“There really were two key aspects to Dwalin’s character that we saw in the final chapter of ”The Hobbit”: the gruff, dour warrior that we had come to know throughout the trilogy, and a man of intense loyalty with a huge heart. That loyalty was pushed to its limits by what he witnessed from Thorin. Like the rest of the Company, he donned his resplendent armor and prepared to fight for his king, but Thorin’s actions shook his faith, and he couldn’t stay silent. Unable to watch his king and closest friend descend into madness, he confronted Thorin in the throne room.”
“Dwalin had always been Thorin’s good sergeant major, seeing the orders of his commander carried out with unquestioning loyalty, standing front and centre, shoulder to shoulder with Thorin in any battle, never doubting his motives or integrity. He was a true believer in their cause, in what it meant to be a Dwarf of Erebor, but Thorin’s actions once they had reclaimed the Mountain gnawed Dwalin. The return to the Mountain should have been a celebration, but it was falling apart. There was a growing sense of shame, which he could not abide.”
“In the end Dwalin was really the only one who could confront Thorin, and he could only do it alone. He would never shame Thorin in front of the others, but by being alone with him he could tell him the absolute truth; “I have followed you to the end, but now…” There were some lines we shot that didn’t make the theatrical cut of the film, but which I loved. Thorin said to Dwalin “I am your King”, and my response was “By my consent you ruled”. What Dwalin was saying was not that he could take over, but that he and the others followed him willingly, not out of duty but because they believed in Thorin, because they trusted him, but that was gone now. We weren’t fighting, we weren’t in a big crowd – it was a very nice, intense scene between two characters that have been through so much together.”
- Graham McTavish, “The Hobbit Chronicles: The Art of War”