The Year of the Dwarf

We’re well into 2014 and though some of you may still feel like you’re still experiencing the longest 2013 winter on record, I have some insights that may warm your hearts long enough to take the edge off the biting chill.  The Chinese may have given 2013 the name of the dragon (or snake, depending on who you ask), but this year clearly belonged to the dwarves.

And a little one shall lead them…

Tyrion Lanister (and the actor that plays him) is undoubtedly the most loved character in GOT (except maybe Arya Stark… MAYBE).  His character is so popular that one of the posters for the upcoming season 4 “Game of Thrones” features the most popular dwarf in fandom, and not just because he’s the only sane person in the whole house of Lannister, but he’s also the most interesting.

But HBO doesn’t corner the market on interesting dwarf characters.  2013 was FULL of dwarves.  More than you have ever seen in one year on the t.v. screen, I’ll bet.

Middle Earth dwarves–no longer just for witty one liners or beard jokes.

I actually haven’t heard a beard joke yet… actually…now that I think about it…

The first Hobbit movie was clearly about Bilbo, as it should be–after all the story is named THE HOBBIT.  But the Second movie was clearly about the dwarves.  Now, give Peter Jackson some credit.  He couldn’t have possibly known how popular Tyrion Lannister (or Peter Dinklage) would be.  It’s some serious foresight to hit the “year of the Dwarf” at the same time that GOT fandom did.  But Peter Jackson kicked it up a knotch.  No offense to the Dinklege, but he’s sexy in a superior intellect, sensitive guy sort of way, not in the looks department.  Peter Jackson’s dwarves are the really hot, super sexy males that also kick ass in armor sort of guys–PLUS (lets not forget this), they were obviously way ahead on the beard trend that is so hot today–so ahead that they don’t make any beard jokes.

Du bekàr! Du bekár!

While Fili (the blond) is just there to provide the necessary emotional angst that a good looking dwarf should necessarily have, his brother Kili (the dark broody looking one) is so attractive that an immortal elf (who has probably run into thousands of hot looking men, elves and hobbits in her lifetime), has decided to break thousands of years of hate and enmity between elves and dwarves and fall for the hottest guy under four feet tall in Middle Earth.  Most of you who have read the book or seen the old Bashki version of the Hobbit knows that (though this love affair never existed in the book) this relationship is doomed–and not because of the whole Dwarf/Elf rivalry thing.  Mostly because it’s hard to continue a romance when you are (spoilers ahead if you are one of the few people in the universe who doesn’t know the story of “The Hobbit”) DEAD — which we will see this year, including more of the Dinklege and all his awesomeness in Season 4 of Game of Thrones.

Admit it.  You’re watching for  the Dwarves. (Or Dwarfs if you are using spellcheck and you don’t agree with the way that D&D spells the plural of Dwarf).

My conclusion, because you should necessarily keep a blog post about dwarves relatively short, is that 2013 may have been the year of the dragon, but 2014 is clearly the year of the dwarf.