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ZorbaTHut  1yr ago (text post)   44935 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of September 5, 2022

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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!

There's a certain degree of wokeness to all modern media of which must be tolerated, but RoP is where I draw the line.

I don't like series which disrespects its core material, its literary fanbase, which sneers on twitter and all of the fashionable places to mine for engagement eyeballs. It may be a perfectly servicable show but I hate the modern hype engine that intentionally turns up its nose at the nerds to try and gain cachet with an audience that doesn't even exist.

There's a certain degree of wokeness to all modern media of which must be tolerated

It must? Why?

Not only do you have all of old media to consume, not only do you have anime and k-drama providing modern alternatives, but you always have the option to drop out and walk away, as the Amish do.

Boycott people who hate you.

If you have any investment in your culture, in your people, in your society, do not tolerate those who subvert it; as he says, boycott people who hate you. Wield whatever power you have, small or great, against people who want to crush you and scatter your values to the wind. There is only ever one losing move: acceptance.

Intolerance is a virtue.

It's not about hatred, nothing as warm-blooded as that. For Amazon, it's cold pursuit of profit. Forget all the bullshit about Jeff Bezos being a YUUUGE Tolkien fan and the showrunners being big fans etc. That's publicity material for the trade weeklies. They want a big name production that will bring in new subscribers for Prime Video and make it profitable. If the show doesn't pull in the numbers, then it will be dropped (and forget about the five seasons). So they are making huge hay out of "first black dwarf! first black elf!" and all the rest of it to cast their net for the widest possible audience globally. Casual viewers will expect to see black/brown faces in the cast, or at least won't notice or care if there are. The appeal has to go beyond the fans and canon-knowledgeable, because that is not a big enough audience.

And they couldn't just write their own fantasy epic series, because that would have no ready-made fanbase or name recognition. They're competing with House of the Dragon, which is piggy-backing on Game of Thrones and its success. If they put up "Amazon presents 'Generic Sword'n'Sorcery' set in MadeupLand" against that, they'll sink like a stone (and not because they were looking downwards towards the darkness). They're trying to use the popularity of the movies and how that name recognition seeped into popular culture, hence why they bought the rights and why they're using 'Galadriel', 'Elrond', 'Hobbits/Harfoots' and so on.

(I begin to have my suspicions that Meteor Man might be meant to be Saruman, not Gandalf).

They're not one bit interested in being faithful to canon, they want to paste on the names of "you remember this person from the movies" to their generic fantasy story tropes. Not out of hatred, out of "what will fill our coffers with least effort? give the audience a story they've seen ten times before and which won't frighten the horses".

And they couldn't just write their own fantasy epic series, because that would have no ready-made fanbase or name recognition.

Sure. But on the other hand, they are also going out of their way to upset the people that they bring in with that. What good is a ready-made fanbase if you immediately drive them away?

I'm not convinced. Time after time we see woke corporations take actions that seem more in line with ideology than profit motive; I believe "it's all about the benjamins" to be a comforting myth, told by people who want to think they can change things through good old fashioned capitalism rather than admit the cultural producers that dominate their society genuinely hate them.

It's not about money, it's about sending a message. We are in a war for the nation's very soul, and the creator class is best understood as combatants for one side.

I would have assumed that you would have waited a week or so before taking off the mask. People don't "hate you" because they put a brown hobbit in their newest swordshit. Amazon is simply trying to appeal to the most number of people possible with their casting.

  • -11

Is there a really cool, smart, badass straight white male to appeal to the large audience of straight white males?

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