Dwalin/Ori

Dwalin/Ori is a common non-canonical ship from The Hobbit, mostly found in movieverse works. It involves two dwarves from Thorin's Company: Dwalin, a cousin of the Durin line who is portrayed in the movies as a battle-hardened warrior, and Ori, a scribe who is the youngest dwarf in the company (again, according to the movies).
This ship is very commonly a background ship to Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield.Of the 789 Dwalin/Ori works posted to AO3 as of March 3, 2015, 467 included Bilbo/Thorin, 152 included Bofur/Nori (another common background ship), and 125 included Fíli/Kíli. In most cases (though not all) Bilbo/Thorin or Fíli/Kíli was the primary ship, not Dwalin/Ori.
==Origins==
The first Dwalin/Ori works were posted shortly after the release of An Unexpected Journey.The first Dwalin/Ori work on AO3, Five Times Bofur Gave Bilbo His Hat, And The One Time Bilbo Took It by sum_nemo, was posted December 21, 2012. In this work, Dwalin/Ori was a background ship to Bilbo Baggins/Bofur.Dwaling\Ori, first Dwalin/Ori prompt posted to hobbit_kink, on December 22, 2012. "Big strong Dwalin with the smaler Ori in his lap. With lots of kissing and jerking each other off."The first 2 hobbit_kink fills for Dwalin/Ori were for the same prompt: Because we need a bit more variety here... by Anonymous and Fill: Dwalin/Ori, NSFW Part 1 by itsqueenbecky2u, both posted December 24, 2012.The first Dwalin/Ori fic posted to Fanfiction.net was Dwori Drabbles by FrankieSunflower, published on January 13, 2013. The ship received a significant boost from the real life antics of the two actors in set photos and on Twitter.I now ship Graham McTavish and Adam Brown. by deilen-qwyrdd. Posted February 11, 2013. Interest in the ship picked up over the next 3 months,The Tumblr blog fyeahorwal was created February 11, 2013. and the ship's fans held their first celebration, Week of Orwal, on March 3-9 of 2013.Week of Orwal by fyeahorwal, posted February 21, 2013.
The main two moments of interaction between Dwalin and Ori on screen were when Dwalin gave Ori his warhammer to fight the Goblins in Goblin Town, and when Dwalin stepped between Ori and Bard of Laketown when Bard surprised the dwarves after they climbed out of the barrels.
==Fandom Tropes==
* Ori's Honor - Due to Dori's mother hen behavior and Dwalin's general roughness, many works have Dori threatening Dwalin with a shovel talk or considerably worse. This threat actually has teeth, as Dori is the strongest member of the company despite Dwalin's fighting prowess. Many works don't even include a scene with a threat; they simply have Dwalin fretting about the possibility of one and therefore either hiding his relationship with Ori or acting as the perfect gentleman.
* Age Difference - Dwalin is usually depicted as much older than Ori, with this sometimes forming an obstacle to their relationship (usually on Dwalin's side). To emphasize this, in fics Ori often calls Dwalin "Mr. Dwalin", and Dwalin often calls Ori "lad"; many fics resort to the classic epithets "the younger man" and "the older man".
* Size Difference - Along with the ages, Dwalin is visually much larger than Ori, which is a common kink to include in mature or explicit works. This trope has been present since the beginning of the ship.
* Giant Softie - In Dwalin/Ori works, Dwalin often looks vicious but is actually a giant marshmellow inside. This may be played for laughs, romance, or angst, especially if Dwalin doesn't feel worthy of Ori (which is almost always).
* Uke Ori - Ori is almost always the bottom, usually the pursued, and frequently conforms to multiple uke traits.dwori:When people write in their fic… exchange between Dwori and Donytello. Dwori: "But I have seen it way too many times. People like writing Ori as this ~*~delicate uke flower~*~ and I just…" Donytello: "he’s so far from a delicate flower. he’s just very polite, as he was raised, and on the soft-spoken side. but he’ll also fight you. HE WILL FIGHT YOU IF HE WANTS TO ARGUE ABOUT IT." However, there are works that deliberately subvert this, either by having Ori become more confident in the course of the work itself, as in Indelible by leaper182, or by having Ori be secretly worldly all along.
* Taciturn Dwalin - Dwalin's tendency not to speak much is exaggerated in many Dwalin/Ori works, sometimes as a way to encourage miscommunication between the two, sometimes to support the idea of Dwalin pining, and sometimes to play up the differences between them (in the last case, Ori is usually more talkative).
* Tattoos - Dwalin's tattoos often become a plot point in modern AUs, where he might be a tattoo artist or Ori might find them fascinating.
* Gifts - As a subset to the general theme of dwarves giving each other courtship gifts, Dwalin and Ori frequently attempt gifts, often with humorous results because they're so different. One of Ori's common gifts is knitwear, as in Just a cute little Dwori comic. by twilight-deviant. Sometimes Dwalin tries to reciprocate, with typically hilarious results.
* Insecurity - Typically suffered by both characters for different reasons, this is often the single biggest obstacle to them getting together.
===Reactions of Other Characters===
Ignorance is Bliss by Galadraen shows a common interpretation - that Nori starts off protective of Ori but hides it well and ends up supporting the pair, while Dori is initially quite unhappy and either ignores or looms over them.
==Fanworks==
===Archives===
* Dwalin/Ori podfic on Audiofic
* Fyeahorwal on Tumblr
* Dwalin+Ori on Fanfiction.net
* Dwalin/Ori on Archive of Our Own
* Dwori on deviantArt
* Dwori tag and Orwal tag on Tumblr
* pairing:dwalin/ori, pairing:dwalin/fem!ori, pairing:fem!dwalin/fem!ori, and pairing:fem!dwalin/ori on hobbit-kink's Pinboard
===Example Fancomics===
* yOU PRECIOUS THINGS by mhaikkun
* Just a cute little Dwori comic. by twilight-deviant
===Example Gifset===
* Dwalin protecting Ori at the river. by anunexpectedhotdwarf
===Example Fanart===
* Dwalin/Ori is my OTP right now. by lanimalu
===Example Fanfiction===
* Indelible by leaper182
* Ink by calenmir
* Bride and Bridegroom by Elsajeni
* Anything for Family by sum_nemo
* One Hit by littlebrownshoe
==References==
Category:Tolkien Relationships
Category:Slash Pairings