I'm rewatching LotR this week, and I really, really like the way the first two hobbit movies work with the LotR. Watching all six in sequence will be an incredible experience, once we have full, extended editions of the hobbit movies. They've done a great job highlighting a lot of the thematic strains from LotR.
There's one thing I'm really excited for in the last film: the fate of Thrain II, and in particular his ring. One of the 7 rings given to the dwarves by Sauron. In the extended edition of the An Unexpected Journey, this ring is referenced as being missing when Gandalf, Saruman, Galadriel and Elrond are talking. There's a shot in the trailer for Desolation of Smaug that I don't think made it into the movie, of a very wild-looking man leaping onto Gandalf, which I think is a Thrain II encounter we'll see in the extended version of DoS. A conclusion in There and Back Again could tie together Thrain II, Thorin, Bilbo seeing the consequences of corruption in another ring-bearer, and the history of the rings and the risks of them, which would then be a perfect lead in to Galadriel's voiceover at the beginning of LotR. In the appendices, there's also mention of Sauron's envoy going to Dain II and offering him three remaining Dwarven rings, which Dain declines.
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