Wait, didn't Amazon have a series of videos with so-called 'superfans' shilling for this dumpster fire?
Yup. They hit six countries with these "superfans" videos (USA, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands and Spain). These were manufactured videos, made with influencers and paid actors - many of whom never even talked about Tolkien in their social accounts. The US one was pulled down after a few days buy of course it has been re-uploaded everywhere else so one can easily find it.
The baffling thing is how the first doubt everyone had, which was the insertion of random black elves and dwarves, turned out to be among the few good things of the show. Arondir is the only real elf in the series while Disa the dwarf is a fun comic relief. I tend to agree with those who say that Amazon trotted out the black characters first so to cause a stir about them (strictly about how they didn't respect the books' lore) and manufacture the "racist!" narrative they are still stuck with - including against critics from Nigeria, Kenya, India, Iraq, Japan, Vietnam...
This is what a billion dollars buys: an elaborate, expensive vanity project with all the writing quality of a teenager's stupid, edgy fanfic that he or she will cringe at if they run across it again later in life. It's My Immortal with an unlimited (well, close to it) budget.
I had first hand leaks about the show and they were already bad. "Galadriel will be bullied (?) by other elf-kids in Valinor (
) within the first two minutes." (Something I didn't really believe to be totally correct, because... How can she be bullied
within the first two minutes? After all they have to first present the elves, Valinor, who Galadriel is... Let's say that they managed to pull this stunt). Then the show started and... not only it is not Tolkien, it is not even itself, if you get my meaning. It is internally inconsistent, messed up, boring... astoundingly bad in writing, acting, production design...
And then you have the true paradox: they are so obsessed with "grrrl power" that every important decision is made by a female character (all of them alone, with no male companion). The writing, however, is so atrocious, that these decisions are always flatly stupid. Thus, the message of this show becomes "For the love of God, never put a woman in command."
And then in Episode Six, among MANY, MANY hideous moments, there was an apparently small thing that IMHO, demonstrates why this show is an offense against God.
So, the "Southlands" (not yet Mordor) are menaced by an orc army but Numenor is arriving (from Numenor to the hearth of Mordor in 36 hours BTW). Arondir, the black elf and the only real warrior in the area, does everything he can to rally some desperate villagers: he trains them, makes plans, rallies them with arousing speeches... he does everything in his power to delay the orcs. For "reasons" the leader of these villagers is Bronwyn, a female healer, and Arondir's True Love (I know: this is not the problem; the scene when they finally kiss is even beautiful). Anyway, during the battle Bronwyn does everything Arondir tells her to do (which is not: "You are a healer: think about the wounded; again, believe me, this is not the problem).
Many (inane) things happen and then our heroes are saved by the Numenorean army
thanks to the time bought by Arondir. The battle is surveyed from atop a hill by Regent-Queen Tar-Miriel, whose skin was "fairest than ivory and pearls", played here by a black woman.
So, they win, and Tar-Miriel and Bronwyn meet,
and Arondir is sent away because the two grrrls have to talk.
Even in a show as bad as this one, nothing had yet reached this abyss. The meaning of that scene is, literally, "Thanks for your service, elf nigger, now return among your ranks". And he does! Tar-Miriel (who did nothing for the whole battle) and Bronwyn (who followed Arondir's advice because every time she opened her mouth half of her people defected to the orcs - I'm not joking, it is in the show) start to complement each other for the greatness of their leadership. I swear to God that they come this close to fingering each other in orgasmic abandon. I mean... the writers even made clear that Arondir and Bronwyn love each other. By this point in the story Arondir is beloved by the villagers too. Bronwyn should at the very least say "No, Arondir stays, because it is also thanks to him if we resisted" (the correct admission should be "Arondir stays, because it is thanks to him
and no one else if we resisted"). They had everything in place to show parity and valor in elves and humans, in whites and blacks. No.
I was astounded. It was a scene as racist as fuck. It should be denounced by every wokeist out there and I would be in front of them waving my sign. They created a black elf just to show how he belongs to the inferior ranks, full stop - any good that he does being stolen by "superior beings". And he complies! He doesn't say "Bronwyn, what the fuck?!" He just bows and disappears.
Now those left watching the show will know that, by now, we are deep South in more than a way. I always maintained that they don't even realise the real meaning of what they are putting on screen. But it is telling that the head of Amazon Studios, Jennifer Salke, the main producer, Lindsay Weber, and the two showrunners are all white people with blond hair. This is the team tasked to bring "diversity, inclusivity, representation" to the show. One cannot make such a thing up.