Heya Nonnie. Read ‘Yours Faithfully.’ I totally went through all of this, and yeah. 

Dain loves his family. But in all the talk of how important Thorin, Fili and Kili are to him, I feel that the guilt would be compounded by something far, far heavier. 

The lives he is charged with protecting. 

If we take the movie stuff as the way things went, then Dain originally said no to the Quest. (in the books? Dain doesn’t even know about the Quest until a raven turns up, ordering him to march to Erebor. Because it was a secret mission. SECRET MISSION.)

I don’t think he would feel guilty about not going on the Quest, tbh. If it hasn’t escaped everybody’s notice, only 13 Dwarves and a Hobbit went on the Quest. 

I don’t see it acknowledged much, but everyone, including every. single. Dwarf. in the Blue Mountains, where Thorin LIVED, said no. 13 Dwarves ONLY. Everyone fucking said no. EVERYONE SAID NO. Everyone. Every. One. It was lunacy. It was generally agreed to be lunacy. Thrain disappeared on this Quest. It was known to be hopeless. Dain is not the only one who said, ‘what the actual fuck, GUYS NO.’

Dain’s people have already been butchered once answering the call of the Elder Line of Durin. (Azanulbizar, the angst that keeps on angsting). The reason Dain’s folk are in the Iron Hills in the first place? THE DRAGON OF THE GREY MOUNTAINS. Yeaaaaah. He tries to protect them, bc he is a good Lord. It’s his duty to care for them. First and foremost, that is the role of a leader. 

y’know, I’ve never seen much sympathy for the folk of the Iron Hills. Expected to die, nothing but faceless cannon fodder in most stories (if they haven’t been villainised and warped beyond reason ofc) – their lives and stories seem to be worth nothing. They’re nothing. Nobody cares for them. Their lives are nothing. Their sacrifices are nothing, and nobody seems to notice that they turn up, fight, die. Turn up. Fight. Die. Die. Die. For homes that aren’t theirs. 

Dain loves his family. 

Dain is also a good Lord. He loves his people. Their lives matter to him. Their sacrifices matter to him. He will not order them to their certain death… not again. Not again. 

For gems and gold and mighty halls, the great will bid us roam,
And each time we obey their call we pray that we’ll come home.

Soon the drums will sound again, and out we’ll walk like cattle,
The Lordly need that iron blood for watering their battle.

But then Thorin orders him. And he goes, of course he goes. Dain’s family is important as well, so off he goes, out they march. To fight. To die. Nobody from the Blue Mountains does a damn thing except benefit, but Dain sends his folk out to fight. To die. For Thorin, for his cousin and King. To win Thorin’s home and crown back for him.

Again.

And it doesn’t even work.

How heavy are those deaths? His people, their lives, loyal soldiers who go out to die, over and over again? His people, those who share his home and his life, those under his protection and in his care? His duty?