>Lord of the Rings had a very medieval philosophy: that if the king was a good man, the land would prosper. We look at real history and it’s not that simple. Tolkien can say that Aragorn became king and reigned for a hundred years, and he was wise and good. But Tolkien doesn’t ask the question: What was Aragorn’s tax policy? Did he maintain a standing army? What did he do in times of flood and famine? And what about all these orcs? By the end of the war, Sauron is gone but all of the orcs aren’t gone – they’re in the mountains. Did Aragorn pursue a policy of systematic genocide and kill them? Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles? In real life, real-life kings had real-life problems to deal with. Just being a good guy was not the answer. The Tolkien model led generations of fantasy writers to produce these endless series of dark lords and their evil minions who are all very ugly and wear black clothes. But the vast majority of wars throughout history are not like that. You had to make hard, hard decisions. Sometimes what seemed to be a good decision turned around and bit you in the ass; it was the law of unintended consequences. I've tried to get at some of these in my books. My people who are trying to rule don't have an easy time of it. Just having good intentions doesn't make you a wise king.
If Aragorn was so good, why didn't he institute some sort of Gondor Magna Carta?
Jason Collins
>What was Aragorn’s tax policy? Feudal tax in goods or currency, as well as military service Did he maintain a standing army?Yes. What did he do in times of flood and famine? Dab >And what about all these orcs? By the end of the war, Sauron is gone but all of the orcs aren’t gone – they’re in the mountains. Did Aragorn pursue a policy of systematic genocide and kill them? Even the little baby orcs, in their little orc cradles? Yes.
Xavier Sanchez
He is arguing into the wind. Tolkien wanted to create a mythology; to critique the politics of Middle Earth is like critiquing the ecology of Harry Potter.
Luke Hall
Orcs come out of the ground fully formed you fat hack
Samuel Sullivan
>thinking yourself worthy of criticising others' work when you cannot even complete your own
Jason Hall
Tell me all about your fantasy novel series then faggot
Samuel Torres
>B-bet you can't do any better! Finish what you started you fat fuck. Literally the Notch of literature.
Juan Russell
That was a Hackson invention. The original orcs were made by Melkor by tormenting and corrupting elves but afterwards they bred like any other race. The Uruk-hai were a weird crossbreed between orcs and wildmen and who knows what else.
Wyatt Harris
Why does this old fat kike feel like his take and story is any better? It's just senseless shock value and small "witty" lines between characters that have to make obvious morally good or bad decisions. Game of thrones was so hollow I felt like I'd seen the whole thing by the time I got halfway through the second season. Just keep swapping bad guys for the one in the next peg up and kill more good guys as you go.
Jacob Cox
>Green recalls that after Lewis had shared the opening chapters of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with Tolkien, "who had disliked it intensely," Lewis then read it to Green. Shortly after, Tolkien saw Green and remarked, "I hear you've been reading Jack's [Lewis's] children's story. It really won't do, you know! I mean to say: 'Nymphs and their Ways, The Love-Life of a Faun'. Doesn't he know what he's talking about?" (qtd. in Green and Hooper 241). (1) Green provides no explanation of what Tolkien meant; however, this has not prevented critics from interpreting Tolkien's comment.
>Joe R. Christopher observes that Nymphs and their Ways is one of the books which appears on Mr. Tumnus's bookcase in Chapter II of The Lion. According to Christopher, Tolkien was bothered by this scene because Lewis was distorting and sentimentalizing the myth ("Narnian Exile" 41). He suggests, "[I]f Lucy had really met a faun--that is, a satyr--the result would have been a rape, not a tea party" (Christopher, C.S. Lewis 111). Hence, the reason Tolkien alludes to The Love-life of a Faun--a book that doesn't actually appear on Mr. Tumnus's bookcase but is absurd all the same. In short, Lewis failed to maintain the mythical archetype of fauns as lustful.
>can't discern between mythological fantasy and pseudo-historical fantasy This is why he's such a fucking hack and all his books are shit.
Oliver Cox
Louis XVI was a good man but a terrible king. George is 100% right and Yas Forums knows it
Michael Gray
I still can't believe the fat bastard still hasn't finished the next GoT book.
Aiden Thompson
Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings aren't even the same genre. LOTR is high fantasy. It's not meant to delve into fucking tax policies and complex orc motivations, jesus christ.
And this is coming from the man where 50%+ of the characters in his story who are rulers are female, a female is the "strongest warrior" in all of existence, and a little 9 year old girl is the ultimate badass who miraculously survives everything.
Landon Moore
>I did begin a story placed about 100 years after the Downfall, but it proved both sinister and depressing. Since we are dealing with Men, it is inevitable that we should be concerned with the most regrettable feature of their nature: their quick satiety with good. So that the people of Gondor in times of peace, justice and prosperity, would become discontented and restless — while the dynasts descended from Aragorn would become just kings and governors — like Denethor or worse. I found that even so early there was an outcrop of revolutionary plots, about a centre of secret Satanistic religion; while Gondorian boys were playing at being Orcs and going around doing damage. I could have written a 'thriller' about the plot and its discovery and overthrow — but it would have been just that. Not worth doing.
>%+ of the characters in his story who are rulers are female, a female is the "strongest warrior" in all of existence, and a little 9 year old girl is the ultimate badass who miraculously survives everything. What the fuck are you talking about? Dany and Cersei are the pinnacle of incompetence and Brienne is no way even close to being the strongest warrior, she's just a run off the mill knight that'll get absolutely squashed facing any of the big dogs. Arya has only survived due to the help of others, she's done practically nothing at this point.
He's talking about the show obviously rather than the books. Reatrd
Zachary Hall
I didn't know George was the creator of the show. Reatrd
Camden Bell
You're a complete fucking retard. They're all characters at the peak of their power. Dany is such a ridiculous Mary Sue that it's incredible, Arya too. The very fact that you think anyone but Cersei is even a moderately realistic depiction of real life women in medieval living is fucking laughable. Dany, Arya, and Brienne are 100% pure fiction with pure fantasy motivations and plot armor. For Martin to whine about a lack of realism or historical accuracy is just fucking hypocritical and ridiculous.
Michael Watson
you're getting the show and the books mixed up breh teh books are full of subjugated wammens and powerful men in mostly trad patriarchy settings, save for Dorne.
Blake Brooks
>Reatrd If it's something that's in the show but not in the books, then the fat fuck didn't really write it like he claimed, genius.
Nathan Gonzalez
Do people really not get the context of this quote, or do they just like the memes? He’s not attackingTolkien. He’s criticizing the Tolkien fanboys who write fanfic tier LotR knockoffs without Tolkien’s mastery or vision. Unfortunately, GRRM has now inspired a legion of ASoIaF fanboys who write shitty grimdark fantasy without his sense of irony.
Juan Rogers
how is Dany any different than Elizabeth 1 except fucking crazy? Brienne of Tarth shits her pants the first time she kills a man and Arya joins a cult of magic assassins so not sure what realism you're talking about other than women aren't allowed to join the Freemasons or whatever.
Carson Perry
He's right IRL. But the genre is called fantasy
Juan Richardson
Why did he fail to make his pseudo-historic setting sensible, plausible or maintain even an ounce of verisimilitude then?
Michael Collins
He neglects to mention that while Aragorn is a good man, he is also an incredibly tough, hard man. Jackson (quite rightly) added a fair bit of self doubt to Aragorns character for story and character growth reasons in the movies, however in the book Aragorn is as steadfast and as tough they come, with an iron will and intimidating aura. He would easily make Tywin Lannister subservient to him if they ever met, for example.
Henry Smith
tolkein always came off as someone with a genuine passion for his craft and a love of the genre this faggot always comes off as a fedora tipping jackass
Joshua Foster
>how is Dany any different than Elizabeth 1 except fucking crazy? Okay, you're just not even worth replying to. You just compared Daenerys, the 14 year old SLAVE queen of a dying kingdom who is sold to a random basically Mongolian tribe and somehow literally just lucks her way and fucks her way to the top out of nowhere, to Elizabeth I. You are a god damn idiot.
>Brienne of Tarth shits her pants the first time she kills a man She is regularly described as the strongest of knights. The fact that you think a woman as a strongest fighter is even partially believable is hilarious. You didn't read the books.
>Arya joins a cult of magic assassins so not sure what realism Arya is a 9 year old noble girl who somehow goes from a spoiled life of nobility to mega awesome rawr rawr kill everything assassin, and she survives so much stupid shit that she shouldn't. She's never raped, or sold, or killed. And Martin wants to cry about realism.
Maybe Martin should stop being a hypocrite.
Easton Fisher
based
Parker Fisher
That's why your parents don't criticise other people's kids
Lincoln Murphy
All the autists who are used to constantly argue on imageboards believe he's saying Tolkien's storytelling is bad, but he's not.
John Turner
It's probably harder to portray and have the audience think of Aragorn as an 80+ yo man who's been around and seen shit on film when he's played by a relatively young man, but it makes sense for his character to not be so green anymore during the events of the books
Evan Miller
Dick didn't work
Nolan Bell
>tax policy >free folk and Northerners separated from each other by a giant ice wall for centuries but still speak the same language
Elijah White
Book Aragorn would’ve come across as a major dick and contemporary American audiences wouldn’t have been rooting against him.
Noah Lee
maybe LOTR was just set in a universe without jews?
Matthew Thompson
*would’ve been rooting against him Another conceit of the show. Wildlings speak a different language in the books.
Ayden Sanders
Lord of the Rings is responsible for the modern liberal worldview. It's the father of Star Wars, Harry Potter, and other pop culture that taught liberals that reality is a simplistic battle between good and evil.
Leo Diaz
what was the night king's tax policy?
Kayden Hernandez
My favourite fuck up from the show is the books specifically make a point of Davos having a commoner's accent that makes him stand out from most Lords, and they even include in the show scenes were Davos says he has a commoners accent, except for the fact that Davos' actor in no way speaks with a particularly different accent to highborn characters' actors
