The Lord of the Rings was my first step into fantasy. And like many out there, I was hooked from day one; devouring the books, buying the encyclopedias and bestiaries, and dressing up as a hobbit for reasons when the movies hit theaters. It was a world full of magical folk, wild adventures, and defeating great evils. But it was also a story about the little guy doing something extraordinary and coming together with unlikely friends to fight for a brighter future. And when I heard that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was set to become a thing I welcomed it with open arms.
Yes, I was hesitant. Who wouldn’t be? It’s a vast world with fans all over. And since it was announced, fans have been worried if it would be true to the spirit of J. R. R. Tolkien’s work. But I’m glad I stuck to my guns, stayed the course, and gave The Rings of Power a chance to impress me and try to make me a fan all over again. And it did, almost instantly; a weight falling off my shoulders that had been living there for months on end. Because I wanted to return to Middle Earth, see new communities in it, and help welcome new fans into this world I love.
Visually, The Rings of Power is a stunner. And I’m not just talking the sweeping scenes where Galadriel is being a baddie and climbing an ice wall, the home of the dwarves in Khazad-dûm, or the vast lands the Harfoots live on. Those are a given that they will be beautiful and that Prime Video was going to take care to make them a spectacle. I’m talking about the finer details like Arondir’s armor, Galadriel’s chainmail, or the stitching of Disa’s royal outfit. Everything was so detailed that I had to watch the episodes again to fully take in the love these creators put into this show’s most minuscule detail.
But it’s not visually where The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power really shines. The real heart of this show is due to the actors themselves and the characters they bring to life. Having a cast like this, on different life paths and spread out geographically, is a hard thing to take on. But The Rings of Power does it well and with a delicate hand, making it so that every character gets time to breathe, interact with the world, and set things into motion that will lead to the main showdown of this piece of media: the battle against Sauron. Because of that, it’s easy to invest in Bronwyn, Elrond, and Nori. They are all key to what’s to come.
(And don’t even get me started on the relationships, friendships, and everything in between in this show. I’m looking at you Galadriel and Elrond, Disa and Durin, and Bronwyn and Arondir. Oh, and Nori and Poppy.)
Combine all of this with the fact that The Rings of Power makes The Lord of the Rings easily accessible to new audiences and you’ve got a recipe for success. Because (sorry, not sorry) this world, for all that I love it, has excluded people like me or those who are POC for too long. That’s just straight up facts. And The Rings of Power is an opportunity to shift the needle and make everyone feel like they can be a dwarf, elf, Harfoot, or human in a fantastical world of wonder. It’s about inclusion and everyone having the time of their lives when this show premieres and every season that follows.
If inclusion, representation, and the fact that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has some of best complex female characters on TV, bothers you…well, that sucks for you. Because I’ll be sitting there, week after week with my new The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power fandom friends, enjoying the hell out of this series while flipping through my encyclopedias and theorizing about what comes next for Galadriel, Disa, Arondir, Elrond, Nori, Durin, and even Bronwyn’s son Theo. Because The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is everyone’s to enjoy and to be part of.
All are welcome here.
Period.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres on September 2nd on Prime Video. New episodes will be available every Friday.
What i find bizarre about the conversation around Rings of Power is how different groups are reacting to Tolkien’s hyper-conservative creation, characters and stories. Left liberals are desperately willing for it to succeed whilst conservatives would be happy to see it fail. Considering how Tolkien’s worldview – conservative, Catholic, English – are inseparable from his works you’d think it would be the other way round.
There’s always been a strong’anti-Tolkien’ sentiment amongst many leftists in the fantasy genre – Michael Moorcock, Gary Gygax, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett to name a few – and it’s pretty jarring to see left wing attitudes to him spin 180.
Have the two or three token ‘people of colour’ really made such a difference? (Having non-White actors play White roles sounds like tokenism to me). Imo it sounds like such a cheap price to pay if it results in liberals disseminating and consuming conservative culture more widely.