Month: August 2017

tartapplesauce replied to your post “I hate Torvin ._. The least dwarvish dwarf ever written. Where’s his…”

Oh I’m just throwing up my hands and rolling with it, to be honest. Making new rings of power? settling in Mordor? setting yourself up as a new dark lord? what the why the how my brain is melted. That revving sound you hear is Tolkien turning in his grave so fast, he will rotate right out of the ground. AND APPARATE AS A WRATHFUL, VENGEFUL SPIRIT TO BEAT THE EVERLOVIN’ SEVEN SHADES OF SUNSHINE OUT OF WRAITHBRIMBOR AND HIS MORTAL PAL. I mean – SEXY SEDUCTIVE SHELOB?  Well okay, I can go there, I can see if we kind of imagine she’s more like Thuringwethil or something than – no, sorry, this is the OFFSPRING OF UNGOLIANT, SHE WHO SCARED MORGOTH SO BAD HE CRIED FOR HIS MOMMY AND THE BALROGS HAD TO RESCUE HIM

Omgsh, I see where you’re coming from ‘Applesauce, but I actually don’t agree at all! :O 

 So far, Torvin is my one and only complaint about their use of canon; I think the devs did a very reasonable job of integrating their story with the existing ones, despite the limitations of copyrights. (Mind you, I’m still in the second half of the game; I can’t speak for…. whatever happens next.)

One interview with the devs said something like “you can’t just make a game and slap an IP over it” and I really feel like that’s the spirit of SoM*. They wanted to make a game FOR fans who want to explore Tolkien’s world first-hand, filling in behind the scenes of the main story, through the eyes of mainly soldiers and civilians– which I LOVE SO MUCH.  I mean, it’s fanfiction, sure! But so far it’s been very good fanfiction, far better than I had any right to expect from a big game franchise. 

*Actually, let me just link to that: It’s a really wonderful and extensive article from Polygon on Tolkien adaptations, from Bakshi onwards. The stuff about SoM is at the end, and it’s Super Duper Good, I highly recommend reading it.  They talk like people who have the same respect and love of the original material as we do, and I appreciate it very much. 

What would Tolkien think of the game? We don’t know, and it’s not really our place to speculate. However, MY trouble with Torvin is that I have some very specific and deep-seated opinions on the Khazad, and I absolutely don’t jive with like 85% of the cinematic versions’ portrayal of them as short, gruff Scotsmen with a disdain for delicacy and manners. It erases their background; i.e., Tolkien’s stated intent for them to have roots in jewish culture. 

I have a vested interest in the portrayal of dwarves, and I hate that they’re stripped of their complexity and jewishness every time they’re brought to screen. Torvin here just happens to be the clumsiest example of that tendency, as well as making very little sense in context. I mean– the character makes sense, but not the fact that he’s a dwarf. The same character could have been filled more convincingly by any of the Men local to the area, who are hardened and wild and living in Mordor already. But I guess they wanted to have more variety in the cast besides Men, Orcs, and an elf ghost? Anyway, like I said: so far he’s my only real complaint (besides fridged wives).   

…Also he makes a stupid vaguely sexist joke about his wife, so fuck ‘im. You don’t talk shit about dwarrowdams on my watch, mister.  >:|