The more Hobbit fiction I read, the more troubling trends I found, and thought I needed to put my thoughts down, and maybe give Hobbit fan writers some food for thought. Here goes.

A lot of Hobbit fans are getting on this boat, without even realizing it, I think.

"What Dwarf bashing?" you might ask. Where, here's the what and why:

1. Gold sickness: Ain't. no. such.
In the book, it was a curse laid down by Smaug, and very much pulling from Very Old Traditions. In the Ring Cycle, the dragon Sigfried killed was a transformed Dwarf who had brooded long over a coveted cursed ring (hence the name 'Ring Cycle'...what? you thought the One Ring was the first? Hah!)

So, Crazy Thorin (and it wasn't just Thorin, so we're clear) was due to a Dragon Curse. Not a 'fatal flaw' in his genetics, not 'greed of his ancestors' or 'flaw of his race'.
Nope.
Just a Dragon induced curse that dissipated over time as the treasure was aired out and shared.

2, Cursed Arkenstone

Seriously, the heck? It was a large stone that showed the wealth of the mountain and the craft of the Dwarves that lived there. It was pretty much a family heirloom, and suddenly everybody wants to smash it? Go smash Granny's fine china. It'd mean the same thing.

Actually, I MUCH prefer Scribe of Erebor's take on the Arkenstone. Much cooler. (Do yourself a favor and visit this amazing author, if you like your Hobbit fiction well researched and well written).

3. The Dwarves asked for it for being Greedy.

Really? So, Elves can fight and feud over their precious Silmarils, and hug their trees, and that's all fine and dandy, but Dwarves can't be rewarded for being industrious, proud of their craft, and feel a connection to the very stones that birthed them? The heck kind of double standard is this?

Honestly, this strikes me as a serious case of "blame the victim". I, personally, put this train of thought in the same barrel as 'the twin towers were asking for it.' The one is as true as the other.

I'm American, feel free to insert any terrorist tragedy. Lord knows there's too many, and all equally undeserving of having happened.

How dare those Dwarves be prosperous, and make the Dale prosperous, and share their good fortune with the Free peoples around them (including the elves, until that whole necklace thing).
Even Tolkien didn't do that in the Hobbit, and he compared Dwarves unfavorably to Jews. Our illustrious author might have had a bit of a racism problem there.

Which leads us to

4. The heck did making Thror gold crazy come from? It weren't in the book, and

5. Thrain's madness is understandable and not a function of genetic weakness, given what all he'd suffered.

a. Mountain invaded by Smaug, losing kith, kin, and home in a single night.

b. Abandoned by allies: where's all them people they were sharing the wealth and trade gone?

Okay, so the Dale humans were in the same boat , but they weren't the only ones benefitting

from the Dwarves prosperity.

c, Father beheaded before his eyes, and, if that ain't enough

d. baby boy (Frerin) killed in the same battle.

Soldiers coming with PTSD had less happen to them. I'd say the Dwarf was overdue a nervous breakdown.

In my further defense of how awesome Tolkien Dwarves are, consider Thrain.

Gandalf was worried about that nasty Dragon taking up with Mordor. Thrain had been lost in the Necromancer's clutches with both key and map until he was able to pass it off to Gandalf. Long after he'd forgotten his own name to the horrors visited on him by Sauron and his goons, he kept the map and key safely hidden. Surrendering the map and key would have allowed Sauron to take the mountain, and attack from two fronts with a fricking Dragon.
Talk about an unsung hero of Arda.