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The first season of The Rings of Power -at last- has come to an end. Although Amazon is threatening a second season, it looks like it will be a long time coming, giving us time to recover from this “surprising” adaptation.
I say “surprising” because no one is really surprised by what has happened, at least not in a pleasant or satisfactory way. As soon as one gets to know the ways of Wokeism, everything is so predictable and lacking in creativity that the only surprise that can be generated is to see how low they can sink in order to stuff their leftist political propaganda.
Long before the premiere of The Rings of Power, and only based on the statements of those responsible for it, we already knew that the series would be the second death of Tolkien, and that it would completely tarnish its original message.
We were not wrong, from the very first chapter it was evident that they had turned Tolkien’s timeless work into an allegory of current political affairs, blatantly stuffing it with all the fetish themes of the left: feminism, critical race theory, gender ideology, immigration, the dangers of conservative populism, etc.
Getting this right has no merit, since 99% of current productions -especially high-budget ones- do not go off the beaten path of the progressive narrative, but they did not even have enough subtlety or talent to slip their message into a story that was at least original and entertaining.
Greatest revelations of The Rings of Power 8 (spoilers)
The supposedly great revelations of the final chapter, that is, that The Stranger was Gandalf and that Halbrand was Sauron, were telegraphed from the very first chapter. And not because they didn’t try to hide it, which they tried, but because they did it in such a blatantly ridiculous way that even someone not fluent in the world created by Tolkien would notice.
Amazon has jumped headfirst into the rhetoric that if you don’t like a lousy woke product, it’s because you’re a toxic fan. Knowing this, it was to be expected that the series would insult the intelligence of diehard fans, and patronize casual viewers. Therefore, that mysterious figure of the strange man in a tattered tunic, long hair and beard could be none other than Gandalf, one of the most recognizable characters from The Lord of the Rings.
The Halbrand being Sauron thing was also totally predictable, but not because of knowing Tolkien’s work, but because of knowing how the ways of Wokeism work. The character of Halbrand did not exist in Tolkien’s writings and Amazon invented him ex profeso for The Rings of Power. In a series that prides itself on the inclusion, diversity and representativeness of its cast, that a new main character should be male, white and heterosexual could not end up being anything other than the bad guy.
They could only have made it more obvious if Halbrand had a Trump-like hairstyle or wore a red cap.
It doesn’t fail. The imagination and creativity of the woke activists posing as screenwriters are absolutely capped by their ideology, and that translates into puerile, simplistic and easily predictable stories because they have to fit the pro-green narrative.
It’s exactly the same thing that happened with the new character of Reva in Obi-Wan Kenobi, but in reverse: a villain played by an actress of color? We all knew that in the end she would be the good one, and that she would not even redeem herself by sacrificing herself, but would live, because her kind intentions would justify her means.
The Rings of Power is beyond redemption. While its technical craftsmanship is at times astounding, on too many occasions it is so pitiful that one wonders where the hundreds of millions in budget went.
Above all, it is unforgivable because the damage they have done to Tolkien is intentional and malicious. It is part of a coordinated campaign to systematically destroy any cultural icon that evokes traditional or conservative values.
Revisionist woke is like Mao’s Cultural Revolution, but with the difference that, for now, they are not killing real people, but characters and authors figuratively. For now.
Ignacio Manuel García Medina, Business Management teacher. Artist and lecturer specialized in Popular Culture for various platforms. Presenter of the program "Pop Libertario" for the Juan de Mariana Institute. Lives in the Canary Islands, Spain // Ignacio M. García Medina es profesor de Gestión de Empresas. Es miembro del Instituto Juan de Mariana y conferenciante especializado en Cultura Popular e ideas de la Libertad.
Social Networks: @ignaciomgm