I was 14 when I was reading the Silmarillion and The Book of Lost Tales, which also told of the second age war against sauron in more detail. I wouldn’t like this then, and I don’t like it now. The Istari were present in that war, gandalf should be in this! Tolkien wrote the original stories of Middle Earth… he wrote its history, created that history’s key characters and historical heroes, if these people want to bring those stories to TV, then they should USE the key characters HE MADE FOR THAT HISTORY! Isildur and Elf King, Gilgalad should be the main characters, not the s***** original Amazon is making, it’s NOT story, they’re just supposed to be retelling it. Also, I am not racist, I repeat NOT racist, but those are original characters of Amazon’s appear to be a little tan to be of the Westron Men of Arnor, Gondor, or Rohan; might be Asian, North African, South American, or even Mexican… Tolkien’s writings were supposed to be a mythology for England, with Middle-Earth being a prehistoric version of Europe, in which the entire population was Caucasian; this would be for other ethnicities would start settling in their lands, so Amazon is already f****** it up by trying to please ethnic the diversity, and anti-sexism. I keep looking at that Dwarf Princess and thinking, “she looks so stupid”… Couldn’t figure out why, until now… It’s because talking didn’t just write stories, he wrote detailed stories with multiple cultures with their own languages and customs. Tolkien’s Dwarves were a very secretive race that hid their women, her existence should even be known, and Elf princess makes more sense then her, and even that is a bit of a stretch… I suppose, they’re even going to have galadriel fight which really wouldn’t be within her character either, regardless of what they have shown in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit… What she did in The Hobbit could be considered extreme measures for her, done out of desperation, but from the dialogue in the books, she would not have used her ring in the first war against sauron. When talking to frodo in the book she said that the moment that they since that Sauron can control the rings the elves all immediately took their rings off and hid them away. So it makes sense that she would not use her ring in this war, but she could have used it after Sauron lost his ring, like in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, because Sauron could not control what she did with her ring at that time. But this story would be different because Sauron has his ring. What’s more, galadriel is actually already seen centuries of war by this time, she was a Side character in the Silmarillion, long before Sauron even rose to power. However, she never fought then. And she shouldn’t fight now, not yet… I know a lot of people I think this sounds sexist, but I am not sexist, but I got news for you… Before anybody starts to b**** about what I am saying, I am not speaking against women, I’m speaking against inaccuracy. Again as I said before these stories are supposed to be based off of what talking intended to be a mythology for England, and by extension all of Europe. And Europeans in general WE’RE SEXIST AND THOSE TIMES! Their societies had a specific structure the women minded the house and did not fight, rarely if ever, and the man protected them and fought in the wars… Even Peter Jackson touched on this and how he betrayed Eowyn, in The Two Towers, whether wanting to fight so badly but feeling that she would be denied it. In fact, he was actually very tame about this, and it actually should have been displayed much stronger more strongly in their cultures. From the use of armor and medieval weaponry these cultures were clearly based off of semi-civilized medieval European culture, which followed this structure concerning men and women, unlike the wild and tribal Celts in which women fought alongside men commonly and this was because they were actually a more Savage culture, that is not a bad thing it just means that they were more natural if you have the means to fight to defend you those you love you will do it this is your basic nature, but nature such as this was repressed in ancient medieval culture where they used law that was written by overprotective men, nonetheless these forms of law existed in Tolkien’s cultures, and should be displayed in the retelling of his stories… But because Amazon wants to please everybody and try not to offend those who should not be offended but understand that this is how things were back then, it looks like it’s not going to happen… This is why I don’t like modern day stories of medieval times… Because they are told according to how we live today to please people who are living today, and the story gets warped and perverted… I see no difference here, just another disappointment.
“Since the official teaser trailer was released during the Super Bowl and Amazon gave first looks at numerous characters, controversies have consumed the work of Tolkien.”
Nope. The so-called “controversy” is 100% centered on AMAZON’S work, specifically because they’re not actually using Tolkien’s work.
Lol sounds like you have no idea what you’re talking about. The neckbeards moaning online are literally doing it because of the characters they’ve shown off…..I wonder why
Given that Tolkien spoke at length about the sources and inspirations for his works the people you’re mocking are correct. If you knew anything about his works you would understand but it seems you’re just as ignorant as Amazon. What they’ve shown is just as stupid as a Viking show with a bunch of Japanese samurai.
Lol. Sounds like Jim is the one that has no idea what he is talking about. Just another SJW supporting another SJ production. How about they stick to the source material and please the tens of millions of fans worldwide or continue as they are but use a different name instead of corrupting JRT’s work.
Problem is Amazon don’t have the rights to Lord of the Rings or the Silmarillion or even the Unfinished Tales. The can only develop things from the appendices of Lord of the Rings. There’s not much of Tolkien in these pages to begin with. They are his sketches and references to his other work. Stray to close to the source material and they face litigation.So by default it has to be diluted. They may as well spend a trillion dollars on it but it will always be tolkienesque not Tolkien.
He is partly right . Amazon only have the rights to the appendixes from the book and can only use that content within their series . Which is why they have opted to do a prequel . Its going to only a very loose adaptation of Tolkien’s works . They have chosen to condense a story that took place over thousands of years in the books into a few years . I think this is a huge mistake they would have been far better just to pick the events of one time period and expand on that story .
This Amazon series is fan fiction.
They use characters and other information from the one bit of source material they have the rights to(only the LOTR trilogy) to create their own stories in their version of the setting.
Tolkien was very clear that the stories set in the world of Middle Earth were meant to be a replacement European mythology for all of the mythology that had been lost and subsumed by the many migrations, conquering, and reconquering that happened over the centuries.
No amount of protesting or whinging about it will change this reality.
If they don’t have the rights to make it, properly, then they just shouldn’t make it, they’re repeating the same mistake Disney made that made me dislike their Marvel movies… Never watched another Marvel movie after Age of Ultron, it was crap said they turned into an attack on Fox, in which they killed off Quicksilver who is a character in both Avengers and X-Men comics, as well as X-Factor… When I saw a quicksilver die in Age of Ultron, and later saw him in one of Fox’s X-Men movies, I realize what was going on and swore off Disney’s Marvel. The problem was Disney was trying to create a universe that they only had half the rights to, and that seems to be what Amazon is doing now… It’s sad, really…
If you really think that the Hobbit movies were not following the original story I suggest you actually go an read the Hobbit or listen to the audiobook ( its always up on youtube somewhere ) . When you do you will realize just how wrong you are . What the Hobbit does is expand on the book quite significantly but it certainly follows “original story”
Also, they were more faithful than this is. There were two main problems with Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit… What is Peter Jackson’s obsessed with Chase’s he always has to put something or someone chasing the main characters in at least one scene in his movies. The second was Azog was supposed to be dead, and never swore to wipe out the line of Durin… It was actually kind of the opposite.. the line of of Durin swore to kill him! He was The hunted, and when the dwarves got him they cut off his head and put it on a pike and stuff the person money in that he offered to them as a compensation for their King’s death… At the very least Bolg, shoud have been the site antagonist hunting thorin, not Azog. Tolkien specifically identified Bolg as the leader of the orcs in the Battle of five armies. Other than that, I’m making smaug into a s***** wyvern, they were pretty good… Tariel’s side story with Kili had no effect on the outcome that Tolkien originally wrote, so it’s easy to overlook, it’s just a harmless extra writing that gives Kili a little more character.
As someone who has read the entirety of Tolkien’s legendarium TWICE, been to Hobbiton, met 75% of the cast of both the LOTR and the Hobbit, talked with Carl Hostetter, and met Christopher Tolkien himself in my 56 years of living on this earth, I think it’s safe to say that I am one of those people you are talking about.
Except, I am actually excited for the series, and can assume that 90% of the people that are hating on it haven’t actually read the Legendarium but instead piggy-backed on what they’ve heard in certain spaces of the internet.
Don’t say that the only people that are hating on the series are the one’s who know the lore and the story because that is simply not true.
Are they adding new characters and storylines? Yes. Is that okay? Absolutely. Why is that? Because Tolkien never wrote anything for the Second Age outside a total of 47 pages collectively throughout his work. That is not enough to base a 5 season TV show off of.
New characters and storylines will have to be introduced for this to work, and if they keep what Tolkien wrote intact and work with it (which the showrunners said they will) then there shouldn’t be a problem.
Now, if your problems with the show lie on the fact that females take center stage (and deservedly so, considering both Galadriel and Miriel were 2 of the biggest players in the SA) and that there are POC playing dwarven and elven roles, then that seems like a YOU problem that shouldn’t distract from the overall story being told.
In the end, let me quote Gimli from the original Miramax script for The War of the Ring: “Don’t be a foolish bugger.”
Yes he did. I know because I read the book. Tolkien was very clear about what was happening in the second age and what the characters looked like. So you say you met Christopher Tolkien…so what? I met Vince McMahon, that doesn’t mean I know anything about pro wrestling or should be considered an authority .
47 pages in total? Are you referring to the story of Aldarion & Erendis? In my copy of Unfinished Tales this covers 50 pages, except there are another 80-odd pages of writings about the second age too. I haven’t read the full History of Middle Earth series, but I suspect there are more notes on the second age in there somewhere.
Try The Downfall of Numenor. It tells the entire story of the war against Sauron in the second age, it’s a whole chapter. Yeah, I know that may seem a little short to you but you got to keep in mind it was written like a history document, not a novel.
Blah blah blah. Another woke idiot barging his way into everyone else’s space. Changing the rules along the way with his holier-than-thou self righteousness & nose in the air. Go stick your head up your arse & take a deep breath!
LOL
You claim to know Tolkien lore, then follow up with a claim that Tolkien only wrote 47 total pages about the Second Age. Way to prove you don’t actually know anything at all about Tolkien’s writings. But you’re still likely more knowledgeable than the so-called “Tolkien Scholars” Amazon hired to help with this dumpster fire after firing a REAL Tolkien scholar for having the audacity to tell Amazon they were mucking up everything in their “story.”
I don’t think most people have an issue with new characters being introduced as long as those characters fit within the lore Tolkien established for middle Earth . I certainly don’t have an issue of actors of colour being in the show as long as they play characters come from parts of middle Earth were people of colour reside like Harad and Rhun . Can I ask you what is so wrong about that ?
Middle earth: Shadow of war added a cool haradrim character, even had a whole dlc with this character as the protagonist teaming up with haradrim mercenaries to fight orcs
Theres definitely ways to add characters of colour that fit the lore
(Honestly though i dont care about that as much as the beardless dwarves! Heresy!)
Nothing, except those races were known to commonly work for Sauron, and betraying these races in that way will offend them in real life. Personally, if it was on the other foot and they were portraying black people as the good guys and white people as bad, if that had been what Tolkien had wrote, I’d be okay with it.. I’ve lived in America my whole life, but if I was to see a film about the bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, which portrayed Americans as the bad guys, I’d root for the Japanese. It’s so sad that other people just can’t be that way…
No respect for the Lore and certainly no respect for Tolkien’s legacy. What we are witnessing is Tolkien’s life’s work bent and twisted to Amazons own image.
Movie and Television producers can’t get the rights to JRR Tolkiens Simarillion, so the come up with junk for people to watch. I read the books. Not interested in garbage shows.
If you actually read the books you would know that 95% of the material in the Silmarillion regarding the SA is written in the Lord of the Rings Appendices. But you would have to actually read that to find out, which I can assume you did not.
If you actually cared about the author’s work and legacy you wouldn’t be saying this, so I must assume you are just another stupid consumer…and yes I’ve read the entire legendarium.
Not true. There are several stories about the second age, including The Mariners Wife which is an important setup the fall of Numenor. They can’t make a coherent story out of the appendices and I won’t watch this crap Amazon is making.
Well I am a liberal and I certainly don’t support this adaptation of Tolkien’s work because it doesn’t make sense within the lore to have multi-racial Dwarves and Hobbits living in the Northern regions of middle Earth . There is plenty of scope to have POC actors in the show by casting them as characters from Rhun or Harad but they have chosen to no do that . These people are far left activists are not true liberals any more than people on the far right are true conservatives .
What gets me is that the Haradrim already exist WITHIN Middle-Earth, and the seeds of their joining Sauron are already there, since the Numenoreans repeatedly kept invading them, demanding steep tributes out of them, and even taking slaves of their people. All of that is in the Appendices
This would’ve been a golden opportunity to give the context of why they joined up with Sauron.
“These people are far left activists are not true liberals any more than people on the far right are true conservatives .”
This might just be the best thing I’ve read on the internet this year, it’s the best because it’s so accurate.
I am constantly amazed ny people judging an entirw series on a few pics or promo videos. Wait until it lainches and you see the fimishsd prodict. Then praise or condemn it fully advised.
The whole point of a trailer is for people to decide whether they will devote time and money to see the work. Asking someone to sit through it first before making a judgement is illogical.
We have a trailer, cast photos, some set photos and statements from the creative team about how eager they are to “update” Middle Earth. What an utterly atrocious mindset.
Objectively good? The part where a character is hanging onto a ledge, looking like a fall is imminent, would have been thrown out of my first year computer and visual effects course. And this is a $500,000,000 series! No, objectively good is not remotely fair, it looks terrible and let’s be honest, we’ve got a Dwarven queen whom has no facial hair, ignoring her skin colour completely (which wouldn’t make sense given the descriptions Tolkien wrote) the lack of facial hair on a Dwarven woman is enough for me to turn my nose up to this mockery, if they can’t even follow this simple bit of lore, what else will they use Tolkien’s works to wipe their arses with?
That has already been enough released about this to know that it is garbage. We don’t have to wait unless we hear that they stopped production, fired a bunch of people and started refilming stuff then I might give it a look
Its pretty darn pathetic of you to aggressively comment on everyone’s post considering you’re like the only one who doesn’t recognize this for what this is….a disrespectful desecrate of literature’s greatest story. Get out of here fake fan. Keep your craven words away from us.
This is literally nothing more than someone using an existing IP to capitalize on because they lack the creativity or literary chops to build a world. So instead of gaining exciting new worlds to explore, we get chilling fan fictions aimed at the lowest denomination. These writers are just 14-year-olds trapped in adult bodies, clearly putting their Zack Efron fantasies into a teen literature book. Honestly hoping to see some soft core smut at this point. Amazon is literally a dark lord who seeks to corrupt everything he can get with his greed and vileness.
As a Tolkien adaptation, PJs LotR was crap. Greatest fantasy movies of all time, but crap adaptations. The Hobbit movies were just crappy on all levels.
If PJ would have just stuck to the stories and characters, LotR could have been great. These Amazon fools make PJ look like a Tolkien purist… almost.
If that is the case then you could call any move adaptation of a book fan fiction and that is just silly . Some adaptations are more faithful than others of course . This project is significantly less faithful than Peter Jacksons Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit or Ralph Bakshi’s incomplete Lord of the Rings .
I’m listening to Andy Serkis’ unabridged audiobook version of fellowship, and thinking of Galadriel impressing Gimli with her knowledge of Moria and the secret Dwarven tongue. I’m cautiously optimistic that perhaps, she will have a relationship with this Disa character who will teach Galadriel to respect dwarves in a way most elves can’t.
But judging how this current generation of writers tends to favor cheesy woke tropes over actual storytelling, its really a toss-up to me.
The irony of these haters, hating on a show which they haven’t seen. And then having the audacity to blame it on the ‘new generation’ and their short attention spans.
You realize people get episodes early to review them right? Just because your a peon and have to wait until release doesnt mean everyone else does. The real irony is thinking because you havent seen the show then no one has seen the show.
The best thing we can do in response is to get as many people as possible not to watch it. There is no way Amazon will listen to reviews, they don’t give a rats what anyone other than the people paying them have to say, it’s not worth our breath. This series will be a straight up bastardization in an attempt to line their pockets off of something someone else painstakingly created and protected for nearly 70 years. History is now, and probably always, written by the biggest wallet.
Give it a look before deflating it.
Based on Tolkien’s appendixes and the Silmarillion,
it can be really hard to bring to the screen as an adaptation.
Let us see by watching if it can find the spirit Tolkien had for the early history.
But they I would have to pay for Amazon Prime and I really don’t want to do that considering what they doing to Tolkien’s work . I suppose you can watch it on the high seas but I don’t like file sharing and the piratical streaming site are full of viruses .
It might be bad, but it’s not going to be bad because they used non white actors. The problem is that people are already saying it’s bad and nobody has seen it yet.
Is the only reason people are worried this upcoming show will not be true to the books is the seemingly politically correct exclusivity? If that is the only reason people already hate it, I wonder if they realize that political correctness goes both ways? Now if they sacrifice quality for PC characters that is another issue. But how could we know til we see the show? There’s no reason to immediately assume it will be bad solely because there are women and other races playing lead roles.
What, exactly, is LotR supposed to “look like”? Always amazing how people can claim to be fans of something and then behave in a way that completely contradicts the spirit of the thing.
Gross and shameful. Do something productive with your energy.
Basing an opinion of an entire series on trailers is idiotic….these so called Tolkien purists need to get a life…watch it or don’t but please stop your endless whining.
It’s basing an opinion on the series lack of adherence to the source. Those being an elf with short hair, a dwarf with no beard, and the over use of plate armor. Three things that are not present in the source material. Peter Jackson added plate armor to his movies, but it does not exist in Tolkiens works. Likewise the themes and look of the show are less middle earth and more elder scrolls and dragon age. Nowhere is there a green man in middle earth, and to wear wooden armor with a face on it like that suggests he killed, skinned, and wore an ent as armor. Something an elf would not do.
Do people are basing their opinion on major divergences from established lore.
These billion dollar tech companies are run by straight clowns. Every decision they make it to screw over customers and piss people off to the point they cancel their service.
The point ought not to be about diversity though that’s certainly unavoidable and necessary here.
Anyone should be able to make a film and put it out without censorship. That a work be rejected by the public, however, is fair and they ought to be the judges.
I shake my head, however, at the apparent lack of originality that is supposed to come from the creative community. Why, it must be asked, should well established works with specific characters, cultural impact and purpose be hijacked by those who can’t seem to create their own works? Especially epic works.
Why take the work of others, butcher it, pour modern values of some segments into it and claim it as good as the genuine article. There is the undeniable implication that it must be preferred because of the changes.
There is a response from those on the left that have decided ONLY their progressive values have merit, should be compulsory in all works and forced on everyone. Such sentiments seem to be thought of as self-evident and only a vile racist and backwards reactionary deserving scorn and silencing would disagree.
Likewise, those on the right have a near hysterical response (to match the hysteria of their counterparts) to any change in society. Both sides are on a March to an existential war of extermination.
Nobody can fix this. I happen to be one of those who who’ve read Tolkien’s various works, read the Kalevala twice, the Eddas twice, The Black Douglas, Welsh epics and other sources from which he drew direct linguistic and cultural inspiration. These works and Tolkien in particular have very specific cultural ideas in mind. The works are linguistic and formed all around that with the purpose of creating an epic work that centers on Britain within a certain framework.
Tolkien was a traditional Catholic, an officer in a brutal war, an academic a cultural traditionalist, smoked a pipe, drank beer and believed strongly in his faith and national and cultural identity. If one were to consider the word ‘progressive’, that word in the life of Tolkien would not resemble what it does today.
Go through his works, underline the number of times he uses descriptions of light and dark in various forms. Look how he describes positive and negatives, conflict resolution, cultural norms, race and virtues among races and causes of conflict. No doubt we find common cause in all of these and apply them to creative endeavors. But his body of work is set up and executed with precise traditions and attributes.
If we want to take such works and basically rewrite them, fine But one shouldn’t do so and have the dishonesty of trying to pass it off as the real thing.
The Tolkien scholar walked away from the production and for good reason. This new production is more a jumble of punk wood stuffed in a sack and passed off as a living thing that would leave Treebeard open mouthed in horror at the disaster clicking about. Tolkien would likely vomit in his grave and bristle with the savagery dealt his lifelong intellectual work.
Tell you what, have a transgender Inuit portray Mohammad in a historical rendition of the Quran, An Apache Indian be Thor in the Eddas and a Congolese portray Mao Tse Tung in a film about Chinese history. You’d get as much respect as a German Aryan playing Martin Luther King or Amazonian Tribesman portraying Emperor Hirohito.
It goes both ways. Diversity is not part of the Tolkien works save very specific applications that are no longer welcomed by progressive minds.
The world is indeed a diverse place, but too many people feel it must be stuffed into any Avenue they hold sacred. Likewise, they scream about their own sacred culture and circle the wagons from changes they don’t like.
Take the hint, study languages, learn their traditions, learn the national epics and how they are formed and work. Then develop your OWN original works. Trouble is, people who want to force change get upset when the rest of the public doesn’t flock to their progressive vision or embrace it. So, like a parasitic wasp, they hijack a host and gut the identity and call it wonderful.
The real winners in this disaster? The actors and production teams. They got paid. The real losers, the progressives who once again berating and attacking anyone disputing or criticizing the ‘collective’. What will be a certainty is the continued fueling of anger and, in some cases, blind hatred that gets fanned in this sort of activity which, oddly enough, sounds suspiciously like cultural appropriation
Sam I Am, you’ve been one of the most intellectual and thoughtful responses in this thread. I agree 100 percent. As a person of aging years who has watched many of his favorite works be systematically demolished by these young, activist-minded raiders of culture, it disgusts me. Star Trek, Star Wars, LoTR; all being twisted into their own perception of what they think it should be. I watched Trek from the 60s onward through the 80s and 90s. It made me hope for the future; I wanted to live in that future! Now?? Picard… Discovery? According to those shows, the human race should give up now and kill ourselves off.
Concerning LoTR, I’ll finish with a paraphrase from one of the young producers of the Amazon production, “we were excited to update Tolkien’s work, but we also felt it should reflect more of our present day culture”.
And that’s all I needed to hear. If you want to create a fantasy that reflects our culture, then create your own. Don’t bastardize an already existing work that is loved by millions. Unfortunately, I don’t think the current level of “talent” has the imagination or the ability to do so. It’s a shame. Thanks for your eloquently worded view.
The problem is you are trying to create a dichotomy between progressivism and tradition, but tradition *was* progressive, especially in regards to Christianity!
Now, all of your examples about a transgender portraying Muhammad or a German Aryan playing Martin Luther King are not equivalent at all, and I suspect you did this on purpose, considering how you misrepresent a lot of people in this post. Why? Because Muhammad is a real historical character, nothing in the LotR is historical (and things that take inspiration from history need not follow it exactly if that is what is desired – hence Middle-earth). Secondly, the examples you used is of people who are thought to be opposed playing the people who opposed them. Are you trying to suggest white’s oppose blacks, and therefore there can’t be blacks in a movie based on a story from a white person? What exactly is the relation here?
“It goes both ways. Diversity is not part of the Tolkien works save very specific applications that are no longer welcomed by progressive minds.”
This is a blatant lie. Tolkein wrote a Catholic and mythology-infused story about various different races, with some different color skins. The various different races are in fact diversity. The fact that humans and dwarves and hobbits all get along together in the LotR *is* diversity. Why? Because Tolkein was Catholic, and a big part of Catholicism IS the Bible’s conception of Social Justice!
It doesn’t look very intriguing. I love the LotR franchise. My kids are too young for the live action so we watch the older 80s cartoons, campy af too.
But Amazon is inept at many things and this is one of them imo.
They’ve overextended themselves in their media capabilities and trying to extend into these types of shows and video games.
I’m unlikely to even give this series a chance because of how they handled Wheel of Time.
They take art and turn it into profitable garbage.
It’s a definite NO for me.
They made us believe they had the right for The Silmarillion. And instead of that we get a woke made up story … hahaha laughable.
Nope nope nope
you can find tweets to support any belief, this blog post is biased. there are many more examples of hype for the show. if you’re here, sorry to say, you are crotchety.
I would hope it doesn’t look like the Lord is the Rings Movies. It is set hundreds of years prior if not a thousand. Style, speech and everything changes. It is like saying the 1820 look nothing like today. Let’s see what the show is like before making a comment
Forced diversity disrespects the original works of Tolkien and other authors. Books that were written long ago simply don’t need to be updated to include LGBTQ characters and perspectives. In fact, the original works are not improved in any shape, form, or fashion by this. Tolkien never addressed LGBTQ issues. This agenda does not need to be shoe-horned into every TV series and movie. This is not a fresh idea and it does not improve the story. You are not making the world a better place. Faithful adaptations of classic works will still draw a crowd. Stop the incessant and annoying preaching. Please leave great works of literature alone.
This show is going to be a train wreck. YouTube has nuked its dislikes multiple times now. It’s hit 2 million twice and 3 million once each time they nuke it back to 1, then keep everyone’s dislike marked. All the keep heads buried in the sand.
Over all it looks more like skyrim and dargonage had a twisted baby.
The whole dislikes thing needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Extensions can’t get the dislike count anymore, so they estimate the number. Anyways, YouTube doesn’t need to nuke dislikes because 1.) They aren’t shown to most people, and 2.) Dislikes still promote the video.
I love a lot of Amazon’s stuff but I can absolutely guarantee this will not be one of them. It already is unauthentic and just screams woke. Will be staying far from this series and will be looking more forward to seeing how bad this is just a flop and we’ll just be saying told ya so in the end. =)
I need to go back and read because at some point I guess I missed the fact that dwarves had a black princess with no beard. It might be a decent TV show but not for the people that are actual longtime fans. Its gunna be a disgrace against Tolkien’s name.
Comments for “Does Not Look Like Lord of the Rings,” Fans Slam Amazon’s “Garbage” Series Update
John Thomas Boyer
You can have it! I’ll never watch it!
Jeff
It looks like a Young Adult version of Middle Earth. Maybe the 14-year-olds will like it, but for me it’s a hard pass.
Matt
Spend 1 billion dollars and totally get it wrong. Way to go. You can’t just buy the name and have it be a success you idiots.
Jeff
Please cancel this Amazon before you embarrass yourself
Aint it the truth
Why? I thought you were 14 years old by the way you complain.
Joel
I was 14 when I was reading the Silmarillion and The Book of Lost Tales, which also told of the second age war against sauron in more detail. I wouldn’t like this then, and I don’t like it now. The Istari were present in that war, gandalf should be in this! Tolkien wrote the original stories of Middle Earth… he wrote its history, created that history’s key characters and historical heroes, if these people want to bring those stories to TV, then they should USE the key characters HE MADE FOR THAT HISTORY! Isildur and Elf King, Gilgalad should be the main characters, not the s***** original Amazon is making, it’s NOT story, they’re just supposed to be retelling it. Also, I am not racist, I repeat NOT racist, but those are original characters of Amazon’s appear to be a little tan to be of the Westron Men of Arnor, Gondor, or Rohan; might be Asian, North African, South American, or even Mexican… Tolkien’s writings were supposed to be a mythology for England, with Middle-Earth being a prehistoric version of Europe, in which the entire population was Caucasian; this would be for other ethnicities would start settling in their lands, so Amazon is already f****** it up by trying to please ethnic the diversity, and anti-sexism. I keep looking at that Dwarf Princess and thinking, “she looks so stupid”… Couldn’t figure out why, until now… It’s because talking didn’t just write stories, he wrote detailed stories with multiple cultures with their own languages and customs. Tolkien’s Dwarves were a very secretive race that hid their women, her existence should even be known, and Elf princess makes more sense then her, and even that is a bit of a stretch… I suppose, they’re even going to have galadriel fight which really wouldn’t be within her character either, regardless of what they have shown in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit… What she did in The Hobbit could be considered extreme measures for her, done out of desperation, but from the dialogue in the books, she would not have used her ring in the first war against sauron. When talking to frodo in the book she said that the moment that they since that Sauron can control the rings the elves all immediately took their rings off and hid them away. So it makes sense that she would not use her ring in this war, but she could have used it after Sauron lost his ring, like in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit, because Sauron could not control what she did with her ring at that time. But this story would be different because Sauron has his ring. What’s more, galadriel is actually already seen centuries of war by this time, she was a Side character in the Silmarillion, long before Sauron even rose to power. However, she never fought then. And she shouldn’t fight now, not yet… I know a lot of people I think this sounds sexist, but I am not sexist, but I got news for you… Before anybody starts to b**** about what I am saying, I am not speaking against women, I’m speaking against inaccuracy. Again as I said before these stories are supposed to be based off of what talking intended to be a mythology for England, and by extension all of Europe. And Europeans in general WE’RE SEXIST AND THOSE TIMES! Their societies had a specific structure the women minded the house and did not fight, rarely if ever, and the man protected them and fought in the wars… Even Peter Jackson touched on this and how he betrayed Eowyn, in The Two Towers, whether wanting to fight so badly but feeling that she would be denied it. In fact, he was actually very tame about this, and it actually should have been displayed much stronger more strongly in their cultures. From the use of armor and medieval weaponry these cultures were clearly based off of semi-civilized medieval European culture, which followed this structure concerning men and women, unlike the wild and tribal Celts in which women fought alongside men commonly and this was because they were actually a more Savage culture, that is not a bad thing it just means that they were more natural if you have the means to fight to defend you those you love you will do it this is your basic nature, but nature such as this was repressed in ancient medieval culture where they used law that was written by overprotective men, nonetheless these forms of law existed in Tolkien’s cultures, and should be displayed in the retelling of his stories… But because Amazon wants to please everybody and try not to offend those who should not be offended but understand that this is how things were back then, it looks like it’s not going to happen… This is why I don’t like modern day stories of medieval times… Because they are told according to how we live today to please people who are living today, and the story gets warped and perverted… I see no difference here, just another disappointment.
Joel
Voice to text sucks, look at all those horrible typos ☹️…
Matt
Thanks for ruining Tolkiens work Amazon. You suck.
Gator .DGator .D
“Since the official teaser trailer was released during the Super Bowl and Amazon gave first looks at numerous characters, controversies have consumed the work of Tolkien.”
Nope. The so-called “controversy” is 100% centered on AMAZON’S work, specifically because they’re not actually using Tolkien’s work.
Stu
There are no books that take place during the second age.
Joel
The Silmarillion and Book of Lost Tales cover it.
Jim
Lol sounds like you have no idea what you’re talking about. The neckbeards moaning online are literally doing it because of the characters they’ve shown off…..I wonder why
Jake
Given that Tolkien spoke at length about the sources and inspirations for his works the people you’re mocking are correct. If you knew anything about his works you would understand but it seems you’re just as ignorant as Amazon. What they’ve shown is just as stupid as a Viking show with a bunch of Japanese samurai.
Kyle
Your ignorance is showing.
Joel
Looks like yours is actually showing, unless you can actually back up the claim that samurai have fought the Vikings?…
Joel
LOL yeah, that’s pretty stupid…
Doug
Lol. Sounds like Jim is the one that has no idea what he is talking about. Just another SJW supporting another SJ production. How about they stick to the source material and please the tens of millions of fans worldwide or continue as they are but use a different name instead of corrupting JRT’s work.
Nicholas Darkk
Sadly this has been ysed gor very thinly veiled racism “but Tolkin said all the good taces are white!”
Jay
“It does not look like the films” is because they put non-white people in it.
Plain and simple.
Traysee
Amazon completely ruined Robert Jordan series Wheel of Time. Are you really surprised they are ruining this one too?
Kyle
Good riddance! You are the problem.
Barbara
Looking forward to this new adventure. Don’t listen to the haters!
Mike
It should be titled ” . . . based on JRR Tolkien’s work. It is clearly not his. So a few writers think they can improve – well no!
It is sad really.
HP
Problem is Amazon don’t have the rights to Lord of the Rings or the Silmarillion or even the Unfinished Tales. The can only develop things from the appendices of Lord of the Rings. There’s not much of Tolkien in these pages to begin with. They are his sketches and references to his other work. Stray to close to the source material and they face litigation.So by default it has to be diluted. They may as well spend a trillion dollars on it but it will always be tolkienesque not Tolkien.
Stu
They’re literally using characters from Lord of the Rings so something tells me you are wrong here.
drew who
He is partly right . Amazon only have the rights to the appendixes from the book and can only use that content within their series . Which is why they have opted to do a prequel . Its going to only a very loose adaptation of Tolkien’s works . They have chosen to condense a story that took place over thousands of years in the books into a few years . I think this is a huge mistake they would have been far better just to pick the events of one time period and expand on that story .
Anotherrandomvoice
This Amazon series is fan fiction.
They use characters and other information from the one bit of source material they have the rights to(only the LOTR trilogy) to create their own stories in their version of the setting.
Tolkien was very clear that the stories set in the world of Middle Earth were meant to be a replacement European mythology for all of the mythology that had been lost and subsumed by the many migrations, conquering, and reconquering that happened over the centuries.
No amount of protesting or whinging about it will change this reality.
Joel
If they don’t have the rights to make it, properly, then they just shouldn’t make it, they’re repeating the same mistake Disney made that made me dislike their Marvel movies… Never watched another Marvel movie after Age of Ultron, it was crap said they turned into an attack on Fox, in which they killed off Quicksilver who is a character in both Avengers and X-Men comics, as well as X-Factor… When I saw a quicksilver die in Age of Ultron, and later saw him in one of Fox’s X-Men movies, I realize what was going on and swore off Disney’s Marvel. The problem was Disney was trying to create a universe that they only had half the rights to, and that seems to be what Amazon is doing now… It’s sad, really…
Jesh
“don’t listen to people who know the actual lore and story. That know this has nothing to do with Tolkien’s creative work.” There, I fixed it for ya.
Allan
I’ll wait to see the actual show before I decide.
The haters are going to hate. Hell the Hobbit movies weren’t even following the original story.
Gator .DGator .D
And nearly all Tolkien fans hated those awful films for the exact same reasons they’re “hating” on Amazon’s travesty…
Stu
The Hobbit movies weren’t terrible. They mainly added the white orc and Legolas. Most of the rest of it was spot on.
Kyle
Tolkien fans in the sense of haters are what is wrong with the world. Full of idiots who thi k they can come up with something better.
drew who
If you really think that the Hobbit movies were not following the original story I suggest you actually go an read the Hobbit or listen to the audiobook ( its always up on youtube somewhere ) . When you do you will realize just how wrong you are . What the Hobbit does is expand on the book quite significantly but it certainly follows “original story”
Mike
A love story between ELF maiden and Dwarf?
Joel
Also, they were more faithful than this is. There were two main problems with Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit… What is Peter Jackson’s obsessed with Chase’s he always has to put something or someone chasing the main characters in at least one scene in his movies. The second was Azog was supposed to be dead, and never swore to wipe out the line of Durin… It was actually kind of the opposite.. the line of of Durin swore to kill him! He was The hunted, and when the dwarves got him they cut off his head and put it on a pike and stuff the person money in that he offered to them as a compensation for their King’s death… At the very least Bolg, shoud have been the site antagonist hunting thorin, not Azog. Tolkien specifically identified Bolg as the leader of the orcs in the Battle of five armies. Other than that, I’m making smaug into a s***** wyvern, they were pretty good… Tariel’s side story with Kili had no effect on the outcome that Tolkien originally wrote, so it’s easy to overlook, it’s just a harmless extra writing that gives Kili a little more character.
William
“People who know the actual lore and story.”
As someone who has read the entirety of Tolkien’s legendarium TWICE, been to Hobbiton, met 75% of the cast of both the LOTR and the Hobbit, talked with Carl Hostetter, and met Christopher Tolkien himself in my 56 years of living on this earth, I think it’s safe to say that I am one of those people you are talking about.
Except, I am actually excited for the series, and can assume that 90% of the people that are hating on it haven’t actually read the Legendarium but instead piggy-backed on what they’ve heard in certain spaces of the internet.
Don’t say that the only people that are hating on the series are the one’s who know the lore and the story because that is simply not true.
Are they adding new characters and storylines? Yes. Is that okay? Absolutely. Why is that? Because Tolkien never wrote anything for the Second Age outside a total of 47 pages collectively throughout his work. That is not enough to base a 5 season TV show off of.
New characters and storylines will have to be introduced for this to work, and if they keep what Tolkien wrote intact and work with it (which the showrunners said they will) then there shouldn’t be a problem.
Now, if your problems with the show lie on the fact that females take center stage (and deservedly so, considering both Galadriel and Miriel were 2 of the biggest players in the SA) and that there are POC playing dwarven and elven roles, then that seems like a YOU problem that shouldn’t distract from the overall story being told.
In the end, let me quote Gimli from the original Miramax script for The War of the Ring: “Don’t be a foolish bugger.”
Ben
Yes he did. I know because I read the book. Tolkien was very clear about what was happening in the second age and what the characters looked like. So you say you met Christopher Tolkien…so what? I met Vince McMahon, that doesn’t mean I know anything about pro wrestling or should be considered an authority .
Freddy
You’re a grade A consumer cuck and clearly have no respect for Tolkien or his works
KyleTK
47 pages in total? Are you referring to the story of Aldarion & Erendis? In my copy of Unfinished Tales this covers 50 pages, except there are another 80-odd pages of writings about the second age too. I haven’t read the full History of Middle Earth series, but I suspect there are more notes on the second age in there somewhere.
Joel
Try The Downfall of Numenor. It tells the entire story of the war against Sauron in the second age, it’s a whole chapter. Yeah, I know that may seem a little short to you but you got to keep in mind it was written like a history document, not a novel.
STS
Blah blah blah. Another woke idiot barging his way into everyone else’s space. Changing the rules along the way with his holier-than-thou self righteousness & nose in the air. Go stick your head up your arse & take a deep breath!
Joel
There is no need to be rude…
Gator .D
LOL
You claim to know Tolkien lore, then follow up with a claim that Tolkien only wrote 47 total pages about the Second Age. Way to prove you don’t actually know anything at all about Tolkien’s writings. But you’re still likely more knowledgeable than the so-called “Tolkien Scholars” Amazon hired to help with this dumpster fire after firing a REAL Tolkien scholar for having the audacity to tell Amazon they were mucking up everything in their “story.”
Kyle
Get a life, as if you could produce something even close.
Joel
Lol! I think this guy just won this case!
drew who
I don’t think most people have an issue with new characters being introduced as long as those characters fit within the lore Tolkien established for middle Earth . I certainly don’t have an issue of actors of colour being in the show as long as they play characters come from parts of middle Earth were people of colour reside like Harad and Rhun . Can I ask you what is so wrong about that ?
Lucasnox
Middle earth: Shadow of war added a cool haradrim character, even had a whole dlc with this character as the protagonist teaming up with haradrim mercenaries to fight orcs
Theres definitely ways to add characters of colour that fit the lore
(Honestly though i dont care about that as much as the beardless dwarves! Heresy!)
Joel
Nothing, except those races were known to commonly work for Sauron, and betraying these races in that way will offend them in real life. Personally, if it was on the other foot and they were portraying black people as the good guys and white people as bad, if that had been what Tolkien had wrote, I’d be okay with it.. I’ve lived in America my whole life, but if I was to see a film about the bombing of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, which portrayed Americans as the bad guys, I’d root for the Japanese. It’s so sad that other people just can’t be that way…
Mike
Off of?
Lucasnox
BUT WHERE ARE MY BEARDED DWARF LADIES
The lore is wrong in so many places, adding to the lore is fine, i enjoyed the shadow of mordor videogames and they add a ton of new lore
But they directly contradict existing lore! You can tell the writers had no respect for the base work they are building on
Its disney star wars all over again
Jim
If its nothing to do with Tolkiens works why are all the “fans” saying Netflix is ruining Tolkien’s work?
JJA
All the haters must be mad because their god deSantis realized he can’t actually undo Disney in Florida (read the awesome news today.)
Jeffrey
No respect for the Lore and certainly no respect for Tolkien’s legacy. What we are witnessing is Tolkien’s life’s work bent and twisted to Amazons own image.
Octavian
Movie and Television producers can’t get the rights to JRR Tolkiens Simarillion, so the come up with junk for people to watch. I read the books. Not interested in garbage shows.
William
If you actually read the books you would know that 95% of the material in the Silmarillion regarding the SA is written in the Lord of the Rings Appendices. But you would have to actually read that to find out, which I can assume you did not.
Garth
If you actually cared about the author’s work and legacy you wouldn’t be saying this, so I must assume you are just another stupid consumer…and yes I’ve read the entire legendarium.
Will
Not true. There are several stories about the second age, including The Mariners Wife which is an important setup the fall of Numenor. They can’t make a coherent story out of the appendices and I won’t watch this crap Amazon is making.
Nunya Bidness
Liberals screw up everything they touch. Everything. Go woke, go broke.
Erin
Amazon catering to the loud and small subset of woke people. Go woke and waste a billion dollars making a show to please less than 5%
TrumpU Grad
Like Trump’s fascist attempt to seize office.
Bill
Trump derangement syndrome in full bloom here buddy
drew who
Well I am a liberal and I certainly don’t support this adaptation of Tolkien’s work because it doesn’t make sense within the lore to have multi-racial Dwarves and Hobbits living in the Northern regions of middle Earth . There is plenty of scope to have POC actors in the show by casting them as characters from Rhun or Harad but they have chosen to no do that . These people are far left activists are not true liberals any more than people on the far right are true conservatives .
Sean McTiernan
What gets me is that the Haradrim already exist WITHIN Middle-Earth, and the seeds of their joining Sauron are already there, since the Numenoreans repeatedly kept invading them, demanding steep tributes out of them, and even taking slaves of their people. All of that is in the Appendices
This would’ve been a golden opportunity to give the context of why they joined up with Sauron.
Martyn James
“These people are far left activists are not true liberals any more than people on the far right are true conservatives .”
This might just be the best thing I’ve read on the internet this year, it’s the best because it’s so accurate.
Kyle
You are just a sheep, baaaah
Grunf
I would hardly call these people liberals. They are liberals as much as Democratic Republic of North Korea is democratic.
Kyle
It’s sheep like you that are the problem.
M Bishop
I am constantly amazed ny people judging an entirw series on a few pics or promo videos. Wait until it lainches and you see the fimishsd prodict. Then praise or condemn it fully advised.
Bob
The whole point of a trailer is for people to decide whether they will devote time and money to see the work. Asking someone to sit through it first before making a judgement is illogical.
William
Again, you’re basing the entirety of a show on a 60 second teaser that looked objectively good. That is illogical.
Laura
We have a trailer, cast photos, some set photos and statements from the creative team about how eager they are to “update” Middle Earth. What an utterly atrocious mindset.
Martyn James
Objectively good? The part where a character is hanging onto a ledge, looking like a fall is imminent, would have been thrown out of my first year computer and visual effects course. And this is a $500,000,000 series! No, objectively good is not remotely fair, it looks terrible and let’s be honest, we’ve got a Dwarven queen whom has no facial hair, ignoring her skin colour completely (which wouldn’t make sense given the descriptions Tolkien wrote) the lack of facial hair on a Dwarven woman is enough for me to turn my nose up to this mockery, if they can’t even follow this simple bit of lore, what else will they use Tolkien’s works to wipe their arses with?
Kyle
Lots of sheeple haters who hate their lives.
Scott
That has already been enough released about this to know that it is garbage. We don’t have to wait unless we hear that they stopped production, fired a bunch of people and started refilming stuff then I might give it a look
William
When the show turns out to be great please do not watch it. Less hypocrites in the world the better.
Marcus
Its pretty darn pathetic of you to aggressively comment on everyone’s post considering you’re like the only one who doesn’t recognize this for what this is….a disrespectful desecrate of literature’s greatest story. Get out of here fake fan. Keep your craven words away from us.
Kyle
You need help. You are a sheep.
drew who
Why do you think he’s a hypocrite ?
Tony B.
Personally, I’m going to hold my nose but watch a few episodes. It might be okay.
However I’m a bit concerned it’ll be a Game of Thrones-like plot with Tolkienesque characters. We’ll see.👀
Diego the Barbarian
This is literally nothing more than someone using an existing IP to capitalize on because they lack the creativity or literary chops to build a world. So instead of gaining exciting new worlds to explore, we get chilling fan fictions aimed at the lowest denomination. These writers are just 14-year-olds trapped in adult bodies, clearly putting their Zack Efron fantasies into a teen literature book. Honestly hoping to see some soft core smut at this point. Amazon is literally a dark lord who seeks to corrupt everything he can get with his greed and vileness.
Sorry if bad English jaja
Grunf
👍👍
William
Then the Hobbit is fan fiction as well, and to an extent Peter’s Lord of the Rings. Ralph Bakshi’s LOTR is way more true to the books.
Turambar
As a Tolkien adaptation, PJs LotR was crap. Greatest fantasy movies of all time, but crap adaptations. The Hobbit movies were just crappy on all levels.
If PJ would have just stuck to the stories and characters, LotR could have been great. These Amazon fools make PJ look like a Tolkien purist… almost.
drew who
If that is the case then you could call any move adaptation of a book fan fiction and that is just silly . Some adaptations are more faithful than others of course . This project is significantly less faithful than Peter Jacksons Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit or Ralph Bakshi’s incomplete Lord of the Rings .
Brian
Please CANCEL this WOKE LIBTARD GARBAGE.
Phillip
Anyone unironically using the word “Libtard” is themselves, a mouth breathing troglodyte.
Kyle
Brian, you are exactly what is wrong in this world. Grow up you sheep.
Tony B.
Kyle: Change your tune. You post like my grandnephew blowing the same note over and over on his kazoo.
I mean, dude…
Et
Lol right. Dude has a sheep fetish
Brian
Please CANCEL this WOKE LIBTARD GARBAGE. I beg you.
Tony Baldacci
Thanks for playing. Go away.
Jpnh
I’m listening to Andy Serkis’ unabridged audiobook version of fellowship, and thinking of Galadriel impressing Gimli with her knowledge of Moria and the secret Dwarven tongue. I’m cautiously optimistic that perhaps, she will have a relationship with this Disa character who will teach Galadriel to respect dwarves in a way most elves can’t.
But judging how this current generation of writers tends to favor cheesy woke tropes over actual storytelling, its really a toss-up to me.
Connor
The irony of these haters, hating on a show which they haven’t seen. And then having the audacity to blame it on the ‘new generation’ and their short attention spans.
Dave
You realize people get episodes early to review them right? Just because your a peon and have to wait until release doesnt mean everyone else does. The real irony is thinking because you havent seen the show then no one has seen the show.
Kyle
The best thing we can do in response is to get as many people as possible not to watch it. There is no way Amazon will listen to reviews, they don’t give a rats what anyone other than the people paying them have to say, it’s not worth our breath. This series will be a straight up bastardization in an attempt to line their pockets off of something someone else painstakingly created and protected for nearly 70 years. History is now, and probably always, written by the biggest wallet.
Ez
I’m so excited to witness the epic story of the Second Age.
Tony Baldacci
From what I’ve read about it, it’s “Game of Thrones” with Tolkien characters.
drew who
I think it will turn out to be more like MTV Shannara series that Game of Thrones in tone and terms of quality .
Manny
Pass! First book series that I read which gave me a passion for the genre that lasted a lifetime. I refuse to watch it diluted to woke-ist b.s.
Richard Price
Give it a look before deflating it.
Based on Tolkien’s appendixes and the Silmarillion,
it can be really hard to bring to the screen as an adaptation.
Let us see by watching if it can find the spirit Tolkien had for the early history.
drew who
But they I would have to pay for Amazon Prime and I really don’t want to do that considering what they doing to Tolkien’s work . I suppose you can watch it on the high seas but I don’t like file sharing and the piratical streaming site are full of viruses .
Chris
Great job Amazon you took a perfectly good story and made it a P.C. garbage filled socially correct crap fest. You Suck!
Denise
Have you seen an episode already? Guessing you have exclusive access to form your opinions on..
Stu
It might be bad, but it’s not going to be bad because they used non white actors. The problem is that people are already saying it’s bad and nobody has seen it yet.
JGW
Well it does seem an awful lot like garbage doesn’t it?
Al Alekzander
Is the only reason people are worried this upcoming show will not be true to the books is the seemingly politically correct exclusivity? If that is the only reason people already hate it, I wonder if they realize that political correctness goes both ways? Now if they sacrifice quality for PC characters that is another issue. But how could we know til we see the show? There’s no reason to immediately assume it will be bad solely because there are women and other races playing lead roles.
John Delancey
What, exactly, is LotR supposed to “look like”? Always amazing how people can claim to be fans of something and then behave in a way that completely contradicts the spirit of the thing.
Gross and shameful. Do something productive with your energy.
Eugen Savojski
Tolkien described wery well how should be looking. Read you dimwitt!
Paul
I’ll check it out and will determine if I want to continue after seeing the dirt couple of episodes. Give it a chance before casting doubts about it.
Paul
Meant type “next” episode
Denise
Basing an opinion of an entire series on trailers is idiotic….these so called Tolkien purists need to get a life…watch it or don’t but please stop your endless whining.
Jflint
It’s basing an opinion on the series lack of adherence to the source. Those being an elf with short hair, a dwarf with no beard, and the over use of plate armor. Three things that are not present in the source material. Peter Jackson added plate armor to his movies, but it does not exist in Tolkiens works. Likewise the themes and look of the show are less middle earth and more elder scrolls and dragon age. Nowhere is there a green man in middle earth, and to wear wooden armor with a face on it like that suggests he killed, skinned, and wore an ent as armor. Something an elf would not do.
Do people are basing their opinion on major divergences from established lore.
Dave
These billion dollar tech companies are run by straight clowns. Every decision they make it to screw over customers and piss people off to the point they cancel their service.
Alex
You mean when you prioritize woke politics and forced diversity quotas over story and source material it doesn’t work? I’m shocked shocked!
Sam I Am
The point ought not to be about diversity though that’s certainly unavoidable and necessary here.
Anyone should be able to make a film and put it out without censorship. That a work be rejected by the public, however, is fair and they ought to be the judges.
I shake my head, however, at the apparent lack of originality that is supposed to come from the creative community. Why, it must be asked, should well established works with specific characters, cultural impact and purpose be hijacked by those who can’t seem to create their own works? Especially epic works.
Why take the work of others, butcher it, pour modern values of some segments into it and claim it as good as the genuine article. There is the undeniable implication that it must be preferred because of the changes.
There is a response from those on the left that have decided ONLY their progressive values have merit, should be compulsory in all works and forced on everyone. Such sentiments seem to be thought of as self-evident and only a vile racist and backwards reactionary deserving scorn and silencing would disagree.
Likewise, those on the right have a near hysterical response (to match the hysteria of their counterparts) to any change in society. Both sides are on a March to an existential war of extermination.
Nobody can fix this. I happen to be one of those who who’ve read Tolkien’s various works, read the Kalevala twice, the Eddas twice, The Black Douglas, Welsh epics and other sources from which he drew direct linguistic and cultural inspiration. These works and Tolkien in particular have very specific cultural ideas in mind. The works are linguistic and formed all around that with the purpose of creating an epic work that centers on Britain within a certain framework.
Tolkien was a traditional Catholic, an officer in a brutal war, an academic a cultural traditionalist, smoked a pipe, drank beer and believed strongly in his faith and national and cultural identity. If one were to consider the word ‘progressive’, that word in the life of Tolkien would not resemble what it does today.
Go through his works, underline the number of times he uses descriptions of light and dark in various forms. Look how he describes positive and negatives, conflict resolution, cultural norms, race and virtues among races and causes of conflict. No doubt we find common cause in all of these and apply them to creative endeavors. But his body of work is set up and executed with precise traditions and attributes.
If we want to take such works and basically rewrite them, fine But one shouldn’t do so and have the dishonesty of trying to pass it off as the real thing.
The Tolkien scholar walked away from the production and for good reason. This new production is more a jumble of punk wood stuffed in a sack and passed off as a living thing that would leave Treebeard open mouthed in horror at the disaster clicking about. Tolkien would likely vomit in his grave and bristle with the savagery dealt his lifelong intellectual work.
Tell you what, have a transgender Inuit portray Mohammad in a historical rendition of the Quran, An Apache Indian be Thor in the Eddas and a Congolese portray Mao Tse Tung in a film about Chinese history. You’d get as much respect as a German Aryan playing Martin Luther King or Amazonian Tribesman portraying Emperor Hirohito.
It goes both ways. Diversity is not part of the Tolkien works save very specific applications that are no longer welcomed by progressive minds.
The world is indeed a diverse place, but too many people feel it must be stuffed into any Avenue they hold sacred. Likewise, they scream about their own sacred culture and circle the wagons from changes they don’t like.
Take the hint, study languages, learn their traditions, learn the national epics and how they are formed and work. Then develop your OWN original works. Trouble is, people who want to force change get upset when the rest of the public doesn’t flock to their progressive vision or embrace it. So, like a parasitic wasp, they hijack a host and gut the identity and call it wonderful.
The real winners in this disaster? The actors and production teams. They got paid. The real losers, the progressives who once again berating and attacking anyone disputing or criticizing the ‘collective’. What will be a certainty is the continued fueling of anger and, in some cases, blind hatred that gets fanned in this sort of activity which, oddly enough, sounds suspiciously like cultural appropriation
Mediamaverick
Sam I Am, you’ve been one of the most intellectual and thoughtful responses in this thread. I agree 100 percent. As a person of aging years who has watched many of his favorite works be systematically demolished by these young, activist-minded raiders of culture, it disgusts me. Star Trek, Star Wars, LoTR; all being twisted into their own perception of what they think it should be. I watched Trek from the 60s onward through the 80s and 90s. It made me hope for the future; I wanted to live in that future! Now?? Picard… Discovery? According to those shows, the human race should give up now and kill ourselves off.
Concerning LoTR, I’ll finish with a paraphrase from one of the young producers of the Amazon production, “we were excited to update Tolkien’s work, but we also felt it should reflect more of our present day culture”.
And that’s all I needed to hear. If you want to create a fantasy that reflects our culture, then create your own. Don’t bastardize an already existing work that is loved by millions. Unfortunately, I don’t think the current level of “talent” has the imagination or the ability to do so. It’s a shame. Thanks for your eloquently worded view.
Kyle
It has happened throughout history. Get over it.
C
The problem is you are trying to create a dichotomy between progressivism and tradition, but tradition *was* progressive, especially in regards to Christianity!
Now, all of your examples about a transgender portraying Muhammad or a German Aryan playing Martin Luther King are not equivalent at all, and I suspect you did this on purpose, considering how you misrepresent a lot of people in this post. Why? Because Muhammad is a real historical character, nothing in the LotR is historical (and things that take inspiration from history need not follow it exactly if that is what is desired – hence Middle-earth). Secondly, the examples you used is of people who are thought to be opposed playing the people who opposed them. Are you trying to suggest white’s oppose blacks, and therefore there can’t be blacks in a movie based on a story from a white person? What exactly is the relation here?
“It goes both ways. Diversity is not part of the Tolkien works save very specific applications that are no longer welcomed by progressive minds.”
This is a blatant lie. Tolkein wrote a Catholic and mythology-infused story about various different races, with some different color skins. The various different races are in fact diversity. The fact that humans and dwarves and hobbits all get along together in the LotR *is* diversity. Why? Because Tolkein was Catholic, and a big part of Catholicism IS the Bible’s conception of Social Justice!
Tom bomb
It doesn’t look very intriguing. I love the LotR franchise. My kids are too young for the live action so we watch the older 80s cartoons, campy af too.
But Amazon is inept at many things and this is one of them imo.
They’ve overextended themselves in their media capabilities and trying to extend into these types of shows and video games.
I’m unlikely to even give this series a chance because of how they handled Wheel of Time.
They take art and turn it into profitable garbage.
Terry
It’s funny. Y’all have a lot to say about this. I bet some of you actually enjoyed the destruction of Robert Jordan’s legacy of the Wheel of Time.
Rawlings
They might call it “Lord of the Rings”.
But most fans who aren’t full of faeces know that this show is going to be awful.
Only, with these “updates”, it becomes worse.
I can only imagine it’ll be like the ghastly Star Trek: Burnham where everything important happens because of these noble… “people”.
What a load of crap this is already
Jared
It’s a definite NO for me.
They made us believe they had the right for The Silmarillion. And instead of that we get a woke made up story … hahaha laughable.
Nope nope nope
Bana
you can find tweets to support any belief, this blog post is biased. there are many more examples of hype for the show. if you’re here, sorry to say, you are crotchety.
Brad
I would hope it doesn’t look like the Lord is the Rings Movies. It is set hundreds of years prior if not a thousand. Style, speech and everything changes. It is like saying the 1820 look nothing like today. Let’s see what the show is like before making a comment
Doug Kimzey
Forced diversity disrespects the original works of Tolkien and other authors. Books that were written long ago simply don’t need to be updated to include LGBTQ characters and perspectives. In fact, the original works are not improved in any shape, form, or fashion by this. Tolkien never addressed LGBTQ issues. This agenda does not need to be shoe-horned into every TV series and movie. This is not a fresh idea and it does not improve the story. You are not making the world a better place. Faithful adaptations of classic works will still draw a crowd. Stop the incessant and annoying preaching. Please leave great works of literature alone.
Jflint
This show is going to be a train wreck. YouTube has nuked its dislikes multiple times now. It’s hit 2 million twice and 3 million once each time they nuke it back to 1, then keep everyone’s dislike marked. All the keep heads buried in the sand.
Over all it looks more like skyrim and dargonage had a twisted baby.
Kyle
Can you produce something better?
C
The whole dislikes thing needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Extensions can’t get the dislike count anymore, so they estimate the number. Anyways, YouTube doesn’t need to nuke dislikes because 1.) They aren’t shown to most people, and 2.) Dislikes still promote the video.
Donovan
Hep…They destroyed Star Wars. Now it’s LOTR turn.
J Lee Watts
Not going tonwatch this woke trash.
Justin.L
I love a lot of Amazon’s stuff but I can absolutely guarantee this will not be one of them. It already is unauthentic and just screams woke. Will be staying far from this series and will be looking more forward to seeing how bad this is just a flop and we’ll just be saying told ya so in the end. =)
Ben Martin
Wait… Why does that dwarven woman not have a beard?
Jeremy
I need to go back and read because at some point I guess I missed the fact that dwarves had a black princess with no beard. It might be a decent TV show but not for the people that are actual longtime fans. Its gunna be a disgrace against Tolkien’s name.
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