The internet can be a pretty harsh place most of the time. Sometimes, it feels like the haters are the only people who get any real attention, and those who call them out on it are not loud enough to drown them out.
I love talking about things that I love with people who also love it. I find that when I am typically unable to hold a conversation for long periods of time, bringing up one of my interests is a great way to get me talking—even when they may not particularly care. It’s even better when the other person also loves that interest.Â
However, there are some things that I am a fan of where I’ve unfortunately had to distance myself from the main fanbase because of the sheer amount of toxicity within them. The largest example that comes to mind is the Star Wars fandom. There’s a common saying that “nobody hates Star Wars more than Star Wars fans.” Unfortunately, I have found this to be largely true, and I have my own grievances with that phrase.
I’m in the midst of my annual Star Wars fixation, so I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I’m also a huge fan of The Lord of the Rings, and I’ve found a lot of the fanbase surrounding that is falling in a similar direction to the Star Wars fans.
There’s a lot of hate with the newer media surrounding these two franchises; or, more accurately, the haters are very loud. But the main issue isn’t that they don’t like the new media—they’re entitled to dislike it and that’s their own opinion—but that they’re also attacking the people who do like it.Â
A new Lord of the Rings film is coming out next year, The Hunt for Gollum, which takes place during the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring when Gandalf leaves the Ring with Frodo and goes off to do some research. Even now, when the movie is nowhere near release, it is receiving a fair amount of backlash (and maybe that’s my fault for opening Instagram comments, but I digress). The casting was recently announced, and the comments were filled with people lamenting how these actors will be nothing like those in Peter Jackson’s film trilogy, and how this movie will be garbage, etcetera, etcetera.
But just… don’t watch it then?
That is something I have never understood, to be entirely honest. The same sentiment surrounds Amazon Prime’s series The Rings of Power, adapted from the appendices of The Lord of the Rings and inspired by the events taking place thousands of years earlier. The show has sparked a lot of controversy within the Lord of the Rings fandom. Every time a new season is announced, I see people spouting how the show sucks, it goes against everything Tolkien wrote, the people who like the show aren’t true Tolkien fans…
Every. Single. Season. Which makes it more funny when these people come back year after year, saying the same things, as if somebody is forcing them to watch it. As if by merely existing these shows undo everything that the original material contains.Â
As somebody who has read and loved the Lord of the Rings books and knows quite a bit about Tolkien’s lore, I absolutely love The Rings of Power. I don’t care if it’s not faithful to the books. It’s an adaptation. It’s not going to be an exact replica of the source material. If it were, then what’s the point of making it to begin with?
I prefer to think of these newer projects as “high-budget fanfiction.” They are somebody else’s vision inspired by a love for the source. The books still exist. Peter Jackson’s trilogy still exists. They’re not going anywhere just because new material is being introduced.
If you don’t like something, or you don’t think you’re going to like something, then just don’t watch it. Other people enjoying it are not going to affect you in any fundamental way, I promise.
In the meantime, I’ll be on my couch, gleefully enjoying the prospect of anything related to the things that bring me joy.