Off Topic Discussion Megathread

[MilkieTea]

Apparently the new LOTR show is going to have female orcs and 50/50 Numenor gender split of their soldiers.

Wow, I can't wait for the discourse surrounding this that will totally be in good faith /s.
LOL.

And then there'll be people who will ALWAYS make it about SJWs and feminists and woke-culture XD. As though being a woman included in a show, or a show being more inclusive, is inherently political.

[VirusOnline]

As though being a woman included in a show, or a show being more inclusive, is inherently political.

yes, is it not ?
even moreso in fantasy circles bc excuse m'lore

[Misplaced_Marbles]

As though being a woman included in a show, or a show being more inclusive, is inherently political.

Do female orks matter? No...unless they make them sexy orks, at which point you can only say "you gotta be fucking kidding..."

[Cincierta]

Sometimes I wonder about our meat department.

[Kolsykol]

Imo it's just a bit amusing that Orcs are apparently so weirdly progressive lol.
Even compared to humans.
The only thing that makes sense to me is that female Orcs are kinda like female Skaven in Warhammer, I really have a very very hard time believing it'd work differently.

Imo I do find it to be kinda immersion breaking with 50/50 armies in LOTR too, it's very transparently 2022 sensibilities and even then irl it's nowhere even anywhere close to that irl especially not in combat roles ( most ppl in the military are not in combat roles ).
In FFXIV?
Alright, I am not opposed to the concept itself.
But in LOTR it was never like that, the exceptions were very special.
It also kinda detracts from the coolness of Eowyn imo.

I mean I think anyone who's just a little intellectually honest can see and understand what's going on.
Whether it's a good or a bad thing is a different matter I don't think it's always a bad thing.
I do think in the case of LOTR tho that it is a bad thing because it's not a new setting and it's so well-established.
It ends up feeling like fanfiction.

[Vahlnir]

Imo it's just a bit amusing that Orcs are apparently so weirdly progressive lol.
Even compared to humans.
The only thing that makes sense to me is that female Orcs are kinda like female Skaven in Warhammer, I really have a very very hard time believing it'd work differently.

Imo I do find it to be kinda immersion breaking with 50/50 armies in LOTR too, it's very transparently 2022 sensibilities and even then irl it's nowhere even anywhere close to that irl especially not in combat roles ( most ppl in the military are not in combat roles ).
In FFXIV?
Alright, I am not opposed to the concept itself.
But in LOTR it was never like that, the exceptions were very special.
It also kinda detracts from the coolness of Eowyn imo.

I mean I think anyone who's just a little intellectually honest can see and understand what's going on.
Whether it's a good or a bad thing is a different matter I don't think it's always a bad thing.
I do think in the case of LOTR tho that it is a bad thing because it's not a new setting and it's so well-established.
It ends up feeling like fanfiction.

I think the series is going to flop. Inclusion is fine. For me, that is a non issue. I just don't think that they are going to manage to tell a good story. To be completely fair though, the LOTR movie trilogy basically is THE bar, and very few, if any, attempts to meet it or rise above it are going to end well. I've seen some decent movie series since then, but nothing will ever take the crown that the LOTR movie trilogy proudly wears.

[Kolsykol]

I think the series is going to flop. Inclusion is fine. For me, that is a non issue. I just don't think that they are going to manage to tell a good story. To be completely fair though, the LOTR movie trilogy basically is THE bar, and very few, if any, attempts to meet it or rise above it are going to end well. I've seen some decent movie series since then, but nothing will ever take the crown that the LOTR movie trilogy proudly wears.

It's strange, because it doesn't rly look particularly bad.
But I also don't feel anything at all from the trailers.
They try to hype it up like the most epic thing ever but I just have a non-reaction and can't get excited for it at all.

I don't have an issue with inclusion and all that either, but I do when it doesn't make sense or goes against the established lore in the setting.
It makes it feel soulless and too artificial imo, it's why I stopped caring about and lost interest in Star Wars too because it felt like nothing mattered anymore because they kept retconning etc ( not in regards to inclusion and all that, but the lore and story ).

Lagertha and the Shield Maidens in Vikings is an example of this too.
I liked Lagertha a lot and thought she was a cool character, but the Shield Maidens are ultimately more mythology than reality.
Especially the depiction of them in media.
People just REALLY want them to be true, and they went really overboard with it in later seasons imo to a point where it both detracted from Lagertha herself as a character and also made the show feel less real and immersive.
I can buy Lagertha as being the exception, especially with her and Ragnar altogether being kinda steeped in mythology.
But when you've got basically an army of them running around it becomes too much.
Granted this is probably one of my least issues as far as historicity goes in later seasons, but still.
At some point things just reach a level where it takes you out of it.

If you're gonna deal with history or an already established setting I think you need to have more care about it, if you're dealing with something totally original tho it's whatever.
I wouldn't really think twice about a 50/50 gender split in an army in FFXIV for example or the fact that races aren't as demographically tied.
You'll see people in FFXIV with a variety of different skin colors running around in all regions.

Glad I already don't care about Lord of the Rings or I might be really disappointed right now.

I love the trilogy movies but yeah, I didn't like the Hobbit movies at all and have had no interest in the games.
I am not too attached to it either.

I kinda feel the same about LOTR as I do with DnD, it's just kinda bland and generic.
Partly because so many other fantasy settings took so much inspiration from them so it has been overdone so much.

[TheMightyMollusk]

Won this in a raffle. Debating what to do with it.

(I mean, yeah, I could just build a white Zaku, but that's no fun.)

[Cincierta]

Won this in a raffle. Debating what to do with it.

(I mean, yeah, I could just build a white Zaku, but that's no fun.)

Could always give it a custom paint job.

[Thaciscokidd]

Could always give it a custom paint job.

If not this you could save them for a diorama.