“The Rings of Power” and the Issue of Race — Lord of the Rings Rings of Power on Amazon Prime News, JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit and more | TheOneRing.net
The first-ever reveal of Amazon’s TV series The Lord of the Rings – The Rings of Power via Vanity Fair last week ignited anew the flame of passion for discussing Tolkien’s works, now being adapted for a new medium and in a new format; more so because the showrunners have set out to “come up with…
“The Rings of Power” and the Issue of Race — Lord of the Rings Rings of Power on Amazon Prime News, JRR Tolkien, The Hobbit and more | TheOneRing.net
I’ve followed TORn on and off for oh man, well over a decade now and I’m very relieved to see this statement. I can’t believe the amount of racism I’ve seen in Middle Earth fandom over the past couple days. One racist statement would be too much, but… damn. I’m so sorry to the fans who have to put up with this.
(side note: I had no idea Sir Lenny Henry was in The Rings of Power! I’m still a little dubious about this franchise being in the hands of Amazon but he’s a good reason to watch it.)
February 20, 2022 @ 5:12 pm
Took me a moment to dig into what you meant by racism. I thought you were talking about badmouthing orcs or goblins. I confess I’m racist against Zombies. Terrible conversationalists, can’t invite them round to social functions and they only have one thing on their minds, so I spend countless hours killing them in Left 4 Dead and World War Z.
Kidding aside, it almost doesn’t pay to acknowledge those people because I think they are effectively holding up a neon sign saying “I’m ignorant” and we’re giving them the time of day. I can understand people complaining if a character is described a certain way with reason and then the producer ignores it. Take Elric of Melnibone, written by Michael Moorcock. Elric is described as a weak albino male with red eyes. Now in that casting, I agree, I may think Idris Elba is a magnificent actor but it seems like a poor casting choice. Or, as you and I both acknowledge Zoe Saldana, she’s awesome and I love basically everything she’s in, but again, prob not a good Elric. Barring that totally random example that popped into my head, I’d be surprised if there are many roles that can’t be played by anyone. I don’t know the characters well enough in LotR to know if any are described by color but if they are not, who cares who plays them? Moreover, who cares how they were described if it doesn’t play a part in the character arc! Like casting for Doctor Who, I think it should be about getting the right acting talent in, regardless of gender, color, religion, etc.
Ironically, the series I’ve loved (Doctor Who, Trek, etc) have fandoms that often display a surprising amount of vitriol considering these are shows about acceptance and inclusivity and it’s really disappointing. ML
February 20, 2022 @ 6:53 pm
Yeah, you’re right about the maybe not acknowledging. I feel like a lot of the complainers probably aren’t remotely aware of the intricacies of LOTR anyway and are just stirring up drama for the sake of things, such is the world we live in alas. But man! It’s such a shame when that kind of people behave so badly whole fandoms have to come out and say “They’re not with us.” I’ve seen a few snippets of really appalling behavior in Doctor Who fandom too, I remember the website Gallifrey Base having to put out a pinned message on their forums telling people to stop with the sexism and harassment after Jodie Whittaker was cast. So disappointing…
February 21, 2022 @ 2:02 am
Exactly. It’s awful. And the thing with Whittaker is that she’s not the problem – she’s a delightful woman and a great actress. The problem Doctor Who has is a fairly mediocre lead writer (male, mind you…) who doesn’t really care if he tramples on what’s happened before. That’s when he bothers to write a story that makes sense to begin with. The problem with Who fandom is that there are a lot of people who see the character without the understanding of the backbone being the writer. If you’ve got a strong writer, your character shines and a weak writer can dull even the most interesting character. So all the sexist comments about Jodie totally fail to realize she’s only as good as the script she’s given. Which is a shame, because I think she’s a solid Doctor…
Come to think of it, Capaldi is one of my absolute favorite Doctors because his last season had so many great episodes and he was actually THE DOCTOR through that season, but 2 seasons earlier, he was barely the Doctor at all, claiming Clara was his carer so that he didn’t have to (care). The first season of Capaldi was weak. Good-ish stories, but poorly written Doctor. Second season was better Doctor, crap stories (mostly). And this is Peter Capalid we’re talking about – a damned good, A rated actor. I was delighted he had a final season that really coupled great stories with a perfectly Doctorish Doctor. I don’t see it being a question of the Doctor not being male, then, because he was during Capaldi’s run. So the Jodie naysayers really need to rethink things. I just don’t think they will. And it’s a shame because one of my biggest selling points about Doctor Who was always how inclusive it was… Leave it to the die hard fans to damage that image. ML
February 21, 2022 @ 8:43 pm
It’s sort of a shame the first female Doctor ended up being stuck with the Timeless Child baggage. I’m not completely against the idea but it was really clumsily done overall. (And Flux, oh god, Flux was a mess.)
Capaldi only really started to feel like The Doctor to me at “Listen,” I struggled to really like him before that. Now he’s one of my favourites!
February 21, 2022 @ 10:23 pm
I think you’ve nailed it on both points. Flux was a mess and does little more for me than making me feel good about that card game (Doctor Who Fluxx – but I love that series of games anyway). It was the sort of all-over-the-map storytelling that was fun but gets lost in its own loops. (Feel free to check out our pages on that in the Junkyard).
Re: Capaldi, I liked him on and off, but it wasn’t until his final season that he truly became the Doctor for me and that’s one of my happiest convention meetings! ML