The cognitive dissonance of Tolkien fans is frustrating.
You have folks who ship Morgoth/Sauron and Frodo/Sam, while dissing Rings of Power for not "getting Tolkien." On the surface, one may say "galaxy, what do these have to do with each other? Ships and dislike of a show don't have to interact." Let me explain.
First and foremost, I, personally, do like the gay ships. They are interesting reevaluations of certain characters and their relationships, most of the ones I've seen being pretty viable. The problem I have here, though, is that one cannot accurately ship them, while castigating another interpretation of the Lengendarium for not "getting Tolkien."
Something Tolkien fans like to conveniently forget: Tolkien was Catholic. And not just Catholic, a TRADITIONAL Catholic. A "Latin is the only viable liturgical language" Catholic. Which means, he would have opposed homosexuality and balked at any insinuation that any of his characters were gay.
Rightly so, when confronted with this, some fans will claim the death of the author. It is a problematic stance he had, being a product of his time and upbringing, and we are right to cast it away.
This returns me to the cognitive dissonance: you cannot claim death of the author in order to forward your vision or interpretation of a text, while using them to justify invalidation of another interpretation. Another's is just as valid, assuming, of course, it doesn't fly in the face of the core message of the story, text, what have you.
And, frankly, there is nothing in the Rings of Power that does this. Everything in it is faithful to the Legendarium, if not in letter, than in spirit. Galadriel being obsessed with Sauron? Tell me she doesn't seem like she's seen some shit and worked through that shit in Lord of the Rings. Sauron appearing as a normal human? He's a master of disguise and deception, a shapeshifter. Of course he'd assume an unassuming guise. That's espionage and infiltration 101. This is not the big, bombastic Sauron from the War of Wrath or the War of the Ring. This is Sauron the schemer, Sauron the deceiver.
"But they didn't do Annatar!" And they couldn't and have it be entertaining for everyone. Staunch fans would have immediately known Annatar was Sauron, thus denying them and new watcher the entertainment of the twist and guessing who and where he was.
I diverge. The problem I see, mainly, is that fans only use the Death of the Author when it suits them and their view. When it doesn't, suddenly the author's word is sacrosanct, we must absolutely adhere to their word and portray the work in a one to one fashion in adaptions.
Final thoughts: the Lord of the Rings movies, which are pretty universally loved by Tolkien fans, are not one to one adaptations. Christopher Tolkien (whom these same inconsistent fans recourse to) hated them.
The Tolkien estate gave the Rings of Power their stamp of approval, liking it so much they gave the show runners access to certain parts of the Silmarillion.
Be consistent. Otherwise, you're just a hater.
