Why WOKE HOLLYWOOD Hasn't Ruined Tolkien's Legacy | Rings of Power

RINGS OF POWER! WOKE HOLLYWOOD! SJW LIBERAL MARY SUE GALADRIEL! ETCETERA!

Oh, and in case it’s not obvious, this is #satire

After my videos on the weird She-Hulk reception, some viewers requested I take a look at the similarly odd discourse surrounding Rings of Power, Amazon Prime's new Lord of the Rings spinoff show inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion. This video is my attempt to do that in a bit of a different way!

Check out this site for more on the LOTR film changes:
And this is a more in-depth look at that ‘plot hole’ I bring up:
N.B. I don’t totally consider it a plothole myself, because we’re never given the information in the diegesis of the films that the Witch-King wouldn’t be susceptible to this sort of blade. But I brought it up in-character as reactionary, bizarro Pillar of Garbage because it’s the perfect example of what a lot of those creators tend to flout as ‘plot-holes’, I.e. something that simply isn’t explicitly explained.

#ringsofpower #lotr

Timestamps:
0:00 Introduction
0:50 Fellowwoke of the Woke
4:50 The Tofu Towers and the Return of They/Them Queen
7:24 Technical Issues
8:29 Unjerk
13:11 Conclusion

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power brings to screens for the very first time the heroic legends of the fabled Second Age of Middle-earth's history. This epic drama is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings," and takes viewers back to an era in which great powers were forged, kingdoms rose to glory and fell to ruin, unlikely heroes were tested, hope hung by the finest of threads and the greatest villain that ever flowed from Tolkien's pen threatened to cover all the world in darkness. Beginning in a time of relative peace, the series follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared reemergence of evil to Middle-earth. From the darkest depths of the Misty Mountains, to the majestic forests of the elf-capital of Lindon, to the breathtaking island kingdom of Númenor, to the furthest reaches of the map, these kingdoms and characters carve out legacies that live on long after they are gone.

[StellarAvenger]

Dismissing everything as "woke" has completely ruined film discourse.

[cjhampton]

Wow, I’ve never any of the movies or the new show but I hope Tolkien can correct the trajectory of his story with his upcoming prequel adaptation “Fantastic Hobbits and Where To Find Them”

[adamf.charles]

I actually saw one of the old fan-zines of Lord of the Rings from 2001. The reviewer said basicly the same thing, that the adaptation was travesty, and Hollywood bastardised Tolkien's work. That the Aragorn was too dirty and not really royal or noble, that the Frodo was weak, "femine" and passive. All it lacked was modern internet buzzwords xD

[dragonstormx]

The term "true fan" needs to be done away with. Either someone is a fan or they aren't.

[TSDTalks]

It’s kind of impressive just how close you tow the line of satire here. It’s not even all that much of an exaggeration but it’s still hilarious

[maxschreck]

As someone really annoyed with toxic fandoms I love watching these kind of videos, sadly they are far to calm and rational for those who actually need to see them to understand.

[matarax]

This was great and it reminds me of the time we read A Modest Proposal in college and the whole class did not take it as a satire. I was also baffled when some people online got mad at new SciFi stories because of progressive politics and then said they want simple fun stories like Dune. I took a fucking double take on that one and really wanted to ask them if they really read the book, the sequels, and have listened to Frank Herbert's views and interview.

[mr.stuffdoer]

“The guy was a great writer (I presume)”

Less than a minute this is already funnier and more cleverly written than any of the salty incel rants.

[Enriqueguiones]

You are aware that "changing some things" is not the same as "using some names and making everything else up", right? An adaptation doesn't have to be 100% faithful to the original, but the story must be RECOGNIZABLE. In "Rings of Power" nothing remains of Tolkien: neither his characters, his kingdoms, his fictional history, his themes, nor even the tone of the actual stories. The worldbuilding is terrible, the storytelling is terrible. and the respect towards the source material is non-existant. All that's left is nostalgia-bait for a movie series to which they do NOT own the rights. When a megacorporation decide to use the name of one of the most influential writers of the 20th century just for a quick buck, do we have to stay quiet and eat whatever they give us? Should we just accept that our capitalist overlords are the one making up the rules? That it's all silly stuff about people with pointy ears?
No one has ever closed a book they loved and said, "God, I wish someone would take this story and transform it into something else entirely". Ian McKellen's "Richard the Third" takes place in the 1930s and yet, it follows Shakespeare's plot. It's not about a flying nun who shoots lasers out of her eyes. But, what I am saying? Of course you're The Good Guy! You're being snarky and clever and are figthing against negativity in the internet! Dude: go to hell.

[englishlady]

So how do I break this to you? Bringing up Eowyn killing the Witch King, and her saying she's not a man isn't the great own for critics of Rings of Power that you think.

That scene isn't a "woke addition" to the movies and no honest person would proclaim it to be. It's in the book. Eowyn kills the Witch King in a similar manner in the book. The only real difference is that in the book she has more dialogue in that scene- but she still tells Old Creaky that she's a woman instead of a man and her gender was still the reason she was able to accomplish it. All because of the same prophecy the movie alludes to.

If you're going to engage in whataboutery please provide some genuine examples of "woke additions". Not scenes that just follow what is in the books, albeit contracted for the sake of brevity. A good example might be when a female character is always right but the stupid male naysayers won't listen to her because of the patriarchy. Oh wait... That's Rings of Power.

Or that scene showing that all the military strategy was Eowyn's idea, and so was the attack on Mordor designed to draw Sauron's attention.


Oh no wait.... That's Rings of Power too. Wherein the forging of The Three was Galadriel's idea. Naturally.

[MisBabbles]

Thank you for this. This discourse around this show is insane. I've actually read the Simarillion, which I have always described as "a textbook for a world that doesn't exist." I couldn't figure out what people were raging about. I consider myself a Tolkien fan--the Hobbit was the first novel I ever read by myself--but I've never understood this gatekeeping attitude. "I'm special because I love this thing to the point of insanity and YOU DON'T LOVE IT LIKE ME!!!1!11!" Like... I'd toss copies of LotR at people's heads if I thought it would convince them to love the thing I loved and join me in being a dork (and wouldn't seriously concuss them).

I liked Rings of Power. Is it perfect? Nope. There were a few moments that had me rolling my eyes. But I enjoyed it, was entertained, and am very hopeful that season 2 will build on the things I liked and ditch some that I didn't. If people want to Tolkien!Rage go be mad at the Hobbit. Those movies hurt, and arguably ACTUALLY did all the things they are claiming RoP did.

But then all this frothy rage wasn't so much a money-making thing.

[koketsok]

sometimes I wonder if I should throw away all my self respect and just make an anti sjw channel, they are not even trying to pretend to watch or care about the stuff they talk about and get gangbuster views, but the shame of it would probably bother me and if I ever did anything else on the platform it would definitely follow me like the plague deservedly so. Like some of these channels speculate to the point were they are living in an alternative reality.

[MrBrothasky]

I remember seeing Watchmen in the theater. I cringed at many of the changes that were made, and said so to my friends as we walked out. I shortly came to the conclusion that it was all to serve the common movie going audience, who were (at least at that time) not ready for a side story about other dimensions existing due to the minds of artists and a machine which can integrate their creations into the real world. It was then that I shrugged my shoulders, and acknowledged that adaptations have to be made in their own way. No medium crosses over perfectly with the other.

[Spongebrain]

I finally saw the first three LOTR films this past year for the first time and that scene where one of the female characters says "I am no man!!" when fighting off a strong enemy, I knew that if the film was brand new today then the right would also single it out as "woke propaganda" and proclaim the film as being bad 😅. Also Im sure that back in the day nobody found any issue with the scene and actually found it amusing

[mikhaelgribkov]

I will say: Sexy Shelob in Shadow of War made laugh harder than Black elves.

[DiedaReloaded]

The fun part is, that HotD was actually woke as fuck while RoP was painfully apolitical. HotD was talking about feminism, racism, power relations, etc., RoP was at best tokenistic with its cast and had not really anything to say. HotD was praised, RoP was trashed.
If you want to be cynical (and I sure want to be that), you could argue that "the woker the better".

[AlexanderBlues]

“Scorsese, etc.” Put that on a t-shirt!

[creativerealms]

Here is the problem with parodying ASJWs, any parody has likely been said by one of them with complete sincerity.

[jeremypnet]

Rings of Power is rubbish, but it’s mainly just bad writing. The departures from LoR lore didn’t bother me and probably won’t bother most other viewers. Nobody has really read the Silmarillion.

[XavierRD]

You're attracting quite the characters into the comment section, aren't you?

Great video, as always. You're quickly becoming one of my new favorite channels ❤️