Tolkien Tuesday: "The Rings of Power" and the Power of Positive Fandom
Despite the power of toxic fandom, there are still those willing to fight back against the negativity and celebrate their love of and joy in Amazon's Tolkien adaptation.
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Welcome to Tolkien Tuesdays, where I talk about various things that I love about the lore and writings of Tolkien, whether in a chapter reading or a character study or an essay. I hope you enjoy reading these ruminations as much as I enjoy writing them and, if you have a moment, I’d love it if you’d subscribe to this newsletter. It’s free, but there are paid options, as well, if you’re of a mind to support a struggling writer. Either way, thank you for joining me!
There’s been a lot of chatter lately about the ominous power and influence of toxic fandom. Variety ran a whole story about it, and those of us who have been in the trenches of fandom for the past several years have seen firsthand the extent to which a very vocal and very noxious part of the online community has made it a core tenet of their existence that they must demolish and denigrate any series of film that they believe deserves their opprobrium. Some of the more enterprising among them have even gone so far as to build entire brands and YouTube channels out of their hatred. Given the power that they now seem to wield, it’s not surprising, as Variety notes, that many studios are now even more risk-averse than usual, out of fear that a mob of haters will tank the success of their productions, whether on the big screen or the small.
While toxic fans no doubt exert a major hold over the zeitgeist, they’re not the only ones who have a stake in the sprawling world of franchises in which we now live. Indeed, there’s a flourishing opposition to such trolls and ne’er-do-wells. Let’s call them, unimaginatively, the positive fans.
Take, for example, The Rings of Power.
By now most people are familiar with the backlash this sprawling series–produced by Amazon and created by J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay–faced when it was first announced and pretty much constantly afterward. There were all the cries of inaccuracy and the like, many of which were thinly-veiled racism. There were all of the condemnations of the show’s storylines, of Galadriel’s beauty (or lack thereof), and every other aspect you could imagine.
Even though season two has been better received among critics than its predecessor, with one notable voice asking whether the first season had been given an unfairly bad rap, there are still many in the wider Tolkien world who will let nothing stand in the way of their deep-seated loathing of the show. Some continue to dig in on the question of race in all of its complex ugliness–the second season featured, among other things, Black Stoors and also Orc babies, the latter of which continues to excite significant commentary–while others drape themselves in the supposed armor of Tolkien defense. The latter group really does seem to see themselves as being the tribunes of Tolkien, protecting his legacy from besmirchment by adaptations (they seem to have remarkably little to say about the abomination that was Jackson’s The Hobbit, and they also seem to ignore the fact that Tolkien’s own grandson is an adviser for The Rings of Power).
Given all of this, it's not particularly surprising that The Rings of Power, like The Acolyte and other recent fantasy and sci-fi shows, has been relentlessly review-bombed, including on Rotten Tomatoes, where they remains a remarkable discrepancy between the critical reviews and those of the audience. For such people, nothing will do but to demolish the object of their hatred with every means at their disposal.
Fortunately, there are also those who truly do love this show and the new life that it has breathed into Middle-earth. These are the folks who have invested a tremendous amount of emotional energy in the Celebrimbor/Annatar storyline, who see in the relationship between Prince Durin and Disa one of the most powerful and meaningful in the series, and love everyone’s perfectly pensive Elven prince Elrond. These are the folks who celebrate the way that the series has expanded the boundaries of the possible when it comes to representation in Middle-earth and who have, wisely, come to see Ismael Cruz Córdova’s Arondir as not just one of the best original characters but also the very epitome of what it means to be an Elf in Tolkien’s world. These are the folks that have taken the fallen Elf Adar to their hearts and made him a noble and tragic hero that Tolkien was so adept at creating. To put it shortly and bluntly, these are the folks who not only are the true Tolkien fans (if such a thing can be said to exist), but also the ones who have accepted The Rings of Power for the majestic work of popular art that it is.
It should go without saying, but I am obviously part of this second group. I was firmly behind the show in its first season, too, even though I did find some of its story choices a bit baffling (still trying to wrap my head around the idea that mithril is somehow the result of a duel between a Balrog and an Elf). Overall, though, I found The Rings of Power to be a remarkable piece of fantasy storytelling, incorporating so many aspects of Tolkien’s lore and ethos that I truly feel like I’m returning to Middle-earth with each episode I watch. The second season, as I extensively detailed in my reviews of the various episodes, was better than the first in almost every possible way. The performances were surer, the storylines more tightly-woven and coherent, and everything seemed like it was building toward an inevitably tragic conclusion.
Now, I have to admit that I tend to not be a fan in the strictest sense of the term. I’m one of those people who tends to prefer enjoying the pop culture objects of my devotion in private. Perhaps it’s because I’m innately jealous, or maybe there’s some other reason. Whatever the case, though, I tend to just keep to my own little corner, writing my little analyses, and letting the rest of the fandom do its thing.
Rings of Power, though, is different. One of the best things about watching the second season has been watching others on social media enjoy it with me. Twitter continues to be ground zero when it comes to negativity surrounding the show (as it is for most other types of noxious and obnoxious behavior), but there are a surprising number of folks who are doing the hard work of pushing back against us. After every episode this season I’d log in and see what folks were saying and, even when I didn’t agree with what people were saying, I at least had the comfort of knowing that they were engaging in good faith.
The power in these moments came not just from the shared experience of watching the same thing at roughly the same time but also from the fact that there were others who were also turning away from the negativity. Rather than letting the darkness win, these positive fans are instead being loud and proud about how much they have taken the series to their hearts. The fact that so many of them are, like me, queer folks, makes the victory all the sweeter.
In fandom as in Middle-earth, it can sometimes seem as if the forces of darkness and antipathy will always win, that the troll armies will win thanks to their overwhelming numbers. The positive fandom of The Rings of Power, however, shows that there are other powers in the world, and that they can and will fight back. If the news about the potential renewal of the series for a third season is any indication, it seems as if those of us who are proud to call ourselves fans of The Rings of Power could very well be on the right side of history. Those who continue to cling to their hatred and biases, however, can go back to the Shadow where they belong.