Lord of the Rings TV series gets multi-season order at Amazon

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Turning off comments is always a pregnant indication.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Morfydd Clark (Galadriel):
"Rings of Power is more of a message to the patriarchy, and the old cultural guard. A message that says we are no longer going to play fiddle to a white man's vision. This uses elements of Tolkien and his story, but focuses on a sociopolitical statement of power and unity."

Discuss.

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Morfydd Clark (Galadriel):
"Rings of Power is more of a message to the patriarchy, and the old cultural guard. A message that says we are no longer going to play fiddle to a white man's vision. This uses elements of Tolkien and his story, but focuses on a sociopolitical statement of power and unity."

Discuss.

Sounds very close to Erendis' comments on Numenorean men to her daughter, found in Unifinished Tales. Also very appropriate for the woman playing Galadriel, whose Valinor plotline in particular goes "men who think they can have whatever they want SUCK". (Mostly Uncle Feanor, admittedly.) And strong shades of Eowyn, too, with her speech about how the men think it's their right to go off and fight, secure in the knowledge that the women will just wait and die if they fail.

I don’t think the white man in the quote is Tolkien; the Numenor story in particularly is deeply critical of the colonising, "civilised" Numenoreans. I think it's a statement that, in a part of the story Tolkien wrote very little about (and particularly, very little that they seem to be allowed to use!), they're rejecting the idea that Other Minds And Hands must always be white, Anglo-Saxon men's hands.

hS

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Some context, from Amazon Studios' 'Inclusion Policy':

'To reduce invisibility in entertainment, and where the story allows, we aim to include one character from each of the following categories for speaking roles of any size, and at minimum 50% of the total of these should be women: (1) lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or gender non-conforming / non-binary; (2) person with a disability; and (3) three regionally underrepresented racial/ethnic/cultural groups (e.g. in the US, three of the following: Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Middle Eastern/North African, or Asian / Pacific Islander or Multi-Racial). A single character can fulfill one or more of these identities.'

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

Some context, from Amazon Studios' 'Inclusion Policy':

Not a great Inclusion Policy, if I'm honest; they could technically fulfill it by having a black lesbian in a wheelchair say "hi!". But that's what you expect from Amazon.

Tolkien, of course, does all of these in the Silmarillion: Galadriel is distinctly gender-nonconforming, Sador Labadal is noted for both his disability and his loyalty, and there are multiple Swarthy Men (including some who aren't even evil, which I note isn't required under Amazon's policy). In fact, if you count Morwen as gender-nonconforming (she takes what the Hadorians would definitely call a man's role), the tale of Turin has all three of these in spades! (I'm not even going to mention the various male characters who love Turin above everything in the world...)

hS

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Yes; I think strict quotas would produce better television.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

On nomenclature:
This is an area which I thinks provides substantial evidence that this show is not "in good hands" at all, notwithstanding the comments of assorted podcasters whom Amazon lavishly junketed. Look at the names for their "Harfoot" protohobbits. It goes without saying that these names of Shire type would be linguistically impossible in the Second Age.

But it also seems at least as blatant, even if they want to roll with a conscious anachronism, that there is not a thought process involved with sufficient spark to understand even the nature of those names: just chopping and reassembling Brandybuck and Proudfoot- have these nimrods no idea where those names came from and why they are as they are? Was there no knife in the drawer sharp enough to go find a Warwick* telephone directory and pull some Hobbity names from the source?

Oh, yes- what the heck is a woman with the the Welsh name Bronwyn doing in Middle-earth?

*"West Midlands" (i.e. the Birmingham conurbation) wouldn't really work any more