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I will be talking about morals, responsibilities, and Christian values.
If you are easily triggered by such things, I suggest you go no further.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
*Ahem*.
Here we go.
Today, I'm here to talk about how THESE GUYS...
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...and many more of Tolkien's wonderful characters get treated around the internet.
So a while back I was browsing Pinterest.
A while back meaning an hour ago.
And I came across some (if I may say) pretty nasty fanarts.
Now I'm not saying the artwork was bad. In fact, the artists were actually pretty talented.
No, I'm saying that what the fanart was portraying was nasty.
Nasty, as in a portrayal of one of the most disgusting non-canon ships out there - the Thrandolas ship.
Like, why.
WHY.
WHY DO PEOPLE TOTALLY MUTILATE AND PERVERT THE CHARACTERS OF TOLKIEN IN THAT HORRID WAY.
That drawing was only an example. I've seen many fanfictions and fanart around the internet where Tolkien's characters were just totally sexualized and drawn/written about in a disgusting manner.
And seriously guys, this needs to stop.
Tolkien was a Christian man, who wrote his books with Christian values. He meant to tell a story that included values and principles, and he used his characters to portray such values.
And when you take those characters that Tolkien put time, effort, and energy into creating, and turn them into some kind of objects to be sexualized for your own lustful desires, you are totally disrespecting Tolkien, and taking the work he spent his entire LIFE on, and dragging it through the mud.
There's nothing wrong with fan art and fanfiction. I think it's awesome! Fanfiction is an awesome way to hone your writing skills, and it shows that you admire the original creator of the works so much that you want to be apart of their world too.
But when you take that Creator's works and twist them for your own wants, you are showing absolutely no respect for that Author or his Characters.
Personally, I believe that any LotR fanfiction with explicit sexual content falls into this category of disrespecting Tolkien. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with romance. I love romance! And Tolkien did too. If he didn't he never would have written the tales of Beren and Luthien, Aragorn and Arwen, Faramir and Eowyn. The romance in his works was the beautiful, innocent kind, not the lust filled, sexy romance of today's culture.
As I mentioned, I truly believe Tolkien never intended his characters to become objects to be lusted after. So why do we treat them as such? There's nothing wrong with having a crush on a character, nor is there anything wrong with reading and writing romance about said characters. But Tolkien would never approve of his characters being written about in a way that sexualizes them.
next time you read or write a fanfiction, think about whether Tolkien would approve of the characters being written about in that way. Does your fanfiction honor and respect Tolkien and his works, or does it take his characters and twist them in a way he would not approve? I think this is an important thing to consider when reading and writing fanfiction.
Another ship that drives me insane is the Fingon/Maedhros ship, from the Silmarillion. This a fairly popular ship in this fandom. First of all, they are cousins, so this is an incest ship anyway, and any human being with a drop of common sense will find that fact in and of itself disgusting.
Second, they are both male. I personally believe Tolkien never intended for elves to be gay. I mean, he created dozens, if not hundreds of characters, and not one of them was homosexual. Like I said before, he was a Christian, with Christian values. When writing about Elven marriages, he always, always referenced marriage between a man and woman. Not any of his dwarven or human characters were homosexual either. He never intended for homosexual pairings in his writings, or else he would have written them. When you draw pictures and write stories about same-sex couples in middle earth, you are disrespecting Tolkien and his works and not caring about whether or not he would support such pairings.
I suppose my whole reason for ranting about all of that is this: Fanfiction and fanart is good. It shows that you admire and respect the work of the original author. But when you treat the characters of Tolkien in a way that he would never, ever approve, you are dishonoring and disrespecting him and his works, and showing that you really don't care about whether Tolkien would approve of the way you treat his works.
So let's keep our fanfiction void of any sexual material, for the sake of Tolkien.
If you want sexual content, go write fanfiction about Game of Thrones. Or something.
But keep Tolkien's characters the way he intended for them to be portrayed.
