@WizardWarrior1 To be honest, that's a remarkably insensitive thing to say. Not too long ago you were saying how dare I say some of the reaction to this show was conservative, and now you're essentially saying don't be so soft when someone complains about homophobia. Make your mind up.

@Godzillavkk But unfortunately, compassion needs to go both ways. If you want to make the world a better place, it's essential that you don't assume the worst in people. If you want people to be kinder, then be kinder.

Please don't straw man my viewpoints. I have never said: how dare you claim the negative reaction to rings of power was conservative. I'm not sure what comment you're referring to, but I most likely was saying not all of the negative reaction towards Rings of Power was because of blowback to the DEI casting.

And it is utterly laughable that someone would lean on homophobia to defend their arguments.

I'm glad this post has sparked conversation, but it definitely reveals the conflicted nature of the Tolkien fandom. On the one hand you have many conservatives who laud the traditional Western European values and the many homages to its history. On the other hand, you have the liberals who enjoy the fantasy, the progressive ideas of environmentalism and looking out for the little guy, and creativity of the universe. In the middle you have people who like elements of both, but might lean one way or the other.

Unfortunately, this includes anti-DEI trolls, white-supremacists, and those who love violence for its sake. I doubt the funders of TRoP really care about the review bombers and aren't stupid enough to look at ratings on sites that can easily be review bombed. They care about demographics, viewer counts, and industry advisors.

We'll know the result in a couple of years. Viewership-wise The Acolyte did well for a show without a well-known franchise and a massive fanbase, but not well considering those things. TRoP could easily be the same, but Disney didn't pump $700 million plus into the show (although apparently, they did spend a chunk, $180 million). Just like overpaid players continue to play in sports, despite their bad performance... business people often feel they need to get the most out of their investment, even if it is a bad one.

That may certainly be true. We of course don't really know what Disney looked at when they decided to cancel the Acolyte, but I always did notice that the online discourse, which was mostly negative, and the very low rotten tomatoes score (partly because of review bombers) received the most press. In terms of just basic viewership on a weekly basis, the show actually did pretty well, attracting 11 million views for the first week. Although those numbers did drop pretty significantly, that would make it the biggest premiere of a TV show on Disney Plus so far. So if Disney didn't cancel the Acolyte for viewership reasons, it almost certainly was because of the bad feedback both online and on movie rating sites. That's at least what I would assume.

Now, obviously Amazon is not Disney, and they may stick with The Rings of Power no matter how much poor feedback they receive. I can only judge by what I've seen in the past.

I'm not sure if your assumption that the viewership of The Acolyte wasn't a major factor...

From This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away: ‘The Acolyte’ Final Viewership Report, ‘Solo’ Potential Returns, Future Disney Leadership, and More

Nielsen released the numbers for streaming originals this week from July 15 to July 22, and the Leslye Headland series finally reappeared in the charts. Indeed, the show did not make the cut for the top 10 most viewed streaming originals during four of the seven weeks it was on the air.

In the first week, it tallied 488M minutes watched for two episodes (an all-time low for Star Wars) and it only went downhill from there. The third episode amassed 370M minutes watched, but after that week, the show disappeared. That means its viewed minutes were under 298M (week 3), 319M (week 4), 332M (week 5), and 375M (week 6) minutes. On week 7, it reached the #10 spot with 335M minutes watched.

These are Nielsen’s numbers, and there’s little we can read from them other than this was a complete disappointment. They also come with the usual caveats: they track a limited number of households, they are U.S. only, and they are a third-party service, meaning they have not been corroborated by any platform they reported on. But it’s pretty noticeable, from anecdotal experiences in our daily lives to other third-party firms, that the numbers for The Acolyte were not there.

This is for a show that cost $180 million for one season of 8 episodes!

@WizardWarrior1 I happen to be a transwoman. So in the words of Eowyn, I am no man.

@FH2104 I tried that once. And the more I transitioned, the more I came to realize, people began to respect me less. Money grew more scarce. And the world only grew hotter and crueler.

And to make matters worse, I'm a Minnesotan. And when Floyd was murdered, I was deceived by racist news. Because I was raised in a very sheltered and privileged environment. And I was very out of touch with how people less fortunete then I was raised. So when I thought the protests were violent riots, I was very harshly criticized by my own family and friends who told me many of the same things I've been saying here.

And they were right. I had no respect for my privileges or wealth. And now it's all gone. When I thought kindness could change the world, I was a stupid person who had no clue how the world worked and was in the closet. Coming out also meant coming out into the real world.

I wish kindness could help. But more often it's just caused people to take advantage of me and others. I must NOT repeat my past mistakes.

@Fandyllic I suppose it is fair to say that the low viewership towards the end of the show's running may have played a factor. Still, I wouldn't describe those numbers as a "complete disappointment" as the writer you quoted seemed to think.

@Godzillavkk That is a very unfortunate worldview. I do wish you the best though. My advice would be to turn to God's Word for solace.

On a side note, I would like to point out that many of the Floyd protests were objectively violent. I can link as many clips as you want me to.

@WizardWarrior1 Thanks for the advice, but there's one problem. I don't trust religion. It's fine ideals have all too often been used to cause harm then heal. And I don't want to become like that. Plus, I find that I don't need a divine being to make good choices. For example, In March 2019, I adopted a humane society rat whom no one wanted because he had a nasty scar on his body and had a habit of attacking other rats. But when I saw him, I didn't see a monster. I saw a scared and lonely creature who needed a friend. We had a very happy 1 1/2 years with each other.

I also make donations to fight global warming. And this indirectly helps other causes because it's fighting the system that enables many of the issues I talk about. It's literally all I can do to help. It's not grand and requires heavy sacrifice that can take a long time to recover from. But it's better then waiting to die. And I find that it's these actions that make my life worthwhile and keep me going.

@WizardWarrior1 Historically God's word has not provided much solace to people whose gender identity or sexual orientation hasn't aligned with the norm. And until it does, it has no consistent or significant place in a modern society.

Some of the prot sets were violent. Not all of them.

This couldn't be any more off-topic if it tried so I'll try and leave the conversation alone.

Please let's not veer into probably off topic discussions about how God's word affected something outside the topic of this wiki. Also, many protests become objectively violent, but often not triggered by the original protesters, but later tag alongs who take advantage of the situation (back to those who love violence for its sake). The George Floyd incidents and aftermath are definitely off topic.