Tolkien’s Aragorn Is Black Now
In their new Lord of the Rings collection, the folks at Magic: The Gathering drew Aragorn as a Black man.
The last year has seen fandoms like Percy Jackson and The Little Mermaid up in arms after the main characters had their skin colors changed. The latest outcry from folks citing a fake history as a reason that a character’s skin tone can’t be changed is from those upset that Magic: The Gathering has changed the legendary swordsman from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn, from white to Black. While the change is sure to spark a debate among those who have strong feelings against the character change, one fan took to Twitter, in a post that you can see below, to share why this decision is a great choice.
In the post, user @synthandlasers couldn’t contain his excitement for the more inclusive change surrounding the legendary sword-wielding Tolkien character. Referencing Viggo Mortensen, the star that portrayed Aragorn during the book trilogy’s big screen adaptation, he wrote that this newly drafted version of the hero was “exactly as much” of the character as Mortensen was. Slamming the haters who are saying that the decision on behalf of the card game was because of woke culture, the Twitter user teased the naysayers, writing, “Cope or die mad, losers.”
The picture in question features the heir of Isildur in his shining suit armor complete with a green cape. In his hand and thrown over his shoulder, we see his legendary weapon, the sword known as Andrúil, glowing with Elvish writing. The Tolkien-created character holds a somber look on his face as he stares in front of himself.
This isn’t the first time that one of Tolkien’s iconic characters has faced backlash from fans unhappy with how the story has been “modernized” to better fit with the times aka just made more inclusive. Last year, Amazon Prime Video debuted its The Lord of the Rings prequel series The Rings of Power, and as reported by USA Today, faced a lot of hate from audiences who were upset with the different skin pigmentations represented by several of the characters. Things reportedly got so bad that a slew of haters took to Twitter to slam the production’s choice, citing “woke culture” for the reason that their beloved fictional characters were given a very much-needed upgrade.
Despite the hate from fans, the adaptation of Tolkien’s story still managed to draw in a staggeringly impressive amount of viewers with fans flocking to see the events that led up to the formation of the Fellowship of the Ring. The Rings of Power certainly wasn’t the only Hollywood production to face that same backlash over the last year.
With the arrival of the Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, bigots popped out of the woodwork to slam the skin tone of several of George R.R. Martin’s fictional characters. The same can be said for those who sent hate mail to the folks behind Disney’s live adaptation of The Little Mermaid and also Disney+’s Percy Jackson series. Proving that hate has no place in the real world or the fantasy one, no matter how a character may have previously been portrayed, not only will Tolkien’s world continue to carry on but the other titles mentioned still have a dedicated fan base who are thrilled to see long-needed changes being made.
