What Ho Wee Readers and welcome to the first blog post of the Nine Glories of the Rings of Power Blog Series. Since my Christmas Folklore & History Series was such a success I decided I’d quite like to continue the trend. And since I’d already been planning on doing a post on the awesomeness that was the Rings of Power, this seemed like the perfect topic.
But enough talk…let’s get started. Eeeeh I’m so excited!
A Less White World
It seems right to start with the Glory that has provoked the most ire amongst the more Troll-like in the Tolkien Fandom: the diverse casting.
Look I’ve always loved the Peter Jackson Films – heck I’ll even stand and defend the Hobbit Trilogy till the day grows old, but we’re kidding ourselves if we don’t admit that they’re a little monochrome in their casting. It’s not just the Lord of the Rings, god knows Hollywood has a white preference in general – but just because it’s a common problem, doesn’t make it in anyway an excusable one.
Enter The Rings of Power.
Honestly their correction was so simple it almost seems stupid that it’s not been done the whole time. Step back before you’re blown away by this…they cast actors who weren’t white in some of the roles.
Oh my god, the land of Middle-Earth is starting to look like a real living place rather than a white washed version of history. And before you start I know this isn’t the first Middle-Earth property to include people of colour on the screen – but it’s the first to give them speaking parts and storylines of their own. So I think that counts for something. Plus the trolls of our fandom made such a fuss over something that, in some cases, was completely accurate to the source material – so I feel like it’s worth mentioning.
Yes that’s right, in the case of the Harfoots, they were not described by Tolkien as being the white hobbits these “Tolkien Purists” fantasy about, but rather hobbits with brown skin. Can you imagine that…non-white hobbits exist in Middle-Earth and nothing exploded 😁
(Pauses and looks up at the picture of own brain exploding with excitement).
Okay, poor choice of words.
And yet still, my point remains.
If anything the Rings of Power arguably doesn’t go far enough – most of the main characters are still white. And large sections of the Harfoots – including Nori, the one we’re supposed to be rooting for – are white, despite that being very inaccurate to the book. So, you must be thinking, if it doesn’t go far enough, why are you still calling it a glory? Well, that’s the state of our world isn’t it – any step forward is better than none.
Could it go further, absolutely and maybe we’ll see more of that next season – but as it is, it’s still done more than the other adaptations. After all, as the great man once said, the longest journey is the one you never start at all.
If you’ve enjoyed this little gem from a Tolkien obsessed fan girl, and would like to see the rest of them why not follow the Wee blog if you haven’t already. And check me out on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Mastodon, Tumblr, TikTok, Facebook and Kofi. And don’t forget to sign up to the Wee Mailing List to get the final post of this blog series on February 27th. Until next time Wee Readers, keep safe and have a very bonny day.
The Wee Writing Lassie 
I love this show–and I love your post! So glad for diverse casting. It makes Middle-earth more realistic.
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Doesn’t it just 😁
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My hubs and I STILL need to watch this. And so many other series. All he wants to do is watch reruns of Law and Order. His mind isn’t in a good place after a work day. That’s what TV is for! Sorry. Didn’t mean to vent in your blog. 😀
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That’s alright, feel free to vent away. So long as it’s not abusive I welcome all comments 😁 Anyway with all these new shows coming out it’s hard to find time to watch them all, even if you are in a good place to do so.🙂
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House of the Dragon all made an attempt at an integrated cast. Maybe should do a study on the elf and hobbit cultures to determine what the real demographic should be. Do we need more Asians, or Pacific Islanders, or perhaps more Indians?
I wonder how integrated the Viking crew that found Vineland was?
You have really got me thinking we need to correct this kind of cancel culture.
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For some reason your posts don’t show up in my Reader (at least not all of them, the first I saw was the fifth glory so I figured you must have done more). I watched Rings of Power. I know nothing of the lore, I’m not a Tolkien person (I read the Fellowship OTR but found it quite difficult to get through and it’s a while since I’ve seen the films) but I wanted to watch some fantasy and since I can’t get House of the Dragon (don’t have Sky), I thought I watch this, everyone got so mad about the show so I told myself, let me see what the fuss is about–and I liked it. Can’t comment on the accuracy, like I say I know nothing of the lore, but it was a legit good fantasy show.
To me, diverse cast seems like a common sense–like it should be that way, you know. When it comes to historical fiction, we can debate what kind of people lived there, but if it is a fantasy, the land and people are made up, so I don’t see a reason for not having a diverse cast.
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