It only gets weird from here

Amazon’s casting choices don’t reflect the true racial diversity in Tolkien’s works and are focused on tokenism over real efforts to tackle the flaws in the text and make an inclusive vision of Arda

Amazon’s one major POC actress is playing a role that canonically involves her throne and her power being stolen from her by a genocidal colonizer who wants to exterminate the religious minority she’s part of

Amazon fired their Tolkien consultant and their unsafe set conditions caused the injuries of stuntpeople

Amazon as a company is unethical, directly opposed to progressive causes, and openly emotionally manipulating viewers to get them to watch the show

Amazon has done more real harm to actual people of color and other marginalized groups than their efforts to include nonwhite actors in relatively small or stereotypical roles can address

Amazon’s promotional materials for this show treat fans of color as props to further their agenda

Sometimes I stare at the computer screen when the words don’t want to come and I think, “Fuck, who am I kidding? This is terrible writing, and this story is shit, and no one cares, anyway.”  And I close the window and go do something else.

But every now and then I get an amazing, heartfelt, beautiful comment from someone who loved something I wrote, and it reminds me that, at least for that one person, I did write something worthwhile. And so I open the window again and I write one sentence, and then another, and then I start to find my way again.

So on behalf of all fanfic writers everywhere, I want to say thank you, thank you so much, to all of the readers who take the time to leave a comment and tell us that something we wrote mattered to you, that it brightened your day or made you laugh or cry or get horny or whatever.

Estelle Gettlemen: July 25, 1923 - July 22, 2008

Beatrice Arthur: May 13, 1922 - April 25, 2009

Eddi-Rue McClanahan: February 21, 1934 - June 3, 2010

Betty Marion White Ludden: January 17, 1922 - December 31, 2021