{"id":1648017,"date":"2022-09-20T03:32:51","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T07:32:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1648017"},"modified":"2022-09-20T03:34:11","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T07:34:11","slug":"amazons-rings-of-power-falls-short-because-its-about-making-money-not-the-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/amazons-rings-of-power-falls-short-because-its-about-making-money-not-the-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Amazon\u2019s \u2018Rings Of Power\u2019 Falls Short Because It\u2019s About Making Money, Not The Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Famazons-rings-of-power-falls-short-because-its-about-making-money-not-the-story%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1648017&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>When assessing works of art, it is a sound rule of thumb to generously look for the true, the good, and the beautiful, which are the transcendental features of the world we live in. As J.R.R. Tolkien taught, artists are sub-creators and, therefore, channels of the \u201clight of being\u201d through their works. The artist is not a manipulator, but a pupil, of the real. Accordingly, Tolkien also taught that the sub-creator distorts his office and the good, the true, and the beautiful when he subordinates and instrumentalizes creation and sub-creation to his own will, purposes, or power.\u00a0Such is the essence of tyranny.<\/p>\n<p>Amazon\u2019s \u201cRings of Power,\u201d the multimillion-dollar adaptation of Tolkien\u2019s stories about the Second Age of Middle Earth, was therefore fraught with antithetical possibilities. \u201cRings of Power\u201d is a\u00a0sub-sub-creation that is twice removed from the reality that Tolkien\u2019s mythos sought to reflect.\u00a0While some have given reasons for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstthings.com\/web-exclusives\/2022\/09\/the-spiritual-stakes-of-the-rings-of-power\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cautious hope<\/a> for the show, the verdict of many critics is that it is doubly tyrannical: Its departures from the source material are radically\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crisismagazine.com\/2022\/rings-of-power-jeff-bezoss-billion-dollar-anti-tolkien-fan-fiction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">anti-Tolkien<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/09\/three-big-ways-amazons-rings-of-power-butchers-tolkiens-lore\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">distortions<\/a>\u00a0of the characters and stories of the second age, which <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/06\/amazons-rings-of-power-fails-because-it-abandons-tolkiens-moral-imagination\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">discard<\/a>\u00a0Tolkien\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/theimaginativeconservative.org\/2022\/09\/seeing-eye-sauron-amazon-rings-power-joseph-pearce.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">deeply Christian<\/a>\u00a0moral imagination and therefore the order of the reality his mythos sought to reflect. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/tv\/the_lord_of_the_rings_the_rings_of_power\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">39 percent<\/a> audience score on Rotten Tomatoes suggests many viewers agree.<\/p>\n<p>The show\u2019s portrayal of the character Elendil in the third episode is particularly illustrative. Elendil, as Tolkien depicts him, is a\u00a0Numenorean hero who helps lead the remnant who are faithful to Eru Il\u00favatar (the one true God who created all) and refuses to apostatize to worship and serve Morgoth. But the Elendil portrayed by Amazon expresses exasperation by saying, \u201cOh good gods,\u201d as if neither the difference between polytheism and monotheism nor the actual religious beliefs of the Numenorean faithful are particularly important to Tolkien\u2019s mythos.<\/p>\n<p>Such critiques need not rest on stodgy Tolkienian puritanism opposed to all creative license.\u00a0 Indeed, \u201cThe Silmarillion\u201d\u00a0itself \u2014 which was a hodgepodge of loose-leaf pages stuffed in boxes when Tolkien\u2019s son and steward of his intellectual property, Christopher Tolkien, began editing it \u2014 is the product of the son taking some creative licenses with the work of his deceased father. <\/p>\n<p>Yet, based on the evidence we have, the critics\u2019 basic point seems sound: Amazon has used its creative freedom very differently than Christopher did, for ends in tension with or contrary to Tolkien\u2019s vision of the purpose of art apparent in his myth and fairy story. I contend that this doom was entirely predictable insofar as \u201cRings of Power\u201d\u00a0is the fruit of dragon sickness, the lust for riches.<\/p>\n<p>It is debatable how far back the dragon sickness can be traced.\u00a0Tolkien himself sold the film rights to Hollywood in 1969 for \u00a3100,000.\u00a0Over 40 years later, Christopher\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lemonde.fr\/culture\/article\/2012\/07\/05\/tolkien-l-anneau-de-la-discorde_1729858_3246.html\">lamented<\/a>\u00a0what he took to be the distortions of the original \u201cThe Lord of the Rings\u201d (LOTR) trilogy, believing that the filmmakers had eviscerated the books to create an action movie targeted at younger demographics.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps\u00a0\u201cevisceration\u201d\u00a0goes too far. But the original LOTR films had their share of shortcomings. The original movie trilogy, which followed many of the creative footsteps of the 1981 BBC Radio dramatization, significantly mischaracterized some of the source material\u2019s heroes. For example, Aragorn\u2019s drama was one of overcoming self-doubt about his vocation. But in the books, he was confident in his kingship and only waited to reveal himself until the time was right.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Still, such departures and others could at least arguably be chalked up to Peter Jackson\u2019s good-faith effort to build suspense on the big screen. Such choices ultimately, if imperfectly, sought to advance the basic intentions of Tolkien\u2019s mythos. It was not until\u00a0\u201cThe Hobbit\u201d<em>\u00a0<\/em>trilogy that the evisceration began in earnest.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d\u00a0films were speckled with bits of brilliance. The dwarves\u2019 performance of \u201cMisty Mountains Cold,\u201d for example, was a pitch-perfect adaptation of the original dirge.\u00a0And Benedict Cumberbatch\u2019s turn as Smaug the dragon \u2014 and especially the treasure room conversation with\u00a0\u201cBarrel-rider\u201d \u2014 was a fine example of how, rather than detract from it, CGI could bring the original story to life in a new and wonderful way.<\/p>\n<p>But the creative license taken in\u00a0\u201cThe Hobbit\u201d movies\u00a0was as extravagant as it was overstuffed with unnecessary characters, subplots, and overwrought CGI spectacle. How else could a short children\u2019s novel be tortuously transmogrified into a sprawling eight-hour trilogy worth $3 billion at the box office worldwide? The great irony of\u00a0adapting \u201cThe Hobbit\u201d was that Peter Jackson caught the dragon sickness and became Smaug.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>You will recall that Smaug\u2019s reign cursed the Lonely Mountain treasure.\u00a0But, whereas Smaug took 150 years to infect the treasure, it took Peter Jackson less than 20 to curse the gold mine of Tolkien\u2019s intellectual property. If Jackson could extract such exorbitant profits from\u00a0\u201cThe Hobbit,\u201d what unimaginable riches could be mined from\u00a0\u201cThe Silmarillion\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>Hence, like the five armies that descended upon Lonely Mountain to battle over its treasure, the highly coveted gold mine of Tolkien content set off a bidding war.\u00a0Amazon fought off Netflix and HBO to license\u00a0\u201cRings of Power\u201d\u00a0for a quarter-billion dollars by Amazon in 2017, and Tolkien\u2019s intellectual property <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/video-games\/2022\/08\/19\/embracer-lord-of-the-rings\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">was recently purchased<\/a>\u00a0for hundreds of millions more.<\/p>\n<p>In \u201cThe Hobbit,\u201d Thorin Oakenshield was overcome with the lust for mammon and fell because he failed to reckon with the curse that lies upon gold long brooded over by a dragon.\u00a0We would be wise to take Thorin\u2019s lesson to heart when assessing \u201cRings of Power.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tolkien\u2019s intellectual property has long been instrumentalized for mass consumption (and hence, the tastes of the moment) and profit \u2014 which is to say, power.<\/p>\n<p>Like Sauron, who\u00a0disguised himself as an angel of light for much of the Second Age, Amazon\u2019s story will doubtless appear fair and wise to many \u2014 and may actually be so. But the dragon sickness at the heart of the enterprise generates an insatiable lust that cannot help but ultimately distort the true, the good, and the beautiful.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Kody W. Cooper is UC Foundation assistant professor of political science and public service at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Follow him on Twitter at @DrKodyCooper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When assessing works of art, it is a sound rule of thumb to generously look for the true, the good, and the beautiful, which are the transcendental features of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1369,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1648017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1648017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1369"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1648017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1648017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1648017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1648017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1648017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}