LoTR is Racist!

[PopeyesPappy]

I thought he "rebuilt" the Eye Tower?

Yes. Barad-dur was destroyed at the end of the second age. Sauron rebuilt it during the 70ish year period between the being driven out of Dol Guldur by the White Council and the beginning of the LoTR story.

I thought it was a nice touch in the Battle of Five Armies movie that when Sarun first took the shape of the eye the pupil of the eye was shaped like Sauron's humanoid form.

[Cavebear]

Melkor was the fallen leader of some Ainur at the founding of the world.  After being cast into the Earth, he tried to seize power and was cast down by other Ainur.  His lieutenant was Sauron.  Sauron was the evil of the Earth afterwards as detailed in The Silmarillion.  Sauron placed much of his power into the One Ring he created to control the lesser rings given to the dwarves, men, and elves in a scheme to control them.  The men fell easily and became the ringwraiths.  The dwarves were harder to overcome (coming from rock and stone), but he got most of them.  The elves with rings were outside his ability to control, though he broke a few heroes and created the orcs from them.

The elvers fought most of The Great Wars but were slowly driven back from Sauron's work and internal divisions.  In the last great battle, the elves and men overcame Sauron but the men took the ring as trophy and it was lost.  That began the struggle of the 3rd Age. 

Sauron sought his Ring, the Ring sought Sauron and the lesser being of the world emerged.  Hobbits, Ents, etc.

The hobbits won, hurray.  Bilbo, Ring, Gollum, Ents, Gandalf, Orcs, Frodo, you know that part.  I can't write this stuff forever. 

[Cavebear]

So why is that all racist?

[Baruch]

The Orcs, if portrayed as pale blond haired folks, yet evil, would match today's un-racism.  The opponents of Sauron etc should all be gay women of color.

[Cavebear]

The Orcs, if portrayed as pale blond haired folks, yet evil, would match today's un-racism.  The opponents of Sauron etc should all be gay women of color.

I expected SOMETHING like that (though the specifics were a surprise).  And I understand, in a way.  I would love to have see Orcs as the pale blonde types and the elves as swarthy little ugly ones.  Oh but wait, that sounds like dwarves and they were "good guys" too.  Sorry about that...

But here is something to consider...  Maybe it was the Neanderthals who had blonde/red hair and blue eyes and the Cro-magnons who brought us dark hair and brown eyes?  Both light color hair and eyes are to be expected of people who had lived in and were evolutionarily Northern climes for a few hundred thousand years rather than the recently-arrived modern humans who hadn't have had so much time to adapt to reduces sunlight...  Just a thought.