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So, I watched the first two episodes of the Rings of Power -- and it wasn't that bad.
For the record, I thought Wheel of Time was pretty horrible, and while it was far from the only problem, the woke aspects (forced diversity, all men have to suck, all women have to rock) was definitely a big part of the issue. RoP has some forced diversity as well, but it's somehow not as bad. The black elf is one of the few elves who actually seems attractive and somehow beyond human -- the others come across as Roman Senator types.
Galadriel is a Mary Sue, but I guess she is in the books too. We'll see how her story develops.
I'm not happy with the proto-hobbits, and of course, the one who pushes the rules and is clever and daring is a woman, but that's mostly okay.
Dwarves -- well, of course the woman gives wise council to her buffoon husband, but it was still fairly well done I thought.
The visuals were great, and you did somehow get a sense of fleshed out, interesting and complex world. I'm very cautiously optimistic. Miles and miles ahead of Wheel of Time.
For the record, I'm /u/The-WideningGyre on reddit, but felt like grabbing one of the more common usernames I use on the new Motte.
I'm really disappointed by the weird groupthink shitshow I feel like 'normal' reddit has become, so I will do what I can to support this new Motte. Thanks /u/ZorbaTHut and other creators!
In the books this works because Tolkien understands narrative. There's a clear plot point that prevents Galadriel from just orc punching her way to Mordor - namely that once she possesses the Ring, she may become ultimate warrior princess (which she was not in the books!), but it'll be warrior princess with Sauron-characteristics. As a result she's in maybe two scenes and primarily illustrates just how deep in over their heads the hobbits are - setting the stage for their heroic journey.
It's much the same reason why Superman sucks, but Watchmen was good. Superman punches people but can't hurt them cause also superman and - cue dramatic music and Henry Cavil emoting - finally punches the bad guy really hard and wins. In contrast, Watchmen made Dr. Manhattan a mysterious godlike figure and told the story through the lens of mortals. Manhattan could punch the Soviets really hard, but isn't doing that for his own reasons.
You can't make Galadriel, Gandalf or Tom Bombadil the main character in any kind of hero journey - it's too late, the journey is over for them. A story about them is a fundamentally different thing and probably too niche to justify the price tag.
Have you read Beware of Chicken (https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/39408/beware-of-chicken)? Or the One Punch Man manga or animated series? Because they're what you just described and I think they work really, really well. I found them immensely entertaining.
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Well, Second Age Galadriel is still on her journey - she did refuse to return to Valinor after the climatic battle of the First Age which resulted in the defeat of Morgoth. So Second Age Galadriel is as eager as any of them to believe in the peace, even if she is aware that darkness and danger are still out there, and she is still proud, still Noldor, still hoping to create and rule over a realm of her own.
But that's not the Galadriel we get (so far) in "The Rings of Power". They want to make her young, piss-and-vinegar, out there actively fighting Galadriel; not the mature pupil of Melian and great lady that Second Age Galadriel is. As you say, they want a character for the hero's journey, so they have to shape their version of Galadriel in that mould. That's probably part of why they make Celebrimbor much older, when canonically he should be younger than Galadriel: he's one of the 'old guys' who want to believe all the fighting is over so they can go ahead with their own ambitions. And of course, one of the 'old guys' who is wrong while Galadriel is right.
The disappointing thing for me is that a Galadriel focused narrative could be really interesting. She's someone who chooses political power over eternal bliss, and comes to deeply regret that choice. The last leader of a doomed rebellion against the gods, cursed to watch eveything around her diminish and decay while she remains forever unchanging. There's a lot of serious drama to be mined there.
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What you say about storytelling is true: to optimize for drama and thrills and edge-of-your-seat uncertainty, you're going to want to write an underdog story. Ooh, how's our hero going to get out of this one? You've only got the faintest clue, and you're watching with breath absolutely bated to see if you've guessed correctly or not.
The problem is that the Underdog Story may not be the best lens through which to view the world. Or at the very least, it shouldn't be the only lens through which to view the world.
The Underdog Story has its upsides in terms of life lessons, like self-reliance in the face of tough challenges, proactivity about doing the right thing, and so forth.
But it also has its downsides, and one of the most important is the plot-driven necessity that anybody powerful be somewhere between evil and useless, so never good. A heroic overdog would be boring, after all: no uncertainty about how he'll get out of this one.
But what happens when we marinate our minds in this narrative structure, over and over and over again, in a relentlessly-optimized fiction market? Maybe find ourselves inexorably associating "power" with "evil" and "weakness" with "good?" "The status quo" with "the evil empire" and "anything right and decent" with "us chosen-one rebels?"
Perhaps we'd end up thinking that way: living out a perpetual rebellion, as the only stories that matter are about the conquest, about supplanting the powerful. What happens after - the actual ruling, the use of that hard-won power? Well, feh, that's always just skipped over in the epilogue. "And they lived happily ever after." Once we win, there'll be utopia! Who cares about the details? They never need to in the stories.
So somebody with power who is not presiding over a utopia needs to be torn down. Every generation sends up its heroes to tear down the last generation's and be torn down by the next generation's in turn. Nice and dramatic: how's it going to go this time? And maybe there really is improvement ratcheting upward each cycle - either way, every generation can always imagine it's the chosen one that will really fix everything this time, and can always explain away their failures once they're apparently on top by appealing to some unseen ever-more-powerful foe that must be holding them back.
Not good for stability, though. No telling what hard-won good will end up as collateral damage in any given revolution. Our Heroes' victories don't tend to last long if there are sequels.
The tagline to 1978's "Superman" was "you'll believe a man can fly." With special effects these days, that's trivial; much more impressive would be to show us how someone can be both that strong and that good. Such a character's Hero's Journey may be over, but that just means that the really important part has begun.
Tougher to sell tickets to that, though, so maybe we're stuck this way.
(Hello, all! I've lurked since before there was a Culture War Roundup thread but never posted at all. Thought I would try to help get the new site running, but I don't expect my courage to last.)
I'm in the same boat, but I hope to continue posting. I realized that I want to become a better writer, and even if your comments aren't the best you can improve them over time. Heck, I struggle to write well for productive reasons so I might as well hone my skills in a place that rewards good writing, and discusses topics I find interesting.
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One can certainly write a story of this sort. But it's a quite different story.
There's an isekai called Worth The Candle that tells a story of this sort. Not sure how to spoiler tag things, but basically there's an evil villain who immediately surrenders because he can see he's underpowered relative to the ubermensch lead character. At this point he reveals that he rules a surprisingly populous society that he built around his particular variety of evil, one which will rapidly descend into starvation if you just switch it off, and with a population that is aligned with his values. Um, now what? And is handling this situation even a good use of ubermensch time and effort relative to the primary goal of creating a good magical singularity?
Unlike Tolkien, it was not rooted in medieval England. You could race swap the main characters with no issue and toss and hint that the isekai lead faced racism back in Oklahoma.
Also it's niche internet fiction written by a stay at home dad who is a big success by the standards of Patreon and earns maybe $1-2k/month from 444 subscribers. There's a reason Amazon didn't buy that and ruin it - it's utterly inaccessible to most viewers.
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You've made a very good comment and I encourage you to not let courage be the barrier to your further posting. Those of us making smaller, more mundane, comments can often be the magic catalyst that sparks off truly great comments and discussions. You will at the very worst be forgotten.
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You can't make Gandalf or Bombadil the protagonist. You can make Galadriel the protagonist, but only if you actually own the rights and your story takes place in the First Age. If you're doing a Galadriel story that does not prominently feature the Kinslaying, you are doing it wrong.
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