“Tolkien is turning in his grave. Almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both. Only Galadriel is brave, smart and nice.”
The Rings of Power is far from perfect, but fans, particularly those who watched it with an open mind, are loving it so far. The pacing and story have received some criticism, but considering the showrunners crafted the story from scratch (almost) and only two episodes are out at the moment, those issues can be overlooked for now.
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The Rings of Power cast members have also been addressing the diversity complaints lately, but it seems the controversy will only get bigger now, with Elon Musk adding fuel to the fire.
Earlier this year, Musk vowed to crush the “woke mind virus” before it “destroyed civilization,” and it appears that the first step is to criticize a fictional fantasy series. He has also slammed Netflix for similar reasons in the past, claiming the “woke virus” is made the streamer unwatchable.
And while Musk has every right to voice his displeasure, he probably could have exercised a little subtlety. The Rings of Power cast and crew are already facing the ire of a very vocal and toxic fanbase, and Musk being one of the most followed personalities on Twitter and in the world, echoing the trolls’ comments, should have acted with more responsibility.
Elon Musk’s The Rings of Power Criticisms Have Already Been Addressed
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is set in the Second Age of Middle-Earth, thousands of years before the events of the Lord of the Rings series. The characters, the setting, and the entire continent are much different than fans are accustomed to, and Tolkien only touched upon the Second Age in passing in the appendices, upon which The Rings of Power is primarily based. Showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay didn’t have a lot to work with and so created an original story, but in collaboration with the Tolkien Estate. Even Tolkien referred to Galadriel as being of “amazon disposition.”
Morfydd Clark, who plays Galadriel, recently addressed the character’s warrior origins in an interview with Variety.
“I would say that her serenity is hard-earned. I don’t think you get to that level of wisdom without going through things. She actually speaks about [how] with wisdom, there is a loss of innocence, which was a really good thing for me to find in the lore. Because, like, how young are you when you’re still thousands of years old? So it was thinking of what innocence she lost during this time. The elves by the Third Age have evolved to a certain degree. The elves in the First Age are really messy and screw each other over a lot, and fight and mock each other also. They are the history of Middle Earth, and so they are forever changing.”
