convention a few months back.

But Sebastian isn't so bad. I mean, we've got the trolls; Burt, Tom, William; Bill the pony (and Myrtle, Daisy etc), so it doesn't seem so jarring to me in that context.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Hookbill the Goomba

Indeed it is! Or so he said when I heard him talk at a Doctor Who convention a few months back.

But Sebastian isn't so bad. I mean, we've got the trolls; Burt, Tom, William; Bill the pony (and Myrtle, Daisy etc), so it doesn't seem so jarring to me in that context.

My geek-dar is in tune then and I was correct

I suppose I just really do not like the name 'Sebastian' because I associate it with snooty beggars. Because Tom, Bert and William have no jarring effect on me at all! Though....Tolkien does use names like Sam, which is also a fairly ordinary name. I can't think of any other characters with names similar to or the same as real life toff's names.

[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

My geek-dar is in tune then and I was correct

I suppose I just really do not like the name 'Sebastian' because I associate it with snooty beggars. Because Tom, Bert and William have no jarring effect on me at all! Though....Tolkien does use names like Sam, which is also a fairly ordinary name. I can't think of any other characters with names similar to or the same as real life toff's names.

St. Sebastian is the patron saint of hedgehogs. St. Sebastian, if you recall, was martyred by being shot through with arrows; ie., he was a human pincushion; ergo, pincushions and hedgehogs are alike.

As far as Snooty Hobbit names, there are several, such as Sancho, Fredegar, Mirabella, Ferdinand, Rosamunda (Spanish), Otho, Hugo (Norman), Everard (Burgundian), Gerontius (Latin), Gordaboc, Gormadoc, Meriadoc (Welsh), Ordovacar (Gothic), Sigismond, Adalrida (Germanic).

Still, Sebastian sounds off, particularly since Radagast is a Maia with no upper middle class Hobbit friends and no Spanish in his background. Just weird and yet another jarring moment in TH:AUJ.

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

St. Sebastian is the patron saint of hedgehogs. St. Sebastian, if you recall, was martyred by being shot through with arrows; ie., he was a human pincushion; ergo, pincushions and hedgehogs are alike.

As far as Snooty Hobbit names, there are several, such as Sancho, Fredegar, Mirabella, Ferdinand, Rosamunda (Spanish), Otho, Hugo (Norman), Everard (Burgundian), Gerontius (Latin), Gordaboc, Gormadoc, Meriadoc (Welsh), Ordovacar (Gothic), Sigismond, Adalrida (Germanic).

Still, Sebastian sounds off, particularly since Radagast is a Maia with no upper middle class Hobbit friends and no Spanish in his background. Just weird and yet another jarring moment in TH:AUJ.

Even the inbred and insane English upper classes don't use names like those! Hugo perhaps, though that's a bit 'trendy' nowadays. They all sound far too sinisterly Celtic or Iberian for the English to use them.

I'm waiting for the extended DVD so I can hear what McCoy has to say about it (well, what he has to say about anything really, since he's always worth listening to).

[Morsul the Dark]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

St. Sebastian is the patron saint of hedgehogs. St. Sebastian, if you recall, was martyred by being shot through with arrows; ie., he was a human pincushion; ergo, pincushions and hedgehogs are alike.
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this knowledge shall be repeated many times tomorrow