By Paul Kersey
09/14/2022
TL;DR.
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is nothing more than The Great Replacement come to Middle Earth. And almost 99% of Tolkien fans are putting in their special edition DVDs of the extended versions of Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and Return of the King to remember what intoxicating whiteness does for the soul.
Cleansing away the poison of wokenessâŚ
âThe Rings of Powerâ Star Lenny Henry Implies Critics Of Amazonâs Race-Swapping Are Racist: âThey Have No Trouble Believing In A Dragon But Canât Accept That A Black Person Could Be A Hobbit Or An Elf,â by Spencer Baculi, Bounding Into Comics, September 2, 2022
Like so many before him who have defaulted to the same tired excuse in order to defend any number of live-action Hollywood adaptations from criticisms against a given projectâs bastardization of its source material, series star Lenny Henry has dismissed critics of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powersâ race-swapping of J.R.R. Tolkiens [sic] original creations as nothing more than racists who canât handle the idea that âa Black person could be a member of the court, or a hobbit, or an elf.â
The comedian, who portrays the ânon-HobbitHobbitâ Sadoc Burrows in Amazonâs multi-million-dollar swing-and-a-miss, offered his thoughts on critics of the seriesâ changes to Tolkienâs dutifully and explicitly crafted world during a recent interview given to GQ.
Prompted to address the subject by GQ associate digital editor Ben Allenâs inquiry of, âWhat made you want to get involved in The Rings of Power?â, Henry bluntly began, âI love fantasy.â
âIâve been reading comics since I was nine,â he recalled. âTolkien was from Birmingham, and the Shire is based on the Lickey hills in Birmingham. It all very much feels like something to me.â
However, despite feeling this connection to The Lord of the Rings, Henry then noted that âOften when youâre watching these things, you donât see yourself as a Black person. But whatâs interesting about this being told from a 21st-century perspective, things are being reconfigured. And I liked that.â
â[I agreed to be in the show] because maybe some kid will be watching this one day and theyâll see [co-stars] Ismael Cruz Cordova and Sophie Nomvete and theyâll see me and go, âYeah, I can wield a sword. Yeah, I can rock a bow and arrowâ,â the actor explained. âThis is a groundbreaking moment.â
Met in turn with the assertion from Allen that âit feels like the big new fantasy franchises are finally diversifyingâ â a presumed reference to the similar race-swappings seen in such series as HBOâs House of the Dragon and Netflixâs The Witcher â Henry affirmed, âThereâs a real sense of trying to be more inclusive than we were in this worldâ before turning to address those who disagreed with the pairâs belief that this post-2014 screenwriting trope was anything but trite and lazy.
â[House of the Dragon star] Steve Toussaint keeps sayingâŚThe purists were saying things about [his casting in the show] god bless them,â he said. âThey have no trouble believing in a dragon, but they do have trouble believing that a Black person could be a member of the court. Or that a Black person could be a hobbit or an elf.â
Itâs not about making great art. Itâs about replacing whiteness to these cretins.
Just laugh at them, because the more brazen the anti-whiteness becomes, the more and more white people embrace intoxicating whiteness.
We donât want the past. We want the promise of what our ancestors dared bequeath their posterity.