Hanging Bear - SPOILERS

[Stranger Wings]

Now, this is very much speculation, but I noticed something in the first shot of the new vlog that is potentially revealing...

Look at the top left-hand corner of the screen. Maybe I am crazy, but I see what clearly looks to be a hairy bear claw. Given its position, and hints from other images we have seen, I am going to hazard a guess that Radagast has happened upon a bear that has been killed, and hung, by a "dark power in Mirkwood." My guess is that the culprit is Azog, who we have already seen with a bear-skin on his back (one that is complete with claws, visible right around his shoulder area). This might also explain Radagast's very serious and tense tone, and his questioning of the bird that may have witnessed the incident.

This would not, of course, be Beorn. However, I imagine it will be revealed as one of the Beornings, and that this incident will link to Beorn's plotline in film 2, where he is characterized as both a hater of the orcs, and someone who is being directly threatened by their growing presence.

What say you?

[Elentári]

Wow - great spot!

Top left foreground, slightly out of focus? Could well be, and your theory makes sense - only, it's Bolg with the bear pelt across his back...we haven't seen Azog yet!

[Dave_LF]

I think you are definitely right about there being a bit of bear hide in the shot. The rest is more speculative, but seems reasonable enough after Elentári's Bolg/Azog substitution.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

And, of course, this leads to wondering about the comments that Mikael Persbrandt made long ago about filming a "torture scene" (that made it seem like he was the one being tortured). I've always figured that was a confusion, but maybe not.

[Frelga]

Well, that's quite a bit of extrapolation, but it sounds plausible enough. Not that anyone in the ME needs any extra reasons to dislike the goblins.

[Stranger Wings]

Wow - great spot!

Top left foreground, slightly out of focus? Could well be, and your theory makes sense - only, it's Bolg with the bear pelt across his back...we haven't seen Azog yet!

Yes, I meant Bolg. Thanks for the correction!

[Stranger Wings]

Well, that's quite a bit of extrapolation, but it sounds plausible enough. Not that anyone in the ME needs any extra reasons to dislike the goblins.

We know, from the book, that Beorn disliked the goblins probably for a number of reasons, but in particular, because Beorn seemed to have been driven out of the Misty Mountains by them in the past (where Gandalf suspects he used to live). So the Beorn of the book did have a personal reason for hating the goblins which revolved around him being exiled (might have something to do with why he immediately recognized Thorin, son of Thrain son of Thror, and may have been sympathetic to him).

What PJ seems to be doing is turning that "old hatred" of the Misty Mountain goblins into an immediate threat from the orcs of Dol Guldur, with bears and other life forms under attack, tortured (re: Persbrandt's comments), and used as pelt (Bolg's accessory). This does have echoes of Bilbo's "furrier" comment in the book, followed by Gandalf swift rebuke.