The ongoing new take on Lord of the Rings – ‘Rings of Power’, an ‘Amazon Original’ – is, as expected, from what Ben Reinhard report – and I paraphrase – a dumpster fire, a debacle, a scandal and a morass of moral turpitude. Not that I have seen it, mind you, and its very existence was only in the far recesses of my mind. The mere fact that in the show orcs are good, hobbits become evil, and Galadriel is in – ahem – a ‘relationship’ with Sauron in a bizarre love triangle with her actual husband, is enough to give this a wide berth. Isn’t Sauron disembodied? And aren’t elves ‘unfallen’ in Tolkien’s mythical universe?
I did learn a new term in reading Mr. Reinhard’s blistering review – anagnorisis – wherein the evil of the evil villain is exposed, he realizes his evil, and, refusing repentance, just delves right in. This provides the climax and denoument of many a tale. Here, Reinhard applies this term to the creators and producers of the show, who not only have jumped the shark, but relish seeing their characters get devoured in a gory spectacle.
The one question I do have is how Jeff Bezos and his own evil empire acquired the right to the intellectual property of these characters. Who now owns them? Christopher, Tolkien’s son? I recall that when Gary Gygax was first producing his role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, he could not use the term ‘hobbits’, as it was copyrighted, so adopted ‘halflings’ in his world.
Why can Amazon now use hobbits and all the rest of this fairy world, even the very names of the heroes and villains of Tolkien’s epic tale? What price did they pay, and to whom? I think I’d rather not know.
Just so, I suppose rubbish can be ignored and kept out of sight, like we do with sewers, garbage dumps and stuffed closets. NIMBY. Not in my backyard, nor in my eyes, thoughts or imagination. I will stick to the books, and to Tolkien’s timeless words.
