#i am not entirely certain how i arrived at that conclusion: soup brain is soup

[hollowwhisperings]

Jackson's casting Elrond as an Antagonist [Fantasy Racist] Father-in-Law for his film adaptions was like

like

look, okay, the entire Silmarillion CAN be reduced to "Elrond's Backstory": the dude is related to every Ruling House in Middle-Earth, bar one¹.

so PJ's mischaracterization of Elrond? it's... it's a Plot Hole. for the ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE SETTING.

the Elrond thing is, to me, a Microcosm of my Greater Issue with the Jackson Films as a whole. Tolkien's Works are Very White: he was a very white man. They're STILL more colourful than PJ's films.

Jackson didn't just add Elrond's Fantastic Racism to his adaptions: he added IRL Racism too.

The racism in Jackson's LOTR films is infuriating to me: any other fantasy setting that was THIS faithfully racist across the board? It would have been called out. LOUDLY. Rings of Power has addressed or been tagged to account for all the same controversies that Jackson was never held accountable for, not in LOTR and not in his Hobbit films either. It's exhausting to personally point out how Jackson whitewashed his productions, not to mention the other ways he screwed marginalized groups over. Remember when Jackson & the NZ government collab'd to kill film crew rights? on the country's Labour Day? it's even called The Hobbit Law!

Jackson's Adaptions of LOTR and The Hobbit were "faithful" to Tolkien in many of the worst ways. They set Precedents that subsequent adaptions (TROP) have struggled to combat.

Obligatory Afternote

Weta Workshop's screen test shots for female dwarves influenced & popularized our fandom's mythos for "dwarrowdams".

The Hobbit films reinvigorated fan discussions on gender, sexuality and how fluid they are as spectrums. They also prompted fans to readress the Antisemitism & Racism that Tolkien employed throughout his depictions of the khazad.

The films did not do those things alone, fans of the films did: the good found in the Jackson films exists alongside their racism.

Footnote

¹Elrond has no family ties to the Line of Durin nor any hobbit chieftains (the Tooks, for instance), not unless he stood-in as "kin" to Bilbo, Frodo, Sam &/or Gimli during their afterlives in Valinor.

Easterlings, the Haradrim & the other [Racially Stereotyped] Fantasy Humans in the Legendarium live beyond "Middle-Earth".

They are, very technically, denizens of "Farther Earth" or perhaps "South-" or "Eastern Earth".

It's also pretty probable that the Line of Elros (Elrond's In-Laws & Esteemed Niblings) interwed with Haradrim rulership early on, whilst Elrond was still an "Uncle" or "Great-Uncle" to Numenor's Kings.