‘Tolkien is turning in his grave’ – Elon Musk
Amazon’s multi-billion TV series Rings of Power deviates from the original Lord of the Rings trilogy in one key aspect: it actually includes more than three female characters. This seems to be a problem for men on the internet.
Most notably, Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to express his opinion on the show: ‘Almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both. Only Galadriel is brave, smart, and nice.’ Media coverage reporting on this tweet mostly agrees with him, citing the show as a ‘man-hating’ pro-feminist agenda that has simply cast women and people of colour in order to tick a diversity quota.
However, one watch of the show will reveal that this ‘feminist agenda’ is simply having women who can protect themselves and are well developed characters. None of these articles can properly explain any other reason that the show has an agenda, other than it being ‘inconsistent with the supposed historical setting’. Is it so unimaginable that in an entirely fictional fantasy world of immortal beings, magical rings, and dragons; people of colour and women exist?
There are a vast number of female characters within the show, from Queen Regents to dwarf princesses. Particularly appreciated is the range in types of femininity displayed. For example, Nori the Harfoot displays courage and curiosity without being a physically strong or fierce character, whereas Galadriel shows that she can take on the forces of pure evil basically single-handedly in combat. This makes a pleasant change from the original Lord of the Rings trilogy that features three female main characters, two of which are primarily focused on as one of the protagonist’s love interests.
The show takes on a Game of Thrones-esque scale, with varying intersecting plotlines and characters spanning the wide world created by Tolkien. So, it makes sense that there are different races, different perspectives, different stories. Again, this is a fictional world outside the bounds of our own reality. It is unclear from many of these articles what the critics of the show would prefer; another series based entirely on the white male perspective? One petition seeks to scrap the show and start from scratch, presumably to cater to these unhappy fans who want their traditional male fantasy back.
In the first four days of the show being available on Amazon, the episodes attracted an approximate 10 million viewers in the US alone. The representations of women will not be lost on the young women of today, who need these characters to look up to. Men on the internet will continue to cry about it, and Amazon will continue to make money.
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Elon Musk roasts LOTR Rings Of Power feminist agenda | POPTOPIC