Alack and a Legacy: On the Shoulders of Giants
What’s Old Is New Again.
Often when a franchise reaches a certain level of mainstream popularity there comes a spin off series or similar derivative work which branches off from the main narrative while still taking place in the same universe.
In a perfect world the original creator makes this themselves or is at least there to guide the new writers so their story’s tone doesn’t wander too far from the original vision.
As has become all too common however, the franchises selected for this kind of treatment have been either been around long enough for the original creator to have become increasingly complacent/apathetic (looking at you, GRRM) or straight up died forcing another writer to step in and take iver. While the former is regrettable the latter is detestable, resulting in case after case of stolen valor whereby lesser writers attempt to warp, alter, or otherwise fuck up the lore of a universe established by their betters.
Writing an official story in a world created by someone else is a heady responsibility. The writer of the new work takes over the stewardship of their branch of the franchise, becomes a shepherd of the established lore, and a patron to an existing fanbase.
Seems rather daunting, no?
Well, perhaps that would explain the staggering amount of failures we’ve witnessed over the past couple of years, but what I would like to focus on today is one surprising example of success, namely the puzzlingly faithful tale contained within the game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.
Let’s be clear about one thing, dear reader: for all intents and purposes this game should have been dead on arrival.
Thinking about inserting your own original characters into Lord of the Rings while playing with its extremely well known canon? Ask Amazon how that worked out.
But where the Rings of Power was an unprecedented crime against God and man, Shadow of Mordor shines as bright as the beacon of Minas Tirith. The question remains: why?
Well first some background.
Set in the years between the events of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring, Shadow of Mordor spins the yarn of (gasp!) original character, Talion: a Gondorian Ranger who quite literally starts the game by being murdered as the forces of Sauron swarm over the entire Gondorian outpost guarding the Black Gate (though not before watching his wife and son be butchered before his eyes).
Rather than joining his murdered friends and family in the afterlife, Talion finds himself in a grey world speaking to the wraith of none other than Celebrimbor, the mastersmith who forged the Rings of Power. He too defied Sauron and had his family killed before his eyes before being slaughtered by the Dark Lord.
Cursed and banished from death (and bound together by their mutual hate) the two embark on a personal and literally undying crusade to take revenge by striking terror into the very heart of Sauron’s war machine.
You know how the Nazgul were horrifying and scared the hobbits shitless on Weathertop? Yeah you’re now the good guy version of that, maiming, killing, poisoning, burning and otherwise inconveniencing every Uruk-hai that crosses your path.
You can teleport, turn invisible, hell, eventually you even get to shatter their minds and turn them into your personal legion of Manchurian candidates who will turn on their own kind at your command!
Together Talion and Celebrimbor limit the spread of Sauron’s own forces by making them eat themselves from within. Sauron’s own tools of fear, doubt, and paranoia are turned against him as you weave throughout his ranks like the ghost you are, making his own minions question whether or not they actually fear the Dark Lord more than your blade manifesting itself in their neck when they step out to take a piss.
So how did this avoid being a shameless cash grab? Why did this enterprise succeed where so many others failed?
One word: respect.
Making a handful of original characters and setting them inside Tolkien’s world is practically asking to be shit on, yet this story respected the lore enough to smooth over any fumblings that pop up concerning the wider lore.
The medium also helps, mind you, allowing them take certain liberties concerning the finer points of Tolkien found in the Silmarillion and blending them with an aesthetic similar to the Peter Jackson adaptations to mete out an experience that manages to achieve the Magic Bullet whereby common man and purist alike find something to be happy with.
Sure it’s a cool premise for their story but what really made it click with their target audience was a faithfulness to the spirit of the source material that is sorely lacking nowadays. What could have been cringe was instead badass. Though the tale is entirely apocryphal, enough care was taken to not step on Tolkien’s toes that you could technically experience the core story of The Lord of the Rings (either via books or movies) and believe there really was a lone, undying man and tortured elf waging a secret ware inside Mordor the entire time and not have it completely break with established canon.
When someone loves the source material and takes the time to trim their story to fit the world it inhabited and not vice versa it shows, dear reader.
If you’re ever thinking about dipping your toe into exploring someone else’s world….do as these writers did. Go at it as a fan. Swallow your own pride and embrace the legacy of stewarding another’s work. Make a love letter to the franchise, to the fans. People will love you for it and that’s as good a “legacy” as one could hope for.
