Den Of Geek Publishes Article Comparing The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Critics To Mass Murderers
Den of Geek author Andrew Blair recently penned a screen comparing The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power critics to mass murderers.
Not only did Blair compare critics to mass murderers, he implies they are racist and also attacks J.R.R. Tolkien for his depiction of dwarves.
Blair did all of this in an article titled “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Why Fandom Has To Embrace Change.”
He begins his article implying critics of the show are racist writing, “In response to the trailer for Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings series, there has been a negative reaction based on the fact that not everyone in the series is a white man.”
RELATED: The Lord Of The Rings Fan Site Torches Amazon’s New The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power Series
This is patently false as there have been plenty of criticisms of the white male characters in the show such as Elrond.
As an example, TheOneRing.com took issue with the addition of new “forbidden romances” and the description of Elrond as “canny young architect and a politician.”
And the criticism hasn’t just been about the characters. As TheOneRing.com, as seen above, also takes issue with compressing the storyline.
YouTuber Just Some Guy also took issue with the show’s compressed timeline stating in a recent video, “If you do that you completely jack up the lore. The amount of time that passes is part of the narrative. You can get away with this in The Lord of the Rings because Frodo’s 17-year time jump would nuke any urgency and danger being built. If the One Ring is the most dangerous thing ever, you can’t go, ’17 years later,’ and then have Frodo sit for another several months pussyfooting around when he knows Sauron knows where the Ring is. That doesn’t work on film.”
With the creation of the rings of power, the whole point is that Sauron took his time. He tricks the elves, teaching them how to make lesser rings before crafting the 16,” he explains. “Celebrimbor then takes what he learned and fashions the three. And then Sauron makes the one. All this happens over the course of 400 years. Then for another 1800 years the elves fight Sauron as he buddies up with the Numenoreans tricking the kings into following him.”
On top of this, many of the criticisms of Galadriel is that the show is trying to make her more masculine by making her a front line soldier and warrior as well as the commander of the Northern Armies.
As an example, Twitter user Itouchanabomb wrote, “Galadriel is the Goddess, the divine feminine. This power works in harmony with the divine masculine. Evil seeks to destroy the feminine because it is nurturing and essential. Don’t look for Amazon’s Galadriel to be very nurturing.”
So it’s already crystal clear that Blair is writing his argument from a point of bad faith while also trying to imply that critics of the show are racists.
But, the article actually gets progressively worse. After implying critics are racists, he then goes after J.R.R. Tolkien implying his anti-Semitic for his depiction of dwarves.
Blair writes, “Despite Tolkien’s vehement anti-racism there are issues with his mythology (his equating the Dwarves with Jews – including linguistically – was intended positively as a representation of dispossessed people but he also described their “tremendous love of the artifact” in a 1965 BBC interview, which is a common antisemitic trope).”
Interestingly, Blair knows he’s personally attacking Tolkien, but attempts to justify it by writing, “Some people regard pointing this out as a personal attack, an attempt to stop them from enjoying something they love. As with fandom, ignoring the negatives of something doesn’t stop them from being present. ”
Letter 81 to his son, Christopher Tolkien, makes it very clear what J.R.R. Tolkien’s opinions are.
He writes, “The Germans have just as much right to declare the Poles and Jews exterminable vermin, subhuman, as we have to select the Germans: in other words, no right, whatever they have done.”
If it wasn’t already clear, Blair then shows his true colors by putting his own hate on display for all to see. He claims, “Lord of the Rings has already been co-opted by the far right.”
He then attempts to justify this assertion by claiming that an Italian fascist group in the 1970s and a number of mass murderers are fans of The Lord of the Rings and then proceeds to equate these individuals to critics of The Rings of Power.
Blair writes, “In 1970’s Italy there were Hobbit summer camps run by a burgeoning right-wing movement who marketed themselves as ‘not your father’s fascists.’”
He then pointed to a number of mass murderers, “Fans of Tolkien include Gianluca Casseri and Anders Breivik (both racially motivated murderers), Varg Vikernes (a black metal musician, murderer, anti-Semite and “Scientific Racist” – i.e. someone who misapplies science to support their racism).”
Finally, he connects these fascists and mass murderers to the current criticism of The Rings of Power, “Given its previous connections with fascism and the response to Peter Jackson’s films, it’s sadly not surprising to see Lord of the Rings fandom engaging in culture war campaigns.”
Christopher Tolkien addressed allegorical readings of his father’s work saying, “People can of course find allegories if they wish to, but as you can see, it was wholly outside his conception of what he was doing and what he called fantasy.”
He continued, “The world he created exists for itself and for what it tells you and for what delight it gives you. It may of course contain as indeed it does elements of his own comprehension, his view of the world at-large, but not anything out of the primary world.”
J.R.R. Tolkien’s son then states,”Just as it contains no specific reference to the Christian religion, it naturally contains no specific reference to communism or fascism. Absolutely not.”
“His view of such things, if available at all, will be in solution, in the secondary, mythical or mythological world that he has created. But not actually itself. Therefore it is in no sense an allegory. A double meaning is not present,” Christopher Tolkien asserted.
Nevertheless, in conclusion, Blair calls for censorship of anyone who disagrees with him as he writes, “There is a significant portion of fandom who are not in a position to be reasoned with. Report them, block them, move on. They cannot create anything new, only distort and destroy what we already have.”
Ironically, Blair’s entire piece is nothing new as he just regurgitates extremist talking points and attempts to demonize those he perceives an enemies.
YouTuber Gary Buechler of Nerdrotic would respond to Blair in a recent video stating, “The one thing Andrew Blair, who just so happens to have me blocked on Twitter, doesn’t do is make an actual point.”
He adds, “When idiots make stupid arguments they tend to lose. And that’s what’s happening and he knows it.”
Buechler then states, “The other good thing that’s coming out of this is the normies — and I use that as a term of endearment because they make the world go around — are not only waking up to this finally happening, they are starting to ask why.”
“And that why is not for inclusivity and diversity. The mask has been coming off lately, and that mask has been ripped off with Tolkien and The Rings of Power,” he asserts.
What do you make of Andrew Blair’s screed against critics of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power?
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