Would Tolkien Have Approved Of The 'Shadow Of Mordor 'Games?
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Few pieces of media have had such a major cultural impact as The Lord of the Rings universe. The only other two that could compare would be Harry Potter and Star Wars. The books are among the highest selling ever (usually ranked in the top three or four with such books as Don Quixote, A Tale of Two Cities, and the Christian Bible). Peter Jackson’s films further raked in all of the money, alongside seventeen Oscars to boot, including Best Picture for The Return of the King. It is a major success by every single metric.
There have also been video game adaptations, some better than others, of course. Among the most popular have been Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel, Middle-earth: Shadow of War. released in 2014 and 2017, respectively. The games follow the non-canon character of Talion, a ranger from the Black Gate who finds himself possessed by the ancient Elf Lord Celebrimbor, who initially helped create the famous rings for the three races. The games boil down to you fighting your way through Mordor to stop various evil schemes and whatnot. You kill lots and lots and lots of Uruks. Obviously, the games are completely non-canon to the greater The Lord of the Rings universe. They do have some canon characters such as Shelob, Gollum, and Sauron himself, but other prominent players, such as Bruz, Ratbag, and our protagonist Talion, are created for the games.
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This article is obviously pure speculation. J. R. R. Tolkien passed away in 1973, and his idea of video games would have been Pong, which was released a year prior. There is truly no way to answer this question with any certainty. We will also give his intelligence due credit here. While he may or may not fully understand how it all works, Tolkien would likely have grasped the base concept of, for lack of a better way to put it, a playable movie. Since Tolkien will never be able to actually say how he feels, we have to use outside details to extrapolate.
It is no secret to anyone who has read two sentences of anything that Tolkien wrote that he really, really really enjoyed writing about the settings of his stories. He would be impressed to see Mordor brought to life with graphics that frankly still hold up in 2022. It is unlikely that he would say “Yes, that’s exactly how I envisioned it, too,” but that’s just the nature of adaptations. On the other hand, the combat aspects of Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War probably would not appeal to him all that much. either Sure, the books do not shy away from violence, but Tolkien would probably have a negative view of how slaughtering everyone, and everything is the main objective of the games. He might be neutral on the characters in the games, given that most of them are not his nor are they a part of his stories. However, there is no way that he would like the sexy Shelob. She is supposed to be a giant spider, the daughter of Ungoliant, not a succubus. Nor would he approve of the sociopathic “barely less evil than Sauron” Celebrimbor, who is drastically different from the one Tolkien created.
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These are just the more superficial aspects of the games. To get into the heart of whether or not Tolkien would approve of the games, we have to get into their themes. This is where things start going against the games. The games’ two biggest affronts to Tolkien would probably be the subjugation of the Uruks, and the creation of a second, even better, and more powerful ring than the silly one that Sauron made in Tolkien’s original work.
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One of the most important aspects of Tolkien’s main The Lord of the Rings trilogy is that power does not save the day. The entire purpose of destroying the ring is so that the free peoples of Middle-earth do not have to live the rest of their lives under the heel of Sauron. The best way to do that? Give it to somebody who is humble, kind, and does not want power. If the books were more traditional, the ring would have been given to Aragorn, who would carve his way through every Orc in his path before valiantly throwing the ring into the fires of Mount Doom, with his best buddy Boromir backing him up. Instead, the books make that clear that such a plan has a zero percent chance of success. The ring corrupts the mighty easiest of all. There is a reason that Gandalf was almost frightened by the prospect of being the one in control of the ring. Aragorn is powerful, just, valiant, and everything you would want in a great king. Despite all of those attributes, it is still clear that even he would fall victim to the ring’s temptations before ever making it to Mordor. In fact, that was the reason why Isildur failed to destroy the ring. Contrast that with the games. Your strength is what carries the day. Of course, you are fighting thousands of Uruks, so you need to be a good fighter, or you’ll die. However, when you add in the factor of the second ring, we hit a point where Tolkien would have never wanted to think about the games again.
What is the ultimate goal for this fan-fiction version of Celebrimbor in the games? Where does he gather enough strength to bring Sauron to his knees as he did once before when the One Ring was initially forged? There is only one group plentiful enough to make a real army in Mordor: the Uruks. It is no doubt that the Orcs/Uruks who fight for Sauron are evil. There is nothing they will not do at the behest of their master. However, when you think about it, they are barely more than slaves themselves. They have no choice in what they do. Their entire purpose is to do what the ultimate baddie tells them to do. That’s it. When you look at it through that lens, you as the player gathering your army is not just about adding troops to your ranks. You are a powerful entity breaking into the minds of slaves and stealing them from their original master to fight other slaves. Now, the games do address this idea of subjugation, and it is a truth that is harder to ignore, especially as the second game goes on, and you realize that Celebrimbor isn’t your ally. He is actually your puppet master. There is nothing wrong with this premise in principle. However, if we are looking at whether or not Tolkien would have approved, the answer is most likely no.
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Regardless of how much content was made just for the games, the fact remains that Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War take place in Mordor, a land that Tolkien created. The books are centered around someone not traditionally viewed as strong sacrificing almost everything to preserve the freedom of Middle-earth. On the other hand, the games are about a man banished from death who uses strength to fight Sauron by breaking and stealing slaves from him, and almost enslaving Sauron himself. It is unlikely that Tolkien would have approved of anything about that, regardless of the beautiful graphics.
Of course, we will never truly know. This is all speculation. It is possible that at best, Tolkien would take an “Eh, they’re not pretending it is something I wrote, so it is harmless, and I will ignore it” approach. He might hold the view of his child, Christopher Tolkien, and have the attitude of “It sucks. Everyone involved is a moron. You ruined everything. You should be ashamed of yourselves.” Either way, he definitely would not say “Neat, hand me one of those controller thingies, and let’s start chopping heads and brainwashing.”
Now, wouldn’t that be interesting?
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