But not for any other reason than because they served a specific thematic purpose: orcs where the representation of men consumed by hate and violence, whose answer to any problem was war and bloodshed. Immediately, these two things come from not different worlds, but vastly different galaxies than the other. “Warcraft,” the game, was a turn-based strategy game for the computer, meant to test players as fictional generals. “Lord of the Rings” for example oozes Tolkien’s strong Christian faith as well as his grappling with the horrors he faced in WWI.
One reason is that art, from literature to film, has different goals. Using his works as the weight of the scales to assess fantasy is asking for a harmful chilling effect to occur, where creators of all kinds will not want to try their hand at the fantasy genre knowing they’re in for bad reception.Ĭhilling effect aside, I can’t understate how frankly insane a notion it is to have the “Lord of the Rings” set the bar for all fantasy. What people forget is the time it took to build great worlds like in “Lord of the Rings” up, and that Tolkien himself didn’t have it all laid out neatly when he began writing. Asking any creator or team of creators to match that when they introduce their creation is simply asking them to fail. Tolkien was a genius, a professor at a world-renowned university, and had the time to build the extremely dense and interesting lore of his fantasy world. I think it’s important to note before listing why such comparisons are wrong is that they are quite damaging to the future of the fantasy genre. I was shocked and frankly confused when the bulk of the criticism boiled down to, or was sadly word for word, “its nothing like ‘Lord of the Rings.’” Comparing “Warcraft” or even the larger universe that is in “World of Warcraft” to “Lord of the Rings” is absurd on a plethora of fronts, but probably not any of these critics and many who think like them would realize. When the “World of Warcraft” film came out, aptly named “Warcraft,” I was expecting some harsh criticism, and having watched the movie, I can attest to it being rough in a good number of places. With all the context out of the way, time to upset some folks with this opinion: Stop asking for all fantasy to be like Tolkien.
Tolkien stoked that love at a young age for me with “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.” Tolkien is one of my favorite writers and will always be one of them, his command of language alone being enough to hold that place in my heart. Even my taste in science-fiction serves that point, with “Star Wars” honestly having more in common with fantasy than sci-fi where it matters. It’s no secret to anyone who knows my tastes that I love fantasy.
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