what gets me the most is about how they’re butchering Finrod is that time and time again we were told that the first age was off limits!! that Amazon did NOT buy the rights to the silmarillion! But now we have unequivocal evidence of a scrawny short-haired Felagund, of Telperion and Laurelin imagery, and rumors of dedicated « flashbacks » to the First Age. It’s like the stories we thought were safe from the bezos’ grubby hands of corporate greed were actually in mortal peril all along. I just don’t understand how the Tolkien estate could have let this happen :-/
I have a longer ask with citations cooking about canonical evidence for nonwhite elves (because this is something I spend a lot of time thinking about and considering) but the biggest issue I actually have with TROP’s diverse casting is that it’s not diverse enough.
There is no reason that both Elrond and Galadriel have to be white; there’s not even a reason that Galadrielhas to be white (in my head she’s not, my faceclaim for her is Dichen Lachman), and the fact that our one (1) elf of color is an original character anda Silvan elf (famously “more dangerous less wise”) really fucking bothers me. I’m annoyed that the diversity we’re seeing seems to be reserved for “people who aren’t going to be Important Noble Main Characters”, and that the design aesthetics are both cheap and superficial - it betrays a real lack of commitment to the ideaof diversity in Arda. not to put too fine a point on it, but if everybody looks like they’re coming from the same culture and the majority of the aesthetics look solely European, that’s not actually putting any effort into making a more inclusive vision of Middle-Earth.
at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what Tolkien intended, there’s literally no reason that characters in the Legendarium can’t also be people of color. in many cases they are canonically brown (many Hobbits, the House of Bëor) and depicting them as solely white is whitewashing, even! And true, I’ve got extensive headcanons on what particular elvish ethnic groups look like and bullshit fantasy genetics that have no connection to real genetics, but I don’t even necessarily want an adaptation to follow my vision? I just want it to commitif it’s going to be diverse.
the fact that racists are howling about how a handful of nonwhite characters betrays Tolkien’s vision andthat the actual diversity showcased isn’t that spectacular just leaves me feeling like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place, you know?
YEAH. YEAH THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT. like. it feels as if Amazon made these choices with an eye to exactly how much diversity they could get away with and who they could/couldn’t colorblind cast. like they know that people will still watch it if the heroes are white, even if they complain online.
it feels so disingenuous, it’s like they saw what happened to John Boyega during his Star Wars run and went “oh so the solution is never cast people of color in major lead roles”. what the fuck.
me yesterday: surely the promo stills HAVE to be overselling how much like ass this production design looks, they look like hot flaming garbage and that’s got to be a lighting thing or SOMETHING, it probably looks bad but not THIS bad
me today: I yearn for the innocence of a few hours ago
I have a longer ask with citations cooking about canonical evidence for nonwhite elves (because this is something I spend a lot of time thinking about and considering) but the biggest issue I actually have with TROP’s diverse casting is that it’s not diverse enough.
There is no reason that both Elrond and Galadriel have to be white; there’s not even a reason that Galadrielhas to be white (in my head she’s not, my faceclaim for her is Dichen Lachman), and the fact that our one (1) elf of color is an original character anda Silvan elf (famously “more dangerous less wise”) really fucking bothers me. I’m annoyed that the diversity we’re seeing seems to be reserved for “people who aren’t going to be Important Noble Main Characters”, and that the design aesthetics are both cheap and superficial - it betrays a real lack of commitment to the ideaof diversity in Arda. not to put too fine a point on it, but if everybody looks like they’re coming from the same culture and the majority of the aesthetics look solely European, that’s not actually putting any effort into making a more inclusive vision of Middle-Earth.
at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what Tolkien intended, there’s literally no reason that characters in the Legendarium can’t also be people of color. in many cases they are canonically brown (many Hobbits, the House of Bëor) and depicting them as solely white is whitewashing, even! And true, I’ve got extensive headcanons on what particular elvish ethnic groups look like and bullshit fantasy genetics that have no connection to real genetics, but I don’t even necessarily want an adaptation to follow my vision? I just want it to commitif it’s going to be diverse.
the fact that racists are howling about how a handful of nonwhite characters betrays Tolkien’s vision andthat the actual diversity showcased isn’t that spectacular just leaves me feeling like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place, you know?
After seeing some bickering about the ‘politically ambitious’ characterization of Elrond, I have decided that my initial reaction was driven by reactionary prejudice against the amazon production… but also that I stand by it.
Because 'politically ambitions’ has specific connotations and in my experience most of them are unpleasant. It suggests ruthlessness and backbiting, and and a willingness to break your morals and ideals for power and influence. It doesn’t *have* to be that, but that’s my first association.
And yes, Elrond would be younger here than we see him in lotr or the hobbit, but… I guess to me, it would be like telling me that Rivendel was Elrond’s version of 'retiring to spend time with his family’. That the elrond that we have seen most directly was a facade. That the last homely house was like George w Bush and his painting. Because we live in the real world, and in a context of 2022, I can’t think of political ambition as benign, and then I have to connect the dots with Elrond in the third age and I hate how that changes the character.
I’m not saying that nobody could or should take that angle on the character. It could be interesting! With the right writer, I would read I and enjoy it! But it would have to be an author who already had my trust. And I don’t trust amazon at all. If your first description of a character as a new interpretation of the narrative runs counter to their (apparent) established characterization… you’re not giving me anything to trust. There’s no groundwork to convince me that this was a choice made with consideration instead of just convenience, because 'politically ambitious’ makes for juicy TV drama. It could be that we’re all making a mountain out of a molehill, but I can’t see any reason to hang around and find out.
tbh - to explore this further - I think the biggest problem here is that Elrond’s canonical-in-the-text place in Gil-galad’s court and army, and his actions after the Second Age, are fundamentally incompatible with the idea that he’s a failed politician who learned the error of his ways. If he’s ambitious, sure it makes sense he rises high, but why reject the High Kingship when Gil-galad died? Why not challenge Amdir’s descendants for the kingship of Lothlórien? Why not establish a kingdom of his own, treating Imladris like a second Nargothrond? Political ambition looks like that in Middle-Earth, and he doesn’t do any of that. His brother is the kingdom-builder, and this distinction is important.
Also, Elrond as the only Finwëan who really learned to reject ambition and this being the key to dodging the Doom of the Noldor is a significantly more compelling character, IMO. Also, if I’m being very mean, I would say that the Second Age already has a politically ambitious figure who’s sought the chance to partake in kingdom-building and ruling as a monarch and who’s now coming into a geopolitical climate where that’s allowed, but she ultimately must learn to reject that and choose more positive pursuits -
How do you absolutely hate everything you’ve seen from the LotR series especially today but also make it clear to the racists that you are absolutely not with them
Like fuck I want to support this purely bc they’re bitching that the diverse casting is ruining it, but so far the diversity is the only thing here that ISN’T a mistake
Also get these super gendered outfits and workplace acceptable short male hair the fuck away from my androgynous elves
so the thing about the confirmed Second Age condensation that is absolutely sendingme is that in the show, apparently,Sauron runs away from Eönwë at the end of the War of Wrath and then fifty or so years later somebody turns up going ‘hi my name is Lordofgifts Aulë’sfriend and I’m here to teach you forbidden knowledge’ and the at-this-point very loyal very Noldorin Gwaith-i-Mírdain is like “ooh new best friend!!!!” and not “[cocks crossbow] YOU”
“Elrond is a politically ambitious young elven leader” did. did we read the same fucking books, Bezoar
like I was expecting it to be bad but I wasn’t expecting it to be bad RIGHT OUT THE GATE
right out the gate, off and running, we haven’t even gotten a single gif yet and already you’re fucking up basic worldbuilding, (GLaDOS voice) that would be funny if it weren’t so sad
I’m gonna be real, it’s a reliefto see with my own eyes that the people involved in this show just didn’t give a fuck and have no idea what it is that they’re doing and are mucking around in the lore for the purposes of, I suppose, “capitalism”
the major reason I’ve been on quasi-hiatus from my main, and from Tolkien fanfic, is because this is actually round four for me of “new content that’s not very good disrupts beloved fandom space”, and I needed a lot of time - almost a year, really - to get to a point where I could cope with that. it happened in 2009 with Star Trek and the AOS, it happened in 2011 with the BBC Sherlocktaking over a space that had been devoted to a lot of stories and novels that I loved with a great passion, it happened for a stretch with the Jackson Hobbitmovies, and now it’s happening again. tbh I just needed time,to process that this was coming, and make my plans for survival.
thegoodnews is that since I’m used to it happening, I can survive, and I will; I’ve liberally blacklisted all tags adjacent to the Amazon series, I’m blacklisting the actors’ and original characters’ names, and I’m going to exist in blissful peace until this whole mess is over. it passes, it always passes, and I always panic and find myself worrying about how I’ll cope (because fandom spaces are homes,houses that I and the others who came before built, and new arrivals are always disruptive), and then it comes and goes and we all manage all right. the breakneck pace of media consumption and the way fandom has become just another commodity means that ‘within these walls, we can outlast them,’ and outlasting is exactly what I plan to do.
also, it’s a relief to find myself not alone, and I think I might start being more open about my opinions. I’ve been trying to be diplomatic, but I really don’tthink this is going to be a good or worthwhile adaptation, and I’m no longer in the minority when it comes to that position.
I don’t intend to go out of my way to harass people who like the show, and I’m certainly not going to harass the actors (though I might pass judgment on the production design and costuming and hair/makeup, which collectively look like absolute ass when it comes to that budget) but whatever it is that’s coming in September won’tbe Tolkien, and now I know that for sure, I’m a lot calmer, and a lot more ready to return to the things I love, and the world he crafted, because thatworld will never have anything to do with Amazon.
