Posted August 26, 2024
high rated
Breja: And that's a good thing? Middle-Earth isn't supposed to be a reflection of a sizeable city in 2024. That's the whole issue. You could just as well give elves jetpacks.
Timboli: Not the same thing at all. It's a TV series made for a modern audience, where many viewers aren't Caucasian or white and different more enlightened views about women and gender as well as ethnic groups are the norm now.
To call it woke, like Ancient-Red-Dragon does, is the height of silliness ... not to mention greater profits and possible acclaim from appealing to a broader audience.
I fundamentally disagree with the notion that the audience's race needs to be "represented" for something to be attractive to them, in fact, I find the notion rather disturbing as it implies people are unable or unwilling to empathisewith people of different skin color.
And the world Tolkien created is not supposed to reflect our modern world. It wasn't even supposed to reflect the world in which it was written. It's rooted in the past, and it's strength is the way it evokes that, and not modernity. And it has been uniformly succesfull in finding an audience throughout the decades without the need for adjustments for a "modern audience". Some writers for hire, without a fraction of Tolkien's knowledge and life exerience coming into it now and thinking they know better what Middle-Earth should be instead is preposterous, arrogant and plain idiotic.
As for what Tolkien would or would not approve of, I can't presume to speak for him, nor should anyone else, which is why the respectful thing is to adapt his works as faithfuly as possible or not at all.
Post edited August 26, 2024 by Breja