Talion Is the Villain of His Own Story

The not-so-heroic figure of Monolith’s Middle Earth franchise.

As widely beloved as Tolkien’s Middle-earth universe is, one can’t help but wonder what happened to it since the Peter Jackson directed movie trilogy “The Lord of the Rings”. It seemed like the value of the IP was on the upswing, and it looked for a second like every product of pop culture associated to it from toys, video games, to comics and otherwise, were going to catch fire from the overabundance of heat riding behind — all of that was more or less brought to a halt when the cinematic adaptation of the first Hobbit — which only bears it in name — didn’t manage to garner as much critical and audience reception as the legendary pieces of cinematic mastery before it did. Saddled by Peter Jackson’s baggage as a director in lack of inspiration-clearly frustrated from having to dive back into a universe he already gave his all — it would seem like the ship of Middle-earth was going to sink deep, probably never to arise again. But soon thereafter, a new product of entertainment — controversially regarded as the most blasphemous twist to Tolkien’s fantastical lore, set afoot. Middle-earth, the video game series, was born.

Spoilers ahead for Shadow of War, and subsequently, Shadow of Mordor. You’ve been warned.

You’ve probably heard all the boring stuff from review sites already. This isn’t the interesting story to me. What is rather most-puzzling is how a work derived from Tolkien’s universe…