In this week's episode the guys share their experiences with the world famous story, The Hobbit. This is one of the guys' favorites and they look forward to sharing what they love about it with you.

INTRODUCTION: In this episode's introduction the guys share about a variety of their different interests from pickling to board games. They wind up talking about strange injuries through all of this as well. Take a look back behind the curtain as the guys talk about going "Under the Influence," sharing what helps get them in the groove for their creative processes. 

THE HOBBIT: The Hobbit is one of the greatest children's stories ever told and there are many different reasons as to how the guys go about sharing this. INITIAL IMPACT: Zach and Cody begin their discussion of the Hobbit sharing about what initially got them into the story when they were young. The film success of the Lord of the Rings was a contributing factor in getting them to pick up the book, but the fast-paced and relatable storytelling is what got their 10-year-old-selves to stick with the story. 

STORY SUMMARY AND THEMES: Going through the summary of the story the guys share what some of their favorite components are to the Hobbit. The relatability that the average person has to Bilbo Baggins is what makes this story so intriguing. Unlock Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit does not have stakes of world shattering proportions. Even though the quest is dangerous, the Dwarves go on their journey to get rich  and they need someone who can sneak them the treasure out from the mountain. Bilbo does not need to get involved in the quest in order to save the world, but rather to test the waters and find out if there is a different type of life that he would like to have for himself. 

HISTORY OF THE HOBBIT: The guys share some knowledge about the history of the Hobbit that might not be common knowledge to the average person. Examples of this are that Tolkien's epic was originally written for his Children, never really meant to be published across the world. Tolkien was a man who loved to escape into his writing and he was not highly concerned with becoming famous in the world of Academia. There is much to be learned about the history of the Hobbit which is equally as interesting as the tale itself.

LASTING APPEAL: Timeless is the easiest way to describe the guys' feelings towards this children's tale. It's a book that both Zach and Cody feel like they can pick up and read at any time and it doesn't necessarily have to be begun right at the beginning. Some books are just stories but, to Cody specifically, this book feels like a companion to life. 

THE HOBBIT FILM CRITIQUE: While The Hobbit is one of the greatest children's stories, the love of this story ends with the book and does not carry over into the film adaptations. From not clearly defining who they wanted the audience to be to dealing with overwhelming deadlines, the film series was setup to be a disaster. While the movies did well at the box office, they were unable to capture they same allure that Middle Earth brought us in its sibling series, The Lord of the Rings.

Thank you so much for checking out Parallel Quest. This is a production of Steel Lake Studio. We don't just have one podcast though, we are a team of storytellers trying to use a variety of different mediums to tell stories that we have been working on our whole lives. If you would like to check out more of what we do, check out https://www.steellakestudio.com/

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