Woke Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast Race-Swaps Aragorn for New "Lord of the Rings" Themed Magic: The Gathering Card Set

I know this is a rather niche concern compared to Target and Bud Light, but Hasbro is begging for a Bud Light-sized boycott.

An upcoming card game based on The Lord of the Rings appears to race-swap a number of major characters, including Aragorn, a central hero of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy saga.

As Breitbart News previously reported, "The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth" -- an upcoming set for the trading card game Magic: The Gathering (MTG) -- appeared to depict Aragorn as a dark-skinned man. However, the small size of the image left some doubt; the Aragorn character may have had that appearance due to the lighting of a climactic battle scene.

Now, official high-resolution previews from MTG confirm the set's artists have depicted him with African features, though Tolkien's novels describe him as having a "pale" face and green eyes.

A fan page previewing dozens of card designs shows MTG, a billion-dollar franchise owned by Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, has race-swapped several other characters for the new collection. Legolas the elf is depicted as Asian, Eowyn the human is black, and Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck the hobbit appears to be Hispanic or Native American.

...

Some critics have pointed out that the core elements of the fantasy series itself are rooted in historical England, with Tolkien taking mythical, cultural, and linguistic concepts from the island to create an English epic along the lines of Greece's Illiad, Wales' Mabinogion, Scandinavia's Eddas and Ireland's Táin Bó Cúailnge.

This might be the doings of Tolkein's worthless heirs. They also blessed the Rangz of Power sacrilege.

Some better news: John Cleese says the "Stan Called Loretta" scene will not be cut from the stage version of Life of Brian. He says American actors told him it had to be cut, but that he never said he would do that.

John Cleese
@JohnCleese
..and that all the actors - several of them Tony winners - had advised me strongly to cut the Loretta scene.

I have, of course, no intention of doing so

So someone in the audience had called a journalist and misreported me. Amazingly none of the British media called to check

John Cleese
@JohnCleese

Similarly, there are reports that "[Always Look on the] Bright Side [of Life]" is going to be cut

Untrue, for a very good reason

We don't want to upset Eric and it's his only contribution to the Life of Brian script

That dig at Eric Idle is a joke.

posted by Ace at 03:56 PM

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