Best Criticism of Amazon's Rings of Power

The best criticism of Amazon's "Ring of Power" has come, as expected, from the conservative side. Many complain about bad casts and absurd behavior of the characters. It's all true (dwarves and hobbits are good, but humans and elves are disgusting). Suddenly, the most expensive TV show in history is so dull and pointless that you have to watch it through force.

Most importantly, however, this is all an inversion of Tolkien's original message: The whole point of The Lord of the Rings is that true heroism is inseparable from true humility, and true humility is inseparable from true love. The spirit of the Amazonian "Rings of Power" is the opposite of this. Heroism is inseparable from pride, and pride is inseparable from self-aggrandizement. [[1]]

And so it is. Tolkien shows one simple thing over and over again: the strong and proud are easily victims of their own strength and pride, while the weak and meek sometimes become real heroes (but even those have to fight their temptations). Here we see how Galadriel, being a warlord with a thousand years of experience, behaves like a 15-year-old feminist from Twitter, constantly trying to prove something to others (of course, cowardly conservative men). She manages to turn any more or less difficult conversation into a srach, ignite a conflict from scratch and alienate even those who were originally for her. And this behavior is not at all presented as proud and leading to self-destruction. On the contrary, according to the writers, this is what a “strong woman” looks like. So, instead of genuine heroism, they sell us pride and greyness - as opposed to, in fact, Tolkien.

Mihail Pojarsky 15/09/2022