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Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: AZRedhawk44 on October 14, 2020, 05:19:36 PM

Title: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: AZRedhawk44 on October 14, 2020, 05:19:36 PM
Tolkien is High Fantasy, bordering on fictional mythology.  It is grand and epic, filled with motive and inspiration and song and poetry and light and beauty and horror and betrayal.  It, like most mythology, is a lens or a mirror we are proud to share with our children and from which we can derive value and guidance. 

There are plenty of other Fantasy worlds where boobies and orgies fit, and motion picture makers have not yet entered, or have abandoned.  Xanth, Discworld, Conan's Hyboria, Jordan's Wheel of Time, King's Dark Tower world, any of these are far superior places for nekkid time than Middle Earth.

My intention isn't to be prude here.  Tolkien's work has a certain spirit to it that must be honored for any derivative works to have any hope of relating to Tolkien's primary source material.  If Aragorn and Arwen in Peter Jackson's movie can get along in high romance without a big sex scene and Wormtongue can come across as lecherous and predatory without physically molesting Eowyn, the same spirit can be conveyed in derivative works.

I'm pretty sure the Tolkien fandom doesn't want to see Galadriel taking it doggy style from an Ent, or Dwarven-orgies.

https://www.theonering.net/torwp/2020/10/06/108573-sex-sensibility-amazons-nude-take-on-tolkien/
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Ben on October 14, 2020, 05:23:27 PM
SERIOUSLY?!?

I'm not a prude either, but you give great examples of where this stuff fits and where it doesn't. It does not fit with LOTR.

*^%*$#^ Amazon SJW punks ruin another show.
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: makattak on October 14, 2020, 05:39:57 PM
SERIOUSLY?!?

I'm not a prude either, but you give great examples of where this stuff fits and where it doesn't. It does not fit with LOTR.

*^%*$#^ Amazon SJW punks ruin another show.

That's what they do.

Rather ironically, for all their crying about colonization, the SJWs are supreme colonizers and appropriators.

They appear completely incapable of creating anything on their own, but can only corrupt and deform things that were already created or darkly copy creations for their own wicked purposes.

Oh look, the SJWs DO belong in LOTR... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgoth)
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: MechAg94 on October 14, 2020, 08:22:36 PM
I have seen some youtube reviewers worried about it also.  I think it included a lot of people involved in the production associated with JJ Abrams.  No one wants the Transformers version of Tolkien. 
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: WLJ on October 14, 2020, 08:36:41 PM
The only straight white males in it will be the new Orcs
Sauron will be a short orange fat man with blond hair
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: RoadKingLarry on October 14, 2020, 09:26:40 PM
The only straight white males in it will be the new Orcs
Sauron will be a short orange fat transgender man with blond hair

FTFY
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: fifth_column on October 15, 2020, 10:34:49 AM
It's a sad commentary on our culture but fanfic has sexualized every popular movie, book, fairy tale, even kid's stories imaginable.  I'm willing to bet, although I'm not about to look, that there are multiple stories available that involve the three bears having their way with Goldilocks, or the dwarves with Snow White, etc.  Hell, there's an adult Muppets movie out now.  It's so much easier to change what's already been created than to create something original, and sex sells.

The younger generation has mostly not read Tolkien and only know the movies.  For them, Tolkien has only ever been a visual event, and they're only aware of the skeletal story that's presented in the movies.  LOTR with nudity and sex doesn't cheapen the story in their minds, most don't know anything more than the cheapened version anyway.  I enjoyed the movies, but I don't consider them to be Tolkien works, they're just loosely based on the world he created.
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Ron on October 15, 2020, 10:46:32 AM
Leftists ruin everything.
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Ben on October 15, 2020, 10:59:51 AM
I find it extra infuriating for LOTR, because it is a story for all age groups. I think I read it for the first time in Junior High, and actually took a LOTR class in High School. It's a story that requires no interspecies porn to make it interesting.
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Pb on October 15, 2020, 11:57:37 AM
Our culture is rotten.
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Viking on October 16, 2020, 01:19:24 PM
Just like the evil in Tolkien´s works, the left cannot create, they can only corrupt and twist that which is good and beautiful and worthwhile into something degenerate, wicked, cruel, ugly, heinous, dirty, filthy, abhorrent, malignant.
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Angel Eyes on October 16, 2020, 02:48:24 PM
Just like the evil in Tolkien´s works, the left cannot create, they can only corrupt and twist that which is good and beautiful and worthwhile into something degenerate, wicked, cruel, ugly, heinous, dirty, filthy, abhorrent, malignant.

Viking has been using his theaurus.






(not that I disagree with any of the above)
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Viking on October 16, 2020, 03:31:41 PM
Viking has been using his theaurus.






(not that I disagree with any of the above)

Nah, if I had, the list would have been longer. I just felt the need to express myself thoroughly to show my utter disgust.
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: fifth_column on October 16, 2020, 04:20:59 PM
Just like the evil in Tolkien´s works, the left cannot create, they can only corrupt and twist that which is good and beautiful and worthwhile into something degenerate, wicked, cruel, ugly, heinous, dirty, filthy, abhorrent, malignant.

I find this statement to be more than a little Tolkienesque . . .
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: makattak on October 16, 2020, 05:00:25 PM
Just like the evil in Tolkien´s works, the left cannot create, they can only corrupt and twist that which is good and beautiful and worthwhile into something degenerate, wicked, cruel, ugly, heinous, dirty, filthy, abhorrent, malignant.

And like the enemy, they look fair, but feel foul. (Well, the ones in the movies/tv shows do... other ones, not so much on the look fair part)
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: MechAg94 on October 16, 2020, 06:08:44 PM
It's a sad commentary on our culture but fanfic has sexualized every popular movie, book, fairy tale, even kid's stories imaginable.  I'm willing to bet, although I'm not about to look, that there are multiple stories available that involve the three bears having their way with Goldilocks, or the dwarves with Snow White, etc.  Hell, there's an adult Muppets movie out now.  It's so much easier to change what's already been created than to create something original, and sex sells.

The younger generation has mostly not read Tolkien and only know the movies.  For them, Tolkien has only ever been a visual event, and they're only aware of the skeletal story that's presented in the movies.  LOTR with nudity and sex doesn't cheapen the story in their minds, most don't know anything more than the cheapened version anyway.  I enjoyed the movies, but I don't consider them to be Tolkien works, they're just loosely based on the world he created.
How many of the older generation have read Tolkien?  Was it ever really that many?
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Jim147 on October 16, 2020, 06:14:05 PM
Not sure how many but i have.
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: AZRedhawk44 on October 16, 2020, 06:31:40 PM
How many of the older generation have read Tolkien?  Was it ever really that many?

It's the best selling Fantasy series ever.  Over 150 million copies of the LOTR trilogy sold.  The Hobbit stands at 100 million.  The Silmarillion stands at a paltry 1 million, and is definitely nerd-level niche reading.

Harry Potter has 500 million total sales to its franchise, but that's for 7 books.  The LOTR figure is for full trilogy sales.

Prior to the Jackson movies coming out, I knew very few people who had not read LOTR.


Edit to add:

LOTR had such a wide readership in the 60's, that long prior to the advent of the internet and its memeification of common tropes and cultural touchstones, a novel called "Bored of the Rings" came out to lampoon the series.  I cannot find numbers for circulation of Bored of the Rings, but it has been in constant publication since 1969 to today. 
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Ben on October 16, 2020, 06:58:10 PM
How many of the older generation have read Tolkien?  Was it ever really that many?

What's older generation to you? As AZ said, it was one of the most read books in the 1960s (partially thanks to Ace and Ballantine going paperback with it) and has kept its popularity since then. As I said above, they even had High School classes on it in my day.


How LOTR changed publishing forever:

https://www.tor.com/2019/01/03/a-new-age-the-lord-of-the-rings-by-j-r-r-tolkien/
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: AZRedhawk44 on October 16, 2020, 08:01:45 PM
No one would say that Atlas Shrugged is a niche book with only modest impact and circulation.  Atlas Shrugged has 7 million copies sold. 

LOTR is over 20 times that.

More copies of LOTR have been printed and sold than the LDS Book of Mormon.
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: MechAg94 on October 16, 2020, 10:30:55 PM
Okay, I didn't know it was quite that big.  I know Led Zeppelin and Rush both have songs with LOTR lyrics.  I did a poorly written book report on it in high school in the 80's.   =)

I would be curious what the sales are decade by decade.  I wouldn't be surprised if it declined a bit up to the point the movies came out. 

My LOTR copy is a combined book that was published around Tolkien's 100th birthday.  It has some artwork in it and I believe the same artist was involved in developing the movie.
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Angel Eyes on October 16, 2020, 10:39:08 PM
To be fair, Rush also has songs with Ayn Rand references.
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Perd Hapley on October 17, 2020, 01:14:19 PM
LOTR seems to have a fairly broad appeal, given it has Christian themes, but was also adopted by the 60s counter-culture.
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Ben on October 17, 2020, 01:27:23 PM
LOTR seems to have a fairly broad appeal, given it has Christian themes, but was also adopted by the 60s counter-culture.

Yeah, there was a whole big thing with pot smoking hippies and Shire Weed.  :laugh:
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Boomhauer on October 17, 2020, 01:29:36 PM
LOTR seems to have a fairly broad appeal, given it has Christian themes, but was also adopted by the 60s counter-culture.

In Bill Burr’s F is For Family series the oldest son, a teenager, in the family is a fan of LOTR type stuff
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: BlueStarLizzard on October 17, 2020, 04:24:57 PM
Dad hated Tolkin. He was a Michal Moorcock Fan. (Point of interest, Deep Purple did a song about Elric, so :P )

As probably one of the lest prudish, most cool with gratuitous sex, drugs and rock and roll on TV posters on this board, I also think this is a stupid direction to go it. LOTR is epic fantasy and if you want epic fantasy with more moral ambiguity, there is plenty to choose from.

Hell, Elric himself would probably be good for that. Plus, IT HASN'T ALREADY BEEN DONE TO DEATH.

Tolkin doesn't need to be reinterpreted into a "modern" story. No fantasy does. It's stand alone. It's the difference between modern Juliet and Romeo (which works) and a modern Midsummer's Nights Dream (doesn't need it)

 
Title: Re: Bad Omens for Amazon's Middle Earth Series
Post by: Angel Eyes on October 17, 2020, 05:13:57 PM
(https://scrn.li/uploads/6/6e/6ef/6ef5/6ef5b/6ef5b7/6ef5b7bc-9dc1-0347-a2bb-01a94f417bbd/2V64hA6Qqt5A5F)