Tolkien Fandom Against Gatekeeping

There is no need for gatekeeping in Tolkien fandom. Treat newcomers to the fandom like you want to be treated: with courtesy, respect, and kindness. It doesn’t matter if they’ve only seen the show or the movies. It doesn’t matter if they haven’t read The Hobbit, LotR, The Silmarillion, the other posthumous works, or Tolkien’s non-Middle-earth works. It doesn’t matter if their fanworks are Tolkien-esque in style or not. It doesn’t matter if they ship canon, non-canon, or nothing at all. It doesn’t matter if they mix book/movie/show-verses in their fanworks. They are still fans.

Elrond welcomed everyone to Rivendell, save those who would destroy it. He welcomed Elves, Dwarves, Men, Hobbits, wizards. He built a sanctuary where people could rest, freely share knowledge, and plan to make the world a better place.

1. This is unacceptable. Please, for the love of god, trolls kindly fuck off because we’re all tired of your immature, holier-than-thou, entitled bullshit complaining. Is this how you behave in real life? How would you feel if you were treated in this manner? Aren’t you embarrassed by your own conduct as an adult member of society? If not, you should be. It’s sad and desperate and deranged.

2. Anti-ROPs, if you hate the show, why do you care so much about what fans do? Does it affect your daily life? Are you personally victimized by it? No? Then kindly fuck off.

3. READ THE TAGS. THE TAGS ARE THERE FOR *YOU* SO *YOU* COULD MAKE THE CHOICE TO READ WHAT YOU WANT OR DONT WANT TO READ. Don’t blame the authors when you don’t read & follow instructions.

4. Pro-Haladriel harassers, you do realize that attacking the authors will lead to fewer production of content? If you want to support the fandom, either support the writers and encourage them to keep writing, or don’t comment at all. You are not helping the fandom; you are hurting it.

There is no need for gatekeeping in Tolkien fandom. Treat newcomers to the fandom like you want to be treated: with courtesy, respect, and kindness. It doesn’t matter if they’ve only seen the show or the movies. It doesn’t matter if they haven’t read The Hobbit, LotR, The Silmarillion, the other posthumous works, or Tolkien’s non-Middle-earth works. It doesn’t matter if their fanworks are Tolkien-esque in style or not. It doesn’t matter if they ship canon, non-canon, or nothing at all. It doesn’t matter if they mix book/movie/show-verses in their fanworks. They are still fans.

Elrond welcomed everyone to Rivendell, save those who would destroy it. He welcomed Elves, Dwarves, Men, Hobbits, wizards. He built a sanctuary where people could rest, freely share knowledge, and plan to make the world a better place.

The Tolkien fanworks fandom has an unfortunate history of excluding and disparaging new fans–especially fans of media adaptations–in both overt and subtle ways. Yet those fans persisted and have energized the fandom and contributed to it in myriad ways.

Actually, this post was pretty much entirely about letting people who are fans of the show watch the show and come to Tolkien fandom in their own ways. The third sentence says exactly that. What you said is very much gatekeeping and is not welcome. Be like Elrond instead.

Once, someone I know saw the Hobbit films and got obsessed with them. They almost immediately reached out to me because they knew I loved Tolkien. They had bought the book and wanted to talk to someone about Hobbit things as they read.

They did not ask me how I felt about the movies, so I did not tell them. I was just excited to support someone as they explored Middle-earth more, even if the messages were extremely enthusiastic and frequent.

Before they started reading, I got questions like “Who is your favorite dwarf?” to which I could only answer… “Honestly, Bombur, because I think he is funny when he wakes up from the Enchanted River” to which I then got a 1000 character response explaining why someone else was there favorite dwarf. (I am a bit ashamed that I can’t remember which, given the detailed essay, ha.)

Next, during chapter one or so, I got texts like, “wow! This is just like the movies!” to which I could only respond, “Yeah, the movies really capture the vibe of the Shire and the dwarves really nicely!”

By Rivendell, however, the texts started to change tone: “This is not what I was expecting, this is so boring.”

By Mirkwood: “When do Bilbo and Thorin become, you know, friends?”

At that point I had to break their heart and explain that the movies took a lot of liberties, added plotlines and developed characters, and drew upon material or suggestions of material from other sources, like the LtR appendices.

To put it lightly, they were heartbroken, so we talked very briefly about the purpose of the Hobbit as a book compared to the purpose of the Hobbit as a film, and then I suggested they watch the LotR films instead.

They didn’t finish the Hobbit and they never read LtR, but they loved the original trilogy films: PJ’s films–the Hobbit & LotR both–enriched their life.

I share this because I could have chosen to be a dick about how the Hobbit films are so different they shouldn’t even count as adapted material. I could have said “I don’t have a favorite dwarf because I wasn’t fond of the movies and the dwarves are entirely undeveloped in the books and difficult to forcibly flesh out, even moreso than many characters in Silm, because at least then you have the explicit historical context and family relationships to make the picture fuller.”* I could have insinuated that I couldn’t deal with their disappointment with the source material and didn’t understand their obsession with the films; I could have suggested the films are overhyped popular culture; I could have implied their taste in media was lacking.

But I didn’t. I tried very hard not to let any negative opinions about them and their media preferences leak in.

They loved the films, so I let them love them. 

And maybe one day they’ll come back to the books and love them, too.

(And maybe not.)

But at least I won’t have soured the idea of the source material for them. At least when they pick the book up in 15 years–perhaps to read to a child–they won’t think of how elitist and lame and cruel book fans are: at least they won’t have been damaged by vitriol on my behalf, in the name of education, or purity and canon.**

So, fellow book!nerds:

Be kind.

And that’s all I have to say about that.***

Original tags:

There is no need for gatekeeping in Tolkien fandom. Treat newcomers to the fandom like you want to be treated: with courtesy, respect, and kindness. It doesn’t matter if they’ve only seen the show or the movies. It doesn’t matter if they haven’t read The Hobbit, LotR, The Silmarillion, the other posthumous works, or Tolkien’s non-Middle-earth works. It doesn’t matter if their fanworks are Tolkien-esque in style or not. It doesn’t matter if they ship canon, non-canon, or nothing at all. It doesn’t matter if they mix book/movie/show-verses in their fanworks. They are still fans.

Elrond welcomed everyone to Rivendell, save those who would destroy it. He welcomed Elves, Dwarves, Men, Hobbits, wizards. He built a sanctuary where people could rest, freely share knowledge, and plan to make the world a better place.

There is no need for gatekeeping in Tolkien fandom. Treat newcomers to the fandom like you want to be treated: with courtesy, respect, and kindness. It doesn’t matter if they’ve only seen the show or the movies. It doesn’t matter if they haven’t read The Hobbit, LotR, The Silmarillion, the other posthumous works, or Tolkien’s non-Middle-earth works. It doesn’t matter if their fanworks are Tolkien-esque in style or not. It doesn’t matter if they ship canon, non-canon, or nothing at all. It doesn’t matter if they mix book/movie/show-verses in their fanworks. They are still fans.

Elrond welcomed everyone to Rivendell, save those who would destroy it. He welcomed Elves, Dwarves, Men, Hobbits, wizards. He built a sanctuary where people could rest, freely share knowledge, and plan to make the world a better place.

The new Amazon Rings of Power series is on many of our minds. With the Super Bowl trailer drop, releases of a series of posters, and articles and teasers cropping up across the Tolkien fandom like mushrooms after a rain, the new series has become impossible to ignore. And for many existing Tolkien fans, they wonder: How will this new show shape the fandom communities that I love?

Over the next few months, Cultus Dispatches will look at this question by analyzing the impact of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit film trilogies on the fandom. "Becoming Bookverse" is the first article in this series, in which @dawnfelagund uses Tolkien Fanfiction Survey data to make the case that, in the fic fandom, the films brought in fans in droves—and then they became fans and authors of fic based on the books.

You can read April's column here: Becoming Bookverse: Jackson's Films as an Initiation Point for Tolkien's Book Fandom.

As part of this series, we are seeking to hear from fans who were part of the Tolkien fandom before one or both of the film trilogies. How do you think the fandom changed (or did it)? If you'd like to contribute a fandom memory, you can do so here.

Turns out it is timely, as discussions have started heating up as new fans introduced to Tolkien by The Rings of Power are no longer hypothetical but have actually started to arrive and participate in fandom.

[In dealing with new members of Tolkien fandom: Don’t be Sauron. Be Elrond, “kind as summer.”]