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Nicholas Kotar

Fantasy inspired by Russian fairy tales

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Fantasy For Our Time: The Shadow is a Passing Thing… Or Is It?

In this episode, dear friend Richard Rohlin and I continue our discussion on The Rings of Power, picking up with episodes 6 and 7. We try to open up by focusing on the positives, but, as per usual, chaos ensues!

While there does seem to be minimal progress in the maturation of the show and its characters, we still see forced romantic tensions where friendship would do – is this a painful display of our current culture? Yes. 

After a large detour where we blame Peter Jackson for everything, criticize cinematography, and obsess over Christian Bale for some reason, we finally get to the question of why the showrunners are so obsessed with the Orcs. The creators of the show are very keen on giving these characters, evil characters, a culture, and a story covered in optimism while they clearly give characters like the elves a pessimistic treatment, portraying them as the antagonist oppressors. Again, has society inverted so far as to make this a normal means of storytelling? Yes. 

At last, we close with some predictions and hot takes. Please, let us be wrong!

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Richard’s Author Page on Darkly Bright Press

Richard’s YouTube Channel

Strange Owl Games

The Amon Sûl Podcast

The Chronicles of Prydain

Want to sample my own fiction? I have a lighthearted tale for you to start with. Enter your email below and I’ll send you a comic fantasy short featuring an epic standoff between a possibly predatory mermaid, a bunch of crazy Cossacks, and a sheltered seminarian.

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Written by:
Nicholas
Published on:
October 11, 2022

Categories: PodcastsTags: epic fantasy, epic fantasy series, fairy tales, fantasy fiction, J.R.R Tolkien, LOTR, Nicholas Kotar, Richard Rohlin, Rings of Power, The Lord of the Rings

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