The worst they did is the LoTR Magic The Gathering card series. They managed to create black Aragorn and asian Gandalf. And they turned Goldberry into a fat woman. I'm sorry but that's simply not what the book depicts.
It's not done to unite people. It's not done out of good intentions. It's done because there's a very woke political agenda behind this.
It's not harmless: it's history rewriting. It's propaganda at work.
Lord of the Rings, much like any folk tale, story or even a book you were brought up with, is a considerable cultural and historical artifact, particularly in the UK. Trying to use it to export US culture wars is just fairly short sighted and pretty insulting to the authors creation.
It came from a different time. If you want change, write something new, you know?
folk tales are an ironic example, given they generally lack a canonical form, are frequently adjusted or embellished depending on who's telling the story, and have evolved over time and from place to place. I'd argue that the more modern idea of a 'one true' version of a story, from which any variation is lesser (bolstered in law by copyright and trademark), is the historical abberation, compared to different creators putting their own spin on any given setting, story, or character.
Now, that spin may be good or bad, from your point of view, and that point of view may be affected by what resonated with you about the original work (I think it's often a bad idea for someone to be working with some source material they fundamentally dislike, which seems to be quite common in adaptations nowadays), but that's an opinion as opposed to an appeal to some sense of moral importance of preservation of some particular elements of the original.
I disagree with exporting US culture wars, but the correct response to that is an eyeroll, perhaps a witty comment, and then moving on because it doesn't actually affect the game. The correct response is not to import the reactionary responses from those same culture wars: that is active participation in the culture war you claim is short-sighted.
For witty comments, I suggest an observation on how the response to "we have invented highly-artificial racial categories so we can maintain a system of structural oppression" is "members of all racial categories are equal, so let's make sure we hit quota in our mass media!" – though you might prefer something about cultural appropriation, or reading comprehension (maybe a dig at the US literacy rate, if you're feeling edgy and snobbish). A good witty comment reminds you, and those around you, that our problems are not their problems: to look at the problems we actually have, and try to address those, rather than export (harmful) solutions that address (admittedly, worse) problems we don't have.
Racism in the UK is bad enough, without adding US-style racism to the mix as well – and most reactionary responses to US-style antiracism are US-style racism. Don't play the game.
The worst they did is the LoTR Magic The Gathering card series. They managed to create black Aragorn and asian Gandalf. And they turned Goldberry into a fat woman. I'm sorry but that's simply not what the book depicts.
It's not done to unite people. It's not done out of good intentions. It's done because there's a very woke political agenda behind this.
It's not harmless: it's history rewriting. It's propaganda at work.