Amazon series: reactions to news and rumours. (Spoiler alert!)

And a "lady of disrepute" - as I've heard it described. Was also my first association seeing this picture.
Is that because her legs are apart? Her face doesn't say that to me and her position looks ready for action rather than disrepute to me. But that's me.
 
Is that because her legs are apart? Her face doesn't say that to me and her position looks ready for action rather than disrepute to me. But that's me.

Indeed. Even the hanging chainmail covering the strategical place seems like a photoshoped afterthought. No noble lady would ever sit like that - ever (except for a medical examination or giving birth - but those a very private settings).
 
Indeed. Even the hanging chainmail covering the strategical place seems like a photoshoped afterthought. No noble lady would ever sit like that - ever (except for a medical examination or giving birth - but those a very private settings).
Young Galadriel was an athlete and an 'amazon' (at least one of the versions) so I don't think she was going to worry too much about sitting ceremonially.
 
Young Galadriel was an athlete and an 'amazon' (at least one of the versions) so I don't think she was going to worry too much about sitting ceremonially.

As this is something taught to very young girls already so fo sure she would be aware of this - espacially if she is tavelling in male company. Such a position is considered disgraceful to a lady - and any young woman - and Galadriel is a Lady of the House of Finwe (House of Finarfin) - this does obliges her to certain standards - and I am sure the historic/legendary Amazons would never sit this way in public.
 
As this is something taught to very young girls already so fo sure she would be aware of this - espacially if she is tavelling in male company. Such a position is considered disgraceful to a lady - and any young woman - and Galadriel is a Lady of the House of Finwe (House of Finarfin) - this does obliges her to certain standards - and I am sure the historic/legendary Amazons would never sit this way in public.
Why assume a particular culture around how ladies would sit? She is disshevelled, possibly during her travels, not dressed for Court.
 
Why assume a particular culture around how ladies would sit? She is disshevelled, possibly during her travels, not dressed for Court.

Because Tolkien's elves display and to an extent personify (and in the stories actually are the source of) European court culture. A traveling lady, even far from any court, would never sit this way. This is trained from a very young age, she would not sit this way even when completely alone - she would find it disgracefull to herself to take such a position even when unseen - beyond being completely drunk or the moment of giving birth when one does not care for anything and is not really fully aware of circumstances.
 
She is a woman in repose, warrior or not. To me, she looks tired but still holding herself but command and grace. Focused even in rest.

I think seeing it as some how disreputable for a woman to sit at ease says more about our current society than it does elves. I certainly think that elves don't carry around our baggage of classifying people (notably women) as morally vacuous by the way they physically carry themselves.

I think any suppositions about the ways elves would or would not carry themselves in any and all opportunities falls into the realm of critfic and personal extrapolated head canon. Not saying it isn't true or Tolkien's world but equally saying you can't say a differing opinion isn't true.

Plus, you know, it won't be accurate to the books. It just won't. It'll have changes. But I certainly don't think this one image invalidates any value in the show's truth to the world of Tolkien's ME. I think the changes they make to Galadriel are one of the things I'm rather looking forward to. I doubt they are going to make her a rough drinking street brawler which would be very far removed from her book character (not that I'd hate that take personally). But nothing so far has suggested that.
 
I am afraid poses matter, just as naming and language matters. It is not just about props and picking cherrys from some middle-earth cultures..
 
Naming and language I get. I don't care as much as others but I understand as we are building up cultures, those cultures need to be stuck to. But poses are different. I understand the way people carry themselves does also speak to culture. BUT we are talking about taking a written medium and making it visual. What people have imagined in their own heads for the 'behind the scenes' moments will now be presented physically. The moments that aren't even in the books but people have imagined will now be shown. And they might clash. Which is frankly okay. Cos everyone's versions are still true. Including those in people's mind, those in the books and those in the show. But they have to physically show them.

Maybe Galadriel never sits like this in any of the scenes we have 'seen' in the book. But to say she has never once sat like this in her fictitious life is frankly an unknown.

I really don't think that one entirely out of context image (which is like a promo shot not from a scene in the show proper) really tells us too much about their interpretation of Galadriel.

It's easier to pick holes than to like things.
 
Naming and language I get. I don't care as much as others but I understand as we are building up cultures, those cultures need to be stuck to. But poses are different. I understand the way people carry themselves does also speak to culture. BUT we are talking about taking a written medium and making it visual. What people have imagined in their own heads for the 'behind the scenes' moments will now be presented physically. The moments that aren't even in the books but people have imagined will now be shown. And they might clash. Which is frankly okay. Cos everyone's versions are still true. Including those in people's mind, those in the books and those in the show. But they have to physically show them.

Maybe Galadriel never sits like this in any of the scenes we have 'seen' in the book. But to say she has never once sat like this in her fictitious life is frankly an unknown.

I really don't think that one entirely out of context image (which is like a promo shot not from a scene in the show proper) really tells us too much about their interpretation of Galadriel.

It's easier to pick holes than to like things.

In Tolkien elves invented and taught humans culture. Chivalry, warrior's honour, ladylike dignity - that all originates from elves. Galadriel daughter of Finarfin is the elite of elites. On this level even married couples address each other as Lord and Lady. Elves are elegant and strictly proper. They do not takes vulgar poses, not even the males. And a female of Galadriel's standing? - Never in her life!
 
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I wouldn't sit like that and i am a dude!

No, it is important what sort of pictures you release, how a character looks, sits, stands, whatsoever.The bearing of a character is important, it tells you something about the publishers view of the character.
 
But it's your personal interpretation that a pose like this is vulgar. That is your context. There is a whole world of baggage associated with that ideal that is very much of our world. Classism and sexism being a part of that historical context. We don't know that elves contain that in this particular issue. We don't know that it is Tolkien's and we don't know that it's part of the shows.

Yes, it is important. They are show that she is worn who can be physically worn down. It's very much chosen (I would think) to be in contrast to her movie depictions. This is a different Galadriel. Perhaps an adventurer. We just don't have that context.

It isn't a measure of the quality of the show. Judge the work by it's own rights is surely the guiding principle of studying Tolkien in the way he wanted art to be studied.
 
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But it's your personal interpretation that a pose like this is vulgar. That is your context.

Yes, the broadly general European cultural context that Tolkien shared and used in his works.

But to my limited knowledge no noble woman from India or ancient China would ever sit this way in public too.
 
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Yes, the broadly general European cultural context that Tolkien shared and used in his works.

But to my limited knowledge no noble woman from India or ancient China would ever sit this way in public too.

Elves aren’t from any of those places. You must remember that influenced by doesn’t mean ‘a stand in for’. This is a fictional culture.

And frankly, if we are beholden to the fact that Tolkien’s Middle Earth is a one-for-one replica of older English chivalric ideals (which I dispute) I’m super happy at even the hint that this interpretation might do away with any inbaked sexism and classism therein. To lean into it would leave us with Game of Thrones which is a different kettle of fish (although an honest acceptance of fantasy tropes) and to keep it there (if it exists, which again, I dispute as I don’t believe it IS a one for one allegory) but ignore it would simply be gross. As is the idea a woman sitting in whatever manner she chooses is somehow morally reflective
 
As is the idea a woman sitting in whatever manner she chooses is somehow morally reflective

Exactly this above is a very modern and a very dateable idea that is completely foreign to even the last century - regardless of a world imagined to be prehistoric Old World very long ago. This cries out - the 2020s. Which is compeletly unfitting for ME - imho.
 
Have you ever seen the photos of Princess Diana running in the Mothers' Race at her sons' school? She's wearing a long skirt, but as she is running, there is a good bit of leg on display. The other moms are wearing pants in the photo.

I am sure some people were scandalized at the time that the wife of the crown prince would behave this way in public, but to claim that no member of the English royal family would behave this way in public is...simply not actually true. It did happen. It also had nothing to do with being a woman of ill repute, but rather fully participating in a child-centered activity.

Which is just to say...context does matter.

I know royals (and nuns) have very strict rules when it comes to maintaining appearances in public. Certainly, one could say that this pose suggests elven royalty won't be portrayed in that manner on this show. One could just as easily conclude that Galadriel personally doesn't follow such expectations, or that this is capturing a private moment.

...or that the magazine cover is designed to appeal to a certain demographic and has little to do with the character.

EDIT: Here's a photo from the event I referenced (from 1991). You can search "Princess Diana running" for a bunch more like this.

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Have you ever seen the photos of Princess Diana running in the Mothers' Race at her sons' school? She's wearing a long skirt, but as she is running, there is a good bit of leg on display. The other moms are wearing pants in the photo.
Displaying legs in movement or even the bare behind when fallen over (as embarassing as it were, it did happen even to noble women - before underware became common) - or even baring ones womb completely on the city walls in a siege context (like an Italian noble woman did to soldiers demanding she gave up her city as they had her children captive - declaring she can give birth to other children but will not give up her city) and sitting openly at leisure in a basically childbearing position are two different matters.
 
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Exactly this above is a very modern and a very dateable idea that is completely foreign to even the last century - regardless of a world imagined to be prehistoric Old World very long ago. This cries out - the 2020s. Which is compeletly unfitting for ME - imho.

Obviously. This is for a 2022 audience. It NEEDS to appeal to that audience, that doesn’t mean it don’t be true to ME or appeal to fans. To want it to exist in a vacuum is a fallacy in afraid.

Yes, any possible connotations with archaic notions of sexism may be done away with (again, I don’t think these are vital to the text). The fact something is modern doesn’t make it bad. Just like something being old doesn’t make it bad. BUT judging people by how they present themselves is reductive and unnecessary and in this case pointless as we still have no context.

Again I’m taking unbridge with the idea that woman’s legs being open is only fitting if it’s childbearing

If we want to play up the ‘staying true to Tokien’s sources’ angle, we could say that Tolkien is clearly influenced by Norse mythology and the cultures that spawned them. Well, there’s strong archeological evidence for Nordic warrior women. So that’s at least true to his inspirations just with a more modern understanding of the context
 
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