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Rings of Power

Rings of Power

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@no1marauder said
The Orcs in the Rings of Power and in the LOTR and Hobbit series are sufficiently different to be identified without resort to their skin color.

In fact, the main protagonist in the Hobbit movies is a white Orc.
Some people seemed to feel the Capulets and Montagues fighting with pistols at a petrol station was authentic to Shakespeare but I tend to disagree that such modifications are true to the original author's intent. I guess it's all down to opinion.

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@athousandyoung said
Starry Night is an interpretation of a mentally ill man looking at the night sky through the lens of his madness. It IS the source material.

The analogy works like this -

Literal night sky = literal Anglo-Saxon history
Van Gogh's painting = Tolkein's writing
Imaginary new painting "in Van Gogh's style" of the same scene but with the houses replaced with a politically correct assortment of house types from across the world =? Rings of Power
So, it’s fine to change Bombadil and leave the Shire unscoured.

But holy fukk! Just don’t have a brown bloody elf?

That’s what you’re saying.
So, your opinion isn’t about source material being changed, it isn’t about the artistic merits in the finished product, it’s about skin colour.

That’s what you’re saying.

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@athousandyoung said
Some people seemed to feel the Capulets and Montagues fighting with pistols at a petrol station was authentic to Shakespeare but I tend to disagree that such modifications are authentic to the original author's intent. I guess it's all down to opinion.
It's contrary to Shakespeare's intent when a woman and not a young boy plays Juliet.

Does that lack of "authenticity" bother you?

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@no1marauder said
It's contrary to Shakespeare's intent when a woman and not a young boy plays Juliet.

Does that lack of "authenticity" bother you?
I disagree that this is a lack of authenticity. The young boy is not portraying Juliet as a young boy and it's not Shakespeare's fault that female actors were criminalized at the time.

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@athousandyoung said
I disagree that this is a lack of authenticity. The young boy is not portraying Juliet as a young boy and it's not Shakespeare's fault that female actors were criminalized at the time.
The actors is ROP are not portraying elves as Hispanic human men or dwarves as black human females either.

I kinda doubt all the dwarves and Harfoot actors are 4 foot tall either.

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@no1marauder said
Or maybe they picked the actors they thought were best for the parts and didn't worry about their "race"?

I remember people freaking out when the great English actor, Idris Elba, who happens to be black, played the Gunslinger in an adaptation of the Stephen King books. It was remarkably stupid then and it remains remarkably stupid now.
Did they make Susannah white too? Because her race mattered in her backstory...

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@no1marauder said
The actors is ROP are not portraying elves as Hispanic human men or dwarves as black human females either.

I kinda doubt all the dwarves and Harfoot actors are 4 foot tall either.
But they are portraying occasional Dwarves as looking like short Haradrim without explanation apparently.

I suppose you could do what was done with the Orcs and say Haradrim all have monstrous features of some sort and dehumanize a second race analogue. Some people might get upset that the Asian (and Black) analogues of Middle Earth were dehumanized and made monstrous...

https://www.polygon.com/23329806/rings-power-orcs-lord-rings-episode-release

The Rings of Power does something new with orcs by going full Alien
The Amazon show’s bad guys are a different beast than in Lord of the Rings

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George RR Martin on race in fiction

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@athousandyoung said
George RR Martin on race in fiction

[youtube]y0yRfzTfmwM[/youtube]
You seem pretty hung up about skin colour, dude.

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@athousandyoung said
Tolkein
You lose.

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@athousandyoung said
No as you may be aware I have been fascinated by race and culture for a long time
Obsessed. The word you're looking for is "obsessed", not "fascinated".

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@shallow-blue said
Obsessed. The word you're looking for is "obsessed", not "fascinated".
Quite agree.
I did a wee bit of research:

And considering the series is based on texts and discussions with Tolkien and his grand son helped form the story… and that the hobbits of old (the harfoots) are descrbed as darker of skin and that various drafts of the Silmarilion mention dark skinned elves… it all seems a little… well… hung up…

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This entire thread is silly.

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@no1marauder said
Does casting black and Hispanics in some of the roles in this miniseries ruin Tolkien's vision as some right wingers insist?

"Morse is deputy managing editor of RedState, a conservative news site. He says "The Rings of Power" producers have cast non-White actors in a story based on European culture and who look wildly different from how Tolkien originally described the ...[text shortened]... le should pay less taxes" thingy doesn't work as well in focus groups so they need something.
THIS MAY INTEREST
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/lord-of-the-rings-debunking-the-backlash-against-non-white-actors-in-amazon-s-new-adaption?utm_source=pocket-newtab

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@no1marauder said
It's contrary to Shakespeare's intent when a woman and not a young boy plays Juliet.

Does that lack of "authenticity" bother you?
Mary Martin played Peter Pan.