“The Time That Is Given Us: Fandom, Myth, and the Narrative Power of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings” by Dustin Fisher, celebrates the greatness of the original Tolkien vision, of a people fighting against forces of evil and triumphing. Even the film versions by Peter Jackson were noble, with great lines, indeed immortal lines, directed at the classic battle of good versus evil.
But fans of the Lord of the /rings have a sense of doom and despair arising from the Amazon TV version of the classic, which will be woke, with diverse actors doing the Great Replacement in film. But, worse, the moral dimension is likely to have been eroded, just as the Man with No Name westerns in the 1960s, came to replace the moral universe created by John Wayne, of the settlers conquering a hostile land to forge a great nation. Shortly after this eruption of early woke, the Western died. While that was sad, at this late stage in the game, I hope that the series crashes.
“There is a beautiful moment in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Return of the King” that emphasizes a key, reoccurring motif throughout the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy: In the deepest, darkest depths of despair, hope can still be found.