Subject: But surely...
Author:
Posted on: 2013-08-29 21:16:00 UTC

... that would make it more likely for them to shunt the battle with the Necromancer into Part 3, since otherwise Gandalf would be absent for the first 2/3 of Part 3.

Let's see... of the 19 chapters in the book, Part 1 covered chapters 1-6, roughly. I'd actually forgotten they were covering Beorn, but since he's in the trailers... you're suggesting Part 2 covers chapters 7-12, leaving 7 chapters for Part 3. I'm suggesting Part 2 is 7-14, leaving the last 5 for Part 3. Although, looking at the way it breaks down, Chapter 13 could be pushed forward to after 14 - it covers the finding of the Arkenstone and the absence of Smaug, while 14 covers Smaug's death and doesn't set foot in the Mountain. I think the Arkenstone should definitely be found in Part 3, since it fits better thematically with the B5A leadup.

... you know what? There's an easier way to do this: painstaking analysis! I've just run through the trailer scene by scene. Excluding the text-only sections, we have 38 or so scenes:

-View of the Lake and Mountain (with a boat)
-Statue on the Mountain
-Dwarves looking at ?Dale
-Thranduil's Halls
-Thranduil & Thorin
-Falling barrels
-Bilbo's butterflies
-Elves shooting at barrels
-'The Hobbit: Part 2 - On A Path In Mirkwood'
-Legolas aiming an arrow at Thorin
-Dwarves shutting out ?Beorn
-Tauriel by prison bars
-Tauriel with a bow
-A boat in Lake Town
-Legolas and Tauriel
-Bilbo on a pile of gold
-Gandalf and Radagast at Dol Guldur
-Woodland Halls
-Thranduil's eyebrows
-Legolas walking
-Gandalf looking down a hole
-Elves fighting the White Orc
-Bilbo and spiders
-The hidden door opening
-Someone I'd swear is Legolas in human costume, but is probably Bard, warning Thorin about Smaug
-Gandalf fighting... something
-Legolas and Tauriel fighting orcs
-?Bilbo in the water (this could be Bombur)
-A boot on stone
-A barrel being thrown
-Legolas and Tauriel fighting orcs
-Gandalf fighting
-Tauriel fighting
-Bilbo falling out of a tree
-A jumping orc
-Fighting dwarves in barrels
-Hearing Smaug from the doorstep
-Bilbo meeting Smaug

Running through those and tentatively connecting them to chapters, I get:

7: Queer Lodgings: 1
8: Flies & Spiders: 6
9: Barrels Out of Bond: 16
10: A Warm Welcome: 2
11: On the Doorstep: 5
12: Inside Information: 2
13: Not At Home: 0
14: Fire and Water: 0

Dol Guldur: 4
Unknown: 2

The massive count for 'Barrels Out of Bond' is because I've put all the scenes of Elves in there. I suspect we'll have a whole subplot of Legolas, Tauriel and ?Thranduil bickering about whether to fight Smaug. Or maybe a lot of it's flashback to when they decided not to.

Anyway, it seems you're probably right. ;) They definitely meet Smaug, but there's no evidence of him dying (other than the fact that I remember reading in the mythical Somewhere that Cumberbatch isn't in Part 3). But equally, there's no evidence of a major battle in Dol Guldur - just Gandalf fighting a few half-seen things. Hardly what I'd expect of a concerted White Council effort to drive Sauron out.

hS

(Wait, I was Gandalf! ... and then I died, so I suspect you took over as Gandalf the Blue White)

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