I remember being really excited about the announcement of a new Lord of the Rings show called The Rings of Power. I am a fan of the Lord of the Rings franchise and have watched the original movies as well as read the books. Yet I was bothered by the portrayal of one of the most well-known characters in the show: Galadriel. In the original Lord of The Rings trilogy, Galadriel was one of the Dark Lord Sauron’s greatest foes. Galadriel was portrayed to be a wise, diplomatic, and calm figure who used her intellect and magical abilities to fight the forces of evil. Galdriel was one of Sauron’s greatest threats without ever picking up a sword. Through characters like Galadriel, Tolkien was able to convey that power can take many forms and is not constrained by physical limitations. In a series that has few memorable female characters, Galdriel stands out.
However, the Rings of Power show takes a different approach. In the show, Galadriel is portrayed as a brash warrior who hardly expresses any emotions besides anger and is able to physically overpower larger enemies through her combat prowess. Some fans were upset that Galadriel was turned into a warrior in a deviation from the source material. While Galdriel never demonstrated any aptitude or interest in combat in the original trilogy, it is not unrealistic for her to be a skilled warrior. After all, Galadriel is thousands of years old and might have refined her combat prowess over her long life. However, the show reduces Galadriel’s character by over-relying on this singular aspect. Galadriel rarely demonstrates any aptitude for using subtle intellectual skills such as wisdom or even magic. As a result, the showrunners essentially insinuate Galadriel’s power comes from her superior combat skills. This portrayal is both unrealistic and problematic as it sends an overly simplified message to young girls that physical strength equates to powerful characters. Relying solely on this facet of Galadriel’s character overlooks her distinctive qualities which is a great disservice to both her character and to the audience.
In recent years, the modern entertainment industry has oftentimes sought to fundamentally alter celebrated female characters into a mold that they deem acceptable for “strong” female characters. The mishandling of Galadriel’s character in The Rings of Power and others such as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones highlights a broader issue: the failure of modern entertainment in portraying nuanced, powerful female characters. For the advancement of storytelling, studios should recognize and rectify their misdeeds.
Works by female writers such as A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf and contemporary essays such as Cathy Park Hong’s Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning show the importance of authentic representation in strengthening storytelling by illustrating a broader range of perspectives and experiences. We can see the manifestations of their arguments in TV shows like Beef (2023) which are able to skillfully weave diverse, authentic characters which accurately capture the breadth of human experience. By examining the unique perspectives of Hong and Woolf, we can appreciate the richness authentic representation provides in literature and entertainment.
Virginia Woolf was a feminist author who wrote the highly influential essay, A Room of One’s Own during the early 20th century in England. Woolf’s work highlighted the many systemic societal challenges women faced which limited their artistic expression. These limitations were deeply entrenched for centuries within the cultural, legal, and financial framework of society at that time. In fact, women had only recently gained the right to vote, the right to own property, and only a minority of women were highly educated. In a world of literature dominated by male writers, writers like Woolf underlined the lack of female representation in fiction.
In A Room of One’s Own Woolf delves into how the marginalization of women in society has stifled many potential literary geniuses. Woolf writes, “It is unthinkable that any woman in Shakespeare’s day should have had Shakespeare’s genius. For genius like Shakespeare’s is not born among labouring, uneducated, servile people… How, then, could it have been born among women whose work began, according to Professor Trevelyan, almost before they were out of the nursery, who were forced to it by their parents and held to it by all the power of law and custom” (Woolf 48-49)? Moreover, Woolf contends that the dearth of female authors has led to a misrepresentation of female characters in fiction for “a man is terribly hampered and partial in his knowledge of women, as a woman in her knowledge of men” (Woolf 83). Woolf believed that this relative lack of female writers and subsequent dearth of nuanced female characters was detrimental both to women and to literature in general.
She illustrates the effects of this discrepancy by asking the audience to imagine if the roles were switched. Woolf writes, “Suppose for instance, that men were only represented in literature as the lovers of women, and were never the friends of men, soldiers, thinkers, dreamers; how few parts in the plays of Shakespere would be allotted to them-literature would be greatly impoverished, as indeed literature is impoverished beyond our counting by the doors that have been shut upon women” (Woolf 83). In today’s world, the fantasy genre has suffered from a lack of having more diverse creators and viewership similar to how literature suffered from a lack of diversity during Woolf’s time. One way to close this gap is to re-examine and improve how women are portrayed in popular fantasy stories today.
Re-evaluating the representation of women in fantasy can expand the fantasy audience and greatly increase the diversity of the genre. Fantasy has traditionally been a male-dominated field. In the fantasy genre, women are often overly sexualized or on the other extreme, in a manner that is unrealistically strong. More accurate, creative portrayals of women can encourage more women to gain an interest in the male-dominated field of fantasy. The next George R.R. Martin or J.R.R Tolkien might be female if she sees the right book or movie. We can see how influential well-written female characters can be through the success of Daenerys Targaryen in HBO’s Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones was one of the few fantasy genre shows that was able to successfully introduce audiences to compelling female characters. Daenerys Targaryen is one of the most iconic figures in modern fantasy. Her story helped introduce many women to the traditionally male-dominanted realm of fantasy and has inspired countless others to reimagine how fantasy can incorporate strong, female characters.
Daenerys is one of the most powerful people in-universe, yet she did not start off that way. She instead had to overcome great obstacles to gain the confidence and knowledge needed to transform from a piece to a player in the Game of Thrones. In the first episode, Daenerys was sold into marital slavery to a foreign warlord, Khal Drogo, by her abusive older brother. She was merely a political pawn for her brother’s ambitions and was unwillingly thrust into an alien environment. Yet during her experience as Khaleesi, Daenerys is able to quickly adopt the customs of her new people. Through her adaptability, Daenerys gains the respect of the Dothraki and her powerful husband. She also becomes more confident in her own skills and intelligence. She uses this newfound respect and confidence to break away from her brother’s control and even influence her husband to take up her political agenda.
While modern cinema sometimes tries to stray away from traditional characteristics associated with femininity such as compassion and maternity when writing “strong” female characters, Daenerys embraces these traits in a way that is both realistic yet powerful. While Daenerys is Khaleesi, she witnesses how the brutal Dothraki warrior-culture negatively impacts innocent people. She empathized with the plight of slaves taken in war. During a Dothraki raid on a village, this compassion lead her to defy Dothraki tradition by claiming several female slaves to protect them from war-time rape. Under Dothraki cultural norms, these women were spoils of war and Daenerys’ decision to take that right away from Dothraki warriors was a great offense. Yet Daenerys is adamant in her choice and her courage persuades Khal Drogo to honor her decisions.
Even after Daenerys gains power, she makes an effort to do the right thing. When Daenerys conquers the cities of Slaver’s Bay, she does so by inciting and supporting revolts among the enslaved populations of the cities. Additionally, Daenerys leans into characteristics of maternal love when she is embraced by the freed slaves as “Myhsa” or Mother. Daenerys could have easily taken the bribes offered by the masters of Slaver’s Bay and bought a fleet to sail to Westeros. Yet, Daenerys puts her own self-interests aside to help people she doesn’t even know and I believe this decision poses an insightful characterization of moral courage.
Daenerys’ arc in the first seasons of Game of Thrones intelligently reimagines how women can attain positions of power and respect in a male-dominated society. I appreciate that this transformation was not instantaneous nor unrealistic. Instead, Daenerys used her intellect and cleverness to gradually improve her situation. I think the elements which make Daenerys’ character so poignant is what modern entertainment fails to grasp when constructing strong, female characters. A strong female character doesn’t have to be able to outfight or physically overpower other men. Daenerys’ power doesn’t come from brute force, but from her compassion, and moral convictions. Daenerys’ selfless actions highlight the unique characteristics of her strength. When authors write powerful female characters like Daenerys that still hold onto traditional feminine values such as empathy and motherly compassion, they can help provide a poignant representation on the strength of femininity.
However, towards the latter half of the story, the show-runners lost sight of what made Daenerys compelling in the first place. Over the course of only a few episodes in the last season, Daenerys turned into a blood-thirsty conqueror who indiscriminately massacred innocents with her awe-inspiring dragons. The show relied on the visual spectacle of dragons and war to tell Daenerys’ story; turning away from storylines that featured Dany’s unique, individual characteristics such as her political savvy and strong moral compass. The writers essentially villainized one of the only morally-sound characters in the show to mold Dany into their vision of a “strong” female character. Many fans were frustrated at these sudden, jarring changes to Daenerys’ persona. After all, in previous seasons, Daenerys liberated entire slave populations, cared for the weak, and vowed to not attack innocent citizens. Unfortunately, in modern cinema, this story is not uncommon as studios abandon creative storylines to showcase their massive CGI budget.
Cinema in general has been greatly impacted by the increased capitalization of the modern entertainment industry. In recent years, film-making has evolved into an enormous financial undertaking. The increased usage of expensive CGI, massive media campaigns, demand for grand scale and spectacle has put immense pressure on studio executives to generate exorbitant amounts of revenue just to break even, much less turn a profit. As a result, studios are less keen to take risks.
Instead of telling stories that resonate with a targeted audience in mind, studios make a concerted, inauthentic effort to try to appeal to as many people as they can while sidelining original, authentic stories. This method is largely driven by the great pressures studios must take on to make a profit. Many films nowadays consequently use formulaic storytelling and act as continuations or reboots of well-known franchises. In the landscape of fake diversity shows and artificial visual spectacle, the art of storytelling often becomes lost.
However, the Netflix comedy-drama show Beef is a good example of a modern TV show that is able to balance a progressive agenda and showcase diverse voices while sticking true to the creative process. This TV show was written by a Korean director and was produced by an independent studio. However, the show doesn’t rely on fake attempts at diversity to tell its story. Instead, it is able to effectively and naturally incorporate aspects of the Asian-Experience to enhance its storytelling. For example, it authentically includes aspects of the Asian-American experience such as the accurate depiction of the Korean-American church which Danny visits, or even Danny’s reluctance to go to therapy because “Western medicine doesn’t work on Eastern minds.” This latter viewpoint reflects many Asian-Americans’ viewpoint on psychotherapy. While these elements do play a helpful role in grounding the story and making it more relatable to Asian-Americans, Beef does not rely on these elements to tell its story.
For example, one of the major themes of Beef revolves around shame. Beef illustrates through its main characters Danny and Amy that shame can cause one to avoid one’s inner shortcomings and deep-seated unhappiness by projecting an artificial facade of satisfaction and success to the rest of the world. Danny and Amy are so consumed by their desire to maintain this facade that they will do anything to avoid facing their own brokenness. As a result of their reluctance to face their true selves, they feel anything they do is not enough and are thus unable to feel true happiness or love. The central moral of Beef is that only when we face our flaws and are able to treat our dissatisfaction can we experience true satisfaction. As a result, we should be more compassionate to ourselves and acknowledge that everyone, including ourselves, are flawed individuals with the capacity for both good and evil. This message is compelling and can apply almost universally to everyone.
The primary thematic elements of Beef can be better understood by reading Korean-American poet Cathy Park Hong’s book, Minor Feelings: An Asian-American Reckoning. As a female Asian-American poet, Hong, like Woolf, does not fit the traditions of her field. In Minor Feelings, Hong writes how a diverse background can influence writers’ work.
Hong’s writing on the origins of “minor feelings” introduces a societal aspect that can contextualize Daniel and Amy’s deep-seated unhappiness. Hong describes “minor feelings” as the “racialized range of emotions that are negative, dysphoric, and therefore untelegenic, built from the sediments of everyday racial experiences and the irritant of having one’s perception of reality constantly questioned or dismissed” (Hong 55). “Minor feelings occur when American optimism is enforced upon you, which contradicts your own racialized reality, thereby creating a static of cognitive dissonance. You are told, ‘Things are so much better,’ while you think, Things are the same. You are told, ‘Asian Americans are so successful,’ while you feel like a failure. This optimism sets up false expectations that increase these feelings of dysphoria. A 2017 study found that the ideology of America as a fair meritocracy led to more self-doubt and behavioral problems among low-income black and brown sixth graders because, as one teacher said, ‘they blame themselves for problems they can’t control’” (Hong 56-57). While “minor feelings” are never directly cited to influence Amy and David’s childhood, it’s plausible to interpret Beef as an exploration of “minor feelings.” Minor feelings can certainly reproduce the emotions of shame and inadequacy Amy and David feel. Because they reinforce the idea that no matter what you do, it won’t be enough. You will never measure up to the ideas of success that you imagine.
TV shows like Beef exemplify the profound potential diverse voices can have in enhancing storytelling by intertwining racial narratives with universal human themes such as anger, intergenerational trauma, and navigating professional/financial stress. Diversity, when utilized correctly, can be a powerful tool. However, it is imperative that we mustn’t let diversity overshadow thematic messages or moral lessons. As consumers, we must become more aware and critical of modern entertainment’s mishandling of diversity and inclusion. Popular reception can play a big role in this change by virtue of being the backbone of the entertainment industry. We shouldn’t blindly support superficial entertainment solely for the sake of diversity. Instead, we should champion accurate representation which genuinely enhances storytelling. By doing so, we can create an environment that is conducive to showcasing meaningful narratives that can bridge a myriad of human experiences.
Works Cited
Beef, Lee, Sung Jin. Netflix, 2023, A24, 2023, Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/
Game of Thrones, Benioff, David and D. B. Weiss. Home Box Office, 2011-2019. https://www.hbo.com/.
Hong, Cathy Park. Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. Reprint, Random House, 2021.
Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. Harcourt Inc, 1989.