“J. R. R. TOLKIEN HAD an Atlantis complex”
“Míriel’s vision of Númenor radically rejects the white patriarchal bonds embraced by Tolkien. The tsunami hits the island while the queen is blessing newborns brought to her by an emphatically multicultural group of mothers.”
“The diverse bodies involved in the queen’s vision are part of an overall effort by the makers of The Rings of Power to reimagine Tolkien’s world as a place where a hobbit, a human, and even an elf can be nonwhite.”
“The immensely enjoyable conflict between good and evil forces in the Tolkien universe takes shape through the elevation of brightness over darkness, light over shadow, high over low, white over black. And unfortunately, the makers of The Rings of Power, for all their putative investment in diversity, by and large hold steady to that larger vision of a world structured in white dominance.”
“The opening credits of the series signpost these color-charged stakes. Inspired by the angelic music said to create the original beings and objects in Tolkien’s universe, the credits use sound vibrations (in technical parlance, cymatics) to create shifting patterns with golden sand upon a black background. Choral harmonies soar in tandem with harps, violins, and other strings as rings, trees, and other shapes emerge and recede. Suddenly the camera closes in on a new, black river of sand that snakes its way into the golden shapes, as the music turns sinister and ominous. Here, before the narrative even begins, the credits clarify its basic structure as a tale of a golden, beautiful, and good world threatened and corrupted by incursions whose maliciousness is of a piece with their blackness.”
“Yes, The Rings of Power introduces wrinkles to this schema, such as the heroic Arondir. But one exceptional elf of color fails to disrupt the overall white dominance of Tolkien’s world. Moreover, the show supports stereotypical associations of blackness with the natural world and wildness by rendering Arondir a Silvan or woodland elf bearing a Green Man on his breastplate”
“The show’s casting, as well as revisions like the dream of the flood, might signal a revision or even a critique of Tolkien’s racial politics themselves, but the narrative architecture of the show betrays how foundational they remain.”