What does Star Trek: Into Darkness and Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power have in common? A pair of racist, skin-washed, poorly written, and wasted villains named Khan Noonien Singh and Sauron. Both intellectual properties tried to play a shell game with their villains (and failed), both failed to properly build them up, and both miscast the actors who have, or will, portray those roles. Of course, this all stems from recent news that The Rings of Power has cast actor Gavi Singh Chera as Sauron in season 2.
According to X/Twitter user @FellowshipFans, Chera’s Sauron will be portraying the “original form” of Sauron. A portrayal which, in and of itself, presents issues since Sauron wouldn’t adopt such a visage as his first form since he was dealing with the Elves while they inhabited Valinor. So if the Elves were interacting with Sauron while they were in Valinor, why would his original form be other than Elvish or Elf-like? More specifically, why would Sauron be dark-skinned rather than light-skinned?
Of course, the Rings of Power showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay have decided that their Middle-earth is now Tolkien’s Middle-earth by creating Arondir; a dark-skinned Elf that shouldn’t exist in the Second Age considering the origins and history of Elves. So it wouldn’t be surprising if the writers wanted Sauron, in his unfallen form when he was a Maiar, to be a person of color so that later on, after being corrupted by Melkor, his skin color changes for his new evil form which would explain why he is white when viewers are introduced to Halbrand.
You know…the “in vogue” narrative in social justice circles that “white people are evil.”
Now, is that to say that Sauron would never shapeshift into such a form? Of course not. That would be a stupid thing to say. However, the only logical reason I could see for Chera being cast as Sauron would be when Sauron is recruiting allies and servants from the Easterlings or the Haradrim. However, I would be overestimating the Rings of Power writers’ writing skills and intelligence if I actually thought they had considered this.
So as much as I would like to see more Indian actors and actresses in Hollywood overall, it doesn’t make sense for them to be in this role.
As stated in other editorials about shows like The Witcher, or even criticizing The Rings of Power, I hate colorwashing of established characters (look at what Wizards of the Coast did to Tolkien’s beloved IP). It’s just as bad as whitewashing and just as racist. So while we are on the topic of Indian actors and race-swapping of characters, it brings up the other part of this editorial.
Star Trek: Into Darkness.
When it comes to Star Trek, there are a number of memorable villains such as the Borg, Weyoun, Harry Mudd, General Chang, Gul Dukat, and Khan Noonien Sing just to name a small selection of them. Yet Khan, especially, stands out since Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is generally considered the best of the Star Trek movies (or a tossup between it and Star Trek VIII: First Contact).
So it was to the ire of Star Trek fans when Star Trek: Into Darkness was announced and J(ar) J(ar) Abrams tried to hide Khan’s identity before the movie’s release. Then he attempted to make the character’s identity one of his patented “mystery boxes” that Trekkies could spot a mile away. Similar to what The Rings of Power writers tried to do, poorly I have to stress, with Sauron’s identity and which, quickly, Tolkien fans figured out from the obvious direction the show was taking Galadriel in.
But what was even worse in Star Drek: Into Dankness was the fact that Khan had been blatantly whitewashed with Benedict Cumberbatch playing the iconic character. Even though, canonically, fans knew that Khan Noonien Singh was a Sikh and the ruler of Eurasia before he and his band of followers fled Earth.
Don’t get me wrong.
Cumberbatch is a great actor and he plays a fantastic villain (his performance as Smaug was great). But he is not Khan, he is not Indian, and what is even worse is that a pre-movie comic was released to try and explain why Khan wasn’t Indian for the movie. Of course, during production, Star Trek fans spoke out about this but the mainstream media didn’t really care. You know, the same fans who have been called racist, sexist, etc for saying that Nu Trek/Jar Trek is not Star Trek and is an insult to Roddenberry’s vision of the franchise because of the mediocre writing, ignoring of canon, breaking of established rules, portrayed as a more grimdark-lite atmosphere, and many other issues (the same demonization that has happened to Tolkien fans for similar reasons regarding The Rings of Power).
Which is not surprising given Bad Reboot…sorry…Bad Robot Productions’ track record with established franchises: Star Trek and Star Wars.
However, even if we take away the racist actions by Abrams and the production team; the movie’s writing was sub par. Nu Trek: Into Blandness’ writing failed to portray Khan as a great villain, failed to give the character depth, failed to produce emotional scenes, and failed to create high stakes moments to put the audience on the edge of their seats like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan did. From dead giveaways like the “super blood” as the vehicle to bring the dead to life, the unsurprising reveal of Khan’s identity, to the horrible portrayal of Klingons (soy boy emo Klingons); it was all handled badly and written even worse.
The same bad writing we see in Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Which shouldn’t be surprising since The Rings of Power showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay worked for Bad Reboot. They wrote the original script for Star Trek: Beyond, which must have been really bad since it was completely rewritten by Simon Pegg and Doug Jung. Which, I am assuming, also means that they most likely didn’t understand the intellectual property they were writing for, which was a major problem with bringing on Jar Jar Abrams to do the Star Trek movies and, from there, allowing Alex Kurtzman to ruin the Star Trek IP via one bad show after another.
So, too, have Payne and McKay failed to understand, or even bothered, to learn and respect Tolkien’s rich playground that they are bulldozing through. And the results show as general audiences can see how season 1 of The Rings of Power has turned out. You know, little facts like only 37% of viewers bothered to watch the show in its entirety, lack of merchandise, lack of awards, and how quickly it was forgotten by the general audience.
Which was the main target for these writers and for Bad Robot. Not for the fans of these established and respected IPs, but for an audience that they failed to attract and retain with their “modernized” empty shells of a corporate product.
So why did Jar Jar Abrams and team decide to whitewash this iconic character? The answer is simple: for money. Cumberbatch was a hot commodity at the time and Abrams, along with Paramount, only cared about making money on the Star Trek IP.
So what’s a little racism when compared to a box office payout?
(Prince of Persia movie anyone?)
And since Hollywood and the mainstream media decides when it is or isn’t racism, there wasn’t any pushback from the media or even Leftists. The only people to call out the whitewashing of Khan were Trekkies. Of course, the media couldn’t accuse Trekkies of being racist over this issue (though Paramount and Kurtzman have done so over criticisms of the Star Drek shows).
As for The Rings of Power, the blatant racism in regards to the colorwashing of characters (Tar-Miriel), or inclusion of people of color in settings where they don’t make sense (Arondir), are shielded under the terms of “diversity” and “inclusivity.” All because Amazon along with Payne and McKay were hoping to make a ton of money by appealing to as large a demographic as possible and cash in on the imaginary woke dollars.
But make no mistake.
This is blatant racism.
Racism that is being protected by declaring that this is done in the name of “diversity” and “inclusivity” with the added bonus that this also protects them from the show’s horrible plotting, blatant subversion of Tolkien’s work, and other major issues with the show. A shield which they used liberally to bash with by calling Tolkien fans racist for pointing out the show’s issues (which they still do every chance they get). With the additional protection which comes from the minority of The Rings of Power fans who think the show is fun and enjoyable.
Which is fine, people can enjoy what they want. They can enjoy mediocrity.
What is not fine is the absolute delusion when it comes to the show’s problems and the disingenuousness of The Rings of Power’s Faulkien fanbase when it comes to the show’s portrayal of Tolkien’s world. Add to this the insane mental gymnastics performed by show’s fans to try and validate all of the lore changes and out-of-character representations of established characters created by Tolkien and people would find themselves in a community filled with toxic, racist, and sexist individuals who attacked everyone who criticized the show but are now pretending to be the victims and the misunderstood ones.
Suffice to say, Bad Robot and Amazon put Cumberbatch in my Khan and Chera in my Sauron. Both are equally racist castings and yet both were, and are, defended acts of racism. All because Hollywood is okay with racism so long as it thinks it will make money (which isn’t the case as Hollywood is finding out).
What is truly irritating and frustrating about Chera being cast as Sauron is that he wasn’t cast because the writers have come up with a cool or interesting plot point to justify Sauron appearing like this; that maybe he shape-changed into this form to convince the Easterlings or the Haradrim to become his allies and servants. No, this is a casting for the religion of diversity and the desecration of Tolkien’s world and its history. It is a casting of a token Tolkien character that will be praised by the racists who don’t care about the world Tokien has created.
That said, it is also possible Chera being brought onto the show is a casting of desperation in the hopes of getting people in India to keep watching the show since America has no interest in it aside from the less than 37% of people who watched the show in its entirety. Which is highly probably considering that Indians made up 12 percent of the global audience.
Star Trek: Into Darkness and Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are great examples of the industry’s hypocrisy when it comes to race-swapping in the name of the ever-decreasing-in-value dollar (thank you so much Joe Biden).
Suffice to say, racism is racism. No matter who does it for any reason.
Update: According to @FellowshipFans, the casting of Gavi Singh Chera as Sauron was an alleged false flag by Amazon to see audience reactions and to catch leakers within the production team. But, as stated before in this editorial, this could be a misdirect and that Chera will be Sauron in the show. In addition, no news of anyone be fired has followed since it was revealed that the Chera/Sauron story was false.
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