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    Why Black characters in 'Rings of Power' and 'Little Mermaid' make fantasy better

    Producers of fantasy shows should use diversity to deepen storylines.
    by Eric Deggans Sep 18, 2022 6 minutes
    Ismael Cruz Cordova as Arondir in Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

    My first reaction when I saw the email was exasperation: This is not a debate we should still be having in 2022.

    The note popped up from a listener a few days after my review of Amazon Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power was broadcast on NPR.

    "I was embarrassed for you about your review of Rings of Power," the message read. The author contended that author J.R.R. Tolkien created the world the TV show is based on as mythology inspired by English history. "Your 'discomfort' at fantasy being at [sic] Eurocentric and white centered betrays a profound ignorance of the material and smacks of irrelevance and narcissism. The story isn't about you and doesn't have to be."

    I got similar feedback from a few sources on social media after my review was broadcast. In the piece, I admitted toward the end that the series still felt awfully white-centered to me, despite a few key

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