Melkor's lies

Recent news is that HBO just sank 30 million quid... into the Bermuda Triangle, with its ASOIAF prequel.

I'd make that #joke about going #woke and getting #broke, but you've heard it already and from funnier bloggers. I am here to talk about how to respect a canon. It might surprise those who know my name Better For Other Work; but in art, I do not rule out diversity for its own sake.

If, in the Westeros timeline, you want a story with non-Europeans (non-Westerosis) for the focus: your best bet is the Valyrian / Targaryen conquest. (Or you could just run a story wholly in Essos. But #wokesters don't consider that.) The Conquest - It Is Known - maps to the Norman conquest; an invasion by a foreign elite with no care for the Westerosi way of warfare. As The Bastard was pleased to take over Britain with whatever he could dredge from Europe's third sons; so the Targaryens - who had an air-force you know - would have merrily taken whatever they could find from wherever they could find them.

I could also consider recent plans to do a Middle Earth Second Age story. Yeah, Lord of the Rings was white against the rest. I am less assured of the age before that, when Ar-Pharazôn faced Sauron. What would the Haradrim - the Arabs - make of two Fir'awnûn locked in battle against one another? Seems to me like it would look, to Harad, like Justinian I against Khusru I. (Tho' probably not Heraclius against Khusru II.) A Haradi shaykh assuredly got himself a Ring. But under which banner was he fighting?

... nah, we're getting lesbian PoC against some wicked homophobe under a swastika banner.

#woke doesn't care about canon. It doesn't, in truth, care about diversity. It doesn't care about the good, in general. #woke is Melkor, the enemy to light.