Geri

Fascinating. The behavior of pointing out a select group's resemblance to the Borg always tends to illuminate the drone-like origins of the poster's point of view. The tell is the nature of the belief that one way is the only way and that power over truly can guide us to our maturity when that concept from shy source is the one barrier to our whole and collective liberation.

There is no party that can secure or supersede our inherent oneness. Only seeing our true connection and honoring one another, through love and justice, can do that ... something Jurati as a character was set up to make room for. And whether or not that happens in canon, the possibility of that kind of collective advancement is the value of ST.

Infinite diversity in infinity combinations is only secure through the power of our boundless capacity for love and acceptance. AKA unity in diversity.

I'm a huge Tolkien fan who read the Hobbit at she 6, at least one of the trilogy anually in my teens/20s...Admittedly skipping the dull parts of the Two Towers , read the Silmarillion like the divine reference text it is and was floored by Jackson's take in LOTR, although the Hobbit was flubbed and my friend won't forgive the lack of Tom Bombadil in his franchise storytelling. I even went to Hobbiton on a visit to Aotearoa in 2019, I've been a fan for over 60 years now. I enjoyed the Rings of Power quite a bit. I didn't go back to fact check them, taking them as their own entity. The fears that drive most of the critiques of the show define my reality... If I could overlook Tolkien's limited envisioning of species diversity to fall in love with these novels as a woman who is also racialized as Black, I know it's possible to reimagine the potential for diversity among the community of diverse fantasy beings. But I think the biggest affront for many is the arc of Galadriel channeling her trauma into rash action when women were so constructed in their roles in the novels. Be that as it may, this true Tolkien fan wants more of this world explored. The space to imagine certain vignettes from within the works gives hope for imaginative storytelling where some of the places we only created in our minds can be brought to life. Will it match our envisionings? Hopefully it will exceed them as we are not the artists bringing these new depictions to the community and at the same time, how could one team ever best our collective imaginations? I think it's exaggeration to think that having more of a beloved world will pitt one artistic group against another in the form of these political factions that refuse to unify to protect are collective futures. There is some point to it. But a stronger article would have dropped the petty sensationalism and gone for the "more could be better, here's what we are hoping angle." I'm looking forward to all of it.