They'll dwarf our numbers soon mate?
Current Affairs What is Woke ?
- Thread starter Kurt.
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It’s not real you know
Lowest of the low innit
Ent-emological detail?
The Wokes have taken over, you can't even own a copy of the Unfinished Tales now without having to go through and write random adjectives in front of every instance of the word 'Elf' in it. Black, Latin American, Chinese, differently abled, genderqueer, all of it.
If you don't then it's Cancel Jail for you sunshine, straight to the Rainbow Halls of Transmandos, do not pass go, do not collect 200 Gandalf-groats or whatever currency Tolkien developed at length in the Silmarillion II: Bombadil's Diary.
Not in the least. Elves (and Dwarves to an extent) are long-lived enough to have travelled extensively and we have no idea whether Arondir, Disa and the East Asian Elf are just wanderers themselves or descendents of wanderers from centuries ago whose 'native' people live elsewhere out in the East or South of Middle Earth. And that's only if you actually do need a reason for this biologically, given none of them are human and other immortal beings have corporeal bodies made of Shadow and Flame. Remember, the beings in this reality were explicitly created and given life by Eru rather than evolving Darwinianly so nitpicking over skin pigmentation pre-existing the Sun is silly, just assume Eru is omnipotent and knew that the Sun or something like it would exist in the future.
Side note: The years before the First Age are un-numbered I believe? So if Arondir never travelled to Valinor then he could have spent 10000 years exploring Middle-Earth whilst the posho Elves pranced about under the Trees and ended up anywhere when Fëanor led the Noldor back from the West and kicked off everything bad to ever happen™.
Obviously that sort of easy answer doesn't fly for humans, with their Gift of Eru-influenced limited lifespans, so let's think about that for a sec.
All Numenoreans are drawn from the three Houses of the Edain that were allies to the Elves in the First Age, I suppose people might consider those Houses to be akin to single 'families' given that genealogical trees are presented but that doesn't really make sense if you consider they had the numbers to help fight a war for decades and then fully populate a large island for thousands of years. I think it's more fitting to consider those Houses to be more like a tribe or clan, in that it has maybe a 'chief' family and then a host of warriors, attendants, servants etc not necessarily related by blood. And of course these three Houses wandered into Beleriand from the East towards the end of the First Age and I think there's no written records of what happened before that, so it's feasible they spent some centuries all over what would become Eriador/Rhovanion/Harad/Khand etc, growing with various peoples from those regions. Hence, a diverse mix of Edain taking part in events leading to the downfall of Morgoth and subsequently being granted Numenor as home.
Is that a non-Woke enough explanation for us all? Can we move on to a more serious problem like Imperial Officers in Star Wars with American accents?
Hinchcliffe's Corner
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As a bit of a Tolkien nerd, I'm gonna break this down, and possibly (though unlikely) break you.
Firstly, the series wasn't "chosen" for modern audiences, the show is being made primarily because Bezos is a Tolkien nut and wants to see it made, and is happy to lose lots of money over making it. Bit like how George Harrison wanted to see Life Of Brian on the big screen.
The dialogue, writing etc is constantly said to be "bad" because it's continuously compared to Peter Jackson's action movies. The choices of story and direction in the show are based off thousands of pages of writings that were published long after Tolkien's death, often with multiple versions of events, leaving the creators a damned if they do, damned if they don't choice.
The show has apparently been lapped up quite well seeing as season 2 was #1 on Prime in multiple countries.
The argument about inclusion: if you're noticing that there's black elves and dwarves, and it's bothering, I think that says a lot more about you than anything else. Let's not beat around the bush here, Tolkien is racist. Perhaps not in his day, but in 2024, his writing is racist. He describes multiple times in his works that the evil people are brown or black (and uses other words besides that aren't used today), he even described some people in the deep south as looking like trolls. Charming, but again, a product of his day.
At the end of the day, why is anyone arsed? I get to see events from a favourite novelist of mine on screen that I didn't think would happen, and if I don't like it, remember, it ain't real! Tolkien would be spinning in his grave more about people using his work as escapism, it upset him when he was alive, and clearly people upset with it in 2024 are because it's not how they wanted their imaginary world to look. Get over yourselves champs, even he would be embarrassed for you.
Hinchcliffe's Corner
Player Valuation: £50m
God it stinks of sweaty nerd in here.
Those strider pyjamas suit you though?
Hinchcliffe's Corner
Player Valuation: £50m
Horrible choice of casting by Jackson I must say, not to mention the writing completely changes him from a hero and born leader to a whiny 87 year old man child crying "I don't want it!". Don't even get me started on the characters of Elrond, Faramir, Denethor, Tossing Dwarves, sliding down elephant trunks, sending Sam away, the list goes f'ing on and on, but no it's the wokies who are ruining Tolkien right.
I agree, it is a bit warm this evening...
The thing that really mashes my taters about Rings of Power is that I can no longer give the "And we didn't even get to see Tom Bombadil" gag line about criticisms of the movies.
This aint the Ukraine thread buddy, let's have some decorum...
Hinchcliffe's Corner
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I'm a be honest when I re read the books I skip his chapters, absolutely ruins the pacing, and yet I loved him on the show.
Hinchcliffe's Corner
Player Valuation: £50m
One of my favourite woke Star Wars arguments from the basement man children is "we don't need diversity, can't you see how many aliens are on the show and movies?"
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