Problems with The Rings of Power

    The Lord of the Rings is a powerful story, and for that reason is extremely profitable. Peter Jackson's adaptation of Tolkien's world for elves, dwarves, men, and, of course, hobbits even beat out the films the entertainment juggernaut Star Wars put out in the same year. There were a plethora of reasons why Jackson's films became the legends that they were, but some consider the most important to be the fact that he insisted on staying true to the story that Tolkien wanted to tell and not "bring along our own baggage", even going as far as to not include many characters of color despite the pressure to do so, simply because they weren't present in the narrative. Some seemed to think that people of color wouldn't be able to enjoy a story without "representation" but this was never farther from the truth. People of color didn't need representation to love and enjoy the books, and they didn't need it in the films either. Part of the reason fans of Tolkien are up in arms about Amazon's upcoming The Rings of Power - a TV series about the events preceding the books - is because it is plain from their marketing that they are bringing along their own baggage. The series features an elf of color, with short hair (gasp), which Tolkien specifical stated did not exist. It is one of the traits of the elves, as, again, stated by Tolkien himself. 

            [Elves] were tall, fair of skin and grey-eyed...  - Appendix F to The Return of the King

It is true this quote is only talking about the group of elves called the Noldor, but nowhere in all of Tolkien's legendarium are elves described as having dark skin (The kindred known as the Dark Elves did not have dark skin, it only meant that they had never seen the lights of the two trees, unlike the rest of the elves.). Some might say that it doesn't really matter, and they would be right, it really doesn't matter. This is fantasy after all, and having the color of a character's skin change from white to black is really the most trivial change a director could make, despite the evidence that Tolkien never intended for it to exist. However, it does matter when the directors do this to intentionally push an agenda, their own baggage, down on viewers, and we know that this is what they are doing. Amazon released a video of so-called "superfans" discussing the teaser for The Rings of Power. These "superfans" discussed practically nothing except the new representation, and it was quite clear that they knew practically nothing of The Lord of the Rings and only cared about it the representation for the representation's sake, not the story's sake. If Amazon continues to make this their priority, then they will be blown out of the film industry by Tolkien fans, and if they do, I hope they are.