Tolkien's characters almost universally earn their identity and self worth by aspiring to match the heroic deeds of their ancestors, or correcting the mistakes of their ansestors. It's basically the universal theme of his world. Indeed those characters like Denethor, who see their identity and position as a birthright, are the ones who fall into ruin. In addition to that, Tolkien clearly enjoyed creating powerful female heros - a theme that was indulgently explored and celebrated with the character Eowyn.
To my mind, this interpretation's diverse casting and portrayal of Galadriel as a warrior noble are entirely appropriate and in keeping with the source material. Anyone who is criticising these things is not familiar with Tolkien's work or doesn't really understand it. They're not relevant. His works had they been written today could easily have been called "woke" as quickly as any other in today's political environment.
While not blown away by the first couple of episodes, it's certainly a beautiful presentation, perhaps a little too familiar with the Peter Jackson vision, but I suppose there's nothing wrong with that. Its a slow burner that lacks the sense of threat and urgency of LOTR. However it certainly has potential, and I'll stick with it..
Bolded in red, which links back to my insight of it being a very well represented psychological novel in movie format, since this exists also in our world too not just this fantasy setting, I love the grounded human representation LOTR has, or that could just be a side effect of having work done by a human, we all leave our DNA imprint everywhere.
The grounding is based on a higher perception of the world or one that is also lower too it is not in the common path of the "Norm".
People who have had experiences of the darker side of life tend to either correct it or they just pass it on, nature dictates some of it and our own personality is the one who will consciously or unconsciously carry it out, either way, light or dark.
Full control of both dark and light brings balance to powers of both, the ring is just the distraction, you are always tempted by it, the good of you can soon be drowned out by the dark when you have no understanding of your darker side, and the opposite too when you are born into chaos.
