'Lord of the Rings' and 'Game of Thrones'

Fantasy and science fiction’s transition from fans to mainstream entertainment seems to be over. In contrast to today, when corporations have flooded the genre with countless franchises and incoherent sequels. Analysts have been seeking for the exact moment everything went wrong for some time. Hint: ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Game of Thrones’ contributed.

In X a few days ago, critic Eckharts Ladder questioned about the “roller effect” of Peter Jackson’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ films on our view of the narrative. Due to Jackson’s success, it’s hard to picture the tale in any other way, but he chooses other equally acceptable ideas of Tolkien’s work before his designs.

It references artists like the Hildebrandt Brothers, Frank Frazetta, and Rodney Matthews, but it makes one think most about how huge popularity canonizes some views and burys others. Something unusual, especially since Tolkien’s descriptions are extensive and often differ from Jackson’s idea.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy is key to understanding fandom and adaptations since it was the moment producers realized that faithfulness was crucial, contrary to their previous beliefs. Jackson’s respect for Tolkien (although he had to take liberties) made the trilogy a success, changing the relationship between the majors and the fandom: before then, superhero or fantasy adaptations were made for the public outside the fan circuits, not the fans.

However, the huge success of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (which won the Oscars, an unprecedented feat for an adventure blockbuster based on a literary classic) had a downside. Directors’ cuts and special editions, which had existed before, became popular, but they took on new forms (re-releases in theaters, repeat of blockbusters) that transformed how studios treated things for the worst. The fanbase was a cash cow that needed constant milking.

The Verge mentioned ‘Game of Thrones’, another fan-made hit, a few weeks ago. In ‘The Winter of Content’, Kevin Nguyen describes how the HBO series’ mass success beyond fantasy fan circles spurred the media to go crazy publishing pieces about it. “It was one of those things,” he adds, “that people could never get enough of.”

The author regrets how all media began producing copied content, regardless of quality or quantity, because it worked. He believes ‘Game of Thrones‘ was a reliable source of traffic for a decade, especially on Mondays, when all the media covered the previous night’s episode.

Nyugen describes a dead end: there was nothing else to read, but everyone read it. The success of ‘Game of Thrones’ and the publications about it homogenized the media. Aside from the destructive impact ‘Game of Thrones’ had on the press, which the author describes in detail, people (in far bigger numbers than ever before) were accustomed to being told about what they liked: incessantly.

We prefer talking about movies and programs in little tablets, the medium-term result. These pills are recaps (thankfully out of style)—no reflection, no depth, simply a synopsis of what we’ve seen. But they are two separate phenomena: the industry’s decision to homogenize a franchise’s interpretation limits its creative potential, and the obsession with generating content without rest from these franchises makes it more conservative. The dread of failure and risk.

When big corporations took over characters and stories that only a few fans cared about, they divided them into as many parts as possible and started a system of information dosing (trailers every few months, leaks, embargoes) that would be fine if not for the unification. From apocalyptic films to superhero franchises to horror films, everything is promoted the same. That’s why ‘Longlegs’ was the summer’s surprise hit, with an advertising campaign that didn’t show its star and misled.

Remember that major movies are getting bigger and indie movies are neglected as we talk about them all the time. Big franchises are playing it safe since failure would cause a cascading effect. The uniformity of fantasy has produced these results, and it remains to be seen if it wipes out the great genres’ surprise capacity.

‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Game of Thrones’

By ki0nk

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