“Late Show With David Letterman” 2014
Let's jump into one of my all-time favorite scenes in DOS. The end of the barrel scene when they come ashore. It really marks another milestone in Thorin and Bilbo's relationship. See below. Thorin can't keep his eyes off Bilbo. He's completely enamored by him and moves to be closer to him almost every chance he gets from this point forward. I had to shorten this gif by over 3 seconds to make it fit; that's how long he stares unblinkingly at Bilbo. Until the end of this gif, Bilbo isn't even the one talking. Balin is, so it's not like he's staring at the person talking.
And if you think I'm exaggerating by saying unblinking, here is a close-up gif of the first time Thorin blinks in the last 30 seconds. It's not until Dwalin breaks his line of sight!
Right after the above, we see Bard sneak up on Ori, and some chaos ensues. Bard has his arrow trained on the crowd and has demonstrated his proficiency with it. The shot pans out over dwarves' reactions for mere frames. It does this back and forth twice, as seen below.
Bilbo and Thorin are nowhere to be found. The spot they occupied moments ago is empty because you can see Balin. That brings us to the below. The first thing Thorin did when he saw there was danger was rush to Bilbo. He is quite literally pressing himself as close as he can to his side.
From this moment forward in the movie, Thorin stays remarkably close to Bilbo at all times if he can help it. Don't get me wrong he was fond of Bilbo before this but after the events of Mirkwood, this dwarf tripped down a river and into smitten.
I think he came to terms with how much he loved Bilbo in these few moments.







