JRR Tolkien Super Duper Mega Thread

[nocera]

Even if he’s not involved, can Richard Taylor host the BTS? I just want to hear him talk about how many individual links of chainmail some poor sap had to link by hand.

[shafnutz05]

One thing: Presumably that's Sauron in the lower right. If so, that gauntlet is completely different from the armor he's shown wearing during the FOTR prologue showing the casting and gifting of the rings.

And top row, middle. Looks like an Elven blade/dirk/stabby implement; I have already set aside funds to buy the inevitable Sideshow replica piece.

I think I need to reread the series soon. I'm planning on watching the trilogy with my daughter in a couple of years so no time like the present

[eddy]

[nocera]

Third person action/adventure LOTR game, please. Return of the King was such a fun game.

[eddy]

Yes on more games. Will be very interesting to see if bezos makes a play for this. Wouldn't be surprised to see Disney go after it.

[tifosi77]

I'm sorry, "theme park rights"? Yes, please.

[tifosi77]

For the past month or so I've watched one or two Tolkien videos on YouTube every night with discussions about the Second Age. Trying to woodshed some knowledge, since John Ronald didn't really write a lot about this age. Some of the stuff has been good (Men of the West is an excellent, if talky, channel), some if it I've clicked out of after 2 minutes. But the idea is "Tif is trying to learn him up some Middle-earth stuff". Well, in the past week or so, my Recommended for You slider has been completely bombarded with videos with titles like " Amazon's Woke Trash"; "Will " LOTR:Rings of Power be a WOKE Disaster?"; "Amazon Prime will DESECRATE LOTR"; " Amazon's LOTR CENSORS Critical Fans Who are Worried "TROP" Will Go Woke"; one video had an embedded banner in the thumbnail that read "Woke dem trash".

Basically, if you objected to Rose in the Last Jedi for 'reasons', you are fearful that TROP will be similarly........ diverse? Representative of its audience? Less white? I've not clicked through to watch any of these videos, but if you go to the channel pages: All of them are white dudes who scream INCEL from the folds of their neckbeards. I hope Amazon doesn't acknowledge these twits the same way Disney did for Ep IX.

[eddy]

Good stuff tif, feel free to share any links for 2nd age you come across

Also, anyone know what chapters in The Silmarillion cover 2nd age stuff?

[eddy]

These seem to be well done

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLyH ... lXzDBw2eqQ

[eddy]

Good stuff

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/20 ... first-look

[tifosi77]

Good stuff tif, feel free to share any links for 2nd age you come across

Also, anyone know what chapters in The Silmarillion cover 2nd age stuff?

Mostly the downfall of Númenor iirc.

[eddy]

I'm feeling pretty good about the show after reading that vanity fair article

[nocera]

Went through the twitter replies of the Vanity Fair post. Seems like there are some angry white dudes.

[eddy]

Waaaa, there's a black dwarf in a fictional tv show based on some fake world some guy created 80 years ago. I'd like to smash a palantír into these idiots faces.

[nocera]

I've never read any of it. Does Tolkien specifically call skin color?

[eddy]

Not really, I think the closest you get is the elves described as having fair skin

[tifosi77]

Easterlings were I guess 'southern Mediterranean' in skin complexion. Haradrim/Southrons were dark skinned.

Remember: The entire Middle-earth legendarium exists because Tolkien was imagining an alternative history for England/Great Britain in which the Norman conquest didn't happen.

So many of the myths that we know as descendents of western European culture were born of the French control of Britain for hundreds of years after Hastings, first the Normans and then other French monarchs. After Hastings, no 'English' king actually spoke English (or ye olde English) until the 1400s or something nuts like that.

Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, much of the Arthurian mythology, Robin Hood..... all French in origin. And a good bit of the remaining mythology of 'Britain' is Germanic. So he was out to create something uniquely British.

[eddy]

[Kane]

INJECT THAT **** RIGHT INTO MY VEINS.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Evidently, Andy Serkis recorded the audiobook versions of Lord of the Rings last year. I am definitely going to be listening to those soon.

[tifosi77]

I legit got goosebumps just now imagining his reading. Rob Inglis' unabridged version is the current gold standard, but it's 30 years old at this point; I think it's appropriate to update it with someone from the modern canon.

[DigitalGypsy66]

This sounds interesting:

[nocera]

For a billion dollar show, why does the new Lord of the Rings trailer look so cheap?
https://sports.yahoo.com/billion-dollar ... 02423.html

People are desperate to hate a show they haven't seen.

[tifosi77]

I mentioned Tolkien created Middle-earth as a counterfactual England? Well, he also created it in the hopes that subsequent generations of people would offer their own works - prose, poetry, art, song, etc - to continually expand and grow the universe. While he certainly had pride of authorship, I don't think he necessarily had pride of ownership. The whole idea was to make a story world larger than one person.

[nocera]

Warner Bros calls bullshit.

Warner Bros. Flexes ‘Lord of the Rings’ Muscle Amid Conflict Over Film Rights
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/lord ... 235184414/