A Shot in the Dark
is a The Hobbit Thorin/Bilbo fanfic by Silver_pup.
Bilbo goes to sleep on the voyage to Valinor, and wakes up to find himself back in Bag End, before the Company arrive. He promptly decides to use his knowledge of the future to ensure Thorin, Fíli and Kíli survive - oh, and do something about that One Ring, too.
Contains examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: Bilbo; justified since he's already lived the events of the quest once. Also Kíli, who kills Smaug in this timeline; and Beorn, Bard and Tauriel, who accompany Bilbo on his quest to destroy the Ring.
- All Love Is Unrequited / Two-Person Love Triangle: Bilbo is in love with Thorin, who is in love with Bilbo but thinks Bilbo is in love with someone who died long ago (which is technically true).
- Anger Born of Worry: The entire Company towards Bilbo, after rescuing him from Mordor.
- Berserk Button: Bilbo claims that Smaug went on a rampage because Bilbo said there were some things his fire couldn't melt. This is only partially true.
- Deadpan Snarker: Many characters, but especially Bilbo and Bard.
- Doorstopper: It's fifty chapters and over two hundred thousand words long.
- For Want Of A Nail / In Spite of a Nail: Many events of the quest happen as they did before, though the circumstances are often different.
- Manipulative Bastard: Sauron brought himself and Bilbo back in time, knowing Bilbo would find the Ring and want to destroy it, thus saving him the trouble of hunting for it.
- Oh, Crap!: Bilbo when Smaug recognises the One Ring.
- Sand In My Eyes: Bilbo, when Dori adopts him as his honorary brother.
- Wacky Marriage Proposal: Braiding one of your beads into someone's hair is considered a marriage proposal in Dwarven culture. A lot of awkwardness could have been avoided if Thorin had informed Bilbo of this before doing it.
- Wham Line: Bilbo, to Gollum: "Come and take it! Take the ring and run far away!"
