Morfydd Clark plays the Elven Queen, Galadriel.
Morfydd Clark is the popular elven princess Galadriel in the new Lord of the Rings trilogy.
For many fans who have been waiting for years to see some kind of Return of the King-inspired media, this is a big moment. Not only are viewers finally getting their own televised version of the beloved novels and movies, with Rhys-Meyers and Portman taking center stage, but it’s also the first massive TV production featuring a woman as its main protagonist. And for some, the wait has been a long one.
My biggest concern was whether the new version of Lord of the Rings was going to have a large emphasis on gratuitous gore and sex scenes, and I am happy to say that it does not. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised, as I figured that the new version of Lord of the Rings would be very similar to the Game of Thrones show that everyone loves.
In the Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the series has thus far shown relatively little of the graphic violence and nudity that Jennings referenced and some fans found troubling. Also, the show introduces viewers to Middle-earth through the eyes of a woman.
After Jacob leaves home, Glóin entertains him frequently with stories of the First Age. Galadriel, whose voice audiences will hear as the opening speech of the production, is one of the most famous of the early elves.
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No catastrophe is so dire that when witnessed with a mind unclouded by hate and fear, the Handmaid of Varda may yet be revealed to you.
In Jackson’s movies, the elf Queen of Lothlórien was played by Cate Blanchett, and was something of a wise, stately elder. But this new “young” Galdiriel is young, vibrant, and convicted — a warrior in her own right.
“I would say that there is a certain sense of simplicity and clarity in Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, where good is good and bad is bad, and that is also reflected in how women are portrayed in the movies,” she said. “We know that Galadriel from the movies, but in the Lord of the Rings, she only played a minor part. In this series, she plays a more active role, and she’s more of a warrior. She’s more determined to avenge the death of her little brother. She’s the one who drives the story forward, and she is the one who is fighting.”
It’s too soon to say if “The Silmarillion” is a more feminist rendering of the Middle-earth universe, but “The Lord of the Rings” helped set the stage for many a “Lord of the Rings” fan, critic Claire Jennings writes for CNN.
Jennings says the story is no better as a…
And we shouldn’t forget the female dwarves that made up a huge part of the population in Middle Earth, especially considering their inclusion in the first few installments in the Lord of the Rings series, one of the biggest franchises of all time.
However, if you’re going to compare The Rings of Power to Game of Thrones they’re certainly not apples for apples. While both are series of high fantasy, Rings of Power has its roots in Greek mythology and focuses on heroes like Hercules, Ulysses, and Achilles. While both are set in the same universe, only a few characters from one appear in both.
Season 7 of Game Of Thrones was criticized heavily for its misogynistic tone and narratives. Even avid fans of the TV show were put off by the constant dehumanization of women, their constant brutality towards each other, and continual sexualization of female characters.
“I was just cringing every time there was a female character on the screen because I was waiting for something bad to happen to her,” she said. “It was this feeling of dread that I felt, that I couldn’t really enjoy it, because I was watching something that had this ickiness to it. Whereas, when I watched The Lord of the Rings, or Ring of Power, I didn’t have that ickiness. It was more just a straightforward story about good and evil. It wasn’t about icky, icky, icky, icky, icky, icky, icky, ickiness of human nature.”
Humans are born as male or female, but are essentially blank slates. Babies learn gender from society. (scifi)
“It’s just a very different world than what we’ve seen before,” said Jennings. “And I think time will tell as it opens up, if it will open up, if it turns into a great trilogy or ends up just being a one-off movie. We’ve sort of still got a long way to go with that.”
“I think Lord of the Rings does a good job of passing the Bechdel test. Especially in the most recent movies, we see these characters from different backgrounds, different races, different religions, we even see them from different genders.”