MovieChat Forums > The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022) Discussion > I have a solution

I have a solution

posted 3 years ago by papamihel (1616)
43 replies | jump to latest

Amazon obviously has a lot of money. Why won't they shoot several versions of the show with different casts?

Version 1: Nothing special. Everyone looks just like Tolkien envisioned and we have always imagined they should look.
Version 2: Diverse cast
Version 3: Diverse cast + LGBT
Version 4: Diverse cast of trans-people
Version 5: Diverse cast + LGBT + trans + socially relevant themes are explored. Elves discuss environmental issues, Dwarves have to overcome challenges of building a Socialist economy in Moria, Gondor is slammed for occupying the West Bank of river Anduin etc.

So on Prime you get to choose the version you want to see:
Version 1 watchers just get what they paid for.
Version 2 watchers get Prime free for one month
Version 3 watchers get Prime free for three months.
Version 4 watchers - half a year
Version 5 watchers - a year free Prime plus Amazon credit or something.

This way everyone is happy:
Fans can enjoy a proper adaptation of their favorite classic.
People who have no imagination can relate to characters who look just like them.
People who like free sh*t get their free sh*t.
You will be able to see Amazon's virtue signaling from space.

And activists will be happy. Or will they? Cause maybe they can't be happy unless they force people...

[–] DMT (4483) 3 years ago

they should do this but instead they would rather ruin something good

[–] alienzen (1931) 3 years ago

No they will never be happy and they cannot tolerate people exercising freedom of choice. Wokeness is basically a left-wing flavor of fascism. When Marvel made a superhero film with an almost entirely black cast, they were whining that is should have been made 10 years earlier, despite the fact that none of them even knew superheroes existed before 2012.

[–] AmeriGirl26 (15137) 3 years ago

None of them seemed to know black heroes existed before 2012 either. If they didn't act like the world started in 2015 and actually watched the older films, they'd understand that they not only aren't breaking new ground, but there's a reason why nobody likes watching their crap right now.

[–] Spiffy666 (400) 3 years ago

Or, you know, we let filmmakers make their content and not worry about pussy ass bigots and their whining.

Which is, of course, the "solution" everywhere in the world except places like this board.

[–] BourbonKing (5789) 3 years ago

Amazon already makes a lot of money and will make even more when RoP is released.

The only ones who demand being pandered and catered to are the racist bigots who find casting human beings of darker skin tones as offensive to their "culture" which somehow is reflected in the fantasy of Tolkien's legendarium, even though it's all complete make-believe. Furthermore, these same racist bigots have their own prejudicial exceptions as they wouldn't protest if they cast a hot Eurasian actress or a Mestizo Hispanic with light eyes and olive skin, just don't cast anyone really Asian or Indigenous looking or else they'll complain just as much if they had African features.

[–] LoveCatsHateDogs (2002) 3 years ago

Indigenous to what?

[–] Darren (1462) 3 years ago

And right there, you put your finger on it. You see, according to woke lefties like BourbonKing, Europeans aren't indigenous to Europe -- at least it's not theirs the way everybody else's home belongs to them. And in a story based entirely on northern European mythology, people who look like northern Europeans shouldn't be cast as the characters in it.

Of course, this is also entirely a one way street. Cast people who look like northern Europeans in a production based on say, Mesoamerican or African or Asian mythology, and... "REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! COLONIZATION!!!"

And of course BourbonSJW is missing the point entirely, dismissing all complaints as racist. The problem people have with "diverse" LoTR goes beyond the fact that the casting is simply inappropriate for the setting. It's that people look at it and say "oh great, they're doing it again." And "it" refers to prioritizing "representation" over story. There has been a slew of movies and TV shows over the last few years that have prioritized representation over story -- Ghostbusters (2016), Terminator: Woke Fate, Captain Marvel, Charlie's Angels (2019), the Disney SW trilogy, Picard, Batwoman, the Eternals, Doctor Who (seasons 11-13), et al. -- and they have all sucked. (The producers of these have all also attacked fans, and dismissed their criticism as racist.)

Woke films and TV shows that prioritize representation (and other woke ideas) over story are simply bad movies and TV shows for the same reason that any film or TV show that prioritizes something before storytelling and character development turn out bad: the narrative takes over and distorts the whole thing, damaging the artistic value of the thing.

(Going to have to break this response in two owing to post-length limits.)

[–] Darren (1462) 3 years ago

(part 2)

If you've ever watched a Christian movie, made by a religious organization, to promote Christianity, you'll see the same problem. Ditto overtly political movies. They all tend to suffer from the same flaws. In order to push the message, the story takes a back seat and suffers, and the characters really suffer the most. The villains often get turned into Snidely Whiplash, mustache-twirling caricatures. And the heroes become Mary Sues who can't be allowed to have realistic human flaws and character defects, because that might make the devout Christian, righteous politician, POC, LGBTQ, and/or strong wamen (take your pick) protagonist look weak, and we can't have that.

We can't yet say what the story of this series is yet, based on this trailer, and there remains the possibility it could actually be good. But what we can see from this trailer is that Amazon is still going the woke route, and we can look back at all those recent, dreadful woke movies and TV shows I mentioned, and feel that sinking feeling in the pits of our stomachs. We can justifiably fear that the producers of this show haven't learned anything, and are going to serve up a heaping pile of woke garbage to us yet again. And the fact that they are already calling us racists for expressing these fears makes it almost a certainly.

[–] papamihel (1616) 3 years ago

What do you think it is? Seinfeld?
They are not going to get their billion back. It's a vanity project.

[–] BourbonKing (5789) 3 years ago

Oh you sound like a gifted financial wizard. I'm sure Jeff Bezos could use your economic intelligence to guide future Prime projects in the pipeline! /s

[–] Kowalski (79178) 3 years ago

SO BASICALLY THE STREAMING VERSION OF WHITE'S ONLY DRINKING FOUNTAINS?

[–] papamihel (1616) 3 years ago

No, silly.
One version: artistically accurate and respectful of the source material.
The rest: political propaganda on the scale from... Let's say Soviet children fairy-tale to Triumph of the Will.

[–] Kowalski (79178) 3 years ago

A WHITE'S ONLY VERSION & A COLORED'S VERSION...I GET IT.

[–] papamihel (1616) 3 years ago

You have an obsession, it seems.
The Middle Earth is not "white" only. It has a lot of virtually unexplored cultures covering more than half of the continent. If the show-writers really wanted to bring representation to their creation they could have explored that.
Instead they chose to destroy the spirit and the letter of Tolkien's work.

[–] Kowalski (79178) 3 years ago

UNEXPLORED WHITE CULTURES...OR AT THE VERY LEAST...BLUE OR PURPLE PEOPLE...RIGHT?

[–] papamihel (1616) 3 years ago

Bloody hell... What are you doing on this board? You clearly haven't read Tolkien and don't care about his work.

[–] ProgsReturn (2237) 3 years ago

Congratulations on being the only person alive stupid enough to confuse Middle Earth with Pandora.

[–] Kowalski (79178) 3 years ago

😂

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8864) 3 years ago

LOL. Nice post.

[–] Gd5150 (11972) 3 years ago

Just give it time, it’ll happen.

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

Fuck that!

The racist snowflake assholes who are triggered by the sight of actors who aren't lily-white don't deserve shit. They don't even deserve copies of the LOTR movies or books!

None of them are real fans, BTW, they're just assholes who know diddly-squat about Middle Earth, and who are invading this board because of the diverse cast.

[–] papamihel (1616) 3 years ago

There's plenty of YouTube videos and Twitter posts made by PoC fans and they are just as outraged.
So, no.

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

Bullshit, you piece of shit.

[–] LanceDance (1397) 3 years ago

I’m a POC, and I don’t like the casting in Rings of Power. Some YouTubers that don’t like it are JustSomeGuy and Young Rippa.

You wouldn’t like it if white people lived in Wakanda in Black Panther, would you? Or if there were white people in Journey to the West? I imagine you wouldn’t. There are non-whites in LOTR, such as the Harad, Amazon could’ve had a storyline with them instead of pretending all of middle earth was a melting pot of races.

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

Nope! Troll fail!

And BTW, white people *did* live in Wakanda, Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes at least lived there for a while.

[–] LanceDance (1397) 3 years ago

That’s not the same, kiddo. Cap and Bucky temporarily took refuge in Wakanda to escape the law, and left as soon as they were pardoned. I’m talking about if writers changed it so that there were white Wakandans from the start, altering the lore to reflect modern times.

My point still stands.

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

I don't believe there are POC who are out there supporting white ethnic purity, troll.

Don't bother to respond, trolls on your level aren't worth talking to and this is my last reply.

[–] LanceDance (1397) 3 years ago

There are people out there who support keeping history, mythology, and folklore for all races intact. That includes no race-washing, whether it's white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Indian, etc. They don't want gender-swapping or LGBT-washing either.

My point still stands.

[–] BourbonKing (5789) 3 years ago

Otter, Lancedance isn't PO he's White a d he spends l days here defending Rightwing rhetoric disguised as Tolkien Fandom. Just lookup his pist history. LOL

[–] LanceDance (1397) 3 years ago

Because it's unfathomable for POCs to be against color-washing, or lean anywhere other than Left. LOL

[–] asom (6895) 3 years ago

Are you that dumb?? Steve Rogers is NOT a white Wakandan!!!!

[–] BourbonKing (5789) 3 years ago

I'm a POC too and I don't look at skin color as important to the LotR universe. The only ones griping are either racial purists who think Tolkien was a racial purists or self-loathing apologists who feel sorry for said racial purists bitching about casting POC.

Tolkien NEVER separated different "races of Men" based on skin tone. The Peoples of Middle-Earth were Elves, Men, and Dwarves and their various kingdoms. Even the puny little Hobbits fall under the category of Men, as well as the Woses, Easterlings, Haradrim, and various Dunlending tribes. He described their cultures in varying degrees but he never said that Easternlings or Haradrim were separate Race.

[–] LanceDance (1397) 3 years ago

Nobody said the Easterlings and Haradrim were a separate race. Fans have said multiple times that there are non-white characters in LOTR, but not in Gondor or Rohan, or among the elves and dwarves, and at best there were hobbits with browner skin tones than average, but no black hobbits.

The only people asking for muh representation are activists who only care about fictional characters that look and act exactly like them. They don’t actually care about the story or lore or even the characters themselves, only what they look and act like. They aren’t fans, they’re locusts.

There aren’t any self-hating POCs, but there are plenty of self-hating whites these days.

[–] BourbonKing (5789) 3 years ago

Fans have said multiple times that there are non-white characters in LOTR, but not in Gondor or Rohan, or among the elves and dwarves, and at best there were hobbits with browner skin tones than average, but no black hobbits.

"Fans have said"? So you admit that this is all online gibberish spread by anonymous sources, including yourself arguing that POC can't be in Gondor or any of the Elven Kingdoms. Well at least we know now that this nothing but noise being brigaded by bias opinions and NOT by the Tolkien estate.

The only people asking for muh representation are activists who only care about fictional characters that look and act exactly like them. They don’t actually care about the story or lore or even the characters themselves, only what they look and act like. They aren’t fans, they’re locusts.

Such as? I haven't read or seen any activists involved with RoP's production, only a cherrypicked quote from one of the producers who is not an SJW but a professional TV and Movie expert. The bigger noise is coming from online brigaders like "CriticalDrinker" and "Nerdtrotic" on Youtube for example who are screaming about "Woke Culture" destroying their perceived ownership of "white culture". Again nothing from the Tolkien estate.

Oh there are plenty of self-hating POCs who publicly make degrading statements about their own culture in favor of white culture and even defend Bigots (ie - Larry Elder, Candace Owens, and Andy Ngo)

[–] LanceDance (1397) 3 years ago

I didn't admit anything, buddy. Read what I said, what you quoted, again. Slooowwwwly.

I haven't read or seen any activists involved with RoP's production, only a cherrypicked quote from one of the producers who is not an SJW but a professional TV and Movie expert.

The people behind Rings of Power were clear: make an LOTR show that reflects modern times, which goes against how Tolkien went about creating it in the first place. The writers, directors, producers and actors all seem to be on board with that. Their recent cringe video with the so-called "super-fans", as well as the various puff-pieces about diversity in the show, are just more examples of activism over storytelling. They cherry-picked one instance where browner-skinned hobbits were mentioned and used that as their excuse to have black hobbits. By that logic, what's their excuse for having black elves and dwarves? Nothing in Tolkien's texts say anything about that, unless it was never about respecting his text, and instead about making stuff up to help push their agenda. Tolkien made it clear which races were fair-skinned (white) and which weren't. Christopher Tolkien was apparently the last family member with any integrity.

Oh there are plenty of self-hating POCs who publicly make degrading statements about their own culture in favor of white culture and even defend Bigots

None of those people hate their race, or defended bigots. Pointing out facts, stats, and history isn't self-hate, it shows they're educated and not a bunch of fragile POCs who need to be told how stunning and brave they are. The closest I can think of to match your claim are actresses like Thandie Newton and Zoe Saldana who apologized for not being black enough when the woke mob went after them, but that's still not the same as hating themselves. There are plenty of self-hating whites though, and plenty of racists who hate whites. Black YouTubers like JustSomeGuy and Young Rippa have also been very vocal against Rings of Power, as I already said.

[–] BourbonKing (5789) 3 years ago

It's obvious now that you're neither POC nor even a casual fan of Tolkien as you continue to spew B.S. about there being a Woke Agenda. Your bullshyte SPIN using Thandie and Zoey as counter point comes straight out if Step n Fetchit trolls like Candace Owens. Enjoy your futile attempt at BUYcotting all things Fantasy that don't fit your Racislist Agenda, Troll.

[–] LanceDance (1397) 3 years ago

Riiiight, so I'm not a POC because I don't support black-washing? I didn't realize I was talking to Joe Biden 😄 Nor am I a Tolkien fan because I actually respect his works? That's quite some mental gymnastics right there. I bet you think I'm straight too.

It's ok to admit you lost this round, buddy. There's no shame in throwing in the towel.

[–] BourbonKing (5789) 3 years ago

LOL, twitter and youtube commentators can be ANYBODY including Russian farm trolls which is more likely. Go to the Prime Youtube channel and read the comments under the RoP trailer. They're all written in Cyrillic repeating a quote not even made by Tolkien himself.

I'll grant you though there are plenty of self-loathing Black, Asian, and Hispanic trolls who worship White Race-based culture and even laud it as Superior to themselves but are grateful for it in masochistic glee (ie - See Larry Elder, Candace Owens, Andy Ngo).

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

They should just replace all the characters with hot young girls. Ratings would increase and everyone would be happy.

[–] papamihel (1616) 3 years ago

I'm sure there is a porn version of the LOTR somewhere out there.