TL:DR: There is a shadow growing in the East. We gaze down from our tower on high and judge it inferior; unworthy of the resplendence we have known in ages past in the West: shores which seem so very distant now. Our expectations, beliefs, judgments, all warranted by our reckoning. Yet the darkness lurks, grows just beyond our sight. We hunt high and low for it. Find its mark always afar. Yet we cannot shake the dread sense of its approach. Still its True stronghold remains hidden… surely in the one place we have not thought to search for it…where we *dare not* search for it.
Join us tomorrow, Sunday September 4th at 2pm EDT as we SEEK the stronghold of darkness lurking beneath the discourse swirling ‘round and ‘round The Rings of Power.
ADVENTURE CALLS: Tolkien fans and scholars alike are a passionate bunch. How could they not be? Myths warrant both respect and careful study, if not outright reverence. Even normies hold a special place in their heart for Peter Jackson’s trilogy. Some go so far as to call it the greatest trilogy ever put to film. In the company of such series/trilogies as Star Wars, The Matrix, Marvel’s Avengers, The Dark Knight, and many of Ridley Scott’s films, notably Legend, Gladiator, and The Kingdom Heaven. These works transcend mere entertainment. They are, in every sense of the word, mythic. Although not all would agree which movies qualify. So it is with Tolkien fans and The Rings of Power.
Rings of Power is not without its flaws, but what long-running television series ever premiered in a state of perfection? And, understanding the nature of the source material—appendices, mainly—who really expected a long-form narrative to burst from the starting gate with a hundred thrills and chills per episode? Many expected just that it seems, or Peter Jackson levels of polish, or a 1:1 transcription of the text, or to take offense to woke comments by actors and showrunners. Their disappointment was effectively premeditated.
Most mythologies (including our modern myths) have been disrespected by far too many for far too long, and Tolkien’s legacy is no exception. We speak not for those who are no longer alive to defend their work. Rather, we speak on behalf of the Source which inspired them and *all* such works since the dawn of time. That is the True nature of myth…the nature of Truth, Light, and Love. Every exaltation is preceded by a great humiliation. From Jacob’s Ladder to Dante’s Ladder, from Hanuman and Rama to Sam and Frodo, from Ralph Bakshi’s animation to the Peter Jackson’s trilogy…every hero must descend before they can ascend. We are no different. But only if we answer the call to adventure.
Flawed though it may be, Rings of Power is doing justice to *the spirit* of the mythology on which it is based. You may not want to hear that, and Tolkien himself, were he alive today, might not want to hear it either, but upon quiet reflection with his Immortal Soul, through whom his mythology was born, he would have little choice but to come around. How can we possibly know that? Answer the call to adventure…suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune to be…and all will be revealed.