Yeah, the moose and then Thranduil's pokey crown -- once you get used to it, it really adds to Mirkwood's unique "personality" and aesthetic.

Smaug did pretty well for himself ... and now I'm wondering if he was related to Ancalagon at all. I suppose he was the last of the dragons, though?

And ah, that does make sense to explain the apparently sudden and inexplicable movie portrayal of Thror's decline ("and one day, Thror woke up on the wrong side of the bed and it all went wrong from there"). Now I think about it of course it couldn't have been quite as abrupt as that, and having it be attributed to a ring instead of something intrinsic in Thor Thror also makes more sense. We're never really shown what the effects of the dwarf-rings were -- presumably somewhere between the Three and the Nine -- I always assumed that the dwarves wouldn't be affected that much, so I didn't make the connection myself, but I am not sure where I got that idea from?