*_"It's not political"_* "Features a diverse cast" *_"It's not political"_* "First black elf" *_"It's not political"_* "First woman person of colour dwarf" *_"It's not political"_* "We don't care about the criticism from racist bigots" *_"It's not political"_*
Can we just dissect that "first woman person of colour dwarf" part? Cause the reason why black people are...well, black is because of the skin mutating to try to fight off the sun. Dwarves dig into mountains and live inside them. The amount of exposure to the sun to cause someone to become a person of colour would be basically nonexistent. Maybe there's something I'm missing though. I'm an idiot so maybe it doesn't work that way.
@@tanegurnick5071 we aren't elves and dwarves. also they and their world is diverse with different cultures and races (humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, yadda yadda) saying they aren't diverse unless they're black is dumb
You saw how the clapping seals inflated her ego at San Diego comic con too. "I've just become a mother." - woooooh!! "They allowed me to breast feed on set" - wooooooh! "I'm the first female dwarf ever" - wooooooh!
But it is a breakthrough, her being the first black dwarven lightsaber wielding force user EVAH! True to Tolkien's vision, watching her turn green and mow down wave after wave of Borg screaming "HULK SMASH!!!! I AM TEH BESTEST HULK JEDI EVAH!!!!" was inspiring and will be the pinnacle of storytelling...literally teh bestest ting evah ritten! I can't wait until season 2, because it will probably feature Time Travel and Galadriel punching a T-Rex in the face with its head flying straight off! 🤣
Blah blah blah, both actors dont really care about the common person. So this dudes " oscar worthy" nonsense is just the product of creative edits from the youtube creator. Black people are here to stay. Get over it and shut up about it already. Yaull are being annoying and Hollywood will do as it wants to.
As a black guy who grew up with LOTR I think this quote is needed now "Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow."
Hey, you know you're not allowed to enjoy that. A white guy said it, how could you possibly relate. It's a joke but it's amazing it's actually gotten to this point that people are out there saying this
@@azuredream23 see that's the problem right there...you have good taste lol. I honestly would love to see people that complain so much about there being no entertainment inspired by their own ethnicity's myths and folklore to go out and make stuff about it. Instead of trying to get into others stories show your own. I personally find cryptids and monster lore from other countries fascinating so I would enjoy a show that explores that kind of stuff in depth
The... problem with the LORE, is that when expanded upon and thought too much about, it overshadows the THEMES. I think TOlkien left all of that vague on purpose. I never really saw Tolkien's peoples as creatures or races, but more as CLASSES. Like, the Elves are the academics; they're stuck up, full of themselves, believe they're always right and are deeply isolated and feel unpleasant to the outside world, even if you admire them and their work. The Hobbits are the antithesis, the British villagers, the small people focused on themselves and their small lives, true values of everyday exiwstence sort of, good food, good friends, a pint. Etc. Men, are everything between, the regular joes, the ceos, the garbage men, the engineer, the dentist. I always saw Orcs as those people, you know them, you DO meet them every day though you try not to: cruel, unappologetic, rude, uneducated, but most of all - people who cannot be taught, stuck in their ways, completely immovable in their "evil". You know, the man who keeps his dog chained and malnourished, comes home to beat his wife and yell at the kids then goes to the bar and gets into a fight. A football hooligan who follows his team to rob a store and get into a fight with the locals "for the glory of the club". That's an Orc. I think this is where the idea of there being no good orcs actually comes from, it's that kind of a PERSON. If you go too deep into former Elves, Melkor, yadda... you lose that stuff.
@@codinghusky5196 r/whoosh me if I got the joke wrong, but I think this is meant to be a satire on Amazon in drawing parallel between their works on Tolkien's materials and Melkor's on the elves.
"Improved representation" is so insulting. Tolkien, an Englishman, is allowed to write a story about white people. There's nothing offensive about that. There's nothing that needs to be improved. Imagine an African author writing a fantasy story specifically for his homeland of Nigeria, and then the media saying it needs to be "improved" by including more white people. Of course that would never happen. And, yes, fantasy stories can have a mix of races, but that doesn't mean they should all *have* to. Create something new if you want diversity. Or adapt something that already has the diversity you seek. Don't corrupt great art.
Well people say Holly weird used to use white actors in poc roles but that was how it was then. Like John Wayne as genghis khan, but I like to think most of think that was pretty dumb. Not that it's black people turn to be dumb and have black Greek heroes black English Kings and other dumbness
"We don't change anything" totally sounds like something marketing has told them to say to sell the show after seeing how much fans hate them changing things.. But then she also goes right into saying how incredibly important it was that they changed things.
I'm actually sorry for the marketing people behind this. They are tasked with the impossible job to sell a product their audience doesn't want in the first place.
@@mcmarkmarkson7115 Well usually at least the people you're trying to sell your shit to have interest in your product, even if they don't need it. In this case, not even the basic interest is given.
@@mcmarkmarkson7115 Yup. That's because the current market doesn't exist for the customer, it exists for the one producing stuff. In the past, people needed X, so someone decided to make X for those who needed it, and took money in return. Now, someone produces X, except nobody needs or wants it, so the one producing X tries to instead brainwash everyone into giving him money, with X just being an excuse.
Never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake. I know it hurts to see your beloved franchises be ridiculed by cultural vandals but it comes a point were you no longer feel rage. When they keep doing the same thing over and over again, you eventually become numb and you can see clearly again. It is what they want, they want you to lash out and be angry, when all you need to do to defeat them is starve them to death. Many wars were won this way and this one is no different. Stop consuming, close your wallets and watch them slowly die of hunger pains. Your beloved heroes and stories will still be there, in the minds and hearts of all that grew up with them. Never worry, like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, they will return again like they never left because they haven't. Example, Joel Schumacher killed batman with his 2 HORRIBLE movies but Christopher Nolan swooped in and revived the Dark Knight once again.
I can't wait for the day when they have a white actor play a tribes member in an African movie. This will mean everything to white ethnic people who finally have full representation in films set in the various African cultures.
crouching tiger hidden dragon wasn't diverse enough. we need a remake of the movie with full representation because it's not like china is predominately occupied by asian people. we need more black and brown faces in that movie. not white, though. white people aren't diverse.
One of my favourite novels used to be Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, but thanks to Wokeism I now realise that I can not enjoy this foul, racist trashy story at all because all the main characters are either Carribean, British or antropomorphic Ghanese spider gods, none of which I am myself. Pretty sure that Gaiman writing a story about Carribeans when he is not one himself makes this cultural appropriation or something as well. Fetch thee thyne torches and pitchforks...
I am black, queer, and a Tolkien fan ever since I was 12 and read the Hobbit. I re-read the Hobbit, the LOTR books and the Silmarillion annually. Never have I had the need to identify with the characters simply by having them look like me. The extensive stories have provided me with so much joy over time. I've always been able to identify with several character traits of the different races in these wonderfully amazing books. Again, without the need of them looking like me. This sort of representation is so cheap! The executive producer Lindsey Weber said: 'It felt only natural to us that an adaptation of Tolkien's work would reflect what the world actually looks like." and "“Tolkien is for everyone." Well, it was already for everyone. Why does it need to be adapted to current day sensitivities?
He does describe some characters as having darker complexions and others fair skin. Suggesting there is in fact a bit of diversity of races in his world.
@@markgregorygacosta531 Depends on how much he surfaces. Depends on lineage. And ultimately, isn't important. It's just a skin color. Why waste your time caring about skin color? Aren't there more important concerns? Why is that of all things a priority for you?
@@Cthulhu013 Because world building is important, especially for a work like Tolkien's. All the dwarves were described in such ways that none of them had darker skin, especially not as dark as what they are trying to throw in. Such a dark skinned dwarf requires world building and character backstory to support their existence. Keep in mind that Tolkein's work is treated as an actual mythology for Britain, since it was made to be as such by Tolkien. So it is treated very seriously.
I mean, so much of the marketing has been ridiculous, but at this moment it's particularly annoying as the actors rant about representation while the actually groundbreaking actress who played Lt. Uhura in Star Trek just recently passed away from natural causes.
And the best part about Uhura, Chekhov, and Sulu in the show was that no one made a big deal about a black woman, a Russian man, and a Japanese man being part of the command crew. The entire point was that those characteristics didn’t matter, and were not considered particularly remarkable, in a future where people were judged solely on their character.
@@JoRoq1 and the one time the showrunners got nervous about filming a black woman kissing a white man (against both their wills) the two actors deliberately screwed up every other take. And the backlash was one letter, that in the end said "I get that a red blooded man like kirk would do it".
@@lemonblue6282 Remember that DS9 episode where Sisko didn't want to go visit Vic's in the holo suite because blacks were not welcome in Vegas casinos in actual history? That was the episode where I went.... oh yeah... Sisko's actually black.... Not for a moment before that had I even thought about that... it just didn't matter.
No she doesn't exist for now it's like when 12 years a slave came out and Hollywood acted like roots and so many others didn't exist lol no were the first to this
The best part is that UA-cam content creators are going to make more money from Rings of Power than Amazon does just by relentlessly memeing and making fun of it.
Before she has been cast she also stated that "a lot of actors don't generally learn their lines until they are in the room". This woman is a shame and should be fired from the show as soon as possible.
I'm so proud to witness the historic moment of the first people on the internet!! Great job guys, I'm humbled and morally better thanks to your firstness
Wait, does it mean that the knights watch made the first reaction video ever on the internet ? That's amazing ! (and we are writing the first comments ever. We are making history)
The tragedy of it all is - this guy is a good actor from what I've seen. He seems polite and respectful in interviews, and he looks the part. It's painful seeing professionals being dragged down by hacks and grifters
It’s “what the industry needs”… a black female dwarf… this is amazing. There have been no black actors/actresses in any films or TV before her. Princess Deez is Nutz.
Tolkien is my favorite author, _The Hobbit_ is my favorite book, and _The Lord of the Rings_ is my favorite series. I first read the books at thirteen on the eve of my freshman year of high school, and those stories helped me to feel brave. As a Latina, I didn't care that all the characters were male and that the stories were inspired by European mythology and folklore. It was just the damn best story I'd ever read in my life, and that's where my love came from. Also, I love European literature and mythology- always have and always will. Middle-earth doesn't need to be fixed or rewritten. The man behind the myths and legends spent his entire life crafting a real world with an intricate history, interweaving great universal themes like fellowship, courage, and sacrifice. To assume that it needs updating is a spit on Tolkien's grave and a slap to the face to those who love and respect his work. Quite the contrary, we need more stories with good writing and legitimate passion for the place and characters- all of which appear to be absent from the _Rings of Power_ series. Cowering behind retorts like "white supremacist" and "bigot" won't save them. The nerds have spoken rightly, and I hope that the series is a huge enough flop that no hubris-infected goblin will ever dare even look at a copy of _The Hobbit_ again.
Makes you wonder why he's in the video. No questions are directed towards him and he offers no response. Just sits in quiet contempt. Like a goddam hero.
Tolkien: Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away. Behind him his banner blew in the wind, white horse upon a field of green, but he outpaced it. After him thundered the knights of his house, but he was ever before them. Éomer rode there, the white horsetail on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first éored roared like a breaker foaming to the shore, but Théoden could not be overtaken. Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins, and he was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Oromë the Great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young. His golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun, and the grass flamed into green about the white feet of his steed. Amazon: - you have not seen - I have seen - you have not seen - did too - nuh uh!
@@kingofsapi The book is full of them. One of my favorites. "These staves [Eomer] spoke, yet he laughed as he said them. For once more lust of battle was on him; and he was still unscathed, and he was young, and he was king: the lord of a fell people." Or this one. "And he looked at the slain, recalling their names. Then suddenly he beheld his sister Éowyn as she lay, and he knew her. He stood a moment as a man who is pierced in the midst of a cry by an arrow through the heart; and then his face went deathly white; and a cold fury rose in him, so that all speech failed him for a while. A fey mood took him. 'Éowyn, Éowyn!' he cried at last: 'Éowyn, how come you here? What madness or devilry is this? Death, death, death! Death take us all!' Then without taking counsel or waiting for the approach of the men of the City, he spurred headlong back to the front of the great host, and blew a horn, and cried aloud for the onset. Over the field rang his clear voice calling: 'Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world's ending!' And with that the host began to move. But the Rohirrim sang no more. Death they cried with one voice loud and terrible, and gathering speed like a great tide their battle swept about their fallen king and passed, roaring away southwards."
Black fan of LoTR here. This push for “diversity and representation” isn’t even a thing when it comes to fantasy. And I absolutely hate what they’ve done to Tolkien’s work. Fantasy itself IS diversity. One of the most revered characters in all of fantasy…is a dark elf! Not even human! Fans of fantasy don’t care about gender, race or skin tone. We want a great story that introduces us to a great world, and LoTR gave us both. Out of touch execs are pushing what they THINK we want, and it’s deplorable.
Don't forget about all the activities and new "fans" of fantasy because of DnD, saying incredibly stupid stuff like that orcs are a symbol of racism because they're obviously just black people. Personally I think if you look a 9 foot tall ugly, green skinned creature, that's made of massive chiseled muscles, and is know for their stupidity, and love of rape and murder, and then your first thought is "hey, that's a black man," then I'm sorry, but you're the racist one.
in interviews with showrunners, they said that they chose actors from among thousands of people. another criterion was that they "have Middle-earth at heart . The actress who played Disa did not even know that there were female dwarves in the Jackson trilogy. I have the impression that she didn't even read the books. embarrassing
It also depends on what the showrunners thought Middle-Earth was. Because clearly they have a much different theme in mind than what Tolkien wrote (an English/Anglican-specific mythology).
I've said it before and I'll say it again: HOLLYWOOD NEEDS BOOK SMACKERS! For those unaware if what a book smacker is, it is someone familiar with the subject matter who's only job on set is to stand beside the director and, every time he tries or implies that something needs to change, smacks him upside the head with the largest hardback copy of whatever book they are adapting to film.
As far as I know they had a showrunner who was a real Tolkien-Nerd, they fired him (maybe because he always complained...) and then got someone who hates LotR.
@@Morticia147 343 is the current owner of halo and hired people whome hate it and making content that goes against the original content As a company they are vary woke down I’m comparing the writers and such of rings of power of being just as bad
The fact that these people believe representation is such a huge important thing is just bizarre. I'm an anime fan. Do you know how many Europeans are represented in anime? Not a lot. Do I care? Not in the slightest. Do I scream for more Europeans in anime? No because if you require someone to look like you to feel something than well that's a you problem. I've fallen in love with characters that look nothing like me or even behave/think like me. I love these characters because they are cool or funny or have something else to offer. You see with the amount of changes we've seen so far than Amazon could have easily just created their own universe. We all know they only bought the rights cause they needed a big name to bring in people. Saying this if you're willing to put a billion into a project than at least have the balls to create your own thing.
We enjoy anime because it is specifically Japanese, with their cultural influences and worldviews. Western “anime” is usually crap (for example, High Guardian Spice) because it is attempting to appropriate the product of Japanese culture in order to push modern Western Progressive values.
Actually, a lot of anime have very strong Germanic elements. I don't know why, they just do. Case in point, all of Attack on Titan. The architecture is Germanic, many of the names are Germanic, the military structure is Germanic. There's also Monster which is entirely in Germany, and the writing is in German. Alita: Battle Angel was also originally an anime, and uses several Germanic elements despite being set in a world where Germany doesn't exist anymore. If I had to guess, it all stems from some old affinity for their former allies from WW2. Japan has never really taken responsibility for their crimes during the war and don't have the guilt Germany does
I hate so say this, because i fundamentally argee with your argument about representation, but the facial designs of most anime characters are in my opinion leaning more towards european features, than the Japanese themselves.
I’m very pleased Amazon is introducing people of colour to me, I have recently just landed on earth and without this show I wouldn’t have realised that they could do anything, absolutely amazing 👍 thank you Amazon
Then again, if he were alive, we wouldn't have gotten any movies or games. You have to take the bad AND the good. The 2000's brought us the good stuff, now it seems we have to sit through the bad shit.
@@blackleague212 The point is that you're conflating the anger of GOT fans over 'not getting the ending they wanted' with that being a problem, when you later admit it didn't make sense? It doesn't seem like your original point holds up by using GOT fans as the measuring stick when, we're absolutely reasonable and right with our anger over the show, something you agree upon in your comment above mine.
"welcome to woke cinema where we have "everything": bland token poc, bland girl boss character, bland story rip offs, "everything" and so much less! enjoy or you're a bigot"
It's legacy will be being studied in a marketing class about how NOT to market a product. Step #1 Isolate and offend the intended customer base. Step #2 Ignore the source material.
The crazy thing is EVERYONE'S gonna watch it. We are all so curious to see how terrible it's gonna be that we'll all watch it just to mock it and have a giggle. Amazon are gonna make a fortune!!! They might as well edit in a laughter track and a cheesy 90s Friends style intro.
One of my big grips is that they featured hobbits despite the fact: -There is zero written about them in the second age, so they may as well have not existed at that point in time. -They don’t have the rights to hobbits, yet they feature them anyway. -Hobbits didn’t do anything of note before Bilbo Baggins, so if they try and do a fellowship thing it will be completely made up fanfiction which they aren’t allowed to do. -They try and cover this by saying they aren’t hobbits but harfoots, despite Harfoots being hobbits and almost all hobbits in the stories being harfoots.
Yeah the first real mention is hobbits sending some archers to the last battle of fornost to fight with the last defenders of arnor! And that can’t Ben be confirmed
This British actress DOESN'T speak for me as a black American. I watched LOTR + The Hobbit & I liked the characters. None of them looked like me; I just liked the plot and cinematography. Btw, I'm a new subscriber. Nice job, knights 😉 Edit: I'm a woman & I'm pro-healthy masculinity. Make Men Men Again😊
As another Brit, I sincerely apologise we bought you her (and James Corden). Most of us don’t agree with her, we just want to make the most god awful food names possible.
Isn’t a sociopath someone who can’t relate to someone, put themselves in another person’s shoes because they are different in some way from them(i.e. lack of empathy)? I’m a girl. At 12 years old, I read the Lotr books and watched the movie. Yeah Arwen, Galadriel, and especially Eowyn (even though I’m not blonde or with black hair) were my girl goals and my role models, but I loved all the bromance moments in the fellowship just the same. It took me years to register there were no girls in the fellowship because that didn’t matter to me. There were humans I could relate to because of their humanity. I cried over “my captain, my king,” “what about side by side with a friend,” “I’m going to look after you” “but I can carry you.” There didn’t need to be women in those scenes for me to care about them. Yeah, having a redhead like Tauriel in the Hobbit was fun. Having brunettes dominating the Star Wars world is great. It’s fun to see. But LOTR with still be my favorite forever and there doesn’t need to be someone who looks like me in it for that to always be true. My best friend is Hispanic and I’m as white as can be. It doesn’t change the fact that I feel we have similar hearts and care for her regardless of different experiences. These people are just too shallow to see into someone’s heart. All they see is the outward appearance. Maybe we should be focusing on how to empathize with anyone and trying to be better people instead of doubling down on this limited way of thinking.
They are just racist. Imagine a white person dislikes a show with a all black cast because there are no white people. Thats considered racist. If a black person dislikes a show because its all white cast thats progressive? Its just racism.
And they refused to fire her even after everything she's said, which means the company fully supports and endorses every word she says. Never give money to people who hate you.
"this means everything to people of colour!" Hold on a minute, last I checked isn't it ridiculously racist to assume that a bunch of people across the world, a bunch of people from diverse nations and cultures who speak a host of different languages all think the same way? Aren't people as individuals; whatever the colour of their skin, allowed to make up their own minds now? The belief that one cannot appreciate anything unless there is a character in it who shares the same demographic is bad enough, but this goes to a hole other level! Honestly! this is representation eating its own tale to the point its more! prejudiced against the people its supposedly representing! I'm certainly boycotting this show for what its doing to Tolkien, but at this point I'd actively pay to get it cancelled, since this is about as toxic as it gets!
The concept of "race" is extremely weird for me, i grew up in a country where even the word "race" (applied to humans) is shunned. Of course in my country there is still xenophobia and so on, but there is way less raciologic thinking. Here "black" is a skin colour, not a "race". Hence a "white passing" black person would not be considered black, as the entire concept of "passing" is pretty weird. The idiotic thought that sub-sahara africans, south indians, papuans and aboriginies have more in common with each other than with the rest of us just because they have roughly the same hair and skin is a remainer of the original bigoted theories from the 19th century, it's extremly weird how americans still see the world like that.
@@valentinmitterbauer4196 that is very true. Unfortunately, America has a habit of exporting its political problems and attendant attitudes to the rest of the world, while not actually taking on board when the rest of the world might actually have better ideas :d. Personally, I love when authors just describe a character's skin colour not their "race", rather than short handing to "black", or "white", especially in a fantasy setting (Robert Jordan does this all the time in wheel of time, which was why making the character's so called race a big deal in that series was so dum).
@@valentinmitterbauer4196 Well. It's more like people who only see skin colour would group together Papuans and sub-saharan Africans. While someone talking about race would know that they are very distinct. They are not grouped together in physical anthropology and according to modern population genetics are about as distant as two human populations can get. Europeans and sub-saharan Africans are actually closer to each other.
My drama teacher in high school, may he rest in piece, used to say "Shakespeare isn't just turning in his grave, he's in a constant spin" referring to how people handle his work. I'm sad to say I think the same is happening to Tolkien.
You shouldn't, it is in human nature to watch back classic and modernize them, revisist the stories of old and give them a personnal touch, some entire franchise especially of comics have prospered exactly doing that, since the dawn of history stories have changed when passing through times, the myth of old were "butchered" way before people tried to cast a black persons as Achille, that's why we have multiple conflicting version of them. Yet it gave us wonderful modernized stories. A great example of that being Peter jackson's version of LOTR which is actually hated by one of Tolkien's son, also the series of games LOTR shadow of something which is acclamed by critics, quite good, and took a lot of liberties with LOTR lore. Bad stories are bound to happened, there is no perfection without perfecting, no stories without trying. I can excuse a bad fan fic or a bad modern take. What I can't excuse is thinking that randomly changing the skin color of a character is better story telling, what I can't excuse is patting yourselves on a job well done because you included X group of people, without care about writing a good stories, and no self reflexion about how you could have improved your work, once critic come. For now I will be neutral, and wait to see the series before giving judgement. But I do worried the retelling was made without love. And do worries the people responsible of these change will no reflect upon they could have done better.
Shad... your laughs in this hit that level of staggering hysteria that one only sees when the sheer volume of tragedy has collapsed so far in on itself that the only things that remain are untethered madness and the ability to laugh. This feels like what made the Joker. And honestly, I don't blame you.
This is what we refer to as the "managed decline" >fans point out bad thing >"Bad thing isn't happening!" >Bad thing continues to happen >Fans point this out >"You are paranoid!" >Continued cycle >"Why do you care so much it doesn't affect you!" >"Actually bad thing is happening and it's a GOOD THING!" >"Actually bad thing is bad but there's nothing you can do about it" The result is to delay the backlash and discontentment of the populace down to a trickle, because a mass movement is much harder to deal with than a movement that gains momentum slowly over the course of many months or years.
Black people definitely fought in world war 2, there was this whole slave trade thing that meant many of them lived in America and Britain by that point, and some countries in Europe at the least. If they try to cast black actors in roles of power during films set back then, less realistic.
The US hadn't yet entered the war when Dunkirk was evacuated. Great Britain abolished slavery in 1807. And during the slave trade, black slaves weren't sent to England or even Europe. They were sent to the Caribbean. So Europe didn't have any black people to speak of. The first blacks most Europeans ever.saw were Black US Soldiers during both WWI and WWII.
The phrase, “redress of balance” means nothing. She should have said “and to redress imbalances within the world.” Imprecise language is imprecise thought. These people hate Tolkien’s worldview, they can’t see past the skin of his work. The beauty of LOTR was always that Frodo sacrificed everything for the good of the world. The quiet life in the shire was never his because he volunteered to take the ring to Mordor to save people he’d never met. These actors, show runners, etc. won’t even sacrifice five minutes of virtue signaling and self aggrandizement to glorify the show they ostensibly love.
It's not necessarily imprecise thought. People shorten thoughts all the time and let the listener fill in the gaps. Such as the response "sucks, dude" lops off several essential parts of speech and yet is entirely understandable: The thing being responded to sucks dick, and by pointing that out I am acknowledging your pain. Everything else you said was spot on though.
Was Tolkien racist? Probably. I mean he was a white Englishman living in the era that he did, and most were. Did he not include people of color in his work because he was racist? No. All authors write for their audience. Tolkien's audience was British, mostly white at the time. He probably never imagined his work becoming popular in America much less the rest of the world. And if people couldn't identify with the characters because of skin tone, how did it become so widely popular for so long all over the world?
@@robo5013 previosuly in the past I argued whenver people accused Tolkien of racism, but there;s no point in arguing, what his views are we know from his letters: "I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White." - J. R. R. TOLKIEN ... "As for what you say or hint of ‘local’ conditions: I knew of them. I don't think they have much changed (even for the worse). I used to hear them discussed by my mother; and have ever since taken a special interest in that part of the world. The treatment of colour nearly always horrifies anyone going out from Britain, & not only in South Africa. Unfort[unately], not many retain that generous sentiment for long." If people want to accuse him of racism... it's their problem, his works have obvious cultural referenes, he wrote what he wanted to and as an artist he wasn't applying any quotas, his works like Lotr and Hobbit are obviously representation of European culture :) his inspirations in Beowulf, poetic Eddas, like Voluspa from which he took the Norse names for dwarves, Kullervo from Kelvala etc. even Smaug nad stealing of a cup by Bilbo was inspired by Fafnir: "I have always with me: the sensibility to linguistic pattern which affects me emotionally like colour or music; and the passionate love of growing things; and the deep response to legends (for lack of a better word) that have what I would call the North-western temper and temperature. In any case if you want to write a tale of this sort you must consult your roots, and a man of the North-west of the Old World will set his heart and the action of his tale in an imaginary world of that air, and that situation: with the Shoreless Sea of his innumerable ancestors to the West, and the endless lands (out of which enemies mostly come) to the East. Though, in addition, his heart may remember, even if he has been cut off from all oral tradition, the rumour all along the coasts of the Men out of the Sea." --Letter to W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955 The only dark skinned peoples in Middle-earth are the Haradrim, these Swertings: ""'More Men going to Mordor,' he [Gollum] said in a low voice. 'Dark faces. We have not seen Men like these before... They are fierce. They have black eyes, and long black hair, and gold rings in their ears... lots of beautiful gold. And some have red paint on their cheeks, and red cloaks and their flags are red, and the tips of their spears; and they have round shields, yellow and black with big spikes." ... "Swertings. Said by Sam to be the name in the Shire for the legendary (to hobbits) dark-skinned people of the 'Sunlands' (far south). It may be left unchanged as a special local word (not in the Common Speech); but since it is evidently a derivative of swart, which is still in use in swarthy), it could be represented by some similar derivative of the word for 'black / dark' in the language of translation. Compare Swarthy Men, the Common Speech equivalent (III 73)." In any case the action of the story as Tolkien writes takes place in specific regions: "The action of the story takes place in the North-west of 'Middle-earth', equivalent in latitude to the coastlands of Europe and the north shores of the Mediterranean. But this is not a purely 'Nordic' area in any sense. If Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford, then Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence. The Mouths of Anduin and the ancient city of Pelargir are at about the latitude of ancient Troy." Letter 294 ... "These legends are North-centred - because it is represented as an historical fact that the struggle against Morgoth and his servants occurred mainly in the North, and especially the North-west, of Middle-earth, and that was so because the movements of Elves, and of Men afterwards escaping from Morgoth, had been inevitably westward, towards the Blessed Realm, and north-westward because at that point the shores of Middle-earth were nearest to Aman. Harad "South" is thus a vague term, and although before its downfall Men of Númenor had explored the coasts of Middle-earth far southward, their settlements beyond Umbar had been absorbed, or being made by men already in Númenor corrupted by Sauron had become hostile and parts of Sauron's dominions. But the southern regions in touch with Gondor (and called by men of Gondor simply Harad "South", Near or Far) were probably both more convertible to the "Resistance," and also places where Sauron was most busy in the Third Age, since it was a source to him of man-power most readily used against Gondor. Into these regions Gandalf may well have journeyed in the earlier days of his labours." The Unfinished Tales In the end Frodo's quest as he writes in a letter: "‘It seems clear to me that Frodo's duty was 'humane' not political. He naturally thought first of the Shire, since his roots were there, but the quest had as its object not the preserving of this or that polity, such as the half republic half aristocracy of the Shire, but the liberation from an evil tyranny of all the 'humane' - including those, such as 'easterlings' and Haradrim, that were still servants of the tyranny.’" The Second Age setting may have introduced more naturally the cultures of Haradrim showing them facing both increasing power and dark influence of Sauron and Numenorean oppression and colonialism (Numenoreans explored the lands and set up colonies along the shores of Harad, so there there is 'white man bad' narrative :)) and Argorn in his time made journeys into "far countries of Rhun and Harad where the stars are strange", "and went alone far into the East and deep into the South, exploring the hearts of Men, both evil and good, and uncovering the plots and devices of the servants of Sauron." So there are both evil and good folks in the south too as there are good and evil westerners.
She basically admitted with her 'redress of balance' and 'this is everything to people of color' that she is in fact a diversity hire. What on earth else could it mean. She'd be insulted if someone told her this but actions speak louder than words: we're not the ones who hired her, paid her money and benefits just to be on a screen with her skin color.
@@fantasywind3923 Not interested in a long synopsis of LOTR. I didn't accuse Tolkien of racism (don't personally care if he was) but it sounds like the actress is. The point was that he wrote for a specific audience, as do all authors, and that specific audience was mainly white. So the characters would reflect their experience. But if LOTR was racist, how did it become an international phenom for 70 years? Which was my overall point. Whether the author was racist or not doesn't matter, because the work wasn't.
You can tell no one who worked on the Amazon show actually read Tolkien’s works. They clearly haven’t apprehended the meaning and value of his stories.
While every single person working on Peter Jackson's Trilogy read the books at least once, and many of them had read them in their entirety every year since they read them the first time.
Even worse, they have contempt for the work and values contained, which is why they have to mold it into something completely different to fit their world view.
@@KhanGarth Off the top of my head I remember that Dominic Monaghan did aswell, I believe the only actor who hadn't read it was Viggo Mortensen but he finished reading it before filming ended.
I know RIngs of Power is going to suck but I find a good antidote is to rewatch the Peter Jackson LOTORs extended editions. I just got finished rewatching them and I feel content. I went on a full journey with those films with wonderful characters, excellent world-building and just an awesome story. Those films are TIMELESS. This series I doubt will ever reach that peak. It's yet another bad product of 2015 "modern" sensibilities and will be dated and TIMELY. No thanks.
its interesting that jackson was able to make LOTR so well and have tension with the staircase in the mines of moria but in the hobbit the goblin cave was just a muddled pointless cgi mess. he wasnt perfect by any means but he did the LOTR justice
I think representation is important. Representing key components such as the people who actually look like they would belong in that universe. What they’re doing with lord of the rings now isn’t representation, but rather MISrepresentation.
It's MISrepresentation and I think they've MISSed the point; that a story related to one of if not *the* most influential stories of all time should have a point to them besides being shameless cash grabs. We're living in Orwellian times.
I love how we are looking forward to this show specifically for its comedic scenes and crappy writing. I feel like this is going to be the most memed series of all time!
So glad I stumbled on this video review and commentary. Well done gents. Keeping your content within a "PG" range while maintaining a high level of hard truth, true passion, witty disagreement, harsh critique, and hilarious irony Is Excellent!! Keep up the great work.
@@jakomioftherose2434 No. I think that was the WriteOpinion. Bigideas is a great philosopher discovered around that time period by the toxic brood. (Some guy, I forget who but it was probably Brown Table, put “Big Ideas” in a very pretentious font that made the space unnoticeable, spawning Bigideas)
If this series is so inclusive, then why not cast little people to play the roles of dwarves and halflings on this show as opposed to actors of average size. It doesn't sound very inclusive to me.
Congrats on being the first people on the internet. This means absolutely everything for the internet culture and will be beacon for all future generations of internet people.
Oz, you're just killing me! Can't wait for your reviews of each episode guys! Oh and one tip: maybe let the one without glasses in the center and rest on the sides - reflection of backlight on Nathan's glasses is disruptive...
Thank you, Knights Watch, for calling out the lies & hypocrisy, and for making us laugh along the way! Otherwise I'd have to go purge my stomach after ingesting such garbage 🤮 Long live the laughter!!
OMG that opening! You should get all the awards! That reminds me of the Marvel Brie Larsen interviews. Gold, also watch OZ during the opening when Shad is talking....hmmmm.
I’d be willing to bet these diversity characters end up alot like Rose and Finn from the Star Wars sequels. A big deal being made over the fact that they exist but the writers won’t really know what to do with them, ultimately not having a purpose at all and eventually be sidelined altogether.
Rose was practically an extra by the end. It's legitimately hilarious after they made such a huge deal about "manbabies" hating her on Twitter/Instagram, then they just remove her from the story anyway.
They create a character in order to be representative, making them one dimensional, instead of creating a wonderful, multi-faceted, human who just happens to be a “person of color.”
I want to agree with this, but I have a feeling the black elf is going to end up teaming up with the Galadriel imposter to take on Sauron at some point, and Princess Activism is going to be the voice of caution within Khazad Dum warning them not to delve too greedily and too deep and saves everyone when her bigoted husband ignores her and unleashes Durin's Bane
@@legatedrengr Hopefully that will at least not happen until after Durin gets his Ring. Frankly, the more I reread Tolkien the more I suspect that it was the rings' influence that caused the dwarves to dig greedily, rather than respectfully. Originally, the dwarves had a great love and respect for the Earth that bore them and that they were set to tend. Gimli also demonstrates and vouches for that respect. The period where that changes and the Elves gain a negative view of the dwarves is from the Second Age, after the dwarves of Khazad-dhum are so friendly with Celebrimbor's folk and the Rings are forged until the dragons arrive, lured by the treasure they dug so greedily. The dwarves of the Iron Mountains, Dain's folk, have no Ring and appear to display no such greed. By the time they reincounter Smaug in The Hobbit, all of the Rings have been lost to the dwarves, mostly to dragons, and the dwarves are once again able to treasure and respect the beauties of the earth for their own sake. At any rate, being under the rule of Sauron must have *some* effect on the Dwarven Rings, but there are no dwarven wraiths.
@@sarahgould5435 if they respected Tolkien, that Balrog would have nothing to do with Khazad-Dum, because Durin's Bane isn't unleashed until the Third Age when they delve too deeply. But they don't respect anything, so it'll be the same Balrog, discovered too early by idiot male dwarves and only Princess Diversity will be able to save her people.
Oh bro. I honestly dread it because they're gonna have to watch the bloody thing, which would probably give revenue to Amazon anyway. I pity Shad for what he has to endure, but proper criticisms can't be done if the series isn't watched so... I honestly wish them all the best and I hope they have some semblance of fun.
@Black League Because the reality is that it's still happening whether any of us like it or not. So you can be sure I'm personally gonna try and find some enjoyment out of it. If that enjoyment is supporting Knights Watch, then I'll do that. If people want to watch the show, they're free to do so. I'm not gonna stop them because it's their lives. At the end of the day, a good story will leave its mark and the bad ones... well, The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker. Say what you will about those two movies in particular, but the fact that the reactions are so all over the place speak for themselves. Edit: How peculiar, why is the @ for you changed from your username?
@@RedHood001-KA I'm at the point where even watching reviews of this crap is ruining the original stuff I enjoyed. I'm not sure I can even watch the Knight's Watch review each episode knowing how bad the show's going to be. In my head I can say it doesn't affect me, but the more I know about how bad Star Wars, or LotR, or Star Trek has become the less I care about the original stuff. It gets diluted. It just saddens and angers me that normies will watch it and then pick 1-2 neat moments they liked out of a 6-10 hour season so they can say "I guess it was fine" to justify their time invested.
@@carlsiouxfalls Ah, I can understand that too. You just get frustrated seeing the things they're doing wrong, that it affects how you watch the original stuff. It's what happened with Star Wars for me, but I thankfully moved past it and just go back to enjoying the original and prequel trilogies. Everyone reacts differently and I wouldn't blame you for that reason.
I feel so bad for the guy beside her. He's not allowed to say anything, but he has to sit beside her with a straight face. I would have burst out laughing one sentence in.
@@ComradeCommissarYuri Well, takes us back to my op; At that point (all comedic value aside) it's all or nothing. Either respectfully put up a disagreement with what she's saying, get up and walk out, or do something...ANYTHING. The reason these people are destroying everything we love is because it's not being dealt with at a visceral, base level. It's at this level where something needs to said but the reason it doesn't happen is because no one wants to take the accountability or "take one for the team", so to speak. It's fucking pathetic honestly and it's going to come to a point where it's NOT laughable anymore. He's going to get consequences for the face pulling anyway, so might as well pipe up and say something with meaning and make her question the filth she's spouting?
@@admirekashiri6651 And Hollywood wouldn't do what I've sarcastically suggested, either. They wouldn't dare deliberately offend a group that is NOT white. Which is exactly the point of my comment. They're okay wiping their asses with this woke dumpster fire of a shitshow. And we're supposed to line up to enjoy and praise it. But would they race swap any NON-white stories? Would they put whites into ANY roles that were not originally white? NO...they would not. And it's that right there that is the ultimate racism...pretending not to be racist, while focusing solely on race.
@@arekpetrosian4965 nope but they would crap on our stories and histories. They already have look up the Woman King trailer 🤦🏿♂️. The female warriors existed but there was no.woman king they're pushing some BS and misrepresenting black women in history. So looks like they don't give crap
When all of these anti-Amazon UA-cam videos started appearing, it actually pushed me in to finally buying the books of LOTR and The Hobbit. In the past week with a new slew of videos appearing, it had prompted me to get more books, like Letters from Tolkien, Children of Hurin, Unfinished Tales. I'm also going to get the classy new deluxe Silmarilion in November. When it comes to these crappy new perversion being made all it does is highlight to me how much I should be appreciating the source material.
"improved representation" of the ENGLISH fairytale Tolkien created. Lmao. I wonder when are we gonna get the Black Panther remake where the lore gets put aside for the sake of saving the world. Everything can be "improved", right? And improvement is always good, so... Also, we gotta band together against the criminal underrepresentation of eskimos. They exist, ok? Where's my eskimo protagonist?
It’s funny how they always play the same game too “This needs to be updated for a modern audience” “But it takes place in a fantasy Medieval setting” “It’s all fictional anyway, why do you care?” “If it’s all fictional and it doesn’t matter, then why does it *need* to be updated for a modern audience?” “……… racist”
Agreed with minor corrections. English, Nordic and Anglo Saxon inspired fairytale. And as we all know those violent and savage times that shaped Europe and thus the world were hotbeds of racial equality and Sisters doin' it for themselves! Sadly overweight dwarves of african decent probably just got accidentally left out of Tolkeins carefulyl constructed manuscript! Edit! Tolkein has you covered. The Eskimos are in the apendices. The Snowmen of Forochel (from memory, not checking name). They are tangentally involved in the war against the Witch King in the North..
*_"It's not political"_*
"Features a diverse cast"
*_"It's not political"_*
"First black elf"
*_"It's not political"_*
"First woman person of colour dwarf"
*_"It's not political"_*
"We don't care about the criticism from racist bigots"
*_"It's not political"_*
"It's not political" - the people who claim everything's political, when people complain about them trying to make everything political.
Well played
Can we just dissect that "first woman person of colour dwarf" part? Cause the reason why black people are...well, black is because of the skin mutating to try to fight off the sun. Dwarves dig into mountains and live inside them. The amount of exposure to the sun to cause someone to become a person of colour would be basically nonexistent.
Maybe there's something I'm missing though. I'm an idiot so maybe it doesn't work that way.
For them that is not politics. And its not.
Their👏 Diversity 👏 is 👏 not 👏 politics👏.
Its a cult 🙃
@@tanegurnick5071 we aren't elves and dwarves. also they and their world is diverse with different cultures and races (humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, yadda yadda) saying they aren't diverse unless they're black is dumb
I have to say, Amazon is doing a fantastic job with representation. I totally feel represented with that dude sitting next to her..
😂
👍🤣
🤣
Sammmeeee my guy😂😂
She is not fat, she is just so full of herself, that she got bloated of it.
😁😂😸🤣😁😂😸🤣😁😂😸🤣
Brilliant 😂
💀💀💀
this.
If she took an Ex Lax, she'd dissappear......
Every word out of this lady's mouth is a celebration of HER. Not the world, not the author, just her "historic" role that is anything but.
It's amazing how she manages act like a stereotypical fat black cow, she nails the character she is playing. Truly a great method actress
There's a reason why tribalism appeals to her kind, modern progressism is all about the collective "me".
You saw how the clapping seals inflated her ego at San Diego comic con too. "I've just become a mother." - woooooh!!
"They allowed me to breast feed on set" - wooooooh!
"I'm the first female dwarf ever" - wooooooh!
I wonder who the first black Person to use toilet paper was. Seems more interesting
She's a side character that nobody cares about
That moment when you try so hard to not be racist that you end up becoming extremely racist, is effectively what the rings of power is and more
When you gaze into the Palantir, the Palantir gazes back into you.
I don't even try to not be racist. I'm just not racist. Apparently, that makes me racist 😑
@@djinnxx7050 may I ask what you are talking about specifically?
@@djinnxx7050 oh please . Half of you people don't even have the courage to go be with other black people. So one one is calling you racist
@@pokegard A lot of people will call you racist if you disagree with forced diversity and the effects it has on writing within films and shows
That dude is like a sign-language interpreter, except he's providing the emotional subtext of rest of the audience.
But it is a breakthrough, her being the first black dwarven lightsaber wielding force user EVAH! True to Tolkien's vision, watching her turn green and mow down wave after wave of Borg screaming "HULK SMASH!!!! I AM TEH BESTEST HULK JEDI EVAH!!!!" was inspiring and will be the pinnacle of storytelling...literally teh bestest ting evah ritten! I can't wait until season 2, because it will probably feature Time Travel and Galadriel punching a T-Rex in the face with its head flying straight off! 🤣
The guy next to her is an incredible actor. The story that he told with his face during that dumpster fire of an interview was Oscar-worthy
Blah blah blah, both actors dont really care about the common person. So this dudes " oscar worthy" nonsense is just the product of creative edits from the youtube creator. Black people are here to stay. Get over it and shut up about it already. Yaull are being annoying and Hollywood will do as it wants to.
@@blackleague212 no shit
@@antifaunileipzig1759 Silence. I am waiting for someone else to come here for discussion. not you.
@@blackleague212 and why not me?
@@blackleague212 silence. Your pathetic word means nothing little kid. Sit down.
As a black guy who grew up with LOTR I think this quote is needed now
"Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow."
Hey, you know you're not allowed to enjoy that. A white guy said it, how could you possibly relate.
It's a joke but it's amazing it's actually gotten to this point that people are out there saying this
How did it come to this?
@@williamzylstra1151 truly this is the darkest timeline of entertainment
@@jonservo Yeah they would hate me! You give me a good fantasy world with good characters and I'm in!
@@azuredream23 see that's the problem right there...you have good taste lol. I honestly would love to see people that complain so much about there being no entertainment inspired by their own ethnicity's myths and folklore to go out and make stuff about it. Instead of trying to get into others stories show your own. I personally find cryptids and monster lore from other countries fascinating so I would enjoy a show that explores that kind of stuff in depth
I would like to point out, that Melkor didn't change anything, he's interpretation of creations was different. Orc are differently interpreted elfs.
The... problem with the LORE, is that when expanded upon and thought too much about, it overshadows the THEMES. I think TOlkien left all of that vague on purpose.
I never really saw Tolkien's peoples as creatures or races, but more as CLASSES. Like, the Elves are the academics; they're stuck up, full of themselves, believe they're always right and are deeply isolated and feel unpleasant to the outside world, even if you admire them and their work. The Hobbits are the antithesis, the British villagers, the small people focused on themselves and their small lives, true values of everyday exiwstence sort of, good food, good friends, a pint. Etc. Men, are everything between, the regular joes, the ceos, the garbage men, the engineer, the dentist.
I always saw Orcs as those people, you know them, you DO meet them every day though you try not to: cruel, unappologetic, rude, uneducated, but most of all - people who cannot be taught, stuck in their ways, completely immovable in their "evil". You know, the man who keeps his dog chained and malnourished, comes home to beat his wife and yell at the kids then goes to the bar and gets into a fight. A football hooligan who follows his team to rob a store and get into a fight with the locals "for the glory of the club". That's an Orc. I think this is where the idea of there being no good orcs actually comes from, it's that kind of a PERSON.
If you go too deep into former Elves, Melkor, yadda... you lose that stuff.
@@codinghusky5196 r/whoosh me if I got the joke wrong, but I think this is meant to be a satire on Amazon in drawing parallel between their works on Tolkien's materials and Melkor's on the elves.
@@wentianwang3428 this
"Improved representation" is so insulting.
Tolkien, an Englishman, is allowed to write a story about white people. There's nothing offensive about that. There's nothing that needs to be improved.
Imagine an African author writing a fantasy story specifically for his homeland of Nigeria, and then the media saying it needs to be "improved" by including more white people.
Of course that would never happen.
And, yes, fantasy stories can have a mix of races, but that doesn't mean they should all *have* to.
Create something new if you want diversity. Or adapt something that already has the diversity you seek. Don't corrupt great art.
Tell 'em.
Sadly, basic logic and common sense is not something these woke SJW activists possess.
TLDR: Don’t take a sh!t on the Mona Lisa and cry racism when the security guards screams at you.
Exactly!
Well people say Holly weird used to use white actors in poc roles but that was how it was then. Like John Wayne as genghis khan, but I like to think most of think that was pretty dumb. Not that it's black people turn to be dumb and have black Greek heroes black English Kings and other dumbness
"We don't change anything" totally sounds like something marketing has told them to say to sell the show after seeing how much fans hate them changing things.. But then she also goes right into saying how incredibly important it was that they changed things.
I'm actually sorry for the marketing people behind this. They are tasked with the impossible job to sell a product their audience doesn't want in the first place.
@@Mediados Which is 99.99999% of marketing. Make you believe that your hard-earned cash is worth spending on shit you don't need.
@@mcmarkmarkson7115 Well usually at least the people you're trying to sell your shit to have interest in your product, even if they don't need it. In this case, not even the basic interest is given.
@@mcmarkmarkson7115 Yup. That's because the current market doesn't exist for the customer, it exists for the one producing stuff.
In the past, people needed X, so someone decided to make X for those who needed it, and took money in return.
Now, someone produces X, except nobody needs or wants it, so the one producing X tries to instead brainwash everyone into giving him money, with X just being an excuse.
Marketing 101... re-frame everything. "We don't like to look at it as "change"... we call it "creative re-imagining" "
Never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake.
I know it hurts to see your beloved franchises be ridiculed by cultural vandals but it comes a point were you no longer feel rage. When they keep doing the same thing over and over again, you eventually become numb and you can see clearly again. It is what they want, they want you to lash out and be angry, when all you need to do to defeat them is starve them to death.
Many wars were won this way and this one is no different. Stop consuming, close your wallets and watch them slowly die of hunger pains.
Your beloved heroes and stories will still be there, in the minds and hearts of all that grew up with them. Never worry, like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, they will return again like they never left because they haven't.
Example, Joel Schumacher killed batman with his 2 HORRIBLE movies but Christopher Nolan swooped in and revived the Dark Knight once again.
Yes, you are correct. They are purposely trying to force “diversity”. It quite pathetic actually.
Wallet was closed a long time ago, and will never re-open. Sorry mate, can’t be silent in the face of this particular one getting the treatment.
This is a damn good speech.
Beautifully put. I already stopped watching MCU and Disney altogether.
I can't wait for the day when they have a white actor play a tribes member in an African movie. This will mean everything to white ethnic people who finally have full representation in films set in the various African cultures.
Never gonna happen Hollywood doesn't know shit about Africa neither do most people so our stuff is safe.
*The Jerk intensifies*
jim carey could re-interpret SHAFT, hes a pretty bad mofo...
crouching tiger hidden dragon wasn't diverse enough. we need a remake of the movie with full representation because it's not like china is predominately occupied by asian people. we need more black and brown faces in that movie. not white, though. white people aren't diverse.
One of my favourite novels used to be Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, but thanks to Wokeism I now realise that I can not enjoy this foul, racist trashy story at all because all the main characters are either Carribean, British or antropomorphic Ghanese spider gods, none of which I am myself. Pretty sure that Gaiman writing a story about Carribeans when he is not one himself makes this cultural appropriation or something as well. Fetch thee thyne torches and pitchforks...
I am black, queer, and a Tolkien fan ever since I was 12 and read the Hobbit. I re-read the Hobbit, the LOTR books and the Silmarillion annually. Never have I had the need to identify with the characters simply by having them look like me. The extensive stories have provided me with so much joy over time. I've always been able to identify with several character traits of the different races in these wonderfully amazing books. Again, without the need of them looking like me. This sort of representation is so cheap!
The executive producer Lindsey Weber said: 'It felt only natural to us that an adaptation of Tolkien's work would reflect what the world actually looks like." and "“Tolkien is for everyone." Well, it was already for everyone. Why does it need to be adapted to current day sensitivities?
He does describe some characters as having darker complexions and others fair skin. Suggesting there is in fact a bit of diversity of races in his world.
@@Cthulhu013 does it make sense to you if a dwarf who lives deep underground will have dark skin?
🤦
@@markgregorygacosta531 Depends on how much he surfaces. Depends on lineage. And ultimately, isn't important. It's just a skin color. Why waste your time caring about skin color? Aren't there more important concerns? Why is that of all things a priority for you?
@@Cthulhu013 Because world building is important, especially for a work like Tolkien's. All the dwarves were described in such ways that none of them had darker skin, especially not as dark as what they are trying to throw in. Such a dark skinned dwarf requires world building and character backstory to support their existence.
Keep in mind that Tolkein's work is treated as an actual mythology for Britain, since it was made to be as such by Tolkien. So it is treated very seriously.
@@Cthulhu013 there is Haradrim, why not make stories about it instead of changing other races?
When you're actually a talented actor, but you realize that you've been thrown to the activist-wolves.
I cried when Morgoth said "It's time to power these rings" and then morged on everyone. Truly, the series of all time.
I cried when Frodo channeled Saidin through the Elder Wand to stop the White Witch from reaching the Well of Ascension. Pure masterpiece!!
"it's morgin time!"
Morgius be morgin
Then he turned back into Melkor and Melked all over everyone
Or how about that time when Gladriel told the six-fingered Ringwraith "My name is Galadriel Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die?" Classic.
I mean, so much of the marketing has been ridiculous, but at this moment it's particularly annoying as the actors rant about representation while the actually groundbreaking actress who played Lt. Uhura in Star Trek just recently passed away from natural causes.
And the best part about Uhura, Chekhov, and Sulu in the show was that no one made a big deal about a black woman, a Russian man, and a Japanese man being part of the command crew. The entire point was that those characteristics didn’t matter, and were not considered particularly remarkable, in a future where people were judged solely on their character.
@@JoRoq1 and the one time the showrunners got nervous about filming a black woman kissing a white man (against both their wills) the two actors deliberately screwed up every other take.
And the backlash was one letter, that in the end said "I get that a red blooded man like kirk would do it".
@@JoRoq1 The only time Uhura's skin color was brought up was with Space Lincoln.
ua-cam.com/video/2BBOWsWODX4/v-deo.html
@@lemonblue6282 Remember that DS9 episode where Sisko didn't want to go visit Vic's in the holo suite because blacks were not welcome in Vegas casinos in actual history? That was the episode where I went.... oh yeah... Sisko's actually black.... Not for a moment before that had I even thought about that... it just didn't matter.
No she doesn't exist for now it's like when 12 years a slave came out and Hollywood acted like roots and so many others didn't exist lol no were the first to this
The best part is that UA-cam content creators are going to make more money from Rings of Power than Amazon does just by relentlessly memeing and making fun of it.
Her: We're not changing anything!
*1 second later*
Her: We're changing everything!
I got the chills. Truly one of the statements ever made!
Before she has been cast she also stated that "a lot of actors don't generally learn their lines until they are in the room".
This woman is a shame and should be fired from the show as soon as possible.
I'm so proud to witness the historic moment of the first people on the internet!! Great job guys, I'm humbled and morally better thanks to your firstness
I am proud as well. Now to go to Twitter which has been created today!
OMG! I can't believe I'm here for the first comment on UA-cam, revolutionary!
Oh it could bring a tear to my eye!
So brave and so humble! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Don't forget to lift your "Leonard's Sarcasm Sign TM" to all the SJWs around there.
Wait, does it mean that the knights watch made the first reaction video ever on the internet ?
That's amazing !
(and we are writing the first comments ever. We are making history)
"In place of a dark lord, you shall have a queen! Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn!"
Tolkien called it without even knowing it...lol
The tragedy of it all is - this guy is a good actor from what I've seen. He seems polite and respectful in interviews, and he looks the part. It's painful seeing professionals being dragged down by hacks and grifters
Owain Arthur is however Welsh, not Scottish. That Scottish accent in the intro was a good try though, but no cigar lol.
@@JohnnyZenith Indeed. Cymru am byth! 🏴
He looks like he's dying inside sitting next to that woman as she spews crap
Poor dude needs a drink.
And his character actually looks like part of the LOTR world! One correct casting choice.
It’s “what the industry needs”… a black female dwarf… this is amazing. There have been no black actors/actresses in any films or TV before her. Princess Deez is Nutz.
She is the first black actress ever.
She’s so brave and so humble!
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
"The better days to come" is the basic hustle played by every communist ever.
Black people did not exist before this show.
I can't wait for someone to say Hi, ho' to her.
Well, she's the first beardless dwarf in Middle Earth, so there's that.
Tolkien is my favorite author, _The Hobbit_ is my favorite book, and _The Lord of the Rings_ is my favorite series. I first read the books at thirteen on the eve of my freshman year of high school, and those stories helped me to feel brave. As a Latina, I didn't care that all the characters were male and that the stories were inspired by European mythology and folklore. It was just the damn best story I'd ever read in my life, and that's where my love came from. Also, I love European literature and mythology- always have and always will. Middle-earth doesn't need to be fixed or rewritten. The man behind the myths and legends spent his entire life crafting a real world with an intricate history, interweaving great universal themes like fellowship, courage, and sacrifice. To assume that it needs updating is a spit on Tolkien's grave and a slap to the face to those who love and respect his work. Quite the contrary, we need more stories with good writing and legitimate passion for the place and characters- all of which appear to be absent from the _Rings of Power_ series. Cowering behind retorts like "white supremacist" and "bigot" won't save them. The nerds have spoken rightly, and I hope that the series is a huge enough flop that no hubris-infected goblin will ever dare even look at a copy of _The Hobbit_ again.
That poor man 😢you can see that he signed up to be in a LotR movie, not on some leftist activist bull.
and it isn't even a movie, man, do I feel bad for him
A few of the cast are over it. I seen a few who actually understand their characters from the books but probably won't get to see
@@danielledaniel1900 They're so gonna get butchered.
Makes you wonder why he's in the video. No questions are directed towards him and he offers no response. Just sits in quiet contempt. Like a goddam hero.
@@guitarhero8110 That's because he's a white male.. 🙈🤦♂
Tolkien: Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away. Behind him his banner blew in the wind, white horse upon a field of green, but he outpaced it. After him thundered the knights of his house, but he was ever before them. Éomer rode there, the white horsetail on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first éored roared like a breaker foaming to the shore, but Théoden could not be overtaken. Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins, and he was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Oromë the Great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young. His golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun, and the grass flamed into green about the white feet of his steed.
Amazon:
- you have not seen
- I have seen
- you have not seen
- did too
- nuh uh!
...the grass flamed into green...
gosh that's such a cool writer's line.
@@kingofsapi The book is full of them. One of my favorites. "These staves [Eomer] spoke, yet he laughed as he said them. For once more lust of battle was on him; and he was still unscathed, and he was young, and he was king: the lord of a fell people."
Or this one. "And he looked at the slain, recalling their names. Then suddenly he beheld his sister Éowyn as she lay, and he knew her. He stood a moment as a man who is pierced in the midst of a cry by an arrow through the heart; and then his face went deathly white; and a cold fury rose in him, so that all speech failed him for a while. A fey mood took him.
'Éowyn, Éowyn!' he cried at last: 'Éowyn, how come you here? What madness or devilry is this? Death, death, death! Death take us all!'
Then without taking counsel or waiting for the approach of the men of the City, he spurred headlong back to the front of the great host, and blew a horn, and cried aloud for the onset. Over the field rang his clear voice calling: 'Death! Ride, ride to ruin and the world's ending!'
And with that the host began to move. But the Rohirrim sang no more. Death they cried with one voice loud and terrible, and gathering speed like a great tide their battle swept about their fallen king and passed, roaring away southwards."
Thanks for reminding me that I really should reread these books. To remind myself what true greatness looks like.
🤣😀😐😑😒☹😢😭
@@willparker8498 And that is a secret dig at the Sackville-Bagginses. XD
Black fan of LoTR here. This push for “diversity and representation” isn’t even a thing when it comes to fantasy. And I absolutely hate what they’ve done to Tolkien’s work.
Fantasy itself IS diversity. One of the most revered characters in all of fantasy…is a dark elf! Not even human! Fans of fantasy don’t care about gender, race or skin tone. We want a great story that introduces us to a great world, and LoTR gave us both.
Out of touch execs are pushing what they THINK we want, and it’s deplorable.
Don't forget about all the activities and new "fans" of fantasy because of DnD, saying incredibly stupid stuff like that orcs are a symbol of racism because they're obviously just black people. Personally I think if you look a 9 foot tall ugly, green skinned creature, that's made of massive chiseled muscles, and is know for their stupidity, and love of rape and murder, and then your first thought is "hey, that's a black man," then I'm sorry, but you're the racist one.
I’ve never been so hyped to not watch something that I love the source material of, ever.
in interviews with showrunners, they said that they chose actors from among thousands of people. another criterion was that they "have Middle-earth at heart . The actress who played Disa did not even know that there were female dwarves in the Jackson trilogy. I have the impression that she didn't even read the books. embarrassing
Great point
It also depends on what the showrunners thought Middle-Earth was. Because clearly they have a much different theme in mind than what Tolkien wrote (an English/Anglican-specific mythology).
@@JoRoq1 point
They were visible as extras in the Hobbit trilogy, afaik there weren't any in the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Maybe I'm misremembering though.
@@yewtewbstew547 i mean in Hobbit movies
I've said it before and I'll say it again: HOLLYWOOD NEEDS BOOK SMACKERS! For those unaware if what a book smacker is, it is someone familiar with the subject matter who's only job on set is to stand beside the director and, every time he tries or implies that something needs to change, smacks him upside the head with the largest hardback copy of whatever book they are adapting to film.
As far as I know they had a showrunner who was a real Tolkien-Nerd, they fired him (maybe because he always complained...) and then got someone who hates LotR.
@@Morticia147 so there 343 dam that sucks
@@garrettlich7140 ?
@@Morticia147 343 is the current owner of halo and hired people whome hate it and making content that goes against the original content
As a company they are vary woke down I’m comparing the writers and such of rings of power of being just as bad
@@garrettlich7140 Ah, thanks, now I get it...
The fact that these people believe representation is such a huge important thing is just bizarre. I'm an anime fan. Do you know how many Europeans are represented in anime? Not a lot. Do I care? Not in the slightest. Do I scream for more Europeans in anime? No because if you require someone to look like you to feel something than well that's a you problem. I've fallen in love with characters that look nothing like me or even behave/think like me. I love these characters because they are cool or funny or have something else to offer.
You see with the amount of changes we've seen so far than Amazon could have easily just created their own universe. We all know they only bought the rights cause they needed a big name to bring in people. Saying this if you're willing to put a billion into a project than at least have the balls to create your own thing.
We enjoy anime because it is specifically Japanese, with their cultural influences and worldviews.
Western “anime” is usually crap (for example, High Guardian Spice) because it is attempting to appropriate the product of Japanese culture in order to push modern Western Progressive values.
Me causally watching an anime with a female spider as its main character.
Actually, a lot of anime have very strong Germanic elements. I don't know why, they just do. Case in point, all of Attack on Titan. The architecture is Germanic, many of the names are Germanic, the military structure is Germanic. There's also Monster which is entirely in Germany, and the writing is in German. Alita: Battle Angel was also originally an anime, and uses several Germanic elements despite being set in a world where Germany doesn't exist anymore. If I had to guess, it all stems from some old affinity for their former allies from WW2. Japan has never really taken responsibility for their crimes during the war and don't have the guilt Germany does
@@pecadodeorgullo5963 Kumo ? That was really fun to bad the animation was so bad
I hate so say this, because i fundamentally argee with your argument about representation, but the facial designs of most anime characters are in my opinion leaning more towards european features, than the Japanese themselves.
I feel so proud to be part of the first youtube video ever! You guys are groundbreaking.
Lord of the Rings Fans: “welcome to our world.”
You guys have so much AGENCY! YASSSSS Kings!
So Stunning! So Brave!
Imagine interpreting everything about Black Panther, improving on it for diversity.
I’m very pleased Amazon is introducing people of colour to me, I have recently just landed on earth and without this show I wouldn’t have realised that they could do anything, absolutely amazing 👍 thank you Amazon
Sorry to disappoint but it's a fantasy story
Im 💀
Welcome - I dont know how much intelligent life you'll find here, mate 😀
@@mjp152 oh the drips and drabs won’t keep my people alive but maybe we could get a job on an Amazon show and get my species represented 🤷
@@SubiKinubi funny 😆
I almost feel physical pain when I see these interviews. If Tolkien was alive to see this….
Then again, if he were alive, we wouldn't have gotten any movies or games. You have to take the bad AND the good. The 2000's brought us the good stuff, now it seems we have to sit through the bad shit.
@@LydiotGamingTV these are just angry Game of Thrones fans who are mad they didn't get the ending they wanted.
@@blackleague212 so the ending of GoT made sense to you? Purely from a technical writing perspective, it made sense to you?
@@mattt2277 no it did not make sense. What exactly is your point in saying this to me?
@@blackleague212 The point is that you're conflating the anger of GOT fans over 'not getting the ending they wanted' with that being a problem, when you later admit it didn't make sense? It doesn't seem like your original point holds up by using GOT fans as the measuring stick when, we're absolutely reasonable and right with our anger over the show, something you agree upon in your comment above mine.
"welcome to woke cinema where we have "everything": bland token poc, bland girl boss character, bland story rip offs, "everything" and so much less! enjoy or you're a bigot"
😭💀
That opening clip was funny but I'll admit it was painful to watch. The Cringe off the guy as she's squawking off was palpable, I feel sorry for him.
Rings of Power has already crashed and burned before it’s begun. I’m not giving this series the time of day. Lol
Sounds like Batgirl woke
Good lad, neither am I.
It's legacy will be being studied in a marketing class about how NOT to market a product. Step #1 Isolate and offend the intended customer base. Step #2 Ignore the source material.
@@justaguyonyoutube4592 watch you and the other dude still watch the show.
The crazy thing is EVERYONE'S gonna watch it. We are all so curious to see how terrible it's gonna be that we'll all watch it just to mock it and have a giggle. Amazon are gonna make a fortune!!! They might as well edit in a laughter track and a cheesy 90s Friends style intro.
One of my big grips is that they featured hobbits despite the fact:
-There is zero written about them in the second age, so they may as well have not existed at that point in time.
-They don’t have the rights to hobbits, yet they feature them anyway.
-Hobbits didn’t do anything of note before Bilbo Baggins, so if they try and do a fellowship thing it will be completely made up fanfiction which they aren’t allowed to do.
-They try and cover this by saying they aren’t hobbits but harfoots, despite Harfoots being hobbits and almost all hobbits in the stories being harfoots.
Hobbits effectively did not exist in the second age. They were only known about 1000 yrs into the third age.
Yeah the first real mention is hobbits sending some archers to the last battle of fornost to fight with the last defenders of arnor! And that can’t Ben be confirmed
This British actress DOESN'T speak for me as a black American. I watched LOTR + The Hobbit & I liked the characters. None of them looked like me; I just liked the plot and cinematography.
Btw, I'm a new subscriber. Nice job, knights 😉
Edit: I'm a woman & I'm pro-healthy masculinity. Make Men Men Again😊
As another Brit, I sincerely apologise we bought you her (and James Corden). Most of us don’t agree with her, we just want to make the most god awful food names possible.
Fck yeah, screw it I'm subbing too
@@willowdigger617 Well, we gave you Meghan Markle, so we're even 🤭
@@MillennialForChrist You're probably just not virtue signalling the correct way. allow me to mansplain for you. lolol
@@Nosliw837 🤭
Isn’t a sociopath someone who can’t relate to someone, put themselves in another person’s shoes because they are different in some way from them(i.e. lack of empathy)?
I’m a girl. At 12 years old, I read the Lotr books and watched the movie. Yeah Arwen, Galadriel, and especially Eowyn (even though I’m not blonde or with black hair) were my girl goals and my role models, but I loved all the bromance moments in the fellowship just the same. It took me years to register there were no girls in the fellowship because that didn’t matter to me. There were humans I could relate to because of their humanity. I cried over “my captain, my king,” “what about side by side with a friend,” “I’m going to look after you” “but I can carry you.” There didn’t need to be women in those scenes for me to care about them.
Yeah, having a redhead like Tauriel in the Hobbit was fun. Having brunettes dominating the Star Wars world is great. It’s fun to see. But LOTR with still be my favorite forever and there doesn’t need to be someone who looks like me in it for that to always be true.
My best friend is Hispanic and I’m as white as can be. It doesn’t change the fact that I feel we have similar hearts and care for her regardless of different experiences. These people are just too shallow to see into someone’s heart. All they see is the outward appearance.
Maybe we should be focusing on how to empathize with anyone and trying to be better people instead of doubling down on this limited way of thinking.
That's wisdom, my young lady. Wisdom that rarely is articulated.
Damn couldn't say it better myself and from someone so young keep on doing what you're doing girl you're doing perfect
Star wars is the first betrayal of the fucking stupid non sense of woke.
They are just racist. Imagine a white person dislikes a show with a all black cast because there are no white people. Thats considered racist. If a black person dislikes a show because its all white cast thats progressive? Its just racism.
Smarter than children double your age
"Like a canon, I hope they fire her" - SOLID GOLD!!!!!! LOVE IT!!!!!! :) :) :) :)
Keep in mind they hired her to say exactly what she is saying
And they refused to fire her even after everything she's said, which means the company fully supports and endorses every word she says. Never give money to people who hate you.
Never give your money to people who detest you for simply existing. If you're gonna watch it, illegally download that shit.
It's highly probable that the only "watching" I'll be doing is what Knights Watch shows in their episode reviews
I’m not even going to bother doing that.
"Everyone was cast because they were the best person for the job [and also because we are racist]" LOL
"this means everything to people of colour!"
Hold on a minute, last I checked isn't it ridiculously racist to assume that a bunch of people across the world, a bunch of people from diverse nations and cultures who speak a host of different languages all think the same way?
Aren't people as individuals; whatever the colour of their skin, allowed to make up their own minds now?
The belief that one cannot appreciate anything unless there is a character in it who shares the same demographic is bad enough, but this goes to a hole other level!
Honestly! this is representation eating its own tale to the point its more! prejudiced against the people its supposedly representing!
I'm certainly boycotting this show for what its doing to Tolkien, but at this point I'd actively pay to get it cancelled, since this is about as toxic as it gets!
Scientific studies have shown that black people are the most racist group in the world. So why are you surprised?
They’re eating themselves alive with all this nonsense. Just sit back and watch them destroy each other
The concept of "race" is extremely weird for me, i grew up in a country where even the word "race" (applied to humans) is shunned. Of course in my country there is still xenophobia and so on, but there is way less raciologic thinking. Here "black" is a skin colour, not a "race". Hence a "white passing" black person would not be considered black, as the entire concept of "passing" is pretty weird. The idiotic thought that sub-sahara africans, south indians, papuans and aboriginies have more in common with each other than with the rest of us just because they have roughly the same hair and skin is a remainer of the original bigoted theories from the 19th century, it's extremly weird how americans still see the world like that.
@@valentinmitterbauer4196 that is very true.
Unfortunately, America has a habit of exporting its political problems and attendant attitudes to the rest of the world, while not actually taking on board when the rest of the world might actually have better ideas :d.
Personally, I love when authors just describe a character's skin colour not their "race", rather than short handing to "black", or "white", especially in a fantasy setting (Robert Jordan does this all the time in wheel of time, which was why making the character's so called race a big deal in that series was so dum).
@@valentinmitterbauer4196 Well. It's more like people who only see skin colour would group together Papuans and sub-saharan Africans. While someone talking about race would know that they are very distinct. They are not grouped together in physical anthropology and according to modern population genetics are about as distant as two human populations can get. Europeans and sub-saharan Africans are actually closer to each other.
My drama teacher in high school, may he rest in piece, used to say "Shakespeare isn't just turning in his grave, he's in a constant spin" referring to how people handle his work. I'm sad to say I think the same is happening to Tolkien.
oh fuck haha, i genuinely laughed at constant spin.
You shouldn't, it is in human nature to watch back classic and modernize them, revisist the stories of old and give them a personnal touch, some entire franchise especially of comics have prospered exactly doing that, since the dawn of history stories have changed when passing through times, the myth of old were "butchered" way before people tried to cast a black persons as Achille, that's why we have multiple conflicting version of them.
Yet it gave us wonderful modernized stories. A great example of that being Peter jackson's version of LOTR which is actually hated by one of Tolkien's son, also the series of games LOTR shadow of something which is acclamed by critics, quite good, and took a lot of liberties with LOTR lore.
Bad stories are bound to happened, there is no perfection without perfecting, no stories without trying. I can excuse a bad fan fic or a bad modern take. What I can't excuse is thinking that randomly changing the skin color of a character is better story telling, what I can't excuse is patting yourselves on a job well done because you included X group of people, without care about writing a good stories, and no self reflexion about how you could have improved your work, once critic come.
For now I will be neutral, and wait to see the series before giving judgement. But I do worried the retelling was made without love. And do worries the people responsible of these change will no reflect upon they could have done better.
Probably someone invented a way to generate power from that spin, that's why there are so many changes. Free energy.
Hook them both up to a Dynamo. Energy crisis solved?
We could supply the whole world electricity out of his spinning…
"We don't change anything...we just interpreted it differently."
That's changing things. At least until that word gets redefined.
I believe you mean "at least until that word gets interpreted differently" ;)
A quick summary of this lady’s interview:
“Buzzword, buzzword, buzzword, buzzword, buzzword. Your welcome world I’ve made you a better place”
The expressions of that dude beside her...
This is an instant meme.
Just watching his face makes me laugh.
That was so mean Shad. How could you insult Mordor like that?!
Shad... your laughs in this hit that level of staggering hysteria that one only sees when the sheer volume of tragedy has collapsed so far in on itself that the only things that remain are untethered madness and the ability to laugh.
This feels like what made the Joker.
And honestly, I don't blame you.
This is what we refer to as the "managed decline"
>fans point out bad thing
>"Bad thing isn't happening!"
>Bad thing continues to happen
>Fans point this out
>"You are paranoid!"
>Continued cycle
>"Why do you care so much it doesn't affect you!"
>"Actually bad thing is happening and it's a GOOD THING!"
>"Actually bad thing is bad but there's nothing you can do about it"
The result is to delay the backlash and discontentment of the populace down to a trickle, because a mass movement is much harder to deal with than a movement that gains momentum slowly over the course of many months or years.
You can trace this model everywhere when you look at news headlines for the past 2-3 years.
This was also Star Wars The Last Jedi. Subverting expectations. It was utter shite
I remember when the movie "Dunkirk" was heavily criticized for not having any black actors.
Black people definitely fought in world war 2, there was this whole slave trade thing that meant many of them lived in America and Britain by that point, and some countries in Europe at the least.
If they try to cast black actors in roles of power during films set back then, less realistic.
The US hadn't yet entered the war when Dunkirk was evacuated. Great Britain abolished slavery in 1807. And during the slave trade, black slaves weren't sent to England or even Europe. They were sent to the Caribbean. So Europe didn't have any black people to speak of. The first blacks most Europeans ever.saw were Black US Soldiers during both WWI and WWII.
The phrase, “redress of balance” means nothing. She should have said “and to redress imbalances within the world.” Imprecise language is imprecise thought.
These people hate Tolkien’s worldview, they can’t see past the skin of his work. The beauty of LOTR was always that Frodo sacrificed everything for the good of the world. The quiet life in the shire was never his because he volunteered to take the ring to Mordor to save people he’d never met.
These actors, show runners, etc. won’t even sacrifice five minutes of virtue signaling and self aggrandizement to glorify the show they ostensibly love.
It's not necessarily imprecise thought. People shorten thoughts all the time and let the listener fill in the gaps. Such as the response "sucks, dude" lops off several essential parts of speech and yet is entirely understandable: The thing being responded to sucks dick, and by pointing that out I am acknowledging your pain.
Everything else you said was spot on though.
Was Tolkien racist? Probably. I mean he was a white Englishman living in the era that he did, and most were. Did he not include people of color in his work because he was racist? No. All authors write for their audience. Tolkien's audience was British, mostly white at the time. He probably never imagined his work becoming popular in America much less the rest of the world. And if people couldn't identify with the characters because of skin tone, how did it become so widely popular for so long all over the world?
@@robo5013 previosuly in the past I argued whenver people accused Tolkien of racism, but there;s no point in arguing, what his views are we know from his letters:
"I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White."
- J. R. R. TOLKIEN
...
"As for what you say or hint of ‘local’ conditions: I knew of them. I don't think they have much changed (even for the worse). I used to hear them discussed by my mother; and have ever since taken a special interest in that part of the world. The treatment of colour nearly always horrifies anyone going out from Britain, & not only in South Africa. Unfort[unately], not many retain that generous sentiment for long."
If people want to accuse him of racism... it's their problem, his works have obvious cultural referenes, he wrote what he wanted to and as an artist he wasn't applying any quotas, his works like Lotr and Hobbit are obviously representation of European culture :) his inspirations in Beowulf, poetic Eddas, like Voluspa from which he took the Norse names for dwarves, Kullervo from Kelvala etc. even Smaug nad stealing of a cup by Bilbo was inspired by Fafnir:
"I have always with me: the sensibility to linguistic pattern which affects me emotionally like colour or music; and the passionate love of growing things; and the deep response to legends (for lack of a better word) that have what I would call the North-western temper and temperature. In any case if you want to write a tale of this sort you must consult your roots, and a man of the North-west of the Old World will set his heart and the action of his tale in an imaginary world of that air, and that situation: with the Shoreless Sea of his innumerable ancestors to the West, and the endless lands (out of which enemies mostly come) to the East. Though, in addition, his heart may remember, even if he has been cut off from all oral tradition, the rumour all along the coasts of the Men out of the Sea."
--Letter to W.H. Auden, 7 June 1955
The only dark skinned peoples in Middle-earth are the Haradrim, these Swertings:
""'More Men going to Mordor,' he [Gollum] said in a low voice. 'Dark faces. We have not seen Men like these before... They are fierce. They have black eyes, and long black hair, and gold rings in their ears... lots of beautiful gold. And some have red paint on their cheeks, and red cloaks and their flags are red, and the tips of their spears; and they have round shields, yellow and black with big spikes."
...
"Swertings. Said by Sam to be the name in the Shire for the legendary (to hobbits) dark-skinned people of the 'Sunlands' (far south). It may be left unchanged as a special local word (not in the Common Speech); but since it is evidently a derivative of swart, which is still in use in swarthy), it could be represented by some similar derivative of the word for 'black / dark' in the language of translation. Compare Swarthy Men, the Common Speech equivalent (III 73)."
In any case the action of the story as Tolkien writes takes place in specific regions:
"The action of the story takes place in the North-west of 'Middle-earth', equivalent in latitude to the coastlands of Europe and the north shores of the Mediterranean. But this is not a purely 'Nordic' area in any sense. If Hobbiton and Rivendell are taken (as intended) to be at about the latitude of Oxford, then Minas Tirith, 600 miles south, is at about the latitude of Florence. The Mouths of Anduin and the ancient city of Pelargir are at about the latitude of ancient Troy." Letter 294
...
"These legends are North-centred - because it is represented as an historical fact that the struggle against Morgoth and his servants occurred mainly in the North, and especially the North-west, of Middle-earth, and that was so because the movements of Elves, and of Men afterwards escaping from Morgoth, had been inevitably westward, towards the Blessed Realm, and north-westward because at that point the shores of Middle-earth were nearest to Aman. Harad "South" is thus a vague term, and although before its downfall Men of Númenor had explored the coasts of Middle-earth far southward, their settlements beyond Umbar had been absorbed, or being made by men already in Númenor corrupted by Sauron had become hostile and parts of Sauron's dominions. But the southern regions in touch with Gondor (and called by men of Gondor simply Harad "South", Near or Far) were probably both more convertible to the "Resistance," and also places where Sauron was most busy in the Third Age, since it was a source to him of man-power most readily used against Gondor. Into these regions Gandalf may well have journeyed in the earlier days of his labours." The Unfinished Tales
In the end Frodo's quest as he writes in a letter:
"‘It seems clear to me that Frodo's duty was 'humane' not political. He naturally thought first of the Shire, since his roots were there, but the quest had as its object not the preserving of this or that polity, such as the half republic half aristocracy of the Shire, but the liberation from an evil tyranny of all the 'humane' - including those, such as 'easterlings' and Haradrim, that were still servants of the tyranny.’"
The Second Age setting may have introduced more naturally the cultures of Haradrim showing them facing both increasing power and dark influence of Sauron and Numenorean oppression and colonialism (Numenoreans explored the lands and set up colonies along the shores of Harad, so there there is 'white man bad' narrative :)) and Argorn in his time made journeys into "far countries of Rhun and Harad where the stars are strange", "and went alone far into the East and deep into the South, exploring the hearts of Men, both evil and good, and uncovering the plots and devices of the servants of Sauron."
So there are both evil and good folks in the south too as there are good and evil westerners.
She basically admitted with her 'redress of balance' and 'this is everything to people of color' that she is in fact a diversity hire. What on earth else could it mean. She'd be insulted if someone told her this but actions speak louder than words: we're not the ones who hired her, paid her money and benefits just to be on a screen with her skin color.
@@fantasywind3923 Not interested in a long synopsis of LOTR. I didn't accuse Tolkien of racism (don't personally care if he was) but it sounds like the actress is. The point was that he wrote for a specific audience, as do all authors, and that specific audience was mainly white. So the characters would reflect their experience. But if LOTR was racist, how did it become an international phenom for 70 years? Which was my overall point. Whether the author was racist or not doesn't matter, because the work wasn't.
You can tell no one who worked on the Amazon show actually read Tolkien’s works. They clearly haven’t apprehended the meaning and value of his stories.
While every single person working on Peter Jackson's Trilogy read the books at least once, and many of them had read them in their entirety every year since they read them the first time.
Even worse, they have contempt for the work and values contained, which is why they have to mold it into something completely different to fit their world view.
@@ZttackFrmBhind Chris Lee did that (reread every year), did anyone else mention doing that?
@@KhanGarth Off the top of my head I remember that Dominic Monaghan did aswell, I believe the only actor who hadn't read it was Viggo Mortensen but he finished reading it before filming ended.
Not only is this the first video from the internet, it's the first one to have zero dislikes as well.
I know RIngs of Power is going to suck but I find a good antidote is to rewatch the Peter Jackson LOTORs extended editions. I just got finished rewatching them and I feel content. I went on a full journey with those films with wonderful characters, excellent world-building and just an awesome story. Those films are TIMELESS. This series I doubt will ever reach that peak. It's yet another bad product of 2015 "modern" sensibilities and will be dated and TIMELY. No thanks.
better get a physical copy because they will try to change it
There's also an fantastic unabridged audiobook by a guy named Phil Dragash.
You must be a straight white male. No one else could possibly enjoy a movie that doesn’t have inclusion and diversity
its interesting that jackson was able to make LOTR so well and have tension with the staircase in the mines of moria but in the hobbit the goblin cave was just a muddled pointless cgi mess. he wasnt perfect by any means but he did the LOTR justice
@@reeceemms1643 normally I'd say Amazon but they suck. Might see if you can get best buy or another store like that.
I love Nathan's mostly silent approach because you watch his expressions and .....you just know.
That voiced over interview made me actually lol - that is very precious and rare. Thank you for that.
I think representation is important. Representing key components such as the people who actually look like they would belong in that universe. What they’re doing with lord of the rings now isn’t representation, but rather MISrepresentation.
Exactly its tokenism plain and simple
@@admirekashiri6651 that the point the point is they want to take away europeans culture
It's MISrepresentation and I think they've MISSed the point; that a story related to one of if not *the* most influential stories of all time should have a point to them besides being shameless cash grabs. We're living in Orwellian times.
Could be an argument for cultural appropriation too
I love how we are looking forward to this show specifically for its comedic scenes and crappy writing. I feel like this is going to be the most memed series of all time!
memes equal marketing. just don't. leave it be and forget. money talks.
This will be what Space Balls was for Star Wars..
@@slimbombur7922 yep, and what makes it even funnier is that this show is intended to be “serious” lmao!
Every view on an official distributor is a win for them, you better be a good sailor.
@@scorpixel1866 I only sail the seas. Call me jack sparrow.
So glad I stumbled on this video review and commentary. Well done gents. Keeping your content within a "PG" range while maintaining a high level of hard truth, true passion, witty disagreement, harsh critique, and hilarious irony Is Excellent!! Keep up the great work.
1:05 Bigideas Baggins was such a wise man. I’m glad he’s finally getting the recognition he deserves
Bigideas, wasn't that the guy who tried to "debate" The Last Jedi against Mauler and DisHonored Wolf?
@@jakomioftherose2434 No. I think that was the WriteOpinion. Bigideas is a great philosopher discovered around that time period by the toxic brood. (Some guy, I forget who but it was probably Brown Table, put “Big Ideas” in a very pretentious font that made the space unnoticeable, spawning Bigideas)
agreed, his teachings should be part of the curriculum at school instead of the other crap kids get taught these days.
Ah yes, Bigideas is a true inspiration to us all.
If this series is so inclusive, then why not cast little people to play the roles of dwarves and halflings on this show as opposed to actors of average size. It doesn't sound very inclusive to me.
Plus not a single Asian Actor either lol arent they inclusive?
@@primmakinsofis614 Completely agree. Great point.
@@Alejojojo6 Agreed
If the show wants to respect the author's beliefs and source material, where are the Mad-Trad Catholic cast members?
It is everything, it is EVERYTHING, it is EVERYTHING
Sometimes as a Indian I am happy that we didn't get * Representation* in. Such great series.
LOL.
Congrats on being the first people on the internet. This means absolutely everything for the internet culture and will be beacon for all future generations of internet people.
Oz, you're just killing me!
Can't wait for your reviews of each episode guys!
Oh and one tip: maybe let the one without glasses in the center and rest on the sides - reflection of backlight on Nathan's glasses is disruptive...
Thank you, Knights Watch, for calling out the lies & hypocrisy, and for making us laugh along the way! Otherwise I'd have to go purge my stomach after ingesting such garbage 🤮 Long live the laughter!!
I laughed so hard when Oz said it wasnt the Crack of Doom but the Black Gate. Nearly chocked on my drink.
Someone should point out to her that she is represented in tlotr.
The intro to the video is exactly what I thought he was thinking, he did not look like he believed a word she was saying
OMG that opening! You should get all the awards! That reminds me of the Marvel Brie Larsen interviews.
Gold, also watch OZ during the opening when Shad is talking....hmmmm.
exactly what i thought. Its Brie larson and the Marvels^^
I’d be willing to bet these diversity characters end up alot like Rose and Finn from the Star Wars sequels. A big deal being made over the fact that they exist but the writers won’t really know what to do with them, ultimately not having a purpose at all and eventually be sidelined altogether.
Rose was practically an extra by the end. It's legitimately hilarious after they made such a huge deal about "manbabies" hating her on Twitter/Instagram, then they just remove her from the story anyway.
They create a character in order to be representative, making them one dimensional, instead of creating a wonderful, multi-faceted, human who just happens to be a “person of color.”
I want to agree with this, but I have a feeling the black elf is going to end up teaming up with the Galadriel imposter to take on Sauron at some point, and Princess Activism is going to be the voice of caution within Khazad Dum warning them not to delve too greedily and too deep and saves everyone when her bigoted husband ignores her and unleashes Durin's Bane
@@legatedrengr Hopefully that will at least not happen until after Durin gets his Ring. Frankly, the more I reread Tolkien the more I suspect that it was the rings' influence that caused the dwarves to dig greedily, rather than respectfully. Originally, the dwarves had a great love and respect for the Earth that bore them and that they were set to tend. Gimli also demonstrates and vouches for that respect. The period where that changes and the Elves gain a negative view of the dwarves is from the Second Age, after the dwarves of Khazad-dhum are so friendly with Celebrimbor's folk and the Rings are forged until the dragons arrive, lured by the treasure they dug so greedily. The dwarves of the Iron Mountains, Dain's folk, have no Ring and appear to display no such greed. By the time they reincounter Smaug in The Hobbit, all of the Rings have been lost to the dwarves, mostly to dragons, and the dwarves are once again able to treasure and respect the beauties of the earth for their own sake.
At any rate, being under the rule of Sauron must have *some* effect on the Dwarven Rings, but there are no dwarven wraiths.
@@sarahgould5435 if they respected Tolkien, that Balrog would have nothing to do with Khazad-Dum, because Durin's Bane isn't unleashed until the Third Age when they delve too deeply.
But they don't respect anything, so it'll be the same Balrog, discovered too early by idiot male dwarves and only Princess Diversity will be able to save her people.
This makes me so happy. Thank you, just thank you.
That man's face as she talked said it all. Literally seeing his future projects burn in the wind.
The look on that guys face was that of someone who wanted to tell her to piss off but wisely held their tongue till after the shoot.
When I was 5 I could identify with an African, male, animated lion. Just sayin…I am white, human and female btw.
Everyone can identify with a well writen character. I was a big fan of Ripley from Alien in my teen years as a guy.
This is comedy gold! I am pretty sure you have nailed his internal monologue!!!!
I can’t wait to see your guys’ review of each episode. It’ll be the most entertaining part of the show ;)
Oh bro. I honestly dread it because they're gonna have to watch the bloody thing, which would probably give revenue to Amazon anyway. I pity Shad for what he has to endure, but proper criticisms can't be done if the series isn't watched so... I honestly wish them all the best and I hope they have some semblance of fun.
@Black League Because the reality is that it's still happening whether any of us like it or not. So you can be sure I'm personally gonna try and find some enjoyment out of it. If that enjoyment is supporting Knights Watch, then I'll do that. If people want to watch the show, they're free to do so. I'm not gonna stop them because it's their lives. At the end of the day, a good story will leave its mark and the bad ones... well, The Last Jedi and Rise of Skywalker. Say what you will about those two movies in particular, but the fact that the reactions are so all over the place speak for themselves.
Edit: How peculiar, why is the @ for you changed from your username?
I'm more excited about the reviews rather than the actual show
@@RedHood001-KA I'm at the point where even watching reviews of this crap is ruining the original stuff I enjoyed. I'm not sure I can even watch the Knight's Watch review each episode knowing how bad the show's going to be. In my head I can say it doesn't affect me, but the more I know about how bad Star Wars, or LotR, or Star Trek has become the less I care about the original stuff. It gets diluted. It just saddens and angers me that normies will watch it and then pick 1-2 neat moments they liked out of a 6-10 hour season so they can say "I guess it was fine" to justify their time invested.
@@carlsiouxfalls Ah, I can understand that too. You just get frustrated seeing the things they're doing wrong, that it affects how you watch the original stuff. It's what happened with Star Wars for me, but I thankfully moved past it and just go back to enjoying the original and prequel trilogies. Everyone reacts differently and I wouldn't blame you for that reason.
my favorite part of this video is how shad is dying of laughter at everything! keep up the good watch good sirs!
To witness the first australians permitted to speak on the internet after their liberation from the crown. What a time to be alive...
They can take James Bond, they can take star wars, star trek and harry potter.
They wont take Tolkien.
Ride out with me.
I AM THE FIRST BLACK MAN TO TYPE ON THE INTERNET!!! IT HAS NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE!!!!
Call it out, guys! And never give up!!!
It must be wonderful to have a few hundred million dollars to just piss away like this.
"we're not changeling anything" THE FACT THAT YOU ARE IN THE CANNON IS A CHANGE !!!
In the cannon? Like a projectile?
I feel so bad for the guy beside her. He's not allowed to say anything, but he has to sit beside her with a straight face. I would have burst out laughing one sentence in.
He could've made a huge statement just by getting up and walking away from the self absorbed hippo.
He could have.. but I think the face pulling was funnier
@@ComradeCommissarYuri I agree on that 😂
@@karnagefails333 no doubt he’ll end up recast or written out of the show going forward once she sees those expressions he’s making
@@ComradeCommissarYuri Well, takes us back to my op; At that point (all comedic value aside) it's all or nothing. Either respectfully put up a disagreement with what she's saying, get up and walk out, or do something...ANYTHING. The reason these people are destroying everything we love is because it's not being dealt with at a visceral, base level. It's at this level where something needs to said but the reason it doesn't happen is because no one wants to take the accountability or "take one for the team", so to speak. It's fucking pathetic honestly and it's going to come to a point where it's NOT laughable anymore. He's going to get consequences for the face pulling anyway, so might as well pipe up and say something with meaning and make her question the filth she's spouting?
The fiest 60 seconds is pure gold
I have a great idea for a new series. We'll explore ancient African myths and religions, but we'll cast whites in half the roles. Sounds good to me.
Screw that it's not us making this crap. Leave our stories out of this BS.
@@admirekashiri6651 Someone didn't get the point of the sarcasm. LOL
@@arekpetrosian4965 no I got it I'm just saying don't give these fools ideas Hollywood isn't suitable to qdapt our stories.
@@admirekashiri6651 And Hollywood wouldn't do what I've sarcastically suggested, either. They wouldn't dare deliberately offend a group that is NOT white. Which is exactly the point of my comment. They're okay wiping their asses with this woke dumpster fire of a shitshow. And we're supposed to line up to enjoy and praise it. But would they race swap any NON-white stories? Would they put whites into ANY roles that were not originally white?
NO...they would not. And it's that right there that is the ultimate racism...pretending not to be racist, while focusing solely on race.
@@arekpetrosian4965 nope but they would crap on our stories and histories. They already have look up the Woman King trailer 🤦🏿♂️. The female warriors existed but there was no.woman king they're pushing some BS and misrepresenting black women in history. So looks like they don't give crap
When all of these anti-Amazon UA-cam videos started appearing, it actually pushed me in to finally buying the books of LOTR and The Hobbit. In the past week with a new slew of videos appearing, it had prompted me to get more books, like Letters from Tolkien, Children of Hurin, Unfinished Tales. I'm also going to get the classy new deluxe Silmarilion in November. When it comes to these crappy new perversion being made all it does is highlight to me how much I should be appreciating the source material.
Nice one!
Welcome to the world of Arda, mellon nin!
Children of Hurin....... downer warning.
Buy more kleenex boxes for Children of Hurin....
Had more than one good hearty laugh during this. Love it, and subscribing.
Wow I'm so glad I was alive when the first black woman was cast in a tv show. Truly amazing times.
That was in the early 1900s was it not?
You over a hundred? 😂
Let someone talk long enough and eventually they'll tell the truth.
This video means absolutely "everything" to me.
One ring to change them all, and in the darkness interpret them
Unfortunately for modern inclusionists, Tolkien didn't feel the need to include modern woke trash in his fantasy stories.
7:25 is complete comedy ;) actually rolled of my chair when you said first people ever on the internet lol
"improved representation" of the ENGLISH fairytale Tolkien created. Lmao.
I wonder when are we gonna get the Black Panther remake where the lore gets put aside for the sake of saving the world. Everything can be "improved", right? And improvement is always good, so...
Also, we gotta band together against the criminal underrepresentation of eskimos. They exist, ok? Where's my eskimo protagonist?
they are white so...
It’s funny how they always play the same game too
“This needs to be updated for a modern audience”
“But it takes place in a fantasy Medieval setting”
“It’s all fictional anyway, why do you care?”
“If it’s all fictional and it doesn’t matter, then why does it *need* to be updated for a modern audience?”
“……… racist”
I'm waiting for a reboot of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon starring Bolivians and Mexicans playing Chinese people.... not.
I'm still waiting for Ryan Gosling's T'challa
Agreed with minor corrections. English, Nordic and Anglo Saxon inspired fairytale. And as we all know those violent and savage times that shaped Europe and thus the world were hotbeds of racial equality and Sisters doin' it for themselves! Sadly overweight dwarves of african decent probably just got accidentally left out of Tolkeins carefulyl constructed manuscript!
Edit! Tolkein has you covered. The Eskimos are in the apendices. The Snowmen of Forochel (from memory, not checking name). They are tangentally involved in the war against the Witch King in the North..