The Perils of Pedantry

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by Morthoron

Believing an adaptation to be egregious fan-fiction cod-swallow would not, in my estimation, be considered pedantry.

....

Therefore, I will not add any further comments regarding this piece of...art. Sorry for being "pedantic", but I have too much respect for Middle-earth to settle.

So, I've debated with myself if I ought respond to you, Morth, since I think there is something healthy to saying "I won't say anything more" and probably something unhealthy in me provoking you to say more--and if you feel unwelcome, you feel unwelcome. But I want to at least split hairs for the record that I think there are two different things at play:

First, there is any evaluation or appreciation for The Rings of Power (or any other adaptation--but the RoP is what's on the table now and in the immediate future): this show is good; this show is bad. I liked this show; I didn't like this show. This thread is not--by me anyway--intended to suggest anyone has to like the show. Or think that's it's good adaptation. It's entirely fair to think it a travesty.

But, the other thing at play, I think it is not within bounds to use knowledge of the canon to browbeat anyone who does happen to like the show into either discarding their opinion or into silence. I think this is particularly pernicious where the "facts" of the matter are inconclusive, such as where Tolkien himself came to no final opinion or where it's a wholly invented element within the adaptation.

Perhaps it isn't content that I don't like so much as tone: the "pedant" as I am calling this sort of person, is entitled to dislike the adaptation, and entitled to dislike it entirely for what I am calling pedantic reasons, but if my disliking something turns into browbeating your liking it, with the implication that you are a bad fan for liking it and here's an itemized list of reasons everything you think is WRONG.

Perhaps what I'm trying to get at it is judgementalism and the acrimony that goes with it. There's a world of different between "here's the 37-point of reasons *I* don't like it" and "here's the 37-point list of reasons *you* aren't allowed to the like it." And this point of this thread then, maybe, is to say that there's an easy danger of slipping from the first to the second, and there is a THING right now in our fandom where this seems to be happening a lot.

Two relevant quotes from above that basically say what I'm trying to say here:

Originally Posted by Boromir88

If I wanted a Tolkien story I would just read his books.

Originally Posted by Thinlómien

Also, as a criticism of an adaptation, I don't think simply "this is different" or "this is not like my personal mental image" is worthless - "this artistic choice sends a message that contradicts the original theme/idea/subject of the work" is a much better (and more interesting) criticism.