The Lord of the Cringe

They have the power to bind us all.

Amazon’s ‘The Rings of Power’ Series is Marching the Lore to Mount Doom.

Can’t they leave anything alone?

By now I’m sure you will have seen, or at least heard about Amazon’s series based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. If so, you may also be aware there’s a bit of a backlash at some of the acting choices etc.

Now, as previously touched upon in my article about a Netflix Series for ‘Assassin’s Creed’, where I talked about questionable acting choices for characters in TV/Movie adaptations of much-loved franchises, they look to be doing the same with this series.

noooooooooooooooooo!

Now, as a millennial, pretty liberal (as in the actual meaning of the word, not like that tyrant Trudeau!), “old-school left leaner” type (but who is thoroughly “awake” and “based”), I am not against “diversity and inclusion” in the slightest. In a general sense, I think it’s good. Especially when it’s organic (and especially if it’s fiction…not so sure the lead role of a Nelson Mandela biopic should be Chris Pratt or something) - of course things should represent the makeup of society…variety is the spice of life and all that! I also don’t mind, in general, who plays what. They’re actors. That’s their job. A fictional character in a broad sense can be played by anyone. I am though against the regressive, box ticking, contrived, tokenisation and erasure of “undesirables” that woke identity politics breeds - I find it racist (or sexist etc) to EVERYONE involved.

But again, even then, okay fine whatever…

However, when how characters look and act in a certain way is on purpose and that is fairly integral to them and/or the lore (or at the very least a well established norm that isn’t broken and doesn’t need fixing) I completely understand why so many reactionaries and conservatives, for example, get flustered. It’s not that they’re racists and the like - really it’s the opposite (of course I’m sure some are annoyed simply because they are racists, but they are tiny in minority, it’s really not about that for most), despite what the usual suspects and media would have you believe…

You simply cannot deny there is a very particular thing happening in all media. A “war on culture”, if you like 😉

I also understand, using Tolkien’s world, it’s difficult to be diverse if sticking to the script (well, except for all kinds of creatures and whatnot) and in this day and age it would actually be a bit odd if everyone was “the same” in a major TV show - I myself would be like hmm…

But, for this series, and it’s worth pointing out we know nothing about the characters yet, it feels like they actually missed a trick with their identity politics - they could have made a point without just angering people for the sake of it and losing views.

I’ll give two big examples, firstly their depiction of this Elf:

I’m not an expert on Tolkien Lore - I’ve read the books (many moons ago), watched Peter Jackson’s incredible trilogy (and the not-quite-as-incredible follow up prequel trilogy for ‘The Hobbit’), but I’m confident to say that Tolkien made these Elves as they were originally intended. They were tall, attractive, often with long hair and fair/pale skinned in appearance. However, he didn’t “invent” Elves - they have Germanic (so, European) mythology origins. Long established folklore.

Why I say for the Elf we see, that they’re missing a trick, is because they could have leaned in on the “whiteness” topic they love so much if they’re trying to make a woke political point. Elves undoubtedly, whether they’re “good” or not, have an air of superiority and inherent privilege in Middle-earth. Why not paint many of them in this way, with comments from other characters hinting at, or outright stating this instead? Then the lore is pretty much in tact, and they get to have their “fun” still! 😜

They should have simply made the humans be more “diverse”.

Now let’s move onto the Dwarf woman we see:

…they’ve again missed a trick here. Dwarf women have facial hair. This is reflected in many fantasy works, for example Terry Pratchett’s ‘Discworld’ series. I suppose the above at least isn’t as bad as the casting for Cheery Littlebottom in the TV adaptation ‘The Watch’ (based on ‘City Watch’ within said ‘Discworld’ series), the actual character on the left, the casting on the right:

…u wot?

Utterly ridiculous, I’m sure you’ll agree? A tall beardless male playing a female Dwarf.

As Terry himself wrote; “All dwarves have beards and wear up to twelve layers of clothing. Gender is more or less optional” - woke before his time with this depiction of gender fluidity.

So, just as in the show ‘The Watch’, the makers of ‘The Rings of Power’ series have missed an ample opportunity to convey such a message. Seemingly for the sake of it and to tick a different box.

And I do think this was an intention on the drawing board. I expect it was literally written down and given to all. You see, the works of Dead Old White Men™️ must be desecrated, it brings them a lot of joy. They must shoehorn in as much of their politics as possible - I mean I could just be seeing things, but this promotional image of someone holding a sickle doesn’t feel like a coincidence…

*communism intensifies*

(I actually have some sympathy and affinity with old school *genuine* socialists, but the majority of people calling themselves as such today, literally just want authoritarianism let’s be honest)

Anyway, you’ll also notice it says the series is out September 2nd. Well, as I touched upon above, the works of Dead Old White Men™️ are a target these days. You see, that is the date that J.R.R. Tolkien died:

You may have the opinion that it’s an homage - but why not instead then use his date of birth, or the date his works were first published? Using the day he died is ghoulish. An “up yours” if you will. A direct message to *real* fans and of course their political opponents, that they have the power to do whatever they please…at least in my opinion.

It’s like some kind of jealousy or something. Seriously, you literally can write your own new stuff. But, maybe they can’t. Maybe that’s the point for new creative teams we have these days. Perhaps they’re woefully uncreative and unimaginative; their entire existence based on “identities” and virtue signalling and then stealing other people’s works and trying to mould them into their own. As touched upon in the previous article I already mentioned, they really do want to deconstruct (destroy) and re-imagine these works with their worldview - this is the kind of thing they do at the Tolkien Society Seminars:

Yikes.

To be fair, given the makers barely have any rights to the lore, they probably were forced to resort to their usual recipe for making a show though:

Essentially they’re creating the most expensive TV show ever - and at the end of the day, it’s simply a bad fanfiction by the types you’d find on Reddit!

But, maybe the show will be great? It could be. Casting choices still remain of little consequence in the grand scheme of entertainment (providing they can at least act) even given my points above. I know some are, but I am not offended - I don’t expect anything else these days to be honest. I also don’t have any intention on watching it and didn’t when I first heard about it. Not because it might have a bit of wokeness (it’s not even always necessarily a bad thing), just simply because it sounded incredibly cringe from the start and the promo material doesn’t make me feel I’m particularly wrong - it could genuinely be an insult to this amazing world Tolkien created.

Anyway, I could be wrong…it’s happened like once before 😉

“But in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow; even darkness must pass.”

Now, go read a book or something.