"The Rings of Power" Vanity Fair article

[Huinesoron]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

While there are extremes of both opinions, and while this site is perhaps more anti-Amazon inclined, is it even possible anymore to present moderate opinions on the matter without being accused of being an extremist one way or the other? Can we all take a step back and calm down a little? It's a show. We will dislike things (for myself, Galadriel's portrayal is an example), we might like some things (for myself - the random references to Two Trees and such scattered in bits of costume), we might have no firm opinion either way on some things (for myself - Gil-Galad: not how I imagined him but not ghastly off either). Can we express opinions on these things anymore without forgetting that disagreeing with the showrunners doesn't make you a die-hard hater, and liking or defending the show's decisions doesn't make you a die-hard fanatic? It's a show. We can debate and discuss it and chew it over peacefully to the extent that it gives us pleasure to do so. And when it comes out, we will watch it (or not) to the extent it gives us pleasure, and the moment it starts giving more grief than pleasure we turn off the screen. It should be this simple, but it just somehow got very complicated. I feel like this thread has been escalating ever more, though there have been multiple attempts to pacify things. Please let's not forget that in the end, all this matters very little? With the debate getting ever more heated and emotionally involved, and the posts coming in so frequently, I am beginning to feel a bit like Hui and getting the itch to ++vote.

^All of this, basically. Just because the world at large wants every idle thought to be a rock-solid opinion and every opinion to align with the most extreme position on a subject, doesn't mean we have to join in.

What really winds me up (elsewhere!) is people insisting their read of the text is not just the best, but the only possible interpretation. I've had an amusing conversation on Twitter where I said that Beleg's whetting spell opens the possibility of a lightning-vs-fire-sword duel in Middle-earth (see Celeg Aithorn, and have Eonwe fight a Balrog), and someone has been insisting that those lines not probably are, but must! be metaphorical. There is no possibility that they could be literal, because... Sting was once described as a blue flame, apparently.

Also, if the Valar had a world-breaking lightning sword, why didn't they send Gandalf back with it?!?! After all, he could already destroy armies single-handedly, so he should have it!! (On being queried on this point, they asserted that because Gandalf the Grey could equal a Balrog, of course Gandalf the White could destroy armies. Thaaat's when I stepped away.)

And the odd thing is, holding and expressing a nuanced opinion - like "this thing is possible, though not really certain" - seems to wind that kind of person up just as much as their unsupported certainty does me! They really, really wanted me to be saying that the whetting spell was definitively literal. It was funny. ^_^

Anyway, in the spirit of finding weird hills to die on, I think we can all agree that if anyone in Numenor has any carpet other than this one, it will be proof that they are in the direct pay of Morgoth and intend to steal, spit on, and burn all our Tolkien books.

hS