Cool deck!

Regarding the Vanity Fair article and that whole discussion (trolls aside), I think it depends on how you feel Tolkien's world should be adapted, and more widely, whether adaptations of another's work should remain true to the original, or be interpreted more loosely.

On the one hand, I think there's already plenty of room to bring in characters who don't have fair skin via the southern realms like Harad; evil characters, heroic characters who stand up against the Black Numenorians/Sauron, and everything in between. So is it necessary to create a black elf?

But on the other, I understand that it can be damaging for people to not feel represented, when they feel like, for example, the colour of their skin is an important part of their identity.

For me personally, I'm just (distantly) hoping the characters are portrayed with the depth of soul that would be true to Tolkien, irrespective of skin colour.

So is it necessary to create a black elf?

Yes.

Seems one can't even escape the trolls on a site like this... Ah. Exhausting.

@benjamineli you're the one that asked whether we needed black elves and why BIPOC can't just be limited to those people

What the hell do you mean by those people? Isn't that a little insulting? Tolkien carefully crafted his fantasy world. The people from Harad are dark-skinned, and there's a ton of fascinating stories to be told in the second age involving that realm. That's what I said. We're talking about the second age here, not the fourth. Honestly though, I'm probably just being stupid even offering a response to your baiting. I was naively hoping this may be a place to discuss something like this amongst Tolkien readers without people just expressing vitriolic, thoughtless reactions. I was wrong.

Yes, someone else who sees the power of Narya plus Harad. 7 , 6 Jubayr who readies after/during a defense fills even the mightiest of Sauron's forces with fear.

Personally, in terms of the alt art, I wish the Wandering Exile was more than a headshot, and Glorfindel wearing a skull was a bit jarring. Elven-light and To the Sea, to the Sea! would also benefit from a larger picture, I feel. I want to see more of these wonderful Elves, people of Varda's night as well as lights. The aura of authority that surrounds the Lady of the Eldar is awe-inspiring, and the Arwen Undómiel is breathtaking. Círdan's good, too, but his official art is a bit of a favorite of mine, so it would be a bit of a toss-up which one I would choose to use for this deck.

Also, yes, people of color do not need to justify their inclusion in LotR. Tolkien's Elves have traditionally been white, yes... Just like Saruman was traditionally wise, or the Hobbits were traditionally too weak to fight. Tradition should not be discarded lightly, the wisdom of years past has endured for a reason, but that does not mean that it is infallible, and I do not believe that discarding this tradition is done lightly at all.

@AutumnRose Very cool deck and concept! Love the alt-art deck, too, you did a nice job keeping a consistent vibe. Fun to see the fusion of LotR with other styles and cultural motifs. The thing I've always loved about Middle Earth was that Tolkien often treated himself not as the creator, but rather just an explorer, scholar, and historian of this world that he was always discovering more about. It was a very inclusive approach, inviting others to come and join as fellow travelers and explorers -- there is always more to discover in Middle Earth! I feel like Tolkien would have been happy to see his journey continue with new generations and new outlooks. I don't think he ever intended it to be a complete, which would mean dead, world.

@AlasForCeleborn yeah these allies can get up to some crazy high stats! Throw in a Last Alliance-targeted Lords of the Eldar and Jubayr can even get up to 8 defense.

Thanks for your thoughts on the art! If you'd like to see fuller art of some of those images, check out the artists (they're all credited on the cards). Eleonor Piteira was my favorite art to use for this project: www.artstation.com Definitely check out her page.

@kjeld thanks for checking out my deck and for your thoughts! Very well said!

Oops, looks like the link to Eleonor's page didn't work. Let's try this: eleonorpiteira.artstation.com

Is this focus on skin colour a typical US thing? (Just a rational question) In Germany most people (but I can just definetly speak for me and my social bubble) do not care about skin colour at all. And not in a bad way. Every human has equal rights and is worth the same. Skin colour, for me, is just a logical attribute, according where ones ancestors came from. Tolkien created the universe of his works, as a nordic, mythical world, wich is based in medieval times. In a medieval world, you have no such diversity, wich we have in modern times, through globalization.

When you want to immerse in a creation (be it fantasy, history, game, movie, show, etc.), the creation needs to follow the logic and boundaries of the subject (in this case, Lord of the rings). If you change or break some rules, it gets more difficult immerse. Break too many, and you create a new thing / or people who are used to the traditional boundaries and rules of the subject, cant immerse anymore. Thus the goal of most creations: to provide immersion. has failed.

In the amazon rings of power teaser, there are already too many breakings of rules and boundaries of middle earth, for the majority of people. A beardless black dwarf, fighting rash warrior Galadriel (who is 1000s of years old already in 2nd age and not an elf teenager) or a black elf with short hair, young ambitious politician Elrond with short hair, plate armour being a thing, etc..

A few of these things could be a explained, with a nice and logical backstory. Maybe Deesa was banished from a Dwarf kingdom from Khand, because she defied the rule of Sauron. As a sign of banishment, her beard was burned of permanently with acid, to make it impossible to be loved again by a male or female dwarf. But Durin the 4th did not care, as they met during his adventure of finding survivors of the petty dwarves.

A positive example of this, is Tyrion from game of thrones. But beware: Even if alle the new controversial characters have a good backstory. Too many exceptions break immersion as well.

But I would bet parts of my body, that those characters wont have a nice and logical backstory, wich allows most of us lotr fans to immerse in our beldoved "fantasy retreat". That makes these characters just black for political reasons, not logical and rational ones. Wich is in my mind quite racist. The sad example for this is wheels of time. And for amazon to call all who disagree with their perspective racist is just sad. Respectfuly disagreeing and recognizing the counterparties view, is a crucial part of democracy and base for compromise,

The good part: We can always stay fans of everything we have until now. Nobody forces anyone to consume new creations.

Cheers from Berlin, and sorry for my not perfect english, Flauschi

If you "do not care about skin colour at all" then how can skin color possibly "break some rules"? If you are losing your sense of immersion in the narrative simply due to the color of a character or actor's skin, then clearly you do care about skin color. You might look inside yourself for the source of the problem rather than outward at the story.

Thanks for reading through. I should have been more clear on that. I personally dont care about that in a political or social kind of way. To be speaking in absolutes, is something just sith do.

Important: As I described, it is not a single illogical part, (you describe it as a problem) that destroys immersion for me. Its the multitude of different breaks in rules of the universe, already obvious in a 1min trailer.

By the way, there are lots of people of colour in middle earth. Would be logical to have characters come from that parts of the world, with a nice backstory. The majority of fans that are complaining now, would be eager to experience a part of middle earth, never seen before.

A trailer is usually a compressed version of the show itself. If that is so, if fear it will be a generic amazon fantasy show, but not the lord of the rings, wich got so famouse for its fantastic and believable world. Does not mean the show will be a bad experience, just not lotr.